I took the plunge. My girl has 80 friends that have it, so the debate quickly ended on type of cardio equipment.
It's been a long wait. Arrival is due today.
We know damn well I'm gong to be peddling the shit out that bitch as soon as it's up and ready for use. My girl will go hard for a week and then complain about her ass hurting or something.

Stay tuned.

It's gonna get real.

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How I feel after failing the Anis test

get after it!

Get some shorts with a pad....aka a chamois.
They don't have to be expensive, but it will make whatever crappy seat it comes with more bearable.
Greg Lemond said, "It never gets easier, but you just get faster."
Chances are you won't get shorts, but if you spend enough time on it it will become apparent for your part health why you should.

The metric readouts on the Peleton are about 10% off but it won't matter to you. I'm talking about the watts (output). It's just a good indicator to give you a baseline to see if you are getting better at pedaling. 170watts should theoretically get you down a flat road at 20mph as an example and 300W is 25mph. I don't think the Peleton has hills or vertical climbing but you'll get as good a workout in as hard as you can pedal.

Depending on how it goes and if you like the classes or not, if you want some input on the types of workouts you can do to get as good as you can get just ask me.

Good luck....get some shorts.

I had a good week last week....248 miles...14,000 vert ft....ave 20.4mph.
i'm in a base phase after a good rest period for the first time in a while.
I'm just building another good aerobic/endurance base after a long season.

V, I will take any advise you can give me. I've already heard the stories so I plan on ordering a seat cushion today, and I'll rock anything I need to to endure my balls don't fall off.
With that I said, please accept my challenge. I am coming for your bike crown.
Give me sometime to get warmed up and acclimated to Cycling as my experiences on a bicycle are few and far in between.
I did ride to Coney Island and back one evening, and I once did a 5 borough tour on bike with my boys where we played ans won a basketball game in all five boroughs. That's right, even Staten Island, we threw the bikes on the ferry
Before the year is up we will pick a week. The Peleton does have resistance levels to mimic climbs as best it could, and I'll be willing to apply your difference logic to e sure the scoring is fair to the both of us. Of course when the time comes we will figure out a way for both of us to post our stats, to ensure we are being honest. Shouldn't be a problem for two honorable guys like us..
You are not my only challenge, I have others lined up with Peleton users and my first one is tonight, on day one I have vowed to blow my cousins wife out the fucking frame. We will engage on a thirty minute class at 7:30
Dont worry guys, she ain't in shape, I don't need a warm up for her. For V, I'm going to need about 6 weeks. See you then.

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How I feel after failing the Anis test

Right on. With women in cycling it goes like this....

They generally don't have the power men do short term or sprints or flats. But, if they are lean (low body fat) they fly up hills. They have a good power to weight ratio cyclists measured by watts/kg. 2 people putting out 200W on flats is about the same speed but if one weighs 200lbs and the other 150W its obvious the smaller person will go up hills faster. The metric is to know what your power profile is. For example...5sec max power....1min max power...5-7min max power...20min max power...and 1hr max power. From a quick 20min test you can find out where you should be pedaling at and you will pretty much know how long you can pedal at a given power for how long.

Generally, an endurance pace is <65% of your 1 hr power (known as FTP functional threshold power), and most of your riding should be done there for a good base. You have to keep in mind this might sound and feel too easy at first but you have to build connective tissue and build blood delivery systems to support the higher systems later.

Im not sure if the Peleton comes with a heart rate monitor but its not a bad idea to get one if it doesn't. Strap systems that go around your chest work best. The wrist ones arent that accurate and have a long delay in reporting the real changes happening. Everyone's heart rate ranges are different and the formula 220-your age is bullshit. Some people have max heart rates of 210 and others 165. Heart rate isn't any kind of indicator of power. Its just the stress indicator on your body system overall.

If you get bored of the Peleton classes (they would drive me crazy) you can connect the unit to Zwift and ride with other people in a virtual world. That's the program I'm using indoors at the moment. Whatever power Peleton says will translate to Zwift. Again, it doesn't matter if it's super accurate because it will be the same baseline experience for you. In Zwift you can draft, race, do group rides, events, and so forth.

Cool stuff.

I always wondered if those narrow ass bike seats was simply for narrow assed muthafuckas and if they felt all the same discomfort that I do when I try to do long bike rides on those shits. No matter what shape ive ever been in, my ass aint narrow. The first thing i did when I copped a bike years back was look up bike seats and copped one that was proper and comfortable, my ass my choice.

