Last week, I saw a Proform 545e Elliptical trainer for sale on Craigslist for $80. The guy left an email address, but no phone #. I emailed him on Thursday, but got no response. I figured he must have sold it. But I did get a phone call from him Friday morning. I decided to go check it out and probably buy it that evening after 7pm when the guy would be home.
Following work, I had karate class, after which I headed home. I wasn’t there long when I got a phone call from the guy. He said that he had had several phone messages on his machine, but his daughter had accidently erased them. I told him that I hadn’t left a message, but I would come out there the check out his elliptical.
The weather was horrible with snow on the roads, and was still coming down pretty good. But I made it to his house. The Eliptical was in his garage which was unheated and not even connected to the house. It was very cold! There was no way the Profrom 545e was going to fit into my car as is. I needed to take it apart. I had brought tools with me. I had to remove several starlock type axle caps, as well as some nuts holding the upright part to the base. The guy helped my take it out to my car. My fingers were freezing. It still wouldn’t fit into my car. We disconnected a sensor wire, and the resistance adjusting cable, and then managed to get it into my car. I did break one of the starlock nuts, and mangled several others. I thought they would be easy to replace.
I got the 545e home, and carried it upstairs. I then headed off to Home Depot to see if they had some of the axle caps. They did, but not big enough. They only had axle caps upto 1/2 inch, but I needed a 5/8 inch one, and maybe a couple 3/4 inch caps as well.
I could mostly put the elliptical together without the lock nuts. One thing I noticed was the resistance knob was tight. I took it apart and found the resistance cable seemed to be kinked…I fixed that. Then I noticed the resistance know seemed to work the opposite way than it was supposed to. Some I took apart the console, and found the cable wrapped the wrong way around the little wheel. I loosen the cable, and wrapped it around the other way. I put it back together again.
I jumpt on the elliptical, and tried to use it. It was going okay. I then tried to adjust the resistance, and the dial was stiff. I turned it the other way, and it kind of popped, and turned around and around. I took it apart again. I found the little piece that held the cable to the wheel broke off. Ouch! On Proform’s site, I found I could buy a replacement part for $55. OUCH! But I think I might be able to rig something to make it work. Maybe drill a small hole in the side of the wheel, and hold the cable in place with a wire.
I called another place this morning about the axle caps, but they didn’t have any in the size I needed. I will continue looking. I know I can get them from Proform as replacement parts, but I think I might be able to get them cheaper elsewehere. I will continue looking.
So you’re looking for a treadmill. New treadmills can be expensive. But you can find treadmills that have been barely used for a fraction of the price. Why? Because many people buy treadmills with all the intentions of getting into shape. Maybe for a New Years resolution. But after using the treadmill for a little while, it ends up being a coat rack, or gathering dust in the garage or basement. Then one day, they decide to sell it, or even give it away. This is where you come in. To pick a great deal on a next to new treadmill!
One thing to be aware of is that a used treadmill does not carry a warranty. So you are on your own if something goes wrong with it. So you want to make sure you are getting a solid unit. But with the high prices of new treadmills, you may be able to buy two, or even three used treadmills.
First, you need to decide just how much treadmill you need. There are all kinds of treadmills out there. From cheap non-motorized treadmills, to big heavy duty treadmills that you would find in a gym. Personally, I recommend avoiding the non-motorized treadmills. If you really want one, I have even seen them for free out on the curb on trash day. But they are junk. You will be much happier with a motorized treadmill. The bigger the motor, the better. You don’t want anything less than 1HP. Something between 1.5HP and 2.5HP would be better! If you do a search, you will find lots of pages with recommendations about what to look for in buying treadmill. You will need to decide what features that you need. Mine has a bunch of different speed programs such as fat burning, and aerobic. But I really only use the manual mode. But thats me. Also some treadmills have motorized inclines, and some dont. Some newer treadmills with even have more complex programs that change the speed, and incline automatically.
The better the treadmill, the more it is likely to cost. But if you are patient, you will likely find a good deal on a treadmill that will fit your needs. And the longer you are willing to wait, the better the odds of finding a great deal.
Okay, places to find used treadmills. Think local! Treadmills are big and heavy. Shipping costs will be high. So you will be better off finding something within driving distance. The farther you are willing to drive, the better the odds of finding that great deal!
The first place to look would be the classified ads in your local paper. You need to be quick with these because you may not be the only person looking for a treadmill. And if a great deal pops up in the classifieds, the first guy to get there, gets it! I like to access my local newspaper’s classifieds online. It is a little easier than rushing to the store everyday to see if per chance there is a treadmill listed for a great price.
Similar to newspaper classified, is CraigsList. CraigsList contains free classified ads. You need to go to the section of CraigsList for your local area. Along the right side of the screen, click on your state. Then a list of cities will come up. Click on the city closest to you. You may even want to check other cities if they are not too far away. Now in the “For Sale” section, click on the “Sporting” link. You will find a list of ads, with the most recent listed first. If you see something you are interested in, call the phone number if they list one, or send an email to the “Reply to” email address at the top of the listing. Check CraigsList daily as new listings can appear at any time.
