My biggest brag is that I have a working Nintendo 64 in my apartment in New York. While I haven't played in months, Mario and Banjo-Kazooie saved me during quarantine. So when I found out that Peloton was coming out with Lanebreak, a game that looks a hell of a lot like Guitar Hero mixed with Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, I was jumping out of the saddle. This time, however, it wouldn't be my bestie Toad driving stick, it'll be me clipped in to the bike, working out and playing a game. It's a win, win, win.
When I got on the bike to try out Lanebreak, I wasn't exactly sure how everything would work. Luckily there are tutorials that break down every element of the game-meets-fitness experience for you — so rest assured, your fear of not knowing what is happening will float away almost immediately.
The TL;DR...
Basically, your resistance knob is your wheel, which is going to move you back and forth between lanes, as you try to match cadence (and beats) as well as hit surges that earn you extra points.
Selecting the ride...
To kick things off, I decided on a beginner level, because I hadn't had coffee yet. I landed on a 20 minute Pop Remix "ride" (game?) that had a bomb playlist (Justin Bieber, Lizzo, Dua Lipa... you get the picture). I'm musically motivated when it comes to Peloton, so looking through the playlists was important to me. Luckily, there is a wide selection of genres for everyone.
Warming up...
Since most Peloton cycling rides include a warm up, I was interested to see how Lanebreak dealt with that. Now, there are a few "warm up" rides on Lanebreak that are five minutes long, so if that's your speed, then go forth my friend. However, if you don't want to be going in and out of multiple rides/games, know that Lanebreak started out in a lower resistance lane at first, which was very helpful as I got up to speed.
It's getting hot in here...
Once the game got going, meaning I was maneuvering between lanes using the resistance knob, making some efforts a little more difficult than others, I found the resistance knob to be very sensitive. When you're on a ride, twisting the knob to the right only results in a higher (and harder) resistance effort. In Lanebreak, you need to hit the exact resistance to stay in the lane you're supposed to be in. If I turned up the resistance too much, I landed myself in the incorrect lane. So remember, a gentle love twist does the trick.
The Beats, Streams, and Breakers are very intuitive throughout each track, plus it keeps you engaged. You sometimes will be given the choice between two lanes (one with a lower resistance, one with ah higher) which I particularly liked because sometimes you want to push yourself, other times you may need a recovery. (The surge efforts are no joke, you guys. Hitting 200% my pedaling as fast as you can took it out of me, so I was thankful for these options.)
The cool down...
While it's not the descending recovery you may be used to, there was a cool down in this ride, which involved a lower resistance number at the end of the 20 minutes. It was very much needed because despite not having heavy climbs or out of the saddle jogs, I found myself to be mentally and physically pushing myself for the entire ride. I was genuinely surprised at how good of a workout this was. Between the lane changes (resistance efforts) and conquering Breakers (i.e., mini sprints) throughout the whole game, your body never gets used to doing just one thing. I also can't imagine, as more rides roll out, ever getting bored.
Overall...
It's hard for me to consider this a workout, even though I absolutely worked out. And maybe that's the biggest compliment I can give Lanebreak. If you don't want to be thinking about working out, but want to workout, give it a try. Instead of playing Mario Smash Brothers, you can clip in and kill two birds with one stone. Now I can't wait to try the David Guetta ride; I feel like his music was made for this game.
Images: Peloton