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Man, bike seat discomfort is for so many reasons it fills pages.
I'll keep it short...or ill try.
There is about a 99.9% chance the bike you were riding wasn't set up according to your dimensions.
There is bike seat height, fore and aft position, stem length, handlebar height etc....
It goes on and on but at first, just make sure its level.
It's counterintuitive to what rec riders think.
It's like Chinese water torture over the long haul if it isn't set right.
Feels ok in the beginning but then the pressure points and faulty setup starts to kill.
It also takes time to get used to it all not to mention you are stressed from the physical part.
The proper seat height will give you more power and the fore/aft kind of sets up above the pedals to push down more effectively, but it the beginning you won't be able to push much anyway, or at least for long.

The point is that it is complicated. Bike seats are designed with pedaling in mind trying not to impede anything that will slow you down. Those big gel seats have a place I guess, but they would hold a real cyclist back

Riding is like arm wrestling...you can't tell if a sumbitch is any good by looking. Big ass powerful guys get humbled. Its a great cardio workout though, but it's very specific. ITs low impact and doesn't fuck up part like the hip, knees, Achilles tendons, etc.

Where you at Truth? Or didn't it show?

Got it yesterday. I started with a scenic warmup, 10 minutes. I immediately ordered the shorts for me and my wife after that.
I followed that up with a 15 minute Cycling class, kicked my ass.
I just did an advanced beginners class for 30 minutes. I'm drenched.
I love it, Need the shorts, can't see myself skipping a day for a while. Today would have been the day to skip, I logged in at 6am and didn't log off until 8:30 and only had breakfast, so I ate something quick, took and hour to digest, and banged out the 30 minute class. Finished in the 16k range out of 24k riders

It feels great to get the cardio in, going out the saddle fucks me up.

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Right on Truth.
It can get addicting.
It's going to depend on how you like the classes.
I think the screen and program lets you ride without an official class but I dunno.
You will have the most improvement in the first 6-12 weeks.
I also have no idea how they run the classes but I'd guess there is some good science behind it.
I'm sure you can pick endurance, VO2, and all other variations.

I think at the end of your workout it will give you energy burned, watts, and speed so you can see if you are improving.

if your doc is cool and you are reasonably healthy do an FTP test. It might suck but there are some variations. It will establish the zones you'll be looking to hit during specific type rides. Normally it is a 20min test or a ramp test that you increase your power every minute in increments to failure. You'll get an FTP number from there and know what your max heart rate is if you have a monitor on. The FTP number is theoretically how long you could ride hard for an hour. From that number, you can then derive endurance, aerobic, tempo or sweet spot, threshold, VO2 max, and neuromuscular strength zones.

Good on you Truth. Don't race too much...you'll burn out.

Did your girl like it?

V where do I start man.
Let me start off by saying the female instructors are gorgeous, obviously, smart move Peleton.

There are live classes every day. Throughout the day, it's pretty fucking insane. Outside of the live classes, in case your schedule doesn't allow you to get to one of them, you have them on demand and those are pretty infinite. The range of live and on demand classes are sick, they go from speed, to hill, to endurance, beginner, intermediate, even classes where you can incorporate small weights, etc..
Besides the cycling classes, they have a bunch of other shit, same setup with live and on demand, stretching, yoga, weight training, outside running. All this shit you could do either at home or using the app.
The setup is pretty fu king surreal. Not gonna lie, I'm surprised at how detailed it is.

Once you're in a class the first thing the instructor tells you is to keep mind of of the cadence and resistance, which will provide your watts.. Your job is to keep pace, so far the girls classes I've been doing is perfect, aside from the fsct she's an absolutely knockout, the facial expressions are priceless, the different variations she provides to go from speed, to an uphill climb by increasing resistance certain levels every minute or so as you stated, is a complete fucking burn.

I get addicted easily with any sport or exercise, and I'm not worried about burning out because I've already been humbled. I was on some "I'm doing two or three courses a day", well, not only will work not let me do the most of the time, but last night's 30 minute course was all I needed. My watts output has been for classes, and it's only been two, 88 avg for the 30 minute ride and 130 for the 15 minute.

Besides all the classes, you can do straight ride, no instructors, with or without scenic routes. V you should have signed up for that shit, they paid people to ride all around the fucking world just to give Peleton riders a scenic vision lol
You can also just hop on that bitch and ride it freely.

