153: Live Classes Are BACK! plus our interview with Zach Honig

Last Updated: January 18, 2023By Crystal OKeefe (#ClipOutCrystal)Tags: Back-To-Back Rides, Exercising On The Road, Motivation To Ride, Peloton Bike, Peloton Community, Personal Fitness

Live classes are back as instructors begin teaching from their homes.

KOIN interviews a Peloton delivery person about delivering bikes during the crisis.

Peloton announces when their 3rd Quarter fiscal results will be revealed.

NBC/Universal sells off half of their Peloton stock.

24 Hour Fitness is eyeing bankruptcy.

Eric Villency of VR Optics infamy might have an invention to help spot sick people.

Ben & Leanne are officially a couple.

Crystal talks about her Fight Camp journey.

Updates on the Peloton rower.

Denis Morton was on the Today Show.

Jezebel talks about Robin Arzon’s infinite supply of cardigans.

There’s a nice blog post about how Peloton prepared someone for their public relations work.

The Peloton blog talks about why couples should workout together.

A runner in Boston has a Strava typo.

E Online spotlights Alex Toussaint.

You can still enter to win a Tonal but your running out of chances.

Tom Holland talks about Peloton on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

There’s a new collection for Moms in the boutique.

Lots of new IG Live series from the instructors.

Kristin McGee has a meditation featured on Women’s Health Magazine website.

Matt Wilpers interviewed Christian Van Velde

Alex makes a surprise visit to Jenn Sherman’s house…from a safe distance.

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Watch the episode:

Listen to the podcast here:

Live Classes Are BACK! plus our interview with Zach Honig

I was going to say it’s been a busy week, but it hasn’t. There’s nowhere to go or anything to do.

We’ve got lots going on.

We have lots to talk about but there’s not like the, “Go, go, go.”

We have a different routine established now. We’re not leaving every five minutes, but we’re starting to build other things in on a regular basis. It feels back to our normal busy-ness level.

It will be interesting to see what it feels like whenever we start doing whole things.

A lot of people have talked about the fact that this is a good opportunity, as you bring things back into your life, to really take a look at do you need them? I think that’s true.

Let me cut to the chase. Do I make the cut?

Of course, you do.

What do you have in store for people this week?

We’re going to talk about all kinds of things. The Peloton instructors are now teaching from home. We have an interview that happened with a delivery worker that works for Peloton and has been continuing to deliver bikes. That’s not our interview. It’s an article that we’re going to talk about. I made it sound like it was our interview, I’m just clarifying. Basically, tons of news articles about all kinds of things, things that are going on with Peloton. We’ve got stock news. We’ve got more drama with the whole Peloton lawsuit deal that we have to talk through and explain. We’ve got some Peloton romance to talk about. A whole bunch of things that the instructors are up to these days. We also have a celebrity sighting for Peloton.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget where available on Apple Podcasts where you can go rate, review, subscribe. While you’re there or wherever you’re getting your podcast, be sure and subscribe so you never miss an episode or follow. Check out our Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. It’s a great way to stay up to date with things throughout the week or when we schedule a Zoom call. You will be able to have that populate in your Facebook feed. You can leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. We have a new review. This is from #Katielawlaw. She says, “I look forward to The Clip Out each week to get my Peloton nerd on with Crystal and Tom. It makes my commute fly by and I always learn new and interesting tidbit about this awesome community.”

I wonder if Katie is still listening to us. She said she listens during her commute. She might be commuteless.

She left this review on my birthday, so that was nice. I guess that’s all of that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

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Live classes have returned?

Yes, in a little bit different form and fashion because everything’s different these days. Starting on April 22nd, we had our first live classes from home. Robin Arzon taught the very first one on the Bike. Right after that, there was a class on the Tread. Then Aditi Shah did Meditation. I hopped on the Bike class and I wanted to see for myself what that was like. I’ve got to say it was pretty good. I didn’t realize how much I had missed riding with other people that were live at the exact same time. There were 25,000 people on. I’m not the only one that missed it. I had so many high-fives, I could not keep up. They were rolling in. I was riding with over 300 people that I follow. It was wonderfully insane and it was a good message. At one point Robin said, “Do you forgive yourself for not doing everything? Do you forgive yourself for not being able to do all the things? When we zoom out and we look at this point in our lives, this is going to be a story that we’re all going to remember. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing enough, so be easy on yourself because everybody’s going through different things.” I thought it was a good message. It was a message I can always hear. That was great to hear.

How much advanced notice did they give people? Was it just like, “We’re doing a live ride in ten, 1, 2, 3, go?”

Typically, they have a preproduction period, which is about two to three minutes before they go live. None of that occurred. It was just like, “Okay, we’re starting,” and she did a count down.

I mean, how much advanced notice do they give for people in terms of saying, “Live rides are coming back. Here’s when your first one will be?”

The official notice went out the day before. It went out on Tuesday saying, “Starting tomorrow, we’re getting new classes.”

People had about 24 hours to put it into their schedule.

I really think that these classes are going to continue to be packed. There’s an article that The Verge came out with to talk about this too. They talked about the fact that it’s going to be focused on the morning classes, but Peloton expects to resume having more classes that you would expect to see, like their evening primetime classes as this adjust. In the coming weeks, there will be more classes added. If you look at the schedule now, they only have classes scheduled out through Sunday after that, it’s blank. My guess is that the following week might have some more options on it. I think they’re doing a pilot test to see how this all goes.

Even if someone has a Bike, they probably still have to other equipment in their house that interfaces with their system. They’re probably still trying to get more instructor set up.

I think that’s true. I know that there are many of you out there begging for this to happen, so it’s there. Let me tell you that there’s also a huge contingent of people that have to bitch about something. They did not feel that the music was perfect. It wasn’t, just to be clear. It wasn’t during Robin’s ride. It was up and down, sometimes it was really loud. Sometimes it was pretty quiet. I did not take the running class, although I expect to take a class tomorrow morning. My understanding is that on Beck’s class that you could barely hear the volume. It was pretty bad. Some people couldn’t hear it at all. It was just her dancing and playing air guitar without music. I think there’s going to be a little bit of trial and error here while they get all the kinks worked out and people need to give them a second.

