This is Crystal O’Keefe and this is Tom O’Keefe. I know what you did. What did I do? You almost said you were going straight to the bonus. No, I wasn’t. You were like, welcome to the bonus. You didn’t, no. You were like, I wanna just get on with the night.

I’m skipping the show. No, but I do, we’re just doing a bonus this week. I do, you know, have a lot on my mind. I feel like I need to be monitoring my work stuff at the same time. So I I, I do have a [00:01:00]lot going on in this brain right now, so I’m a little distracted. I will admit. I get that. So, uh. I don’t know where, I guess we’ll just start with what do you got for people?

Well, there’s a lot to talk about today. So I’m really excited about this Barbie collaboration, Uhhuh that Robin is doing with T 1D and also of course with Barbie. That’s just really fun. Yeah. So we’re gonna talk about that. We’re gonna talk about, uh, this really fun a, b, C news radio spotlight that, um, yes.

That they did about Peloton. And we’re also going to talk about the newest strength plus feature that dropped. We’re gonna talk about live classes on a Wednesday. Why that’s happening, will it continue to happen? We’re gonna talk about, um, the, we’re gonna talk about why Peloton is celebrating July 4th.

Spelled F-O-R-T-H. Uh, we are gonna also, we’ve got, it’s in the middle of prime day, so we’re gonna talk about a couple of our favorite items that are up. We have some major, major, major [00:02:00]instructors in the news to cover. There is so much going on with instructors. We’ve got lots there. It’s a very busy week for instructors.

It’s, it is, a lot of times I move most of these stories over to bonus because I feel like a lot of people see this stuff in their feed. But yeah. There’s so many exciting ones this week. Yeah, most of them made the main show. Yeah. Uh, and then we’ve got artist series updates. We’ve got competitor updates, we’ve got um, contents, we’ve got our TCO top five also.

We haven’t had an interview in a while. Yes. I forgot I meant to talk about that. We inter an in interview, not interviews are back, but we ha an interview is back. We Yes. An interview. We talked about when we changed this format that we were going to still have special interviews. This is one of ’em. We re-interviewed Chrissy Blackwood.

Uh, she’s not only one of our OG Peloton interviews, but she also is. Our high rocks know-it-all. Yes, she is our expert Now. She says she’s new to it. She does not consider herself an expert, but we talk to her [00:03:00] what is going on with High Rocks? Why is it such a big deal? Why are all the instructors into it?

We’re gonna get into all of that as well. She knows more about it than we do. Absolutely. So she, she’s here to answer our questions. Yeah, it was a really fun conversation. So this episode will be a little bit longer. That is why. Um, and then, uh, we have. All the content besides that to talk about. Awesome.

Well, before we get to all that shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart. Tune in wherever you find a podcast. You can find us. While you are there, be sure and follow us. You never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review if you cannot get enough of us and, and how could you?

Right. We are charming. Well, half of us are. We have a Patreon patreon.com/the clip out, all sorts of. Moving parts on a show like this, it is turned into its own octopus. It has. And uh, and so, uh, it’s just a way to help out, uh, financially if you have it, it’s only $5 a month. It’s not a lot. Like that’s like.

Three bites of a cheeseburger. [00:04:00] It’s half of a Starbucks, half of a Starbucks. So, uh, what do you get for your five bucks? Our undying love and gratitude. But you also get ad free episodes. You get bonus content and you get the episodes early, so, and ad free. I said that one, didn’t I? Oh, did you? I thought I did.

Okay. You should try listening. All right. I thought I was and I didn’t hear you say that. So, and this week over on the bonus, we’re gonna be talking about. How your personality affects which workouts work best for you. Yeah, that is a fun, fun little article for sure. It’s just a new study that came out that was very interesting and then.

Uh, another article that someone sent to us is Pilates Political. This is from our tipster Elizabeth. Okay. She found this and she was like, this is fascinating. Yeah. And so, and it’s fascinating. Yeah. And then and then an instructor is looking for creative leaderboard names in the stories behind them.

So for special classes she’s working on. Yes. So listen up, I pooped [00:05:00] today.

You could be mentioned in a class. Yeah. He gets a lot of shout outs. Yeah. So, uh, um, also don’t forget, you can find us on Facebook, facebook.com/the clip out while you’re there. Like the page, join the group, sign up for the newsletter@theclipout.com where you will get mostly weekly new newsletter email sent to you with all the links and stuff.

And just a little reminder. Just a little, Hey, we exist. Yeah. Hi. Hi. And then, uh, finally you can watch all of these over on YouTube, at YouTube at.com/the clip out. So there’s all that. Let’s, uh, let’s dig in. Shall we? We shall.

 So a, b, c News Radio did a pretty lengthy feature on Peloton. It’s like what, 10, 12 minutes? Yeah. Yeah. And their podcast called Press Play. It’s like a special They do around 4th of July every [00:06:00]year. Okay. Yeah. And they did that with a little help from you and by a little, I mean a whole lot.

It was, uh, there was some other members from the community. It was Erica from the Feelgood family. Mm-hmm. And there was also Jen Sherman was there. Sure. And John. Bernstein, you know, the, the guy who always does the Let’s Toast every Friday night. Um, and he has all the bears. No. And then there’s also a gentleman, I am blanking on his name, who’s always at the studio.

Yeah. And he, he was in there too. So that was pretty much the highlights of who was in it. And, uh, I would say they, they had a lot of, they wanted to kind of understand how Peloton has. Changed over the years from like the very beginning to now. So that’s why they interviewed kind of a cross section of people and it was, it was really fun.

They were po politely. Like, what? What’s wrong with you people? Very politely. Yeah. Yeah. What is, what’s the deal? Yeah. And I have to say that, uh, joy, who is the person who, the producer and who did the interview mm-hmm. And then put everything [00:07:00] together. She’s also a Peloton user. A Peloton fan, and I now follow her on the leaderboard.

Look at that. And she’s super nice. But yeah, it’s, it’s interesting that I feel like Peloton gets lots of mentions in the press. Mm-hmm. Right. And the instructors get a lot of ink, but like, I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve seen. A significant amount of. Time or focus on Peloton itself. I agree. Um, I remember back when I feel like it was the New York Times did a big spread and it was like, that was right around the time that Peloton became a unicorn because Yeah.

Uh, are you right? That was, we got interviewed for that too. Well, you did. Yeah. It’s ’cause you always let me do the interviews. You’re very nice because I don’t do Peloton, so why would they talk to me? Well, I appreciate that, but um, also, there’s no. Clip out Tom. That’s clip out Crystal. That is true.

Well, there is a clip out, Tom, because there’s somebody out there who took your name. Oh yeah. Somebody stole it. Yes. And they’re willing to give it to you should you ever decide to take classes. But anyway. Oh, [00:08:00] I, I don’t remember ever hearing that. I think they said that whenever I gave them shit one time in the episode.

They were like, you know, if Tom wants it, you’re like, you tell a lazy bastard to He gets on the bike, I’ll give it to him. Yeah, that, that is exactly what they said. Lazy bastard. More than fair. But, uh, yeah. So, I don’t even remember what my point was there. I was going somewhere. I took a left turn perimenopause brain.

I have no idea where I was going, but uh, yeah, that was the last time that I remember a major source doing a really big article. Yeah. And that was the New York Times. And that’s been, ah, god, I wanna say that was 2019. Yeah, it’s been a bit, I think, yeah, that was the last time. Yeah. So there’ve been little things between now and then, but that was the last time It was a big one.

So moving along, strength Plus is getting new personalization features. Yeah. This is interesting to me because it’s ton, it is tonal. That is exactly right. So, uh, now they are ge You can get personalized weight [00:09:00] recommendations when you might be ready to level up and lift heavier. So. What they do is they kind of take note of how many times that you, based on the weights and reps you’ve logged in previous sets, they’re gonna recommend that you stick to the current weight or they’re gonna suggest an increase when it’s time to go heavier.

