Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Tread Softly And Carry A Big Box

I pretty much wanted to get a treadmill my entire adult life which is as long as I've been running.  Imagine the convenience!  Rain?  No problem!  I can run on my treadmill!  Snow?  No worries, I have my very own private treadmill.  Baby Girl is home from school?  I can run while she watches Caillou!  I could even run in my pajamas or underwear!  This dream never actually seemed like a reality, however.  The last time I mentioned it to Pete around Christmas, he dismissed the idea because of the expense and suggested I join the gym instead.  But what about all the money we could save on gym memberships?!  I joined the gym.  Fast forward to Pete's North American Tour 2015 (Check Stub Hub to see if he'll be in your city!).  Sanibel showed me a Nordictrack online that was on sale for just one more day.  I explained how her father said no to which she replied, "No, I talked to him.  He said get it."  What?!  Seriously?  Well, let me take a look at that again, child!  I will not ask questions.  I know better.  I'm thinking he was feeling guilty for being away from the children for so long.  Who cares, really?  Finally, I'm getting a treadmill!

Sanibel picked out the Nordictrack C1630.  The tranquil, Zen demo video on the website not only makes it look like the best treadmill ever created by man, but when it was over I contemplated converting to Buddhism.  The two features that grabbed me were the "Decline Option", as well as Incline, and the virtual running via iFit.  iFit is an app that allows you to create routes, compete with other runners, and run virtually in other cities (wink wink).  The only other time I did a virtual treadmill run was at the Disney Vero Beach Property two years ago.  I loved it.  I ran through the woods in Bavaria and didn't worry once about a hungry family of bears or murderers chasing me!  So we purchased the Nordictrack before the weekend sale was over ($1299 down from $2499).

The delivery company called me the following week to schedule the arrival date.  We agreed on Friday.  The man on the phone also let me know that it is curbside delivery.  Oh, and the box weighs about 300 pounds, he said.  Oh nononono, I'm home alone.  There's no way I'll be able to get it into my house.  I briefly thought that it likely wouldn't get stolen, though.  But then, it's winter and there's snow.  And then I stopped thinking about leaving the treadmill at the end of my driveway indefinitely.  Okay, bringing it into the house will be extra, the man said,  then we said goodbye.  I wasn't quite sure how we left it.

Friday morning the delivery guys called.  They said that we would be their second stop.  The first would be Freighbors!  Coincidentally, they too were getting a treadmill on the same day.  They live two houses down from me.  Freighbor texted me that they gave the guys $100 to bring their treadmill down to their basement.  Our plan was to put it in my bedroom.  I did not trust my adorable, but Godzilla-like destructive children in a room alone for any amount of time with the treadmill.  The enormous tractor trailer truck inched down to my house.  The two guys brought the couch/coffin/piano/stretch limousine sized box up the stairs.  Barely.  At one point, I thought the guy on the bottom of the box was going to be crushed and die in front of me.  Thankfully, he survived.  The treadmill, however, was not going to make it into my bedroom.  They could not make the necessary turn in the hallway.  Wait!  How about the basement?  Desperate times called for desperate measures.  Suddenly, getting this monolith out of my upstairs hallway and bringing it anywhere trumped possible Godzilla-like destruction.  I brought Survivor Guy downstairs.  He immediately said it would not be possible to use the incline/decline mechanism because of the low ceiling.  Foiled again!  So in the end, it went in my eight-year old son's bedroom.

When Sanibel came home from school, she was anxious to put it together.  I was not.  We managed to get it out of the box and eventually in the corner where it would make the most sense.  I will spare you the gory details of its construction.  The directions were mostly straightforward and almost all of the screws fit their designated holes.  We experienced one snafu because someone (I won't name names, but it wasn't me) forgot to tighten the screws before putting the console on.  Luckily, my friend's very patient and kind husband fixed this for us later.

So far I ran on it twice.  Sanibel uses it more often than I do.  I had difficulty using the virtual run function because it doesn't exist on our model.  That was an unpleasant discovery.  I also have not found the pace display.  I'll look it up when I get a chance.  How were my two runs?  To be honest, they sucked.  Maybe I shouldn't have run immediately after having a celebratory beer and ice cream sandwich once we finished building it.  The second run was under much more reasonable circumstances.  It still sucked.  I'm hoping the acquisition of a new wall mounted flat screen TV will make running on it more desirable for me.  At least, Sanibel is getting use out of it.  And my son has a new place to hang his clothes on.



Thursday (2/5/15) - 6.4 miles outside
Friday (2/6/15) - 6.4 miles outside
Saturday (2/7/15) - 3 treadmill miles
Monday (2/9/15) - 3.34 treadmill miles
Tuesday (2/10/15) -7.54 miles outside
Wednesday (2/11/15) - 7.54 miles outside

Total Mileage - 34.22

11 comments:

  1. Home treadmill minutes feel at least twice as long as road miles to me. But fitness center treadmills somehow seem more tolerable. We're into our second week without one and it looks like our new machine won't be delivered until after next week. Can you tell me Sanibel's run schedule so I don't need to wait when I come by to use yours?

    BTW, I'm still amazed that you and S assembled the treadmill yourselves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The last few days I ran I did not need my Yaktrax. Just out of curiosity, how much do people charge to assemble your treadmill?

      Delete
  2. I was being charged $179 by an outside company. Proform would charge $279. For both it included taking it to the room of use.

    Freighbor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a lot. If they offered to do it for $70, I would have been all over it.

      Delete
  3. Since I'm not using child labor like you, I have to pay $70.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Children make excellent laborers. They assume you're in charge and know what you're talking about, and they don't eat a lot. Well, except my child. I think she's going through a growth spurt. The way she's eating, I expect her to grow to 6'8" by the summer.

      Delete
    2. You may think she defers to your authority but her refusal to tighten the console screws was an obvious sign of rebellion. Watch out for that one. Especially if she's going to grow that tall.

      Delete
  4. I cannot believe they charged you to bring it into your house - anywhere else, they bring it in and set it up. Sorry to hear about the hassle - enjoy the weather controlled runs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really? Freighbor bought a Proform and they didn't set it up either. Same with ER. He had to pay an outside service. It looks like a weather controlled run today! Thanks for the positivity :)

      Delete