They are literally reinventing wheel. You’ve got to give them a little room to breathe there.

Most people were supportive, but you know how it is. The complainers are always the one that everybody sees. It’s the one that gets the most attention. From Peloton too, I’m sure they’re going to be looking at those comments. If they’re reading, I want them to know I thought they did a great job. You’re doing the best with what you have and keep doing that. To all of you people who complain, knock it off. They don’t read this anyway. Who are we joking? Who are we kidding?

There was an interesting news piece where they interviewed someone who is delivering Peloton during this trying time. What did they have to say?

They kept his name in, Erik Pfisterer. He talked about how it’s been very busy and he said that it feels like a catch-22 because all the experts are telling people to not go out, but he’s had to go out more than ever because it’s so busy. He said that before, they were going in, interacting with people for an hour, setting them up, making sure they were comfortable. Now, they’re assembling it in their van. They’re dropping it off on the porch or the garage. They go in the first doorway, but they’re not allowed more than five feet in the home. It changes the dynamic.

He also talks about, in general, how it’s changing things about his life. He’s not able to see his family. At Easter, for example, he kept away from his family. He ate separately than everybody else because his dad was there, he’s older and so at risk. Since he’s out in public, he didn’t want to put him in any danger. He can’t give his parents a hug, that kind of thing. He said that he’s getting a lot of positive feedback. He said somebody stopped him on the street and said, “Thank you for still doing this. We’re getting a lot of joy out of your products.” He said that people have been sending Venmo instead of tips. He said that because they still want to make sure that they get tipped, instead of handing them money, that’s how they’re choosing to do it. They had somebody that actually stood up far away from them and tossed some tip money on them. He was like, “It was weird, but I appreciated it.” I thought that was a really good read. It’s nice to hear from the average everyday worker who has to continue to go out and deliver for all of us. If you’re out there reading, we appreciate it.

I’m glad that they talked about the tipping aspect because I was wondering if they were still getting tips or if people were using that as an excuse like, “I did interact with them. What are you going to do?” I’m glad that people are still taking care of him, especially when they’re delivering in the middle of a pandemic.

When we get groceries delivered, I’ve been heaping on quite a hefty tip for people because I feel like they’re out there literally risking their lives. That’s the very least that I can do.

Peloton has announced their third quarter financials.

It’s official. It will be the week after Homecoming. You’re going to see those financials come out on May 6th. Officially, they will do their call on May 6th at 5:00 PM Eastern. I’ll be listening. I believe that is on a Wednesday. We’ll be able to get all the details just in time for us to record that night.

That was nice of them.

They usually do big announcements on Thursdays or Fridays, so it was really good of them to go ahead and schedule it when we record. Thanks a lot, Peloton.

My prediction is this will be the last time they do that. I think we need to stop calling it Homecoming and start calling it Home staying. It’s the Peloton staycation.

It’ll be back to normal next year, 2021, fingers crossed. I’m hoping, I’m just assuming. I’m going to go ahead and make it so. People say that if you say things, you can will it into existence. That’s what I’m doing.

While we’re talking about financial stuff, NBCUniversal, which owns a large stake of Peloton now owns less of a large stake.

They sold a half of their stake. They sold $178 million worth of Peloton this week. That says a lot about how good Peloton is doing because it’s up enough that it’s made money. They thought it was a good time to do that.

Is that what that means? I don’t know how to read into that.

It’s also that they’ve been an investor for a long time. They had early shares and all that good stuff. I think that they made money because they had early shares. They had some of those options long before it was public. I’m pretty sure that’s the real reason. We’re not financial advisors, so I could be totally wrong about all of that.

I would think that they would want to maintain a good chunk of the company since it’s doing well. I don’t really know how to read that. Plus at the same time, they have those early shares. It’s up. Get some liquidity, especially in these uncertain times. Nobody seems panicked about it. The experts don’t seem panicked about it, so I must be okay.

This week, the stock market analysts are very down about Peloton. They’re very fickle.

We’re shifting into our next story, 24 Hour fitness.

24 Hour fitness is now weighing bankruptcy. They’re not sure what they’re going to do. They’re looking at all of their options. Given the state of the economy and given the state of everybody being at home, they might have to bite the bullet.

Does it say like is this the bankruptcy of restructuring or a bankruptcy of like, “We’re done here?”

They did not say either way. They’re saying that it could be out in the next couple of months and that the chain has a heavy debt load. They’ve closed all 400 of their clubs. They have an $837 million term loan and it’s maturing in March of 2022. They have 500 million insecure notes maturing in June of 2022, so that’s not good. They have $1.5 billion in sales in 2019 and less than $1 million in cash.

If I was the bankruptcy judge and they wanted to come to me to cancel their debt like that, I would tell them that they have to send me a letter via certified mail. Not more than 30 days, but not less than 20 days, it has to arrive on a Thursday, but not the first or third Thursday, “How do you like it now?”

As I read through the rest of this, it looks like it would be the one that closes everything. They also said that this was something that they’re looking at. It is far from a done deal. It could go either way is what it sounds like. They might be able to figure out some things to keep moving forward. I don’t know. Also I think it depends on what happens with, “Are we able to open things back up?” Despite the experts saying that, “We should not, there are a lot of places that are opening.” Everything with this whole situation is evolving so quickly, we might have a completely different story here on the next episode.

We talked about Echelon in the last episode and their VR Optics lawsuit.

I don’t remember talking about it in the last episode but apparently, we did. For a quick recap, regardless of whether or not we said it or we didn’t, the bottom line is that Eric Villency, the same guy who had all the drama with Peloton, and bought and sold, then went and sued them. He made a deal with Echelon to use the same patent. The reason that’s important is because that is a very clear indicator of why Peloton looks so similar to Echelon. He is in the news again, this Eric Villency guy.

