• Peloton and CPSC issued a joint press release about the Tread+.
• Peloton CEO responds to emails about Daniel McKenna. (And yes, it was real.)
• Peloton’s Top HR exec exits.
• There’s a new rating system for closed captions.
• The App can now make personal recommendations.
• The makers of Lanebreak take us behind the scenes.
• Tips for blocking creepers on the leaderboard.
• Forbes writes about hesitation from people worried about Peloton’s future.
• Seeking Alpha is bullish on Peloton.
• The Peloton Prophet has info about Voice Commands on Peloton.
• Dr. Jenn – Striking a balance between exercise modalities
• Matt Wilpers was on the Ali On The Run podcast.
• Matt shows off his height (or lack thereof).
• Becs Gentry has a pregnancy update.
• Emma Lovewell posts pics from Becs’ babyshower.
• Chelsea Jackson Roberts has a motherhood update.
• Robin Arzon spoke at the Wells Fargo Women In Leadership Summit.
• Robin launches her Swagger Society.
• Logan Aldridge shows off his barbell workout.
• Logan has a life hack for cutting your nails when you have one arm.
• Emma Lovewell shares footage of her visit to Japan.
• Christine D’Ercole talks about the stories we tell ourselves.
• Selena Samuela shares her wedding video.
• Well And Good talked to Kendall Toole.
• Kendall has a new product launch.
• Cody Rigsby has free self-care ideas.
• Cody is working on a top-secret project.
• Tobias Heinze has three weeks of training left.
• There was an in-store appearance from Alex & Ash and an upcoming appearance from Matt Wilpers & Katie Wang.
• Angelo has tips for eating healthy on the go.
• Ashton Kutcher talks to Thomas Rhett.
• Babyface artist series is official
• Steven Little posts about turning 49.
• Soul Cycle cuts instructor pay.
• There was a mini apparel drop.
• Birthdays – Matt Wilpers (10/24), Emma Lovewell (10/25)

All this plus our interview with Cristina Ribeiro!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

The Tread+ Lives Another Day Plus Our Interview With Cristina Ribeiro

I have a cold. Most people can tell by my voice.

It has been a long one too. It’s really hanging in there.

It kicked in the day after we recorded our previous episode. It’s been with us ever since like luggage or herpes. We can’t get it to go away, so here we are. We had fun at the Yacht Rock concert.

We did. What a great format. I know we’ve said this before, but it’s cool how they have all of the musicians all lined up on stage, and they switch out people. It’s so fast. Somebody comes out and they play a few songs. It’s all hits, and then somebody else comes out, and then they go back in. It’s quick and it feels very short even though it’s a long evening.

It’s tons of songs, but if you get somebody like Walter Egan, unless you’re a diehard Walter Egan fan, he has probably only two songs that you know. He comes out and he plays two songs, and you move on. With Peter Beckett from Player, it’s the same thing. It’s a nice setup they got going. It was good to see everybody.

Stephanie and Jeff came all the way from Connecticut. It’s a long way. We had Jody and her friend Wendy and their respective husbands come all the way from Kansas City. Jody McCamon was on the show. We interviewed her way back. It was episode 76 or something like that. It was so long ago. It was in the under 100. It was in late 2017 or early 2018.

It’s been a bit, but that was a lot of fun.

It was great to get to meet Jody. We had that conversation so long ago. We’ve kept in touch all these years. It was cool to meet her in person.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We got to talk about this Tread+ news, and then we have to revisit the Daniel topic. I don’t want to talk about it either but we’re going to.

There’s been some stuff that has happened in between episodes. We’re not rehashing.

It’s all new info. We’ve got some more movement of sparse people leaving Peloton that we’re going to talk about. There are some new things that are going on within the app and the infrastructure in Peloton that we’re going to talk about. We also have an update as far as how to block creepers on the Peloton app. We’ve got a visit from the Peloton Prophet. We haven’t had one of those in a while, and then there is a ton of instructor news. There’s so much.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. Wherever you find a podcast, 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. That’s always super helpful. We have a new review. This is from Colette. It says, “I can’t believe I found this gem after almost four years of Peloton workouts. I love the conversations, updates, and so many laughs. A must for any Peloton member.” Thank you very much.

Colette, that was a lovely review. Thank you so much.

You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Also, do you know what something else you could do that could help us a lot? You can share an episode in your Facebook feed, Instagram, Twitter and be like, “I’ve checked the show. I love Peloton. You should check it out.” That’s always super helpful. That’s maybe the single most important thing that you can do to help the show if helping the show is something you would like to do. You can also find us on YouTube, YouTube.com/TheClipOut. If you want to see what I look like with a cold, it looks pretty much the same.

This is the new Peloton fleece hoodie that Mariana made me buy because she looks so pretty in it. I had to grab it.

This is my twelve-year-old Disney hoodie. We have a Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where you get bonus content and ad-free episodes.

We owe you guys one.

We were super busy, then I was sick. We didn’t think you wanted to hear me sounding like that. There has been a lot of sniffling. You don’t want to hear that, especially if you’re paying for it. Finally, don’t forget we got a newsletter at theclipout.com. You can go over there and sign up for that, and you can get all the links and stuff we throw at you, and if we have any sort of special super important announcements to make in between, we got to wait to get ahold of you. We don’t sell your info. If the sanctity of your Gmail account is super important to you, you’re safe with us. Fear not, we don’t even know how to do that. There’s all that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

If you miss a gym class or have to be with the kids, how cool would it be to take a class at your home? Share on X

We shall.

—

We finally have news about the Tread.

I’m so excited about this. Peloton released a joint statement with the CPSC saying that the refund for the Tread+ has been extended until November of 2023. This is huge because this statement actually says that Peloton is working on finding a solution for a rear guard that can eventually be retrofitted for our Tread+ that we already have out here. Someday, maybe we’ll even get to see them sold again. That’s the goal.

That would be great. I know because, from the get-go, I don’t think it’s coming back. I would love to be wrong.

This would be a great thing for you to be wrong about.

Especially because we have one that we’d like them to continue to care about. I know some people were annoyed about it and they’re like, “I sent mine back. Why did they wait so long?” They got the Federal government involved now. They don’t get to do whatever they want when they’re going through this process. The CPSC has to sign off on everything they do.

It’s like if you were to have a custody battle. Let’s say that you cannot make any decisions with the person that you’re getting divorced from. Instead, you say, “Hey, courts, we would like you to help us decide where this child should live. Once you do that, you no longer get to have a lot of say.”

Nobody has got to say. It’s got to go through the court system. That’s what we got going on here. When people are like, “They should have told us earlier. They didn’t bother,” that’s not fair.

I don’t know that they could, but the other cool thing about this is it also means that we’re going to see some retrofit options eventually coming to us. In the same way that they couldn’t tell us, there’s probably like, “Hey, CPSC, we at Peloton have this new design? What do you think?” I picture the CPSC being like, “We’re not impressed. Give us another one.”

I can see the CPSC being like, “Put it in that stack over there.”

“We’ll get to it when we get to it.” It’s like when your kid turns in late.

That’s exactly what I’m thinking. It’s like when your kid turns in the paper late and they’re like, “Hey, teacher, could you grade the paper now?” “No, you shouldn’t turn it in late.”

As much as I enjoyed the moment when John Foley told them off, it didn’t set the tone for that. It’s like if you were in the middle of that custody battle, and you told the judge to F off, you probably aren’t going to get a lot of sway with that judge going forward. I’m excited that I get to keep my Tread+ for now. I can assume that I get to have it at least for one more year. I’m very excited about that. If you have not returned your Tread+, keep it.

If you’re in the process of returning it, you can call and tell them, never mind.

Lots of people did that. It was all good. No questions asked. They were fine with it.

When we were talking about how once the government is involved, you don’t fully control your own destiny. I know a lot of people were also concerned about when they push out that update for the auto incline and Tread+ didn’t get it. It’s like, “Oh, no.” You got to wonder if in the interim, while they’re figuring things out, they’re like, “You’re not doing anything to this thing.”

I don’t think that Peloton can make many changes to it while it’s under this review process because it’s still being recalled. I don’t know what those parameters are but I can only assume there are some parameters like, “You can’t make changes to this, this and this until we say so.” I’m sure that’s it. I also want to say, under that same umbrella, if something happens to that base and it’s yours, Peloton can’t replace it while it’s under recall. If your base dies, unfortunately, you’re going to have to wait until the new one comes out. I know it’s not what anybody wants to hear. I’m just saying that is what we’re living in right now. It’s this weird in-between world.

They’re legally forbidden.

I know a lot of people have talked about like, “I have a rear guard solution for this thing. I’m going to slap it on there.” I have talked to enough engineering-type people at this point that works in robotics. I am under the impression that by adding a rear guard, the other thing that you have to worry about is those slats keep moving forward, then it could create a pinch point between the rear guard and where the slats are.

You’ve traded one set of problems for another.

I can’t imagine that the CPSC is going to be very forgiving of that. That’s a whole another issue that has to be addressed if that’s even happening. As they try to design it, that’s something they’re going to have to work around. It’ll be interesting to see what this final design looks like. I think it’s going to look very different.

The takeaway here is largely positive, which is they have every intention of keeping the Tread+ around. If you have one, you just bought yourself another full calendar year before you have to make any sort of decision, which also gives them more time to land on a final decision of what that correction is going to be. You then get to decide if that’s good enough for you, if you want to send it back, or keep what you got. Overall, this is positive, except I’m sure there are people who have returned it that wish they had it now.

 

I saw people posts that.

That’s the risk you take, and not to be callous. It’s an unfortunate situation.

They made a decision based on the information they had. I can certainly understand. It’s not like I never considered that same decision. I can certainly understand making it. The thing is you got your full refund back. You now have all that money, whereas the rest of us don’t have that money but we have the Tread. You’re trading.

You made whole. It’s not like you returned it for a prorated amount. You got all your money back. It’s like you’ve had a free tread for two years.

This one is almost four. It was 2018.

You had the entirety of COVID. That’s two years right there. COVID sucked down a hole.

