Jess Sims & Becs Gentry | Peloton
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Welcome to the Talks at Google podcast, where great minds meet. I'm Emma, bringing you this episode with Jess Sims and Bex Gentry, Peloton instructors and professional athletes. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com slash talks at google.com.

Are you training for a marathon, practicing for a 10K, or just running for fun and looking to avoid injury? Bex Gentry and Jess Sims talk about how to train for a healthy and safe running experience. They join Google to share tips and tricks to maximize your potential through both proper training and rest. Bex Gentry is a Peloton instructor, RRCA certified running coach, and competitive marathon runner.

In 2024, she completed the World Marathon Challenge, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. She also finished the 2019 New York City Marathon as the first non-elite female. Jess Sims is a Peloton instructor, a reporter for ESPN's College Game Day, and a sideline reporter for ESPN's Saturday Prime. She's also an ongoing contributor on Good Morning America.

So excited to talk to you both.

But before we go into training and talk about all things running, let's hear a little bit more about yourselves. What's your background and how did you guys get into fitness? All right, I'll go first. Hi guys here, hi guys at home. So I'm Bex. I'm from London, England. Worcestershire, England originally, but came from London before New York.

I got into fitness purely by accident, really. I had a career in public relations and advertising for six years, where I was commuting between London and Brighton. And running was my escape from my job. I didn't like it very much in the end. Sorry, old boss. But I found that running was my way to release the stress. And so day by day, I would head out without any watch, without any reason, really, other than just to run.

And I kind of found out that I was quite good at it. And...

My uncle actually in the end, he's a mentor of mine, he convinced me that it was a very big passion. He could see it and that I should find a way of quitting my job. He didn't quite say those words, but sharing that passion with other people. And I literally flew back from America where he lives, wrote my resignation letter on the flight and my life changed when I got home and it just spiraled from there thanks to Nike and now Peloton.

That's awesome. Yeah, it's a crazy story. It reminds me of like a Forrest Gump. I know. He went out the door and never stopped running. Oh my God. People used to call me Gentry the Gump back in London. I didn't know that about you. Oh yeah. They'd be like, here she is, here's Gump, like always running around. I hate that underground in London. If anyone's been to London, it's gross, that underground. You're always in someone's sweaty armpit.

And so I used to run everywhere. And I would be the one who was sweating when I arrived to my destination. But yeah, gum. Way to own it. It's just my way. That's amazing. The way you say sweaty armpit makes it like not seem as bad, though. It's like really endearing how you said that. So I have a very, not similar story, but I was also a career changer. And hi, guys. My name is Jess. I am from a suburb right north of Boston. And ooh. Hey, Boston. Yes.

Peabody. I know. And it's not Peabody. People will be very upset if you go there and you pronounce it Peabody. And so I went to Trinity College and I played college basketball. I played sports my whole life. I played every sport. But in high school, I was a three-sport captain of soccer, basketball, lacrosse. Went to Trinity. I was a three-year captain there. Loved it.

More so just being a part of the team than anything else. My kind of claim to things that I talk about is that I was never necessarily the best person on the team, but I had by far the most hustle and heart because I wanted it so badly for my teammates. Being part of something bigger than myself has always been something really big for me. So I was there for four years. I studied psychology and Hispanic studies, and then I was obsessed with Teach for America, so that brought me to Houston.

So I was in Houston for two years, loved teaching. I taught fifth grade math and third grade everything. I was going to stay there a third year, but then I was recruited to open up an elementary school with just kindergarten in Harlem. And I was like, all right, my parents were kind of pushing me to come back towards the East Coast. I was like, whatever, I'll try it. So I came back to New York. I was there at a school network in Harlem for three years.

And you guys are like, what does this have to do with fitness? Don't worry, I'm getting there. It's shocking to me too. And so then over the three years, I lost myself. I graduated in May of 2010. And within two weeks, I was down in Houston. And I worked out maybe twice in the first six months. So I went out from doing two days to two times in six months. And I completely lost myself. And so when I was in New York, I...

Started to work out again. You know, I found my niche of like workouts that there are so many different boutique studios in New York And so I was like, okay. I love that instructor. I love this class I love this vibe and I had multiple conversations with people and they were like well fitness has been such a huge part of your life for so long Why don't you go into fitness and I'm like, nope. I've been in education for seven years I got my masters when I was in Houston. I was like, there's no way I have to do this and they were like well Yes, I do believe that you're meant to be a teacher but maybe you're in the wrong setting and

And that is like the mind-blowing moment of like my life where I was like, oh, my gosh. So it's funny now. Fast forward. I've been in fitness now for three years. I taught boutique fitness. I taught boxing and I taught HIIT training, weightlifting in New York for two years. And I will be at Peloton one year in September. Oh.

So, yeah, it's and it's crazy because people will say, do you miss teaching? And I say no, because I still teach. It's just I teach adults now. And towards my when I was in New York, I skipped the small part. I was a kindergarten teacher and operations director, assistant principal, moved home back to Boston to open up a KIPP school in the town that my dad grew up in, where he my dad grew up in a low income area. I was the assistant principal there, came back and I quit that job in December and

And you guys have no idea the timeline. It's totally fine. And then when I came back to New York, I was just going to pursue fitness full time. But then my school that I was at in Harlem, they fired their principal. So I came back as the head principal for six months. And then I quit. And then I was in fitness for good. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome.

