382. Peloton’s Nyc Marathon Synergy, Bondi Pop-up, And Exciting New Collaborations! Plus Our Interview With Danny Lopez!
Welcome back to another exciting episode of our podcast, where we bring you the latest updates and insights from the world of Peloton! This week, we’re thrilled to have Danny Lopez joining us as we explore all the buzz-worthy happenings in the Peloton community. Whether you’re a seasoned rider or just starting your fitness journey, we’ve got something for everyone.
- Sorting Distances: You can now sort your bike and tread distances weekly, monthly, and yearly. Track your progress like never before!
- Peloton/NYC Marathon Events: Discover the synergy between Peloton and the NYC Marathon with our exclusive roundup.
- Bondi Junction Pop-up: Another Peloton pop-up is happening in Bondi Junction, Australia. Don’t miss out
- Peloton & Lululemon: Introducing Playdates For Grownups—a fun collaboration you won’t want to miss
- October Artist Series: Booking is open for classes featuring Selena, Enrique Iglesias, Shawn Mendes, and Gabrielle.
- com: Peloton equipment is now available on MyRegistry.com—perfect for gift lists and special occasions.
- Quick HIITs: Get a rapid rundown of your favorite Peloton stories.
- New Team Members: Camila Ramon joins the Strength team, Kirra Michel is now with Stretch, and Erik Jager is your new Tread instructor.
- Meet & Greet: Meet Hannah Corbin in Lone Tree, CO.
- Spotlight: Mariana Fernandez is featured in Outside Magazine.
- Christine D’Ercole: Celebrating 10 years with Peloton and a medaled achievement at the Masters Track World Championships.
- Kristin McGee: Hosting a Movement + Wellness Retreat.
- Rad Lopez: Embark on a run across Manhattan with Rad!
- My Fitness Pal Report: Learn about the link between nutrition and mood.
- Christian Vande Velde Ride: Check out his new ride.
- Split Programs: Discover what these new programs have in store for your fitness routine.
- Breast Cancer Awareness Apparel: Leanne Hainsby-Alldis releases a special collection in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.
Stay updated on all things Peloton! Subscribe to our podcast and never miss an update. Got thoughts or questions? We’d love to hear from you—join the conversation in the comments or connect with us on social media.
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Peloton’s Nyc Marathon Synergy, Bondi Pop-up, And Exciting New Collaborations! Plus Our Interview With Danny Lopez!
Before we dig in too much, let’s talk about our New York City meetup.
It’s only 27 days away. Actually, it’s less than that. That’s when the marathon is. I think the meetup is only 24 days.
The marathon is less than a month away. I hope you started preparing.
Nope. I have yet to run 1 mile. We would love for anyone who is in the New York area, either visiting for the marathon or who lives there, to see you. We’re going to do a meetup and it is going to be at The Copper Still in Chelsea so near the old studio.
We can all go by and reminisce.
It’s on November 1st at 6:00 PM Eastern or it’ll be the local time there. It’s going to be $46. That is all the food included. There’s a cash bar and we would love to see you.
Will there be chicken tenders?
Of course, Tom.
I will go.
We have to say a huge thank you to Janet and Gordon for setting this up. I think Janet did all the phone calls. We hope to see lots of you there. We will also have a little surprise that weekend. We hope to see you there.
Now that we have that out of the way, what pray tell do you have in store for people?
We have our interview with Danny Lopez. He has this great fitness story. We get to talk to him about that and find out who his favorite instructor is/was if that has changed. Hint, it had to do with Kendall, but in all the best ways. It was a great conversation and I enjoyed it. We’re very happy to have Danny Lopez join us. We also have a bunch of details coming up like new features the Peloton dropped. We have another pop-up store that we’re going to talk about. We have new content that Peloton has been dropping, play dates, and artist series. You can register for a Peloton now, like at your wedding. Maybe if you’re having a kid. We have a whole list of updates for the different teams like the strength team and the tread team.
Once the instructors take on new job duties.
Instructor meetups are coming. There are all of the meetups that will be happening within the New York Road Runners Association and their partnership with Peloton Marathon Weekend in New York. There’s a bunch of stuff going on. We’ll be talking about that as well. We have some instructors to congratulate. There was a tenth anniversary. Besides birthdays and other miscellaneous, that is all.
Actually, there are no birthdays, but over on the Patreon, we have some fun stuff talking about how fitness trackers can cause anxiety, and an instructor bouncing back from a shoulder injury. We will let you know who that is. Also, the benefits of fart walks. You’ll hear all about that over on the Patreon. Before we get to the show proper, shameless plugs. Don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and TuneIn. Wherever you get 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. That is super helpful.
You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Our aforementioned Patreon over at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. For $5 a month, you get ad-free episodes. If we get it early, you get it early. Every week, we record a bonus episode. They’re 15, 20, or 25 minutes long, depending on how chatty we are. It’s all the stuff we didn’t have time to get to in the regular episode. It’s like a whole other show for you over there, just more.
You can also watch all of these on YouTube, and then sign up for our newsletter at TheClipOut.com. All the links and stuff we talked about in the episode will get sent to you on a mostly weekly basis. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?
