464: The Optimizer Trap: Is It About Health or Money?

Have you ever found yourself wondering if you're doing enough?

Should you be tracking your sleep more closely? Monitoring your glucose? Taking more supplements? Investing in another recovery tool? Finding one more way to optimize your health and performance?

In today's world, it's easy to feel like there is always another metric to improve, another score to chase, and another strategy promising better results.

In this episode, Kevin and I take a closer look at what happens when the pursuit of optimization starts working against us.

We explore the rise of the "optimizer" identity and how many runners and health-conscious individuals are being pulled into a culture that encourages constant measurement, analysis, and self-improvement. While data can absolutely be helpful, we discuss what happens when metrics become the goal instead of a tool.

We dive into how wearables, sleep scores, recovery scores, continuous glucose monitors, and other tracking technologies can sometimes create more anxiety than awareness. We also unpack concepts like orthorexia and orthosomnia—conditions where the pursuit of healthy eating or perfect sleep can actually become unhealthy.

From there, we shift into one of the most talked-about sporting events of the year: the inaugural Enhanced Games in Las Vegas.

Marketed as a revolutionary athletic competition where performance-enhancing drugs were permitted, the Enhanced Games generated headlines, controversy, and millions of dollars in investment. But beneath the flashy marketing and bold promises lies a much bigger story about optimization culture, shortcuts, and the business of selling peak performance.

We break down what actually happened, why many of the promised outcomes failed to materialize, and what the event reveals about our modern obsession with finding the fastest path to better results.

Throughout the conversation, we keep coming back to a simple truth:

The basics still work.

The runners who make the greatest long-term progress aren't usually the ones chasing every new biohack. They're the ones consistently sleeping well, fueling appropriately, training progressively, building strength, managing stress, and recovering intentionally.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by all the health advice, gadgets, supplements, and performance metrics competing for your attention, this episode offers a refreshing reminder that you don't need to optimize everything to become a healthier, stronger runner.

