303. Peloton Wants YOU For Its Next Commercial Plus Our Interview With Tammy Cunnington

Last Updated: March 31, 2023By Crystal OKeefe (#ClipOutCrystal)Tags: Hand Cyclists, Inclusion, Paralympian, Peloton, People With Disabilities, Raising Awareness

Peloton Apparel launches Peloton Essentials.
Peloton is casting for a commercial.
PCMag wants you to try Yoga Conditioning.
@PelotonStudios celebrated National Puppy Day with a fun post.
Peloton Bike and Bike+ are on sale again.
Sports Illustrated reviewed the Bike+.
Sports Illustrated also compares Peloton Tread to NordicTrack.
Live Science compares Hydrow vs. Peloton Row.
Attorneys are soliciting participants in a class action lawsuit for allegedly sharing fitness data.
Dr. Jenn – Finding balance as the end of the school year approaches.
Jess King is back at work.
Emma Lovewell has a book launch event on May 1^st.
Emma also spoke to SheKnows.com.
Ben Alldis’ book has an official release date.
Robin Arzon officially announces her next book.
Robin spoke at Columbia University.
Cliff Dwenger is now a strength instructor.
Matty Maggiacomo has an in-store appearance in Toronto.
Ash Pryou got a write-up in Forbes.
Rad Lopez was on PIX11 news again.
Cody Rigsby has tips for building mental strength.
Cody plays Smash Or Pass with Rishi Sunak.
Olivia Amato was on the “We Met At Acme” podcast.
Katie Wang has an IG Live coming up with Adrian Williams.
Bradley Rose celebrates 2 years with Peloton.
Angelo – Adding fuel for marathon training without adding weight.
The latest artist series features Shania Twain.
Mariana Fernandez had a Facebook Live about yoga conditioning.
@PelotonStudios gave us the weekly roundup.
Birthdays: Ally Love (04/06)

All this plus our interview with Tammy Cunnington!

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Peloton Wants YOU For Its Next Commercial Plus Our Interview With Tammy Cunnington

I’m trying to remember. This is our first one back from vacation.

I think so. Is that right?

Our plane landed at midnight and I had to be at work at 8:00. I had to work until 11:00 PM.

That’s brutal. You’re still trying to catch up. You’ve been napping all week. I’m so jealous but then at the same time, I wouldn’t have wanted to work for fifteen hours the second we landed,

I might actually nap during this show so watch out. If you hear some snoring, that’s me napping. We had a great time. I almost broke my foot.

It’s so black and blue. It’s better now, but we need to stop the injuries in this household.

My injury was nothing compared to you. I was like, “Look at my bruised foot,” and you’re like, “Go F yourself.”

I was like, “Hold my beer.” I still have a freaking bruise. Seven weeks and three days right there in the making.

You gave me a six-week head start, but I still have a bruise on my foot. We were on a catamaran. You can officially file this on the first-world problems, just to be clear. I was trying to go into the ocean and that last little deck part gets slippery. I now know. They did tell us that, but my foot hit it. I didn’t even have a second. It was like whoosh. I went off on the other side of the boat and I was fine. I was getting off on the other side and was fine. It’s not like I was running because we all know I’m not going to do any running. I set my foot down and went tits up. My foot got wedged under the little metal bar or something.

The ladder.

It was black and blue. I landed on my back, but my back was fine luckily because I had one of those life vests on.

Thank goodness. I’m pretty sure I’m the worst wife ever because I was off in the water. I was already snorkeling. As soon as the boat docked, I was like, “I’m out.” I had no idea this occurred, like none.

Until the next day.

That’s not true.

The people from the boat were like, “How many have you had?” I’m like, “I hadn’t had any, like zero.”

I had eight.

I had Coke Zero. I was like, “I swear to God, I’m not drunk. I’m fine. I didn’t hit my head. There are no concussions. I don’t want to ruin everyone else’s trip.”

Thank God. The last thing we need is two concussed people in this house.

That would be a recipe for disaster and forgetfulness.

I have big news regarding my injury. If you’re done with yours. I don’t want to take anything away. I went to the physical therapist on Tuesday. I was asking, “How much longer do you guys think I’m going to do this?” They were like, “I think you’re doing good. You can not be released, but you can have off for two weeks.” They told me to get back to all my normal activities, try it all out for a couple of weeks, and then come back and see how everything is doing. I might get released in two weeks. That might be it. I feel good. I’ve been running, and I didn’t feel like I was going to die at the end of my runs.

Not feeling like dying is a net positive.

I can also tell from the data I have from my Whoop that my recoveries are better. I’m sleeping better. My stress levels are showing that everything is down. You can see things are starting to come together data-wise. It corresponds with how I feel.

You’ve been calling me by the right name again.

I got that down. I’m like, “It’s Tom. Got it.” I know the kids’ names too. It was never that bad.

You would be my first wife who has forgotten me.

I think that in one guy she dated, she tried to make it as easy on herself as possible.

It is one letter difference.

As I was saying, I feel like it’s all getting back to normal, and it feels amazing to be able to say that. It’s for seven weeks. It has been a lot. I know it’s not very long in the whole grand scheme of things. I realize that.

It’s like when you’re out of work for six weeks. When you get to the end of it, you’re like, “It was only six weeks,” but you spend that six weeks wondering when you’re going to be done.

There were some dark days in there. I’m like, “Is this ever going to get better? Am I always going to have this super high heart rate whenever I try to run? Am I always going to feel like dogs do every time I try to run or get my heart rate up?” It was terrible.

I’ve been trying to wear my hoodies that are less sexy in order to help you keep your heart rate down.

I appreciate that. You’re so thoughtful, Tom.

I’m a giver. That’s what I am. People say all the time to me, “Tom, you’re a giver.” That’s the sacrifice I make in order to help you.

Thank you.

What are we doing this week? This week on the timeline is 2016.

Things are heating up. I don’t know if you guys are into this timeline. I’m super into it. For those of you who haven’t gotten a chance like you’re not one of our Patreon members, and you haven’t heard any of these deep dives we’re doing, do yourself a favor and go out to 2016. There’s so much that starts to happen. This is a big year, and you can see the evolution of the company. It’s fascinating to see things that happened back then that are restarting now. It’s uber fascinating.

I will give you a little tidbit. Once upon a time at Peloton back in 2013, there had been a Spanish-speaking instructor. That was a thing. It didn’t happen again until 2020 or maybe 2021. You get the point. It took a long time. Little things like that are fascinating to dig through. I am loving it. If you haven’t gotten a chance, come on over to Patreon. Check out those bonus episodes or at least go to the website and check out the timelines because it is very cool.

If you want to hear us talk about it, that’s our Patreon episode. If you want to look at the timeline, you can do that for free. It’s all laid out in a graphic on our website. If you go to theclipout.com/peloton-timeline. You can see it all there. You can start in 2012 and work your way through. We’re up to 2016 and we will eventually get all the way up to the present day every week. If you join Patreon, those are all waiting there for you. It’s not like they last for a week and then self-destruct. You can play catch up. There are all sorts of bonus content for you. What pray tell do you have in store for people on the show proper?

