With a full 12 hours of sunshine occupying most of my days and a lot of fun things on the horizon, let's keep this editor's letter light and fluffy today. To (re)quote the Megan Rapinoe .gif from last week, "we deserve this." So, here's a quick list of things I'm loving, watching, doing, and listening to right now.
Loving: Olive & June's Nail Strengthener. I'm a lifelong nail-biter (it's my most shameful habit), and anytime I've been able to curb the habit enough to let my nails grow out some, they immediately break or chip because they're so weak. These days, I'm dabbing the O&J Nail Strengthener on my bare nails every couple of days, and I've found just having something on my hands (even if it's clear) helps me keep my bad habit in check. (And if you're curious about Olive & June, you can take $10 off any one of their systems with code "asweatlife")
Watching: The Boys on Amazon Prime. Imagine The Avengers, but Captain America is a chilling sociopath and being a superhero means working for a publicly-held company. Throw in a few conspiracy theories, a great classic rock soundtrack, Aya Cash (You're The Worst stans, hands up), and the dude from Gossip Girl as a part-fish superhero, and well, you've got my attention. Warning: the gore content and sexual assault are not for everybody, to put it mildly.
Doing: Bringing it back to the playground days with a jump rope. I've been on the road since early March, and unfortunately, the Peloton Bike doesn't travel well. In a moment of cardio desperation, I ordered a jump rope on Amazon and tuned into a @Get_Roped Instagram workout. I've been building up my endurance by doing Peloton Tread Bootcamps, but swapping out the tread intervals for jump rope intervals. It works, and I'm slowly decreasing the amount of times I trip over myself. Here's the one I bought.
Listening: Every Single Album | Taylor Swift on The Ringer's Dish feed. In no way am I as hardcore of a T-Swift fan as the hosts, but it's been enlightening to learn more about Swift before 1989, which is when I first dipped into the fandom. I also feel like a major dummy that I just now learned the song "Style" is allegedly about... Harry Styles. Duh.
Wearing: lululemon's Align 6" bike shorts, the perfect bike shorts for people with short legs who didn't ask for Bermuda shorts, thank you very much.
Feel free to reply,
Kristen Geil
Chief Content Officer, aSweatLife
Today's International Transgender Day of Visibility
We're sending our love and support to our trans friends, acknowledging the challenges you've had to face and the strength it takes to live your most authentic life.
One of our favorite moments of the #Sweatworking Summit: listening to a diverse panel (including transgender triathlete Erin Hamilton) talk about the importance of representation in endurance sports. Watch the replay here.
Three AAPI Leaders on How They're Navigating This Moment
For Nadya Okamoto's first article for our site, she reached out to three AAPI leaders to ask how they're navigating this moment and joining together with their communities to #StopAsianHate. It's heart-wrenching and hopeful all in one—read it here.
From Rolling Stone: Peloton and Verzuz Are Making Musical ‘Face-Off’ Workouts
I'm *very* into this. And if you're reading on Wednesday, tune in for the Brandy vs. Monica Two for One Ride with Cody Rigsby and Emma Lovewell 3/31 at 7:30PM ET.
A quick content catch-up
Here's what you might have missed on aSweatLife.com this week:
Chris Mosier has long been a Chicago triathlete we've admired, and we interviewed him for the #WeGotGoals podcast back in 2017 to hear him talk about policy change and the power of sport (which is an especially interesting topic to revisit in the context of the recently proposed laws that would prevent transgender youth from competing in sports as their affirmed genders). On Instagram, Chris regularly brings attention to his activism work and his athletic accomplishments—and he also has a "Trans Basics" story highlight that's an amazing introduction to being a trans ally.
