334. Power Zones Get A New Metric Plus Our Interview With Rob Simmelkjaer!

Last Updated: November 3, 2023By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 334 | New York City Marathon

 

  • Earnings call recap.
  • Peloton updates for October.
  • Peloton released its 2023 Environmental Social Guidance report.
  • Bloomberg spotlights the power of Spanglish and Peloton pops up.
  • Peloton hosts shakeout run with NYRR.
  • Jess Simms visited a TCO Tipster’s house.
  • Jenn Sherman and Matty Maggiacomo are heading to California.
  • Angelo has tips for improving sleep.
  • The latest artist series features 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
  • New Power Zone Metric coming.
  • TCO Top Five.
  • Peloton held a special event for U.K.
  • Black History Month.
  • Marcel Maurer has a new 30-minute outdoor run with Liverpool FC Manager Jurgen Klopp.
  • Birthdays – Chase Tucker (11/5), Mayla Wedekind (11/9)

All this plus our interview with Rob Simmelkjaer!

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Power Zones Get A New Metric Plus Our Interview With Rob Simmelkjaer!

First off, thank you to everyone who signed up for the Patreon. We talked about some changes that we made. They are still in effect and will remain in effect, but you can get everything for $5 a month now. If you’ve been on the fence or thinking about it, for $5, you can all the bonus content. Even the old bonus content if you want to dive back into the archives and you’ll get the episode ad-free. If we get them early, you get them early and we’ll like you more. That’s what I always say on the Reel Spoilers. I’m like, “And we like you extra.”

A lot of people took advantage of the seven-day trial and checked it out. Hopefully, they’re digging it. This might be a good time to talk about the Clipped Out bonus episode on The Clip Out. We’re going to talk about all sorts of stuff that we don’t have time for in this episode like Peloton announced their price match or their offer match guarantee. We’ll have details on that, and which hotels in DC now have Peloton Suites. We’ll talk about the expansion of offerings from Peloton for business and a Canadian clothing debacle. That’s how you described it. 

It is and it was. Not to mention, we’re going to start a rumor about a potential new employee that could be starting.

A potential new instructor. We’ll talk about that over there. We’ll talk about who’s out for some vocal rest. We’ll talk about the Halloween recap and everything that happened around the world of Peloton over Halloween. If you’re participating in the New York City Marathon that’s coming up, we’ll talk about different things you can do around town. That will be all over there on the bonus episode which you can get for just $5 a month. There’s also free stuff you can do on the Patreon like the book club.

We are currently reading Don’t Forget to Write.

I finally finished it. It took me two more weeks than you did and I started a week earlier.

Without ruining any of the plot, did you like it? Yes or no.

Yeah, overall. It’s not a book that I would normally read back to my own devices, but yes.

We are going to do a deep dive on this particular book on November 14th at 7:00 PM Central time. We are so lucky that Sara Goodman Confino, the author, is going to join us and have a discussion with us, which I am super excited about. If you want to be part of that, all you have to do is go over to Patreon.com/TheClipOut and click Join Community. It’s not too late to read it because it’s a very easy read.

Not to be dismissive but it seems like a beach-read book.

Not that it’s not well-written. It’s not something you have to read through every paragraph and think about what the last paragraph meant.

There are no footnotes.

I am probably not going to read a book with a lot of footnotes, I’m going to be honest.

I do sometimes.

I know you do and I love that. I love when you give me the synopsis, but I’m not going to read it.

I’m like, “Here’s the takeaway.”

You were telling me about your aging book that you are now reading.

It’s a book about how your attitude affects aging.

I have a shitty one so I’m going to die soon.

Yes, I will be a widower, but there are footnotes. Swing on by at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. You can sign up. It’s absolutely free if you want to take part in that. We’ll hopefully see you. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We’re going to start with our earnings call recap because that happened. Here’s the thing. We’re recording it tomorrow because the call will happen tomorrow. Who knows what kind of mood it will be in during that? It could be totally different. We’re also going to talk about the feature updates that Peloton has dropped for the month of October. Their social guidance report came out. We’re going to talk about what is going on with the instructors. We have a few updates. We also have a visit from Angelo for how to improve your sleep. We have all kinds of content to discuss. We even have a birthday or two to discuss as well.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and just YouTube if you want to check that out. You can also find us on iHeart and TuneIn. Wherever you get your podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. It’s super helpful. The easiest thing you can do to help the show is share an episode in your social media feed. That certainly helps us and we greatly appreciate it.

You can also find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. If you want to support the show a little extra, that is also greatly appreciated. You can find us on Facebook. If you want to stay up to date on Peloton breaking news throughout the week, you can find us at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group, and of course, don’t forget our newsletter that you can sign up for at TheClipOut.com. That’s it for all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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We just got done listening to the earnings call and by we, I mean Crystal.

To start with, if you read the shareholders letter thingy. You already know that there were losses again. That’s the bottom line losses and they expected that, so that’s nothing new. I didn’t feel like there was anything that stood out in the financials that wasn’t what we’ve been seeing. They’re continuing to work on things. They’re continuing the inventory. They’ve gotten control of that. They feel like they’ve gotten control of that.

They’re getting ready for the holiday season. That’s going to look a little different this next quarter, but they’re still being super conservative with that. They have all these new partnerships in place, and some of them were seeing some information coming back in and some of them are not. Notable to me during the call was that Liz Coddington mentioned that they are already seeing a benefit from the Lulu partnership. She said $10 million that they already know they’re getting for quarter two. That’s coming in.

That’s not nothing. You also have to ask yourself how sustainable that long-term is. You’re going to get that initial influx of people that are like, “I want a Peloton Lululemon leggings,” but are they going to buy them month after month?

You’re only looking at the apparel side of things. Don’t forget, this is about the Mirror side of things because if they use the essentials package over a Mirror, which just started on November 1st, they get access to thousands of Peloton classes. That’s thirteen million subscribers. That is not necessarily just apparel. That’s going to be anybody who’s subscribing to that that Peloton now has access to. Starting next spring, Peloton is going to be the only content provider for that platform. That is a very good thing and it’s a long term. Apparel is part of it. I don’t mean to say that it isn’t. I just think that probably $10 million is not apparel.

At this point, wouldn’t it be if their partnership for content didn’t start until November 1st?

Quarter two. We’re just doing quarter one. We’re starting quarter two right now. That’s what she was saying. The $10 million that I referred to is for quarter two. That just started or starting. The earnings call today was for quarter one of their fiscal year. We just started fiscal two.

They’re already getting money. There’s $10 million in quarter two. I don’t understand.

By the end of this quarter, in the next three months, they will see that.

I thought it was like they were saying, “We’ve already made that.”

No. We’re going to need a lot longer than fifteen minutes if you don’t work with me here. As you pointed out apparel is part of it. Barry did say that when they did their big event in Chicago, they drove a lot of traffic to the Lululemon store in Chicago. There has been a lot of apparel purchased through Peloton. They were very happy about that and they said that will continue to evolve as we go forward. If you listen to our bonus episode, we will talk about what happened in Canada. That’s going to be something that they will need to work on going forward. They did not allude to anything like that on the earnings call way too in the weeds.

