Treadmill Review: The Peloton Tread Plus

If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I am logging a lot of miles on the peloton tread plus these days. I have been staying with my parents while my husband and I get closer to closing on a house which means that I have had access to my Dad’s peloton tread, which is quite the upgrade from my treadmill. Don’t get me wrong – I love my treadmill and am thankful that I have one at all, but the incline on it is broken, and it is not quite as nice as the peloton tread.

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If you are unfamiliar with the peloton tread plus, let me tell you about some of the technical highlights of the machine –

• Instead of a traditional running built, the peloton tread plus has a shock absorbing slat belt. The slats are made of aluminum, which are coated in rubber.

• Adjustable, rolling control knobs, mounted to the left and right hand rails. Each knob has a “jump” button in the center of it.

• Max speed of 12.5 miles per hour.

• Max incline of 15% grade.

• 67 inch running belt.

• 32 inch tv screen, mounted onto the treadmill with sound bar.

 The day that the treadmill was delivered to my parent’s house I was off from work, so I watched excitedly as it was installed. It is a heavy machine, at over 500 lbs, so it took several people to get it into the house and setup. Once it was in place, we connected it to the wifi and logged in to our peloton account and it was ready to use.

I had taken peloton running classes before both outside and on my treadmill but was excited to take a run on the tread plus. My first reaction? I could not believe how smooth the treadmill felt – it was like running on a cushy track, without the annoying turns. It is one of the louder treadmills that I have run on, but the noise isn’t too distracting.

Now, as I mentioned, my treadmill has a broken incline. So when I have taken peloton classes in the past, I just up the speed when the instructor tells us to up the incline. For my first class I took a 60 minute fun run with Matt Wilpers, from 7/21/19, and let me tell you, it humbled me. I live on an island, in an area that can be broadly described as flat. I typically pick up less than 20 ft of elevation on my local runs, and in 2020 I really just ran by my house for most of the year so I am not accustomed to hills at all. The hills killed me in that class, and I knew that I had some work ahead of me to get stronger with running hills.

The knobs on the left and right handrails control the incline and the speed, which means that you don’t have to reach forward to interact with the touch screen while you are running. The left knob controls the incline, and the right knob controls the pace. While running on the treadmill, you just roll the knob forward towards the tread screen to go faster or increase the incline, or roll it back to decrease the pace. The knobs move really smoothly, so at times I have been known to just give them a good glide when going into a sprint and seeing what I can do.

Each knob has a button in the center of it, and when you click it the value jumps by a full point – so for the incline it would go from flat rode to a 1% grade with a click, and for the speed it would go from 5 to 6 miles per hour with a click. You can also set custom levels, so that when you click these buttons options pop up above your pace and incline values on the tread screen, which you can tap to jump to pre-set paces or inclines.

When the belt is stopped, you can activate “Free Mode” on the treadmill. This mode disengages the treadmill belt from the motor, so you can’t set the belt speed – instead you have to push it yourself. While running you hold onto the bar at the front of the treadmill, and just start running to get the belt moving. I have a love-hate relationship with free mode. It is an AWESOME workout that makes me feel so strong, but it absolutely kills my average pace for a run. I know that it shouldn’t matter to me, but when I am working hard to hit paces during a run, it can be discouraging to see the average speed go down as my butt is getting kicked in free mode.  

The treadmill allows you to pair headphones via Bluetooth, and heart rate monitors via ant+. Personally, I have connected apple airpods and aftershokz headphones for runs, and when I use the noise cancelling mode on my airpods I can’t hear the treadmill belt at all. I don’t like chest strap heart rate monitors (I know they are more accurate, but they make it so hard for me to breathe when I have them secured tight enough that they are reading my heart rate properly), so I use my Garmin to transmit my wrist based heart rate to the treadmill. I have been able to do this with my Garmin 235 and 645, with an easy pairing process.

For my old Garmin, the 235, I was able to toggle to the heart rate screen and then hold the “up” button, which opens the heart rate options. From there I just select the “broadcast heart rate” option, and the watch pairs with the tread.

For my new Garmin, the 645, I can turn on the heart rate broadcasting the same way I described above, but I also had the option to make the watch broadcast it automatically when I start any activity. I was constantly forgetting to turn off the broadcast after a workout, so this was a much better option for me.

The peloton app is integrated into the treadmill, and the splash screen of the tread offers suggestions of classes to take based off your class history – i.e. which instructors you like and the typical length of class that you take. You also have access to the “collections” of classes that peloton has curated and the full on demand library, which is searchable. Once you select a class, a screen pops up that lets you know if you have headphones or a heart rate monitor paired, and you just click “start” to begin running. In addition to classes that are lead by peloton instructors, there are scenic classes that run you through various locations, and a “just run” mode, which just lets you know your stats as you run through the miles.

I noticed on some of my longer runs on the treadmill that I was feeling a lot of static electricity build up – I could even feel the hairs on my arms raise at times! I looked into it, and treadmills have to be plugged into grounded (three prong) outlets, because the action of the belt generates a lot of static electricity, which is discharged through the grounding prong of the outlet. I checked that my receptacle was grounded properly, and after confirming that it was, I looked into what I could do to decrease the buildup of static. The treadmill is in our living room, so it lives on a carpet – so I ordered a rubber mat to place under the tread, and it has helped so much with the issue. So if you are planning to install your treadmill into a room with carpet, I recommend ordering a mat to go under it.