We shall.
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Bike and Treads can now sort your total distance.
You can either look at your distance by week month or year. On the tread, for example, my particular graph was cool because it shows from 2018 when I first got my tread, all the way to 2024 by year and the mileage keeps going up and up. This year, I have 480 miles on the tread. That’s pretty cool.
I’m guessing next year, it’ll probably go back down because you won’t be training for a marathon.
I will not. Some people have had the bike going back from 2013 to 2014. How cool to be able to see how your distance has changed every year. Have you added a row? Did it change then? Did it change when you got a tread? It’s great to be able to see that. It is interesting to note that this is only for the bike and the tread. So far, they have not dropped any distance for the row. Probably because that’s going to be under meters, so it’s going to be a little different. Just a guess.
The metric system. I never thought about it. You can’t toggle between meters and miles? People in the UK, Canada, or anywhere else still have to get all their metrics in miles on a bike? They can’t get them in kilometers?
As far as I know. I don’t know that with the bike and the tread, but I’m pretty sure it’s all miles, and then on the row, it’s all meters.
You think it’ll be one or the other. I would have thought going into these European countries that they’d be like, “I don’t want to see it miles. I want to see it in meters.” That’s what they’re used to seeing.
There are other apps that I work with like the MetPro app. People don’t measure in pounds. They measure in kilograms. We have to have all those stats be able to be shown, and you get to choose whether you want to see it in pounds or kilograms.
It would be an easy conversion for a computer to do. It’s a surprise that it doesn’t. This is new information.
I didn’t think of it from that vantage point but you’re right. It is it is interesting.
As we were talking about in the last segment, the New York City Marathon is just around the corner. They’ve released Peloton activities that they’re doing there. We will start with the ShakeOut run.
This takes place on Thursday, October 31st, so Halloween, from 5:00 to 7:00. It’s going to be at The Pavilion at Tavern on the Green. It’s at the location of the marathon. You’re going to have a warm-up run. You’re going to see instructors there. You are going to have a ShakeOut run, and there will be a cool down at the end of it. We’re going to hightail it out of there because we’re going. We run over to the studio for our 8:30 with Mariana. She’s going to be at both of these events. I figured they couldn’t start the class without her. For the ShakeOut run, you’re going to be seeing Mariana Fernandez, Logan Aldridge, Jeffrey McEachern, and Erik Jäger. Two of the German instructors are going to be at the ShakeOut run.
We’ve never met a German instructor.
We haven’t because when we were in London, we didn’t run into any of them.
That’s because they are in Germany.
The ShakeOut run starts at 5:00 and ends at 7:00. There are going to be food and beverages, fun surprises after the run, a warm-up, and a post-run stretch. That is all that.
There will also be a meet and greet.
This takes place at the Marathon Expo. You might have already signed up for a slot at the Expo. You had to a long time ago. You can’t change it now. That’s going to suck for some people because the Peloton instructors are going to be at the Expo but in different slots. For example, on Friday from 1:00 to 1:45, there’s a panel with Robin and Kirsten. From 2:00 to 3:00, there is a meet and greet with Robin and Kirsten. From 4:00 to 5:00, there is a meet and greet with Erik and Mariana. On Saturday from 10:00 to 11:00, meet and greet with Alex K and Logan. From 12:00 to 1:00, meet and greet with Jeffrey and Rad. From 2:00 to 3:00, there’s going to be a meet and greet with Matty and Tunde. It’s a lot.
There will also be a Cheer Zone. I guess this is where I will be.
The thing about the Cheer Zone is it is at mile 19, which if you run the entire Pro-Shot New York City Marathon, it’s cool when you go by the Peloton thing because you can see the Peloton Cheers Zone is huge. I don’t know if there will still be people out there when I reach mile 19 because it starts at 9:00 AM till 7:00 PM. It says that they’ll be there all day, but I heard that last year, they abandoned ship long before the last runner came through. We will see, but at mile 19, hopefully, you will be there and then you hop over to the end. I’ll see you at the end. At mile 19, DJ John Michael will be there. He’s going to be DJ-ing up the joint and there’s going to be giveaways. You might be able to get some Peloton swag. That is your job that day.
After all that and you’ve exhausted your body, there is a recovery.
Which I also won’t get to do because our flight is ridiculously early. I didn’t know if our flight would leave that early but it leaves early at 6:30 PM. Recovery Hub is taking place at the Peloton studios. They are going to be from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. You are going to be able to recover. By recover, I mean there are going to be the Normatec boots that you can use. There will be Theraguns, a physical therapist, and an exercise physiologist on site. Also, I’m letting you know, Tom, that there is a discount on Peloton apparel if you show your bib or medal.
I won’t have one of those.
I will, and there’s a custom heat press that I can get.
How would we get a heat press back on the plane?
We won’t, but I can get clothes in the heat press.
That makes more sense.
It’s exciting.
We have another Australian pop-up as part of Peloton store openings.
This one is in Bondi Junction. Just so you know, Ross heard her shout-out. She will be going to Claremont and she’s hoping to stop at Bondi Junction as well. That is located in the Sydney area, but Claremont is over in Perth.
