Pushing the Limits of Adaptive Training with Peloton Instructor Logan Aldridge

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can be like, " Oh, I'm here. This is real." So, for me, opening ceremony, I want to see those boats coming down the River Seine. I want to see the fireworks. I want to see whoever, whatever is going to be in store for us. And then, yeah, you and I are going to be there in August living it up in the world of the Parisian Olympics.

fans, there's so much to be excited about. The American team going over has so much talent, both from the track to the roads, and so I think there's a lot of excitement in the US. I also think there's just a lot of excitement around Paris. Americans love Paris. There's always kind of a special feeling about things in Paris and the Eiffel Tower. And I love what they're doing with

the opening ceremony on the Seine. So, I just sense there's a lot of excitement about these Olympics and I'm really excited. I'll also be there the second week, which is when the track and field all happens, as well as the marathons of course, the last two days. So, I think it's going to be an incredible couple of weeks.

last year. People like Susanna Scaroni, the amazing wheelchair athlete who will be appearing in the Paralympics, Connor Mantz and Clayton Young, who will be representing the US on the men's marathon team, Emily Sisson and Dakotah Lindwurm, who are running

the marathon on the women's side for Team USA. We've also got Nikki Hiltz, who's going to be a real medal contender in the women's 1500, Tatyana McFadden, another amazing Paralympian, along with Catherine Debrunner, Marcel Hug, also a great wheelchair athlete, and of course Helen Obiri. So, really great set

of Olympians we've had a chance to talk to. Folks can go back and check out those past episodes as they start to get themselves pumped up for Paris.

goals. All access membership separate. Learn more about Peloton Tread at onepeloton. com/ running. Find the Peloton app in the Apple, Android and Google app stores today.

And this documentary goes into the behind the scenes. It goes into some moments that you just don't see because on TV, you see them coming onto the track or heading out to their event, and that's their moment on stage. But you see the behind the scenes, the moments

with their coaches, which to me is incredibly emotional. I won't give it away, but the last episode, I was crying my eyes out of just the love and the relief that happens when the events are over, but then the speculation to what's next and what's next is Paris. And it's just, oh, I highly recommend everyone to watch it, just to kind of get your head around what these humans have gone through since if they were in

Tokyo or since their last event of competition. So, oh, my gosh, just knowing the athletes, most of them are there already. You can just see on Instagram, people are showing up in Paris. They're getting their Ralph Lauren fits on, ready to rock. It's so cool.

week. And Becs, I want to remind, of course, all of our listeners out there, especially those of you who maybe have a new running challenge in front of you, maybe you're training for a fall marathon for the first time or whatever the challenge might be. If you've got questions and people have a lot of questions when it comes to training for marathons, especially the first timers, send us

a question. You can leave a comment on Apple Podcasts with your question in it, and we will answer it right here on the show. Becs, we did get a question from a listener this week. Linda's living it up was the user, and she said, " Becs has been my coach through Peloton and inspired me to find the athlete in me later in life back." Becs, so many of your

students sending out the love to you. She did her first half marathon in January of 2024, an hour and 36 minutes, by the way, really good. And she used the Peloton runs to prepare her for that, which is amazing. So, her question is she'd love a podcast dedicated to tips for people training for their first marathon. And yeah, Linda, of course you want that, and we are totally doing that.

I don't know if we know exactly what date is, but yes, we will have both with Meb and his tips all the way throughout the shows from now to the marathon, but we also will have an episode coming up that it will be focused on training for your first marathon. So, that is coming and Becs, there's just nothing like your first marathon. And we know that there

are people who need that advice and those questions. I'm sure you get a lot of those questions on Peloton as well.

out there contemplating it. So, I would love to think that Set the Pace could be a place that they come to and we help you push the button into signing up for your first marathon, which as an aside, should be the TCS New York City Marathon, because it's the best one in the world. But it's not something to be scared of because if you follow a good training program and listen to tips and tricks from people who've done

numerous races, you've got a whole community behind you. So, thanks for that, Linda. We'll get on to that, Rob.

today, and his journey is just incredible. Logan will talk with us about the tragic accident that he had at 13 years old, losing his arm in what you can only call a bizarre accident on a boat as he was wakeboarding with his father and turning that moment into an incredibly impactful life as an adaptive fitness instructor, a

leader in this space, an inspiring story. And our marathon, Becs, I always say it at the starting line of the TCS New York City Marathon, there are 50, 000 stories and so many of them will just blow your mind and really, they're just life changing when you listen to them. And Logan is one of those stories that will be joining us this year at the TCS New York City

Marathon. And you're so lucky to have him as a colleague, but he's just an incredible person.

