• Peloton and NBA team-up for All-Star Game exhibit.
• Rad Lopez, Kirsten Ferguson, and Tunde were all at the NBA All-Star Game.
• Peloton Apple app gets new look.
• on’t miss out on the latest sale on The Guide.
• Peloton wins “Bike+” trademark suit.
• Jenn – Protecting your mental health during the winter doldrums.
• Could Alex Karwoski be headed to the Olympics?
• Mayla Wedekind eyes her return to the platform.
• Chelsea Jackson Roberts is the voice of Sol de Janeiro pop-up in NYC.
• Rebecca Kennedy partners with dp HUE.
• Jess King celebrates 10 years with Peloton.
• New celebrity Peloton member sighting – Mark Zuckerberg.
• The latest artist series features Nicki Minaj.
• Nike launches a Peloton On Tour knock-off.
• TCO Top 5.
• This week at Peloton.
• Selena Samuela teases more Floor Bootcamp.
• Power Zones go German.
• Birthdays: DJ John Michael (2/24)

All this plus our interview with Kristin Stokes!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Big Legal Win For Peloton Plus Our Interview With Kristin Stokes!

Welcome to Episode 349.

Allow me to be the first one on the episode to say, “Happy Anniversary.”

Happy anniversary of our wedding.

It’s not show-related. This is our big romantic outing, recording an episode.

That’s not true. We had a romantic outing. We combined Valentine’s Day and our anniversary. It was pretty. We went to Grant’s Farm. For those of you who don’t live in St. Louis, it’s something about St. Louis that I like. Grant’s Farm is where Anheuser-Busch keeps the Clydesdales locally but also, it’s a farm for lots of other animals. They have all kinds of adorable animals.

They’ve got llamas, alpacas, Billy goats, butterflies, and all sorts of things.

It’s delightful. It was very special because they were having this special thing that you could have a Valentine’s date in the carriage house so we got to eat in the carriage house, which was special. I’ve never been able to do that before. They usually have that main beer garden area. That’s it. That was neat.

Here’s a little secret. If you’re in St. Louis, you go to Grant’s Farm and get free beer. Just one. It used to be property owned by Ulysses S. Grant and then somehow, the Bush family acquired it and ran it as a free small zoo for generations at this point.

It’s nice to visit it. You go around the entire property and their little tram. You get to see all the different animals. It’s a nice little area.

Before we get to the pre-tell, remind people about the next book club.

First of all, it’s going to take place on March 12th, 2024 at 7:00 PM Central and 8:00 PM Eastern. We are reading The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. This will be a lot of fun.

It’s the fastest way to change your life but it all revolves around dropping food on the floor.

We’ll go with that.

No need for me to read it then.

Were you going to anyway?

No. I don’t have to feel bad or I can feel less not bad.

I was like, “You weren’t going to feel bad.” Let’s be honest.

We should also do our first Bingo call-out here before we forget.

I made sure that we weren’t going to forget it. Did you notice how I did it?

No, I don’t notice things.

Our first Bingo call-out is Logan Aldridge.

In pre-tell, what do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk about this newest lawsuit win. We’re going to do an overview of Peloton at the All-Star Game. We’ve got some other things to talk about. Dr. Jenn stops by. We talked about protecting your mental health during the gray days of winter, which some of us are still experiencing. We also have instructor news we need to hit. There’s going to be an artist series, competitor news, and a lot of content to discuss and birthdays.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, TuneIn, and YouTube. Wherever you find a 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. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date on things and in between episodes.

You can also find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where for $5 a month, you get bonus episodes and all the things that we didn’t have time to get to. You will also get ad-free episodes of the main episode. If we get it early, you get it early, and all sorts of other things that we try to give you like the book club and things like that. Some aspects are available for free.

We don’t charge for the book club. If you want to go over there, there is a free level as well, where you can partake in the book club and things like that. It doesn’t cost you a dime. It’s a nice little way to support the show if that’s your jam and you have the means. You can watch all of these episodes on YouTube at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Our newsletter is at TheClipOut.com. You can sign up for that there. Get the links and stuff sent right to you. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

Peloton has all sorts of NBA stuff planned again in 2024.

Not planned, it already happened.

It’s news to me. Did the Harlem Globetrotters show up?

No.

It’s not then an All-Star Game.

If they did, it wasn’t in Peloton’s feed.

It’s a dirty lie. If the Globetrotters aren’t there, all the stars aren’t there. What about The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes? Was he there?

No.

I don’t know about calling this an All-Star Game. I’m getting very skeptical. What about The Fish That Saved Philadelphia?

No.

There needs to be a class action lawsuit.

It’s neat that they set this up, though. This is a fun thing to do while you’re there.

It’s this experience of what you’re doing where you go through.

It’s like an obstacle course.

At some point, you get on a bike and ride.

They had bikes, weights, and basketball hoops at different varying heights so that you could try that. That guy right there is somebody famous because they had a Peloton tryout for him.

I can tell you that he’s not a Harlem Globetrotter.

Rad Lopez, Kirsten Ferguson, and Tunde were all at the All-Star Game. They were not participating in the game but they participated in all kinds of fun things like this particular video we are seeing. There’s Tunde. They also got to hang out with some other famous people.

It’s like famous people got to hang out with them. That’s how it works for Peloton. It’s funny because as a Peloton show, I’m like, “This lady blew right by Tunde.”

She stopped.

I’m like, “She’s a bigger deal. You should stop longer.”

Peloton’s names and branding were all over everything in the event station, which is pretty cool as well.

It is very branded, that is for sure.