I don’t know where Perth is but it sounds fancy.
She said it’s in Western Australia. There never has been a physical store in Western Australia. She said to think about the distance from LA to New York. It’s huge. That’s very far apart, but she will be there in a couple of weeks. We are going to get to hear all about the pop-up stores.
Peloton and Lululemon are introducing Playdates for Grownups.
People have a lot to say about these.
What are they saying?
First of all, this is another thing that Lululemon and Peloton cooked up together. That’s number one. The reason I say that is because these are all sponsored by Lululemon. Part of what people respond to is that these all are very scripted. For example, in the one with Matt Wilpers and Adrian, I have heard some people say that they spend the entire time looking at the teleprompters at their script instead of at each other, which some people felt was very scripted. Other people have enjoyed it and thought it was funny.
I have seen a lot of people and read it. They are not happy. There were a lot of people who said that this felt forced and uncomfortable and, who does a stretch with a friend? You do a stretch when you get done. You don’t go to somebody’s house to do a stretch, but I don’t know if that’s true because if you run together, I could see you stretching together. I mean if you stretch at all, which you should. I don’t know. I haven’t taken any of them. On the whole, it’s very polarizing. You either enjoy it and you think it’s funny and hokey in a good way, or it drives you nuts and you can’t stand it. There seems to be no in-between.
That tracks, especially when the internet is concerned. PSNY is now letting people book for the October artist series classes.
We talked about this in the previous episode. I want to keep reiterating it for people who don’t tune in every week. I do think that it’s down to one artist series a month. This is not a weekly thing. We’re going to keep seeing these pop up where you’re going to be able to book it. It may not always be on a Thursday at noon Eastern though. Sometimes it’s going to show up on a weekend, depending on who the artist is and the timing. You need to stay on socials to keep an eye on that if that’s something that you enjoy doing and want to be part of. It reminds me of screen unseen at AMC because you have to sign up without knowing who this artist is. You have no idea. It could be somebody you love. It could be somebody you don’t love.
There is a website now called MyRegistry, which we were unaware of. I guess there’s no reason we would be aware of it. Instead of registering at one specific store that might not have everything you want, you can register it at this website and it can aggregate all the different stores. It’s almost like Pinterest but for gift registries. You can now add Peloton to the list of things you can register for. If you have someone coming to your wedding who has FU money, put your stuff on there. Maybe you get lucky. We thought that was interesting and it’s a clever idea for a website.
I wish I had thought of it and made me some cash.
We wouldn’t know how to build it though.
No, because it’s all affiliate links.
I’m assuming that’s how it works. They get 1%, but it’s all high-dollar stuff because it’s weddings. I’ll do well would be my guess until a million in competitors come out, or the other retail stores start working with it.
That’s true. Good point.
Let’s take a quick look around the world of Peloton for a few stories that you might have missed. Matty Maggiacomo is doing a cool thing with the new Wicked movie coming out.
He got to model for their apparel line. Isn’t that cool?
That is cool. I’m sure he was super excited about that. I’m a little irritated with this movie already though.
That’s interesting you say that. I don’t know if this made it to our bonus episode or not. Matty got to see the movie already. He is dying to talk about it and he can’t.
He did but at the end of it, he said, “Masterpiece.”
I didn’t hear him say that. I had no sound on.
Posting pictures on social media about your weight loss journey is a good way to motivate yourself. Share on XThat’s what he says at the end. I guess he’s hoping the people at Disney didn’t have their sound on either. A lot of times, they have embargoes but the social media embargo is different, which never made any sense to me.
It’s not like he gave away any plot points or anything.
It irritates me because they broke it up into two movies. We’re going to see act one and then act two. That’s not going to feel like a full movie. I’m interested to see how they make that work without being completely irritating, but it looks cool.
It does look cool. It looks beautiful. Hopefully, Matty had as much fun modeling for this. It looks like he did. It looks like he had a great time.
There are new badges for distances.
It’s not that they’re new badges. It’s that the distance is now different. In other words, you used to be able to finish 40 miles and get a gold. Now, it’s 50 miles, so you have to work harder. Silver and bronze did not change. Only the gold changed and no one knows why. Some people are a little upset about it.
Coming up after this, we have instructors in the news. We’re going to give you all the instructors who now have new jobs within the world of Peloton. Stick around.
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It has been a very busy week at Peloton HR as people are getting assigned new job duties left and right. Hopefully, they get a bump in pay for this.
My guess is this was all part of their contract negotiations. We’ve known this for months.
I concur. I thought the same thing.
I think this is to hide the fact that some instructors will be gone for twelve weeks at a time. Just don’t look too closely and you won’t notice.
You can thread this stuff in other places, and some of this stuff is probably easier on their body than a traditional piece of equipment class.
Yeah, especially for the tread instructors because it’s so hard on your body. It’s so high-impact.
You can also cheat on a bike.
You cannot cheat on the tread. You could turn the speed down but that’s all you can do. I guess the incline, but you still have to run.
In a bike, you can change the resistance, which I get.
