Go to Part 3
Go to Part 1
JESSE: I think accountability plays into it a lot, too. Like you're talking about to begin with, I don't have near the motivation I did several years ago to train, but we're still training essentially I'll say at the same kind of intensity. I'm focused more on the shorter distance races now, but it's like, have that accountability where I get on training peaks ?? 00:23> email and you said, you like, like with a bike workout from this week, what was it, six times four minutes on, three minutes off, you said 280 to 300 watts. And if you had just said, high threshold, I probably would have been maybe 270. And then like, that's good enough; 270 to 275. But you were like 280 to 300. So, it's like, that feeds into my kind of, I've always had, I don’t know if it’s a need for approval, but I've always done well with somebody's saying jump and I say how high and you say five meters. And I say, I'll give you five and a half. I don't quite understand. You know, I don't know that I understand all my own motivations, but I know that I respond well to that. So, having that accountability is like crucial for me in terms of still continuing to move forward. And I know like with the run this morning, where kind of working on, starting to work into 10K speed. You know, we've done a couple other workouts where I just felt like crap, starting with the speed stuff, but it's like our initial things and then this morning, like felt much better. Legs are moving a lot smoother at higher pace, lungs aren't working as hard, and I just feel good moving fast. ?? 01:49> distances. It's like I like feeling good going fast. RYAN: Yeah, and for you basically what we've done in the last couple of weeks is coming from kind of general to more specific because the event which you-- It's not canceled yet, is it? JESSE: Kansas City? RYAN: Yeah. JESSE: It's postponed. RYAN: It is postponed. Until when? JESSE: Didn't say. RYAN: Didn’t say. Well, you're gonna have to go through that whole process now. What's gonna be next then-- JESSE: Well, I'm just gonna do poorly ‘cause like the last, I don't know, ever since they introduced the elite amateur wave I've done poorly. The year I was dealing with like my dad had cancer and I was like doing chores for him all that week and I was totally zonked out. Last year I had the flat tire the first four minutes into the bike. It's just consistently terrible, so I don't really care about the race. It's just a scrub race to me like-- RYAN: Yeah, and now this. Well, one thing with you is as you mentioned, you're not training quite as much as you used to. JESSE: Right, I’m not going out for five hour rides on Sunday with a half hour run afterwards. RYAN: Yeah, and we're replaying, with not being able to swim, you've replaced that with some kind of chill time, which I have no problem with. But you can, relative to your history you have no risk. And one thing we should talk about is the risk of overtraining and hard workouts right now. Because I've thought about that, with athletes I work with is how hard should you be working right now. And I think we should get into that because I think that's important. But for you, I mean, with what you're doing, you're not depleting your immune system with what you're doing because your history has had such higher periods of higher workload, that your body is not gonna like go into immune system depletion because of what you're doing now. But you can maintain a really nice quality of those workouts and hitting those types of targets. JESSE: Well, I get feedback too when we work hard and work through a new period. I get feedback in terms of I just get zonked, I'm tired. I start feeling like I need to take naps. I don't want to work. I have other work around the house to do like stripping paint off doors and like doing hard work. RYAN: Oh, I didn't know you did that kind of stuff. I need to get you over here. Okay. JESSE: Yeah, I've got a whole like, ?? 04:35> lead on-- the lead paint in my house. So, I'm stripping like the door behind me here is dark because I've stripped it and refinished it and stained it. It was this like tannish color that the trim is but there's lead paint at the bottom. So, I've got all my PPE, the facemask and the suit, and I've got a tech set up in the garage and I've got ?? 04:59> attached to sanders and all kinds of stuff to-- So, for those listening, I live in a 1930s Tudor, and I'm trying to restore it to more original condition. Because-- RYAN: ?? 05:10> JESSE: Yeah, so old house so it's got old house problems. But so I try to devote time to doing that like with the sanding because I work out. I say, okay, I can only be in the tent sanding an hour a day. Like if I go longer than that, I'll get too exhausted. And if I don't want to put that hour in, I know I probably am just either like right now in this transitory period where we're trying to work into higher energy expenditure, or we're doing higher in this move from base to build phase. And/or I'm just overtraining. So, I get that feedback pretty easily. But you and I talked about those things; how do I feel and all that kind of stuff pretty often. Not everybody has that. So, if you don't have that, that's where coaches are invaluable. RYAN: Yep, I know. I totally agree. So, for you, with Kansas City being canceled, have you thought about for you how that affects things season-wise? JESSE: No, I mean, not really. Kansas City doesn't really affect my fitness so to speak. I still don't have a June race so I'm hoping it will be possible to have the race in June. I don't want it to be in July because I like the race in Joplin and I think I'm gonna possibly get some product for swag bags for that race this year. And the nationals in August. So, really, I'm just like, yeah, maybe they'll postpone it a month and if not like it's fine. Like I said, I like training more than I like racing. So, if I don't race, then I mean, it is what it is and we'll race whenever we can race and maybe-- that's tough too because we’ve got vacation plan. But you know maybe we'll push the season farther into September, October and do some cross country races, some open races that I can get in, race with collegiate guys or who knows. Overall, I'm not really worried about it because there's no, for me, and this is something I struggled with and gotten to the point that I just accept that it doesn't matter. There's no point anymore. I'm not trying to qualify for anything, I'm not trying to become a professional. I'm just doing it because I want to. So, if it doesn't happen, like I still like training, whatever. I mentioned this to my high school coach the other day, he posted something on Facebook. And I said, I race because I train. I don't train to race. The racing is just a by-product of my desire to train. And I hope that-- RYAN: I like that. I like that. JESSE: Yeah, I hope people can find joy in training in and of itself. And I talked about this-- RYAN: Yeah. ?? 