This time for a good thing, I guess.

I am not convinced that this is a true thing that he did. In theory, he came up with this new way that you can spot fevers in people. They can put these scanners up and you walk through and it can instantly be able to tell if you have a fever, therefore not infecting the rest of your workforce. There are places in New York that are already using this technology.

That would be pretty cool. I know that theme parks and stuff were looking for things like this so they can try and point out people with fever.

I believe they’re going to try to start using them in meat packing places and factories and things like that for the same reason. Not necessarily his, but that’s what they were looking for that kind of technology. It’s crazy stuff.

That’s pretty fascinating. I looked it up. We talked about it a few weeks ago.

I still don’t remember talking about the connection with Echelon. Regardless, I would like to give the guy a pat on the back, but he’s such a dirty businessman that I don’t trust that this is his idea and that he really has the rights to it. Maybe he stole it from somebody else.

It’s hard to not to look at it sideways. On a more chipper note, Peloton love is in the air.

I’m so excited about this. I have wanted to talk about this forever, but it’s not my place. It’s such a personal thing. First of all, there are many of you out there that don’t know who our UK instructors are. That blew my mind right out of the gate. A lot of people were like, “Who is this?” It’s Ben Alldis and Leanne Hainsby. They came out openly about their relationship. They told everybody that they’ve been in a relationship, which the UK ladies group has been all over for some time. They have been comparing photos and the time of day and each other’s tans, and where they went on vacation.

You have to get together an on-the-road workout and stick with it. Click To Tweet

Tans?

Yeah, because if they both came back tan at the same time and all of their pictures taken, they literally showed that you could see the shadows on the ground at the same time. This reminded me of the time that the JSS Tribe found Rob Lowe. They found his leaderboard name. That’s what this reminded me of. I said to them, if that’s true, great, but we really shouldn’t be talking about it because what if it all goes badly? What if they don’t want anyone to know? It’s not our place. Now that it’s out in the open, we can talk about it. I’m very excited for them. I’m pretty sure though that the timing is not a coincidence. Would you agree?

I totally agree that with everybody sheltering at home, if their homes are the same, it’s going to get harder and harder, especially if they end up teaching classes for home as well, which they are.

The UK group is on the schedule as well, so yes, they will be teaching from home. Apparently, Ben and Leanne will be teaching from the same home and now we all get to know about their relationship. Good luck to them and congrats.

How is FightCamp coming along?

FightCamp has been great. I am getting curious about the kickboxing. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to continue down the prospect path. I looked ahead and there are 20 chapters and I’m enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s like I have a new toy and I want to try all the different things that it has, not just one. I’m really getting excited to go try out the kickboxing path as well. I do want to kick some stuff. I think it’d be fun. The trackers that go in the wraps around your wrist as you punch, you get such a satisfaction watching the numbers go up as you punch. In end, it feels good to punch things. Those workouts are wonderfully tough. I say that in a good way. You feel so accomplished at the end of it.

If you like workouts that leave you sweaty, this is right up your dark alley. I feel like you get sweatier than you do on the Bike.

You think more than the Bike?

I think so. There are some times you come up the Bike where you’re that sweaty, but I feel like you’re consistently sweatier with FightCamp. Maybe it’s because it’s newer to you and your body hasn’t adapted as much. I feel like at the moment anyway, you get consistently sweatier.

It’s an all over body exercise, the Bike or even running. In running, I feel like I get pretty sweaty too. Compared to the Bike, you’re sitting a lot. Even when you come out of the saddle, it’s different. That’s interesting. I’ll have to check that out. I really love it. I love that it’s so easy to use. I love that it was easy to put together. I love that it could be shipped to us and we didn’t have to wait for it to be installed, because we all know I’m not the most patient person in the world. It’s easy.

It’s a great choice, especially right now you don’t have to have it installed, so you assemble it yourself and it’s pretty simple. If you’re worried about someone else coming in your home or moving something within your home to other places, this is a good way to go.

I will also say there have been lots of people that have said to me they would love to get a Tonal but they can’t afford it. This is a lot more affordable from a standpoint. It’s something that still works your body. You still get a lot of strength and you’re getting cardio. It’s a good all over body workout. It might be good especially for couples where maybe one of them doesn’t want to do one of the different exercises. It might be a good option.

That’s a good point. They can split it up without breaking the bank. If you want to check it out, you can go to JoinFightCamp.com.

If you do buy one, make sure that you choose The Clip Out in the survey at the end of your purchase.

Otakukart had some thoughts about the long bandied about Peloton rower.

They said that Tonic Fitness Technology was acquired by Peloton in October of 2019, which I think we all knew if you’ve read here. It has also been granted a patent for an indoor rower. It says that the company plans to offer two more affordable treadmills sometime in 2020, not one but two. There’s no official pricing information and it doesn’t say anything else about it. That’s all you get out of it. We know the rower is coming in 2020, but we don’t know any other details. They’re saying that they expect the pricing for the rower to be around $1,000 to be in line with things like the concept too. I think that’s pretty much it for the new information here.

That’s interesting on the pricing.

It makes sense, since there are already some rowers out there that are connected. You couldn’t come in too hot. Who knows? This is Otakukart. I don’t know how reliable they are.

Denis Morton was on the Today Show.

He did a fabulous job. He talked about how to stay fit at home and keep your energy up.

Jezebel had an interesting article about someone’s obsession with Peloton instructor’s cardigan collection.

A lot of times Robin Arzon goes on live on Instagram since the shelter in place has occurred, she’s been wearing cardigans. Every time, it’s a different cardigan. They’re not like Mccole’s cardigan. They’re very good quality and they are not inexpensive. I understand how this lady is really excited about her collection because they are not cheap these sweaters. When you see a new one, they’re endless. If you look at her Instagram, all of the pages, there are different sweaters every time.

It’s like me and hoodies.

I can’t help but wonder if like you, she has a pair of shoes to match each of the different hoodies.

