How To Get a New-to-You Treadmill

On Sunday, I woke up and was excited to get in my workout. It can sometimes be a hard thing to talk myself into, but that day it was easy. Why? Because I am on the final episode for season 2 of Angel. I was excited to see how the crew got back to the real world. So, I was getting into my stride about five minutes in and the treadmill speeds up. It's going so fast, I have to jump off or else meet my fate thrown into the closet. Once off, my first thought is that maybe I somehow slid the bar up to make it go faster. I check the bar, and it's at the normal spot. Then I think I better hurry up and turn it off before it wakes up Alex. He's not always the happiest when woken up early! Quickly, I pull out the red key and the machine starts to slow down, but not stop. It sputters for a little bit before stopping completely. I put the key back in and try to change the pace, but it sputters on and off. I think back to the day before when I remember a burning smell while running. I didn't think anything of it because I'm an idiot. It would have had to have been on fire for me to notice something was wrong. What's that they say about hindsight? That will come into play later on. Here are some photos of the 12 year old Proform Treadmill I took from my parent's house when I bought our house:

my old Proform (this was not the original location)

the very high-tech control panel

Since I've started this exercise routine, I immediately got freaked out that I would stop exercising and gain all my weight back. As soon as Alex got up, I had him helping me find treadmills on Craigslist. And by 4pm, we found a NordicTrack for $250 in Anderson. It seemed like a pretty good deal. Speed and incline are controlled electronically (the Proform was all manual) and it has built in fans. Plus, it's wide enough that Al says he might try it out. When we get to Anderson, we barely get it in the car. Al's seat was pushed up so far he looked like he was driving a clown car. It was quite funny! 

We're home with a little bit of daylight to spare. I pick up pizza for dinner, scarf it down, and get ready to unload the new machine. Our neighbor was going to help, but we couldn't get ahold of him, so I decided to help. Al is at the back pulling the machine out and I'm in the back of the car lifting it up over the wheel wells. LIfting, lifting, lifting, pushing, pushing, pushing, and it finally got over the wells. And as soon as it was over, it came down hard. I should have taken my rings offs (hindsight) because my huge rock got stuck and pinned my left ring finger under the machine. I pulled it out, took the ring, and started shaking my hand to ease the pain. That's when I looked at my ring and noticed it was completely bent. And a little later, the stone fell out.

 my poor ring

Needless to say, we stopped with the process and waited for our neighbor to come over. Pete and Al were able to get the new treadmill out of the car and upstairs, while I iced my finger and chatted with Abby and Izzy. Abby and Pete took the old treadmill off our hands (it went back to normal after it had cooled down). I warned them to shut it off if there were any kind funky smells coming from it! Here's the new treadmill:

as if you were running on it

the backside?

In the end, we got a pretty good deal for a barely used treadmill (although I do hate giving up my old one). My ring is covered under full warranty, and will be ready for pick-up later this week. My finger is bruised and a little sore, but nothing too bad. Now tomorrow, I will finally get to watch the last episode of Angel Season 2. 

Always look for the positive!

--Am