TCO 182 | Getting On The Peloton

182: Peloton Partners With Beyoncé plus our interview with Elin Hilderbrand

Last Updated: April 30, 2023By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 182 | Getting On The Peloton

 

Peloton stock takes a hit with the Pfizer Covid vaccine announcement.

Then rebounds when they announce their Beyoncé partnership.

The new Tread is here and Crystal has her review.

We announce the winner of our Pink Peloton!

GrooveOn allows you to never touch your resistance knob again.

Dr. Jenn – Don’t let the leaderboard get you down.

People are having issues with bike trade-in program.

Tonal partners with Tony Horton – creator of P90X.

Peloton commemorated Veterans Day in a number of different ways.

A New York Times profile on Megan Rapinoe reveals she has a Peloton and a Tonal.

Power Zone classes will now have music themed rides.

Jen Thorson is organizing a special ride to benefit Smile Train. #smilesforCarter

All this plus our interview with New York Times best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here

Peloton Partners With Beyoncé plus our interview with Elin Hilderbrand

You had a busy week.

I did have a busy week.

You got a certification as a personal trainer. You can’t train me though.

I could train you, but you won’t do anything. The training part is not the issue. It’s the you not doing things that’s the issue.

You took the big test and did all the stuff. I don’t want to disparage anybody, but you do the one that people think is the gold standard.

Like you said, I don’t want to disparage anyone. I think they’re all great tests and they’re different knowledge bodies as you could get certified from different ones. If you go and check with different gyms what they require, this happens to be the one that a lot of gyms require that you have. If anybody’s curious, it is the NASM.

I don’t know if you’re going to be a personal trainer or not, but you just thought as much as we talk about this stuff, one of us should know what we’re talking about and it sure as hell isn’t going to be me. It would be very off-brand for me to suddenly know things. It fell to you.

I also want to be transparent that I have dreams in a perfect world that maybe someday this could become a thing. I don’t know what it would be exactly. I’ve already started my nutritional certificates, I wasted no time. I literally started Monday morning. I got my other one on Sunday.

It’s a big, giant test you had to take.

I think they are because I’m already four chapters in and I’m like, “Really?” You guys could sum this up on probably a fifteen-minute video.

Congratulations and good job.

Thank you.

What do you have in store for people this week?

We’re going to talk about Veterans Day. We’re going to talk about all the stuff going on with the stock market in Peloton. We’re going to talk about the big Beyonce news. Then of course, all the mentions in the news this week and the things going on with the instructors. We’re going to touch a little of this, a little that.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Google Podcast, wherever you find your podcasts, you should be able to find us. While you’re there, be sure and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you would be so kind, you could leave a review, so people that come along behind you know that we’re worth checking out. We have a new review. This is from Etrue923. The headline is, “You had me at hello. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any more Peloton content, I found The Clip Out, and I am complete.” That was short and sweet. Thank you.

Thank you for the awesome review.

That’s a good thing for people to remember. That was short and sweet. Thank you very much. We greatly appreciate it. We have a Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. If you would like to watch the show, you can go to YouTube.com/TheClipOut, subscribe to that channel while you’re there. We post these every week in HD quality video for you to gaze upon.

It’s awesome. I was going to say it’s beautiful, but then that sounded arrogant. That’s not what I was going for. I meant the quality of the video.

There’s all that, let’s dig in, shall we?

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Joining us is John Mills from Run, Lift and Live. John, how’s it going?

How’s it going?

Peloton had an interesting week in the stock market.

Did you see that drop?

Tell us about that.

It was asked to be expected, I guess. As soon as there was to be an announcement of some type of a vaccine, the market has this perception of there are certain stocks that are at-home stocks. Whenever we’re on the precipice of coming back to normal, those assumably were going to drop, and Peloton is one of them along with Zoom and some others. It was unexpected at that moment, but this type of reaction was more or less expected.

When I first saw it, I thought it had to do with the election simply because I expected that because the election left many people confused as to the state of what is happening, that also left everything in the air for the stock market. That was my first reaction. I had totally forgotten about the vaccine news that morning. Somebody pointed that out over on The Clip Out group and then whenever I saw what you guys had written, I was like, “That makes a lot more sense.”

That’s how you work these things. You try to come in when these stocks are at their low point, you try to cap them on the down, sell at the high. The thought is some of the seasonals, some of these airlines and stocks like that are probably at their low point. Hotels, movie theaters, you would think they’re at their low point and if you have this hope that we’re coming back, if you get in now, then you can ride that all the way up.

I get that there are some people out there that aren’t necessarily true believers that they’re just looking to flip things and make a quick buck. They’re not really necessarily analyzing Peloton all that deeply, they just go, “People are at home, they can’t go to the gym, they bought a bike.” It seems shortsighted in that once you bought a bike, you bought a bike and then you still have a payment on a bike.

You’re probably not heading back to the gym even if the world does come back to normal.

Even if you want to, you still bought a bike, you don’t get to call your credit card company and say, “They’ve got a vaccine, so I’m not going to finish paying for that,” or cancel your subscription. When you see their churn rate, you know that when people buy a bike, they love it. There’s a shift in that. You don’t have to do a whole lot of research to connect the dots on it.

We have proven time and time again, the Wall Street people are not researching any of this.

It is frightening.

Their mind is more financial market historic dip based, not more based in usage and our kind of reality. Those are two different things.

It is frightening and it’s opened my eyes to how little people who run the stock market in our whole entire financial basis actually know about anything.

These people are ostensibly experts in the financial industry and here’s a product that we obviously know a lot about, and you’re like, “You’re idiots.”

The thing is they’re not, it’s just that they’re analyzing it from a completely different level.

They have to analyze every company. We’re just focused on one.

We can get deep into the weeds and they’ve got to look at everything at the upper level. I get it.

They’re thinking long, far out even when they give their price targets. Their current price target is at 150. That’s like a year to two years out. I’m assuming that these types of dips would happen in the interim.

Before we jump over to that, I want to point out for people who weren’t paying attention to the stock market this week, Peloton did drop briefly for a moment just below $100 a share. I think that’s funny that we’re calling that low.

It’s still over three times what the IPO was less than a year ago.

Please continue with the BOA.

They’re building in, particularly the financial of the company, understanding that they’re going to be these types of highs and lows that happened during the year to two years out. In the end, they will be around 150. That’s their play. From that perspective, this is all built-in to the thought.

I think that it will be a much shorter timeframe than a year and a half. I don’t think it’s going to take that long.

Weeks ago, we were like, “Is it going to be next week?”

We’ll be back there again. It’s not going to take long. I don’t know what Peloton has up their sleeves, but on the last call, Foley was like, “There’s still stuff coming.”

Erica keeps reminding me of this, again you reminded me today, if you believe that idea that this is the Netflix of fitness, then you just stay with this and let it run and let it play. You see them getting into all these markets, all this stuff happening in Germany, the interactions that they’re now having with the hotel chains. You see all this stuff broadening. You’ve got to wait it out. You got to give it time.