I also thought it was interesting when we talked about partnerships that they talked about how we’re just getting started with things like Michigan. They talked about how in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to see Michigan light up. They made it sound like we’re barely getting started. Something important here that I felt got glossed over is they talked about rental and bike rentals. They said it’s accounting for 75,000 subscriptions right now, which is not very much. Barry made a point to say that that’s because he has been keeping his foot on the break with the rentals.

They feel like they don’t understand the financial implications and the long-term behavior patterns and how that’s all going to look. He wants to grow it very slowly so they understand it. He was like, “If we ever got to the point where let’s say it’s 500,000 subs. That completely changes who we are as a business and I don’t think we’re ready to do that.” He’s trying to keep that growth slow. However, one of the things they want to do with this partnership with Michigan is they want to look at putting rentals in place that are specific for students, how they move in and out of their dorms, and things like that. That could be very interesting.

They said that 60% of the rentals that come in are incremental. What that means is 60% of the people who are renting bikes never would have done anything with Peloton had it not been for the fact that it was a rental, to begin with. That means a few things. One, it means that they truly are getting into areas they never would have touched before. It also means that it is reaching the people where they say, “We can meet you anywhere.” They are going to continue to lean into that but they have levers that they are pulling. If they feel like they’re growing too fast, they’re going to pull it back. Long term and I mean years, we’re going to see that continue to be more and more important. Right now, it’s something to put a pin in and pay attention to.

Do they have any insight as to why they think people are renting? Do they think that it’s people who aren’t sure they want to commit? Is it people who just need it for the summer?

They didn’t talk about that. If it happened at all, it was more of just a side conversation. It’s a different demographic and they don’t necessarily have the income to spend on the hardware aspect of things. It’s also interesting because they talked about the different churn rates for the different kinds of markets. If you look at an all-access membership, that churn is like 1.0 or 1.5. It’s really low. If you look at the app, that’s like 3%, but then when you look at rentals that’s like 6%.

It makes sense if you’re renting it because there are going to be and there will be people who mixed in there that are like, “I only need it for three months.” They run it for three months and then they say come get it. It’s not crazy. I also don’t think it’s crazy that the app has a higher churn rate because you’re not tethered to anything. If you bought a piece of equipment, you are still making that payment for years because it’s bundled into your financing for a lot of people. There’s a guilt lever about giving it up. Unless you sell the bike, you feel weird having a bike and not having a membership, whereas in the app membership, you can drop in and out at any time.

The other thing that I thought was interesting about the different pieces of equipment versus the app. This was just apropos of nothing, but somebody asked the question, “How many people have more than one piece of equipment?” Only 10% of people have two or more pieces of Peloton equipment, but that number is growing. I thought that was fascinating. Most of those people have a bike and then they add a tread, but now they are seeing that the second one coming in is the row. They are seeing that second piece of equipment, tread first then row. I thought that was fascinating as well.

I’m surprised that it’s only 10%. It seems like that’s a target-rich environment to try to get people to add a piece of equipment. I also get that, from their vantage point, selling a piece of equipment doesn’t get the new subscription. It’s a short-term gain. I’m sure they love the fact that if you want to buy another piece of equipment, they’re happy to sell it to you. It’s also not a dollar that’s probably worth chasing for.

Especially since they’re so focused on getting more people in the app. That’s their focus right now. I thought that was super interesting.

It also makes sense that people would opt for a row over a tread. I feel like for most people, if they’re a runner, it seems to be that’s what they do. They don’t tend to mess with anything else or from an equipment standpoint, maybe they do weights. It’s not shocking that if you’re a bike owner, you don’t pivot to a tread. It’s likely that maybe you pivot to a rower.

That’s true and we’ve talked about it a million times. To your point, people who run don’t necessarily need a tread to run. A lot of them run outside. It’s not the same thought process for a lot of runners. They’re very used to running on their own. They run on whatever they run on.

With shoes that’s plenty.

That was also interesting. Along with that, they had this quick little thing that they said in the letter that somebody asked a follow-up question to. One of the engagement things that came up in the shareholders’ letter is that people are taking longer classes on the platform, finally. A long time ago, Peloton swung in the direction of “Okay, everybody wants 20-minute classes.” They were doubling down on that. This year, for the first time ever, they’ve at least alluded to the fact that they saw a huge increase in longer classes and increased engagement from people on the platform.

They’re spending more time on the platform. He was he was asked why. Barry said that he thought it was some progress in personalization and also that it’s great content execution and the preferences of members. He’s like, “If we’re programming well, then they’re going to be taking longer classes because they are choosing to but also because we are giving them more and making it easier for them to find.” I thought it was fascinating.

I have another theory.

Go for it.

They’re bringing in people who may be new to fitness or haven’t worked out in a while.

They’re starting to mature.

They need it. All they could stomach at the beginning was 20-minute classes. Now that they’ve been doing it for a year to a year and a half, it’s hitting critical mass where 20 minutes isn’t enough anymore for them to either see gains or maintain. You have a certain percentage that is starting to gravitate towards longer classes.

I think that’s very interesting.

With Tonal, in the beginning, anything over 30 minutes, I was like, “Eat a dick.” Now if I’m not down there for 45 minutes, I feel like I wasted my time.

That’s totally true. For people who have had their Pelotons for a long time, we felt that way the whole time. To your point, if all these new people are coming on board and they’re new, they have to go through that life cycle as well. We all know that huge influx during the pandemic. maybe now we’re finally normalizing to a new normal. One of the other things I thought was interesting is they talked about what are the end of the year promotions this year going to look like versus last year. They didn’t talk about what the promotions themselves are going to be. They didn’t talk about that at all.

What they did talk about is that it’s going to be very exciting this year compared to last year. They’re already seeing it and they’ve learned a lot from digital marketing, specifically, creator marketing and influencer marketing. They said that they are seeing a lot of traction in the space and you’re going to see more of it. You’re going to see more of that. They said it’s coming alive this season. They also thought that it was good timing that all of these partnerships were hitting critical mass at the same time. It’s all going to come together. They seemed very happy with how all of that was coming up.

By the way, I thought it was interesting that for the first time ever, they had somebody outside of financial coming in. This time, at the meeting, they had Leslie Berland, the CMO of marketing. I thought that was fascinating. Barry said that they will be bringing in from time to time other senior leadership in future calls. I thought that was interesting as well. One of the other things that I was pretty excited about was they talked about fitness as a service.

Whether or not that is going to extend to things like maybe the tread, because now they’re relaunching the tread, Barry says, and I thought this was interesting since what I’ve said for a long time, “No because the tread is a lot more complex to install.” He said maybe the row but it’s very early in the row’s life cycle. They still have a lot to learn there. They don’t want to do anything. Also, they have their hands full with fitness as a service already, especially in Germany. He said that their rental in Germany is already blowing the numbers that they expected out of the water. It’s completely killing it. That’s exciting too.

They said that when they started the new app tiers, they had a million downloads that hit the free tier right away. They felt that they did not do a good enough job leading people to all of their content on that free tier because they did not turn into conversions. They switched their strategy to be on the paid, and then they found it fascinating that more people are going to the $2,499 than the $1,299. I don’t think that’s fascinating because as we’ve talked about before, get yourself a Guide and you have access to everything. It’s not very shocking to me. That is the best deal over the $1,299.

If that were true, then you’d think they would be talking about how many Guides they’re selling.

That is true also, and they are not. It’s still better.

