Dolly Parton represented the best of us. She was enormously ambitious. But instead of being consumed by that success, she turned it outward toward family, community, literacy, health, jobs, and people who needed help. “I just see a need and if I can fill it, then I will.” She's a case study in choosing status based on prestige instead of dominance. In a world of me, me, me, she looked at how she could make a difference. She became beloved not just because she could sing or act, but because of what she gave back, to the difference she made. For such a talented person, she gained admiration by giving back. You can see it in her book program. "Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done.” Her dad couldn't read or write. So in his honor, she's given away over 300 million books for kids to read. It's right there in her "Buddy Program." When she saw that the high school dropout rate was over 30% in her home county, she put together a program where 7th and 8th graders picked a buddy. And if they both graduated high school, they got $500. The dropout rate fell to 6%. It was pure genius, it took an individual problem and transformed it into: We're responsible for getting each other to the finish line. “It’s always nice to be recognized for what you do, although that’s not why you do it.” She embodied mastery. It's the acknowledgment that external success is fine, but it can never be the reason you do the work. That's got to be something far greater. Dolly is the perfect representation of what it actually means to strive for and reach success. She was a both/and. Ferociously ambitious AND generous. Business-savvy AND compassionate. Competitive enough to protect her work AND secure enough to share attention. Massively famous AND rooted in where she came from. Dolly Parton's life is an example of what greatness really looks like: Work your ass off at something you care about. Strive, but out of a place of mastery Bring others along with you. Know what matter to you and protect it. Be yourself and go all the way. And once you have enough power to help… Help lift everyone else up. Or as Parton put it, "Figure out who you want to be and be that person on purpose." Prestige is given through skill and contribution. Dolly earned every bit of it. We lost a legend of a person today.

Kerr was incredible consistent in splits. Over the final 900m every 100m split was between 13.67 and 13.88. Last 300 were all 13.71, 13.68, 13.67 I know he’s got pace lights. But to hold that without pacers for past 600 is insane. He also came through 1500 in 3:27.6

He called his shot! And backed it up. Said he wanted one of the hardest world records on the books, that's stood for 27 years. Josh Kerr 3:42.66, new mile world record. In front of the home crowd. Pushing it from 600 out. What a performance! Incredible.

A lot have asked what you do about the altitude if your England...Finally, a soccer question in my area of expertise! Here's what I'd do if I were England. First, the impact at 7k feet is real and significant. You can see it in the soccer data, total distance covered and high speed running drop significantly. 3-9% for the former, 10-15% for later. The higher the altitude, the bigger the effect. The less acclimated, the bigger the effect. At 7k feet VO2max would drop about 10-13%. We saw this in track performances at the 1968 Olympics. And performance drops about 5-6% depending on race distance. Jim Ryun ran lights out in the 1500, but ended up second to Kenya's Keino because he was better at altitude. So what do we do? 1. Acclimate...if you had more time this would be the key. You train at altitude, maybe even use altitude tents, etc. But it takes time... About a 3 week acclimatization cuts the VO2max/performance drop in half as your physiology adapts. One study on track athletes showed it took 19 days to fully acclimate. England doesn't have that time. 2. Arrival time The research points to two different approaches: compete as soon as possible (within ~24 hours) after arrival. Why? You compete before poor sleep and plasma-volume loss sets in. Generally, plasma shifts starts right after arrival but reach the level that impairs endurance capacity by about 24 hours and increase from there before leveling off. Or you arrive 5+ days before and hope to acclimate. While it varies for each individual, generally 1-3 days after arrival, performance sucks as your body is adapting to the drastic change. But...fly in/out is also risky as it involves travel, sleep disturbance, etc. close to the match. So in their situation, it's all about tradeoffs. Altitude is a massive stressor. Everything from blood to respiration is put under stress to adapt. So you've got this dip before adaptation. You can lessen that dip being acclimated. But who knows what England did. Honestly, depending on travel, I would have flown straight from the last game to altitude. Buy yourself as close to 5 days as possible. And if possible maybe even somewhere like 5k feet within driving distance. No idea on planning, but if I didn't acclimate. That's what I'd likely do. I'd avoid the coming in 2 days before. Worst tradeoff. So what do you do now? 1. Hydration and plasma volume. Altitude drives respiratory water loss and diuresis, and plasma volume decreases acutely. Hydration strategies can blunt this. Folks have even tried manipulating high sodium intake to help sh9ift plasma volume 2. Fuel with carbohydrate. We generally will burn more carbs at higher altitude. Make sure you are fueled up. AND use fueling strategies mid-game more like an elite endurance athlete. Something like maurten's gels would work well. 3. Bicarb it up. Altitude is going to harm aerobic abilities. All those sprints and high speed running will build up more fatigue. The new sodicum bicarbonate is a must here. I'd load up if I were England. Plus, altitude tends to lower blood bicarb. Also,, it tends to help more for folks who aren't fully acclimated. 4. Protect sleep. Disrupted sleep is a major part of it. So do everything you can to help get a good nights sleep. Limits screen time, blue light blockers, all the stuff. 5. Tactics and pacing. You've got to adjust. Mexico will be adapted. You won't. Learning how to pace better and time your runs will be key. If you try to do the same thing as always, you will be screwed. 6. Beet Root juice. It can boost endurance performance. Works better on non-elite endurance athletes. Which would honestly be a lot of these soccer guys. And altitude can impair the natural turning of nitrite into nitric oxide, so theoretically beet root juice would help even more at altitude. Though, you'd hoped to test it, or else you could be peeing red stuff that might scare folks, ha. 7. Caffeine. Not altitude specific, but boosts endurance performance. A well timed dose to peak in the 2nd half would be helpful. 8. Heat adaptation. Where England may have benefited from playing in the US is that heat addaptation (and its boost in plasma volume) can help with altitude. So even if they aren't altitude adapted, the heat wave in the US may have helped them. There you go. The science of altitude adaptation for performing. Hopefully, England is prepared! And if not, maybe they see this post and start downing the bicarb, maurten, beet root, and caffeine. Ha -Steve

Almost all of trackflation is caused by: 1. Shoes 2. Bicarb Why? We see improvements from sprints to distance. And at every level from youth to HS to college to pro. For training, it’s improved. The average coach is better. But it’s not the main thing.

FYI: I started a YouTube channel No script, no notes. Just me talking into a camera. Why this format? In a world where it's easy to appear knowledgable through polish & AI, I want you to see it's just a real guy, riffing with earned knowledge Find it at: SteveMagness

The one 'workout' that is often used by runners that is almost never mentioned in the health space: strides. It's simple. It's not hard. Just adding 6 to 10 x 15 seconds at a faster but controlled pace to the end of your run can make a big difference.

After I took a break from running and started back up, my watch now told me I was severely overtraining every single day for weeks on end...even though I was running only 4-5 miles easy. Know when to completely ignore the algorithm.

A 17 year old just won the world indoor championship in the 800. Cooper Lutkenhaus is unreal. I’ve run out of superlatives. What a freaking run, like a savvy veteran taking command and responding to all changers from the front.