Walking on a treadmill is a good form of aerobic exercise that can improve your overall health. Treadmills are a good alternative to running or walking outside. The information panel on a treadmill allows you to select your running or walking pace, track your distance, change the incline and view your time. Tracking your distance and speed can be fun and motivating.
Walking Speed
The average walking speed is 3 to 3.5 miles per hour. So, walking 3 miles/hour, it will take an hour to walk 3 miles. Faster walking will shorten your time, and slower walking will lengthen it. Brisk walkers average 4.5 miles per hour and speed walkers can walk between 5 and 6 miles per hour. If you feel that your pace is not challenging enough, gradually increase your walking pace until you reach one that elevates your heart rate by 60 to 80 percent of your resting heart rate. You can identify the amount of effort you are putting in by the heaviness of your breathing.
Variations
As Deborah Crawford from BellaOnline explains, "Walking pace or speed varies quite a bit." She explains that every individual's walking pace may differ "depending on stride length, terrain or walking surface, and even one's own physical condition, age and sex."
Finding Your Velocity
If your treadmill's information panel does not display velocity, you can calculate your velocity. Your speed or velocity can be found by dividing the distance of your route over the amount of time that you run (velocity=distance/time). If you walk four miles in one hour, your velocity or speed is 4 miles per hour.
Calculating Your Time
If you know the speed you want to walk at, you can calculate how long it will take you to walk a specific distance by using the equation time=(distance/velocity)x60. If you want to walk three miles at a pace of 4.2 miles per hour, you would divide the distance, 3, by the velocity, 4.2. This gives you .714, and to find the time, you would multiply .714 times 60, the number of minutes in an hour. The result of multiplying these two numbers is 42.84, and rounding that number up to the next whole number gives the result of 43 minutes to walk three miles at 4.2 miles per hour.
Improving Your Results
You can improve the results of your walking speed and time by doing interval exercises. If you cannot quite walk a full three miles or for thirty minutes, start with shorter distances and times. If you walk consistently three to five times per week, begin to increase your workout by 10 percent every other week. You can also challenge yourself by adding a slight incline to the ramp of your treadmill.
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