Kirsten and Tunde were in front of the Step and Repeat.

There’s a fancy slow-mo. Rad posted from there as well. If you dig basketball and Peloton, this is for you.

If you can tell, we’re not those people but that’s okay. I’m glad it’s there for the people that do love it.

The Peloton app got a bit of a refresh for Apple users.

I opened up my screen and it was fresh and new. The graphics are brighter. When you hit the start button, you can see through it so it’s transparent. It gives us this very nice, fresh, clean look compared to what it looked like before. The squares are bigger.

I was like, “Are you sure that this is a refresh and you didn’t just increase the font on your phone?”

It’s a fair question but this particular one is my phone. The other one is somebody else’s phone. They look very different. Notice how they’re rectangles and dark. The writing takes up the whole screen. They’ve redone it. It looks a lot better. It’s very subtle but a nice change. It’s very pretty. Somebody was like, “This did not even register that this was a thing.” That’s fair. I never noticed stuff like this. It was the see-through buttons that got me. That’s the only reason I noticed this.

It’s nice that they took away what the class is classified as, which is smart. In this one, it’s a 30-minute Valentine’s Day walk under Walking. “What’s this 10-Minute Happiness Meditation?” I checked the notes. “It’s a meditation.” There’s the 20-Minute Morning Slow Flow. “Is that yoga? How about that?” In 99% of cases, it’s going to restate what’s already in the title of the class.

If you looked closely, Tom, you could tell that this was my screen because Suzy Chan’s all over it.

I did notice that it was all Suzy Chan. I was like, “Is the refresh that everyone gets recommended Suzy Chan? Is that what they’re doing?”

They were like, “Recommended for you from your instructors. Start your morning all Suzy.”

I didn’t even know she did meditations but on Crystal’s phone, she does. We have some interesting shenanigans going on with the Peloton Guide.

It was interesting that over on The Guide website, they had a sale. It was for the starter package but some people got lucky and were able to get their starter package, including weights for $135. That’s The Guide. You could get 25 and 30-pound weights because you get to pick two weights.

The shipping is probably $135 on 25-pound weights.

By the time we were ready to record, we were up to $235 for the starter package, which is still a good deal. I am not begrudging them that at all. For people who got the $135, you all got one hell of a deal.

Do you think they meant to drop it that low? Maybe it was one of their A/B Tests like, “A bunch of people bought it at $135. What do they do at $235?”

I don’t know. That could be how Barry likes his A/B Tests. It also could be somebody posting the wrong amount.

I was wondering that too. It’s fat fingers and was like, “I was supposed to take off $300. I took off $200,” or the other way around.

That’s pretty easy to do. I don’t know what caused it or if it was on purpose but considered a flash sale for those of you who got the $135 deal.

As of this recording, it’s still $235, which is $200 off.

It is still a great deal.

It’s not nothing.

Buying the weights and the shipping, that’s worth it right there.

If you’re on the fence about The Guide, they adjust the price enough that I can see people going, “You got me,” especially at $135.

It’s a no-brainer.

You can’t afford not to. Bloomberg Law, at least the first two paragraphs are reporting because it’s behind a paywall and we don’t pay for this one, that Peloton has won its trademark suit over the use of the phrase Bike+.

“It does not infringe the registered trademark largely because the mark is conceptually weak,” a California federal court said.

I thought it was interesting. It said, “The similarity of the marks and relatedness of the goods make summary judgment a close call.” I liked this aspect of why they ended up winning. The other company had not meaningfully marketed its usage of Bike+ in years, which is good. There are so many different businesses and things out there at this point that people have started, fall by the wayside, and then somebody starts something up.

They’re not even realizing that it’s the same name. They’re suing them because someone is using something that they used to utilize but no longer do. That irritates the living hell out of me. We ran into that problem when we were trying to come up with a name for the show. We had a couple of other names kicking around.

I don’t even remember what they were anymore. We kept finding other shows that were defunct that had put out 2 or 3 episodes and gone away. It was like, “We should probably err on the side of caution. We don’t want people coming out of the woodwork two years into the existence of our show saying we have to stop using the name.” We picked something unique.

I also would like to point out that Peloton is spelled incorrectly in the second bullet point. Come on, Bloomberg. Get your thing together.

This is why we’re not going to pay for it. Pelonton.

That’s a new one. How ironic that they get the name wrong in a trademark.

This is how they don’t get sued. “We’ll call it Pelonton and be safe as kittens.”

‐‐‐

Joining us once again is Dr. Jen Mann, a licensed marriage, family, and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn, VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, or her long-running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four bestselling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection & Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn.

It’s great to have you back. We have a question from Lindsay Kelly. She says, “It’s not specific to the holidays but how to protect your mental health when the weather is gray?” She worries about this, especially right when the holidays are ending. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Seasonal Affective Disorder is real. There are a lot of people who get very affected by the changes in season, especially when there isn’t Sun. First of all, you want to get your vitamin D levels checked to make sure that you are getting enough vitamin D. Talk to your doctor about it. There are also these special lights that you can put on your desk that are specifically for people who have Seasonal Affective Disorder. They sell them on Amazon. They’re not that hard to find. That’s important.

If there is any sunlight, make sure that you try to get it, even if it is from inside your house. If you’re working from home, make sure that you maybe move your desk to face the window or spend more time in between clients or phone calls that you have, or Zooms, that you’re getting some daylight, sunlight, and fresh air. If you find yourself feeling sad, make sure that you talk to your support system. If you have a therapist, talk to your therapist. Make sure that you’re also working out so you can get that serotonin hit, which is important. If you can do some outdoor walks or runs instead of your tread, go for it.

