TCO 263 | New Peloton Studio

263: An Insider’s Look At The Studio Reopening Plus Our Interview With Marci Rosenstein

Last Updated: June 17, 2022By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 263 | New Peloton Studio

 

  • John Mills joins us to discuss why Peloton is deleting posts about the rower.
  • Peloton’s stock drops below $10.
  • Dr. Jenn – Tips for shaking up your workout routine.
  • Robin Arzon has a new book.
  • Robin Arson partners with Diff Eye Wear.
  • Ross Rayburn’s husband won a Tony.
  • Tunde is featured on Well & Good’s Changemakers list.
  • Aditi Shah was part of the New York Indian Film Festival.
  • Kirsten Ferguson was on the Ali On The Run podcast.
  • Callie Gullickson celebrates one year with Peloton.
  • The “Just Workout” feature is no longer in beta.
  • Instructors will be rotating on Fridays in July.
  • The New York studio was closed on June 15 & 16.
  • Latitude 32 employees appear to no longer be working for Peloton.
  • The latest artist series features Barbra Streisand.
  • Angelo has tips for how to curb late-night snacking.
  • Netflix’s MAID (created by Peloton member Stephanie Land) is up for an Emmy.
  • Tonal Announces New Studio
  • Birthdays: Joslyn Thompson Rule (6/15), Selena Samuela (6/22), Andy Speers and Denis Morton (6/23)

All this plus our interview with Marci Rosenstein!

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

An Insider’s Look At The Studio Reopening Plus Our Interview With Marci Rosenstein

You are COVID-free. You’ve made it past the quarantine. You didn’t end up on an incubator.

Not an incubator. They intubate you.

You didn’t end up on an intubator.

I did not. Thank goodness. I’m very grateful for my vaccine and booster.

We still have our own issues at the house, medically speaking, because my son had his wisdom teeth out.

Guess what? Not everyone is okay with anesthesia and some people are very emotional.

He wasn’t in danger or anything.

Not at all, but we were dealing with his emotions.

You summed it up best and I’m quoting you. You were like, “You’re getting a window into what PMS feels like.” We were worried about him being sexually active. We have our answer.

I wasn’t worried.

Nor was I. What do I always say? Raising a nerd is the best way to prevent teenage pregnancy. It worked for me. We should also talk about our guest.

Marci Rosenstein.

We’re getting an inside look at the reopening of the Peloton studio. She was boots on the ground or spin shoes on the ground, on the pedals, in the air. She was there.

She was there on the very first class that opened. She walks us through every single detail. All of your questions are answered. We have all of the details.

She sent us a slight correction that you wanted to address.

Do you want to go into that now?

We might as well because we were not going to talk about it until the interview, which we’ve already taped. We should probably address it here.

Two things. One, it has been reported in many of the articles that came out when Peloton had the press in that classes are going to be offered Thursday through Sunday. However, it has been updated to Friday through Sunday. Peloton studio sent an update. They had told everybody in person Thursday through Sunday. Since then, they have sent out an email saying, “Just kidding, it’s Friday through Sunday.”

Just to repeat, June and July, every Friday. After that, when they have a real opening, it will be Friday through Sunday. There are always going to be days when they do not have people in the class. I want to make sure I say that more than once because people do not hear all of the things. Spread it around. You guys hear it. Now you take that and spread it to everybody you know.

Also, say that you heard it on The Clip Out and include the link.

That would be great. Also, I had a lot of people asking about what is the COVID policy. You have a high-tech temperature check at the entrance. If you want to ride without a mask, you have to be fully vaccinated or show a negative PCR within 72 hours. That is that.

That is all good information to have that didn’t get addressed or at the time was correct, but is no longer. Now you know, but other than that, she will have all the info that you’ve been wanting to know about what it was like on opening day. Besides all that, what do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk to John Mills about a crazy, old, silly rumor going around. You can tell my stance on it. We’re going to talk about the stock market price of Peloton or lack thereof. The instructors have a billion things happening like they do every week. There are some fun updates though. I want you guys to make sure you listen closely because there are some fun ones.

Also, there are some neat things going on with Peloton. Things are changing within the app. You want to listen up for that. We have a visit from Angelo. We’re going to talk about late-night snacking and how to curb it. We have a visit from Dr. Jenn. She talks about how to shake up your workout routine and make sure you’re getting all of the different things, and not just the cycling or not just the running. Mix it up.

The Angelo segment was very informative for me because I thought curbing late-night snacking was like going to the drive-thru.

We’ve redefined that.

Correctly defined that probably. Before we get to all that shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and all the places you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. You can also leave us a review if you would be so kind. That’s always helpful. You can also now find us on Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, you can sign up for our Patreon membership.

You can get these episodes completely ad-free. I know people have been wanting that. It is now available. For as little as $5 a month, you can get them ad-free. If you want to spend a little bit more, there’s also bonus content that will be made available to you over time. Also, you can find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Sign up for our mailing list at theclipout.com. Finally, you can watch all these episodes at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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

How is it going?

You brought the energy. You got the energy and the shirt. You’re ready.

I got some good news. It was crazy. The museum hit me up and they were like, “John, we’re moving your lecture this Sunday to a different room.”

A bigger room?

Yeah. It is a historical home where George Washington stayed. The museum is a part of that. They’re talking about moving us out to the barn. It’s associated with that home that they use as a lecture hall as well.

That’s a good thing.

It’s a bigger space. It’s not like the barn that you picture in the 1850s. It’s a nicely furnished barn.

They’ve set it up into a meeting conference. It’s a bigger space because of the number of people.

That’s awesome. Congrats, John. You’re going to do so great. You just pretend you’re talking to people you talk to every day. You’ll be fine.

We need to figure out a way for you to get the money like when there’s a movie deal.

They’re going to make a movie out of this. It’s got to be you that gets the money for it. That would be cool. Wouldn’t it?

That would be cool. I hope they do something about it. They need to. This story is crazy. The person I’m going to be talking about is a revolutionary war vet. I found another person that’s buried there who’s a Civil War vet, and I found his family. It’s getting deeper and deeper. It’s pretty cool. I think they’ll be excited to hear about it.

Peloton in-person just has more energy. The instructor's energy in person is so much more powerful. Share on X

That’s awesome. I hope that everything goes well for you. I hope that there are no technological issues. Everything goes smoothly. I hope it’s a full standing-room-only barn.

Let’s fly into the Peloton proper here. You push this over in Run, Lift and Live, but Connect The Watts had an article about disappearing rower posts and what that means.

I get what he was trying to get at. I don’t know if I’ll buy the whole thing, but I get where he was going. He was saying, “I noticed that there were these this post on Twitter and there’s another one on Instagram that Peloton had placed there about the rower and those two specific posts no longer exist. There are other things that do exist, but since those two don’t exist, the thought is, have they turned away from the rower and thus, maybe there is no more rower?

Maybe Uncle Barry was like, “We already said, we’re going to focus on content. Why are we talking about hardware for focusing on content?” I think he’s using that statement. We know it came from Uncle Barry and the idea that these two things have vanished to question the narrative or question the idea that there is a rower, maybe there isn’t anymore. That’s basically what it is.

I would think we would need to see everything gone to really be concerned.

There are still mentions out there. I understand that Peloton has not been 100% perfect now or ever.

