• Lanebreak coming to the Tread.
• Artist Series classes just got easier to find.
• Peloton will be part of Amazon Prime Day (July 11-12).
• London Calling is this weekend.
• There are special offers on the app.
• Peloton stock is up 20% since the rebrand announcement.
• Wall Street Journal writes about pandemic habits that are here to stay.
• Petition to stop Peloton from deleting classes.
• Jen – Tackling intervals when you just can’t stand them.
• Adrian Williams is back.
• Logan Aldridge is training for the Chicago Marathon.
• Well & Good spoke to Chelsea Jackson Roberts.
• Sam Yo attended a special screening of The Flash.
• Susie Chan competed in the Man v Horse race in Wales.
• Susie is gearing up for Badwater with Striderthon
• Kira Michel will celebrate the solstice with Mind Over Madness Yoga.
• Joslyn Thompson-Rule has de-stressing advice for You.co.uk.
• JustJared.com has pics from Cody Rigsby hosting the ‘Bring Change to Mind’ Pride event.
• Reviews are coming in for Cody’s upcoming book.
• Angel/MetPro – You’ve prepped the food. Why won’t you eat it?
• The latest artist series features Madonna.
• Whoop is closing the gender gap.
• This week at Peloton – Juneteenth, Madonna, Bob Marley, and more.
• @Pelotonstudios went Behind The Class with Tunde and Chelsea.
• Tropical Nights collection is now available.
• Why are Black women more likely to die from pregnancy complications?
• Birthdays: Andy Speer & Denis Morton (6/23)

All this plus our interview with Caroline Lupetini!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Lanebreak Coming To The Tread Plus Our Interview With Caroline Lupetini

I am still kicking myself from the last episode. I forgot that it was episode 314, which is St. Louis. That’s the area code for St. Louis. 

This is now the St. Louis episode, plus one.

I was like, “We’ll have to wait until episode 636.”

Who knows if we’ll be around? That’s another six years from now, Tom.

That’s a lot of time. By then I’ll be honing in on retirement. What else am I going to do all day?

I don’t know what you’re going to be doing.

I’ll be 58 and you’ll be 50. Actually, close to 51. Your birthday is two months away.

That’s enough. We’re not there yet.

We’ll be really close is my point.

That’s six years from now. There’s nothing to worry about. There’s enough to worry about today. Thank you.

For Simpson’s nerd, 636 is also the area code for Springfield.

Which is why people thought that it was. Actually, they didn’t because Illinois here has 618. It’s a whole other thing.

Anyway, that’s our big exciting pre-show ramble. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk about all the new stuff that hit. We got a ton of new stuff hitting and a bunch of new stuff going on with Peloton. We also have a visit from Dr. Jenn. We’re going to be talking about tackling intervals when you can’t stand them. We also have a visit from Angelo at MetPro. We’re going to be talking about you prep the food. Why won’t you eat it? Lots and lots of updates on the instructors. We’re going to be discussing the artist series. Connected fitness, we’ve got some things to discuss, and birthdays.

We should also talk about our guest. She is from the world of the app users.

This is a fascinating conversation. Caroline Lupetini was a delight. We talked to her about what has been the group sentiment in the app group since Peloton changed all of the pricing. We talk about the initial reaction, how things are now, and how people are feeling. We talk about Caroline’s Peloton journey as well. It’s a fun combo.

You have all that to look forward to. Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, iHeart, TuneIn. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. That’s super helpful for the people that come along after you. You’re putting that out in the world for people. You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut. You can get bonus content and you can get the episodes early. You’ll get them ad-free if that’s important to you, or you’ll be helping us out, and that’s nice too. You can find us on YouTube, YouTube.com/TheClipOut where you can watch all of these episodes now with chapter breaks. We have a newsletter at theclipout.com, where you get the links and all that stuff sent to you. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

—

Good news for Tread users. It looks like Lanebreak is heading your way.

This is super exciting. I have been dying to tell you guys this. I did have to sign an NDA, but it’s fair game now. I made sure before I said anything. The funny thing though is I haven’t gotten to try it.

It’s because you have a Tread+.

For all of you with the Tread+, Lanebreak is showing up on my screen but when I click on it, nothing happens. Based on what I’m seeing, this is only going to be released to tread users, not Tread+ users.

We believe the reasoning for that is because of the stuff going on with the CPSC, they’re not allowed to make any changes to the Tread+ until all that is finally rectified.

Yes, but I will say this. I was thinking about this today. Lanebreak does not automatically change your speed or your resistance. It tells you what to change it to. If they’re not changing the speed and the resistance automatically, why isn’t it available on the Tread+? It’s just software at that point, right?

I guess it’s not any different than putting out new class content.

That’s what I think. Maybe it will still show up. I’m just telling you that I had a Tread+, and it wasn’t available to test for the Tread+. I don’t know if it will or will not show up on your Tread+. For the tread users, here’s what we know. Just like with Lanebreak on the bike, you will have all different types of music. You also have all different types of speeds. We know for a fact that when it’s being released, we are only going to see classes for running. There are no walking classes or hiking classes. However, for people like me who are super slow, you can put it on the easiest setting, and it will be pretty slow speeds that you could walk officially. It is totally usable for all members who want to run or want to walk fast.

That’s good. I guess it makes sense that it would only be for running per se because if you’re walking it as a video game, it’s not going to be super challenging.

It is interesting though because what I’m hearing from people who did test it was that when they tested it, it was tough at first because you would have to ramp up the speed so fast, and then ramp down the speed so fast. The Tread wasn’t even all the way up, so they had to slow down those transitions. It’s going to be different than the bike. For the bike, you can switch pretty quickly. They had to adjust that speed to get the right feel for the tread.

I’m not going to lie. This sounds dangerous.

Why?

For that brief window when we actually went to a gym for two and a half weeks. It was the worst two and a half weeks of our marriage.

No, it wasn’t.

What is the worst two and a half weeks in your opinion?

It had nothing to do with you. I’ll put it that way. Your ex-wife though.

She’s been my ex-wife for the entirety of our marriage. Anyway, when I would get on tread, I would always feel like I was about to get out of control or I wasn’t going to keep up. Moving the speed back and forth, and trying to move a dot around or whatever sounds stressful to me from a physical safety standpoint in a way that doing it on a bike wouldn’t be granted. I’ve done neither, but in my head, it seems like I would get distracted and lose my place.

I also will say that when you are changing the speed on the tread versus when you’re changing the speed on a traditional treadmill at the gym, it’s a lot different feel because you roll it forward and backward. It feels very smooth. Whereas at the gym, those were janky treadmills. You have to hit the button really fast. Keep in mind that when you’re moving it on the tread, you have the super speed-up button. The one that’s right in the center. There’s a jump button that will go one whole speed up. You don’t have to press it a bunch of times.

What I’m saying is it feels like a smoother transition. I hear your concern. Some people aren’t going to be comfortable with this, especially if they have any balance issues or vertigo issues. If I had tried to do this back when I was first healing from my accident, it’s a big hell no. I actually had exercises. When I went to physical therapy, one of my exercises was to walk and eventually run while looking left to right with my eyes.

At first, I would almost fall off the tread because that was new to me, and my body had to recalibrate everything. There are people who either have suffered a concussion or they have various medical reasons that make them have that sensation all the time. They would not be able to necessarily do that. I hear what you’re saying. It’s certainly not for everybody, but for people who enjoy gamifying things, this will be a lot of fun.

If you’re good at it, I bet it will be fun. Do you know who’s going to be good at it?

Who?

The band OK Go.

Why will they be good at it?

Don’t you remember their video on the treadmills?

