S03E133: Legends Championship 2023 Recap with Guest Mike McKinney
Do you ever wonder about the grit it takes to rise in the ranks of the CrossFit world? CrossFit newbie turned competitor Mike McKinney joins coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic to share his intriguing journey on the Herdfit Podcast.
From his first WOD to qualifying for an elite competition, all within a span of just two short years, Mike’s story is nothing short of extraordinary. Get ready for a roller coaster ride as we discuss his training regimen, family and work life and as we recap the 1st Phorm Legends Championship @thelegendschampionship held December 7-10 at Tempe, Arizona at Arizona State University
We explore the highs and lows of the Legends Championship, the nerve-wracking anticipation of points difference, and the emotional journey of defeat to personal victory.
@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness
#roadtolegends2023 #mastersassemble #crossfitmasters
00:00:05 2023 Legends Championship Review
00:08:03 Weight Loss and Venue Success
00:18:40 Swimming and Weightlifting Discussion
00:27:56 Challenges and Disappointments in CrossFit Competition
00:34:38 Mike's Turning Point in CrossFit Competition
00:42:26 Fulfillment and Support in Athletic Competitions
00:48:57 CrossFit Competition Feedback
00:56:46 Prepare for Challenges and Reflect on Performance
TRANSCRIPT
S03E133: Legends Championship 2023 Recap with Guest Mike McKinney
David Syvertsen
Host
00:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the Herdfit Podcast Dr. Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syvertsen. His podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. Alright, welcome back to the Herdfit Podcast. I am Coach David Syvertsen. I'm here with my Dr., and Coach Sam Rhee, and we have a very special guest my fellow broken masters heavily and 2023 Legends competitor, mike McKinney, also a fellow bison beast. Mike, thank you so much for giving us some time post workout here on a Thursday morning.
Mike McKinney
Guest
00:42
Yeah, my pleasure, glad to do this with you guys.
David Syvertsen
Host
00:45
We're going to dive right in. We all have time constraints, so we're going to try to get right into discussing the review of the 2023 Legends Championship and we're going to try to give as much detail and maybe some funny stories, some experiences that we both had. But I want to center most of the episode around Mike and his experience, because he I would put money on it that he was probably the least experienced crossfitter at Legends. He's only really about two years into his crossfit journey obviously an athlete prior to, but if you know anything about the sport, you know anything about crossfit from a coaching or actually athlete perspective. You can't fake it.
01:29
It takes a long time to get better at a lot of things and it takes a long time to be able to qualify for something like this competition and I think that's one of the more impressive variables to the weekend from all four to 500 athletes they had that Mike's only been doing this for two years and he squeaked into the qualifier and did an awesome job at Legends. And I want to get into his experience, his background and just where his mindset's at, because I think it's a unique one, right? If you interviewed every single athlete from Legends, you'd hear a lot of repetition, a lot of the same stuff. The fact that he's been doing such a small amount of time is really unique. So, mike, let's just do a really just a really brief intro on kind of your background. What was your CrossFit start story, as Stan likes to say? How did you get into CrossFit? And you recall some of those early days.
Mike McKinney
Guest
02:21
Yeah, so I can't remember if it was, was it 2020 or 2021? 21. Okay, yeah, so it was 2021. So that was like post COVID we started just coming out and we had just left another gym and Karen and I had just moved into a new house and we purchased one of those Peloton bikes. And it worked, it got the job done.
David Syvertsen
Host
02:44
Like everyone else, started COVID.
Mike McKinney
Guest
02:47
Everyone's stocks like rode up to the top of Mount Everest and then crashed, but we eventually sold it. So many of you guys know I'm a pastor at my church. There was a couple at our church they're no longer here anymore but Ryden and Nicole Radcliffe. They went to our church and they were moving and they were just wonderful people as just beloved members here at the gym and before they left they got together with us and they just, long story short, they really highly encourage us to consider coming to the gym and they hooked us up here and so we just started coming here.
03:23
I think it was maybe May of 2021. And it was. You know, we had a unique, we were going through a unique season at that time and so it was just a great place for us to come, like, clear our heads, get a workout, and but very quickly we were hooked just because Karen and I had college sports background she played college soccer, we eaten, I played football so we always loved the training aspect and that's of light lifting and interval training, and so it was. It seemed like a really natural fit for us and so we've been here since I remember getting a text from Liz your first time.
David Syvertsen
Host
03:58
You came in before. This is before membership, this is before you guys joined. I think you came and tried it out I don't know if Karen was at that workout, it might have just been you and she's like dude, this guy just banged, just beat the entire class in a strict hand stand pushup, running workout and I was like, okay, can he even lift? Then I saw him lift for the first time. I was like okay, we have something here Really cool. I remember those early days really well. Current family work life how you know, do you get to train six hours a day? You know like, do you even have any kids? You know, how did you get so fit so fast? Probably just revolve. Your life revolves around CrossFit, right?
