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RYAN: You know, but make no mistake, there are a lot of people in Washington who are involved with businesses, a lot. And so it almost creates like, do you really want to say that a politician-- I mean, because a lot of, you know, again, not to go one side or the other. But there's some brilliant people in the business world who we need more of them in Washington and we don't want to take away that they have to get out of their business. Because let's face it, it's a massive pay cut for most of them, and if they ?? 00:39> work in Washington. So, we don't want to take away that ability in my opinion of a business owner to have to divest their business because it could take away from their motivation to go to Washington and we ?? 00:51>. JESSE: Right. So, you kinda see the argument both ways where it's like, you don't want them to go to Washington and try to make a legislation that positively benefits them or maybe deregulate our industry, and it makes them able to exploit an industry. But at the same time, you don't want people that have-- my dad talks about this with teaching. You don't want people making rules, in this case about business that have no idea what business is about. In my father's case, he always talked about politicians, in Jeff City legislating about teaching when they've never taught. RYAN: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And it's the same thing. I absolutely agree with that. I absolutely agree. JESSE: Yeah, and maybe that's the stick of the whole thing is that you have to find a balance. And that's the ugly part about politics is finding that balance and arguing to find it. RYAN: Yeah. And here's one other thing about this stimulus thing that bothers a lot of people is there still a bunch of crap in the bill. A bunch of stuff completely unrelated to the coronavirus situation. I mean, there's like, like the Kennedy library thing and all that. I mean, it's just like-- So, there was the house's initial bill ?? 02:22> want to get into too much name calling, but let's just be real here. Nancy Pelosi created a bill and it was like 6 trillion because of all the stuff that got added. And there was like this laundry list of things you would read like wind energy, and trust me, I’m for wind energy. I mean, we're in Kansas. I think when energy is awesome, but there's a time and a place to address certain situations. So, this was just definitely not the time or the place. So, part of our two and a half trillion is unrelated to Coronavirus, but I think I saw that-- I don't know I think this bill would probably have been better off closer to a trillion to trillion and a half just lining up, like I said, lining the coffers of the unemployment system. The only downside of lining the coffers of the unemployment system is that unemployment is sort of people who we don't know. Like, if you file for unemployment, you go through the state agency. So, like here, if you become unemployed, you contact the State of Kansas Department of Labor, and they have an unemployment office and you apply for unemployment, and then they do their due diligence, and they see how much you made. They pull your employee records because your employer files and unemployment tax return every quarter that has your name on it. So, they go through all that. Well, that whole process would have failed without this bill. Or excuse me, that whole process would fail if we had the type of unemployment we are headed towards. Because the state of employment, they're not ready to handle the onslaught of applications that would be coming. So, that's why it's so important that we also have the aspect of the small businesses being able to keep their doors open. And because a lot of people are like, why do we need to give them money, any money to business? Well, we got to have the businesses open, they've got to be able to maintain and ongoing-- because we don't want people ultimately going into the unemployment system, even if the coffers are ligned because we could overwhelm that system. And we talked about this curve on the healthcare situation. Well, we got a curve with unemployment, too. But they can only handle so much work. So, it's a well-balanced bill in that regard. I’ll probably need to be closer to a trillion and a half, just focusing on my opinion more on unemployment, and the things that keep the unemployment going, which is the small businesses and the big businesses, even though we have to bail them out, which I understand. I wasn't-- When it came to the 08 buyouts that you mentioned, I mean, you had to bail out the banks. I don't think there was a question about that. You get into more arguments about the auto industry because a lot of people don't realize this, but we have three automakers in the United States, three major automakers; GM, Ford, Chrysler. Ford didn't take any buyout money because they were well positioned. And so you have to ask the question as well hold on a second. What's going on that two of the automakers are crying for bailouts and one isn't? What's going on here? It's not-- it can't be an industry problem if one of the three is sitting pretty. What's going on with the other two? And we ?? 