We celebrated a wild year with a "No Secrets" Q+A episode! This one is full of fascinating topics, mixing science, theory, and hot takes into the perfect holiday stew.

The questions all came from podcast listeners on the following topics: how to think about gut training, Zone 2 heart rate and how terrible some online calculators are for athletes of all levels, our favorite speed workouts to gauge progress over time, incorporating cross training into long-term growth, specific guidelines for cross training like cadence and effort, adapting and performing at altitude, consistency during the holidays and why it's ok to take downtime, supershoes and ankle stability, how we think about running cadence and form, Kilian's tempo-after-intervals workout, and our current thinking on the 2025 Western States 100.

It's such a gift to record this podcast each week. Thank you all for everything, and happy holidays! You are the most special goats to us.

Always thinking of Kilian,

-David and Megan

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We bowed down to the power of hot mugwort before this amazing episode! The main topic was on a study that may be the long-lost "missing link" in our training theory. It took 12 elite endurance runners and had them do sprints of 100 meters and 400 meters, along with a VO2 max test. Their findings (and one striking non-finding) may connect studies on speed interventions with real-world implications.

We also answered listener questions in the "no secrets" style! The most hairy question was on a topic that people don't talk about too much in public: supplements. We say what we take and why we take it, with a million disclaimers because we're cool like that.

And this one was full of the best topics! Other topics: takeaways from Strava's Year in Sport, why an experience this week may influence how we think about training theory, the cost of the Western States 100, year-end voting, how fueling and hydration are letting people race more, AI use cases for athletes, our thoughts on cold plunges, a framework for mental toughness, nose strips in poker, the evolution of shoes, and Listener Corner.

In the episode, we talk about a video we saw where champion triathlete Lionel Sanders had his treadmill directly in front of a photo of one of his competitors celebrating a victory. We're inspired. So if you hear some extra motivation in our voices, it's probably because we put a photo of the Smartless guys in front of the mic in our bedroom.

We love you all! HUZZAH!

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We collected some wonderful questions before this great episode! It's our classic "no secrets" style, where we take you behind the scenes to combine research and theory with what athletes are actually doing, but maybe not talking about.

We started with a new study on maintaining heat acclimation, which helps answer questions on how to improve blood volume year-round in a sustainable way. Then it was onto the questions!

Topics of the questions: sodium bicarbonate and ketone use, the difference between big dreams and excessively big dreams, speed development for long races, our possibly-surprising take on speed versus volume, how bicarb supplementation changes sodium intake, our experience with topical bicarb lotions, preventing cramping, why hill strides may feel harder than flat strides (and how that's connected to their value), the recovery cost of strides, our approach to self-massage for recovery, the potential benefits of hot yoga, and more!

We love... the 2005 movie "Hitch" starring Will Smith and Kevin James. And we love you all! HUZZAH!

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