Elliptical machines

[Telperion]

If I wanted to simulate running at 7:30 and 8:00 pace, is there a way to determine how many strides/min I should be doing?  Are the machines with moving handlebars any better?  When I tried the machines without them, whenever I tried to move beyond a "walking" pace, my tendency was lean forward and grapple the frame to maintain a comfortable balance.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

I LOVE a good elliptical machine.  The old Reebok Body Trek was the Lexus.  I looked into buying a refurbished one, and they went for about 2 grand, 6 years ago. Pricey.

Individual units might give you total "work" or calories burned, and you could use that to extrapolate a similar number for running to get your proper stride, but I'm not the mathematician to do that.

[Vodka7]

Some machines give a rough approximation of distance walked, they all have time, and some have a comparison of both.

At my gym, the cardio machines were all added in different waves, which means we have two brands of elliptical and two models of each brand.  I stick to one brand becuase they have the high handlebars that I like, but even among the same brand the difference reported in distance walked is huge.  Here's an example of my settings and results on two different machines, for an average 10-12 minute walk not including the cool down time.

Machine 1
1.) Difficulty setting 7 of 20
2.) ~0.50 miles
3.) Calories burned ~85-90

Machine 2
1.) Difficulty setting 12 of ??
2.) ~1.00 miles
3.) Calories burned ~85-90

Both workouts feel like they have the same intensity, both workouts last the same amount of time, and yet the distance reported is wildly different without the stride on either machine feeling any different.

Unless you specifically want speed though, the best way to go is just to use the heart rate monitor and compare it to one of those goal charts.  If your goal is fat burning, it should be one percentage of your maximum heart rate, and if your goal is increasing your cardio, it should be another.