So I've been running pretty religiously on this treadmill we got last year. I started at 3mph, which is walking speed for me, and I've slowly increased my sustained speed to 6mph, working on 7. This, along with some moderate dietary control, has allowed me to lose nearly 30 pounds now over roughly the last nine months, since I really started hitting it hard. I know I've actually lost more of that in fat, because I've built a lot of muscle in that period of time (the abs are super defined yet, but they're getting there; the laughs at me for checking them out in the mirror).
Last Tuesday, however, the treadmill stopped cooperating. The belt was slipping very, very badly when you try to even walk on it, and we were very concerned since the Queen regularly walks on it as well as a friend of ours (we're very communal with our stuff). Well, it didn't take much net research to find out that the level of running I was doing on the treadmill was beyond what is intended for the price point of the treadmill and the parts used in manufacturing. One person even asked if I felt like a "jackass" for expecting to be able to run on it.
Apparently, for the level of sustained running that I do, I should expect to pay about $1500 for a treadmill, and this one cost less than $500. Now, I did look at the treadmills at that price point, and there's no doubt that the features are very, very cool. However, for that price, I'd be better off to get a gym membership, since their yearly cost is less than half of what I paid for the treadmill I currently have.
So the treadmill is more for "light jogging or walking," but when I told Rock Girl this, she immediately popped up with the question of "then why does it go up to 10mph?" A worthy question. Once I tried to do a quarter mile at 10, and I blew the treadmill's internal breaker. It is actually not capable of maintaining its top speed for any length of time.
So on Saturday after finishing another project I'll discuss on another, the Engineer and I had a look at the internal workings of the beast to see if we could make it work right again. A suggestion I'd found online had to do with the drive belt being loose as opposed to the walking belt, and that some treadmills have adjustment screws on their motors to move them further from the walking belt and thereby tighten the drive belt. After some quick research, we figured out how to remove the top plate from the treadmill that covers the motor and sure enough, this one had bolts holding the motor in place and the ability to move said motor out away from the walking to tighten the drive belt.
So with the Engineer's foot firmly planted on the motor pushing it away from the walking belt, I tightened the bolts down. With it firmly in place again, we tried to walk and run on it. Success. He tried it at several speeds, and then had me try it since I'm more used to how it feels. I tried it at 3, 5, 6, and 7, and all of them worked great for me.
However, this does not mean I'll be using it as much as I had before. I'm sure I'll run on it periodically, but knowing that the manufacture of it is not conducive to that level of punishment, I've taken to riding my bicycle through my neighborhood. Figuring the mileage on www.mapmyride.com, I rode over 7 miles on Friday and almost 9 miles on Sunday. It makes for a nice change from the endless run, and really, it's more interesting.
So, the problem was fixed, but apparently, even though treadmills are made for walking and running on, some of them aren't made for running. That would be like buying a car where the spedometer goes up to 120 but the car won't actually go... Oh wait.
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