My girl loves that shit, she's special so she had one class and already feels like she's in shape, but as long as she keeps up with it she'll be good...
I have my eyes set on an 8:30 love class tonight, if I can't make it I'm pulling up the same one from on demand I did last night, that shit was really good.

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How I feel after failing the Anis test

Cool. I read up a little on the Peleton last night just to see what they have and you pretty much confirmed what I read.

Start, now that you are in the very first stage of getting used to it, by finding an FTP test somewhere on there. It will set the whole course for what power zones in Watts you should be shooting for. You don't have to have an HR monitor but I think they are useful. Your heart and body will get better over time if workouts are effective and your HR will be lower with higher output. Don't worry about the number by comparing it to others yet. As I said, this is like arm wrestling and it takes time. People who ride a lot like me have insane numbers that don't even seem believable. I ride 8000 miles a year with about 600,000 ft of vertical climbing.

Once you get the FTP number it will be the basis for everything from here on out. I can suggest whatever you'd like from there and a lot of what I might suggest will be easier than what you are used to. Most riding i.e. 85& should be done @ less than 65% of your FTP.

Let me know if they have a test on the program to get an FTP number. If they don't I can tell you how to do one. There is a 20min version or a ramp test as they call it.

8 classes deep, banged out 2 yesterday
I'm finding that 15 minute HIIT training makes me push more than my usual jog of 3 miles.

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How I feel after failing the Anis test

Just did my first live session.. Yesterday I did a semi live session which means it was a class on demand but had live people taking it at the same time, I finished 14th out of 28, middle of the pack.

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How I feel after failing the Anis test

How much was it? And no I dont give a fuck if you mind me askin. How much was it nigga????

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How much was the Peleton? I paid 2200 but they sent me back 400 because the price was reduced a week after to 1800.
Of course there's the 40 a month fee for the subscription, which is good money spent. I'll never touch a gym because I have my machine for the weight lifting and now I got my cardio. Whenever I get the urge to run I'll just hit the streets.
V was right though, the shit gets addicting. I'm working on not blowing myself out right now.
The seat hurts, I wear two shorts with the pads, and I throw on 3 jogging pants. I'm from the bottom. It's gonna get done.

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You get high as fuck.
I can think the whole world is shit or not feel well.

HIIT sessions are good.

Did you find anything about FTP? Functional Threshold Power. In theory, for most, but not all, whatever you can ride at for an average in Watts for 20min you can get the FTP number. Its somewhere give or take 95% (i.e 20min power of 130 x .95 = 123.5 FTP. Then from that your long endurance pace should about 60% of that = 74.1w. Your HIIT intervals whether they be 2min or 7min long is 105-125% of FTP = about 150W. The main thing is to be able to repeat them after rest periods in-between.

There is alot to it to digest but you can not care too and I'd understand why.
To know heart rate is good too but not a necessity.
Heart rate sometimes fills in a missing blanks.
Some day you might feel great and other not so much.
rest after a few days is important too but that gets hard to convince yourself of that.

I'm glad you like it.

That’s about all it takes is 15 minutes. My main workouts are generally HIIT with Kettlebells doing cleans, clean and press, man makers, full body stuff. I can redline in 15 mins and no mas. I don’t do that all the time cause it’s a motherfucker, but, 15 minutes can be enough.

I need to check into this system. Looks like something my wife would like.

I used to be a fairly strong runner years and years ago. Not real crazy about it now. Like I said, I like the HIIT stuff. It’s a cardio component to it, though. I’ve done an interesting experiment here lately. I monitor my Blood pressure regular and it was around 120’s over 80 or 82. Doing the HIIT stuff whether kettlebells or running the hill. I started adding in consistent running whether on treadmill or woods. Nothing strenuous, 10-11 minute miles and 20-30 mins. My damn BP has dropped like 10 points. It’s been averaging 115 or less over 62 to 70.

Either way, good for you Truth. And you too Greg Lemond (V) lol

Its important to rest enough and up build up to putting youself through high-stress loads especially over time.
Don't do HIIT workouts any more than 3 times a week.
Most everything should be 55-65% of your FTP.
You won't show as much improvement doing high intensity too often not having enough time to repair.
It really is a matter of breaking yourself down to let it build back stronger...and I'm not just talking about muscular strength. Muscular strength won't get very far, but it has its place for particular efforts.
The low-intensity work is to build the base and it will allow you to burn more and use what energy you have more efficiently

There is a cutoff point somewhere for everyone at what intensity you start to uses certain fuels your body uses. The high-intensity fuel is limited compared to low-end fuels like fat. We call them "burning matches" when you go over what you can sustain like sprint work and the high-intensity intervals.