There it is. I had to pull it up in the old files. Now I do. One other thing about this is for people who are looking to use this, I don’t know exactly when it’s going to come out. We know it’s going to come soon. We’re going to expect that the classes that they originally put out there will not be the only classes they will have. Just like with the bike, they will add classes every so often. It feels like they add about two classes a week on the bike. Hopefully, they will add two classes a week for the tread as well.

You would think that they’ve been banking some content.

They definitely did for the testing. Everything that was available for testing will be. I don’t know when they launch if there will be content that has not already been tested. Who knows?

Even though I’m like, “It sounds dangerous,” they’ve been testing it. You got to think that if anyone was having these sorts of problems, they had already addressed them.

As I said, the big thing was that it went fast. I’ve only talked to a few people about this, but one of the people that tested it didn’t like that they didn’t have a feature to walk or hike. They didn’t like that. They wanted the ability to walk. I think you could still make it challenging by making the hills hard. If I’m on a 15 incline, you can go to 15 on a Tread+, but you can only go to 12.5 on a regular tread. I meant they’re different. Not everybody knows that. My point is a speed of 3 is plenty fast at that incline. It feels like you’re working really hard.

Before we end this segment, I have to get it out in front of this so I don’t get a million emails. Who else would be good at this?

Who?

The lead singer of Jamiroquai. I just got to put that out.

Thank you. I’m glad we’re including everyone that this might be good at.

It got easier to search the artist series collection.

They broke it down. In the artist series collection, not only can you search easier, but it’s broken down into new rows. Now they have these new rows that are like, “Here are the new ones,” and they have their most popular ones on the very top. Madonna is right on the top right now because that’s the brand new one. We’ll talk about that later. They also have them all broken out by like, “Here are all the rock ones. Here are all the pop ones.” You have all of that too.

In addition to that, you can also go in and filter. This is huge. You have never been able to filter on artist series classes before. That is exciting. This is very cool. People are very excited about this. Out of all the things we have talked about lately, this is probably the thing that people are most excited about right now. It’s something we didn’t even know we needed that they gave us.

Those are the best when there’s some sort of change that you hadn’t even thought about, and then you’re like, “This is great.”

I feel like Dr. Jenn could spend some time here because she loves her ‘80s. She tends to only do them if they show up with a certain instructor. This way she would have more options right in front of her. I have a feeling this would be very helpful to her.

We need an artist series for Dr. Jenn’s parents.

That would be amazing. The breadth and the depth of that catalog. Maybe Dr. Jenn should look into that herself.

In the past, they featured the performers.

I remember they did that one series that was a director series or something like that. They can change.

That’s true. They did Niles or whatever. They have done some producer-driven ones and things. It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Amazon Prime Day is almost upon us. I hope you got a card for me ready.

You know that I did.

We have seen that Peloton will, in some capacity, be a part of Prime Day 2023.

I want everybody to make sure everything is quiet so you can hear me very clearly.

Bikes are $1 on Prime Day.

No, but in all seriousness, I have been saying for some time that this year, I have a feeling we are going to see some deals on Amazon. Peloton has been doubling down with Amazon. All evidence points to this. It’s going to be in a few weeks, July 11th and 12th. There are going to be 48 hours to get these deals. They’re going to go fast. I think this is going to be multiple kinds of deals, and it’s going to be on multiple kinds of equipment. I have a big feeling about this. If you are looking into a Bike or a Bike+, or something like a Guide, this could be your big moment.

Adjust your resistance because you’re going to want to slow down.

If you are one of the people that was affected by this app change, don’t forget that if you have multiple people in your house, a Guide is your best friend because you will be able to have up to five people on one account and only pay $25 a month. It is the best deal Peloton has out there on membership because you get all of the classes across all of the different kinds of modalities.

There you go. If they drop the prices on Guides, you snag one for yourself.

July 11th and 12th, people. You better mark your calendars. I don’t want to hear that you didn’t know.

Speaking of the app, there are some deals, promotions, and special pricing available on the app for some people.

This is cool because Peloton just announced that. I don’t think people knew how much different pricing we were going to see. There is special pricing for students, military, active duty, reservists, veterans, dependents, doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, veterinarians, first responders, and educators. They are all different rates. If you aren’t sure, you should check this out because. If you use the 30-day free trial, then you can activate your discounted price. This is for app people. This is not for people who have all-access. This is for the app.

If you’re looking for some better pricing because you don’t like the changes, there are some options out there. You should check them out.

Just to be clear, typically these are coming in at $12.99 a month. Whenever you include the discount, the price comes down to $6.99 to $9.99 a month. This is a big savings, guys.

This isn’t the all-access one. Right?

This does not include all-access. This is for the app only.

It’s not the top tier of the app. It’s the middle tier.

It’s the one called Peloton App One. I’m glad you called that out.

Yahoo Finance is talking about the changes at Peloton, the rebranding, and the effect it had on the stock price. They are saying Peloton stock is up by 20% following its rebrand announcement. When they wrote this article, they did take a little bit of a dip today because the stock is constantly in motion. It’s interesting that people in the stock world are starting to notice that this rebrand thing is in process, and they’re starting to react somewhat positively.

I am so frustrated by stock people. Do you know why I’m frustrated? It’s because one company came out and said that they no longer perform. They underperform, and that’s why the stock is down today. One guy said that.

It’s like a group of people that will tell you they’re alpha males, and then someone says, “I don’t like this.” They’re like, “I don’t like it either.”

That is exactly what the stock market is. It’s so frustrating.

The Peloton App is such an important component of the Peloton community and of the fitness content that they do. Share on X

It’s nice to see that someone is out there noticing the uptick.

I agree.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the pandemic-era habits that just won’t die. I couldn’t read it at work because I didn’t have enough articles on their IP address. At home, apparently, I can. I’m assuming Peloton is mentioned because there’s a big drawing or artist’s rendering of what is supposed to be a Peloton.

There’s no doubt that’s what they’re trying to do there. They did mention Peloton. They talked about at-home fitness. That’s what they said. People are going back to the gym but people are also still doing their home gyms. It’s that hybrid model, which we said forever that that’s what would happen. Look, it did.

That’s why the app now has the gym feature. They know that if you’re going to go to the gym and do this hybrid model, include Peloton in your workout and keep it sticky. There is a petition at Change.org. I know that face. It’s an interesting situation because it’s pretty rare that I see that face, and I’m not in trouble for something.

Fair warning, I’m going to sound like a b*tch. If I annoy you whenever I get b*tchy, you should fast forward at this point.

“Save marathon race prep. Stop Peloton from deleting classes.” This is a petition at Change.org because they deleted classes and they don’t like it. It skyrocketed all the way up to 217 signatures. Here’s the thing.

There are a lot of things. Can we start with the fact that the people who wrote this think that Peloton started purging in 2023? Can we start there?

It is funny. “In 2023, Peloton began deleting older classes.”

No, girl. They’ve been doing that since day one.

Since 2014, but here’s the deal. It doesn’t matter how many people sign this petition or if you got a million people to sign this petition. It wouldn’t matter because the only metrics that Peloton is going to care about are the metrics of how many people are taking these classes. When they reach a certain point, they’re going to go and they’re going to move on to the next thing. They’re constantly in the present tense. They’re like a shark. They got to keep moving or they’re going to die. It doesn’t matter if a bunch of people off the platform are like, “Keep that,” if at the end of the day, people still aren’t taking the classes.

Look at it this way. Let’s say that all 217 of these people are taking these classes every week. That means that these videos are getting a max viewing of 217 versus the 20,000 or the 40,000 that are happening on the new ones. Why would you keep that? You wouldn’t.

Part of the problem with a class like this is it’s hyper-specific. I almost wonder if it’s maybe even seasonal.

It’s marathon season.

If it’s marathon season, you should have already been doing this. You should have started this 6 or 8 months ago.

