Friday, March 19, 2010

Sole F63 - A great first impression

Today's workout: 2.4 mile run at ??:??/mi.

The new treadmill arrived yesterday and the old treadmill is now sitting at the end of the driveway, awaiting Monday's trash pickup. My wife and kids were very excited to see my reaction  as I made my way upstairs to look at the new arrival. They had waited for me to get home so I'd be the first to use it, which was incredibly sweet of them. In truth, my wife should have had the privilege of doing the maiden run because she put far more mileage on the old unit. I expect this will also be the case with the new F63.

I ran a couple of minutes last night to get a feel for the treadmill. First impressions were that it was more elevated, sturdier, smoother and quieter than the ProForm it replaced. This morning I did a real workout, starting slow (just push one button to set a pace!) for a minute before locking in on 6.4 MPH. This translated to a 9:23 pace but it felt faster than that. My Garmin agreed with me, displaying 8:59/mi. The margin of error on the Garmin makes me believe my true pace was closer to 9:05. I'll recalibrate the Garmin tomorrow and compare that to the treadmill to get a better understanding of its accuracy. Aside from this discrepancy the running experience was very good. I appreciated the quiet ride, the fan, the metrics and the solid feel of the unit beneath my feet. After my shower I listened for the whine of the treadmill from my wife, who normally starts her run around 5:15 AM. Nothing. A walk down the hall confirmed she was running on it and I heard her steps louder than the treadmill's motor. My wife liked it as much as I did and she couldn't believe how quiet it was compared to the old treadmill. I think we made a great purchase and, with all the programs and elevations, there's still much more to experience. I really like the new treadmill but with the beautiful weather on the first day of spring, I'm still aiming to hit the roads or trails tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad it lived up to expectations. I was a little nervous, I think with treadmills sometimes they don't perform as advertised. The time calibration seems like a minor fix, the feel of it under your feet is the big thing (and yes the noise). Enjoy and I hope you don't need to use it this weekend, supposed to be beauty in Boston!

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  2. As much as I like it (and I do) I can't wait to get outside tomorrow. I'd love a chance to run part of the Appalachian Trail when we're in Great Barrington but I don't know how easy it will be to get to the trail.

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