A Week of Peloton Workouts with a Busy 37-Year-Old Mom

Peloton Diaries is a series where we feature Peloton Members who have written about a week of their life and the Peloton classes they took. You can submit your own Peloton Diary for a chance at being featured.

About Me

My name: Jasmine W.

Find me on the Leaderboard: Jazz_Lee

I've been a Peloton Member since: 2019

I use the: Peloton Tread, Peloton Bike and Peloton App

My occupation: Senior Specialist by day, Tarot Reader by night

To introduce myself: I am a 37-year-old, married mom of two daughters. In the summer of 2019, after my second child, I decided to finally get a Peloton Bike to help me get back to feeling better, both emotionally and physically. What a ride it has been (literally) ever since! Between the support of my #BGM crew and becoming a new Tread-mother (yes, I just made that a thing), I am constantly inspired to keep pushing and creating new fitness goals for myself. I'm so grateful my husband, Donald (better known as #D_Black on the Leaderboard) joined me on this journey. We train together roughly twice a week as our date night—and our daughters actually leave us alone! I'm humbled by the experience Peloton has given me with my body. I've learned to respect my body in a way I never thought possible. Peloton has brought my family closer during the darkest days of our lives, through movement, sweat and laughs.

A fitness achievement I'm proud of: I hit a PR of 730 kJ on the 45 Beyonce Ride with Robin Arzon!

My most frequently taken class: Hannah Frankson's very first 5 min Cool Down Ride

My advice to other Peloton Members: Do it! Press start on the App or Bike or Tread, even when you don’t want to. It will pay off.

My Favorite...

MONDAY

In the words of my #BGM Crew: Never Miss A Monday! Today means eyeballing the class schedule again after dropping the little ones off to school and then logging on for work. Luckily, there’s an office Peloton group chat which allows me to agonize over Jess Sims wrecking my legs in her Saturday 60 bootcamp.

My husband gets home from work about a quarter to 4pm and we chat lightly about dinner, which he’s promised to take the lead on tonight. He asks if I’ll be joining him for Alex’s 30 minute Hip Hop ride at 6:30pm—but I remind him Dr. Chelsea has a double header starting with trap yoga at 6pm and I still didn’t regain the feeling in my legs from Jess’ bootcamp. I need to recover.

One of the things I find incredible about Peloton is allowing each of the instructors to bring their full self to their role as instructor. I never thought it was possible to practice yoga to Wocka Flocka’s “No Hands,” and I cannot even tell you how grateful I am to do so. I’m having a damn good time in downdog, when my daughters come in from daycare and after school to verify that I’m on task with Dr. Chelsea.

As fate would have it, I’ve been duped into making dinner since #D_Black covered homework for the little ones. Thank goodness for the airfryer. I’m able season the salmon, make the spinach and harness some leftover roasted potatoes into a meal in 30 minutes. At my suggestion, #D_Black decides to jump on Kirsten’s 20 minute run after Alex’s class. I now realize, Mondays are busy Peloton days and our daughters are patient as I don’t know what.

TUESDAY

The day of the week I love to hate: Tabata Tuesdays. Here’s the day I join a few diehards from #BGM and swarm a pre-selected Tabata ride at one of 5 timepoints in the day and proceed to die. Who opts in voluntarily for the hardest ride offered by Peloton no less than once a week? Me. I was terribly afraid of Tabata and decided in the early fall of 2020 to do it, once a week, for a year. Well, now I sing the praises of Tabata class. It helped me improve my output substantially. I logged on for the evening swarm totally forgetting Cody is Live from LA at 6:30 EST. Had I counted myself in, I would have totally taken it before Tabata because afterall, who doesn’t love Cody. It happened that I took today’s Tabata swarm ride recently back on 6/1/21 and originally on 5/21/20. I almost let my June numbers get the best of me, but I activated the beast and beat myself. Not a PR, but I could let the June version of myself beat today’s version. That’s just how I roll.

