Well, I finally did it, and it finally came. What’s that? I bought a TreadClimber, that’s what. And it was delivered on Monday by UPS in four big honking boxes. OK, actually there were only three boxes that were actually honking, but the forth one was not all that small. I didn’t have time to assemble the thing Monday night, but even if I had had the time, there was no place to put it. So last night I spent a few hours rearranging things in the Office of Death™ to accommodate it. I now have stacks of books that I’m going to donate to the library, and piles of old computers that I’m going to donate to the local thrift store.

Anyway, so I got a space cleared out for it last night, but by the time I finished, it was too late to start putting it together. So tonight was the night. I man-handled the boxes up the stairs, throwing caution to the wind and ignoring the big letters on the boxes stating “Extremely Heavy. Two People Needed to Move!” My boy Thomas (6 years old) stood at the top of the stairs shouting encouraging things at me, such as “I’m just gonna stand right here, ok?” Once the boxes were on the proper floor, I found the one marked “1 of 3” and opened it. Once I found the instructions, I read them (yes, I do read instructions) and starting assembling. Four hours, three skinned knuckles and two-quarts-of-sweat later, I was done.

I’m sure you’re wondering to yourselves “Did he try it out or just bag it for the evening?” I’ll tell you, I tried it out. I calibrated it according to the directions, then fired it up. It has a very smooth motion, though I can really tell that one leg (mine) is shorter than the other… sigh… Anyway, I did it for a few minutes, whilst reading the instructions about other things, including the included heart-rate monitor. I got it out, strapped it on, and then got on the beast again to make sure it worked. It’s a Polar and is completely wireless, which is pretty cool. I could see my heart-rate moving on up as I walked, which means it’s working.

How long did I stay on? About five minutes, total. But I got a workout putting the darned thing together, so I don’t feel too bad about it. I’m going to go watch the video with the buff-and-busty models telling me how bloody easy the thing is to workout on, and then actually have a go on it tomorrow. Well, the TreadClimber, not the buff-and-busty model…

BTW, I got the TC5000, which has the most bells and/or whistles. I just can’t resist those bells and whistles.

And one more thing, beware of the “Payments as low as $45/month” and “nothing down” statements. It’s not a loan, but a revolving credit line. In other words, a BowFlex credit card. I went through most of the process of signing up and then they flashed the interest rate at me: 21.5%. Whoa, Nellie! That’s a heck of an interest rate. I stopped the process right there and went to check my existing credit cards for their interest rates. I discovered that I already had a card with a far, far better interest rate, so I just put it on that. Do yourself a favor and finance the thing yourself.

I’ll let you know in a couple of days how it’s going.