S03E117 Asbury Park Summer Games 2023 Recap Guests David Lancellotti Christine Roeder

Imagine the thrill, the sweat, the exhilaration of competing at the two day CrossFit event that is the Asbury Park Summer Games 2023 (@asburyparksummergames). This episode isn't just about the competition, it's about the journey embarked on by our everyday athlete guest stars, David Lancelotti @davelance4 and Christine Roeder @christineroeder1 from CrossFit Bison, along with the 32 additional Bison athletes who competed. Who says competition is only for the professionals?

Dave and Christine share with coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic why even though their regular lives were extremely busy, they decided to put the hard work, planning, and necessary life adjustments that led to their remarkable participation and performances at Asbury Park.

The essence of teamwork can't be understated. Our guests discuss the unique team environment of the competition and how it stimulated them to break barriers and improve their daily performances at the gym. We also delve into the mental aspects of the competition – the anxiety, the resilience, and the post-game adrenaline rush.

The athletes drew inspiration from each other, exceeded beyond their expectations, and shared valuable improvements made to the warm-up area to the competition floor and beyond. The episode wraps up with a profound reflection on post-competition experiences, underscoring the importance of community, and how seemingly minor steps can make a big difference. So, are you ready to explore the local competitive world within CrossFit and step into the realm of personal growth and discovery?

@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness

00:00:05 Experiences at Asbury Park Summer Games

00:11:47 Asbury Park CrossFit Competition and Training

00:23:26 Team Dynamics and Performance in Sports

00:30:20 Anxiety and Resilience in CrossFit Competitions

00:39:50 Asbury Park Summer Games

00:50:07 Reflecting on Post-Competition Experiences

S03E117 Asbury Park Summer Games 2023 Recap Guests David Lancellotti Christine Roeder

[00:00:13] David Lancelotti: All. Welcome back to the Herd

[00:00:15] David Syvertsen: Podcast. I'm Coach David Sarason. I'm here with my co-host, Dr. And coach Sam Re, and we have a double dip guest list for you today. Thank you so much to Dave Lance Lotti and Christine Rader, not rotor, and for taking a break from your autograph session, um, outside the lobby.

Just lines of people waiting to get your advice and selfies with you guys after your performance at the Asbury Park. Summer Games 2023.

[00:00:42] David Lancelotti: That is why we had

[00:00:43] David Syvertsen: on. They both competed last weekend. On a serious level, it was, I had a blast watching them and 34 athletes from bison compete. Um, they're all kind of just like heroes in my mind for all different ways.

Um, really impressive performance physically, mentally, emotionally, for all of them. And these two, I think have an interesting side to them. I was watching them all weekend, all of our athletes, and I'm trying to think, it, it's, I could

[00:01:07] David Lancelotti: have had any of them on

[00:01:08] David Syvertsen: to come on.

[00:01:09] Sam Rhee: absolutely.

[00:01:10] David Lancelotti: And

um,

[00:01:10] David Syvertsen: um, Because there's a lot of stories behind the CrossFit athletes that competed, the bison athletes that competed.

I think about Steve Ramirez when he started here. He couldn't do a knee raise because of how bad his back was. He was in physical therapy for multiple years for a serious back injury, and now he's competing for at a two day comp, doing deadlifts and TOA bar and all this stuff. Skier growing. Um, we have other athletes that podiums.

One of 'em is sitting at this table. We'll get to that in a second. Um,

[00:01:39] Sam Rhee: her name is not Rotor

[00:01:40] David Syvertsen: And,

[00:01:41] David Lancelotti: but, and we also have people that competed

[00:01:43] David Syvertsen: for the first time. We have people that used to compete years ago that kind of brought themselves back. It was just there, there's a story behind every athlete that competes there.

There's a story behind every single workout I feel that way about CrossFit in general every day. I could give you a story about someone at our gym, um, and in, in a particular workout. And I think there's a lot of to, of good to get outta these two in relation to their experience at Asbury Park Summer games, um, that a lot of you guys can get something out of.

You could apply it to your CrossFit life, competing life, life outside of the gym even. And, uh, you know, we, we will get these guys to open up about some of, like their emotions leading up to the competition that I think can help you guys

[00:02:19] David Lancelotti: out. But

[00:02:20] David Syvertsen: and Dave, thank you so much for coming on and, and blocking, uh, an hour out for us.

[00:02:24] David Lancelotti: Thank you for having us, Dave. Our,

[00:02:26] David Syvertsen: er All right.

[00:02:27] David Lancelotti: I promise, um, opening thoughts, Sam,

[00:02:30] David Syvertsen: before I get to them

[00:02:31] David Lancelotti: on

[00:02:31] David Syvertsen: the Asbury Park Summer games and these two

guys.

[00:02:33] Sam Rhee: I, I was away that weekend. I was, uh, with my daughter, but I have to say, I watched and heard of everything and it was almost like, um, I loved listening to people's thoughts afterwards.

You know, I, we met a lot of people la uh, yesterday and I was talking to them. I said, what did you think about the Asbury Park? And I got a lot of feedback from everybody after about a week's worth of reflection, and overwhelmingly I felt people were changed. I literally could see their minds working after the games and be like, Something happened at these games.

These are not the same people that came in the week before when I saw them. And that is the kind of change that I love to see. I love to see that I wasn't there. I could see what, what made them better, just afterwards.

[00:03:19] David Syvertsen: Christine, opening thoughts on just, and again, we're gonna get specific, but just your opening thoughts on the experience itself and what it did to you.

[00:03:27] David Lancelotti: Um, so

[00:03:28] Christine Roeder: I

just wanna quickly backtrack. Sam, you probably don't even remember this, but, um, I think it was in June and you,

[00:03:35] Sam Rhee: you,

[00:03:36] Christine Roeder: it was after 6:00 AM and you were like, oh, I heard you signed up for Asbury. And I was like, yes, I'm signed up. I'm very nervous. And you're like, who's your team? And I was like, it's Amy and Kelly, like in my mind, two of the fittest people I know.

And I was like, yeah. So not sure how I landed on that team, but I'm very excited. And you said to me, you're like, you know what, Christine? It takes three legs for a stool to stand and when one of those legs is missing, the stool can't stand. And that resonated with me. I felt like, um, I. You know

what, I'm gonna give it my all and my all will be good enough.

And I'm just as much a part of the team. And so I was like, I'm gonna do this. And I feel like it's something you said you probably don't even remember, but it kind of like stuck with me. And overall I had the best weekend

ever.

[00:04:26] David Syvertsen: Awesome. Great opening words, Dave openings the words on

[00:04:29] David Lancelotti: I I think pivoting off of that, I think that most people think a situation like this isn't for them.

And I think until you actually put yourself out there and put yourself in it, you don't really realize what you're capable of. Um, and it, I, I wanna echo what Christine just said. Uh, I told someone who my team was, and without going into specifics, there were some comments about, oh, well what division are you going to be in?

Or How is this person gonna perform or that person gonna perform until you actually put yourself in a situation like this. And I'm gonna go, I'm gonna get specific later. There was a member of my team who performed well above and beyond what anyone thought they were capable of, and they'd never known that if they didn't put themself in this particular situation.

And so that goes to what Sam, we were just saying about being slightly changed. You do something like this, you come out of it, it's like your mindset can never go back to where it was before you tried.

[00:05:17] David Syvertsen: And I

think what a lot of people can relate to these two sitting up here right now, they're not pro CrossFitters.

They have careers in Christina's four

kids.

[00:05:26] Christine Roeder: sorry, what?

[00:05:27] David Lancelotti: I'm sorry Dave. Do you have us confused with someone else?

[00:05:31] David Syvertsen: You know when I

[00:05:32] David Lancelotti: say that,

[00:05:33] David Syvertsen: know,

[00:05:33] David Lancelotti: between

[00:05:33] Christine Roeder: between

[00:05:34] David Lancelotti: job

[00:05:35] David Syvertsen: four kids, It, it's, it's almost impossible to put everything you can into training for something like this. And I think that's a fallback. That's a reason why many see something like this, and they're like, it's not for me.

I have too much going on. I'm too busy. These two are very busy as well. I know them personally. Trust me. They're very busy. They don't have time for this either. But you know, we just got done talking about our social media episode last week, and Dave and I had a little conversation about it. You do have time and you don't need to sacrifice your entire life to sign up for something like this.

I mean, looking at the crowd that competed down there, you know, it, it was a lot of normal people. You know, especially when you start getting to some masters competing, you know, you, you almost go into the assumption that no one's in the gym four hours a day. We don't have the ability and you don't need to to experience like that.