This week, Meb is going to talk about what you need to be planning in terms of gear and nutrition as we sit here 15 weeks out from the TCS New

York City Marathon. Nutrition, always a hot topic. Becs, I actually need to listen to this, this Meb Minute myself because I think my nutrition game could definitely be raised a little bit as I sit here talking to you the day after I go into a movie with my daughter last night, eating popcorn and drinking a cherry slushie. I'm pretty sure that's not on Meb's nutrition tips, but maybe-

an incredible journey. From founding a nonprofit as a teenager to deadlifting 500 pounds, Logan has been redefining what is possible in adaptive fitness. Logan, hi.

So, thank you. That's so sweet to say. And listen, if anybody who knows me, and I hope people who are becoming to know me through this podcast learned that I try to be my authentic self any and everywhere I am. What you see on the screen with me in a Peloton class, in a conversation, in a dinner, in a side chat, it's the same. And I'm always the same Logan. So, I always want to be approachable, relatable.

socially appropriate and ask questions and be curious but respectful sometimes, when it comes to this discussion of amputation, disability, impairments and condition, we steer clear of asking the obvious question, the elephant in the room, " Hey, what happened? Hey, do you feel comfortable talking about this?" Absolutely, I feel

comfortable and I welcome and love the question. It never gets old because I know the impact it can have and what it had on me, hearing the story from others who had the experience of trauma or an injury, the loss of a limb or the change in their ability or their physical ability, the way in which those stories get told can be refreshing and a relief and sometimes make a bigger impact on someone who feels alone

and like nobody else has been through something similar. So, long- winded way, and I said this before we started this podcast, y'all, I could answer each one of these questions for an hour, so I'm going to try to make this brief. But, 12- year- old Logan was a very competitive wakeboarder, loved playing all sports, lacrosse, football, and really the main sport I was trying to pursue professionally was

wakeboarding. I grew up in North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, and our family had a lake house at Lake Gaston, right on the Virginia- North Carolina border. And I would spend all of my summers wakeboarding, practicing different runs with a friend of mine, who lived a few docks down to try to win competitions and climb this ladder of competitive

wakeboarding. So, this day was just a typical Saturday. I was 13 years old with my friend and my family, my mom and dad on the boat finishing up an evening set. And I was wrapping the rope around my arm after we'd finished riding. And for those who aren't familiar with wakeboarding and wakeboard ski boats, they're boats with motors, but the motors are inboard up underneath the boat.

And these wakeboard boats have a tower that you attach the rope to. So, the anchor point for the skier, the wakeboarder outback, is at a high point above the middle of the boat just for context. And so, as we finished riding, I stood on the back of the boat and looped the rope over the thumb under the elbow like we all may do with an extension cord or a garden hose or something to create those perfect circle loops.

Had a couple loops around my left arm holding it up at 90 degrees with my thumb out, over the thumb under the elbow. And now wakeboard ropes are very skinny, honestly, kind of look and act like a cable. This one, very skinny coated in plastic, no elasticity. You want just the same tension on a wakeboard rope, always.

So, looks and acts like a cable. With a couple loops wrapped around my arm, I looked back and noticed that the rope, unfortunately, when we dropped my friend off at his dock and pushed off of his dock just to put along in our boat with a boat just in gear, just putting along to go maybe 50 meters to my dock, that's when I was winding up the rope and I looked back and noticed it had kind of

drifted underneath the back platform of the boat, which is just this place where you put on the wakeboard, not even where the motor is. The motor's way up underneath. But in that moment, just kind of being careless, sometimes it gets caught on a little something back there. So, I just turned to my dad and said, " Ah, dad, the rope's underneath the back of the boat, hold on

a second." As soon as I said that, he followed the safety procedure to then turn to the cockpit area, which is right next to where I am and go to turn off the boat. As soon as he did that, between the moments of me saying, " Oh, dad looks like it's underneath the back of the boat," and him going, " Oh, okay," and turning it off, the propeller did catch the rope, much more of it was underneath the boat.

And in that moment, as you can imagine, then that

rope just coiled around that propeller very quickly. So, it created a very aggressive pull on the end of that rope that looked like was going into the water, and that caused that tension to create the rope, to slip off the thumb and cinch down, if you can imagine kind of a circle above the elbow right there around the bicep and tricep and cause a really aggressive, really tight,

immediate kind of pinch moment. And that pinch moment was far more significant than I realized at the timer than anyone. And that cut through the muscle and the flesh

and stuff down to the bone. So, in that moment kind of brief little jolt still standing on the back of the boat and it looks like the rope is just going through the inside of my arm, just coming out the outside, kind of wild looking, not even feeling discomfort or pain, just going, " Whoa, what was that?" And dad steps over, unwinds the rope, recognizes this has been a

serious injury, laceration 360 down to the bone, rips his shirt off, wraps it around the arm, pulls it tight for a tourniquet. Had he not done that, definitely wouldn't be here today.

the front porch. We wait for an ambulance. And I started to accept the reality of this situation. Thirteen, left arm, left- handed, can't feel the arm. It feels like it's laying out by my side, but it's in my lap. It feels like something just like sandbags in my lap. And I'm like, " Wow, that's my arm. What? This is bizarre." Starting to process, takes about an hour for the ambulance to get there, mom and dad with me

the whole time. Yeah, middle of nowhere where we were. And it was a summer weekend with some volunteer staff, EMS. And they get in the ambulance, we start riding to the local community hospital. And that's the moment, I think the most important moment of my story. And again,

I'm sorry, I continued. I could tell the story for an hour and I'll close here in a moment, but most important here moment that was really impactful and still to this day when I tell the story gives me goosebumps was in that ambulance ride when I recognized I can't feel my arm, I'm thinking, we're kind of joking, my mom and I like, " Lo, this could be a badass scar around my arm. It could be cool looking."