Mike McKinney
Guest
04:39
Yeah, absolutely yeah, well, you know what? I'm a pastor. So the rumor is we only work one day a week and so the other six days I'm in here training for five, six hours a day. No, yeah, so I'm a pastor at a church in Paramus, new Jersey. Been there for about really since the beginning, so a little over 10 years now.
05:01
But yeah, if we've, karen and I have been married for 15 years, actually this January, which is great and then we have four kids 10, 7, 5, 2, sort of really full house. Whoa, that's a team right there. Yeah, yeah, it's a pretty nasty bunch, but yeah, no, we're we, we squeeze it in the morning, so I'll, I'll, typically I'll do 5 am, she'll do 6 am, sometimes up to the 7 am if Bodie's sleeping with us at night, our youngest kid. But yeah, we, we're pretty consistent there and then, and so it's really just been more the consistency that we do it. So I mean, we're usually in here, we're, we're five days a week, sometimes six, but I think it's more just a consistency. And then the college back, college sports background combined, which has really helped us to kind of move along, maybe a little quicker than than some have been able to.
David Syvertsen
Host
05:56
One observation don't have this in the outline, but I think it really has helped both Mike and Karen that they're both really into it. I think it's helped you and Susan that you're both into it. It's helped me that Ashley and I are both into it. Definitely not a requirement for someone to do well and cross it, but it's. I always say it's a cool thing to have in common with your spouse or a really good friend of yours that you get to come in and then have the same conversations, have the same ups and downs, peaks and valleys, and you get it. You get why you have to go to the gym today. It's not just because you want to go get your workout, it's not. I'm training for something and I think that has helped the both of them progress as much as they have as athletes, because Karen has really improved by leaps and bounds since she started as well, and it's it's really cool to watch both of them go through that. Sam, do you recall Mike's early days at all? I do.
Sam Rhee
Host
06:45
He is one of those classic guys I always cater.
06:48
There are certain categories you can put people in and he is the former pretty high level college athlete who has a lot of skill but is fragile, like honestly, like I've seen college athletes come in and they always have a knee issue or a back issue or a shoulder issue.
07:07
And especially contact sports yes, especially football and we have a number of former high level football guys and they perform really well. But you got to treat them with kid gloves at the beginning and I remember like some days you'd come in and it was like ooh, like it's not happening in my back, like it was. Like it was like a Ferrari you don't know if you're going to go 200 miles an hour or like it stops like sputter on the side of the road. And I would say the biggest thing I've seen over the years is that you've become such a durable athlete, like a way more durable athlete than when you first started, like you had certain workouts that really sort of sidelined you and now you can pretty much handle almost everything and be okay with it. I mean, obviously your knowledge helps too, but I think the durability is what I've seen with a lot of former college athletes is that helps them.
Mike McKinney
Guest
08:03
Yeah, that was probably my biggest regret coming in was I came in and I just thought, oh, you know, I've got. I kind of know how to do these movements, so I would just kind of rush right in and that was pretty dumb because I would get hurt pretty frequently and with a lot of setbacks. If I could do it all over again, I would literally probably scale every day for I don't know for however long until I really started to feel comfortable, just really kind of work my way into it. But yeah, that's, I remember those days. I still have my weeks. You know I'll tweak something, but yeah, that's been a huge learning curve and it's been. It's like half the game is learning how to listen to your body, which is another skill I've had to learn too.
David Syvertsen
Host
08:47
Yeah, can you do the movements Cool? Can you recover from the movements?
Mike McKinney
Guest
08:50
Yeah, you know that's.
David Syvertsen
Host
08:51
that's that second variable that I think it's easy to overlook. Last thing, and then we'll get into Legends 2023. You took a turn this summer. You lost about 20 pounds and you don't have to get into the story of why that happened. It was more, you know, somewhat medically induced that you had to. How much did that help you and what did it help the most? The obvious is oh, it helped my muscle ups and burpees, right, but you've always been good at those things. Can you kind of touch on the weight loss and just moving cleaner, feeling better, a little bit more energy, and how that impacted your ability to perform really well on the qualifiers, which puts you into this position, because I think if you did not do that, you would not have qualified. Yeah, I agree with that. So can you just touch on A the process that you took to get there and where you felt like it helped you the most?
Mike McKinney
Guest
09:43
Yeah, let's see. Yeah, just to give a little context. So like when I was in college I weighed the heaviest I weighed was I remember seeing 214 pounds in college. How tall I am? 5'8" Okay, and so today I'm probably between 175-180. So that's a pretty significant amount of weight loss.
David Syvertsen
Host
10:02
When's the last time you were 175-180?
Mike McKinney
Guest
10:04
Yeah, that was honestly probably junior year of high school, yeah, senior year I was like 185-190. So I've leaned out a lot and it wasn't a I want to get lean Right, it was, and I've told a lot of people before. But I just I have high cholesterol in my family. I got some blood work done, found I have pretty high cholesterol from my age, which is pretty much a pretty big shock, and Karen's a nurse and so she was kind of like on my tail a little bit about that.
