A Letter from Chris Suarez
RUNNING in PLACE
I first hopped on my Peloton Bike at the end of 2018. I have not done nearly as many rides as perhaps you’d think I would have in those three years. My bike sat untouched in storage for 6 of those months while we were moving. I’ve gotten off track for weeks at a time. My travel choices have interfered at times. More recently, my Peloton Tread has certainly made the bike a bit jealous over the last year as I’ve dove back into running, have been training for some races, and have fallen back in love with running.
This week I was able to run with Matt Wilpers live in the NY Peloton Studio, after probably running or riding with him virtually over 300 times in the last few years.
It was an incredible experience - even after 5 fulls days of work and meetings at an industry conference that led to just 20 hours of sleep combined in those 5 days leading up to the Friday evening run.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the hours I’ve put in, literally running in place. For someone that always likes to be moving forward, thrives on change, and likes to pass mileposts, running in place isn’t something I ever thought I’d sign up for. In fact, I used to hate running on a treadmill. Running in place sounds stressful, boring, discouraging, and like a waste of time. But running on the Tread has some meaningful benefits to it, and so I continue. I have mentally attached the boredom of running in place to the improvement and benefits to my health, to my running time, and to my speed. Once I figured out what I was looking to accomplish by running in place, I actually got good with it, and look forward to it.
This year, I am certain all of us will have times that we may feel like we are running in place - that we aren’t moving forward. Those times show up every year in fact, but will be more present this year than others. As the economy pulls back, both small and large businesses will be faced with pull-backs as well. The gains we had planned or consistently had in the past may not come as easy, and the charts of our business in 2023 may look a lot like the previous year’s charts. This is something growth minded entrepreneurs never like to see. Why? It feels as if your business is running in place.
There will be years in business where we may hit a literal plateau, a leveling off of production or revenue growth. Unless we connect that period of leveling off, or “running in place”, with some purpose, we will end up discouraged. It can feel like we are failing or not moving the ball forward. Take advantage of economic pull backs. Look for ways to right-size and stabilize the business. Look for ways to enforce the foundation of the business. Look for ways to lay groundwork for future growth. Look at that period as a purpose-based period of growth in specific areas of your business.
You have to connect with purpose to get through the running in place. What intermediary goal or parallel goal can be accomplished while we push through?
A few thoughts on this:
Don’t go it alone.
Running in place will always be more exciting if you do it with others. This week in the Peloton studio, I was in a room with 15 other runners, none of which I had ever met. Their energy was motivating. The group collectively and individually caused me to run harder and faster. We cheered each other on. We gave high fives. We are all facing each other as we run on our Tread. I met one runner that will be at the Chicago marathon with me. He will serve as some accountability to keep me training.
Make it fun.
At the end of the race I was smiling. Not because I didn’t run until my side hurt or my lungs were burning. Not because working out on a Friday evening is my favorite thing to do. But because the experience created a fun environment. There is great music, the coach is laughing, you meet new people before and after the session in the studio. You are surrounded by great energy. Other athletes that you have trained with online are coming in and out of their respective studios before and after their workouts. This week I plan to retake that same class again alone in my home gym. It will be interesting to see whether I can do better, or whether I do worse. It will be a study of the impact of the environment on results.
Create purpose and/or competition.
Even while running, I found some purpose and a bit of competition. The runner on the Tread next to me came out fast and hard. He was well ahead of the group on the leaderboard halfway through the run. About 80% of the way through the run I found myself in second place and about 19 output points behind - not a small number as you know if you are a Peloton’er. For the last 20% of the run I kept asking myself if I could make up enough ground by pushing a little harder. In the final two minutes of the race - I mean run - I slid into first place to end the run. Clearly, this was not a competition. This was not a race. No one was counting. There was no medal or high five at the end for coming in first. But I found a game to play while running in place. I created some competition with myself. I found a purpose to increase my output through the hills even when it got difficult.
Running in place need not be discouraging. It may not be what we signed up for. It may not be what we want to do. It may not be what we had on our agenda this year. But I promise there will be some massive gains this year even if you find yourself running in place!
By the way, if you run, ride, or row with Peloton, go ahead and follow me under my new screen name: RunInPLACE
I figured the new name would keep me focused on my mission this year. Let’s go.
Chris