No, that’s not true. It’s marathon training season. You have your spring marathons, and then you have your fall marathons. People usually start training for fall marathons in early July. If you did a 14-week training plan, that would start the first week of July, for example. Here’s my bigger problem with it. They don’t want to keep classes that are old, not only because of all the things you said but also because they’ve learned new things and they have new instructors teaching them.

For all we know, they’re going to come up with a whole other marathon plan. They could be on the cusp of releasing that. This petition isn’t going to do it. There is a theory out there that people don’t know that these classes exist. If that’s the case, let’s say that’s true, that means no one is taking them. It doesn’t matter why they’re not taking them. The end result is they’re not taking them.

I get that if they don’t feel like Peloton is promoting them, then people don’t know to take them.

Why would you promote a class from four years ago? Why would you do that?

It’s also true. It’s part of the problem. People are complaining about Netflix because they were throwing so much content out there, and only a handful of it was getting any level of promotion. They were expecting the people that produced it to do the promotion of it themselves. If you couldn’t get that algorithm to latch onto you in the first 72 hours, your show was as good as dead.

This is my thing. I am a person who very rarely goes back and takes old classes. I don’t think I’m alone in that. There are people that have classes that are like, “I love that class. I’ll take it over and over and over again.” There’s nothing wrong with that. Even if you have a person that has one class like that or you have one class like that, you can’t take the whole library over and over again. Even if you do, nobody else is. They only have so much space they want to put on the server, regardless of what you think they should do. They’re not going to spend more money. They’re going to have X amount. That’s what they’ve decided on.

It’s similar to a streaming platform.

It is a streaming platform.

It is, but when you log on to Netflix, Hulu, or Peacock, you look at what’s on your main page. You don’t go digging through it for the most part. Maybe every once in a while you do. There are certainly some people out there that do. By and large, most people are looking at that main page without doing too much scrolling for the thing that they’re probably going to end up watching.

I want to be clear. I’m not frustrated that people want these classes to stay. I’m also not frustrated at people who do take these classes over and over again. What I’m frustrated at is that you don’t listen. People aren’t going to do what you want them to do just because you want them to do it. I feel like we have talked about this a million times.

Not everyone listens. That’s the other problem.

They should. I mean for real. They don’t listen to anything because they would know that Peloton did not just start deleting classes.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the petition gets. It matters what the actual usage is.

Either way, 217 people are not going to cut it. It does not matter where it is.

We should also remind people that London Calling is this weekend.

It’s number two. If you’re not familiar with what that is, all the German instructors are going to be having their own little homecoming, if you will. They will be in the UK studio. They’re going to be hosting classes. They’re going to be there to meet and greets and things like that. There are four different weekends taking place throughout the year, and this is number two. All of the instructors are super excited about it.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Dr. Jenn. She’s going to deal with tackling intervals when you can’t stand them, but you know you need them. Stick around.

—

Joining us once again 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.

We have a question from Rachel Cook. She says that she cannot get excited about interval or speed work training. Endurance, she can do any day, all day. Getting motivated to push hard and not long is very hard.

The question to me is, why do you need to do this? Are you training for a race?

I happen to know that Rachel is training for a half marathon. I only know that because she and I talk, but it was not included here.

If she wasn’t, then maybe you don’t do it, or you do it once a week so that you can try to balance yourself out as an athlete. Because she is training for a race, and you have the intel that this is part of her regimen in order to prepare for that race, first of all, you have to figure out what will make it more fun. Sometimes there’s nothing, but if there is something, maybe the answer is picking a class based on music. You know that I’m very music-based in my choices.

Even if the instructor is not doing the intervals that you need, you can do your own intervals for that class. You get the music you like, and the instructor who’s doing and talking about things. Matty is always super entertaining. That can distract you from a horrible run or intervals that you absolutely hate doing. The other thing is if you’re doing them outside, bring them inside. If you’re doing them inside, bring them outside so that you got some variety.

The other thing is to change your mindset about it. If you’re using this to train for something, then keep your eye on the prize. Before we did Big Sur, I put a printout of the Big Sur elevation, which was something that scared me going in, up on the wall by my tread. I’m not a big fan of hills. They’re a little harder on my back. I had shied away, but I had to build back up by doing some hills.

When I found myself where the instructor was saying, “Do hills,” where before I wasn’t and now I was, I would look over at that piece of paper and be like, “Mile 10 through 12 is all uphill. How do I want to feel when I’m doing that?” That’s what kept me going. I would recommend putting something up that reminds you about your race, your goal, and those 12 miles.

That is something that will keep it in perspective, then you can take your medicine in order to be better prepared for something that’s important to you. It’s a gift you’re giving yourself. Even if it’s torturous at the moment, you at least know why you’re doing it. Sometimes when you lose the why, it feels torturous. If you’re able to look at the elevation at Big Sur and go, “I don’t want that to be any more horrible than it has to be,” you’re able to stick to it.

You crushed it too when you did the hill.

Thank you. So did you.

You jammed right up there.

Even after being hit by a car, you killed the hill.

Luckily, it was early.

That was a hell of a hill.

Tom saw the hills.

We went and drove it afterward so I could see the course. It was a beautiful course. When we came back around and I saw that hill up in the distance, I was like, “Hell no.”

It was 30 miles an hour wind in our face coming at us. It’s not behind us pushing us forward but coming at us.

It’s literally every obstacle on our faces.

It was amazing. That’s one of the cool things about doing a half marathon, a 21-mile Big Sur race, a full marathon, an ultra, or any of that stuff. You see this thing in front of you and you’re like, “Can I do that?” There’s such a great sense of accomplishment when you’re able to conquer that and to go, “What am I made of? What can I do? What is my body capable of?” That was something that was a wonderful part of our Big Sur experience.

When I did the LA Marathon in 1999, for me, that was a bucket list. I was like, “I don’t care if I crawl it or if I walk it. I just want to finish it.” When you have those experiences under your belt, you start to feel like there’s nothing you can’t do. “If I can do that, I can do this.” It builds on itself. That confidence as an athlete is cool.

I absolutely agree.

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

On all social media, @DrJennMann.

Thank you.

—

Adrian Williams is back.

He had surgery several weeks ago. He’s been healing up. We reported on that. On June 20th, he taught his first live class back. His first Thunder 45 will be on the 26th. If you want to show your support to Adrian, that’s the best place to do it. Send him a message and say, “Welcome back, Adrian.”

Logan Aldridge is preparing for the Chicago Marathon.

How exciting is that?

Not with those Peloton marathon prep classes.

 

Do you mean he went out and ran without those marathon training prep classes?

He probably was running to the library so he could log onto their Wifi and sign that petition on Change.org. Those people hate me now.

I think after my deluge, they hated me more. Who is he raising money for?

That’s the Christopher Reeve org, and now his wife’s name is part of it too, Martha Reeve.

That makes sense because I saw one of the little captions at the bottom talking about spinal health and stuff. They do a lot of research on that. He’s going to be documenting his training journey. If you need some tips, Logan is good to follow.

He can make up for those lack of classes.

See? It’s fall training time and he just started.

There you go. I believed you.

Christina Sandifer is going to be training for the Chicago Marathon. She’s one of the people I ran in Big Sur with, and she is going to be training for Chicago. Go, Christina.

Well & Good spoke to Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts. The headline doesn’t say Doctor, but I do.

That’s nice of you, Tom.

I’m very nice like that.

I love this story. She talks about how someone very close to her had a sudden death. I believe it was due to gun violence. The grief from that was just ugh, as it would be. She turned to yoga because of that grief. She got into yoga because of that, and meditation as well. First of all, I love that she’s open enough to share that story. Second of all, I appreciate people spreading the word that meditation and yoga can help with mental health and wellness. We need to keep repeating that because people don’t do it enough.