10:35
So I really started to watch my diet. Kathleen Stanton is the nurse practitioner that really kind of helps me with some of that. So then I really started to watch my diet, when I eat, when I drink, how I sleep. I mean there's one of the things that's pretty cool about CrossFit is because the competitive aspect you're really trying to look for. What else could I do to improve my ability to perform in this competition? So number one is just like the capacity, the endurance. But then you start to think of through recovery Okay, I got to sleep better, I got to eat better, and so I got say I was just making a comment about this massive junk right here.
11:16
Can you guys see my? That's a half gallon. So I drink at least one of these a day, at least one of these a day, and so, yeah, in it and my body responded really, really fast. And so there's a lot of things that I changed in my diet. When I eat, how I eat, it's not like a super intense thing, it's more just. I'm more conscious of it and Karen's also really health conscious as well. So it's a great. That's also a really big thing. You got like one person in the marriage who's really on it, the other one's kind of not it, and when it's a team aspect, it's just a lot easier Huge.
11:53
So I lost a lot of weight and let's see how did that help me perform? I was more just, my ability to recover was huge, and then obviously just the quickness and the ability I'm moving less weight Right, and then obviously this may sound strange, I don't know if you guys have ever heard the I think it was Jerry Rice the old saying if you look good, you feel good, you feel good, you play good. So there was that aspect too, where it's like I knew that my body was responding well and so I just felt better as an athlete which kind of added an element, a mental edge, you might say, to my ability to perform. That's awesome. Yep, how old are you? 38, turn 39 in.
Sam Rhee
Host
12:38
April. Okay, and what would you say? Is one change, the biggest diet change you made that might have impacted you? What did you say, like if you could point to one thing.
Mike McKinney
Guest
12:48
If I had to choose one thing, I think one of them is pretty much I don't eat anything after 6pm because I've wanted I mean I don't really wear it anymore, but I use. I got really into the whoop band and one of their big things is if you eat late at night before you go to sleep, it affects your sleep. So I don't eat anything really after 6pm. A couple of the things is is just cutting out bad carbs and sugar, so yeah, good.
David Syvertsen
Host
13:19
I love that Simple. It's a very simple one. Maybe we'll have to throw that to the reset. 2023. We're still putting that together. Cool Legends 2023, the venue Arizona State Sun Devil Athletic Complex, macro.
13:31
It had a pool first time ever. It had two different floors One would you be considered like the main floor with the rig, and another one that was in the back but don't think back corner like we've seen in the past with legends. It was a huge, beautiful floor and then for athletes, it had locker rooms. That was used by the Arizona State student body, so it was massive. They had a locker room that was bigger than our gym and my first legends experience, we had porta potties with no locker rooms whatsoever. We had a vendor village. We had an athlete village. The athlete village was on the top floor of the building, which was probably the size of man. That probably was 10,000 square feet, wow, and so you just you had so much space you never felt crowded. For example, at Mayhem cool Mayhem's an iconic place in CrossFit.
14:25
Venue in CrossFit not even venue, just a gym, but that's. We were really crammed there last year, like they had to tell us you guys can't come before a certain time if your heat's at this time. Like you know, we were on top of each other all the time in 2020. We were outside the entire time. 2021 in San Diego, we were in the basement of a hotel. This was by far the best venue that legends has ever had, for just the simple spacing and logistical issues that come up when you have four to 500 athletes Proximity of the airport, 10 minute drive we could walk there. There's hotels and a social scene and restaurants and bars for spectators. The weather out there was just outstanding. The spectator experience was much cleaner. Bob and Joe, they hit a home run with this venue and they already locked this place in for next year.
Sam Rhee
Host
15:15
Oh, so that's where it's going to be for sure For next December.
David Syvertsen
Host
15:17
I was just about to ask oh, for December, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, this will not be for the games. I don't think that's been announced yet and I don't know. I have no idea. I do. Bob, when he was on with us two weeks ago, said that they were going to make a decision this Friday because that would be hot in August. Yeah, I don't think there's any shot, but I mean it was indoor so it's not like it's a huge deal. But I would think the games, according to what Bob said, they're going to want to use the environment. My prediction for that is still going to be somewhere in California. Okay, but we'll see.
15:46
But the venue itself you know, I know there wasn't a broadcast this year. We got into the economics of that. It just doesn't make sense to get a fancy broadcast for an event like this. So, spectators, you didn't get to see it as much. But from the athlete perspective, this was tenfold better than what we've had over the past four years and I think, if they can, they should lock that location in forever. Yeah, mike, did you have any thoughts on the venue itself? Because you don't have anything to compare to, but nothing really negative to say about it? No, nothing.
Mike McKinney
Guest
16:17
I think what I'm already thinking about the advantage of doing it at the same place is one of the most difficult things was establishing a routine when you got there. So the first day was like really hard, you didn't know what you were doing, but by the second day you figured out a routine. So if you have it, you get there again next year and you qualify. You kind of know what your rhythm is going to do that and you can do that from the get-go. So you kind of know what things are and how to map that out. So that's great, great point.
