TCO 168 | Peloton Octogenarian

168: NBC-Universal Sells Its Stake in Peloton plus our interview with Vivian Feeney

Last Updated: August 7, 2020By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 168 | Peloton Octogenarian

 

Leanne Hainsby issues an apology.

Peloton is hiring a VP of AI.

NBC-Universal sells its entire stake in Peloton.

4th Quarter earnings call on September 10.

We have a winner in our FightCamp contest.

Dr. Jenn Mann – How to not let a negative world impact your workout?

Forbes talks about the Black wellness experts you should have on your radar.

Celtics player Jayson Tatum has a Peloton.

The final week of Pelothon is here.

Jess Sims and Kristin McGee went live on IG to talk about keeping your family fit.

New Artist Spotlight – Ellie Goulding

Pre and post-natal yoga from Kristin McGee.

All this plus our interview with Vivian Feeney!

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

NBC-Universal Sells Its Stake in Peloton plus our interview with Vivian Feeney

How is it going? This is literally the first time we’re talking since I’ve been home. I came home when you were on the phone, and then I was on the phone and then you were on the phone again while we were getting all the computer files. This is the first I’ve spoken to you since this morning. We should probably update people in case they care quickly on Brian’s driving.

In the last episode, we left you with a cliffhanger of he was taking the test the next day for the fourth time.

After Crystal had sat down and really super helped him. This is what happens when you put a project manager on the case. It’s a 95.

He was so happy.

I immediately took him to the DMV where we stood in line for an hour and a half before we finally got to the door of the place. Then they told us the computer was broken and sent us home. Also, if you want to prove residence in Missouri, the thing that they mail you for voter registration isn’t good enough. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions. Enough of that, that’s the update though in case people were curious. Beyond that, what do you have in store for people?

We have an interesting topic because Peloton is hiring for a position that I think will cause much skepticism. Also we have some stock sales. We have some stock stuff to talk about in general. There are tons and tons of updates. They’re huge. We’re going to talk about Peloton.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart, wherever you get your podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. If you would be so kind, leave us a review so other people know that maybe we’re worth listening to. We have a new review. This is from VeganSpinner. They say, “Great for sharing with friends who are new to Peloton. Good for catching up with what’s new and warning the newbies about inquiring over the lovely “pause button.” I’m a Peloton OG with the bike and have had the tread for almost a year. I love listening to Crystal and Tom when I drive, clean, wash dishes, clean and walk the dogs. They make these tasks enjoyable. #VeganSpinner” Thank you so much for that. Also don’t forget that we have a Facebook page. You can go there if you want to stay up to date throughout the week. While you’re there, like the page, join the group and you can also check us out on our website, theclipout.com, where you can sign up for our newsletter. Our YouTube channel is YouTube.com/TheClipOut, where you can see me saying this to you, instead of just reading this to you. That’s all of that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

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I feel like we’ve already started off this podcast with a lie because I don’t really think this counts as breaking news anymore. We have a very brief update on the Leanne situation because after we went to press, it takes a while to edit and get it all together, putting all the fancy bells and whistles. After we had done all that and push the episode out, Leanne issued a new statement about everything that had occurred.

It was an apology and it was very clear what she was apologizing for. She used verbs in her sentences. I think it did a lot to put this whole thing to bed. Congrats to Leanne for doing the right thing. Thank you to Peloton for doing the right thing. I know a lot of people appreciated it. I know the people that were originally upset about the whole thing. They felt a lot better and accepted her apology instantly. It’s wonderful.

I know sometimes people get a little wonky about why it takes so long or what’s the timing. I understand where that’s coming from. I will also say if you want people to move forward on an issue, then you also need to accept when they do. I’m not telling people how to feel, but that’s where I stand on it. If someone’s apology seems to be sincere, I think you always have to give them the benefit of the doubt until you see otherwise. If you don’t, you’re only incentivizing people to dig in on issues like this rather than actually try and have a constructive dialogue.

I think that’s the right thing and I think that’s where most people landed on the issue. One other thing I do want to mention is that we’re not a journalistic podcast, we’re a fan podcast. People get very, “Err.” I do want to say that when we were recording last week, I talked about the fact that Leanne’s new group had non-Jewish admins and that she was supporting that group. At the time that we recorded and I was told that information, there were two admins who originally started the new group. They were both non-Jewish. However, they have since added nine more. They’re up to 900 people. They’ve got 11 admins. It was brought to my attention that was not correct. I definitely wanted to take responsibility for that because we do want to get it right. It’s not our goal to go around and say things that are incorrect. It just happened to be a timeline thing, and I didn’t reach out and double check. I went by what I was told, which was accurate at the time but it changed.

There is a lag time between when we record these, when they go live and sometimes things get straddled in between them.

I didn’t double check.

TCO 168 | Peloton Octogenarian

 

Hopefully that brings all of this to a close and we can move on to more enjoyable topics. I just want to make dick jokes.