That's awesome. Both of you guys had different upbringing or, you know, if you found running different or found fitness differently. But that's so cool how you guys can start from something totally different, super different and getting in there. So now that you have been in the fitness industry for a little bit longer now, how would you guys describe your fitness philosophy if you had any? Mine, I don't know. I'm...

I guess I have. My philosophy revolves always around running. Everything I do is about running. I'm very specific. I used to train boxing. I used to train as a personal trainer. I've gone through very different principles when it comes to fitness. I've always come back to running.

And my philosophy has always been a big balance, but specificity about how we train. I think people get very lost now, like Jess was saying, you get lost in your own lives. But we get lost in fitness because there's so much out there. And of course, we want to try everything. And that's a great part of life is trying everything and finding out what suits you. But when it comes to excelling at something, the path is normally a specific path.

path. And I find that's my philosophy. If you're going to be, you know, you've decided you like running marathons, you've done four or five and you're like, right, I'm going to smash my PR. It's time to get very specific about running, not doing five other different classes a week and just bouncing around and I'm kind of fit. Yeah, great. Cool. It's like, right, you got to go on five really horrible, hard runs a week.

Suck it up. There you go. Gang initiation, right? Yeah. I'm sore. Keep going. Yeah. Yeah. But that's my, yeah, gently does it though. I'm not, I'm not an all in person. If you ever see my Instagram, it's all about running. But at the same time, I'm not rigorous. Jess and I were actually doing about this last night. I don't count my macros. I don't prepare all my meals. If I want to go out and have a glass of wine with my friends, I do. And people are often very shocked. They're like, really? Hey,

Yeah, because you are only here once. And my story involves more than running. It involves a life. I just happen to be specific about that in my training side of my life. That's so great you touched on that. We'll talk more about fuel and keeping it balanced. I'm so glad you touched on that. Yeah, we're kind of like the yin to the yang. So...

So I feel like I was so specific with basketball for so long that, and also through my experience with teaching and not just working with students but their families and hearing the struggles of I want to be fit, I want to live a better, more well-rounded life, but I don't know how to. I don't have the time, I don't have the money, I don't have the energy, you know? Like we all have so many different things going on in our lives.

So my kind of like mantra for like fitness, health and wellness is you don't have to, you get to. Like that's kind of like my thing that I preach all the time. And I'm like, will it get old one day? And every day I say it to myself and it's never going to get old because I really feel like, I mean, I've had lots of different injuries and you don't really realize how

lucky we are to move and get stronger and be healthier regardless of the modality that you choose until you can't do it anymore for whatever reason, whether it's temporary, whether you do have something traumatic that happens. We really take our bodies for granted so often and it's, we never should. And so-

I definitely believe, again, in terms of like if you have a specific goal, yes, you definitely have to train and put in the hours. Like I'm a Leo. Like I get very intense and very competitive. But at the same time, like it's a journey. And I know the J word is kind of corny in a lot of ways, but it really is like –

Life is a marathon. It's not a sprint. And I feel like there are ebbs and flows of busy seasons and non-busy seasons and more intense focus on one thing sometime and then a focus on something the other time. But generally speaking, it's like we have to think about moving our bodies as a privilege and moving.

then build from there. - Yeah, definitely. You know, you had Tim talk about how there's so many things out there. Peloton's obviously changing the game. People here at Google have Gfit, go slash Gfit, you guys have a bunch of free classes. And then like a thousand gyms outside, a million kinds of apps out there. And so they understand the importance of moving their body. They understand the idea of trying so many different things. But for someone who's brand new starting into moving their bodies for the first time, what would your advice be to that person to try something new or to find what they're passionate about?

I think, I mean, I weirdly, Jess's mantra is something that I speak to in class because of hearing it from her so often. And I'd say it a lot in class. Like I honestly do. I'm not just saying because she's here, but I agree with it. It is a privilege to be able to move your body. And when you sign up to do anything, even if it's the first time you've made that decision and you get to do it if you want to. So it's all about

for me for the first time doing anything, whether it's the first time going to take any class from yoga to, I don't know, sprint classes, we were talking about sprinting. You've just got to take it at your level. It's easy, like a peloton we have on our treads, leaderboards. And I always say to people, like, if this is your first time, if you're a beginner class, sweat that leaderboard away. This is your session. Don't worry about anything.

anybody else because they're not you. So you have to think about you. You've put the time aside to be here. Don't worry about what they're trying to achieve because they could be completely different. Could be Usain Bolt there under a different guise and you don't know. And you're like, how is this person sprinting so fast?