We should talk about that over on the bonus episode too because there is one instructor who ripped a new one. Anyway, Camila Ramon is now joining the strength team. That means that she’s a runner and a cycling instructor, and she is now going to be doing strength as well. She announced it during the Selena artist series ride and she was very excited about it. Her first class will be on October 14th.
Kirra Michel is now also part of the stretch team.
She’s been part of the yoga team for a long time but stretches are specific to let’s say an after-bike or an after-run stretch unless they also have yoga for those like Focus Flows. The stretch is a little bit different and so they are now adding Kirra to that team as well. That adds more to what she will be doing also.
Finally, Erik Jäger has been added to the tread team.
He has been running on the tread. It looks like all of the German community got an email saying that, and the fact that there’s going to be more of those plus programs that are bootcamp-like. That’s going to be dropping too. There are going to be some German instructors teaching those as well. Today, Erik posted a little silly video where he was like, “Oopsie.”
“Oops. This email shouldn’t have gone out.” It was scripted by the Lululemon team.
Erik is officially a tread instructor. Welcome to new teams, all of the instructors.
For Hannah Corbin fans, if you want to meet her, she will be doing a meet and greet in Lone Tree Colorado.
That’ll take place on October 15th from 5:30 PM To 7:30 PM.
Mariana Fernandez was featured in Outside Magazine.
It was originally published on September 20th. Mariana posted it on her Story. That’s why I thought it was new. It talks about how she’s their first bilingual instructor at Peloton and it helps Latine. I love seeing Mariana get any kind of love. She deserves it. She’s an amazing person and she has an awesome story. It’s cool to see her get featured.
Rad Lopez is doing a Run Across Manhattan.
It’s sponsored by Nespresso. This is fun because it’s a little bit like a Run with Community, but it’s also a meet and greet. You also get to have some coffee. It’s all my favorite things. On October 13th, you get to run 4 miles with Rad, and Rad’s Run Club. You also get to have an experience afterward where you get to try coffee. His new signature recipe is going to be there as well.
Christine D’Ercole is celebrating ten years with Peloton.
Congrats to Christine. This is cool. It’s interesting because she is off. She’s on one of those whatever you call them that they’re doing right now. She also is using that time to do her Masters Racing. She’s off doing that but she’s still celebrating from afar and posting about it. Peloton posted a nice, sweet, and loving thank you to Christine from all the instructors. That was cool.
Speaking of her Masters Track World Championships, she medaled last week.
Keep in mind that these World Champs take a few days. It’s like a couple of weeks. This is only her first medal at the World Championships. There will be more to come, I guarantee you. She got her first with a bronze in this one, but that’s with the team. She has a lot more races over the next few days to come.
If you are a Kristin McGee fan, you can go to an event she’s hosting. It’s a movement and wellness retreat.
It’s going to be taking place in March 2025 in France. The address is the French Countryside. That’s what it says. This is a revamp retreat. You can have a private room with an ensuite for only $3,500.
Those are gone. I was looking at it earlier because I was going to surprise you but it was sold out. Maybe next year. There was the one where there are two twin beds, but I love you too much to do two twin beds in the French countryside. That was all that was left. I think that was like $2,850, but I don’t know if that’s per person.
I assume that’s per person and it’s for five days. Even though that sounds like a lot, it’s not.
I guess for the French countryside.
Yeah, because all day you’re going to be getting stuff. You’re going to be using the entire day to commune with nature and do yoga. It’s going to be a retreat. You’re having something every single day for five days. That’s probably a lot better price than it sounds when you first hear it. It’s cheaper than those biking packages that you do, which also sound amazing and I would also love to do it. That sounds cool too.
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I guess we don’t have any official artist series announcements. By looking at the calendar, we can get a good idea of what to expect over the rest of the month.
They’re listed on the studio website at this point. They start listening about two weeks out. We don’t have all of the classes. A lot of times, what they’ll do is pre-record some of these and they’re not necessarily out yet, but Enrique Iglesias, Sean Mendes, and Gabrielle. There’s also going to be a Brat live DJ ride and Black Around the World. I don’t know what that means. I didn’t know if Brat in this regard stood for something specific because the Black Around the World is specific to the UK celebration. It’s like their Black History Month. Maybe Brat stood for something or is that related to Charlie XCX? That makes more sense with it being a live DJ ride, but I don’t know. I’m too old to know.
Coming up after this, we’re going to talk about a report that MyFitnessPal issued, talking about nutrition and mood.
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MyFitnessPal put out a report about the impact that nutrition has on your mood and how they are intertwined.
It says here that reaching for less nutrient-dense foods is a familiar coping mechanism or a quick escape from difficult emotions. However, a new evidence-based analysis reveals the long-term impact of these nutritional choices on our mood and emotional well-being. I can go ahead and tell you that it’s not good. That’s the thing about junk food. It feels good when you eat it and then it makes you feel like crap after. It’s annoying as a woman.
It shouldn’t work that way. It’s not fair.
They talked about how they use tracking, etc. There’s a lot of that conversation happening. It says that the white paper suggests that difficult emotions may be a trigger to reach for those less nutrient-dense foods and it discusses some strategies. Creating a mental shift around food choices, thinking about foods as opportunities for long-term well-being rather than immediate comfort. It’s easier said than done when you feel like crap.