I don’t bring up very often when Peloton post job openings, because while they post them everyday, it’s all we’d ever do. It would just be exhausting. Somebody posted on The Clip Out page and I felt like this was worth mentioning. They are hiring a vice president of artificial intelligence. Let your mind explode with possibilities.

You can let your mind explode because they’re going to build an artificial mind to do your thinking for you. What do you think that would do? When I think of AI at the moment, I think of what you’re seeing with things like Tonal, where it gauges how you’re doing things. I say this as a guy who’s fat and lazy and doesn’t ride the bike. Is there really that much they can correct about pedaling?

First of all, we don’t know it’s for the bike. We don’t even know it’s for an existing vertical. Let’s just say it is, people have brought up the possibility that maybe what it’s going to do is take the classes that you take and make suggestions very specific to you. It’s like Netflix, but for your bike or your tread. They already do stuff like that. They know what instructors I take all the time. It will say your instructors. I think that this person was saying not only will they do that, but maybe they’ll add on to that. It will be things like, “You took a fifteen-minute abs class yesterday. Today’s the day you need to do your legs.” I’m totally guessing, but more specific, maybe not quite to get to the point where it’s doing programs. We’re blue-skying.

There are no bad ideas in a brainstorm.

I really have no idea. Those are just the things that people have tossed out there.

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NBC Universal has been a stakeholder in Peloton for quite some time. That sometime is now no time.

It has come to a close. They have sold off their entire stake in Peloton. They saw an $86 million gain in the investment in the fitness company in the second quarter of this year 2020.

Peloton’s stock has just been on a tear. Do we know what dollar amount they sold off at?

I don’t know that it said in here because I am a terrible person and I did not read the article fully. I got nothing. It does not say.

I was just curious because it’s been on a tear, but for a while it was around $50 or $60 and we’re like, “That’s amazing.” Then it went to the mid-60s and 70s.

It got up to $74 this week. I’m looking at it and it’s down over yesterday and it’s still $71.21 right now.

I’m curious what the logic was. Is it just profit taking?

When we start talking about stuff, we need to like reach out to John Mills and have him on because he knows. He had a whole thought process about this. He thought that they were going to do maybe an acquisition. I think that’s what he said. John, forgive me if I’m misquoting you. I’ve read a lot of crap this week. I think that’s what he was thinking that they would use that money to invest in something else. That’s a lot of money.

We’ve seen a lot of partnerships with NBC. When NBC was carrying the Olympics, we saw Peloton involved in that NBC level. You see lots of talk about it on CNBC. It makes you wonder if that will now come to a close or if that will continue.

I do remember that John theorized that they would not continue the type of thing. If you remember, one of the things that they did was the Olympics. They had that big thing at the Olympics. He thinks we will not see things like that anymore. It also says in this article that they had been looking for holdings to sell over the past year to pay down their long-term debt and invest in the streaming service. That’s what the theory is. It’s not like they spell out why they did what they did, but that’s what’s in the article.

For those who pay attention to Peloton stock, the next Earnings Report for the fourth quarter will be on September 10th.

It’s at 5:00 PM Eastern. Somebody pointed out to me, thank you, that you can go online to the Investor Reports at Peloton. It’s Investor.OnePeloton.com. You can sign up for those emails, if you have not already. I like to tell everybody that’s why I still post about them. I wanted to make sure everybody else knew that because I thought that was a solid point.

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Our FightCamp contest has come to a close. It was fun. We had a lot of people in that contest.

It came very close to the same numbers as the other contests that we’ve had. Karen DiDonato is our winner. She won not only the FightCamp Gym, but a twelve-month membership. That’s awesome. We called her on Saturday, how excited was she?

She was very excited that we didn’t record it properly.

Do things at your own pace. Take it slowly. Share on X

You would know if I had done it right, but it was really early on Saturday morning.

That’s good. It’s got to be a tough time to be a Karen. She seemed very nice and it’s nice to reward a pleasant Karen. I can make fun of Karen. My sister is a Karen. I’ve been making fun of Karens way ahead of the curve.

You guys think he says a lot of jokes here. You ought to hear him get on a tear with his sister. I feel bad. Sometimes I get to walk away.

I’ve been making Karen jokes since the ‘70s. That’s how cool I am. She can now enjoy her FightCamp, just like you do.

Speaking of, I had the best workout the other day. I had done a weightlifting workout. I’ve been meeting with this woman who I can’t really call that she’s my trainer, but she keeps giving me advice like she’s my trainer.

Maybe she’s just pushy. Have you thought about that?

No, she’s incredibly helpful. We cannot say that. Her name is Pamela. Wendy hooked me up with her. It was a whole different conversation, but then we went down this other route. Anyway, the point is that she told me to try doing a HIIT workout right after that. I did a 30-minute eight-rounder on FightCamp. I was exhausted and felt great. It was awesome. It was the perfect complement to after I had just finished up a weight program.