So the way that they do that is you’ve lifted within the same range for several sessions, or if you start continuing to increase your reps, you’re doing that over and over again. Mm-hmm. Both of those are like, okay, it’s time. It’s time. Yeah. And of course you can, you don’t have to take their suggestions like.

And you don’t on tonal either. No. But yeah, this is a very tonal feature. Um, it’s one of my favorite things about tonal because it automatically just does it, it just does it like you’re ready. Which I like because, and obviously there’s no way around this for Strength Plus, right. But like, because Tonal just does it on its own.

You don’t have to take action in order for the weight to increase. And so. It’s, it’s just like you went up a pound, right? And you just did, and sometimes you turn around [00:10:00] and look at it like if, like I don’t tend to pay attention, I know. And then drives me nuts. I’ll turn around and look at it and be like, 35.

Pounds on a bicep curl. Yeah. That doesn’t sound right. Not go back down to 15. You don’t do that. That’s not me. No, thank you. But it is, it is nice to be able to have the AI kind of recognize like, Hey, you’ve used the same weight for a while. Right. ’cause it, that is one of the hardest parts about lifting free weights is knowing when it’s time to increase.

Absolutely. So having that nudge is a really good idea. I would probably never increase my weights. If Tonal didn’t do it for me, it’s because I would never know. And yeah. Well, the other really nice thing about tonal and, and I’m not knocking Peloton, but I’m just saying it’s different. You can’t, like on tonal, they can literally increase it by one pound.

Right. But if you’re at home and you have, let’s say you have three, five and eight pound dumbbells, then that’s where you’re starting. You can only go from three to five or five to eight. Right. You can’t, you can’t go like three to four. Right. You [00:11:00] know, and you may not, it, it might take, like, it might take a little bit longer to go from three to five.

Yeah. And that might be a more uncomfortable switch. Um, or from five to eight. Or if you’re talking bigger you know, dumbbells, maybe you’re in the fifteens and twenties, going from 15 to 20 is a big jump. For sure. Really big jump. Yeah, absolutely. So and so, yeah, I, I love my little one pound. I do too. I do bump too Bumps.

Very much. I’m like, okay. Like, ’cause you still feel like, Hey, I, I move forward. I am accomplishing things. Yay. But one pound is so much more manageable than five pounds. That five pounds. If it’s a tough day, I can make all kinds of excuses. Yeah. Like, oh, it’s a bad day. Oh, I’m PMSing. Oh, I don’t know.

Perimenopausal. I’m not gonna lift. You know, like you just start making excuses. I need to get perimenopause, then I can. Be like, no, I’m not gonna do that. You already do that. Plenty. Yeah, but then I’d have a reason. I mean, everyone would rally around me. No, there’s no rallying. You know, that’s the thing.

[00:12:00] There is no rallying. So live classes. But on a Wednesday. Yeah. This is, uh, this is interesting. Somebody posted about this in, uh, Beck’s Beast, but it’s, I guess it makes sense they’re going to have the studio close so much mm-hmm. This summer that because of that, ’cause the closure start on the 10th.

This week they had live classes on Wednesday, which they haven’t done for a really long time. Yeah. But I will also say the other nice part about. Uh, the other question about this is. Are we gonna see it after the studio come? Will, will it stick around? Yeah. Yeah. And so far nobody seems to think that it will.

Yeah. I have been asking people and everyone’s like, no, it, it’s not going to be, I haven’t talked to anybody at Peloton. Right. I just mean amongst the, the TC Oster and the helper bees and like taking the temperature. Exactly like the community. What do you think? And nobody in those two places, the Tipsters helper bees, nobody seems to think that this is going to be sticking around.

It’s only because [00:13:00] they’re closing the studio, man, imagine. I’m imagining if they had done this when Jennifer Jacobs pulled her bullshit weeks. Um, yeah. Well that would’ve been fun. Oh, that would’ve been, yeah, I think, I think the police would have been called. Um, it’s, you know, it’s honestly for everybody’s safety, it probably is for the best.

Yeah. ’cause tempers would’ve been so out of control, and especially in this heat, because this heat wave that everybody’s been having, I just, I think it could have gotten ugly very, very quickly. It would’ve been the. DST gang war since West Side story would’ve been there, would’ve they? They’d have been snapping just as much leather and leggings and pure wedding.

That would’ve been awesome. Would’ve been awesome. All about it. But honestly, again, for everyone’s safety, I’m glad that that didn’t happen, you know? I did not include this, but I, I, on the list, but you just reminded me that I [00:14:00] saw that Jennifer Jacobs moved to Miami because she said all of the drama.

She was moving away from the drama. I was like, girl, you created the drama. You are the drama. You literally brought the drama, and then you’re bitching about the drama you caused. So like, wait, the Peloton instructors ran you out of New York City? Is that what we’re saying In the, in the immortal words of Buckaroo Bonsai, yes.

No matter where you go, there you are. There you are. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, pelotons not in Miami, so maybe it’ll be a little better for her. I don’t know. I don’t know how that affects her little ladder program. I don’t, I don’t know, i’s gonna be like rap in the nineties, east coast, west Coast and, well, it’s north, south.

Well, yeah, they’re both on the same coast. Okay. But we like it. Sure. You be Miami versus New York. I have to learn how to do like a Crip hand side in front of Miami. Do you like that? Like an MI don’t know. I’m sure you’re being offensive. Please stop. I don’t know what you’re, I dunno what gang sign that was.

[00:15:00] Well, if you find me dead in the morning, you’ll know it. You know? It was a bad one. It was a bad one. Yeah. But I just could not believe she had the nerve to be like, getting away from the drama. I’m like, wait, you created the drama. Can you really complain about drama that you created? Are you kidding?

But, oh, there’s a certain personality type that can, I know it’s called narcissists. I’m not saying she is one. I’m just saying that is the typical person that would, yeah. So. Anyway, on that note, sorry, Peloton, and they’re typing, they are Celebr. They were celebrating the fourth F-O-R-T-H. Yeah. As in Sally fourth.

Yeah. It was a Rebecca Kennedy Walk plus run. It was a 20, 20 minute 4th of July run that was spelled F-O-R-T-H. But what really cracked me up about this was there was a whole post online where somebody was trying to make this work. Like they were like, Peloton did this on purpose. Oh my word. Because. In the pose that Rebecca has, like it’s a really purposeful stride.

Yeah. You know, and they were like, it’s [00:16:00] fourth, you know, like, like go forth. It’s going forth. Yeah. And, and I was like, no, I don’t think that it is. I didn’t post. Yeah. Because I, I stay away from that. I don’t wanna argue with people, but, um, on the internet this is different. No, you’ll argue with me in real life.

No problem. But the internet, yeah. That’s different. Yeah. There’s just a lot of stupid people, hence my shirt. Yeah. A lot of really stupid people. But, um, anyway, so. I can assure you this was not done on purpose because two days later they fixed it. They had updated it, so it, it is now. Correct. This reminds me very much of the circles I travel in and the nerd world where it’s like somebody’s going to defend.

Marvel or DC no matter what they do, and they will bend over backwards to justify any stupid thing. Oh, that they or mistake they make. Yeah. You’ve, you’ve been there. Oh yeah. Yeah. Superman. Yeah. This is like 40% of my feed. Yeah. Especially right now with Superman coming out. Oh man. Ugh. Yeah. So before this turns [00:17:00] into an episode of real spoilers.

Okay. Prime Day favorites. Yeah, prime Day favorites. Okay. So you need to know that Helper be, Nikki is a huge prime day fan. And so I love, love, love this,

if. Prime day. Had a hype girl. I would be it. That’s what it said in the social media post, Nikki would be it. Um, so she wrote this article and it had all of her favorites. There’s everything on here from sunscreens to workout planners, uh, hydration packets, weightlifting, hooks, all kinds of things. And I think that until the 11th.

11th. So if you listen to this right when it comes out. You still will have an opportunity to get a really, really good deal on the Peloton equipment. It is still on Amazon and they are really good prices. Awesome. Good to know. Yeah, duly noted. Yeah. And, uh, coming up after this, we’re gonna tell you which instructor is pregnant.