So instead of creating excuses to. Not do something like this. I, I think that, you know, putting yourself out there is step one and trust me that it, that's the easiest part is really just getting your name signed up and then from there now you know, you'll find a way to get it done. Let's talk about Asbury itself before we get into their experience individually.

Um, this started in 2017. It was actually teams of two and one of us at this table, if I remember correctly, actually podium

at the first ever

Asbury Park Summer games.

[00:06:54] Sam Rhee: old history.

[00:06:55] David Syvertsen: you know,

[00:06:55] David Lancelotti: I was going

[00:06:56] David Syvertsen: through some pictures, uh, my database of pictures last night looking for some old Asbury stuff. And, um, a few of us competed.

Dan Mina and Merrick actually won the scale division. Um, Aaron and I competed

[00:07:08] David Lancelotti: I love that. Yeah.

[00:07:08] David Syvertsen: uh, Dallas, I think I was with Dallas and he got hurt. So Alan was, Aaron was the last second fill in. We had a blast together. You competed with Steve Rice. I know there's a few others. I, I couldn't find the right pictures, but Sam, do you, what were your me memories of that opening experience at Asbury Park Summer Games 2017?

[00:07:25] Christine Roeder: Uh,

[00:07:26] Sam Rhee: it would, it definitely changed me as one of the bigger competitions I did when was starting out. And I was like, you guys, like, I, you know, just, I think Dave has, it was funny, I was talking to someone yesterday who's pretty new at the gym, they say, your gym, what, what we really like is it pushes people to try to be competitive.

It's not like you're forcing down people's throat, but you know, you realize the value of even ordinary athletes. Being put in a competitive setting. And where I started. I said, well, I'm a pretty ordinary athlete, but I will try, I got paired with Steve Rice and I think it was one of those, uh, David and Goliath type things, like he's a big guy, great lifter.

Uh, I was more of a like, energy kind of motory kind of person. And so we, we paired really well together and, um, I, the biggest memory I have, and Stevie is like, He's my partner for life. I still see him like, I'll be like,

[00:08:23] David Lancelotti: partner, like,

[00:08:25] Sam Rhee: like we'll always be partners, uh, no matter what. And that was really special.

But we finished and we were really psyched 'cause uh, we were I think in third and then they said, Hey, there's another playoff wad that everyone has to do.

[00:08:37] David Lancelotti: Like a surprise. Yeah.

[00:08:38] Christine Roeder: Oh. Like

[00:08:39] David Lancelotti: don't

[00:08:39] Sam Rhee: think they told us.

[00:08:40] David Lancelotti: that picture wasn't the podium? No. So what happened was

[00:08:43] Sam Rhee: Stevie was ready, he had his cooler and he was like, like about to pop a beer.

And he was like, what? He's like, no. Like was exhausted. I was exhausted. He was wheeling his cooler out and I was dude, let's just, let's just stay and do this. And when found out it was pull-ups, he started running faster out the door. And said, no, no, no, no, let's just try it. So we did it and we eked out third place, which uh, I'm very proud of.

'cause there were some really awesome athletes at the time. And, uh, It was, it was amazing. And the group that all, we all hung out afterwards. Yeah. At um,

[00:09:18] David Lancelotti: uh, Sue Walsh.

[00:09:18] Sam Rhee: Yeah. Sue Walsh's house. And like, all like borderline rhabdo, like really messed up and just like, wow, this was special. Like, I'll never forget that.

And that's the kind of thing that these comms kind of do for you, you know?

[00:09:31] David Syvertsen: Right. I mean, take the competitive side out of it. I mean, in, in relation to what you said, you know, our gym pushes people to compete. It's not necessarily just signing up for competitions, but I do feel this way, if you're not doing CrossFit for reps or for time, you're not really doing CrossFit. You know, like if you're doing thrusters and pull-ups just to do thrusters and pull-ups, you're, you're, that's a workout, but you're not doing CrossFit unless you're doing it for time. Miserable. Yes. And, um, you know, what, what's, and, and a competition is like, it is, it's the highest intensity level of putting yourself against the clock and for reps.

So that's just another way to think about it. If you've, you know, I,

[00:10:03] David Lancelotti: I actually

[00:10:04] David Syvertsen: tell people, if you're in a lull, you're in a rutt. You feel like you're not that motivated, you sign up for a comp.

it's

[00:10:10] David Lancelotti: act, you know, you don't

[00:10:10] David Syvertsen: wait until you're motivated to sign up for the comp. And that, that's why

[00:10:13] David Lancelotti: I do think

[00:10:14] David Syvertsen: our, our, you know, our gym has such a presence.

We had the most people,

[00:10:18] David Lancelotti: bison

[00:10:18] David Syvertsen: had the most athletes signed up from one particular gym at Asbury Park Summer games. And that's, it's part of our culture, you know, and it's, again, it's not full-time athletes that are making the games. It's just we like to push

[00:10:29] David Lancelotti: And I, if I could jump in, I don't think that just signing up for a competition, I don't think it's always, the goal is to be first, second, or third, right?

Oh, for sure. I don't know that podium is always how we should be measuring the results at a comp, because I saw things that happened just this past weekend at other comps since I started. I'm relatively new to the competition type, you know, side of CrossFit, right? And Sam, you're right, it was this gym that kind of pushed me towards doing that.

I've always been competitive. I've always had that itch playing team sports my entire life. But I think I'm also very social. And I think this scratches both of those itches at the exact same time. You cannot duplicate the 50 or 60 people we had sitting under the tents over this past weekend. You bond with those people in a way, and the people who come to watch taking time outta their day, not competing, but taking time away from their family and friends and lives to come support us and watch us.

When I, when we measure success, I'm not a hundred percent sure. It's always related to podium in something like this. I saw things like I said over this past weekend that someone would've had no idea they could do and they did. So I think your measure of success is different for every person. Right. And I think 35 bison athletes last week all succeeded in a different way.

[00:11:36] David Syvertsen: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tho those are great words, Dave.

Thanks. And

[00:11:40] David Lancelotti: so

[00:11:41] David Syvertsen: 2017 Asbury starts. They did it right? They did it huge. It was in the Asbury Park Convention Center, is that, it was called Convention Hall

[00:11:47] David Lancelotti: I think so. Yeah.

[00:11:48] David Syvertsen: Lights, stadiums, arena seat seating, uh, seating.

[00:11:52] David Lancelotti: We got gypped,

[00:11:52] David Syvertsen: You know, it was just

[00:11:54] David Lancelotti: right away.

We didn't

[00:11:54] Christine Roeder: the grass.

I did

[00:11:55] David Lancelotti: said, I think we're getting

the crash

[00:11:57] Christine Roeder: You didn't like the porta-potties because that was, you never

[00:12:00] David Lancelotti: go in a day two porta-potty. Never the highlight

[00:12:02] Christine Roeder: of

[00:12:02] David Lancelotti: the weekend. You know, I, I

[00:12:04] David Syvertsen: to Grant about the fact that we're gonna record this, and I said, we'll give positive and negative feedback. He's like, he's a gym owner. Cross it by the sea down the shore, and.

[00:12:10] David Lancelotti: Like anyone, they, they did, they

[00:12:12] David Syvertsen: crushed it, in my opinion. Like I have so many good things to say about them, but no

[00:12:16] David Lancelotti: matter what, you're gonna have

[00:12:17] David Syvertsen: that you wanna fix for next year and we can get into some of that stuff.

But this started off as they went, really, they went all in on this right away. They didn't like start at their local gym and try to build it up just a little bit. And I really think the next year you had names like Chandler Smith. Christian Harris, Joe Piero, Tim Carroll, Ian Berger, mayor, Meg Reardon, Christine Best, they had multiple games athletes at this thing.

And then they became a sanctional, you know, back when CrossFit was having a lot of movement at the top. And they started taking away regionals and they started making sanctional around the world that you go to that comp, and if you win it, top three, whatever, you go to the games. Asbury was one of them.

And then Covid hit and it really kind of put a speed bump slash stop sign into the competition itself. But Grant and Ashley Golan, they, they really, you know, and I know they've had some help from others, a lot of the volunteers, but they really been the engineers behind that whole thing. And they took it from something that they just took a major chance on to something that's probably the premier East Coast outdoor co, uh, CrossFit competition.

Uh, outside of the

games.

[00:13:21] Sam Rhee: think Lauren Kil was there covering it. Was she

[00:13:23] David Lancelotti: Yeah, yeah.

Yep,

[00:13:23] David Syvertsen: was. So it's really becoming, I think it's only gonna get better now that the pandemic's in the rear view mirror and. They weren't, they had to do everything outside this year because of there was an issue with the building.