Plan ahead. This one works well for me most of the time. If you consider what your schedule is going to be, I tell my clients this all the time. You can’t just react to your day. You have to be prepared. If you know that your weekend is going to be filled with school shopping and errands and things like that, do not think that you are somehow going to pull together this amazing meal. It’s not going to happen. You’re going to cave.
Be ready with food that’s either already made like it’s prepared from earlier in the week or something that you can get from the grocery store, but that’s still a whole food. It’s not perfect but something like a rotisserie chicken is a good option, and then sitting with your urges. It’s also difficult for me. They don’t want you to sit with it. Acknowledge those temptations and you don’t have to act on them. I can hear them talking. They’ve got more but that’s a little bit of a subset of their items.
We will have a link to this whole thing in this week’s newsletter. If you want, you can sign up for that at the website.
One last thing I do want to say about this. The whole reason that they want people to be aware of this is because nutrients like B12, folate, and zinc are super important in keeping that emotional balance. If you’re not eating a variety of foods that give you folate, B12, and zinc, you’re going to have a worse emotional reaction. You are going to spiral. That’s also what you have to plan for.
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It is time for the TCO Top Five, where you tell us your favorite classes and then we tell them back to you. Number one, we will be starting off with your favorite ride.
This was taught by Ben Alldis. It was a 30-minute low-impact ride on October 6th. Nancy Nielsen recommended this class. She said it was a lot of fun because it was the greatest hit from all the All For One classes. That’s fun. I love that. That’s a great way to get a little taste of All For One and enjoy coming away with it as a nice playlist as well.
Number two, your favorite stretch.
As I said earlier, the play dates are very polarizing. We had several people recommend the 10-minute play date with Matt Wilpers and Adrian Williams. Marie said, “This is the instructor combo I never knew I needed. They are super funny together.” Carrie Logan also nominated the class and she said, “This is a fun idea and these two have a great rapport. I enjoyed it.”
Number three, your favorite run.
We’re taking it back to the beginning of September. It was a 60-minute Endurance Run taught by Mariana Fernandez. This has been nominated a couple of times because this was the class that she announced that she was officially a tread instructor like on the schedule. Cindy Stewart nominated the class. She loved the structure. It has a steady pace and occasional low Hills and of course, Mariana’s commentary and her favorite part was the announcement. She’d finally snagged a permanent spot on the tread.
Number four, your favorite walk-run.
This was taught by Logan Aldridge. It was a 30-minute Post Malone Walk plus Run from September 30th. Becky Gomes loved it. She said, “I woke up feeling not that great. I chose a class that would not be too stern.” She felt so good at the end of this class. She ended up doing another 20-minute run. How awesome is that?
She won’t be doing another class after this one. Number five, it’s your unstackable.
This was a 20-minute core taught by Rebecca Kennedy back in February. Melissa nominated this class, saying that it’s her latest core obsession. This class is so good and it’s so hard. Last week, we had a five-minute core that was so hard. I can’t imagine having a 20-minute core, 33 movements, and only 3 minutes of warm-up. You’re getting some burn on your core.
Let’s take a look at what’s coming up this week at Peloton. We’ll start with Pilates with Rebecca.
People have been raving about this. I bet this gets nominated for next week for one of our favorite classes, but she started Pilates sessions this week. She’s going to be doing them every Monday and they’re going to be at 9:30 AM. I’m hearing all the good things.
Up next, post-meal walks.
You will hear more about this in the bonus episode. It’s a big social media thing this summer and people are calling them fart walks.
Consistency is the key to everything. Share on XWe will talk about fart walks in the bonus.
Peloton is calling them post-meal walks. They start on-demand this Friday, October 11th.
We got a mix tape ride.
Jenn Sherman is back with her mix tape ride. There’s going to be a 45-minute one and it is going to be on Sunday, October 13th.
Finally, we have new Coldplay classes.
These classes are going to be taught by Bradley, Mayla, and Rebecca starting on October 9th. By the time you hear that, they will be out. Not to mention, there is a new Lanebreak ride, run, and walk.
There is also a new Christian Vande Velde ride.
I want to point out that this is an on-core. That’s what it says. I thought that this was a new ride because it’s taking place on 10/16 and it’s called the 45-minute reel route, but it also says route on-core and it was originally posted on May 30th, 2024 at 1:58 PM.
Ben Alldis’s split programs are here.
It’s not just Ben. There’s a bunch of these. They’re calling them split-plus. These are filed under bootcamps, but the idea is that it’s a program. You start a ride or you start a class and you’re going to do a bunch of strength. At the very end of the class, you hop onto the equipment to do a cardio burner, depending on whether you’re on the bike, the tread, or the row. This depends on the program that you would want to choose. Ben has a bike, Katie has a row, Cliff has a ride in German, and Olivia has a run. I mentioned earlier an email that accidentally went out and announced that Erik was the new tread instructor. Two more German split programs are going to be dropping. Those are going to be happening. I’m guessing we’re going to have a ride and a run. That’s just my guess, so we’ll see.
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Leanne Hainsby Alldis has released a breast cancer awareness apparel line.
