Robin Arzón Reveals Exclusive New Insights from the Rerelease of Shut Up and Run

Plus, the Expert Advisor for the Shape Sneaker Awards on how the right shoes (and socks) can boost your performance.

Robin Arzón isn’t about gatekeeping. Not only has Peloton’s Vice President of Fitness Programming and Head Instructor invited fans and followers along on her journeys through marriage and motherhood, but she’s spilled her secrets for mental strength in a Masterclass series and divulged fitness, lifestyle, and pop culture insights in her weekly newsletter, The Pivot. And now, Arzón is preparing to get even more personal with an updated paperback edition of her 2016 debut book, Shut Up and Run, hitting shelves on May 7. That said, there is a piece of precious info Arzón has kept close to the vest — until this very interview.

“I'm going to reveal this for the first time,” she says during our call. “Since postpartum, I have become a toe sock girly. And it is insane to me!”

While the revelation may not be particularly salacious, it is provocative, considering the 27x marathon and ultra-marathon runner knows a thing or two about optimizing athletic performance. After all, as a guest judge for SHAPE’s Sneaker Awards, Arzón tested over 20 pairs of kicks before putting her stamp of approval on the cream of the crop. Here, the Peloton pro and queen of hustle shares what runners can expect from the new edition of Shut Up and Run — plus, her go-to tips for beginner runners (including why your shoe choice matters more than you think).

Breathing New Life Into Shut Up and Run

Arzón jokes that her next venture may be creating a more stylish line of toe-separating socks, but it might be tough to fit that in, considering that the Good Morning America contributor, creator of bilingual toy line, Bebé Fuerte, and founder of lifestyle membership club Swagger Society is also a 2x New York Times bestselling author. After nearly a decade of major personal and professional changes, Arzón felt it was time to revitalize Shut Up and Run, a combined fitness manual, training program, and self-help guide complete with anecdotes, photos, and tips for runners of all levels.

“It really started with me documenting training for my first marathon,” Arzón says of the original book. “There were lots of environments in the running world that felt intimidating. I even remember shopping for running shorts back then — and thankfully they've come a long way — but my thighs didn't fit in them. I wrote this book for the person who thinks maybe they don't belong in the race, or they're hesitant to call themselves a runner. I wanted to not only arm them with information, but also offer my story, my me.”

"I wrote this book for the person who thinks maybe they don't belong in the race, or they're hesitant to call themselves a runner."

Robin Arzón

Healing Through Movement to Become Robin 2.0

To pour her authentic self into the pages, Arzón got vulnerable in the book’s introduction, in which she details the 2002 trauma that entirely altered her future. While meeting girlfriends at a wine bar, Arzón and twenty other hostages were held captive by a man with three pistols and a samurai sword, who poured kerosene on her head and waved a barbecue lighter in her face. The man had singled out Arzón to act as his de facto negotiator, ordering her to communicate on his behalf with police. “He said people were leaving in body bags, and I believed him,” she says. “Time slowed down, I was hyper aware of my inner monologue. I just wanted to personalize the situation so he knew that we were people with families who we wanted to get home to.”

"He said people were leaving in body bags, and I believed him... I just wanted to personalize the situation so he knew that we were people with families who we wanted to get home to."

Robin Arzón

Arzón and the other victims survived the night, but not without lasting psychological scars. “I didn't really realize until about a year later that I was still living with the physical embodiment of that trauma,” she says. Arzón started running as a way to escape her internal tumult. When she saw a flyer advertising a 10k race, she signed up immediately. “I didn’t even know what a 10k was,” she laughs. “It was a nice distraction from law school; it was only in retrospect that I realized I was physically moving trauma out of my body.” Empowered by her new outlet, Arzón kept moving — and as she likes to say in her classes, she “ran right out of a law career.”

In 2014, she joined Peloton, and has packed enough memories into the last decade to merit an overhaul of Shut Up and Run.

“The Peloton Tread was just in the ideation phase when I wrote the first book and a lot has happened,” she says. “So I’ve added the Peloton story, the power of community as it relates to the members, and even how my relationship with some of my own advice has changed. And my relationship with running has changed now having gone through motherhood and postpartum. It's Robin 2.0 in this book.”

Arzón’s Must-Know Tips for All Runners

The new and improved version of Arzón does, however, consider a few pieces of wisdom to be timeless — here are her top tips for new runners, or anyone looking to up their game:

• Focus on minutes, not miles. “Release yourself from paces and distances — just go out in minutes. Maybe you play a podcast or bring up one of my Peloton outdoor classes. It could start with a 15 minute-walk.”

• Use the buddy system. “Going out with friends is amazing. With Peloton, for example, you have friends at your fingertips using the app or the Tread.”

• Use the talk test. “Put on ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’, honey, and sing along! Initially, you have to be able to sing along to your favorite song, and that actually means running much slower than you think. The fastest runners in the world go slow to go fast.”

• Don’t underestimate the power of good shoes. “If you think that you're going to really participate in running, it's worth getting fitted for running shoes and buying proper ones for your feet and your gait.”

On that last point, Arzón has some specific favorites and has learned to adapt her footwear to her daily goal. For more cushioning during marathons and other long runs, Arzón says the Adidas Ultra Boosts give her the extra support she needs. And for short distances at a higher speed, Arzón goes for lower drop shoes like Altras. “It's been a ton of trial and error and now I know, ‘this is the kind of workout I'm doing today and this is the shoe that's appropriate.’ The more folks expose themselves to different distances, intensities, and terrains, they're going to know which shoes are right for them.”

Given the number of projects and personal commitments on her plate, it would be understandable if Arzón needed a bit of a breather, but she’s — perhaps unsurprisingly — thriving off the intensity. “I'm super excited to continue my partnership with Good Morning America and we’re releasing another Bebé Fuerte line later this year,” she says. “And we now have over 40,000 subscribers to The Pivot in just a few months. These projects are really meaningful to me and I look forward to exploring even more in the lifestyle space, whether it's food or fashion — this is all part of how I express myself in the world and I want to continue to share that.” 

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Read the original article on Shape.