My Return to Peloton
On March 7, 2020, I went to the Peloton studio in Chelsea for a Power Zone Ride with Matt Wilpers. Even though I own a Peloton, proudly displayed in my home office despite its clashing black color against the neon decor, I still enjoy the occasional ride in the studio. Live human energy cannot be mimicked at home and the in-person Peloton community is a nice supplement to the mostly virtual interactions in the app and on social media. Plus, Peloton was relocating to a larger space in mid-March and I wanted to bid farewell to the physical location where my Peloton journey began in 2016.
I was so excited for the new studio to open in late March 2020, even though I knew it would prove challenging to snag a bike in one of the premiere classes. I was willing to exercise (pun intended) patience and ride at home until I could grace the halls (because the new big space would have HALLS!) of Peloton’s new home in Hudson Yards. Well, the Peloton studio didn’t even open because the world shut down due to COVID-19. Peloton made the move but could not host anyone in the studio for live rides. My Peloton at home became my primary fitness option. I was so grateful to already possess this bike while others were facing 5-month waits, which didn’t seem worth it because the pandemic would be over by then, so we thought.
As restrictions eased in 2022, Peloton announced its official soft opening for June and July. I filled out the forms, joined waitlists, and obsessively checked the site for openings. Then, I got the email that I snagged a spot in Hannah Corbin’s dance music ride on Friday, July 29. Hannah is an OG Peloton instructor and someone I rode with a lot in my early Peloton days. Her class would be the perfect class to experience back in the studio after two and half years riding solely at home.
I woke up excited, ready to jump on the subway to arrive at the mandatory 45 minutes early. You would think I was checking into the gate of an international flight. This preview class was free though so I happily followed the rules. As I got off the subway into the humid air of Hudson Yards, it became rapidly and increasingly obvious that I was in need of a bathroom. Graciously entering the studio and taking in the new surroundings turned into thrusting my required proof of vaccination into an employee’s face while attempting a calm request to point me in the direction of the loo. I charged through the doors and was greeted with so many welcomes, all of which I returned by shouting “just have to run to the bathroom!” Of course, the bathroom was down the hall (remember, it has halls now) and up several flights of stairs, but I made it, washed my hands, took a deep breath, and pressed reset on my entrance.
My first impression of the new Peloton was one of awe at the stylized space, with thoughtfully placed plants and huge screens playing mini exercise clips. My second impression was formed by Spencer as he gave me an official tour. I couldn’t believe my eyes when Spencer greeted me because Spencer was the same employee that greeted me time and time again back in Chelsea. A rush of questions flooded my mind like “did you go on unemployment when there was no studio and get a totally different job and then come back to Peloton?!” Instead, I simply told him I was excited he was back! Returning to Peloton and seeing Spencer, the same front desk manager from pre-pandemic, was truly a comfort. Peloton was in a brand new space with a much expanded community on both the instructor and athlete side. Seeing Spencer again meant I was returning to my Peloton home, even if that home and the people in it looked different.
But why was I even so surprised to see Spencer back at Peloton? We are so wrapped up in believing we live in a completely different world now. Since my Dad died from COVID and he is no longer in this world, it’s hard not to feel like this is a whole new world. But we are not Ariel emerging from the ocean, looking at this dazzling place we’ve never been. It’s just a different place. You think we live in a whole new world because we scan QR codes to pull up menus. You think we live in a whole new world because you work from home 2 days a week. You think we live in a whole new world because you still wear your mask on an airplane even though it is not required because “ew, like airplane air is just so gross to me now.” Some restaurants will go back to paper menus because it is kind of annoying when everyone has their phone out on the table. Some people will go back to work in an office full time because the remote culture will fail their company. And some people will breathe that gross airplane air. I’m not saying everything that changed will go back to the way it was before, but we should not expect every change to be permanent. Some changes were certainly for the better and others will need to be reevaluated. Not all change is permanent, even when that change is positive.
After the grand tour, I still had 15 minutes before being allowed in the studio. My time maximizer brain would typically open my journal or kindle to use the time wisely. Instead, I locked up my belongings, including my phone, and chatted with fellow riders. One woman got off the waitlist the day before and drove down from Philly. A group of veterans came to town together to ride. Another rider was in town from LA and had never been to a live class before. I am so glad I left my phone, kindle, and journal in my locker so I could be fully present with my fellow riders. We all waited two and a half years to be together again. So, we should actually be together.
When the doors opened, I eyed the front row and grabbed Bike 6, right in the center. Seats moving up and down, shoes clipping in left and right and ponytails being tightened dominated the first few minutes before selfie mania took off. My cell phone was safely locked away because I wanted to capture this moment through my own lens, not the lens of a camera. After listening to the producer’s instructions, they finally brought out Hannah. The room erupted with applause, like seeing a celebrity, yet somehow better than seeing a celebrity because you feel this personal connection to the instructor that inspires you, motivates you, and virtually picks you up when you fall. To see the instructor face-to-face is to realize that their support, their kindness, and their energy is actually real.