We talked about the fact that this was going to happen. Since then, it has launched and we’ve seen it. It’s a pair of leggings and it’s a top. Those are the only ones but it’s a nice pretty pink that matches the whole spirit of breast cancer awareness month. You can still get those from the Peloton Apparel store. As last year, all the proceeds will go to the program called CoppaFeel in the UK.
Coming up after this, we have our interview of the week with Danny Lopez. I think Kendall fans are going to want to check it out. Stick around.
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Joining us is Danny Lopez. Danny, how is it going?
I’m doing good. How are you?
Discovering Peloton
Good. We’re so glad to have you here. I always like to start these conversations by understanding how you found Peloton and decided, “I got to have this.”
I started seeing the ads in 2019 on Instagram and TV, but I didn’t think about it until the pandemic hit when everything closed in 2020. Around September 2020, I was like, “Should I get the bike?” Instagram was getting popular for searching for information. Instead of going to Google or YouTube, I searched on Instagram. I was like, “Let me search #Peloton and see what comes up.”
A picture came up. It was this lady on the Peloton. I was like, “Let me click on it to see what’s going on and to see if someone has a review on it,” because most people were doing reviews. I saw the picture, and then I saw her posting every day that she’s doing Peloton so I followed her. I was like, “Let me give it some time.” What caught my eye was her username. It’s @IHateGummiBears. That caught my eye too. I was like, “This is weird. Who hates gummy bears? Let me follow her to see what’s going on.”
The username caught my eye. She was posting daily before stories became popular. Stories picked up later on after the pandemic. She was posting and I followed her. When the stories picked up, I started seeing her stories. She started riding with friends and with people around. I was like, “This sounds interesting but I’m not ready yet,” so I gave it some time. I still followed her and she still posted. I didn’t get a Peloton until 2023. It took a while, but that’s when I started getting into bettering my health. That was a big major point where I was going the wrong way so I needed to better my health. 2023 is when I got a Peloton. It was in April 2023.
Healthier Lifestyle
You said for bettering your health. Was there a moment in time where you had an epiphany of like, “I need to do something different?”
There was. I work remotely, I work in marketing. My company is located on the East Coast. I used to live on the East Coast. Every year, we get flown out to our company outing. I was going on a company outing in August 2022. I was like, “For some reason, I don’t feel good. Something is wrong.” I knew I was overweight because I wasn’t eating healthy. I wasn’t doing anything. As guys, we hate seeing the doctor. It has been years since I saw the doctor, but when I came back from that trip, I was like, “Let me find a doctor and see what’s going on.”
When I went to see the doctor in October 2022, she freaked out because my blood pressure skyrocketed. I was holding a lot of water. I wasn’t healthy. She was worried about me. She told me, and this was what hit me, that if I didn’t change my ways, then I could have a heart attack. That’s what triggered me to say, “I’m still young. I can’t pass away pretty soon.” That changed everything. Initially, after that consultation, I immediately changed my ways of eating healthy and then started working out again. That was the point right there. It took a doctor to tell me, “You can have a heart attack if you don’t change your ways.”
That’s a quick change.
I’ve worked with a lot of clients where doctors have told them that. They want to change and they have intent to change, but it’s not like everybody can just flip that switch and hit the ground running. It’s very impressive that you did and you made an immediate change. I’m curious what order you changed things in. Did you start with food? Did you start with working out? How did you do that?
The main thing was the food. I was holding a lot of water, so I was very bloated. She did give me medication. A water pill is what they call it. It was to drain all the water. Once I weighed myself after they drained all the water, a lot of the weight came off because it was water that I was holding. I did change my way of eating. This was before I got a coach. I did it by myself first. I started tracking my food, if anybody uses MyFitnessPal. I started tracking my protein, carbs, and fats. I started going to the gym slowly more often.
I was seeing my doctor once a month to see how much I lost. Every time I showed up, I was losing weight so I knew I was doing something well. The medication was working. Initially, for the first three months, I was able to lose around 30 pounds of weight. She was surprised. She tells me, “I tell my patients but they don’t listen to me. You’re the first one that has done what I told them to do and is doing it.”
That has to make you feel good.
It did. When I did my physical or when I did the lab work, everything was off the charts. When I did my yearly in 2023, everything improved on my lab work. That motivated me more that I was doing something well. The way that I was motivated more is that my clothes started fitting well. I wasn’t sleeping well either. That’s one of the main things. Sleep affects your weight and your health too. I wasn’t sleeping well. It was averaging 2 to 3 hours a night. It wasn’t helping me. I was able to improve my sleep and I was watching what I was eating.
Sleep
I’m curious about the sleep of 2 to 3 hours a night. I don’t even know how you functioned because I function terribly if it’s less than six hours. I’m curious how you improved your sleep. What did you do to sleep better?
I went to see a sleep doctor for a consultation. They gave me a little machine to wear for 24 hours to see what I was doing during my sleep. When I got the report back, they told me that I had sleep apnea. They recommended the machine but I was like, “I don’t want to sleep with a machine. That’s uncomfortable. Plus, you have to buy the machine or rent the machine.” They told me that for about 30 seconds, I wasn’t breathing when I was asleep. That got me thinking, “I have to force myself to go to sleep earlier and try to use either a sleeping pill or other supplements for me to fall asleep faster.”