We’re going to talk about how you can be in a Peloton ad. We’re going to talk about new apparel launches that might surprise you. Not to mention all kinds of information that are coming out. There are a lot of people that are reviewing the bike and the tread. There are some interesting comparisons, particularly the Row being compared to the Hydrow. We’re going to get into that.

We got a new lawsuit to hit, and then we got Dr. Jenn. She’s visiting and we’re going to talk about the end of the school year is coming up. Dr. Jenn is going to talk to us about how to keep balance through that time period. If you have kids, you know that it can get incredibly insane. Speaking of going back to work, Jess King is back to work. We’re going to talk about that and what’s going on with all the instructors. Angelo is going to drop in and we’re going to talk about adding fuel for marathon training without adding weight. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and of course, all the other things that we talk about, birthdays and such.

Shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. Wherever you can find podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and leave us a review, but not in centimeters. You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group.

You can also find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut where you can get all sorts of bonus content. You can get ad-free episodes and when they come out early, we send them to you early. Sometimes you get them 18 to 20 hours early if that’s important to you. Don’t forget, all of these are on YouTube. You can see Crystal in HD and you can see me in regular SD because my fancy camera broke and I was using the crappy one that’s on my laptop.

Were you using that when you were on the boat?

I was live streaming with my laptop on the boat. That’s why I fell. We have a newsletter that you can sign up for at theclipout.com. It’s the same place you can look at the timeline while you’re there, which you should do because she worked hard on it and I did nothing. There’s all that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

We shall. You know what? I was just thinking before we dig in, just a reminder that Big Sur is coming up on April 30th. That means we’re going to be in San Jose for our big meetup. Details about where it’s going to occur are going to be coming very soon. We have been sent several options and now Tom needs to vote. I need Tom’s input.

I vote for the one with chicken tenders.

They all have them. That’s why you need to vote.

We can’t go wrong.

I know. You’re going to be happy with the choices

We’re doing three meetups.

I will be doing the 21 miles. You can meet up wherever after that.

I’m the man of the people. You’re too good to do three meetups. She’s like, “I’m Clip Out Crystals. One meetup, that’s all you get. One meetup per trip.” I’m like, “I will do all the meetups.” I’ll be your lead only singer. I’m a bass player.”

I’m going to be walking 21 miles. I have to get up at 3:00 AM.

I’m the bass player. I’m happy to be here.

You’re not going to get up at 3:00 AM. You’re going to be sleeping.

Why would I get up at 3:00 AM? Who’s our interviewee? We didn’t talk about that.

Tammy Cunnington is our interviewee. For those of you who don’t know that name just right off the top of your head, she’s an amazing Paralympian. She was recently in the studio, the very first Paralympian in the studio, and the very first athlete that had her own adaptive training bike in the studio.

We talked to her a year and a half or two years ago.

She was on the show a while back. She’s an amazing lady. At the time, she was gearing up for Tokyo, but then the pandemic happened. We catch up with her during this interview so we get to hear all about that as well.

She talked about what went into bringing her bike into the studio and all that. There’s all that. We are now done. Let’s dig in.

We shall.

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If you want to be a big famous Peloton celebrity, here’s your chance.

You can cast for Peloton. I love that is for ages 16 and up too. They are looking for all body types. They say that.

Dan Bell Casting is casting on the spot. They want regular Peloton users in it.

This is interesting to me, Bike, Tread, Row, Guide, and Peloton app.

That’s very interesting.

Act fast because auditions are between 3/24, so it has already started and goes through 4/6, but the shoots are going to occur from April 13th through April 17th. It’s one of those two weeks. They don’t know where they’re shooting yet. It depends on where you live. That is fascinating. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this.

That will be interesting to see, especially since they’re looking for real Peloton users, which is fascinating because people have been saying this for years, “Why aren’t you spotlighting regular people in your commercials?”

Going back through the timeline has been fascinating for so many reasons. Little things like this are one of them because if you look back, Peloton started like any other company. They were like, “Buy our product.” People started getting excited about it. It was the people who started Home Rider Invasion, which eventually became Homecoming. If you look back over the marketing, you can clearly see this switch where Peloton started leaning into the members. It’s more than a bike. It became a whole thing.

It then switches again around the time we had Dara. She came in and she was like, “Forget the membership. Let’s focus on the famous people.” Now, Dara is gone. Clearly, something new is coming. I don’t know what that’s going to look like, but it’s fascinating to see this evolution of a company.

Absolutely, when you zoom out like that, which is what the timeline is great for, which is why you should go check it out. It will be interesting to see when this commercial comes out.

It will.

Peloton has launched Peloton Essentials. It’s like underwear and socks.

No, it’s not. It’s things that you might always want like they’re always going to be there. Do you see the shirt that Jenn Sherman is wearing here? I can’t think of the name of it. It’s like a pullover. It’s a specific kind. The point of these is that they’re classic. They’re going to be in dark simple colors. This one is in all the things that are currently out there. They are all black. There are going to be leggings and shirts. They are for men and women. These things will always be there regardless of what else is selling currently.

You don’t have to worry about these selling out. It’s not a race like Taylor Swift tickets. These will always be there because they are essentials like us.

That’s why we’re always here, rocking it since 2017.

That’s why we don’t sell out.

I thought this was interesting. Talking through that evolution, it has been interesting to see how it has occurred for apparel as well. They used to have some styles a long time ago. Clearly, we’re going back to that again. I think that’s smart and that needs to happen. They’re nice refreshed updated looks.

We were talking about all the different reviews we’ve seen out there for different things in the Peloton world. PC Mag has one wanting people to try yoga conditioning classes.

This is surprising to me because PC Mag does not usually drill down to this level on a specific kind of exercise, which is why I thought it was interesting. I agree that these yoga conditioning classes are cool. They’re nice and slow, so anybody can do them regardless of what your expertise level is with yoga, but you’re holding the positions longer. This article goes into a deep dive into why they love it. Suffice it to say it’s because you’re getting a little bit of strength training and some burn along with all of the wonderful things that you get from every yoga class. I think they’re cool and it’s nice. This feels like this is more of an organic placement than some of these tend to be.

You don’t think that they’re out pushing these?

I’m not saying they’re not. Let me be clear. As I said, PC Mag is not known for digging that deep into a kind of exercise.

I would think that they’re talking about computers, not a thing that you can do on your computer.

Even if they were like, “This bike is amazing,” great. They’re not going to be like, “Let me tell you about HIIT and Hills. That’s what I meant and that’s why I found it interesting. I don’t know that it is, but it felt more organic than some of these feel.

The Peloton Studios account had a fun post. It was National Puppy Day and they posted the puppies, and then you get to guess which puppy belongs to which instructor.

Some of these I totally know because I see their accounts all the time.

Some of these puppies, we’ve met.

Did you recognize Hattie? Some of them I’m like, “I don’t know that one.” Some of them are super easy and it’s great. I love all of them. It’s interesting because not many of our instructors have cats. I find that fascinating. There are a lot of dogs.

It’s funny that you say that. I was about to make fun of you, but I did a version of what you just did. Why are you giving me a face?

Because you’re about to make fun of me.