David Syvertsen
Host
16:43
Another advantage of using the same location next year. Joe has said that he spends a lot of the year trying to figure out where to go. He'll go on all these site visits throughout the year and then, even when you pick a location, you've never run an event there that impacts your programming Because you don't really know. Again, flow Like does this work over here? Does this work over there? Can we put something over here? Now you have the pool, like that's. I mean, if this is where it's at next year and it hasn't officially been announced yet, but it sounds like that's where it's going to be you know you better start swimming if you're going to plan on competing there next year and you know what swimming event works there really well. The pools, matt. There's three pools there. They're massive. There's so much space that I think they can already start planning all the programming for next year. Where a venue impacts your programming in big ways, I want you to practice your swim.
Sam Rhee
Host
17:36
I watched your swimming.
David Syvertsen
Host
17:37
Let's like we'll get it to the actual competition. I have a story there that that'll be funny to share, but I will practice my swimming. Okay, now let's let you know what. Let's do this. Let's get right into the workouts, because I don't want to spend too much time talking about stuff that that isn't as interesting. The competition itself is really what we want to review and you know, to be fair, here we're going to give good, bad and ugly. You know I'm not only going to praise the programming and the venues and the judging right. There's a couple of things that I know. Joe and Bob, they both want to hear what to work on. It's the only way you're going to get better is to find out what you don't do. Well, but let's get right into these workouts. I think Mike has a really unique and interesting perspective to listen in on, because Mike, I never seen Mike so down after the first day, and it was for a couple of reasons, and I do want to and he really was a different person by the end of it and right now. So I kind of want to again discuss, because I think from afar it looks like it's all fun and peaks, but there are some serious valleys when you go through this, it's a really long emotional weekend for four days. As strong as you are, as confident as you are, everyone goes through them.
18:43
So day one, we had workouts, the speaking of the swim. You had a 15, 12, 9, each arm, so a single dumbbell shoulder overhead. You had to do 15 on each side. Go swim, 12 on each side. Go swim, not on each side and go swim. The swim was 100 meters, I think they said, which was down and back twice in the pool, not a far distance. You know, if you're a swimmer it's not even a warm up, but it's a hard swim because of the intensity that you're putting into it and the fact that you're engaging your triceps and lats a lot with these pressing overhead. We were lit after that. Our triceps were numb, you know. We both finished the workout under the cap. We did OK in it.
19:25
Mike has somewhat of a swimming background, which is always a huge deal at comps like this. His father was a high level swimmer, so those guys always grow up in the water. You can watch him warm up the swim too, and you know that he knows what he's doing. You could also watch someone like me swim and say that he doesn't know what he's doing. So there's two elements to this right. There's fitness that can take over.
19:45
We just got done talking with Nick Squire about that event. He was a college swimmer and it's funny. You can watch someone swim and it looks like they're going slower, like they're doing less strokes, but they're moving so much faster than everyone else. I think Nick called me an ice cube in the water Trying to trying to talk to the kid, and I compared it to rowing, where you see someone that feels like they need to row faster. They do more strokes per minute. They just keep pulling and pulling and pulling it. They go fast but you get tired quickly. Then you have someone that's a really good rower pulling, you know, maybe half as frequent and rowing faster. It's the same exact thing in the water. Mike. Did you try swimming at all prior to the event?
Mike McKinney
Guest
20:29
No, not one single stroke. And that was not a conscious choice. It was a lot of just my schedule. Yep, I really could only work out in the mornings and so I thought about doing it going out there with you guys. It was just too much for me. But no, no, I did not train at all and I definitely felt it towards the end of the work. The beginning I felt great, but then towards the end it was just like you're just hanging on for dear life. It was wild.
David Syvertsen
Host
20:57
It's funny like I think Mike probably started off a little faster than me and I ended faster than him and I think that's just capacity and fitness, more than hey Dave can swim, because if anything, I would prove that I can swim very well. I jumped in and my goggles fell off and then I found out after you're supposed to tuck your chins they kept falling off in the warmup area, like every time. Almost every time I jumped in there, coming off, I'm like what am I gonna do? Because I didn't get the train diving at the pool we swim at. There's just no diving signs everywhere. So I asked Mike right before the event. Of course it's not me that was the problem. I asked Mike if I could borrow his goggles Because my goggles kept falling off and I assumed it was the goggles fault. And then they fell off on the first swim and that was after I kind of belly flopped my way into the water.
21:44
Sam, what were your thoughts on watching that one on Facebook? You watched all of our. We had a lot of fans out there, spectators that were able to videotape most of the workouts, so that helped a lot. Did you get to any feedback on that workout?
Sam Rhee
Host
21:57
Yeah, I watched you especially and you did more work than almost anyone else in that workout. It doesn't reflect on the time, but when you're literally like how much resistance can I build up? I'm literally like trying to. It's like pushing like I don't know. Yeah, like you said, a cube through the water. There's no efficiency. And your head was above the water the whole time. Like you weren't, your head was not in the water, you were literally forward like this max resistance and I was like he's working so hard and watching everyone. You could tell it's all technique and I swam some in high school so I could sort of see like the people who like had good strokes, who could push off the wall, like I know if Nick Squire would do that one, he would push off underwater and he'd be halfway under the pool before he got up and started swimming, and it was those kinds of efficiencies and it's still hard.