I have a question. You might not know the answer to this because it may maybe more medical than psychology. You can get sunburn when it’s cloudy. How much of something like Seasonal Affective Disorder is psychological in terms of, “I like to be in bright spaces?” Would going outside even though it’s overcast still have a benefit because you are getting UV?

We do tend to get more sun than we realize when we’re outside. If it’s not dark, you’re getting some sun because there’s light. You’re getting some light. It’s important to think of it that way. We do tend to go, “It’s cloudy. It’s overcast. That means I’m not getting any sun. I don’t need to wear sunscreen.” We still do. It’s the same for that. Having that light on your desk that can help with Seasonal Affective Disorder is a game changer for a lot of people.

Could you theoretically sunburn your hand if you left it in front of it? I’m curious.

No. It is not like having the sun on your desk but it does have some of the same benefits in terms of the psychological benefits.

The whole premise is so alien to me. I love the great indoors.

If he doesn’t have to go outside, it’s a good day.

On the first nice day in spring, on Facebook, I’m like, “It’s such a beautiful day outside.” I watch TV with the windows open. That’s how unaffected I am by all that. My ancestors never left the cave.

It’s that Irish. You had to hide in caves over there.

I do love me a potato. That is a hurtful yet accurate stereotype. I write crappy poetry. I also do that. Thank you so much for all of that. Hopefully, they can get some help or assistance from that. Until next time. Where can people find you?

People can find me on social media @DrJennMan.

Thank you.

‐‐‐

Coming up after this, we’re going to tell you which Peloton instructor might be heading to the Olympics. Alex Karwoski could be headed into the Olympics.

We are sending all the good vibes. Here’s what we do know. Let me say that it’s sporty. You can thank Nikki because Nikki is the one who gave us this information.

Do the Harlem Globetrotters use rowers?

No.

I don’t care.

Here’s the deal. Alex competed from February 15th through 17th, 2024 at the USRowing 2024 Winter Speed Order that took place in Florida. He placed fifth overall in the final race out of 5 teams but keep in mind that 13 pairs started the event on Thursday. It’s important to note that the Speed Order serves as an opportunity for rowers to test their speed ahead of April’s US Olympic and Paralympic Team Trials 2024 and also gives them a chance to earn automatic invitations to the Olympic Selection Camp scheduled for March 3rd through 24th, 2024 in Sarasota.

The top three finishers of the Winter Speed Order races in each boat category received invitations to that selection camp. The overall finish order is one of the main criteria for discretionary selection to the camp. Although Alex did not get an automatic bid, he may still have a shot based on his overall finish. We’ll have to wait and see.

Rowing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be taking place from July 27th through August 4th, 2024. We are very excited for Alex. I also feel that it’s important to mention that he placed fourth in the eighth at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and served as an alternate at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He’s no stranger to the Olympics.

 

It would be amazing to be at a level where that’s even a possibility.

To even dream of that is mind-boggling. It’s so cool.

We had some Mayla Wedekind news.

She is going to be hanging out with some folks in March 2024. She’s going to ride the bike with a group of people but she’s not going to be teaching. This will take place either March 8th or March 9th, 2024. However, she did also say, and this all took place on Instagram, that she is going to be coming back as an instructor in the summer of 2024. We still don’t have a specific date but we know it’s coming up in the summer of 2024. It’s very cool.

I’m sure people will be very excited to have her back. Chelsea Jackson Roberts will be the voice of the Sol de Janeiro NYC pop-up that’s happening until February 25th, 2024.

Do you know anything about this pop-up? Is it a shop?

It’s like skincare, makeup, or something.

I don’t know. It says that you can shop with her and listen to her voice as she guides you through the ultimate sensory experience with the latest.

I looked it up on YouTube because I wanted to make sure I was pronouncing it properly.

It says Delícia Body Butter or something body butter.

It looked like it was makeup-type skin stuff.

It’s neat that she’s using her voice like a skincare play of ways. I like that. Congrats to Chelsea. That’s very cool.

Rebecca Kennedy has a new partnership with dp HUE.

That’s not the main point we wanted to make with this. I don’t want people to think that just because these instructors are selling things, we’re selling them. We’re not making any money off of it.

We don’t even know how to say half of this stuff.

At any rate, Rebecca Kennedy went on Instagram. She also had ten good tips for how to keep your hair healthy. They’re not only keeping your hair healthy but also growing your hair. They were good tips. We wanted to make sure to call this out because anybody can use these, whether you’re using this product or not. Wanted to make sure people saw that.

I will be sure to put these to use ASAP. I cannot wait. I’ll look like Denis Morton, Circa 2018. We should point out that Jess King is celebrating ten years with Peloton in 2024.

I can’t believe all the ten years and in 2024, we’re starting with Jenn Sherman. They keep coming. Congrats to Jess King on ten years.

We have another what I think is a first-time celebrity sighting. It is Mark Zuckerberg.

Thank you, Mia Batol, for putting that in The Clip Out group. He was running and said that it was his first time running since the surgery. He is on a Peloton Tread.

It’s a Tread+, right?

Yes. That’s a Plus.

There was much debate going on about it. They thought that he had modified it somehow because they couldn’t see the slats in the tread. The speed that he’s running at is an optical illusion.

I believe that that is the case. Also, the angle of the picture is not helping.

Choose your own journey. Choose your own rides, choose your own programs. Click To Tweet

It’s a bit of an odd angle. If you’re looking for this post, you can’t find it because it was a story.

It’s gone.

Mark Zuckerberg is an owner of Tread+. Can we tell if it’s one he just purchased or did he bought one years ago and kept it all this time?