It already had quite a bit of an uptick this week. It had what I believe they refer to as a V-shaped recovery.

It drops and it goes back up. The industry calls it a V-shape recovery. I believe Peloton is calling it a B-shaped recovery.

Did you take the ride? Did you take it live?

Yes, of course I took the ride. I was on the ride and Erica was on the ride. It starts out and the Beyonce music starts and all that. In the pre-show, Erica was already going nuts and I’m seeing lyrics I didn’t know I knew.

Nobody knows what we’re talking about. If there’s anybody out there who’s not aware that there is a Beyonce collaboration announced this week on the Alex and Tunde Two for One Ride, Peloton really teased this. They hyped the crap out of this.

They should, it’s a three-year deal. They need this to be a big deal.TCO 182 | Getting On The Peloton

It is an absolutely phenomenal deal. They didn’t announce why it was more than “just” a collaboration. Getting Beyonce’s music is an amazing deal by itself.

I feel a little embarrassed because I’m playing the Beyonce thing. I’m the one screen-sharing and you can tell where my true music tastes lie because it’s like, “Next video up is from Sticks.”

We all knew that, Tom. How many Peloton on people are following your soft rock playlist? It is pretty epic.

Every week, I learn about more and more that you have in common with Erica. Me and Jasmine get in her car and we’re snoring. Soft rock to death. You’d get strangled with soft rock.

My soft rock got 300 or 400 songs on it. It’s pretty sweet.

Beyonce, you start digging into this collaboration, it’s much more than a typical artist collaboration. There’s this whole Homecoming aspect. The reason I say this whole Homecoming aspect is because you’re seeing footage, if you’re watching the YouTube channel right now from the Peloton teaser video that includes Beyonce, her Homecoming documentary on Netflix. It all plays through because apparently, I know very little about this so, John or Tom, if you know more, please jump in. I had somebody give me some information and I tried to watch the whole Netflix thing. It didn’t work because I had to actually work, so I couldn’t get through the whole thing. What I know is that Beyonce got to play in Coachella for the first time in 2018. It was a very big deal. It was like homecoming for all the colleges. She did some special bringing together, the inclusiveness of all the historically black colleges. There were different bands and stuff playing from all those different colleges. That carries over to the Peloton piece of it because since nobody could get together and be in person this year 2020, then they wanted to create Peloton content for the Homecoming. Then Peloton also gave away memberships to I think ten different historical black colleges. There’s so much that they did in this collaboration. What am I missing?

That’s a piece that I’m most aware of. I think that piece was huge giving away those memberships to those HBCUs. That is a passion of Beyoncé’s as well. It all aligns, but it aligns with what they said their mission was. I thought that was a pretty epic just hearing that component of it.

It’s a great way to mix your vegetables with your ice cream. It’s got this element of social awareness and doing something good for the community, but it’s also baked into this fun stuff too.

It’s a way to put your money where your mouth is from the company’s perspective. They’ve been saying, “We’re going to make steps. We’re not just going to take the status quo when it comes to Black Lives Matters,” diversity in general. They have taken several steps this year 2020. This was another one.

I’m trying to remember it now. They talked about internships, getting interns from these HBCUs.

I missed that.

That’s interesting as well. I don’t know if previously, they were doing career fairs or anything like that at these HBCUs, but now they are definitively saying, “We’re going to be bringing interns in from them.”

That’s really cool. My understanding is because of it being a three-year deal, we can look forward to more Beyonce classes that are going to have her music in them. It indicated that she was going to have some say in that. Then the way it talked about like her having this conversation with Peloton, I couldn’t help a wonder if she’s going to be on this board, this health thing that they’re working on over here.

That would be nuts. All of that is so much gravy on top of this. If you think about it, just having the ability to play her music, but align it to all of the innovative things they’re doing with lighting and camera work, how much is this differentiating them from their competitors?

You bring up a great point because I wanted to talk about how different this ride looked than anything else. In the recent Earnings Call, John Foley said, “We’re going to be doing different things with lighting.” I was like, “You better leave the cycling classes alone. You can’t light that room up.” They lit the room up and it totally worked. It looked like a concert. What are those lights called, Tom, the ones that make all the different colors go around the room?

The movers.

They had movers behind the instructors and it was clear that Beyoncé’s color was like this golden orange. It showed up in all of their marketing about Beyoncé, so wonderful marketing. That was beautiful how it all came across. Then they had this glass partition between Tunde and Alex on the ride so that they could safely do a ride together. I thought that was fantastic. The room looked amazing. You could actually see in the mirror the movers, it was like being at a concert. It was great.

I thought of the disparity because this morning, I get up and I turned my computer on. On Instagram, they had a video of Echelon instructors and they were showing like competing about who’s dancing better than who, and you’re supposed to vote I think. I was looking at it going, “That doesn’t look like a Peloton class.” I was looking at a home video versus a professionally filmed video. There’s a disparity between the way that looked and what theirs is looking like. They’re creating a difference between their competitors.

I saw Echelon did sign a three-year deal with the Cheetah Girls. Look out for that. Not the Raven Simone one, but the one after she left.

I wonder maybe they’ll somehow incorporate their famous peanut butter and jelly choreography in there.

The really interesting thing about this too is Beyonce was pretty vocal about her love of Soul Cycle in the past, wasn’t she?

I don’t know, but she’s being vocal about her love for Peloton now. She said in that press release that she had a Peloton for several years.

I know people are trying to figure out what her leaderboard name is. My theory is she’s going to use names where no one would ever think to find her. I have three ideas of leaderboard names that she could be using. We are going to throw people off the trail. These are leaderboard names that no one would ever think would secretly be Beyonce. First, Nas. Number two, Kelly Rowland. No one would think it was her.

It’s the perfect disguise.

Then of course I think this is most likely the one she’s using so we wouldn’t know it was secretly her, Becky.

It makes sense because it still starts with B.

Those are things we’ll keep an eye out for the leaderboard. Maybe that’s secret Beyonce.

Every Becky on the leaderboard is going to be getting high-fives, “Why are these people following me?”

That’s all of our stuff for this week. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, where can people find you?

They can find me on Facebook on my Run, Lift and Live page or group. They can find me on Instagram, @RunLiftAndLive or at RunLiftAndLive.com.

Thank you, John.

It was nice seeing you both.

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Big news this week as the new tread has been spotted in the wild. It is starting to make its way into the various showrooms that are out there.

As we predicted on episode 181 that the new Peloton would be in stores on 11/09, and like magic, it showed up on 11/09.

You made a little field trip.

It’s not an all showroom, but it isn’t a lot because if it’s in St. Louis, it’s in a lot.

Totally, because we get everything last. You and my son went to this store while I was at work, and decided to do a little digging and captured some footage. What was your take on that?