22:59
Like if you're not used to not breathing, like controlling your breathing it's all about controlling your breathing Then it's really really really, really hard. But I figured it was gonna be like that for most people. I saw some people standing in the middle of the pool and then like resting and then going, so like it was whatever you could do. Like I remember Joe said like he's just worried that they were, like he wanted to make it shallow enough so people didn't drown, like that was sort of the thing. Like there were some people who had real problems with it.
David Syvertsen
Host
23:29
There are some people you could tell right away that they don't swim at all Like I've been in water before so I know I had to swim like from that perspective. But you can see people have not even been in that situation when they almost got like panicky.
Sam Rhee
Host
23:42
I was surprised that they actually had a. You guys do something poolside all wet. What was that? Like grabbing the dumbbell and then like moving around on a wet floor and then jumping back in like what were the logistics for that for you?
Mike McKinney
Guest
23:57
The movement I was actually. I thought it was an appropriate movement because you weren't like having to go down and hold onto your grip because it was resting on your hands. So I thought it was an appropriate movement. The challenging thing for me was, by doing that, you're getting yourself out of breath and then you have to go into the water and I like I know how to dive into it. But as soon as you go into the water, you already need breaths. So you're like, oh my gosh, I have to get up and breathe quickly. So normally like you're like your heart rate's under control so you can like hang under the water and really kind of glide. But you get underwater like, oh my gosh, I have to get up quick to start breathing. And if you don't wait to get out of the water, you can like suck water in, which was what I was doing a couple of times. That was the one challenge for me Got it.
David Syvertsen
Host
24:43
Yeah, I think Mike walked down and says I almost drowned.
Mike McKinney
Guest
24:47
It was actually one that I was. I haven't told anybody this, but whenever I finished the workout, I swear I smelt puke, yeah. And so this is what I'm trying to figure out. I was like I knew I choked on some water, but I was like I don't remember throwing up. And then, I think a couple of days after the workout, I was like I really hope that no one someone before me didn't puke in the water.
25:08
I swam through their puke and I'm like I'm just choosing to believe that somehow I threw up a little bit I don't know it was gross.
Sam Rhee
Host
25:16
That's what the chlorine.
Mike McKinney
Guest
25:17
Yes, yeah.
David Syvertsen
Host
25:19
A smart idea, in my opinion, to have us swim first. That would be the first responsibility wise, because as you get more and more fatigued and sore, you're just increasing risk. Everyone's their freshest on day one, so I think it's always a good idea and, for future reference, whatever they do in the water should be on day one. I would even say it should be event one too. Yeah, she don't want to be predictable, but safety is always number one focus, especially when you're in water and bad things can really happen there, like if you made a swim really hard Sunday, I would have been a little scared. Yeah, we lifted right after two. This was an event Stuff. This was an event from 2020 that got canceled. I always like to remind people that this was part of the reason why I wanted 2020 is that this event got canceled and it would have been my worst event.
26:03
It was four minutes to establish a one-rep snatch, one-minute rest. Four minutes to establish a one-rep mass cleaning jerk. The bar's not preloaded when you get out there, so part of the four minutes is just putting weights on your bar and that essentially gives you about three attempts at a snatch and maybe three attempts at a clean jerk. Sure you could rush it and maybe get a fourth in there. Yeah, this is where it's tough to program things like this at a competition. The warm-up area was not bad. We've seen worse, much worse, but it wasn't great either.
26:38
We were in the Arizona state actual like workout facility with college students doing tricep extensions and bicep curls. They gave us a little corner of the room, but we're warming up with powerlifting bars. Most of us were, and you probably get a few lifts in. It's always awkward in there. You kind of have to be a little bit aggressive and just take a bar and start lifting, even if someone else is using that bar. But then you have a 20-minute period of just standing around and then you have to hurry up, scramble weights. You basically have to go to about 75 to 85% of your one-rep max and just go lift it. So whether you hit it or not, great I mean, they're always impressive to see guys like EZ Muhammad easily snatch 275. And there's a lot of other guys who's thrown around massive weights.
27:23
But, mike, let's talk about the tweet tip. You tweaked your hip on the clean and jerk and it kind of put a damper on the rest of that day and the next day because you didn't know how the hip was gonna respond. And Karen's, like, should I even come out and watch you? Like, are you gonna be on the sideline? And I've been in that position before being hurt at a comp. It sucks, especially when someone comes out to watch you Just touch on not so much the event and what we hit as weights, all right, but more of tweaking the hip and what it did to you mentally.
Mike McKinney
Guest
27:56
Yeah, well, yeah, I was really surprised by how much the swim workout took out of me. And so I get that I'm a deer in the headlights and I'm like Texan Karen. I'm like what am I doing here? This is crazy. Guys are like twice the size of me. There's just monsters there.