And you're there on your first time. So it's very much, you have to internalize and think about your reason and why you've got up there and why you're taking the opportunity to be able to do this and do the I can's of why. Yeah, no, totally. And it's so, yeah, it's,

everything that you're saying is just like really resonating. I'm processing it myself. I think that especially, so Bex has been running for a while and she's really fast. Like to the point where she, when we knew we were coming, she was like, before she even said, do you want to go for a run? I'm like, I'm setting the pace when we go for a run. Okay. You're not setting the pace or the distance. But I, that's a knee part. Yes. Yes. She only, yeah. But no, so I think that

I was a beginner runner in the sense where I either had to be chased or chasing after a ball in order to run. Like I played sports my whole life. I never ran track. I think I ran track two days in middle school and quit. It wasn't for me. So the thing that I really preach again too is that don't run too much too fast. Because I feel like even a bunch of my girlfriends, they're like, oh, now that you're at Peloton, I'm going to take your class. And they start off by taking a 45-minute run. I'm like, no. You should have taken a 20-minute walk plus run for a couple days, couple weeks, and

Because why what are you trying to prove by taking a 45-minute run? You haven't used you just told me you haven't run since high school That was like 10 years ago And so I feel like we do have this sense of pressure that we put on ourselves right and maybe like a leaderboard or something or other pressures like kind of come into it but We put so much pressure on ourself to do so much so quickly and it's like no everyone's a beginner when they start and push-ups are something that I love doing in our strength classes and I literally say every class I

put your ego to the side. No ego in here. Scale it to the knees. Give me full length pushups, full depth instead of pulsing your pushups and complaining how much you hate them later. It's we have to take the time to scale it back in order and just accept where we are so that we can get to where we want to be.

Great. As we are getting closer to the San Francisco Marathon, we'll talk a little bit more about Peloton running and just running in general. The first hard-hitting question, I know we didn't talk about this earlier, but as Peloton tread instructors, are you guys allowed to run outside? Of

Of course. Oh my gosh. We have outdoor classes. Oh, that's so great. Tell me more about that. Yeah. On Peloton Digital, and it has GPS and everything now, which is awesome. So now, yeah, you just put your headphones in, you choose the class, and it's us coaching you outside. Oh, perfect. We're still in your area. Oh, we're still there. Yeah. So we'll say just like, and we have all the same available classes. We have walking classes. We have anything from a walking class to an advanced intervals run.

And so for things like that, we say you might want to be on a track. You might want to be like in an open field or something because there's going to be a lot of stuff like sprinting, stopping. And you don't want to be in New York City running on the streets and having to worry about, you know, stoplights and things like that. But no, we love it. Perfect. Just want to clear the air here. People only see you on that treadmill mode. It's like, oh, they're real people.

Well, our recently launched marathon training program is completely outdoor. It is based for outdoor running. Obviously, any speed work you can do inside. So whether, you know, any coach would prescribe a speed session that you can do indoors or outdoors. But because the run,

that you're training for, again, specificity. You're running to run outside for 26.2. So we wrote and released the whole program for outdoor, and it's up to you whether you take it indoors. You're not gonna see anything on your screen, but you'll hear us talking to you in your ears still. - That's awesome. We're all here lucky enough to be in San Francisco, and it's beautiful out here, if you guys need a reminder. - We'll remind you, it's so beautiful here. - There you go. - Must be New York City weather right now. The summer is special in the city. - Humidity does not.

- Yeah. - As you guys train outside, where do you guys like to run outside? What is your most favorite place to run? - For me, West Side Highway in New York. It's just a dream. Coming from London, which was a stop start. I used to call London hit training. Whenever you're running in London, it's like,

OK, done. Even the river, running along the river in London, if anyone's ever done that, it's just crowded. It's narrow. Obviously, everything in America is bigger and wider. You've got way more space. But the West Side Highway here is just up and down. My favorite run is going up from my apartment to George Washington Bridge, which is north. And then back, it's just a 16-mile, peaceful, beautiful run. Guys, I apologize. Yeah, just an easy 16. Yeah, it's totally fine.

I'm vibing with you as a track runner and as a basketball player. Literally, on Instagram, my favorite thing is she'll post, like, you know, I just did an awesome 10-mile recovery run, and I just write back, same. I call it a death march. Yeah, right? 10-mile run, just recovery. She's a different breed, y'all.

- How about you, where do you like to run outside? - I love Central Park. I was gonna say West Side Highway too, but then, but my second favorite would definitely be Central Park. The reservoir is just so beautiful. It's hard not to stop and take pictures, honestly. - As long as you're going the right way, though. - True. - One way. And they're very, very strict about that. - Yes. - You can only run in one, or walk in one direction around the reservoir. Do not try and go the other way, be warned. I did once. - Warning, warning. - Yeah, everybody tells you off.

As an expert in running far and as we're trying to learn how to run far, whether it be a 5K or 10K or marathon, are there any hard rules to follow when you are starting to train for a distance run?

Oh my god, so many. So many. Honestly, it gives a minefield when you start. We've all been beginners. I talk very much about everyone's a beginner. If you're not a beginner in something, you've stopped learning. And to me personally, if you stop learning, you're stagnating a little bit in life. You've always got to be learning to progress. And so for me...

I was like, if I was going to go and train for a 5K, I'm going to have to go back to beginner level because I would go out the gates and be so slow because the start of a marathon, you don't go out fast. So you're just like cruising along. So a beginner starting out on any distance, I would say take your first month as an experiment and learn. Like you have to be ready to learn first.

And the first time we do anything, like probably the first time we all learned to cook, we burnt something, we hated it. We were like, screw this. I'm having takeout for the rest of my life. And with running, it's the same thing. You're going to go on a run, whether it's like once around the track or a 5K that you hate. And it will happen over and over again. But that is part of the learning process. And you have to take that in and you have to use it as a chapter in that journey.

and accept the hatred and then accept that when you hate it, you're always going to have the love of it on the other side because you will progress if you keep going at it. But you have to have that humility to scale it back. You can't think that if you're going out to start a 5K training journey, you can't just go for a 5K run.

