I got a bill from my gym for $570 a few weeks ago.  Even though that pays for a full year, it’s still so much money that I actually laughed out loud while standing alone in my dining room, then promptly dropped it onto the recycle bin.  I do like my gym quite a bit, but $570 to run on the treadmill a few times a week is entirely too much money.

I found a decent used treadmill on Craigslist for $75, and am now one of those people who has a prominent piece of exercise equipment in her living room, but the good far outweighs the bad in this situation.

Good:

  • My work/class hours are erratic at best.  Even though the gym opens at 5am, I will not be going there until far later in the day.  When I was working in tv, I found that running at 8pm was actually a good time for me as if was early enough that I wasn’t unable to sleep, but late enough that I had eaten and digested enough to feel peppy.
  • I really dislike paying for heat, and usually close off the living room on the coldest days because there are a lot of windows and it gets very drafty, which means that I can’t comfortably watch tv.  Watching tv while walking or running isn’t as comfortable as lying there, but it keeps me warmer, and makes me feel less guilty.
  • I ate mac and cheese while watching Center Stage: Turn it up while walking on the treadmill the other day and it was pretty rad.
  • I’m trying to convince myself that perhaps I’ll wake up a little early and do a couple quick miles before going to work in the morning– probably won’t happen, but I’m so proud of myself for thinking it.

Bad:

  • Because I’m not leaving my house to run, there’s nothing to stop me getting off the treadmill when I remember that I need to do x, y, z thing around the house.
  • Wee Watson is terrified of the noisy beast near the windows so the “cat on a treadmill” fun I could be having doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.
  • Since it is right next to the windows that look out on a busy street/sidewalk, I’m hyperaware of my neighbors walking by.  I’m not really sure if they notice me, since I’m far above eye-level, but I see them.

The best thing so far with this treadmill happened today when I was jogging along merrily and watching Don.  It was about 3:45pm, but wasn’t even starting to get dark.  The light outside looked like it was going to stick around for a while, and I got a fluttery feeling like spring is actually, maybe, possibly coming soon.  As Gentleman Caller put it when he noticed the same thing, “today was the first time in a while when I looked outside in the afternoon and didn’t want to kill myself.”

If I had been at the gym, I would have not been facing the window, and would probably be standing next to a man who uses the treadmill and all other excercise equipment as a place to rest and relax.  Of course, if I had been at the gym, I wouldn’t have taken short breaks in running to fold laundry– it’s a tradeoff.

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