And then I'm contemplating, I'm like, " But I can't feel it and it's over here, but it feels like it's over there. What if?" And I said to my mom, " What if I lose my arm? What if they have to amputate this?" And being left- handed, it'd be my left

arm. I'm thinking through that at 13, my mom, without skipping a beat and who knows what a mother and in that moment is going through and thinking, but sitting there not crying, not looking panicked or scared, she just is holding that hand and looks at me and says, " Logan, it's just an arm." In that statement, that phrase, I think was many things for many of us in that moment. It was a way for her to console

herself and her emotions, for me to recognize. Wow. As soon as the words were said, I thought to myself, " Well, I am blinking. My eyes are open. I am alive right now. This is good. This is good. Okay. It is an arm. All right. It is my dominant one, but okay, I look at this one. I've got this right arm that I've never really given much credit to. So, wow, what an opportunity for me to learn how

to use this." Immediately, that's what my brain thought, immediately. Not knowing what the future might hold or how this outcome might be. And so, that moment triggered everything. It triggered my mindset, my mental health, my perspective, my resilience or decision to not let this define me in a way that would be limiting. Things would be challenging. Expectations will be

placed. There will be struggle. But at the end of the day, that statement allows me to recognize the massive abundance, which is life that you get to live. So, that moment changed everything. My mom said that. As we can probably assume now, we got to the hospital. They couldn't

save the arm. They rushed me to NC Children's Hospital, had to perform emergency surgery, tried to save the arm, did limb salvage, everything they could do for limb salvage, couldn't get blood flow back to the limb. You have about the six, seven window hour of opportunity to reintroduce blood flow to muscles. And we were right on the

verge of that. So, we tried to do it, taking an artery out of a leg, putting it in, monitoring, praying about it, family rubbing the arm, putting on the sound, what is it? That you use for pregnant ladies? The ultrasound.

looked at the muscle, said, " This is all dead." And they wheeled me out, brought me just back out from being under with my brother and parents around and doctors crying saying, " Logan, we got to amputate it. I'm so sorry." And those words, my first thought, I don't know why, to be honest, I love lacrosse, but I don't love

it this much. My first thought was, " How am I going to play lacrosse again?" It was my first thought was not, " Can I play lacrosse?" I remember this vividly. It was, " How will I play lacrosse now?" That was my first thought.

our lives. And one of the best phrases I've heard about things like this when it comes to people and dealing with adversity is we just can't really always control the things that happen to us, but we can control how we react to the things that happen to us. And just listening to you right there make up your mind in that ride to the hospital, that looking at your right arm and seeing it as an opportunity to

develop a skill that you didn't have. I'm sure that didn't make it easy. I'm sure all those moments, hoping the left arm would come back and being with your family, I mean, I can only imagine the emotional rollercoaster, but the fact that you would even think that way, even for a moment in the middle of all that

going on says a lot. And so, I want to flash now to Logan Aldridge, the incredible advocate and instructor with Peloton and someone who is taking what happened to you and

helping others. What is it you take from that? From what happened, and more importantly, the way you reacted to what happened and how do you work with others who are going through similar things, whether they had a disability at birth or had something happen to them in life to help them learn how to be the best version of themselves with the disability?

had a caffeine addiction apparently. The doctors were alarmed. My parents were incredibly embarrassed because my parents, " I eat very healthy and clean. We don't keep sodas in the house." But I spent the summer surfing and wakeboarding and beer bonging Dr. Peppers and had a caffeine addiction in the

hospital at 13. But anyways, I digress. I digress. I spent about two and a half weeks in the hospital in pediatric ICU monitoring, first of all, the first time trying to save the limb, and then after, just taking time to observe, making sure there was no gangrene infection, because we managed to save the limb for a while. In that time in pediatric ICU, I saw and became close with a lot of other kids going through a

lot of other traumatic injuries and illnesses. I recognize every day, every night when I would sleep. Again, this mentality of it's just an arm would reiterate, and maybe not in that statement, but it would reiterate in my mind when maybe I would try to get up to go to the bathroom and I would wonder what it would be like if I had lost an arm and a leg and I would just put myself in that situation.