I don’t have one pair per hoodie.

No, but per hoodie color. That’s Tom’s idea of dress up.

There was also an interesting article from PR News Online about how Peloton prepared this person to be a PR pro.

All those times that we are in a class and we’re being taught endurance, that would be this moment that this person is talking about. The things you learned from athleticism like endurance, telling your brain to shut up when you want to stop being uncomfortable with being uncomfortable, it relates to a lot of other things. Work being one of those things. I thought it was a good article because it’s true. You can take all of those things that you learn from the classes we take from the instructors and apply it to different areas of your life. One thing that bugs a lot of people is that the stock image that they used is not a Peloton. The Peloton blog this week isn’t for you, Tom.

I don’t think it’s for me. I’m pretty sure because they didn’t reach out.

They were trying to tell you something. They reached out to me and told me to make sure you saw it. The name of the article is 5 Scientific Reasons Why Couples Who Sweat Together Stay Together. You don’t want to have healthy competition, solidify our bond, have greater accountability and improved communication and boost our endorphins together.

I thought this was a funny little story from Boston. Somebody tried to do like when you do those little jogging things and it attracts you and you spell out things, like Strava. She tried to spell out during her run, because she was supposed to marathon. The Boston Marathon is obviously canceled. She was going to spell out Boston Strong and she forgot the N. It came out, Boston Strog. I can’t believe she still posted it. She caught it. She wasn’t that absent-minded about it. I think I’d have been too mortified. If you ran a marathon, you want to post that.

I agree. I think that’s a lot of it. You made a mistake but you still ran 26 miles. If anybody has a problem with that, they can take it up with her because she could kick your butt. She can certainly outrun you.

We should probably talk about our Zoom call this week. We’ve been doing these, especially since people have been stuck at home to interact and to help people. I know people get it a little stir crazy, can’t hang out with friends. We thought this would be a good way. They’ve been a lot of fun. We have another one coming up on Saturday, April 27th at 7:00 Central, 8:00 Eastern.

Join us, it will be fun. The last time we did a little fun game of ice breaker questions and put people on the spot, and it was lots of fun. We had some great conversations with people. We got in depth about some things, so it was really great.

E Online had a little spotlight on Alex Toussaint.

It was great. He was able to talk about Peloton and staying upbeat while we’re all stuck at home. I thought he had some very good tips. You should definitely check that out as well.

While you’re at theclipout.com, you can go to theclipout.com/tonal for one of your last remaining chances to win a free Tonal.

It’s completely free, supplied by Tonal because they think you guys are amazing.

You’ve heard Crystal talk about it, how much she loves her Tonal.

I absolutely adore it. It is so great.

It’s pretty sleek-looking too.

Tom thinks that and he doesn’t even work out.

It’s a nice compliment to Peloton, visually.

I love how it stays out of your way, yet whenever you need it, it does all the things that you needed to do. I think it’s a great addition to everything else I’m doing. I feel so much stronger and my mobility is increased. Whenever I stopped being in pain from my back and stop hurting myself, it’s going to be even better.

If you want a Tonal, go to theclipout.com/Tonal. You’ll be asked a question, a relatively easy trivia question, and we always give you hints on where to go find the answer. We’re not trying to make it hard for you. There are all sorts of other things you can do to gain extra entries into the contest. It’s super simple. You could be walking away with a Tonal.

If anybody’s wondering, Tonal is still delivering and installing. This is not something that you’re going to win and then have to wait months to be able to put in.

Check it out at theclipout.com/Tonal. Tom Holland was on Jimmy Kimmel and raving about his Peloton. He is super fit, not just as Spiderman, but he was a dancer. He was in Billy Elliot, the musical. The Elton John musical. I don’t think he was on the Broadway version. I think he was on the London West version. That’s awesome.

Thank you, Eric Goodman, for sharing that.

There’s a new collection in the boutique.

It’s all about the moms, so I bought myself a Mother’s Day present. If you are curious, they had a brand new Peloton mom tank, which immediately sold out. It’s gone but you can go hit the email button and say, “Let me know when it’s back in stock,” if they have it out there. They had two Peloton necklaces. They had a Peloton ring. They had a Peloton robe, a new sweat towel, scrunchies, adopt kit.

There are all sorts of new Instagram series.

The instructors have clearly had some time on their hands. They are working on some very creative things. First of all, there is something for everybody. I want to let you know that Tunde’s will rip your heart out. It will stomp on it and then put it back together nicely. She gets super real. Hers is called It’s a Great Day to Have a Great Day. She talks about all of the things in her life that have led to how she signs off at the end of every Peloton ride, “It’s a great day to have a great day.” I don’t even know how to put it into words because there has been so much that she has overcome and dealt with. I have no idea how she has such a beautiful personality that is always so happy. You have to watch but let me just say there are a lot of very serious topics that she talks about. It’s good and it’s a great way to get to know the instructors. All of these are a great way to get to know the instructors. Robin has a new Instagram series called Hustlers At Home. Her very first guest was Cody Rigsby. Kendall’s new series, Chats on the Green because she sits on a green couch while she talks to you. I think there are some other ones but those are the main Instagram series that I saw this week.

People can keep an eye out for that. Kristin McGee had a full meditation featured in Women’s Health Magazine.

I think it was the online version because they literally took her entire meditation and you could play it. That’s really cool. What a great opportunity for her to have that featured. I love the meditations from Peloton. They are very soothing for me. Check it out if you have not had a chance to.

Matt Wilpers was interviewed by Christian Vande Velde.

You might want to check that out as well. My favorite piece of news this week from the instructors was Alex Toussaint doing a drive by at Jenn Sherman’s house. She sat in her car and he sat in his car and they had the windows down and he had his dog, Cash, a tiny, little boxer-looking dog. He was adorable. They were so cute together. It was a great conversation. Apparently, Jenn had surprise guests come by. That’s one of her things she’s been doing on Instagram is having surprise guests come by and then she goes on Instagram and chats with them a little bit. I think it’s great that the instructors are riding many ways to stay creative throughout all of this craziness that we are experiencing right now.