I believe so. I believe that they'll probably have a dual floor at some point. Something outside, something inside. So I, I think it's just a beginning for those guys. I, I think it's gonna continue to get better and better. Um, so Christine, Dave,

[00:13:47] David Lancelotti: what

[00:13:47] David Syvertsen: training like for this? I want people to know this.

Like, were you guys coming in three days a week just practicing the wads? Were you practicing certain movements? Um, you know, Dave I know is, is very strategic. You know, he likes to eng reverse engineer everything, um, to get the most out of himself and his teammates. And he likes the communication factor.

He is very good at it too. And I saw them here at Open Gym a lot. So, Christine, you first,

[00:14:12] David Lancelotti: What was training like

[00:14:13] David Syvertsen: once you

saw the workouts come out

[00:14:15] Christine Roeder: for all of you out there who think you need to be

[00:14:17] David Lancelotti: training

[00:14:18] Christine Roeder: day, all day. Um, first of all, I feel like coming to a daily wad

[00:14:24] David Lancelotti: that you programmed Dave. Yep.

[00:14:25] Christine Roeder: that was my training.

That was a lot of it. Um,

[00:14:30] David Syvertsen: was your mindset different?

[00:14:31] Christine Roeder: Yes.

I think it was in the back of my mind and. The entire summer and I joked with a few people, um, under the tent while we were huddled together that this was my last summer and then I found it at this weekend. Um, but no, I think it was always in the back of my mind for wads.

I think I would be like, oh, we're doing dumbbell snatches today. I need to be there. I need to work on it. I'm gonna try to do some, I'm broken. Um, my team, I think our biggest thing was we wanted to write it down on paper, strategize exactly who was doing what rep and when, which interestingly, even in the corral as we're about to walk out, we made some last minute changes, which I think helped us

um, in the moment.

Um, but I think from a training perspective, it's coming here, doing the workouts, and I think just, you know, the week before I was like, let me hydrate, let me eat well and let me go into this and be excited and have a good attitude.

[00:15:26] David Syvertsen: Awesome.

Dave, what was your training like

[00:15:28] David Lancelotti: Oh boy. You should probably ask my teammates.

[00:15:30] Christine Roeder: This'll take an hour.

[00:15:31] David Lancelotti: an hour. No, no, this will be quick. I promise. So we probably started, I would say, 10 weeks before the actual games. Um, I do like to reverse engineer stuff. I wish my body was as good a CrossFitter as my brain is. Um, it's like that old Mike Tyson quote, right? Everybody's gotta plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Yeah. Um, and I think, uh, like Christine is right. Um, you make, you have to be prepared, but I think you have to be versatile enough to make some last minute changes. Um, I, I do have the freedom. I mean, I don't have kids, so I have the freedom to kind of be here whenever I, and the flexibility to be here whenever I can.

Um, but I, I can't, you know, I can't say enough about Alan and Matt who are my teammates. They actually put up with me, came here, dealt with all my notes, all of my PowerPoint presentations, et cetera, et cetera. I think for me, it just comes down to I wouldn't, I don't want to go into battle. Unarmed. Right.

And that's really all we're trying to do. There's always some last minute changes and failures. Obviously, it doesn't always all go according to plan, but yes, I, I am a planner and it was, it was a solid 10 weeks specific workouts and then like some side work on the Echo bike specifically just to get ready for that workout.

Oh,

[00:16:35] Christine Roeder: just also say one more thing?

[00:16:37] David Lancelotti: Um,

[00:16:38] Christine Roeder: so not only are we prepared and we have the workouts and then I walk,

[00:16:44] David Lancelotti: I get

dropped

[00:16:45] Christine Roeder: off with Kelly and Amy. Um, I walk through the entrance. I show my green wristband. I'm an athlete. I see Julia Kelly coming towards me to give me a big hug and a look of a little bit of fear on her face, and I'm like, hi, we're here.

She's like, they changed the first workout and I was like, I'm gonna throw up. Um, I'm a mom of four, I'm 38. What am I doing? I don't what? So I just think and props to, um, you know, the Asbury team and Grant for kind of being able to change the workout after the, um, issues with the platforms breaking. We were outside.

Um, They did an amazing job, you know, kind of pivoting last minute. Um, it still worked out great. We had to kind of think through it and almost the distraction of that, uh, for the first like two hours when I got there, I think helped my nerves. Mm-hmm.

And

once that first workout's over, you're like, okay, I'm here.

I'm excited. I'm in it

[00:17:47] David Lancelotti: now you're in it. Mm-hmm.

The

[00:17:48] David Syvertsen: worst anxiety of competing is before workout one. Yes. No question. Um,

[00:17:53] David Lancelotti: but

[00:17:54] David Syvertsen: Dave was in that first heat. His team was in that first heat, so they lifted as prescribed. And just to give some color on that, they constructed platforms with plywood. Um, there was an event with snatching in it and people were dropping the bar off from overhead and the weight.

Went right through the wood. And this is heat, one of, I don't even know how many heats there were, but let's say there was 20, 30, 40 heats. Right. Um, across divisions. The platforms were never gonna make it and it wouldn't be safe to, to lift on that. So they did. They called an audible, they changed the workout.

And I'm actually, as a spectator, was happy they did it to watch people respond to it. Mm-hmm. Because I think a huge part of competing that you don't anticipate is that things are just not going to go according to plan. You're used to wadding in your zone at the gym. You get to go to the bathroom two minutes before your workout, you get the chalk, especially Christine, the pull-up bar.

You want everything. Your friends are there. When you compete, you have to wait 40 minutes sometimes after warmup, before you work out, people freak out. I've seen people freak out, get pissed, and they don't become themselves, and they're always finding a reason why to be upset. And I remember just watching people respond to the information being let out that they changed the workout.

Did they

[00:19:03] Sam Rhee: What'd they change it to?

[00:19:05] David Lancelotti: Uh,

[00:19:06] David Syvertsen: So they went, they changed the snatch to a 12 rep max front squat.

[00:19:11] Sam Rhee: Oh,

and the

[00:19:12] David Lancelotti: the thruster. Yeah. And the

thrust, no, the thruster

was changed to.

[00:19:14] David Syvertsen: Thruster

was changed to a

[00:19:16] Christine Roeder: a

[00:19:16] David Lancelotti: six

four rep max squat four. Squat clean, squat clean. Yes.

[00:19:20] David Syvertsen: And then they kept the six

[00:19:21] David Lancelotti: six hang clean, stayed the same.

Right.

Okay.

So

[00:19:24] David Syvertsen: So

[00:19:25] David Lancelotti: they basically

[00:19:25] David Syvertsen: kept everything in the front rack. 'cause they had the little crash pads in the wood. Right. Don't need to get too specific with that, but I really do think that A, the best competitors are not always the fittest. They respond to adversity the best. And that's something you can have a lot of control over.

And I was, for the most part, bison really proud of them just watching. Like at first you're like, what? Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do I have to do? And then they, you circle up with your team, you come up with your new plan, you go execute. Where you have other people freaking out and getting pissed and saying bad things.

And it's like, you can tell they they're not good with adversity and you will not do well in CrossFit sport if you're not good with adversity.

[00:20:00] Christine Roeder: And also, like when you look at the, the rig and, um, you know, jumping up in the height of the bars and all that stuff, it's like, that's just part of

CrossFit. Yeah. And

you,

every athlete has things that work in their favor and things that don't. And that's just how it is. You know, some people are just, you know, their height might help on the row or their bar, but there's other

[00:20:20] David Lancelotti: things

that, um,

[00:20:21] Christine Roeder: um,

[00:20:22] David Lancelotti: it's,

[00:20:23] Christine Roeder: that's what's so cool about this, and I think helped me because I was like, okay, Christine, what are your strengths?

And that's where you need to really shine for your team

And do the

best

you

can

[00:20:32] David Lancelotti: do. Yeah.

[00:20:33] Sam Rhee: You have progressed a ton, Christine. I keep thinking about you. When you first started and

[00:20:38] David Lancelotti: you

[00:20:39] Sam Rhee: ask like

12 people, like, what are you doing? Like, oh my God, I this like double unders, uh, and like all this stuff.

[00:20:45] David Syvertsen: Yeah. Double

unders. Yeah.

[00:20:46] Sam Rhee: and, and now every time I see you work out, it's like you have way more self-assuredness than you ever had. And the fact that you competed, you were, you know, with a team, you did all these things that, like you said, I don't, I talk to like s. Eight people yesterday, no one. Everyone had a story of something that didn't go right for their team somewhere, and that was just all part of it.

So the progression of athletic maturity that I have seen for you, plus everybody else, it was like, that's impressive. Very, very impressive.