Given some of their past social media posts that we’ve seen, is it possible that they had misspelled rower?

It could be that.

I don’t believe that they would have made such a huge deal about this being for Homecoming and then quietly tank it. I don’t believe that, plus we know that they were close. We know through all of the sources. At this point, it would actually cost them money to scrap it because things have been made. I am not buying this in any way, shape or form. It’s getting people riled up for no reason. That’s my opinion. They got this one wrong.

I love the conversation that came from it. It was a lot of fun. As you can see in the image, you see the Peloton P down there. I don’t know. Maybe that’s a cue. Maybe they were telling us that the content was coming. We’ve been having a lot of fun with the dialogue but I’m with you. I don’t know if it’s accurate or not, plus to the same point you made, if we’ve been talking about this for all these years, and then there’s an announcement at Homecoming a couple of months ago, for it to end in this, everybody is struggling to believe that.

Even if they saw some research now that they thought, “Maybe this isn’t going to be the panacea we thought it was,” I would think the blowback for pulling the plug on it at this point is too big. Barry can’t blame it on the last regime at this point because they announced it on his Homecoming watch. It has only been a few weeks. The other thing is if they were going to erase from memory the rower, we’ve seen Peloton delete things before. If they wanted to get rid of the rower, they would have treated that rower like it was sending unsolicited dick pics.

We know how that goes. We not only saw the dick pics, but we saw that everything, all mentioned was scrubbed. It happened so fast. There is no way that any mention of it would last. It would be gone. I totally agree. I do want to point out, since we’re looking at the photo, for people who are watching the YouTube video, do you see on the bottom the little foot that I’ve been talking about? That’s why this rower does stand up on its end. Do you see the little pedestal foot where the string goes in on the backside? That’s why I think it tips up on its side.

That would be interesting. There, everyone can calm down, but if people want to be freaked out about something, I guess we could talk about it. You can now get a share of Peloton for roughly the price of a twelve-pack Coke Zero.

They’re selling shares at the dollar store. It’s crazy. The conversation about it, if you understand the inflation and the overall market, has been happening. It isn’t just Peloton so there’s that factor, but I don’t know that it matters though. Since Uncle Barry has been around, we’ve lost close to or maybe $20 a share. I know it has only been a little bit of time, but he’s the one at the top. At some point, it’s on Uncle Barry.

It’s like when there’s a new president. It’s not really that guy’s fault, but by February of the following year, you got to own some of that.

His dialogue to date has been, “Those people didn’t know what they were doing. We hire some real people now. They lost. I got some good people now.” That has been his narrative. Now I’m interested in the next few times he talks. Is it going to continue to be that? At some point, you got to own something and you got to talk about why. We’ll see. I’m interested in that now.

That’s a very fair point. I can’t help but wonder, this is my theory. Do you guys think that maybe this was all an elaborate ruse by John Foley? He has brought in Barry and he’s sitting back there waiting. He’s like, “I’ll wait for them to ask me to come back.” He knows this is going to happen.

Does that happen very often?

I’m totally joking.

I know it has happened. I know Howard Schultz came back to Starbucks. Steve Jobs was run out from Apple and then came back, and completely saved the day. It does happen but I can’t imagine it happens with a great degree of frequency. I certainly don’t pay attention to it.

I don’t think that it does. I was totally joking.

He still got a lot of these shares. He’s not like, “I showed you, but now I’ve lost millions of dollars.”

He’s like, “Now I’m not even a millionaire.” He went from a billionaire to a millionaire to nothing.

For the people that don’t have all this money lost in it like the folks that might have been let go and then being accused of being not competent, it does make you wonder if they’re sitting at home going, “Now who’s not competent?”

There’s got o be people feeling that way. Anytime a company lets people go even under the absolute best circumstances, there are going to be some people who are not happy about it. There is at least a contingent of people sitting at home, not happy that the stock is in the tank because they probably still have shares, but I think they also feel vindicated, “See, we weren’t the problem. You thought we were the problem. We’re not the problem.”

What do you think it takes to see the stock even get back to IPO prices? What do you think the market is looking for?

The question isn’t one specific as much to Peloton. Whatever that question is, it’s more about a broader thing like the economy or something much bigger than Peloton. Whatever that is, when that turns, then they will start moving back towards IPO prices. They were up nearly 6% and then aftermarket, they were up another 1%, but so was everybody because the Fed raised interest rates almost a point. It gave some level of confidence that somebody is in control, and then everybody got excited for a couple of seconds. I’m sure it will go back down more. You saw it in Peloton, as well as with everybody. Whatever that is, that is when we’ll see it start going back there.

It could be a while. What’s interesting is we haven’t heard from the guy that’s going around trying to get Peloton. We haven’t heard from them for a minute. I don’t know if they’re over there making a big noise over at somebody else’s company right now. They’re too busy or if it’s just they’re “happy” with how things are or maybe they do this at earnings calls. I don’t know.

Maybe they did a short sale and they’re cool.

Maybe like the rest of the market, everybody’s down and they’re broke. They don’t have time to worry about Peloton no more.

It would be nice if we didn’t have to hear from them anymore.

I think we might. It would be really awesome though if there was something new, innovative and exciting that sparked people’s minds to go, “Wow, that company is pretty great again.” When was the last time that happened?

I have heard that the rower will be expensive, but we’ll have something super exciting about it. That’s going to be worth it. I’m having trouble picturing it.

The rower has a mister. When you row, it sprays you with water so you feel like you’re on the ocean. Here’s another thing, and I’m going to break the NDA, rower-plus has salt water. You heard it here first.

When you step off and you get off too quick, you might get cut by some coral reef.

It’s very realistic.

You also have to keep a mat around the rower because otherwise, you’re going to get sand everywhere.

This is some innovative stuff there. I’m ready now.

Rower plus-plus sprays you with Athletic Greens. You get a blast of energy juice right down your rower as you’re rowing.

How innovative can you get with a rower? The biggest connected fitness rowing companies only got a couple of hundred thousand subs. How far can this take the company?

I thought the same thing about rowers since day one.

TCO 263 | New Peloton Studio

 

Tom has always said that. I have to give him credit for that. It’s not that I don’t think that they can sell them. I just don’t think it’s going to be anything super exciting. I know that people are saying that it is. I know there are a lot of people that are excited about having a rower, but given that we had to wait almost five years for the thing and who knows how much longer we still have to wait, and the stock is in the tank, and people are on this anti-Peloton kick. I don’t know if it’s going to be enough to break the mold.

That’s where I’m at. I’m wondering how many people have bikes in their homes? I don’t know if Peloton changed the perspective on indoor cycling. I think they may have.

They did, especially because they recreated the spin class vibe in your home. Obviously, exercise bikes existed before but it wasn’t the same as going to an instructor-led class.

They made people feel like they were in the gym. I think that was revolutionary but now, I don’t know how you replicate that. I don’t know how you pull that off twice.

This is layman John, I don’t know, but if they had some way to take rowing and there’s something about of what they produce or the content or something that innovates in a way that all of a sudden you have three million indoor connected fitness rowing machines versus the 200,000 that Hydrow has. All of a sudden, it’s a normal thing to have a rower. If that could happen now, you just did something twice.

It doesn’t seem like it’s a device people gravitate to in the same way they do bikes and treads.

I would say bikes. We’re not even there with the tread.