28:14
So I'm a little bit of a deer in the headlights, and then the swimming workout takes a lot out of me. And then you've got two hours to kind of an hour to cool down and an hour to like warm up for the next event. But the whole time I'm thinking about how exhausted I am. And then, as we're getting closer to the max lift, I'm just like wow, I have no, like pop, I don't feel like they're amped to lift heavy weight. So I was going into the workout just not having a mental edge, still feeling like what am I doing here? Oh, my gosh, I have to lift heavy weight in a four minute high window, load my weights. So I go into the snatch and don't hit near what I've hit before.
29:02
What was your goal and what did you hit? I wanted to hit at least 225. And then I hit 205 pretty easy, and then I went to throw on another 10, but there was only a 15. And I was like, ah, what's happening? So I would have had to, like, take the bars off, put it in the 45, that was my time. So I threw 235 on there, missed it, went down to 225, missed it. I didn't really care because I was just like this is crazy. So then the clean and jerk happened. And the clean and jerk I'm just a lot. I'm really really comfortable in the power clean, so I was throwing up weight really quick and then I wanted to hit 285. So I went to 275, power cleaned it up super easy, felt I barely dipped down.
29:47
But for long story short, like the one lift that I feel most uncomfortable with is probably the jerk. Just because of my knee, let it from college, but anyways, I went for the jerk and I just I've got another college tweak injury in my left hip and I hadn't felt it in a long time and I tweaked it right. When I hit that and it was like you know, like you know the pain, it's familiar pain. You're like, oh, shoot, that's not good. Yeah, it wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna get injured and have to go to the hospital. It was like this could just be a real. This could just get worse and worse and worse throughout the weekend. So as soon as I felt that, I just stopped and I had like two minutes left, so that was pretty disappointing I just stopped going. So I only hit 255 for that lift.
30:35
I think my worst event was the lift, which was disappointing, because I'm not a terrible lifter, but I'm not a bad lifter, you're a good lifter, so anyways. So when that happened, it was like they just kind of put me into a spiral. It was like, oh my gosh, am I gonna be able to do this? Karen wasn't even out there. She was supposed to travel the next morning. So then she and I are on the phone texting back and forth. They were like, should she even come out? Like is this gonna get worse and worse and worse? So that's kind of when I started to go into the hole which we could talk about kind of the mental low point of that. But that's kind of where that began.
Sam Rhee
Host
31:12
How about you damage mitigation for you? You're also not a heavy lifter, so what were your?
David Syvertsen
Host
31:19
thoughts going into it. Exactly that damage control hit a medium weight. That's like somewhat heavy, but what most other people are warming up with For me a medium weight, I wanted to hit 225 and 295. I hit 210 and then I missed 225 twice. Then I was like all right, just go to the cleaning jerk, start building up that barbell 225, 245, 265. I regret doing the 245. I should've just went right to 265. So I know I was gonna hit it and then I failed 285. I saw that you were so close. Yeah, I hit the clean and like the clean was tough. But again, same thing. I watched that video and I was like that is awful lifting. It was really bad, just like a bed. It looks slow, slower than normal and it did not look clean. Like I see people lift all the time here, like there's good lifting and there's bad lifting. Some you know sometimes you get the same result hit it or miss it. But even like my 225 cleaning jerk was just bad, you know.
Sam Rhee
Host
32:14
Do you think it was just the fog of competition Like you're just like confidence.
David Syvertsen
Host
32:18
It really was confidence, because I didn't lift that much this fall, I see. And when you don't lift like you have to stay on top of lifting, because when your confidence isn't there to really throw yourself underneath the barbell Remember, moving a bar is not about moving it up, it's about you getting underneath it and when you don't have that confidence to truly get underneath it with a strong base and stability and safety, it's gonna be hesitant and it's just not gonna look clean. But yeah, damage mitigation did not hit what I wanted to, and when you miss 20, 40 pounds it could drop you eight spots like that. Oh yeah, it's so tight in there, it's really tight, it's really competitive. So it's, you know, when you see, you know 40th place at a local comp, it's a much different feel than 40th place at this. You know it's that that person in 40th is a big time athlete, you know. And so I bring that up, because when you do kind of miss your goal by 10%, you can lose 40 points in the standings and 40 points at the end of the weekend still get you five or six spots in the standing. So knew it wasn't a great start for me overall, but again, part of the thought was I felt healthy, I felt safe and after last year I was really happy about that.
33:29
The next workout was called Hell's Bells. It was a seven minute time cap. Most people do not finish this it's. You have a dumbbell in each hand. You have to walk 200, lunge 240 feet with a dumbbell in each hand, 36 double dumbbell deadlifts, 24 double dumbbell hang squat cleans and then 12 double dumbbell doubles press.
33:50
Catch here is that if you break up any of those movements you have to take a penalty, which was two double dumbbell doubles press.