[00:21:20] Christine Roeder: Yeah, I feel like until I did CrossFit and even until I came to bison, I didn't look at myself as like an athlete, a competitive athlete, and I think I always have.

I think you have a competitive nature in you. Some people, it's really intense. Some people maybe not so much, but I feel like for this and through CrossFit every day, I just feel like there's definitely a competitiveness in myself that I didn't know was there. And you get, you get to Asbury and someone like me who's just like, this is for fun in my gut.

I'm like, give it your all. You wanna, you wanna win. You're there competing to do your best and try your best and win. And that's kind of what makes

[00:22:01] David Lancelotti: it fun for me now. And I think some people think that that's just in you or it's not. I don't agree with that. I think you put yourself in a situation and surround yourself with good people and they pull it out of you and you pull it outta yourself in that setting because you're relying on each other out there, right?

You're adrift on a life raft. You're either gonna paddle together or perish, right? And that's what happens. You pull that stuff out of you and it's something you don't even know is in there totally until you put yourself out there and put yourself in that position to do it.

[00:22:29] David Syvertsen: So Dave, to build off that, 'cause my next question was gonna be just, I want you to reflect, touch on a little bit of individual slash team competing and we don't wanna get into individual.

What is it like to be on a team in, in a lot of cases, I've always said it's more fun, but I also feel more pressure because there's other people depending on you now you get to depend on them too.

[00:22:49] David Lancelotti: What

[00:22:49] David Syvertsen: are your, some of your thoughts on the fact that you're on a team and there are things that you have to do to step up, whether it's honestly the strategizing part of it is if you didn't, who knows what, what would've happened to your team?

Um, and B, physical performance, you know, there's movements that Matt and Alan are better than you at. And there's movements that you're better than that. And you have to, you know, you have to be able to say that to a team. Like, Hey, I'm better than at this than you. You're better at that than me. And no egos are involved.

What's that dynamic like?

[00:23:19] David Lancelotti: I think, I think it's natural for me. 'cause I've, I'm a team sport guy, right? I was never like in, in an individual type sport. And I think, I'm gonna give myself a shameless plug. I think I might've been the oldest bison athlete out there this

[00:23:32] David Syvertsen: You were

[00:23:32] David Lancelotti: were okay. You were. Um, I think my history on this planet and the fact that I have that team sport background, it lends itself to me being more comfortable in a team setting.

I think I'm used to, I. That dynamic. I know my strengths, I know my weaknesses. I don't know that everyone else does. I'm gonna, I'm gonna single out Alan right now. Alan Grinberg, Alan g he is not the best athlete as Jim, and he's certainly not the worst. Right. I think we all kind of fit somewhere in the middle.

Alan did things out there in a team setting that I don't even think he knew he was capable of, um, if we're gonna hit on some of these workouts. But I'm gonna give him this plug now. 'cause I, I, I, it's just something that has to be highlighted. And other people said this also, that weekend Alan went out there, normal workout here.

He'll get through, eh, maybe a 60 wall balls in a workout. He'll get through them, he'll break them up, I don't know, 10. Then he'll do a set of 20, then he'll take a step away from the, the ball. He did 60 unbroken wall balls out there on that grass. He did wall.

[00:24:23] Sam Rhee: amazing. Incredible.

[00:24:24] David Lancelotti: other people noticed and I think team setting, right?

It's, it's, it's twofold. One is he's out there on an island alone at that moment. So there is some individuality to it, but in the back of his mind, he's not letting down Dave and Matt. And that's that team dynamic right now. We, I've also been in situations where there was a handstand pushup workout in a team comp where I was, the reason our team did not get through that workout, we probably would've finished second in, in our heat.

We ended up finishing dead lasts because handstand pushups are not a strength of mine. But as a team, you are, you succeed together and you fail together. And if Alan didn't get 60 unbroken wall balls, that was our team's failure. And I think that team, that team setting that I am used to, prepares me for that specifically.

And I think people who don't have that background don't realize what that can bring out of them. Mm-hmm. And I think that's, that's what it is to me. Right. Win loser. Otherwise, he did 60 unbroken wall balls, turned around, stepped out and did 20 unbroken dumbbell snatches, where it probably would've taken him five minutes in a normal bison workout here.

He did that in less than three minutes and came over, tagged me in, and we moved on. Wow.

[00:25:30] David Syvertsen: I saw that whole feel of like, Hey, I need to do a really good job for the other person on a couple of occasions. Skip to workout four. Where you guys had to do some aggressive echo bite cows, which for those that haven't been on that thing, it's, it's one of the worst things you can do.

It's just, it really, it's really difficult and you're don't feel like you can function after, so you have to do X amount of cows approximately a minute. Alright? Some people go a little faster, some people a little slower, but it's a harder minute. Then by yourself. You have to go to a, a barbell and, and do x amount of, uh, purpose over the bar.

Anywhere from, I think it was 12 to 15 reps. And then you have to do nine axle bar deadlifts. Axle bar is a really thick bar that you can't put your fingers around, so it feels heavier, it's harder to hold onto. And the deadlift itself was heavy after, especially after all that work. The stress part of that workout, other than the fact that it's hard, was that some, one of your teammates was holding onto a really heavy sandbag and wasn't allowed to put it down until you finished.

So if you don't think that's pressure, then you just don't have a pulse. Can you guys touch on, Christine, gimme some of your. Experiencing that workout. You know, you had a little bit of a, not, I wouldn't call it injury, but a little bit of an achy back leading up to Asbury, and that was one that could definitely aggravate it.

So you have that on your mind. The fact that the workout's, pain cave central, and the other fact that you have a teammate waiting for you, begging you to go faster so

[00:26:53] David Lancelotti: you, they can put the sand

[00:26:54] David Syvertsen: down. What is that? Like

[00:26:56] Christine Roeder: This, uh, this workout? I feel like I ran such a spectrum of emotions, so going into it, I felt like I was exhausted.

We were in the corral and I was with the masters. All the masters ladies and, uh, we're just a bunch of women looking at each other, like, we're done. We are

[00:27:15] David Lancelotti: This just the final workout,

[00:27:16] Christine Roeder: we all wanna beat each other. Yeah. It was the final one. But like, we're just, we're done. We've given it all our, all

[00:27:22] David Lancelotti: We were a bunch of women too. Done. We were done too.

[00:27:25] Christine Roeder: done.

And I just remember thinking, I'm actually, I feel drained. Um, and I was terrified. I, I actually enjoyed deadlifts. It's weird. It's, I move. I

wasn't dreading. Yeah. But the

bike, getting to one calorie on this bike feels like you're just begging God to like,

[00:27:45] Sam Rhee: It is an eternity.

It,

[00:27:46] David Lancelotti: you

[00:27:46] Christine Roeder: just want, and you want like, let me close my eyes.

You're still not there. And I'm just thinking, I have to go and do this workout. I have no choice. And I was third, so I, I'm not great on machines. Amy and Kelly are awesome at the machines. I think I came out of this being like, I really wanna work on my endurance and capacity on the different machines, the bikes, the ski.

Um, but I got, I was like, the worst two is you're standing there and you see your teammates going and you're standing there like, I wanna run away, but I can't. 'cause my time is coming and you're just watching and you're watching and you're counting and you're like, I'm about to go.

And

I ran to the bike, I jumped on, I was like, wow, this is gonna be tough, but I'm gonna do it.

And you, I see Kelly holding the, uh, sandbag and I'm like, I gotta get through this. And I got through my first round and then you have to do it all again. Everybody goes twice. That's the plan. Um, and I will say I went into this dreading this workout probably the most because of the bike. And I knew I had to be on the machine.

And we had strategized, Amy did a lot of the machine work, the workouts prior. Um, this one I had no choice. So I remember holding the sandbag and kind of looking up smiling. I can feel everybody behind me, like all the family and uh, the fans and just being like, I have one more round and I am so happy. I'm like, this is awesome.

I gave it my all. I did my best. And.

[00:29:16] David Lancelotti: The mc, all I hear him is

[00:29:17] Christine Roeder: he's

chanting our team and I'm then my turn again, what's your thought? And I'm like, oh my God, why is it coming down to me again? Canopy Kelly, Amy, can't they be the, the athlete here that everyone's begging to

hurry up?

And, um, I just, I did my best and it ended up being the one workout I dreaded and I felt the most accomplished after that workout.

[00:29:39] Sam Rhee: pretty awesome.

[00:29:40] David Syvertsen: That's awesome. Yeah. Chris, Dave's thoughts on that same idea? I'd like to get your feedback on, you know, you, you touched on Alan really extending himself for the team. If that's a bison wa here by himself, probably doesn't get that same thing, that same score. But because he's doing for put yourself in now you're in those shoes, right?

