Letting Peloton plan my workout schedule
Is it as smart as other platforms?
I've been a Peloton user for about five years now. Like plenty of other people, getting a Peloton bike during the pandemic was a helpful way to maintain my fitness and sanity.
Going outside to run or go for a bike ride will always be my preference over an indoor stationary bike or treadmill. But the Peloton Bike has been great at motivating me to push harder than I typically would on bike rides by myself.
Where I've found the most value with Peloton is through their Outdoor section. These are audio-only classes that play through your headphones while you're running through the real world. I suppose you could listen to them on a treadmill but I can't say I've tried it.
For the past few years, a majority of my runs have taken place with a Peloton coach in my ears. Has it made a huge difference in my performance? It's hard to say. I'm not crushing PRs or anything, but the audio guidance has kept me consistent and I know I put more effort in speed workouts when someone is in my ear. Staring at a watch has never been great at motivating me to hit a certain speed. I'm not a numbers guy so hitting a time goal for a run doesn't work as well as someone giving me real-time verbal queues to increase or decrease my pace.
So Peloton outdoor runs have made up the bulk of my training schedule for a while. There have been the occasional Peloton bike rides and yoga classes but the audio runs have been by far my favorite way to consume Peloton content.
But I was very interested when they launched the ability to build out a personalized schedule for you right in the app. We all know that sometimes the hardest part of working out is just deciding what to do. If someone lays out a plan for you, it's much easier to follow along and stay consistent. So for the past few months I've been letting the Peloton app tell me what to do everyday.
I'd say it's been a mixed bag.
On one hand, I really like the simplicity of just opening the app and doing what it tells me to do. But in the back of my mind I am wondering if Peloton is actually smart enough to know what's good for me.
You answer just a few basic questions when you setup your plan. You tell it how many days per week you want to workout and for how long you want each session to last. This is a helpful place to start but I've found it to be fairly limiting.
I have no issue with an hour long run each week, but I think a 60 minute strength session is more than I'd want right now. The durations should be set for each type of activity you choose.
For instance, I do want to workout 5 or 6 days per week, but I'd prefer for at least three of those sessions to be Peloton Outdoor sessions. Right now, that level of granularity isn't possible.
So I feel like doing any exercise is better than doing no exercise but I do feel like Peloton's schedule is a bit too simplistic.
It seems like they're basically following the same formula each week for me.
There is nothing inherently wrong with following the same structure of workouts each week but it can get boring. Should we do an interval run every Monday? Who says that Friday is upper body day? It's somewhat arbitrary but it's a good starting point.
I do like that Peloton seems smart enough to suggest instructors that I'm familiar with and classes with music that I typically gravitate toward. Not all 30 minute interval runs are the same, and it's easy enough to cycle through the few options that Peloton serves up for you.
Another annoying thing is that the location of your weekly schedule of classes changes depending on which device you're using to access Peloton. It's pretty easy to see it front and center when you open the app on your phone. If you're trying to access it on the screen attached to your bike, it's there but not as easy to see.
But just now I went to check the schedule on the Peloton site on the web browser on my computer. I can't find my personal schedule anywhere! I could be missing something but this seems like a major gaff. Apparently the tool that generates the schedule only lives within the app itself. You would think that the website would be smart enough to sync with the schedule you created on your phone or on the bike but apparently not.
To be fair, I imagine the percentage of users who access workouts on the web browser is pretty small. But still, you want to create a cohesive experience for people across all platforms and Peloton isn't great at that.
So will I continue using this schedule feature? It makes sense for me right now, but as I ramp up more specific race training I'll likely use something else to keep track of my running goals. I'd say that it's a great option if you're just getting started with Peloton workouts and you want some consistency while you try out all the different types of workouts that are on offer.
My hope is that Peloton actually invests in this feature to improve it over time. Right now, they offer a chance to give feedback on your plan but it seems to just go into an black box that I hope is being read. It would be nice if it offered real time updates and adjustments to your plan but I don't think it's there yet. I left feedback saying that I wanted to set minimum workouts for the week by category. So like at least 3 runs per week, 2 bike rides and one yoga class or something like that.That would offer me some control over the workouts while still letting Peloton work its magic to find me the best combination of classes each week.
Anyone else using these personalized plans? Are smart plans like this the next logical step in modern fitness routines or just another attempt to insert AI where a human touch is a better idea?
Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll be back with more late next week after taking a little spring break from writing.
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