Treadmill Desk, Day 26

230 minutes so far today. (UPDATE: 270 minutes by the end of the day.) I'm posting at 7PM so I might get some more time in before the night is up. But since Althouse posted on the treadmill desk, I thought I'd summarize my experience to date. (For those of you just joining in, this is day 26 since I "got serious". I actually did over three weeks of a trial, and then reset the counter when my new treadmill arrived. So I've been doing this for 2 months now.)

I've been detailing my trek on my blog under keyword [sic] "treadmill desk". But rather than make you go through that, I'll spell out my strategy:

1. Buy a cheap treadmill--I mean, really cheap (<$100 or free, if you can find one), off of Craig's list--and a plank of wood. The treadmill should have long, straight arms for you to put the plank of wood on.

2. Fiddle with the height of the board by stacking books underneath. (Some people carve wood rests or what have you, but I have no talent in that area, plus I kind of like the "change on a whim" feel. What seems good today may not tomorrow.)

3. Give it a try for several weeks. Try to run through all your daily tasks, including the ones tht require the greatest concentration and steadiest hands. If you can only do 90% of your work while walking, make sure you have a way to do that other 10% without disrupting things too much.

4. While you're doing this, note the issues you're having so that when the time comes for a better treadmill, you'll know exactly what you want.

In my case, my cheap ($50) treadmill overheated, which forced my hand to buying a new one sooner than I would've liked. I had a hard time running it for more than an hour. It was also really loud and really hot. I finally went with a new Sole machine that gets put into hotels, with a two year warranty. Very quiet, doesn't seem to radiate heat.

My big mistakes were: pushing myself to hit the eight hour mark as soon as possible, which resulted in a lot of stiffness that wouldn't have occurred had I built up more slowly; also, I didn't wear shoes at all at first, though I'm not sure if that would have been such a big deal had I not forced myself to the eight hour mark.

The benefits have been that a stiffness in my ankles and feet that had been building for years has almost completely gone away in the past two months. I don't find myself imbued with lots of energy that others seem to have--at least not yet--but one doesn't fall asleep at a treadmill desk, either.

I haven't been tracking my weight, particularly, so I can't speak to that. It has improved my appetite, however.