I feel I feel much better having this because I feel like it gives them more time. The longer we have, the better opportunity we have to get this fixed for real, and for the whole category to be made whole. I think it’s a good thing. I want to say one thing that I’ve seen resurfaced. There are a lot of people that are saying, “There are other treadmills on the market. Why are they picking on Peloton?” I agree with that 100%. I always have.

I have had engineering people tell me that there are differences between the Peloton motor and the Woodway motor. It’s something about the heavier center of gravity that makes it harder to stop, etc. I’m sure an engineer can tell you better than that. My point is it may not be as an apples-to-apples comparison as it looks. Even if it isn’t, I have always thought that the CPSC is trying to make an example of Peloton and they did. That has always been my belief and I continue to believe that.

In Daniel McKenna news, after we posted our previous episode, some more information came out shortly before we posted it. CEO Barry McCarthy was replying to people’s direct emails to him about how they handled the Daniel situation.

Since he’s been at Peloton, Barry McCarthy has always answered people’s emails. My understanding is since I’ve been talking about it, there are a lot more people that have found out his email address. It’s not hard to find.

Most companies have a formula that they use.

Full Googling, you can figure it out. At any rate, people email about their upset that Daniel was gone and the lawsuit in particular. Barry McCarthy said, “Thank you for emailing me Daniel’s alleged behavior by Peloton, which if true would be abhorrent to our values. I would never let that happen, nor and more importantly, with Jenn Cotter, who runs the content team, but if you wanted a large monetary settlement, you might allege outrageous claims. Sometimes the world is not as it appears.” The armchair experts went wild.

From what I hear from the attorneys that I know and have known for a long time, and therefore trust them because they are real people in my life. My understanding is that it’s very likely that the legal team was like, “Barry, don’t do that.” Also, there’s nothing in this letter that does anything to their case.

Basically, all he says is, “We didn’t do that.”

He didn’t even say that.

He says, “I would never let that happen.” It’s like saying, “We didn’t do that.” Of course, the other side is going to say, “They didn’t do that.” We still don’t know. If you’re in a legal situation, you’re going to say, “No, we didn’t.” He’s not undermining anything.

For those who are saying, “This is going to become part of discovery,” Barry was already named in the suit. His emails were already part of the discovery. Jenn Cotter is already part of the discovery. I don’t think that anything there is part of the issue. That happened. I want to reiterate for people who may not have understood what I was saying in the previous episode. I think that we need to let all the facts come out before we land on one side or the other.

It’s not shocking to me that Barry or anybody at Peloton would be like, “Hold on, I would like to get my side of the story out.” It’s also not shocking to me that just because Daniel put a claim out there does not mean that it’s 100% true. It doesn’t mean it’s not either. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s a claim. There was no proof there at all. That’s not where we are in the process. That comes out later. I don’t know if we will even get to that point. I still say this is going to arbitration next.

That’s my guess as well. Who knows. There are also people who thought it was odd that this is how they respond, not with a public statement, but with emails that work their way into the ecosystem in a Clip Out exclusive. I don’t necessarily even disagree.

I can’t explain why he did it, other than if I were sitting in his place, I would probably want to do the same thing. I know for all the people that did yell at me, there were certainly people that I responded to that I probably shouldn’t have wasted the energy on. If somebody were coming at me saying this stuff and I felt it was not true, I could absolutely see defending myself even if my legal team said don’t.

I absolutely get the impulse.

Peloton is different. It makes you appreciate what you have and understand that this is not a ride. This is a privilege to go and move because you see these real people and these milestones every day. Share on X

I do too. I don’t know. We’ll see how it all turns out. That’ll be interesting. I’m sure it’ll be months before this gets resolved one way or another. I would think, if not longer. As far as defending myself, I also want to say that there were a lot of people that did not believe that I had knowledge that that email from Barry was real. A lot of people felt that I didn’t understand how the internet works.

That you don’t understand that Photoshop exists and that you saw a thing and believed it.

Yes. I’m such a girl. Mansplain it to me, please. Although there are a lot of women splaining to me. That’s not fair to blame that on men. One of the people who doubted me, and let me say that I appreciate how she handled it, is Brittany Garcia. She was skeptical. Instead of yelling at me, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She reached out to Barry herself.

That is a fair thought process. “If this is what Barry is saying to people, if I reach out to Barry, I should get a version of this.” That would that’s a fair litmus test.

The way she handled it was good. She said, and she posted it on our Clip Out page, that she emailed Barry. Barry linked to The Clip Out post on Instagram and said, “Brittany, thank you for emailing. It’s never easy to part ways with an instructor. Here’s what I’ve said publicly about the situation. Barry.” He then linked back to what I had posted on Instagram.

He was kind enough to confirm that because people were skeptical.

It’s understandable for everyone who was skeptical. I am not upset or mad that anybody was skeptical. I am upset and mad. I want to draw the difference between questioning me and being rude. There’s a huge difference. I get that people would be skeptical. I really do. It is completely understandable. At any rate, it was real and that’s where it is. I can’t even say understand it. I’m not saying it was the right thing to do. There’s a huge difference between thinking, “That’s how I would have handled it,” and that’s how we handled it.

Hopefully, that’s the last time we’ll have to talk about the story for a little bit. It would be nice to leave this behind us and let the next story be a resolution.

Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

In unrelated news, Peloton’s top HR executive is leaving the company.

Shari Eaton, the Chief People Officer is leaving. I did not realize that this was technically the first hire that Barry made. He referred to her as the first hire. Shari Eaton was already at the company, but he elevated her to Chief People Officer. That’s why he called it his first hire. She said that she was leaving to pursue a new endeavor. Her phone rang unexpectedly. She said that there was no bad blood and that she left all on good terms. A lot of people were very skeptical about that because of non-competes. In that world, you have to not burn bridges. I don’t know. Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s not. All I know is that’s the classy way to leave, regardless of what the actual truth was. I hope she left on good terms.

You would think an HR person would know to leave classy. This is where we’re at with Peloton right now. It’s like someone leaves and doesn’t say anything, “That must mean something awful.” Someone leaves and says something awful, “That must mean something awful.” Someone leaves and says something nice, “That must mean something awful.” That’s called confirmation bias.

I agree. I think that in reality, what’s going on is that there’s going to be a lot of churns. Some of it is going to be because Barry wants a new set of people underneath him because he is the one in charge now. Some of these people are seeing that there are opportunities out there. I don’t know if anybody has been looking but it’s a ripe market for people right now.

If she was elevated, there’s no reason to think that he’s unhappy with her and he’s pushing her out the door. I do believe the version of events where she’s like, “Somebody called me up with a better job and I took it.”

I don’t know. To me, it doesn’t matter one way or another. This is far less upsetting than everything else has been. Some people are trying to link it to Daniel. They’re saying it’s directly connected that she threw a fit and was like, “I’m not doing this because you fired Daniel.” I don’t think that’s going to be it.

I don’t see an HR person storming out the door over one personal decision.

That’s not the way HR works. In my experience, HR has always been more for the company than for the actual human. I’m not saying that’s even a bad thing. I understand the need for it. We wish Shari luck with her new endeavor. Do you like my fancy picture?

It is fancy.

It’s totally gnarly. It’s so terrible. This is what happens when I got on the Tread and I’m still wobbly for my workout.

They have a new rating system.

It’s the same rating system, but they added a new rating. They’ve had this rating system, but they added captions. They used to have the class overall playlist, instructor stream quality, and difficulty, but now they’ve added caption quality. This one was perfect, so five stars. Also, Joslyn Thompson Rule tried to kill me in her class. That’s why I got rated a nine. I think that if you were going to be asked to do a fast run three times in a row for 90 seconds, you need to call that a nine. It was all done in love. I know that and I am better for it.

 

Peloton released in the app a new questionnaire that allows you to put in answers to questions and get personal workout recommendations. I have included a couple of the questions. There were several. It’s basically a little quiz. One of them is what is your preferred workout intensity? Of course, I said high because you can’t pick more than one. I prefer to work out at all three of these, not just one.

Different times, different reasons. That makes sense.

I went and said high, then you can go to the next picture. They asked about your fitness goals and I have several like I am complex.

You are an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a riddle.

Not really. I just want everything all the time, all at once. Increase endurance, train for a race, and gain muscle were the ones that I picked. Just to recap, I have high intensity and I want to increase my endurance, though those don’t go together, just to be clear. There were lots of questions. It’s a lot of things I want to do. I think they need to say like, “What is your top goal?” After you’ve answered all of the questions, they give you a list of personal recommendations for these classes. These are the top workouts for me. It said, “Because you like stretching,” and then it gave me a five-minute post-ride stretch with Emma Lovewell, which I thought was interesting.

I don’t know where they based it on. I said that I like stretching, country music, pop music, and alternative music. Maybe that’s why. I don’t know why they chose this. This needs some work. It’s day one. I’m not even complaining. I’m just not sure I understand it yet. The meditation journey was next.

I also wonder if it’s still learning or if it’s a system where as more people answer questions, it’ll get better.

Probably. It has got to have data to go off of. It gives you three different recommendations, and then you can bookmark those classes. I liked that they added that in. That’s pretty smart. You can go back and change your answers at any time. You could do this over and over again to get different suggestions, which I probably will do. I like where they’re headed with this. I did not feel like it was all that helpful for me specifically because I wasn’t purposely trying to confuse it. I do think I did confuse it by saying things like, “I would like to increase my endurance. I would like to have a class that is 60 to 90 minutes,” but then I also said that I want high intensity. You don’t want to do that for 60 to 90 minutes.

I’m glad that you can change it later. That’s always been my thing. Whenever Spotify or whatever is like, “Would you want more of this artist?” I don’t like that song but I like that artists or I like that song but I don’t like the artist generally. If I say yes, what am I teaching it? I’m an overthinker.

So am I. I wanted to choose every single option on every single page. I think that says a lot. I like where they’re headed with it. Barry had talked about this. It was something that was important to him to get personal recommendations. It’s neat to see it starting to come to life.

It’s the NetFlixification of Peloton. You came across an interesting article from Ustwo.com. They are the makers of Lanebreak.