Ebay is a good source for treadmills, and in fact is where I bought my current treadmill (a Proform J6si). eBay will show you treadmills all over the country, or even world. But as I said, shipping a treadmill is expensive, and you probably want to avoid it. Fortunately, you can sort by distance, and see the treadmills that are close to you. First go to ebay. Go to Sporting Goods> Exercise & Fitness > Cardiovascular Equipment > Treadmills. Change the “Sort by” to “Distance: nearest first”. Now you’ll see the treadmills in your area. Don’t be too concerned if there aren’t many, or even any of them. New items are placed listed on eBay everyday! When you see a treadmill of interest, just add it to your watch list. Email the seller with any questions. Be sure that they will allow local pickup without any extra fees. Make sure the seller has a good feedback rating.
A couple more sources are garage sales, and thrift shops. There will take a little more work, since, you will actually have to travel to the garage sales, or thrift shops to see if they actually have any. It will be much more hit and miss.
Sometime, you might be lucky enough to find a treadmill out on the curb for trash day. Now these are probably not going to be an expensive model that is only a couple years old, and barely used. But a free is a good price. The treadmill might still have life left in it. Be prepared to do some maintenance to make it usuable.
Now don’t forget, you still need to get the treadmill home. Treadmills are big and heavy! A decent tradmill is not going to fit in the back of a Honda Civic, or even on the roof. You will need a truck. And you will probably need a strong friend. Fortunatly for me, I had my buddy Nick who drives a Suburban. He helped my pick up the treadmill, bring it home, and then he helped me get it in the house, and up the stairs. There was no way I would have been able to do it alone. And I think it would have been to heavy even for my wife to have helped me.
I was scheduled to run 45-50 minutes last night at a 10:00 minute pace. The is from the Jeff Galloway 4:00 marathon schedule that I am following. Prior to the Las Vegas Marathon, I was able to run at about 5.3 – 5.5 mph and easily keep my heart rate under 150 (70% Karvonen). And I was able to crank the speed up to 7mph, and stay around the 85-90% zone. But last night, I had the treadmill set to 6mph (10:00 minute pace), and my heart rate was getting up into the 170s. In fact I slowed down to a 11:00 minute average pace to try to keep my HR from getting too high. I wasn’t winded at all, and the run didn’t seem too hard. In order to get my heart rate under 150, I pretty much need to slow down to 4.3 mph. I can walk at that pace. Ouch!
Not sure if this is because I have been fighting a cold. Or because I ran the Las Vegas Marathon, and maybe haven’t recovered fully. Or maybe because I was doing more speed training. According to Phill Maffetone, anaerobic training can wreck having on aerobic fitness. John L. Parker teaches to mix easy and hard runs. And that what I had done later in my marathon training, and it actually had seemed to improve my aerobic fitness at the time.
Last nights 10:00 minute pace run was not supposed to be a “hard” run. Tonight I am scheduled to run 25-35 minutes ata 9:00 minute pace. How the heck am supposed to do that and keep my HR anywhere near a reasonable zone.
Maybe I need to go back to rebuilding my aerobic base as per Maffetone?
Coming off of my first marathon on December 10th, I decided to try running a fat ass 50k. I have done some running since the Las Vegas Marathon, the longest run has been a little over 8 miles. But I felt okay. I have been fighting a cold, but I seemed to be mostly over it. And the cold hadn’t seemed to affect my running much.
I set my alarm for 5am, but actually got up a few minutes before the alarm went over. I got ready, and was down at the park shortly after 6am. The race didn’t start till 7am. I met the race organizer Rick. The race was all very informal. It would be 4 laps around a local park. After each lap, we would write our time on a clip board that he would leave in his open car.
It was literally freezing out. I dressed in my Cold Gear, with shell pants, and a fleece lined jacket. I also had a Turtle Fur neck gator, Cold Gear gloves and a ski cap. It was dark out, so I used my LED headlamp while we waited around the packing lot. Eventually all of the runners showed up. There were only about 8 of us.
At 7am we took off running, or walking. My plan was to take it easy, walk up the hills, run the flats, and downhills. A few people took off faster than me, but I was ahead of some of the people.
At about the 2 mile mark, a couple guys caught up with me. They turned out to be Rick and Tom, two of the race founders. I ran my own pace. Tom fell back, and eventually Rick and I ran together. It was interesting running with him, and we had a an interesting conversation. I was a bit warm running in the fleece lined jacket.
We made our way back to the parking lot. I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a couple small Reece’s peanut butter cups. I also drank a little Gatorade. I was warm, so I pulled off the fleece lined jacket, and put on the shell jacket. I only had the ski hat, and thought it might be a bit cold to run without it. I did take off the gloves.
Rick had to take a bathroom break, so I started running again. Tom had also started running, but I quickly pulled ahead of him. Every once in a while, I would look back, and he would be back there about a quarter mile or so. When I was about three quarters of the way around the second lap, I found it hard to keep running. I started walking more. And when I tried to start running again, it was difficult. It was like there was no energy. The accumulated moisture in my clothes was starting to make me cold. After a bit, I only walked, and found walking to be a chore. Eventually Tom passed me. He said that he was only going to run the two laps. I decided that I had had enough. I was cold, tired, and just not having fun anymore. I think I could have walked another lap, but the thought of walking around the same course again, just wasn’t attractive. So I decided to call it a day. I got back to the parking lot, ate another sandwich. Eventually Rick came in, and I told him I was taking off.
I think what did me in was a combination of things. The cold I had been fighting, and not being recovered enough from the Las Vegas Marathon. Also running in the freezing cold kind of sucks.
I want to try another 50k, but in warmer weather and when I am in a more recovered and ready condition.