I am very jealous of Sam Yo.

You want to be Sam Yo, don’t you?

Except for all the exercise parts.

You’re both bald. You both wear nerd shirts.

We’re both apparently nerds. I have a nerd shirt on right now. My Monkees hoody is on over, but underneath it is Eddie and the Cruisers’ World Tour 1963. I put that on this morning and I thought to myself, “If Eddie and the Cruisers came out today, the movie would be set in the year 2003. Wrap your head around that.

I don’t want to.

Sam Yo got to go to a special screening of The Flash.

You got to go see a screening of The Flash.

No, I paid. I couldn’t go to the screening because it was the day we got back from Disney. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it so I couldn’t RSVP, but he went to see a special screening of The Flash, which is a flawed but fun movie. I enjoyed it overall.

They didn’t have a red carpet at yours anyway.

They did not. I did not get my picture taken in front of the special Flash logo. Here he is with some cosplayers, a good Superman costume and a Wonder Woman costume, then in front of the Batmobile from ’89 because Michael Keaton is in this. That’s not a spoiler. It’s in the trailer. My favorite is him on the little Flash emblem all lit up where you’re supposed to pretend like you’re running.

You would’ve been totally down to do that.

I am always down to pretend like I am exercising. Just shameless plug outside of our normal shameless plug things. This is the movie we tackle on Reel Spoilers, which you can listen to right now when you’re done with this one if you are so inclined. This is our 10th-anniversary episode. We started 10 years ago in June of 2013. Our very first movie was Superman: Man of Steel, which I remember was a big giant piece of sh*t.

You guys got into an epic argument.

I’m surprised there was episode 2 because, at the time, they loved it since then. As most people do, they realize that I write. At the moment, they were caught up in the excitement. That’s the movie we’re tackling. It’s waiting for you when you’re done here if you’re so inclined.

Congrats to Reel Spoilers. Ten years is a huge milestone.

Thank you. Susie Chan participated in a run called Man versus Horse. This is a thing where you run against a horse to see who gets there faster. They do one in Arizona too, I believe. This one is in Wales, which anybody can run faster than a whale. That wouldn’t be hard. I don’t understand that at all. I’m glad they switched to this horse model. Someone actually beat the horse this year and it’s not Susie Chan. I read this article and in the history of the race since 1980 when they started, this is the fourth time that someone actually beat the horse, or ran faster than the horse. No one is beating the horse. The only horse you should beat is a dead one. Isn’t that how that works?

I think that maybe we shouldn’t have any animal mutilation, alive or dead.

You’re no fun at barbecues. I’ll tell you that. Anyway, I thought that was fascinating that she’s racing horses.

I know she’s getting ready for Badwater. We’re going to be talking about that next. A mere 21 miles in the heat is nothing for her. She was probably like, “This is an afternoon of training, so why not do the race?”

You think you want to run faster than the horse because you’re going to be stepping into a lot of stuff if you don’t.

You’re not running right behind it.

It says that Susie has taken part in this race nine times, including one time riding a horse. Susie, that’s cheating. We love you but that’s cheating. That’s just a horse race, Susie. What are you doing?

You can’t ride the horse, Susie. That’s not man versus horse. That’s a woman on a horse.

That’s horse versus horse. That’s very unfair.

I’m glad she did it right this year.

It’s a scathing expose of Susie Chan and her horse cheating ways.

I’m glad we got to the bottom of that scandal. What’s next?

Speaking of horse cheater extraordinaire Susie Chan, she is gearing up for Badwater with Striderthon.

No. You just don’t know the intricacies of the community.

Just to be clear, no.

Susie is gearing up. It is coming up on July 4th through the 7th, and so is our past guest, Laura Watts. They are going to be running together. Remember, Badwater is 135 miles they run the whole time. It’s three days of running. Striderthon is Susie’s group. Susie’s Striders is her fan group.

They have put together a challenge for her people to come together and support her and Laura. What it’s going to be is as they start and as Susie takes off in wave two, there will be at least one person on the leaderboard at any given time. I think it’s actually two people on the leaderboard at any given time for the entire time that Susie and Laura are running. We have somebody supporting both of them.

Just to be clear, you do not have to sign up for the length the whole time. The idea is you do it in 30-minute chunks or whatever works for you. They’re hoping to get enough people to cover all the hours. They are not suggesting in any way that you should run for 48 hours straight. We want to be safe, first of all. I thought this was great. What a fun way to support Susie and Laura. I love it.

Thanks for clarifying what that is.

You can check it out at SusiesStriderthon.com or you can just go find Susie’s Striders on Instagram or Facebook. They’re a lovely little group.

Summer solstice is almost upon us.

It’s today.

Summer solstice happened? I thought it was in July.

The longest day of the year is June 21st.

The longest day of the year was November 2nd, 2002.

Kirra Michel was one of the instructors. I believe Mariana Fernández was there as well. They both taught in Times Square. Peloton has participated in this last year and this year. What they do is they go out in Times Square and they teach yoga. Between 9:30 and 10:30 was Kirra’s flow. I did tune in for a part of it. Just to be clear, I was not participating because I was also working, but I was watching. I took some little screenshots. It’s amazing. This year was more people than what you see on that screen. It was covering both sides in front and behind where Kirra was teaching. It was cool to see. It was also hilarious because you would see these tourists coming through and taking pictures behind them.

They’re like, “What the holy hell is happening?”

They’re like, “Why are all these people doing a downward dog?” I also felt sorry for the people who were right in front of the camera when they did the downward dog. I was like, “Yikes. I would not want to be right there.” You got to be part of it. Kirra seemed to have a lot of fun. This was a dream come true for her. She put it on her Instagram and talked about how important this was to her.

I’m looking forward to next year’s, which will include yoga versus horse.

There are no horses.

Downward horse.

No.

This is a weird article. Peloton instructors have distressing advice for people. I don’t need help being distressed. I am in distress pretty much all the time. Why would I want that?

It’s de-stressing as in stop being stressed. They’re giving you advice to not be stressed.

That makes more sense.

It sure does. Did you see who all the different instructors were? Joslyn Thompson Rule is one of them, then there were two other instructors. I think it was Jon Hosking and Cody Rigsby. They all talked about different things that you could do to de-stress. I thought it was a fun article overall. Just a side note, I took an outdoor walk with Jon Hosking the other day. He likes to ask these questions out of nowhere. It was an ’80s outdoor walk and he was playing the theme song to The Breakfast Club, Don’t You Forget About Me.

You don't realize how much new stuff comes out every week until they stop releasing it. Share on X

Simply Red.

He says, “Do you guys have a lot of detention or not?” I assume he was talking to the people that were behind the mics because we were at home and we couldn’t answer. He was like, “I know this is going to shock you, but I never had a day of detention.” He said that he has seen in lots of comments that people have him pegged as a bad boy, and he is not at all. I thought that was interesting.

Maybe he’s good at being a bad boy and he gets caught. That could be what’s going on there.

He said that he was quite frankly too afraid of his mother.

I never got detention.

Are you sure?

One time I got in trouble in grade school, but I never got detention in high school.

I was going to say about that lunchbox incident.

Nobody caught me.

What about the scissors?

That, I got in trouble for. I’m so old. I got spanked for that by the principal.

They had gotten away from spanking by the time I was in school. I was also in public school. You were in Catholic school?

I was in public school when that happened.

Good Lord, Tom.

It’s different times. Before people at me, it’s Simple Minds that sings Don’t You Forget About Me, not Simply Red. I’m sorry. I get my simple things mixed up. JustJared.com are doing a recap of the Pride event that Cody Rigsby hosted. I’m looking for the name of it. Bring Change To Mind. There we go. This is a very ugly website. Sorry, JustJared. It’s like 1998 on this website.

