Oh, it’s one of those mornings!  You know… The kind of morning where you just can’t seem to get yourself moving and any type bouncing is certainly out of the question.  So…

I compromised my workout!

Instead of doing the 3.4 – 5.0 MPH intervals (if you call 1/8 of a mile an interval) at a 4% grade that I did yesterday, I compromised at walked at 3.0 MPH and raised the incline to 6%.  No bouncing required! 

I still did my daily minimum of 2.0 miles and 40 minutes.  I still sweat.  I just changed the intensity from speed to incline.  The treadmill calorie counter actually registered more calories burned than other days.  Go figure!

Another great benefit of a treadmill: You can change your workout and intensity and the touch of a button. 

OK… This has been bothering me! 

What the heck does the “caloried burned” display on my treadmill actually mean?   Is it a base minimum?  Is it an average?  Is it just a guideline? 

For example, I have a friend who reported she walked/jogged for 15 minutes and went 1.25 miles.  In her own words, she “walks faster than most people can run”.  She can walk at 4.5 to 5.0 MPH.  For me, that would definitely be a jog.  Her legs are much longer than mine.

So, does she actually burn more calories than me just because her legs are longer and she can cover more ground in less time?  I hardly think so. 

Does someone who is in good physical shape walking at 4.0 MPH burn more calories than an out of shape person struggling to maintain a speed of 3.0 MPH?  That doesn’t make any sense to me!

Unless there is a permanent heart rate monitor attached to someone, how can a machine’s programming (or even a chart on paper for that matter) determine how many calories someone burns during their workout?

Silly as it may sound, I feel gypped!  I’m working very hard and the numbers on my treadmill just don’t demonstrate my effort.  Perhaps I’m a little jealous of my long-legged friend who actually has enough endurance to jog for five minutes, let alone 15.  (I’ve never been able to jog more than a quarter of a mile, even in my best shape.)

I guess I should just ignore that darn number and be grateful that I am losing weight and getting in shape.  But sometimes, you’ve just gotta vent! 

I don’t know if I have enough readers to even bother posting a challenge, but what the heck.  Just posting a challenge may be enough of a motivator for me to get walking every morning.

Let’s see who can “tread” the most miles this month.  And for those of us who have short legs or just can’t seem to run, let’s see who can “tread” for the most amount of time. 

I’m not going to post every day, but today I did 2.0 miles in 40 minutes.

Okay, so I’m not gonna win any marathons.  However, I once heard of a tortoise who beat a hare in a race….

I started this blog about treadmills because I love my treadmill.  So far though, I haven’t told you anything else about it.  I guess now is as good a time as any.

I have a ProForm treadmill.  More specifically, I have the ProForm 745CS. I don’t know if they even make that one any more. My husband bought it for me about six and a half years ago.  (I had expressed that I wanted one, so I count it as a loving gift, not a hint.)

My treadmill has a heart monitor, 6 built in fitness programs, inclines to a 10% grade at .5% intervals, and has quick speed selector up to 10 MPH.  That was some pretty impressive stuff back then, but it’s pretty standard equipment now. 

I’m thrilled with how well my Proform treadmill has held up over the years.  It has had some work done to it under the maintenance/service plan, but I haven’t done any maintenance on it in years. I’ve used it relatively consistently and my husband has used it too.  It has even been through two long distance moves on a moving truck. It really is a sturdy piece of machinery.

I will definitely buy another ProForm treadmill when the time comes, but for now mine is still going strong.  I plan to do some maintenance on it soon though.  It certainly is past due on a lot of care. (Stay tuned for details). 

There is a point where walking turns into jogging; the speed that is the fastest you can possibly walk before you must jog. For me and my relatively short legs, that threshold is 4.0 MPH. For my 6’4″ husband, that threshold is closer to 5.0 MPH. It is different for everybody.

One of my treadmill programs holds a speed of 4.0 MPH for five minutes. It is a very awkward speed for me to move at. I didn’t think I would be able to hold that speed. I did it though and it was difficult. I alternated between speed walking and slow jogging. When my legs couldn’t go that fast any more, I would switch and exercise my lungs until they had enough.

It’s a challenging speed, but I’m thinking that it is a very good speed to work on building endurance. Which leads me to another thought: If you build up enough endurance, will this threshold change? Or is it proportional to leg length? I guess I’ll have to test it out over time and see.

Does this “threshold” have a name? (If it does, can someone please comment and enlighten me.) For now, I’ll just name it my “endurance zone”.