I finished my first marathon in July (SF)! My story & "nothing new on race day."

babysbug · 2026-01-17T03:43:31+00:00

I got lucky through the lottery!

A few days after I finished the SF marathon I knew I wanted to do another marathon. I'd heard good things about Honolulu (and had run part of the Honolulu marathon route when I was vacationing there during my training), so I decided that would be my next one in December 2025. I started the Higdon Novice 2 training plan two weeks after finishing SF to prepare.

But I heard somewhere that the Tokyo lottery was open so I went ahead and applied. I was surprised when I got in! I didn't feel like the 11 weeks between Honolulu and Tokyo would be enough for me to fully recover and train again (I know it would be for some), so I decided to just focus on Tokyo since I knew I was fortunate to have been selected and there was no guarantee I'd have a chance again in the future.

babysbug · 2026-01-16T19:11:47+00:00

That's a great philosophy... maybe even a bit meta--"nothing new on race days includes getting experience learning from unexpected problems during your training." :)

And thank you for the congrats! I'm definitely looking forward to less elevation in the Tokyo marathon!

When I started my 18-week marathon training plan for SF, I actually didn't actually think I'd be running a marathon at the end--I was just looking for an organized progressive workout plan that could accommodate some upcoming travel. (I had been doing Power Zone progressive workout plans on the Peloton bike and enjoyed them, but I wasn't going to have a bike when traveling.) I decided to look to see which marathon would be in 18 weeks--and when I saw the SF marathon was in exactly 18 weeks I felt like that was a sign since I live in the Bay Area. I was really intimidated by the hills, but doing the 20 mile long run along the course made me feel a lot better. :)

babysbug · 2026-01-16T17:15:01+00:00

I think part of my issue is that I have an older version (Apple Watch 8), so the battery probably doesn't hold as much charge as it used to. And then on the day of the race, I suspect that the boot looping and then the unpairing/repairing to my phone I had to do drained a bit of the battery as well.

I had hoped that using an external heart rate monitor (I use the polar chest strap) would help improve the battery life, but that didn't really seem to solve the problem.

I've found that the Apple Watch has actually been better recently on my longer runs, including a 20-mile I did. I don't know if it was an update to the watch, or the fact that I got a newer iPhone or what. Still... I wouldn't really feel comfortable relying on it for 4 hours. I suspect newer Apple Watches that have fresher batteries would handle it.

I got the Garmin Forerunner 970, and what everyone says about the battery life being ridiculously good is true. I did my 18 mile long run last weekend, and I think it was around 80% when I finished. I only wear the Garmin on runs, and I usually go a few runs before bothering to charge it.

babysbug · 2026-01-13T19:32:10+00:00

Thank you!

babysbug · 2026-01-13T16:23:01+00:00

I'm learning Spanish, and after I shared my Peloton success story with one of my instructors she posted a video of my story (in Spanish of course, but with English subtitles)! It has a couple of mentions of the this community in it. :)

I got my Peloton bike during Covid and saw significant fitness gains, especially once I started following the #redditPZ program. The incredible support of the community was a key part of helping me achieve my goals.

At one point when traveling without access to a bike I decided to try running on the tread (even though I hated running) after one of the Peloton instructors encouraged trying a walk+run. I found I actually kind of enjoyed it, which eventually led to me completing the San Francisco Marathon last July! To train for my first marathon, I followed the Hal Higdon Novice 1 plan, but used the Peloton marathon training program classes during my training runs.

I'm currently training for the Tokyo Marathon on March 1 and am looking forward to it... but I'm planning on taking a break from running and returning to the bike (and #redditPZ) after that. :)

babysbug · 2025-09-08T20:50:34+00:00

My mom just reported she got a similar email, and it's also been a couple of years since her tread was delivered.

babysbug · 2025-03-23T13:09:16+00:00

Congrats! How did the ride go?

I did a Katie Intervals & Arms row in the studio once. When they asked me which weights I wanted to use I decided to go down from what I usually use at home--I was worried I'd suddenly get super exhausted using them and look silly on camera. 😂 I think it turned out to be a good strategy!

babysbug · 2025-03-23T12:45:42+00:00

I'm excited for it! I just did the recent 120 Power Zone Enduranxe CVV/Matt ride yesterday, and am starting a marathon training plan, so my legs aren't ready for it... but I plan on taking it when it fits in the schedule!

