150: The Peloton Wife Is BACK plus our interview with Tamara Cella!

Last Updated: January 18, 2023By Crystal OKeefe (#ClipOutCrystal)Tags: marathon, overweight runner, Peloton, RRCA run coach, strength training, teacher runner

The Peloton Wife returns.

The Peloton Prophet has scoop on live classes.

Financial types are predicting good things for Peloton post-Coronavirus.

Nordictrack ups their game.

Axios’ Dan Primack raises thousands with his Peloton ride.

Crystal updates us on her Fight Camp journey.

There’s a new Facebook group for Scarsdale riders.

Terry McMillan has a Peloton.

Stephen Curry discusses his love of Peloton with the Wall Street Journal.

You can still win a Tonal.

We had another Zoom call.

Dance Cardio is a thing now.

There’s a new line in the boutique coming on April 4.

All this plus our interview with Tamara Cella!

—

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

The Peloton Wife Is BACK plus our interview with Tamara Cella!

It’s week whatever of the quarantine.

I’m going to be honest. I’m not feeling this podcast now. I am in a bad mood. I’m ticked off that I’m still at work. I’m ticked off at the world and I’ve been fighting mad since I woke up this morning. I’m going to do my best to put that aside. If I don’t laugh at Tom’s jokes, that’s why. I have no sense of humor at this moment.

Rest assured, I am still funny. You can tell because she didn’t laugh at that. What do you have in store for people this week?

We’re going to talk about a bunch of stuff that is affecting the fitness world since the world has completely started to self-destruct. That’s pretty much it.

It’s going to be all that.

It’s not just about the Coronavirus. It’s stuff that’s affecting Peloton, affecting their “competitors,” things like that. Also of course all the good stuff that you want to know. Things like what’s going on with the instructors, what’s new content, the celebrity sightings, things like that.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget where available on Apple Podcasts where you can go and rate and review and most importantly, subscribe so you’d never miss an episode. I haven’t said this for a while, so I think I’ll point out. Don’t forget that we’re available wherever you get your podcasts, even places like Spotify. It’s nice and easy to get it. Don’t feel like you can’t subscribe or follow in multiple places. You never know where you’re going to be where you need access. Have it there too.

If there’s anything the last few weeks have taught us it’s to be prepared.

It’s that you never know. We have a new review. This is from JohnDelNJ.

New Jersey, presumably.

“Your one stop for Peloton news. If you’re like me and not on Facebook, then this should be your first stop for Peloton news. Crystal and Tom bring you all the latest in a fun and easy listen. I’ve been listening for over a year and I look forward to each new episode. Keep up the good work.” Leaderboard name, JohnDel.

Thank you, John. That was a very nice review. If ever there was a day I could use some cheering, this is the day. Thank you.

Also while we are shamelessly plugging, don’t forget that you can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group and you can sign up for the newsletter. That’s all of that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

—

The Peloton wife is back.

She is, in a little different format this time.

There’s a thing called Cameo, which is a website for celebrities.

We’ve actually talked about it in the show before because I think some of the instructors belonged to it.

You’re not going to get Tom Hanks, but for a small fee they’ll record a special personalized video that can’t be a commercial. You can get them to record a special message for you. Someone had her record a special message.

It’s to the guy who did the Citron report is my understanding, the way I’m reading it.

It’s basically saying Peloton stock is a big giant turd and you should short-sell it.

For those of you who belong to The Clip Out group, you might have seen this a couple of weeks ago from Citron because Mike Kyle posted it and if you follow Mike Kyle on Twitter, you would have seen it there as well because he’s always keeping us abreast of the technological information. He was not impressed to say the least of this piece of “research” because there are no facts to it whatsoever. It’s just like, “I don’t like it, so it shouldn’t do well.” That’s pretty much what it boiled down to. Mike Kyle in a subsequent conversation said that a lot of their predictions are not true. They don’t work out. He gave me a pretty high number and I don’t know if that’s accurate, so I don’t want to state it. We were both pretty ticked off when we were talking about it. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but let’s just say a high percentage don’t happen. If you haven’t seen the video, it’s pretty funny because she starts talking to the guy who wrote the actual research and says that it’s going to take more than a Coronavirus to take down a company like Peloton. It was more like the ad was going to take more. She talks about that whole thing and it’s funny.

Also, CNBC had an interesting article about how they are predicting that Peloton will do even better post-Coronavirus.

Did you read this one?

Yeah, I skimmed it. They’re saying that a lot of people are obviously talking about the fact that their stock is doing well at the moment because many people are running out to buy a Peloton because they’re stuck at home. It could be shortsighted that once the crisis is over that it will all go back to normal. This article basically says what we were saying a few weeks ago, which is first off, once you buy it, you’re locked in. You’ve got this major purchase, you’re not going to stop using it. They think that part of the reason Peloton opened up their 90-day trial for the app was because they know how high the conversion rate is from the app to the bike. They’re using this as a way to lure people in because they know once they get there, they’re going to dig it. A lot of them are going to turn around and buy bikes. They’re saying that if you think that people are going to go back, you’ve got another thing coming.

I feel like with all these stock market analyst people, it’s either really pro or really against. There’s no middle ground. I don’t read them except for Peloton, so I don’t know. Maybe they’re always like that.

I think they’re always like that because it’s the internet and to cut through the clutter, you’ve got to take a stand. Nobody’s going to read an article about like, “This stock is probably going to do okay-ish.”

I know that they exist because in a former life, many moons ago, I actually valued partnerships. We did these valuations. One of the things that I had to do as part of this job was I would go and do all the research of all the stocks that these partnerships owned. I had to find the backup for how you’d come up with those numbers. You had to find good analysis to back it up. There are medium ones out there, but I think they’re more like on the financial sites that you can find. Not like when you dig into the financial research things that you can find out there you have to pay for. There’s some of that information.