I loved this website. I thought it was so cool because they designed the game. I love seeing that they had this artwork in there. I felt like I was watching a behind-the-scenes thing at Disney World. It was neat because they had all these artworks. If you keep scrolling, there are cool artworks that they showed where they had put it together. They had conception art, which I love seeing. They talked about how it was something totally new for them to use the bike as the actual controller and the resistance knob. It was neat to hear how they thought it through and how they tested it. I love behind-the-scenes stuff. This was right up my alley.

It was very interesting. I know you’ve come to enjoy your Lanebreak.

I really love it. I think it’s cool that DJ John Michael has such a large hand in picking the music for it. He has an ear for music and he picks a lot of cool stuff.

There was also an interesting post this week about something you’ve been wanting to do, which is how to block the weirdos.

It’s just one.

It’s one now but when it comes to weirdos, there’s always another one just around the corner.

This person posted over on the OPP. That’s where this image is coming from. I feel like there are 500,000 people in the groups. I feel like it’s okay to share that. They talked about the issue that this person is following them. Whenever they go to different classes, this person follows them into the classes. You can hide your profile, you can say it’s not public. If you happen to take classes that this person takes, they can still find you. It’s not difficult to find somebody and that’s what my creeper does.

The interesting thing about this is a group member, Ashley Chow, said that she had the same issue. Maybe this is the same person that posted it, I don’t know. This person keeps sending her follow requests so she reached out to Peloton support. Unlike with my issue, they could block this guy from her. Now this person can no longer search for her on their end, so they can do it. Also, the employee went on to say that they are working on adding a blocking option. Let me be clear, I have heard a lot of these things from employees over the years. A lot of them never happened. In all seriousness, customer service agents do not always know what’s actually happening. I am not putting all of the stock in this.

I will say it would be really cool if Peloton would do this because you should be able to block people who are harassing you. Making your profile private doesn’t do it because if they hang out in classes they know you go to all the time like my Jenn Sherman Sunday morning. They come and they show up. They look for you, and then they high-five the shit out of you because they know it annoys you. That’s not a great solution. They need a better one. I can’t believe that with all the celebrities that do it, they don’t have it. I bet you it’s different for celebrities. I bet you if I was a celebrity, I would have some poll and I could be like, “Stop this creeper,” but I don’t because I’m not.

Forbes has an article about Peloton users or potential Peloton purchasers being worried about whether should they be concerned about the future of the company before they embark on their Peloton journey.

I don't know if there's any way that I could have met all these people if not by bike. Share on X

Here is the short answer. Not at all. It’s a huge IP at this point. Somebody’s going to buy them. If it went under tomorrow, there would be somebody that buys it.

Those instructors are too popular. Somebody would scoop it up. It may not look exactly the way it looks now, but it’s not going anywhere. Also, I don’t think they’re in danger of going anywhere. I know the stock price isn’t where they want it to be, but I think when you need to get concerned is when you start seeing an exodus of instructors. So far, that has not occurred. I know people aren’t happy about the Daniel McKenna thing.

They’re never going to be happy when an instructor leaves.

That’s not driven by “We’re out of money and we can’t pay people anymore.”

On the Daniel McKenna thing, one last little tidbit on that. People keep bringing this up to me and I keep forgetting to mention this on the show. When we had our tarot card reader on, Erica McLean, she talked about how a male tread instructor would be leaving in the fall over a disagreement with management. She nailed that. It is fall, Daniel is male, he was on the tread, and it is definitely a disagreement with management. I have never been a believer but she is making me question things.

She’s landing on a few things. Anyway, the Forbes article goes on to say a lot of the same stuff, which is this is going to be around and you’re going to be fine. Don’t let that hold you back.

I hope people don’t let that keep them from buying things. I’m not worried about it. For people who say that’s easy for me to say, I probably have more financial than the average person wrapped up in Peloton because I have the Tread+, which was not cheap. I have the Bike+. I already had the bike, not to mention I have the rower on order and the Guide. I didn’t buy the Guide.

You have stock and a show based around that, but this is not a thing we’ve ever lost sleep on.

I will also say one more thing. There are a lot of people that are posting a lot of negative things, and like everything that Peloton does, it used to be that everything that Peloton did, people assumed was good, including myself. Now it swung in the other direction like a bad pendulum. Now, everything they do is looked at like it’s automatically bad, whether it is or it isn’t.

It has gone from Peloton can do no wrong to Peloton can do no right.

If you’re that worried about the company, how about taking a deep breath and stop posting hateful things? I’m not saying don’t question them. I’m not saying don’t be a critical thinker. I’m not saying that at all. You should be a critical thinker. You should look at the big picture of what’s happening here. The big picture is Peloton is not only a huge company, but they also have all these huge instructors. A lot is going on for them. They also have a lot of cash in the bank.

If all of these things they are doing work, we are headed in the right direction. It is not going to be over quickly. It is not going to be a slam dunk, but they are working hard on it. If we all could collectively support them, we would be helping. I’m not saying that’s going to fix everything or you should be blindly supportive. I also think that maybe we’ve gone too far in the other direction, so just a thought.

Seeking Alpha had an article and this particular writer is bullish on Peloton. He thinks there are lots of things there to like, and it will never be $150 a share like during the pandemic, but they’ve got tons of revenue coming in from all these subscriptions. There are positive things about Peloton that people lose sight of.

I agree with people who are like, “This guy is looking ten years out.” We cannot look at that. That’s fine. That’s fair. None of us knows what’s going to happen in ten years because the pandemic taught us nothing. Besides Erica McLean, none of us knows what’s going to happen in ten years. The important takeaway that I had from this is Amazon, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and all of these things that they’re doing are good. We’re headed in the right direction. They’re making sure they have more than just one revenue stream. That is smart. That is what we want. Good luck to Peloton.

Do you know what’s not heading in the right direction?

What’s that?

The person in charge of stock photos over at Seeking Alpha. Why is this person not on a Peloton bike? Not only not on a Peloton, but they’re on some sort of contraption that looks like Curly from the Three Stooges would have used.

This is a training bike and I will tell you why. This is very simple. I’m so glad you brought this up on the show because I am so tired of seeing people ask me this question over and over again. There are all these image databases whenever you’re putting these things together, and you type in something like cycling or exercise bike.

You’re writing an article about a brand.

The thing is the person putting the picture in doesn’t even read it. It is not the person who wrote the article. The person who wrote the article is not necessarily the person who does that. That’s why.

That’s why Seeking Alpha needs a better stock photo.

 

It’s not just Seeking Alpha. I have seen so many articles. I think Forbes was like that too. Maybe Forbes had a Peloton, but there have been others in the last couple of weeks that did not use a Peloton when talking about Peloton, and they are larger outlets too, not just small ones.

—

There is some scuttlebutt about voice commands.

It has come to my attention that the Guide might be able to use voice commands to do things like search for things.

I was going to be like, “Peloton, make my butt smaller.”

I thought you were looking for your sexy filter.

No, I don’t have a need for the sexy filter because I don’t use Peloton, and you’re the only sexy person I need.

You can use search queries in theory for things like fitness categories. You could be like, “Show me 20-minute strength classes.” You could say, “Show me all 5-minute classes that target biceps,” or you could even say the difficulty level like beginner, intermediate, and advanced. My understanding also is that if you leave out the mention of a fitness category, maybe you didn’t say strength, that is always going to default to strength. This would be just for the Guide. Also, let’s remember that everything that gets tested does not get shown to the public. It doesn’t always make it to the final round of us actually using it.

That would be cool if it did because I will say that they did redo their voice recognition software. They did an update to it on the Guide. I’ve been using it for yoga a lot lately and I like that I can bring things up pretty quickly. The other day I got a phone call right in the middle of yoga. I was like, “Peloton, pause,” and it did. You can change the weights whenever you’re using them for strength. You can be like, “Peloton, change it from 15 pounds to 20 pounds.” It’s smooth as silk. It works really well. I am actually shocked at how well it does work.

—

Joining us is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and Sports Psychology consultant. She was a five-year national team member in rhythmic gymnastics, and sports psychology for USA Gymnastics. It’s Dr. Jenn.

Hello.

Thanks for joining us. I have a question from one of our Clip Out listeners. This is something that I’ve heard a lot and I think that you can identify with it too. She is trying to sort out how much of which activity to do, cycling, walking, light weight lifting, stretching, and meditation are her go-tos. How much of each and when? It’s the perennial question.

I always recommend that people work with a sports physiologist, a trainer, or someone who’s objective and is well versed in this stuff. Crystal, you are a perfect example because you’ve studied this. You can help people. Everybody, call Crystal.

She’s got nothing but time.

It’s finding that balance both physically and emotionally. There are some people who can run on the tread seven days a week and more power to them. I admire them. I bow down to them, but I would be so burnt out. I alternate tread days and spin days. I look forward to one day also adding in a row day, but that’s another story.

It’s being able to alternate. One of the things, and Crystal can speak to this, is you don’t want to injure yourself. That repetitive motion and especially running, depending on where you are in your fitness journey. If you are a newer runner, there’s a real tendency to overdo it. That’s one of the worst things that you can do because when you overdo it, you get injured, and then you’re out for the count, and you can’t do anything. It creates a negative association. It’s making sure that you have that balance.

Tom is going to argue, but stretching at the beginning and end of your workout. Injury prevention is a key thing. Also, mentally speaking, it sounds like she already does yoga meditations, which is great. Making sure that you are having that balance, not just physically but also mentally. There are some days that maybe is your harder workout. Some days that is your lighter workout. Some days for the class or the instructor that you always look forward to. Maybe you have a favorite ride, a favorite run, or a favorite walk that you do. You have your fail-safes and your classes that you’re like, “On a hard day, I can take that.”

That’s a good point. You do have to think about not only what you want to do but what is good for you. Sometimes that in and of itself is hard. You need to be motivated. You want to do the things you want to do, but you also need to do the things that are good for you. Sometimes you’re not motivated to do the things that are good for you. That’s hard.

Tom is a perfect example because a lot of the time, people are so busy building muscle or focusing on cardio. Either they don’t value it or they don’t have the patience for it. I’ve been pushing yoga and stretching on Eric.

How’s it going?