We got a new [00:18:00] one. We do. We got a new one for you. And, uh, we’re also gonna talk about Robin Arza and Barbie, and. Which instructor is writing a new book, so sit tight.

Selena Samuella is with child. I am so excited for her. You know, Selena has been very open about her journey. Um, she, she has a son, Torin and she also has had some very. Public miscarriages, like she’s spoken about them publicly, is what I mean. Right. We’re not re revealing something. No, no, no, no.

Yeah. Um, and, uh, she’s talked about how difficult this has all been and we recognized the signs in some of her classes. Yeah. And we were hopeful that we were right. And we are so, so, so freaking excited for her. I just, I love this. I love this for her and I hope everything is just smooth and easy for her.

I wonder if this will start a trend of. [00:19:00] Instructors acknowledging their pregnancies. I mean, it’s really just the ones that didn’t. It’s, it’s an interesting way for Selena to go about it. It’s, yeah. Yeah. But it’s a little different. Yeah, it’s a little different. But perhaps, I mean, it’s a choice. So Robin Arza has been immortalized as a Barbie doll.

Yeah. Okay. So there’s a few things happening here. One of the thing, so, so Robin. Is partnering up with. The company called Breakthrough, T 1D hq, and then she’s also partnering, partnering up with Barbie. They all are working together and they created the very first Barbie doll that has type one diabetes.

And uh, this is so cool because she has her own little continuous glucose monitor. And, uh, she’s wearing it and she’s got her, she’s got on blue polka dots. And the blue polka dots were a very big deal because they were a [00:20:00] nod to global, the global symbols for diabetes awareness and the reminder of life-changing work being done through the organizations like breakthrough T 1D.

So this is really cool. Then in addition to these already amazing things, Robin. Also got a Barbie doll like it is wearing yellow. And if you know, you know, right. And it has, uh, a CGM monitor and it’s wearing weights and it’s got her little braids. I mean, it’s very cute. This the, uh, the glucose monitor is a crown.

It is. And I love it. Um, it, and, uh, you know, I was so. Hopeful that this was something you could purchase, but it is a one of a kind. Ah, it is a one. So Robin got a Barbie from Barbie, but like she got a one of a kind freaking Barbie. Yeah. Made for herself. Like how, how many people in the world can say, oh yeah, I have a Barbie made after me.

This is my Barbie. Yeah. Yeah. Like what, what? Maybe we’ll see her in, in the sequel. [00:21:00] I don’t know. I loved that movie. It probably tells you a lot about me that I loved that movie. Um, a lot of people love that movie. I know. And it says a lot about them. A lot. And it says a lot about the people who had a real problem with that movie.

Um, but anyway, the, this is just really, really cool and I think it’s just super special to that. Robin is Latina. That, that they made a, a Barbie that has, uh, t type one diabetes and that what I’m saying is they didn’t just do. A simple Barbie that’s blonde. Right? And then they connect it with nothing.

Right? They like grounded it in reality and they had a lot of reasons behind it and then made the special one for Robin. And I just thought all of those things were so cool. I do wonder if maybe at some point you’ll see that Robin Barbie is, ’cause uh, Mattel has their own Barbie thing where they, they make like, low print run boutique Barbies. Like I bought you one. [00:22:00] Yes. I love my love, I love my Barbie. And it’s, uh, the weird Barbie Yes. From the Barbie movie. And they only made like a thousand of them. Yes. And they took forever. Yeah. It, I mean, it it a year, it took almost a full year from the time I ordered it till the time it shipped.

But but I think, yeah, like I said, I think they made a thousand of them. But this seems like something that they could easily sell a thousand of. I mean, they would sell so freaking fast. Yeah, it would be insanity. Like yes, they could. Especially if they were like in 10% goes to fight diabetes. Yeah.

Yeah. They move like crazy. Yeah. And, and it was also really special because Robin had a class and she announced it on the bike. She had Nadia from Barbie come up and, uh, onto the little platform where they actually are riding and, uh, talked all about the. The partnership and how special it was, and I just think it’s a really special moment for women, for Robin specifically, and for awareness around type one diabetes.

Absolutely. I just think it’s really cool. So Christine Dele is the [00:23:00] latest Peloton instructor to be writing a book. She is. And the book is called Talking to Myself. It’s a practical guidebook that’s going to combine candid stories. And interactive exercises teaching you how to rework your inner dialogue and transform your life in the process.

So what’s interesting to me about that is that it’s very similar to what her her workshops are. Yeah, I was thinking when, uh. When you said she was writing a book, I was like, well, this seems like a natural evolution from the workshops that she’s been doing. It does. It does. And it’s not always easy to have those conversations in a public setting.

So for people who aren’t comfortable doing that, this is a really great way to do it. Not to mention just there’s a ton of people who have no idea they even exist. Yeah, for sure. Sure. So this is just gonna open that up. To so many people. But Christine is clearly really excited about it. And a lot of people have commented to me how excited, like every instructor book has a reaction.

Mm-hmm. And [00:24:00] this particular book people are feeling like they’re gonna get some very like, actionable movement from, they’re going to be able to take the things from the book and use it immediately. And look, let’s face it, those workshop events, they aren’t cheap. And compared to some other instructors, they are, I just wanna say that, but I like, they’re normally in, in exotic look houses.

Absolutely. And expensive hotels. So even though what you’re paying her might not be all that much, there’s a lot of other ancillary costs that go along with it. And so this is a great way for somebody to maybe. Experience that without having the cost of an actual trip. And they’re probably also hard to plan.

’cause like if I just, I do feel like I have to say a lot of workshops are done online over Zoom. Yeah. And also right here in America, in New York, she just recently started doing those other ones that were like in other countries. Gotcha. Okay. I, I just wanna say there’s both like, oh, I didn’t realize there was that component.

Yeah. Yeah. I was just gonna say for the travel ones that you also had the hurdle of like, you might have a situation where. [00:25:00] If you’re married, the spouse, one spouse wants to do it and the other one doesn’t. Absolutely. So then do they just sit in the hotel? Do they not go? Yeah. Like, you know, yeah. And it’s a lot of, you know, when you do travel, it’s a lot of money to just kind of sit around, like for one spouse to sit around with.

The other one’s gone the whole time. Yeah. . While we’re talking about books. Yes. We also have reason to believe that Jess Sims is working on something. Yes. Uh, she put in her Instagram notes that. Out of curiosity, does anyone work for a book publishing company or know anyone who does?

Asking for a friend? So she has not said she’s writing a book. Pure rumor. Pure spoke speculation. Yeah. But it seems as, I mean, but, so here’s my question. All right. To her question. Okay. Like, so many instructors have written books at this point. Mm-hmm. Why does she need to ask Instagram? Like, I think she’d be like in the break room.

Like, Hey, Tunde. I don’t know. I thought it was. Strange too. And maybe that is a signal that she’s not writing a book, that it is just for a friend. She is actually asking for a friend. Yeah. Yeah. [00:26:00] I mean, maybe that’s exactly what that signals. I don’t know. I also, you know, just because there is a publisher doesn’t mean they want to publish your book.

So I guess my brain goes, well, it’s gotta be just Sims not a friend because you don’t just get to send a book in, I mean, you can send it. But, but like, there’s, it’s gonna go on. The slush pile’s gonna Right. Exactly. No one’s gonna read it unless you have an in. And somebody like Justin Sims, who has a very high visibility, has a platform she is going to be able to get in front of a publisher in a way that, like, if I was like, I’m writing a book, right.

And even if she gave me a name at the publisher, probably still not gonna go anywhere For sure. So, uh, that’s why I kind of made the assumption that this is very possibly happening. I. Would agree. Okay. Then why’d you bring it up? Because you told me to. I forgot. I skipped over it. And you were like, Hey, go do that.