05:40> did the bailouts because there's a lot of workers and stuff. You do have to ask the question though, wait a minute. I mean, this can't be an industry only problem if one of the three is good to go. So, that one was a little more debatable to me. JESSE: Yeah, yeah. Well, there’s so much involved too. This is like, I feel like it's a false dichotomy of like, you only give money to businesses or only give money to citizens. It's like, well, we're in an interconnected web and businesses-- I'll say businesses are people. I don't mean the legal entity as a person, even though that's a whole other issue. But just that businesses are a collection of people that provide goods and services. Like if those people assuming we're not to the point of complete automation, if those people stopped existing, the business ceases to exist. So, I think that's what we forget sometimes that businesses are people doing things under the umbrella of a brand name or some kind of registered entity that represents them. RYAN: Well, yeah. And what you have is with the small to medium-sized businesses you get into-- those are driven completely by the entrepreneurial spirit of some individuals, a small group of individuals who have their gift is their entrepreneurial spirit and their skill set in regards to being a successful entrepreneur. And so that's at the thrusts of small to medium-sized businesses as well, and we gotta keep that going and help them keep their doors open as well. So, it trickles down to the employees. And what we didn't talk about also is the bill that passed the week before with the expanded FMLA and the paid leave. Again, we're supporting both the business, small business, and the employers, those are the ones they get directly affected by the virus and how them or their family might be affected. So, again, money there is being pumped into the backbone of employment, essentially. JESSE: Yeah, yeah. RYAN: And giving the employers that kicked back, if they pay someone who can't work for a period of time. JESSE: Yeah. Especially back all the way up back to the beginning of our conversation, but it all kind of comes together. Thinking about, the current situation is obviously very stressful both in terms of people that are affected financially and just being cooped up in your house. I always say Amy and I have trained for this because we work at home and we're basically cooped up together all the time anyway. So, life hasn't changed a whole lot for us aside from no family dinners on Sundays and no getting out of the house on the weekend pretty much. So, there's a lot of stress involved in you know, I've seen people mentioned things like it's okay right now to not be at like peak performance, either job-wise or fitness-wise in terms of your workouts. So, based on seeing the athletes you work with over the years how does family life stress affect training load and what can you do about it? Or can you think about it? RYAN: Oh, you definitely can. I think now it's a, and that's a great question. You know, a couple things come to mind is, I think society in general, and I hate to say this, but I'm like any more than that I noticed kind of this through social media and such. I think we're doing a really good job of exercising more right now. I think, in general, for the average person, not the average endurance athlete. I'm talking to the average non-endurance athlete, right. I think that person is getting outside more. I think they're moving around more because they realize how important it is right now. One thing we need to ask ourselves whether you're that person or one of us as endurance athletes, you have a choice. You can come out of this, whether it's 30 days or 90 days, there's going to be a point where which we can go back to normal. And do you want to be more fit or less fit? I mean that’s kind of the bottom line. And do you want to reduce your stress more or increase your stress more? And so I think the exercise has a huge role to play in that. Like the example I gave you a little while ago. We loaded up the family, went on an hour bike ride type thing. So, this is one of those unique opportunities to do a little bit more of this exercise with the family. I've watched my kids, you know, got them doing their little kid boot camps and ?? 10:40>, and they're doing their burpees and their mountain climbers and running sprints up and down the street, social distancing, of course. I think this is a huge opportunity to learn how important it is to reduce stress on the body by doing exercise, not training as aggressively maybe if you're one of those people who shouldn't be training as aggressively. And there are definitely some of those that I think we should talk about those as well. So, yeah, I mean, I think this is-- I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it on social media. I'm seeing it when I just go to the park how many people are there and they're moving around and some of them are observing social distancing ?? 11:23> some are not. But it is nice to see so many people I’m blown away who are out doing things. The gym I go to for-- that I do go to a lot of strength training, I teach some strength classes there as well. They're doing a lot of smaller to midsize gyms are doing and they're doing online classes. And I wondered how well those would be attended. And I've learned in observing through the live feeds and stuff is people are into them, people are doing it. People are maintaining that and they're into it. So, I think in general, I think society is from an exercise standpoint and using that to reduce stress and to spend more time with people that they're close to, I think we're responding really well so far. JESSE: Yeah, you kind of mentioned this is like this is an opportunity to exercise more. I can see. RYAN: It could be, it could be. JESSE: Well, it could be but I was like, I just in general like anytime there is a disruption, and it could be coronavirus, or it could be in my case, breaking your clavicle or whatever it is, whenever there's a disruption to your normal everyday life I try-- I don't always succeed, but I try to look at it as an opportunity. What does this time and disruption afford me the ability to do or try that I wouldn't normally and I’ve been meaning to get to? We all have our regular routines and we, like around here, we get up, we start work at probably seven in the morning, I go work out at nine. It's pretty routine day to day. In the evening, we eat dinner, 6:00, 6:30, sometimes 7:00, watch a little TV, bedtime, read a little bit, go to sleep, do it all over again. And then now it's like, okay, we can't go anywhere on the weekend. So, now the weekends are here, one of the things we've been meaning to do that we've been putting off because ?? 