Thursday, July 31, 2008

Treadmill Desk, Day 1

I rolled out of bed this morning and onto the treadmill. I had to make a few adjustments. The keyboard and mouse were too low, so I propped my plank up with some books. That worked pretty well; answering e-mail and reading is easy enough.

I did a little coding and debugging, too, which worked out all right. I'll do some heavier stuff later.

After running about three hours, with about a 15-20 minute, the treadmill stopped dead.

Huh. $50 doesn't go as far as it used to.

It started up again a few minutes later. I'll have to test the limits of this thing. On 2, off 1, etc. I understand one really needs a commercial treadmill to run it for a full eight hours. (Actually, I've seen commercial treadmills that say you should only run them six hours a day. So, go figger.)

I'll say one thing for it: It does keep you from nodding off.

6 comments:

  1. Treadmill desks on abc, 20/20!

    I must admit that I tuned in to see the Carla Bruni piece. Regarding the desks; it seems that some companies are sticking employees on these things at work.

    It looks like you were an early adopter, at least earlier than 20/20.

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  2. Update, since I'm sort of "live commenting."

    Now they're showing pictures of homemade treadmill desks, you could have been included.

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  3. Huh. They didn't even mention it in the capsule.

    Did they describe how it's going to destroy your knees or anything?

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  4. No knee talk.

    It was one of two so called alternative weight loss/fitness programs that 20/20 covered after Carla.

    The folks using the desks seemed to like them, but they avoided specifics. Your posts are more informative regarding the ergonomics and amount of usage.

    The few moments they spent on the homemade systems was the most interesting. I liked seeing pictures of several different designs. But, then it was back to the expensive systems, which had they priced at $4000.

    To provide a complete recap; the second weight loss thing was a ridiculous gimmick. Supposedly you sprinkle a little powder on any food, and then you miraculously loose weight (I'm sure there's a BHO joke in there.)

    And, for absolute completeness; Carla is unbelievable. Whatever problem folks have with Michelle Obama, Carla is at least a hundred times more controversial--marriage wrecker, against monogamy, flings with multiple rock stars, fairly recently writing songs about cocaine, songs about 30 lovers, and so on.

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  5. Ergonomics are inherently personal, so I think there's a limit to how much you can help someone else do something like this.

    I very much resisted the mouse, and I still view it as a push in terms of productivity. It complicates ergonomics a lot.

    I've spent about $130 so far--$50 for the treadmill and $80 for the monitor arm--and at that price, it's worth a try.

    Another thing I haven't seen anyone mention is that you'll probably have to build up if you're planning an eight hour day. Even if you're in pretty good shape, you're probably not used to eight solid hours of walking.

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  6. I'm not sure the same dynamic is at work with Carla vs. Michelle.

    First of all, Sarkozy's already in office. Second, I don't think anyone's suggesting that Carla's in charge.

    Michelle's problem, I think, is that she's got the aggressiveness. Hil(l)ary had that problem, too, but I don't recall anyone suggesting Bill wasn't going to be in charge.

    Dunno. I really hate politics.

    I just wish it were about issues. Sometimes I think parliamentary systems make more sense.

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