As this post publishes, I’m in the midst of my 200th ride on the Peloton Bike.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Peloton, let me school you.  Some say that Peloton is an exercise bike, which is true, but it is so much more.  Peloton offers live streaming classes at least half a dozen times a day, seven days a week.  Plus there is a library of a few thousand previously recorded live classes on-demand for you to ride whenever you want.  Peloton employs a dozen full time instructors teaching a variety of classes both on and off the bike.  The classes have varying music styles as well as class types (Low Impact, Climb, Tabata, High Intensity Intervals and Power Zone, to name a few).  Between the live and on-demand classes, you can easily find a ride that suits you from a workout style to musical preferences.

The Peloton Bike! A beauty, isn’t she?

Unlike traditional stationary bikes at home, this one feels more engaging as you are actually working out with other people all over the world.  The large tablet screen on the bike includes a leader board that ranks you against other people riding (or who have ridden that same ride) – another level of encouragement.  The tablet also shows about a dozen important stats relating to your ride, including cadence (leg speed), bike resistance, output (a combination of the first two), heart rate, time and others.

There is a strong feeling of community with Peloton.  There are Facebook Groups, Regional/Local Meet Ups, and if you ride frequently enough, you’ll start to see the same people on the Leader Board and you can follow them and keep up with their work outs and even ride together.  It’s more than a traditional stationary bike.

The Peloton bike arrived in May 2017 and we started riding immediately.  Unlike many of the vocal users online, I wasn’t addicted.  Let’s be honest, I’m not an avid “work out guy”.  I hate working out.  When I was younger I could eat anything I wanted and never gain an ounce.  Not so much any more.  That’s why we got the bike.

Fast forward 14 months and I’m crossing my 200th Ride Threshold.  I enjoy riding the bike.  I absolutely feel stronger (both in pure muscle strength and heart and lung capacity).  When I wake up, I don’t have the urge to jump on the bike though.  Once I am on the bike, I do find it encouraging to ride with others.  I will frequently zero in on someone near me on the Leader Board and make sure to push my self hard enough to beat them at the end.  Being competitive on a bike that goes no where in your basement is really easy with the Peloton.

As this posts, I’m actively riding a 90-minute ride with instructor Matt Wilpers.  Matt is by far the most frequent instructor I’ve used (82 of the 200 rides).  He focuses on Power Zone Training (Google it) and that was my main focus for the first portion of my bike ownership.  It’s easy to follow along and it’s based on easy to understand stats and metrics.  I’m a numbers nerd.  I ended up getting a little burned out on this type of training and branched out.

Since I’m a numbers guy, I thought I’d share some graphs that I found interesting.  Yes, Peloton does allow you to grab your ride data and pull it down directly into an excel file for all your numbers nerds out there.

I’ve technically ridden 2,193 miles since getting the bike over 6,915 minutes while burning 102,867 calories.  Does that mean I’ve actually lost about 29 pounds (a pound is about 3,500 calories).  No of course I haven’t.  I’ve actually gained about 8 pounds since I started riding.  I don’t think my eating habits have changed all that much, and my clothes don’t fit all that differently (definitely not tighter), I just know that I’m stronger.  If you are looking for weight loss, you’ll need to really focus on your eating habits. You can’t really exercise away a truly awful diet.

I’m happy with our purchase of the Peloton.  I find myself setting individual goals like: Ride Every Day This Week, Ride 5/10/20 Days Straight, Burn 5,000 Calories This Week, etc.  It keeps me motivated.

Are you a Peloton enthusiast?  If so, follow me – yes, my Pelo Name is TimFoolery, so it’s pretty easy to track me down.  Who are your favorite instructors?  Any advice for keeping me motivated for my next major milestone?  Any other of my stats you’re interested in?