Ultimately, these sites that are popping up on our radar, I don’t think they’re designed to try to get you to take stock advice. They’re designed to drive clicks. It is the financial industry’s version of clickbait. That’s why everything is like, “It’s the best thing ever. Buy one share and you’ll be a billionaire or if you buy this, the president of the NASDAQ is going to come and punch you in your thing.” That’s my theory anyway. Also, there have been a couple of big stock sales of Peloton stock. I know William Lynch sold off a bunch.

There were two pretty major sales.

There was a holding company of some kind that unloaded a bunch.

As you pointed out, and I think it they appeared to be like once it hits a certain number to this.

I’m making up a number slightly, but it was like $24.51. It made me think that they were like, “When it hits $24.50, unload this much. I think it’s just some profit taking from these people.

That’s what I think too. There’s no indication, especially in the days post to this because it’s been a few days since they did that. Nothing else crazy has occurred. I agree, that’s what it was. Some people got their feathers a little ruffled, but it turned out to be just fine.

We have a visit from the Peloton Prophet.

The Prophet actually visited us on Sunday.

We recorded a special video that we posted on Facebook for people to see. In case you did not see that video, we should probably revisit that information because it was important information and a lot of people were getting out of shape.

On the last episode, we talked a lot about Peloton was still filming and should they be. The Verge had written an article about that. In case you didn’t know, a lot of people are really emotional about this topic, including myself. I don’t mean that to pick on anybody who has strong emotions about it because I’m not. It’s a divisive topic. As we start to dig into this, you start questioning like, “What about the people who are cleaning the building? What about the camera, the production crew? How are they getting there? Are they being safe? Are they taking private cars?” We started going on this rabbit hole of what this looked like when none of us actually knew. I got a call from the Peloton Prophet. The Peloton Prophet set me straight on a few things. For the first time ever, we had to close down a post. We had to delete an entire thread.

It was getting very heated because people were basically operating under the assumption that there were people going in to work for Peloton, and it was not safe and they did not want to, but they didn’t have a choice.

Also, that they’re walking around the city of New York after they’ve done that and spreading around Corona, which to be clear, I get it. I get why everyone is scared and worried. I do not want to act like anybody concerned about this has nothing to worry about, to be very clear. Fast forwarding to the Peloton Prophet called us and said, “Here is what I’m seeing going on. One, only the people who want to be there have to be there. It is on a voluntary basis. You are not required to report to work.” Apparently, there is banked an emergency PTO bucket and they are allowed to draw from that. They are not sitting at home making the choice, “Do I work or get paid?” Those people that are coming in reportedly are only taking bike transportation, their own bikes, or walking. Those are the ways they’re getting to work. That’s why you’re seeing a very small selection of the instructors doing the same class. Not the same classes, but doing classes.

It’s not the entire spectrum of instructors. If somebody lives in Queens, then they’re not going to come in.

Jenn Sherman lives over in Jersey. She’s not coming in. She’s staying at home where she should be and not taking public transportation. To me, this is important to know because I felt like Peloton was making all the right choices. They have always done the things as a company that I want them to do as a consumer, not because I said so because they’re making the right choices, to be clear. It was a relief to hear that happening.

We wanted to share that once again for people that maybe didn’t see that video. If you wish you had known this a couple days ago, all the more reason to like the page, join the group.

I want to mention one other thing about this. There were rumors going around that production was going to stop on the 31st. I pointed this out then, but I feel like people again are very upset. They are only posting classes a day or two in advance. They’re not posting all the live classes like they used to. I think it’s because of this voluntary measure and because they’re not sure who else is going to be able to come in. If you don’t see a schedule, don’t panic. It’s only out a couple of days. Everybody thought, “There are no classes after the 31st,” then a class popped up in the 1st and then they were like, “That’s over in another country. Even over on the UK page, there was a freak-out happening. Don’t panic either way. Whatever your feelings on the situation are, they should be filming, they shouldn’t be filming. The point being that until we hear something official from Peloton, I think we need to assume they’re going to operate like this until this horrible situation is behind us, or until they are told they must shut down.

Business Insider had an article about the New York City food bank charity ride.

The interesting thing about this is that it raised so much money and there was no publicity. This was not done within the Peloton realm of Facebook the way it usually is. None of my typical contacts reached out to me. I knew nothing about this. Other people have reached out to me and said, “I didn’t know anything about this. How did this happen?” I found that interesting all by itself.

It was organized by Axios’ business editor, Dan Primack. He got over 600 people to race for charity using their bikes or apps and raised $120,000 for the food bank for New York City.

That’s amazing. That was inspired by what Peloton did a few weekends ago and they had all those rides. That’s cool. I don’t have all the details on it yet, but I heard there’s going to be a similar grassroots thing happening in Chicago. They are going to be raising it for their local food bank as well. They’ve reached out to us to let us know it’s happening. As soon as I have the details, then we will talk about it on the show and post about it. Keep an eye out because you’ll be able to donate money directly to the Chicago Food Bank.

You were talking about how you’ve been in a bad mood today. What a great time to have part of your workout routine be about beating the crap out of something. People talk about what a release exercise is for them. Certainly, Peloton, whether it’s the Bike or the Tread or Yoga or what have you, is a great release but so is punching something right in the God damn throat.

Have you been using my FightCamp without telling me?

I have not. Is there like a throat that you can punch?

You can pretend there’s a throat.

Could they make like a throat addition, like a throat pack that you could punch?

I don’t know. We can ask. Maybe they have something similar to what Peloton does for Feature Friday. Maybe they have something like that. I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything like that. I know they’re open to suggestions. Maybe we’ll reach out and see if they can put together a throat that you can punch. Let me ask you this. If they create one, are you going to use it?

No, it’s still an exercise.

I’m not going to waste my time asking.

If they create one, I will punch one throat. It won’t be a very good punch.

Why not?

Because it’s mine. How has the throat punching going?