13:35> going out and that we can do now whether it's working on the house or spending more time together, whatever. Do what? RYAN: What is my new normal is kind of what we have to ask ourselves. And what that entails a lot in regards to this is how has my schedule changed? How are my responsibility because now those of us if you got kids, kids are home 24/7. And that changes everything. So, what is my new norm? What's the new schedule like? How is my job affected? Am I working at home now? So, there is an adjustment period for getting that figured out, figuring out my new norm. But then I think people are doing that. I know that we're doing it around here. And like you said, I think you find your new norm and I don't mean to sound like the tough guy coach, but at some point, if you're crying about it, you gotta stop crying about it. And again, think about again, we're going to come out of this at some point, do I want to be more fit or less fit when that day comes as I move towards the next thing in my endurance athlete life. What we also have to think about though is our immunity ?? 14:55> our immune systems. And I'll give you a really good example. I have an older lady who's she's beyond Master's years. She's a little bit older female athlete training for Ironman, an Ironman that has not yet been postponed at this point. Her son-in-law or they may just be engaged, I'm not quite sure, has an underlying health condition. So, I called her up about 10 days ago. And I asked I said how do you feel about this from the standpoint of you with your workload, you're going to be breaking down your immune system. And at the time, this was someone who worked in an office setting without people around. I said are you sure about this? I mean, are we sure with where we're at, you know. And she walked away from the conversation as she said she had thought about it. She thought about her son-in-law, or her daughter's boyfriend and his heart condition and didn't want to bring anything to him because you could be asymptomatic, but have it and all that. And she came back and said well, my office is now shut down. So, I'm gonna train for one more week and I'm gonna take care of myself really well during that week, and then we'll revisit it and kind of see where everything's at. But I think everyone has to do that. You have to consider am I stretching my system out beyond my history? Am I working harder than I ever have to where my immune system is definitely going to be suppressed temporarily? Do I live with other people? Am I still working around other people? To what extent do I have to help other people? Another athlete I coach, training for Dirty Kanza 200 father has cancer and COPD, a lung condition. And she flat out told me she still has to see him because she still has to take things to him. So, she shut it down. She made the decision she's gonna still train, but he's not going to do an event or workouts that are beyond what's gonna tear down her immune system temporarily. So, everyone has to make that a very, very important decision as well. So, you're going through that, you got to look at it, we come back to frequency, the age-old adage; frequency, intensity, and durations of workouts and how they might affect the immune system. And you got to remember one thing else from a medical standpoint is you cannot, there's a lot-- you hear a lot about oh, bolster your immune system, with this or by doing this and there's actually no such thing if you ask the doctor, there's no such thing as bolstering an immune system. Your immune system can return to its quality given state, based upon what you feed it with, what kind of your lifestyle, your environment, and everything. If your immune system is in tip-top shape, you can't make it better. But as an athlete, you can break it down and you can break it down temporarily to where it doesn't come back super quick depending upon what you're doing with your workouts, your sleep, your nutrition, your environment. So, you have to really think about all those things. I mean, if you've never done an Ironman before, and you're in the thrust of Ironman training, and you're going where you've never gone before, and you have people you live with, I think you've got to think twice about-- And I don't think it's a lifeline that you are 100% quarantined and working at home all of a sudden. I don't think that necessarily makes it better. Because again, people can be-- You still gotta go to the grocery store. I mean, you're still gonna have to get gas in your car. There's still going to be opportunities and I think that athletes do have to think about are your goals appropriate training for that Ironman right now if you are going to put yourself or others at risk. JESSE: Yeah, yeah. Well, like you said, the trick here is that as we learn more about it, there are asymptomatic carriers where it's like you don't even know that you have it or bringing it to people and that is the whole crux of social distancing or keeping away from people is that they could be caring or you could be caring and spreading a disease which we have no as far as I'm aware, we don't have any kind of, what's the word? Our immune system isn't built to fight at all. RYAN: ?? 