Going The Distance at the Mile High Run Club

“Let’s join the Mile High Club,” I said to Ben.

Ben looked a little horrified and asked in disbelief, “We can go to federal prison for that if we get caught. Do you really want to get arrested?”

Ben is very logical and rational. And so, there are times were he poos poos on my fun.

Ben gave me no choice. Early one morning while it was still dark, I snuck out of bed to go meet Michael with whom I went The Distance. Yes, I went to the Mile High *Run* Club. The Mile High Run Club is the newest of the boutique studios; it offers treadmill running classes in the style of Soul Cycle, a studio with 30 elegant Woodway treadmills, cool lights, and rocking music. There are two different types of classes, Dash 28 and The Distance. Dash 28 is a 45 min class, where 10 min of it are spent doing cross training with kettle bells and about 2-3 miles are covered. The Distance is a 50 min class wholly on the treadmill and about 5-6 miles are covered. I tried out the Distance because I won a free class from Elizabeth from Running and the City.

The Good

Oh my goodness! The treadmills! The Woodway treadmills! No wonder Woodway is the premier choice for world class marathoners. It was like running on a cloud. It’s so smooth. It’s not like running on any other treadmill that I’ve experienced. Cheap treadmills bounce and are uncomfortable to run on. In our gym, we have good treadmills that we’re quite happy with, but those treadmills don’t even begin to compare. Seriously, if you ever get a chance to run on a Woodway, you should. It’s worth going to a class at Mile High just to run on one. I wish they had a option where we could pay to use a treadmill when a class wasn’t going on.

Mile High is very clean and has everything you need. The locker room has lockers with digital locks on them already so you don’t have to bring in a lock. You set a 4-digit combo and stash your stuff. There are showers  (with shampoo, conditioner, and body wash) and hair dryers available, so you can wash up and go out after class.

All of the instructors are experienced runners and coaches. Mile High is a studio created and developed by a runner for runners. The focus of the classes is to improve our running. The class I went to with Micheal was centered around doing hill training; we had the treadmill set to 9% incline at one point. I liked how Michael designed the workout to simulate running around Central Park. As we ran to the music, he barked out inclines and at what intensity we should be working at and described where we were in the park. In the winter time, it’s much nicer to be indoors than freezing my extremities off in the cold.

Great music played in the class.

A clean hand towel for wiping off sweat is on every treadmilll.

I normally hate being on the treadmill because I find it boring, so I usually don’t do anything beyond speed work on it. I was curious as to how I would tolerate being on a treadmill for an hour. The class was interesting and fun, so I wasn’t bored at all on the treadmill. Ben has a saying that if you’re bored on a treadmill, then you’re not working hard enough. If so, then I definitely was working hard.

There’s a small card on each treadmill that has a range of speeds as suggestions for each intensity and for your level of fitness/experience. You can customize the intensity to suit your needs.

There’s a water fountain in the back of the studio.

The Bad

It’s a boutique class, meaning that classes are pretty pricey. A single class is $34, which is on par with all the other boutique classes in NYC. There’s a slight discount if you buy “in bulk.” If you buy 5 classes, each class is $33. If you buy 10, it’s $32. The other problem that I have is that then these classes have an expiration date. I hate it because I’m not good about using up all of the classes before the expiration date.

The studio is warm. I would have thought that the studio would have been quite cold because we were going to be running and therefore generating quite a bit of heat. I was pouring sweat during the warm up and it wasn’t because I was working hard at that point. I would have liked the room to be a lot colder so I could have ran harder.

The sound system isn’t the best. Although I heard the music great, the mic for Micheal got muffled as the music got louder. I only heard him clearly when he was right in front of me. Whenever he was elsewhere in the room, I had a hard time understanding what he was saying. Thank goodness he walked around and repeated himself several times.

There are only two showers, so if you’re not fast, you can be waiting a while to get to a shower.

The locker room space is a little tight after class when everyone is trying to get to their locker.

The Ugly

None

The Verdict

Mile High Run Club would appeal to a certain niche runner, who enjoys boutique classes. Because of where I live and work, I have a hard time getting to Mile High. It took me two months to finally find a time to go and even then it wasn’t an ideal time for me (a 6 am class, which means that I had to leave home by 4:45 am to make it). I really had fun at the class and adored running on Woodway. Seriously without the Woodway, I would say that the class was overpriced, but the Woodway treadmills make the class. While I don’t see myself being a regular, I’ll definitely go to Mile High once a month or so during winter to break up the monotony of winter treadmill running.

GiltCity is having a promo for Mile High Club, so it’s a good time to buy a few classes cheaply. If you’re new to GiltCity, you can get an additional 20% off with promo code welcome20.