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Joining us is Zach Honig. Zach, how’s it going?

I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

We are excited. Thank you for doing this. I am stoked that you love Peloton as much as I do.

I’m a Peloton nut. I’ve converted a number of my friends. My dad has a bike. My sister has a bike in her gym but they specifically found an apartment building that had a bike. I have friends that seek out hotels that have Pelotons.

She’s lucky to have a bike in her building because they stopped doing that and they grandfathered in the buildings that already have them, but they will no longer let buildings bring them in so she can never move.

I live in New York City. I’m calling it the spirit extended work from home but I’m doing my extended work from home from my dad’s house, outside of Philadelphia. I’m not sure I would be here if it weren’t for the fact that he has a Peloton. I have a studio apartment in New York and I have three pieces of furniture. I have a bed, a sofa and a Peloton, which I have taken conference calls on before. I was not willing to forego the Peloton when I moved.

Normally, when people are doing rides back-to-back, they're not going all out. Click To Tweet

I don’t blame you. You have all the essentials. That’s what I hear.

I was on the condo board in my building for a while and I was trying to get us to add a couple of bikes to the gym. It was something that we kept putting off. When we have some capital improvements, that’s something that we’ll add and I had no idea that you can’t even do that anymore.

Maybe they make exceptions in some cities, but it didn’t sound like they did because we talked about it. It’s been months. There were apartment buildings that were still trying to get them. Your apartment building could buy a bike and then put it in there and have everybody share it, but to get the kind that is set up for being able to put all the different cleats on and that kind of stuff, they don’t do that anymore.

I’ve seen that in hotel gyms too. It’s spread. It used to be just western hotels that had Pelotons.

They did a deal with Peloton, but they’re the only ones that did a deal with Peloton.

I was at a Grand Hyatt. I stayed at a Hyatt Regency that had one. It seems to be spreading.

Did you know that there’s an entire Facebook group that is delegated to nothing else other than figuring out where Pelotons are in the world?

You’re going to have to send that to me.

You, of all people, need it.

It’s become critical to my travel life. I stay healthy on the road. Many people ask me how because I post pictures on Instagram all the time of the food that I eat on airplanes and hotels and all around the world. The question I probably get most often is, “How are you not 500 pounds?” What it comes down to is getting together and on the road workout and sticking with it. I use an app on my iPhone called Ab & Core. I have that workout if I don’t have any equipment with me. I definitely try, whenever possible, to stay at a hotel that has a Peloton, either in the gym or some western hotels. I found Pelotons in the room if you book a western workout room. You can have a bike in your hotel room. It reminds me of my studio apartment. It’s staring at you. You can’t avoid it. I don’t have any off days when I’m at home and certainly not in a western workout room.

We have to start back at the beginning. How did you originally find Peloton?

A friend had taken me to a SoulCycle class. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t my vibe.

Friends don’t take friends to SoulCycle.

I was overwhelmed and I’m like, “This seems like a good workout.” I hadn’t had a workout quite like that before. I want to do something like SoulCycle but the actual branded SoulCycle class, maybe it was because I took it in New York City, but everyone seems intense. I didn’t feel energized in the right way. I felt out of place. Next, we went to a Peloton class because I said, “This is great. I love this workout. I don’t know that SoulCycle is for me.” I love Peloton. I love the bike and the instructors. Now that I say the first instructor, I feel like you’re going to ask me who it was. I don’t remember who it was in the class. I think it was Christine.

Christine D’Ercole.

It was a 60-minute class. I jumped right in. I know why I chose a 60-minute class because I always try to maximize everything. That’s what we’re all about at The Points Guy. It was the same price whether I chose a 30-minute class or a 60-minute class.

I picture him like he’s shopping for clothes and he’s like, “I’m going to get a triple XL. I get more clothes. I don’t care that it looks like David Byrne from Talking Heads.”

I don’t take it that far. Although, I have thought to myself at least, “They should charge less for this medium.”

Women everywhere have been saying, “The skirt is only eight inches long. Why are we paying the same for a maxi skirt? It doesn’t make any sense.”

I enjoyed my 60-minute class. I did feel like it was a little bit longer but I felt like I got my money’s worth. That was good. I love going to the studio. I went a few more times and then I started to realize, “This is going to get expensive.” I like this enough but I don’t want to pay full price for a bike because once you factor in the delivery and tax, at the time it would have come to something like $2,400. I figured there are a lot of people that may have been gifted bikes or bought a bike and then decided, “It’s not for me necessarily.” I set an alert on Craigslist for the price I was willing to pay, which was $1,400 for the New York City area. I started getting notifications. Every other day or so, I would get a notification of a new bike posted within my price range.

I ended up finding one and I responded as quickly as I could but I wasn’t fast enough. I also made a mistake initially of negotiating because that’s what you do on Craigslist. A couple of weeks passed and I didn’t get a bike. One popped up that looked brand new from the pictures. The description said it was brand new. Someone had bought it and they decided they didn’t want it. I adjusted my workout. I definitely had never done a workout that rigorous before. You sweat, you burn calories and you work hard. You feel it in a good way, but I can see how some people might not adjust to it as quickly as I did. I drove out deep into Brooklyn and paid $1,400 cash and loaded it up into an UberXL and brought it home.

That was my next question. I was like, “You drove in New York? You have your own car?”

I got lucky. It was a Chevy Suburban. I tipped the driver nicely. He was helpful in loading it and unloading it. I used the cart in my building to get it up. It’s a heavy bike. I didn’t do my research before and I’m glad that I didn’t because I’m not sure I would’ve figured I would have been able to do it. I was on the hook at that point. I handed over the money. The bike was mine. It was even going to rain soon so I’m like, “We’ve got to figure this out.” I got it home. At first, if you’re thinking about doing this yourself, I had called in and had them change the bike registration over to me to make sure I was able to do that. My friend at the time was suspicious. She thought that it was a fake Peloton bike. She said, “There are a lot of fakes out there.”