It’s one step above GeoCities up in there. Maybe a half step.

I’m looking for a dancing baby gif. That’s what this site is going on. They have some pictures from the event in case you’re interested. This is not Peloton-related but they have a link to the trailer for the Zoey 101 reboot movie Zoey 102, which should be called Zoey 201 because 102 would be another class in your freshman year. At this point, she should probably be getting her doctorate. If the whole point is it’s a sequel series, then 201 is the name of the show, not 102.

You’re not wrong. They slapped the 2 in there to make somebody happy.

You know that there was a conference room full of people having this debate. They landed on people will not understand 201 versus 101.

That’s not how it went down. Do you know how it went down? “What should we call it?” A girl in the back who is smart and maybe even an intern or maybe a junior employee says, “It should be 201,” and then some guy who’s a VP said, “No, it should be 102,” and everyone went, “Yeah.” That’s how that went down. I’ve been to that meeting.

“This show is for girls. They won’t understand that.”

I’ve sat in that meeting.

I didn’t know you worked for Zoey 101. How exciting.

I didn’t.

Speaking of Cody, the reviews for his book are starting to roll in and they’re positive, or at least the ones that he’s sharing on Instagram.

I’m sure they’re positive.

We do the same thing when we read our reviews. That’s no shade on our part.

I want you to start doing your reviews on one of these green screens though, and make your face big right in the middle of it like that. I want you to start doing that.

If I get a review from Bowen Yang, I will do that.

That’s fair. Congrats to Cody. I know we didn’t mention it, but I don’t have a separate article for it. I want to point out that Ben Alldis’s book is also coming out this fall. They’re both going to be happening around the same time. You’re going to be hearing a lot about these books coming up.

Get a library card, people.

You really should. Speaking of books, I thought it was interesting. I was looking for those little words bracelets that Peloton had popped out for 30 seconds and they all sold out. I thought, “I wonder if they restocked them yet.” I popped over there to look. It was in the accessories. Guess what I found in the accessories?

Books?

You already know this so it’s not fair. Emma Lovewell’s book and Tunde’s book. It’s nobody else’s but their two books were there. I thought that was fascinating. Will we see Cody’s book? Will we see Ben Alldi’s book? I think we might. I have a feeling we will.

It makes sense. I guess you could probably use your referral credit if you were so inclined.

You could. I think it’s smart.

Coming up next, we’re going to talk to Angelo. Here’s the situation. You spent an hour prepping your food for the week, and then yet don’t eat it. Why won’t you eat your food?

Because somebody brought something else and it looks better.

You did the hard part. Focus. He’s going to give you tips.

He’s going to tell you how to be strong.

He’ll tell you how to stay the course. Stick around.

—

Joining us once again from MetPro here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition questions. It’s Angelo.

It’s great to see you guys.

I have a question from Catherine. She says that she struggles with nutrition. Healthy food prepped and ready to eat, she can do that, but then she struggles with eating it even if it’s there. She’ll make choices that aren’t healthy even though it’s there.

Catherine, great question. How to handle that? We deal with this at MetPro with our clients. This will sometimes happen. I’ll tell you the exact scenario where we deal with this. People say, “I work from home, therefore, I cook healthy meals, but I’m not always eating them.” Part of what will help is if you portion them into, “Here are my snacks, here are my lunches, and here are my meals.” Actually, make them if at all possible. That tends to help our clients.

The fact that you’re asking the question is an indication that you recognize the value of meal prepping. You’re already doing that. Follow through by eating those meals. The most important meals to eat are lunch and snacks. Prepare in advance and follow through with it. Breakfast, you’re not going to have as much of a problem because most people tend to eat clean at breakfast. For dinner, you need to make good choices, but most Americans take more time for dinner, whereas we tend to eat lunch and snacks on the go.

Your battleground is between 10:00 AM and call it 4:00 PM. Prep those meals. Stay committed to eating them, and prepare them in totality in advance. At MetPro, we try and get our clients to prepare 72 hours’ worth of lunches and snacks each time they meal prep. We have found that seems to work best and most consistently for the average person.

That works for me. Unlike 99% of MetPro clients, I literally eat the same thing every day.

Tom is weird.

I am, and I always like to stress that when I talk about it because I don’t want people to think that’s what MetPro does to people.

That’s a Tom choice, not a MetPro choice.

I would hate for people to think, “I don’t want to use MetPro because they make me eat the same thing every day.” That will drive most people insane. I’m already there, so it’s not a big deal. I’ll make a big batch of taco meat. There’s a relief and knowing that I’m done for a week.

You’ve come to like it even though at first, you thought it would be a pain. It changed Tom’s mind about that.

It sucks that one day when you got to sit there and make 4 pounds of meat.

It also helps to know the foods that trigger. You know the things that you tend to go to and grab. There are these bars that are high calorie that are delicious. They’re healthy, but they’re not what I wanted. When I keep them in my fridge, I tend to grab them because they are so easy. Do you know what the solution was? I get them out of the house. You stop having them if you don’t have them. Preparation is key. Putting yourself in an environment where it’s easier to succeed than fail makes a big difference.

Thank you so much for all of that. If people would like personalized advice, where can they find you?

Come to MetPro.co/tco. We’ll customize these strategies for you.

Thank you.

—

There is yet another new artist series this time featuring Madonna. Is that who that is? I’m not up on the new music that the kids like.

That’s Madonna. Do you know what’s interesting about this? Wasn’t Madonna the very first artist collaboration that Peloton announced at the Beck concert back in Homecoming 2018?

I think she was because they announced it like that, and McCartney and Cher.

She was the first one to get released. Maybe all those classes are gone. They might have been purged.

You know what, if I am a Madonna fan, I should start a petition. I want a horse artist series.

 

At any rate, this is going to be a whole new collection. I believe it was something like nineteen fresh classes. I’m super excited about this. I have to say my favorite part is that Matty said that he is going to do it. He’s going to be on one album. He’s going to focus on just one album of Madonna. I’m excited about that.

Hopefully, it’s one of the good ones.

Tom, we may have to disagree because I feel like most of Madonna’s albums are good.

She went into that Electronica phase.

The early Electronica, I liked that early phase of it, but I was still in my twenties.

I like the ones that are dirty.

I like those too.

That’s why I love you.

My favorite song was always Papa Don’t Preach. I really felt that.

You would.

No, I wasn’t, but the angst behind it and the way she sang it with such conviction. I was like, “Yeah. Papa don’t preach. This is bullsh*t.”

I like the one with Captain Lou Albano. No, that was Cindy Lauper.

—

WomensRunning.com has an article about Whoop and what they’re doing to close the gender gap in health research.

It’s not just Whoop. I have noticed a lot of companies are pushing the envelope on women’s health studies. I’m going to tell you guys right now that they are all related. Every time I do any research on it, Stacey Sims is somewhere, which I’m excited about. She’s changing the way people view women’s health and it’s about freaking time, but I digress. This is cool because I use Whoop. There’s a lot of information that comes out of what I get out of it.

They take all of the findings that Stacey Sims has said about how you should be using your cycle to your advantage when it comes to working out. You get to know you’re in this part of your cycle right now. This is when you should be pushing hard. This is when you don’t need to. You can take it a little easy, and that kind of thing. Also, they take all of this and they’re doing additional research that is helping people take it to the next level. There’s stuff happening in the background that eventually we’re going to see coming out. I forgot about the pregnancy timeline because those days are past for me, but for a lot of women, it’s not.

You got some explaining to do.