In theory, we should not be able to tell because nothing changed.

I didn’t know if you had a special Clip Out Crystal way to suck that.

I wish. The only thing that we would know potentially, and even that would be a big fat question mark, is if it had the rear guard installed but we can’t see the rear guard in this picture. In theory, they’re supposed to come put one on mine. I was supposed to get it in December 2023. It’s February 2024.

Do the new ones come with the rear guard? They would look the same anyway, wouldn’t they?

That’s why I said it would be a question mark. That was my whole point. In theory though, because not everybody’s has been installed yet, you might be able to make it.

If he has a rear guard, it tells us nothing. If he doesn’t, then it’s an indicator or he’s the kind of guy who likes to live on the edge. He’s like, “I’m taking that rear guard off.”

He ripped it off the second they left. You reminded me of UFC. I could not see it in the picture very well. Who was that idiot who got all mad and said he was going to take all the Pelotons at the UFC?

It was the guy that’s the head of UFC. I don’t even know his name.

That is my opinion. He’s an alleged idiot. He showed a picture of his little home gym. Somebody said there was Peloton in there. I could not spot the Peloton but there were bikes that looked like Pelotons. They were not Echelon. Take that where you will but I thought it was funny.

It’s like when they caught Kid Rock drinking a Bud Light.

Can you call him Kid Rock anymore?

Middle-Aged Rock doesn’t sound right.

It does not have the same ring but he is no longer a kid.

He’ll never be Classic Rock.

He did have some good songs, though.

I will share Kid Rock’s story in the bonus. Coming up after this, we will tell you who the latest artist series spotlight is. Spoiler alert, not Kid Rock. The latest artist series features Nicki Minaj.

They gave me one I love and I’m not too excited about.

It’s your favorite. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

Only that one thing she does. I don’t like it.

People love her.

This is one of those things where I am in the minority when it comes to liking her. If I don’t hear that bridge or whatever it is, I’m okay but do you know how spoken word is in songs to you?

 

I hate it when people talk in a song.

It drives you nuts.

It’s a song. It’s the worst. You don’t hear it much anymore. You heard it in the oldies. The Monkees have one song where Davy talks the whole song. It’s called The Day We Fall in Love. It is cringe-inducing. It’s so bad.

That’s what it is for me. She is singing and then all of a sudden, her voice takes this turn. I can’t.

It’s like when the Q-tip goes in a little too far.

It hurts so much but there’s a lot of classes. People love her. This will be insanely popular so enjoy.

This isn’t a competitor in the strictest sense of the word, although they both sell leggings but we thought it was interesting because Nike seems to be taking the page out of Peloton’s book, which is creating their On-Tour knockoff type of thing.

It’s taking place in London and it’s called The Well Festival. Here’s my question. Will Tunde be there?

It seems like it would be possible.

It’s not a crazy thought. I don’t know. I don’t have any strong feelings about it one way or another. It’s not something that I would be super excited about because it’s not like there are Nike athletes I got to go meet. There are lots of people who feel that way. I don’t know who’s going to be there but it’ll be interesting to see how it’s received and if they end up repeating it.

It’ll probably be all cricket players. We don’t know athletes as it is and then you introduce something like cricket or soccer.

We’re out of our depth.

It’s like, “It’s not Pelé. I don’t know.” I can’t even name a cricket player. I can at least name a soccer player like, “I know the Beckham guy.”

One time in physical therapy, whenever I was recovering from my little accident in 2023, I was watching a cricket game because they had it on, and not one person understood a thing happening on that screen. Everyone was like, “Wait, is that good? Hold on. I think that’s good.” That’s how it went in every single play. It was so confusing.

I can name a soccer player’s wife because of that documentary we watched.

That was so good. That documentary was better than it had any right to be.

We didn’t know any of these people but it’s on Hulu. The subtitle was like The Wagatha Scandal.

It’s something about Wagatha.

She had a private Instagram and was posting things. She’s a famous footballer’s wife. There was someone who was stealing her private Instagram things and selling them to the tabloids. She outs them maybe and then they end up suing her for slander. It is a roller coaster ride about people I had never heard of before I hit play.

It was delightful.

We were sucked in.

We watched it all in one day.

It’s three episodes but we pounded through them. We were like, “We have to see what’s going to happen.” Even if you don’t have heard of any of the people involved, it’s worth your time. We apologize to our UK audience who are like, “No, crap.”

That’s a dumb old story but we didn’t know that story. That’s the kind of stuff you got to tell us about.

If you spend all the time doing on the past, you won’t be able to move forward at all and become someone that could be even better than you were before. Click To Tweet

Give us a heads-up. Before we began recording this segment, Crystal gave me a look.

I was surprised you caught it.

It was a look that said, “You better not forget to have me do the Bingo call-out here.”

Bingo number two is Assal Arian. That is one of our German instructors. If you have your German filters not on yet, you need to put the old German filter on. This is a great idea so I feel like I need to share it with everyone. If you want to take classes that are not in English, a great little thing that you can do is pull up Google Translate and have it open in front of you while you’re taking the class. It’s mind-blowing. I love it. I’m so excited about that tip.

It is time for the TCO Top Five, where you tell us what your favorite classes are and then we share them with the class so people can maybe discover new things. We will start with your favorite Peloton Two for One Walk & Run.