19:45> novel. JESSE: ...contagious. Yeah. RYAN: Novel. The word is novel. Yeah. So, that's why they call it the novel virus is we don't have any previous exposures. So, yeah, I mean, it's and I would ask any endurance athlete who's training for something to think real hard. Is the training for this particular race, are you stretching yourself out to where it's going to compromise your immune system type thing? JESSE: Yeah. Yeah. So, coach as we’re running out of time here or my typical timeframe. I'm sure we will probably be talking more. But what I'm asking everybody this year, last year, I asked you about food. My question this year, which we already kind of touched on is what do you think the purpose of sport is? RYAN: Well, I could go on about this one forever, because I have actually, I've been thinking about this. And when you say sport, I'm assuming you mean sports in general like running, basketball, Water Polo, lacrosse, it could be anything? JESSE: Any form of what you might consider competitive physical activity. RYAN: Yeah. Okay. So, what is that role? I think sport has a very important role that we need to embrace. And I won't be cliche and say all the stuff that most people would say, oh, it teaches kids about competitiveness, it keeps you in shape, it gives you a hobby, an outlet. We know all that kinds of stuff. And all that stuff is very important. And I like to say that everybody needs to have their thing. Everybody needs to have their thing. And if sport is your thing, you need to have that, yes, I do agree. The thought that's been in my mind a lot lately is I have two kids 10 and six now, and they're both in sports. And they look like they'll be kids that'll be pretty good at sports growing up and that kind of thing. But I see the level to which youth sports are at and what parents are doing with youth in sports. And I say the word commitment, but I don't even think the word commitment really scratches the surface. I think what I see in a lot of youth sports right now is overcommitment. And sometimes I see it and I’m just like what we do with our kids. And I do wonder about the lesson that we're teaching them. It is not uncommon. My daughter has friends who will be in four sports in one season. And they will spend a Saturday going from one to the next to the next. And the time, the money and I think about the time they spend what is the opportunity cost of the time spent on some sports, especially with youth. And you could get into it a little bit with adults well, especially with endurance athletes. Should we suit an endurance athlete who's 35 years old with a spouse and a child or two train 30 hours a week? I mean, because you definitely see it. And so I do-- I think sports have a very important role because everyone needs to have their thing. For many reasons, as we talked about before and we know about. But I also wonder, is sports in our society overcommitted right now with some of the approaches that are taken? And I want-- And at times, I've wanted to go on a soapbox about youth sports and what you know, and I played sports growing up. And I played basketball and baseball a lot. I did the cycling thing. But I don't ever remember it being like what it is now. And why is a nine-year-old traveling across the country to play in a competitive tournament and is that athlete going to be injured, burnout, ?? 24:04> motivation by the time they're 14? And I see this and I'm just like, I don't know. So, I think sports again, everyone needs to have their thing. Fitness, stress relief, a hobby, an outlet. For example, I think one of the huge challenges with this coronavirus thing now is following sports is a huge outlet for a lot of people. NCAA basketball tournament for me is killer. I mean, if we had that to fall back on and to be able to watch and enjoy, I think that's a huge loss in our society right now and sports has that important role. I do think though, that we're over-committed in a lot of areas, especially with the youth. But I definitely miss a lot of those sports right now. You know, opening day for baseball was supposed to be yesterday, I think it was. And I think having those things taken away from our society, hopefully, that's just more encouragement for people to get out and exercise to blow off some of that stress. So, I go both ways, I guess right now. Like I said I’ve seen a lot of things and I’m seeing a lot of things in eSports right now that I'm just-- I wonder about our commitment level and what it will do to our children right now. But sports has a huge place in our lives. JESSE: Yeah, yeah. I guess we'll end there because we could probably go on for who knows how long. Coach, if people want to get in touch with you, if they need a CPA, where can they find you nowadays? RYAN: How about my email address? JESSE: Okay. RYAN: That's a great place and then ?? 26:01> my business has a Facebook page I like to post on every once in a while. So, we can definitely share my email address. Would you like for me to give that now? JESSE: Yeah, you can give it and then so if you're on YouTube, these things will be on the screen. I will try to include it in the description for anybody listening on Soundcloud or iTunes if you want to get in touch with Ryan. So, go ahead and get it out loud. RYAN: Yeah, it's RYNLROSSCPA, that's RyanLRossCPA, and then it's at gmail.com. JESSE: Good deal. All right, coach. I'm sure I'll have you back on for Episode 100. Maybe before then, we'll see because I know there's so many things for us to talk about. But thanks for spending some time with me today. RYAN: Yeah. ?? 26:54> We'll talk soon. JESSE: All right. Go to Part 1 Go to Part 2
