Woohoo. Welcome to the Some Work All Play podcast. We are so happy with you today. Happy Tuesday. It's Tuesday. And I'm prophylactically laughing on this Tuesday. Prophalactically laughing. I like that. What's that about? It's coming from this morning. This morning's dance party. We were in the kitchen singing. We just bopping around being like, wake me up before you go. And you decided to change the lyrics last minute, which I love. What did you sing? Wait me up before you shippost. Which was excellent. Yeah. What a great way to change lyrics, also topical. I had a lot of fun yesterday. So it started with the very first story we're going to talk about in the podcast, which is Jess McLean being robbed of a national championship. It's all going to change because we are going to lead the way. We'll get to that in a second. But afterward, I had so much fun being mean on the internet to dumb people. You went on a rampage. I was like, bro, usually you tell me these things. You come over and you're like, Megan, should I post this? I wake you up before I ship post. You really do it. And I'm like, absolutely the fuck not. And I came downstairs and you're like, look, it was just like a slew of comments to people being like, hot take, just should have known the course. And you're like, hot, hottest take back. You're wrong. Hot take, you're a moron. You legitimately said that, I think.

No, I didn't say that.

That was someone else that did the moron comment. I didn't make any personal attacks. They were close. I was making. I mean, probably to the person receiving it, it felt awfully personal. They were critiques on people's intellect. And it's not their fault that they were dropped so many times

when they were babies. I have also dropped our babies and hopefully that's not caused any issues that they are eventually wrong on the internet like those people are. But anyways, when you sang this in the kitchen, wake me up before you shit post, which I feel like you should always sing before you shit post. It's just kind of like a vibes check in the brain. If you don't have a Megan to tell you not to do it. Yeah, you're just going to need to think about that for a second. Leo started hysterically laughing. And I feel like he has no idea what a shit post is. Maybe he does at age three, hopefully not. But it goes to show that I feel like David, your body language indicates when you're going to make a joke. And he's picking up on it. We always talk about the podcast, how you anticipate when I'm trying to sound like I'm serious and a joke is coming. I think Leo knows it too, which probably means I'm not very good at making jokes. No, it means your jokes are so good that we prophylactically laugh. Okay. Something good is coming and we can't contain it within our souls. Oh, I'm so happy to actually be laughing today because yesterday morning started with some tears, which is going to get to the main topic of the podcast. So let's jump right into it with a roadmap. We're going to start with a disgraceful response by USATF at the US Half Marathon Championships. This is raising David's testosterone, maybe some of the highest I've ever seen it. Yeah, and I think this goes beyond our personal relationship with Jess McLean, who is going to win, and goes to fundamental problems with running in the USATF that absolutely need to change. Also, kind of what a perfect place for you to comment on. A lot of times we catch things, we're like, we're not experts. But David, you are literally Jess's coach and you're a lawyer. Yeah. This is your lawyer skills are coming into coaching. Right up my alley. So we'll get to that. But then after that, a new gel we love that we are both very excited about. A cyclist training volume study that has some counterintuitive findings. A weird study on optimism and longevity that might have implications for athletics. Keyword there's might.

Plus a Q&A on gravel shoes, training races, outdoor dangers, bi-carb at night.

Ooh-hoo. For sexy time or race time? We'll see. We'll get there. Zone 1 versus zone 2 training

for your easy days, a coaching academy, inflammation, and more. Did you just add some things to this? Yeah, yeah. Did you just add questions without me knowing? Always. I didn't know that. I always want to mix it up on Megan. I'm like gravel shoes, training races, outdoor dangers? I don't know about any of these things. Yes. You're so good at preparing that sometimes, just like in your head, like you know, you're methodical. You want to do, right? Sometimes I want to put you on your heels. It's the only way I'm going to win. Get away from your five point plan. Classic lawyer, you're like, here's the evidence I didn't tell you about. Surprise the witness on the stand. Okay, so we're going to start with the big story in running. This was on the New York Times this morning. It's the story that is dominating

the news as it should, which is yesterday at the Atlanta Half Marathon, their US ATF was hosting

the U.S. Half Marathon Championships. This is race is a big deal, not just for whoever becomes the

national champion or finishes on the podium, but also it selects for the U.S. team at the World Championships.

And most significantly, perhaps, is if you know the status of running contracts, it's $20,000

to the winner, plus massive bonuses from shoe companies, plus PR bonuses, plus rollover bonuses the

following year. So we're talking, you know, life-changing amounts of money are on the

line with this type of race being run appropriately. Honestly, when you put it all together,

kind of like a down payment on a small house, depends on where you live in the country,

maybe not Silicon Valley, but in places, like that's the amount of money we're talking about.

This is not like trail running where you're in it for a cougar. This is like the entire, I think actually Broken Arrow has quite a large purse this year. But nowhere close to this. We're talking like, if you win, this is like the entire purse. Yeah. In terms of when you think about what happens with, you know, just the race prize money, plus all of that on top of it. And even beyond that, this is just what running's about for these athletes. Their entire life goes around it. And so first we'll describe the unfortunate situation and then the extremely disgraceful response to it. So it's a very hilly course. It has almost a thousand feet of elevation gain. And Jess McLean came in ready to race. So, you know, coach Jess for a long time now, maybe like the best person I've ever met outside of you, Megan. And you knew it. You're like, Jess is crushing right now on training to the point that we talked about this on our Patreon episode on Friday. And I'm like, what are you doing? Get your ass to Atlanta. You need to go see her win in person. It was obvious she was going to win. That's how good Jess is right now. She did a workout 10 days before the race, 5 by 3 minute hills, 5 by 45 second hills at 10K 5K, followed by a three mile threshold. She did the hills very, very fast. She's an incredible hill climber as we're about to talk about. But then the threshold was a right around five minute pace. It's like, oh, that's automatic win. Like, no one is competing with that. And honestly, you're putting yourself in contention for Olympic podium at that point, if we can keep this momentum going. So, you know, very excited, but much more important than that, everyone has ever met Jess loves her. You'll see that in the outpouring of support where every pro runner and then just fans of the

sport that have met her say she's our queen you know she's been through the ringer she quit running

at one point quit professional running and came back to it much like um alicia loo that we talked about

last week and she came back with this perspective that has lifted up so many other athletes

I feel like everyone who knows her like she has lifted up so many other athletes.

I feel like everyone who knows her.

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