Re: [Phys-l] treadmill vs open road

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@mindspring.com>]

At 09:19  -0400 5/9/08, Rick Tarara wrote:

> Strange...I have the opposite experience with a home elliptical.  We walk
> extensively (100 km during a 10 day trip to Florida at Xmas, and average at
> least 3 miles a day in decent weather at home).  But on my elliptical (if I
> believe the calibrations at all--which I don't), I can be panting and
> 'exhausted' doing a mile at a 3 mph rate.    I think the elliptical is
> measuring the distance from the rotation of the resistance drum or from the
> linear motion of the foot pads, but this doesn't seem to correlate well with
> actual walking.  Anyway--doing a mile on the elliptical seems equivalent to
> 2-3 miles walking--to me!

I've only tried an elliptical once, and almost killed myself (the 
motion required was way too far out of my normal coordination range), 
but as I was trying to make the damned thing work, I thought that it 
wasn't much like waking to me--it seemed a lot harder than walking, 
so I would say that your longer-term experience was consistent with 
my impression as I escaped my near-death experience on that informal 
machine.

Hugh
--

************************************************************
Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Hard work often pays off after time. But Laziness always pays off now.

			February tagline on 2007 Demotivator's Calendar