It's not going to work like that because the unfortunate thing is injury is so much more prevalent in people who do that, who are just like, all right, I've got an ego. I'm just going to go out and do it. I don't know why I said it in that kind of voice. No offense to it. But it just feels like, you know, if you bite off more than you can chew, you're going to choke. And it's the worst thing you can do when it comes to health and fitness. Definitely.

Yeah. And there's no such thing as technical like feed, uh, failure, like failure is feedback. So it's information as Bex was just saying, it's like that first month you're going to fail. And the mindset I, to me, running is so mental, like so mental. I actually have a book called the mind gym and my mom actually got it for me in high school. And I ha I still have it. And I started rereading it because I feel like something that I constantly talk about is just like your body can handle the load that you're putting on. Usually it's your brain. That's like,

I'm tired. I'm hungry. Like, this is too much. My calf hurts, you know, like, yes, I'm bored. Like, what? Yeah. What are we going to do tonight? You know? So I think that the mind is something that you really have to train also while you're running. Like I used to dissociate and I used to think about like just random things to keep my mind occupied. And now I do the polar opposite. I try to stay super present. Um, and whenever I'm not present, I do a body scan. I literally think about what, how everything feels from tip to toe. Um, yeah.

I learned from my great teammates. And that is something that is really, really crucial. And then that way you can feel like, okay, yeah, my heel was kind of feeling a little bit funky. Like maybe I was landing like really dramatically on my heel and I need to land more midfoot. But just like having that constant dialogue with yourself and giving yourself feedback is really super important. And then the other thing too, when you're training for a race is recovery and strength training. So I know we'll talk a little bit more about that.

but that's beautiful perfect well yeah let's go off of that it's almost like when I talk to distance runners it's almost like pulling teeth it's like all right we need to start weight training or lift something you know so what's your guys philosophy or how can you stress the importance of strength training I mean it's important for sure I mean you

I don't strength train very often, to be honest. I used to. I got Rewind years ago and I was training to be on a bikini body stage. I was all about different bars. It was lifting heavy, getting as big as I could, and lifting.

finding a different body in that respect. And I loved it. And I missed that side of physical strength. But I found a different physical strength through running. And now it's a very different strength training. So again, Jess and I were talking about, well, we always talk about stuff like this, but for running, you know,

I find it hard when people are like weight training and running. No, that's not necessarily how you want to think about it. It's strength training. And again, you're going to hear me say this freaking word specificity all the time. But it is you have to train strength training for running. It's really important. It is really. You've got to put your ego aside about, oh, I can squat. No.

whatever, however many, like I can't even think however heavy it is. But like it doesn't matter. No runner will care how heavy you can squat because it's about time, how fast your body can be. And that doesn't necessarily mean you need to be light. There are some like ripped runners out there, some heavier runners now. But you have to think about how your body works, how it works biomechanically to be the most efficient for you.

And if that means you have existing calf injuries or knee injuries, then you have to think about the muscles that are supporting those joints and how to strengthen those muscles to make them strong to get you through your chosen distance. And most runners, you're a flamingo. You're on one leg or you're flying. So, you know, you've got to think, OK, how can I make my legs strong one at a time?

So even, okay, yeah, you can go to the gym and lifting some weights is great at the start of your training. Running training is always split up into different parts. There's always going to be probably about three sections of your training after you've set up your base. And the first two sections are going to be the time you're going to be okay in the gym, still having weights in your hands or on your back or whatever. On your back, do you do that? Yeah.

- Back squat. - Back, yeah, okay. But then after that, your final, like your last couple of months, you're really gonna be probably working with your body weight a lot more. It's best to be working your body weight or lighter weights and single leg.

Just think flamingo the whole time. You're brushing your teeth, you're on one leg. You're waiting in line, you're on one leg. You're doing anything. Honestly, I cook and I'm on one leg. It's like a Rocky montage on like one foot, everything. Oh, it's like the amount of people who come up to me and like, I was brushing my teeth last night and I was thinking of you. I'm like, creepy, but okay, why? Because I suddenly was standing on one leg. And it just, you know, you've got to work these things in.

But, I mean, Jess has an incredible history and experience with weight training and strength training. And from now, like us both working together at Peloton and the things we're all doing on the running side, working in with each other's experiences to make the

the body efficient and strong is how we are at Peloton. That's our most important thing. Because if you ignore strength training, that's when the injuries are more likely to come in. That probably would be my biggest piece of advice. You can't ignore it, but you can't do too much. Right. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and yeah, 100%. And I think that it's so important to...

To remember, like, just sensical things. Like, you can't be squatting super heavy when you have your long run the next day. It's just, like, more common sense, things like that. And I think the Peloton Marathon Training Prep Program that just launched is incredible because not only do we focus on the single leg stuff and the strength for runner stuff, but the recovery stuff is huge. And it's not just recovery, like, basic foam rolling, which you should definitely do. Foam rolling is really important. But we even have active recovery for your feet.

active recovery for your shins because the most common running injuries are plantar fasciitis on the foot and then shin splints.

And it usually is when those kinds of injuries do occur when the training program isn't really great for you. Like if you're going out, if you're running too fast and you're running too much, you know, you're going for a 30-minute run when you should be going for a 20-minute walk plus run. And so we have all of these amazing classes, five or ten minutes. So there's really no excuse why you can't do it because by the time you feel pain in a certain part of your body, right?