Yeah, like how that is possible. The pregnancy timeline is a big thing too. Not everyone has always agreed on whether or not you can exercise when you’re pregnant. That is another huge change that we have seen in fitness, and I’m excited about that. You can track where you are with how your body is responding to your workouts as you’re pregnant. That’s huge. Being able to see in real-time what those effects are is freaking cool. I love this and I know I said this before, but I feel like Whoop is getting even more information than they had in the past. There was a moment where I was like, “I’m done with this.” Now, I’m all-in all over again.

—

Peloton Studios has their This Week at Peloton post.

I wanted to touch on this. In case, you didn’t get the classes, we’ve got the Juneteenth classes. There are new Speak Up classes. I always say it wrong. It’s Breathe In, Speak Up. The ones with Tunde and Chelsea Jackson Robertson.

Roberts.

I can’t even talk.

I was correcting you so other people wouldn’t. I was trying to save your inbox.

I was also trying to get to the fact that we have the Madonna artist series we already talked about, but we also have Bob Marley classes coming up, and then Country Happy Hour and Simple That with Denis Morton.

The Peloton 4/20 tribe should be very happy about the Bob Marley class.

They should have done that in April then.

I guess they didn’t want to be too on the nose. Peloton Studios also took us behind the class Breathe In, Speak Up with Tunde and Chelsea.

Thanks.

No problem. I’m here to correct you. Let me mansplain Peloton to you, honey.

That’s great, Tom. This is awesome. It sounds like it might be a new series we’ve got going on behind the class, but they talked to both Dr. Roberts Jackson. They also talked to Tunde about their feelings about doing these classes, where they started, where they are now, and the specific classes. Lots have happened in the world, in case you hadn’t noticed. It has been awkward. It has been a bit much. Hopefully, you got to take these classes. If you haven’t, they’re on demand and they’re there for you, so check them out.

There is a new Tropical Nights collection.

Peloton dropped it. It’s like a little tiny micro collection, but it is part of the summer one, and Tunde is the model for it. People who are headed off to tropical locations are snapping it up left and right. It’s really pretty. You’ve got a navy blue and a teal flower situation going on. I’ve got that for bike shorts, a tank top, and a sports bra. There was some navy blue.

You want the top to be splashy.

You could also have the cadence strappy bra and the All-Day Flare Pants. It’s those yoga pants that apparently now we have to have boot-cut bottoms on. I don’t know who decided that, but I don’t like it.

You’re doing yoga in boots.

I guess so. You never know.

This is not Peloton-related, but it is health adjacent. It’s an article that you saw this week that you were not happy about. I mean the article is good, but the information in the article is distressing.

Becs Gentry talked a little bit about this on her Instagram, which is what raised my awareness of it. This particular article was in Time Magazine and it was written by Allyson Felix. She talks about why Tori Bowie cannot die in vain. I will be honest. I had no idea what that exactly meant. Tori Bowie was pregnant. I believe she was eight months pregnant. She died of birth complications, preeclampsia, that eventually went into seizures. They found that out when they did the autopsy. What’s distressing about this?

We should say for people that don’t know. She’s a US track and field athlete. This is someone who is hyper fit like next-level fitness health conditions.

That is the distressing part that Allyson Felix was talking about. They show an image of four different women who were all at the Rio Olympics, including Tori Bowie. All four of these women have had children since then. They were all pregnant. Every single one of these women had birth complications or pregnancy complications related to preeclampsia. In fact, none of these women were told by their doctors that because they were black, they had a higher chance of having this condition. That is messed up. Because I was a very big girl when I had Sydney sixteen years ago, I was always told that preeclampsia was something that only fat people got. That’s why I was a person who was on the watch list for it.

That’s what I had heard. When my wife was pregnant, they were saying that you watch your weight because of preeclampsia. It’s the same thing.

I would have never guessed that these athletes who are super fit, thin, with amazing bodies that they can run and run, all of them are having this issue. What the hell is happening?

Why isn’t the medical profession more aware of it so they can warn them, and so they can take precautions?

I felt like it was something that needed to be said. I feel like we should all spread the news. All of us women should be looking out for each other. If you have friends, no matter if they’re fit or not, especially if they are black, let them know that this is a thing. This could happen. Be careful.

—

We got two birthdays. They’re both on the same day, June 23rd. It’s Andy Speer and Denis Morton.

How did I never realize that Andy Speer and Denis Morton share a birthday with my dad? Happy birthday Andy Speer, Denis Morton, and my dad. It’s pretty cool.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Caroline. She is one of the admins of the Peloton app users group. There have been a lot of changes in the world or there are about to be a lot of changes in the world for app users. We thought it’d be a fun time to talk to her and get her take on the pulse of the app user community. We’re going to have that conversation coming up after this.

—

Joining us is Caroline Lupetini. Caroline, how is it going?

How is it going, guys?

Good. Caroline, I always start these interviews with this. I like to give people a little bit of background to understand where you came from specifically when you found Peloton. How did it come into your world?

The first time I ever heard of Peloton was in that infamous Christmas commercial. I think it was in 2019 pre-pandemic, which was so funny. My family made fun of it, but when the pandemic hit and Peloton was giving away the 90-day free trial, I started. Where I started with Peloton was everything body weight. It was yoga, stretching, body weight, and strength. I didn’t have anything at the time. I had started into fitness. I was training for my first half marathon at that point.

I also started doing outdoor runs and stuff. I had done 5Ks and 10Ks. I came to Peloton that way. When the world started reopening a little bit, my office gym had a Peloton with a commercial subscription with toe cages. That’s when I started cycling for the first time. By the time my now fiancé and I moved in together in March of 2021, that’s when we got our bike, which you can see in the corner of the room with me.

You have a bike but you are also one of the admins for the Peloton app group. How did that all come to be? We should probably explain to people what the app group is. Not everybody knows.

The Peloton Digital App Users is a Facebook group. It’s got 56,000 people, but in terms of how I became admin, I started as a member. As I mentioned, in March 2020 when I started, I was doing everything on the app on my iPad and my desktop. It was yoga and body weight. I was doing everything like that. I was a solely digital app user for over a year.

What was happening is the original creator and admin of the Facebook group was leaving. She asked for anyone that had an interest in running the group and had experience running other Facebook groups. I have had experience managing larger Facebook groups in the past and smaller ones as well. I volunteered and stepped up because I’m passionate about one, making fitness accessible to everyone. It’s important that everyone find what works for them. As I said, I started on yoga. It’s an amazing workout. It’s an amazing way to start.

Two, the value of growing the Peloton community, especially for those off the bike. It’s not just the bike or the tread. The app community is crucial. Even though I have the bike and I’ve gone to the studio. I’ve done one tread class and I stayed at a hotel once that also had a tread. I’ve taken a grand total of three tread classes on the tread. I would say that ultimately 90% of my workouts are on the app. I think it’s such an important component of the Peloton community and of the fitness content that they do.

It absolutely is important. I got our bike in 2016 and I feel like it has only increased. The app barely existed back then. It was an afterthought. When they first did their big relaunch of the app, it was life-changing. In the last couple of years, there has been a lot of push for, “We’re going to go after 100 million users on this platform.” At least now, the way to do that is to get to the app group. That whole population out there wants to keep adding to that. We can look for that to continue to grow.

One of the things that I wanted to talk to you about was how did it go when all the new changes dropped? I guess we should also say for the people who may not follow the news as closely as I am obsessed with it. Peloton just came out with five new tiers for the app. Instead of having one $12.99 flat fee, there are going to be five tiers ranging from free up to $24.99. Those are all just for the app, but that will not take place until December 5th. Tell us how that went over.

I should say we are an unofficial Facebook group. There is no Peloton admin. There is the Official Peloton Member Facebook Page that’s moderated and admined by Peloton itself. We are unofficial. We purport to say nothing that we do is on the books or sponsored or endorsed by Peloton. We had no idea it was coming. It was a shock. I was in my office at work and I realized, “This just dropped and this is going to have nasty repercussions on the community that I moderate.” There are tens of thousands of people.