I would hop on one foot and trust me, this would make the pediatric nurse and my mom go, " What are you doing, Logan? What are you doing?" And I say, " I'm showing myself in my mind that, could have been worse." And everyone is dealing with something in some way. Yes, I could say, " Woe is me, god, the arm. I wish I had it." But what if it was an arm and a leg? What if it was both of my legs? What if

it was both of my arms? There's always a what if and a different way to view the moment you're in and how it could have been worse. And yeah, it could have been better. We always tend to think how it could have been better and woe is us.

But when you practice how it could have been worse, and that's not to maintain or develop a pessimistic outlook, but it's actually meant to reiterate the abundance and the gratitude for what is, what it is. So, through that experience, that became the way I started to think about everything that I experienced as someone learning this new life with one arm, taking a shower, getting dressed, playing sports,

getting back to lacrosse and football, and just working out in the gym with my friends. And through this exposure, first of all, I started to learn that someone that

looks different isn't thick or ill. Or I think as a young kid, 10, 12- year- old, if I saw someone with a paralysis and a wheelchair, someone missing a limb, someone with a brachial plexus injury, a paralysis of an upper extremity limb or cerebral palsy or any sort of condition, I just felt really sorry and there was some sickness, some illness that they were battling or dealing with,

very embarrassing and elementary way to view. And immediately, once I saw my figure in the mirror the first night after my arm was amputated, still in pediatric ICU, I remember standing and looking in the mirror and having a lot of tears. And it wasn't necessarily tears of sadness for

myself, but it was this shocking reality. And I'm kind of embarrassed to say this, but it was this in the first moment, it was like, " Oh, my god, I'm a freak now. I look like a freak now, somebody who's just so different and people are going to judge and think differently." And I remember for five minutes, I had that perspective. And then I remember saying, you're never going

to think like this again. You're never going to allow yourself to see yourself and definitely others. I think in that five minutes I learned that lesson. I learned, wow, wow, the judgment that others place on others because of their physical appearance or the assumption of ability, wow. And then thereafter, I promised to myself that I would never feel sorry for myself, and I would never judge people

based on how they looked. And that I would figure out a way through my actions and experiences, not to think I have it all figured out, but to learn to be a student, to better understand other people going through different struggles in their life, physical or mental, tangible or intangible, being able to see them invisible or visible. I became so much more empathetic to how people may

be experiencing life. And so, every time I tried to go back to the gym and work out again, I thought, " Okay, how would I do this if I was missing a leg? How would someone with a spinal cord injury do this? How would they approach this?" And really that started to unfold when I became obsessed with fitness and workouts and programming and started to think through that lens.

And that really changed my whole outlook. And then it caused me to look back, and again, I'll shut up here because I can keep talking, but it caused me to look back and say, and this isn't me trying to be cliche and all, "Hey, it's all good," but this was not a bad thing. Losing the day I had my accident and looking back in retrospect is the best day of my life. It was the

most important thing that I needed to experience. And that's crazy to say, but I don't say that to say I turned a horrible thing into a great, I truly think it was the ... I'm so glad that happened to me in every part of the experience. I'm so thankful.

So, there's no regrets. And you know that silly question that people will add, "If you go back and change something, would you just not wrap the rope around for it to be?" Of course, you think about things like that. Of course, you wonder, " Man, what would it be like to have the two arms?" But no, no. I love what my life has

become. I love the people I've gotten to meet, the impact I've been able to have, the experiences that I've been able to have has just been the most cherished and important experience of my life and wouldn't change a thing.

you're a little punk in your own brain. So, I think there is no judgment over what you thought about when you saw yourself in the mirror that day because

you were 13. It's fine. But what strikes me is the growth and the very fast understanding and being a parent, I just can't help but think how beautiful your parents must be to have instilled that way of understanding into this little punk of a 13- year- old, who after five minutes did have the love in his life from his

family to reframe his thoughts and move forward. And I'm not going to give your age away, but over the past couple of decades, you have gone from strength to strength. And I say that with all the cliches meant because as I said when I introduce you, can deadlift more than most people dream of being able to deadlift. And I

think you said the word " obsession", obsession with fitness. And it has taken you to some of the highest reaching athletic levels. But across the board, from running to weightlifting. You have your weight boarding when you are younger. You are a multi- sport athlete, through and through. As I

said, your golf swing is unreal. But what have you seen over the past couple of decades of diving deeper and deeper into sport as the most common misconception that people have when they look at you, when they look at other people with disabilities? What comes to your mind as they're like, that happens a lot?

