Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Going negative - let's start with my elliptical



I'm feeling a little grouchy this morning and I'm not sure why. It could be due to my workout this morning. The workout itself was fine, about 23 minutes on the elliptical. What wasn't fine was the noise that my BH Fitness X1 unit often makes during operation. I've written before about my dislike for (among other things) the noise that my treadmill motor produces and lauded the elliptical for its quiet, human-powered operation. Unfortunately my X1 still manages to create a racket often producing a loud clicking/banging noise that's hard to tolerate. We've had people service the unit four times. They have no remedy for the noise and each time the unit has been serviced it has operated a little worse than before. Hard to know if my unit is a lemon or if BH Fitness just makes problematic equipment. Either way, I suggest that anyone who's considering buying a "gym quality" elliptical to avoid BH Fitness units.

While I'm complaining I'll turn attention back to the treadmill. I read an interesting column in Running Times yesterday called "Step Off the Treadmill" written by Tamara Rice Lave, a former US IAAF marathoner. Her complaints about the treadmill were consistent with the mine (and those who have commented on the subject). Lave did present a balanced view and admitted that it works well for many. I spent a few minutes looking at the sunrise calendar yesterday desperately hoping to see that daylight and 4:00 AM would coincide some time this summer. Unfortunately not, the earliest sunrise is 5:23 so I'm going to have to keep running indoors in the morning.

I've been adding one long run into my routine every week and it's helped get my weekly distance up closer to 20 miles. I want to be in good shape to run my 8K and I really want to run the Great Cow Harbor 10K in the fall. AG is running the Patch Sprint this weekend which is a grueling 12 mile course over the four Pok-O-Patch mountains. The note that accompanies the waiver indicates "IT IS VERY POSSIBLE THAT YOU WILL DIE BECAUSE MEDICAL PERSONNEL CANNOT PHYSICALLY GET TO YOU IN TIME." Sounds like fun!

2 comments:

  1. Pick up a headlamp and a reflective vest and save the treadmill torture for blizzard days in February!

    ReplyDelete

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