04:45 When Metrics Mislead

06:25 Orthorexia and Clean Eating

09:02 Orthosomnia and Sleep Anxiety

10:56 Fragility vs Resilience

12:52 Health Obsession Identity

15:05 Gamifying Glucose Tracking

18:40 Optimization Industry Exposed

23:47 Supplements vs Foundations

26:35 Enhanced Games Explained

31:31 Gladiators and Reality Check

33:08 Clean Athletes Win

33:59 Enhanced Games Recap

34:19 Super Suit World Record

35:29 Weightlifting Hype Fizzles

35:47 Wellness Complex Exposed

38:39 Why Athletes Underperformed

43:17 Foundation Beats Shortcuts

46:06 Recovery Tools vs Basics

49:15 Sleep Over Supplements

50:24 Metrics Without Anxiety

51:41 Marketing Tricks and Pink Tax

55:07 Mental Strength Matter

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Transcript

0:01

We are living in the age of the optimizer, and this week Kevin and I wanna talk about what we might be losing in the pursuit of optimizing everything, and also what a very strange sporting event that just happened in Las Vegas has to do with all of it. So stay tuned Welcome back to the show, everyone. It is episode 464, and today we're talking about the optimization trap, or the optimizer trap. And, beware, be careful, there might be some rants and some soapboxes in this one. I'm just gonna warn you ahead of time. I'm just gonna say, I think you're gonna have to do this one solo. I just check- checked my sleep score, and I'm just gonna have to take the rest- of the day off. Perfect. I'm gonna go need a nap. Yeah. so in this episode, I know, some of you might be disappointed, we don't have the furniture metaphor for you today. You wanted one, and we changed it. I did. I... We... So today's ep- episode we are debating between, 'cause the home project that we did this past week was Maddie's, our youngest daughter's closet. So our youngest daughter wanted a new closet, and so we took out, we had like one of those closet organization systems. We took that out and just reinstalled a new closet, and so I had some ideas of being in the closet, are you a closeted runner? And, making that mix with Pride Month and stuff like that. But, we... I didn't wanna... We decided not to go with that episode. I wanted somehow to mention power tools. Power tools? I don't know. I don't even know how it was gonna happen. I'm sure we c- I'm just excited to use them I'm sure we could figure it out. You did use a big drill and a saw. And a saw. I used a circular saw and I s- Y- did you not come up with good metaphors us- using your big power tools? No. I had a circular saw- and I still have all my fingers. I just call that a win. We... It's a win. And so instead, we are talking about the trap of optimization, and this was, an episode that Kevin suggested that we do based on the enhanced game. So I don't know if you guys have heard about this, but we're gonna be talking about this later in the episode. So essentially, what we're working with here is that we are living in an era- Of unprecedented access to personal health data. There are Oura Rings and WHOOP Bands and Garmin HRV and sleep scores, recovery scores, readiness scores, Zone 2 heart rate tracking, glucose monitors, continuous lactate testing. There are so many things out there. The list goes on and on, and it keeps growing. And I think that there's this new identity. You guys know we love talking about identities here on the podcast. and I've seen it in a couple different articles now, and I think it's a very interesting one to explore, which is the optimizer. Someone whose primary relationship with their health is through the lens of data, metrics, and marginal gains. And I think that, this kind of started maybe, what, one or two decades ago with, biohacking, and people started looking into all these different metrics and trying to biohack and improve longevity. And so this is starting to become essentially a movement and a cultural identity, not just a habit. Yeah, and there's some big names in social media that are essentially, trying to figure out how to hack their body to live forever. Yeah. Like the guy who just replaced his blood plasma with his son's blood plasma. that's reaching maybe too far. and it's so much of finding all these little pieces of data and what little extra things can you do to, when you've already tried to move the needle, move it just that little bit further. Yeah. It just stretches yourself just even more, and just so much optimization- Yeah for the sake of what seems like optimization. But this is really where it goes wrong, in our opinion, and really what we want to talk about today because so many people focus on that 1% or that half a percent, and that pursuit of optimization becomes the primary focus before or even instead of some of that foundational work. And when that happens, those tools stop being useful and start becoming more of a distraction or even a sense of anxiety. and I'm starting to see this with people that I know and, I've had it... keep having more conversations about this, seeing more articles about this, and I think it's a really interesting piece to look at because some of this data can be very helpful. I think that... I'm not saying all of it's bad. I definitely love my Garmin watch. I love checking my body r- body battery every day. Love looking at my step count. These metrics are not bad in and of themselves. It's what we decide to do with them and how we allow those things to affect us, where it becomes either a good tool to use or something that can actually cause more problems. Yeah. the body battery on the watch is an interesting one because it- It's unclear exactly all of the different measurements that go into it- Yeah and how those measurements are weighted. and that is a very interesting piece of it all, right? there's a lot of these measurements out there that you don't even know what the heck it means. You just get a number. 'cause they're not direct measurements. Like my sleep score, if I click into it, it can be like, oh, it's based off of your overnight resting heart rate and your HRV and how much deep sleep. And it's okay, but how'd you measure deep sleep? Yeah. but how did you measure my breath rate from a watch on my wrist- as I was sleeping? And all these things go into it. And at that point it's is this a useful number coming out? Yeah. Like, how much error was in that number- there's- from one day to the next? and there's definitely a margin of error with every single one of those measurements, and then you start tying them together, and how accurate is it even? are the errors compounding each other? Are they canceling each other out? Yeah. who knows? Maybe one day they, they add together, and one day they do cancel each other out. And so you're not exactly sure what some of these numbers are. Some of them are, like, direct measurements and you're getting a thing, but the answer is that even a number that you want? you can go to a lab and get your VO2 tested, but is that even a useful measurement? And that's another direction of, okay, just because we can measure something, is that something to use? Yeah. And I think that, again, going back to- How we choose to interpret the data, that's really what it all comes down to, right? it's all about, like the data's just numbers. It's just metrics. Like data is data. These are fine. There's nothing inherently wrong with this data. It becomes the way that we use the data, the w- the way that we interpret it, and also the feelings within us that they cause. And there's been like new terms that have been emerging because of this, and like I don't know if anyone has ever heard of the ter- the term orthorexia. Okay, now this is something, so if you think about eating disorders or dysfunctional eating patterns, a lot of people, most people are familiar with anorexia, which means that you're not eating enough and you're, not eating enough to sustain what your body needs. There's bulimia, which we know is a dysfunctional eating pattern, and then there's orthorexia, which is a quote unquote newer term, I think. I haven't actually looked into the history of like when this term first emerged, but I definitely think it's more, of a newer term. And it's an obsession with clean eating. So it's an obsession with healthy eating, and I would say that I suffered from this early on, like maybe a decade or so ago, a couple, like a, let's see. J- trying to think of what is a decade ago at this point because time keeps moving really fast. I think more than a decade because I think this was- Yeah a very big thing for both of us when we had- Like in the early 2010s I was thinking- Like when we start, started having kids. Exactly. Yeah. Right when we started having kids. Yeah. 'Cause it was very important of making sure that we put the right thing into the newborns. And it's if we're, if that's what we're putting into them, we should really pay attention to what we're putting into ourselves. And it like one kind of fed into the other. It did, and then I became obsessed with like clean eating and only eating foods with five ingredients and making sure everything was minimally processed and organic and all these things. And so it became an obsession to the point where it was affecting my relationships with my family because I got to the point where I even would go over to my mom's house for dinner, my mom would have family dinner, and I would ask her to see the box of pasta that she was making to make sure it didn't have the wrong ingredients. that becomes a distraction. Like 'cause and, a- my family even said to me, "Angie, like we don't even want to invite you over to dinner anymore because you're just gonna make us feel bad about what we're eating." And my intention was never to make anyone feel bad. My intention was to make sure I wasn't eating the wrong th- the quote unquote wrong things. But by nature, if I am saying, "I'm not gonna eat that," then of course why wouldn't you feel bad that you're choosing to eat it? Yeah, if you're not eating the, if you're not going to eat the wrong thing- Yeah and you're not eating whatever is being offered there- then everybody else is eating the quote unquote wrong food. there's an inherent sense of judgment that's there. yeah. And I think that was never my intention. I was never like, you guys can..." I always basically said, you guys can eat whatever. I just don't wanna eat