of limitations, perceived limitations. We are told, especially from someone who has a disability, some sort of medical condition diagnosed

that creates some sort of physical limitation. You get told through your experience with medical professionals and understanding maybe that condition or through just your experience in the world, you feel that there are limitations in your environments, things you can and can't do. What I became obsessed with and observed was pushing, pushing that sense of limitation, that psychological

sense of where is my potential? Where does it end? Where can I go? Where can I excel? And through working with and observing other adaptive athletes and every other type of discipline from paralympic track and field to cycling to weightlifting and all the different sports and activities, it's always been being more of a creative solution finder rather than a problem identifier. We all have different ways we're

going to try to accomplish something. And I think that there's endless opportunity to be creative in how you want to accomplish or approach a task. And through the creative approach, we create adaptation within our bodies. We discover a new way to lift that weight with one arm or to pedal that bike with one leg. And so, there becomes this desire

to push. And I think for me, it was just this massive curiosity to what happens if I keep lifting heavier, safely, safely, always, always doing things with safety in mind. I don't want to injure anyone, especially an adaptive athlete, but curiosity and pushing the body to the extreme,

to the limits. And to be honest, the mindset I have every time I do that is Forrest Gump, just like running and just knowing what happens when you stop. We all know at whatever rep, whatever weight, whatever distance, whatever time or speed or pace, you know what happens. We all know for certain, when you get to that moment and the brain says, " I can't do this anymore." Okay, if

you stop, we all know what happens. Then you recover, everything is fine. You don't die. And you get back to a place. And in an hour or two hours or a day or a week or a month, you think if you can reflect enough back in that moment, oftentimes what I've found and the athletes I've worked with, adaptive athletes especially, we go back there and we really unpack that moment when you stopped, you didn't have to. You

didn't have to. Just chose to. So, what happens if we just keep going, just a little bit more, just one more rep, one more step, one more. And then because of that next one, you break through and then the breakthrough, all of a sudden you thought you were at 99.9% and then you gave that 0. 1, and then you're like, " Oh, my GOD, that was 80. Now, I've got 81, 82. I can just keep going." So, that

happens, and that happens over time. And trust me, I'm not here to say that's always the case. Yeah, there are times you push and you go, " Today's not the

day," and that's it. And you pull off. But that's what I mean by the misconception is just not that you have to be a David Goggins in everything you do, but you just got to be open to pursuing a little bit more than what your brain, than what you even subconsciously know or

believe you're capable of. And regardless of ability, regardless of disability, that's the way I think to advance, to pursue, to improve in everything we do in life.

bodied with no issues or disabilities. I mean, that's a mindset of keep going to get you to the finish line of a marathon. And speaking of marathons, Logan, you are adding that to your repertoire these days. We know about your weightlifting and your incredible strength with your right arm now, but talk about the decision to get into running and running marathons. You ran your first marathon in

Chicago last year. And we're so thrilled to have you planning on joining us at the TCS New York City Marathon this year. That'll be your second marathon ever. I want to hear about how the training is going and just what was it, Logan, that got you to thinking, " Yeah, marathon, that's something I need to do"?

then try this. And then I'm always bouncing around from gymnastics to weightlifting to running. But if I'm being honest, I say that and I've always felt like I could stand tall with my chest out, being proud of how varied I am, how hybrid I am with my training and my fitness. But endurance running is not, I am the fast twitch guy. Quick stop, quick stop. Everything from lifting heavy

to sprinting and track and field stuff. I have experienced 100 meter, 200 long jump. So, marathon running was a great opportunity for me to practice what I preach, which is that idea of variance, that idea of being uncommonly good at the common things, running, but the way you get, you do all the spectrums. You got to go run real short, real fast. You got to run real long,

real steady. And I love being a beginner. I love being challenged by something that I thought I was going to be good at or that I thought would be easy. And I'll tell you what, my first long run I did training for Chicago last year where it was like, " Hey, Logan, just go out for 14 miles, but real slow conversational pace," I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. And that's not me trying to sound cool. It was

so hard to run slow, couldn't do it. And then that kept me up at night. I was like, " Logan, you don't know how to do this very well. This is all you're going to do now. This is all you're going to do." And I became obsessed with it. Chicago, so the training was really fun. It was really cool. It was way more cathartic than I thought or than any experience I've had in training for

an event or for fitness. The runs were, I mean so many people I've talked about this, but the things you think about and the introspection you do and the places your mind goes internally and externally was wild. It was really, really interesting. It was really meditative. And I don't think I've ever done something like that where I'm in my own thoughts that long for those long runs. So, I

fell in love with it. Chicago, man. So fun. What a great first run, too. A good flat one.

up. So, I had a dramatic final six miles like many people have.

is just do better than the last one. Don't cramp up that bad.

I've been talking to Becs about it. It's in my head. Starting now, starting that training, well underway, feeling great, feeling great, just really, it's all about, and I very much overlooked this. It's all about knowing how to fuel and hydrate for me, that's what it is. Training the gut, training the body. And yes, taking the

acknowledgement, the opportunity is far greater than it was. And culturally, I think socially, culturally, I think we see in a very different way, people who are different, people who look different, have different varying ability in some way. So, I want to give praise and appreciate how far we've

come. It's amazing. And then I want to be very grateful and express my incredible gratitude and honor and how I joke a lot and I try to be lighthearted and funny, but how serious I take this work that I do in regards to increasing the inclusion and accessibility for everyone to fitness offerings and meeting them where they are with fitness and the opportunity to have a Peloton to do that and the

work we've been doing. I take that work very seriously.