My take was how sturdy it was for so much smaller. I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially because the deck is so much shorter than it is on the Tread+. I figured that between that and having not as much holding up the large monitor, that it might feel unsturdy, but it did not feel unsturdy at all. Also I was really surprised, I don’t even know how to explain this properly. I’m going to say it in Crystal’s speak. I’m sure there are terms that are correct that I’m not going to use, so just try to follow. On the Tread+, there are slats that I’ve talked about many times that I love because they’re cushy and it’s like running on air. I never get sore knees. I was really concerned about the fact that the Tread does not have the slats. It has what you would call a standard belt, but Peloton did something to it reportedly to make it cushier. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hopped on it and it doesn’t feel like my slats. It doesn’t feel like a regular treadmill.

I even did a very short jog on this to get an idea, and my knees did not hurt. It didn’t feel like they were slamming into concrete, which if I use a treadmill at a hotel or somewhere else like that, it always feels like that. Does it compare to the most top of the line belt treadmills? I have no idea because I’ve never used that. I’ve used the ones that are more inexpensive side, but it definitely did not feel like running outside, which is what I was afraid of. That was my biggest takeaway from this. Another thing that I want to focus on is the fact that I was concerned with having the lower profile monitor that it was going to be hard to look at, that it was going to feel like you were looking down and it’s going to strain on your neck. It didn’t feel that way at all, because it actually rotates a full 50 degrees up and down. The Tread+ only rotates 30 degrees. It’s quite a bit of more play. You can set it up. It still feels very easy to watch. If having a TV behind it is of a concern to you, this is going to be much easier to do. It is much smaller than the treadmill.

I was caught off guard, which it looks positively petite compared to the monster that we got.

I have the 72 inches long, this one’s 59 inches. The deck that I have is 12 inches tall. This one is 8 inches tall. They suggest of making sure that you have ceiling height 20 inches above the person using it. If you’re 5’6”, you want to have 20 inches above that. The Tread+, you need to have 24 inches of clearance. There are two things that I feel are notable that are pretty different. One, this does not have free mode. On the Tread+, you can use your own body weight to move the tread, and some of the instructors do use that in class. You cannot do that on the tread. Also, the tread only goes up to 12.5 incline. The Tread+ goes up to 15. I don’t think most instructors use those. If you’re doing a ton of hikes, that might be an issue. If you are not doing a ton of hikes, I don’t think you’re going to see that kind of inclined get used a lot. The same with free mode. The instructors use it, but it’s not like they use it for a whole class. They use it sparingly because it’s hard. It is one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done on a treadmill. It’s painful.

This will probably be helpful for people who live in apartments or have tight space. It’s so much smaller.

It’s 290 pounds compared to the behemoth that we have at 455 pounds. It is a big difference. Somebody asked me if it has wheels. I did not think to look, but I did not get the impression based on what I saw that it had wheels. I cannot confirm though. Another thing that people keep asking me is, “Does it fold up?” No, it does not. I think that’s for the best because that helps lend to its sturdiness. It’s very sturdy. I think you could totally put this on the second floor of your home without a huge issue. It was definitely quieter than the one that we have.

It’s probably also a lot easier if you have a profession that needs you to move every so often.

Yes, or if you have to move it to the third floor of your house or something. That Tread+ is a beast. I absolutely love it, but you want it to stay wherever it goes for a long time.

We’ve been raising money for a while for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Our grand total money raised was almost $10,000. It was $9,884. Thank you to everybody who donated. I know people were wondering who won the bike. We reached out to the winner and she didn’t realize why we were reaching out to her.

I’m getting good at pulling people in.

We’re going to play that for you right here, so you can see their reactions. Here you go.

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Joining us is Alissa Kolarik. Alissa, how’s it going?

Hi, I’m good. How about you?

I’m good. We wanted to talk to you, so we reached out because you had a post in The Clip Out group about getting high-five by Andrea Barber, so we reached out to you to talk to you about that. Here’s the thing, we don’t really care about that at all. We’re not talking to you about that. We’re talking to you because you won a pink Peloton. You are the winner of the contest. You’re getting a fancy pants, one of a kind custom pink Peloton. We raised a bunch of money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. I believe the grand total of donations was just shy of $10,000. You’re the big winner.

I don’t even know what to say. Thank you for one.

You’re welcome.

It will match my wall.

We were talking to her before we started, and she works for a fluorescent pigment manufacturer. For people that aren’t watching on YouTube or Facebook or whatever, the room she’s in is both fluorescent and pigmented, so it is very bright. You might not be able to find it in that room. It will camouflage.

The company is called DayGlo Color.

You thought you want a pink Peloton and you ended up winning an invisible one. Do you have any ideas, are you going to keep it? Is there somebody you want to give it to? Presumably, you already have a Peloton because you got a high-five by Andrea Barber.

I’m not sure, I’m going to have to think about that one. I’ve got my husband riding, so it would be cool to actually be able to do rides together.

Make him ride the pink one. Thank you so much for donating to the cause and congratulations on winning.

Thanks for jumping on with us and being willing to be put on the spot like that. I hope it’s okay.

It’s totally fine. It’s good news. That’s so exciting.

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Lots of people are getting their Bike+ or their Bike, and they’re looking for ways maybe to spruce them up. How about a GrooveOn?

This GrooveOn would be an amazing add-on for anybody who has a Peloton, regardless of what kind, Bike or Bike+. Here’s the deal. What it allows you to do is touch it with your thumb to change the resistance instead of turning the knob.

It sits right there on your handlebar, in easy reach like the volume knob maybe on a newer car.

TCO 182 | Getting On The Peloton

It’s like you could get up to change the channel, but you use a remote or you can get up and go over and lock the doors, or you can use your little fancy app to do that. Here’s the way that it works. If you tap it once, it goes up one level of resistance. If you double tap it, it goes up by five. Three times, it goes up by ten. Four times, by 20. The best part is that you can actually customize it. The last time we talked about this, you could do it by seven.

If you want to do increments of nine, because you’re a weirdo, you can do that. You can do that. It’s customizable for weirdos.

You can also get one that allows you two. You can get two, so you can have one for second position on the Peloton and one for third position. Both of them are there to control pads. You can easily change it from either way. I’ve had this for about a year now, maybe a little bit more than a year. It’s completely changed the way that I ride my bike, especially for Power Zone classes.

The Power Zone people that have it have been raving about how much easier it makes a Power Zone ride.

If you do a Power Zone ride, just for those who aren’t sure why that would be, here’s the deal. When you have a Power Zone ride, they want you to be in a certain zone. A lot of times, you tend to increase it by a certain amount to get to from zone one, to zone two, maybe you go up by five. All you’ve got to do is hit one button on the GrooveOn, and you’re automatically in zone two. That’s it, easy-peasy. You don’t have to keep remembering where you were. It’s awesome.

There’s a limited number of these that are available at a discount because they’re doing a Kickstarter. They’re trying to get them off the ground.