That $1,299 one is so throttled. It’s just an excuse to say, “We start at $1,299.”

They are looking to give people enough of a taste that they’d be excited to stick around. They did say that they are penetrating a lot of new demographics. They said a lot of men, Gen Z-plus, and others. That’s exciting. They think that churn will continue to decrease in Q2 and Q3 because those seat posts have come in. People are unpausing their membership. They think that’s going to continue to drop. As far as the property that they own I believe in Ohio for the pop thing, that thing that they bought.

It’s going to be their big manufacturing plant.

They took a $15 million impairment this quarter. They’re still looking to sell. They’re talking to a bunch of people. They hope soon. They said very little about that but it didn’t sound good to me because they stopped talking about it so fast. They were talking about something else. Somebody asked, “What about the Tread+?”

You can look forward to Peloton on Tour, Ohio.

Too funny. Somebody asked, “What are the big things that you see coming?” One of the things that somebody specifically asked about Tread+ was, “What about the opportunity? Is it going to be cost-limiting given the macroeconomy? In other words, the world sucks right now. You guys are putting this out there for $6,000. How do you think that’s going to go?” Barry said, “It could fall flat like that.” He flat-out said that. He said, “I don’t think so.”

This is the direct quote, “The one product you could not pry out of their hands is the Tread+. They are fanatical. They are emotional. Frankly, that reaction is what informs me that this will be successful.” I agree with him totally. Let me be the first to say that I believe the Tread+ will do well. The only limitation that I see is people are going to be raising their eyebrows at the fact that that inventory has been sitting there for so long. They’re not going to believe that it’s going to be okay till they see it in action. It may take a couple of months to get going. I think that it will once people believe that it is.

They’re going to need to do something to get people over the hump of unused inventory sitting there for three years.

To me, those were the big highlights of today. He also talked about that there’s going to be some other things that are going to be hitting in the next couple of weeks. There’s going to be something happening with the commercial. There’s going to be something happening with partnerships and Michigan. There’s going to be a lot of things happening in the next few weeks. We know that the last On Tour stop is coming up very soon. I have a feeling that there’s going to be some big announcements coming up in the next couple of months. It makes sense for London to be the timing. However, Peloton has never wanted to use things like an HRI or Homecoming to make big announcements. I could be wrong.

I will also say there’s a different regime. That was the last group. We always thought it was odd that they didn’t want to use it for something like that. It seemed like the obvious choice. I feel like Foley’s era was very much like making the non-obvious choice sometimes just for the sake of it, whereas Barry looks at it more like these are business fundamentals. Why would you not do the thing that has been shown to work time after time just because you think it’s boring because it’s been shown to work time after time. I wonder.

It’ll be very interesting to see because the other half of that equation is that if they wait for London, we also know that London is six hours ahead of US time. How much of that will be communicated back to the United States? We know there’s going to be a lot of US instructors there. It’ll be super exciting for the London crowd because there are going to be a lot of people who can’t just drop everything and travel to New York. They’re going to get to meet some of these instructors for the very first time. I think it’s going to be a big one. I hope so.

I agree. If you are a Peloton fan and you live in England, this is your best, easiest, and cheapest way to meet a lot of especially US instructors. I guess that’s the earnings report. That brings this portion of the show to a close.

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We have Peloton October Tech updates with assistance from Matt Wilpers.

I guess it’s assistance with him, but we do have Power Zone compliance. It’s a feature that provides users with a detailed graph, illustrating their in-class performance. It’s a new graph that displays the time that’s spent in each zone and output graphs, which are going to map your performance against the instructed output ranges. The zone targets are going to feature highlights of the percentage of the class that you were in that zone. We’re going to talk more about something else that’s coming later too.

There’s a new metric. We’ll talk about that, but speaking of metrics, there are also target metrics that dropped on Lanebreak which allows you to select levels and generate graphs based on an algorithm that estimates the targets on each level’s unique design. Peloton designed this update to help users set specific targets and track their progress. That’s a different way to use Lanebreak instead of just using it to have fun. This is going to be something like, “I want to see if I’m having fun but also getting fitter from class to class.”

So if you like fun, but not too much.

You want to dial back that fun, or you keep the fun level but make it as fit as possible. There you go. Also, Peloton gym classes can now be filtered. You can filter the available workout list based on equipment, time, instructor, body activity, and difficulty, along with your bookmark classes and classes you have taken or not taken. That’s going to make it a lot easier to find the exact workout that you are looking for.

I hope when you use the filter, it says, “Hey, man. Nice workout.”

That would be amazing. Our regular listeners are not going to have any idea what that means

People over 60, nothing. People under 40, nothing. People between 40s and late 50s are like, “I recognized that reference.”

I hopefully like it, sir. There are also target metrics that just dropped on the Peloton app. These are cool. Now there are Target ranges that are appearing on the screen. They blink to alert you whenever the new metric is being called out. It’s on running, walking, cycling, and growing classes. We’ve had those for quite a while for the bike, tread, and row, but now app users can get it too. Just like the bike, tread, and row, the target metrics are only available for on-demand classes, which makes perfect sense. I love it because you can see you’re supposed to be running between 3 and 4 and it tells you that. It’s great.

Peloton has released its Environmental Social Guidance Report.

Can we just Linger on this artwork for a second?

Okay.

One of our new writers, Helper Bee Jen Dunn, made this. I’m in love with the bright colors.

Did she make this?

Yes.

I thought this was something that they slapped on there.

She made it. Look at how talented our people are.

That art is worth lingering on.

Thank you.

My first thought honestly was like, “This sounds boring.” It doesn’t look boring. Thanks to the artwork.

I said Jenn Dunn. It’s Jen Dane. What is wrong with me? I’m so sorry. It’s the brain injury. I get so used to that. It’s only been six months.

Is that how that works? That’s the expiration.

I don’t think there is one. I’m going to be honest. As long as I am forgetting weird shit, I’m going to talk about it. I don’t care because sometimes it makes me upset.

What is this?

We’ve talked about this report before. Basically, it’s like, what Peloton is doing that is helping social impacts, environment impacts, responsibility, etc. We’ve talked about these things before. Not a lot is going to change from year to year but it is telling us this is a highlight of what happened. In other words, when they give money to certain groups during certain times, that is an example of the social impact that they are doing. If they give money to a certain group that is helping the environment, that is another thing. They’re looking to have Fitness meet sustainability and inclusivity. Some of the things that they’re doing like the refurbished program and the rental program are huge for sustainability.

They are not just throwing dead bikes in landfills.

Exactly, and of course, having their content that is going to be accessible beyond just the bike and beyond just the tread, that’s all-inclusiveness. There are a lot of things going on there that they are having impacts with. They’re looking for younger people. We already knew that. Social justice, I don’t think we should even get into social justice implications, to be honest.

We will just yell it.

I think it’s the initiative that they’ve been doing. I don’t think there’s anything new.

It talks about global pay equity like getting paid fairly. Hopefully, that’s not a hot take for you. If it is, go ahead and yell at us because you’re a dick. Anyway, that’s all there. Coming up later in the episode, Angelo will have tips for how to sleep better. One of them is reading this report. There was an article on Bloomberg about the rise of the importance of Latino marketing. It’s said that Bad Bunny shows advertisers the power of Spanglish, and Peloton popped up in there.