And because I know the impact it can have and what it can do. And I think we are on the precipice of doing exactly what the vision, the idea, the mission has always been, which is to democratize fitness, make it accessible and approachable and relatable to anyone regardless of background, ability, location, every type of demographic you would put on someone, this is the one place where everyone should be united

and welcomed and offered the opportunity to be seen, represented, and supported. That's the whole reason why I've been on the mission I've been on before Peloton and educating trainers to be certified to work with people with disabilities and then to create the offerings. Because when you look at it from a 10,000- foot view, why doesn't everyone do it? We all want everyone to do it. We know

how great it is for everyone. Well, it's access. And then we think about the ways in which someone with a disability has access to not only fitness but the world.

Disability was a term and an idea, a concept that did not use to exist until we started creating environments that required certain physical abilities to participate or interact or be involved in. So, there's a great, great, and I won't go into this, but there's a history of disability as an incredible book about the background and history of disability. And it's incredible. Before, a long time ago, there

used to not be this idea of disability. And Native American tribes, they didn't have it. It was literally like a superpower. It was like your task then was then focused on this one specific thing because you'd be way more better and skilled at this than others. But the

environment is what creates the disability. And I think in fitness, of course, it's an environment of we want to express your body constantly, how to express your body and train your

ability to get stronger and better. So, what I recognized was from a 10, 000- foot view, if gyms don't have the knowledge, the trainers don't have the knowledge, the equipment isn't set up, the facility isn't set up for a seated athlete to be able to roll in and have access to the right weights, the right equipment, the right program, and knowledge from the trainers and the coaches in

the gym, that's not abnormal. That's just someone coming to work out. That isn't the state of the industry or of the access of the facilities. And so, the opportunity was to educate trainers. And then once trainers are educated, they feel empowered and capable to welcome anyone in their doors. Once that happens, that individual feels confident and not like a burden, not like a psychological burden on where

they may be going. And then we talk about the individuals that just want fitness to meet them where they are. It's incredible. We have these phones that are like computers and everything can be done on them, and we have these apps. So, with Peloton and Connected Fitness, no matter what we're

doing, fitness can meet you where you are. And I think the work that we have been doing at Peloton and can continue to do is market and show how wherever you are, no matter what your ability or background, you can start to move. And that's the message is

just move. Just move. And here at Peloton, we've created the no intimidation easy way to get started, to learn about yourself and your ability regardless if you're a standing adaptive athlete, a seated adaptive athlete, which are just two general

big bucket categories we identify. And then within those, I'm going to take you through exposing and educating you on ways to move your body, how to move your body, how to be confident in moving your body, the safe and effective way to things to hold yourself accountable to regardless of your condition or impairment. We still want to

hold ourselves to a certain standard in movement. And then through that, we get empowered and we get curious about how to modify or adapt or change movement to meet us where we are. Because the whole point of inclusive fitness is not to create a category on Peloton that has adaptive and all adaptive come there and they take the workouts there and that's where that category is. That's

exclusive. That's creating a one place where everyone comes to do one thing for a certain type of person. Instead, it's educating through that experience, which is phenomenal what we do at Peloton. Peloton through fun entertainment, we're educating, too. We're making education fun is really what this version of fitness is.

And so, the adaptive categories are then meant to empower the individual, build confidence, like a rolling snowball type of thing. All of a sudden, you got some momentum. All of a sudden, okay, I'm a seated athlete. When Adrian says burpees in a class, I know what my burpee is. I know how to modify the burpee. So, now that athlete

can start to take any strength class. Now, that athlete can go and take any piece of content from any instructor, and that's universal design, and that's the approach where I want fitness to get to with Peloton, with the fitness industry as a whole, is how do we make it so that everyone is universally benefiting from increased knowledge and

awareness and access to this type of fitness. Indirectly too, it's a great solution for those who maybe have a knee injury, an ankle injury, some temporary impairment. So many times I see individuals who would just put their membership or put their fitness approach on pause for a month or two because they had a little injury, and now they can continue to move their body. This is meant to welcome

any and everyone. It's not specific to, yes, you have to have a permanent impairment or condition to do adaptive training. No, no, no. It's meant for everyone to learn about an experience and it makes everyone better. Makes everyone better.

line of that race. And you are going to be among those people. I'm sure you felt this in Chicago, too, surrounded by so many people who have different types of bodies and different abilities. And for you to be up there doing what you've done, leading in this space and doing it at an incredible level of success, deadlifting 500 pounds, by the way, which I still cannot quite comprehend.

