We've said goodby to the treadmill. He went to his new home yesterday.
Teddy the Tready It had occupied a large space in our living room since November-ish 2011. He had been through phases of much use, and disuse. For the last few months hehas been in a lot of use, always for walking though not running. I wondered whether a cross trainer would be better than a treadmill.
I did a bit of research, asked a few people who would know this sort of thing, looked at the proces cross trainers went for second hand, and understanding what the different features meant. In the end, we decided it would be best to go and try some cross trainers to see what they actually felt like.
We are lucky to have a fitness place not that far from us, and they had a whole range of cross trainers (and treadmills and gym equipment) in a large showroom. Some of the treadmills on display were brands and models that I had been looking at on Ebay.
The sales chap was really helpful and not at all pushy. We explained that we were there on a bit of a whim, had no idea whether we even wanted a cross trainer, had no idea what we were looking for. He showed us a range of them, and explained the differences. We tried them. He then left us to try them ourselves, and we spent a reasonable length of time trying them all.
We ruled out a number of models (including the ones I had on my Ebay WatchList). We ruled in models from a manufacturer we'd never heard of.. turns out they only make cross trainers, and as we'd never looked at cross trainers before, we'd never heard of them.
We left the showroom and discussed what to do.
First discussion point was whether we should look at getting a cross trainer instead of our treadmill. Surprisingly, as we are often a Mr and Mrs Jack Spratt, we both agreed that a cross trainer was worthwhile.
Then we talked about the models and manufacturers. Again we agreed. And we even agreed on our preference of model. (As I write this, I'm wondering if I should mark this day of "being in agreement" on a calendar!).
We looked online, and found a few previously sold versions, at much less than the new price. We found one (a slightly older version of the model we wanted) at a much-cheaper-than-new but much-more-expensive-than-we-wanted -to-pay price. Hmm.
I downloaded the manuals for both versions and attempted to work out the differences. In the end, the differences were small. We hummed and haahed.
I'll cut a long and tedious story of indecision short - we bought the second hand one. We took a deep breath, and arranged a 3rd party courier to go and collect it for us. As it turned out, that was another great decision. There was a bit of faffing about thanks to my bank, but all was well.
It arrived yesterday, about 30 minutes after the treadmill went to its new home.
It's a monster. It's so different to use vs the treadmill.