This was my favorite. I can’t believe I got put at the top here. It was the Two for One Walk & Run with Joslyn and Susie that took place on February 13th, 2024, Galentine’s Day. I said that I loved hearing the story of how Joslyn and Susie met and became friends. I especially love they had not known each other for years but instead clicked instantly once they both started working at Peloton. When your class starts with Push It and then transitions into Raise Your Glass, it’s going to be lit, and it was. I got the get-lit thing from Jersey Shore. We’ve been watching that.

Coming in number two, favorite Peloton, Groove Two for One Ride.

This was also on Galentine’s Day with Emma and Leanne. People loved it. Chris Pirrone said that the absolute highlight of the ride was seeing Emma and Leanne’s friendship shine. Margaret Robertson said that she doesn’t take Groove rides but loved how they explained everything. “The music was upbeat. They were great and the ride was awesome. I will probably take this one again for the energy.”

Your favorite Peloton, JSS Ride.

This was from the 18th of February 2024. It was a 45-minute My Mixtape Ride with Jenn Sherman. This came from Nancy Nelson, “The JSS My Mixtape Ride. She once again proved that she is the queen of the mixtapes with an FU playlist that pushed me and many others to a new PR. JSS is back and better than ever.”

Your favorite unstackable is at number four. Normally, the unstackable is the last one.

No, Tom. We have a very special treat. We have two unstackables. The first one was on February 17th, 2024. It was a 45-minute Your Day One Ride. That’s a brand-new series with Robin. Michael Davern shared that he thought that he was okay as she only had a yellow belt on. “Apparently, the amount of yellow is no clue. Any amount of yellow is a warning that this was a killer ride. Three sections, the middle filled with Tabata, although every section was difficult. I like that there was time for recovery so you could go hard when necessary.”

Let’s hope she never gets jaundiced. Number five, your favorite unstackable Peloton run.

I’m excited about this as well. It was also on the 18th of February, 2024, a 60-minute Intervals Run with Becs Gentry. Catherine Exani brought us this particular recommendation, “Becs brought the fire to both her classes. When Bex is training for a marathon, we’re all training too. This one had endurance on incline, hard run intervals, and finished with fifteen minutes at a tempo.” Good God, Becs. That’s insane. That’s great. I love that. What a fun little mixture of classes.

If that’s not enough, we’ve got to look at Peloton.

There were some fun things that hit. Your Day One with Robin is all about restarting. It doesn’t have to be in January. You can restart any day and this class is the perfect way to do that. People have been loving this class.

It’s nice to hear people talking about Robin in relationship to Peloton. People are so often complaining or talking about one of her side things. It’s nice to hear people talking about Robin has a great class. We also have Go Hard With Tunde.

This is tough. This is going to be a 30-minute Advanced Bike Bootcamp, full body, preparing on February 20th, 2024 at noon Eastern.

You have some Evening Yoga Flows.

There’s a couple of them. One is with Ross Rayburn. That’s going to drop on demand on February 21st, 2024, and then a 20-minute International Evening Yoga Flow with Anna on the 23rd.

Also, some outdoor classes.

I love it. I’m excited because I need to get back outside. There are outdoor walks that are going to be dropping on February 22nd, 2024 at 11:00 AM Eastern. These classes are going to be taught by Andy Speer, Becs Gentry, Joslyn Thompson Rule, Matty Maggiacomo, Olivia Amato, and Tobias Heinze. It’s something for everyone.

Selena Samuela teased a floor bootcamp part two. She calls it More Floor.

That would be great. I would love that. She was doing an AMA so she said, “Asked me anything.” Somebody said, “Do you think we will see a floor bootcamp part two?” She said, “Stay tuned,” with a smile.

 

I like that it says, “Ask me anything…”

I do, too. That should always be assumed but people get cray cray.

On the internet? I don’t think that that’s accurate. Finally, if you speak German and you love Power Zone, you are in for a treat.

I can’t see exactly what it says but I do know that Peloton was releasing a new Discover Your Zones for Power Zone all in German. That’s very exciting for people. German people want to take Power Zone too and they don’t want to just take them in English. That’s great. While we’re on this note, I would like to say that I keep seeing people say that Peloton is doing something wrong by having dubbed classes of American instructors. It’s on purpose. We reported about it like, “This is going to be happening. Spread the word.” Apparently, we didn’t do a good enough job because everyone’s like, “Why is this happening? This looks wrong.”

Wait until you get AI and they can make their mouths look like they’re saying the words because that’s coming.

I don’t want it but I’m sure that it will.

It will open up a whole new world of film and television for people too because they can take shows. We’ve already seen Squid Game very successfully dubbed. It doesn’t take that much AI at this point to tweak the mouths to match.

It’s crazy what you can do.

I also hope that leads to better acting when they dub these things. I don’t even remember what it was called but we watched some crime thing from Sweden.

A Murder at the End of the World.

No, not that one. That was American. That was on FX.

It was so bad. I thought that’s what you’re talking about.

That one was bad. Don’t watch it. It’s what you call faux prestige television. It looks like it’s going to be good and smart but it’s not. It was the one where the daughter is a college dropout and she’s a waitress. She meets the guy at a bar and then he ends up dead. They kept doing all the flashbacks filling in. It’s on Netflix and it was some Swedish show. It was okay but the acting was pretty weak because it was dubbed and the people dubbing weren’t maybe the best actors in the world. I’m hoping that you see that.

I do know that we’ve done that a lot. They lack the same enthusiasm that the original actor I’m sure had. It’s disappointing in that regard.

Finally, we have one birthday and it belongs to DJ John Michael. You can send him a happy birthday wish on February 24th, 2024.

Happy birthday, DJ John Michael.

Coming up after this, we’re going to interview Kristin Stokes. She’s a run coach and she has all sorts of great information to share with you so stick around.