TCO 168 | Peloton Octogenarian

 

Now that the contest is over, and this is for everybody but Karen, and you know that you didn’t win, now maybe you pull the trigger on picking yourself up your own FightCamp. It comes right to your house. You don’t have to have anybody coming in to install it. It’s super simple. You can get all the information you need at JoinFightCamp.com.

If you buy one, don’t forget to tell them that you heard about it on the podcast.

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Back again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn or her long running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four bestselling books including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection & Intimacy. She also has a pretty handy-dandy app called No More Diets. Dr. Jenn, hi.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you for being here. We have a fun one to talk to you about.

It’s our first audience request.

I love when people send questions.

Obviously, there’s a lot going on in the world now. We’ve got every kind of disruption.

People are unhappy on a lot of levels for a lot of reasons. They want to know what’s a good way to stay in a more positive state of mind while all this craziness is circling around us.

For this person, they want to also balance social responsibilities. They want to stay aware, but they don’t want to get “sucked in” or overwhelmed.

I think that the word, balance, is really the key in all of this. It’s such a great question. I’ve even struggled with this myself. There have been times where I’ve been like, “I should take a class that is informative, like Chase Tucker’s, a Juneteenth class. That’s something that I want to do right now.” Then there are other times where I’m like, “I need to have Peloton be my escape from the pandemic, from all of the racial injustice that’s going on in this world.” I think of it this way, psychologically, we’re like a car. We need to put gasoline in the tank. The gasoline comes in a lot of different forms. Self-care is a key form. There are times where we have to say, “I’m going to find a ride or a run or a class from before 2020, because I want to see people in the room. I want to remember the days when we were so innocent.” I do always find myself now going like, “We were so innocent,” remember those days. I think sometimes it’s necessary to find that balance by going back in time. One of the many wonderful things about Peloton is that we can go back in time because everything is on demand. We can find a class that is a little lighter to balance out the more knowledge-based classes that are also important in doing our part in participating, in being educated, in supporting the cause and all that stuff.

At the same time, there’s nothing left of us if we don’t take good care of ourselves. We can’t be there for the causes that we believe. We can’t be there for our family. We can’t be there for ourselves if we are burnt out, if we’re frazzled and on the floor in a puddle. We need to be able to find that balance. Sometimes it also means turning on some junk TV or limiting our news intake. There are times where we have to say, “I want to know what’s going on in the world,” but I don’t need to watch five hours of news for one hour, “I’m going to watch some really junky TV.” For me, I don’t consider this really junky because the writing is great, but Sex and the City is one of my favorite go-tos. When times are rough, you can find me in my bathtub watching Sex and the City. That’s it. We all need to have, I call them mini-vacations that we can do in our homes, in our lives that are inexpensive, that where we can escape and have some brain candy.

First off, Sex and the City is great, until the second movie. That last movie was off.

That’s a whole other story, but I am a loyal viewer of the TV show.

The TV shows is great. Even that first movie was pretty good. When you were saying this, it reminds me of like when you’re on a plane and they tell you, “In the event of emergency, if you have a child with you, put the oxygen mask on yourself first,” because if you’re not healthy, you can’t help your kid be healthy.

I might speak for a lot of people who I get everything you’re saying, but sometimes you get caught up in the moment and you forget that you need balance. Maybe you don’t recognize a warning sign that you need to pull back out of it a little bit. Regardless of how you feel about whatever topic we’re talking about, with whatever side you’re on, there’s a lot to be upset about right now. You want to be in the moment and help other people and educate other people when they have questions and things like that, but then where’s that warning sign? Is it because you’re feeling a little stressed? Is it because you’re feeling depressed? Is it both? Is it something different?

I think all of those for sure that when you have the awareness that you’re feeling depressed, when you have the awareness you’re feeling really anxious, when you have the awareness that you’re struggling to get out of bed or you’re having trouble focusing, or you’re not able to attend to your work, or you’re short temper with your partner or your kids, or you’re not getting yourself on the bike or on the tread or getting yourself working out, which is part of self-care, that those are all red flags. I also think that when we have people in our lives and obviously most of us are quarantined to a large level still at this point, myself included very quarantined. Normally, we have a lot of interaction with a lot of people in our day-to-day basis who will reflect back to us, “You seem short temper today or are you doing okay?” It could be our best friend at work or whatever it is.

TCO 168 | Peloton OctogenarianWe have less of that input right now. It’s actually important that the people we are living with or that we are friends with or that we’re FaceTiming within doing Zoom, dinner and drinks and stuff with, that we’re able to say like, “Let’s all keep an eye on each other. If you notice I seem agitated, I welcome that feedback.” Sometimes, people may notice and they’re scared to say something they don’t want to offend you. Being one another’s touchpoint for noticing one another and making it very clear that we welcome that feedback is an important part of caring for our mental health and making sure we don’t get too burnt out.

