Treadmill Fairy

Yay! The treadmill fairy has visited me in the night leaving behind a shiny new treadmill!

Wait, no that was what I wished happened. The reality involved a lot more sweating and cursing and dropping of heavey objects and at one point I was the only thing between my wife and death by crushing on the stairwell. It was a workout before we even started! Including the twenty minutes walking around the store trying to find a salesperson.
But, in the end, we got the bastard in the house and down in the basement in all it's shiny new glory. Then we shined it up even more, tightened all the bolts and turned it on.

That part was yay! it is really cool. I took it for a spin last night for the first time and walked for 53 minutes. It was different than walking outside in several obvious ways. For example you can watch the simpsons while walking. I suppose you could do that outside with a portable dvd player and some sort of harness rig. But you would look a tad odd, and in my case probably run into parked cars.

The other big difference was that you have to keep the pace or go flying off the end. Now, I really had no idea how fast I normally walk. It seemed quick but how could I know? Do you ever pay attention to the little slows and rushes that make up a normal walk? My pace must vary without my ever realizing it.
Anyway, today I walked outside for half an hour to get a comparison and I was right, my outside walk was definately slower than my treadmill walk. But my outside walk feels challenging. Yet when I went that fast on the treadmill it seemed slow. Is that because I can see by the numbers that it isn't so fast? Am I confused because of staying in the same place to think I must be going slow and should make more effort? In any case my need for speed is going to back off in favour of my need to bend my knees. I think a moderate pace with a slight incline is a better start than marching full out on the flat, at least at first.

The annoying part is that I am going to have to take my orthotic insoles and move them between shoes for inside and outside walking. Perhaps I should have done that the first time....

oh well