Yes, you want to address the pain, but you need to figure out the site of the source of it, which is usually above or below. So if you're having the shin and calf pain, it's usually an ankle foot issue or a knee issue or potentially a hip issue. So you definitely have to really break apart your...

not literally break apart your legs, but like break apart the, like how you focus your recovery and your strengthening. - Definitely. Be strong enough for you to climb that mountain. - Yes. - Be strong enough to prevent some of these injuries. And then you're perfect on the segways as far as recovery. - Oh my gosh, look at me. - Like the foam rolling, the foam rolling, massaging your feet. It's like, it's the most painful thing and definitely the least sexy thing out there. I call it like flossing your teeth. - Yeah, they call it flossing. - No one does it, right? - That's true. - So I'm so glad that you highlighted the importance of recovery.

Oh yeah, recovery. Is there anything, any tricks or tips that you guys do for recovery? I'm the recovery queen. Vex doesn't recover very much. Distance runners. Right? I mean, we got off the plane at what, 3.30 yesterday? And I was getting massaged at 6.30.

Because, I mean, sitting on a plane for that long is also not ideal. But also, we do self-care multiple, I mean, I do it daily. And then we also, Peloton really emphasizes this. So we have to go get a massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, something every single week. Because our body is a machine. I feel a lot backed up. Yeah.

It's just so important because it's one of those things where I tell people to do it proactively. Before you start to have pain, you should be foam rolling. You should be doing mobility. You should be doing, if you need to, if there is something sore, you know, icing, heat. There are so many different ways that you can prepare your body, not only to have a better workout,

but to recover better after. So when we get on the tread or before every strength class, we always talk about take your pre-run warmup. Why? Because yes, we warm up in every school one of the classes, but it's so important to have targeted exercises. So in our pre-run warmup, we target the calves, the hamstrings, the quads, and the glutes. Why? Especially the glutes because we don't run laterally, right? We run forward and back. And so we need to wake up our hips and our glutes and challenge them in different ways so that we don't have hip injuries instead.

and things like that. So you do all of that before you get onto the tread. And of course, the tread warmup is meant to get your blood flowing and then get you a little bit warmer. I call it the glazed donut look because you want to be like a little shiny. Perfect. No joke. It's so funny. It's so funny that I joke. The things that, you know, that come out of your mouth when you're running on a tread, like in front of thousands of people, you just, I said it one time in class and no joke, like I got tagged in so many things on Instagram, like the glazed

donut look. I was like, wow, I guess that works. So yeah, that's like a thing now. So the glazed donut look, um, that we get you there on the tread, but that's not enough to really target the quads, the hamstrings, the calves, the glutes and things like that. So, um, and then on top of having a better workout because you did that pre-run warmup, if you do that pre-run warmup and a post-run stretch after your recovery is going to be so much better. So it's just, it's all a process. It's all very purposeful and strategic and we really encourage it.

Yeah, I encourage definitely that side of things, the warm-up. There's no going out and starting a run. Like you guys know for sure for track, you're just going to, it's probably a given, if you just went out on the track, you're going to pull something if you're not warm. And the same goes for a long run. You need to have, we have the pre-run warm-up classes. We also have warm-up runs, which are five or ten minutes, where it's just a gentle increase in your pace up to a high end of a jog or a light run.

And then that gets the blood pumping. Like we all know, if you run, right, the first 10 minutes, 10, 15 minutes of any run, if you just go out of your front door and you go, you're like, what?

is wrong. This is awful. You're just dragging, you're breathing and like, am I going to have a heart attack? What's wrong with me today? And then you settle into your rhythm. So that's the thing about having that warm up time. You can get rid of all of that in you and you can settle into your run when actually your run, run starts and feel good and confident that your body is warm and

and ready to rock. - Nice. - We were talking about recovery, warming up for the body specifically. How do you guys think about fuel as far as whether it's sleep or food, how do you guys kind of incorporate that stuff? And what are some big takeaways and tips that you can give, again, the normal people? - Yeah, sleep. No, everybody, regardless of whatever level you're at, brand new or in it for years, sleep.

and taking a day off. What is wrong with society right now in that we have to train every day? It is not necessary. We are always at Peloton like,

take a day off. It's absolutely OK to take a day off. And it's probably going to do you better to take a day off. Or at least just do it if you really want to do it because you want some of your own time. Perhaps you've had a busy week and you want to just go and do something, go for a walk. Go for a nice-- take one of the walking classes or a hike maybe and just have that downtime. Take an outdoor session walk.

But sleep for me, I'm a sleep junkie and I'm not afraid to say it. It's like the days I don't have to get up early. There is no alarm. I will sleep until like somebody drags me out of bed or something. Yeah. I mean, sleep is so important. That's when your body repairs itself. So like that's a huge, huge, huge. Yeah, for sure. And then also other in terms of other fueling, we get asked all the time about like, what food do you eat? And like, can you share your meal plans? And

we actually steer away from that in a lot of ways because what works for us might not work for you. It's one of those things where you need to like spend time getting to know yourself. And again, failure is feedback. So if you eat something before you run and then like your stomach is in knots the whole time, you don't eat that the next time. Like, but that might feel great for me. For me personally, I will share just like a general piece is I don't like to run or work out hungry. I don't like to work out full, but if I'm feeling hungry,

like at all, like I'm hungry and I have a big appetite, I have to have something like a go macro bar, something with readable ingredients, a banana with peanut butter, something small, but just to make, because I feel like nauseous sometimes when I work out without, on a completely empty stomach. But then again, like when I teach, I teach six and 7am classes, generally speaking, I'm fine. So I don't need to eat anything before that, but I definitely dig in after.

