Buying a Treadmill

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When we moved I came to the realization that I wasn't going to make it through another winter of training without a treadmill. I've avoided it thus far by running before Cody goes to work and in the evenings which worked okay at our old house. There are 3 major problems with running early in the morning and late in the evening at our new house:

1. It's dangerous, at our old house we were in a populated area with lots of street lights and sidewalks so I felt relatively safe with my reflective gear on. Where we live now is pretty close to the "middle of nowhere" and it would be difficult for a car to see me in the dark even with all the reflective gear that I own.
2. Bears. As much as I love seeing wildlife, I really don't want to worry about it when I'm running.

As seen on my run in Whistler earlier this summer.

3. Hills. Essentially we live on a small mountain, so to get to our house there are several hills, no matter where I go I'd have to come back up all those hills to get home. As much as I "love" hill training, I don't want to do it every day...

As seen from the top of one of the hills heading up to our house.

So that's how a treadmill turned into a "moving expense" and I began the search. Typically I prefer to shop online, but in this case I decided I better head into a store and have a look at the so-called "dreadmills" in person.

Here are my tips for buying a treadmill:

1. Treadmill salesman are similar to car salesman and they will definitely feed you their sales pitch, so do your research before you go and have some models in mind.

2.  Have a budget. Obviously everyone wants the best of the best, but keep in mind that there are treadmills for every budget. You may not need all the bells and whistles there is to offer.

3. Consider the space. Is it necessary or more convenient to have a folding treadmill. Measure your area before you go to the store.

4. Lastly, consider the extras: Do you need a treadmill mat? What about delivery or warranty? I asked the salesman if he'd throw in delivery or a $100 treadmill mat, and happily I got the mat for free which will protect my flooring. I would also definitely consider the warranty, the brand will likely have one for the motor but you may want to consider an extended one through the dealer, there's a lot of moving parts and things that can go wrong and service calls can be expensive.

I ended up going with the one I had in mind which happened to be on sale!

It was delivered the day we moved in and though running on a treadmill is a lot different than the roads, I'm very happy with it. I also like having a place to display all my medals as inspiration. Don't get me wrong almost all of my long runs are still on the roads but for weekday 5-8ks and speed work this is where I'll be.