I said I was about to. It was conjugated in the past tense. I was clicking through and looking at the puppies. I was like, “That’s interesting that there are no cats.” I was like, “It’s National Puppy Day. Even if they have cats, they’re not going to post them.”

That is absolutely true. There are a lot of instructors that have dogs and there are only a couple of instructors that have cats. I think there are five.

What’s interesting in that is all of the American instructors live in New York.

It’s easier to have a cat.

It’s a small apartment and it’s a lot of work to take a dog for a walk. You would think you’d see more cats because it’s easier. On the flip side, and a lot of people don’t think about it from this perspective, cats are evil.

I was going to say that a lot of our instructors are active people naturally. They don’t mind walking a dog. They’re not you.

That’s fair. I think maybe they’re like the Jetsons and they’ve got a little treadmill for their dog.

Treadmills for dogs are not safe. Don’t do that.

It’s a crazy thing. Don’t do that.

We don’t need another tread recall. Don’t put your dog on a treadmill, please. Don’t give these people any bad ideas, Tom.

That’s my superpower. Peloton has the bike and Bike+ on sale yet again.

Lots of people are talking about this one though because this is not just on Woot. This is on sale. It’s seen as a spring sale. Not that Peloton has never had one of these, but it’s not a given that it’s going to occur every year. When they used to have them, it used to be around Mother’s Day and that kind of thing. I find interesting the timing of it. In general, I also think that it’s a good thing. One other interesting note is don’t forget that we’re still on that import ban. They must have billions of things in inventory. It’s like mind-boggling amounts because they’re still putting stuff on sale. It’s just fascinating.

We mentioned earlier about seeing lots of reviews pop up again. Sports Illustrated has a review of the Bike+ asking, do the upgrades warrant the price?

Yes.

You are more of a Sports Illustrated gal.

I don’t need to. I just know that they do.

I figured you were more of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit gal.

It’s interesting that they’re calling out specifically the Bike+. Overall there was nothing that stood out about this review. It’s just interesting that so many of them are occurring at the same time.

Did we get to focus on this at all? Did they land on a yes? Is the Bike+ worth it?

We are going to have bad days. Every day is going to be perfect. It is how you handle every day that is not perfect that makes the next day better. Share on X

I don’t know where they landed, honestly. I didn’t get a chance to read through it in depth. I was hoping you did, but it’s in this area. Here we go. Final thoughts. “It’s a premium studio bike that provides a spin class or outside ride experience. It’s a good option if you love Peloton workouts and integrated programming. If you want to try classes without committing, you can get them from the Peloton app for about $13 a month. There’s the option to rent. Overall, an integrated sync workout with Bike+ can rival spin classes with options to explore locations around the world. It’s not an investment to make lightly, but there’s potential to revolutionize the way you workout.” That is a non-answer answer.

They really didn’t answer it but Sports Illustrated is running for Senate.

They don’t want to make anybody mad.

It could be worth or it might not. Thanks for asking the question. While we’re speaking of Sports Illustrated not answering questions, they also have a Peloton Tread vs the NordicTrack 2023, in which they say, “Maybe.”

Did they? Did you read this one? This is long. This one came up pretty late in the day so I didn’t read this one at all.

The Jerry Springer’s final thoughts. They say, “Peloton users, let’s be kind to each other out there. That’s the important thing. This might seem like a battle between the shiny new thing and the tried and true, but Peloton is not a fad. In any modern day, NordicTrack is not your grandma’s treadmill. Both machines are fun, functional, and technologically advanced. There are of course key differences that might sway you one way or the other. For some, the allure of studio classes and the Peloton community will be great for motivation. For others, the reliability but responsiveness of the runner-friendly features will guide you toward the NordicTrack.” In the end, maybe. Sports Illustrated, pick a side.

Have some thoughts and opinions, please. At least they laid it out thoughtfully. There was a lot of information there.

There are a lot of details there for you to digest if you’re trying to make that choice. They won’t land on anything because they probably both advertise with them.

That’s what I think too.

Finally, Live Science is comparing Hydrow and the Peloton Row. They also sort of give an answer. I think they give a better answer than Sports Illustrated does. They say that the Hydrow is better if you want a true rowing experience. If you’re like, “I love rowing and I want to do me some rowing, and everything else can suck it, then you probably want the Hydrow. If you want to have more different class types and have it be maybe a little bit more engaging. you’re better off going with the Peloton Row.

That matches what we’ve heard from people who are rowers that went to the Regatta thing and they talked about it then. It’s the same type of thing. If you love rowing, the Peloton Row takes some getting used to because it doesn’t feel like a real rower, but it’s going to have more bells and whistles and class types and things like that. If that’s important to you and you already have a Peloton membership, it’s a no-brainer.

It’s going to be cheaper for you in the long run.

Unless they end up putting stuff out there on the app. We will see.

I meant if you’re already in the Peloton ecosystem.

There are people that would say a Peloton Row costs significantly more than a Hydrow, so it wouldn’t necessarily be in the long run. That’s what I was getting at.

It would be a giant pain in the ass.

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We had a listener point this out to us via our tip line.

You can do that too. You just go to TCOInTheKnow@gmail.com or you can go over to our website where it says, “Submit a tip,” and you can send a tip there as well. This came from #pink_pineapplejacksash.

It got served up to her as an ad on Facebook. I went and found the website and it’s, “Is Peloton violating user’s privacy by publicly sharing fitness data?”

Supposedly, people are thinking that Peloton is sharing fitness performance data, including the classes they take in workouts that they do without obtaining proper consent. It’s possible that this data sharing may violate a Federal privacy law, and attorneys are gathering Peloton members to take action. Right now, this is not a lawsuit. They’re just looking for people to get information. I’d like to believe that Peloton has done their due diligence and that’s not a thing that’s happening.

It’s vague in what they’re saying is going on.

You know how they get all the information and then they put things out there like, “I’m making this up. I’m not saying this is going to be what they would use,” like the cool down. It aggregates it and puts it out there and sends an email. Because that information is out there, maybe that’s going to people who it shouldn’t be going to. I think that’s what they’re trying to somehow say. That’s not a good example.

I don’t know anything about HIPAA.

This isn’t HIPAA though.

I know, but it seems like whether it’s like, “This person workout a lot,” that doesn’t seem like they violated your privacy.

I agree. We will see what happens.

That’s dumb, but it’s out there. Now we’re going to get a class action lawsuit because I called them dumb. I just like to call a lot of people dumb so there are a lot of people that could join that class action lawsuit. Do you know what the problem is? They’re dumb enough to do it.

They’re allegedly dumb.

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Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. She also has a wonderful app called No More Diets, which you should check out. It’s Dr. Jenn.

Hello.

We have a question from Sarah Lester and I think most parents can relate to this. The end of the school year is quickly approaching. She’s already stressing about how tough it’s going to be to balance her training with all of the end of the school-year things that happen. I also would like to add that we have one graduating, so I’m making it about me again. It’s going to be insanity around here.

Does this person also have a traumatic brain injury? Is this a real person?

Was she hit by a car by any chance?

No. This was Sarah Lester.

What did you say her name was?

You got me.