that." But that's just like this- Innate and like- Like it didn't- under unconscious sense of superiority that goes along with that It didn't actually finish with, "Because I'm better with you- than you," but most people fill the line in. Yeah. and that's, and I didn't... And again, all of that was unintentional, but that's what happens. And there's another, anxiety piece called orthosomnia, which is anxiety about sleep scores that actually disrupt sleep, which is wild because people are so obsessed of "Oh, I have to be in bed by 10:00 PM so that I maximize my time in deep sleep," and because the maxima of the window, the best window for s- deep sleep is from 10:00 to 2:00, which is true. And that is a good thing to wanna maximize your deep sleep, and it is a good thing to get in bed by 10:00 PM, but if you have so much anxiety that if you get in bed at 10:30 PM you are so wound up and so anxious that you just missed a half an hour of your deep sleep window, that's where it becomes more problematic. Yeah, orthosomnia, it, anything where you worry about your sleep, and I think this is, the gateway into a lot of these other ones- Yeah is as soon as people got watches and rings that started telling them their sleep was good, bad, or otherwise- then if that's a number that you see first thing you wake up in the morning, people are then taking that number and determine what they should do with the rest of their day. Yeah. And then you would panic the night before, making sure that you were set up to get the best sleep so that you could wake up and feel better, but you're gonna wake up and feel however you feel. Yeah. It doesn't, you don't actually have to check your watch to see how you feel. You could just see how you feel. Yeah, and the human body is amazing and resilient, and so sometimes you get really good sleep on days where you don't have the optimal temperature in your room or the optimal bamboo sheets or whatever it might be, like, because the human body is amazing. And I think that a lot of times our obsession over some of these things can really do us more harm than good. because we take away some of that- The body's innate ability to adapt. Yeah. The body's resilience. it creates a sense of fragility- in ourselves because we can only perform after optimal sleep. And we can only get optimal sleep under these 10 different conditions. Yeah. I'm glad that you pulled out, the, the, what did you just call it? The fragility. Fragility. Yeah, the fragility of it was, 'cause that was one of the things that kind of inspired this episode when I was looking at different articles and various things that were happening, was one of the big things that came out in the news, it's like a week or two ago at this point, was- It's about a week Steven Bartlett. Oh, yeah. Okay. So Steven Bartlett is the host of the podcast The Diary of a CEO, and he came out on one of his episodes talking about how he made this terrible health choice and how it cost him, that he slept horribly and the next day of work he was not productive and all of these things. And your, the way that he made it out, you would think that it would be some big thing, and it turned out that he had three glasses of wine. Yeah, and he said he was wrecked for days. Yeah, he was wrecked for days afterwards, and it, then that just, raises the question of, what... are you actually healthier, right? Like, all of these people that are so focused on optimizing your health, and I'm not here saying that alcohol is good for you, because that's not my point. My point is there are times that you are human, and, it's okay to have a glass of wine. It's okay to have a dessert, like a piece of cake after dinner. and if your body is wrecked- It's wonderful to have a piece of cake after dinner I agree. I agree. but i- and if your body is wrecked afterwards, to me, that is a sign that body is not resilient, is very fragile. It's not a sign of good health, in my opinion, because if you're just not able to... the world has toxins. th- there's no escaping them. And I, as much as you want to try to remove the chemicals and things from your household, we are exposed to a lot of stuff every day, and it's... the human body is amazing at detoxifying itself and protecting itself. And if we are just anxious about every single little thing, again, the question comes up: Are we doing ourselves more harm than good? Yeah. If the only way that we can actually live is through this very narrow window- Yeah and you can't stray from the path, is that living? sure, you've optimized things. You could live forever, but is that the style in which you'd like to live? Yeah. And that's a tricky one there. Yeah. So there was this other article that was posted on The Free Press, which is a site that I like because they tend to have, a more neutral stance than a lot of other- Yeah news pieces. all news is definitely leaning one way or the other. But The Free Press, I think, in general, takes a pretty good, does a pretty good job at seeing both sides of things. And there was an article that came out with the title Your Health Obsession Is Narcissism. And I thought that was very, a very good attention-grabbing title. Yeah. Don't you think? It's a good headline. And I think that, I think narcissism is definitely a strong word, but- That's why it was the headline 100%. But I do think that it raises an interesting question again, right? At what point does all of this self-monitoring stop being about health and start being about identity and start being about like, this is just who I am," and the undercurrent of that is, "And I'm better than you." Yes. And that's the thing, is I'm taking care of myself in all of this way, and it doesn't really matter what anybody else is doing 'cause I need to do this. And it doesn't matter if what I'm doing gets in the way of anybody else. Yeah. This is what I need to do for myself. Yeah. And that combination of need to do for myself, 'cause I can't live outside of these boundaries- and it doesn't matter about anybody else are two strong negatives in my opinion. Yeah. And not everyone is doing this, right? so please understand that w- if you are using a Whoop or an Oura Ring or a Garmin or any of this stuff, we are not saying that you are doing anything wrong. Again, it's just these are all just opportunities for us to look at this, right? 'cause at what point- Does the tracking become the thing? that is the thing. I am tracking the thing, I'm optimizing my sleep score, where everything is just based around that versus the tool that serves the thing, which w- should be our health, right? we're really looking at all of these things as tools to improve our health. But I think sometimes we can become so obsessed on what the data is or what the tool is trying to give us that we become so obsessed on the tool itself and what that is. And like my sister, I'm, I don't think she listens to the podcast, and if she does, shout out- I doubt it shout out to you, girl. Her husband sometimes does, though. Does he? Yes. Oh. we gotta be careful. But so she is, she is not a diabetic, and she decided to use the continuous glucose monitor, and I think there's a lot of people that are doing this. And I think that, again, at the beginning, it's really interesting to start to see, okay, this certain food spikes my glucose, and what is this certain... she gained, I think, a lot of really cool insights from it, about like how stress affects, it and how different times of the month affect her blood glucose levels and how different types of food affect her blood glucose levels. And I think that with good information, you can then make choices that are going to help you feel better and support your health goals. And then there becomes a point where it's like, "Okay, why are you still using that?" Because she enjoys the video gamization- It's a game. No, and that's- of eating I know, and that's what I said to her the other day. I'm like, "It's a game now." And she's "Yeah, pretty much." Yeah. Like she admits, fully admits it because it's like, "Oh, what can I do to make sure that like my blood sugar stays as low as possible?" It becomes like a game. Yeah. No, like she's not necessarily fallen into the optimization trap- No because she doesn't try to make sure that she avoids all the certain things that causes spikes. She just opts for when she's gonna do the spike. She makes choices about how she's gonna end up- spiking various things. and she still eats things knowing that she's going to spike from them. Like she hasn't just like completely eliminated things, which is good 'cause she's, there are certain things that she's like, "Yep, I'm still gonna live my life." And I think, like again, these things are tools, and they can give us data that can help to inform our decisions and help us make, quote unquote, better decisions. We just have to be careful about how much weight we give to them. Yeah. I was curious about how the continuous glucose monitors were gonna get used through like cycling- Yeah of people trying to make sure they're fueling appropriately on the run. And they just didn't really take off, because people were figuring out that like the data it was giving was not actually helpful- Yeah in terms of how many calories you could take in. that one kind of fell out of the athletic world. And people are still doing it to see like various foods that they put in their body throughout the day, but it left the athletic realm. Did it? Yeah. it's, it is interesting, right? To see, and I think that's a good- Kind of segue into our next segment about the enhanced games, because this event that happened over Memorial Day is a very interesting example of this. And kind of my big soapbox and my big thing about all of this, because als- I'm gonna keep saying it throughout the course of this episode so that people don't think that I hate data. by no means. again, I use all these things. I was telling, our team today, I have been the person standing at the side of my bed marching in place at 10:00 PM at night to make sure I get my steps. It's silly, and it, would it really matter? Does it actually matter? No, it doesn't, but I kinda like seeing that number. I like to see my big check mark on my watch, right? So i- it's not that... But I also wouldn't be, like, super mad or upset if I didn't hit it. that's less data