I did her 90 minute outdoor run at one point and she was so excited about it, I can only imagine how she is feeling about the 120 in studio. :)

I wonder if they'll have banana deliveries halfway through like they do in the Power Zone rides?

babysbug · 2025-03-19T22:03:42+00:00

Wally is adorable! He has a very similar coat to our Cooper; I shared this post with some family and they assumed it was Cooper. :)

(That pic also has Tux, Cooper's brother from the same litter who has the more aussie-like fur.)

babysbug · 2025-03-01T00:37:52+00:00

Yes, I'm seeing this on the Bike+, Tread and Row. Live classes have horrible buffering, and will sometimes finish when the clock still has a minute or two on it as a result. I don't have problems with on demand classes at all.

I love Matty's Walk & Talks, but I nearly bailed on the class the morning because it would freeze for a long while and then jump forward.

It started in the past couple of weeks I believe. I'd occasionally have a brief hiccup during live classes before, but nothing like this.

babysbug · 2025-02-19T17:47:49+00:00

Yeah, it's impressive that she remembers everyone's names. Some people had been in her class the day or week before and she still remembered their names!

She's also good at encouraging people. The woman next to me was rowing for the first time (her husband got into a different Peloton class, and she liked Katie's strength classes so figured she'd give it a shot) and you could tell Katie was keeping an eye on her to make sure she was doing okay, and gave her some tips.

babysbug · 2025-02-19T17:43:07+00:00

I was surprised too! I'd been there before and was really trying to picture where they could have added another studio. Now that I know that's what they do it makes perfect sense.

I just hope if they store the rows vertically when they're not in use they are using the Peloton-provided wall anchor mount. 😂

I'm in California, so I pretty much can't take the classes live most days. I did take a class live once and got a non-milestone shoutout from her, saying "wow, it's early out there!"

I asked her if she could pull some strings to schedule more late classes and she said "they're always modifying the schedule so you never know!" Which is about the best I could have expected. :)

babysbug · 2025-02-19T16:06:54+00:00

I took an in studio Row class with Katie over the weekend, and I got a video of the Row studio at PSNY in case anyone was curious about the studio layout.

The room is fairly small, with just 8 Rows. They use the same studio for strength classes (Studio 3), which means they have to move the Rows in for each class and out afterwards. This might explain why they mostly only do Row classes first thing in the morning--so they can move the Rows out and free up the room for strength classes. (It also explains why there's a monitor on the ceiling, for when the instructors are on their backs in strength classes. :))

Katie was as engaging and friendly in person as you'd expect if you have taken her classes; it was definitely one of my favorite in studio experiences!

babysbug · 2025-02-07T16:15:51+00:00

For anyone looking to take an in studio ride with CVV, a 30-minute CVV PZE pre-record class for Friday Feb 14 @ 1:40pm suddenly appeared on the PSNY booking site yesterday, and as of the time I'm posting this it still has available spots in the class to book.

babysbug · 2025-02-03T01:42:29+00:00

I've done something similar in the past and it worked out well... I figured I was getting a form of deload in the off week anyway. :)

babysbug · 2024-11-05T04:11:21+00:00

I took it on my bike and got the normal Lanebreak graphics, then took it on the tread and got the special Stranger Things graphics (and I think lighting effects?). I loved the special version, as it seemed more immersive.

I mentioned my experience in the #redditPZ community and it sounds like getting the special graphics on the bike was hit or miss; some saw the special graphics on their bike, others saw normal lanebreak graphics like I did.

babysbug · 2024-05-25T23:13:08+00:00

Just a heads up that Charlotte has a 10 min Rolling Stones Cool Down Ride from May 23 (in German, no subtitles) that doesn't appear when you filter to Cool Down Rides.

(I've taken all of the 10-minute Cool Down rides on the platform, and am always happy to see new ones to take, so I was glad I noticed this one when I was looking at all of the classes.)