It makes sense that if you have more opportunities to talk to more groups, then that’s good marketing just like we just talked about.

Especially as they want to expand into more international territory, some of them are going to speak Spanish, one would think.

My understanding of Spanglish is it is literally a combination of English and Spanish. One way that you see that in the rides and runs that the instructors do is they are mostly in one language or the other, but they flip sometimes. You might hear an English class also have a few Spanish words. You also might have a Spanish class that has a few English words. That is good. I can take a Spanish-speaking class and get the gist. I am not in any way fluent in Spanish, but I do know enough that I could get by. Can I talk? No, but I can listen and have a good idea of what’s happening.

There are all sorts of words in the English language that are similar or that we have pulled in from other languages and made our own. That’s very common. Coming up this week, Peloton is hosting a shakeout run with New York Road Runners.

I don’t think we mentioned in the opening of the show our huge interview with the CEO of the New York Road Runners Association, Rob Simmelkjaer. He is joining us on this episode to talk all about this weekend. It’s super exciting. I was super star-struck to be able to meet him.

He’s going to talk about the Peloton partnership that they have.

You’re going to hear how it started. You’re going to hear what to expect. Lots of fun little things there.

Anyway, back to this particular article.

This is one of those things.

When we were interviewing him, he was like, “I’m leaving to go do this. I was getting ready to do it.”

He was preparing for the actual event. They had to get things together. It was on November 2nd. It’s going to have some of the Peloton instructors there like Becs Gentry, Susie Chan, Mariana Fernandez, Logan Aldridge, Jeffrey McEachern, and Rad Lopez. They’re going to have a welcome. There’s going to be a five-minute warm-up and then you’re going to do a shakeout run, and you get to do it right in Central Park. That’s pretty darn exciting. There are lots of these shakeout runs all across New York, which is part of what we are going to talk about in the bonus episode.

Coming up after this, we’re going to have instructors in the news. We’re going to tell you all about where Jen Sherman and Matty Maggiacomo are going to be if you want to see them in real life. Stick around.

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Jess Sims has been showing up at fans’ houses and making surprise visits. She showed up at an ultimate Jets fan’s home and it’s one of our tipsters

Jennifer Tavela, one of the TCO tipsters, had Jess Sims at her house. How amazing is that? Congratulations.

That must have been very exciting. Good for her.

Absolutely.

Jenn and Matty are coming to California.

These two are my favorites together.

You’ve met them both.

I know but not together. Do you know how fun that they would be together?

Is that how that works? I guess it’s like how I met all the Monkees, but I also wanted to meet them that same time. I only got a picture with two at a time. I know that getting four is practically impossible. There was a brief window where I could have gotten three of the four but, but it did not happen.

You almost did. You came very close. If you live in Palo Alta and Santa Clara, there are going to be two different member events and they’re going to be this weekend, which is nice since everybody else is going to be at the New York City Marathon. I’m glad they’re hitting the West Coast for a brief moment.

This is their way to avoid having to run a marathon. I don’t blame them.

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Joining us once again from MetPro is Angelo, here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition questions. How’s it going?

Hello, guys.

We have another question. This one is school-related but you have to stretch it a little. This one comes from Sherry Mulro. She wants to know how to get to sleep at a regular reasonable time. I know this is not nutrition, but I figure you have strategies out the wazoo. I have confidence in you.

I’m going to be a hypocrite saying them. That’s the thing. Here’s what I need to do because I’m an infamous insomniac. Here’s what I need to work on. I’ll just talk about all the things. I need to do better and sharing that’s exactly what you should try. A regular bedtime. All the experts and all the research shows. When you’re conditioned, it’s like you wake up in the morning and your eyes are open at 8:00 or 6:30 or whatever time you’re conditioned to. Your body will do the same thing when you go to sleep if you go to sleep at the same time. If you can condition yourself, that’s a huge thing.

The second thing. Here’s what I’m guilty as charged. No devices and no electronics right before bed. Read a book where you turn the pages. All the research has shown that electronics, the computer and TV, are stimulating and it is true. You will likely fall asleep quicker. It won’t feel quicker because you’ll be so bored, but you will fall asleep quicker.

I read all the time. I read every night. I don’t read a real book. I read a Kindle

We have the blue light blocker thing on the Kindle.

Kindle is designed for that.

It’s the Kindle Oasis. It’s designed to look like flat. It’s not like a lit-up screen. It’s not a tablet. It’s designed a little more like you’re reading paper. I’m sure it’s not the same as a book but we read in darkness. We flip our screen black and the font white. We will read in complete darkness. If I’m having trouble sleeping, normally, it’s because I either have something at work that is on a loop in my head that I can’t stop or I’m fighting with my ex-wife. I’ll read for a couple of minutes and I can do it in the dark and not wake her up.

If the lights come on, I’m awake, “What is happening?”

I find if I read for even 10 minutes at 2:00 in the morning, it breaks my head out of that loop and then it’s easier for me to go back to sleep.

Here’s another recommendation Sherry and maybe not what you’re expecting. I’m sure you’ve heard this at some point. Exercise, not at 10:00 at night, but if you exercise that day and triple if you exercise vigorously, that does wonders for your central nervous system and your body’s ability to fall asleep and stay asleep at night when you’re in a habit of exercising, especially with some intensity. If you’re not already in the habit of that, that’s going to help across multiple. We talk a lot about exercise around these parts, don’t we?

About 90 minutes a week here.

A regular exercise routine will do wonders for your sleep schedule. Finally, your nutrition. If you’re having caffeine and sugar at night or if you’re eating junk food at night, if you’re having alcohol at night, that one is probably the most infamous. It’ll make you feel a little drowsy right after you drink, but then what happens is you wake up in the middle of the night and you can’t get back to sleep. Quality foods and clean foods, eat a balanced dinner, and you’re going to find you’re going to sleep a lot better.

If you were working with us at MetPro, we would be getting you into a minimum of eating 4 or 5 times a day. That’s not that complicated. It’s just three balanced meals, and then some specifically selected snacks. Why? Because when you’re blood sugar is stable throughout the day, that’s going to result in a host of positive biological changes in your system. One of those positive outcomes is better sleep patterns. That’s something that you can try as well.

Some people try and go too long without eating in the evening. If you’re hungry and there’s nothing in your stomach, sometimes, not everybody. Everyone’s body is a little different when it comes to this. That can sometimes break sleep. At least eating something light in the early evening is good. Eating a heavy meal in the early evening is not so good. That will not necessarily help you sleep. It might put you to sleep but then you wake up in the middle of the night with a belly ache. Don’t do that.

It’s so fascinating because I have one of those Whoop trackers that I wear. When we go on our Disney Cruise and I eat badly like the next day, my recovery is always like it’s red. It’s bad. It’s like 10% to 12% recovered and it’s just off. That much of a difference can occur just because you ate sugar before you went to bed and heavy food.

Imagine her recovery rate when she got hit by a car.

It was always bad. It was really bad

I’ll recommend that.

Our advice is to stop getting hit by cars.

Come on, Crystal. Cut it out.

If people would like this information tailor-made for them, here’s a free one. Don’t get hit by a car. You don’t want to hide that one behind a payroll. If they would like stuff like this tailor-made for themselves and their lifestyle, where can they find you?