I mean, I cannot do that myself with four limbs.

goes. Are you feeling good at this point? You think you're going to be ready to go in November?

absolutely acknowledge you cannot be everything to everyone. And I want people to know it all comes from a place of love and positive intention and trying to create solutions and understanding when I can, thinking of and trying my best to represent every type of disability community. You're exactly right. My experience with it at 13 was remarkable. I'm so lucky, so, so lucky to have the family and

the support that I had. It shaped every bit of my outlook and perspective. And that self- help book that my mom and I co- authored way back in the day, Beyond Expectations, was exactly that. My experience with expectations, what we came, what I came to define it as was prejudgments. We place on ourselves in one another that

typically limit potential. And being left- handed at 13 and having that arm amputated, a lot of teachers and adults thought that I wouldn't write again. And that was my first experience while in the hospital where I thought, " Wow, they're just going to think I just won't write. I'm pretty sure I just try for a while and I'll

figure it out." And I did. So, that was my experience there and that's the message I want to tell. When I say beyond expectations, it's not about overachieving or trying to be perfect, but it's just recognizing that they're just preconceived limitations that we typically place on ourselves and

often placed on others. And let's encourage exceeding. Let's encourage pushing past and rather than placing judgment and expectations, let's just assume massive potential that we all can pursue. And I know that when it comes to adaptive stuff, people don't care how much you know until they know how

much you care. And I just want to continue to say, this is my world, this is what I live for and I breathe it and love it. And if there's ever anything I can improve on, always reach out to me, send me a DM on my Instagram. I want to get better and better. I'm always a student trying to learn, too. So, thank you all so much for having me on here and let me ramble and talk way too much.

the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Center College of Medicine. But beyond her impressive professional achievements, she's an avid marathon runner, a weightlifter, a plant- based cooking enthusiast, and a passionate advocate for the benefits of slow running. Here's Meb with Dr. Singh.

probably be running more." And I think just inherently with the athlete patients I was meeting and treating as well as being around a lot of sport in Boston, I just started to pick it up a little bit and within that year, did my first 10 miles and a half marathon and then did my first marathon about a year after I started to finally do some more long distance running.

improve the mitochondrial density, improve your capillary network. And in layman's terms, that's basically becoming better at utilizing the energy you're producing, getting more oxygen to your muscles, getting more oxygen and blood flow to your heart muscle. And over time running those easy paces is going to help you become faster in the long run.

in my endurance and my stamina." And I think that's where we have to backtrack and say, " We have to develop a process a way to create that metabolic change, that change that allows for you to utilize oxygen more efficiently, allows for your muscles to utilize oxygen more efficiently." Because when you can build those ground tools, build that foundation of that aerobic warehouse, that's what's going to translate

into you being able to sustain a pace. So, I think just teaching individuals that just because you're running slow on your easy miles doesn't mean that you can't be fast. I think that's really important. And people will find that they have more energy to do their workouts if they run most of their mileage at a slower effort,

a very sustainable effort. And then I'll tell the people who are kind of running in that gray zone, so where you're not really getting much bang for your buck, you're just not running slow enough to get that bang for your buck and you're also not necessarily running quite fast to build those paces that you're trying to sustain. I'll tell those individuals, " Slow it down, you'll find that

you're recovering better. You'll find that you might actually be able to run faster for longer, again, once you have those building blocks established in your foundation of running."

building backwards from there. What I've learned as someone who's been around a lot of the gadgets, used a lot of gadgets myself and sometimes maybe been a little more, I don't want to say obsessed, but maybe looking at

the numbers more often when I first started running. What I've learned over time is that the numbers are not always necessarily accurate and on a day- to- day basis, they're not going to be as helpful because your heart rate changes with whatever you use to hydrate the day before, how stressed you are, how well recovered you are,

whether you're sick. And so, utilizing heart rate on a day- to- day basis may just not be as reflective of what you need to advance your training. So, I find an effort- based strategy being the best to figure out what your slow pace can be. And the way I often describe it to my athlete patients is think about a pace where you can help hold a conversation. You really don't have

to take many breaths in between. You can actually just chat with someone side by side. You might even be able to sing along with a song that you're listening to. That would be a nice, easy, sustainable, you can

run that effort forever. And then if you go up a notch, if you're thinking about pace work, so maybe perhaps tempo or I would say probably tempo training, that would be more along the lines of you can maybe get a sentence or two out, but you're definitely breathing a little more. And that effort is not necessarily sustainable, but you could probably do that for about 30 minutes

to an hour. And then building off of that, if you're at an effort where you're huffing and puffing a bit more, maybe getting out a couple of words, that's going to translate more into something like interval training, fast- paced training, so 5K, 10K, maybe even faster. So, effort I think is more reliable and it also kind of takes a little bit of the type A thought process of

running out of the equation. And it also I think helps you be more positive about your running. Sometimes if we see that our heart rate didn't get as high or maybe we didn't hit a particular pace numerically, that

can sometimes get people bogged down. But if you just think about, " Hey, did I hit the effort that was the intention of this workout?" That's a quick easy yes or no, or maybe, that might be a bit more positive in your reflection of that run.