 

I want to point out something you talked about, maybe limiting your news intake a little bit. I read an article about the old school, 30-minute evening news that your parents used to watch while you ignored. The ratings have actually gone up. They think the prevailing theory at the moment is that people are like, “I need a chunk. I’m going to sit down. I’m going to watch the nightly news so I know what’s going on, but I don’t need to continuously freebase the news like you do on the 24-hour news cycle stations.” That might be a good solution for some people. Thank you very much. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all of the social media, @DrJennMann. Also on my website, DoctorJenn.com, and of course my weekly Hump Day with Dr. Jenn InStyle magazine column.

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Forbes.com had an article about Eight Black Wellness Experts That You Need to Have on Your Radar.

Would you like to guess who was on it?

Tunde?

Yes.

Alex?

No. Switching it up because we have many awesome instructors. Ally Love was on it.

It makes sense too.

This is National Wellness Month. It was a grouping of not just fitness instructors, but wellness experts in general. It was all types of topics that you should have on your radar. It’s a very good article.

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Celtics player, Jayson Tatum has a Peloton.

Somebody posted in The Clip Out group that he was in a Wall Street Journal article. He talked all about his Peloton bike and how it’s been helping keep up his endurance during the off season.

We’ve been watching the Last Dance thing because it’s on Netflix. We didn’t watch it when everybody was talking about it. It popped up on Netflix and we’re like, “Let’s watch this.” We were talking about this, it’s great because we know nothing about sports.

It’s completely new information. We get so excited everything that happens.

It’s a total soap opera, but we know none of it. We know not one thing. I’m like, “Scottie Pippen plays basketball? That’s why I know that name.” I thought,” Why isn’t this played my Ben Vereen? That’s the Broadway musical, Pippin.” I get them mixed up. Whenever it ends, we’re just like, “What happens now?” We got nothing.

It’s been so wonderful. When we get finished, of course it will just be a good thing to finish. It’s been a great story.

Whenever something happens, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but all we know is that Michael Jordan is going to do something amazing.

I know this is 30 years old for everybody else, but that man can fly.

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The final week of Pelothon is upon us.

You will have already finished Pelothon week four by the time you read this, but I want to say, I know it’s been confusing. The amount of people that have still messaged me this week, it’s crazy. It was pretty easy this week. All you had to do was take one class labeled Pelothon. Where it went awry is that they only had one per discipline, which confused the heck out of people because you didn’t have to take it live. If you’re usually a bike person, you didn’t have to take the bike class. Or if you’re usually a runner, you didn’t have to take the running class. You just had to take a class.

You could just let a meditation thing play on your phone, you’re good.

Not that anybody would do that because that would be cheating. Nobody wants a badge for free. Do the work. It’s said in the information, you still need to have the hashtag on your profile. You do not need to opt in and then you’ll get your badge next Monday. My understanding from this is because you didn’t have to opt in, they’re going to be handing out those badges manually.

They’re going to come to your house and hand you a badge. Is that what they’re doing?

Yes, that’s the way they do it. The reason I’m bringing this up is because it could be at any point on Monday. If you don’t get it by Tuesday, reach out to customer service. Don’t bother them at noon on Monday.

Also if you don’t get your badge, just to be clear, reach out to customer service, don’t reach out to Crystal.

I can’t fix that.

There’s also some new content for the world of pregnant people.

I was like, “Where are you going with this, Tom?”

We’ve also been watching Call the Midwife.

It’s fascinating. I actually really dig it. It’s totally different than anything else we’ve been watching.

We were like, “Let’s watch something completely different than what we’ve been watching,” which is mostly true crime and then fake crime.

We needed to mix up.

We started watching Call the Midwife. We can tell you everything you need to know about pre and post-natal yoga because of Call the Midwife.

We are not experts. Pre and Post-natal Yoga is up. There have been classes in the past. These are some brand-new classes that just dropped. Kristin McGee seems to be the instructor for all of them, which is awesome. She’s a mom of three, I think. She’s always posting videos of her and her boys. She does yoga with them. She teaches them yoga. It’s very cool. I love how Peloton has taken this whole shift to the family focus because these pre and post-natal classes have been asked for, for years. In the last year and a half or so, they’ve started adding more. It may have been a little longer than that. My Peloton history is starting to get a little fuzzy as far as dates go. They’ve taken that to heart. Another place that you see that is all of their family fit classes that we talked about, that they added more of last week. On that note, over on the @OnePeloton Instagram this week, Jess Sims and Kristin McGee went live to answer questions all about keeping your family fit.

Earlier, you were talking about your Strength training.