Its all going to be hard in the beginning and the hardest part will be when to know when to rest. You can ride every day at low intensity and it will show huge improvements over time. That won't be as satisfying and requires patience to sit there for a long time. If you do high-intensity work too often it will stunt improvement and you will get slower and slower...then possibly sick. A good combo of both is the key for maximum improvement.

Hey V, they have power classes designed for you to calculate your FTP.
I took a beginner one, so it started at low levels and then you powered your way up, you can tell the difference in the instructor as well, this shorty was thick, you can see the power lol. So they have a few so you can start at what in the beginner class is a zone 4, and then you build your way up from there for 20 minutes.
I'm not there, so right now I'm just jumping around different courses trying to better my total output for each course.
I haven't missed a day, or come close to missing one, the long work day threatens it from time to time but I really enjoy the exercise and just the total exhaustion of it all, definitely hooked, hopefully I can keep the stream going.
I'm going to continue building on the beginner power zone courses and when I feel strong enough I'll go for broke on one of the more advanced classes.

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The 20 min test is a tough motha fucking thing to do. There is normally a good warm-up with some kicks and then 20 min the hardest you can pedal. I'd recommend something different. Its hard but it won't set you back physically and especially mentally. Its called a ramp test. Check to see if they have that one. The test getting harder and harder increasing output every minute until failure but the pain is short and the result of accurate enough.

Im pretty good at finding endurance by feel at this point and can almost guess my heart rate at any point within 3 beats.

Do make sure you rest but maybe you don't need to if you are recuperating. The best thing I do is watch Netflix and ride at the same time. It's easy and I get to watch shit I normally wouldn't. Netflix isn't possible doing the harder shit though. All I can do is look at the screen and numbers and tell myself I'm good and can make it.

There is a strange part to this that is counter-intuitive but the industry wants to glamourize the pain. Don't get me wrong. Cycling can be an exquisite pain lasting for so long it can ruin your mind. But most of this should be done EASY low and long. Its not about strength, but that will come anyway. Its about building a system as your HEART the engine, your LUNGS the carburetor, and your legs the nitrous oxide boost. Legs aren't good for much but the short stuff. Your heart will get the best benefits if you ain't hitting it too hard and too often. The hardest part is knowing when to rest. At least it was for me.

it sounds like you found the right thing. Good stuff man.

Hey Truth, here is an example of my ride today watching a movie on NetFlix.
just pedaling...no hard breathing....no leg burn...just pedaling with the terrain.
this is an average length ride on the short side.
I can keep this pace for a long ass time...like 6+ hours but that is taxing and it will get uncomfortable.
my point is it doesn't have to be hard...85% of it should be like this.
and this thing is about the power to weight, especially on hills.
Its cool that Peleton gives you a power readout in WATTS as it has become the standard measure.
Just measure yourself for a good long while and just trying to keep improving.
when you don't improve you gotta change it up or rest.
and when I say keep improving don't try to beat your best every time...try at most 2 times a week at some lenth of time you are comfortable with.

it sounds like you are keeping it fun and that's the key too!

Keep it coming V, I'm absorbing all this.
So last night I did another HIIT with what has now become my favorite trainer, or she's tied for number one, anyway, she warned us before the 20 minute session that it was going to be brutal, and brutal it was. I didn't stop once, I kept with her and one to one 30 seconds on 30 seconds off all the way to the very last interval which has the resistance so difficult I could barely reach 70 on the cadence, I actually needed to then take a 5 minute cool down session just to get my witts about me, I all but lost consciousness and its what I fucking love.
With that said, I'm going in today on a 45 minute ride which will be less intense, more steady, for the sake of stretching my legs out and just getting in a good swear. I really do want to pace myself, but the classes where I'm forced to just go all out is what I crave, I know too much of that shit will burn me out.
My aim in 45 minutes today will be to bank 15 miles on the bike.

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Those stats are fucking crazy. I definitely want to get a heart monitor so I can track my shit as well.

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How I feel after failing the Anis test