New Features, New Motivation: My Return to Peloton

Peloton Stats Since I Started November 13, 2020

I got back on the bike on Sunday, December 1 and it felt great! The last time I rode the bike was on July 30, 2023. I had used the Peloton app a few times in 2023, but nothing on the bike since 2023. It felt good to be back on the bike and I feel motivation to ride again for the first time in over a year.

It had been so long since I had last used the bike that I found a number of new features have been added. Some I knew about and some I did not know had been added. The new additions I like included YouTube TV and Kindle are now part of the Peloton offerings meaning I can watch TV while biking or I can read my book and both are synced up to my accounts so I am seeing my current offerings. 

If I recall correctly, back in 2023 they were just getting ready to introduce YouTube TV as an option, but apparently it was not enough to prompt me to return back in the middle of 2023. I am glad to see it now as sometimes I just want to ride and watch TV. Other options added include Netflix which will also be fun to have available. I did not look at any other options, but happy to see the two mentioned services that are now available.

My plan for this biking renewal is to ride two or three times a week. The days will be fluid where I can ride any day as long as I get in at least two rides each week. I would prefer to ride at least three times, but I also do not want to overdo it to start. I bought some new biking shorts to help with sitting on the seat that can honestly get a little uncomfortable especially if I am riding a lot during the week or for long periods of time. Hoping the new shorts help in providing cushion from the seat.

It makes me laugh though as my dog, Oliver, is never sure what I am doing in the guest room on this thing. He walks in, looks at me as if I am crazy, and then leaves. Sometimes he just sits outside of the room in the doorway watching me. I wonder what he is thinking while he watches me on this metal thing and I am grunting while giving effort to the workout.

Through the years, I had connected with a few people on the Peloton app. I am following 23 people and I have 24 followers. I wonder how many of those people are still active members. I will see who is active as I start this new journey and become active again in the community.

You might wonder if I have tried Apple Fitness+ and I have but it is nice to have videos and interaction as part of the Peloton Bike+ experience altogether. Carrie and I have Apple Fitness+ as part of our combined services for Apple One which consists of Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple TV+, iCloud+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Fitness+. Of the services of Apple One, we use Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple TV+ the most. We take advantage of the iCloud+ for additional storage for our accounts. So far, I have not found the Apple Fitness+ useful for doing the bike, but I have used the service when running outside.

What fitness app are you using? Why?

Be sure to watch for future updates on my journey. You know I will be posting about them as I progress in my journey. I am ready for the journey and that is half of the process to get motivated. Let's GO!

Progress Report for February 2022 Working Out... Did Better on Quantity but Dipped on Length

Another month down in 2022 and here is my status update for working out or more specifically riding my bike. February 2022 was really good for me with consistency of working out. I worked out twelve times throughout the month. I am still targeting Ally Love for my live events on Sunday mornings at 11 am CDT. I met every single Sunday with Love event for February with at least one going as long as one hour. It felt great and I love the energy Ally brings to the rides, so that helps to keep the process fun and new each week. Plus, she likes to change up the music and what we are doing each week, so that makes the rides fun and something I look forward to each week. Each time I have done one of her live classes that is an hour, I never look forward to the ride as it starts the hour long ride, but so grateful once I am finished. She helps to motivate and keep us focused on what we need to do during the ride.

During one such ride I hit a high of 337 for my for best output. This happened to be the 60 minute ride, so no wonder it beat all of my other outputs for February. Still, I had a good time and look forward to continuing the live rides in March too.

As I mentioned, I worked out consistently for 12 days through the month of February. I kept on my target days as planned except for the last week of the month, but sometimes it is needed to modify workout days if something else is happening on that particular day. I have had prior months where I had to change my target date for working out every day, so it was good to get my target dates in for workouts and not have to modify.

I still have plans that once the weather improves (i.e. no snow) that I will start running at least once a week to increase the workouts per week to four. I have not run in over a year, so I am looking forward to including that into my routine. The current plan is to introduce running on Saturday mornings which would mean I would be working out back-to-back days, but I think it will be good to do and help with my overall workout process.

One thing I did during February was to cut out all alcohol. I did not post about this previously or hint that I was going to do this during the month. It was primarily to see how much weight I would lose by not drinking beer or any liquor. Granted, I did without any beer through February, but I did not necessarily change what I ate. Which is to say that I was not eating great for most of February.  I went from 264 on February 1 to 258.2 on February 28. Not bad for only giving up beer, but I was hoping to be more. Carrie and I plan to further target our eating habits in the next week or so where I will once again limit what I drink, but more importantly what I put in my belly each week. I could tell I had lost a few pounds as clothes started fitting a little better, but still a long way to go for my health.