They’re called Echelon.

I’m like, “How could it connect to the app?” If it’s a fake bike, I’m not going to be able to access any of the content because it’s a proprietary tablet. I didn’t see how that was possible. Anyway, to be safe, I called up and had it switched over to my account. Once that was done, I got it home and I did a ride within an hour of arriving in that UberXL. I’ve done one almost every day I’ve been home since.

I can’t believe you did a ride when you got home because it sounds like that should have counted as your workout.

It would have normally, perhaps. Tom, are you not a rider yourself?

That’s correct.

That worked, Tom, because you work out.

Hearing that story, I feel sweaty.

Have you tried it?

No.

He’s never even sat on the bike.

Good on you for doing this show.

He’s a supportive husband.

How do you become an enthusiast without riding?

Because I’m married to one.

Joking aside, he does love the company. He’s come to respect them as much as I have, even though he doesn’t exercise. It’s partly because the community is accepting of him. He’s like a Peloton adjacent.

Crystal, you told me that you’d done 700 rides. That’s probably not for the both of you.

That’s what I keep saying. I like where your head’s at.

He needs to still get on the bike though.

Don’t fight with the guest. He’s our guest and you should treat him with respect.

I’m trying to be open about all possibilities, Tom.

I’m thinking back, there was a brief period where we didn’t ride. I say we because I have a bike, my sister has a bike in her building and my dad has a bike at home. We do try to do rides together. I also have a number of colleagues and friends that have bikes. As we were all approaching 100 rides, which miraculously happened around the same time. My dad owned the bike before I did. I had mine before my sister had access to one. We timed it in such a way that we all were able to do our 100th ride together in the studio in New York. We came to New York. My stepmom also rides. My brother-in-law rides as well. My girlfriend at the time came as well. There were six of us, all riding together. Three of us were hitting that 100th ride together in the class. It was great to be able to do that. That was the one milestone for us. I had 200 and I didn’t do anything special for that. I hit 250 and that came and went. Are there any other big milestones to celebrate? Is 500 a big one, Crystal?

Yes, 500 is a big one and so is 1,000. There’s a Peloton group out there for the Peloton Millennials and it’s only a few hundred people. There are probably more people than that have hit 1,000, but they may not even know the group exists because there are 1,000 Peloton Facebook groups.

I have a question for you. I’ve noticed there are some people that get shout outs for any insane numbers of rides. I even saw a 10,000th ride once. How does that happen? The only thing that made sense to me is that people are sharing one account. How could you possibly do that many rides since Peloton hadn’t even gotten started?

Laura Pug is a great example. She does not have 10,000 rides, but for a long time she had the record holder of having the most rides. She’s the first person to hit 1,000 for Peloton. She rides multiple rides a day. That was back when every ride was 45 minutes. They used not to have twenty-minute rides at all. It was all 45 minutes or longer. We interviewed her and she told us that she would do back-to-back rides. There were times that she did 3 to 4 rides a day. Sometimes, if there were a contest going on, she would do eight rides a day. She doesn’t have a job. She’ll tell you that she was lucky and she was able to stay home. She would bake something or do laundry in between the rides and that’s what she did and she loved it.

There are people that I do suspect that are sharing accounts. I’m not going to call this person out, but there’s one profile that I have seen that’s up past 10,000 rides. I have looked at their profile to see when they’re writing and it’s 24 hours a day. I do suspect that more than one person is riding that bike. They’re using that profile. That’s a little weird but it can be done to have several thousand rides because if you ride 3 or 4, even twenty-minute rides a day, that’s an hour a day. That’s not a crazy thing and they can add up fast.

If anybody’s interested, she was in episode 29.

I once did three rides in a day. I did a back-to-back twenty-minute ride. If you go to the studio and you do twenty-minute rides, it’s two.

I’ve got to do that once for homecoming. There was Jess King. They had two back-to-back. I sat on the bike the whole time, but it was two rides.

It’s fun to do that. I enjoyed doing it in the studio. It was neat. I definitely did not do as well for the second ride. I was competing against a colleague. We were sitting next to each other. He’s a big guy. He was in the Navy for years. I knew it was a long shot. He’s also got an extra six inches on me. I tried hard and I got close. I had no energy for the next ride.

I bet you gassed yourself then.

My sister was like, “Do you want to do one at the end of the day?” I said, “Sure, why not? I don’t think I’m ever going to do three rides in one day again. I’ll do one tonight.” We had a 30-minute ride that night. For me, it’s one ride a day.

You have to take it in a different way by looking at those multiple rides. When people are riding back-to-back, they’re not going all out. That’s not the goal. Sometimes they’re taking it easy. It’s like a leisurely bike ride with your friends.

That makes sense. That brings me to something else. I have a question for you. I’ve noticed that my output varies depending on which bike I’m using. The bike in the studio is closest to my bike at home. I perform better in the studio statistically. When I’m on my dad’s bike at home, my numbers are off the charts. In some hotels, it’s all over the place.

Each bike can be configured differently. Everybody tries to get them as close to the same as possible, but every bike is different. The one thing that I love about riding on your own bike is that you’re always competing against yourself consistently, time after time. With all the traveling that you do, you’re competing against different measures. That’s a completely different thing.

What I’ve done is I’ve reserved the 30-minute classes for my bike at home. The personal record that I have at home is my true PR for that bike.

That’s smart.

That’s a great way to handle that.

I’ll usually do 45 at my dad’s house and then maybe I’ll do a couple of twenties at hotels or 45. I did a little research and I learned about the calibration. Peloton will send you a calibration kit. My dad did do that and his bike has again come out of calibration, but it’s not as bad as it once was. He and my stepmom were always number one in whatever class they’re doing.

They have a juiced bike.

I’m like, “What is going on? You guys are fit.” We would do workouts together and I’m like, “There’s nothing I can do to get even close to that.” I came in and I’m like, “I’m not going to say anything. I’m going to try their bike and see where I fall when I’m riding their bike.” I was number one by a longshot. I sat them down like, “I’m sorry to break this to you.”