It is just so cool to be shouted out by someone you truly follow and admire. Share on X

Not well at all. At least what I’ve gotten from him is he admits he knows he needs it and it would be good for him. I think mentally he’s there on the same page about the necessity of it. It’s just making the time and being willing to do it. He’s very much like an athlete’s mentality. If you’re not pushing yourself like it’s not enough. I think that we can all fall into that kind of mentality. We have to be careful because that’s a way to get injured or burned out.

If it makes you feel any better, I do the beginning stretches, but I don’t do the stretches at the end. By the end, I’m bored and I want it to be done.

That does make me feel better. I do recommend experimenting with the 5-minute stretch at the end. That’s way more tolerable. A lot of the time, when I finished my workout and I’m mentally done, the idea of that 10-minute stretch, I can’t do it. Sometimes, I feel like I can’t stand up or sit up for that long. I got my go-to like Chelsea’s 5-minute kitchen yoga. I can’t stand up. I know I need to stretch. I just ran and cycled. That’s my go-to.

It’s a good one. The pigeon stretch after running is a very good one.

Thank you so much for all that. Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on all my social media, @DrJennMann, and also in InStyle magazine. I have a weekly column called Hump Day With Dr. Jenn that comes out every Wednesday.

—

Matt Wilpers was on the Ali On The Run podcast.

I love Ali. If you don’t know Ali, she was one of our guests a while back. She has gotten to interview many of the Peloton instructors and she is doing three different live shows for the New York City Marathon in New York. She got to do a one-on-one with Matt. They talked all about his wedding planning, running a coaching business, and all kinds of stuff like that. In addition, Ali is going to be doing an episode coming up all about the New York City Marathon. She was taking questions for it over on her Instagram, and you could put anything in to ask about it. For anybody who is preparing and you’re going to be going to it, this is a great time to do it. Learn about Matt. While you’re there, go find out about the New York City Marathon.

While we’re talking about Matt, he had a fun Instagram post from his cousin’s wedding. His sister is showing off their height or lack thereof.

It’s adorable. This image is not funny to describe, but it is hilarious to see. It has three of his cousins and they are holding Matt and his sister up by their shoulders. They’re all linking shoulders. Matt and his sister are about a foot and a half on the ground. It’s really cute. I was glad that he shared that. That’s cute.

Feel your pain.

You guys are about the same height.

We got the same haircut. That’s where the similarities end. Becs Gentry shared a pregnancy update in an Instagram post.

She’s been doing her journal about being pregnant. She’s done the first trimester, the second trimester, and now she is in the third trimester. It’s incredible that she is already there. For people who are not keeping track, I want to remind everyone, Jess King and Becs Gentry are due on the same day. It will be interesting. I think they’re taking bets to see who’s going to go first.

Emma Lovewell had a post from Becs Gentry’s baby shower.

A lot of the instructors posted this. This just happened to be the first one that I came across. Austin, who is Becs Gentry’s significant other, put together a surprise baby shower for Jess King and Becs Gentry. Anna Greenberg was there with her baby Noah. There was a picture of all three mamas together. Obviously, we still have Chelsea. She had her baby but it’s too soon to come out. She should not be out with that baby just yet. She needs to sleep.

Speaking of Chelsea.

She had the funniest post. She has a picture of her laughing and says, “When they asked if you’ve been getting enough sleep since the baby arrived,” and it’s like a maniacal laugh.

You’ll never get enough sleep again. It’s how that work.

It is true because even after they start sleeping, you start worrying about other things and you get no sleep for other reasons. It’s a great post. I love it.

 

Robin Arzon spoke at the Wells Fargo Women in Leadership Summit.

She got to talk about women in leadership. I thought it was pretty cool that this is another one she did. Somebody sent me a list. Apparently, there’s a database out there of people you can have come speak at your company.

There are speaking engagement companies. You can go and shop for different motivational speakers, celebrities, authors, and things like that.

I got to look at this, and Wells Fargo had to pony up the live fee. If you want her to be there live, it’s 100,00 to $200,000.

I get people trying to sell me speaking engagement stuff too because a lot of venues do both. We don’t. We’ll also say, “This is what they’re asking for.” It doesn’t mean they get it. There are certainly times when maybe they like a particular cause. If you see them speaking for a charity, that doesn’t necessarily mean the charity paid them $200,000. The charity might have paid them less or nothing if it’s something that they’re super into. There’s a lot of flexibility in speaking engagement.

It’s like MSRP on a car.

Even with bands. If a band plays a private gig, they get one kind of money. If they do what we call a hard ticket, where they’re coming to the Staples Center, they get another price. If they’re doing a festival, they’re getting a different price. There are all sorts of flexibility there.

That also explains why even on this, there’s such a wide margin. It doesn’t say a hard number. It gives you a range and it’s a very large range. $100,000 range is a lot of range.

I will also say that if you come to them as Wells Fargo and say you want to hire Robin Arzon, you’re probably getting a different quote than if you come to them as Joe’s Bait and Tackle. They know Wells Fargo has got deep pockets. They’re like, “Here’s the number for them.”

Other instructors that are listed that you can have come to your speaking engagement are Cody Rigsby, Jess Sims, and Tunde. I believe there were other instructors or other employees as well like Jenn Cotter who is listed also. Some of them have fees and some of them don’t. Robin has the largest asking fee. We will just put it that way.

Good for her. That makes sense.

It does make sense. She’s a VP of Content or something like that. I always get it wrong, but she’s a VP of something.

She’s been there since the beginning. She came in with a very well-established brand. She already had a book. It makes total sense that she would be pulling down serious money.

Good for her. Speaking of Robin.

She launched Swagger Society. If anyone could explain what it is.

No one can and here’s why. It hasn’t been announced yet. If you’re curious about what it is, go to SwaggerSociety.io. This is considered to be a Web 3 initiative. I don’t know what that means.

I don’t know what it is either so I went to look it up.

I know it’s the latest generic generation of the internet.

All I know is what I read on Wikipedia. Even people in the computer world, the computer nerds out there, there’s a lot of debate over what Web 3 is and if it’s even actually a real thing. A lot of people say, “This is just putting a new spin on an old thing. This isn’t really a thing.” Other people are like, “It’s very different. It’s about data decentralization and cryptocurrencies,” and other people were like, “That’s all bunk.” I still don’t get it but it sounds like a lot of people who are into this sort of stuff don’t get it either. A lot of people do think it’s a real thing. I’m not saying that this isn’t real, or that what she’s doing is a scam.

It’s not a scam.

What I’m saying is the idea of Web 3 and what that means is very much in flux and still being defined by a lot of people. Some people are into it. Some people give it a side eye, which is the same thing with Peloton.

There's a point at which your discipline is way more important than your motivation. You will be there no matter what because you're consistent with it. Share on X

Can you click on home or jobs now? I’m curious, this wouldn’t even open for me at work. That’s interesting. Before, those links weren’t there. That didn’t say, “Home or jobs.” Now it has that. When you click on, “Learn More,” what happens is it takes you to a form and you fill it out. In theory, you will get an email, but I never did. My guess is they haven’t because they haven’t launched it yet. It’s not out there. It’s called The First Lifestyle Membership Club in Web 3. We are going to learn together. I’m all over this. I will be telling everybody what it is as soon as we know.

We will report back. By we, I mean Crystal.

I’ll even spend money on it. I’m curious. You got me. My question marks are all over the place. I have to know. Stay there. We’ll see.

Logan Aldridge had a cool post on Instagram of him lifting weights, but a barbell. Just a reminder, for those of you who don’t remember, he’s got one arm. He is doing a barbell lift with one arm. Just the balance of it.

This is the squat snatch. He’s amazing to watch. His power and balance are cool. It shows so much more than just like, “I’m lifting weights.” It’s pretty cool.

The only thing I could think the whole time I’m watching this video is, what did it look like the first time?

He started with something a little lighter. How do you get the confidence to put that much over your head? These are Olympic lifts. This is not like a 10-pound barbell. There are weights on this. They are big plates. I don’t know how much weight it is. It doesn’t matter to me because it’s impressive.

There was a day when he hadn’t done this yet. He was like, “Today, I will try this.” I wonder how that went.

I hope he had spotters.

I don’t even know how you can spot for something like that. The way he has to pull that up so fast, if you’ve got two hands, you might not have the strength, but it’s not going to go careening to one side. With just one, you have to be perfectly balanced. It’s impressive to watch.

That’s why it’s here. Logan Aldridge is a cool dude. I thought this was a cool video.

While we’re talking about Logan, he had life hacks. I’m sure he gets lots of questions, sometimes maybe inappropriate or rude even if people have the heart in the right place or it’s the same thing over and over again. He has a little video here about how he cuts his nails.

He’s like, “This is how you do it with one hand,” and then he goes through and shows how he puts it underneath his foot, and then he does it. It also reminded me of a babysitter that we had.

Yeah, Tisha. Just a reminder to people that aren’t longtime listeners, we had a babysitter with no arms.

Everybody was safe. It was all good. She was awesome. The things that she figured out to do, I don’t know that I’m that resourceful. I know that necessity is the mother of invention. I am so impressed by people who are like, “I want to do this. Let me figure out a way.” I’m so impressed by that.

I would be like, “I guess, I’ll just bite my nails.” Nobody can even yell at me for that.

She’s like, “No.” Logan is like, “I will show you. Here’s how you do it,” and look at those nails. They’re clean.

I’m not trying to take away from your accomplishment because it’s great that you figure out things like this, but you make Peloton money now. Go get a manicure.

I think it’s cool that he didn’t. I love the Paralympics. They posted Paralympics admin does the exact same thing. They usually sit on the floor in front of the TV. I love that.

Emma Lovewell posted some pictures from her trip to Japan.

This one cracked me up because she said, “The next time you think about skipping an interval in my class, remember this photo exists.” She got her samurai sword out.

 

She’ll cut you into bits. Do what she tells you to do.

Do not cross Emma Lovewell or you will get crossed with a big sword. She posted a lot about her trip to Japan. She had a full recap of her trip that went out in her newsletter. If you haven’t gotten that yet, you haven’t signed up for her newsletter, and you want to know all about her trip, then definitely sign up for her newsletter.

Christine D’Ercole had an Instagram post about the stories we tell ourselves.