So Love Squad is reporting that Ally love is off the live schedule [00:27:00] for the foreseeable future for a bit for a smidge. Now what cracks me up about this is in no way, shape or form do they acknowledge that there is a reason, right? It’s just her typical, you know, 12 weeks off. It’s just, that’s all it is.

Taking a pause. Yep. Just taking a pause. It’s her 12 weeks. Don’t worry about it. Honestly this, you know, we will be watching the socials but it’ll be very interesting. I wonder how long. She will have had that. Wait. We might get a six month old before we, we get any announcement. We may never get an announcement.

I have no idea. Just get a high school graduation is the weirdest thing. Like this evolution of this woman has been so confusing to me to go from a week long wedding that every aspect of was calculated down to literally the moment people could post. Yeah. After they were home a week later and going from that to, I am not even [00:28:00] going to mention that I’m pregnant.

Y’all can see what’s happening here. But if anybody had said that she was pregnant, then she blocked them. So I don’t understand. I’m super confused, but. What EVs allie’s gonna be out the schedule for the foreseeable future. That’s all you need to know. She’s definitely having a child and we’re not supposed to know, but we are supposed to know.

So do with that what you would like. She will name her baby Schrodinger. Cody Rigsby is gonna be a game show judge. Yeah. This is an interesting game show. I’ve never heard of anything like this, but it’s called. Wrapped and it’s on Q VVC plus and home Shopping Network Plus. Okay. Um, that’s really all that I know about it, other than he’s going to be a judge, so I am Interesting.

Interested The image looked Christmasy. Yeah, I think I don’t, I think. Because it’s wrapping paper, right? Paper. I don’t, I don’t know. Oh, maybe that’s what it was. It’s just about wrapping gif. We only had moments to make this image. I don’t know. Okay. And I [00:29:00] didn’t read all the details behind it, so there may be more facts here that I am not giving you.

Gotcha. Hang on, let me read, lemme, lemme read our own alert. Okay. Okay. So contestants tests their gift wrapping skills to win prizes. So there you go. So that’s why. Because it could be for anything. It could be a birthday. It could be a birthday. It could be Christmas. It could be Hanukkah, it could be a baby shower.

Absolutely. Anything. Anything. Anything you give gifts for. Yeah.

 Google Maps is now integrated with your Garmin.

Yeah, this is a fun update. It really it’s Peloton adjacent, you know? Yeah. But there’s a lot of people that use Garmin for sure. Um, and so I felt like it was worth mentioning. I thought it was interesting because you’re going to be able to use Google Maps right? In a Garmin smartwatch, and that means that you’re gonna have turn by turn navigation.

As you’re running. Yeah, that’s pretty darn cool. Now, there are a couple [00:30:00] things to note about this. One, you have to download it as a free download from the Connect IQ store. Only Android smartphone users can access it for now. Okay. Uh, eventually we’re gonna see some iOS apparently. And then you have to put your destination.

In Google Maps on an Android phone, and then when you do that, the com, the compatible Garmin device is gonna display walking, running, and cycling directions directly onto the watch screen. So I can’t wait to see this on. On an iOS device, but I want it on my Apple Watch. Just like that. Yeah. I wanted to do exactly that thing, but for people, this is not about me, this is about Garmin.

That is really cool. Yeah. ’cause as a person who gets lost all the time, having the ability on my watch to be like, no, no, no, no, no. Take a left girl. You’re lost. Yeah. You’re never gonna get there. That would be super helpful because I get lost so easily that you do. I know, [00:31:00] I know. Coming up after this, we’re gonna talk content.

You, you, so many classes to choose from. We’ll help you narrow it down, give you some highlights. That’s all coming up next.

 It is time for the TCO top five. You told us your favorite classes and we’ll say ’em back at you.

The first item up bid. Favorite outdoor walk. Okay, so it’s summer, so there you go. But also it’s. Rebecca Kennedy and she has a class called Summer Strut. So Helga said Rebecca can make you feel like a million dollars. You bet. I was strutting up and down my one quarter mile cul sac, like a Victoria’s Secret model, making it my runway for 30 minutes.

I owned it. So much fun. I love that. I love that. Uh, number two, your favorite yoga class. Yeah, so, BC loved this class. Uh, it was taught by Chelsea Jackson Roberts [00:32:00] on June 25th of 23, and it’s a 45 minute healthy backflow.

Uh, she. BC says, do not let the 45 minutes intimidate you. The class goes by quickly and the playlist is wonderful. Chelsea is one of my favorites, and I can’t wait to revisit this class. It was the perfect class. After a week of strength training and cycling, backflow would intimidate me. It sounds like it’s something to do with your plumbing.

No. That’s really interesting. I would’ve never went there, but thank you, Tom. That’s what I’m here for. I know. Uh, number three, your favorite ride. So Emma Lovewell taught this on July 1st. It was a 30 minute top 10 songs of summer ride and, um. I making a podcaster recommended this ride saying they were taking in the summer vibes through the playlist that Emma shared with us.

This particular playlist was on several different classes. I actually took this as a walk on my tread through what do you call it? Lane break. There we go. I was like, break away. [00:33:00] I don’t know. I can’t help you. I know the, it’s perimenopause brain. I had nothing. I was like, break outbreak, break things.

Anyway, it was a pretty fun playlist. We talked about the playlist last week. The number one song was Taylor Swift Cruel Summer. Okay. So. Uh, number four, your favorite music themed walk. Rebecca Kennedy is back and, uh, so is Jimmy Buffett. She taught a she taught a class on, well, it dropped on July 3rd and it was a 30 minute walk.

And it was an outdoor one pillow. Jace recommended this class, uh, said that they don’t typically walk or run much, but the Rebecca Kennedy Jimmy Buffet Walk was wonderful. Great insight into the individual songs and spectacular song choices. And this is coming for someone who is hyper-focused on song choice.

I give this one a 10 stars out of five. I will also say. Heard just the opposite from some other folks who really wanted all of these Jimmy Buffet [00:34:00] songs to be like the deep cuts. And so they were, they were really bummed. You know, it’d be like if you were going to a monkey’s, you know, ride and all they played was the top hits, but that’s all they would play.

That’s all they should play because they need to make it like they’re not there to expand people’s minds. They. And what I think people forget about these music, uh, collaborations, the artist collaborations is so often the artist is the one that says, play these songs right. And use this album art and use this picture of our artist.

You know? And, you know, I just, I think people forget that or don’t know it. Right. You know, so, but yeah, like if some, because I mean for the average person, if they logged onto a Jimmy Buffett class and they’re not here in cheeseburger, in Paradise. They’re gonna be mad. Yeah, that is definitely the average person.

Yeah. I don’t know any deep cuts of Jimmy Buffett. I’m not a fan, but I can assure you I only know the hits. Like if they play same, anything outside of it, I’m done. But I will also say that [00:35:00] like I know people feel the same way about, um. Grateful Dead. Yeah. Who’s that one guy that your ex-wife loved? Dave Matthews.

Yeah. I hate that guy, but like Grateful Dead and Dave Matthews. And I don’t think Dave or I don’t think Jimmy Buffett was quite the same in concert, in that the jamming well and kind of priding themselves on that set list is different for every show. I’m not super familiar with Jimmy Buffett ’cause I just can’t stand him, but, but Nikki loves him, but I know that Dave Matthews in Grateful Dead.

It’s like, it like people. Like there’s an actual like website that’s a Dave Matthews meter and it will tell you like, if he plays, like how frequently a song gets played in concert and then like if a rare one pops up, it will tell you like what percentage it is in terms of like how often you hear it.

’cause I know they were in St. Louis a few weeks ago and everybody was excited ’cause he played a song that like had like a 8% play rating and everybody was super excited ’cause they hadn’t heard the song in so long. [00:36:00] So, and Grateful Dead was the same way it was. It was never this, it’s like TJ Maxx. It’s never the same thing twice.

Well, that, that’s not how I enjoy my concerts. I have a few like artists that I’m like that about. Yeah. But I will also say I have never, like, I know that those are, I am the, the weirdo right there. And I don’t expect anyone else to want to hear those songs. Yeah. Like if I go to a Billy Joel concert, he could, it is almost impossible for him to stump me.

