The Dreadmill

There are those that love running on the treadmill and there are those that would rather gouge their eyes out…repeatedly. I fall into the latter category while my wife, the former. She enjoys the predictability and privacy of running on a treadmill, while I find the lack of scenery and variance in terrain incredibly boring. So, when a couple Christmases ago Trish wanted to buy a treadmill for the house, you would expect some sort of epic battle. She has a Goodlife Fitness gym membership that she uses when she’s at work, but when she’s at home she wanted the option of running on the treadmill instead of outdoors. But it’s not like buying a treadmill would mean I had to give up my outdoor runs and be forced to run on the treadmill.  In fact, it would just give me more choices like when Cilla was sick or was home during March break and I couldn’t get outside for a run.

 

Before we could make our purchase, we would have to do some work in the basement. Our house was built in 1924 and the previous owner basically ran it into the ground. One of the basement walls had to be completely replaced with cinderblock before we even moved in. We suspect rain had been penetrating the wall for years, leaking into the basement causing the wall and the concrete floor to disintegrate. By the time we moved in there wasn’t much left of the floor in the laundry room. It was cracked and uneven and when we picked up pieces of the concrete, they crumbled in our hands. I spent many labourous hours taking up buckets upon buckets of the disintegrated concrete, hauling it up the basement stairs and throwing it in the dump bin outside. I tamped down what was left of the floor and placed a tarp overtop to keep the dust down until we would have time to replace the concrete.

 

In a 600 square foot house, there is limited space of where things can go, so our only option for the treadmill would be the laundry room.  So now we faced the difficult job of rebuilding the concrete floor.  Because we only had a small window of time to complete our project, we decided to just rebuild a large enough portion to house the treadmill, an approximate 7 by 4 foot space.  At 4 inches depth, we would need approximately 20 bags of concrete. We rented a van since our car wouldn’t be big enough and off we went to Home Depot and off Cilla went to Grandma and Grandpa’s. 

 

According to the package detail, the PSI 6000 concrete is “premium quality high-strength, crack-resistant fiber-reinforced, and air-entrained.” Each bag also weighed 66 pounds each. We carried them together from the car to the top of the stairs, then I carried them on my own into the basement. That in itself was exhausting. Mixing the concrete proved easiest with a bucket and spade and by the next morning we had completed our 7 by 4 foot slab. After a week I painted it with floor paint, and then we were ready to head to the fitness store to buy our treadmill.

 

In the end we opted to buy a Frequency brand treadmill, which is foldable in the event we needed to store it and it had a shock absorbing floating deck which sounded good. Honestly I know nothing about treadmills, so I let Trish take the lead on this one.

 

On its maiden voyage, I was the lucky first contestant taking my opportunity while Cilla was having her nap. I entered the laundry room in semi-darkness as there were no working lights and even though there were two fairly large sized windows, it was winter and not very bright outside. I left the door open to the piano studio to allow light to come in.

 

Houses built in the 1920’s were never intended to have finished basements, so the ceiling height was only 6 feet 2 inches.  Take into account of the height of the treadmill platform and it’s about 3 inches less.  Luckily, I’m only 5 foot 5 inches and with the ceiling unfinished I was able to run fairly comfortably with my head sticking in between the ceiling joists. I hit the side of my head a couple times on the water pipes to the right of me until I got used to them being there. It may not have been the most glamourous set-up, but it got the job done.

It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the pacing right and even longer to find my balance.  Then when I tried to get off the treadmill, it was like I was a drunken sailor who lost his land legs.  I’ve always been prone to motion sickness: I can’t play video games (not even Tetris), go on amusement rides or even travel for long in the car or I will feel like I’ve been poisoned.  I was surprise however, to find myself feeling dizzy after getting off the treadmill. I haven’t been on a treadmill in about 20 years, and I don’t remember feeling that sensation before.  But apparently this feeling is caused by a disconnection between your brain and body.  When running on the treadmill, your body thinks it’s moving even though you aren’t really going anywhere, so when you step off the treadmill, your brain thinks you are still moving forward, when in reality you are standing still.  This sensation caused me to almost fall flat on my face and I had to hold onto something, sit down and close my eyes until the room stopped spinning. I learned pretty quickly that I had to slow down my pace gradually for at least a kilometre before it was safe to get off the treadmill.  Even then I needed to sit down while the spinning ceased.

 

Running on the treadmill reminded me of the time I was training for The National Kids Cancer Ride back in 2009 and I had to get in long kilometres over the winter months.  It was impossible to ride on the city streets through the snow, slush and ice and I had no choice but to run indoors on my trainer.  Some days I would get up 3 am and get on my bike so I could complete my training before everyone else got up.  I would entertain myself with music, movies and because I was situated in a sunroom, I could people watch. But I hated it and couldn’t wait for the spring weather. I liked the freedom and adventure of cycling outside.

 

I know there are pros to running on the treadmill: Treadmill training allows you to completely control the pace, incline, intervals and cool down.  And it allows a safe environment where you don’t have to worry about falling on the ice or running in the dark or worry about traffic and angry pedestrians.  But nothing compares to breathing fresh air (yes, even in Toronto), meeting people, enjoying nature, feeling the different terrain beneath my feet and the exhilarating feeling of completing a new distance goal or discovering a new trail.

 

But during the social isolation the treadmill has proved its worth. As much as I hate the treadmill it has allowed me to continue with my training. And now when I go downstairs, Cilla usually comes down with me to play while I’m doing my workout, and sometimes will even “join” me on my run.  One day while I was running I looked behind me to see Cilla jogging on the spot.  She had on her ‘Garmin Watch’ (paw patrol bracelet) which she looked at periodically to (I’m guessing) see what her splits were. She ran/danced on and off for 45 minutes while I ran my 8 kilometres. When we were done she wiped her brow and said, “I’m all sweaty like you.”