This week marked a full year of Peloton Bike+ ownership. You can read more about my experience with Peloton here, but on its anniversary wanted to drop a few quick notes.
Between Laura and I, we’ve ridden the bike a total of 371 times in 365 days, and it has held up great. One of the pedals wore down and failed, but it only took a few minutes with Peloton chat support to have another shipped over.
I’ve personally taken 202 rides and completed an additional 90 workouts through the platform. Predominantly stretches and body strength exercises.
While cycling to nowhere can grow old, I appreciate that they keep adding new ways to use the bike. I've recently gravitated to scenic rides. Rather than having an instructor shout out instructions from a studio environment. A scenic ride is exactly what the name says. You choose one of several cities or countrysides offered and pedal across the landscape. These rides can be based on time, distance, or even guided by an instructor. I typically mute the bike audio and play a podcast or audiobook while pedaling along, and find it very relaxing. Next year, they’re reportedly taking gamification to the next level, with a Guitar Hero-styled video game mode. I’m excited about that too, even though I still enjoy taking classes from my favorite instructors.
My one gripe is that the Apple HealthKit integration is hit or miss. The watch disconnected early a few times mid-ride, and getting it to pair initially is often a coin flip, where I need to restart the watch, bike, or both to get it working. That, and the watch isn’t supported for any of the boot camp or strength style classes, when activated from the bike. Which is annoying. We bought the plus version of the bike explicitly for HealthKit integration and the swivel screen, and it’s annoying that we can’t make use of either.
Otherwise, couldn’t be happier. I still work out most days, but no longer chase the Peloton driven metrics specifically, and have been using Apple Fitness and some self-directed weight lifting programs as well. I'm confident that if we didn’t have the bike, I would never have developed fitness as a habit again, and would still be at least fifty pounds heavier.
Nothing else drastic on the week. Shef the younger joined me for several work meetings on Tuesday, and he delighted in talking with all my co-workers.
Kratos is quarantined with a litter box in our bedroom. So, it has been a delight sleeping in there, but he continues to heal as hoped.
The new old computer still thrills me, and although my writing output hasn’t changed, I’m trying to post here more frequently. On that front, I finally customized the CSS on this blog to prevent the text from spanning across the entire browser window. I hope it makes for a more pleasurable reading experience.
That’s it for the week!
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Currently reading: Several short sentences about writing, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary, and still, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Shelved: Heroes Reborn (Marvel Comic Limited Series) Stopped after issue 3.
Finished: Nothing!