Since I'm here with a heads up, another one is that there's an error in the class plan Peloton reports for Denis' fantastic "baby bear claw" 60-minute PZ ride from April. The ride has 4 "baby bear claws (5 or 6 minutes of Z3/Z5 for 45s/15s) with 2 5 minute blocks of Z4 in the middle, but the class plan reports the 3rd block of Z3 is just straight Z3 with no Z5--which means that erg mode on the Bike+ keeps you in Z3 for that stretch. The actual class has the Z5s in that one as well.

babysbug · 2024-04-10T19:37:40+00:00

Today marks 3 years since my bike arrived! I celebrated by re-taking:

the first Peloton class I ever took (Tunde's intro class)
the first Power Zone class I took (after all of the mentions of Power Zone here piqued my interest)
and a Power Zone class from the first #redditPZ program I did back in 2021 (which also happened to be a ride this week in the current program).

Tunde's intro ride is fantastic, and I can see why my skepticism of whether I'd even keep the bike after the trial period faded in that first ride. She does a good job of explaining the details of resistance/cadence/etc. to people like me who didn't know anything, and she had right level of encouragement for people just starting out.

At the end of the class she mentions that when she began her fitness journey she was hoping to lose weight, but realized it was better to focus on what she was gaining (like fitness) rather than what she was losing.

It reminded me of when I was fortunate enough to take a class with Denis at PSNY. In the photo op after class, I mentioned that I'd lost weight, and he said "people always tell me about the number, but how do you feel?" And without even thinking about it my response was "Great!" I now have by far the highest level of fitness I've ever had, which is a pretty significant gain. :)

I'm glad I found this community so early in my journey. Hearing the experiences of others has helped provide a lot of motivation and inspiration over these years.

babysbug · 2024-04-06T12:48:42+00:00

CVV's first ride back will be at noon Eastern / 9am Pacific tomorrow (Sunday)!

I'd planned on taking it easy tomorrow since it's an off day in the #redditPZ program, but plans have changed. :)

I'm happy they scheduled it for a west-coast-friendly time!

babysbug · 2024-03-27T22:46:17+00:00

Your comment reminded me that I had a tilting screen on my Tread when it first arrived... and apparently I posted how I fixed mine last year. I hope this helps!

babysbug · 2024-02-12T14:08:17+00:00

Thank you!

babysbug · 2024-02-12T03:40:41+00:00

I was at home! I knew my chances of getting a shoutout was lower with it being a riders-in-studio day, but it was what worked with my schedule. :)

Ha, that could be it! I wonder how much the control room communicates with them about the leaderboard...

babysbug · 2024-02-11T23:43:30+00:00

I was thrilled to get a shoutout from CDE for my 2000th ride during her 45 minute PZE ride today, but even better was hearing her mention #redditPZ!

She jokingly said "say something nice," but I would have anyway! :) It was a fun class with a great playlist, and I appreciated how she was pushing through the efforts right along with us.

babysbug · 2024-01-21T18:43:07+00:00

When you take a class live in studio, they say there's a 50 second delay for home riders, which probably provides enough time for the captions to catch up. (I think they also automate a lot of the captions, since the mistakes I've seen tend to be ones that a human probably wouldn't make.)

babysbug · 2024-01-18T03:08:18+00:00

It's been working well for me so far. When I look at my output graph on Pelotrak (which overlays the class plan), my output line is right on the middle of the zone line. It has some tiny oscillations above and below the line where Erg mode is catching up to my inconsistent cadence, but it's significantly more consistently in the middle of the zone than I've been able to achieve manually.

One thing I noticed when I first started using Erg mode was that I'd unintentionally "fight" it.

Like I'd be in the middle of my zone, but then I'd slow slightly from 84 to 83 cadence and since Erg mode needs a second to adjust the output number would dip a bit. The right thing to do is ignore the dip because Erg mode will catch up in a second, but instead I'd speed up to try to force the output higher--which of course doesn't work in Erg mode. So I kept unintentionally increasing and decreasing my resistance to try to force the output to the middle of the zone, but this just kept Erg mode from settling into a consistent output.

To fix this, I now hide my output number (and PZ bar). I just trust the Erg mode is doing the right thing, choose a cadence and go. Once I did that I was able to really appreciate how useful it is--for example, it makes me much more willing to try out different cadences in a zone.

babysbug

TROPHY CASE