The treadmill draws a lot of amperage when it is running on higher speeds – on some of the first runs that I did I learned this the hard way, when the power cut out mid run because I tripped a breaker. If you have never had a treadmill turn off while you are sprinting, let me tell you it is a terrifying experience. Now that it is winter and we do not have the air conditioners running in the house I haven’t had this problem lately, but it is something to consider. Make sure that the circuit that you are putting the treadmill onto isn’t shared with other devices that draw a lot of current, like air conditioners and refrigerators.

My wishlist for the future of the treadmill? I would really love if they added some sort of streaming integration. I love the classes, but sometimes when you need to get a long run in for marathon training, it would be nice to have the option to watch a movie instead of taking a class. I would also love if they added a pause button for on demand classes and the “just run” mode. I understand that for live classes it would impact the leaderboard if users were able to pause the class, but it would be great if there was an option to opt out of the leaderboard in exchange for the ability to pause. When you are using the peloton app (on a cell phone or tablet) to take a class, you can pause the class, since you can’t feed speed stats into the mobile app, where as the treadmill automatically records them for you.

My wish list for tread classes? I am dying for an all treadmill marathon training series! The peloton app has an outdoor marathon training series of classes, which I really enjoyed taking the first leg of over the summer. But with the likelihood of races being cancelled in 2021, I would love to see an all treadmill series, with long classes for long run days. I also love the pop punk running classes that Chase Tucker hosts and want more of those!

Overall, the Peloton tread plus is honestly my favorite treadmill I have ever run on. The one downside? The price tag. A peloton tread will run you $4,295, plus a monthly app membership fee to access classes. I am currently trying to convince my husband that we totally need one for our new house, but it is an uphill battle for sure. I am starting to save up, so hopefully I can get a Tread plus of my own in the future.

If this post helped you to make a decision about purchasing a peloton, use my referral code “B8RAS5“ to save $100 on tread or bike accessories when you purchase a new peloton tread or bike.

If you have any Peloton Tread plus or peloton questions in general, drop them in the comments below!

The Constant Question: Will my fall Marathons happen?

Hey guys, its been a while. Like many of you, I have spent the last few months at home, staying safe in the days of COVID-19. It has been a weird new normal, and even though I am sleeping more than ever, it has been emotionally exhausting. My metaphorical cup has been too empty lately to feel like I can pour anything from it to create, so I have been quieter than usual on the social media front. The closest I have come to creating has been sewing dozens on masks, which is immensely stressful at times, and I worry myself ragged that I am not doing enough to help keep people safe. But here I am at long last, hopefully a few of you are still out there, doing okay as you read my ramblings.

First and foremost, I’ll start by saying this: I KNOW there are far more pressing matters these days. There are more important things than races coming back to running - us runners are still getting out there and logging miles without them.

There are plenty of more serious, concerning, and frankly, stressful issues than races. Perhaps that is why I keep fixating on the question of my fall races - it’s almost a nice daydream at times, to imagine running through the streets of Chicago or New York.

I know from a logistics standpoint, it’s unrealistic to believe that these major cities will be able to accommodate hordes of runners taking over their streets to run a marathon – every resource from the police presence to the clean-up crew is strained at the moment, so I am trying to manage my expectations. As of right now, I am registered to run the Chicago Marathon in October, and the New York City Marathon in November.

As the days tick off on the calendar, one after another spent working from home, I have started to think about training for these races. For the first six weeks of quarantine, I aimed to run about 30 miles a week, with a long run every other weekend. Then after a week of less than stellar runs, I decided to cut back for a week, only running once, on the day that would have been the Brooklyn Half marathon. My friends and I had been looking forward to running it together, so we each logged 13.1 miles on our own, and then had a virtual Zoom brunch to celebrate.

Last year when I first started training for the Chicago marathon (that ultimately did not happen for me because of a knee injury), I built my training plan from the “Hanson’s marathon method.” I really liked the training, and it made me faster, but so many miles lead to me slacking on the strength training front. It is an intense, high mileage program, and the thought of jumping into right now, when my races may not even happen, is super intimidating.

I still have a few weeks before any 18-week training program needs to start, so I decided to try something new – the Peloton Marathon training plan. Now, from looking at the schedule the mileage seems low, so I am planning on using it as a “lead in” to marathon training, in the weeks leading up to my actual training schedule, to get used to following a plan again.

I was first introduced to the peloton about a year and a half ago, when my parents purchased a bike (after I moved out too – rude). But since I sometimes headed over to their house to ride the bike, I had a peloton subscription, which allowed me to take classes through the peloton app. For the last few months I have been taking advantage of this, doing everything from core workouts to bootcamps. My husband, who is much more into biking than I am, approached me about the idea of getting our own peloton bike – my response was along the lines of “If you’re looking for someone to say no, you came to the wrong person.”

So now, we have our own bike, and it has been great for cross training and getting workouts in during quarantine.

Back to marathon training – this week I started following the training schedule that the Peloton team offers for training, and it has 4 runs in the first week, and two days of strength training. So far I have completed the first tempo run, which was pleasantly challenging, and one day of strength training. The guided runs are audio based, so I can listen to them on the road, or on the treadmill, which I like the flexibility of.

It is still early, but as of now I like being on a schedule again. It has me feeling motivated, and like I am working towards a goal again. I had been starting to feel stuck in quarantine, but this has me feeling like I have forward momentum, for the time being at least.

So, I hope that this post has found you well. That maybe it has inspired you to shake up whatever routine that you have fallen into, and to look for something that will make you feel like you’re moving forward once more.

And I hope that after all this, I will have a fall marathon to run – because a virtual MARATHON just sounds like a bit much to me.