It’s been going great. I’ve been working through the prospect path and I worked out with a new instructor. Her name is Shanie Smash. She was very good at explaining what she wanted me to do. It was a tough workout. I know that some of you are like, “It’s a punching bag, whatever. How different can it be?” Picture this. Not only are you punching the bag, then you start doing squats and then punching the bag. Then you do some planks and you punch the bag while you’re doing the planks. Then throw in some sit-ups, and at the top of the sit-ups, punch the bag. She was not playing around at all. My stomach hurt and my arms hurt the whole next day. It was intense, and I mean that in the best way.

I was walking through the room to get a comic book because that’s where I keep them, and you were drenched.

I couldn’t believe my own selfie when I took the picture when I was done because that was only fifteen minutes. I had just done a Tonal before that, so I was like, “I’ll throw in the cardio.” Who knew fifteen minutes could do that?

You do now. If you’re at all interested, you can check them out at JoinFightCamp.com.

If you do buy one, then don’t forget to tell them The Clip Out sent you in the survey that they do at the end.

NordicTrack is upping their game. It’s an interesting promotion they have going on.

I do agree with that but I’ll put it this way. If you’re going to buy something besides Peloton, I don’t think you can get hurt with a NordicTrack. When I say get hurt, I mean financially because you could get hurt with a NordicTrack. One of the things that they have that I don’t like is that they create a situation where they increase the resistance for you. I don’t like that because there are so many people, especially when you’re new, you don’t know what you can handle or what you can’t handle. Put a person in a situation where it’s like, “Everybody’s going to go up this hill, we’re all going to go together.” I don’t think that’s a great idea. I can’t picture my parents on one of those, “Why is it going up, honey? I don’t understand. I didn’t tell it to do that.” If you’re looking for a deal and you don’t want to do Peloton, or maybe you can’t afford Peloton, this is now available for $39 a month. That is paying off the bike and your membership all built into one fee.

They’re throwing in a bike, which it makes you wonder how sturdy can that bike be? It makes me wonder if they’re not seeing the same benefit as people Coronavirus panic-buy home equipment if they’re not getting the same bump that other fitness outlets are. That seems like a pretty steep sale to be having.

Maybe they’re not because I would think a lot of people who are buying NordicTrack might be on the older age of the spectrum. When you get to a different generation, they look at it differently. Maybe they’re not like, “This is a good time to go out and buy exercise equipment,” if that is even happening.

They might be getting sales also just because Peloton is swamped. Some of the delivery times are getting long and so, there might be people out there that are like, “If I can get a NordicTrack, we’ll get that,” which is a shame.

I’ve even heard that some people are complaining about Peloton delivering them on the doorsteps. They don’t like that.

I get why they don’t like that, but I also get why they’re doing it. It is the right call not just for the safety of the people who don’t like it, but the safety of the people who have to deliver it. It’s a little shortsighted on the people complaining.

That was more of a little side note I wanted to throw in there. If you want to get one, there you go.

There was an article in the Scarsdale News about a Scarsdale-based Peloton Facebook group.

We thought this was fascinating that in the middle of all this, there’s this group, Scarsdale Pedals Over Panic. They are focused on all things Peloton, the Treadmill, the app and the Bike. They’re raking in the miles while they’re completely locked down. The group apparently only started because of the Coronavirus or at least this challenge only started because of it.

The whole article is a little weird. I’m thinking maybe the person who wrote it is in the group.

I don’t know if they’re in the group, but I do know that Tanya Singer, who is the person who started this whole thing according to this article, I have seen her around in the Peloton pages.

It’s funny because first off, it’s a pretty lengthy article. It’s a long article. It’s a well-written article, I’m not bagging on it. For something that is not that uncommon of a news thing of people started a Facebook group about Peloton and especially when they’re like, “It launched on March 11th and it already has 116 members,” it’s hyper-local. I do scratch my head.

I don’t know how big Scarsdale is, but I picture it like when I locally lived in Jefferson County. They had a local newspaper down there. They would post all the community news, so you would see birth notices and marriages and all kinds of things like that, and other things going on throughout the neighborhood. I pictured it as one of those local newspapers like that. I think that’s why, and this was all about local life. They like the idea that if they can’t see each other outside, they could see each other inside on the bike. They were still connecting with their physical neighbors in a different way. That’s what struck people about it.

I don’t even know where Scarsdale is. Maybe there’s more than one Scarsdale. I was thinking it was bigger, but maybe there’s a smaller one.

That’s a good question.

It was a nice article. I’m not trying to be mean about it.

It was fun too. It was nice to see it celebrated. I like that it was like one of our own in the news and also it didn’t come to us. It didn’t pop up in any of our normal places. It was fun to find it.

I was digging around the internet and doing a search, doing a deep dive, and there it was. I was like, “Have you heard of this?” You hadn’t. It’s a pretty rare day that I find something that you have not already been made aware of. Pat on the back to me.

Good job, Tom.

There’s something else I found, a new Peloton celebrity sighting.

Tell us about the celebrity.

Terry McMillan.

There are people who don’t know who that is, so you have to give some details.

She is a very famous author and she wrote How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale. She’s written many other things, but those are the two books that got turned into a movie. Those are the two works that the uninitiated are most likely to know. I thought that was cool.

You’ve been finding all kinds of people on Twitter.

I’ve been doing some searching on there to see what pops up. She popped up talking about how much she is enjoying her Peloton during this time.

I’m glad that it’s working for many people on so many levels.

The Wall Street Journal had an article about Stephen Curry. He is a huge Peloton fan. We should also say that we noticed in the background of one of the pictures of his workout room that he also has a Tonal.

His wife works out on both as well, Tonal and Peloton. They both do that.

No matter what goes wrong in a race, just keep going. Share on X

I guess he’s got the whole team. Is he a globe trotter? I don’t know.

I think he’s just an NBA star.