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Joining us is Kristin Stokes. Kristin, how’s it going?

Good. How are you, guys?

We’re so happy to have you here. I always like to start with the Peloton side of things. We’re going to get into your fitness history because I have lots of questions for you, but I’m curious how you got into Peloton specifically.

Specifically, I started strength training on the Peloton app in 2021. It was specifically because my run coach at the time and my PT were like, “You have to do something else besides running. You’re not going to excel. You’re plateauing right now. You need to get some cross-training and you need to strengthen some areas.” I was not constantly getting hurt, but I had some reoccurring injuries all in the same area. They’re like, “You need to get stronger in some areas and it is not good to run every day. Let’s try to get you to do something else.”

As a typical runner, I hated strength training. I hated doing anything that wasn’t running. Someone suggested the Peloton app. They’re like, “It’s a fun way to get into strength training.” I was like, “We’ll give it a try.” I became pretty much addicted to the strength training aspect of the app pretty quickly. I think it was May 2021 when I started with the app and by November, I convinced my husband, “We should get a bike.”

That’s awesome.

We got the bike, and then from there on, it’s been in my training cycle as either a different way to train that day, keep up on strength training, and then it was huge for me when I was pregnant in 2022. It was a way for me to stay active but with low impact.

Start with something simple, get consistency, and then just keep building upon it. Click To Tweet

Kristin’s Proudest Moments

That makes a lot of sense. For everybody at home, tell them what you do. What’s your day job?

My day job is I work for research and development of medical devices on the quality end of that. I tell people like, “You made that correct and it’s in compliance with the regulations.”

You have a lot of power.

Kristin, The Running Coach

I like to pay attention to the details. That’s what I do as my day job. My fun job as I like to call it is I’m a run coach as well.

How did you get into run coaching?

I started running a year or two out of college, and then I felt like running gave so much back to me that I went away to give back to it. I had played sports my entire life when I was a child. I always knew I wanted to get into coaching in some way. With my day job, there’s no way I’d ever be able to get out early enough to help coach a high school team or our middle school teams. This will be perfect because the company I work for is global and everything is done online. I have athletes all across the United States, which is awesome and it’s on their time and my time. I do it after work or before work or maybe on my lunch break. It’s awesome.

How do you manage your time? I feel like I do eight jobs. Tell me how you’re making this work.

I have always been a type-A. I’m always very schedule driven and I think I’m always a morning person now. If I don’t get what I want to get done, you’re not going to have an opportunity to do it later in the day, especially now being a mom. I take care of my stuff in the morning. Job during the day. From 4:30 to 7:30 most days, it’s 100% devoted to my son and husband. No phone, no anything but that. After that, once he’s in bed, then I can do my other stuff, which is usually coaching.

You go all day.

My husband says sometimes I probably take on too much and I don’t know how to rest, but I feel that’s most people nowadays.

I’m starting to see a pattern here. We have some things in common. I’m also curious when it comes to being a running coach, do you coach yourself or do you have a coach for your training?

I usually do have a coach. I had the same coach for two and a half years. After I was pregnant, I didn’t know what my schedule was going to look like. Being a run coach, I know how valuable a coach’s time is and I didn’t want to be the athlete who was constantly like, “I couldn’t do this study so quickly. We’ll re-arrange this. Can we do this or that?” I honestly didn’t know what life looked like after being a mom because I’m a first-time mom, so I don’t know if I’m even going to have time to run anymore. I didn’t want to take away from a coach, especially when they could be giving that to another athlete. I’ve been coaching myself the past year or year and a half. I think now that I know what my schedule is, I will be working with my coach again soon.

What was that like when you took on your first person to coach? I’m not trying to tell you how to feel, but I feel like I would have like a lot of imposter syndrome about, “Who am I to tell this person how to do things?” That would be a difficult hump to get over personally.

I think what I did before becoming a coach is I took a course. I did a lot of reading after that course too. I feel like the big thing on social media right now is everyone can be a coach, everyone can tell you what to eat and tell you what to do. I feel like that’s not the right way to do it. I took a lot of training before becoming a coach and I didn’t even think I should have taken the courses until I had been a runner for at least five years. As you said, it’s imposter syndrome. What gives me the right to think that I’m an expert in this? I still don’t think I’m an expert by any means. Taking on that first client was an honor. It’s like someone trusts me enough to coach them. It’s the way I looked at it.

As a marketing guy, I don’t know that I would put that on your business card, “Kristin Stokes, not an expert by any means.”

The running is constantly evolving. Think how much the sport has changed in the past two years with all the new shoes and everything that’s out. I need to constantly keep learning.

It’s so weird to think of running as a sport that’s evolving. It’s running. We’ve been doing it since the existence of mankind, but we still haven’t cracked that nut.

It’s so funny though because the first thing that I was thinking about was shoes. In every other post that I see people, “What kind of shoes should I buy,” I’m always like, “Go get fitted.”

Someone always asks me that question. I’m like, “I cannot tell you that. You need to go to your local running store and get fitted. Just because I like them doesn’t mean it will even work for your foot.”

I don’t want to devolve the conversation but I will tell you my own little story about this because I have a personal training certificate but I don’t feel like I’m an expert in running at all because I’m so slow. In 2023, I was training for a Big Sur 21-miler. It was my first time ever running that distance. In the middle of that, the race took place at the end of April. On February 5th, I got hit by a car while I was out training. It wasn’t awful. I had injuries.

It was pretty bad. She’s underselling it.

I was going to say getting hit by a car does not sound like it cannot be bad.