33:58
So you go into it saying I don't want to do 240 feet of lunging which for most people, by the way, is anywhere between 48 and 60 reps of lunges with a dumbbell in each hand, without stopping and turning around every 40 feet and you just didn't want to take a penalty. So it made you hold onto it and made the rest of the workout really tough, also a workout I didn't feel confident in, just like overall knee health and how my legs were feeling heading into it. But you have to kind of make a decision prior to like I'm doing this unbroken, like it's and this is where some experience probably went against Mike, and there's no substitute for experience. It means a lot. But, mike, what happened in this workout and I guess we're not going to break down every single workout, but I think the first three are really important to kind of set the tone for the rest of the weekend what happened to you in this workout, let's see. Hip's still not sure if you're going to make it though.
Mike McKinney
Guest
34:56
Yeah, do you want me to kind of go into the whole mental thing?
David Syvertsen
Host
35:00
Yeah, Like, really I want to share is that hang squat with your story because you went lunges unbroken.
Mike McKinney
Guest
35:07
No.
David Syvertsen
Host
35:07
You broke them up once. I took one break.
Mike McKinney
Guest
35:09
So I was going into that and that was kind of that was after. That workout was a huge turning point for the positive, because I was going into it like I don't know if my hips going to hold up. So I kind of had I had a very conservative mindset going into this workout. Yeah, I knew it was going to be tough on the grip, but so mentally I'm just like I don't know how this is going to go. So, anyways, the event starts and I'm just taking my time, being very methodical, watching my steps, and guys are just flying. I was like what is happening? I was treating it like a, like just a bison wad, and these guys are like this is not 5 am class on Tuesday. Oh my gosh. There was one guy lapped me going back and forth and I was like at that point though I didn't really care, I was just like I just want to finish this and stay healthy, right, mentally I started feeling better as I was going. I was like, oh, my hips, it's holding up, it's not getting worse, it's not hurting. So that was great. But because I was going slower, my grip started to really feel, so I had to take a break.
36:18
I think it was like maybe three quarters the way through the lunges, did two devil's breaths, finished it out, took a little bit of a break, did the 36 deadlifts unbroken. That was pretty tough, tougher than I thought it would be. And then we had the 24 hang squat cleans and we talked to some guy, dave, prior to that workout. He was like, hey, take 10 more seconds than you think you need. So I did that. I thought I was ready. I was like you know what, I'm just going to take a couple more breaths and I was planning to go unbroken on those hang squat cleans to try to finish as many Devil's Press as I could at the end. But anyways, I did 14 and I just mentally I chickened out and I took a break, did two more Devil's Press and I regret that was one of my biggest regrets is not just going unbroken on the hang squat cleans, because I knew that I could have and gotten more reps on the Devil's Press. But so that was a learning opportunity for me there.
37:18
But one of the funny things is in my mind I wasn't even thinking about the cap, I was just thinking I gotta finish this thing and I'm in a lot of pain. So I was just, I was like, oh man, I gotta get these Devil's Presses in. All of a sudden, just like three, two, one. I'm like, oh, thank God I was saved by the cap. I was like, oh, thank the Lord. I was like, but yeah, that was.
37:38
But once I finished that, I finished that the workout was over there was a release that came over me and there was all these other guys who were in pain too. We were fist patting each other and my hip felt great and I was like, okay, I can do this. I was like this is cool. I think I text scared. I was like this is the first time that I thought, oh, I could see how this is kinda fun. So that was the turning point for me and I got my mental ledge back and I felt good about going in, not about the pain, but the weekend, but it was just. I was like I can do this. And so that's when things kinda turned around for me.
David Syvertsen
Host
38:18
Sam, you know that statement about golf or it's like that one drive that keeps you coming back. Yes, Like you shoot a 114, you're terrible at golf, but you had one awesome drive and that's what keeps you coming back. That's what that moment was for Mike and we can all recall whether it be CrossFit or CrossFit competing, there's that one moment and it can be so many different things that says, all right, I kinda like this. I could see what is so attractive about this. So, Mike and I, we had a lot of time together. We stayed together over the weekend Recovery tubs, hot tub recovery, just sitting in the hotel room for hours, a lot of downtime. And I can tell you this, Mike's transition, attitude-wise after day one to after this workout in particular, was night and day, and I was really happy about that because I was like man, I kinda felt guilty for a little bit. I was like I brought him out here, Like I got him into this and you could tell it's almost like a weight was taken off his shoulders, Like he took a weighted vest off, and that's where I feel like his ability and talent started to show out.
39:27
So that night we had the workout with the jump rope and the rope climb. Cool workout, ascending complexity. Or I should say, not for everyone, that's not the case. You had three different kind of jump rope paired with rope climbs, Just like you would three different weights paired with muscle ups or rope climbs. It had that kind of feel to it. If you have a hole in your game with one of those jump ropes, you got exposed. I got exposed on that. But then capacity came into play with the rope climb. But after that we're now onto Saturday. There was another workout where Mike's attitude took another turn on the positive. Mike hearing about his football career at Wheaton. He was a really like, loud, voice-trous, emotional player, celebrating, screaming. Right, he was a linebacker. So all linebackers have a little bit of crazy in them.