There was a lot of disappointment, as well as anger among the community because according to some, the price is doubling to get the same content. It goes from $12.99 to $24.99 now for the upper limit. If you choose to stay at the $12.99 price, you get all of those fabulous things that I said like yoga, strength, meditation, outdoor runs, and walks, which I think are slept on. I think they are some of the best content that Peloton puts out. I ran my marathon through outdoor content. I got my bronze running badge and silver for 25 miles because I stacked six outdoor runs essentially, which is fabulous.

You got two medals for one.

I got a Peloton monthly running badge too, which you never get otherwise.

The biggest answers to all of our questions will come in December when the rubber hits the road. Share on X

Speaking of not sleeping in the classes, have you tried the new outdoor walk and run with Hosking and Maggiacomo?

It was so much fun. I love it. It was my favorite. I tuned into At the Club with Jon, the new series, right away every week. I love Matty’s Walk and Talks on Wednesdays. When I went into the studio, I did mine with Matty. I did a HIIT run, which was crazy. It was very hard. I’m not a HIIT girl. I’m an endurance for long intervals, but it was fun. Back to the app users thing, it sucks that they are only getting three cardio classes that are tread or bike or row per month.

On the other hand, they did release all the row content to us now, which is awesome. I haven’t used it yet. We do not have a rower in my office gym. I don’t have access to a rower. I could go get a day pass to a gym and try some stuff out. I’d love to take some classes with Ash, Alex, Adrian, and Wilpers as well. It’s awesome.

I’ve bookmarked some of the classes. There was Katie Wang’s API Heritage Row that I wanted to do. It’s this balance of how you continue to grow the community of app users. Give them a lot of content because there is a lot of content coming out every week. It’s crazy. Even when the studio has been closed this past week after Memorial Day, they’ve still been releasing some on-demand content, but you don’t realize how much new stuff comes out every week until they stop releasing it.

With these new app tiers, they’re still going to be releasing it. You’re still going to be able to see everything that comes out every week, but it’s going to be tougher for those at the middle tier where you’re only going to have three cardio classes a month to continue to take advantage of that. I wish it was more. This is my personal opinion. I wish it was 3 a week or maybe 10 or 12 or 15 a month.

They said three. I would think even four. At least they have one a week.

I want to clarify for people that it’s one equipment class. I only say that because that could even be the Guide. It could be anything that falls into that that hasn’t been released yet. It’s anything that’s equipment based.

Speaking of the Guide, we should probably talk about if you’re aware the price hack that might work for some people.

We were talking about this and we put an article out because I thought it was super fascinating that if you buy the Guide, which you can get right now for $195 instead of $295, which is what it came out at. You can get the Guide-only membership and that’s $24 a month. If you get that, you then get access to all of the app stuff and all of the rest of the equipment. A lot of people don’t know that. It’s not necessarily a good deal for folks who are the only person in their household using it, but for people who have multiple people in their household, it is a good deal because up to five people can share that.

That’s the other thing. One of the biggest criticisms that I saw as well is as I understood it, I didn’t know this until someone on the Facebook group explained it to me. I think via an Apple subscription or a different subscription, you could have multiple users on one app membership. One woman explained to me, “If I and my husband want all the same access to all the same content, the price is effectively quadrupling because not only do we not get two people on one app membership for $12.99. Now, it’s going to be $24.99 each for two memberships, which she’s right about.

The Guide would be a good end run around that for her.

That would be a good investment for that type of situation where there are 2 or 3 folks in the house, a husband, wife, and maybe a teenage kid too. It makes perfect sense. On the other hand, a lot of people have come out of the woodwork., myself included, to say that this is worth it. The Peloton folks have done their business calculus behind the scenes to say, “Maybe this is a push towards getting people to buy the Guide.” I don’t know how the sales of the Guide have been.

Maybe they’ve not been as good as they’d hoped that it would’ve been and this is one way where it’s like, “You can get everything if you put down $199 or comes back up to $299 upfront, or pushing people to other equipment purchases like the bike, rower, or tread type of thing. I still think the app is worth it, but that’s the calculus that I’ve made as someone who is like, “We can afford the $45 a month. I could also afford on my own the $25 a month to buy the app.” That’s a budgeting decision that I’ve made out of my values, but I know that with the direction economy is still not fully recovered, inflation is still high even though prices are going down. My eggs finally came down to under $3 a dozen. It’s a serious question that I think a lot of people have to consider.

Do you feel that the response in the group has changed at all over a couple of weeks since the news came out?

I will say one thing. It is that we put in place a rule. The first rule of our Facebook group was always focused on the Peloton app. We’ve added to that a caveat to say, “Please seek suggestions for an alternate app elsewhere.” My fellow admin and I felt like this was not a great place to say, “I want to quit Peloton and try something else.” This is not the place for it and some of them even fall into the zone of multilevel marketing. I won’t name it, but you can probably think of what that could be. We wanted to avoid that entirely. I think a lot of the heightened emotions like rage, anger, and frustration have come down a lot as people have figured it out.

They’re going through the five stages of grief.

The funniest comment I found, which I agree with is, “Did anybody realize that the app changed color from red to black on your phone?” I’m a crazy person and I have all of my apps categorized by color.

You’re not the only person that has said that. I need to see a visual of this.

I think that’s a good metaphor because that’s what Peloton is trying to do, go from red to black.

It’s one page. Apple News is red and Reddit is orange. It goes down by Libby’s purple and then Peloton is now black.

It got moved to the bottom.

It got bummed down.

It’s like something your daughter would do. She’s very art-driven. She would see it from color rather than alphabetically.

Other people have said it and I’m like, “I need to see an example.”

The color changes. I think the emotions have come down a lot. People are trying new things. They’re trying alternate apps or going back to other gym classes for example. People are getting used to it. They’re trying to plan out, “What do I know want to do before December?” The biggest answers to all of our questions will come in December when the rubber hits the road in terms of when everybody’s subscriptions switch over and how things change. I’d be curious to see what kind of advertising and marketing Peloton does as December gets closer to vibe people up for app changes and such like that.

I think you’re going to see a lot of the marketing changes that were part of the relaunch.

Is it the whole font or the whole color? I like it but that’s a lot.

I love it. It was cool because they wanted to talk to a couple of people in the community to get a general feel. When I saw it, the emotional response I had to the commercial was wonderful because finally, it’s real people. These are the people that are in our community. This is worth celebrating and this is how they use it every day. I was so excited to see that. I think you’re going to continue to see more and more of that instead of that commercial of Christopher Meloni. That was supposed to be an app commercial but you lost that completely because all you were talking about was the naked guy.

It’s because they were so concerned about going viral that they forgot that you also have to have the message resonate.

I think they’re going to double down on this message of who we are as a community, and who this community wants to be. I hope that’s what it is. That’s what I expect to see. I’m also curious. Do you feel like the community thinks that the popular equipment user stance is that you get a great deal? I keep seeing everywhere that people are saying, “I don’t mind the cheaper price of the app because it’s still getting so much content compared to what you get for paying for the bike or paying for all access.” I’ve seen that argument a lot. Do you see people having that discussion in the group?

The criticism I see is that we’re clearly pushing people toward buying the cardio equipment. It’s buying the equipment. They want to get people onto not just the higher tier app but ultimately, the cardio equipment. I’ll be the first to say I never tried to cycle with a different bike. For example, I know a lot of people set it up with Echelons or Schwinns, which I think is awesome.

