I’ve been thinking about getting a treadmill lately to get a different form of exercise other than the bike. I’ve never been much of a runner but would like to work on it. I don’t want to spend a ton on a treadmill as I’m unsure how much use it’ll get in the long run (typical right? lol), but I’m worried if I get something too cheap it may hamper my progression as a runner.
Look at sole treadmills. I recently bought and sole f80 and it has been great. Also read up a lot about treadmills before the purchase and it seems as though they may have one of the beat warranties on the market.
Maybe start running around the block and see if it takes?
I’d be skeptical of the cheap Amazon treadmill. Can you get spare parts? A few years ago I went through this exercise for my wife who wanted a treadmill. After a lot of research and reading reviews I kind of decided that a MSRP $1000 treadmill (retail $500-600) was about the minimum level of quality that I wanted. Plus I wanted one made by a major fitness company with good spare parts availability.
We ended up with a NordicTrack for $100 at a craigslist/garage sale. It might be hard to find those deals now with the demand for fitness equipment. One thing I discovered about the NordicTrack is that they are owned by Icon fitness. Icon makes many brands of treadmills (Proform, Golds, …) and that’s why parts availability is good.
If you go to a store and demo treadmills you’ll quickly see that cheap ones are probably only good for a lighter person that is going to gently walk on it for 15-20 minutes now and then. Or mostly hang clothes on it. You need something sturdy if you ware going to run decent weekly mileage.
Thanks, good point on spare parts! And I have been running around the neighborhood a little, maybe once a week. Just cant get consistent with it because of work/weather/daylight savings.
You need something sturdy if you ware going to run decent weekly mileage.