I have been absolutely loving my Strength training. I cannot believe how much it’s changed. Just like my entire body, it’s funny because I don’t feel like the scale has changed. In some regards, it’s gone up as a matter of fact. I feel like my clothes all still fit and I’m still wearing the same clothes I was last summer. It’s crazy that it can do that. I can’t believe how much stronger I’ve gotten. I was just checking. My strength score has gone up 116% since when I got the Tonal. That’s crazy. I can tell I’m stronger. I can tell that I’m running faster. I don’t see it so much on the bike, but I think that’s because I’ve been running more. I always lose power whenever I do less on the bike. That’s just always been the way it is. I definitely see it when I’m running. My max speed whenever I do a sprint, I got up to 8.0 the other day, which for me is amazing.

That’s really good for you.

My max speed just a couple months ago was seven. To be able to hit even on a 20-second sprint, that’s cool.

What classes are you doing on the Tonal to get you there?

I have been focused on the advanced programs where it’s usually a four-day a week program. I reached out to the instructors. That’s another thing that’s awesome about the instructors about Tonal because they respond. I asked for some guidance on where I should go for my goals. In general, Tonal built out this entire recommendation plan for people who are just getting started. They give you like, “Here’s six months based on your workout goals.” I’ve been following that with great success.

If people want more information about the Tonal, we’ve had lots of audience buy in and absolutely rave about it. If you want more information, you can go to Tonal.com. You can check out our other podcasts, The Superset, which is like The Clip Out except we talk about Tonal, we interview Tonal instructors, the CEO and other users. If you want information about Tonal, go check out our other podcast, The Superset. Finally, there’s a new artist spotlight.

Ellie Goulding. I honestly didn’t know that she had enough music out to have enough different kinds of songs, to have multiple classes. There’s a lot of them. There’s an Olivia Amato Ride that takes place today, August 5th at 7:30 PM Eastern. Then there’s a Becs Gentry Run tomorrow, August 6 at 7:00 PM Eastern. Then Selena Samuela is doing a Full Body Strength on Friday, August 7 at 10:30 AM Eastern. Olivia is doing a HIIT Cardio on demand that dropped today, August 5 at 10:00 AM Eastern. That’s a lot.

Sometimes these artist spotlights make me feel old. I have the same reaction like, “She’s got enough hits?”

I don’t mean that to disparage Ellie Goulding.

We need it to disparage ourselves.

I think it goes to show that, I don’t know about everybody else, but as you get older, you find less time to find new artists. That’s why I was excited whenever I found Lizzo last year 2019 because I connected with it so much and so strongly. I loved it so much. I don’t do that with as many artists. I like Ellie Goulding, but I couldn’t name ten of her songs.

I think also when you’re younger, the music speaks to you in a certain way. When you get older, nobody’s writing music about the things we care about, “How do I refi a low interest rate?”

“How do I deal with these teenagers?”

TCO 168 | Peloton Octogenarian

“How do I lower my cholesterol?” Nobody’s writing songs about that.

“How do I juggle a podcast while also working full-time?”

That would be a great thing though. Maybe bands that target older people now like what Def Leppard had. That could be a thing. This could be a whole new genre of music.

I don’t know but I can’t wait to try it because I do like Ellie Golding. Sometimes I’m not in the same place as some of these artists series, but I think that’s the beauty of them that they have been going a lot of different directions, a lot of eclectic options for people.

I think that they have a great range of artists. I say that even when I see a lot of stuff I don’t know. I’m like, “That’s good.”

It should be. It’s like whenever the clothing line drops and I’m like, “I didn’t really like that one.” I shouldn’t like them all. It’s not just speaking to me. It’s speaking to everybody.

I’m personally relieved when you don’t mind. That’s delightful.

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Joining us is Vivian Feeney. How are you doing, Vivian?

I’m doing very well. Thank you.

We’re excited to have you here. I first heard about your story. Your daughter posted about it on Facebook.

I have no idea. I didn’t see it.

That’s so easy for you to say. First, do you mind sharing your age with the community? Is that okay for us to ask?

I’m 85.

This is what’s incredible to me personally. I have a mom and dad who are in their 60s. They don’t do any kind of activity other than what they have to. My dad does do a little bit of weightlifting, but that’s it. They don’t understand anything about Peloton. They don’t understand what it is. Why I love it so much and they’ve never heard this podcast, they’ve never talked to me on Zoom. It’s amazing that you’re here.

I was the same way. We had the Peloton in the house for three years before I even thought of sitting on it. Caitlin said, “Try it,” because I was getting very itchy. I had been at home for two weeks. This was when the at home order had started. Everything that I had to do, I had done. I had no more drawers to clean, no closets, nothing. I said, “I’ll sit on it and I’ll try it.” I started pedaling. She went to a couple of the instructors. She said, “This is what’s going to happen.” She signed me up for a five-minute class. I pedaled to the five minutes. When I got through, I said, “I liked this.” It brought back memories because way back, it was my favorite thing to do as a child was to ride the bicycle.