It's important to really replenish with proteins. Carbs are your friends. Don't let anyone tell you that carbs are not good for you. They are necessary. Good carbs. Yes, yes, of course. I mean, not to say, yeah. My biggest thing is just eat as clean as you can. If you do eat something from a package, make sure you can read the ingredients.

And just really try to eat what's in tune with your body and don't just copy someone else's meal plan because you'll figure out you might have little dietary sensitivities and things like that. Well, yeah, we'll talk more about it. Well, I like how you guys talked about trial and error, so like finding out what's good for you, either pre-run or post-run, all that stuff.

How about, like let's talk about, oh. - Yes, okay sorry, I got it. When Bex was saying take a day off, I was at a training a couple weeks ago and the best thing that I've heard in a while is we need to exercise less and move more.

and just like think about that for a second yeah yeah like everyone yes a moment of silence but no for real though because I think that when we think a day off we think we have to be like this on a couch like all day long and like that's a day off as Beck said like go for a walk do yoga just stretch literally instead of sitting on your couch on your day off sit on the carpet and do like we have a bunch of different mobility classes and things like that but just moving your body in just different ways without exercising is so important oh important for

For sure. Oh my God. Every time, because they, they, people say this because when we exercise, our cortisol levels go up and cortisol is a stress on the body. It's produced, it's a hormone produced in the body. And the more intense your exercises, the more cortisol you're going to produce. So that's why it's like a lot of people think it's okay on your day off to just Netflix and chill.

But it's the polar opposite. Actually, what you want to do is get that movement in, get that lovely, get your body down from that cortisol high and just remember that life's PG, it's fine. I can just walk. This isn't stressful, but I'm still moving. There's still blood pumping. There's the sleep where you're mummified. But you actually need to move a little bit just to flush it out and be intentional about that. And intentional about diet as well. You can hype this up and obviously write books about all this.

But, you know, it comes down to just like eating natural. Yeah. And.

And same with the training, though. Just move more and-- what was that one again? Yeah, exercise less and move more. There you go. So you can keep it as simple as you can, right? And that's the base. That's the base of the pyramid. And you can get super specific as you go along. So that's cool that you can go deep in general at the same time. Yeah, definitely. Cool. I think we're going to wrap it up with just one more lightning round question before we start Q&A. I don't know why I did this, but the first couple of questions are going to be all music related. So those will be those ones.

You guys ready for it? Do it. Lightning round before we open up to the audience for questions. So what is your favorite hip-hop song? Oh, no. I'm a Boss. I'm a Boss by? It has so many different artists in it. It's hip-hop. Okay. Okay, but most recent, Wish Wish by Cardi B. Oh, yeah. That's my most one. I literally, like, don't stop playing it. Yeah, I was going to say I Like It by Cardi B. That's my most recent one. Or Bad Guy by Billie Eilish. Loving that. But original, like...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Heads Will Roll. Okay. Then how about maybe a little bit different? What's your go-to karaoke song if you had one? Oh my God, you guys. Spice Girls, Wannabe. I'm with you. I'm with you. This voice does not sing. I will break every mirror in the room. Okay. Spirit animal. Penguin. A penguin?

I'm embarrassed to say, well, my dog Sienna, I was going to say, so if anyone follows me on Instagram, she's like my spirit animal. But then the first thing that just came to mind was a sloth. I don't know why. That was really weird. We're losing street cred. Quick. That was weird. It's like Sienna, sloth. Okay, cool. That's why I was like penguin. Okay, how about this one? Pancakes or waffles? Oh, pancakes. Wow. And French toast. And French toast. Yeah, you didn't add that in there, but I'll add that in. You're just going in. And then maybe the last one. If you could run with any celebrity, who would it be?

Kevin Hart. David Letterman. Oh, wow. Okay. Good one. I like the lightning round. That was fun. Go, go, go. Well, we're now lining up for questions from the audience. If anyone has any questions regarding starting their journey or running specifically.

Ask us anything. Yeah, come on. I just want to say thank you all for coming. I've taken your outdoor classes. Yay! And I've gotten a few PRs here and there, running a few segments. Love the Houston hip-hop. Hey! My question is actually first, do you guys do any of the cycling classes? Great question. That'll kind of depend on where I go with this. The second part of it is, who is your favorite Peloton cycling trainer? And if you don't want to answer that...

What's your favorite style of class or music to listen to at the class? We don't teach them. We don't teach cycling classes, but taking them sporadically, yes. If I'm not in training for a race, then I will. Otherwise, I cannot walk for a while after taking a cycling class.

My favorite style of class is definitely like more of an interval, the Tabata style of thing because it's short. Put me on a climb or something on a bike and I'm like, I'm unclipped. I'm getting out. I'm done. I love the short burst because it really does test me cardiovascularly. It's so different to running sprints.