You're the one on the bike, you're the one doing the burpees, you're the one doing the deadlift, you're trying to get this stuff done so your teammates are not suffering. What's that like?

[00:30:03] David Lancelotti: I think it's partially why we train or why put up so much time into it. Um, I felt ready to do that. Um, before the workout, Matt kept asking me, Hey, how are you feeling?

We're in the corral. We're in the warmup area. How are you feeling? And I just kept, I literally thought he was concerned for me and I just kept blowing him off. I'm, I'm gonna be fine. I'm gonna be out there. I'm gonna be sweating and bleeding right next to you. Don't worry about me.

[00:30:26] Sam Rhee: He's young.

[00:30:26] David Lancelotti: He kept, I come to find out he was asking more because he wasn't feeling so hot.

So we're at the start line and he's like, and he's partner. A partner a And that workout had the hardest job. Yes. Right? They're on an island. Yes. Yes. They had to do the 15 cows. I

[00:30:40] David Syvertsen: so bad for person A,

[00:30:41] Christine Roeder: They had to do both rounds. They knew they were going in,

[00:30:44] David Lancelotti: both rounds

[00:30:44] David Syvertsen: didn't get to share the bag with

[00:30:46] David Lancelotti: had no help in round one. Correct. Round one. They pick up that bag. I run out, start, I think the only, the anxiety I had there, and this is what Christine just said, as the other person is on the bike and then they're moving to the bar belt. Right. You realize it's about to be me and. I knew I was ready.

This wasn't handstand pushups, so I was gonna be okay. Right.

[00:31:04] David Syvertsen: You're good.

[00:31:05] David Lancelotti: Dead lifter too. I can, um, deadlift is one of my strengths and I know you can just grind through that bike and uh, obviously we can move the machines a lot better. We have some more mass behind the machine. So I was planning on spending, you know, 23 seconds was my fastest time to get to the 15 cows.

If I'm cranking, obviously you have to do burpees and deadlifts after that, then hold that goofy sandbag, but yet there is anxiety there. Not so much. I, I knew I wouldn't let my teammates down. I think I'm comfortable in that setting, but it's more just the, almost that pre-game jitter type thing.

Butterflies in your stomach, watching him out there. Matt's going, he picks up the bag and I'm like, I have to get through this as fast as possible for him. Like I said, I'm accountable to my teammates and I know he's sucking wind. It's his fifth workout too. He's not as old as I am, but you know, we're all masters athletes now.

Um, and for me that's what it was. It's the anxiety of actually getting out there and going. Fifth workout beat up. You've been out there for two days now. Sore. Let's get through this now as, as a team. And that's kind of how I see that. And that helps me, that fuels me. Get through the workout, knowing, okay, and now Alan's coming right?

As soon as he gets off that damn bike and barbell, he takes this sandbag from me. And that's why I like this team dynamic. I like the idea of you're out there a little bit on your own. There is some individual to it, but not full blast alone, responsible for my own performance. I like that divvy stuff up, strengths, weaknesses, and hey, we're all out here together.

Winning or losing together. I love that.

[00:32:29] Sam Rhee: I wanna shout out, um, for Andrew Manhart because he, I talked to him yesterday and it was his first comp. I don't know if you've seen his progression over the past year, but he has transformed

[00:32:41] David Lancelotti: himself. Quick, quick, like.

[00:32:43] Sam Rhee: yesterday, Susan saw him and was like, wow, he's really good looking.

And I was like, yeah,

I

[00:32:49] David Lancelotti: hey, take easy. I can't believe he's

[00:32:51] Sam Rhee: DE's father. I was like, yeah. And so, so he and I have told him himself. I was like, he's changed as much as anyone else has doing CrossFit, and it was his first comp and he told me yesterday it was a huge challenge and I don't know how he and his partners divvied up that.

[00:33:08] David Lancelotti: wad,

[00:33:09] Sam Rhee: but he told me he ended up, he had never picked up a sandbag before. He held that thing for four minutes straight and he said he had, he couldn't believe he did that. He was very proud. He did. He didn't expect to do so and then, It was really funny. His two partners had to hold the sandbag, but they couldn't, they were so wiped at the end.

He was showing me video. They literally were holding it in between each other. Like the

[00:33:33] David Lancelotti: two

guys, like kind of like holding

it together pretending they were passing it. Like, no, for 30 seconds

[00:33:39] Christine Roeder: pass is

[00:33:40] David Lancelotti: No, we're passing it. We're passing

it

[00:33:41] Sam Rhee: it was like a group hold.

[00:33:43] David Lancelotti: And

[00:33:43] Sam Rhee: know, it was like, I

[00:33:45] David Lancelotti: don't know how they

[00:33:45] Sam Rhee: did get disqualified on that workout, but it was one of those things where you end up doing things you don't ever expect.

And he and I like. He was a perfect example of someone who came out of there, changed, like way more self-confident, pushed himself in a situation, never expected to do so loved. It was so like, there are some people, you go through something like that and you are, if it doesn't go the way you expect, you're, you don't achieve what you want and you're disappointed or, or you get down on your, and he was energized.

Like I talked to you Christine afterwards, and you were like, oh, I feel a little let down now. Afterwards, we've talked about that,

[00:34:22] David Lancelotti: Yeah, we're

[00:34:22] David Syvertsen: gonna, that's

[00:34:23] David Lancelotti: gonna be how we we're gonna get

[00:34:24] David Syvertsen: into the post comp, uh, depression.

[00:34:26] Sam Rhee: the energy that everyone described was exactly why ordinary people like you, me, non-game athletes do these things is because that is, it's tremendous.

Yes.

[00:34:40] Christine Roeder: I think anybody who's debating, do I ever do this, do I ever put myself in this position?

You 100%, no doubt will do something you didn't think you could do. You like, you're gonna have those jitters, but the minute you're out there, they're gonna go away because you're gonna be in it. And I just feel like. It's, it's worth trying. It's worth trying and coming from someone who's not, I didn't grow up a competitive athlete, but then, you know, you do this and then you go back to your life and you're like, you know, I still, I go to pick up, get my kids at school, but in the back of my mind I'm like, I'm really proud of myself.

I did something just, you know, despite what's going on in my life that, um, made me happy. And if, you know, CrossFit and working out makes you happy, try it. Do it. I'll be there. I'll cheer you on.

[00:35:25] David Lancelotti: And I think it's cliche and we all say it all the time, but it prepares you for the difficulties in regular life. There's a lot of things that you face in regular life that you don't realize. You draw strength from these experiences.

Right. And Andrew and his team are gonna be really let down. If that was his, that's his first competition. It goes to any other local comp, he's gonna be really disappointed that it isn't so full blast, like Asbury was, is

[00:35:47] David Syvertsen: The, the elements being in the sun, two straight days, the boxes being on grass. Um, doing wall balls on grass lifting on platforms that were pretty, in my opinion, pretty well put together, but not perfect. A little slanted. I like, I actually saw an angle on one of 'em and, and I actually saw one of our athletes, Karen, she actually fell backwards on a clean, because it was like an a one inch, two inch decline

[00:36:11] David Lancelotti: and

[00:36:11] David Syvertsen: nobody's fault there.

You know, you know when you sign up for stuff like this and you know you're gonna be on grass, it's not gonna be perfect. You know, like, it, it, it's, you're gonna have to anticipate that and you have to respond to it. That's your job as an athlete. You know? What, what were, I mean that, that workout that you guys had, box jump, pullovers, pullups and rowing don't have to talk about strategy of the workout, but when I watched the setup of that, I'm like, the boxes were on a significant angle.

Some of 'em. W how do you, how do you channel that into, Hey, I just had to push through here. You know, some people had to li get lifted onto the Pullup bar. I saw a team where a girl went on all fours and the other girl stood on her back to get onto the Pullup bar. Then they had to do synchro stuff. Now how do you get through something like that?

[00:36:53] Christine Roeder: I feel like that what this weekend exemplified a lot of the grit and like CrossFitters.

We don't need anything fancy though, you know? Throw us in a field of grass and with some porter potties and some, you

[00:37:10] Sam Rhee: know,

[00:37:10] Christine Roeder: plywood and we'll demonstrate elite

[00:37:14] David Lancelotti: fitness

takes over.

[00:37:15] Christine Roeder: we, yeah. And I think in the moment, I was just, I was joking because we had, it was bright and sunny. I was very, all summer.

My biggest fear was, um, the heat. I was like, I'm gonna be the athlete that's taken out and a stretcher because it got too hot and I couldn't, and it's what,

[00:37:34] David Lancelotti: when I think about the weekend, I'm like,

[00:37:35] Christine Roeder: I don't remember the heat. I don't remember, you know, I wore sunglasses the whole time in any other wa or anything I would do that would be something annoying on my face.