MetPro.co/tco.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

—

Another week, another new artist series. This time it features 1989 the album, not the year. Taylor’s version.

A lot of people are very excited about that.

I’m sure. She is doing okay for herself.

Did you know that she was officially called a billionaire?

Good for her. I saw the article and it says that she’s the first person ever to reach billionaire status based solely on their music revenue. Normally, people get an initial nest egg from something like music or TV, then they invest it and grow. I’m sure she’s got investments but maybe she doesn’t. She is the investment. She’s like, “I guess I’ll do this and make a ton of money.” She doesn’t need a hedge fund or a 401(k).

I don’t think this happened in time to make it into the episode proper. Maybe I missed sending it to you, but our Helper Bee Lindsey did an amazing article, in which she took all of the songs from this album and assigned them to instructors based on the song. Do you know that line that Taylor Swift has, “We have a blank space and I’ll write your name?” She did blank space and so that’s the idea. You should check it out over at TheClipOut.com and find out exactly what instructor we assigned to each song, including Slut. I want to check that out. Cody is on the cover of that particular article. It was for the irony because he does not like Taylor Swift. That was that was on purpose, guys. We got it.

It’s funny with all the Taylor version things that are out there like she didn’t own the rights to her Masters, which is the actual physical recordings of her music so she could do what she wanted. She went back and re-recorded them all for people that aren’t familiar with the story because they were sold and she didn’t have any control over them. She’s like, “I’ll re-record all the albums and I’ll tell all my fans to listen to these instead of those. I’ll kill the streaming value.” She did and it worked. It’s amazing.

I mean, I’m sorry, but that’s a baller move. My favorite band is the Monkees and one of my favorite stories is when they said, “Here’s the next song you’re going to sing.” They were like, “That song is a piece of shit.” They practically got into a fistfight over not recording it, and then that’s when they took over. I love when artists do this sort of stuff. I saw an article the other day that said labels now are starting to put in contracts that you can’t do this.

Too late. She already did.

They don’t want somebody else to do it. In all honesty, they were interviewing a lawyer who didn’t want to remain named. He was like, “I don’t even fight it because in all honesty, what other artists could have realistically pulled that off?” The odds of you getting big enough for this to even be a viable option are so minuscule that it’s not a fight worth having. I just thought that was interesting.

That’s a great story. I know a lot of people have issues with Taylor Swift. There were some rude comments over on the OPP, but that’s stressful. I love her and I love what a great businesswoman she is. I’m a huge fan not just of her music. I’m a huge fan of how she conducts herself in the world. I think it’s great.

Honestly, I can take a reliever music. She has songs I like but it’s not going to be something I get in the car and put on, but I like her.

I do too. Go Taylor.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk about all sorts of upcoming content or things you might have missed so you can get the most out of your Peloton experience. Stick around.

—

We mentioned earlier in the episode that we had more Power Zone information. Here it is. There is a new Power Zone metric coming.

It’s the power profile that has been introduced. The October 7th Power Zone Max class is the first time that Matt incorporated this profile test in the ride. You can find out more about it in this other article, but it’s not exactly another test. It’s this idea that you have a profile. It’s not just one number you’re looking for. You know how you can take classes that are more endurance steady. You can also have Max classes. That’s where you get all of your Power Zone training from.

This test might reveal things as you excel more at longer endurance rides, but maybe you struggle a little bit with sprints that require much more power but have shorter durations. The results of this test are going to allow you to identify your specific writing profile and identify the types of rides that might help you get better in that specific one. You start off as you do any other powering class and then you build up, so you do a couple of minutes in Zone 2, Zone 3, Zone 4, but then you get into Zone 5, 30 seconds, Zone 6, 30 seconds, then after recovering, you actually start the test. You do a one-minute maximum effort.

For many people that’s your Zone 6, then you do 5.5 minutes at Zone 1, then you do a 5-minute max effort which again, for most people it’s going to be a Zone 5, then you do another recovery for 5.5 minutes, and then you conclude the test by repeating the following interval 6 times, 15 seconds of maximum efforts somewhere in zone 7 for most people, then you’re you get a Zone 1 recovery. After you’ve done that test, you get your normal Power Zone graph. From that, you can see how well you were able to look at how well you were able to keep those efforts during the intervals.

We don’t know whether or not we’re going to get specific graphs for that specific test, but you are going to be able to use at the very least that cool new feature we talked about at the top of the show that you can see the new Power Zone graphs the percentage of time you were staying where the instructor told you to be. If you’re 50% in one and 75% in another, that’s a good indicator that you need to work a little harder on the 50% and maybe not spend as much time on the 75%. That’s how it all works. It’s another way to say Matt’s math.

I’m glad they have something there to do that math for you.

Me too. That makes it a lot more fun.

Let’s talk about TCO’s top five. Every week, we ask you to tell us what your favorite classes of the week are and then we share them with people. If they’re looking for classes that we help separate the wheat from the chaff.

This one I would have not guessed would show up as a favorite but it is. The favorite artist series yoga is Ludacris yoga with Denis Morton. The reason I wouldn’t have thought of that is I wouldn’t have thought to put yoga with Ludacris. Mindy Jensen says that she’s not a yoga flow fan. She loves the quick 10-minute flows to stretch, but Denis Morton’s 30-minute Ludacris yoga flow got her to do a full-length class. She had got done with a run and somehow this called out to her. She appreciated Denis leaving the music as the artist intended. It was a great class. She worked up a sweat and sang some sassy lyrics

Is Denis calling out DJ John Michael on remixes?

I don’t think so.

That would start an imaginary turf war between the two. “Denis Morton calls out DJ John Michael. I’m leaving the music as intended. Suck it, DJ John Michael.”

We have number two, our favorite Peloton Row bootcamp. This was with Katie Wang. It was a 30-minute ’80s bootcamp from 10/23. Becky Gomez loved this bootcamp not just for the workout but also the playlist. It was the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s 80s-based rom-com playlist. They were all from The Wedding Singer and it was a good class and very efficient workout for only 30 minutes. We have our favorite Peloton Halloween walk. This one was my favorite class of the week. This was with Matty Maggiacomo, on 10/29 because that’s when all the new Halloween classes came out.

I don’t know what these these other these other things say. Let me just say this. I loved Matty’s humor. He acted as if he was an alien the entire time and it was phenomenal. He called out all the other instructors, not all of the instructors but famous people and some of the instructors, and asked if they were aliens or humans. He had a reason for whichever they were. His costume was something we should all aspire to be. That took hours to put on. It is amazing.

There were several people that submitted this Susan Yang and Dina Rosas both loved it as well. Susan said that Matty’s costume was out of this world, and it was. The whole class was so funny. He called himself the non-human biologic Matty. It was NHBM2. That’s what he called himself. It was amazing and he also used great songs, Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic and Katy Perry’s ET. It was so good, a must-take this week.

If you want to hear more Halloween stuff, we’re going to talk about it in this week’s Patreon episode. If you haven’t signed up, you have not missed your opportunity. Coming in at number four.

Favorite Peloton hike. This was with Kirsten Ferguson. This would have been the unstackable for the week if it hadn’t been for Matt Wilpers. Matt Wilpers took us to a whole new place. Trish Lalonde says that this particular class was a butt-kicker. Kirsten’s 30-minute hike from October 30th. She did not go below the 10% incline for the entire class and she was up from 10:00 to 12:00. Her legs were done.