Mm-hmm. But but I also get like, like I love Billy Joel. I think the song Uptown Girl is Trash and they will always play it. He’s always going to play Uptown Girl and it’ll always be at the encore and it’s almost always the last song, which is great ’cause I’m like, this song is garbage. We can beat the traffic, so I’ll take that deal.

It’s funny how much you hate that song. Yeah. Hate it so much. Here’s hoping he gets to play concerts again. Got it. Amen. Hey, remember when this was the TCO top five? Oh yeah. Number five. It’s an unst. Stackable. All right, well this is the first time I’ve ever got a laugh emoji from [00:37:00] the instructor and I did.

Okay, so several people remarked on this that, uh, the two day 10 minute Britney Spears arms and weights class from June 24th was hard because tunde, it’s only 10 minutes, right? Yeah. It’s only 10 minutes. What could happen in 10 minutes? But Nicole pointed out that this class is hard because. She challenges you to go harder, so she’ll heavier.

So she’ll be like, it’s three pounds. Okay. It doesn’t sound like much. Yeah. But then she’s like, go heavier. Go heavier. Well, if you’re doing nothing but arms for 10 minutes straight and Tunde uses every second of those 10 minutes, it is going to make your arms scream. Uh, so yeah, Tunde got a real kick out of the fact that several people were like, this could be an unst stackable for your arms.

She got a real kick out of it. I just thought everybody would like to know.

So taking a look at this week in Peloton, we have a progressive push ride. [00:38:00] We do. And ironically it was taught, uh, by Ali Love, which I thought was funny ’cause she’s going to be pushing. Yeah, no, it’s good timing. Good timing. Uh, also a fun hike with John. It’s a 20 minute hike with John on, uh, that. Popped up on July 8th.

And he’s just fun. John Hosking. Yeah. Uh, and then there’s also a calming walking meditation by Mariana Fernandez, and I believe they also turned these walking meditations into a new collection. So those dropped this week as well. And then there’s also a class for swingers. No, no, no. What you were swinging into action, but it is strength and mobility.

Oh. Yeah. For the golfers? Mm-hmm. Okay. There you go. That’s a little different. It is a little different. That’s a different, uh, foursome. It absolutely is. It absolutely is.

So this is normally where we would wrap up, but we won’t wrap up because the interview are back. So people that have said and interview is here and interview is back. So people that have said that they missed the interviews, here’s [00:39:00] your chance. Here it is. Keep listening. Yes. We have metrics that will tell us if you actually did it.

If we don’t make it till the end, we’re blaming you and, and Chrissy Blackwood. And we’re gonna tell Chrissy if you didn’t listen. Yes, we’re gonna message her. We’re gonna tell her each person and be like, sorry Chrissy, you just didn’t cut it. No, but. In all seriousness though, um, if you’ve ever wondered about High Rocks, the popularity about it, how it works, uh, what exactly it involves the training for it, and is it full of douchey men, like, all of those questions are answered.

It was a really fun interview. Absolutely. So here you go.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Okay. Do you still know how I don’t join us via the magic of Skype? A Zuma phone too? I don’t know. Is that what it was? Sure. Okay. On the hotline. It’s Chrissy Blackwood. Hey, Chrissy. How’s it going? Something tells me you’ve done this much more frequently than I have or much more recent.

[00:40:00] Hello. It’s great to see you both again. It’s good to see you again too. Uh, we, we were looking back to see the first time we interviewed you, it was all the way back in episode 63. I didn’t, I did not look to see when the second time was, but that is just crazy to me that it’s. It’s been that long. It’s been that long.

We were babies. We, I still had hair. It was before COVID, it was before my mid forties. It was before me perimenopause. It was, so much has changed. It was before I exercised. It was before you, before tonal. Crystal. Before your marathon. Like, yeah. Changed. Oh, okay. Well, tears a little bit, but, uh, so I, I don’t know.

Do you even still do Peloton? You’re still doing Peloton? I do, I don’t do the bike. Why do you sound sad about it? I did. You’re like, I do. It really, it hurts me a little bit. I did, I don’t know, like my third 3000 or something ride probably a month or so ago. Okay. With Jen Sherman, you know, ’cause I, I love Jen and she even made a comment.

She’s like, holy [00:41:00] shit, Chrissy. Like, I wasn’t even sure you were still riding. And I was like sitting at home. You’re like, I don’t really, but like I managed to get this one. But yeah, I don’t do the bike so much anymore. I’m always on my tread though. Always. Yeah. Yeah. Um, especially now that it’s a thousand degrees outside.

Right. It’s miserable. It’s awful. Yeah. So, um, I do spend a lot of time in the tread. I don’t do as much of the classes per se. Yeah. Um, but I love the quality of the treadmill. I’m, and I will always be a huge lover of the brand and all things Peloton, but I wish I was doing the bike and the regular thing with the community stuff more often, but.

Now I’m onto a little bit of a different chapter. Yeah. And, and I, I have so many questions about this. Okay. Hydros, not hydros because a lot of people wanna write hydros and I want to eat hydros. I don’t blame you. Yeah. Hydros are delicious and, and I will say my phone likes to autocorrect to hydrox instantly.

Wait, what? Okay. Where did it come from? What is it? Is it just CrossFit in disguise? Tell us all the things. We have so [00:42:00] many questions. Well, I’m still relatively new to it as well, so like, don’t, you know, consider what I say with, you know, that frick value. She’s, she’s afraid. People who have been doing it for a long time are gonna hear this and then be like, well, well actually, you’re like, clearly she’s a rookie.

Doesn’t no idea what she’s talking about. Let me mansplain it to you. I understand it. This whole thing started back in Germany. Like 2017, something like that, and is relatively new to the us Okay. But it has exploded in Europe and Austria and all over the globe, but it’s been a little bit slower here. I found out about it last year when I was in New York City.

Robin Arza posted, you know, her thing and I was like, that’s for me. Like I love pushing my, I love new challenges. I’m like, this is, this seems like a new level of crazy for me. And then I started looking into it. Just really got enamored and encouraged and inspired by the, the idea of merging running, which is I love the [00:43:00] most with like strength and station work.

Like so similar to you guys. I bought the tonal years ago, like love tonal, but I don’t, I don’t enjoy strength training. Yeah. And because of that I keep getting injured. I broke my heel. I broke my hip. Like I’ve had so many running related injuries and I know in my head it’s because I’m not spending the time.

Doing the strength work and like, I’m not getting any younger. Yeah. So anyway, it just, it created a, like an inspiration for me to merge what I love, which is running with what I need, which is strength work and muscular endurance. And so that’s, so a little bit of the history, it’s a more asserted in back in Europe, it’s now taking wildfire in the United States.

Um, the tickets go on sale and they’re sold out in minutes. And essentially what it is. Is it’s eight stations of different muscular endurance type of work separated by one KI eight, one kilometer runs. So you start out of the gate, you do, [00:44:00] and every course is a little bit different. So might, it might not be exactly one kilometer, but at the end of the day you end up running a full eight kilometers regardless how they chunk it up.

But you start. Then there’s eight different stations. So the first one is like a thousand uh, meters on the skier, and then you run another one K, and then you go to a sled push, and you do that for 50 meters. And that one for women, it’s 170 or 225 pounds. For minute it’s 335 anyway. Then you go station by station, all separated by these runs.

But it’s very humbling because like at the end you do a hundred wall balls and like when you look at a wall ball individually, oh. What is a wall ball? I don’t know what that means. It’s literally like a medicine ball and you squat down and you throw it at a target. You have to do it a hundred times. A hundred is on purpose.

So many. So many. I know. I Especially when that’s the last station. After you’ve done, are your arms just dead? Because I feel like everything’s dead. Yeah. [00:45:00] Everything. But she’s like, it’s okay. ’cause by then you wanna be. Yeah. And then you know what, as soon as you’re done, you sign up for the next one and you over again.