First of all, here’s what I would recommend. You want to map out all the information that you have as early on as possible, whether you use a computer program for your schedule or do it by hand, someplace that you can visually map out the week, the month, and then day by day. What you want to do is make sure that you have all the information of what time slots are blocked out, then you can look at where you can realistically fit in your workout.

Also, you have to be flexible. One of the things now that I work from home and I see all my clients virtually is that there are times when I go into the gym after I’ve taken my kids to school and I do my cardio. I then see some clients and then I hop back in because I had a cancellation or I’ve got an hour in between. I do my strength class and my stretching, hopefully. You have to be creative.

What you may need to do at times is do your workout in chunks and be creative. Also, keep in mind if you have a long day and you go to a graduation, then you come home and you’re like, “Now I have to do the other half of my workout,” be strategic about what you’re going to do at the end. If you’re doing your cardio weight before you go to sleep, you’re probably not going to sleep well. You want a bit of a gap.

If you do your stretching or your yoga before sleep, that’s something that might help you sleep and help you digest your day. Plan it out, be flexible, be willing to do it in bites, and also be forgiving of yourself. There may be a day here when it’s not realistic to work out and it’s not good self-care. There may be other times when it’s good self-care to wake up because you know it’s going to be such a stressful day and get your workout over with. Keep in mind you also need your sleep.

Start doing before bed yoga.

That’s again making it about me, but I was thinking. Tom was at a movie and I worked until 9:30. I do wonder if that got my brain all crazy. It’s not workout but work.

Our bedtime ritual was screwed up because the movie was so long. I saw John Wick 4 and it’s three hours long for no reason.

You always make me think of good things. Maybe I do need to be more careful with my bedtime routine.

For sure. I swear by Ross Rayburn’s sleep meditation. You know how I feel about that. I’ve been met with resistance from one of my daughters who is a night owl like me. She’s like, “I’m not doing meditations.? I’m like, “I’m doing one. Can I hang with you?” The next thing you know, she’s falling asleep.

Hopefully, that was helpful for Sarah Lester, not me.

Passion equals victory. Share on X

A real honest-to-God person. Thank you so much for all that. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me @DrJennMann on all social media. I post my workouts, all chunks of it, and each day of it as best as I can, on my Insta stories.

Thank you.

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Jess King is back at work.

She came back teaching classes and posting reels. She’s back. It’s official. It’s happening.

That outfit she’s laying out looks like something you would wear.

It totally does. I don’t have that hoodie but I do have a different hoodie.

You do have six hoodies that look like it. The rainbow tie-dye.

That was a Pride collection from a couple of years ago. All of those are past things. I don’t have the leggings, but I do have something similar. I do have that t-shirt. I do have that bra.

You don’t have that baby. That would scary. That would be kidnapping.

I would not steal Jess King’s baby.

I don’t think you should limit it to just Jess King. I don’t think you should be taking anybody’s baby.

I’m not taking any babies.

I’m a little bit worried. That seemed like a hyper-specific plan.

It’s because you said, “That baby.”

That’s like if someone is like, “I will not cheat on you in Atlanta,” but you’re going to Des Moines. Atlanta and Los Angeles, no adultery of any kind.

There will be no baby stealing of any kind in any state or location or country ever.

Duly noted. The last thing we need is another class action lawsuit. Emma Lovewell has her official book launch coming up on May 1st.

It’s going to be at the Town Hall. If you don’t know that because I didn’t, someone had to explain that to me. The Town Hall is a venue in New York City. It’s going to be moderated by Cody Rigsby. I guess Cody has become the moderator for everything because he did Pink’s thing. Now he’s doing this. He’s getting speaking gigs everywhere.

I wonder if she will then moderate his book launch.

I don’t know. Won’t that be interesting?

It will be. While we’re speaking of Emma Lovewell, she sat down with SheKnows.com and talked about how she became an instructor. It sounds like she took a page out of the Jenn Sherman playbook.

If I remember correctly, she knew John and Jill for a long time. I could be getting her mixed up with a different instructor. The article goes into detail about that among other things, including her book launch. This is something that you can dive into on your own because it’s a long article.

While we’re speaking of books.

I wanted to point out that Ben Alldis’s book has two different release dates. In the UK, it’s August 31st. In the US, it’s October 17th. I just wanted to clear that up and make it very clear in case there was anybody who was like, “I thought you said October,” but the UK has a different date.

Do you know why it comes out later in the US? It’s because they have to go through them one by one and erase all the used in words like humor and color.

That makes sense. They have to do that in each copy. That takes a while.

Speaking of books, Robin Arzon has officially announced her new book, which is a book of journal prompts. It is basically like, “I got a new book. You know what? You write it.”

She sees it a little differently. People have asked her a lot about her journey and how she got there, and this journal will help people figure out what’s holding them back, what it is they want, and how to get where they want to go through different journaling prompts. Apparently, there are different sections that might speak to you at different times. There are all kinds of opportunities to journal it all out and solve all of your problems. Basically, this journal can become your life coach.

How about that? She spoke at Columbia University.

She was there and she was talking about something like women in business. I don’t remember the exact name of it, but it was something to that effect. She spoke about women in business and being an entrepreneur and things like that. We’re going to see a lot of these things. We’re not going to go into it at length. We just wanted to let you know what happened.

Everybody got an NFT.

No, they didn’t. You got to be in the Swagger Society for that, and then you got to go through a whole process that I’m still not clear about to get one.

Cliff Dwenger is now also a strength instructor.

I love how Peloton is taking all these different instructors that already exist and adding to what they already do. I think it’s also a win for all of us as users because it adds more class types and more availability. I feel like the schedule is picking up these days. I love it.

It’s also a great way to get people to maybe sample other platforms.

That’s so true. If Cliff is your jam over on the bike and you haven’t been into strength, this is a great opportunity for you to go try strength. They’re hoping that Cliff is going to pull you in, and they’re probably right. They’ve been traditionally right about these things. Congrats to Cliff.

Matty Maggiacomo is going to be doing an in-store in Canada.

In Toronto, specifically. Sometimes people talk about how these instructors don’t record enough or they don’t do enough. I wanted to point out that he taught two live classes before he traveled to Toronto to have an in-store appearance. I don’t know how they’re setting up this in-store appearance. In the past, when they’ve done in-store appearances, it’s a long day. They make it a thing because the instructors hang out with the people who work there. When the people come in, the instructors are on the whole time. They talk to everybody and they hang out with everybody. It’s a very big deal. I wanted to point out that just because they’re not recording doesn’t mean they’re not working.

Ash Pryor spoke to Forbes Magazine. That’s a pretty big deal.

She talks about how she rode her way to the top of the fitness industry. I love seeing her featured everywhere. She’s one of our newest instructors and people seem to love her. It has been good for her.

“Row her way to the top of the fitness industry” only works as a headline in print because when you say it, it makes her sound lazy, “She rode her way to the top.”

That’s because you haven’t used a rower, Tom.

I don’t hear it as row. I hear it as rode.

You’re right. It never occurred to me that way. That’s so funny.

Rad Lopez popped up on PIX11 News. I think this is maybe his third time. Here’s my prediction. I think Rad Lopez is dating somebody who works at PIX11 News. That could be the next big scoop. It’s like, “He’s seen out in public with the anchor from PIX11 News.”