I was trying to figure out what team he was on.

I have no idea. I’m sorry, guys. We should know this. Did you know he’s the best shooter in the history of basketball? It literally says that as the first line of this article. It says he’s the best shooter in the history of basketball. He had been stuck at home for more than two weeks and he couldn’t shoot a basket. Even though he’s the best shooter of all time, he didn’t have a place to shoot.

Most of those guys have at least a miniature court at their house because it’s a gig and they’ve got the money.

It’s surprising, but I guess when you have a gym that you’d constantly work out in. His wife ordered him a hoop that he could put up in his driveway. Get this, Tom. You guys have a little bit in common. He said this solution caused another problem because he got overwhelmed looking at the manual. He says after what could only be described as a pretty serious effort, Curry finally succeeded at his unexpected simple job. It only took him five hours.

That does sound like me. That would so be me.

This is not you. He said, “I was very confident in myself going in. That was shot down pretty quick.”

I would have started with no confidence at all. I have no illusions.

That was pretty funny and cute.

They go on and talk about Peloton and he’s challenging other people on the team and they’re all starting to incorporate it into their workouts.

He says, “NBA players are communicating by Zoom even as they have no clue when they’ll see each other again next and when they’ll play again or when they need to be peaking in their conditioning. They are keeping in shape while sheltering in place, which is a bit like training for a marathon that it could be three weeks or three months. They’re stuck between tapering and the basketball equivalent of running 20 miles.” The Warriors, that’s the team he’s on.

There are many people yelling at their podcast delivery device. I saw a thing once on Twitter where somebody said, “The closest you will ever come to feeling like a ghost is when a podcast doesn’t know something and you do. You’re just screaming it at your iPhone.”

We can hear you, sorry. Here’s what happens. They ride together as a group almost every morning. It says that the invitation goes out in a Slack group. Apparently, he skipped one because he didn’t see the message. Then a maniacally competitive bicyclist named Draymond Green attempts to destroy everyone around him, according to the person familiar with the rides. Curry says, “In the Tour de Warriors, I’m above average, but I’m not on the podium yet. I have to figure out how to get there. There’s always something to shoot for.”

It’s funny to think that someone that worked at that level still has people that he can’t keep up with. It should give inspiration and solace to everyone.

Also, not that he’s listening but keep in mind, people’s bikes are jacked. Not everybody, but there are those. You can’t compete equally. What a fun story. It’s a feel-good story in all this doom and gloom.

We could use a few of those. Speaking of workout equipment in your home, you can still win a Tonal. It’s very simple.

I hope you are going out and answering the questions every week because the question for week four will be up.

If you go to theclipout.com/tonal, enter, there’ll be a question a week and you’ve got to answer the question to enter. There are also all sorts of other things that you can do to enter, like share it with friends or follow Crystal on Instagram or find Tonal on Instagram or Facebook or whatnot. There are different ways to get extra entries, which people have been gobbling up.

They are very competitive. They have a leaderboard and it shows you how many actions each person has taken. Since you don’t win that way specifically, I’m not going to say who’s at the top of that leaderboard, but it’s fascinating to watch you all. Some of you are very crafty. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

It’s within the rules. It’s a third-party software and if they allow it, then they allow it.

It’s noted. I’m just saying, but we’re watching you.

We’re silently judging.

I love all these people shit-talking each other. Everybody’s like, “I’m going to win.” “No, I’m going to win.” It got a little heated on our Zoom call. Some people are wanting some extra entries for the Zoom call. It didn’t get heated, it was just tons of fun.

People were being fun. The Zoom call was also fun.

It was very fun. We turned it into a cocktail hour because Terry Shelley suggested it and only Terry Shelley and I drink. That’s okay.

Unless you’re drinking alone. That’s our second one and those are fun. We hang out for an hour or so. If you would like to be included on the next one, that’s yet another fine reason to join the group on Facebook because that’s where we post the links.

People keep telling me they’re not hearing about this. Let me also say that you can change your settings so that you get notifications when we post. You might want to go in and do that. If you don’t know how and you’re interested, reach out to Tom or I, and we will hook you up.

We’ll explain it. You can get notifications whenever we post. You don’t post that much. It’s not like you suddenly start getting peppered with notifications. It’s just when we see a story or something, we post it. That is a good way to be able to partake in that if you would.

I will also say to look for them on the weekends. I’m going to try to start doing a group ride or run on the weekends. I’m going to start posting what I’m working out and you can either join or not join. We had some folks ask about that and we enjoyed the group. I enjoyed the group. The bicycle ride that we did, that was a lot of fun. We’ll keep doing that as well. It’s great to connect with people in a different way. It turned into a fun Q&A last time. Hearing from everybody, we had a horse on the Zoom call. How many of you guys can say in all the Zoom calls you’ve been on lately, working from home, how many of you had horses?

Not counting horse’s ass?

No, a real horse. This horse’s name was Ace.

Dance cardio is here.

What a great time timing. I think this is something they were going to announce at Homecoming. This was part of their new features, but they went ahead and dropped it. They’d put up five new classes for Dance Cardio. I’m glad they did because it feels like you’re at a dance party, except you don’t have to be in front of other people when you do it, unless you’re at our house and Tom’s videoing.

I thought the audience might want to see you dance, and my son.

We were having so much fun though and that is what matters. What a great way to spend twenty minutes with a fifteen-year-old who doesn’t want to do anything besides play video games. For real, I got him up off the couch and he loved it. He had a great time doing it.

You got tired out because you had done two other workouts but he kept going. He didn’t want to stop, so he must have been having fun. Finally, there’s a new line dropping.

This is brand new information from the Peloton Prophet. That’s two visits. You’re welcome. April 4th, new line. Look for it.

Tune up your computers, so you can hop in there and get at it.

—

Joining us is Tamara Cella.

How are you, guys?

