It’s been a really hard week around here, but Peloton gave me something to look forward to with several classes celebrating the Lunar New Year.
Garmin awarded me with a pretty Lunar New Year badge.
Celebrating The Lunar New Year
Peloton doesn’t mark every holiday with special classes, but it has offered Lunar New Year classes since at least 2021. This year’s classes were taught by instructors with Chinese heritage—Susie Chan, Emma Lovewell, Katie Wang, and Sam Yo. This being the year of the snake, the playlists had a lot of snake-themed songs, plus a good amount of K-Pop. Susie also chose songs by artists who were born in the year of the snake—how clever!
During their classes, the instructors shared lore and traditions around the Lunar New Year, and talked about how they would be celebrating. Emma explained the symbolism of traditional foods—noodles for longevity, dumplings for sacs of money. 🧧
It’s programming like this that keeps me so hooked on Peloton. I can focus on a strength program one week, and learn about and celebrate a different cultural heritage the next.
Weekly Wrap
After completing the lower-body focused Strength for Skiers program last week, I decided to focus on upper body strength this week. I took some “full body” strength classes, but they had more upper body and core than glutes and legs.
Sunday: 6.5 Scooby Miles
It was finally safe enough to run outside, but there was still a stretch of icy sidewalk that forced me into the street. It felt really good to be out in the sunshine.
Scooby’s looking for the fox he just scared away from our cul-de-sac
Monday: Core + ALW + 30 min Peloton Ride
I thought Camilla’s pop punk ride would be a fun music-first ride, but it was a burner!
Tuesday: FB Strength + 3.3 Tread miles
I am loving Katie Wang’s strength classes. She’s not quite as insane as Tunde, but definitely challenging.
Wednesday: FB Strength + 30 min Peloton ride
I somehow missed Jess’ Aretha Franklin class when it came out, and ended up bookmarking it to take again. It was a solid full body program with nothing crazy. Leanne’s Motown ride was the mood-booster I was hoping for.
Thursday: FB Strength + 3.3 Tread Miles
I really liked Katie’s Lunar New Year class. I thought it was clever that she programmed sets with 8 reps because 8 is a luck number in Chinese culture. And, she looked so good in her gold + red Lunar New Year colors!
Friday: Core + Upper Body Strength + 30 min Peloton ride
I really needed some of Jess Sims’ positivity, and lucky for me she is back to work after ACL surgery with a new core and upper body class.
Saturday: 6.3 Scooby Miles
We had weird weather Saturday—it was almost 50F but windy. I wore a windbreaker vest but didn’t need gloves.
Scooby posed nicely even though a neighbor’s dog
was barking at him from his yard
A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up throughout the year, and to each of you for stopping by.
Do you enjoy learning about other cultural traditions?
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It has been a challenge to find paths without snow and ice. Finally one melt on Wed and now it snowed again. Boo and we’re back in the deep freeze!
I had a friend who used to host a Chinese new years feast each year. Sadly she moved away.
I bet it was a lot of fun!
Yes, Peloton really does a good job for all the holidays! The Lunar New Year theme sounds fun.
And- glad your weather warmed up. It’s funny, I think I could have done without the windbreaker for that Saturday run, but I DEFINITELY would have needed gloves! And a hat. Glad Scooby was able to get out for his runs this week!
Oh sweet Scooby. He was intent on that fox! Such an expressive face. Warm weather over there, what a treat! Peloton does seem to offer an “educational” side too, very cool.
I was surprised by how long the ice hung around! I’ve really enjoyed using the Peloton feature that designs your workouts for the week. have you tried that heat?
Nice to hear how Peloton seems to incorporate holiday and other cultural events into the workouts, I’d always enjoy learning something new.
Good to hear you have some mild weather! I think everyone deserves some nice weather now.
We have had ice on the ground since January … it’s the worst! Makes me really happy for my treadmill, i have put in a lot of miles on it in January!
Nice work this week and yes, I can imagine it was a tough week in your neck of the woods. For many reasons.
Scooby’s muzzle is getting white–how old is he? You’ve had him for a long time!
I agree with the cultural lessons from the Pelo instructors (and anyone, actually). I have not done any of Katie’s classes yet, but you know I’m a huge fan of Tunde ;-)blogspot.co
I didn’t know it was Lunar New Year until my Garmin told me in the morning. It’s fun that Garmin does that. Good job on your workouts this week!
What a great way to introduce the Peloton community to different traditions and customs!
Your comment about selecting songs from artists born in the Year of the Snake made me google how often the zodiac cycle repeats itself. It’s every 12 years – I’ve learnt something!
You can totally see Scooby looking for that other dog!
Great stacks of workouts for you, although I’m sure you’re happy to be able to get back to the outside!