We’ve got one month, so we need to make this happen. Go to GetGrooveOn.com/theclipout. Those are specific for The Clip Out audience, you get a special deal.

You do that and you help them get off the ground. Go check it out. If you were just listening to it and you want to see what it looks like, if you go to our YouTube channel, we have a video up of it where you can check it out and see it being utilized.

It’s a cool product. I definitely think that you guys would enjoy it. It’s easy to use it. It doesn’t change your bike. Your bike is still beautiful and pristine, but it makes your life easier.

It solves a problem you didn’t know you have.

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Joining us again is Dr. Jenn Mann, a 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 and she has a wonderful app called No More Diets. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Jenn, hi.

Thanks for having me on.

Thanks for taking time. Your day is busier than ours. We’re going to talk about the leaderboard. I know some people get fixated on where they land in the leaderboard, and there are many people on the bike and the tread these days. I’m assuming yoga doesn’t have a leaderboard. They just go, “This person is stretchier.” I know some people get bummed out when they don’t feel like they’re making progress on leaderboard. Maybe give us some ideas on how to not let that happen to yourself.

Especially in light of the fact that on the bike anyway, that dynamic has changed because the original bike was calibrated so differently. If you were to look at my bike versus somebody else’s bike, we might be in two very different places with the same ride. Now with the Bike+ in theory, everyone who has a Bike+ is on the same playing field. Keeping that in mind as we discuss it as well.

That is a great point. I think that it is very easy. I see a lot of people who get very focused on the leaderboard and on beating their friend or getting very competitive. If that drives you in a positive way, by all means use it. Have fun with it. Where we get into trouble is when people get focused on that to their detriment, that they beat themselves up because they are not at a certain point, on 50% or the top 10% or whatever on the leaderboard or where they are competing against someone who they don’t even know. They don’t know their fitness history. They may be someone who is like an ultra athlete, who is in a whole other league. You can do a lot of harm to your own exercise mentality and psychology when you get too caught up in that external stuff.

I’m very big on focus on the process, not the outcome. The outcome being the numbers and the competition and the ranking, as opposed to that you’ve shown up, that you gave it your all, that you were working on breathing in ways that will optimize your performance, that you’re staying focused, that you’re having a good emotional experience on the bike or or the tread, or whatever it is that you’re doing. That’s what matters because that’s what’s going to get you longevity. I’m very into about consistency and longevity and long-term health, that’s what ultimately gets you there. I think of myself as being very bit. I do Peloton seven days a week. I’ve come a very long way since I first started when it comes to my endurance and my ability. At the same time, I tend to be at the bottom third of the bike leaderboard, and probably at the halfway point at best on the tread, and I’m always stunned. I always am like, “Who are these people? I can’t even see them. They’re thousands of people away from me.” I try to not get into that. I use a leaderboard to give some high-fives, to get some high-fives so that I don’t feel alone on that tread I do feel like I’m part of a community, which helps keep me going.

I think that’s a good place to be in your head. I have a deep-seated hatred of sports. That’s been well-documented. It’s funny because I think a lot of people think I’m not a competitive guy. It’s actually the opposite. I am hyper-competitive and I suck at it. I’m like, “I’m never going to be at a level where I can be competitive, so it’s just off my list of things to worry about.”

This is particularly challenging for competitive people. You don’t want to turn your training into a negative, when it’s something that is so good for you mentally, physically, emotionally, especially with everything that we’re going through as a country in a pandemic, all of the challenges that we’re all facing. Having a workout as an outlet is really important, especially right now. To get too caught up in what number you are and what your ranking are, it can be very detrimental. It’s important for people to do a check-in with themselves and to be able to go, “Is this working for me or is this working against me?” Being honest and turn off the leaderboard, push those numbers away. If you find that you can’t with it up manage to monitor yourself and be kind to yourself, we need to be kind to ourselves. If you use a leaderboard to beat yourself up, put it away. Don’t look at it, don’t have it on your board.

Also reminder to people that if they are kicking themselves for where they’re at in the leaderboard, as the popularity of Peloton continues to explode. Every time we think it can’t reach a new level, it reaches a new level. You also need to remind yourself that some of the people on that leaderboard with you now, they’re NBA stars, they’re NFL stars, Major League baseball players, Olympians. It is the top tier of top tier people that are using this bike and tread now. It’s not realistic for the average person to think that they’re going to do well against those people.

It’s also important to mention that not every ride or run is going to be an increase either. You can’t always do better than yesterday. If you compare a HIIT run to doing just an endurance run, even if they’re both 30 minutes, that’s a very different output. It’s almost like what did you say you were going to do this week and did you do that? I know that was your point about consistency, but also not just flying by the seat of your pants, having some kind of plan so that you can give yourself credit that you followed that plan.

I think you bring up a great point about PRs, which is very similar to the whole leaderboard thing that a lot of the time you’re like, “I don’t like a PR.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve had weeks where I had one week where I had three PRs and I had months where I haven’t. Don’t use that to get discouraged. I look at that checkmark. I got my checkmark for the day and I’m still showing up for myself. To me, that needs to be where our energy and focus go.

Thank you so much for joining us. Until next time, where can people find you?

Just use the bike. Share on X

People can find me on all the social media, @DrJennMann.

—

We’ve been hearing some rumblings out there on the interwebs from people having some issues with the trade-in program. When you bought a Bike+, if you wanted to, you could trade in your old bike and get a credit.

Assuming that your Bike met the criteria, then you would get $700 back. The thing is that people aren’t getting their money back. People have been calling in. We’ve talked about the customer service issues and part of that is that you’re getting different comments every time you call, because they might be using them from different companies. These people might not work for Peloton all the time. The reason that’s important is because that means that you’re getting inconsistent information. Inconsistent information leads to frustration. In this case, what it seems to boil down to is there’s some kind of outage that the ability to refund through this particular computer system is not working correctly. It’s taking a much longer time than expected to actually do the transaction.

Unfortunately, this has gotten pretty heated for people because it’s the holidays. People are counting on that $700. When I say this is taking a while, Peloton thought that it was going to take about ten business days. Some people have been waiting since September 2020. I don’t know why that Peloton has not made an official statement about this one, and it’s not listed on their website of like, “Here are the platform issues that we are having. Here’s how we’re handling them.” They’re calling in a global issue and they’re saying they’re working on it, but right now they don’t have a timeline. This is all based off of feedback we are hearing from people who have waited online and they have finally gotten answers back. If you are out there waiting, I do suggest that you reach out in email to Peloton to find out what is going on with your refund. If you’ve only been waiting for it for a few days, don’t panic. I want to say that Peloton is not a sham or scam. You’re going to get your money, I have no doubt about that. I also understand and empathetic to those who need that money. I don’t want you assuming that it’s going to show up with no problem, and then it doesn’t.

They suspended the Bike trade-in program, right?