It’s not just that. If you scroll down, you will see that this is a word shop. She hasn’t done one of these in a while that I know of. This is the first word shop retreat called Words Work and it is taking place in Costa Navarino, Greece. Twenty-six people are doing a progression of four word shops that are designed to dive deep into the inner monologues that we say to ourselves. She’s been doing these for a very long time. That’s where “I am, I can, I will, I do” comes from. It’s very cool that she is there and that is happening. It looks like there are upcoming workshops and retreats happening. You can go to her Instagram link in the bio if you want to check it out.

Selena Samuela posted some videos from her wedding.

She’s been married for a little while now. I know this is old news, but the video was so pretty. It showed everything up close.

It seems like in the movies.

It’s absolutely gorgeous, the colors and everything. It was a nice video. For people who maybe didn’t want to flip through People Magazine. They just wanted to see the highlights, this might be a good way to do that. I wanted to share that it was out there. Very cool video.

Speaking of Selena Samuela, she has to step away from boxing for now.

She is eight months along, so it’s coming up quick. She was saying that she can’t do her boxing workouts right now. She’s not going to be releasing new boxing content for a few months. She will be back for more. Obviously, there is still lots of boxing content on demand. She will still be on the tread and on strength, live every Friday at 9:00 AM. She says that you should not be fooled by her pregnant belly because the classes are still hard AF.

When is she due?

Apparently, a month from now.

This time is out. She could maybe release the next one on December 26 because it’s Boxing Day.

I’m pretty sure the studio will be closed.

They can have one ready to go.

They could. I don’t know if they will. Rad Lopez is still out there doing his boxing content. Maybe he’ll do it. He can step up. She’s making a baby. Good lord. Give her a break.

Well And Good talk to Kendall Toole in an article titled, I’ve always been afraid that I didn’t have the right body for cycling: So I talked to a Peloton instructor, and this is what she said.

She talked about how she is a larger woman. She’s not super thin. She talked to Kendall Toole about that. Kendall Toole gave her some talking points to reframe how to start with things like beginner classes, be gentler on yourself to get yourself in a better place, and enjoy the class. At the end of the day, you should be enjoying the class, and not worry about where everybody else is. That’s what it all comes down to if you ask me.

That is one of the upsides of something like Peloton. You don’t have that pressure of going out in public if that makes you anxious. I have it. I use the Tonal and when we’re traveling, they’re like, “Go to the hotel gym.” Hard pass, I can’t do it. Nope. I’ll sit around. I’ll run around and do cardio stuff in the hotel room but I’m not going to that gym and touching the weight.

You don’t like the feeling. You don’t want to judge.

It’s like, “I don’t belong here.”

Don't underestimate your strengths. Don't think that because that person is way ahead of you, that person is stronger than you. That's not true. Share on X

It’s not as bad as you have it in your head, but I get it.

Cody Rigsby has free self-care ideas that he talks to Elite Daily. This is an ad. It’s that tie-in with Credit Karma that he’s been doing. We had a story about that in the previous episode that was in People.

It’s smart marketing. The way that they’re doing this is they’re taking these pieces and putting them out there in lots of places. You could take one thing and this is a great way to use one thing for many pieces of content. I digress. The bottom line is he talks about self-care and why it’s important. I think he has talked about that in other stuff. I don’t even know that this is new.

It’s nice to talk about free ways because so many times self-care tips are things that are going to cost you money.

This one is like building a meditation and taking some time for yourself. These are things that are very easy to do for free. It is nice.

Tobias Heinze is three weeks out until his big climb.

He is training. He has a weekend in Snowdonia National Park. I am so obsessed with this journey. It is so cool. The video like the pieces that he shows also looks like it could have been part of Lord of the Rings. It’s amazing. At any rate, Snowdonia National Park, Wales. He’s there training. That’s how he does.

There was an in-store appearance on Tuesday from Alex and Ash in New Jersey.

Alex and Ash are two of the three brand-new rowing instructors. They were at a store in New Jersey. One of our listeners went and they gave me all the deal. This was not a very heavily publicized event. There were only ten people there, so they got a lot of one-on-one time with Alex and Nash. Here’s the deal though. Alex is going to be competing in this rowing event. I’m about to say a bunch of words that I don’t know the meaning of, The Head of Charles Regatta.

This is very cool because Peloton is actually a sponsor. If you can go there, you absolutely should. I think it’s on the 23rd. It’s all weekend long, but Alex is going to be competing. There is a Peloton boat. How cool is that? They’re going to be rowing. Also, interesting, just a little tidbit, Hydrow dropped out. They were a sponsor and no longer are they.

Do they run out of money? Do they not want to show up because Peloton was there and now they’re mad?

I don’t know. These are just the things I hear. Peloton is sponsoring. There is going to be a Peloton tent. You never know. Maybe some cool swag there. Alex is going to be there. I don’t know if Ash is going to be there or not. I’m not sure about Katie either. Anyway, Alex will be competing on 10/23 and event 59. It takes off at 1:07. He will be in the champions under four-plus for men under team WKMR Peloton. I don’t know what that means. He will be in bow 59.

I tell you this because you can live stream this. It’s being live-streamed. If you want to see Alex compete in the Peloton boat, go check it out. There’s also another Peloton boat for the men’s doubles, not the 414. I have no idea who these people are that are in it. Alex will be in seat 3, bow 59. It’s not boat. It’s bow. I learned that today. Do you know why they call it a bow? Apparently, they put the numbers on the bow, so they call it bow 59. I knew none of this. Rowing turns out to be a very Northeastern thing. We don’t have rowing here.

We’re going to row in a river?

That’s what I’m saying. It’s all foreign to me. It’s like a different language. Seat 3 on the starboard side. I don’t know what side that is. We have boats on the water. You get in and you drink a beer. That’s what we do here. I don’t know what any of this stuff is. Nobody’s starboarding. You could do both. You could fish out of a boat, but I couldn’t tell you what’s a starboard and port side and side port. I don’t know what any of that stuff.

I know they always say it when we’re on a cruise. I still have no idea.

Which way is the fish going? Which way are the Mickey heads going? That’s all that I need to know.

Also, if you’re looking for in-store appearances of Matt Wilpers and Katie Wang have one coming up. It was this month, coming up in a week or a week and a half.

It’s coming soon. Be on the lookout. Great job reporting, Tom and Crystal.

You’re welcome. Also, I forgot to include this. Cody Rigsby has a secret project.

 

He posted it on his Instagram stories and he is looking for people to submit questions for self-love, relationships, and life advice. It’s some top-secret project. He says, “Don’t ask me. I can’t tell you. The ink is still drying on the contract.” I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m curious. Also, I love that plaid shirt he’s wearing. It’s very pretty. I like it. It looks so soft.

—

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

Thanks for having me.

We’re happy you’re here because Karen Thompson needs your help. She has trouble with the fact that her family is constantly doing things. They have a running group that meets on Tuesdays, and then they go out to eat after, or there are football games on the weekend, and they tailgate. There are all these other events and they seem like they’re never eating at home, and trying to figure out the best way to eat healthy when all this is happening is driving her crazy. Help.

I get it. That is a challenge. With our clients, what we’re constantly working on is the lifestyle hacks for such a scenario. It’s twofold. One, if you can exert some influence on the location of those eating out, that will help. Generally speaking, going with your classic dinner houses like a steak house or breakfast house, you’re going to be able to order something very clean. You’re going to be able to order consistently and it’ll be the same thing each time you order.

On the flip side, if you do some ethnic foods, which I love, the problem is it’s going to be different every place you go. The formulation when you get the kung pao chicken is different, depending on the restaurant. You don’t always know what you’re getting. Whereas I can go to any steakhouse or any dinner house, I know that if I order this salmon, baked potato, and a side salad, it’s exactly what I’m getting.

It’s easier to be strategic. Let’s put that on the shelf for a moment. As far as practical, I’m guessing that after a lot of these events, it’s dinner time back half of the day. A good strategy that works is if you’re cutting carbs back half of the day, wherever you do end up eating, do a low-carb dinner, and you’re going to be all right. It’s easier to actually stick to a low-carb dinner. I’m not promoting that across the board.

That’s one of the reasons why I use strategic snacks because if I know that a client of mine has meals throughout the day where we have less control, I anchor to a snack where I control the carbs they have at that snack. We don’t take snacks socially. There’s no like, “Grandma stopped by and she wanted to eat.” That’s going out to dinner with the family or going to lunch with your business partner, or whatever the case may be. I can say, “I want you to have an apple and 12 almonds at 2:30.” I know you’ll be able to consistently get that carb at that afternoon snack.

If you anchor to those, then you can have a principle dinner, where you’re trying to go with veggies and/or salad, as many greens as you can get and some lean proteins. If your goal is weight loss, that’s usually not going to be the wrong choice. Let’s put it that way. I need to know your particulars, Karen, to say exactly, “Here’s what we want to do. We’re going to have this and we’re going to avoid that.” Generally speaking, you’re going to be safe with protein and veggies. Of course, you’ll get some fats mixed in with that naturally.

If you’re one of those people who say, “I actually want to have a balanced meal where I want to have carbs, but I don’t know what carbs are available. They hit a different restaurant every time,” what I would be doing is sitting down with you and saying, “Tell me the top 3 or 4 restaurants you most frequently go to, and we’d be working it out in advance.” Absent of knowing that, here’s what I would tell you, “Bring an apple with you.” It’s that simple. You can literally eat it on your way into the restaurant and be done with it. You’ve had your carbs. Now you can order mostly protein and veggies. That’s a little hack that has worked well for some of my clients.

Hopefully, somewhere in there, you have a solution or something that will trigger an idea that’s helpful. One last thing I thought of, Karen, because we’re eating out and we know that meal is coming, most of my guys fall into this trap. “I know I’m eating out so I better eat less now because it’s going to be bad then.” That is not the winning strategy. That backfires. Even if you know you’re going out to dinner and you’re going to be at the pizza place or whatever the scenario is, don’t skip lunch. Don’t skimp on an afternoon snack.

Have the whole thing because I don’t want you going only having unhealthy fattening foods in front of you, and being ravenously hungry. That’s not going to go well. Feel free and have quality foods in plentiful order throughout the day, then when you go to an event, you go to a restaurant, or you go to the neighbor’s barbecue, you’re going to be able to select and execute with a little bit more self-control because you’re not ravenous.