Whatever works for Rad.

A lot of times, it is more fun to ride hard, but your hard get less hard all the time if you don't have a good base behind it. Share on X

I know. More power to both of them. He was on there talking about outdoor workouts that are perfect for spring.

I love that. It’s time. I mean it’s still 40 degrees here, but I’m hoping that it’s time. I’m believing and manifesting spring.

It’s almost April so any second now.

It will go from 40 to 80. That’s what it will do here.

Cody Rigsby talked to Fit&Well. He says he’s got three techniques to help you build mental strength. Focus on your breath.

It’s a kind of meditation awareness type of thing.

Start with a shorter session.

Dr. Jenn says that all the time. Use mindfulness in your workout with a mind-muscle connection. Tonal really pushes that all the time. I love that.

There you go. There are your three tips.

If you do those things, you’re going to have the strongest mind ever.

You’re all now mentally strong. You’re strong enough to be a supervillain. Speaking of Cody, he was asked to play Smash or Pass with Rishi Sunak.

Was he asked to play it or somebody asked Rishi Smash or Pass?

Somebody asked Cody Smash or Pass about Rishi Sunak, who is the Prime Minister of Britain. He is apparently a big Peloton user. We’ve discussed that in the past. Cody is his instructor of choice.

Did Cody Smash or Pass?

He said Smash, and then the interviewer was like, “You know he’s short.” I’m offended. Cody says that he likes a short king. Apparently, I got a shot with Cody.

That would be weird.

I also thought it was a little hetero-normative where she’s like, “He’s short.” I know that in heterosexual relationships, typically speaking, women want the man to be taller than them. I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I’m just saying that’s how it is.

It’s a common request.

It’s bad, but it’s common. In a gay relationship, you can’t only date people who are the exact same size as you. Somebody’s going to be shorter. One of the two men in that relationship will be shorter than the other. You can’t use height in the same way in gay dating that you can in heterosexual dating. It was a dumb thing to even point out. It would be a deal breaker.

That’s true. I feel like you spent a lot of time on this. I think you listened to too much Savage Love. You got very defensive.

I thought it was a silly thing to say to a gay man. If all the men have to be taller than you, then there will be no gay people.

You know what Cody would say, “It’s not that deep Boo.”

He did say he didn’t mind short guy. There you go. Olivia Amato was on the We Met At Acme podcast. I guess this is a podcast that talks about relationships. I think it was like weird things that happened in relationships or failed relationships.

She talked about how she met her husband, I assume.

Yes. Katie Wang and Adrian Williams had an IG live.

I watched it, it was all the things about Row bootcamps. They talked about how they’re structured and why they’re structured the way they are. For people who are wondering, more 60-minute bootcamps for rowing are coming. Katie also thinks you’re crazy for asking for them, but she will give them to you. I thought that was great. These two were adorable together. I love it.

Bradley Rose celebrated two years with Peloton.

If you keep an eye on that Peloton Studios account, you’re going to see that every time these instructors have an anniversary, you’re going to see a 32-second reel from them. In this case, you get to hear from Bradley how he got to Peloton in 30 seconds, which is a great story. Congrats to Bradley.

Becs Gentry is doing an Instagram Live.

This is some kind of collaboration. She’s mentioning it because it’s an IG Live. It’s a good opportunity to listen to Becs talk about things that she wouldn’t necessarily talk about in class because it’s a different format. I always love getting to know the instructors. This is a good place to do that.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Angelo. He’s going to have tips for you on how to add fuel for your marathon training without adding weight to yourself.

—

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

Thanks for having me back.

Thank you for being here. Karen Smith is looking for some help. She needs to find the right balance between fueling her body for running, hello half marathons, and not gaining weight. Also, she needs to keep her energy up. As the week gets goes on, she gets more and more tired. Help. I have thoughts. I’m curious if my thoughts are the same as your thoughts, Angelo.

This is the stuff that we deal with all the time. This is super common and that is the trick. It doesn’t do any good dancing around this fundamental nutrition and performance fact. When you are pushing your body for greater performance, you are going to perform better and your body is going to require more nutrition. It’s not simply as easy as, “As long as I eat the right things and good things, then somehow the calories don’t end up equating to.”

There’s that balance and that’s one of the more tricky things that we do with our clients because it’s different for each person. It’s not simply a matter of, “As long as everyone is getting height, weight, divided by.” It doesn’t work that way. Some people have high requirements that are launched into the stratosphere once they start doing endurance training. Some people have moderate requirements that go up marginally, but just a little when they start doing a bit more aggressive or longer runs.

A few thoughts on that topic, believe it or not, training for a half marathon, we actually find it is a great tool in weight management. However, for someone who’s just starting this training for a full marathon or beyond where they’re regularly running for more than an hour or hour and a half on an average training day, that’s where it becomes more specific. I’m not going to say harder. In fact, you have the calorie burn going on like Tom was alluding to. That’s where those targets become important because it’s easy to overdo it and then get in a situation where you are under-fueled. Now you have to end up eating three times as much to catch back up.

The overarching theme, Karen, is what you want to do is make sure you have a quality base meal plan. I even have Ironman athletes who are qualifying for the top of the world competition when it comes to this stuff. This is the exact recommendation I give to them. I make sure their base meal plan is consistent, appropriate, and meets their needs for the average training days. We use intra-training fuel to manipulate what they need on the extra training days.

We might even influence a little bit their base meal plan. Basically, my client’s base meal plan on the weekends, which is usually when a lot of our marathon runners are doing their long run, is pretty similar to the weekdays. What’s changing is we add extras during their intra-training fuel.

That’s your supplementation and maybe we will add in some extra recovery on those days. What that does is it avoids those of us who are concerned with weight maintenance overcompensating and throwing calories at it that aren’t needed. Most people in training we find are under-fueling, not over-fueling. We will just throw that out there.

Not knowing your specific details, Karen, I’d like to recommend a blanket recommendation. Make sure you’re getting at minimum breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner every day. Make sure those meals are balanced and you’re not skimping on carbs. It doesn’t mean you need to have 150 grams and 200 grams in one sitting. Make sure you’re getting some carbs with each of those meals. From my more advanced athletes, I’m going to see them eating a minimum of five times a day or even in some cases, six or more.

Once you have that, then look at your training fuel. That’s where your tabs and your sugar there. There are all kinds of go-tos. There are tablets and powders you can put in your water. I’m not going to promote one brand over another. You’re running so you’re familiar with those. Make sure you’re getting adequate needs and use them generously, especially when you know that that run is going to be lasting over about 45 minutes to an hour for you. That will help.

Don’t be afraid of using that then and there. They can spare you from the next day having to double or triple consume to get on top of low blood sugar. That would be my advice in those cases. Don’t be afraid of carbs and have carbs early in your day if you’re a runner because carbs and calories you haven’t yet eaten can’t help you.

A lot of my clients are battling that kind of target, where if they don’t get enough energy, now their training is tanking. They may in fact be getting enough fuel to satisfy them, but they’re not getting it when they need it. We look at their day and they’re getting 60% of their calories in the back half of the day. If we reverse that, they get 60% or 70% front half of the day or as much as possible before training. Post-training, maybe it was adequate, or maybe a small increase is adequate. Look at the timing because that will play a big role in how much increase you need.