I mean tread in general.

Okay. I see what you’re saying.

People see the value of a treadmill and a lot of people use their own ones, whether it’s a Peloton one or not. I don’t know that rowers have that. Maybe if they come up with cool enough content, you get people over the hump and then they go ahead and say, “I’m going to get on the Peloton rower,” in the same way that that’s what made them pull the trigger for the bike. It was the content that was so much better. The bike was almost ancillary in a lot of ways.

I have heard some people say, “No, John, you’re not thinking about it right. All these people are paying dual subscriptions.” Now they have the option to get rid of the Hydrow subscription. They got one subscription and they got the bike and the rower. I’m going, “Even if that happened, Peloton didn’t gain another sub.” That’s only 200,000 people over there. Let’s say that guy has 25% of them, what is this? I don’t know. What did you get?

You don’t even know that they bought the equipment because they could just pop their iPad up there and take the class on their iPad.

That’s true. Some people might keep their rower but do it through the app.

If I had already bought a Hydrow, I probably would. I don’t know. It’s just a lot of work to sell things. I got to sell it. I got to show it. I got to get rid of it. I got to have it sent back. I don’t want to deal with all that. Just have it show up.

It’s an issue that I have in my household that Erica is trying to work with me on. I never returned anything because I never liked the hassle. There will be stuff I buy in the day, I get it. I’m like, “This isn’t what I want.”

I can’t help you with that because we are terrible. We’re so awful. It ends up at Goodwill eventually or wherever we take it.

We just like the room back.

You can get some good stuff at our house because we just give up.

I bought a drone, but I went for a cheaper drone because just I wanted to take one picture over this one site to compare it with the other thing. That was all I wanted to for. When I got it, it was crazy. It was too cheap. I was too hard to control. I got home and I said, “It didn’t work. I don’t need that photo anyway. I’ll put it over here.” Erica was like, “No, we’re taking that back right now.” She would not leave until I took it apart and put it back in the box.

We need an Erica at our house. I respect that of her. I think that’s smart.

She got tired of me keeping stuff.

We need someone to be tired of us.

She hit that breaking point. It’s right there. The drone broke her.

John, thank you so much for joining us. Until next time, where can people find you besides the return line at Walmart?

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

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Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and 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 show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She has written four bestselling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication Connection and Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn.

It’s good to see you guys.

You too. I’m going to jump right in. I know you’re going to have lots to say about this one. This one comes from Ginger. She is looking for exercise variety because she has such a routine and she doesn’t do all the workouts she wants to. She sticks only to cycling and yoga.

Does she say how many days a week she works out?

She doesn’t. When I hear such a routine, I feel like a minimum of five, probably six.

Here’s what I would recommend for her. She does need to spice it up. She needs to add some variety and some change to it. Keep what’s working. Keep the cycling and the yoga, but add in some outdoor walks added. What I would recommend is for her to have maybe one day a week where she forces herself to do one class that she has never done. Whether it is one of the new boxing classes or barre class or Pilates or maybe a different kind of yoga. Maybe a power yoga instead of slow yoga, but to look at what has she not done and mix it up. I would also recommend that she looks at her body parts and go, “What part of my body am I not working on?” Now Peloton has the Guide where you can look at what part is all lit up. It’s your tush and legs. You do more of your arms.

We call him little guy front and back.

You can look at the little guy front and back or you can even do an assessment. If you’re doing yoga and spinning, you’re probably doing a lot more lower body. You may want to start to add in some upper body weights and some weight classes, either the heavier weights or at the end of your bike to be doing the lightweights class. Tunde will kill you with her lightweights. For me, 3-pound weights are usually nothing. I’m like, “Burn it,” with her classes or to even shake up your spin class with arms and intervals.

The locker rooms in the new Peloton Studios New York are gorgeous, big, and way better than the ones in their old studio. Share on X

One of the ones has a quicker bike and then arms. There are some that are four minutes of bikes, three minutes of arms, four minutes of bikes, and three minutes of arms, where it goes back and forth much quicker. Even that will shake things up. Also, try Lanebreak. You can watch Peloton Homecoming on your bike while cycling. There are so many new and great options such as scenic rides, outdoor, and all that sort of stuff.

I would recommend making a new plan every 3 to 6 months max, where you make a new plan that covers new exercises. It rounds out your plan. If you are struggling to do it on your own, then consult with someone like Crystal who is certified in training, or some other trainer that you know or who’s in your community, and make a plan. It can help to have someone who objectively sits and talks with you that goes, “You know what? You really like this class.”

Especially someone who knows Peloton like Crystal, but who can say like, “You will probably like this barre class. I took this class with Hannah and it reminded me a lot of the yoga class. You might want to try this. Let’s try adding this into your regimen and see whether you like it or not.” That’s a good way to shake things up.

Crystal has been a big proponent of Lanebreak.

I have. I love the Lanebreak. It’s so fun.

I still haven’t tried it. I need to try it. You’ve spoken so highly of it but to me, it’s a little stressful.

That could be true if you do it all the time. It uses your brain in a different way so that you feel motivated, not stressed.

I have to check it out

Watching you do it, it seems like it would almost distract you from the fact that you’re working out because you’re so focused on the task.

That is true because when I workout, Tom talks to me all the time and I talk back. When it’s Lanebreak, I can’t. I’m like, “Nope. Don’t.” I need to pay attention to the screen at all times. because it switches so fast.

I can’t believe you can talk and workout. For me, it’s my sacred time. I have a sign on the door. Do not talk to me unless the house is on fire, someone is dying or we need to evacuate. This is my time.

When I say he talks to me all the time, it’s not like a full conversation. It’s like a question, but it happens pretty regularly when we’re in the same room. We do it to each other but it’s usually quick.

It’s further proof of how perfect you are for each other.

That’s true. We are.

On that delightful note, until next time, where can people find you?

On all social media @DrJennMann. You can see all of my workouts on my Insta stories. You can also find me in Instyle Magazine. online. I got a column called Hump Day With Dr. Jenn that is all advice.

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Robin Arzon has a new book.

It’s coming out in February, I believe. It’s called Strong Baby. This is a follow-up to Strong Mama. It’s her second children’s book that she has done. That’s pretty cool for her. It’s also by Little Brown Young Readers. The last one was as well.

That makes sense. You use the same publisher.

She’s got a three-book deal. It’s going to be a trilogy. Does that mean there’s going to be strong baby number two?

Don’t start that rumor.

Strong toddler.

There we go. That one we can deal with. You will create a whole nightmare for us. While we’re speaking of Robin Arzon, she also partnered up with DIFF Eyewear.

She has a couple of pairs of glasses that she helped them create. I don’t remember the name of them, but people were talking about how awesome they were. These are totally not my style. I don’t know how great or not great they are. I think it’s pretty cool that she’s in the middle of Time Square showing them off and showing her billboard off. That’s awesome. Congrats to her.

Ross Rayburn and his husband had a big weekend.

I am so happy for them. They are the most adorable couple ever.

I thought we were the most adorable couple ever.

Besides us. They’re the second most adorable. Honestly, Tom, they’re more adorable than we are. Look at them.

Either one of us has won the Tony. There’s that.