optimization and more you like the day to end with a round number. Yeah. you're the kind of person that struggles to finish a run at, 4.95 miles- I do and it's supposed to be a five-miler. Yeah. I'm, I've been trying to get better about that, but yeah. but that's the same reason, if you're at, 9,980 steps- you're not going to bed. Why would I not just get my extra 20 steps? Yeah. And the- But my goal is actually, 10,111 steps per day. Yeah, I don't know. Mine's- Because I like 111 mine's some weird number. but I will totally just go to bed. I don't- Yeah even check to see what my steps are. Yeah. Some point in time during most days my watch buzzes at me and says that I hit my step goal. Yeah. But if I go to bed and I'm not at it, I'm usually also on a rest day, and I'm like 7,000 steps away from it. So it's eh, we're good. Yeah, not even close. Going to bed. Yeah. And so- Underlying all of this, though, that I really want all of us to really start thinking about and really using our critical thinking skills, which I know we ha- have to bring those out sometimes because, with today's technology, it's very easy to just outsource your critical thinking to social media or to AI or to some of these things. And, s- things that I'm seeing in social media are ki- are getting scary, right? Because everybody has, an agenda. Everybody has... now there's AI slop that is just sh- telling you different things that the wellness industry wants you to hear. And underneath it all, I want you to understand that this is a business. The optimization industry is not about wellness. They tell you that it is. They tell you that it's about your health and wellness, but it's not. It is about money. It is about selling you r- more things. It is about making you feel like you don't understand your body, and you can't interpret your body well enough by just asking yourself, "How am I feeling today?" And so you have to have these tools and these devices and all these numbers to actually let you know what's really happening in your body. So it's not actually about teaching you to how to connect with your body. It's, I think, disconnecting us from our bodies even more. It is a largely unregulated market built on the core message of your body is not enough as it is. Your body is not... You don't understand your body. We have to sell you something that will fix your body, that will help you see what is wrong with your body, so that you can then buy something to then fix that thing. So there's wearable companies. There's supplement brands. There's biohacking influencers. There's other influencers that are now partnering with these different things as well. people that are not even in the health space but have influence are now partnering with these brands to tell you, "Oh, you know what? You should upload all of your health data into ChatGPT now or into Microsoft or all these different things." There's telehealth optimization clinics. The market is enormous. Billions and billions of dollars every single year, and it is almost entirely unregulated, and that is freaking scary. it's an interesting industry because the- when they- As it started to grow, they essentially pitted themselves against pharma. And they said- Yeah, they made big pharma the bad guy they said, you don't wanna take those pharmaceutical drugs. Those are just what the drug companies are pushing upon you." And believe me, I am not a fan of big pharma, okay? S- at the same time, continue. Sure. But they made the... 'Cause in order to make yourself the hero, somebody else has to be the villain. Yeah. So they made big pharmaceutical companies the villain- and then said, "But we have this all-natural solution." But the issue is the medicine coming out of pharmaceutical companies has a level of regulation. Yes. There are steps that have to be done. There are purity regulations. There's a level of testing that has to be done. There's a level of proof of what the thing does. And sure, there's side effects on all of them. If you've seen any commercial, there's a list of 20 seconds of side effects- that can come with them. You don't have to do that for, any supplements. You just say, "This supplement works." And then if you scroll down on the website, down at the bottom it says, "Maybe." Yeah. Basically. that's what it says at the asterisk- Yeah at the bottom. Yeah. They, they- Eh, maybe. Pharmaceutical companies at least have to go through some level of testing and proof that the product actually does what it says it, it does. Yes. But in the wellness industry, no one is required to prove that their product does what they say it does before selling it to you. They don't even have to prove that w- that the thing that they're selling to you is actually in that thing. they've done all of these third-party lab testings on supplements and that say that they have X amount of whatever vitamin or whatever thing that they're trying to... Or, what it's the, what's the word I'm looking for? The, what is ashwagandha and all of those things? Super food is- Yeah, super- I mean- That's not the word I'm looking for the one that you get me thinking of is all the creatine gummies- Yeah didn't have any creatine in it because it's water soluble. and that's what happens, right? So they're like, "Oh yeah, take this," and th- they have tested these, a lot of these supplements, and they don't even have that stuff in it or not that s- the level that they say that they do. And so what they're doing is they are banking on your insecurity. They are... That is the product. And the solution is revenue. They just want to manufacture more insecurity about your body, sell you the solution, keep the market unregulated so that the claims don't even have to hold up Like this, y- like when you take a step back and look at it, and again, I was, I fell into all this trap as well. Like I, I told you at the beginning of the episode, I was into all the clean eating and the or- and the organic and all that stuff. And I'm not saying that none of that has merit, I'm just saying it k- it keeps getting worse and worse. Like the market and the wellness industry and the supplement industry is just exploding, and it's all because of money. Yes. And one of the f- big issues that we have, besides the fact that it's all just a giant business model which has its own issues, is it's very difficult to just supplement your way out of a foundation that you've never actually established. Yes. If you go and you take, your morning supplement stack and then your evening supplement stack, 'cause I, that's my fancy t- I got my terms. Your stack. You gotta stack it. you got your supplement stack of the seven different things you take in the morning, or that you put into your smoothie. Adaptogens, that's the word. That's the word you were looking for. Sorry. Thank- Sorry to interrupt you. Thank you for that coming in powerfully. Yeah. You had a supplement stack. Adaptogens is the word. B- but there's some actual evidence behind ashwagandha actually working. There is, yes. There's also some suggestion that a lot of the products that say they have ashwagandha in it has such a small amount- Yeah that, even if it's in there- it's in such a small amount that it couldn't possibly do anything for you. But it- and that's part of the issue, right? These super food proprietary blends. Yes. That's part of the problems. Like even in these supplements, like AG1 is one of the examples. They give you all the n- amounts of what the vitamin level, vitamin A, vitamin C, whatever, and then they have this whole proprietary blend that lists a ton of different greens and natural foods, and it has broccoli and spirulina and all of these different things, but they don't have to tell you how much of any of that is in there. Yeah, that's true. And that's, this is the thing. in the Th- this is why I like to look for supplements in like elite athletes. One, the supplements are probably cleaner. Yep. They probably have what they actually say, and there's gonna be some actual functional benefit from it. If you're looking at elite athletes and they're not taking it, it's probably not doing squat for you. And that doesn't mean that you have to take all those supplements in the first place because the issue is at elite athletes, they've already built such a massive groundwork in- that if they're trying to put the extra 1%, the extra .1% on top of it- Yeah it's making the difference. It might do something. It could do something. it's possible that the supplement is gonna do something for you also, but just going out there and exercising, maintaining some If you're struggling for consistency of three or four days of exercise a week, it doesn't really matter how much tart cherry juice you drink. It also doesn't matter how much of that is speed work and that you're following the 80/20 rule. Also true. there's a whole lot of stuff that is not all that important if you haven't started at a base level of consistent movement. And the 80/20 rule, just to go off on that tangent, is important because a lot of times one of the things that's preventing people from consistency is that they're pushing too hard on all of their workouts, which means they're tired, they don't have energy, they're exhausted, and they can't find the energy to go out and do the next training session. So that is why it is important for people that are still struggling with consistency. Yeah, or you could just supplement yourself out of that one, right? Nope, you cannot. Oh, okay. Never mind. You cannot. And so that brings us to the Enhanced Games. So if you aren't familiar, because I wasn't really familiar with this until Kevin brought this to my attention, and then I've read multiple articles about this. I was very excited to watch it- Yeah and then I forgot it was going to happen. Yeah. I'm not upset that you didn't watch it- because this is ridiculous. So the inaugural Enhanced Games took place, over Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas. So it was set up as an Olympics-style event where athletes were openly permitted to use performance-enhancing drugs like testosterone, EPO, and anabolic steroids under medical supervision. So this was founded by a businessman, okay? Not an athlete, not any sort of regulatory body. By a businessman, and backed by investors, including Peter Thiel. Thiel? Thiel. Thiel. Okay, you