To self-soothe, I go to Sam Yo. Sam has a way of making me feel relaxed and coddled. Don’t tell my husband. I ended with Callie G, since she had a new stretch up and I am an equal opportunist who is chasing the Peloton badge for taking all of the instructors.

WEDNESDAY

Dropped the girls off to school: check. Quick Supermarket run because my children have a time limit on leftovers (one extra day after original presentation): check. Robin Arzon has a live 45 min Pop Ride: Check. Nothing says a mid-day boost like a live Robin ride at Noon. I wrap up some office tasks just in time to warm-up before the ride and get ready for Robin. She kicks our ass and I watch a few buddies of my on the LB PR because of it. It’s a glorious day. I quickly cool down with a bookmarked 5 min ride with Ben. I love the house-music version of Dennis Edwards’ “Don’t look any further” - especially when I’ve really exerted myself. I stretch with Erik because while I don’t speak much German, I love his music and he stretched in his socks.

THURSDAY

My husband asked me if I wanted to join him on Alex’s live ride, but I had some things to get done. A full day has gone by; it's 9pm - and I’m beyond tired. A mind trick I rely on daily is, waking up and putting my workout clothes on, then layering my regular clothes for work/driving the little ones to school, etc. This is because, I’ve found it is much harder for me to take off my workout clothes, if I haven’t worked out for the day - no matter how late it is. It obligates me to do SOMETHING. So there I was, at 9pm, tired, full from dinner and no workout. I know I have a pretty packed schedule over the next few days and taking today as a rest day is not an option. I turn to CDE for those gentle words of encouragement and moments of silence on days like this. CDE comforts me - literally strokes my forehead via most of her rides, and tells me everything is gonna be okay. Matt lets me chill in zones 2 and 3 for 30 minutes with a hot play list and then I let Dr. Chelsea lifts my spirits with a funky yoga class. I’m done by 10:20pm and ready to shower and hit the sack.

FRIDAY

My eldest daughter turns 8 over the weekend and we’re preparing for her party. With decorations and getting our backyard setup, I am exhausted. Today it’s going to have to be a 20 minute meditation to get me prepared for the big party tomorrow. I’ll need all the energy I can muster.

SATURDAY

Today’s our daughter’s party and there’s still a lot to do. Nevertheless, Saturday is one of my most active stack days. I recently joined the Saturday 60 crew with Jess Sims but I need something a little quicker so that I can jump back in to helping my husband set up for the party. Since I still wanted a really good sweat, I jumped on a Tunde Hip Hop ride I had bookmarked and went in! Tunde pushes me in ways I can’t even articulate and while I mutter and question why I press start on her rides, I know they are incredibly effective. I cool down with Cliff’s most recent 5 minute class because the playlist is smooth. I’ve done myself some good for the day. Now, it’s time to host a great party!

SUNDAY

At 8:15pm, I find my way back to the treadmill after peeling my face from my pillow due to going to bed at 2am. We know how to party, and clean up - because that’s why I went to bed so late. I get back into the “You Can Run” program, completely forgetting that week 5 is where we transition to 30 minutes of running. I don’t think I came prepared, mentally, but thank goodness I warmed up before realizing I had a 30 minute run ahead of me. Joslyn is like a new mom friend in my head. She talks about her children and my soul talks back and says “Yes, sis - I know!” This is my first class with her and I think to myself, we’d be cool if we actually met. Now that I’m warmed up, I’m ready for Matt’s class. I have a very deep respect for Matt Wilpers as a trainer and am excited to learn whatever he says about form. Matt reminds me about wasted energy, making my stride more efficient and changing my perception about running. I have an old sesamoid fracture in my right foot and have been apprehensive about running. However, this program has taught me so much and helped me reduce agitation in my feet. I pop onto a cool down run with Selena because surprisingly, I’m not ready to stop running yet. Well I’ll be damned, I CAN run.