If you guys don’t know, Ross has a husband named Christopher. He is the person who created MJ the Musical. There’s a whole bunch of people that worked on it, but how incredible that they won a Tony for this. Congrats to both of you guys. That’s an amazing achievement. Congrats to the whole team. Someday we’re going to get to New York and we’re going to get to watch this.

That’s the goal. Well+Good put out their Changemakers list for 2022.

Tunde is on this list. She has done so much in the last couple of years. She has talked about things like all the black lives matter. She talked about the classes whenever she had the Speak Up. She had those classes and then in 2022, she has done all these things with Speak. She has had all these wonderful conversations with people about all kinds of different social issues. She’s being recognized for that. Of course, for her book. I don’t want to forget her book. That has been a huge thing. She’s being recognized for all that she has done. She is a changemaker. She really is. It has been two years. Most of us have been sitting at home gaining weight in the last few years. Tunde has taken over the world and being a changemaker.

TCO 263 | New Peloton Studio

 

Popsugar has an article about your favorite Peloton instructors discussing confidence, Britney Spears and dancehall beats.

There’s Alex, Hannah Frankson, Aditi and Cody. Which one do you think covered Britney Spears?

Let me guess, Cody. That’s not really a tough call. Even I knew that.

You surely know this.

Yes. I was trying to make a joke. I was like, “It’s Cody. There’s I joke to make there.”

There are some fun little nuggets in here, but it’s great to see Hannah Frankson included and Adit. She has been everywhere lately. That’s awesome.

Speaking of Aditi being everywhere, she was at the New York Indian Film Festival.

They were around town. They showed a bunch of people who were at the film fest and they captured Aditi. Congrats to Aditi. That’s cool that she got spotted there.

Kirsten Ferguson was on the Ali On The Run Show.

April 7th, this one came out. I believe it was episode 505. You can hear all about Kirsten and how she thinks about being a tread instructor, which was all positive. I’m going to go ahead and give you a spoiler. It’s always a lot of fun hearing Ali interview an instructor.

We should point out that Callie Gullickson celebrated one year as a Peloton instructor.

She celebrated it by running around in her apartment. She’s showing a montage.

She was running around when she found out she was going to be a Peloton instructor.

It was Christmas back then. I wonder if that was 2021.

She has been there for a year. She found out at Christmas time of 2020.

Congrats to Callie. That’s awesome. Happy anniversary.

—

The Just Workout feature is out of beta and finally officially rolling out.

It’s everywhere now. Interestingly, I’m still hearing a lot of feedback on this. A lot of people are saying that they’re not getting accurate counts on their mileage. Let’s say they go for a ride and they might do 80 miles. Only 56 miles of it gets counted. I saw one person’s posts because I have not tested this on my own at all. Supposedly, if you turn the crown of your Apple Watch in the other direction, it will be more accurate. Turn it in toward your wrist instead of out. I have no idea if that is true or not true. I’ve heard people say that it differs from their Garmin. Some people say it works great on their walks, but not great on their rides outdoors.

I’m hearing a lot of different opinions about how well it works, which is a little concerning because that all came after the beta was over. People are hoping that they will continue to see things like maybe they’re going to get back rather than being able to see your average pace on your watch. Hopefully, there will be a time that you can start to just workout from your watch and not even have to take your phone. I say that is probably asking a bit much, and then the Android users would like it.

They would just like something.

I’ve been there, guys. I have to say I don’t miss the waiting.

I don’t miss hearing you complain about the waiting.

You mean wait patiently.

That occurs. That’s new. Unlike Just Workout, Crystal waiting patiently is still in beta.

I don’t think we’ll ever make it out of beta.

All of the instructors will be rotating on Fridays through July.

As I said earlier, every Friday in June and July, there will be people in the studio. This came from Peloton’s invite-only that then became everyone filling out the Google doc because some people just had to post everywhere. I don’t know how many people are going to end up making it because they’re still sending out those invites, the final schedule. That has not been established yet. What I do know is that not all instructors teach on Friday.

For example, Jenn Sherman never teaches on Friday. What they’re going to do is they’re going to rotate it through. Even though Jenn Sherman doesn’t teach on Fridays, in mid-July, Jenn will be teaching a class on Friday. There’s a huge push. We need to know that Jenn’s Men have put in a request. They want to be the first to open up her class. I have heard there is serious consideration about that happening.

If I were to get an invite to that, I would not be upset. I’m just saying. I could report it, Jenn’s Men. If you get invited and you wanted to make that happen, I’m your girl. At any rate, in all seriousness, all the instructors are going to get this. Whether they do yoga, running or strength, everybody is going to get a chance between now and the end of July. After that, then we will see the studio opening up. That’s when we’re going to go to that schedule of Friday through Sunday, there will be classes. No classes for the rest of the week that include people living in the studio. That is that.

We should also say that the studio was closed on Wednesday and Thursday.

It’s all due to renovations. I’ve had so many people ask this question. I keep saying that they’re getting ready for people. Everyone is like, “That doesn’t make sense because they already got rid of people.”

The Peloton Studios waiting area is not just for the instructors, but it's for the community. It's a place for people to mingle. Share on X

They are removing all the rowers they had installed because it has been canceled.

I can’t help but wonder in all seriousness if they’re starting to bring that in. I should have said this earlier when John was on, but my thought about the rower is that they have created some new marketing. It would not shock me in all seriousness if they’re going to push this out in the middle of this soft opening. I don’t know. We’ll see, but renovations are happening nonetheless. That was New York studio only.

Bob Treemore had an interesting find.

He’s always digging around over on LinkedIn and seeing who’s doing what. You guys might remember a while back Latitude 32. A bunch of employees moved from Latitude 32 over to Peloton. Peloton basically acquired them. That has been reversed apparently. If you look at their LinkedIn, they were at Peloton up until February 2022. Now it says that they’re back at Latitude 32.

How does that work? If Peloton acquired Latitude 32, wouldn’t it be absorbed into Peloton?

Apparently not because they’re back at Latitude 32. These are good questions.

I don’t understand this version of events where somebody would be like, “Welcome back at Precor.”

I thought the same thing. I don’t know if they were truly acquired or it was like, “You come work for us,” and it was more of a contracting thing. There are a lot of questions. It’s not like we saw the deal that was made. I don’t know. Let me say that Bob Treemore used the word acquisition. I am not saying that he was wrong in using that word. I’m saying I don’t know what it was based on.

If it was contracting, they actually changed their LinkedIn. They didn’t say, “I’m working on a project.” It says, “I have this job title at Peloton.” That’s not a contractor.

It’s not. They were principal engineering directors and vice presidents all at Peloton. Now they’re back over. We’ve got a vice president over at Latitude 32, a different vice president than who was over at Peloton, some engineering, then the other one says president. I don’t know. I can’t answer these questions. I’m just reporting what I know.

It is interesting to try and figure out what all that means.

—

We make lots of jokes about the Artists Series featuring people we’ve never heard of. This time it featured somebody I’ve heard of, but it doesn’t seem like she would be super conducive to cardio, Barbra Streisand.

That is funny that you say that because there is a yoga and there is bike and there is strength. I don’t know what the bike will look like. I’m curious about that myself. Obviously, any artists you bring in, there’s going to be positive and there’s going to be negative.

She has always been very divisive. Just to be clear, she’s a straight-up legend, but there are certain people that cannot stand her.

I feel weird saying this because I know who she is, but I don’t know her music. If I heard it, I would know it.

