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I think I need to get a treadmill to make it through the winter. I tested out some of the stuff at Dicks, and I’d be ok with the Sole F80 but it’s not that great and I’d be willing to pay more to get something better. Does anyone have useful experience and/or suggestions for other things to try? Consumer Reports is pretty positive about the Sole TT8, with negative incline and maybe a little more durability, but probably not worth an extra $1000 with the same mediocre speed controls. And Dicks doesn’t carry it because they only have folding treadmills. They also have a NordicTrack that doesn’t work at all if it’s not connected to Wi-Fi. Maybe it’s nice but that’s not really a feature you want when you’re thinking about reliability.
I’m leaning towards my favorite among the options at Dick’s is there something else I should look into first?
Thanks!
Katie -
I have had a great experience with our Sole. My dream treadmill would be a Woodway but I don’t use it enough to justify the expense. I would consider spending a bit of extra money on a Roku TV (if you don’t have one available in the room you will be using) and some quality fans.
I may purchase one of these: Runn Smart Treadmill Center It will give you an accurate distance measurement and you can use it with Zwift too.
Anyone else?
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It still takes multiple weeks to a month to get a treadmill, and I guess as winter approaches and covid19 doesn’t recede that’s going to get worse, so I’m going with a Sole rather than waiting to discover some hidden gem that probably doesn’t exist. I have committed to using it at least 52 times in the coming year to justify the space and expense. I think it will really help me get into a healthier pattern of running short more often instead of feeling like I have to go at least 6 miles every time I succeed in getting out the door.
I definitely hope to get going with Zwift at least for biking. I’ve been nervous about dropping a bunch of money on equipment and subscription without being sure if I’m getting the stuff that will really work. I think I’m getting there. I seem to have a mental block against making the effort to figure out how to make my TV work for entertainment, so I’m suspicious that Roku TV may be beyond my abilities. There was a thing I wanted to watch a few weeks ago, but I missed it. Baby steps.
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To follow up, it seems like the latest Sole F63, F65, F80 and F85 treadmills all have bluetooth that makes connecting to zwift very easy. Also TIL several of the latest garmin watches, including the FR 245 have a “virtual run” mode that enables connecting to zwift by bluetooth. I haven’t tried that yet but it would be one option for including cadence in my zwift strava data.
Buying stuff from Dicks is a really unpleasant experience, but it seemed to be quicker than buying directly from Sole. Dicks offers in-home installation. Sole has discontinued in-home installation due to covid. The shipping company and Dicks disagreed about who was responsible for providing someone to do the in-home installation and apparently it’s not easy to come up with someone who is qualified. I’m not sure they succeeded. It took the guys a while to put the treadmill together. At one point they asked me for a shim because they didn’t realize that these things pretty much always have some adjustment knobs to compensate for uneven floors. Leo found a screw that was totally loose. I’m not sure if having them do the installation was the right choice, but it hasn’t fallen apart yet.
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I have tried Zwifting with the treadmill a few times. I’m reasonably happy with it. Since the treadmill talks to zwift on its own, I don’t see much need for the Runn Smart. As far as I can tell it would just give me more speed accuracy. The difference would be most significant for speedwork, since the treadmill is pretty slow to ramp up and ramp down speed, but Zwift sees an instantaneous change in speed. Since we’re emphasizing pacing our workouts by feel rather than relying on specific numbers, and I have a monogamous relationship with this treadmill, I don’t feel much need for more accuracy. I haven’t tried using my forerunner 245 virtual run mode to transmit to Zwift instead. My experience with using a Garmin on a treadmill is it’s not just less accurate, but also less precise – I can probably appear to be running faster by running with a higher cadence. Maybe I should just take advantage of that incentive to work on cadence!
Do you know of anyone who has run with a stryd power meter?
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