Getting Used To My New Elliptical

It's been awhile since I've posted, so I thought I would do a quick entry about how I am getting used to my new elliptical machine. I've had my Nordictrack elliptical for several weeks now, and I am really enjoying it. My muscles are still getting used to the new stance and motion,, but I am now doing 1/2 mile each time I get on it. I am taking several breaks during my half mile, and I'm focusing on taking less breaks right now.

There are two things I've had to adapt for. One of being my right hand on the arm poll, and the other being my left foot on the left foot pedal. The arm polls are at a different angle and are wider apart than my old machine. Because of that, every time I start the pedals and poles moving, my right hand slides awkwardly on the arm poll and it creates a sort of rug burn in between my thumb and forefinger. I have adapted to this by wearing a baseball glove on my right hand. That seems to solve that problem.

The problem with my left foot is that it tends to slide over to the inner side of the pedal and my foot rubs against the side. When I wear my tennis shoes, this isn't really a problem, but I am wearing my Vibram Five Finger shoes (KSO review). These shoes are made out of a very thin fabric, so my foot doesn't have much protection and I end up getting a spot on my foot that gets rubbed funny. To deal with this problem, I put down a folded hand towel under my foot. It took a little while to figure out how to fold the towel and place it so it would not slide out from under my foot as I worked out. I think I have it figured out now though.

I have made it to my first goal of doing 1/2 mile, although I'm still taking breaks like I said before. I plan on updating my mileage progress in a different post, because I have several pictures to upload and share from the virtual walk site.

I am very excited to say that I think wearing my Vibram Five Finger shoes will not be a problem on this machine. On my old machine I think my problem was the stance was too wide and it created excess pressure on my ankle. Because the stance on this machine is narrower, I think there will be less pressure and it won't be a problem. I think I've only worn my tennis shoes for the first two or three workouts. I've worn my Five Fingers the rest of the time. If at any point I do feel discomfort in my feet, I'll go back to wearing my tennis shoes. But for now everything seems to be OK.

I don't want to overload one post with all of my updates. So this post is this going to be about how I've been getting used to my new machine. Stay tuned for more updates soon.