I rode the bicycle everywhere. I rode the bicycle to the market. I rode the bicycle to deliver my brother’s newspapers when he wasn’t able to do it or even just to help him out. We rode the bicycle everywhere. I said, “I can pedal this.” That’s how I got started. She introduced me to one of Christine’s classes. I fell in love with Christine. I told Caitlin why she reminds me so much of her. She’s got the same attitude, compassion and consideration. She’s a motivation. I see this in Caitlin every single day when she’s talking to all of her students and everything else. I started with her and I loved it. She’s the one that I go to every single day. I’ve done one class every single day since. I’m 122 classes in.

Congrats on such a huge milestone.

I do it my way and that’s what you have to do. I go according to the very special mantra. The, “I am an octogenarian.” I say, “I can ride the Peloton. I will maintain my wellbeing and I can ride every single day.” I’ve done that every single day. I love her classes. I do them over and over again. I just hit a milestone because I finally did a 30-minute class. It was 30-minute classical music and being a trained classical pianist, I fell in love with it. I would be doing that every Sunday from now. The thing is when you get to be an octogenarian, you can no longer tell your body what to do. The body tells you what it can stand.

You have to go along with that. Some days, I have to tone it down a little bit, but I’m working every day. I work in one area. I work to increase my cadence and my resistance so that might health improves a little bit more. We’re at the vacation home up in Maine. When I get back home, I’m going to have more privacy so that I’m going to be able to do a lot of the other aspects of the Peloton, like the strengthening, the meditation and yoga. I won’t do the running. I’m not a runner, but I’ll do everything else. I’m looking forward to getting back home so that I can improve my skills and I’ll be able to do the more involved classes.

Do you live with your daughter when there’s not the COVID going on or is that just the COVID thing?

We share a big colonial home. I have my own space. The Peloton is in the rec room down in the basement. The two kids are in school, and she and Scott both work, then I can ride at any time now. I can do two or three rides if I want to. Whereas here we do have a Peloton here, except the space is kind of limited. There are six of us using the Peloton.

You get your money’s worth out of it though.

Is there a sign-up sheet next to the bike?

We manage because both she and Scott are working from home so that they don’t do it during their work hours. We do it either before when they have a break and it all works out, but it’s nice to see the youngsters doing it. I’m proud of my granddaughter because she’s already doing 60-minute rides and I’m thrilled about it. Caitlin’s getting up to her 500. There are eighteen in the family now that do the Peloton.

It’s great that you’ll still have access to it too when you go back.

This is Caitlin’s. She loves the Peloton. When they were able to obtain this home, she said, “No way am I going up there and vacation and not have the Peloton.” She was able to get the Peloton here. That’s right next to me. It’s great. When you get to be in the 80s, you have to be very careful. I’ve been blessed with a healthy body. I’ve done 122 rides now. I’ve never had a neck or a pain from the ride but you have to take care of your body too. I’m progressing at my pace. Christine is such a motivator. She’s inspiring. I love that. I enjoy doing it. It’s amazing. I wake up in the morning and I thank the Lord that I’m still waking up and functioning. I say, “Thank you for the Peloton. I can’t wait to come up.” It’s great.

It sounds like you’ve got to get up there before everybody else wakes up. Many people try to get to it. You said you were a trained classical pianist?

TCO 168 | Peloton Octogenarian

I started when I was five years old. I played up until the time I went into nursing school. I used to play out the classical wonders like Beethoven and Chopin. I used to play whenever anybody needed a little entertainment. I went into nursing. That was a change. I couldn’t do anything except nursing and studying. It was way back in the early ‘50s. It’s different than what it is now. We had no time to do anything except if we had a capping. They asked me to play a selection and little things like that. It was wonderful to hear Michael play the piano. She had wonderful selections. It’s a beautiful 30 minutes. I wish she would do something for the 80-year-olds. They don’t characterize into the 80s, it’s 70 plus. There’s a big difference being 70 and being 85.

Have you reached out to Christine on social media or maybe your daughter has? Have you talked to her?

No, I haven’t but I’ll try. I just got into Instagram and I guess that’s the best way to reach her is by Instagram.

It is. She answers very quickly on Instagram.

It’d be nice if they had something for the 80-year-olds because we do everything at a much slower pace. I started at resistance of 22% and I’m up to 34% now. I’m making it to 36%, but I have to push it down a little bit. Although whatever she does, she always says, “Do it at your own pace. Don’t push yourself if you can’t do it. That’s what I do. If she says 100, I do 80 and that way I can keep up. I can do the intervals. I can climb the mountain.

Haven’t you tried a class with any of the other instructors?

I like Emma Lovewell because she has a couple of Disney songs and I love Disney. Having had so many kids and grandkids and everything, I know all the songs. I did Matt’s initially. Caitlin had me do a couple of Matt’s classes because he teaches you how to use your quads, hamstrings and how to position your foot and this and that. That helped a great deal. I always go back to Christine. It’s like working with my adopted daughter. What can I say?

