Training Set-up

My wife and I bought a treadmill before we had kids, maybe 7 years ago or so. We used to use it more regularly but it got buried for a while. We had some major work done in the basement in 2003 and it really just became a dump depot for stuff without any organization. There's still some of that feel to it, but last year we worked on the "finshed" half - the side with a ceiling and carpet of a sort. Half of it is occupied by a large table and our old office chair we rescued from destruction at her old office in St. Louis. Behind that, tucked in the corner, is the treadmill. It's not fancy. It has a timer, a slide control for adjusting the speed and up/down buttons for the incline. There are preprogrammed "routines" available, but I usually leave it on manual control. It has a cupholder and a remote holder. Next to it I mounted a TV with a combo DVD/VCR with a front jack for headphones.

I have to take my mind off of exercising to exercise. It's easy to do on a walk through the park or through the neighborhood, but when all I've got in front of me is a timer and a white wall, I stare at the timer. With the TV there, I can send my mind someplace else while my body does what it needs to do. Plus it gives me an excuse to work my way through my DVD collection. I keep joking with my wife that the only chance I'll ever get to sit and watch my DVDs would be if I was ladi up sick for a week or two. This is much healthier than the flu.

On the other side of the table in the finished room is a play area for the kids with surplus toys, exercise mats and an old loveseat with a denim slipcover. Often the kids will come down and play while I exercise and then when I'm done, I can swivel the TV around to face them and put in one of their shows that we watch together for 20 minutes or so. I might fold laundry while we watch ( the washer/dryer are beyond a safety gate on the "unfinished" side. So far its working OK, but I'm looking forward to exercising outside some.