You staged an intervention.

It motivated them too. They couldn’t believe it themselves. It didn’t occur to them that there might be something off with the bike.

Were you like, “You’re not beating Michael Phelps?”

All I can think is how much crap you must have gotten away with as a kid.

They stopped riding for a little while. They were heartbroken. They came back to it eventually. It is such a good workout. I felt bad. I didn’t realize at the time that this would be demotivating, in a way.

Don’t feel bad. This is how you felt about Santa Claus. The tables have turned.

We’re going to have to fix it again. I’ve been waiting because they’re starting to feel good about their numbers.

What you should do is send them on a weekend vacation and calibrate it while they’re gone.

I like that.

It's important to get out there and see the world. Click To Tweet

Stair-step it down. Don’t do it all at once.

I feel like that would be even worse.

You can go to a doctor like, “I think something’s wrong. I exercise more than ever and I keep getting weaker.”

Don’t do that one.

I made up for it by setting up a hotspot in the area where the bike is so they don’t have to go crazy every time they try and connect it. That was a big challenge. It didn’t even occur to me because I live in a studio. I can put the bike anywhere and I’ll be able to get it online. They had it too far from the router. It was driving all of us crazy each time we got connected. The solution I came up with is this device called Power over Ethernet adapter. You can take your internet signal and use the electrical wires in your house to extend it. They have no trouble getting connected. It gets online right away. The classes are great. I noticed the quality wasn’t as good as well. The issue there is the distance from the router.

We need one of these because we live in the Midwest. We don’t have anything fun to do, but we have square footage.

Square footage makes up for nothing fun to do.

Where do you live in the States?

We’re in St. Louis, Missouri.

I went to school in Missouri. I went to the University of Missouri.

I grew up in Jefferson City.

I landed at that airport, the Jeff City Airport, a number of times. I’m a private pilot as well. I would rent planes in Columbia and I would do touch-and-go at Jeff City.

As a private pilot but also The Points Guy.

I’m a Points Guy. I have to clarify. We’ve got a big team. There are about 100 of us or so.

Do you feel like, “All these points I’m not getting,” when you’re the pilot?

It wouldn’t be that many. It’s a single-engine plane and it doesn’t go all that faster than a car. The reason I got into it and I quickly learned that this isn’t allowed but I wanted to do some aerial photography. I loved aerial photography, but the only other way to do it at the time was to charter a helicopter, which was cost-prohibitive. There were no drones. I was fascinated with flying and I love to fly. I had an internship that fell through at the last minute and it was too late to get anything else for that summer. I decided I’m going to get my pilot’s license. I was able to do it in a month because I went every day. It requires 40 hours of flying in order to be eligible to do your exam with the FAA instructor. I did it quickly in a month and then I flew for the last couple of years of school. It was cool being able to fly over the campus. I flew all my friends and they would split the cost with me, which made a difference.

I did aerial photos for the Columbia Missourian, which was our community newspaper. I was in journalism school. There’s a lot of flooding in the area and I got to take pictures of that. I didn’t earn any miles. College also got me into the points of miles game because I’m from the Philadelphia area. I love Columbia, but it took some time to get adjusted and I was away from my family and my friends. There were amazing fares on American Airlines because Southwest had launched a service between Philadelphia and St. Louis. I was able to fly round trip. It was an $89 round trip all the time.

How long ago was this?

This would have been 2004.

Those are good numbers.

I ended up booking tickets to go home about once a month. Eventually, I earned gold status with American. I had also signed up for the advantage card at the time. The American Airlines card was my first credit card. I learned that you could open and close them. I didn’t realize there’s a whole community for this, I’m like, “What if I get the bonus and then close it and then open it again?” Especially in college, you’re trying to save money and you start to think outside the box a little bit. I had done that a handful of times. I never did study abroad and that’s probably my biggest regret in college. I did have enough miles to visit a whole bunch of my friends that were studying abroad.

If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t do well abroad in college either.

I was not expecting that one.

That’s a gift from Tom.

I even got to fly business class once from those credit cards. I became The Points Guy among my friends. It was pre-TPG. Brian, who had started the site, started this in 2010. We didn’t even have TPG as a resource at that point. I’m not even sure if there were Facebook groups. This is a while ago.

It’s probably bulletin boards.

I’m sure there’s some community. I shared it with my friends. A bunch of my friends was doing the same thing. They were getting that city advantage card a few times. That’s how I got started, my friends got started. I’ve been at The Points Guy for several years.

Tom, my lesson from everything that he said is that we need to travel more. We could get gold status. We could be going to New York once a week, once a month.

Get a job with more PTO. I’m not the problem. In my job, I can come and go as I please.

One thing I realized early on too is that PTO has always been important to me. We’re fairly flexible at The Points Guy as you would expect, given that everyone on the team loves to travel. Other jobs, once you finish the salary negotiation, if there is an opportunity for that, then you ask for extra vacation days. I’ve done that at every job. I’ve always been able to add at least five vacation days, PTO days, by asking. At the time of the negotiation, it doesn’t cost the company anything as it does. It’s easy for them to throw in to seal the deal. I’ve been able to add PTO, which has been important. I love to work and I always love my teams but for me, it’s important to get out there and see the world. Do you guys get to take any trips?

We try to. We should be in Mexico but we had to cancel because we live in the Old Testament. We would have been in Mexico and then we’re supposed to go to Hawaii. Who knows what that’s going to be like?

That’s not good. I’m sorry to say.

We rebooked our Mexico thing.

We have kids. We take the kids with us on one trip and then we usually make a trip by ourselves and then we usually make weekend trips in addition to that. We go to New York at least once a year but that was canceled.

We would go for the big Peloton homecoming event and that went away.

Was that organized by Peloton?

Yes. Do you not know about this? I could tell you all about it.

No.