said we were allowed to say something about him. I don't, I, I don't know who this guy is. There's a lot of people who are not a fan of him. Yeah. He was one of the ones who made the very big push for we're gonna see what humans are capable of. Yeah. and- That was the push. that was the tagline to it. and that's it, right? So it f- was framed publicly as athlete liberation. It's the freedom to enhance without restriction, to see what the human body is truly capable of when the rules are removed. And there was another fun thing that he was saying. I think it was him. I could be wrong, so don't quote me on this. but the other quotes that I did see was s- basically saying, these athletes are doing this anyway. They're just doing it in secret." Yeah. "So we're just gonna put it all out in the public and see what happens." And so essentially what happened is they've- Which is a pretty crappy commentary they had swimming and track, like sprint track- Yeah and weightlifting, and then they had a strongman competition that was just a deadlift. and those were like the major events. And they said, and throw whatever supplements you want at it and we're gonna be great." "And we're gonna break all of the world records." Yeah. But a lot of the athletes who are the current top, top athletes in the world said, "I pass." No, thank you. Because if you did the Enhanced Games, it's gonna be awfully hard to show up at the Olympics in a couple of years. there's a window and i- if you're a top athlete, you're getting tested on a regular basis. You would have to essentially declare that you're on drugs during this window. I don't think you could even come back for the next Olympics because- Yeah y- you would have been illegally supplementing. And so the athletes that did participate in this actually spent 12 weeks in the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, at an elite compound where they trained for the weekend's event while also working closely with doctors who essentially tailored their, quote-unquote, protocols or drug cocktails to their individual needs So they, refined all of these things over a 12-week period, and then the way that it was also, described in one of the articles that I read basically said it was essentially like you're walking through and it's "All right, what do you wanna try?" it was just like, "Here's all the drugs you can try. What do you wanna try to... What peptides?" Like, all these different things because the company behind the Enhanced Games is a supplement company. Yes. This essentially was one huge advertisement for this company. It was not a sporting event. It was a product launch because the same week as the games The Enhanced Group launched a consumer supplement and telehealth business selling performance and longevity products. Yeah, shocking. What? Then the CEO was like, "Oh, good, now people can get enhanced and be the best that they have ever been." these games were a $31 million advertisement for a supplement company. And the prize money was enormous. And so- Yeah while it didn't necessarily take the top, top athletes in the world and say, "Sure, I'll play your game and drug myself up and do these things," it did catch some of the top athletes and said, "Can we get the prize money if we stay clean?" "Can we compete clean, test as much as possible? 'Cause if I'm doing this- Yeah if I'm showing up at the Enhanced Games, I need it to be very clear that I'm not on drugs." Yeah. And most of the other athletes were athletes that had gone into retirement- in the last year, or athletes that were elite. Quote, unquote, "Past their prime." they were past their prime athletes- Yeah but they were also athletes who were absolute elite athletes, but just slightly below Olympic caliber. athletes that made it to the finals of the US Olympic trials- Yeah but didn't then make the team. so you're like you're close, but not quite there, or people who had literally retired a couple years ago. One of the big swimming names that they got was, let's see. He was The Missile. Magnussen, I think, was the name. His nickname was The Missile, and he went on, I don't know, some podcast, right after it announced that he was doing it, and he was like, "Oh, I'm gonna take all the things, and I'm gonna crush my own world record." Yeah. He, he didn't. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert, he did not. He, he finished last in his event. but he did put on, 40 pounds of pure muscle. one of the, one of the things I saw on social media was like, "He's so big you can see his back from the front." Yeah. Which is true. He was enormous. Yeah, and I think that is one of the things that this, the games really did, showcase, is the bodies of these athletes. And one person, one article that I read was essentially talking about how it was basically like gladiators walking through. Like- Yes if you look at American Gladiators back from our childhood in, the '80s, those American Gladiators, they were strong as heck, and they had They were all muscle and b- built up and- Long, flowing hair. but, how- Boobs that didn't move but how athletic were they actually, right? 'cause a lot of times, the whole premise of American Gladiators were normal, everyday people coming in and facing the gladiators, and a lot of times they won. Yes. they beat the gladiators. So just because they look a certain way doesn't mean that they're actually stronger, more athletic or superior athletically than, any of the, quote, unquote, "normal humans"- because- that competed against them when the games actually took- I loved American Gladiators. That was, like, one of my favorite shows. I know. which one did your mom have the crush on? I wanna say Nitro. Nitro, probably. Yeah. He... 'Cause Nitro was the one that had the long hair, but then he, when he came back on the remake, he cut it, right? Yeah, I think- I think he cut it. You c- he shouldn't have come back on the remake. Yeah. this, they, you could- I don't know. My mom did like the guys with the long hair. Yeah. The dark... W- whoever the guy was, it m- might've been Nitro, with the dark long hair. Yeah. It was... I just thought the show was just super fun. But I was, I was- I loved that show never cheering for the gladiators. No. Some people cheered for the gladiators 'cause they thought it was hysterical- Oh, no and, the joust where, the normal guy would just get his head knocked off. But I always thought it was hysterical when the gladiators lost. it's the best part of the game. Laser. I liked Laser. Ah, there you go. Laser was my favorite. Perfect. Yeah, it's 'cause he and I look very similar. Yes. so the games actually go down, and- It's the haircut supposedly everybody's gonna be, like, setting world records left and right, and see what the humans can actually do. it turns out everybody who was competing clean won their event. So Fred Kerley wins the men's 100. Yes, Fred Kerley. Tr- I know you're a big fan. Tristan Evelyn- especially after he did this. so he announced he was gonna participate in the enhanced games, and took a lot of heat for it. Yeah. And then had to clarify, "I'm not enhancing." Yes. "I'm just going to be there." Because the prize purse was $25 million. if you won your event, okay, y'all, this is how much money is in here. You won your event, you got $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars just for winning your event. And if you broke a world record, 'cause that was their whole goal, you got a million dollar bonus on top of that. So who wouldn't want to try this? there's a lot of people that didn't, but I can understand why Frank Curley, or Fred- Fred Fred Curley, would wanna do this- Yeah, I- as a clean athlete as a clean athlete. Heck yeah. And he had to make it very clear. the woman out of the Bahamas, Trislyn Neville, she won the 100. Hunter Armstroing won the men's 50 backstroke. Yeah. And the one world- All of them clean all of them clean. The one world record that was set is by a Greek swimmer in the 50-meter free. I'm not even gonna try to pronounce that name. You wanna try that one? Nope. Okay. Christian Christian, perfect. First name was Christian, last name G. we'll call him Christian G. and he- Kolomi- I, that G has to be, that G has to be silent. I think it's Kolomi. Excellent. he broke the world record by .07 seconds, but he also did it while wearing the, full body swimsuits that were banned back in, 2010. Yeah. And the guy whose world record he broke immediately took to social media with some comment of, "That's all you got?" Yeah. Watch what my time would be if I was wearing that suit too. Because everybody knows that suit- Yeah makes such a drastic difference. That's why the suit was banned. Possibly what they should've done with super suits about 15 years ago, but I digress. What? What? but th- that was the only world record, and it was in, the last event of the night. the people putting the event on went absolutely bonkers. There was some controversy because it's the 50-meter free. Yeah. There's so much splashing on that, there was some suggestion on social media that they stopped the clock before he hit the wall just to make sure- Oh that they could claim a world record. That's interesting. Th- they were supposed to open- with multiple world records in weightlifting. that was the whole thing. bring this guy out, have him lift a giant thing- Yeah and nothing. Bring this guy out, have him lift a giant thing, and nothing. Huge guy from the Game of Thrones was gonna lift, I don't know, 7,000 pounds. Nope, couldn't do it. it was bonkers. No one could hit their numbers. Yeah, but I think it's really important that we keep in mind that Enhanced, the company, sells personalized health treatments, including peptides, GLP-1s, testosterone injections, and other physically enhancing drugs. that is the whole point. And so they wanted to make this whole thing essentially a commercial for look at what you can do, and it failed, and I could not be happier about it, to be honest with you. It failed- It, the, Their goal failed Everybody knows, like I shouldn't say everybody, because I didn't actually even hear about this until you brought it to my attention, but Their goal failed in less, and this is gonna count for as many people that watch the game, there's a lot of people that are like, "I'm not trying to break a world record, but I'd like