I could play lots of songs for you that you would know.

I don’t listen to her music.

It’s interesting that for such a major artist, there was no commercial radio format that plays her music.

That’s what I’m struggling with. I know that her music exists. I don’t dislike her music. I just can’t be like, “I love that song.” I don’t have any feelings like that, but a lot of people do. As you said, legend.

I’m a little upset that we don’t get a boxing class because who can forget the cinematic classic, The Main Event with the disco song to match. There needs to be a Barbara Streisand boxing class that plays The Main Event over and over for the entirety of the class. I’ve said it.

Would you take that class?

Hell no, but that class needs to exist. The world would be in a better place if that class existed. Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, 1979, The Main Event. It’s the plot of what ends up being the plot of Moonlighting. She’s this rich business owner. I think her manager steals all her money. All she has left is she owns a boxing studio, and then it turns out she actually owns the boxer. She has his contract. She makes this guy who’s not ready to box go back into boxing and she’s the manager and hilarity allegedly ensues.

There’s your film information for this episode and I didn’t know any of that. How about that?

—

Joining us once again is Angelo from MetPro here to answer all of your nutrition questions.

Thanks for having me back.

This one I can totally relate with. This is from Heather Michelle. She says that her downfall is late-night snacking right before bed, sad face.

Heather Michelle, I’m going to let you in on a secret. That’s almost everyone’s downfall. There are some weirdos out there that are like, “I have no compulsion to eat after dinner or late at night whatsoever,” but not most of them. We’re conditioned. A day of hard work and stress and dealing with stuff. We finally get to turn off for the evening and relax and wind down with what we want to do. That experience of winding down is heightened by the pleasurable experience of snacking. It’s common.

What I’m going to do is I’m going to give you a series of practical steps that you can take to help curb that. You may not eliminate it entirely, but you definitely can help curb that. If you were working with one of our coaches, the first thing they’re going to do is they’re going to be like, “What did you eat during the day? Did you get your assigned meals?” Right out of the gate, we stack the deck.

Our clients tend to have fewer issues at night organically because we are pushing more food volume through them during the day just by having a cadence. We have a routine. We have breakfast. We have lunch. We have snacks that are determined in advance. We know what we’re getting out of this. if your goal is weight loss, they’ve been balanced and managed, so that way we’re seeing that progress we want.

The American culture and diet, we all know it’s weighted back at the end of the day. Most people don’t realize how weighted it has become. It is not unusual to find individuals who consume 75 to 80% of their calories after 5:00 PM. It does happen. That’s not the average. There are those people that wake up and they’re running. They don’t eat breakfast. The first meal of the day is lunch and they’re basically snacking at their office. They’re running straight through their day.

What happens is then they have dinner and they nibble after dinner until they go to bed. It happens. A lot of people that are doing some of the intermittent fastings inadvertently slide into that category, where they get themselves used to not eating the first half of the day. Pretty soon it’s easy to miss lunch, then it’s just nibbling from 4:00 to 10:00 or 11:00 PM. Usually, that does not provide the outcome you desire.

Just being conscious of it. Try and get the bulk of your food pushed earlier in the day. A little emphasis on carbs earlier in the day, and more protein fats and vegetable carbs later in the day is going to do good, but don’t skip dinner and leave yourself hungry. If you’re satisfied, you’re not going to have as many cravings at night. You’re not going to have as many. I didn’t say you’re not going to have any. The reason is chocolate still tastes good. That happens no matter what the environment.

TCO 263 | New Peloton Studio

 

We have all had that experience of electricity where you’re just walking down the road and all of a sudden, “Get sugar, get sugar, get sugar.” You get that craving. That is largely negated when your blood sugar is stable and you’re eating balanced meals throughout the day. Your timing is solid and balanced throughout the day, and you’re evenly distributed. That is largely taken off the table. That in itself will be huge.

Now let’s go to the psychological aspect. The psychological aspect of evening snacking is usually not because Johnny is hungry or because Susie is hungry. It’s usually because that is our wind downtime. Psychologically, we want to snack on something because it’s a habit and it’s enjoyable. If that describes you, Heather, snack on something. Prepare in advance that you’re going to have the munchies in the evening, and snack on something that isn’t going to directly undermine your efforts.

One of the things my wife and I do is we will regularly do the Costco veggie tray and keep that in the house. Some people have their favorites. I’m a big proponent of crunchy items. I like any veggies that are crunchy. I have a whole rack of low-calorie dressings to fit every mood of the day. I can grab and have my crunchy veggie and whatever dressing I like to dip it in, and I know I’m in the good. Another thing that you can do if you are actually hungry is going to protein at dinner.

One of the first things we’ll ask our clients to do is have an extra meal or snack of the protein and vegetables that you had at dinner. Go back for seconds, skip the carb, and have extra protein and veggies. If you do want something sweet or you do want something savory, there are a few low-calorie recipes out there. We don’t need to spend a lot of time on this because Google has an infinite supply. You can chill berries in the freezer and put a little Stevia on them to sweeten it up. It’s actually really good.

You can do a concoction where you can do some Greek yogurt combined with strawberries and a little bit of Truvia or Stevia. Put it in the blender. Put it in the freezer and chill. I like frozen grapes. That’s a great thing to do. If I want something savory, you can do sliced apples, and put a little bit of low-fat mozzarella on it. Bake it in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes until the cheese melts. Put a little garlic powder on it. There’s 101.

You can do roll-ups when you get that hors d’oeuvre when you eat out, where they take ham or turkey, and they roll it up with cream cheese and pepperoncini with a toothpick. Do that with cottage cheese, instead of cream cheese. You’ll be surprised by the texture. You’ll hardly be able to taste the difference in those small quantities. You can make yourself something like that.

Find your own rhythm of healthy snacks in the evening. For goodness sake, if I give you one piece of advice, throw the temptations out. If it’s in your house, you’re going to eat it. I have temptations also. The whole Oreo cookie thing, we’ll still have two cookies and not eat them by the sleep if they’re in my house. They have to be gone. They cannot be in my house. I have found that very rarely at 9:30 at night will I put on my coat, grab my keys, and drive to the store to get cookies. I have done that.

I won’t even do that for medicine. I’m like, “I’ll be fine in the morning.”

“I can survive one morning.” More often than not, if you open your fridge and the temptation is not there, you’re going to be more satisfied with the healthy options that are there. The time to plan for it is not to wait and figure it out when the craving hits because then it’s too late. You’re going to have whatever is quick, easy, and probably high calorie and fattening. Let’s be honest.

If you go to the grocery store next and you make a line item and your grocery list and say, “I’m going to grab healthy snacks to snack on at night. You don’t grab the junk food. What you will find is that 9 out of 10 times, you’re going to grab something a little bit better. If you had a satisfying dinner, you’re going to eat a little bit less at night because you’re not hungry. If you’ve had snacks throughout the day, you’re not going to get cravings as strongly. That’s all going to add up to progress with the late-night snacking.

Coming up next episode, how to resist the temptations of Instacart. On that note, thank you for joining us. We will now show you to the door. If people would like fitness and nutrition information tailored for them to help them reach their fitness goals, where can they find you?

MetPro.co/tco. Thanks so much, guys.

Thank you.

—

Stephanie Land is a Peloton user and the creator of Maid. She wrote the book that is now a hit show on Netflix.