That is a fun name to say. I have a weird question for you about your name. Have you found throughout your life that people tend to refer to you first and last name all at once because it’s got such a flow? Tamara Cella.

No, actually most people call me Tammy. They don’t even call me Tamara.

I stumbled across my life that people call by their first and last name.

Because it’s easier.

I used to work with a guy named Joe Bar. Everybody just called him Joe Bar. No matter what, people would be like, “Hey, Joe Bar.” It sounds like a Star Wars character.

Now that we went down that rabbit hole, how did you find Peloton?

I found Peloton when I got back into the swing of working out and I was taking spin classes in gym and my schedule is very hectic with work and being in school and everything. I was like, “There has to be a way that I can take classes online,” and fortunately it existed because if it didn’t, I would be rich right now. After I found the app, I didn’t even realize that there was a bike at first. I started taking classes on the on the app and then I was like, “There’s a bike?” I tried the Bike the first time when I was traveling, in studio three in Chicago. I was like, “This is nice.” This is way better than the spin bike at the gym. I bought one right away. I planned it out a few years ago.

When you search for something like that, how did you find the app but not the bike? Did you search in the App Store to see if there was something or were you doing a Google search?

I Google searched online spin classes, and the Peloton app was the first thing that came up. I downloaded it and it was free for seven days. The first class I took was with Robin and she hooked, lined and sunk me into it.

That’s interesting because I’m hearing more of that lately. We interviewed somebody that had a similar background, but they didn’t know that there was even a bike. I’m like, “Are they not pushing the Bike whenever they’re pushing the app?”

You can’t turn on the TV for fifteen minutes without seeing a commercial now. I feel like if you’re missing the Bike at this point, you’re missing out on something. It’s everywhere.

I have a marketing theory. I wonder if they’re pushing the app for people that are price-sensitive to the Bike. It’s like, “We’ll get them in on the app.”

That’s what they said on the earnings call. That’s why they lowered the price of the app. They’re seeing in their results that a lot of people, once they start on the app are like, “I’ll get the Bike.” When you were starting, what was your fitness at that time?

I had just started working out again. My past history, I was over 300 pounds at one point. I lost 100 pounds and its ebbs and flows. It’s being into working out and I don’t want to work out at all thing. I had just started working out, I joined the gym by my job so I could work out every day during lunch. That’s where I was at, which is getting back into the flow of heavily working out six days a week.

I know that you started with marathons. Where did that come into all of your Peloton journey?

Not long after I started with the app, and working out again, I was approached by a colon cancer charity to run the New York City Marathon for them and raise money. My dad is a colon cancer survivor and when he was in the hospital, and he was sick, we sat down and watched the New York City Marathon one day and he was like, “You should do that.” At that time, I was 312 pounds. I’m like, “Sure, Dad. I’ll get right on that.”

More like, “Here’s a thought, go f yourself.”

When I got the email from the colon cancer charity, it was perfect like, “This would be a cool thing to do in honor of him because it was his idea.” I didn’t even think about it. I printed the application and I faxed it in. As soon as I hit the send button on the fax, I was like, “No. What did I just do? Now, I actually have to run this thing.” I didn’t even think about raising the money part of it. It was, “Now I have to run 26 miles.” After the fear and everything, I called my dad. I was like, “Dad, guess what I’m doing?” He was like, “That’s nice.” I was like, “Don’t you remember? You said this when we were in the hospital?” He was like, “No.”

You were like, “I’ve been scarred for years.”

I was like, “Okay, great. Thanks, Dad,” but I trained and I ran it. I’m not vexed at all. I’m back of the pack runner. I get to the finish line out of breath, on all fours and that’s fine. After I ran the first one, it became this weird addiction. It’s like, “I hated it. Let’s do it again.”

What is that? I don’t even understand it. It doesn’t even make sense.

I don’t understand it.

We know.

When you decided to run the marathon, you had not done any preparation before deciding?

No, not at all. I’m like, “I’m going to do this.” Normally, you’re supposed to have sixteen weeks of training before the marathon. I had about twelve. I signed up twelve weeks out. This was so long ago, Matt Wilpers still had marathon training plans on his website. It was running and incorporated the bike and had everything, so I followed his beginner plan for my first race.

I’m toggling back and forth between impressed and a little appalled. Even though you’ve already done it and accomplished it and came out the other side okay, I’m still retroactively worried for you.

How many days of recovery did it take after you were done?

During the race, I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot. It was 2017 and it was raining and I slipped. If you guys are familiar with the New York City Marathon, right before you come on to the 59th Street Bridge, it’s supposed to be the worst part of the race. Every time I put my foot down, the pain shot up my leg. I was like, “This is not going to be good.” I was running, walking, limping and crying the remainder of the race. I’m like, “I’m not stopping. I have to keep going.”

How long was left of the race?

About mile 15 or 16. I still had ten miles to go. I start getting all these text messages from people who were tracking me. They’re like, “You’re slowing down, what happened?” I’m like, “Everything is fine,” and I put my phone in airplane mode. I’m not dealing with anybody right now.

Why did they ever think you would answer?

I feel you’ve got a text from your dad that was like, “Was that today?”

Thankfully, my parents were at the finish line and I did text them because I gave them my projected finish time. I was like, “It’s going to be a little bit longer.” I finished and then after that is when we found out that I had a stress fracture in my foot.

Finishing that much distance with a stress fracture.

After New York, I ended up with a stress fracture, but I was like, “We’re going to do another one. We’re going to keep going.” That’s when I found out about the World Marathon Majors. There are six marathons all over the world. You run them and get this. You get a special piece of iron. I’m doing all of this for a medal. Not many people have one. I was in Chicago and I had a brace on my side because I had piriformis syndrome and the brace ripped my leggings and then there’s blood gushing out of my thigh. I threw the brace away and finished the race. I have never had such horrible skin chafing in my life.

What happened in Berlin?