08:12> Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about when I said I asked people, would you do the race-- Would you do the training if there was no races because you find out if they have that type of-- that joy and they're not just doing it just to race, that there's more to it, there's a passion for the sport as well. And so I think hopefully with a lot of people that that will come out in people as they go through this rough period right now that we're in it. JESSE: In some ways, I think it forces people into living with their own minds. They can't go out and do things to distract themselves as much as they normally would. So, then it's a matter of like, I know there's a lot of restlessness and there's a lot of fervor is not the right word, hatred isn't the right word either. People are not happy with things and wealthy people and landlords and all these kinds of things right now. Yeah. RYAN: Everyone has their own, you know, and a lot of it comes back to jobs and what's going on with your career that you're in. I think that is probably-- that probably overshadows everything and obviously, it should. So, yeah, I mean, it all trickle, kind of trickles down from there. What’s going on with me financially and with my career and my job and my position and everything. JESSE: Yeah, and this is really topical right now. But I had shared the post you made the other day on your CPA Facebook page talking about the stimulus package, and your thoughts on that with somebody who-- So, I have friends on both sides of the aisle. So, I get kind of the outsides of both the left and the right in my Facebook feed. And I tend to argue with everyone. So, I had one friend talking about basically, that landlords are leeches. And I was like, that doesn't even make sense. I'm sure there are some landlords that are leeches, absolutely. But just as a generalization that doesn’t make sense and I explained why. But then I also on the other side, had somebody say, well, why don't we don't send out checks, we'll just say, no income tax for the rest of the year so that people that are working get benefits and freeloaders don't. And I was like, well, that clearly oversimplifies the issue of unemployment right now and everybody being laid off because of all the situation of the economy being stalled and employers laying people off and then having no job. So, it's like they didn't get fired for something they did. They got fired or laid off as a consequence of something completely outside of their control. So, it’s like that's the point of a social safety net. So, I was like I disagree with both of these positions. So, I kind of wanted to ask you if you mind sharing for the record, kind of your thoughts on, your take with the stimulus, and why it hurts so much to agree with Bernie. RYAN: Well, here's my thing, okay. So, and I don't come from one side of the aisle or another. I have voted for both sides and I plan to vote for both sides in the future. I kind of wish we did not have a two-party system, but that's a completely different subject. So, just professionally speaking on the stimulus, I would say, I don't agree with the checks that are going out and I'll tell you why. There are fortunately some people in this world, some people in the United States who are ?? 11:59> not going to be affected by what's going on. And I'll be honest with you, I will tell you that in my scenario for me personally, I don't see my family, God bless being affected financially by this. So, the fact that they're sending me a stimulus check, it's just like a big gift. I mean, I don't have-- it's not going to go towards anything essential. I'm going to be able to meet my essential needs, and there's going to be a lot of people like me. So, a big chunk of the two and a half trillion is going to go to people who don't have an immediate need right now who aren't affected by it, fortunately. So, I think there's just some unnecessary spending right now. Now, for those who do need it, I think that's great that they're getting it. But I think we will be better off spending our money on unemployment because the people who lose their jobs or lose hours within their jobs are the people who need the help the most. And they're going to need a lot more than whatever the stimulus check is. Because the stimulus check, if you're using it to meet essential needs is only going to be like, how long is that going to be? I mean-- JESSE: In some cases, $1,200, that may cover a month's rent and maybe change. RYAN: That’s great. But unemployment covers you much more, covers you much longer. So, my thing was fill up the unemployment system as much as possible and do this through unemployment and make sure people are absolutely whole with what they lost from their previous position, and that we make sure that it's funded well enough that the unemployment lasts longer than it typically might have. So, everyone who's losing-- I just think the money should have gone into that. I mean, two and a half trillion, I think that it would have been better off going into that. Also, I think that you know, part of being able to maintain your employment is that your employer can pay you and has money to do that. There's a lot of money going into-- There's a lot of money that's gonna go into the hands of small business owners relatively efficiently and quickly. So, they say, and we'll see how that actually plays out. But that helps businesses obviously keep their doors, small to medium-sized businesses keep their doors open. I totally agree with that. I get that. You gotta keep the doors of the businesses open. So, I'm glad that that's in there. A big business, I don't think anyone says oh, I'd like bailouts. I don't think anyone wants to see them happen. JESSE: Aside from the businesses themselves. RYAN: Yeah, I mean, but again, it comes down to the workers and to the average middle class and below worker who's at these jobs and if-- the airline is the big one, the airline and the