when you want it the most.

This post sponsored by Precor. No, not really (but in all seriousness, if Precor wants to sponsor me I'm ALL FOR IT). This is entirely my opinion, and it's a strong opinion because I have mad love for the brand and everyone needs to know about it.

Our usual gym (HTRC) closed yesterday afternoon for a few hours to upgrade the cardio equipment. I was really excited at the prospect of new equipment because WHO DOESN'T LOVE NEW STUFF? Exactly. The newest gym on campus, CRWC, is stocked mostly by Life Fitness and Precor... I'd say it's a pretty even split. We figured since those brands were in the newest facility, then that would probably mean that our little ol' gym would be getting the same (or one of the two). Which is cool... I started running on Life Fitness treadmills and I loved that experience, and obviously right now I'm in a passionate love affair with Precor. We thought it would be a 50/50 shot between the two which is a WIN for us no matter what.

Oh god.

Grumpy Cat called this one. I don't know how the decision was made, who was contacted, who got to share an opinion, who signed off on this... basically, everyone involved sucks and I'm mad at them. I was bubbling with excitement going to the gym today. I enthusiastically paid another month of dues at the check-in desk and then I turned around to check out the gloriousness of the new equipment and my heart stopped beating.

Matrix.

WHO. THE EFF. DECIDED ON MATRIX? Really, all I want to know is WHERE this decision came from... because the University has had a pretty strong track record of using Precor/Life Fitness at all their other facilities, I want to know what happened that all of a sudden we're moving to Matrix. That would have been nice to know BEFORE I plunked money down on another month.

I was already at the gym so I felt pretty silly turning around and walking out, plus I legitimately wanted to give this a try. All the treadmills are now Matrix T7xe and I want you to know that I think the technology is REALLY FANCY. I didn't put it together before today, but we had ONE of these machines tucked in the corner of the gym before the upgrade, they must have been "testing" it over the course of the last few months. Once I had the misfortune of having to run on it because it was the only free treadmill available and it lasted all of two minutes before I quit. I should have known then.

Without giving an official review, this is what I think:

It was quiet and sturdy. I'm not the lightest chick, so I definitely notice the pounding of my body on the machines and this one was solid... so a plus in that category.

The screen/ledge scenario, whatever you want to call that. HOT MESS. I'm a tall girl so I need things to be pretty high up to be on my level. The touch screen, the user controls, the spot for my water bottle and other accessories are all placed at waist-level on my body and that was really awkward and made for an uncomfortable run. FAIL.

I don't do pre-set programs... ever. I'm a control freak and I need to know what's coming at all times so pre-sets will never help me, the really nifty features on this machine are of no use to me and that's sad.

The Nike+iPod capability WOULD BE cool... except not. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I don't track treadmill miles on my iPod. And also, I like to watch my iPad when I run indoors... which brings me to my next point. That stupid touchscreen monitor. OMG. WHYYYY isn't there a feature to turn it off or sleep it during a run? THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE.

The incline/speed buttons (ACTUAL buttons) in addition to the touchscreen controls were a REALLY nice touch and saved me from quitting this workout at the onset, but I had a huge HUGE HUGE issue during my run. I'm not sure if this was a problem with my particular machine or if it's a programming bug that I need to worry about on all the machines, but here's what happened:

I run on a steady incline of 1.0 which I set at the beginning and don't touch until the last 10 minutes, it's always the first adjustment I make when I start. I pressed the incline button until the display read 1.0, then I got to running. At some point a few minutes in I realized I was having a really hard time getting through it which was weird because it was barely jogging (speed 4.7-4.8). The display was suddenly reading an incline of 2.5. I swear on my life I didn't touch anything in any way to make the incline change that like, the machine did it all by itself.

No problem, I set it back to 1.0 and I found it easy to run again. In the final minutes of my workout, I was puffing along at speed 5.9 and suddenly the belt jerked to a crawling pace and I was barely walking. The display was reading a speed of 1.3, then 1.2, then 1.1. My hands/arms/other extremities were nowhere near any of the controls and I had set the machine to a basic run, so it was NOT programmed to stop or slow at any point (not to mention, I was at 25:49 when this happened). I brought the speed back to 6.0 to finish out the final minutes of my run... less than 20 seconds into it I thought, "damn, this is really hard." Now, running at a 6.0 speed is new for me, but it shouldn't be that hard. Why was it that hard? I asked myself that and then the machine gave me the answer I was looking for: I was actually running at 6.6.

WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS TREADMILL HATE ME SO MUCH?

Seriously. If I set the incline 1.0, IT NEEDS TO STAY AT 1.0. If I set the speed to 5.9, I don't mean for it to go down to 1.1 and then up to 6.6 for no obvious reason. Oh, I'm crazy happy to know that I'm capable of running at a 6.6 speed, but I didn't want that. I specifically brought the speed to 6.0, I clicked EXACTLY to 6.0... NOT 6.6. I cannot run on a treadmill that doesn't react the way I need it to. I don't need my exercise equipment to have a mind of its own, if I wanted to push myself hard I would and I certainly don't need a treadmill taking those decisions from me.

Aside from the annoyance factor, this could have been seriously dangerous. Thankfully I know my body well and I know my limits well so I was able to notice IMMEDIATELY that the incline was off and the speed was off, I'm also a seasoned runner so I didn't go flying off the machine when it abruptly went from running to a slow crawl. I'm thankful that I didn't get hurt, I'm pleased that I finished the workout, and I'm feeling pretty smug for trying something new today.

But for reals, you could not pay me money to run on a Matrix treadmill again any time soon. Whatever this experience was this afternoon, I won't put myself through that again. AWFUL.

I'm heart broken because this gym has switched over to 100% Matrix equipment so we don't even have options, I think I may have had my final workout there today. So long HTRC, thanks for fucking me over. If you had told me last week that our venture over to CRWC would become the prequel to us making it our regular gym, I would have laughed at you. On the one hand, I do love what CRWC has to offer but the parking situation is horrible, and on the other hand I love the convenience of HTRC but I can't use their equipment. It's a pretty shitty predicament, if you ask me.

Boyfriend and I spent a sizable amount of time last night researching our parking options for CRWC and we had almost agreed on purchasing a year-long parking pass (at several hundred dollars, it was hard to be enthusiastic about). But Santa Claus must be looking out for us because we have solid intel that the old machines from our gym are being sold in a public sale at the University Surplus store this weekend. We have a 9am date this Saturday morning in hopes of scooping up a Precor elliptical. I have no idea what it'll cost or where I'll put it if we do bring one home, but it's the most promising option we have right now.

Come home to mama, I love you.

I hate that this even has to be an option, but sub-freezing temperatures in late March (and the same for the 10 day forecast) means that I can't go outside. This sucks so hard... all in the name of being healthy.