In Berlin, I drank whatever they were giving out on the racecourse. It was sometimes weird beet juice and I ended up throwing up twice. London was a good race. There was beer stops, so London was fun. I ran the Boston Marathon for charity and raised a ton of money for Dana Farber. Seven days before the race, my dog gave me a concussion.

We’ve got to understand how your dog gave you a concussion.

He’s 110 pounds. He’s a big giant boy and he sleeps on my bed. When he gets into bed, he makes his bed. He puts his blanket in his mouth. He shakes it out. It was this weird of me climbing into the bed as he was shaking his head and his giant head hit me in the temple. I totally passed out, saw stars, the whole thing. My sister’s a nurse, I called her saying, “I think I might have a concussion.” She’s like, “You have to go to the doctor.” I went to the doctor and he was like, “You should not be doing this.” I was like, “It was too late to defer.” I was like, “I’m going to do it,” mostly because of the fundraising. I passed out between mile 10 and 11. I didn’t stop. Some wonderful man next to me grabbed me and when I came to and he was like, “Let’s go to medical.” I was like, “No. If I go to medical, they’re going to make me stop. I’m going to keep going.” I finished the race, but I didn’t finish in enough time. I ran the whole Boston Marathon and it doesn’t count. I’m going to try again.

How much did you miss it by?

Twenty minutes. My sister lives in Boston, so she was waiting on that iconic turn on Boylston Street. I see her on the corner. She has flowers, balloons. She’s so happy for me and I am bawling. She finally reaches me and she’s excited. She thinks that I’m crying because I’m so happy. I was like, “I need to do this race again. It didn’t count.” Nothing I did counts and she was like, “Sorry.” You can see all of the joy drained from her face.

How many marathons have you run?

It’s been six and then I have Tokyo and then I am back in Boston again. This time I’m running for a charity called Team Inspire. All of my friends who know my story and everything are like, “That’s the team for you.” I keep going. No matter what goes wrong in a race or whatever, I keep going. It’s people who think they’re not runners or they don’t look like runners, because I was 300 pounds and I’ve lost 100 pounds. I still don’t look like a runner. It’s me trying through run coaching and through everything. We need to inspire. We need to tell people that you can do it regardless of whatever it is that’s going on in your mind. Your body and mind are separate things and we need to bring those together.

Who cares if you look a runner? Losing 100 pounds, that is phenomenal and I hope you’re really proud of that because that is amazing.

You know what makes you look a runner? Running.

Putting on those sneakers. I coach other girls and they come out with a personalized Couch to 5K program. It’s like, “I’m not going to be able to do the running part.” “Why?” “Yes, you are.” People will start running and different Facebook groups will be like, “I was out and all these runners passed me, they were going so much faster. I don’t feel like a runner.” Who cares? You’re out there and you’re putting in the work. You’re a runner.

I ran the Miami Half Marathon, and it was hot. My body wasn’t prepared for it. Around mile thirteen, there was a woman and she was walking. There was a gentleman on the side and he starts yelling at her, “You didn’t come this far to walk.” This woman stopped her race, went over to the side, got in this man’s face and said, “I’m out here. What are you doing?” She said other colorful things that I won’t say on here, but I’m like, “Yes.” That was the highlight of my day. She was doing what she had to do, “I’m out here, you’re not. Shut up.”

I’m glad you said that because when I was doing my Half Marathon that I’ve done, which was part of the relay for the Half Ironman in Atlantic City. There were people that were like, “Run. You’re walking. Don’t walk.” I felt very shamed because it’s hard not to feel that way. Everybody else is running and you’re at the back of the pack, walking and it sucks.

As long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it doesn’t matter how you get there. With a lot of runners too, there’s the Galloway method, where you specifically run and walk for periods of time. People are always like, “This isn’t running.” It is.

If you complete within the time, that counts.

Exactly.

Even if you walk through the entire thing, that’s still more than most people do.

If I drive 26.2 miles, I’d count it as a marathon.

Maybe you’re cheating yourself, Tom.

I was out there though.

No, you weren’t. You were in the car.

I’ll give it to you if there’s traffic.

Don’t give it to him. How did you lose the weight? What changes did you make?

Complete transparency, some of it was not the healthiest way. I stopped eating for a while and got very busy and very sick and nobody can figure out what was wrong. It comes to that place where everybody’s like, “You’re losing so much weight. You look so great.” People never really know what’s behind that. As somebody who’s struggled with my weight since I was eight years old, finally losing weight and getting that recognition, it was like, “I’m doing something right,” until you realize, “I’m actually making myself very sick by doing this.” I lost a lot of it in a bad way. After that, I started paying attention to the things that I was eating. I’m a person that if I track my food, it becomes obsessive. I can’t do that. I am more aware of things. Running 100 miles every week helps. I do have a sweet tooth. I try not to deprive myself because that’s the other thing. As soon as you say something is off limits, 11:30 at night it’s like, “What do you want?” You want the one thing that you couldn’t have all day. Working with that and working with nutritionists in the past until I finally have a good handle on everything, but most of it was not lost in the best way.

Not recommended that anybody follow that.

Don’t do that. You need to eat. That’s the other thing. You’ll be in different Facebook groups and even friends of mine and they’ll start talking about these crazy diets and I’m like, “I’ve been there.” You need to think long-term. Cutting out however many calories you’re jotting down and at the end of the week, you might have lost five pounds, but what does that look like long-term for your health? What does that look like long-term when you finally pick up the fork and have a piece of cheesecake again? All that stuff. I’m not a professional in any sense of the word, but I do try to use my past experience to help people see the other side of things.

You’re running 100 miles a week?

No, I was totally exaggerating.

I was like, “Do you work?” Because I have no idea. I know you said you’re in the back of the pack, but I am so slow that to do that many miles. There are people that do 100 miles a week. That’s a thing.

