The first run

After picking up new Gel Kinsei 2's from Gord's, I got home and tried out the new treadmill. First, we adjusted the band a bit during the initial test. It is a little bit to the right of center, more so at the front than the back. Interestingly, one can only adjust via bolts at the back of the machine.

After all that, I programmed my userid, weight and age, strapped on the heart monitor and got on. I had planned to just do an easy 20 minute run, with HR monitoring. From what I read, I thought I needed to select program C1 (HR monitor) and then manual. Doesn't work. I suspect that I didn't need to worry about the C1 part, just go straight to manual and it would have been OK.

However, with all the excitement, I didn't think of that at the time. So, I switched over to C2, the "Set target heart rate" program. I punched in 142 BPM (75% for my age assuming a max HR of 168 using the old 220 - age formula. Newer formula include the .67 formula, giving me a MHR of 169 so the same percentage and the Karvonen formula, which takes morning resting HR into account. Since my sitting in the afternoon HR is 58-60, I assume a morning resting HR of 55 giving me Karvonen numbers of Max HR 168, Max training of 145 and Min training 123.)

So, the default for the program is 30 minutes - a bit too long for me at the moment. I switched to 20 minutes, reduced the max elevation of the program to 1.5 from 10% and upped the max speed from 4mph to 4.5mph.

The machine performed beautifully.

It started with a 5 minute warm up to get me up to speed and target HR, followed by 10 minutes where it varied speed and elevation to keep my HR at target and then a 5 minute cool down. It kept me between 139 and 143 for the entire 10 minutes with no problem. Very nice machine.