But I al you almost just like get into the moment and the uneven box or the grass or the height of the pull-up bar.

[00:37:54] David Lancelotti: Those things,

[00:37:56] Christine Roeder: you just push 'em out of your mind and you're just like, I've gotta get every rep. And I just feel like that is CrossFit, like just the rawness of CrossFit, which is also pretty awesome.

Yeah.

[00:38:05] Sam Rhee: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:06] David Lancelotti: I thought it was great. 'cause I'm always looking for an excuse for my poor performance. And I was like, the box was crooked. Definitely the sun was in my eyes.

[00:38:12] Christine Roeder: definitely the plywood

[00:38:13] David Lancelotti: the dog ate my homework. No, I think, I think what it comes down to is we were all in the same boat, right? And as long as it's an unlevel playing field, it was perfect.

Right? The boxes are crooked, but get it done. It doesn't change anything. The judge is cer the judge isn't even talking to you. They just want you to get the, you know, the work done. So there's no, nobody cares. Right? Nobody cares. You get it done you com there's no one to complain to.

[00:38:34] Christine Roeder: I was gonna say, no room for complaints here.

Right. If you, if you wanna complain, like there's, there's pros and cons to everything. I know some people had to

[00:38:42] David Lancelotti: lift up

[00:38:42] Christine Roeder: the pull up bars and I, you know, Kelly and I had the luxury. We didn't have to, but there's other things that, like,

[00:38:48] David Lancelotti: you know, the seat

of our bike for that, the

[00:38:51] Christine Roeder: last workout, Amy

[00:38:52] David Lancelotti: needed it higher, but we weren't gonna

[00:38:53] Christine Roeder: change it.

So that maybe didn't fare well for us.

So

There's give and take everywhere.

[00:38:59] Sam Rhee: I, I was gonna ask you, Dave, you watched everyone move and I saw a lot of video and, and so forth from people posting.

What did you think of the quality of movements of these athletes? 'cause I thought it looked pretty awesome from what I saw.

[00:39:13] David Syvertsen: Really proud. Like more proud even than scores, to be honest with you. Um, you know, and that comes from a coach perspective. Like, I know like, not everyone needs to think like that, but that's just what I do. Like I'm, every day you're evaluating how pe, how well people move. Every now and then, someone lifts big weight, like, oh cool, nice big lift.

But it's always the quality of the movement that you remember. And I did say this out loud, uh, I might piss some people off, but I was like, our athletes stand out among just quality movement. You know, like I look at some people, I actually told one of our other coaches that was, I was watching, I was like, it's clear that some of these people have never been taught how to do toes of bar or pull-ups or stringing stuff together.

Um, it's clear no one's taught them how to turn around correctly, efficiently, on a box, jump over, you know, they just do it and it's fine for fitness, it's fine. And again, you have to draw that line of don't overanalyze and stress someone out. But I'm all about, I always want to teach someone how to do something a little bit more efficiently.

So they simply get more output outta their workout. And I've always said this, I'm very candid about saying like, I'm not a good natural athlete and I always will find little things to maximize what I can do. And it works. And I just remember watching some of our athletes do the synchro to bar, which is so much fun to watch watching them skier, even just like get your hands as high as possible instead of like getting it to your chin.

And then why is this thing not going fast? Like you, I could tell that the athletes we have, whether they they're fitter or not, don't even want to go there. Like our athletes are better. No, they just, I could tell our athletes moved top 5% there in terms of quality.

[00:40:44] David Lancelotti: I think that's a testimony to you and all the coaches here.

We remember those things. They stick in our brain. Right. And it's reinforcement. It isn't like we're hearing one thing one day, something different than next. The message here is consistent. Mm. There's a lot of buy-in and it's not just like, you know, no one, we're not all drinking the Kool-Aid. It's buy-in because it's logical and it makes sense and it's successful and

[00:41:05] Christine Roeder: it's safe.

Yeah. And it's the right way. And I feel like that because of the coaches here and the daily wads that. Was a factor that was taken out of it for all 34 bison athletes. It wasn't like, God, I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna get the dumbbell snatch correctly. The two, you know, the two heads on the floor over my head locked out.

That was never a thought for any of our, the athletes. It was more, you know, getting through the workouts. It wasn't the quality of our movements because you guys push

[00:41:33] David Lancelotti: that's how you do it. Yeah. Because that's just how you do it.

[00:41:35] Christine Roeder: the right way to do it. And we're gonna get, if we're no rep, it's for, you know, we couldn't, we were just tired or, you know, who knows what.

But

I

[00:41:43] David Syvertsen: I just did, we all just did our own training sessions. Right. I just did a legends qualifier and I got know it three times. It happens, you know, not a coincidence that my wife was my judge, but the right after the last workout, she goes, that last one didn't count. But

[00:41:56] David Lancelotti: that it is, like,

[00:41:57] David Syvertsen: I, I know I've always struggled with like, how strict should we be?

I don't, I don't wanna be not strict, but I don't wanna be strict to the point where people will get turned off by coming. But this is why I think we always talk standards here. You Sam, as a coach, like you do a really good job of it. Like, yes, adults, you guys make your call on if you know you're gonna listen to us.

When we tell you to squat all the way down, when you get tired, you're an adult. You do you, it's your body, blah, blah, blah. But we are never gonna stop the way we do it. And I think leaders of the gym, these two up here, because they move a certain way, it's now, you know, it's the cool thing to do. Like that's what you want to do too.

[00:42:31] David Lancelotti: reverse peer pressure.

[00:42:32] David Syvertsen: You know? I really do think people feed off of people like Dave and Christina. We have several others. A lot of people competed at Asbury that, you know, not good athletes. Bad athletes, best athletes towards athletes. They're the ones that move well and that's the one you want to emulate.

[00:42:45] Sam Rhee: I mean, there are some, there's some video footage I would show anybody to demo stuff like the axle bar deadlifts like Kayla Simpson.

I was just like, This is the way you need to move an axle

[00:42:56] David Lancelotti: bar. Right.

[00:42:57] Sam Rhee: Uh, Karen on the box jumps. I was like, if you wanna move fast

[00:43:00] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I would love for her to teach me that.

[00:43:02] David Lancelotti: I

need

[00:43:02] Christine Roeder: need to know how

[00:43:04] David Lancelotti: I would

[00:43:04] Sam Rhee: that up. Like, how do you move fast on boxing? This is how you move fast. Or, uh, Adam Hawkinson and his team on the synchro, uh, TOA bar. I was like, this, these are, and this isn't like demo video where you're making it perfect.

This is under the heat of battle in the middle of, of, uh, a workout in a comp. And I was like, these guys move so well, and, and everything I saw, I was, I was so impressed by that.

[00:43:29] David Syvertsen: So you got about 10 minutes left. And there's two things I wanna touch on. They're both important to me. I, I kind of just want to spend a little bit, couple time raising up Asbury, the guys that ran it, the volunteers.

Um, I always say this about big comps, especially big comps like this, it doesn't exist without volunteers. Like we just, we, it would not have happened. So huge shout out to everyone that participated as a volunteer, the judges, all the behind the scenes work. Um, And

[00:43:51] Christine Roeder: And everything on

time. Yeah. That was so

[00:43:53] David Lancelotti: was so

[00:43:53] Christine Roeder: down to the minute, that is helpful for all of us who are like literally managing families back home and, you know, figuring out schedules.

I mean, you, we were in that corral when we needed to be. We were on the floor. It, that was incredible and I didn't expect that.

[00:44:07] David Syvertsen: big improvement I've seen is I competed at Asbury a few times.

I've watched a couple, their warmup area again on grass. Not ideal, but it was much more efficient and cleaner than what I remember in the past. I remember in the past it was a disaster and it was not anyone's fault that they were li really limited with space. Inside outdoor you have a little bit more wiggle room and I just remember like that's something I look for when people are like, Hey, what should I do?

I'm like, I gotta go look at the warmup area 'cause I don't know what what you have in there. I thought it was well put together, and they were very diligent about, Hey, if you're not in this heat, you should not be in here warming up. I don't care if you're one of those people that needs two hours to warm up, get out, you know?

Um, being on time, I had a schedule on my phone of what every, what time, every heat was, uh, what every time a bison heat was going on, and it was to the minute it was so easy to plan around. I didn't miss anything that I wanted to go see, or that I tried to see. I knew that, all right, potty break because there's eight minutes before the next heat goes.

You know, like, um, so just a really shout out to how professional it was knowing that most of the people are volunteers.