One of the things that I use is the Peloton sleep meditations. That’s one of the things I’ve been starting to use in the last couple of months. During that time, that was the first thing I did. I had to improve. My schedule is that I work East Coast Time even though I live in California. I start my shift at 6:00 in the morning. Technically, it’s 9:00 on the East Coast, so my sleep pattern was way off because it’s still early here in California. I had to force myself to get on a schedule and stick to the schedule because I needed to get at least 6 or 7 hours of sleep. That’s what I’m doing. At the beginning, it was hard. It was trial and error but I got it going.
Weight Loss
Was it overwhelming to make these changes that you were working on or did it feel natural once you got started?
It was at the beginning. I’ve seen people lose weight fast. I didn’t want to lose weight that fast. On TV, I see all these people lose weight or online. They lose over 100 pounds within a couple of months. The reason I didn’t want to do that is because, in the end, I’m still going to have loose skin. I didn’t want to get loose skin and then worry about, “I need to go get surgery on it.” I wanted to do it more naturally by losing 1 to 2 pounds. That was my focus.
It was overwhelming, especially with food. That’s the main thing. Food is the main object for me or that was the barrier I had to get used to. I had to learn how to weigh food. I never weighed food before. I had to get a scale, weigh my food, and read labels instead of saying, “This is a portion.” When I realized that’s not a portion I was eating three times a portion. You know, it’s like when you look at it, you start counting what you’re eating. That was my main concern, the food or the barrier.
Social Media
I’m so impressed that you did all this by yourself. That’s incredible. I also am curious. At some point, you started tracking your journey on social media. When did that start? Was that day one when you were like, “I’m making a change?”
No. It wasn’t day one. I’ve been on social media for a long time. Every time I see a new platform, I get to be on it for some reason even though I might not use it. I got to be on it but I’ll leave it at the side. That’s what Instagram was. I had it since it first launched but I never used it. I wasn’t the type of person to take pictures of myself and then post them. The first seven months I did it by myself, I was able to lose about 80 pounds, and then I hit a barrier. You hit a plateau.
I went back to the person that I found on Instagram. Her name’s Michelle, the @IHateGummiBears. She became a coach. I was like, “Let me reach out to her to see if I can continue this journey and at least have someone by my side and get that feedback.” The journey with her is you’re required to take progress pictures. I never believed in progress pictures. I was like, “Why am I going to take a picture of myself shirtless as well as my front, my side, and my back? Once I realized that progress pictures tell you a lot over time, I started saying, “Let me post something on Instagram to see if people will see it.”
I wasn’t popular on Instagram. I’m not even that popular now either, but people still see it. I’m like, “Let me track my progress and post to see if it picks up traction. I’ll use my marketing to see if I can put some tags in there to get traction.” I started getting feedback from people saying, “Keep it going. You’re doing good.” That kept on motivating me more to start posting.
I didn’t start at the beginning. It was later on in my journey that I said, “Let me start posting more and see what people think about it.” I still get a lot of DMs from a lot of people saying, “It’s because of you that I’ve been motivated to also change my ways.” I never knew motivating people would be one of my highlights, but it brings me joy.
Those pictures can be very important. At the beginning of getting your health in order, weight loss is a very easy, tangible, low-hanging fruit way to gauge your progress, but at some point, that levels off. If your only metric for success is the scale, that’s a bad place to be long-term. I talk about this sometimes. I’ve lost a lot of weight. It’s fascinating how different I look at 190 when I’m using Tonal versus 190 when I was starving myself to get there. I look probably 10 or 15 pounds lighter than I did when the scale says the exact same thing. That’s smart to do, but it’s also embarrassing. You’re not super cool with how you look and then to take a picture like that is weird.
That’s how I was. I was like, “Do I smile? Do I not smile?” because it goes on the app. She sees it. I’m like, “What do I have to do with my face? Do I look serious?” I wasn’t sure. Later on, I started smiling. I was like, “Let me smile for my progress picture.”
Other Routines
It’s very vulnerable when you put yourself out there, whether it’s good improvements or you’re starting your journey and you’ve made a lot of improvement. It doesn’t matter. Anytime you put yourself out there like that, it is vulnerable. My hat’s off to you for doing that. It sounds like the response has been great. Has everyone that has reached out to you been positive? Please tell me there haven’t been jerks out there.
Everybody has been positive. Everybody is from the Peloton community. I’m surrounded by the Peloton community. Everybody is trying to improve themselves. It’s so funny because I can post a random picture and it doesn’t get a lot of traction on stories, but once I post a progress picture out of nowhere, it gets traction and I didn’t do anything different. Out of nowhere, people flock in and I see the views go up. I’m like, “People are coming out here.” I do get a lot of messages saying, “Keep it going.”
One of the things I’ve been starting to do is to have older pictures of myself, a selfie, and then I take a current picture and show them the difference. I’d be like, “This is what I’ve been doing. This is a one-year difference.” My coworkers too. When they see me once a year, they’re like, “You look so different. What are you doing?” I have to explain to them, “This is what I’m doing. I am 100 pounds less since the last time you saw me.”