Reviewing my monthly stats are not too bad. I was hoping my average ride time was going to be higher for February, but it is right around 17 minutes per ride. I was hoping to be up around 30 minutes per ride, but while I got workouts in each time, I had some that were shorter than I had hoped as we were heading to places, other plans, etc., where I had to notify my planned ride. As I mentioned last month, I also usually do a cool down after each ride, so that helps to skew the numbers. 

I like that Peloton sends out these notices after the month is over to give a break down of how I did the prior month. To think that I biked 106.7 miles during February is a good feeling, but I think I can continue to increase these numbers as I continue my biking experience. Calories burned is interesting too int his monthly stats report. Of course that is offset by what I eat outside of cycling. During February, I did not do beer, or alcohol, but as I mentioned, I continued to not eat very well, so while I had 5,737 calories burned from bike riding calorie intake was not great during the month.

Something I keep saying I am going to try is to do portion control. I have a bad habit of eating everything on my plate when we go out to eat. I remember my parents when they would go out to eat, they would always split their plate or immediately do half and take the other half home. Good examples for me moving forward on my path to getting older and not able to lose weight as fast I did when I was younger.

Until next time, enjoy your bike rides and workouts…

Progress Report for January 2022 Working Out... Dipped a Little with Holidays... Reading and Biking

A pat on my back... I have been sticking to my regular workouts the past few weeks. In fact, in January, I worked out every week for my three workouts as I had planned. I did have to adjust days, but I was able to stick to my days and get the workouts done. I have no issue moving my workout days, so it worked out well. So far in February, I am off to a great start for this month.

I worked out a total of 13 days during January. I am feeling good on the bike and can ride for almost an hour without any discomfort. As the weather begins to change, I do intend to start walking/jogging at least once a week too. Hoping to start this new process in March or April. I really enjoyed jogging when I was doing so much of it not too many years ago. It felt good and I enjoyed the process. My dog, Oliver, enjoyed it too as he knew that the days I would run, he would get a walk. 

My best workout for January was a "Ally with Love" Feel Good Ride on January 23. I achieved my best output during the ride. I felt good throughout and did another workout following the 30 minute ride. The Sunday rides are almost always live rides for me while the other two days that I ride are typically recorded, scenic, or just ride sessions. I look forward to the live rides on Sunday and rode in the largest live group I have been a member of in early February with almost 10,000 people in the ride. It was fun and a lot of high fives throughout the ride to me and from me as I did my ride. It was fun!

You will usually find me on the bike on Sunday mornings at 11 am doing my live ride. Almost always with Ally Love although sometimes another instructor does the 11 am session, it usually is Ally Love. So fun and she keeps the energy of the workout, so it makes the whole process fun.

A further look at my monthly stats from January see I did a total of 22 workouts during January. I worked out for a total of 391 minutes in January for an average of 17.78 minute workout of my 22 workouts. Typically following a ride, I will do a five minute cool down, so the average is skewed a little with those extra workouts. If I take the days I worked out (13) and the 391, that comes out to an average of 30 minutes each workout... which is correct. As I have started February workouts, I have started to extend my workouts to 45 - 60 minutes although this sometimes depends on time or when I start the ride.

I like the total miles traveled of 98.3 and calories burned of 5,395 during January. I use my Apple Watch to monitor heart rate, so I think the calories burned are as accurate as possible. I feel good looking back on my stats from January and feel confident in my progress eleven days into February.

I continue to read while I bike which has been enjoyable. The main point is that I can read for 30 - 60 minutes and the riding of the bike while reading keeps me awake so I do not fall asleep while I ride. Reading while I bike has been a new task I started back in early January and I really enjoy the process. I typically read on the Tuesday/Thursday workout days leaving the live ride to focus on the instructor instructions.

On a side note, if you have not been watching the news, the Peloton brand is struggling. The brand has been struggling the past few months and it looks like they will be purchased by another company. So far the companies in the hunt of buying Peloton include Apple, Amazon, and Nike. It will be interesting to where Peloton is at in another few months. Peloton has a large following of customers and fans, so I do not think the brand will be broken but hopefully if it is purchased it will include new features or benefits.

Keep riding and see you in the bike routes...