Her show is a contender for Emmy of the year. How exciting is that? Congrats to Stephanie Land and everyone who worked on the series. I have read the book and I’ve watched the show. I enjoyed it. I could identify with a lot of the scenes and a lot of the things that she went through. She did a great job of making it real, and the TV show, whenever they made it into a show, did a great job of keeping the gist of the book and the story that she was trying to tell in that format. They did a good job of moving it to a television series.

That is not one that we will watch together. I have not seen that.

I got tired of waiting for you. Sorry.

It happens.

It’s really good. I highly suggest everyone to watch it.

—

Tonal announced that they’re opening up a New York studio.

I am freaking excited about this. I cannot even contain myself. For those of you who are wondering, you can not take classes in the Tonal studio. I have already asked. I’ve already been told no. There are five brand new coaches, Coach Woody moved from LA to New York to open up the studio. There will also be five brand new coaches, Tanysha Renee, Joe Rodonis, Ash Wilking, Tim Landicho and Kristina Centenari. How exciting. This means they’re going to be teaching more live classes. They came out with the live class schedule and it’s like all week long. Four classes in the morning from the East Coast every day, and four classes from the West Coast every day. There are a total of 32 live classes every single week. I’m so stoked. This is going to be great.

—

It is a very busy week for birthdays.

Tell us all about the birthdays, Tom.

In Peloton, there is no best instructor. You just have to find the one that's right for your personality. Share on X

We missed one because we didn’t have her yet because she’s relatively new. On June 15th was Joslyn Thompson Rule’s birthday.

I love her. She is a joy.

Coming up, so you can be prepared to say happy birthday to these people. On June 22nd, Selena Samuela is celebrating her birthday. On June 23rd, they have to share a day, Andy Speer and Denis Morton are both celebrating their birthday. You can mark all of that on your calendars because I have.

Happy birthday to Joslyn, Selena, Andy, and don’t forget, Denis. June is a busy month but August is the big month. Get ready.

That’s your birthday.

No. It’s a big month because there are so many Leos in the Peloton universe. There are so many people like me.

—

Joining us is Marci Rosenstein. Marci, how is it going?

We have you on for a couple of reasons. We are going to get to hear your first impression of being back in Peloton Studios, New York. The new one. You were in the first live class that opened up. We want to talk to you about that. We’re also going to hear all about your Peloton journey, and how it has gone for you throughout the year. If you don’t mind, let’s start with the day you did it. Tell us all of the things. How did this come to be?

I will take Robin’s word and say that it came with some hustle. My husband works for NJ.com. He is a managing producer in the sports department. I’m constantly giving him the stories, but never for sports. It’s always for news which he poo-pooed. I finally said, “I have a sports story.” I had seen that Peloton was inviting members of the press for its opening. I said, “I should go.” He said, “That is not a sports story.” We argued about that a little bit enough that he brought it to the feature editor. They shockingly agreed to let me cover it.

First off, you were phrasing that wrong. You won.

You did win. You won that battle.

I always win when it comes to arguments with my husband.

He took it to the feature editor and lost.

He was thrilled for me. He was happy for me to get to do this. I do owe him big. He sent an email and they said that there was still space, so I was able to attend. It was great. It was a nice day. I had to go in as an impartial reporter to some extent. I had to be prepared, but there was nothing that jumped out to me that was negative to say. I felt old. Their version of the press is not my version of the press. There was one guy with a reporter pad. I left mine in my bag because it was too embarrassing. It was a young crowd. While I thought of influencers and I’m sure there were some, a lot of staff were in that first class.

Peloton staff, to be clear.

Yeah. There was a woman to my left who seemed to know half the room. She said, “I work for Peloton.” That was interesting and unexpected and nice. The girl next to me said she worked for Peloton for about two years and this was her first class. The energy in the room was off the charts. It was amazing. Robin, who is one of my favorites, has that energy. It’s so transferred to home but in person. I was exhausted.

Your adrenaline is up when you’re in the studio and it takes over. That exhausts you for sure.

That’s true. You’re on the bike for a good 25 minutes prior to the class starting and it’s hot. I was sweating before the class started. I do much better with a warmup and I was determined to not let these young beat me. I was warming up at not a crazy pace, but a decent pace.

Why did they have you in so early when in the old studio, they didn’t have you go in so early? Was it because there was a press event and they had things set up a little differently?

I assumed that it was because it was the first time and because there were so many first-time studio riders. The woman on the other side of me did not know how to set up, didn’t have settings and didn’t join. I tried to talk to her. She wasn’t super receptive. She wasn’t even on the leaderboard. She didn’t log in. At one point, her output was seventeen. She’s coming from a different place than I was.

That place was stationary.

She was adorable. I beat her for sure though, I’m going to say. I’m a little competitive. Probably everyone, staff included, was nervous so they wanted to give that extra time for everyone to get settled. When they said, “You can go in,” I was probably 6th or 7th into the room, which then meant I was going to be in the front. I promptly moved out of line. I had no interest in doing that.

They did not assign bikes. They didn’t say, “Go to this.” That’s interesting.

They not only didn’t assign them, but they tried to be strict and said, “Go in the line and follow the line.” Once that first row filled up, things fell apart. A few people went and took whatever bike they wanted. I did not. I just cared that I wasn’t in the front. I took the next one in line on the second row. I was pretty much not visible throughout the class.

Did they still have people come around and help people get logged in and help them get their settings? Was there somebody doing that?

Yeah. There were a couple of people in the studio. There are 39 bikes. One of the people next to me had a white shirt. She must have taken off a long sleeve shirt. That was on the bike and they came and ask her to remove it because they said it would be distracting. At first, they said, “We’re not going to give you a towel.” That was in the email prior to attending because of COVID. The next email said, “You’ll get a towel and a water bottle.” We did each have one towel.

I was wondering if you got water. Were they the Peloton water bottles, the ones that had the Peloton label on them?

They were. Not everyone took them. I had come with my own water in case they were wrong about the water bottles because I need my water. I come with my own. I used that. There were a couple of different Peloton water bottles, and then they had that water in the box, which I only saw one person take. That would have been hard to navigate while riding.

What about the locker room situation? Many people haven’t been to the new studio. Describe the locker room for us.

It’s gorgeous. All grays and dark grays. When you walk into the studio and what I would call the main entrance, it’s the first floor. You walk up a few steps and then you’re on the level with the studios, and then you walk up a stairwell. The locker rooms are there. It’s big. It’s probably six stalls and many showers. They had toiletries in there and attached to the wall are shampoo, conditioner and body wash. I did not see if they had towels. Someone reached out and asked me. I did not think to look. They did have hairdryers, which I can’t say were Dyson. They looked Dyson style. It’s sleek and clean, obviously.

Nobody had been in there yet. It better be clean. It might be dusty.

Someone said, “You use their shoes?” I said, “They hadn’t been used before.”

If you were going to use their shoes, this was the class to use them.

The locker room was impressive. I had been to the old studio in February 2020 right before the shutdown. You felt crunched. It’s not like that. The locker room was big. There were obviously lockers, but then on the first level, there are also lockers. If you want to go and cycle and you’re like, “I’m not going to shower. I’m not going to do anything,” you can put your stuff right there.

I love that because then you don’t have to fight all the people in the bathroom to get to your stuff if you’re not going to shower. That’s fabulous.