And just the whole fact that you can move your body up, like get out of the seat and just go and like, ah, it's all so intense. So that would be my favorite side of it. Yeah, it's tough. So we have the luxury of, of course, taking the classes in studio. And at my apartment at home, we have a couple of bikes and,

But it's so tough because we also teach on the tread five days a week. And we might have like I taught a 60 minute run on Saturday, but then other days it's like a little bit lighter. So it's tough like fitting them in. But when we do, I love hip hop rides. Shocker. And because when I go and take a cycling class, I want it to be fun and just like carefree. I actually don't go for intervals. I go for like the groove ride and just like the fun kind of thing. And my favorite instructor, I will not name drop because because depending

Depending on my mood, it depends who I want. Like there, you know, you know, the instructor that's going to push you and that's going to like say some stuff. And then you have the instructors that are going to be like silly and funny and just like talk about random things. Like Cody Rigsby talks about Paula Abdul while he's riding. And I'm like, yes, like just takes me out of my own head. And like Robin is like, you're a boss. And I'm like, hell yes, I am. So it's like depending on what mood I'm in is who I choose to ride with. Yeah.

Thank you so much for coming. Yay. In your sort of fitness journey, especially coming from the perspective of folks in the room who've had challenges reaching their fitness goals, what has been your biggest challenge, that biggest hump that you had to get over in yourselves in being able to reach the goals that you had set for yourselves?

Oh, for me, it would be signing up for my first ultra marathon and living in London and just not the schedule I had when I lived in London was quite full on. I'd have private clients in the morning. I'd be teaching at Equinox during the day and sort of afternoons I'd have off. But then you're planning on a laptop. And then at night, I normally had a Nike run of some sort.

And I just didn't know how. To me, I'm like, I'm going to have to run to my parents' house, which is like 300 miles away, to get these runs in.

And then during the middle of that, I actually tore my VMO. So in amongst training for this massive race, which was up and over a volcano in La Palma in the Canary Islands, I was just like, I live in a flat area. There's no volcanoes. It's cold. It's wet. I have barely any hours left in the day to run. And then I tore my VMO. And that's when I actually did go back to cycling, got on a bike and started training my cardiovascular health that way.

and then just had to find the weirdest things. I'd never before gotten a train out of London to Windsor and ran back to London from Windsor. I didn't think about that, and I just had to expand my mind and talk to other people who'd done training like this and look at the geography of where I lived, of running. The go-to for me was to run along the river, perhaps. But somebody said to me, do you know the canals go all the way up to the Midlands from London? It's like, oh, yeah.

Yeah, of course. That's a really long way. It literally is up to where my parents live in the middle of England. And so I just started running up along all the canals. I'd never done it before. And it really overcame my fear of wanting to do something crazy, but my geography, my environment stopping me. And yeah, it was a really nice way of, OK, overcoming it once my knee healed.

Yeah, that's a great, great story. I would say so two different perspectives on it as a college athlete. I tore my ACL my junior year. It was horrible. My junior year, we were up at Bates and tore my ACL. It was the quarterfinals and we lost the next game. We won that game, but we lost the next one. And.

I was devastated. I suffered. I don't, I was not clinically depressed, but I definitely was depressed after that. I had surgery a month later and I realized how much the mental comes into your performance. Because even though I rehabbed my ass off and I came back for my senior season up here, I was like, be careful. Oh, you tore it because you were anticipating a pass. Don't do that again on the court.

Or like that court was super sticky. Oh, this court is super sticky. So I think that I really tapped into the mental training behind things then, which carries on to today, which carries on the tread, on the mat.

Like when I was a teacher in the classroom, you win your workout, you win the rest of your day. And so I really try to like build myself up during the workout and then bring that into the rest of my life. So I would say that that's the thing there. And then I was going to mention with –

Being an adult, staying on track with your fitness goals, so like the non-athletic side. Like I mentioned before, I went from doing two a day to working out two times in six months. The parallel between teaching in a classroom and teaching fitness is I would always say I don't believe in – I don't believe there's such thing as a kid who doesn't like to read. They just haven't found the right book. I feel that there's no such thing as an adult who doesn't like to work out. They just haven't found the right workout. So –

I think that it's so important to figure out if you love boxing, you box your ass off. You love running, you run. You love lifting, you lift. And within each of those things, you're not going to love every one of the workouts. Not every workout that you do is going to feel like Disney World, and it shouldn't because then you're not pushing yourself as hard as you could be or should be. You find your ugly in whatever –

workout that you choose and you go with it. And some days are going to get ugly and you're like, oh my gosh, this is so hard. I don't know if I can do it. And then you do it. And the next day you're like, wow, now this today is going to be more of like that active recovery type thing. So just kind of accepting where you are. Stop judging yourself. Stop labeling yourself and get on with it.

Cool. So this might be slightly self-serving and more for Jess, but so I was, I did college athletics as well. And my transition out, I felt like I felt the same way as you did. Like you lose yourself. You're like, what am I without my sports?

So my question is, have you found something that you love just as much as basketball? And any advice you could give those who are kind of transitioning or going through a life transition in that way? Yeah, that's a great question. And it's funny, by speaking about the college experience, college athletics experience,

not being a runner, running was a punishment. Like with basketball, you lost, you run. You're late, you run. You know, our coach had a bad day, you're running. And so like to me, again, the mindset of it was like, this is no longer a punishment, which is like linked to the you don't have to, you get to type of thing. And when I was reflecting back on college athletics is that, yes, I love the sport of basketball. I love watching it. I love playing it, all of that. But I love being part of a team. So I think that Peloton is so important

It serves the same purpose that being a part of a team served for me back in college and before it because when I'm done with the class, it's not like that workout is done and over with. I come back and I look at my phone and I have a bunch of messages from people all over the world that have taken the class.