Oh my gosh. Okay. How do you, how do you practice for that? It’s not like you have, I mean, I guess you could have a wall ball and a A wall, but how do you, like, you probably don’t have like a skier or the sled dog thing. What? I don’t know what that was. Sled pusher. Sled pusher. This year is the technical term.

Yes, you’re right. Well, the thing is like what’s helpful is if you can find a local High Rocks affiliate gym. And again, so this is new, right? Oh, that’s how they get you. Yeah. So when I started looking this up there, there weren’t, and then like I, because I had signed up for my first race, then they start sending you sort of email updates and then Functional Fitness, which is a gym near my house start, they became a high rilla and started offering classes.

And so. You start going to classes and they’ve got all the equipment. [00:46:00] Okay. And for me, like one of the many reasons why I loved Peloton and then I got into triathlon and I love my Rev three team, like I love this sense of community and it also brings that and so like group at set, like every Saturday morning we all get together.

Then there’s our cross it Fairfax, they do it on Sundays and Wednesday nights and you just, you get to know people and you’re all learning this new sport together. Playing with equipment that you’ve never played, where I had never played with. And so that’s kind of how it all sort of transpired. So I ended up last, oh my gosh, it was probably not even this time last year, they had announced the High Rocks in Chicago.

And knowing how things went with New York and how fast it sold out, I jumped on the tickets right away, but not knowing if I would ever, if I could really do it, you know, I was like, lemme just get a ticket. Like I can always sell it if I need to. Then it kind of all started, I found the classes, I found, you know, my local friends that are now friends in my community and, and here we are now.

I’ve done four of them. I was gonna say. [00:47:00] Because you once, once you decide to do something, you d you go all in. You are you. You know, not, not unlike Hydrox when you have them, you can’t have just one. That’s right. You can’t just have one. That should be their logo. There’s a theme here, Tom. I said, I think we’re going with this.

So I was just curious. I like, I went to the website and plugged in our zip code. I was like, are there any around us? Oh, I’m curious. And, uh, and some new Crunch Fitness have one. I don’t think so. I think they just have crunches. They just opened, I thought maybe. Yeah. But there’s, uh, an F 45 in Ellisville. Oh.

And then, and I thought this was funny. The next one is CrossFit Wildwood. Oh, so there’s like a CrossFit that’s like, yeah, we’ll do that. Okay. So, so how does CrossFit work with. Like, are they enemies? Are they frenemies? Like what is, what is that? This is very interesting. So my husband is a CrossFit guy.

I’ve [00:48:00] never been into that. I Olympic lifts scare the hell outta me. Like I’m not doing, like I don’t the barbell snatch, I’m not doing any of that. But it’s been interesting because like our CrossFit Fairfax now, they’re a High Rocks affiliate and there’s some controversy because some of the like old school CrossFitters think high rocks is like the.

Easy way out. It’s like, ugh, like CrossFit light. Uh, really because I’ve seen these competitions. There’s nothing easy about it. There’s nothing easy, definitely nothing easy, but it’s just, you know, it’s, it’s not as technical, it’s not as complicated. Like you don’t need to be doing muscle ups. Like these are sandbag lunges, like everyone, and, and they call it, I think they call it the fitness race for everybody.

Like it’s really hard, but. It’s not technical. Like anybody can do a wall ball, anyone can do a squat. Anyone can do the rower for the most part. So it’s just a little more accessible to everybody. Okay. Okay. Well, it hasn’t, CrossFit had some controversies, [00:49:00] well, they, a lot of controversy that, uh, that people have, like some CrossFit gyms have kind of dropped the CrossFit.

So like, I wonder if some of those. CrossFit gyms who no longer wanted to be associated with the brand, maybe pivoted, which allowed high rocks to maybe get a little bit more footing than they would have normally. Yeah. I think from a business model, it would make sense If you owned a CrossFit gym and there’s controversy and people getting injured or whatever it might be, and there’s this new rapidly growing race venue, like I, I think it’s a good business opportunity to, to jump on to.

So I don’t know, but. Are the gyms really broey? I feel like they, they would be like, I feel like I would be intimidated to go into these, like whenever I hear it, like F 45, that’s like, they’re like, you know, like anytime I ever see somebody repping an F 45 around here, it’s always like some muscly guy wearing, you know, one of those, those.

Particular hats. You know what I’m talking about? Yeah, I do. Yeah. [00:50:00] Crystal, that’s what I picture. Well, I show you. I, I thought the same thing and, and at least in my experience, it’s the opposite, like the Saturday classes, like there might, there’s usually like one or two guys that are there, really all women.

And even the CrossFit gym, like for the most part, like. It’s a lot of women. Um, why that is, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the men are more drawn to the traditional CrossFit Olympic lift stuff and maybe the females, again, find this a little more accessible. I, I don’t know, but I was also surprised by the volume of the female to male ratio is very heavily tilted, at least in my experience to the women in my area.

That’s fascinating also. Now I’m curious why, why are so, so for you? The draw is that it’s something different. You’re getting to push your body in different ways, which makes total sense to me. But I find it super interesting that so many of the Peloton instructors are into [00:51:00] it all of a sudden. And I’m like, does this mean something?

You know, does it mean there’s gonna be some crossover? Does it mean that they’re looking for more. Challenges in their lives. Does it just mean they wanted to do something different too? I mean, I know you can’t answer for them, but I’m just curious what your thoughts are, but make something up. Yeah, make up.

That’s what we do. Yeah. I worked at Peloton. No, I. Because the Pelotons platform is very versatile. They have the strength classes, they have the cardio classes, they have the running, whatever. So all of this does naturally. And the rowing, by the way, ’cause you still have to row a thousand meters. Yeah, that’s, no, that’s not short.

There is a lot of overlap between what Peloton teaches versus how you actually then race that. So like you, you typically, when you’re, when you ride the bike, I, I look over, ’cause I’m looking at my bike screen. When you, when you ride the bike, like there’s not like a Peloton bike race. Like you can do bike races, you can do triathlons, whatever.

And the same with running, [00:52:00] but this really blends all of Pelotons classes into something you can race. And the environment is so fun. It is just such a fun atmosphere, especially the one in New York on the pier. It was like, it was absolutely amazing. It’s just so, it’s fun and it’s just, it’s so healthy.

It’s so much healthier for me just because of all the strength components Yeah. That I’ve been neglecting for so many years. Okay. And they’re probably like, I’m already in peak physical condition. Let me not, I might as well go win a contest like I am a trivia nights. Right. Yeah, that’s true. Is just like that.

I already know all the stuff. I might as well write down a few and walk out with $50 and. Sports bar gift cards. Yeah, it’s, yeah. Or on a cruise that’ll never go to cruise. These little tiny medals they give you, which are so silly. And then people will wanna beat you up because you won. Yeah. So is it, is it really competitive at High Rock?

Speaking of, oh, it’s gotta be. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it certainly [00:53:00] can be. I, you know, I’m not taking any podiums. I’d love to at some point, but like, I feel like I’m still kind of learning, learning. There’s, there’s a lot to learn and it, it, even though I said it’s like. These are functional sort of exercise that everyone can do.

There’s such technique and skill that’s very personal to how you, to your biomechanics, to what you’re to. If you’re better with, with, you know, your aerobic capacity versus your muscular endurance. Like there is a lot that’s very personal that you’ve gotta just experiment with and, and learn through. But is it competitive?

Yes. They have the world championships were just what, last weekend or two weekends ago in Chicago. Like, this is getting national, like real. Thing they’re talking about it having a beat go to the Olympics. Oh, wow. So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s getting a lot of traction. Again, it’s, it’s had a lot of traction in different countries, but it’s new to us, but it’s really growing incredibly fast.

But they do have professional fields. They have the Elite 15, which is like the best of the best. And these people are [00:54:00] absolutely insanely strong and fast. Yes, it is. And people are making a career out of it. Wow. Which is relatively new. They were just had normal jobs, you know, back a couple years ago doing this for fun because you do get paid if you win, if you’re in the elite class.