Hannah started chatting with the crowd of cyclists and was interrupted by the producer requesting she strike a pose for the screenshot that would appear for this class on demand. She said she would ask a studio member to pick a pose and her eyes landed right on me. When she caught my eye, she said “OMG! HI!” You might think I’m lying when I say she recognized me, but she most certainly did recognize me. I took her live classes in the studio for 4 years. The Peloton community in 2016 was still mighty but not nearly quite as large on either end. I used to ride when there were 11 instructors total and now there are over 50!
I picked a fun arm pose and the whole class vogued for the camera. With screenshots done, class could begin. We were all clipped in for 30 minutes of spinning to dance music. This class was not about achieving a personal record or climbing the leaderboard. This class was about being in class. The fact that I could even be at the class was what the class was all about. If you are channeling Friends right now hearing “they don’t know that we know they know” - I hear you. All that mattered about the class was that the class existed.
DJ Crumbcake, the amazing woman behind my wedding day tunes, asked me well in advance of my wedding day to pick a final song for the night. I was so focused on songs to walk down the aisle to but had not given any thought to a final song. One day, as I walked across the Manhattan bridge, the song “Gimme Some Lovin” by The Spencer Davis Group came on. This song always takes me to the final scene (spoiler alert!) in Notting Hill, when they are driving Hugh Grant to the press junket to tell Julia Roberts that he’s just a boy standing in front of a girl asking her not to leave London. What struck me in the song was the lyric “so glad we made it.” The emotional toll of planning my wedding, losing my Dad, and replanning my wedding without my Dad made me so nervous about how the day would go. Even though he was gone, everyone else was still alive and I wanted to celebrate with those people. I was just so glad we made it, we survived, and we were doing the thing. The song was perfect to wrap up the night. As I started spinning my legs in that Peloton class months later, I kept that sentiment close. I was so glad we had all made it.
After class, I sat in the lounge for an hour, observing fellow Peloton riders and taking in my surroundings. Usually, I am racing from one thing to the next. But, I waited two and a half years to have this live experience and I wanted to sit with it a little bit longer. Before my wedding, my therapist told me to take a few minutes alone to soak in my surroundings. We are all so focused on taking pictures to remember the moment that we sometimes forget that an easy way to remember the moment is to be fully present in that moment. Next time you think about skipping the cool down or grabbing your bag to run out the door, ask yourself if you can take a minute to just be.
I want to say that it felt great to go back to Peloton. But I don’t think there is any going back after the pandemic. We are certainly not going to pretend like the pandemic never happened. 9/11’s tagline of never forget makes more sense to me now because we will truly never forget it, nor should we forget. Those planes striking the towers happened within 17 minutes of each other. COVID is so squishy in terms of it “happening.” It’s called COVID-19 because it started in 2019 but we didn’t even acknowledge it fully in the US (stupid Donald Trump you dumbass) until March of 2020. If someone asks you: “where were you on 9/11?” - you can usually tell them exactly where you were that morning. I was in AP American History (I got a 4 on the exam, thank you very much) and went to see my guidance counselor, Mrs. Rooney, who was a pioneer in my eyes because she kept her last name after marriage (you go girl)! She told me about the first plane hitting and I didn’t even know what that could mean in terms of terrorism. I went to the library when a classmate came in crying, asking to use the phone because we didn’t have cell phones. She proceeded to scream at her mom to get ahold of her Dad who worked in the towers. We found out on Friday, September 14, that he died.
When someone asks you in 2047 where you were during COVID-19, how would you even begin to answer that? “Well, I was home in my Fort Greene apartment, wondering if the purchase of my new apartment in Clinton Hill would still go through, doing Peloton on demand and ClassPass live workouts, holding on sending my wedding saved the dates, and then my Dad died of COVID and I spent hours and hours on the phone talking to the people whose lives he touched and the people in my life that I needed and did it from my apartment because my Mom had COVID so I couldn’t go see her and then I canceled my wedding but I did move into my new apartment and ultimately got legally married on my original wedding date and managed to get promoted at work because I was doing 3 jobs after we laid off half the company and took a vacation to ski because due to travel restrictions, driving trips were easier and so I learned to drive again and spent more time with friends at Airbnbs or at my Mom’s house in her new inflatable pool or dropping stuff off at Green Drop because my Mom was downsizing now that she was a widow and of course my husband and I watched all of the Marvel movies and Fast & Furious movies when were not busy furnishing our new home or planning our 2022 wedding party since people were vaccinated and boosted, at least the smart ones, but then everyone got COVID again when we returned from our honeymoon and people stopped flying so much because airlines were so short staffed, as were restaurants and all businesses really and women can’t even get abortions and there was a war and lots of mass shootings and speaking of mass, there were mass layoffs because the economy was tanking but at least we were saving trees by using QR codes instead of printed menus but maybe that didn’t help so much because the world was on literal fire because it was so hot and I think we freed Britney Spears but not free Brittany Griner and Tik Tok happened so we could dance our cares away like the Fraggles who also returned and somehow, we still couldn’t remember where we left our masks. So where were you during COVID-19?
COVID has changed our lives and our surroundings in so many ways but our roots and foundation still ground us in who we are and how we evolve over time. We can’t go back but we can move forward. We made it.
Now what are we going to do to keep moving onward and upward?