Zero out of five stars, I recommend, don’t do it. I will say I lived. There are a lot of people that get hit by cars that don’t. That’s first of all. Second of all, I only had one broken bone, which was my collarbone. The brain part of it where I got hit on my head and had the concussion was by far the hardest part to get over. When I ended up doing Big Sur still at the end of April, it was twelve weeks to the day, but I walked it.

The reason I’m bringing this back to shoes is that it was so painful. I had to walk the whole thing and I had blisters on my feet like the size of my pump. No exaggeration at all. I had always been told at the running store that I needed to have stability shoes because I have slight pronation. Whenever I talked to my physical therapist after I did Big Sur, he was like, “You need to get the zero-drop shoes. You need more wiggle room in there even though you pronate a little bit because your feet have nowhere to go whenever they’re twisting.” Even in that space, they tell you different things.

 

Shoes are so complicated. Even between the carbon plates or what kind of foam it has. It’s never-ending.

I always get jealous because I love cute shoes and I never get cute shoes. I never am allowed to get cute shoes. They’re like, “You’re kind of feet, they’re over there. You get these two.”

The three little models over there look like they haven’t been updated for about ten years.

That’s me every time.

Would you like white, black, or white and black?

Gray? All the boring neutral colors. They usually look not that nice either.

Those are my shoes.

I have very big feet so it’s usually like, “We didn’t get many in your size so whatever’s left over there is what you get.”

We all need cute tiny feet that are perfectly straight.

When you wear an odd size, I have the same issue because I’m short, it’s either going to be expensive, they’re not going to have it, or it’ll be on clearance because nobody wants it.

There’s no in-between.

These are either going to cost me $200 or $8.

Always hoping for the ones on sale.

Now that you have a bike and you do the strength training, you also still run. Do you ever take the running classes on Peloton?

I have it a few times. I like the outdoor ones a lot. The ones I have taken for running are Adrian’s. I feel like I take his class when I want to punish myself or do something outside my comfort zone. I swear, even the ones where he is like, “This one isn’t going to be too bad.” I’m like, “This is bad still.” For someone who runs quite often, I’m still struggling a little bit.

How reassuring is that to hear for people who are new to running and they always think, that’s another thing I always see people say, “He said to go this speed and I can’t go that speed” and then they think they’re failing.

I always tell people, especially the running coach, my big thing is the effort aspect of it. Even when I’m prescribing workouts, some of my athletes might come back and say, “I didn’t hit the prescribed paces.” I always say like, “How did it feel? Did it feel hard? As long as the effort is there for me, that’s the big important piece.” To your point too, if you’re not hitting the exact number that they’re prescribing that you’re running at, that’s fine as long as you’re putting that effort in. It could still develop endurance and help you with your overall running fitness.

I hear a lot of people talk about when they’re starting to run. I guess this is a selfish question for me. Right now, I’m trying to work on improving my pace. I am working with this company. They have this VO2 master that you can do testing and I love it because it’s able to see the improvements over time. They’re big into, “You have to do the heart rate training.” I have to slow down. I have to go slow. In theory, in the long term, I’m going to go faster. I know some people will be like, “When you want to go faster, you got to go faster. To be faster, you have to be faster.” What are your thoughts on all of that?

I have never done heart rate training myself. I’ve looked at my heart rate on my watch and stuff like that, but I’ve never dove into it deeply because I honestly feel like with a lot of the smartwatches, unless you’re getting a chest strap or some other type of heart rate monitor, they’re not very accurate. That’s typically why I don’t do my athletes to heart rate either.

To your point, my big thing is you need to have variety in your training plan. You need to do easy days. When I say easy, you have to run them easy. It should be at a pace that’s significantly slower than what you would do out on a normal day or a speed workout. It’s catered to your pace. What might be easy for someone else may not be easy for you, so you have to take that into consideration as well. The days where you want to focus on speed are your hard days and you’re going to go hard, so you have to be pushed outside your comfort zone on those days.

There’s a place for every type of run in a training plan. That’s why I think a lot of the time that people plateau or don’t feel like they’re making improvements is they either did too much way too fast, not giving their body enough time to recover, or they’re doing the same thing every day. If they want to run at 830 pace, they’re telling me, “I run 7 days a week at 830 pace, but I can’t hold it during races.” It’s like you’re not giving your body any variety.

What is your proudest or most memorable moment from a running standpoint?

The typical run response would be when I qualify for Boston a few times. I think the one that I’m most proud of to this day is I completed a 50-miler. That’s something I thought I would never do because I’m a true roadrunner. I don’t want anything to do with the trails. I’m too clumsy. I feel like I’m constantly looking down the whole time. It’s supposed to be relaxing. I feel like I get anxious because I’m constantly like, “I’m going to fall. That tree jumped out at me.” That’s how I always feel on the trails.

During COVID, someone that I met on Instagram was like, “Would you want to do this race with me? It’s a 50-miler.” I’m thinking, “I don’t know. That seems hard for someone who has never done ultra before.” If there’s ever a time I do it, let’s do it during COVID because I’m not driving into the office, so I’m at home. I can go out the door and as soon as I’m done work, I don’t have to worry about the drive home or anything like that. I had more time on my hands. I didn’t have my son at that point, so it was just me and my husband. I was like, “All right, let’s do this.” I did 50 miles.

Running will always be here. Use this as a way to be a whole new runner. Click To Tweet

Still to this day, I remember feeling upset about the race thinking, “There’s a pretty good chance I won’t finish this.” I told my husband that too, because of COVID, you could only be at 1 or 2 spots. Usually, they can be at least ten places on the trail. I was like, “At some point, I may need you to come get me somewhere.” That’s honestly how unsure I was that I was going to finish it. I put the training in, but it was something I’d never explored before. I was very nervous. That’s a proud moment for me.