That’s what this says, but I feel like that goes into this misinformation that we’re getting. I took this to read, they suspended the refunds. They’re trying to fix it and therefore, they’re not able to transmit the money back because they’re trying to correct whatever the issue is. I have seen no official communication from Peloton saying, “We no longer are going to do this trade-in program.”

They had said that they did not get the response to it that they thought they were going to get, because many people sold it on the secondary market because it’s easy to sell and you can get way more than the $700.

Maybe I missed it. I definitely have been very distracted lately, so maybe I missed it. I have not seen that officially.

I was wondering if that was playing a role. If you haven’t seen it, someone would have said, “This happened.” That’s just me misreading what they said.

No, they said that. I just don’t know that’s accurate because it came from customer service. That’s part of my concern about getting inaccurate information.

If you haven’t got your money, don’t freak out. We have no reason to believe that Peloton is going to steal your money. It might not be as quick as you initially hoped. If you’re getting ready to trade in and you’re unsure about which course you want to take, that might affect your decision of what you choose.

If you’re out there waiting for your money, like I said, please email Peloton and be nice, don’t pani. The last thing I want do is create panic by bringing this up. I am just trying to let people know that there is an issue. Be nice to the people you talk to. Remember, we’re coming up on the holidays and we have a very stressful year.

Big news in the world of Tonal this week. They have partnered up with Tony Horton, who you might know him from P90X.

It’s a super big deal. Also they’re going to be doing live workouts, which means that the instructor is going to be working out with you instead of telling you what to do. That’s a new thing to. Tonal keeps upping the game.

If you’re not familiar with Tonal, I’m not sure how you couldn’t be if you read the show at this point. If you’re not familiar with Tonal, it is a sleek at-home gym and hangs on your wall like a TV screen and uses electromagnets. It’s from the future basically.

It’s awesome because you don’t have a weight stack, but you have all the weights that you need. It’s up to 200 pounds. You’re able to do all of the different exercises that you could do on a cable machine, but you do it with basically just the touch of a button. It tells you what weights you need to use and adjust them all by itself.

It remembers where you were at so you don’t have to remember what you lifted on some random move that you did two weeks ago. It knows where you were at. If you were doing 23 pounds, you’re back to 23 or maybe secretly it ups you to 24 to make your work a little harder and you don’t even notice.

That is wonderful by the way. Also they have form feedback, so if you aren’t doing a move correctly, it’ll tell you and it’ll tell you how to do it correctly. They have a camera built into this thing, but it’s not even on. They use the sensors to be able to tell you that form feedback. It is amazing.

It’s like having a personal trainer in your home at all times. If you want to try Tonal, the world’s smartest home gym, get the strongest deal of the season now, visit www.Tonal.com for $250 off your total purchase.

This exclusive deal is only for a limited time, so get your Tonal now.

Tonal, be your strongest. We are recording this on Veterans Day.

First off, happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service.

I’m not tough enough to do anything like that.

Me neither. I think my bigger problem is I would ask too many questions, “Why do we need to do that?” You guys are veterans. You get out there and do the job, and we appreciate it. Thank you for your service. There were lots going on. We had two people post about this in our group. I wanted to mention both of them. One is that there’s a Peloton Veterans group, which we have talked about before, but just in case people don’t know about it. Jacqui Cincotta is in it. I don’t know if she runs it. She let us know that they were going to be doing an entire day of different rides, runs, all celebrating Veterans Day. There was a big Veterans Day bootcamp today that Selena Samuela. It was 45 minutes. Also, one of our other awesome members, G Dub, that’s what he calls himself on Facebook. He rode 22 different rides and he had a different take on it because he wanted to highlight the suicide rate among veterans.

Which is unfortunately always higher than the average populous.

Approximately 22 veterans and active service members, guardsman, reservists, they take their lives every day. That is a symbolic number. For Veterans Day, he rode 22 rides. He had a hashtag, #Defending22Veterans. He also wanted us to put the crisis line out there for anybody who might be struggling. It is (800) 273-8255. Thank you again to all of our service members. Thank you to those who make special rides and make sure that as a community, we are focused. I appreciate it.

—

The New York Times had an article about Megan Rapinoe.

It’s all about her memoir. We’re not going to talk about her political affiliations, but we are going to talk about the fact that she has an amazing sports career. Most importantly on this show, she mentions in her memoir that she has a Peloton and a Tonal. You can read all about it. We just like to highlight different people.

Does he have anything cool to say about her Peloton or Tonal? Did she just mention it in passing?

She mentioned it. I don’t know that she talked a ton about it.

—

This is interesting. The Power Zone classes will now have themed music rides.

People have dug in on Matt Wilpers’ music choices for many years now. This goes beyond just Matt because now there are four Power Zone instructors. What this really says is that now there’s going to be themed music rides. In other words, there could be a rock, there could be soft rock. It could be a pop ride. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of rides they come up with, also which instructors teach which themes. I might have to dig into that a little bit because I think that will be a funny. There are such different personalities among the instructors. You’ve got Olivia, you’ve got Christine, Matt and Dennis. Matt is all about his ‘90s rock. Dennis has really eclectic taste, all over the place. Olivia, who is a lot more EDM driven, she likes her EDM. Then you have Christine, who loves her ‘80s music like new wave. They all play different music other than just those things. That’s what they’re known for. It will be very interesting to see how these themed rides go.

Finally, you had someone reached out to talk about a little fundraiser that’s going on that we thought was cool.

We’ve talked about Smile Train before. Jennifer Jacobs is an ambassador for Smile Train. One of our community members, Jen Thorson, she has a son who has a cleft palate. Smile Train obviously means a lot to her and her family. She is going to be doing a ride on November 14th. She’s going to ride 100 miles in honor of her son, Carter, who was born with severe bilateral cleft lip and palate. She said that Jennifer Jacobs is going to help lead the virtual ride, so that is very cool. There’s a group called #SmilesForCarter. Anybody in the Peloton community can join. You can go and donate if you wish to, or simply support her with a high-five. I know that she would appreciate it either way. That’s another example of our awesome community coming together and helping out, having hands on each other’s backs.

—

Joining us is Elin Hilderbrand. She’s a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She’s lived in Nantucket for 25 years and is the mother of three teenagers. She’s written over 22 best-selling novels, which have sold close to six million copies combined. The New York Post dubbed her, The Queen of the Beach Read, a cancer survivor and a lover of Peloton, ladies and gentlemen, and all points in between, Elin Hilderbrand.

We are excited. Thank you for doing this.

I’m thrilled to be here.

I have many questions for you, but I am curious how you originally found Peloton because I know you’re very active. How did Peloton enter your life?

This is how it happened. Obviously, I knew Peloton existed. I have a good friend who has a bike who’s married to somebody who’s high profile, but I will not say her name. I had been looking at her Instagram Stories of the Peloton. I had never taken a spin class, but I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I’m totally fine. I was reconstructed. With the reconstruction and the aftermath, I gained not a ton of weight, but I gained twenty pounds and it didn’t bother me. At some point at the end of 2019, I thought, “I should try my best to shed these twenty pounds.” I started taking a spin class and I did that.

