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!