The Long Ride is Growing

Here is what it means to you.

The Long Ride Is Growing. Here's what it will be for you.

Something happened over the past few months that I did not fully anticipate when I wrote the first issue of The Long Ride on March 31 of this year.

You showed up. In numbers I did not expect, at a pace I did not anticipate, and with a generosity I am still getting used to. The Long Ride now has more than 2500 free subscribers.

Fourteen of you chose to pay for it before there was anything behind a paywall — simply because you thought the work was worth supporting. I have not forgotten that and won’t going forward.

This post is about what comes next. It is a short read, so please stay with me.

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What is changing.

In the coming weeks, The Long Ride will introduce a paid subscription tier. The free content — researched essays launched every Tuesday, every other Saturday a 4-min Essentials piece, every Note — continues exactly as it has been. Nothing disappears or moves. If you never become a paid subscriber, you'll still get The Long Ride, because I want you to stay in the community we have created together. You will meet and interact with some amazing people here.

What the paid tier adds is a layer of depth that the weekly essays cannot provide on their own: a structured 12-week strength and mobility programme I’ve been developing and designed specifically for adults in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, and a nutrition guide for muscle maintenance and metabolic health in later life. My training will focus on corrective exercise protocols for the most common movement deficiencies in older adults, and I will add a monthly Q&A thread where I answer your questions directly, along with access to the Substack Chat for real-time conversation.

I am also planning to launch a podcast as The Long Ride continues to grow and eventually, video support to illustrate some of the concepts I write about here on The Long Ride.

These are not afterthoughts. They are the reason I have been completing my NASM personal training certification at the age of 69 — so that the programming content behind the paywall is evidence-based, credential-backed, and genuinely useful rather than generic wellness advice dressed up as expertise.

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The pricing — and the subscribing window.

The annual subscription is $80 for a limited time. After that window closes, the rate moves to $100 per year for all new subscribers.

If you subscribe before the window closes, your rate is locked at $80 permanently. That is not a sale price or a ‘wait there is more’ pitch. It is a recognition that you joined me here early and supported my writing from the beginning — and that deserves something in return.

The window closes on November 30, 2026, and I will send you one reminder before it closes. After that date, the standard rate of $100 per year applies to all new subscribers, and the $80 rate will close.

A monthly option is also available at $10 per month for readers who want to try before committing annually.

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What stays free. Always.

The weekly essays. The Saturday Essentials series. The Substack Notes. The Long Ride Essentials will always be free — it is designed as a way in for new readers, and that purpose does not change with a paywall.

If The Long Ride has given you something worth keeping — a piece you forwarded to someone, an idea that stayed with you, a sentence that arrived at the right moment — the best thing you can do right now is share this post with one person who might need it. Growth built on trust is the only kind worth having.

Thank you for being here. It matters more than you could know.

Greg

The Long Ride — gregpallone.substack.com

Aging well is a sport. Let’s train for it.