You can do it regardless of what is going on in your mind. Share on X

I’m at the peak of training, so I’m probably averaging between 40 and 50 miles a week.

That’s still great. That’s a lot of miles when you’re running because if you think about it and put it into perspective, if you ran six days a week and you’re running five miles a week, that’s only 24 miles or 5 miles every time you do it. Six times four is only 24, so you’re running so many miles. I’m putting it out there for people. Especially people who only ride the bike. Forty miles sounds like nothing when you’re on a bike comparatively for a week time period. That doesn’t sound that much, but running, that’s brutal. Do you have a bunch of injuries all the time? It sounds like you’ve had so many as you’ve done them for marathons, but it sounds like it was the day of.

The stress fracture was the day of. The only thing that I battled for a while was they said it was piriformis syndrome, like butt pain that shot down my thigh. In my offseason, I joined a gym again and started lifting heavy weights to build up my thighs and my butt and all of that. I have to say and I’m not near anything that’s wood, so if you are, please knock on it, that I haven’t had that problem since I have started lifting.

That’s something that runners also need to get behind. They’re like, “I don’t want to lift weights. I’m a runner.” No, you need to. It’s a cardio activity, but every single muscle in your body is working when you’re running and we need to make sure that those are strong. I had twelve weeks before a marathon, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Now that I have become a coach, I have this knowledge now. It’s like, “Now, it all comes together and makes sense.”

Especially when you’re starting out with running because you’re using so many muscles. I know that a lot of people who are reading ride the bike and if you were to start switching to running you think you’re using the same muscles, but in my experience, you’re using completely different muscles. That strength training is super important as you first start out with running because everything’s not where it should be. If you’re like me and you sit in an office all day, none of those muscles are in good shape. How did you become a coach? Tell us about that.

I’m an RCA coach. I started getting into it in my cycle for my second set of marathons. I was like, “I need to understand this for myself.” I was paying a coach and some of the things he was saying was making sense to me that other things weren’t. I’m like, “I can do this myself.” I can go learn and figure this all out. I took the class, passed the test and now I’m a coach.

Is there anything that you’re afraid of? From what I can tell, you decided you’re going to do something and then you go do it.

That’s totally me. That’s who I am as a person. I’m getting my Doctorate and that’s another thing where it’s like, “Let’s try this. Let’s do this.” I applied, then I actually got accepted and now I have to do work, but that’s who I am. I see something and it’s like, “I could do that,” and then I do my best to make it happen.

What’s your Doctorate in?

My Doctorate is in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education. I was a teacher for a long time and now I work in the nonprofit space. It’s all about improving education.

Will you be teaching? Is your goal to use that to teach at the collegiate level?

Yes. I do that now on the side because I don’t have enough to do, but as soon as I graduate, I’m hoping to move that to my full-time position.

How do you have time for running and working out and coaching?

I’m tired all of the time. My alarm goes off at 4:00 in the morning and that’s usually when I get schoolwork done. Then I go to the gym at 6:00. By the time I get home at 7:00, I am dead to the world. Everybody doesn’t understand like, “Why don’t you want to go out? Why don’t you want to do this?” I’m literally exhausted. I physically can’t but everything ends in May. The Six Marathon Meters will be over in April. I graduate in May and then comes June and it’s like, “What do I do now?” Most people are like, “That’s going to be so relaxing.” I’m wired. It’s so weird. It’s giving me anxiety. I’m like, “What am I going to do?”

Something big, probably.

Start a band.

She’ll probably go after her law degree next.

No more school. With my student loans, I could probably afford a mansion in San Francisco. School is done.

What do you feel has been able to keep yourself motivated through all this?

I don’t think anything, because some days you wake up and you don’t want to do anything, and it’s just that you have to. You have this goal that you’re working towards this thing and you have no choice. I feel that’s a crappy position to be in, but at the same time, that’s what keeps you going, even when there is no motivation left. It’s like, I have a twenty-mile run on Sunday. It’s Monday and I’m already dreading Sunday. I know I don’t want to do it, but I have no choice. I have to wake up and I have to get it done.

Why do you have to?

Because I’ve come so far. You don’t come so far to just come this far. If I don’t run these twenty miles, then what happens when I go into Tokyo? The Tokyo Marathon has insane cut offs. Most marathons have an ending cut off. You do what you need to do on the course, you get to the end by a certain point and you’re good. In Tokyo, every 5K, they have a cut off. If you stop to go to the bathroom in the first 5K, and you get there and they closed the road, you’re done.

I’ve heard it’s one of those wacky game shows and they drop you down a tunnel into a big giant thing of foam. Is that true?

That would make it more exciting.

If it’s not true, tell us it is. We don’t want to know. You could see the Japanese doing that though.

Throwing slime on you from the other side of the rope like, “Sorry, you’re done now.”

When is the Tokyo Marathon?

March 1, 2020.

Are you a little worried with the Coronavirus?

I’m absolutely terrified. That’s why the Miami Half Marathon was a pace for me like, “How fast can I go? For how long can I go that fast?”

How did you do?

Not great in the half pass because it was so hot and my body was not used to it. My boyfriend usually runs under 2.5 hours and he did not do well either. For the parts where the weather felt good and I felt good, I’m averaging now about eleven minutes per mile, which is good considering I finished New York City at sixteen minutes a mile. I’m getting faster and I’m getting better, but one wrong thing could happen in Tokyo and I’m screwed. Like with everything else, you can’t stop and you have to keep going. I’m like, “I’m not going to stop to use the bathroom. I’m going to keep going.”

I’m pretty sure if you can run with a fractured foot, you’re going to tap dance through there without peeing. You’ll be fine.

When I have to pee, I do my best tap dance.

It will make me run faster like, “I really got to go.”

That’s a lot of pressure you put on yourself. Do you ever feel that adds too much stress or do you always turn it back into motivation?