But they, it’s been so lucrative for them and they’ve gotten so many sponsors that now that they are professional high rocks. So there the whole time, I think there’s our answer to the last question, which is if you’re a Peloton instructor Oh, you’re like, well, there’s money if I win and I can pick up new sponsors.

That’s true. And I’m, I’m already positioned where I’m probably gonna be pretty good at this. Yeah, that’s true. You know, you’re not wrong. We’re not wrong. But I did see Robin in Chicago we’re both in the warmup area. Like she, she seems to like be really into it. Yeah, I was curious about that. And, and did she like.

Talk to you. Was she or was she like in the zone? You know, like she was like, don’t talk to me. No, she was good. She was good. I, but because, you know, she was warm. She was in WA wave, I think two ways before me, so I [00:55:00] had a little more time than she did. So I just, I made it brief, but I just, you know, it was nice to like just chat with her, whatever.

But it was cool because High Rock, be, because the run course that you’re on, it’s just a big loop. So I saw her every run that I was on. And Drew was there taking pictures. And so I’m like high fiving Drew as I’m running to like, pretending like he knows who I am and he, but like, you know, it’s, um, you’ve taken the pair of social relationship to the next level.

Well done. Is that a competition? Does High Rock do something about with that? She, they know who she is. Ta aspect of it couldn’t be better because you can. So like we had our, the regional championships were in Washington DC which is right near where I live. And so, you know, my husband did the relay. My son was there and like, can, he can watch you every station and every run.

They just have to move, you know? Oh, you mean like if you were a spectator, you wouldn’t have to like drive all over Manhattan to watch some of the activities? [00:56:00] That’s one time, Tom, it was one time.

I remember when I ran the Boston Marathon a bunch of years ago, like he, it was the torrential downpour, and Nino was trying to find like she was dry, like, but she couldn’t find me. And it, it was like the biggest pain because like with Marathon, like, you know how it’s with marathons, like you’re lucky if you see the person one time and it’s for, you know, a few seconds and then they’re off.

But this, you as a spectator, you get to watch all of it. That’s really cool. That is cool. And I will say you’re a a lot faster than I am of a runner. So you’re surrounded by people when you run. When I run it’s like it’s pretty easy to find me. They gave her more crystal. Not anymore. They gave her a broom and they were like, Hey, while you’re back there, if you could, I’ll just clean up on my way.

Sleeping on the couch tonight.

Hey, it’s the only way I could catch up. I wouldn’t have even seen her the two times the word for that.

I know. I know that you feel like you’ve [00:57:00] gotten slower, and perhaps you have, but I still, I would still say you’re faster than I am. Like it’s it. Yeah. But regardless, you’re having a great time. That’s the important thing. Now I wanna go back to these tickets because I think it was one of the instructors, I feel like it was Benny, but I’m not sure, posted that he couldn’t get tickets to go.

And so you said they sell out so fast. Why do they make, like, is it so few of them? Is it people from all over the country or all over the world coming to all of them? Like if it’s in Chicago, people in Germany are coming. Is it like that? Like why are there, why is it so hard? It is. I, I mean, I would speculate it’s mostly the geography that you’re close to that’s selling them out the quickest.

But especially for the United States, like right now, there’s only like three on the calendar for Oh, for the us and so if you were to look through, like on the High Rock site, they kind of list all the, the places that they have, the races, which by the way are awesome. Another added bonus of like, talk about an excuse to go someplace [00:58:00] great.

Like they have, they’re in amazing locations. Mm-hmm. So once they become available, because it is an indoor venue for the most part. New York was not indoors, but there is only so many stations. There’s only so many judges. Like, so it’s not like you can have unlimited number of people. Sure. So they do have to cap it and it just, it’s like I said, it’s just catching.

It’s crazy. The demand that is, are these like at arenas or at convention centers? Where are they doing these convention centers. Okay. But they’re talking about doing more of them in stadiums, which will be really interesting. But yeah, so the ones that I’ve done, I’ve, I did Chicago, which was at the Navy Pier, which was at a convention center kind of like thing.

I did the one in DC which was at the convention center here. Atlanta was also a convention center, and then New York was the pier, which New York. My favorite. My favorite. Amazing. A lot of controversy about the New York one, but why? Why? Because it was out, it’s outdoors. So, [00:59:00] you know, you run the risk of humidity and heat.

And I guess last year when they did it, it was really hot. Mm-hmm. Um, this year it was probably like, I think mid seventies or something, but there was a breeze. I thought the weather was perfect. But the sleds, it depended on where you were. Some of them were moving. Were very heavy. Um, and the carpets were very wet, so people were slipping and like hitting their face on the, the center pole.

And I thought the sleds were a dream. They just pushed like super and pulled very easy for me. Um, but I think I got lucky. I got a lucky lane, but, um, I, I, absolutely, and to see like the Peloton people and just like. My cousin did it because I’m from New York. Like, it just, it was really special. Really fun.

It sounds like it. It sounds like it. And I did it with like, with my best friend, who Aw. Has also done marathons with me. And, but she just was, she was a former CrossFitter and I was like, I really think you’d like this. Yeah. But she didn’t really train for it. And we both did open races, but we stayed together.

[01:00:00] So I wanted to, but she, she hasn’t really done this before. She wasn’t very happy with me at the end. She’s like, I will never do this thing, but that quickly, like after like five minutes, she’s like, let’s, what are we doing with the next one? The other thing, I’ll meet you at the end. Yeah, so that mean it’s special too.

So for a lot of reasons, I love the New York one. No, that makes sense. Well, yeah, for the most part, Tom, they’re, they are in convention centers, but they’re looking to expand. The one they do in Berlin is at that retire, I’ll screw, I’ll butcher the name, but it’s like the retired. Airport that’s out there, and it was like torrential rain.

I mean, that was, I don’t know how, I dunno how you’d throw wall balls in torrential rain, but they, they managed their way through it. But for the most part, it is convention center, but they’re talking about moving it to stadiums, which should be. Even cooler for spectators. Yeah. How long is this, like how long does it take?

I mean, I know you can only speak to your, what, how long it takes you or the average person, but I’m just curious how long of an event the, the best of the best are doing it in like 50 minutes. [01:01:00] Um, geez. And the relays are like 48 minutes for me. My very first one in Chicago was over an hour and 40 minutes, and I’m chipping away.

I’m getting better. I’m down to like 1 37. I’ve got high hopes to continue to improve, but like I said, there’s so much like. Technique and practice and pacing. Yeah, because I, I know we haven’t talked about the individual stations, but like one of them as an example is a hundred meters of sandbag lunges.

So you’ve got a sandbag on your back and you don’t think the weight feels heavy. Your first 20. Sure. But when you get to like 90, there’s your legs are burn, everything’s burning, and then you have to run. And do more stations after that. So it’s a lot of learning around how to like hate yourself. Yeah.

Yeah. What do you think is your, your best station? Like what is like that’s the, the most fun for you? The most fun, I would probably say the sleds. [01:02:00] I’ve got Peloton legs that said nothing. They tend to, the sleds tend to come easier. They’re, they tend to be by easier stations, and so the, the first station is the ski erg for a thousand meters.

The second is sled push for 50. So it’s depending on the course is typically down back, down, back. Then you run again, and then the third station is sled pole, and it’s also typically down back, down back. Those two just tend, maybe it’s just because they’re earlier in the race. Maybe it’s ’cause of Peloton legs, I don’t know.

But those tend to be my easier stations. Um, so I really, I do enjoy those. What’s the one you dread? Yeah, burpee broad jumps. You the Oh yeah, I do. 80 meters of burpee, broad jumps is like. Absolute torture. That and the lunges, I are the ones that I struggle with the most. Do. Is there somebody watching your form?

Because I Oh, oh yeah. I can’t do a burpee correctly to save my life, so I’m just like this, [01:03:00] this would never work, you know, but, so somebody’s like, oh, you didn’t do that one, right? Go do the go back. Correct. Oh, well, somebody just recently changed, like as of like two days ago, they changed the rules, but like, as an example for, um, some of the stations, it would be a distance penalty.