It sounds like you would say that Christine is your favorite.

She is.

Did you do much in the way of fitness before Peloton? Is this a shift in the fitness regimen of your choice or is this a whole new journey for you?

This type of exercises, but in my later years when my kids were all married and they were starting your own family, I was looking for something to do before the grandkids arrived because I knew I’d have grandma duties. I decided to play volleyball. I had never played volleyball. I took instructions and my other daughter, Tara, was a coach. She coached a high school volleyball. She coached the senior team in my hometown. I joined and learned how to stretch and how to do this and do that and also how to play volleyball.

I have to say it was wonderful. I happened to be honest. It was the senior team and I was the oldest. I had to play with the youngest because I started at 55. I was able to keep up. That’s why I say it’s such a big difference from 70 to 85 is when I was still playing with 55-year-olds and I played for twelve years. We were state champions every other year, which qualified us for the Senior Olympics. I went to the Senior Olympics five times. When I left home with my daughter. I moved. It was 40 miles away and I was getting older.

I was still healthy and I could join, but the practices and the games are at night. I had trouble driving home. The oncoming headlights bothered me to no end and I said, “I’m going to have an accident,” or something. I left that and I joined a coed team in town. Honest to goodness, I enjoyed playing with twenty-year-old boys. It was good. They all called me grandma. I was a grandma anyway, but they’d call me grandma. They were amazed that I could keep up with them. I played the whole game and we won the league a couple of times. It was fun. I enjoyed it.

They brought in an Olympian. It doesn’t seem fair.

It goes to the show that if you want to do it, you can do it. That’s what Christine always says, you can do it. All you have to do is say, “I can do it.” I’ve done that most of my life anyway. It’s fun. I thoroughly enjoy the Peloton and that’s why, Tom, you should try it. You would love it. You have to sit and pedal. It’s great.

There are certain people that have certain mindsets and you sound like you embrace new adventures. The little bit we’ve heard of your life, it seems you are like, “That’s a new challenge. I’ll do piano. What’s that? Nursing? Sure, why not. Volleyball? Okay.” It doesn’t seem to faze you at all.

You have to go in there and give your best every time you’re doing it. I’ve been very fortunate. I have wonderful teammates and coaches. It’s been very exciting. It reaches a point when you’ve had your kids for a long time or when they finally decide, “I have to have a life of my own. I’m going to get married and have kids.” They have their own families and all of a sudden, you’re watching them. I’m always there to help them out and take care of them and do this and do that, but it’s totally different. That’s why you have to find something new and exciting. I’ve always been able to find something to do except when this COVID-19 topped up. It changed everybody’s lives including mine. I can’t tell you how it’s changed my whole. I haven’t driven in four months and I have been driving since age sixteen. That’s the biggest thing. I won’t drive anybody else’s car.

I have a gorgeous little Volkswagen Beetle, a bright yellow one. When you go anywhere in town, everybody knows who you are because you’re probably the only one that drives that beetle around. I missed my little pal. It changes everything that you do. I was always up at 5:00. I’d have a double cup of coffee at 5:00. Sometimes I go back and take another little snooze, but to get going and have something to do all day long. You get up here and what are you going to do at 5:00 in the morning? Nobody else is up. I learned to sleep. No, I’m sleeping later in the morning, which is not my style. I find that the whole system just changes. I’m anxious to get back. Although, I love it here. It’s beautiful up here. We have a very few cases of the virus in Maine. We have a good governor and he’s doing a good job. We will be safe going back home.

I cannot say the same for Missouri. Do you have an estimated date that you’ll be able to go back home?

We’re going home at the end of the month because my grandson, Caitlin’s son is graduating from high school on the 2nd of August. Although I can’t attend, that’s been the half way of the season. I have five grandchildren graduating from high school. No invitations to any of them because they weren’t allowed. Colin will be graduating so we’re going back. Kathy, she’s the dean of nursing at the Assumption University now. Their classes are starting in the middle of August, so she has to go back to work.

Those graduations, are they at least streaming those ceremonies online so you could watch them that way?

I don’t know if Medway is doing that, to be honest with you. Although I did watch my grandson in Long Island graduated and they had it online so I was able to watch everything. I wasn’t able to watch it. It wasn’t his graduation. His graduation wasn’t online, but my son who’s the principal of the high school in Long Island, his high school ceremony was online and it was great watching it. Part of it started with a live class that I was doing. I was so heartbroken because his ceremony started at 10:00. He said, “Mom, I’ll be talking for like fifteen minutes. I thought it was from 10 to 15, but he forgot to tell me that they were go to do the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star Spangled Banner beforehand. I had it on loud so that I turned the volume down on the ride and listened to him speaking, but they had it online. It was nice seeing him and all of his graduates.