It depends on the day. To say that I don’t wake up with anxiety about the Tokyo Marathon would be a lie. I’m anxious. I have dreams that at the end of the line, they have these people with balloons on them that say that it’s done. I have nightmares now about people holding balloons.

Don’t go see the movie, IT.

It’s like Pennywise is haunting my dreams. I signed up. I paid a ton of money to do it so I’m going to go and I’m going to do my best and see what happens. If I have to do it again, then I’ll have to do it again.

How far in advance do you get there in order to get used to the time change?

I live in New York. I am leaving on Wednesday. I get there on Thursday, and the marathon is Sunday.

You’ve got a little bit of time to adjust.

You have lots of time to stress yourself out. When do you come back?

I come back on Monday night. A little bit of time after to flesh out the legs, because when we finished Miami we got right on a plane and after that I feel like an 80-year-old woman. Parts of me are hurting that should not be hurting. Sitting on a plane right after was not the best idea I’ve ever had.

I’m excited for you, and I’m also intimidated as a person who is always afraid that I take on too much and I have anxiety. It’s hard for me not to project all of my anxiety on to you. I’m like, “You only have a month and there’s this flu.”

That’s the other thing. I’m in all of the marathon Facebook groups, which have people who have done it before giving you tips about whatever. Every single time I open Facebook, it’s like, “Are people not going because of Coronavirus?” It’s like, “We’re all going to go.” Because the Hong Kong Marathon was canceled, that sent waves through Japan. It’s not China, it’s two separate countries. I’m trying to explain to people that it’s like, “If a flu broke out in Toronto, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to go to Florida.” It’s separate.

Also, you can’t live your life in fear either. I’m very fatalistic.

That’s why we’re a good match. I get all worked up and he’s like, “It’ll be fine.”

What’s the worse that could happen?

Coronavirus is a good story.

Unless you die.

As long as you live through it, it’s a good story.

That’s not going to happen to you because Japan is not in the middle of China. It’s outside of it and there aren’t that many cases in Japan. It’s almost all in China. I’m sure you’ll be monitoring if it moves.

If I don’t, somebody on a Facebook group will set up some crazy alert letting us all know.

The internet is good when it comes to panicking. They won’t miss an opportunity.

At the same time, I feel this is a good time for you. You’ve been you’ve been training for several years now. You’ve had lots of things happen and you’ve overcome every single one of them. This is going to be a good one.

Thank you.

What is your leaderboard name and why isn’t it, Energizer Bunny?

My leaderboard name is actually Wonder_Woman. A few years ago, and all of this started and I started school, somebody in an off-handed way said it in a sentence and I was like, “I’ll take that.” That’s my Peloton identity now.

I love that you’re positive about it. You have all these plates in the air and you’re like, “I got it.” You just keep going.

You have to, because if one plate falls, it all comes crashing down.

Do you have any advice for people starting their journey?

If you are starting your journey with fitness or with running, it’s mind over matter. Get your mind right first. If you get your mind right, then your body will follow. Never ever say that you can’t. I feel that’s something that a lot of the Peloton instructors say all the time, “You can.” There’s no reason unless there is a physical reason that you can’t then you can. Wrap your head around whatever it is that you want for yourself. Even if that’s going outside and running a mile for the first time, get that in your head, set the plan and get out there every single day until you have completed that mile. From there, once you do that one thing that you think you couldn’t do, it’s like, “I got this. What else can I do?” It grows from there.

That’s a great advice.

I find it fascinating how different people are motivated by different things because I don’t know what constructive is but the one that’s always like, “You don’t have to get to,” and you’re the exact opposite. You’re like, “No, you have to.”

Both of those are valid. That’s the thing. She’s not saying you have to.

You have two ex-teachers there. I guess you could see how our classrooms were different.

That’s a very good point.

It’s interesting how different people take different things as their philosophy on how to tackle things.

You are a person who shows up for yourself. If you tell yourself you’re going to do something, you do it. There is no option to not do it. That’s great for people who have that ability, but there are those of us who can justify the crap out of any reason to not show up. If I have a tummy ache, I probably shouldn’t be running. I’m pretty sure. I can talk myself out of anything. Both of those are good to have those kinds of pushing out there available to people.

Another thing is to write it down. That’s something that I am big on. Every single day, I write down everything I have to do. I have this weird feeling that if I go to bed and there’s something on there that I didn’t do that I was supposed to do. Having it in writing and having it in front of your face all day is a reminder like, “You need to get out there. You need to do this and that.”

Do you ever put things on there that just want to get to that you don’t have to get to?

Sometimes. That’s when I will rationalize in my head like, “I can move that to Tuesday,” and then Tuesday becomes Thursday. For the most part, this is awful and I hope nobody from my job listens, but I feel most of the time it’s my employment stuff like, “I can do that another day. I have deadlines for school and I’ve got to get out there today and run. I have strength training in the afternoon.” “That was the deadline? I’ll cover for you. I’m sorry.” It’s all about which priorities we have.

That’s true and Robin says that all the time.

We’ll make two versions of this, one that you can share with your coworkers.

I love my job. What are you talking about?

That’s going in the version.

Thank you so much for taking time to join us. Where can people find you on social media if you would, in fact, like to be found?

Instagram is usually the easiest. My Instagram is @Rangerzgrl.

Good luck with Tokyo. Keep us updated because we would love to hear how that turns out. Tell us and we’ll put your finisher picture in our newsletter. That would be awesome.

No problem. Thank you.

—

That brings another one to a close. What pray tell do you have in store for people on the next episode?

We are going to talk to you Priyanka Gadinski, who was a joy to talk to. She has such a fabulous weight loss story to tell. It’s not just weight loss, it’s what she did with it afterwards, how she has changed everything in her life. You are not going to want to miss this.

Until then, where can people find you?

People can find me at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can find me on, Instagram, Twitter, on the Bike and of course the Tread, @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter, @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you’re getting your podcasts from. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.