Congratulations. That is amazing. I know for a fact it’s a lot of hard work. It sounds like you haven’t done anything with surgery. I don’t know if you did anything with a medical intervention as far as medical weight loss. Either way, it’s a hard journey because you have to be consistent and you have to make the same great choices every day. That’s hard.
Consistency is what my coach taught me. I never understood consistency until I put it to work. Once I realized consistency is the key to everything, it is the foundation. This is what I tell people. There are going to be days. I also have days when I don’t want to workout, I miss a day of tracking, or I eat the wrong food, but it’s okay because I have consistency. I can bounce back up and immediately, I’m back where I’m at. It’s not about the scale. It’s how you feel and also your measurements. If I go off-track one weekend and I come back Monday, it’s like nothing happened. If I miss a workout, it’s like nothing happened. As long as you have consistency, that’s what matters.
You don’t let one day turn into a week or a month. I was consistent before. I was consistently eating pizza.
One of the things that I also learned is to not be afraid of food. A lot of people, when they start to diet, are like, “I have to restrict myself. I can’t eat this. I can’t eat that.” You can eat a slice of pizza but you have to be moderate on how many slices you eat. You can eat a burger but you have to make sure you track that for your daily. That’s one of the things that I learned. I can enjoy food again, but at the same time, I’m tracking what I’m eating. I could take off from here but I can still enjoy my meals if I go out or I track ahead of time.
That’s so true. You started your journey with the bike. Are you taking other classes on the Peloton platform or are you a bike-only guy?
I have my home gym, so I lift weights. That’s one of my priorities. I don’t take the strength classes from Peloton specifically. I do a summer program. What I do for Peloton is yoga, Pilates, and core. That’s what I take. For meditation, that’s what I do also. I also do the walking. I hit my 150th walk with Peloton. I did it outside. I don’t have a tread so I got to go outside to walk.
Congrats.
Thank you.
Leaderboard Name
What is your leaderboard name?
It’s iDannyLopez.
Why the i before Danny Lopez?
There’s this girl on YouTube. She has been streaming since 2006. Her name is Justine but she goes by iJustine because she’s an Apple fanatic. She follows Apple. She’s a very talented YouTuber. When I was looking for usernames, before, I had DLo for something simple and then a bunch of numbers. I was like, “Let me try iDannyLopez.” Nobody had that username. Everything became iDannyLopez for me. It’s because of her plus the iPhone and Apple. Everything starts with an i. That’s why it became my username. I stuck with it since then.
You can tell he is in marketing because he immediately rebranded all of his social media. Everything is iDannyLopez.
That’s what I do. When I sign up for something, I’m like, “It’s iDannyLopez.” My email’s that way. You have my name. You have my last name.
Be consistent. I love it.
Favorite Instructors
That’s what he does. Do you have a preferred instructor?
Kendall was my preferred instructor. When I got the bike, she was one of my first rides. I heard about her. When I took my first ride, she was the first one. I was sad when she left Peloton. She was my favorite instructor. It was because of her I was able to find a community on Peloton that follows her. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Never Knocked Out Crew. It’s because of them that I was able to join their group. We always ride her. She was one of my favorite ones.
For meditations, who do you do meditation with?
For meditations, for the morning ones, it’s Aditi. She’s my favorite one. For sleeping, Ross was a good one. For some reason, their voice, the next thing you know, it already ended. I’m already asleep. I wake up an hour later and I’m like, “I still have everything on. I have to turn it off. He still thinks I’m working out.”
I’ve done that.
Aditi is my favorite one for the morning ones.
Advice
Do you have any advice for people entering the world of Peloton?
It takes time to get used to it. I was never a cyclist before, so it did take time for me to get used to the seating. Make sure you adjust your seating because that makes a big difference. An inch makes a big difference in how you’re sitting on the bike. As I did, start with the beginning classes because that will get you used to how the instructor instructs the class. They’re all different in how they instruct. Once you start going to more advanced classes, live classes, or on-demand classes, then you’ll get used to it.
The main thing is the seat. A lot of people complain about getting used to the seats and sitting down for a long time. What I do is when they’re still sitting down, I have to stand up sometimes. I can’t sit down for a long time, especially on a low impact. I have to stand up a little bit and keep on going from there. Give it a try. Don’t give up. When you’re jumping into a journey for health, you have to give it time. You can’t expect changes to happen immediately. It’s the same thing with a bike. You have to give it time.
Physical fitness requires time. You cannot expect changes to happen immediately. Share on XEpisode Wrap-up
I would always tell Crystal when I get frustrated, “I didn’t get fat in a week. I’m not going to get unfat.” Thank you so much for joining us. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you if you would like to be found.
On Instagram, it’s @iDannyLopez. My leaderboard name is iDannyLopez. You can find me there. I’ll keep on posting my progress. I still have a long way to hit my target but every day is a new day. Keep going.
Great work. Thank you so much for joining us. We’ll be excited to continue watching your journey.
Thank you.
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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 the other 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 at 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. You get ad-free episodes and fart walks. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling, running, and rowing.
Bye.
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