So if you. If your hands were more than a foot past your feet when you went down for your burpee, they could bring you back meters and make you do them again. And there are judges that are like standing there and they’re marking where your feet are so that they can, you know, confirm that your hands are the appropriate distance.

So like, like I said, as much as it’s functional fitness that everybody can do, there is a lot of technique. There are rules, there are standards that you have to abide by that make it a little. A little complicated, but yeah, every station there’s judges, but as of the other day, they just recently changed the rules for this upcoming season.

The, the high rock season is not, doesn’t follow a calendar year. It’s like mid-year to, [01:04:00] it’s like the middle of the year to the middle of the next year. So like, we just finished this season with the World Championships in Chicago, which was two weeks ago. So it’s, we’re kind of in the, a bit of, a little bit of an off season and then it goes for the next whatever.

So they just announced the rules for this next season. Now the penalties will be time-based. So like as another one of the stations is 200 meters of farmers carry. Okay. And one of the rules are like if you don’t put the kettlebells down with the handles upright, or if they tip over or if you throw, like you would have to like come back and fix it.

And now they’re saying, instead of having you come back, it’ll just be, they’re gonna tack on 20 seconds of your time. So, I dunno, I, to me like.

The less reps that you can do like being pulled back for burpee, broad jumps is hell, because 80 meters of that is like soul sucking and you don’t wanna have to do any more than you have to. What is even the form for a burpee broad jump? I’m picturing like [01:05:00] you start, do you have to jump like you’re trying to, to pull your hands out in front of your feet and then bring your feet to your hands as a jump?

Is that what you’re trying to do? Well, you’re gonna drop your hands down to wherever your, within a foot of your feet. Okay. Then you’re gonna drop your feet back. Okay. And your chest has to touch the ground. Oh. So it’s also a pushup, you know, because then you gotta push yourself up, get your feet up to where your hands are, jump as far as you can, because the further you jump, the less burpees you have to do.

And then, and do it on repeat for 80 meters. And do you feel like having started High Rocks, and you’ve been doing this for about a year, a little over. A little over a year, do you feel like your fitness has improved? Hugely. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Everything just feels I more coordinated, I guess. Like you don’t get like some of the, you know, aches and pains or whatnot.

Like I’ve, I’ve al I feel like I always, I met the [01:06:00] physical therapist for one little thing or another, and I haven’t been in a, in a while, which has been nice. So I just think it’s, it’s making me enjoy the strength training and the accessory work and all the stuff that nobody has time for. It makes me enjoy it, so I’m making more time for it.

So I do, I do think it, it has helped. And when I think about how, like just my two worst, my two stations that I dread the most, the burpee bar gyms and the lunges, like how that felt the first time I did it in Chicago versus how it felt in New York is night and day different. Really? Um, and that’s awesome because like, I thought I was gonna die and this one I’m like, I’ve like totally got this.

I might be slow, but I’m surviving. Like this is a okay. That’s awesome. That is awesome. I, uh, I guess just we, we keep our interviews a lot shorter than we used to now, so I wanna, I wanna let you tell us what is something that you wish everybody knew about High Rocks. [01:07:00] How the, I think maybe just the thing that I have learned the most is you think.

You’re an endurance athlete, or just because you run a lot of miles or you spend a lot of time on the bike and your aerobic engine could be awesome, but muscular endurance is a whole different thing. I, I went in kind of like cocky of like, this is, oh, like it’s gonna take me an hour and a half. Like, no big deal.

I’ve done like much longer events. And then as soon as you start doing some of these stations and the lactate builds up in your legs, like it’s a whole different. Version of endurance. Then I, I’m just used to aerobic endurance. I’m a slow twitch person, and this is like working on fast twitch fibers and it was just, it’s like a whole, it’s like, it feels like a whole new world to me.

So I would just say like if you’re really, depending on what your background is and what you like to do, again, I love endurance sports, but this is like a whole new level of endurance [01:08:00] that I think has just helped me grow strength. It’s helped me just with power with. I don’t know all the things that are, that I just have been neglecting for so long.

So I love it. And again, it’s like this sense of community because again, it’s, there’s so few in the United States, so like now you’re seeing the same people. And now, like with the gyms that I work with and ex ergo and everybody else, like we’re, we’re, we’re coordinating these races together. And that’s just, I don’t know, it makes it so much, it’s, it’s just a lot of fun.

That’s really cool. That’s awesome. And they do, it’s not only just open race, so you can do your own race. Oh. But you can also do relays. So there can be four. So you split up all of it with four people. You can also do doubles and you can split it up with two people. So it just, again, it makes it more accessible to everybody.

If you just want like a fun, if you wanna do like a couple’s event. So you and Tom with another couple don’t, mixed couples don’t even. That would be Crystal will [01:09:00] talk we’ll, okay. Yeah. Okay. If you wanna do it with, as a couple I, we’re gonna talk like it’s an open marriage for ex for exercise purposes.

We’re now poly. The guy rocks is exploding. Huh? That’s a different kind of explosion. Just saying. Just saying. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Chrissy, thank you so much for Yes, thank you. Yeah, thank you for walking us through that and helping us understand just what the hell it is. Yes. Yeah, we greatly appreciate it. Well, before we let you go, uh, give everybody your leaderboard name in case you ever get on the bike again.

And, uh, and tell everybody where they can find you. She’s on the tread. They get to find her on the leaderboard. If I’m on the tread, I am. If you would like to be found. I’m, I’m the same everywhere. It’s Chrissy Blackwood. Uh, it’s on Peloton. It’s on Instagram, it’s Facebook, like it’s all the same. But yeah, it’s, you’ll, you’ll see all sorts of my fun little rece updates and different things, [01:10:00] different adventures that I’m having in this new little high rocks world that I’m living in these days.

I love seeing it. I love, see, I’m living vicariously through you. I’m, I’m like, Ooh, look how fun that looks. That looks so neat. I wanna know all about it. So. Good. Well, anytime you have questions to you or any of the listeners or whatever, I’d be happy to share my experiences and. What I know, but also recognizing I’m still kind of new in this whole thing, but really enjoying it.

And I’m ex, I’m, I’m thrilled to see the, uh, level of, you know, appreciation and attention it’s getting across the country and how fast these things are selling out. It’s wild. It is wild. Yeah. To see something grow that fast. For sure. It’s so funny how fitness trends come in and come out and Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s also just funny that we’ve.

Known each other in fitness world that long to see this many trends, this many, this many things. I apology you through, through Iron Mans and your marathons, and you’re going to all the world majors and now I’m following you through [01:11:00] your a amazing High Rocks journey as well. I guess we have to start a High Rocks podcast.

Yeah, that’s next. I don’t do that either. Why not? I do believe you gave me credit for inventing the tread many years ago, so I don’t know like. Find a way. There you go. I love it. I love it.

That was super helpful information. It was. I learned things. I think I’ve already forgotten them be, but I did learn them ever so briefly.

I’ll also say for anybody who is interested, Chrissy Blackwood also told me she made her own. Tonal workouts to train for high rocks, and she’s willing to share those with anybody who is interested in them. So if you have a tonal and you would like her to share those workouts, you reach out to her on social media.

You got it. Oh, that’s really nice. Isn’t that nice of her? Awesome. Well, that brings this episode to a close. Until next time, where can people find you? People can find me on Facebook at facebook.com/crystal d O’Keefe. They can find me on threads and. The butterfly. Blue sky. Blue sky, yeah. And they can also find me on [01:12:00] Instagram and the Peloton leaderboard at Clip Out Crystal.

And you can find me on Threads in Blue Sky at Tom O’Keefe Jr. Or on Facebook at facebook.com/tom O’Keefe. You can find the show online at facebook.com/the clip out. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon, all sorts of bonus content, and we like you a little extra. So that’s it for this one.

Thanks for tuning in, and until next time, keep paddling and running and rowing. Bye