For our unstackable, even I know what the unstackable is. It was a nine-hour class. Finally, you have a cloud. Now you can watch movies on your thing. You can watch Lawrence of Arabia while you’re taking a class.

The funny thing about this was it was recorded and it was also Matt’s birthday ride. His birthday falls on 10/24, but he shared it as his birthday.

That’s a shitty way to celebrate your birthday.

He loved it. Two-hour ride, folks. People loved it. Billy Lanore, the playlist was great. The energy was great. The structure to survive that for so many of us who aren’t used to riding that long was great. It helped Billy reinforce mentally that the training he’s doing is working. Michael Daven said, “The first hour flew by. The second hour also flew, but the last 15 minutes were something special.” Matt mentioned at the end of the ride, “True cyclists. Sometimes long rides on a stationary bike are harder than riding outside as you get no downhills. You are pedaling the whole time.” It’s so true.

This is my favorite quote of the week. Elizabeth said, “It felt like the old days of appointment riding when everyone had to be there. For all 7,000 people who were there, he let us know how much he appreciated that we were all there for him. Especially those West Coasters because that was like 3:30 AM. Thank you to everyone as always. These fill out these recommendations each week. If you haven’t gotten a chance to take these classes, you absolutely should, especially that stackable. Let us know what you think.

Peloton is celebrating UK Black History Month. We should point out that their Black History Month is different. I mean at a different time than the American version. People get confused sometimes like it’s not February.

We talked about the fact that they were celebrating last week, but we did not know about this event which occurred on October 28th at 2:00 PM. When we put this out, you could go and purchase the tickets. Obviously, it has already occurred. You can’t now.

If you want to buy a ticket, I’m sure they’ll take your money.

It’s going to be a panel discussion with Hannah Frankson, Jermaine Johnson, and Joslyn Thompson Rule.

Finally, there is a new 30-minute outdoor run featuring Marcel Maurer and the manager of Liverpool FC Jurgen Klopp.

As you said, Jurgen is the manager of the football club. This is an extension of the Liverpool partnership that is happening. This particular class was filmed outdoors. You can take this audio-only class anywhere and it’s all in German. I’m not sure how many people speak enough German to build it. I would like to hear from you if you do, but pretty cool. Very special

—

Finally, we have two birthdays. The first is from former Peloton instructor Chase Tucker. His birthday is November 5th. On November 9th, it is the birthday of Mayla Wedekind.

Happy birthday.

Coming up after this, it’s our interview of the week. We’re talking to Rob Simmelkjaer from the New York Road Runners Association. They ran, created, dealt with, handled, and organized the New York City Marathon, which is coming up this weekend. He’s going to tell you all about that and all about their new podcast, and he’s going to tell you all about the partnership that they now have with Peloton. Stick around for that.

—

Joining us from New York Road Runners is Rob Simmelkjaer. How’s it going?

Thanks for having me on the show.

Crystal is very excited. Not that I’m not excited but I’m the one who I didn’t exercise until I was 50.

When he did, he didn’t do cardio. He only does Tonal. He won’t even touch the Peloton. People are always like, “Why are you on this show?” It’s because he makes jokes usually and funny stuff.

Cardio is important, I will say that.

TCO 334 | New York City Marathon

 

If I do cardio, it’s accidental. I didn’t want to sound like I was being mean. I secretly root for the New York Wile E Coyote Association.

I have to tell you that I have had quite my little running journey. I’m sure you get stuck hearing these stories all the time but I have tried to be a runner since I have been part of Peloton and I’m super slow. In 2023, I had it in my head that I was going to go and do the New York City marathon. That’s my biggest dream and what I want to do. I have done a half marathon. A couple of times, I had this bridge in my head, “I’m going to do the Big Sur 21-Miler.” I’m out there training and doing all the things. On February 5th, 2023, I got hit by a car while training. That slowed everything.

It took her down like a punctured lung. It could be a concussion.

12 weeks later, I still walked the 21 miles. I am back in training and my goal is to see you on that start line.

When I get to the start line on November 5th, 2023, I will give a speech. One of the things I will talk about is congratulating people for getting to the starting line because it’s hard to get to the starting line. People talk about it. It was so hard to run a marathon and 26.2 miles. That’s hard but getting to the starting line is the hardest part, to be honest.

Things happen along the way. I ran the New York Marathon twice. I was thinking about running Chicago in 2023. I was training over the summer and my knee started acting up. Nothing as dramatic as being hit by a car. It was a boring old guy with knee pain but I didn’t make it to the starting line of that one. It’s hard to make it to the starting line.

I’m hopeful for 2024. I’m crossing my fingers but it seems like there’s so much exciting stuff happening in 2023 at the marathon. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the New York Road Runners? How did that come to be? How long have you guys been around?

New York Road Runners had a bunch of names. It was known for a long time as the New York Road Runners Club. It started in the 1950s. There was a guy named Ted Corbitt who was an Olympic marathoner. He was an incredible guy originally from New York. He was famous for running crazy mileage. He’d run 100, 110, or 125 miles a week. He was epic.

He created it with some others in the New York area. Some of the actual predecessor organizations were things like the New York Pioneers, which was an African-American running club in Harlem. There’s a pretty significant African-American component to it. Ted was African-American. That’s a lot of what started it going as a running club. It was a club where they would meet and measure courses. Ted Corbitt’s big thing was measuring courses so that it could say, “We are running a 10K,” and it was a 10K.

That was before we had watches to do such things.

They had to go out in cars and have tools to measure courses. It wasn’t that easy. That grew through the ’60s. What caused it to take off was the marathon. The New York City Marathon was created in 1971. It started as running laps around Central Park. If you have been to Central Park, there’s a loop that runs about 6 miles around the park from Central Park South up to Harlem and back. It started running loops around the park.

The big thing that caused its tremendous growth was the idea that some folks had including a guy named Fred Lebow who was one of the famous founding fathers of New York Road Runners to make that a five-borough marathon. They went to the mayor of New York at the time, a guy named Abe Beame with this idea.

It was Fred Lebow. It was a guy named Percy Sutton who was a leader in Harlem. They said, “We have a crazy idea. We want to start this marathon on Staten Island and have it run through Brooklyn, Queens, over the Queensboro Bridge, Manhattan into the Bronx, back in Manhattan, and finish it at Central Park.” People laughed at them. They thought it was nuts.

Abe Beame, the mayor was like, “This could be a thing. Let’s give this a go.” The city needed some positive stuff. It was a tough time in New York. The city was falling apart. Crime rates were through the roof. They gave it a shot and the rest is history. We are going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Five-Borough Marathon in 2026.

I have always wondered that because I can’t imagine being like, “How about we shut down New York so people can run?” It’s one of those things where once you have done it and it’s a big deal, you take pride in it like the Macy’s Day Parade. That first time when you are at least at Macy’s, nobody’s in the street anyway because it’s Thanksgiving morning.

I have this conversation with people in New York a lot. “What are the greatest days of the year in New York?” Most people, even if they are not runners think that the New York City Marathon, along with maybe the Thanksgiving Day parade, are the two best days of the year in New York. I’m biased. I think it’s the marathon. What I love about it is it’s great to go out and cheer for characters, balloons, and all that. We all love Thanksgiving but with the marathon, people are going out and rooting for strangers.