restaurants are the big ones and there's so many middle to lower-income workers who we need to keep them whole. And through bailouts I agree that those, unfortunately, need to happen for them. So, I’m glad that that's happening as well. But I think if you were to take the economic stimulus checks out of the mix, you got a package-- One thing I think about is, is where are we at 5, 15, 25 years from now on this and our debt and what's passed along? I mean, it's a ridiculous amount of money. And yes, we have to do it because we cannot go into a depression right now. We cannot go into a depression because if we go into depression-- The left side of the aisle says, we gotta put all this into healthcare because if people aren't healthy, it's not gonna matter what the economy is like. And then the people on the right say, well, if the economy is not stable, we can't help the people on the left because the healthcare system will collapse. And you know what, they're both right. They're going hand in hand. I think what's harder to understand is that you do have to have a stable economy in order to help get people healthy. I think that one is harder to understand and to comprehend and for a lot of people to get a grasp on. But just think about it. I mean, if we're in a depression, I mean, if you have the coronavirus, and you have underlying health conditions, and we're in a depression, I mean, you're already not in a real good place to begin with. If we're in a depression, I mean, your ability to get health care is going to be substantially cut. So, you do gotta have to balance between we've got to keep the economy going, but we also do obviously need to fix this virus issue at the same time. So, I think the stimulus package is really good for the most part in doing this. Hopefully, it gets passed. It's my understanding that’s there’s, it's going to be delayed a little bit because apparently there's a rogue congressman who's going to force a vote rather than a-- he's gonna force a roll call vote, which means a lot of politicians are going to have to head back to Washington now. To where previously they were just going to do it on a voice vote in the House of Representatives. So, it's going to be delayed but it is going to pass and it is going to help the economy. I think the market’s still gonna struggle for a while, the stock market’s still going to struggle for a while until the virus is under control. People are not going to be ?? 17:31>. You know, it's just hard to be confident right now in this scenario with what's going on. We had a bump in the economy when the bill passed the Senate. So, we got back some of our losses, but I think in general, I think we're gonna-- I think the stock market's going to be, it's gonna stay down for a while. I'm pretty confident that that's the case. JESSE: Yeah, well, some people would argue that we were overinflated anyway. So, I have to back up a little bit, thinking about bailouts or big business. I'll be the first to say that thinking about 2008 and bailouts for automakers and the banks, for a long time, I was definitely a proponent of let them fail. Like that's capitalism like, you didn't prepare and you go bankrupt, you stop existing. That's how it works. So, I think people have struggled with that. But then my staunchly democratic father was like you will you have to bail them out because you need people to have jobs. ‘Cause if you lose all those jobs, then you make things worse. So, it's like it's a balance, but I also think about, and I think you mentioned this in your post specifically now with the bailouts that, and I don't think there is in the stimulus package, there should have been some provision about inability for corporations to use money on buybacks for a certain period of time. You know, it's just like that's part of the reason that they're in trouble is they used their cash reserves for stock buybacks, which inflated their stock price and help shareholders, but then worsens the health of the company. You know, they're obviously, especially when you're talking about such large numbers that like an airline runs, the businesses I run are nano-sized in comparison. But so you, as an investor, you're a stockholder, you always want capital to be invested in making more capital instead of sitting on the sidelines. But you also need. Like I feel like there has to be some accountability and responsibility for bad choices, especially when you're-- in our economy and our culture, we're proposing essentially capitalistic society with some socialistic fail safes. Just like there has to be punishment for bad actions at some point, or restrictions. Because otherwise, then it is just a matter of, we'll do whatever we want. And we're big enough, the government will bail us out if we screw up. And you can bank on that as a business strategy, which is not right. RYAN: Yeah. Well, the bill has it, it has oversight. JESSE: Yeah, it has some oversight. I was glad that it had it as far as I know, oversight for like, any of Trump's businesses can't benefit. I think any of the Congress members, family them personally can't benefit from the stimulus. I think that's more than reasonable, which actually leads me to a different question. And this takes us back in history, and I'm going to be a little fuzzy on the details. But I know, so like Carter had to divide-- he put his farm in, what was it, was it a blind trust or a double blind trust? RYAN: Oh, gosh, I'm not sure on that one. JESSE: Anyway, so he basically had to give up control of his business when he became president and whoever was in control of it, screwed it up and he basically lost it after he stopped being president. So, I don't understand, now we're getting political, but I don't understand why Trump doesn't have to divest himself of his business interests to be president like Carter had to. So, I just didn't know if you knew more about that. RYAN: So, it's my understanding he wasn't required to divest. But I think he had to reduce some of his ownership and he obviously doesn't have the same type of roles that he used to. But I think there was some divesting done down to certain like percentages of liquidity and things like that. So, I do think that he had to reduce some. But for the most part, I think he's still, yeah, he still has ownership. But obviously he's not-- he can't be doing like management type stuff. I mean-- JESSE: right there's just too much ?? 22:13> RYAN: ...possible. Go to Part 3 Go to Part 1