my body to look like that." Right And it succeeded- And that's- for that group Correct. Correct And that's also tragic Yeah. And just the fact that we're talking about this, you could argue is a success also, because now people are talking about them Yeah, that's true Yeah. So I think that it was really interesting to see, and I think that it really was a good example of the wellness industrial complex at its most transparent Because essentially what you're doing is manufacturing aspiration, "Oh, I wanna look like that," like what you just said- Yep sold as liberation. Sold as, "Oh, look what you can actually do if you don't have all of these rules and restrictions on you." It's athlete health as acceptable collateral. We don't know what is, these kinds of drugs are gonna do to these athletes long term, and a lot of them don't care. You and I have had this conversation before, too. There's a lot of athletes out there that are willing to do things that are not proven because their athletic performance means that much to them, and they're willing to accept long-term health consequences if that's what comes of it, 'cause they don't really know. What... There's a lot of people who are willing... They- they survey Olympians, "If you could take, an illegal supplement and it would guarantee a gold medal- Yeah but then you're going to die within the next 10 years, would you still do it?" And it's a majority- if I remember correctly, and that's- that's bonkers. But that's, I think, why they couldn't get that many athletes to participate in this- Yeah because it doesn't have the same glory. if you are a world-class level athlete, the $250,000 prize money, you're getting that from your sponsor. they're taking care of you if you're operating at that level. I saw a thing on a couple of swimmers who came out of retirement. It was a British couple. They came out of retirement, won three different events. Three-quarters of a million dollars to come out of retirement and swim really hard again. Yeah. And also take some supplements so that you don't get as sore the next day. I don't even think they went bonkers on the supplementation. because you could choose, basically- Yes what you did or did not take. And there are definitely some supplements out there that are illegal that make you just feel better the next day. Yeah. And I think that's probably the direction that they went in. Yeah. So what do you think all of this kind of tells us? As real world athletes, I think that what kind of things can we take away from this? number one, why do you think these athletes underperformed? I think that's a really good question, and you and I have talked about this, from various angles. we've talked, and there's a lot of things, but I think one of the big ones is that the performance-enhancing substances, they don't necessarily... They're not like a magic pill that's gonna make you better next week, and a 12-week protocol is not exactly like a standard move. And the question is, were they working with coaches who knew what these drugs were gonna do? Were they working with coaches that knew what these drugs were gonna do and enhance performance? Because- Everybody who was on them looked enhanced, but it didn't necessarily make them faster or stronger or able to swim better. Like- it- there were limitations to it. I saw somebody post online, they were like, they got really strong, but their so- their connective tissues didn't keep up. So they lost all mobility- which is really gonna be an issue in sprinting and swimming. Yeah. And is a bigger issue than most people think in power lifting. Yeah, and I'm really glad you brought that up, because I think that's one of the things that it's important for us to remember as real run- real-life runners is Sometimes your muscles get stronger, but it takes your bones and your connective tissue and other things longer. So like your body is constantly making all sorts of adaptations. A lot of times we focus on muscle, like I wanna get stronger, but getting stronger does not just mean building bigger muscles. It means y- all of your body. It's the neuromuscular connection getting stronger. It's the muscle size. It's the s- the strength of the tendons and the ligaments and all the things that are supporting that, and like you said, the mobility of those tissues also because if the those supporting tissues are not getting stronger and getting more mobile, then the size... If the size of the muscle is expanding, it's just putting everything else more on stretch. and that was, I think, one of the biggest issues with people that got so big and bulky. Yeah. Everybody in the games looked jacked, but was that the goal? they proclaimed that the goal was world records. Yeah. But then they built everybody- Was it? I... This is an excellent point. Yeah. Was it? Is they said the goal was world records. Or was it aesthetics that they wanna then sell to everybody else? Because that was the outcome. Yeah. The outcome was aesthetics and, extreme aesthetics, but then you could be like, "Oh, I'd like to look like that, and I'd like to not have to put in all the work." "So maybe if I don't take all of those supplements, I could get close to that." Yeah, and I think that, ultimately when I look at supplements, one of the things that I often think is that a lot of... Let's see. I now I- I'm like, don't wanna make this statement, 'cause it's gonna come off wrong, but we have to be careful. we'll refine it. We'll nuance it. Yeah. So basically, when people take a supplement... Now, I don't know what was in anyone's head and what people thought about when they d- were taking these supplements. But could it be possible? I'll just- I'll phrase it as a question, right? 'Cause this is the kind of the question that comes up in my head, is could it be possible that these drugs were used as a shortcut, as not a substitute for elite preparation? Because clearly all of these people were definitely preparing themselves, and th- they were definitely putting in the work. see, now here's an very interesting thing. Y- these are elite athletes. Yeah. Either they were elite athletes in recent history- or they're currently elite athletes- Yeah in, very recent history, and they're running slow times. I don't know swimming times super well. Yeah. I lived with a swimmer. I used to know what swimming times made sense and not. Yeah. I know that Kate Ledecky beats everybody. That, yeah. But, I know how fast 100 meter times are. Yeah. If you look at some of the athletes that ran in this race, they were running faster times- when they were in high school. Yeah. there were people in the, the 100-meter finals of the Enhanced Games that were putting up times that would not win state high school meets. They were putting up times that wouldn't have made it to the finals in some- Yeah in, California, Florida, and Texas. So these were not the top of the top athletes. No. they- These were top performers. They were elite performers, but they were not the best of the best. They- Like in, that are in the Olympics. They're not Olympic-caliber athletes. No, they're... What I'm saying is they were so close to Olympic-caliber athlete, but then they took all the performance enhancements and actually got slower. And got worse. there was a guy- Interesting in, in the 100 who ran, I think, a full half a second faster last track season. Interesting. he's bigger, he's stronger, he's slower. A lot slower. Yeah. did it change the preparation? Were they think- were they so focused on getting as big and strong as possible and forgot all the other stuff that goes into becoming a world-class sprinter? The foundational work, right? Because no matter what supplement you take, it, nothing is going to out... a supplement cannot take the place of the foundational work. That's why it's called a supplement. And I think that's one of the big things that we have to always remember as real-life runners, is that we are looking at a culture that is filled with performance enhancers. The, there's all of the different powders and peptides and injectables now and pills and all sorts of things that we can take that are freely available to us as, quote-unquote, "normal humans on the planet." Sure. And we have to be careful that we're not looking to those things to try to take the place of the foundational work. We still have to build that foundation, and then those other things, if you choose to explore them, are used only as a supplement and not as something that's going to take the place of anything else. Yeah. You make a very good point. I won a marathon. No one drug tested me afterwards. Yeah. I could've had whatever. I didn't, 'cause I don't really see the point of that, and I don't want the negative consequences of any of these things. Yeah. But I think that there is, there'd be a natural tendency if you start... Especially 'cause these things aren't cheap. If you're like, if I'm paying for all these supplementations-" That should take the place of some of the work. Yeah. And I think that's an issue on two things. One, it can't take the place of the foundation. There's going to be holes in your foundation that the supplements can't fill. Yeah. They can only take you further than your body's already gone. They can... You have to build this base, and then you can jump from there with the supplements, whether legal or illegal supplements, whatever it is. But for us, as real life runners, it's all, they're all legal supplements. I could inject testosterone. I could put in human growth hormone. Yeah. No one's testing to see if I'm on EPO- like at the, at a, at the local 5K. Yeah. w- Fourth of July fi- Firecracker 5K. No one's checking. But it loses out on like why we're doing it, I think. Yeah. I'm not doing it to see what I can do while I'm on all these things. The point to me, the beauty of running, is seeing what your body can do. Not what your body and, a truckload of EPO can do. Yeah. So I think we have to be careful, and I'm not saying that any of these athletes did it, because I have no idea about what their preparation actually looked like. But we have to be careful that, a- and ask the question, did any of them shortcut some of the work? Did they not prepare the same way because they thought that these drugs were gonna do some of that for them? we don't know, and as runners ourselves, we