They are cheering for people from all over the world who are running through the streets of our city. Everybody cheers for everybody. The vibe is so positive and it’s a global event. We have people coming from all over the world and this is how they experience New York, as a place where strangers yell their name and say, “You got this. You do this. You go for it.” It’s an incredibly special day.

During the New York City Marathon, people are rooting for strangers from all over the world. Everybody cheers for everybody and the vibe is so positive. Share on X

On that note, how do you think that this marathon became the largest in the world? There are a lot of marathons. What do you think is so special?

It starts with the city to be honest. There’s no place like New York. It sounds cliché but the energy of the city or the density of the city is such that you got crowds for about the entire 26 miles. The two quietest spots on the marathon course are the first mile where you are running over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge for 1 mile and change. It’s almost 1.5 miles. It’s a very long bridge.

It’s interesting. There’s all this excitement and then you get out there. It’s pretty quiet. There’s a ton of runners around you. You are dodging and trying to find some space usually in that area. It’s quiet in its way but it’s so exhilarating. The second is the other big bridge you cross, which is the 59th Street Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge called the Ed Koch Bridge that takes you from Queens into Manhattan.

That’s fun because you have passed halfway. You can feel it and you are coming into Manhattan for the first time. You can look down as you are crossing over First Avenue and see the crowds. They are 5 and 6 deep going up First Avenue. You come around that ramp down onto First Avenue and it’s so exhilarating. It’s quiet on the bridge and then you are there.

I always tell this to people. Crystal, keep this in mind when you run in 2024. The most dangerous mile of the marathon is that mile right there. It’s about mile 16 on First Avenue because you get such a charge from the crowds there that you will run your fastest mile. You don’t want to run your fastest mile at mile 16 or mile 17. That’s not where you want to do that. You need to keep something in the tank.

The most dangerous mile of the New York City Marathon is about mile 16 on First Avenue. You get such a charge from the crowds there that you will run your fastest mile. Share on X

Could you ask them to maybe be quiet or tone it down as she runs through? Could we do that?

You could be like a quarterback in a home game like, “Quiet down. I’m trying to call the play here.” Maybe that would work but I doubt it. You got to hold it back there. We have a podcast that we launched at New York Road Runners in 2023 called Set the Pace. My partner on that podcast is a guy named Meb Keflezighi who won the marathon in 2009. The first year he ran it, he fell into that trap. He went crazy running up First Avenue. His mile splits were probably under five minutes. He’s crazy fast and then he ran out of gas later on.

Was he not able to complete or did he do what he wanted to do?

He finished but he finished way off the pace. He didn’t come close to winning. In our first episode, he talks about when he got to the finish line. That was his first-ever marathon. He had been more of an elite runner but more at the 10K and 5K distance. He got to the finish line of that first marathon and was like, “I’m never doing that again.” He ended up running 26 marathons. One for every mile in the marathon. One New York in 2009. One Boston in 2014 and picked up an Olympic medal along the way. He ran a couple more marathons. He did pretty well.

He has an incredibly fun name to say.

That makes you feel good because if I do make that mistake, somebody at that level makes that mistake.

There’s an Olympic medal in your future. That’s how it works.

What inspired you guys to start the podcast specifically?

My background is a broadcasting background. I worked at ESPN for 10 years and NBC Sports for 8 years. When I got to Road Runners after the 2022 marathon, I started thinking of things we could do differently. I said, “We don’t have a podcast or a show. We don’t have a way to tell the stories of the people who run our marathon or run with us all year long.”

I thought, “We have 50,000 people showing up for this marathon on November 5th, 2023.” Of those 50,000, there are 50,000 stories and 50,000 reasons why people decide to put themselves through the difficult task of running a marathon. Of those 50,000, several thousand of them are tearjerkers, and probably at least 50 of them could be feature-length Hollywood films. They are so inspiring.

Of the 50,000 participants of the New York City Marathon, there are also 50,000 stories and reasons why they have decided to put themselves through the difficult task, and several thousand of them are tearjerkers. Share on X

We put together a thing called Team Inspire at New York Road Runners every year, which is the most inspirational story of the marathon. I said, “One podcast a week is easy.” We can put together an amazing set of conversations and stories if we do this once a week. Meb agrees to do it with me. Meb is so beloved in the running world. He was the last American man to win the Boston Marathon. He was incredibly respected and an amazing guy. Once Meb got on board, I was like, “We are doing this.”

Do you guys have any guests coming up that you are especially excited about?

We are about to wrap up the pre-marathon run of shows. If you go and download the podcast Set the Pace, you can listen to all the episodes we have done since Labor Day when we launched. There’s a bunch that I love. My personal favorite without sliding anybody else is Susannah Scaroni, who is the defending wheelchair champion of the TCS New York City Marathon.

She’s coming back in 2023 to defend her title in New York and also because we are going to have a Paralympic qualifying event in 2023. If she finishes first or second among Americans, she will qualify for the Paralympic team. She has an incredible story. You talked about Crystal getting hit by a car when you were training. Susannah’s story, first of all, was about what happened to her as a kid being in a car accident that caused her to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life but then how she discovered wheelchair racing and what she had been able to accomplish in the field. She’s truly elite. She’s incredible.

The thing that’s so crazy about her story is she’d already become an elite wheelchair racer. She was out training and got hit by a car while training in a wheelchair. She got knocked out and injured from that and came back from that to get back on the top of the podium and win the Boston Marathon. Her story is incredible. I highly recommend that one.

We had a great conversation with Willie Geist, who some folks might know from NBC News and Morning Joe. He’s got some great stories about running the marathon. There are so many. It’s been fun to tell those stories and talk with Meb about running. Meb gives a running tip every single episode. That’s another thing you can check out.

He’s going to regret that. I have a movie podcast, which is how this all started. It’s called Real Spoilers Elevator Pitch. It’s like a book club for movies but with no Oprah. Every week, we discuss movies in a spoiler-rich environment. In the first episode, I will end with a spoiler from another movie. Like 750 episodes later.

It’s getting tough.

I do see what you mean there. We hadn’t thought ahead about that.

Nobody ever thinks 700 episodes down the line.

Maybe we will make that a marathon season thing and try to move away.

Manage expectations from them. That’s going to get hard. You are going to be like, “I did it faster.”

Run faster. We call it The Meb Minute.

If something is in your way, go around it. I don’t know. Wear shoes or don’t do anything.

It’s something to look forward to. I also wanted to ask you about the partnership between the New York Road Runners and Peloton. Can you tell us a little bit of background about how that came to be?

We are so excited to welcome Peloton as a new partner of New York Road Runners and the TCS New York City Marathon. This was the first thing before I was CEO. I was named to get the job in October of 2022 and didn’t start until after the marathon. One of the very first things I did was talk to a friend of mine. I have a good friend named Kristin McGee. She is a yoga instructor at Peloton. She and I are great friends. When I told her I was getting this job, she said, “We should do something with Road Runners and Peloton.”

She put me in touch with senior leadership at Peloton. I reached out immediately and said, “Let’s do something.” We were looking at different companies in the category but we started talking to them. What’s great about them is they have got great bikes and treadmills. They are going into rowing. They have got so many great things that people can use but what’s special about them is the community. They have created such a strong community over the years of fitness enthusiasts but great personalities and content.