I go to Boston every year to revise my novel. I did it in Boston and I went to a spin studio, and I loved it. There was a spin studio here in Nantucket. I started going there when I got home and then COVID hit and I thought, “I must continue to spin, so I’m going to buy a Peloton bike.” Initially, it was going to be six weeks until the thing was delivered. I was so bummed, and then like magic, they emailed and they said, “Your bike is coming tomorrow.” I think someone on Nantucket must’ve canceled. I called my friend and like, “Did you call them and put a word in for me?” “No.” It was magic. I’ve had my bike since the 1st of May 2020. I ride every single day that I’m home, which has been almost every single day since May 1st. I absolutely love my bike.

Who is your favorite instructor?

I only ride with Jenn Sherman. I found her first because Jenn Sherman and I are essentially the same person. I’m exactly her age. I grew up outside of Philadelphia. She grew up in New Jersey. We have exactly the same taste in music. I love Bruce Springsteen. I love Billy Joel. I even like her pop rides. I like every single song. She has never played a song that I don’t love. I also ride with Emma Lovewell and I’ve done other instructors, but Jenn is my girl. Every day when I go to pick my ride, I’m like, “Should I try somebody new?” I never do. I always go with Jenn. She’s my instructor.

We did interview her. It’s been a while. It was episode twelve. It was a long time ago. It was way back at the beginning. She is one of the very first instructors we were lucky enough to get to introduce. I don’t like to pick favorites because we talk to everybody, but I have a special connection with Jenn. I’ll say that.

I have to ask another question because I saw you take a drink. Was that a Diet A&W root beer?

It was. You have a good eye.

I’m something of a soda connoisseur. I thought it was funny because that’s Crystal’s soda beverage of choice. If it was like Diet Coke, everybody drinks Diet Coke, big whoop, it’s not that big of a coincidence, but there we go.

That’s what my refrigerator has in it. That right there. I have one every day.

If Diet A&W has a Twitter feed, you will be featured on it soon. You holding up a can.

I also read that you’re a runner. Do you do any of the tread workouts or anything as well?

No, I don’t. This is not unrelated to my writing because one of the features of my writing is that I’m super disciplined. My discipline starts first thing in the morning with my exercise. I exercise for three hours. I go for a run. When I say run, I’m going slowly that I don’t know if you guys saw Anchorman, but I call it my yogging. It’s slow, but I like to be outside. I run for one hour and fifteen minutes, and then I’m home. I get on the bike for 45 minutes. I go to a bar class here in Nantucket. I do that every single day, pretty much without deviation. Nobody wants to get up and exercise honestly, but I make myself do it. That’s the discipline that starts my day so that I get my writing done.

You have to be disciplined to write. Few people want to write. What it comes down to is most people want to have written. Writing is a whole different thing.

It’s hard because the possibility for failure is real and present. Doing it every single day is difficult and you have to make yourself do it. That’s why the exercise has been such a good discipline for me to set up sitting down and doing the work. I’m like, “I’ve already done the hardest thing I’m going to do, I got on the Peloton and sweat my butt off for 45 minutes,” that’s physically hard. It allows me to feel like writing is therefore easier. I’ve tricked myself into believing that.

You almost do a sprint triathlon. You’re not doing the swimming, replacing with bar, but you’re doing like a sprint triathlon every single day.

She’s replaced the swimming with writing, which you have to because the pages will get all soggy. That would be silly to do both. Back to the discipline aspect, you’re a machine. You have churned out some books and that sounds derogatory, but I don’t mean it to. You put out a lot of books in a relatively short period of time.

How many hours a day are you spending on writing?

One of the things which might sound initially at odds with the idea of discipline is I don’t keep myself to a schedule. I write whenever I have time, which is a great thing. The silver lining of COVID is I’ve been productive because I’m not going out. There aren’t a lot of social things going on. I’m not on tour. In a normal year, I would be getting back from two weeks on the road and it’s hard to compose and produce when you’re on the road. I have an active social life. In the summertime, I would have gone out almost every single night of the summer. It’s Nantucket, I have summer friends in, there are parties and benefits and things. In 2020, there was nothing.

I got a lot of work done. I did a lot less drinking. I’m not like a mom drinker who will have a glass of Chardonnay every night. I don’t do that. I only drink when I go out and I’m going to see other people and be social. My productivity has been high in 2020 and I credit COVID for that. I don’t keep myself to a schedule. I had nothing going on until 5:00 my time. I got home from my exercising at 10:00. I did some stuff around the house. At 11:00, I sat down and I worked for almost five hours. My workday includes reading, taking a nap. I will work out by my pool because I write longhand. I’ll go for a swim, go into the water three times. It’s hot in Nantucket. I try not to freak out or make myself a headcase about how much I get done in a day. I just get it done.

I was introduced to you through Peloton because you’re in the Peloton Mom’s Group and people were raving about your books. I was like, “I need to check this out.” In a week, I read your entire trilogy. I’m on the St. John Island one. I’m in the last half of the third book. That’s how good they are. I’ve been devouring them. I sat down and told Tom the entire highlights lesson. I was like, “You’ve got to hear the story.”

I’m an avid reader. I love to read. I read like you run, which is slowly. I’ve always been a super slow reader, but the upside is I remember.

He remembers every detail of every book he’s ever read. I’m like that with movies. I remember it but then later I’ll be like, “Here’s the gist, but specifics, it’s getting a little fuzzy.”

Whereas I catalog it in my head somehow. I’m slow but it sticks up there.

Together, we’re a good reading team.

Your books are good. I have to tell you that. I’m sure that already given how popular they are, but I wanted you to know, I absolutely love your books.

I have a question for you about when you began your journey to become a writer. On the intro thing that I read, you were in the Iowa Writers Workshop, which is a little fancy pants. Your writing is mainstream. I’m curious, what was that like in a program like that? Were they dismissive of the type of things you were wanting to write or were you doing different things at that point?

It is true. The Iowa Writer’s Workshop is extremely literary. John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Flannery O’Connor, and Ann Patchett went there. All of these prestigious literary writers went to Iowa. It is a breeding ground for the great American novelists of our times. I go to Iowa. I wish I had photos. I wish I had made a documentary film. First of all, I show up a week late because I could not get my car on the ferry to get it off Nantucket to get to my graduate program on time. Everyone in my workshop is like, “Who is this person who didn’t even show up for the first day of school, essentially?”

I’m darkly tanned. My hair is bleached out too, like sun-bleached, bright, white blonde. I have this little sundress on and I go walking into my first workshop and you can see them all looking at me like, “Who is this Tootsie?” I decided I was going to throw a cocktail party because that’s what we did in Nantucket too. I made all these appetizers, I bought all this alcohol. I handmade a sign with little drawings and said, “Come to my cocktail party at my apartment.” Of course, people are like, “Do we have to pay?” I’m like, “No, it’s free. I’m inviting you.” Everyone is confused. They’re like, “This food is delicious.” There’s all this free booze. Everyone’s like, “This is the greatest person ever to come to Iowa.”

