When Plan A Fails: How a Peloton Ride Became a Bar Prep Masterclass

Yesterday I took a live Peloton ride from home with Camila Ramon. It was a 30-minute 2010s ride that turned into a masterclass on what to do when things don’t go according to plan.

About a third of the way through, it looked like her bike completely betrayed her. The resistance seemed stuck on the highest setting. No matter what she did, the pedals wouldn’t cooperate. It looked like she was cycling through mud.

So what did she do?

She jumped off the bike. She moved to the floor and just kept coaching. While techs tried to fix the bike, she led what was still, in every meaningful way, a cycling class. But from the floor. She was bouncing, counting down intervals, dishing out high-fives, and keeping the energy high.

🚫 At no point did she complain.

🚫 At no point did she blame the bike or the studio.

🚫 At no point did she look frazzled.

🚫 At no point did she give up.

The bike broke. The class didn’t.

And that’s what made me think about law school and bar prep.

Broken Bikes in Law School: When Plan A Falls Apart

Law school rarely unfolds the way you outlined in your color-coded planner.

• The professor changes the syllabus.

• The “easy A” class becomes your hardest one.

• The outline you got from an upper-class student doesn’t match your professor.

• You read the case twice and still feel like everyone else “got it” and you didn’t.

  
  

In those moments, it’s tempting to “blame the bike”:

🗯️ “This professor doesn’t teach well.”

🗯️ “This outline is useless.”

🗯️ “This exam was unfair.”

Sometimes there’s a little truth in those frustrations. But here’s the Camila lesson: You don’t control the bike. You control what you do when it doesn’t work.

Do you shut down for the rest of the semester? Or do you jump off the metaphorical bike, move to the floor, and keep learning in the way that is available to you?

That might look like:

• Switching from passively re-reading notes to doing practice hypos.

• Going to office hours even if you feel awkward.

• Studying with a small group that focuses on teaching each other instead of just venting.

• Admitting your original study plan isn’t working and revising it instead of forcing it.

The “broken bike” isn’t the end of the class. It’s the start of Plan B.

Broken Bikes in Bar Prep: When Plan A Isn’t Enough

If law school is full of broken bikes, bar prep is like riding in a room where half the bikes are malfunctioning at any given time.

You might be:

• Using a commercial course that doesn’t match your learning style as well as you hoped.

• Watching your practice scores dip right when you thought they should be rising.

• Juggling work, family, or health issues your bar schedule didn’t account for.

• Dealing with tech glitches on practice exams or, worst-case, on exam day.

  
  

None of that feels good. But it also isn’t the end of your bar journey.

Camila didn’t stand there glaring at the bike, waiting for it to magically fix itself. She immediately shifted to: “Okay, what can I do right now to keep this class going?”

For bar prep, that might mean:

• If lectures aren’t clicking, pivot to active learning, like completing practice questions, quizzing yourself, or creating mini-outlines.

• If your MBE scores drop, don’t throw out the entire program. Instead, diagnose (e.g., which subjects, which question types, what timing issues), then adjust.

• If life throws you curveballs, shorten some study blocks but protect your core non-negotiables (e.g., a daily practice set and a short review).

• If technology fails on a practice test, follow the procedures, document what happened, breathe, and give yourself credit for navigating something hard, not just for your raw score.

You will not get through bar prep with a flawless Plan A. The bar exam tests knowledge and skills, but it also tests flexibility and resilience.

Sometimes the most important bar prep skill is your ability to lead your own “class from the floor.”

Three Lessons from a Broken Bike

Here are three takeaways from that ride with Camila, translated directly to law school and bar prep:

1. Don’t blame the bike.

Systems fail. Software crashes. Schedules implode. Courses won’t always feel like a perfect fit. You’re allowed to be frustrated, but don’t camp out there. The more energy you spend blaming the bike, the less you have for solving the problem in front of you.

2. Keep the main thing the main thing.

Camila’s main job in that moment wasn’t to ride her bike. it to lead the class. She never lost sight of that. For you, the main thing isn’t having the perfect outline or perfect schedule. The main thing is steadily building skills and understanding so you can perform on exam day. If you keep that central, your adjustments will be smarter.

3. Practice your Plan B before you need it.

You don’t want the first time you adapt to be on the actual bar exam. Build flexibility into your prep now. Try different study locations. Do a full practice exam under realistic conditions. Decide ahead of time what you’ll do if your timing slips, if tech glitches, or if you have a rough practice set. The more you’ve rehearsed adjustments, the less scary they feel when they’re real.

Your Ride Will Have Glitches But Ride Anyway

That ride was supposed to be a normal 30-minute 2010s Peloton class. Instead, it became a live demonstration of how to keep going when the equipment, the plan, or the moment doesn’t cooperate.

Law school and bar prep will give you those moments, too.

You don’t need a perfect ride. You need the willingness to keep pedaling, however you have to do it, until the work is done.