For sure. What’s the other one?

The other one is this past year at the Philadelphia Marathon. That was my big postpartum marathon. It was my second one, but it was the one where I felt so strong. I was like, “This is what I’ve been training for the past year.” I never felt that good in over five years. I was like, “This is what I need to show that I’m still if not better, a better runner after becoming a mom.” I needed that. I think every mom needs that reassurance that you didn’t lose everything after becoming a mom.

That’s amazing. What was that like coming back to running? I didn’t exercise a lot before I had a daughter. She’s now seventeen, so it was a long time ago. Back then, they did not encourage you a lot to exercise in the same way they do now. I wasn’t a huge exercise person before that anyway. Even if I had, it would’ve been a different journey. Looking back, if I had been, it would’ve been incredibly humbling. How I had to get used to working out again after getting into the car accident. I can’t imagine. Your body goes through so much trauma from having a child. What was that like for you?

Even when we decided we wanted to start trying to get pregnant the first time, it was a mental battle for me because I rely on running so much as a form of self-care. It’s something that I like to do for myself and it helps mentally too. I had this terrible thought, “I’m giving this up.” When reality should be like, no, running will always be here. That was the first hurdle to get over. Once I had my son, it was the fear of, “Am I ever going to be able to run a marathon again?” It wasn’t just the physical aspect. It was like, “Am I ever going to have time to train for that again?” I truly love running and everyone that knows me knows that’s a big part of my life. If I don’t get that back, who am I? You go through an identity crisis.

I then think I started to learn not to compare myself to that runner that you were. Use this as a way to be a whole new runner. I did that with everything. Everything was a PR. Every time I did a longer distance, it was like, “This is the longest I’ve run postpartum.” Every race I ran after that was, “This is a PR because this is my new chapter as a runner.”

I love that. Has that changed the way you coach others?

A New Chapter

I think so because as you said, it doesn’t even have to be if you become a parent or it’s if you’re coming back from an injury or someone who’s getting back into running. I have a few clients right now that took a break from running and they’re coming back. A lot of times, they’ll say, “This is so hard. I’m never going to be the runner I used to be.” I tell them, “Take a step back. Use this as your new chapter. Let’s not worry about the past. If you spent all this time dwelling on the past, you’re not going to be able to move forward at all and become someone that could be even better than you were before.”

What is your leaderboard name?

It’s K_Stokes829. I just used my Instagram because I was not very creative at the time. I didn’t realize when I joined Peloton that the leaderboard names, you should be creative and pick something fun. By the time I got the bike, I was like, “I’m keeping this one.”

That’s too much effort.

I was like, “I don’t know that it’ll be big.”

It’s a lot of pressure.

I hear them sometimes on the rides. I’m like, “That person is so creative.”

I see all the time people go into groups and they’ll be like, “What’s a good leaderboard name for me?”

I see people change it right before live rides too. I’m like, “That’s a lot of dedication to your leaderboard name.”

Since you haven’t been around a super long time in the community, since 2017 I think when this happened, there was Christina Ribeiro. She had a milestone and all of her friends back then all changed their leaderboard names to match her so that she’d get a shout-out either way. That was the idea. I think it was Yaya. She changed hers to Christina Ribeiro’s leaderboard name, and then someone went in and took her name during that ride. It was gone. It turned into this huge bruhaha. She eventually got it back, by the way. Those days are over. That would never happen now.

Peloton stepped in and they took the name back and gave it to her.

Thank goodness.

That just reminded me of that story.

This was back when they were a mom-and-pop shop.

Those were the old days.

The OGs.

As a run coach, do you have any advice for people just entering the world of Peloton?

Choose your journey, rides, and programs. When people on social media see what people are posting, they’re like, “I have to go take that HIITs and Hills class or I’m not a great Peloton rider.” I think you’ll run out pretty quickly. You don’t want to start that way. Also, probably start with shorter classes and keep building yourself up. My husband is getting back into his fitness journey and he is using the bike now too. He tried to start with a 30-minute ride and I was like, “Why? You’re going to be so sore when you’re done.” Just start with something simple, and then it’s the consistency and then keep building upon it.

 

Natural coach right there. I love that. Who’s your favorite coach?

On Peloton? That’s so hard. For strength, I love Callie and Adrian. There’s something about them. I was never into strength training. Those two can make me want to stay there all day in our pink cave doing strength training. As for the bike, I love Robin. I’m a big Bradley Rose fan. I’m trying to think who else I enjoy. Emma Lovewell too.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. We greatly appreciate it. You told everybody where to find you. We normally ask that here, but you did it. I’ll skip that part.

Unless you want to tell people where to find you for coaching or anything else.

I work for True Potential Running. You can find us by typing into Google, True Potential Running, and then we’ll all come up there. There are I think six coaches now. We also have a strength coach and a nutrition coach as well to get a very well-rounded program.

You need to be. It’s not just one thing that you do to get good at something like that.

Someone who knows what they’re doing in each of those areas.

Thank you so much for joining us. We greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

That was a lot of fun.

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That brings this episode to a close. Where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can find me on all the socials and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon where for $5 a month, you get all sorts of bonus content like the things we couldn’t fit in this episode, including my Kid Rock story. You would also get ad-free episodes. If we get them early, you get them early. That’s it for this one. Thanks for reading. Until next time. Keep pedaling, running, and rowing.

 

Important Links

• The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection & Intimacy
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