The new elliptical arrived Wednesday in the early afternoon. It came in a gigantic box. Sears delivered it, and luckily my husband and 20 year old nephew were back from work to bring it into the house. The two of them rolled it in on a dolly and brought it all the way into our bedroom. Not too tough to move when it was on the dolly.
It took a total of four hours for my husband to put it together. I’m not even counting the 20 minutes it too just to unpack all of the parts. It wouldn’t have taken four hours, but the fact that my husband wasn’t able to use the power drill (wrong kind of screws), and the angle of most of the screw holes made it take a long time. If the power drill was used, I think it would have taken an hour and a half, two hours at most. That and the fact my husband is stubborn and won’t ask for help. He did it all on his own.
Once it was put together, he got on it first on the 22-inch stride length setting. He likes it. He thinks he’s going to use it. I got on when it was still set at 22 inches, and immediately said “now way” to that stride length. It felt like I was doing the splits. Went down to the 18-inch stride length which is what I’m used to. I didn’t try out the 20-inch length that night.
A few things are different with this machine. The foot pedals are closer together, which I like. On the Proform I had a much wider stance on the pedals. With the NordicTrack, it feels more normal. The arm poles are wider on the NordicTrack. That will take some getting used to. Having a narrower foot stance and wider arms impacts my balance. That’s a good thing. The more I work my balance, the easier it will be.
Today was the day. I have been off the elliptical for quite a while. I looked, and my last day was August 25. I decided to try out the 20-inch stride length. Yes. That is my new setting. It felt really comfortable, and I was happy with that length. I didn’t have any set distance goal in mind for today’s workout, but in the back of my mind I wanted to go 1/2 mile.
I get on the elliptical and start to go. Well…at the 1/10 mile mark I had to stop. The fronts of my legs were tired and my heart beat was fast. Really fast. I noticed that with the extra two inches on the stride, I was still going the same pace, maybe a little faster. So I took a minute, and got back on. Did another 1/10 mile and called it a day. My legs were shot. I tried to go slower, and that was even more work for my muscles.
The different stance and new stride length is working different parts of my legs and obviously those parts need work. I remember the exact same feeling of tiredness when I first got my Proform, so I know that I have to build up my usage slowly. I’ll get there though. On my Proform, I could only go for about 6 minutes and had to stop. Same thing today. I went a total of 6:35 and was done. I took a break midway through.
I absolutely LOVE the machine though. It’s great! I’ll take some pictures tomorrow and share all of the features I love about it. I am so glad I made the upgrade. I want to get back on it right now, but my legs would hate me.
Yes, I did record my .2 mile on the virtual walk site. Hey, it’s something. Those .2 miles killed me. Here’s the photo from the site. The picture on the site did not change, but it’s good as a refresher picture.
Mile 299 (so close and yet so far)
(photo credit - Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab)
Pictures and a more detailed description on the NordicTrack A.C.T. coming tomorrow! I’m excited!
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