Progress Report for December 2021 Working Out... Dipped a Little with Holidays... Reading and Biking

December 2021 working out was a little less than I had expected, but only one day fewer than I had done in November 2021. So, overall, not bad, but I could have used a few more days of working out. When I went back to work on January 3, I noticed some of my work pants fit a little more snug than they had prior to the holiday season. So, I am still working on getting back into the swing of things. I only worked out 9 days during December as indicated to the right. I plan to increase my workout to the three times a week and stick to it moving forward. If I need to adjust my days, that is not an issue, but I need to make sure to stay with my plan of working out three days a week. Taking more than three days off from riding is almost like starting over when I ride again. 

My plan for February 2022 is to completely remove alcohol. I know from past experience when I do this removal, I lose all kinds of weight and really feel a lot better. So, come February 1, 2022, I will be going the month not drinking beer or any alcohol. Yes, I know the Super Bowl is in there, but it seems like a good time to go without and try to get my body feeling better. More on this as February approaches and my status.

Overall for December, I did well with working out. I spent 189 minutes working out during December and traveled 43.7 miles as tracked through Peloton. While the calories burned looks really good, it does not help that I also would eat whatever I wanted and have beers. So, I am hoping that February will help get me back into better exercise with better results and also eating better too. Doing so for a month will help me and I am hope that during that month I will get to the point where I like it and continue to eating trend into March.

Carrie and I have both done this type monitoring with our food intake and alcohol removed from diet, but it has been a few years. We both plan to eat better and remove fast food from our routine when working. Most of it comes from it being so easy to pick up something to eat instead of spending time to prepare lunch or dinner which is healthier than Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonalds.

In regards to my bike riding, I am starting to feel better on the bike. I enjoy my rides and look forward to riding the bike. My backside still gets sore, but it is getting better. I am riding regularly 30 minutes on my rides. I will plan to continue 30 minute rides through January and then increase to 45 minute rides for February. I am taking the slow approach and gradually moving back into where I was at back in early July 2021 with riding. I still have issues with sore knees or stiff legs the day after riding, but I do feel much better than I do when I was jogging on a regular basis. Yes, I still have plans to start jogging at least one day a week although at this point, that will likely not occur until probably May or June.

One thing I have started as of about two weeks ago is to read while I bike. I have started reading again and reading a lot. I find it helpful to read while I am biking as it completely takes me out of my head and I can focus on the content of the book instead of my journey of riding. More on this later in another post later this month as I continue my reading journey. I do enjoy reading and riding whether I am doing instructor led or solo bike rides, it has been a good journey and makes the process fun.

Watch for another update on my exercise status in early February. Enjoy your biking, jogging, or whatever exercise you are doing.

Progress Update for One Month Mark of Bike Riding and Exercise... A Starting Over Approach

When I posted back on October 31 that I was starting my exercise routine again (see post), I posted the total workouts I had done as I started that process. I plan to do monthly updates each month to show my progress. At the end of October as I was starting a regular routine, I was at 275 total workouts. I planned to ride three times a week. I did not meet that goal exactly, but I did manage to get a workout in at least once a week and usually more than once a week, but it depended on what was happening that particular week.

As of today, December 5, 2021, I have 290 workouts. I averaged about ten minute rides for my workouts during this time. I am still battling the fatigue of getting back into biking and struggling with my backside hurting from the seat, but it is getting better. I know the more I ride the better it will get. For the first month, I was keeping my rides anywhere from 10 - 15 minutes. This past week, I have started doing longer rides at 20 minute workouts. I plan to stay in 20 minute range for a few weeks before expanding out to longer rides.

Started November at 275 workouts... A month later, I am at 290 workouts.

It feels good to be back on the bike and getting some type of routine going in terms of exercise. My plan for early morning workouts did not go very well as I struggled to get up those extra 30 - 40 minutes early to get on the bike, so I decided for now, as long as I am riding, doing so after work will be enough for me. I make sure that during the week when I get home from work, I do not do anything else, but go straight to change and get on the bike. That helps to not cause loss of focus on doing the ride. Sometimes other evening events interfere, but I am working through trying to plan for those so I can change days or get up early and workout.

My long-term goal is to work in a jog for my workouts giving me four days a week to exercise. That will likely not happen again until sometime in the spring at this point. I am happy to report that after a year of owning the Peloton Bike (see post from November 15, 2020) I am back to using the bike and plan to make it my routine moving forward. Regardless of whether we are traveling, tired, etc., I plan to keep some form of exercise in my weekly habit. Once the habit stops, it is so difficult to get it started again and I do not want to restart this process of becoming accustom to the bike in the future.