That was nice. Another interesting thing is outside the bike studio, the floor was cork. Once you have your shoes on, you’re only supposed to be right in front of the studio door. It’s not a tiny area, but so that you’re not ruining the floors.

My big question, and this is the key component because sometimes when Crystal goes to the city, I’ll tag along. The important question here is, how is the waiting area?

It’s great. When you walk in that main entrance, there is a small sofa on the left that they’re calling another member seating area. If you go up to the locker room level, I think it was sunken. There’s a couch and a little bar where they sell instant coffee and a few bites I believe. It’s nice, big and open. They have a couple of the Bike+ set up. I was expecting a tiny showroom with a few articles of clothing for sale. There are sitting areas.

After the class, Jen Cotter, Adrian and Robin spoke and talked about how they created this and that it’s not just about the instructors. I put this in my article that it’s about the community and that this is a place for people to mingle. We certainly were not rushed out. I get the sense that they’re not going to rush you out. They purposely put this area away from the studios. There’s not that crush of people. There are four studios, not one. With two classes at 8:00 AM on Friday, it didn’t feel crowded, but there were certainly a lot of people. I do think that there would be crowds because people will stay and hang out for a while.

What about when you go in and you’re looking around? I’m under the impression you can see the control room. Could you see the control room? What was that like?

They say that they have four control rooms. I saw only one. You can see that from that member’s seating area. I come from a TV background. It’s not the ABC news control room for sure. It’s impressive enough. I took a picture of it. It was hard because it’s glass, so you’re reflecting. It was a nice control room. I believe there are eight cameras in the bike studio. What the person told me is eight cameras and three special tracking cameras. When I questioned her, I said, “There are eleven.” She wasn’t certain. I believe that there are eight in the bike studio. That’s a lot of cameras.

There used to be three. I took the class you were in. I looked for you but I didn’t see you, Marci. That doesn’t mean much. She was hiding in the back.

My biggest fear is that I’ll see myself in the class and be like, “I’m one of those people who bounce around.”

I have a question that I want to ask, but before I do that, I have to say that I was struck by when you’re watching the class now, when the camera is dead on the instructor’s front view, there’s nobody directly behind the instructor in the mirror from home. There used to be people all the way through there. That was distracting. That was the part that people got a little weird about. That has been removed. However, now the stage is U-shaped and the bikes come around the U-shape.

Whenever they would go to a side view of Robin, there were people right next to the stage, and there were a couple of ladies, one of which I’m not trying to call her out. I’m not trying to be mean, but she didn’t look like she was working really hard. I thought, “Is this going to be the new bike seven where everyone tries to get to and get attention?” It was well lit and you could see the people very well from that particular angle. I didn’t know if you notice that in the studio because it’s a different feel. You don’t have cameras moving. You can’t see the cameras in the same way you can when you’re in the studio as when you’re at home. I didn’t know if you had any thoughts on that.

I believe the person that you’re referencing on the same side of the room is me, which was on Robin’s right side. There was person three and that’s what I was focused on. Again, I’m focused on the numbers. I never looked beyond her. The angle wouldn’t have been right for me. I did notice that across the room, however, that person was close and lit a bit. In the studio, it’s not distracting. I tend to notice things more like one woman, she was a seasoned rider. I wanted to go over and go, “Raise your seat. You are way too low.” That’s the kind of thing that bothers me. I did watch it back a little, I was curious and I did think, “Some people are visible.” I always felt that way with the old studio because there were people right next to the mirror. You see them twice.

I thought it was different because now there are people highlighted. They were trying to get rid of some of the highlightings and then ended up highlighting a different group of people. I thought that was interesting.

You’re right. They smushed the bikes in there. They probably could stand to put a few more on the way back, but they think people find that to be not a great position. I hit the arm of the woman next to me a couple of times. They’re close.

No intervals in arms in that classroom then.

Only up and down. No side to side.

There are lots of black eyes around that class. Are they still doing a photo op with the instructor? Did you get a chance to do that? If so, did you feel like that was because it was the first class or do you think that’s going to be something that sticks around?

No, I asked. They’re going to continue to do that. It’s not like the old days. They’ve created a photo area. Right outside the bike studio to the left, there’s a giant Peloton logo. It was funny. That class ends and they ask you to stay on your bike and then Robin leaves. This is how new the studio is. She started to leave the wrong way. She went through that opening that you referenced and then she veered right and was going in between two people’s bikes. They redirected her. They announced that she’ll freshen up for photos. Even one of the employees who was there said to me, “I was there.” Once we were allowed to leave our bikes, we went outside and people lined up in socks. People didn’t even take the time to put their shoes on. They were in that line. Robin came out and he took the photo. Some people spoke to her. We were informed, no touching.

That’s very different. I wonder if that’s a Robin thing or is that a Peloton thing?

It was a COVID Peloton thing, but I don’t know.

She freshened up and you didn’t, yuck.

She stood on one side of the logo. There were a couple of pictures. This was also different. I do not know if this is how they’ll be doing it, but I assume so. Instead of giving someone your phone, they took the pictures and then maybe eight hours later, we got a link with all the pictures.

TCO 263 | New Peloton Studio

 

That’s how they do meet and greet backstage at concerts.

That’s how I do it at concerts, and then I send somebody a Dropbox link and I’m like, “Find your picture.”

Which makes sense. It was a lot faster. Who wants to touch everyone’s phone eight hours later, particularly for a press event where you’re trying to get coverage.

You would think they’ would churn that a little faster. My guess is they’ll turn it faster over time. I book concerts for a living and I run the meet and greets. A lot of times, if they want us to take the photos, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll take them all on my phone, put them on Dropbox and get everybody’s info and then send it to them. I do it as quickly as possible because people will blow you up because they want those pictures. I churn it as fast as possible so they’ll leave me the hell alone.

I don’t blame you. The first photo I saw, I think Robin posted it on Instagram. It was a picture of Robin with a guy. She had her arm around him. He was maybe an employee that she knew. That was just my guess. When I went up, I said hi and stood on one side of the P and I was done. I was disappointed. The way it has been pitched to the press was to a meet and greet, and I was going to be able to ask a couple of questions. At that point, my story was turning through my head and I realized, “There’s no way that I’m going to be able to talk to her for a couple of minutes and get anything for the story.” My focus was I was not there for my personal photo. I took it but that wasn’t my goal.

I wonder if they sat on them purposefully so they got the social media engagement out of it. You gave them a head start and they will get the traction on that meet and greet picture, and then everyone else can post theirs later. It’s just a thought.

It’s possible. I will say that the one thing I thought they did wrong, coming from a more traditional press background, was there was no formal person free to ask questions and quote. I would ask questions and they would answer, but then I couldn’t get a name or I couldn’t quote them. They would say, “I’ll get you in touch. I know who you are. I’ll email you.” They said they’d have fact sheets and they would email. It was like six hours. I had already posted my story and was on the train home before I got any of those emails. It was okay. I had enough. I was able to do it. I thought, “If they need a media consultant, I’m available.” I thought that they would have wanted Instagram immediately like that and not have those pictures. That was not what I was there to do. I’m an Instagram novice. That was surprising to me for sure.

I get that. Tom, do you have anything else about the studio?

Was there any one thing that surprised you about the whole experience that we haven’t talked about?