running. Is that how accurate or what's your thought on that?

other. I think if you're breaking down your training to a week- long training week, if you think about maybe having the majority of your runs in that easy sustainable effort and then perhaps one to two days where you're doing speed training or a workout that's meant for whatever you are training for, I think that's a healthy way to get started and to try to figure out what

your effort translates to in terms of pace work, whether that effort allows for sufficient recovery in the day following, and then just build upon that. And if you do want to correlate numbers, then the way I kind of think about it is just go backwards. Think about how you're feeling, maybe take a couple of glances at your watch. A chest drop is going to be the most

reliable way to measure your heart rate. So, if you really want to look at numbers, I would say go to chest drop. But use the effort as your foundation. You can see how it translates to heart rate. But again, remember that the data is just data. You got to trust your gut, trust how you feel, and I think that allows for you to not hold back too much. And it also prevents you from pushing too far.

seen the marathon many, many times. But I think hearing about how much people learn about themselves was what kept me motivated to see how much more I could do. And eventually three miles became five miles became seven and 10 and more. And every time I kind of broke that barrier, I saw that translate into confidence, not just as a runner, but confidence as a professional, as someone

part of relationships in my personal life. And I think that's the best part about running. You're seeing growth not just in an athletic perspective, but you're seeing growth personally. And so then, I had run a half marathon. One of my colleagues came by my office and said, " Hey, have you ever run marathons?" And I said, " No, no, no, I don't think I can run a marathon." And she basically was like, "

Well, it's just another half." So, later that day, I ended up signing up with TEAM PAWS to run the Chicago Marathon. So, it was just very quick trigger type of decision for me. And then I ran that in 2019. It was tough. It was number one. I definitely did not get my nutrition and hydration right, but that was enough motivation for me to kind of seek redemption

for the second. And then after that, it was just, again, every marathon is so different in terms of how you feel during and after. And I just saw myself grow and really take myself out of a box and like I said, just push a lot of barriers in my personal and professional life because of the confidence I was building as a runner. So then in terms of my favorite, I mean I ran New York last November

and London this April. So, those are probably by far my two favorites just because of the intensity of the crowd. There truly was a spectator at every part of the race. And I think London was probably really memorable just because both of my parents were there. And so, to see my dad there with me, it was wonderful to have them by my side holding my hands after the race when my feet were hurting. So, it was

just a great family experience. And then I've got the Marathon Porto coming up in August, so that's the race that's alongside the Olympics. So, that'll be a really cool experience my first night race. And I think just again, being around the energy of the Olympics and being able to run along a course that the Olympians are going to follow us after is pretty cool. It's really exciting. So, I'm looking forward to that.

That's right. This is a chance to get a complimentary guaranteed spot in this year's TCS New York City Marathon, pretty much an impossible thing to get except right here on Set the Pace. So, here's the question for this week. You might remember a couple of weeks ago, Becs announced that she's going to be taking part in the Great World Race this November. This is seven marathons on seven

continents in seven days. It's crazy. In the episode where we talked about this where David Kilgore, her friend who's doing this with her was a host, we talked about the locations where they're going to be doing these marathons. And a hint here is they actually only go to six locations for these seven marathons. So, the question is, what is the one location where they actually run two

marathons? Where do they go where there's one spot and they run two marathons on two different continents in that place? The answer to this question is in the July 11th episode. So, if you missed our conversation with David Kilgore, you can go back and listen. We won't be

drawing the winners until midnight on July 31st. To enter the contest, go ahead and send your answer along with a screenshot showing us that you've subscribed to Set the Pace and left a rating to nyrrpodcast@ nrr. org. That's nyrrpodcast@ nyrr. org. Send us the answer that one location where they're running two marathons in this incredible seven marathons on seven

continents in seven days contest. All rules surrounding the sweepstakes are available at nyrr.org/ setthepace. Now, let's check out today's Meb Minutes.

Time to order some products and be able to just have it at your disposal because you are committed to run the biggest marathon in the world and 15 weeks out, you are thinking, " Hey, I am ready for this." Even though sometimes, how was that last week, week 16. I say I made those great decision. My wife now is like, I have the right things in my hand and be able to just say to work hard, because it's all about

the journey. The sooner that you are committed and putting the miles, the better. You're going to be fitter, stronger. And then also getting to the starting line as best as you can. It's all processing, thinking about it, checklist. Week 15, the right gear, the right nutrition, I'm committed. And then you start to see the progress. I really think what you

did the last two weeks will make a difference. Not upping the miles, but you can see your cardiovascular making progress. What was hard last week, two weeks is now becoming easier. And that's the video of running. You can slow down a little bit. You can pick up the pace, but you're ready. Two weeks into it, end of July almost, July 25th, you're like, "Okay, I'm ready for this." And November's

going to come very soon. So, just keep making progress.