How a Retired Track Coach Kept Her Hill Walks Going Through a Rainy Fall

The first real rain of September hit Chattanooga on a Tuesday evening. Glenn and I had just finished supper, and I had my walking shoes on when the sky opened up. We stood on the porch watching the street turn into a sheet of water, and I said the same thing I say every fall: I guess that is that. My hill walks have been part of my routine for years, and every year the rain carves a hole in them. Last year the hole stretched from early October to mid-December, and by January I could feel it in my knees and my mood. I am a retired track coach. I know what happens to a routine when you let it slide for a week, then two, then six. So this year, before the rain really set in, I ordered the MERACH UltraWalk W60 walking pad and put it in the spare bedroom facing the TV.

I want to be plain about what this thing is and what it is not. The MERACH UltraWalk W60 is not a treadmill for running. Its maximum speed is 4 miles per hour, and I have never once gone anywhere near that. It is a walking pad, and I use it exactly that way: two or three times a week, 30 to 40 minutes at a walking pace, on the days when the weather keeps me off the hills. It does not replace my outdoor walks. Glenn and I still do our evening hill route whenever the sky cooperates. The walking pad is the backup plan that finally works, because it lives in my house and it is always there.

I had tried the indoor walking thing before. I bought a cheap stationary bike one winter and it turned into a very expensive clothes rack by March. I tried walking laps around the kitchen island and gave up after four minutes because I felt like a zoo animal. The problem was never my motivation. The problem was that my options were boring, uncomfortable, or both. The MERACH walking pad solved that in a way I did not expect: it put my normal walking pace and my normal walking routine into my own spare bedroom.

I set the incline between 6 and 12 percent, pick a show I have been saving, and the 30 minutes pass the way they do on a real walk, without the rain in my face. That is the part I did not see coming. I expected a machine in my spare bedroom to feel like exercise equipment. Instead it feels like the walk I would have taken anyway, just moved indoors for the day.

I set the incline between 6 and 12 percent, pick a show I have been saving, and the 30 minutes pass the way they do on a real walk, without the rain in my face.

Let me tell you how I actually use it, because the details matter. The pad lives in the spare bedroom, plugged into the wall, facing the television. When I want to use it, I step on, grab the remote control, and set the speed to something that feels like my normal walking pace. Then I set the auto incline. The W60 has 12 levels of auto incline, and I usually land somewhere between 6 and 12 percent depending on how my right knee feels that day. On a day when my knee is stiff, I keep the incline low and just let the legs move. On a day when I feel good, I push it up higher and I can feel my heart rate climb the way it does on a real hill. The LED display shows me the speed and the incline, and the built-in speaker lets me listen to something other than the sound of my own breathing.

The thing that surprised me most is how stable it feels. I weigh more than I would like, and I was worried that a walking pad would feel flimsy under me. The MERACH UltraWalk W60 is rated for up to 400 pounds, and it is built on a 67.7 pound steel frame. I am not going to pretend I put 400 pounds on it, but at my weight it does not wobble, it does not creak, and it does not slide across the floor. The belt moves smoothly and quietly, which matters because Glenn watches television in the next room and he has not complained once. That is the highest compliment I can pay a piece of exercise equipment.

There are things I would change. The walking pad is 51.4 inches long and 22 inches wide, and it takes up a corner of the spare bedroom even when I am not using it. It has wheels, so I can move it out of the way when I need the floor space, but it is not the kind of thing you hide in a closet. It is also not silent. It is quiet, but I can hear the motor, and when I am watching a show I have to turn the volume up a little. And the incline is not a real hill. A 12 percent incline on a walking pad is a good workout, but it does not engage my legs the same way the actual hills of Chattanooga do. I say all of this because I want you to know what you are buying. It is a tool for keeping a habit alive. That is all I need it to be.

The biggest surprise has been how much I look forward to it. I thought indoor walking would feel like a chore, the way the stationary bike did. Instead, it has become part of my evening wind-down. I do my strength work in the garage three mornings a week, I walk the hills with Glenn when the weather is good, and on the rainy days I take the walking pad for 30 or 40 minutes while I catch up on a show. Then I have my magnesium glycinate, I use my massage gun on my legs, and I go to bed. The walking pad is not the most exciting piece of equipment I own. It is just the one that has actually kept me moving through a season that used to take my routine away from me.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee, here is what I would tell you. If you already walk regularly and you lose weeks every year to bad weather, a walking pad like the MERACH UltraWalk W60 is worth a serious look. It is not a replacement for the real thing, and I would not want one as my only way to move. But as a backup plan that is always there, it has been the difference between a fall where I stayed consistent and a fall where I would have lost two months. If you are thinking about one, do not buy it expecting a treadmill. Buy it expecting a way to keep your habit alive on the days when the weather says otherwise. That is exactly what it has done for me, and that is why it is still in my spare bedroom, plugged in and ready, waiting for the next rainy Tuesday.