have to make sure that we're not doing that. we have to make sure that we are still putting in the foundational work. And are there some supplements out there that... you ha- brought up one, a supplement, earlier that improves recovery, helps you feel better the next day. there are things out there, the, those IV companies, you know- Sure that you can go to, one of those th- places and get an IV put in. That's gonna make you feel a lot better the next day, because it's gonna replace a lot of the things that your body lost. you shouted adaptogens earlier. Yeah. And there's some varying evidence on this, but there's all sorts of stuff that if you get a supplement that you know that the stuff is actually in it- that it's third-party tested, one, it's pricey, but there- are supplements that will help you recover. There is stuff that people can use, all sorts of stuff, that is legal. the amount of kids... I was at the regional track meet, and kids were talking about using sodium bicarbonate. that's legal- Yeah 'cause it's literally just baking soda. But now that, these companies have figured out how to sell it- how to package it so that it doesn't give you the same GI issues, that you run really fast to the bathroom- Yeah that, high school kids are taking this. It's expensive. But is it worth it if you can pop it for a race and have a finishing kick because it doesn't burn in your legs as much? Yeah. Like- Maybe they're saying yes. Yeah, maybe it is. and only, those people are the only people that can make that determination. But I think that we have to be careful, looking at spending money on carbon-plated shoes before building a base that can actually take advantage of them. Oh, that's a very good point. Taking creatine, collagen, magnesium, adaptogens while sleeping five hours a night. It's probably not going to be doing much for you. could y- d- is it gonna make you feel a little bit better? Maybe, but guess what's gonna make you feel even more better? A sixth hour of sleep. Yeah. And that's free Tracking HRV religiously while skipping strength training for six months. you're focusing on the wrong things. Like buying that $400 GPS watch to analyze your splits while running the same pace on every single run, not, is go- it's not gonna help you. I think that's, like people are so focused on, what pace do I have to run this at?" And it's does it actually feel easy? Yeah. it doesn't matter what your speed work, like your hard workout of that week, it does not matter what your splits are if you are running the rest of your runs at a moderate pace and not actually recovering from that hard run. Because your body does not get better and your body does not adapt during the hard stuff. It adapts during recovery. And if you never actually give your body enough recovery, you're not gaining the benefits of that hard training. So it doesn't matter if you ran your split at eight-minute pace or 7:50. Yeah, no. And, and- Your GPS watch is also probably not as, as accurate as you're giving it credit for. Of course. The HRV tracking is not as accurate as you're giving it credit for. And none of these things are bad. Like, all of these things can be genuinely useful. some of them, like carbon-plated shoes, they do improve running economy. I really think I could PR in a marathon with, a $400 shoe. Yeah. But like HRV tracking, creatine has solid research. It's one of the most researched supplements out there on the market. There is good research behind creatine. Yeah, there is. But when they become the strategy instead of the supplement to a strong foundation and to your overall strategy, that's when we ha- end up, that's when we ha- have problems. I like your taking creatine compared to sleeping five hours a night because creatine is well-researched. Yes. if you're supplementing on something, that's a valid one. Yeah. There's some good solid research behind that. There is. You know where there is phenomenal research also? Sleep. Sleep. Yeah. Sleep is one of those things that no matter what study I've ever looked at- Now, if you guys f- can find a study- Oh, this is good that you have found that doesn't follow this trend, please let me know. But any study that I've ever seen, no matter what it is that they're measuring, show when you get enough sleep, your performance improves, or whatever metric they're measuring. Whatever metric they're measuring. Whatever. It doesn't even matter what it is. if you get enough, if you increase the amount of sleep you get, up to a point, right? I don't think... I don't know if there's much of a difference between, 10 hours of sleep and 11 hours of sleep, right? Because at some point you're gonna get enough sleep of what your body actually needs, but the difference between five hours of sleep and six hours of sleep is huge. Yeah. The difference between six and seven, huge, right? So there, there are those things that sleep is free and sleep is the one of the most important things that you can do for your body to im- improve how you feel and how you perform. Yeah. So that, that I think is a good comparison. HRV tracking, I got super excited when my watch started reading it. Yeah. And then my issue with HRV is two people could both be phenomenal athletes and one person could get an HRV reading of, 85, and the other one can get an HRV reading of 40, and it doesn't seem to have a whole lot of- Of direction of what kind of athlete they are. What kind of performance they're gonna have that day. Yeah. The consistency of week over week of that number being stable seems to have some reliability, but honestly, just overnight resting heart rate. Yeah. Or to even go beyond that, just when you wake up, do you feel good? How do you feel? Seems to be, like I think that's gonna track better than, certainly better than HRV. Yeah. And possibly even better than resting heart rate, which if you c- tune into your body, I bet your overnight resting heart rate and how you feel do line up. Whereas HRV seems to bounce a little bit more. Yeah. And I also love the idea of just tuning into your body and checking in and asking yourself, "How do I feel today?" Because so many people are not doing that. They're looking at the external device to tell them how they feel that day, and they're making decisions based off of some number that is on their wrist or on some app on their phone. Yes. And that is where I think we become more problematic. So a couple more points that we wanna make before we wrap up the episode today. Start to be aware. be a conscious and aware consumer because all of these social media apps have tons of ads now. And even the ones that don't look like ads are often ads that are telling you that your recovery is subop- optimal, and here's the supplement to fix it. Or the influencer that tells you that women over 40 have completely different physiologies and need a special protocol, and then conveniently sells that protocol. I talk a lot here on the podcast and in social media about how our needs as women over 40 start to change and start to shift, but all of the basics are the same, right? I'm here to bring you back to basics. That's part of what our program does, is making sure that you are hitting those foundational pieces. And it is unsexy, but I'm not gonna lie to you and just try to get your money. But there's a lot of people out there that will. There's a lot of people that will put, creatine in a pink bottle and tell you it's now creatine for women. Or it's creatine for women in perimenopause, right? Yep. it's... And charge more money for it. Oh, of course they do. not just put it in there. Okay, fine. Put it in a pink bottle, whatever. But then they're gonna charge one and a half times the price for it. Yes. That's not okay, that, there's a female tax that people start to refer to, just because they're taking things, and then they're just making them branded and marketed towards women and charging more money for them. and they slap a label on the outside that says, "Specially designed for women." Yeah. And that phrase means nothing. That phrase means, "We put it in a pink bottle. That's designed for women." Yeah. that's what it means. It doesn't mean they changed what the actual stuff inside of it is. Yeah. That's the bonkers part. When I say that our program is designed for women, it's both men and women. And also, I help to educate women on what is going on in their bodies based on the hormone shifts and the hormone changes that are happening, and what does that mean for our training? And the TLDR, too long, didn't read, shortcut, answer is you just have to pay attention to things more now. The things, your choices just matter a lot more now because you don't have the hormones backing you up. So your recovery matters more. your n- nutrition matters more. But all of the principles, your progressive overload matters more. Like, all of these things, the making sure your easy runs are actually easy matters more. But- The, all those principles are the same when you're 60, when you're 40, and when you're 20. those are all always still the best training principles. It just matters more when you're over 40 and you go through perimenopause and post-menopause because you don't have the same hormone support backing you up. Yeah, that's the thing, is you could get away with, a sub- it's funny, you could use optimal... a sub-optimal training program easier- Yeah in your 20s because your bo- 'Cause your body was more resilient your body was more resilient. Yeah. Your body was more easily adaptable. Now, but the same way that I would train someone in 50s or 60s, I would train somebody in their 20s. You can just add more load to people in their 20s- You can add more load because their body can handle it. You can add more load faster. Yeah. Because- Yeah, 'cause there, there's not as much rec- recovery in between sessions needed. Yes. Yeah. That, that is- That's the biggest piece. I think that's the biggest change that I had- Yeah in my own training, is I need extra days to recover between- hard sessions. Yeah. And then there has to be... We have to talk about this. I know we're coming up on an hour with this episode. I t- I told you guys to strap in at the beginning of the episode because you knew there was gonna be some rants coming. but I think that one of the reasons, in my opinion, that the clean athletes, the non-enhanced