No. You’ve been riding in that studio for a couple of years. I did not see any pops of red. From an aesthetic standpoint, everything was gray and black, which you would have expected. That’s the look now, but Peloton has that red pop. There were no red pops anywhere. The other thing that surprised me is that the bikes are not Bike+ in the studio.

I was about to ask that. Did they have the smaller display on the bike then since they weren’t the Bike+? Was it the old small display or what used to be in the old studio? The one that was this big or was it like your home display?

It’s not like the home display but it’s new. It had your three metrics, but then on the right, it shows the in-studio leaderboard. They told me that it showed the whole leaderboard. I never noticed that. I wasn’t looking, but my little high-five thing lit off. I pushed that and you can high-five in-studio riders.

That’s fun.

I was much too focused on my day. I did two return high-fives. I’m leaderboard-driven, so I have to see the leaderboard. To see the high-fives, you couldn’t see the leaderboard. I touched it maybe twice the whole ride. I went back to the leaderboard. That was nice to someone who is a big high-fiver. There was a lot. I do hardcore sometimes. I’m number accurate. I did see a lot of people posting a lot of hardcore members when they ride. They were high-fiving like crazy. I’m assuming that a lot of them were those, but they also said that a lot of people said instructors were high-fiving during this ride. Callie was one. I can’t remember the others. I’m assuming that all the instructors high-five me as well.

I’m sure that was it. What about the other studios? Was it clear that this was the cycling studio? What I mean by that was did it say cycling studio on the outside? Was there some kind of indication? I picture a television studio or a radio studio where it’s like, “In use,” and there’s a big lit-up sign. Since there’s a strength studio, a yoga studio, a cycling studio, running studio, could you tell easily from the outside, which was which or did they have to direct you?

They have to direct you. There’s nothing indicating. The first studio is cycling. The last studio is the tread. The other two they said are strength and yoga. They’re combining. They also told me, I don’t know if you knew this because this is breaking news, that there are no in-person live bootcamp classes.

It’s interesting. It’s probably because they don’t want to have the weights and the equipment in the same place. There’s no room.

The tread studio while a little emptier, I also think would be challenging.

That makes sense to me.

I thought about distracting.

It’s almost like people are swinging weights around. I could see something bad happening there. That seems like an accident waiting to happen.

I did the bootcamp. I am never on my mat on time. That was probably a smart decision.

I was thinking the same thing. The movement back and forth of an entire class of people would probably look like a hot mess on screen.

Marci, let’s switch gears a little bit. When did you join Peloton?

I joined in 2018.

It has been a while. Were you always a fitness person?

Yeah. Certainly, for the past several years, I don’t miss a week. I’m pretty devoted. My favorite spin instructor, I ended up using her for personal training. She got the bike in probably 2017 and tried to talk to me. She was like, “You’d love it.” I went somewhere that had a store. I tried it out. I hated it. I hate riding out of the saddle. I always have. It’s not my thing. When I was out of the saddle, it was smooth for me. I will say the person in the showroom was not helping me out. I probably didn’t have enough resistance, but I know it’s not for me. I left. A few weeks later I was like, “I’m being silly,” and I just ordered that.

I’m all in. I knew I’m pretty self-motivated. I had a treadmill. I did strength in my basement. I knew that I would use it if I had it. I was getting it along to the same gym for quite a while. They were changing their pricing structure and I was getting involved with the classes. My kids were getting older, so I would bring them to school and then I would have to wait for a while to get to their classes. I would have to throw them out the door and run. I thought I like making my own schedule. I was immediately addicted. It was the right choice for me.

It’s fascinating that your spin instructor got you to buy one. That seems remarkably shortsighted on her part. It’s like your drug counselor selling you heroin.

A little bit, but she was more my friend and my trainer. She knew I would use it. She said, “They’re better instructors than I am,” which I would disagree with. She has a different energy. She’s older than me by ten years. She’s probably in her 60s now I would say, but you would never know it. She’s in fantastic shape. I did think it was funny and I did stop going to her class.

They ride together on Peloton.

I kept up my training with her, and then it stopped, but we do keep in touch. I quickly would come and I would come from my training session. I would be like, “Did you do this class? I like this person.” I quickly surpassed her with my interest in the instructor.

Speaking of, do you have a favorite Peloton instructor?

I have a bunch. I have a few I don’t click with. I love Jess Sims and Matty Maggiacomo. Matt Wilpers, I love his training style but not the music. I am not particularly music-driven. I do a lot of classes where I don’t care for the music or I’ll walk out and I couldn’t even tell you a single song.

That’s how I am too. I don’t even notice.

Although I am a big Broadway dork. I love it now that they are doing a lot of Broadway. I do all the Broadway. Anything that they offer, I do that. For strength, I’ve done Andy Speer. I tried a lot of the programs. I mix it up a lot.

That’s good. Do you like ‘80s music, Marci?

Yes.

You have to take the twenty-minute ‘80s Rock Run with Susie Chan. It was so good. I’m not usually a big fan of twenty minutes, but I’m recovering from COVID so I had to ease back into the running. I wanted something that would be motivating. It’s good.

I’m going to write that down.

What is your leaderboard name?

It’s Rosenshine. I’ve tried to change it over the years. I came up with one. It was too long. I was like, “I had been a member for so long. I don’t need to change it now. It’s too late.

Speaking of being a member for so long, what advice would you give to people just starting their journey?

I see so many people saying, “Who’s the best instructor and this and that?” My friend down the street bought the bike and she posted on her personal page, “Who’s the best instructor” This is someone I’ve been friends with for a million years. I was like, “Ignore what everyone else said. You’re going to love Christine.” You have to find the one that’s right for your personality. When you ask and you get 700 different opinions, it’s because there is no best instructor. I tell any new person who asked me now to take the All For One rides and runs and strengths. It’s such a nice intro to give you a sense of the different people. You might find right off the bat like, “That person is not my style,” or “There’s something about them that spoke to me.” My favorite is not your favorite. There are reasons for that. That’s like when people ask what running shoes to wear.

Go to a store. Do not take my advice.

That’s a good idea. That’s like a little sampler platter. It’s like speed dating for Peloton instructors.

I wish they did it more. People love seeing the different instructors and the Two For Ones are great. I’m sure it’s hard for them to coordinate, although editing is a lovely thing. It’s such a nice introduction particularly now with so many instructors. With the exception of a couple of the German ones, I would use every single instructor. That was my goal. I printed out a chart. Even the ones I don’t like or I don’t click with, it’s nice to know it’s different for twenty minutes and move on. There’s value to that.

Marci, thank you so much for joining us. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you if you would like to be found.

I’m on Instagram. Click on my article, please. Maybe that will convince NJ.com to put me on a couple more stories. My Instagram is @Rosenshine.Pelo. I have exactly one post. It’s my article. I don’t post my workouts or anything like that. Maybe I’ll start to post more if I have more than the three followers I have. I’m all over the Facebook group. I don’t post a ton, but I comment and like. I’m in way too many groups.

Thank you so much for taking the time to join us and giving us the inside scoop on what the first-class post-COVID was like at Peloton.

Thank you so much, Marci.

It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

—

I guess that brings this episode to a close. Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or 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 our Patreon where you can get all of these episodes completely ad-free for just $5 a month, Patreon.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

 

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