Until next month with another update from my exercise, have a great workout and see you on the virtual trails of Peloton!

Peloton Update with Review of June Half Over

It has been a few weeks since I posted anything about biking or exercise. I continue to bike about three times a week on the Peloton. I am fast approaching 200 cycling rides since owning the bike back in November 2020. I am currently at 194 rides. Three rides a week is about right for me as I mentioned in previous updates that I had tried doing more and I could feel it in my legs to the point where stairs and walking were difficult. I enjoy the three rides a week approach.

I am still riding Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday during the week. If I have to adjust, I do so and it has been working well. Tuesday and Thursday typically are shorter where I ride for twenty or thirty minutes with Sunday being my long ride days and usually live rides which I enjoy. Sunday rides are usually in the morning at 11 am and go for anywhere from 45 - 65 minutes. Tuesday and Thursday rides are usually scenic routes or recorded sessions from earlier days and following a work day.

 

I had planned to start running again as the summer months started, but as you can see, I have not started that again. I was only planning to run one day at a week which was going to be Saturday mornings, but so far, that has not happened. I also still want to do a bike bootcamp, but have not done one of those either.

I had plans to start eating healthier June 1, but that did not happen. I was not going to go crazy, but do a month of eating healthy, reducing breads, drinks, etc., but other things seem to grab my attention and cannot focus on doing the process. 

For now, I enjoy riding our bike three times a week and eventually working in a run at least once a week. I figure if I make this a normal routine for me then I can introduce healthy eating and watch the pounds disappear.

What do you do for exercise, healthy eating, and staying focused on your end goal of health?

4 Months Peloton and Losing Weight Motivation

Weight Tracking from November 2020 to March 2021

Making progress at exercising and reducing weight. As with much of the population, 2020 and COVID caused me to max out my weight. Pants did not fit, did not feel great, and did nothing really other than work, watch TV, eat, sleep, and drink lots of beer. As indicated in November 2020 post (see New Peloton Bike+ Delivered...), we have been exercising and enjoying our Peloton experience.

When we received the bike back in November 2020, I was at my largest weight of my life of 259.2. Granted, I think a few times I have gone above 260 during 2020 year, but toward the end of the year and through the summer months, we started trying to focus more on eating better and not having a beer every evening, so by the time I started exercising it was a lower weight.

A lot of variation in my weight, as I would expect, but I did not expect to go three or four weeks at a time and not lose, or gain, a thing. The dates between February 13 and March 5, I remained a constant 256 with just an increase, or decrease, in a point. Suddenly, I went from 256.2 up to 258.2 and the following week I went down to 252.2. The most recent weigh-in being 251.2. 

It is sure interesting how the body works and decides it is time to let go of the weight. My weigh-in days are Sunday mornings. A few changes during the time I stayed at relatively the same weight included eating more vegetarian dinners during the week with a meat introduced on the weekend. For the past few months since prior to when we got the bike, I have been limiting myself to only beer on the weekends (with a few exceptions such as watching sporting events during the week), so that has helped with weight decrease. Amazing how much weight can be lost just by doing away with any type of alcohol!

I have increased my bike riding to four times a week with at least one of the days being at least an hour of riding. The other three days are typically 30 minute blocks but broken up into smaller chunks or even two twenty minute rides that are easier than my 60 minute block. I continue to have fun and enjoy the experience that is Pelton. I am also trying to stay motivated to work out everyday with the Peloton app by doing weights, mediation, or Yoga. 

My motivation for doing the other non-bike days has been tough the past week or two. I tend to skip weights, or cardio, for mediation which is not ideal. Carrie tells me at least I am focusing on myself, but it feels as though I am cheating on the process. I have debated to just doing the four days of bike riding and not worrying about the other, but I do enjoy the feeling after I finish cardio or weights.

As the weather gets warmer, I do intend to introduce running into my workout again which will likely be one of my four days of workout. As I get older, I notice my knees hurt even following bike riding, so I am not sure how long I will be able to continue my runs. I do enjoy running outside though as compared to a treadmill but Oliver gets a walk following my run and I love how excited he gets when I put on my running shoes.

What are your exercise routines? How do you keep yourself motivated? What is your favorite workout? Do you wake up and workout in the morning? Do you work out in the middle of the day? Or, wait until the last of the day to get your workout completed? 

I would love to hear from you and discuss through comments on this post, Twitter, or FaceBook.