It’s super good, especially if you’re using the app in an office gym for example. You’re on the go. That makes perfect sense. I do see the criticism that they want people to buy the higher monthly subscription and get however many thousand dollars for the tread, $3,000, in order to get a piece of equipment out of a warehouse essentially. I see the value in the cardio equipment. I love the leaderboard. I love the metrics. It all makes perfect sense to me. That package, I like and appreciate it.

I think Peloton officially does not do a good job selling the differences between the app and buying the cardio equipment and all the extra things that you get. A lot of Peloton users have never taken a cycling class, which is also totally fine. You do not have to be a bike person or a tread person to use the Peloton. As I said, that’s why I love the app so much. I started on the app doing strength, yoga, and stretches. It all makes good sense to me. I think it’s well worth $13 or $24 or $25 a month. Cynically, people see this as pushing folks toward the cardio equipment.

I honestly don’t think that it is. Obviously, they’re never going to be upset if you choose to buy a piece of their equipment. I’m not Pollyanna over here, but I think that they are focused more on the app. I think they also recognize that if they want to be profitable, it needs to be more than $13. The bigger problem is they probably shouldn’t have cut the price or at least cut the price as steeply as they did back in 2019.

As I understand it, it used to be $20. That is a big cut.

2019 is not that long ago.

Back in 2019 when it was $20 though, you could have as many people on it as you wanted. That was a big change because yes, it costs more, but a lot of people that were app users had one person in their household using it. They felt like it wasn’t a good enough proposition. They made that change. At the time that they did, I think they were trying to push the app, but then it was like, “This will be a loss leader.”

We’ll get you in on the app. You’ll love it so much that when it comes time to buy a piece of equipment, you’re like, “Obviously, I’m going to stay in this ecosystem.”

It’s happened to me, for sure.

A lot of people start that way, and it makes sense. You try it and you love the instructors. You love the way you’re being taught, and then you want more and more. That’s how it should be, but then it becomes, “If most of our people are going to end up being app users, we’re probably going to have to make some more money on that to be profitable in the long run.” That’s why I thought it was interesting because to me it’s more to push the app itself. It’s not focused on the equipment.

That’s a good point. The sense that people in the community got is they want people to be pushed towards the app. In terms of business sense, Peloton absolutely. I know they’re under new leadership. It’s a strong business change. I’m no MBA but I studied some economics and business in school. I’m just a couple of years out from school.

I think it’s a very strong business choice. I do think it’s a good thing. I like all of the changes that are being made right now. To your point, Tom, about pushing the app and relaunching and doing new classes, I do remember in Jon Hosking and Matty’s summer kickoff walk and run, they specifically mentioned a lot more outdoor content is coming. It seems like they want to push that in the sense of the app. Hopefully, people do see that you’re still getting a lot of cardio, running, and walking instruction in that way. It’s a bang for your buck in the app that obviously does not count for three equipment classes a month that are included fully.

Another thing that the app users can take some solace in is refocusing on the app means that they’re focusing on the app. For years, there has been this perception that the app is an afterthought. I think they feel like, “We know how to sell equipment. We’re good there. We’re going to pivot some and that stuff will still exist,” but knowing that they’re taking this interest in the app means that as an app user, you’re going to continue to get first-rate content, and maybe even more of it.

Fingers crossed always for more outdoor walks and runs. I noticed they’ve started dropping every Friday. I think they may have always, but I’ve just noticed it and I look forward to it. I’m like, “What have we got?” “Hip Hop run with Kirsten.” The day that Susie Chan dropped her 75 minutes, I screamed. It’s because she is a fierce woman, this ultrarunner. I saw her. She just did her 70-mile heat Chamber Training for Badwater. I love her. She’s among my favorite instructors. I’m a total fan of hers, but with her 75-minute outdoor run, I’m over the moon. Now that Becs Gentry is teaching again. I know Marcel does a lot of 60 minutes on the tread. I hope we can get a lot more long run.

Mariana is going to be doing a 60-minute. That is an indoor one, but we can look to more long classes from her as well. That’s exciting. I was also excited that Jon and Matty were in two different studios when they recorded that. We can look forward to more two-for-ones, not just on a stage. That’s exciting.

They did an outdoor two-for-one. I think it was JTR, Joslyn, and Matt Wilpers for Global Running Day, which I thought was a ton of fun as well. That’s one of the ones I took during my marathon. I thought it was a great theme for that. I’m a huge fan of two-for-ones. I’m a huge fan of outdoor content. I should say also Jon Hosking’s 60-Minute Ed Sheeran Walk, which I thought was a fabulous, meaningful, and excellent class.

It’s an excellent use of that platform. I know Tunde released all of her podcasts on outdoor walking on that platform as well, which I thought was a brilliant use of that platform. I can only hope for more type of interesting new and innovative ways to think about outdoor content too. I do hope they continue to build out that vertical. I have high hopes.

I was going to say we should probably switch directions. I’m curious to hear what your leaderboard name is and how you came up with it.

My name is Caroline. I did not learn how to run on Peloton. I learned how to run out of Couch to 5K. I went from the Couch to running a Thanksgiving 5K. The day that I ran the first mile continuously, I was like, “I guess I can do this.” My leaderboard name instead of Couch to 5K is @Caroline2FiveK.

I think now though because you’ve gone so much further than 5K.

I have, which is wonderful but I’ll never forget Couch to 5K for teaching me that. I like Couch to 5K, but Peloton Walk-Run classes are much the same idea. I use them all the time. I can run a continuous 5K but with longer distances, I do prefer a walk-run method. I love all the walk-run. Kirsten’s Sunday Walk Plus Runs are so good for that. It’s so much fun.

Do you have a preferred instructor?

One of my favorites is absolutely Matty Maggiacom. When I took my studio class, I took my HIIT run with him. It was so much fun. Also, Susie Chan and Becs Gentry. Kirsten is amazing, and Callie and Selena for strength.

I love that. What a great mix.

I could tell that you explore because every time you’re like, “This class,” and it’s a different resource. “This class is great,” and it’s a different instructor.

How can I forget because I started yoga? Kristin McGee is my yogi of choice. She taught me everything I know at the start of the pandemic. She got me for those three months when I was living alone at the time and I wasn’t seeing anybody. I think she’s so good. Her Elton John class is fabulous.

I’ve never taken the Elton John one. I’m going to go back and take that.

Matty’s Full Body Strength for Elton John is also amazing.

Matty is one of my favorites. Everything Matty does is amazing.

Who did the run? Did Jermaine do the run? I can’t remember.

It might have been Jermaine.

I also love Jermaine. I love so many of them, honestly. I’ll also never forget at the beginning of the pandemic, Rebecca Kennedy taught me how to do a Turkish Getup for a bodyweight training class. It’s the things I will never forget in my Peloton journey.

We have a timeline of all the things that have happened with Peloton, but I feel like you need your own, “Here’s all these milestones you’ve had.”

I’m okay. I finally got to the studio. It was fun. Have you guys ever gone to the studio?

Yes. I waited in the lobby on more than one occasion.

 

Back in 2018, we got to interview John Foley as part of Homecoming. It was amazing. It was cool. That’s very cool. Homecoming is my favorite. It’s different now. Everything is different.

Is it now been replaced with All For One?

It seems like it. They haven’t announced exactly what it’s going to look like in 2023. It’s coming very soon.

I know we have a hard stop. I want to thank you. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you and your group and all that stuff.

The app group again is called Peloton Digital App Users. It’s a public Facebook group. There is a couple of questions to join and I’ll approve you right away. I am @Caroline2FiveK on Peloton. All my other social is private, but you can find me on the Facebook group and on Peloton.

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

It’s been such a pleasure to talk to you. I love all about Peloton so this has been awesome.

Thank you.

—

 I guess that brings us 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 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. Don’t forget our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and rowing and running.

 

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