[00:45:07] David Lancelotti: I like to, uh, there's different ways to measure success, right. I think I like effort. I think if someone puts in effort and it's obvious, like that effort went into something, I think that, you know, there's always gonna be Monday morning quarterbacking, port-a-potties needed to be cleaned, something like that.

I think that's like backseat driving. Mm-hmm. It was obvious that a lot of effort went into that weekend, no matter how fast they threw it together, or they didn't have the convention center inside. I think from the hosts to the volunteers, to the athletes, to the vendors, there was a ton of effort that went into that weekend and to, on my scale that, that equals success to me.

I didn't go, I, like I said, oh, the grass was too high. The, like, I think it was so obvious there were things out of their control. They're in the middle of a city in the middle of the summer, in a beach weekend. I think everything. There showed a massive amount of effort, and I know I appreciated that. You put in effort, that means success to me.

That's all

[00:46:00] David Syvertsen: one of

grant's goals of Asbury Park Summer games is bringing the larger CrossFit community together. Like we all have our, our boxes, right. The bison community. Right. We had a FIEs at Sam's house yesterday. A great time. Right. Um, and those, those are really important, but I think these are just as important that you really expand your horizon.

Like there's so many gym motors and. People that I used to hang out with, people that I haven't seen in so long that I really only see them in these kind of environments. And I think that's one of the coolest things that, in terms of networking as a professional, but also just as a CrossFitter like that I, you know, I'm talking to people right now that I'm like, oh, I almost forgot about you here.

Like, how are you doing? Let's update each other on things. You know, I think Grant should take a lot of credit in and everyone that kind of put all this in, it's, the event is awesome, but getting people together is, is such a victory, especially what's been going on over the past few years.

[00:46:48] David Lancelotti: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:49] Sam Rhee: Hmm. Um, I

would say, I asked people yesterday like, what do you think could be improved?

And the athletes were uniformly super positive, uh, spectators. And again, I wasn't there. So this is all second. And I feel like just listening to you talk about. The, the people who run it in terms of production values, in terms of kind of upping it and making it just look more like a CrossFit games type of situation or a regional situation like, and I think the, the fact that if they're planning on making it indoors, outdoors next year, that might help.

Um, I heard of one issue with one of those, uh, multi rep lifts where it was supposed to be a power clean, the athlete squatted, but the judge said it was okay, and then after the lift they said, no, you can't do that. And so they overruled the judge post lift. But then at that point the athlete can't, like, can't redo it.

Yeah. Redo it. Like, they're just like, they're just spent. So, I mean, very, very minor things. I, I mean if these are the most, if these are the things that I could pull outta people yesterday, then I feel like these guys did a good job now. I'm just saying it because I imagine they're always going to want to do better.

Yeah. So if they feel like, you know what, we can up the production value a little bit, we can make it look a little like shinier and whatever, or whatever it is, then fine. I mean, otherwise, listen, if you run a comp and it runs on time and everyone is safe and nobody got, you know, major issues and they were able to call all their audibles and get it done, like, that's pretty amazing.

Yeah.

[00:48:30] David Syvertsen: I, I would say the one negative I have is, it's, it's hypothetical. Hypothetical, um,

[00:48:36] David Lancelotti: Depending

[00:48:37] David Syvertsen: two straight days of great weather is, is very

[00:48:39] Sam Rhee: risky. Oh, that is risky.

[00:48:40] Christine Roeder: I was wondering if it rained

[00:48:42] David Syvertsen: I think they had a rain date, but it was a day, I think it was like during

[00:48:45] David Lancelotti: the week. I

[00:48:46] David Syvertsen: I think it might've been on the next weekend.

So don't quote me on

[00:48:48] David Lancelotti: The last thing they posted was it was alternate workouts. Okay. That weren't gonna be,

you can't

keep rain dangerous,

[00:48:54] David Syvertsen: can't keep machines out there ERs, skis, bikes,

[00:48:57] Sam Rhee: can you hand hang on a rig with

[00:48:59] David Lancelotti: knows? Pushups. I will. Yeah. I will

[00:49:01] Christine Roeder: but I feel was, was it supposed to be in the convention center until

[00:49:05] David Syvertsen: when I talked, I talked to Graham before they announced this, you know, to help us.

You know, he wants to know, is there, is there a demand for this? Right. I think it was in, in the winter, early spring. And I said, we will, we will get people there. And that was really important to him. And he told me then it's all outdoor. So this, I think that was the original plan, but I do think in the future it'll be back inside or split.

[00:49:26] David Lancelotti: It was the zoom call. So they, I, I, like I said, I go back to effort. They had a Zoom call the week before to go over any questions, any, anything with all, all the standards and everything. And it was on there that they said it. 'cause someone asked what happens if it rains. They said we have alternate workouts to replace workouts where the rain would potentially make it dangerous.

Okay. If

[00:49:45] David Syvertsen: lightning, you cancel it. I mean that it happens. I competed at WaPo in 2016 doing 185 overhead squat in pouring rain.

[00:49:51] David Lancelotti: know hands

[00:49:52] David Syvertsen: were slipping as

[00:49:53] Sam Rhee: that was dangerous.

dangerous, you

[00:49:54] David Syvertsen: know. But I do, again, you gotta roll with the punches or don't sign up, you know.

Last thing guys, what's next for you two? Because I, I've made some jokes with some people at the gym because I've been through this and I've seen it so many times. You come back from a comp pumped for like a day or two and all of a sudden you hear like the violin playing when you come in the gym. Like, what am I here for?

[00:50:16] Christine Roeder: What,

[00:50:16] David Syvertsen: what? What

[00:50:17] David Lancelotti: do I do

[00:50:17] David Syvertsen: now? Because you guys put a lot of thought into it, and it's not just the physical training, it's the mental, like right now there's a lot of people doing these legends qualifiers, and it's stimulating. You're motivated and like you have a why. What is your why now? What, what do you do?

Are you looking for something else to sign up for? Do you want to go back to the drawing board and take six months to rebuild yourself and get ready for the open? Like what, what's, what's next for you guys and are you going through any sort of like post comp, dopamine crash, depression type?

[00:50:45] Christine Roeder: I was definitely sad on Monday. Yeah. Um, I feel like one of the, the memories I have from the weekend are mostly like huddled under the, um, tents and all of us together.

Um,

Elena, Adam, their family came with their kids, spent two days, like, that's precious

[00:51:06] David Syvertsen: Mm-hmm.

[00:51:06] David Lancelotti: Mm-hmm.

Um,

[00:51:08] Christine Roeder: I feel like it, I was like, I miss everybody.

I wanna just, I wanna redo it without the jitters and kind of soak in every minute. But I just felt like I miss everybody. Um, but I also felt like there's a lot of stuff I wanna work on. Do I wanna do this next year? I mean, I still, I still laugh because I'm like, Christine, you're a mom. You have kids, like you're in it right now.

I mean, I'm potty training twins, so I fi I feel like that's the hardest wad anyone has to do. Wow.

[00:51:39] David Lancelotti: rather be on the echo bike.

[00:51:40] Christine Roeder: So I, I, exactly. I'd rather do axle bar

[00:51:43] David Lancelotti: Yeah.

[00:51:44] Sam Rhee: That's crazy. Um,

[00:51:46] Christine Roeder: And I laugh because I'm like, just, this is my life right now. But it's also awesome and it makes me happy. So that's why I wanna keep doing it.

That's awesome. Um,

[00:51:55] David Syvertsen: it's a mix. It really, it's a mixture of

[00:51:56] Christine Roeder: have so many emotions and I didn't know I'd have that many. And I feel like I was definitely, it was on, in the back of my mind, but it wasn't until the two weeks prior that I was like, okay, we gotta, I gotta like, get in the headspace that I'm going to do this and I have no choice and I can't back out.

Um, but I, I would love to do something

else.

[00:52:16] David Lancelotti: I don't know. Love it.

I, I think I'm always kind of all in and everyone who knows me, it's like I don't ever have like an off switch. Um, so I'm gonna give you an example of just Matt, uh, from my team, Matt Lucas. Uh, we're in the middle of, I don't dunno, workout three or four finishing up and he's like, I'm retiring after this.

I can't do CrossFit anymore. I hear that.

[00:52:34] David Syvertsen: that all the time.

[00:52:35] David Lancelotti: We weren't even

[00:52:35] Christine Roeder: say I, at one point I was like, I don't wanna do this. Why do I do this cross? I don't wanna do

[00:52:41] David Lancelotti: We paid to

be here.

[00:52:42] Christine Roeder: You're like, what?