No good decisions were ever made when you are starving.

That’s it. I’m out.

Thank you for all of that. If people would like this sort of information tailor-made for them, where can they find you?

Thank you.

—

Ashton Kutcher’s Our Future Selves series continues, and this time with Thomas Rhett.

I took this class and I had so much fun. I really like this Ashton series. For anybody out there who hasn’t given it a chance, I think you should. Ashton does a great job of talking about things that you want to know, but that they’re open to talking to him about because they’re friends with him already. He already knows where they’re going to go with their answers, so it’s safe. He talked about things like how he grew up, the kinds of jobs he did, how he ended up in country music, and all of the songs that he’s written.

You know that song that he wrote, and I know you know this one, Tom, about all the things that he wants to do, If I Never Get to See the Northern Lights. There was only one thing on that list that he hasn’t done. It was neat to hear him talk about the first time he saw the Northern Lights, and the first time he saw the Eiffel Tower at night. Ashton asked him how many songs he had written that had never been recorded. He said that he has 600 to 700 songs in his OneDrive that he’s not recorded. He said that he hopes someday to have an entire record of things that have never been recorded. He wants to do it raw on his iPhone and put it out.

It doesn't matter where you are on the leaderboard. It doesn't matter where you are in the world. What matters is that you are here. Share on X

Isn’t every record pretty much songs that have never been recorded?

He wants to put it out raw, not produced, which I thought was neat. It was a lot of fun. He was talking about like, “God, wouldn’t you love to go back and like listen to the Stones or the Beatles?” What is that documentary that came out about the Beatles, Get Back, and it has all this rough regimen?

It’s hours and hours of footage of them recording.

He loved every second of it. It’s amazing. I don’t know if I put a picture of it in there. Did I put a picture of Dr. Agus in there?

I don’t think so.

They released two episodes and I did both because I was doing intervals 30 by 30. I had to do 14 of them 3 times. It took longer than a half hour. I did two classes back to back. Dr. Agus was the other guest that was released this week. Dr. Agus was talking about whole foods. He’s been everywhere. You’ve seen this guy, even if you don’t recognize the name, he has been a presidential consultant for their health. He has done all kinds of stuff for cancer. He’s done a lot of cancer research. You’ve seen this guy.

He talked a lot about whole foods and things that some people don’t realize like smoothies aren’t inherently good for you. People think that they are because they have fruit in them. He was like, “We need to chew the fruit. Chewing the fruit is part of the importance of eating the fruit.” He had a whole lot to say about that. That was interesting. I didn’t necessarily agree with his stance on protein powder, but that’s for another day. Here’s the cool part. I tagged him in my posts, and the dude responded. I totally was taken aback by that. The reason I was is that this guy talks to presidents and he’s taking the time to answer my inbox in a random Instagram.

What was his response? “Chew your fruits.”

No, I said I loved what he had to say about whole foods. He was like, “The data clearly shows. It’s the best.” It wasn’t a big conversation and I didn’t go on about it. It wasn’t the point. It was like, how cool is that? He was on my TV screen. That’s pretty cool. I get more interaction with Dr. Agus than with the instructors. It’s pretty awesome.

—

The Baby Face series is official.

It’s happening on October 21st. As I’ve already said, I’m pretty sure he’s going to be live during a couple of classes, but there are going to be more classes in addition to that for the Artist Series. If you go to the next screen, we’ve got Ally Love doing a ride. The new album is called The Girls’ Night Out, 30 minutes with Ally, and then Kirsten is doing a walk and run for 30 minutes, and then there’s going to be a 20-minute strength with Adrian. They start on Friday, October 21^st

—

Past guest and former Peloton instructor, Steven Little, had an Instagram post about how he celebrated his 49th birthday.

This made me happy to see. He’s been coming up a lot lately as we’ve been talking about instructors leaving Peloton. I felt that it was right to post this. We said happy birthday last episode to Steven Little. He had several pictures of himself with his dogs, camping outdoors in the Rockies. Happy birthday, Steven Little. We’re glad you’re enjoying it. He looks very happy. I love it.

—

SoulCycle is cutting instructor pay and classes. This is from Page Six. I thought this is a good counterpoint to the Forbes article when people are like, “Should I buy a Peloton? Is this company going to exist in six months? I don’t know what I should do.” This is what a company that’s struggling looks like. Not only are they paying the instructors less, and this is SoulCycle, so nobody gets confused. These are the instructors that I believe teach classes live and in-person, not their at-home stuff. They’re scheduling fewer classes. I don’t know how to read that other than there must be less demand.

I don’t know. Traditionally, spin instructors have been paid per class. It might be part of the cost-cutting to give them fewer classes.

If those classes are full, they wouldn’t be cutting them.

That’s fair. I see where you are going with that. Sorry, I was hearing it different. I get what you’re saying. That’s a very fair point.

If they’re cutting classes, then that means that fewer people must be going. Also, if you think about it problematic, all we’ve been reading is how there’s this great return to gyms. If everyone is going back to the gym, but not to SoulCycle, where are they going?

 

I think they’re going to these cheaper gyms that have everything in them well because that’s so much more economical.

Here’s another way to look at it. If you have a Peloton and you’re going to go back to the gym, why would you go to SoulCycle? You’ve got one of those at home. If you’re going to augment your Peloton workouts with an in-person experience, you’re not going to pick another bike. You’re going to go to a gym that’s going to also give you a tread or an elliptical or what have you.

That’s a very good point.

—

In Case You Missed It, that’s what this segment is called. We’re going to talk about Kendall Toole and dogs because I missed it. This was supposed to be in Instructors in the News.

This cracks me up because she apparently has some partnership with this thing called Spot and Tango. They had a dog party in the park. I assume it’s Central Park. She has pictures of her and her dog. They’re called Bowie Bites. They are bison snacks for her pup, Bowie. They are Bowie Bites for Bowie. Also, if you look at the picture. they took over the park with all their dogs. Everybody showed up and they were like, “We’re giving out the Bowie Bites,” and then they all walks through the park. It was adorable

Also, in an actual In Case You Missed It segment, not the one that I forgot about.

I messed up on this one though because I said it was a mini-apparel drop. It was a full-apparel drop. It was lots of stuff and lots of options for fall. I would call this Fall one, and there were a lot of pretty options. This set that Rebecca Kennedy is wearing on the page. It’s like a fuchsia. I’m loving it, but I held back because I had just bought the Kendall stuff and the Star Trek set not that long before that. It does cool new things. I held back, but if this goes on sale, I will be purchasing. I don’t know how long I’m going to save money, Tom.

That’s typically not very long.

—

We have two birthdays. October 24th, you can say happy birthday to Matt Wilpers. The next day, October 25th, is Emma Lovewell’s birthday.

Happy birthday to Matt and Emma. I probably say this every year, but in case I don’t, that’s also my daughter’s birthday. I don’t remember saying it.

I don’t remember either, but it is. That is accurate.

She’s going to be sixteen. Emma should say happy birthday to Sydney. Don’t you think?

I’m sure she’ll get right on that.

—

Joining us is Cristina Ribeiro.

For those of you who don’t know, Christina interviewed us for our 100th episode. Can you believe it? It has been almost 200 episodes ago since you were on our show. I can’t believe it has been that long.

There are so many things that have changed, except you and Tom have gotten stronger and younger, more willing to do more things for us. For you guys, Crystal, congratulations on everything. You are now a nutritionist coach. You are a sports fitness trainer or coach too. You have gone a long way.

Thank you.

Tom follows you. He supports you. He gets in his Tonal once in a while. When I interviewed you, Tom was not interested in anything whatsoever, not even walking on the thread. I said, “Tom, it’s just walking,” but he was not going to.

Invest in the bike, be happy, and the rest will happen. Share on X

I’m still not interested. I just do it.

He just does it. He’s coming up on 4 million pounds lifted on Tonal. Isn’t that incredible?

I don’t have the Tonal yet. I know you guys don’t count the milestones and the weights. That should be so fascinating.

It’s pretty cool, but this is about Peloton. To me, you have been a member of this community forever. When did you first find Peloton?

The Peloton found me because I had no idea. It was in July 2013. I was still living in New York in Manhattan. My husband got a job in Greenwich, Connecticut. We were waiting another ten months or so for the lease of our apartment to expire to move. When were still there, I was going to Equinox Gym. I was taking spin classes there with a pro-cyclist who would teach for two hours. His classes were 120 minutes, 90 minutes, and 75 minutes. There was no lower than that. He was hardcore.

I was taking his class and I said, “Chris, I’m going to move soon to Connecticut. I don’t know where can I find this level of class, instruction and spinning.” It was very similar to a Power Zone class, very structured and very endurance. He told me, “There’s a company that I’m working on now and they’re going to release a bike possibly next year. It’s going to come with a screen, a console, and live classes streaming from New York, so the instructor will be there. That could be a good option for you since you like to do it so much. You have your little one and possibly another one on the way.”

I said, “Are you telling me that there’s going to be a bike with an instructor in it that is going to tell me exactly what to do?” To me, it sounds like something sci-fi or futuristic. He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you working with them? Are you going to teach us?” He was like, “I’m not going to teach. I’m doing the hardware now, but they are testing it and it will be released.”

I left the gym with that idea in my mind. I go home and I told Andy, “Andy, Chris told me about this bike that is going to release. It’s going to have a console and instructor on it. You can take classes anytime.” He said, “It sounds good but people still like to go to the gym. I don’t know how it will be.” That’s the end of the story. I didn’t hear anything else about Peloton. He did give me the website and I did go to the website. At that time, it was PelotonCycle.com. It was John Foley explaining a very nice presentation with what he envisioned for the bike, a picture of the bike, and that’s it. Nothing to click, no pre-order, and no date.

It was the simplest that you could possibly get.

