Treadmill Woes
Just been to the 24hr gym to get my running fix. My normal machine was broken so I had to use a new and unfamiliar gerbil wheel. It was quite snazzy and offered a few speed training sessions like 400m repeats and mile repeats but I opted for a 5k tempo run as I wasn’t psyched up for fartlek. Flippin machine did my head in as a comfortable pace seemed to be 5.2 km/hr but I normally run at around 8.5 km/hr. I tried picking up the pace but threatened to throw up over the console. I eventually sussed out the problem but it disturbed me so much I quit after a mile.
It reminded me of the recent emails I received from OGB (occassional gym buddy) who was so disillusioned after his run in a new gym that he almost backed out of our planned 10k events. Here’s the latest missive, entitled “The treadmill is trying to kill me……” speaks for itself really:
“So, after last week’s abysmal performance at the gym (5 km in 47 min) I woke up this morning determined to do better…
Got there, feeling ok, got on the treadmill, still ok, turned it on, set the pace, not ok. Could only manage 8 km/hr… not good.
12 minutes later I’m covered in sweat and feel like I’m going to die… have to slow down… walk for a bit… try again… stop again… try again… finally manage 4 km after 35 min…
So, collapsed on the control panel of the treadmill i notice a tiny little sign… ‘the belt will start at 1 mph’.
The fuckers… who has their machines set in miles these days???”
I have to completely agree, it ought to be against the law or summat!
I wish the treadmills at my (not 24 hour) gym were set in miles. On the very rare occasion I try to balance on one, the km/hr confuses me. Or maybe they could just be set to slow, medium and show-off?
The treadmills I’ve used in the past all indicate speed eg 12 kph, I’d much rather select a pace eg 5:00 /km. I’m not good at quick instant maths to work out what 4:30 /km equates to in kph. We’ve had metric here in Australia for over 30 yrs and yet some treadmills still indicate miles. Jokingly I have asked someone next to me, “what’s a mile?”.
I had the reverse on mine it was set K – I thought I was spanking those miles… Now it’s set to Miles
Our treadmills set KPH as default speed indicator in Australia while MPH is more common in UK and USA.