I’m going to throw one last thing at you because I know I’m probably overloading. I didn’t dive into specific training fuel. We’d need a whole other episode for that. For the meal plan itself, we will actually adjust in 5% to 6% increase increments. That’s what we do at MetPro. We’re looking at all the variables and we’re making fast reactions and changes. We may do several consecutive adjustments to get it right.

What I recommend for the average person is to increase or decrease 10% in one shot, and then re-evaluate. If it’s not enough fuel or it’s too much fuel, then you can adjust from there. Make 10% changes and don’t be afraid to make them in succession if need be. That’s a good starting point. If you are experiencing low blood sugar or that feeling of complete exhaustion because you’re overtrained and you don’t have enough recovery, don’t try and piecemeal it. Don’t say, “I’m just going to eat another 2 ounces of chicken breast with my next meal,” and think that’s going to fix it. You need to get on top of that.

Add a solid minimum of 25 to 30 grams of carbs. You may need more than that. Add a little extra protein along with that. That’s a minimum. In some cases, I need to throw 50 to 60 grams in one shot at someone who is feeling like, “I don’t have the energy,” plus calories on top of that. Get on the other side of that blood sugar crash. Once you’re stable, you can start playing with 10% movements up and down.

Sometimes, you need to back off and know that a lighter ride now makes for a better ride tomorrow. Share on X

Very good advice.

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

They can come to MetPro.co/tco.

Thank you.

—

We have a new artist series, this time featuring Shania Twain.

I know I’m in the minority but I cannot stand Shania Twain. I couldn’t just take it or leave it. I dislike her music with the white-hot blaze of the sun.

There’s something about her music that has always gotten on my nerves too. It was funny because when she was a host on American Idol back when I still watched it. I was like, “Ugh,” and then she was on there and I was like, “She was great.”

I do think there’s something about how she sings that irritates me. I don’t have a problem with her as a person. Clearly, I don’t know her. There are just some people you hear a certain tone or you hear a certain sound and it’s like nails on a chalkboard. That’s how it is for me with Shania Twain but I know tons of people are excited about this

She’s huge. That’s undeniable.

You cannot deny that. How appropriate that it’s Women’s History Month and she has a new album out. I’m super happy that these do not have to be for me. That’s the beauty of them. They’re for everybody. There are tons of classes. Earlier in the week, I did a run with Logan Aldridge and he had two Shania songs in it. He said that at the end of the month, he was doing this artist series. He was super excited. He’s going to be doing this strength class, but you have multiple options to be taking artist series classes. If Shania Twain is your thing, you are going to have to be able to take all of the classes with all of the songs.

—

Mariana had a post about yoga conditioning.

She didn’t have a post. It was a Facebook Live. Mariana’s Mariachis, which is Mariana’s fan group over on Facebook, had a Facebook Live. There were several instructors that came from the yoga side of things and they talked about yoga conditioning. If you’ve been interested in yoga conditioning and you want to learn more about it and you didn’t get to see this, go back because it’s over in Facebook Live. It’s saved over on Marianna’s Mariachis and you can learn more about it. Tom knows there’s a post. It occurred. It was a thing.

Peloton Studios had a post this week.

There are a couple of things I wanted to point out. We all know that there is the Ride and Run to Greatness that is occurring. The tread is happening but there are a couple of things that I wanted to make sure people know. Pump Up The Volume is a new program that is exclusive to the Guide. That’s coming out. In seven weeks, it will hit everywhere. Don’t freak out, people. It’s coming.

Also, Peloton is going to be celebrating Trans Day of Visibility on Friday, March 31st. That’s the day that this comes out. Make sure that you are able to take those classes. Matty Maggiacomo, Joslyn Thompson Rule, and Jeffrey McEachern are all doing classes for that day. I just wanted to make sure that you knew about things coming up this week because those are important things.

—

There’s only one birthday this week on April 6th. It’s Ally Love.

Happy birthday, Ally Love.

If you see her this week, show her some Ally love. That sounds dirty when I say it like that. I don’t mean it like that. My apologies. Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Tammy Cunnington all about taking her special Paralympian bike into the studio for the first time ever.

It’s not her Paralympian bike.

She used it in the Paralympics.

She used it to train for it. She’s a Paralympian swimmer. She just trained on the bike.

Other than that, I got it right.

Tammy’s awesome. Tune in to the interview.

It’s a great interview and it’s amazing the things that she can do. You should definitely stick around and check it out.

—

Joining us is Tammy Cunnington. Our particularly astute audience might remember her from episode 157. Welcome back.

We are happy to have you.

Thank you. I appreciate you asking me back.

When we talked to you last time, you were ramping up for the Tokyo Paralympics. I know that all the craziness with COVID changed protocols. Did it change anything else about that experience for you?

When we were talking, I didn’t yet know. Nothing had been officially changed. I was preparing to race in a pool without a pool to train in, which would have led me to Peloton. I don’t know the timing of everything, but they did postpone it from 2020 to 2021. I did end up having lots of time but still lots of chaos to get ready for Tokyo.

In the province I live in, we opened and closed again. It was easy not to train when all my competition couldn’t train either. When my province closed the pools, and I was the only one in Canada who wasn’t in a pool, it got a little bit more carried and stressful. Fortunately, things went well. I did make the team, competed in Tokyo, and retired right after my last race in Tokyo.

Did you decide, “It is time, I’m done?” Was there anything else that precipitated that retirement?

It was just time. In para-sport, we compete in classifications. We are in groups of people who are the most similar abilities or disabilities as us. My classification is quite broad. We are not as similar as some of the classifications. It was challenging, and I knew that going into Tokyo. I decided to make the celebration by making the team under extra circumstances and go and enjoy Tokyo, and swim the best that I could swim. I had the most fun I could and retired after that

Not many people can say they have retired from the Olympics. I saw that you were in the New York studio and that you were able to ride your bike in the studio. How did that all come to be? That is a first.

It is a long story, but it was fun to bring my hand cycle with me to New York, be in the studio, set up there, and be able to ride with everybody else in that same class. I went to Greece to go to a retreat that Christine D’Ercole was putting on in Greece. I didn’t know much about it. I was somebody on one of the Peloton Facebook pages, which I never looked at. It happened to pop up. He was like, “Who is going to Greece with Christine?” I’m like, “Who is going to Greece with Christine? I don’t know what’s happening. I’m going to Greece.” I decided to sign up. My husband wanted to go to Greece but couldn’t go for as many days. It was also a good chance. I could go for ten days and he could come for ten days so I would get a longer time.

I went to Greece and met Christine along with all the rest of the people at the retreat. There were 25 of us. We had a great six days in Greece. We connected and bonded strongly. We have had this running message group since then. One in our group there was like, “I’m working in New York in February. I’m going to ride in the studio on February 25th. Who wants to come?” I was like, “I’m going to New York.” We’re all back up in New York together.