And this isn't just like my experience. If you today took a class and you high five someone, you could go to the Facebook group and find that person. And no lie, like our homecoming, we have an annual homecoming where thousands of people come from all over the world. And they're meeting their best friends that literally are now best friends simply because they work out at Peloton together.

It's so amazing. And that is, it's literally mind-blowing in the most beautiful way because when we get older, you know, of course, I'm still best friends with a lot of people that I was friends with in high school and college, but in your adulthood, you find a new group of friends that share common interests and things like that, and Peloton just brings people together, so I think that

my love of being part of a team and being part of a community is what that drives me. People are like, how do you get on the tread every day and teach? I'm like, for you guys. I don't do it for myself. There are times where I'm like, I could totally call him sick. Like, I'm not feeling this. But then I'm like, no, like these are people that are celebrating their milestones with us. Like they're celebrating their birthdays and it's, you don't want to let them down, but also it gets you up off the bed, the couch, whatever.

So I would just say, like, find what you – try different workouts, try different things, and stick with it and find your community. Yeah.

Join Peloton. Join Peloton. Oh, yeah. Shameless plug. Yeah. We might have time for just one more question. I have a pretty basic question. But I think all of us as Googlers, we're very focused on our work and then also like to work out on the side or maybe like in between work. You were both in the non-athletic professional world prior. Do you have any tips for like...

working out and then being able to go back and being like more presentable. I feel like it's a lot more difficult as a male than as a male. Like men, they just jump in the shower. Like women, like your makeup gets all messed up. Your hair is weird. Yeah.

- Just curious. - Yeah, oh my God, I'm with you, I'm with you. - Embrace it. - Embrace it. - I would much rather have gotten in my 30 minute workout and have my hair in a messy bun and looking all sideways going into a meeting than not get in that time because it's your time. Think about it, when you work out, it is your time. I say this all the time when I'm working out and teaching, forget everything else that's going on. This is your safe space.

Like forget about the worries, the concerns, the stresses, all that other stuff. Like what other time other than when you're sleeping, when you're not really consciously knowing that you're spending time with yourself, are you able to say like, I'm getting stronger physically and mentally right now? So I would say like I

I worked, I experimented. I'm not an evening workout person. So I just woke up really early in the morning. And guess what? It did suck some days, but I never regretted it. I've never regretted waking up early for a workout. So you have to find the time and give yourself like two weeks of doing it before you say whether or not it's going to work for you.

because so many people are like, well, I did it for two days and then third day I gave up. Well, don't they say it's habit forms after 13 or 14 times of doing something? At least, yeah. At least 13 or 14 times a habit can start to form after doing something. So if you set your alarm at the same time for those four, even the weekends, like the weekends are the same. You've got to do it

continuously, get up, do that workout. But on a side note, I worked with a lot of people in London, a lot of companies who were experimenting with allowing their employees a little bit extra lunch breaks to work out.

do whatever they wanted because their productivity was going through the roof because they were getting blood flow to their bodies. They weren't stagnating at their desk. They weren't working through their lunch breaks and exhausted then for that three o'clock meeting, which was an ideas or innovative meeting. And they're just like, uh, what? No. And so I think, I mean, I,

On your note, dry shampoo and screw the makeup. Just screw the makeup. Don't worry. It's fine. You're beautiful. Like literally, it doesn't matter at all. Red face. I get racing stripes when I run and train really hard. Like, and I'm kidding you not. I get white here and red here. And my old trainer used to be like, that's a sign of a great session. I know you've killed it today. And I used to be so embarrassed walking out of the gym. Like people are going to be thinking I'm weird. And now I'm like, I own it. I'm like, yes, I'm straight.

I've really worked hard. And so that would be my thing. Like, literally, have that quick shower. Get the shower in because that will make you feel like you're okay. Yeah. But, like, the quickest shower you can. Bang it.

bang that hair up, put it up, and just walk in because that glow that you'll have from what Jess is saying, that self-satisfaction of having gotten out, done that workout, you won't need makeup. You won't need anything. You'll just be like, I'm ready. People will be looking at you like, man, your ideas are through the roof right now because your brain is awesome and you're just going to be glowing. Like, yeah, listen.

This is great. Yeah, and it's so funny in our own perspective because if you walked, if we were, you know, in a meeting and you walked in and you were sweaty, if anything, I would be envious that you just worked out. Yeah, completely. And I don't know if that's because I'm used to being around sweaty people like my whole life, like from sports and stuff, but like, I'd be like, damn, like she got her workout in already? Like, okay. Damn it, I was eating that bagel. So in your head, you're thinking I look crazy and all this. Other people are like, damn, she got her workout in. Yeah. So,

So own it. Own it for sure. Perfect plug for GFIT, everyone. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Invest in yourself, right? Invest in yourself. Yeah. So that's perfect. Go get that Peloton app and whatever you are. All of our plugs. Yeah, right. Yes. Well, perfect. I think that's it for our time. Thank you guys both so much for coming. We're so stoked. Thank you guys so much. Thanks for listening. You can watch this episode and tons of other great content at youtube.com slash talks at Google. Talk soon.