ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER (NOT-SO) CRAZY IDEA…

 

So, I’m writing this on my makeshift treadmill desk, pending the arrival of the custom-made stand being designed for me by a local furniture maker to put on top of my existing desk. I elevated the Mac monitor on 10 heavy hardback books (5 to the right and 5 to the left), with my bible of Paediatrics balanced on top (Forfar and Arneil’s Textbook of Pediatrics Fifth Edition. It’s heavier than most of the babies I deal with). The keyboard and Magic Trackpad are resting on a couple of filing boxes, along with a wrist support.

 

I’m been on this thing for two hours, have walked just over two miles, and burned over 200 calories. I even drank a cup of coffee while walking and surfing the internet. Everything is stable and my monitor is not vibrating. I found 1 mph too slow and have settled on 1.4 mph as a walking speed.

 

 

I told my nurses I was going to be doing this last week. Most of them laughed. A lot. So, what’s the big idea, you ask?

Well, let’s put it this way. Writing is a sedentary job. About the only action my heart sees during this job is when I’m writing a fight or chase scene. Even then, I doubt my ticker goes above 80 beats per minute. My self-imposed deadline for completing the first draft of Greene’s Calling was an eye-opener. November 2013 was spent mostly writing (10-12 hours a day,) sleeping, and eating. Unsurprisingly, my health suffered. 

 

So, when 2014 rolled around, I thought, ‘Things have gotta change. Before my ass achieves its own gravitational field…’

 

With a bad knee and back, I’m limited to walking and swimming on advice of my physiotherapist. Since my local swimming pool has the average temperature of my freezer, with boiling hot showers in the changing rooms, I’m kinda not inspired to spend time there at the moment. So, all that’s left is walking. Now, because I’m notoriously lazy and the weather has frankly been, well, shite, my daily walks soon became once-a-week walks. The treadmill, meanwhile, has been gathering dust and a couple of fitness-healthy spiders in the living room.

 

‘I wish I could be exercising while I’m writing,’ I lamented.

 

So I looked it up. And I came across LOTS of links like these:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/20/130520fa_fact_orlean

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/health/nutrition/18fitness.html?_r=0

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21076461

 

Now, a proper treadmill desk would set me back about £1300 to £3000. And, quite frankly, they are not exactly aesthetically pleasing. And they are HUGE!

 

I came across many blogs where people (mostly writers) have done their own DIY desks, with shelves placed on the horizontal bars of treadmills, to IKEA shelving units being used as desks. Some of those looked too unstable for my liking and did not seem like permanent solutions. I did come across this http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Godetfurniture?section_id=12984145 , which looks great for a laptop user and could be DIY adjusted for a desktop user with a plinth. 

 

It gave me the idea to see if I could have a custom one made. So I looked up local furniture makers and had one come to the house and measure it up. It will be a platform with almost the same footprint as the surface of my current desk, with a plinth in the centre for the monitor. I’m still waiting for the costing, which I expect could be a few hundred pounds, if not less.

 

The diagram below shows the ergonomics for a standing desk. The same principles apply to the treadmill desk. I dismantled my treadmill, getting rid of the hand/rail support, and have slipped it under my French desk.

 

 

 

Now, how about when I want to sit down? ‘Cause I’m going to want to. Most made-to-purpose treadmill desks (the expensive ones) have an electronic motor that can adjust the height to transform it into a sit-down desk. Some are large enough to accommodate a treadmill and a chair simultaneously, but most would require moving the treadmill. My made-to-measure platform would also have to be moved off my desk, along with the monitor, keyboard, trackpad, light, plant, etc, etc. 

 

Now, most of you who know me personally are aware that I’m a bit of a klutz. I am, after all, the woman who’s managed to fall off a ladder and then down the stairs the ladder was perched on, almost killed herself while doing the dishes (otherwise known as the how-to-get-to-within-a-few-millimetres-of-severing-your-radial-artery-by-putting-your-wrist-down-on-a-broken-glass incident), fallen off the ladder AGAIN, and done lots of other miscellaneous stupid things.

 

Logic therefore dictated that the Mac and everything else was likely going to end up on the floor. Repeatedly. So, I decided to have a separate sit-down desk. This involved a weekend of rearranging my study (which kinda then turned into a let’s-clear-the-rest-of-the-house-while-I’m-at-it stint…don’t ask…I’m definitely somewhere on the OCD spectrum). I purchased an IKEA Leksvik desk  and a Philips external monitor to use with my MacBook Air in clamshell mode. I already had a Magic mouse and the keyboard of my old broken Mac (the only thing retrieved by the police when I was burgled in winter 2012). I also bought a Lavolta stand and a Twelve South bookarc for the MacBook Air (yes, yes, I’m indulging now…but look, so pretty…sighs). 

 

The only downside I’ve discovered so far is that treadmill automatically stops after 30 mins, like it’s designed to, which means restarting it and resetting the speed twice an hour. In a way, this can be seen as a good thing, as it’s an opportunity to get off it for a moment. I’m also sweating, which is a surprise. Hence the jumbo size drink bottle next to me. 

 

Incidentally, these desks can be used with exercise bikes and steppers. The desk would have to be quite high to fit a bike and I can’t imagine typing is easy on a stepper.

 

So, here’s hoping I’m still at this by the end of this year!