At the end of the day, what’s amazing about them is they are storytellers and content creators. Through that partnership, they are doing a great job of telling the story of the TCS and New York City Marathon and what it’s like to be a part of it. They have got so many of their trainers who are running it. It’s a great partnership. It’s only a couple of months old and they are already doing incredible things. I’m so excited to be partnered with Peloton. We are scratching the surface of all the things we are going to do with them.

I can’t wait.

Can you give us a sneak peek?

What’s your favorite aspect? What can we expect to see?

You can expect content and opportunities for people in the Peloton community to train with Peloton and then come run one of our races including the TCS New York City Marathon. I know that’s going to be a thing. I’m going to what they call a shakeout run, which is a run that you do to keep yourself somewhat sharp right before Marathon. They are having it two days before the marathon in New York.

I’m going to meet up with Becs Gentry, one of the instructors, and some others to go to their shakeout run. They are going to have a huge presence at the finish line as well. They are going to have a big cheer section and they are going to be cheering for their folks as they come through. If you follow them on social, on Instagram, or wherever, you are going to see a lot of great stuff about the TCS New York City Marathon. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

I feel like one of the things that people don’t always get about Peloton in relationship to the treadmill is people are used to the idea of a bike and an instructor. When it comes to running, not so much. A lot of people look at it and go, “What do I need that for? I’m going to get on a tread and run. I don’t need somebody to ‘yell at me’ while I’m running.” Not that they yell at you. I wonder if you had any thoughts about the advantages of using something like Peloton to train for running?

To tell the story a little bit through my marathon experience, it’s not so much treadmill running but we will get to that. It’s the idea of having people who can help you run faster. I ran two marathons. I have only run two. I’m not a crazy big marathon. I have always been a big runner but I’m more of a 10K guy. I ran my first marathon in 1997. I had a great experience. I was inspired to run it because I saw the finish of the Boston Marathon when I was going to school in Boston and I said, “I want to do this.” I signed up for the New York marathon the next day and I got in.

What I thought was a nice time. I wanted to run under four hours. I ran in 344 and it was a rainy day. I was very happy with that. I was like, “Check. Done. I’m not going to do it again.” Sixteen years later, I was inspired to run it again because we were about to move out of New York City with my family. I was like, “Let me do one more New York run before we move to the suburbs.”

I signed up for the 2013 marathon. That time, instead of training by myself as I did in 1997, I had a team. I ran for a team called Fred’s team, which benefits Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital for Cancer in New York. I had an aunt who had passed away from breast cancer that year so I wanted to do it in honor of her.

The team that I had around me, the coaches, the trainers, the training plans, and the other runners I was with made a huge difference. I ended up running sixteen years later than my first one, exactly sixteen minutes faster. I got older but I got faster, which was an amazing experience. I ended up running that in 328. That was my goal was under 330.

It goes back to your question, having motivation, someone telling you, pushing you, and giving you advice on how to run and run faster makes a big difference. Running is a very coachable thing. You can be coached to run a lot faster. Meb talks a lot about the importance of coaching in his career. He had a coach who was his coach in his entire running career and it was an important relationship. One of the things Peloton is going to be able to do for folks who run on their treads is give them the tools, advice, and motivation to get faster if that’s what they want.

Having someone push and give you advice on how to run a marathon and how to run faster makes a big difference. Running is a very coachable thing. Share on X

What’s your favorite thing about Marathon Weekend in New York City?

There’s so much but I have to go back to the happiest place on Earth, apologies to my many friends at Disney. They are our partners. They will let me use that. The marathon is on ESPN. I worked there for ten years so I got to borrow it. The happiest place on Earth, at least on the first Sunday in November, is the finish line of the TCS New York City Marathon.

I love the finish line so much because every single person who crosses that finish line is having a moment they are never going to forget for the rest of their lives. It’s not often you can sit there and watch people have life-changing experiences and mass like one after another. It’s like raining emotion at that finish line. You see smiles, tears, and everything.

People are looking up at the sky, crossing themselves, and hugging each other. It’s so emotional and inspiring. I will stand there all day because we celebrate the finishers at the back of the pack as much as we do the people who finish up front. There will going to be a lot of hugs, high fives, and tears. We need a lot of hand sanitizer for all of that but it’s a great place to be.

I want to go do it.

You will probably get hit by a car again. They don’t have it closed down. That’s not a good idea.

I should wait until the course is open.

We will save a place for you, Crystal. Get yourself going and moving. Get yourself out there. We can find it. We will get you in 2024.

For people who have their eyes on 2024, do you have any advice? It’s too late for 2023 to give advice. If you haven’t started, you are screwed.

It’s too late for the most part. Some people run 3, 4, or 5 marathons a year who are always in marathons.

Those people are okay.

I don’t know that I’d call them okay. That’s not okay.

All things are relative. There are people who could roll out of bed and run a marathon but there aren’t too many of those. For most people you are looking at, especially if it’s your first one, you are looking at 4 or 5 months of training to get ready. It comes down to being in a routine of running. If you have a goal set to run one in a year, you don’t have to start training, that’s for sure but getting into the habit of running a few times a week would be good. Starting to build up the muscle memory and a little bit of mileage would be great.

We have a program in New York called 9+1. If you are in the New York area, you can run nine of our races in a calendar year plus volunteer at one of them and you are guaranteed entry into the next year’s marathon. It’s only for people in the area who can run a lot of our races but that gives people that buildup of running, mileage, and stuff like that.

If you are not in New York, you can sign up for our virtual races. We have a bunch of virtual races. You can go to NYRR.org or Strava. We have a whole thing on Strava where you can sign up for virtual races, 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons. You can start to build up mileage that way too. When you are ready, it’s 4 or 5 months out and you get into that routine. There’s the part about getting in which is also a challenge.

In February 2024, our registration opens up. You can enter our drawing. Hopefully, you get a slot that way. There are other ways to get in that are somewhat more of a sure thing. You can run for a charity and raise money for charities. We have over 500 charity partners and raised over $50 million for charity in 2022. That’s a great way to get in. You can get in a bunch of other ways too. There are lots of different ways to do it but it’s doable. You have to put your mind to it, plan, and make it happen.

Rob, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you or the marathon, all the places that they can find the things, and the podcast.

If you want to follow the marathon in 2023, the best way to do it is to download the TCS New York City Marathon App. It is up in the app store, Apple, Android, and all the places. You can track runners and watch the live video feed of the race in the app as well no matter where you are. I recommend checking out the app.

The podcast is called Set the Pace. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all the great places. You can find me on Instagram. I’m @RTSimmel. I didn’t go for the whole Simmelkjaer thing. It’s a little bit long. You can follow the New York Road Runners or the TCS New York City Marathon and all those places. We hope to see you out there somewhere and see you at the starting line, Crystal, in 2024. Your husband, maybe not, but at least you will be there to root her on.

I will be at the finish line with you waiting for her.

I look forward to seeing you both in New York in 2024.

Thank you again so much for this. What a pleasure. We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

—

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

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on all social media 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. Of course, Don’t forget our Patreon where for $5 a month, you get all sorts of bonus content and you get them ad-free. If we get them early, you get them early. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in and until next time, keep pedaling and running and rowing.

 

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