As a person, my stories got crucified in the workshop. I got sliced and diced, as Jenn would say. It was bad. It is because they were a little bit lighter. They were not insubstantial, but they had a lot of surface energy. My professors didn’t connect with my work. That said, in Iowa, there are 50 fiction students. There are 25 first years and 25 second years. In your first year with the 25 people in your class workshop, you have to compete for fellowship money for the following year. They don’t tell you that until you get there and then you figure out that you are all in competition for the money for the following year.

It is stressful. We all have to submit pieces and there are eight of these special fellowships called TWFs, which is Teaching Writing Fellowships. Lo and behold, who gets a TWF? Elin Hilderbrand, which everyone was completely shocked. I got one of these fancy fellowships for the second year and nobody could believe it. I’m sure if we interviewed the people that I went to Iowa with and we told them that on Sunday, October 25th, 2020, my novel Troubles in Paradise is going to be number one on the New York Times Bestseller List. It’s unfair, like a lightweight. I stumbled across that. The funny story, I was miserable. They had free counseling at the university and I used to go to therapy every week. I would cry and say, “I hate it here. I want to go home.” My therapist said, “You should start writing about Nantucket. You will feel better.” That is in fact what I did in my second year. I started writing my first novel, The Beach Club. Eventually, that was my first book and I ended up publishing it. My misery in Iowa was responsible for my success.

Hard comes from pain.

TCO 182 | Getting On The Peloton

 

That is incredible. I can’t help but notice since I’m in the middle of reading your trilogy for Winter In Paradise, the Paradise Series, that Iowa is a character in that book as well. Do you go back to Iowa a lot in your mind?

I have not been back since May of 1998. I graduated and I vowed I would never go back and I haven’t. You haven’t read any of my Summer Books. My Summer Books are all set on Nantucket. A lot of the secondary locations in those books are like New York City, New Canaan, Connecticut, Philadelphia. I write a lot about the East Coast. My salesforce at my publisher, which is Little, Brown, a big publishing house in New York when I told them that I wanted to do a new series set in the Caribbean, they said, “You should try to incorporate the Midwest in this series and you’ll pick up a lot of readers.” I was freaking out because I’m like, “I don’t know anything about the Midwest.”

I thought, “I do because I lived there for two years in Iowa City.” I decided to have my main character Irene and her sons from Iowa City. I, of course, remembered enough that I could dig in my own experience and use it. It has made a difference in my sales. I’ve picked up a lot of Midwestern readers. It is Iowa City, Denver, and Houston. Denver and Houston, I’ve only visited when I’ve been on tour, but I did the necessary research.

We’re based out of St. Louis. We don’t get paid a lot of attention to in pop culture. I do think that stuff resonates here. We’re still excited about the fact that they filmed Escape From New York in St. Louis. They picked us because we looked like a prison island.

What’s interesting about that is it’s not like you know those places are going to be talked about in the book. Once you’ve read the first one, then you’ll know that, but you wouldn’t know that right out of the gate. That’s fascinating all on its own. How do people know that?

I don’t know. When they describe it, they say, “Irene is from Iowa City,” or whatever. I don’t know it has made a difference the fact that those characters are from the Midwest. I do want to give some love to St. Louis. One of my most devoted readers lives in St. Louis and her name is Mary Parker. She’s come to Nantucket like on a pilgrimage with her son. She’s adorable. She says to me, “What do I have to do to get you to come to St. Louis?” I said, “Mary, this is what you have to do. You have to find an independent bookstore that is willing to sponsor me. That bookstore needs to contact my publicist and I will come to St. Louis.” Lo and behold, Mary Parker from St. Louis goes to Left Bank Books and was like, “Will you sponsor Elin Hilderbrand?” They were like, “Of course.” They put together an event. It was October 13th of 2019. I flew. I had an event in Baltimore and in Houston, and I made it. I went nuts. I would stop in St. Louis for three hours to do this. It was a 350-person event at the library. I can’t remember which library.

It was probably the County Headquarters Library.

They do a lot of cool stuff there. We saw RL Stine there.

I get there and that’s where I learned about Ted Drewes Custard, fried ravioli, gooey butter cake, and the Imo’s Pizza. I got the lesson about St. Louis in the short time that I was there, but I do look forward to coming back and doing it correctly. I also like to get to Kansas City, which I’ve never been to.

I’ll need to stay on top of your calendar because I would love to meet you in person if that ever happens. That would be cool.

That’s why you had to buy a Peloton. You ate all the gooey butter cake, raviolis, and custard.

It tastes good with that diet root beer. I also am curious you mentioned, I believe at the end of one of the books I was reading, that you get to live on St. John or have lived in the past for several months of the year. How did that come to be? Can any of the rest of us figure out a way to do that because that is amazing?

It was a combination of my personal and my professional life. I was going through a divorce and my ex-husband and I are friendly, but I said, “I want to get away and do a writer’s retreat in the Caribbean. Can you watch the children?” We’ve got three kids. He said, “Sure.” He reaps the benefits of me being successful. He was amenable to doing that. I took five weeks in the winter of 2012. I went down to St. John. I do not stay anywhere fancy. It’s not like any of the places described in my novels. I normally get a studio or one-bedroom villa. I like to have a pool. I do like to have a water view, although there have been times when I haven’t had a water view, I always have a pool. I’ve stayed there every year since, including the year after the hurricane, which was in 2018 because the hurricanes were in ‘17. I have built a community there. I have friends there now and a social life, and people know who I am. It’s been a lot of fun.

We were there once. That’s the difference between men and women. She’s like, “It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.” I was like, “That’s the place where we accidentally spent $75 on milkshakes.” It was hot. We went to this little restaurant where you could overlook. We were on a cruise ship and we’d look where the cruise ships parked.

We had been doing all the touristy stuff. It was at the end of the afternoon and we were all hot and tired.

They’re like, “Do you guys want milkshakes?” We’re like, “Sure. Four milkshakes. Set them up.” They bring us what can only be described as like in regular parlance as a shot. It was the world’s smallest milkshake.

They were literally $15.

We’re like, “What is happening?” It was like, “It’s an island.”

“They have to ship in the milk.” We were as touristy as a touristy can get. They must have pegged us the second we walked in.

We got a milkshake cup over here. They’ll fall for it.

I was like, “From now on when it’s not on the menu and they offer it, we know that’s a red flag.”

I was like, “I don’t even see milkshakes on here.”

It’s such a great story though. It made for such a great afternoon. It was hilarious. I love St. John. Tom’s brother-in-law is always trying to get us to go back for a week because we would love to snorkel. His brother-in-law, Steve, and I could hang out and snorkel the entire time, but we’re the only ones that want to do that. The rest of them aren’t that interested in it. It’s crazy. That place is gorgeous.

