Treadmills. Anybody use them?

[CageyH]

Since I was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this year, I have taken up running.
I have now progressed to running between 3km and 5km a day, depending on what time I have available.
The problem is that it is getting dark early, and running on the roads in the local area is dangerous, as they are not all lit at night.

So, I am looking for a treadmill. Thoughts at the moment are the Nordic Track Commercial 1750. Does anybody here have any experience with this type of fitness machine?

[struth]

not me tho i did when younger; nowadays i might get called homer

[CageyH]

[spm]

I have used treadmills in gyms on and off for many years (decades). I rejoined a gym in the last month, after a nearly 4 year break, to use the treadmills rather than run in the dark before work. I've never had a problem with running on them and find I can get into a rhythm and switch off mentally, I would typically do 6 miles but in years gone by done more. A number of people however have told me they don't like them and find them too boring. My wife will use one grudgingly on holiday but tends to keep her runs shorter than if on road. I don't think they are for everyone and ideally you would try one before buying but that may not be possible.

A tv in front of the treadmill should help with boredom. my gym is a cheap gym with no tvs but I have previously used ones with tv's and it is more bearable, I'm too much of a skinflint to pay premium gym fees these days. I wish the gym was cooler and I sweat much more in the gym than on road so I would recommend you locate it somewhere cool.

I've not used the treadmill you mention but it gets good reviews (t3.com) so should be a good machine. The top speed is way faster than I've ever been able to run.

[CageyH]

Thanks for the feedback.
I know that some people find training on treadmills boring. This is where I am hoping iFIT will come in handy, giving me virtual runs to do.

[Macca]

There must be a market for a giant hamster wheel type thing that generates electricity while you run.

or just mechanically turns a clothes dryer or something useful. The Romans did a lot of that sort of thing. Nowadays we just waste the energy we produce by exercising.

[Lawrence001]

I'm surprised the Chinese haven't set up huge factories with Uigers all running in hamster wheels, they could replace all these coal fired power stations they keep building and reduce their carbon emissions.

I'm assuming that banks of humans running in wheels produces less carbon/methane emissions than coal but that might not be true if you think of all the meat they have to eat to keep fit on top of the CO2 from the exercise they are doing.

On reflection maybe solar panels are better, the Chinese seem to have a glut of those.

[Macca]

I'm surprised the Chinese haven't set up huge factories with Uigers all running in hamster wheels, .

we don't know they haven't, it's a big country and a lot of it is off limits.

Saw a show the other week where they were down a Roman mine and they had big hamster wheels to pump the water out.

Powered by slaves. Once they got them down there they didn't come back out. They estimated life expectancy as three months.

[Lawrence001]

we don't know they haven't, it's a big country and a lot of it is off limits.

Saw a show the other week where they were down a Roman mine and they had big hamster wheels to pump the water out.

Powered by slaves. Once they got them down there they didn't come back out. They estimated life expectancy as three months.

I thought that sort of thing only happened in films like Conan the Barbarian. Mind you everyone had galley slaves back then so it's probably not much worse. Apart from being permanently underground in the dark that is.

[Mikeandvan]

I think you need a really solidly built one for them to be any good, need some spare room too I guess in your home. Must be quite expensive, personally only going to the gym motivates me to exercise.