How many children and grandchildren do you have?

I had six children and now thirteen grandchildren. They’re my inspiration. It’s wonderful to see them. I had one who graduated from college. I have three in college, five going and four in high school. I had no more youngsters. They’re all young adults.

I hear from Caitlin that they’re all very proud of you for reaching your goals on Peloton and reaching 100 rides. They thought that was amazing.

Two of my sons did the ride with me, but unfortunately the ride that I did for 100th ride was one of Christine’s ride and it was taken off. I don’t have her shout out. I’m aiming for 200 and I’m hoping she’ll shout me out then.

If she does, have Caitlin record it, if she has an iPhone, you could use the screen recorder to record the class on your iPhone, and you’ll be able to keep it forever even if they take the ride down.

You never know when they’re going to take a ride down. That’s the thing. It’s usually after the fact.

Which is nice if you go ahead and record it, then you have it saved forever if it’s a special milestone.

If you really want to do something, you can do it. Share on X

They were all here too watching grandma pedal away. There were so many Peloton riders and I’m sure many of them have anybody 70 to 85. Just have them try it. Start very slow 5-minute rides and then 10-minute rides and 15-minute rides and 20-minute rides. It’s wonderful for your body. It gives you something to look forward to. I do study all of graphs meticulously try after each ride to see where I can improve. It’s a lot of fun.

What’s your leaderboard name?

MissViv.

I was having you say it for our audience who may not know.

I am known as Grandma Viv. We couldn’t use Miss Viv because somebody else had it, so we have to use MissViv. It’s a second name. I have a son-in-law that wouldn’t call me Vivian and he didn’t want to call me Mrs. Veeney. He said, “I’m going to call you Miss Viv and it stuck with me for many years. With the Peloton, I’m MissViv.

We encourage our audience to follow you so you might have some new followers pop up on your profile.

I know I had eight followers before my 100th ride and after my 100th ride, I had 44. I follow everybody.

Do you have any advice for people who are starting their journey in Peloton?

For my age group and that includes you, Tom, try it. It’s not just pedaling, it’s everything that the pedaling does for you. You have to do it and the challenges that the instructors pose and their inspiration. All I can say is I don’t know why I didn’t start a few years ago. Can you imagine where I’d be now if I had started with the Peloton a few years ago?

You’d probably be on your 6,000th ride.

 

It could be because if I say I’m going to do one ride a day, I do one ride a day, sometimes I do two. That’s my activity especially now when you can’t go out to and socialize. You can’t go here and you can’t go there. You might as well be very friendly with your Peloton.

You are an amazing lady so thank you so much for being so inspiring and sharing your story. It’s very cool.

Thank you. I hope that it can reach some 70 to 85-year-old who are looking for something different to do. You think, “I’m too old to do it. I’m not going to be able to do it,” but that’s not the fact. The fact is you can do it. Take it slowly but surely. Study your charts so you know where you can improve every time you do a ride.

Normally at this point we ask people where people can find them on social media. Are you on any social media channels where someone could follow you or is that not your thing?

I went on to Instagram, but don’t ask me how to. All I know is how to press the button. I don’t know anything else because Caitlin says you have to use a photo to send a message or something like that. That’s something I’m going to have to sit down and study. I’m not that type of person. I am on Facebook and I follow my kids because sometimes that’s where you get more information. You can keep up with what they’re doing.

We’ll have people find you there.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. This has been a pleasure. I hope more of the seniors would be interested. I have no idea if there was anybody. Is there any way I can find out if there are any other 85-year-olds doing this?

Let me dig around on Facebook and see if I can find any Facebook groups that are specifically for 70, 80-year-olds. I’ll send you an email is what I’ll do. If I can’t do that, another thing that we can do is we can ask people on our Facebook page. We can do a poll and see if we can find some people that way to find you some people in your same age group.

That would be wonderful because a senior communicates with another senior, it can be a little bit more beneficial for them.

You’ll be whipping them into shape.

In my day, I had four boys, a year apart and to most, it’s probably a big challenge. I did have a military background. I was like a drill sergeant. These boys are absolutely wonderful. Caitlin is the youngest and my oldest boy is thirteen years older than she is. She doesn’t know everything that went on. Honest to goodness, they were so well-behaved. I had two things I required from them, honesty and respect. If you adhere to those two, you’re going to be fine. They’re great kids.

Thank you again for your time and you have a great rest of your day.

Thank you very much.

—

That brings this episode to a close. What pray tell do you have in store for people next week?

We are going to talk to Stacy Revere. She is a long-time audience. She also is going to tell us all about the Immuno Warriors Group. We’re going to hear about her specific illnesses and also all kinds of resources for people that might be struggling with immuno disorders.

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. You can watch this episode in video assuming it all worked, fingers crossed, at our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Wherever you get your podcast from, be sure and subscribe, so you’ll never miss an episode. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

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