It was simple. It was a YouTube video with him introducing himself, who he was, and what he was planning to do. That’s it. Fast forward to March 2014, it was my last birthday living in the city. We’re going to move at the end of the month. Andy took me out for dinner. When we were having dinner, he gave me an envelope and he said, “I have this gift for you. The only thing is that it’s not going to arrive in the US until three months.” I thought, “It can’t be my mom because we already have her ticket.” I was expecting Emily, my second daughter. I was pregnant and my mom was coming to help me.

I said, “What could it be that is not going to be here in three months?” When I opened the envelope, it was the confirmation order and the picture of the bike. I said, “This is the Peloton bike, the one that Chris told me about last year.” He said, “Yes. The concept is very good for you because you like spinning so much. If you miss a class at the gym, now we are going to have two kids. How cool for you to take a class at home. That’s a backup.” I say, “Yes, this is fascinating. It’s going to be here in three months. I’m going to wait.” It was all that anxiety.

The thing is that when the bike arrived, two weeks after, I had Emily. She came one month before, so I didn’t have much time to explore it, play with it, and try many things. I did remember my first ride. It was a 6:00 AM live with an instructor. She’s not here anymore. Her name was Antonia DeSantis. Maybe you heard about her.

The ones that were there were her, Lisa Niren, Steph Nieman, Jenn Sherman, and Marion. Those were the few instructors that were around. I immediately fell in love with Marion because she was all about themes. I like themes. She would do the ’80s or Halloween ride. She did a back-to-school ride. Everything that year was different because I was still going to the gym. Remember, the bike was a backup. There was no community. I didn’t know anybody. There were very few people. I never had to scroll the leaderboard ever for a month. In a live class, there should be maybe 3 or 4. In the main class, maybe 10 or 15.

When I turn on my bike and I see everything that they have and everything that they lack. At the time, it was only a clock with your name. There were no filters, no high-fives, and no hashtags. It was so simple. It’s so easy to navigate. I get lost sometimes even choosing the class because when we started, there were three types of classes. It was Peloton Cycle, Viewer Peloton, and Peloton Endurance which was the 60-minute class. That was it. It was only 45 and 60.

There were maybe three classes in the morning, and then three classes in the afternoon starting at 4:00 PM. That’s why on-demand is when I did because it fell during nap time. I remember the first time that they put a class at 1:30 PM and I said, “This would’ve been so nice two years ago when I was riding on demand during nap time because there were no classes to take.”

That’s something good for people to remember how few options there were because whenever there’s a change, a lot of people lose their minds. If there were never any changes, you still have three class types to choose from. That’s it.

I remember that fall of 2014, they introduced two new classes. Someone must remember this. OGs, please you have to remember this. It was rhythm and metrics. That was a huge change.

I remember they still had metrics. They didn’t have rhythm when I joined in 2016, but they still had metrics.

I remember Robin was teaching metrics. Jess King was teaching metrics. It was all about numbers and things. I decided one day to try Rhythm with Jenn Sherman. That was a whole new world for me. That’s when I decided, “How many days I went to the gym this month, 3 or 4? This bike is not a backup anymore.” This bike is the gym for me.

I told Andy, “Andy, I’m going to cancel my membership at the gym. Those $200 that you give Equinox, how about I buy dumbbells, maybe a bouncing ball or something.” He said, “If you want, I don’t know. Do you like to quit?” “Yes, I like to quit. I have a class in this bike.” There was still no community. In 2015 when one member, Deb Mahan, decided to create the members’ page.

The day that I accepted the request, there were 58 people already signed in. I remember John Bernstein, Candace Ryan, and David Burnett were there. It’s a little crew that we’re talking to and taking classes with. Milestones became important because at that point everybody was hitting 50 or 100. Very soon, Laura Pug, all of a sudden was celebrating 500 and everybody was like, “What?”

 

That sounds like Laura.

That never changed. I always say there are many things that change in Peloton and some things don’t change. Her incredible determination is one of them. OPP was such a nice place to be. We were talking about kids, this and that. The only issue we had was figuring out who was the Flash. He was a guy from Miami. He was always at the top of the top. 1,000 output was nothing for him. “Who is this guy? He must be a pro. He must be something.”

All the conversation was about that until we finally discovered who he was. He was a specialist in cycling. He was very hardcore. Things were so nice and simple. I’m not saying that they are not now. It’s difficult to connect because there are so many people. Sometimes someone asks for advice and they just throw some advice. Back in the time, I would think about, “How do I say it? This person is so and so. I know him/her.” You don’t talk to a friend like, “You should do this.” Now, it’s how it is.

Everyone was so much more thoughtful back then. I remember the first time I posted on the OPP and there were only 8,000 people in the group in 2016. That was small compared to what it is now. It was more intimidating than posting something, but everybody was super nice. There were people that could be a little snarky. Usually, they would throw on a winky face or something to show, “I’m teasing you.” Whereas now they go for the throat.

I truly enjoy it at that time. I enjoy it now. It’s different, but it’s supposed to be. It’s been eight years. I celebrated eight years. They have gone way further than what I thought they would be when I first got the bike. You never expected this growth and popularity so suddenly. In the same way, for me, it has been hard to connect with other new instructors because when you grow up in an environment where everybody knows who you are, when they give you a shout-out to you like Jenn, for example. She would say my middle name, but she also says my name. She does that with many of us because we were there. She was able to be in the OPP and she was able to know who was requesting and participating in the ride request because sometimes she would take requests.

The OPP was a place for everybody, instructors and members. Now, it’s impossible and I will not expect the instructors to be there also because there’s so much going on with their lives. You don’t want them to be slaves of social media or us. Their job has to have a boundary to say, “I teach my class. I prepare my class, but I don’t have to be chitchatting, responding and commenting.” It’s too much. I even feel bad for them to finish a class and go to these lives that they have to do. They should go home. They already gave everything.

You brought up an interesting point. Maybe that’s one of the many reasons that classes have gotten shorter because they now go live afterwards.

They have to go live and post this. They’re doing a smoothie at home and they have to post. They’re cleaning their floor, they have to go live. Poor instructors. I will be much happier if they would say, “Enjoy your day. I’m going to enjoy mine and see you tomorrow.” I don’t know. That’s just me. Maybe some people wait for the live. I don’t.

It depends on how often you can get to the studio and if that’s the only time you can connect with the instructor. For so many people, they aren’t able to get to the studio, especially people who joined during COVID. They couldn’t go to the studio. Their only real connection with the instructor was to go to those lives and get some input back and forth there in that way. How has your relationship been with Jenn Sherman and that whole crew? How has it evolved?

It has been amazing. I could not imagine my life and my bike. It’s so special. When I met Jenn, it was back in 2015. It was one day I went to the studio. The first time that I went to the studio was in January of that year for that three-state event that they hosted. Cody, Jess King and Nicole Meline took the class. It was for New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York. That was my first experience. Nobody knew anybody. Everybody was like, “Hi.”

I then came back and took a ride with Jenn. That was when she changed my leaderboard name. It was Cristina, just my name. It’s so simple. When she saw me biking, she was like, “My goodness, this is a little powerhouse.” She thought I was so strong or something. Since then, she was calling me for a milestone, for a birthday, for something in the bike, and she was referring to me as the little powerhouse. When I started going to the studio more often, people say, “Hi, Cristina, the little powerhouse.”

I always say, “I’m Cristina.” “Yes. Jenn’s little powerhouse.” I was like, “I have to change my leaderboard name. It seemed that everybody refer to me with this new one.” Jenn is a person that has always been there for whoever needs it. She is so inspiring. The way that she can deliver a class involving all the riders in the studio when we were there, at home, or even if you’re not riding the bike.

The other day, she was calling a person. Someone is running on the thread, so everybody is going to climb. You put the incline. Who does that? It’s so genuine and also, I connected more with her because when I was riding with Marion and then I started taking Jenn’s class, it was always on demand, but I was seeing the same people. I said, “There’s a connection here. Whoever rides with Marion writes with this girl with the bandana.” I used to call her the bandana girl because, in the beginning, she was wearing a bandana.

She always had the bandana.

I started taking more classes with her. When she started doing her long rides at 9:30 on Tuesdays, it became super strong because it was a meet-up. All those people that were on demand that were in, we all could get together for the Tuesday ride at 9:30 on Tuesday. No matter what, we were there. That’s how I found my fondest Peloton friends. Those people that are still here with me, even if their lives have switched a little, know how we met. It was riding these rides because she was bringing us together.

I have so much respect and so much to thank Jenn for doing that, and for being so special with this special crew that has grown so much, thankfully. She should be the one that everybody tries or rides with at least once. That has made our relationships so strong. There were many rides that she was doing for certain causes or people. It has a purpose. I never joined Peloton seeking any journey. Everybody comes here because they want to recover from an injury, pregnancy or get fit. I came to keep up my life in the same way that I used to go to the gym. Go home, take my class, and go downstairs with my family.

I think that’s what makes them different. People come here for a lot of reasons and a lot of things that you are totally unaware of unless you get involved. Unless you see this person. Never in a gym that I turn to a person and said, “How are you feeling today? Did you have your chemo yet?” I had no idea if they even were suffering from something. Peloton is different. It makes you appreciate more what you have and what you can do. Understand that this is not a right and that this is a privilege to go and move because you see these real people and milestones every day. These people are coming from their ashes and they’re renewing again. That is super powerful.

That is what keeps me connected with this type of fitness, company, tribes, or whatever it is because the inspiration that you can get from them is priceless. I’ve never experienced this before and I’ve been working out forever. It was because of Peloton that I learned every day to put my hands up in the air and say, “Thank God I did that. My feet, legs, and arms are okay,” because there are people that cannot say the same and they’re still there.

The relationships that you’ve developed over time. I don’t know everybody you know, but I know for a fact that you have developed some amazing Peloton friendships.

What is interesting that I like is I have friends in Peloton from all ages and all stages. My friends have kids that are married. My friends have kids and are grandmothers. My friends have kids that just graduated college. It’s incredible. It’s very nice. I thank them all for being there. My first little crew was Malia, Robin, and Debbie. We met back in 2015 or 2016 riding together. It was before Jenn started doing Just F*king Do It and Sh*t That Matter. We made Sh*t That Matter shirts. We were called Sh*t That Matter girls. There were four of us and were always together. They’re still my friends and they’re still there. I don’t know if there’s any way that I could have met all these people, if not for this bike.