[00:52:44] David Lancelotti: Right. So we're, we're walking off the field between workout three and four. He's retiring, he's sitting down, he kicks his shoes off.

This is the worst day of his life. He texted me yesterday Shut, sent me the Waap Palooza online qualifiers. So he went from Asbury Park, retiring. Now all of a sudden, we're good enough to do Waap Palooza in his brain.

I think if

[00:53:03] Sam Rhee: you don't think that at least once during a comp, you're not humans.

[00:53:06] David Lancelotti: Yeah.

Oh, I have text messages

[00:53:08] David Syvertsen: that I've sent.

Like I telling Ash I can't do this

anymore. Absolutely.

[00:53:11] Sam Rhee: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:12] David Lancelotti: I think that's a natural ebb and flow of what we all go through as human beings, and especially as athletes. It's a difficult thing. There are, you know, one day comps in the area are a certain animal.

What, what we did was a completely different thing. Right. And

I I mean, I'll

[00:53:27] Christine Roeder: the two day was, that was intense and

I don't think I realized what I got into until I was like, these are eight hour

[00:53:35] David Lancelotti: Yeah. And forgetting that, go back to effort. We had to, we had to make arrangements to get there.

Mm-hmm. Right. Whether you drove home back and forth an hour and a half or not, or V r b houses, hotels. Mm-hmm. Meal prepping, wherever you go.

[00:53:47] Sam Rhee: guys spent so much time preparing all that. That was very, very intensive.

[00:53:52] David Lancelotti: can't discount that. That is effort also. Right? So on top of all the workouts and performing and being out there with your teammates, you're doing all this stuff behind the scenes.

Like I kept yelling at like Matt had a bag, a bag of Pringles or something in his stuff. I'm like, what the heck is that? And he's like, oh no, it's my wife's, it's not mine. I'm not eating them. And I'm like watching everything he took out of his bag at the house. So I think there's just, but that adds to the dynamic and that adds to the community aspect of what we all go through, right?

I never met Matt's wife really before this weekend, but you live with someone basically for two days straight. It gives you a different perspective on everybody. I now know what makes Matt tick more than I did walking in this door, right? Every single day. Work out with him every single day for two years.

That's awesome. You learn the dynamic, how he treats his wife, how she treats him, et cetera, et cetera. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I think moving forward everyone needs to kind of, you take a step back, you reevaluate. And we're all mental cases, so we jump right back in like a week later.

I

[00:54:43] Christine Roeder: know what is in the

water here. Like this is insane. I mean, you had 34 people go to like,

that's incredible.

[00:54:52] David Lancelotti: bet

[00:54:53] David Syvertsen: we have more next year and,

[00:54:54] David Lancelotti: and I think, I think this

[00:54:55] David Syvertsen: is gonna help a lot of

[00:54:55] Christine Roeder: people

I want, let's go. Because it was, it was so, the downtime was so fun.

Oh, now I know.

[00:55:02] David Lancelotti: what, Dave had a song and Paul

[00:55:03] Christine Roeder: playing

[00:55:03] David Lancelotti: 2000 early.

If Dave and Christine can do it, anyone can.

[00:55:06] Christine Roeder: Exactly.

But

Hawk was playing like early two thousands playlists. We had other gyms being like, that playlist like was awesome. I mean, it was just, I, I don't know. That was my version of fun. Maybe I'm crazy, but it was a lot of our versions of fun.

[00:55:21] David Syvertsen: The, when you do something like this, like the, the spec, if you don't do something like this, the spectrum of good and bad goes negative 10 to positive 10, right?

Like that's, you'll never be happier than the 10. You'll never be as unhappy as the minus 10. You sign up for a like this, you train for it, you think about it, you put yourself in the environment. The spectrum goes to a hundred negative, a hundred, meaning like the stress is a lot worse, but the, the highs that you get from it, you can't replicate.

You know? And, and I think that's something that I want to encourage people that if you're on the fence, should I do this? Can I do this? You know, have conversations with any of us for, have some con with your other coaches, your friends that. You're gonna experience highs from doing this that you cannot even fathom by just thinking about it or even going to watch.

You just can't, you gotta put yourself in it. And the benefits that come from doing stuff like this go far beyond you getting in better shape and getting better at pull-ups. You know, there's, um, relationships that are gonna be built. There's experiences that you'll go through for

[00:56:17] Christine Roeder: your kids. I mean, my kids came for the last one and my daughter was wearing the weight belt and I was just like, how awesome. She's eight and she's like, I wanna do this. I can do this. My son was like, I wanna do the pull-up challenge to win the free water bottle.

And I'm like, The, if I'm gonna instill stuff in my kids, let it be around fitness and being healthy and, and good people and good people and let them see like this, this is just awesome. And I, I feel like that them being exposed to it is, is something I wasn't exposed to. And I think that's awesome. Yeah.

[00:56:48] David Lancelotti: Yeah.

[00:56:49] Sam Rhee: The thing I also like is both you and Kyle competed, right? Yes. And so, hi Kyle.

[00:56:55] Christine Roeder: You did amazing.

[00:56:57] Sam Rhee: So

[00:56:57] Christine Roeder: he said when he was in the corral, he was like, what an awesome group of masters athletes. He's like, all of us were like, what are we doing here? We, we should get some beers after this. Like, they were all like befriended each other.

He was like, we all gave it like we put it out there on the floor, but when they were not, they were like just a bunch of, you know, dads and, you

[00:57:16] Sam Rhee: fitness thing, husbands

[00:57:17] Christine Roeder: and you know, just

[00:57:19] David Syvertsen: speaking of which, he's uh, currently in our gym right now with 11 kids.

[00:57:22] David Lancelotti: he's out.

[00:57:24] Christine Roeder: He's like, it's time to go golfing,

[00:57:26] Sam Rhee: Uh,

[00:57:26] Christine Roeder: but you're done. Christine, if you guys want me back next week, I'm

[00:57:30] David Lancelotti: happy.

[00:57:30] Christine Roeder: I mean, I'm sure Dave is happy to come back.

[00:57:32] David Syvertsen: Closing thoughts Dave?

[00:57:34] David Lancelotti: Oh.

[00:57:35] Sam Rhee: Uh,

[00:57:36] David Lancelotti: I was impressed. I think with, uh, overall I was impressed with the, the, the weekend, right?

Forgetting our, our, you know, our performances, who podium, who didn't. Um, there is obvious interest in this. There were, there were a thousand people inside that fenced in area, right? Spectators. And otherwise you can't get 500 athletes showing up somewhere and not realize that there's something more to this.

Right? Whether, you know, people talk about the future of CrossFit, it's obvious, right? And I think when you see intermediate slash masters slash you know, RX and then Elite, right? Adding categories that kind of probably make people who are on the fence probably feel a little better about doing something like this.

Figuring out where I belong in a competition like this and actually putting himself out there and doing it. Um, It seems like this is something that should happen far into the future, right? I think there's obvious interest and I think this is the time to run with it. So anyone, obviously Dave already said if anyone wants to talk about this or is on the fence at the gym, if you have two or three hours, you can ask me if you want it to be quick.

Christina is your girl.

[00:58:39] Christine Roeder: Um, I would say thank you. To the coaches because I was prepared for this. I was a little nervous because we couldn't find time to train as much as I wanted to because of vacations. It's summer. Um, but I was, I was well prepared if you're wondering if you're prepared for a competition, if you come to bison wads, you're prepared.

Um, and I would say, you know, I'm so glad I did it. It was kind of a very, like on the whim, Kelly asked me to do it and I was like, sure. It was May or June and I was like, that's August. You know, maybe I'll change my mind. Can I back out? Um, I'm glad I didn't and it will definitely be there in my memories is one of the most fun weekends I've had

for sure.

[00:59:21] David Lancelotti: Definitely.

awesome.

[00:59:22] Sam Rhee: Just shout out to everyone who participated. There are so many that we can't really name them all, but I

[00:59:27] Christine Roeder: And the fans. And the fans like Ella and Sean, who were there,

all the fans,

Elena, Adam,

like all of you guys. Yeah, everybody that came that

[00:59:34] David Lancelotti: Frank Ola came to see us. This is, yeah,

this

[00:59:35] Christine Roeder: is your summer. Those are the valuable hours and weekends.

And that is why we all. Did great 'cause we wanted to do great for them.

[00:59:44] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I mean, there's no place I would rather have been that weekend and watching you guys supporting you guys, and I think it just goes to show, you know, it's uh, it's more than a gym, you know. All right. Thank you guys. And Asbury Park Summer games. We will be back.

[00:59:57] David Lancelotti: back.

Yes. Alright, cool. Thanks guys. Great job. Thank you. Oh

gosh. Thanks. Thank you guys.