Once I found out the group was going and Christine was going to hold a ride for us, I started to work on finding out. I knew I could get my bike there, but if Peloton couldn’t make space, I didn’t know what the studio looked like. It looks so much different than it looks in On-Demand classes. Christine worked with her producer and with Peloton staff. They made a plan. It took a few months to get all the details worked out. I made a plan. I showed up on Wednesday with my bike, went on Thursday to set it up, and made a space.

They took two bikes out. There was one last Peloton bike in the studio to have room for my bike. I brought my trainer and my bike. I rode the class with my grease crew and with Christine. I’m the only first-hand cyclist to ride live in the studio. It was a great opportunity for advocacy and included proper true inclusion and all the rest.

What all goes into moving your bike? Was it built with the thought of transporting it in mind? Was that like, “Let’s do that?”

I competed in a triathlon before switching to swimming. I traveled with a bike, a racing chair, and a regular chair.

Moving your bike wasn’t a daunting task for you.

No, it took a few more pieces because it is about 7 feet long. I couldn’t put it on my Mini. My husband would take me to the airport, and I needed someone to pick me up at the airport. I couldn’t just hop in an Uber with it. One of the people from our group lived in New York and had an SUV. She picked me up. She kept my bike overnight and took me to Peloton. It wasn’t too bad. I had to get it ready for travel. We kept it mostly together. We find it is easier. If they can see it how it is, they maybe are a little bit more careful with it.

In my head, I was like, “If you were going to bring your own Peloton to the Peloton studio, that sounds like a nightmare.” I was trying to wrap my head around what that procedure looks like.

This is the regular outdoor bike that I set onto a trainer. There is a special hand bike trainer we set it on. There are no electronics. I took the chain off to make sure the cables didn’t get wrapped up, and the gearing was okay. It is not as hard as if you were going to bring an actual Peloton bike. I don’t have any power or cadence, but that didn’t matter. I ride based on effort. I use the gears to increase or decrease my resistance.

That was your first ride in the studio then.

Absolutely.

Thank God she was able to book a reservation through the new system after all that.

I feel like maybe Christine had some pull on that one.

We were all booked in.

That is cool that all 25 of you were able to come together. I know there is another retreat coming up. I can’t remember what country it is.

It’s Switzerland.

Are you going to that one too?

No, I’m not going to that one, unfortunately. I’m sure everyone who does will have a great time as well.

Tell us about your first experience in the studio. What did you think? Did you like it? What went through your head?

It was fun. I went in a little bit before the rest of the group because the Peloton staff set my bike up for me to make sure everything was running smoothly before Christine came in. It looks different than it does when you are riding On Demand. It is quite a bit smaller inside than I expected it to be. It is dark, and the music is already playing. The atmosphere is fun. If you saw my Instagram, we did shoot a few videos. We took some fun pictures with some purple lighting and different glow.

I had a chance to share a lot of my story with them in Greece and since then by text and FaceTime. They knew my purpose. It wasn’t about attention for myself but attention to the inclusion of hand cyclists and people with disabilities. The atmosphere was fun. I’m sure it would be in any class, but it was high energy with my group there. When Christine came in, it was so much fun with the music and the group. She came in and let me come down on the floor because I sat almost on the floor on my hand bike. She came down and let me take a selfie.

I saw she tried your bike out too.

I ask her before the class. I said, “You should try it if you want to.” She is much taller than I am. I’m a child-sized person. We could still make it work. She had to move where she put her feet. She gave it a little try. We had a chance to have a conversation about it, the future, and what I would like to see in the world as well as in Peloton. It was meaningful, fun, and exciting, all wrapped up together.

You were talking about how it was great for the idea of awareness and inclusion. It is okay to say you want to. It can be like, “It looks fun. I would like to be in the studio too.”

It is cool that not only you got to, but you were the first person that got to try a hand bike. That is a special thing. I’m surprised it has taken this long for that to occur. To your point, I hope that we get to see more of those instances. I hope Peloton figures out a way to make that open to more people. This was a special event that Christine had to help put together for all of you to come together and make sure that everybody was able to join the class because it is hard for people to sign up. When people read this, they might get frustrated or discouraged because they may not be able to do that. It is one of those things that they have to try before they can get better at it. I’m glad that the trying has occurred, and I’m hoping that getting better now occurs.

We keep talking about representation matters. A lot of times, it is still people like myself or people who are wheelchair users who are not fully a part of that conversation, or it is something special for us. I don’t want to go to a class with only other people in hand cycles. That is where we were 10 or 15 years ago. We need to be beyond that and do what we did on Saturday, where everyone else was on their Peloton bike, and I was on my hand bike.

The full integration and mix are what I’m looking for. I want activities that can be done by both people like, “Here is the option if you are standing. Here is the option if you are sitting.” Instead of, “This class is just for people in chairs.” I want the world to start to come together because that is when people like myself would be seen at the grocery store as another person at the grocery store instead of, “Look at that lady in the wheelchair at the grocery store.” I want it to be like, “Tammy is at the grocery store.” Instead of it being something different. Until we can do these things together at the same time and be, “Tammy is using her arms. We are using our legs.” That is the only difference. To me, that is true inclusion and where the world should be heading, and where I like to see things go.

Most of us take it for granted. We don’t think about how that feels to not be included. I’m glad you are sharing that and what you would like to look at. I could sit here and say what inclusion looks like all day but I’m not the person sitting in your place. You need to be saying that. That is why it is important. That is great.

I’m hoping maybe there is a mom with a kid that might have disabilities who doesn’t know yet about a hand bike. She takes that class and her kid is there like, “Look, mom, that’s what I can do.” It opens the world because there are many more things for people like me now than when I was first injured. I was hurt 41 years ago. There wasn’t Peloton, but there weren’t all of these new opportunities.

I hope kids now who are newly injured or born with physical challenges know about their opportunities right away so they can already take advantage of all these things that make them fit in with their peers. They can get a hand bike and ride with their friends in the street. They can take a weight training class and do the arms. I want their life to be simpler than my life was growing up in a chair.

It always strikes me that every time Logan starts a class, he always describes himself and what he is wearing. It always stands out to me because if we all do things like that, we have to do things like that. We just do it without thinking. We made some tiny steps forward to being better about the whole company being able to be inclusive. Peloton seems to be truly committed to it. I hope the things you told them, you were able to push them on the way.

I have been nudging them a little bit and giving them lots of winkies on my Instagram, trying to get their attention. I have been teasing them about wanting to come and do a guest instructor’s spot and see how it happens because I don’t need to instruct leg-by. I can tell you how to do cadence and power. Even though I’m using my arms, I can still tell people how to do it with their legs. That would be the ultimate to see a hand cyclist instructing Peloton-like bikers to keep growing forward, build on what they have done with Logan, and continue on that path.

Were the cameras able to capture you in class? Are you visible in the class? You said your bike sits lower. I didn’t know if that presented a problem for them.

My bike is lower, but you can see me. I haven’t taken the class since. I haven’t watched it, but I have seen comments on Facebook, and a couple of our groups have taken it. You can see me. The instructor has the computer beside them. They moved for this class so that Christine could see me because of where I sit down low. She didn’t have her computer for that class. I’m up in the front on the side beside her. In the studio, there is a couple of curb like raised platforms where the bike sits. That was the perfect spot where my bike could go where there was no impedance of platforms in curb cuts or curves.