The first one was organized by the actual members. They all went to New York and they called it the Home Rider Invasion. They went to New York for a weekend and did nothing but ride rides all weekend long because that’s all that Peloton had back then, it was just the bike. The next year Peloton was like, “That was a lot of fun. We should invite people back.” They had a small gathering, and then the year after that was the first one that Tom and I went to. It was big. It was 1,000 people at that point. They upped it to 3,000 people and it was going to be 3,000 people again. Everybody comes in for a weekend and ride together and run together. They had a community-run that they were planning to do again. All the instructors do talks and they line up like you’re at Disney World so you can meet them all.

I always describe it as a Wizard World for Peloton.

It’s the first weekend of May every year.

Maybe they’ll reschedule it. Who knows? I know that they have that new studio. I did some final classes at 23rd Street. Not physically. The instructors kept talking about how this was their last class of 23rd. I’ve seen them in Hudson Yards, the new studios. Is that right?

That is right. They started broadcasting classes from there.

I’m guessing there aren’t any attendees. There are no studio riders.

They have closed the studio and they’ve also reduced the number of live rides so that they have the least amount of traffic passing each other as possible. They’re doing 4 to 5 classes a day between the different disciplines.

You added a Tread. That’s the Peloton treadmill. How do you balance your bike versus treadmill? Do you crave a treadmill ride? I’ve seen it in commercials but I’ve never seen one in person.

You have got to see it. It is gorgeous. You have to visit it. You have to look at it. The screen is so massive that you feel like you’re there in the studio when you’re running on the tread. The slats are like a Woodway treadmill, which is expensive. They have these rubber slats that you run on. The impact is on your knees and your ankle is much better. I had never run before in my life more than a mile.

As I got into the Peloton community, I met lots of crazy people who convinced me to do a half marathon in Atlantic City. I was training all outdoors because I didn’t have a treadmill. I had no choice but to train outdoors. I did that. They released the treadmill after I had trained for the half marathon. It’s made a huge world of difference. I love running more than I ever thought I could because I hated running. If you had told me years ago that I would be running, I would have laughed at you because it’s not a thing. I love it. I tend to run more than I bike and it’s weird that that’s happened.

I have plantar fasciitis and it can be bad. That’s one reason I love Peloton and spin because there’s no impact. I used to run a bit but I have not in years because I have issues with my feet. I don’t know if a treadmill will make a difference in that. I’m definitely going to go check it out at some point because I’ve been curious and I’ve heard great things. How do you balance your rides on the bike versus running on the tread? Is it 50/50? How does it break down?

I do a lot of 50/50. I love doing Sunday rides with Jenn Sherman. She has two back-to-back. I almost never miss those and then throughout the week I’ll do a HIIT run and then I’ll do a short ride on the bike or I’ll do strength. I switch back and forth between the bike and the tread. Almost every time I’m doing cardio, I switch back and forth between the two.

I’m going to do a ride before work.

Thank you for being flexible.

During the outbreak, I am helping out with child care. My father is a physician and my stepmom is a PA. They both are needed on frontlines. I have a half-brother and a half-sister. While I’m working for TPG, I’m also keeping an eye on them. I get a little bit of a break in the morning before everybody goes to work. That’s the early call time. I appreciate you making that work. I also love riding with my co-workers. We have a chat in Slack with all of our Peloton riders. We coordinate rides together. I’ve gone to the studio with one of my colleagues. We had done back-to-back 20-minute rides. I push it with him. He’s a bigger guy. He’s considerably taller than me. I wanted to beat him on one of the rides. I pushed hard with that first twenty-minute ride. The second one, I’m barely pedaling. That was my worst ride ever. My best ride ever, immediately followed by my worst.

You ride from your parents’ house. You need to challenge them.

That’s the idea. I’m here. They don’t know about the mis-calibrated bike.

Since you travel so much, you have so much knowledge. Do you have a single best tip for people?

When it comes to booking flights, I always start looking on Google Flights even if I’m expecting to use miles. I started Google Flights with the exception of Southwest in the States, which is not available through any OTAs, Online Travel Agencies. All of the full schedules show up and that gives me an idea of what’s available. I have some airlines and routes and products memorized but I don’t know everything. I’ll put my origin, which is usually New York, and the destination. It’ll show me which airlines fly at which times. It’s like doing any other Google search. It’s fast and it loads fares more quickly than any other platform I’ve encountered. It also helps me decide whether to pay cash or redeem miles for a ride based on the cost. We’re not flying but if you can travel later, I’ve seen low fares. I would probably hold off on redeeming miles in those cases. That’s the biggest tip.

The other one, I’ve done this often, not all the time. Anyone who has to travel or has to find their way home, clean your seat a bit. I would bring some Clorox wipes along and do my best to create a little germ-free environment. Especially for domestic flights, the airline will turn an aircraft in sometimes less than an hour. That’s not enough time to do any serious disinfecting. That’s another one too. I’m not a huge germophobe. I take an extra step or two to make sure that my environment is clean on the plane as best I can, even if it’s wiping things down thoroughly if I happen to get an upgrade and they have that towel service.

We have no idea what you’re talking about. We’re happy to have a cushion.

I always book economy flights but get upgraded all the time.

Where we sit, it’s a bench. We have to bring our own seatbelts. I know that you have to jump here, if you care to share, what is your leaderboard name?

It’s Zach Honig, the same as everything. It’s also my Twitter and Instagram and all that good stuff. If you see me on a ride, please give me a high five. Crystal, what is your LB name?

It is Clip Out Crystal.

We’re going to be Peloton friends. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Thank you. We appreciate it.

Stay safe.

You too.

—

That brings another episode to a close. What pray tell do you have in store for people in the next episode?

It’s very exciting. You might remember there was an author who wrote about Robin, and how Robin was powering her through the pandemic. That writer will be on the show.

What is her name?

Her name is Amy Wallace.

That’s what we have to look forward to. Until then, where can people find you?

People can find me at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter, on the Bike and of course the Tread, @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter, @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.