That’s true because you don’t necessarily run in the same circles, especially in a city. You were living in New York when you got it, but you moved to Connecticut. It’s a country. Basically, you can have friends all over the country. Where else can you do that? You get together on your weekly ride and that’s how you get to know each other. That’s special.

 

It does happen and it’s fantastic. Some other nice things happened. I got the chance to participate in the Good Morning America show. We were all riding bikes. That was a nice experience in New York Times Square. It was fun. It was so exciting because there were all these preparations. We were there early and chatting, and then we were on TV. I had never been on TV before. I said, “this is so amazing.” It was nice to represent and to be an ambassador that morning to show the community, “This had to be shown and had to be seen in the world how we all connect together.” That’s what we really want to put out there. It’s that this is more than a bike. That was exciting. That was a nice experience with my best friends, Laura, Howie, Jason, John, and Erica Mills were there. It was such much fun for all of us to have that experience.

It was Peloton royalty up there. I remember watching from home and saying, “I know them.” You also got to be in one of the Peloton ads campaigns too.

It was a collaboration with the Athleta store. They wanted members and instructors in the photo shoot. That was very nice. What was nice about that is that I could see what instructors do when they go to this photoshoot. It was so good to see them backstage. The lady that was doing all of our makeup asked me, “Who’s your favorite instructor?” I said, “I love Jenn.” “I love her too.” I said, “Did you do her makeup?” She said, “Yes.” I felt like, “This is so amazing to see the process that they go through.” Also, to see all the rackets with their clothes labeled. I was like, “How wonderful.”

Do they have this giant dressing room back there?

There was a dressing room and everything was labeled who was for whom. The same goes for us. When we arrived, our clothes were hanging with our names. We had to choose and go change. For the instructors, it was the same thing, even their shoes. I remember staring into Robin Arzon’s shoes.

I’m sure they were amazing.

It’s a very cool pair of shoes over there. It had her name on it, but it was cool for me to see because I had no idea how photoshoots work, in general. I’ve never been in one. I never was in another one since after that. It was fun to be photographed and your hair is blowing.

 The rockstar hair.

There were a few of us there and we became friends after that because I didn’t know them before. That was a cool experience. I am very thankful for that too, and I always thanked Jill for that too. She couldn’t be there, but she was happy for us to be there. It was a great accomplishment for the apparel to partner with Athleta. They’re both very good brands. To represent them was another cool thing to do.

I was thinking about what you said about your leaderboard name. You might be the only person whose leaderboard name was assigned to them by an instructor.

I was thinking that too.

I never heard any other story, but this is true and everybody knows. Jenn knows too. It is funny because I have totally melted. Sometimes, I stop pedaling when she said, “My little powerhouse.” Right now, to have a shout-out is so incredible. If I am riding a milestone and she doesn’t call me out, I’m fine. I much rather have her shout out someone that maybe had never been called out because that experience is so unique for some people. I always say, “Forget about me. If you see me fine, but you don’t have to call me. Call another person that you haven’t yet called so that person can experience it because it’s so cool to be shouted out by someone that you truly follow and admire.”

I was also thinking that means that somewhere out there, there’s probably someone with the leaderboard named Cristina who wouldn’t have gotten it otherwise.

That’s true. Are they spelling it correctly though? She spells it with no H and K.

If you’re out there, Cristina no H, no K, you only have that name because of Jenn Sherman.

I have an account that I don’t use. I changed it for a little powerhouse, and then I created immediately another one for Beyond the Ride. When they started doing Beyond the Ride, when you get off the bike, those workouts were counted as rides. I remember I had to delete them because I don’t want to hit 200 rides or something when maybe 10 or 20 of them are these arms that I am doing. They didn’t have a filter for those.

I created another account to do the Beyond the Rides. They put everything together and now they put strength on one side and yoga and meditation on the other side, but in the beginning, everything would fall into the same list of workouts. That was challenging. I still have an account with Cristina, C R. I don’t know if someone can get the name.

It’s very tricky. When I rode my 500th ride, it was so special. It was the day I became an American citizen that year and it was the first time that I was eligible to vote. It was election day, a Tuesday, November. I went to vote and I came to take my 500th ride. Everybody changed their leaderboard name for my name, so I could get a lot of shout-outs. Janina got in trouble for that because it took her a lot of time to recover her name, and I think she said that story. Don’t ever try to change your leaderboard name, not even for that joke or for a second. Someone will take it.

I didn’t realize that was your 500th milestone when that happened. I knew it was for your milestone, but I didn’t realize it was that particular.

It was my first time voting and I became an American citizen so it was a party.

That’s a lot of milestones for one day.

 

We normally ask who your favorite instructor is, but we feel like we know.

Technically, she already asked herself that and answered it.

My absolute favorite is Jenn. I also have respect for a lot of them, especially for those who teach me something. For example, I like my Matt Wilpers a lot. I always joke with him when I see him because I did some rides with him in Equinox when I was still there. I just didn’t know who he was. I remember saying, “This guy is insane.” He was very hard and he was also an instructor in the gym but he would not be riding. He would be walking around and looking at your monitors and fixing things or fixing your resistance.

He was one of those.

Matt at Equinox was one of those. I took a few classes with him. Sometimes, it was because he was subbing. He was teaching in Lower Manhattan, and I was always in Columbus Circle. I remember I was saying, “That guy again.” The first time that I saw him as a Peloton instructor, I said, “I should have taken a lot of pictures with you back then when there was no line to take a picture with you.”

It would have been a lot quicker back then.

How did I miss those opportunities? I like Matt a lot. When you sat in his classes, it’s a complete class. You are cycling and learning because it’s a lecture. He would say, “We’re going to talk about recovery.” You’ll learn about how to recover, when to recover, and why you recover. It’s a lecture. I feel like I’m sitting in college sweating.

He always teaches a lot of technical information which is great.

It’s fantastic because I don’t have much time or I don’t make much time to read about things like FTP tests or power ratios. It’s great to have someone that teaches you that. It takes you away from zone 5 and 6. I do powers and training with him. I do three challenges during the year and when I am done with all of the challenges is when I do things for fun. I’ve been getting into running since I got my tread. I do a lot of runs too. He is my go-to for that.

Any instructor will give you something, even if you don’t connect with them. I don’t take the class because of them. I take the class because of the music, someone will be there, or there’s a milestone there or it’s a popular class. For example, the Lizzo ride. That was the most popular class in the week. I’m going to take this Lizzo ride then, but not because of Jess or Robin. They are phenomenal.

You took it for the experience.

Yes, all of them will bring you experience and their styles. I’m cool with all of them. There are some that I would not ride, but most of the time, I go with Jenn and Matt because I am in Power Zone and something in between.

As someone who has been around since the beginning, do you have any advice for people just getting the bike?

I like to think of a quote from Francis of Assisi for someone that is starting something new and is intimidating for some, start by doing what’s necessary then do what’s possible, and suddenly you will be doing the impossible. When you start with what is necessary right away, it is creating a routine or a habit, “Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I take these classes no matter what.”

You just have to make the time and choose a time that nothing will get in your way. Maybe very early in the morning when you don’t even see those dishes in the sink and everybody is still maybe sleeping. Choose a time that you can do it. Start there because when you create, it is absolutely necessary. You will start going for more inevitably. It is how your mind works, “It has been 2 or 3 months that I’ve been doing this 20-minute ride, now going to do a 30, then I’m going to do some shoulders after.”

There’s a point in which your discipline is way more important than your motivation and you will be there, no matter what because you’re so consistent with it, “I didn’t miss a day. I’m not going to miss it today.” All of a sudden, you are on a 60-minute ride or 90-minute ride. It happens, but it will not happen if you don’t start making the why I’m here and this is what I’m going to accomplish today, this week and this month,” and then it flows. I get in a bad mood if I don’t exercise or it has been days that I am not doing what I consistently do. It’s because you created that discipline.

That’s my advice. Start low-key and what is necessary. Don’t pay attention to who’s on the leaderboard. Don’t underestimate your strengths. Don’t think that because that person is way ahead of you, that person is stronger than you. That’s not true. Change your mind and say, “That person is being chased by someone. That person might be chasing their last PR so he’s going to get there. I’m going to give him a high-five and go and leave me alone.”

Don’t think that they are stronger than you or they can do more or better things than you. That is not true. Christine D’Ercole is another one that I absolutely love and she always says, “It doesn’t matter where you are in the leaderboard. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, what matters is that you are here.” Listen to those words. Take your rides. Sometimes is therapeutic to listen to the podcast and Dr. Jenn.

I would love to meet her one day, but get involved. Don’t be alone. See what’s going on there. See how many struggles are there and how much you can do too because you can. Do it for those who can’t. How many people would have loved to have this ride now and they couldn’t? “I’m here and I’m doing it for them.” Change the self-talk and you will go so far. It’s so much fun. You’re missing out.

Get the bike and be happy.

Invest in the bike and be happy. The rest will happen.

 

Very good advice.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us.

Thank you for having me.

We appreciate it, especially for joining us again, but this time you answered the questions.

You got to answer this time.

Thank you, guys, so much. You do so much for the community. We are so appreciative. We do not take for granted anything that you do. All the best. Good luck and have a fantastic holiday time that is coming very soon. This is too all.

Thank you.

—

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 on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group, and if you like what you hear, maybe share an episode on your social media channel of choice. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

 

Important Links

• Cristina Ribeiro
• 100th episode – Previous Episode
• Tonal
• Peloton
• OPP – Official Peloton Member Page
• Apple Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Spotify – The Clip Out
• Google Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Patreon.com/TheClipOut
• Facebook.com/TheClipOut
• YouTube.com/TheClipOut
• Ustwo.com
• Dr. Jenn Mann
• @DrJennMann – Instagram
• Hump Day With Dr. Jenn
• SwaggerSociety.io
• I’ve Always Been Afraid That I Didn’t Have the “Right” Body for Cycling. So I Talked to a Peloton Instructor, and This Is What She Said – Well and Good article
• MetPro.co/tco
• Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe
• Instagram – Clip Out Crystal
• Twitter – Clip Out Crystal
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/tomokeefe

 

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://theclipout.com/