Did the class have a theme?

No, it was a 30-minute climb ride.

I’m glad you got to that. That is cool.

You said you went to Greece with Christine. Was it the Wordshop?

It was a five-day retreat Wordshop.

Can you tell us a little bit about that? We have talked about them in the past when she announces them, but we don’t know what it looks like to attend one. Could you walk us through what you get?

The main focus is Christine working with everyone to stop the negative self-talk and switch things. If something is going on in our head, that is negative. She is switching to being more positive. Everything with Christine is based around I am, I can, I will, and I do. We work on building our own mantras like that and adding words at the end of each of those sentences.

She does different group activities and writing that we are doing on our own that keep building on those mantras and positive words, and encourage people to come back to that easier when things are going not the way they maybe want to. It already fits in with a lot of philosophies and things I speak about when I do keynotes. It’s that we are going to have bad days. Every day is going to be perfect. It is how you handle every day that is not perfect that makes the next day better. My mantra is passion equals victory. I wove it in. I combined the work that Christine did with her words into my words.

Do you guys spend every moment together?

Not every moment but we had a certain time that was Wordshop time. We had dinners together that were planned. We had days that had free time. We did some resort activities. We went to Greece. We went on a boat ride one day, and they did a couple of bikes. I didn’t take my hand bike to Greece. It was a little too many flights and too far. They did a couple of rides. We went to a beautiful beach, and a picnic up on this hill with this amazing view overlook, where we also did one of our Wordshops at this picnic site. There are different activities and things.

I like that they still have time baked in to see Greece because you don’t want to go all the way to Greece and sit in a banquet room of a Hilton. I’m sure it was not at the Hilton.

It was in this beautiful area. There was a good mix of free time with Christine and our group. Everyone got a chance to chat with Christine one-on-one. It was good.

Would you consider Christine your favorite instructor? When you take rides or classes with Peloton, do you spread yourself across all of the different Peloton instructors?

I ride with different ones depending on what I was trying to do to get ready for Tokyo, and depending on what type of class. Now I’m training for fitness and longevity. I have more flexibility. I love riding with Jess King. I do a lot of Power Zones. I have ridden a lot of Matt classes and some Denis classes. When I’m weight training, I mostly weight train with Adrian and Matty. They are my favorite instructors.

When you were in training for the Paralympics, what classes and instructors did you find beneficial for the different goals you were trying to achieve? What were the goals who worked well with it?

For some days, it was recovery because I was spending so much time on my bike without a pool that I couldn’t go max effort every time on my bike. In the recovery days, I would do some of the low-impact rides or some of the Christine rides that have quieter music that is a little bit calmer. Early on, I did Power Zone because once we knew Tokyo was canceled, we knew I had time to build up. I went back to the base building to build my aerobic base. I did a ton of Power Zone endurance like the Zone 2 and 3 efforts.

I did a lot of Matt’s classes because I preferred to ride for 60 minutes. His classes were often an hour, and I could get into that Zone 2 and 3. When I was preparing for sprints because most of my races were sprint distances like 50-meter distance, then I would do more of the interval classes. I did some of Robin’s rides. There was one class of Hannah Frankson that I did because it had the right timings of what I was prepping to do. It had some two minutes for my IM. I had some one-minute sprints for my 50-meter and some 30 seconds, which are always good to add.

I love hearing what you said about going back and building your endurance when you had time. Many people, myself included, feel like, “We have done that. We need to do harder.” You’re somebody training at that level and you are at a peak level. You are like, “No, I got time. I’m going to go back to the endurance piece of it and kill that before I get to the intense part.” That is key.

It is such an important part that we tend to neglect because, a lot of times, it is more fun to ride hard, but your hard get less hard all the time if you don’t have a good base behind it. We talk about it in swimming too. You can’t swim hard all the time. That effort keeps dwindling because you are not recovering. You need to swim light when you need to swim light. You need to swim hard when you need to swim hard.

If you don’t do the light and the hard, everything winds up in the middle. You end up training at the same pace all the time, and you don’t see improvements on either end. We call it swimming or biking in the mud when everything is at 145 and 150 heart rates. You don’t go much faster. You don’t go much slower. Bikes don’t make any gains doing it.

People get so focused on it doesn’t count if you are not maxed out in some capacity. Sometimes it is hard to keep that in mind. If you have other goals like a lot of people want to lose weight, and you feel like, “I don’t want to waste one second on my exercise. I got to bring every second out of it so I can get there.” Sometimes you need to be there.

Sometimes you need to back off and know that a lighter ride today makes for a better ride tomorrow.

Do you have any projects you are working on that you would like to share with anybody?

I have been living a little bit of retired life. It took me a good year probably to wind down from Tokyo and not be competing and training.

That has to be a culture shock because how long did you do that? You did it for a long time.

I was on the national team swimming for 7 or 8 years. Prior to that, I have been doing triathlon for over 10 years. It has been a lot of time. I always had deadlines and race dates. I knew I was ready to retire. I was 99% sure I was ready. I was ready, but it still took adjustment time. From retirement, I have been focusing as it seems the world is more open all the time. I’m back to doing some more keynotes and in-person presentations. That is my focus. If I can do 1 or 2 a month of keynote speeches, travel, and do the things I love on top of it or combined with it, it works out. That is my focus now.

That sounds like a pretty sweet life right there.

I’m trying to find a mix of peace, passion, and advocacy. Working like that is still my passion, but I don’t have to be quite full out like I was at other times. I can also have a quiet bike or go for a paddleboard instead of full treading and find some peace in the mountains, in Greece, or New York if you can find peace in New York.

Was it fun training for the Paralympics? Do you feel like you have less pressure, so you can enjoy it in a way you couldn’t previously?

I loved training at that level. I loved going in and knowing, “These were my targets for the day. This was the plan. This workout was going to leave me on the side of the pool, gasping for my air.” I loved every second of that, but I do like not having the pressure. I can still do workouts like that if I want to, but it is the mental pressure.

I put on myself as much as anybody else that constant pressure of knowing you are always counting days. They start counting the days to Paralympics like 200-some days out or even more. After Tokyo, they start the countdown clock for Paris. It is stressful when you see those numbers tick down fast. That is the part I don’t miss and I don’t miss the nerves. As much as I love to race, I still have that until I get in the water to warm up. Once I got in to warm up, I usually settled right down. Prior to that, I had a ton of nervous energy. I don’t miss that.

Do you get nervous when you do your keynotes, or do you not mind speaking in front of people?

I don’t mind speaking. Once in a while, if it is something different, or I have changed my presentation, I will maybe have a little bit, but only when I first get on stage, not for three days before that.

Thank you so much for joining us again. We appreciate it. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you on the interwebs.

Remind them of your leaderboard name too so they can follow you if you would like to be followed.

My leaderboard name is Paralympian TJ, and on Instagram, I’m @TJ_Cunnington. That is the only social media that I’m on.

Thank you for joining us. It is great to hear about your visit to the studio story and that you had such a great time.

I appreciate it. It was worthwhile in many ways.

Thank you.

—

I guess that brings this episode to a close. Until next week, 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. Of course, don’t forget our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling, running, rowing, and napping.

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