I can’t snorkel. I have a panic attack.

He doesn’t like to put his face in the water. I tried one of those full-face masks. It didn’t help. He didn’t like it.

Do you travel anywhere else? It sounds like that’s your place to go to get away because you loved it there, but are there other places that you get to go to that you absolutely love as well?

My ex-husband manages the Cliffside Beach Club, which is a seasonal business. It’s closed in the winter. We split up the winter and one of us will go away and one of us will stay home with the children. I have two kids that are out of the house and my daughter is the only one home. I do travel quite a bit other than St. John. I went to Thailand at the end of February 2020 despite the thing. I flew through Bangkok. It was naughty, and I can remember getting home and being like, “Everyone’s wearing masks.” People are wearing plastic protective face gear in Asia like at the Tokyo Airport at the time, which was insane to me, like another planet. Now it’s standard, whatever it looks like here.

Who knew that was going to be a regular thing?

I’ve been all over six continents. I’ve traveled extensively.

You’ve got to get to Antarctica just to say you’ve been to all seven.

Sunbird in Antarctica. I feel good with the pictures.

Do you have a Peloton in St. John as well? How does that work?

No. The nice thing about St. John though, is that it’s extremely hilly and I do my yogging. The hills are so demanding that I feel like I get my bike on my run by virtue of all those hills.

I was curious if you’ve ever heard about the Peloton Homecoming. Have you ever heard of that?

I have because I ride with Jenn Sherman. She talks about the homecoming weekend. What I could discern from what she said on the rides is that people go to New York and it’s a convention essentially.

It’s Wizard World but for Peloton.

It would have been our fourth year, but then COVID, so we’re hoping that everything will be back to normal and we get to go. It’s much fun because you get to have this giant party with all of your Peloton friends. The instructors, there are special rides you get to do with them. If you want to do runs, if you want to do yoga, etc., they have a giant 5K for anybody that wants to join in. There’s usually some giant party at the end of it where we all get together. Beck played in 2019. It was fun. The thing is that it’s hard to get into. In 2019, they had only 3,000 tickets and it sells out fast, in minutes.

I have to go. Could you predict, are they going to do it this year? I would think not, but I don’t know.

My guess is not because Broadway announced that they’re closed through May 31st, 2021.

That’s my fear that they’re not going to because Broadway is closed and if Broadway is closed, then it feels like that they shouldn’t. I’m worried it’s going to be canceled two years in a row, but I don’t know. I have no knowledge either way.

My reunion for Johns Hopkins, which was the end of May, that got canceled. I don’t know. Give me the heads up so that I can wake up at midnight and get my tickets.

Yes, I will do that.

She will have to find a scalper, although they essentially can’t. As I always say, “The shows don’t sell out anymore. It’s how much are you willing to pay.”

There is no such thing at Peloton yet.

Do you have any advice for new people to the world of Peloton?

I feel like a newbie myself. All I can say is make it a lifestyle. Do it. It’s an investment, first of all. It’s an expensive bicycle. My mantra was, “I’m going to make this pay for itself in the first 100 days,” which is how I paid here. I pay $25 for a spin class. I needed to do 100 rides for the bike to earn its money back. I feel like it’s exactly like how do you become a writer. You stick with it. It’s persistence, it’s discipline. It has nothing to do with talent or how fit you are. You will become fit as you ride, but you have to get on the bike to do it. You can’t hit the ball if you don’t swing. My advice, which I’m sure is your advice as well, is just use the bike.

I know you’ve been in love with Jenn Sherman, which I totally get. I would also add that I went through fits and starts. When I first started, I was super into one instructor. Over time, I started spreading out because I would want to ride with my friends and they would want to ride with other instructors. Eventually, I had gotten to a point where I had ridden with every instructor and I noticed that people tend to have these clumps of instructors that they love. It’s like if you love one, there are 3 or 4 that you’ll jive with.

Peloton is all about persistence and discipline; it has nothing to do with talent or how fit you are. Share on X

The rest of them, you might like or not, but there’s like a clump. I would say that as you get more comfortable, you’ll get to a point where you’re like, “I got past my ‘I had to ride with Jenn,’” you will. There are some people that have never ridden with another instructor, so I can’t say for sure you will. When that day comes, people should also try the other instructors and not be afraid to do it for the same reason that you should jump in and make it a lifestyle. Especially if you like to ride live, there are many times that your instructor doesn’t work with your schedule. That’s the only way to do it. This year, there have been a lot of changes to the schedule. It’s been crazy.

I mostly have to ride on demand. I am coming to the end of Jenn’s 45-minute catalog. I’ve done 150 or whatever rides. I have ridden with other instructors. I do love Emma Lovewell and every time I’m like, “I should ride with Emma.” What you said inspires me. I also have been meaning to take a ride with Cody because people rave about Cody. It’s on my mental list, but what you’re saying, which I believe it to be true, is you don’t want to get stuck in a rut because what’s exciting about Peloton is this whole experience. If you’re only doing one piece of the pie, then you’re missing out on the greater things that it has to offer. I take that seriously and I will branch out.

I love Jenn, seriously. There used to be two rides every Sunday morning back-to-back. I would take both rides every Sunday. That’s changed in 2020, so I had to roll with the punches. I love her classes because it doesn’t matter what mood I’m in, I always get off the bike in a better mood. She makes me happy. I will also say there are days that sometimes Robin Arzón is what I need. I need somebody to kick my ass in a good way. I need somebody to lift me up in a different way. Do you want to share your leaderboard name or would you prefer to keep that private?

It’s ElinWriterBrand. I expect you to be following me, Tom.

She doesn’t know?

She doesn’t know. He doesn’t ride the bike, Elin.

You don’t ride the bike?

He doesn’t exercise at all.

You’re good on the show so you’ve got that right for you.

We want to be respectful of your time. We know we’ve taken up a lot of it. This has been amazing. Thank you for doing this.

I hope we get to meet at the Homecoming party because now I’m all about the Homecoming party. Let’s keep in touch, Crystal, and to keep me apprised. As soon as I need to know something about the Homecoming, please email me.

I will. I have a list of people I keep in the loop on things and you will be on that list.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing this. We appreciate it.

You are welcome. Take care.

—

That brings this one to an end. What pray tell do you have in store for people next time?

We are going to talk to our very own Paul Bradley. He is going to tell us all about his awesome Moab stories. We’re going to get to hear how it went.

Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on 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, wherever you’re getting your podcast from, be sure and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you’ve got enough time in your day, swing on by our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/theclipout and subscribe so you never miss an episode there either. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

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About Elin Hilderbrand

TCO 182 | Getting On The PelotonElin Hilderbrand is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and the Iowa Writers Workshop.

She has lived on Nantucket for 25 years and is the mother of three teenagers. THE PERFECT COUPLE is her twenty-first novel.

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