athletes did tend to win, those events, those sprint events and the swimming events, I think that there is a mental aspect to this that can never be short-cutted of knowing that you are the, you put in that work. There's something that performance-enhancing drugs cannot give you, that no supplement, device, optimization tool can replicate, and it's that mental strength and the confidence that you build from having done the hard work. It's the confidence knowing that you showed up when it was hard. It's the strength that, that gets you through, mile 22 of the marathon. Or, these were, these guys were sprinters, but, it's a very short period of time, but there's, you're going all out for that entire period of time. Yeah. 100-meter sprint is all out, and it is easy... I shouldn't say easy 'cause I'm not a, an elite level 100-meter sprinter. You're not? No, not yet. Oh, okay. wait till I'm 80 When I'm playing, in the Masters. Perfect. Yeah. but anyway, there is a certain level of mental strength that allows you to put your body to that point, to go all the way in, and you can't fake that. you can't track it. You can't optimize it. You can't supplement it. You have to earn that through the process. Yeah, no, the process helps, and people are suggesting there's supplements out there. I We're a little too late in the podcast to say this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. People suggest maybe ketones are gonna enhance your mental ability- as you get tired. Yeah. And it's possible, but that's still a big gray area right now. Also, that one's legal, so that one kind of falls in the category of, sodium bicarb- or some of these other supplements. It's expensive, and we're not exactly sure if it works, but it seems like possibly. but if you're an elite athlete, like I know that there are several elite marathoners that talk about using ketones. Yep. I've seen Sarah Hall talk about it. I've seen Des Linden talk about it, like people that I follow that I very much respect that talk about using these things. But when you're at that level and you're really trying to squeeze out the, some, drops of performance, because these women, and I'm sure there's men using them too, but these are the ones that I've seen, ha- have already- taken their body to these levels for year, for decades, And, do they work? Maybe. M- do they get benefit? They think so. they think enough of those things to advertise for them. and they don't have to pay for them because they're- That's very true professional athletes that just get given these things. So they're not... A- as long as they're not harmful, and as long as they're legal- then why would you not try it? They don't even have to pay for them. They're getting paid for them. That's true. that's the- That's true. They're getting paid to use them. Like- Yeah and that's the thing, and that's what you have to remember is- You always have to remember that all the professional athletes that are telling you that this is the supplement. "I used to take this, but oh man, this is the supplement," what were they doing last week? You know who I'm seeing all over the media now with ads? Who do you got? Shawn Johnson. Okay. The a- the former gymnast. Yeah. I'm seeing her all over my Instagram for various companies now. I'm gonna say that is not the same feed I have. Yeah. But that's not surprising. But she's on one of my things. She's doing, an ad for, a women's wellness company. it's blood testing that you then send in and then get a Zoom call with a doctor. And then I've also seen her for, a nutrition company. So she's on here advertising for these companies as well. And that's the thing, is when you get these ads, and it's often supplements, but it's related here. If you got a, an athlete that's telling you, "This is the greatest shoe ever. I used to run in shoes, and I've never had a shoe like this," that's because the company that you last week were getting paid for dropped you as an athlete- Yeah and now you have a new one. So whatever shoe you have on your foot is the greatest shoe ever. But when they get to race time, are they wearing that company's shoe on their foot? In every training run, are they actually wearing that company's shoe on their foot, or do they go off on runs with generic shoe with all the branding taken off because that company actually doesn't have the best shoe? Because there are plenty of athletes out there that are telling you Company A is the greatest company, but when it comes time that the literal rubber meets the road, they put on Companies B's shoes and take off all the branding on the outside because it's a better product. Yeah. So when pro athletes out there are like, "This is the supplement," that means that's company is paying them money, not necessarily that they are even using that product. Yeah. So just be careful. a big goal of this episode is to help you be a more educated consumer and to be a little bit more skeptical, I think. and I don't know if I e- even wanna say that because I feel like there's plenty of skepticism in the world today. But always just remember that the tools- But like it's our job to help put those tools in their proper place, and that is after the foundation and not instead of it. So foundation first, optimization second, maybe even third, fourth, or fifth, right? Are the basics in place? Am I sleeping enough? Am I fueling well? Am I training progressively? Am I recovering intentionally? And am I strength training consistently? Those are the bases. Those are the b- the big five that you have to pay attention to. And then if the answer is yes, if you give yourself... I had my, members do this on our workshop today. Like we went through these five areas, and I had them score themselves on a scale of one to five, how well are you doing in these areas? And if you're not giving yourself a five, then look at those areas that are the lower numbers and look at those things first. what are we gonna start addressing first? Because that's where you need to start to really help to fortify and build up that foundation. Yeah, and then another one is use all these metrics as a data point, not the decision for you. Yes. You get to make the decision. This just is data that helps you make the decision. And watch the emotion that you have around it too. Yeah. that one slides to the next one. Is your emotion, i- when you get a metric, does it immediately cause you anxiety? do you get super excited when it's on the number, the side that you want, and super stressed out if it's on the side that you don't want? Yeah. It might be time to stop looking at that metric for a little bit. I'm glad that you just pointed out, do you get super excited, because I think that's really important too. there's people like, "Oh no, it doesn't stress me out." But if you get really happy and excited- that your number is super high today, then that still means that you're giving it too much weight. Yes. It, it's- You do have anxiety around it, even if you don't realize it. Yes. It's just giving you some positive numbers recently- and you're getting excited about it, but that means that you're letting that data control some emotions. So just be aware, w- look for these times and these things and these ads that are preying on this idea that your body is not enough as it is. But we've got something to sell you to make it all better and to fix you for only $79.99. just start to be aware of these things and start to question them and start to understand that the supplement is not going to do you much good to optimize things if you're missing in the foundational areas. So always focus your attention on those main foundations: sleep, fueling, progressive training, strength, and recovery. Those are the unglamorous, un-monetizable basics that actually works. And I say un-monetizable, but, that's really what the Oura Ring is built around, is, checking out your sleep, right? Just- But also, how do you feel when you get up, right? Are you getting enough sleep? How is your sleep quality? Do you stay asleep during the night? If not, that's where we wanna look, and it doesn't mean that melatonin is the answer, right? So we have to be careful of our, human need to always try to find a Band-Aid and a fix. I thought magnesium was the answer. No, it's a brain dump before bed. I'm telling you guys. that was one of the best tools you can do before bed, is have a journal next to your bed and just write down all of the thoughts that are flying through your head. Just get them all on a paper. I ga- have given that one simple habit to so many of my clients, and they come back and they're like, "I haven't- I can't believe it. The last three nights I've slept through the night and I haven't woken up once." That's a fantastic tool. 'Cause it's just- It's the best, and it's, again, cheap. maybe it's an $8 journal from Target, but it's so- it's- and it's such a good way to look at your brain. But anyway, we're not gonna go too deep into all of that anymore because we are, over an hour now. So back to basics. Yeah. And your body is enough. Yes. I think that- I think let's leave that as a good one also. Your body is amazing. And if you're not sure, that's why we have the Real Life Runners team. That's why we do this podcast. We do this podcast for free every week to help you see these things and hopefully start to think more critically and figure out how these things do apply to you and what is actually gonna be beneficial to you. And if you want coaching and support and scientific-backed information, we have all of that inside the Running Reconnected program, which you can get when you join the membership. So if you're interested in coaching, in no BS, no-nonsense coaching that helps you see those gaps and help you- helps you figure out how to start to fill those foundational gaps and then get you to a point where you can improve performance and op- start to optimize things, head over to realliferunners.com/team to check out all the information there. If you have any questions, just shoot us a message and we are happy to help. Thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing this episode. If you found it helpful, share it on social media or share it with a friend. And as always, this has been the Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 464. Now get out there and run your life.