Mike McKinney
Guest
40:16
Just a little bit.
David Syvertsen
Host
40:17
Yeah, and he did really well in a workout I wanna talk about. Bison's gonna do this. It's either gonna be in two weeks or in January, haven't narrowed that down yet. It was called Enter Sandman. It was an eight minute cap, again a tight cap, where a lot of people did not finish. The workout was four rounds, eight snatch, four bar muscle up. Eight clean to overhead, clean and jerk. Four bar muscle up. Ladies, your bar muscle ups were three Light barbell it was 95 pounds for guys, 65 pounds for ladies.
40:48
And Mike was the only one that I saw that went singles on every single set from the beginning Last one on the floor after those snatches, last one on the floor after the clean and jerks, and he ended up winning or coming in second place in his heat, and those are so much fun to watch. Someone that kinda came out of nowhere because he properly paced it. And then after the workout, mike runs to the finish line. Our fans, his wife is there at this time, everyone's celebrating. Oh my God, that was awesome. He came back and he crushed everybody. He takes his grips off and just slams them to the ground. Oh, I saw spikes.
Sam Rhee
Host
41:30
So much emotion Did he do it twice yeah.
David Syvertsen
Host
41:32
I did. I did both of them, man. Yeah, it's funny because he forgot his grips and his wife had to run back to the hotel 15 minutes before his workout.
Mike McKinney
Guest
41:41
That was the wad of the weekend here and sprinting back to get my grips.
David Syvertsen
Host
41:45
Good thing your wife is fit. Yes, but Mike was that kind of like. I feel like you've probably had this said to you before At some point show who you are, show your emotion. There's nothing wrong with showing a lot of emotion it turns some people off. But I like to see who you truly are and it doesn't have to come out every single day. But in that kind of environment, at that point your attitude shifted. What was that like euphoria of like of you went in and you did your plan Because everyone and their mother was going touch and go on the first set, because that's what we do, crossfitters. Right, you were responsible, you were smart and it helped you out. What led to that spiking of the grips?
Mike McKinney
Guest
42:31
Yeah, it was the total buildup of going into the hole after the first day to not performing well. But things started to take a turn for the better after the Hell's Bells workout. But what's funny about that workout is I was facing away, my back was to everyone, so I literally had no clue what was happening. I was just like I'm just gonna stay in my lane, do my thing. The guy I talked to, some guy in the 40 to 44 bracket and he was like I went singles the whole way and finished I think it was at first or second his heat. I was like I'm doing that, I'm just gonna do it. My only regret, I told you, dave, was I didn't just go ham at the very end cleaning jerks, just touch and go, and I probably would have won the heat. But whatever, yep, let it on. Yeah. So I just got into my rhythm and I just I didn't know what was happening. All I know is the very last round, everyone in front of me was screaming and I was like I think something's happening here. So then I finished my muscle ups and I'm running and I'm like I'm by myself. This is crazy.
43:37
And it wasn't that I got second. Honestly, it was like I finished an event. It just felt so good to finish an event. And then the combination of like man, I beat everyone and it did kind of, it was a combination of like oh man, it was the high of coming out of the hole that I was in. I was in a really deep hole. Coming out of that, getting second in the event, finishing an event, and kind of being like it was like I can do this, I can hang with these guys, and it was just. And then on the other, when I finished, when I crossed the finish line and the bunch of bison people were there, they were screaming too and yeah, it was just the pent up. Everything kind of came out and I just like slammed my grips on the ground and it was kind of this, it wasn't this like that's right, take that everyone. It was like I freaking did it.
David Syvertsen
Host
44:38
It was like yes.
Mike McKinney
Guest
44:40
It was honestly I was. It was emotion, just a sense of accomplishment for myself.
David Syvertsen
Host
44:46
Absolutely. That's what it was. That's why we do this stuff right. It's not for money, not for attention. It's this personal fulfillment that your brightest days come after the darkest hours, right, like you're always. You were in that dark hole for a long time and getting to that sense of euphoria, it's such a personal accomplishment that you can't replicate anywhere else, and I think that's a big reason why people love to do this so much. It's just that's always what it's gonna come down to just your personal fulfillment of knowing where you're, the only person that really knows where you've been with this right.
Sam Rhee
Host
45:18
And you guys both finished well. In that event. I think it was eighth and 12th. That was a very bison and Dave's been like you only finished four spots back of Dave. Dave's been doing this for about 10, 12, 14 years and you've done it for two, so next year you're just gonna surpass him. Elijah Muhammad finished. He blew everyone away. It was like 30 seconds faster than everyone else. That was amazing.
David Syvertsen
Host
45:42
Yeah, he. I think he was touch and go for the whole thing. I believe he might've taken a couple of calculated arrests. He's an outstanding athlete. He's just with some things he's on a different level Former games athlete, those guys that it's always humbling to see that you could try as hard as you can. There's certain things I mean the rope climb event. He would jump up three quarters of the rope and just kind of like this is why up there they come back down.
Sam Rhee
Host
46:07
That's his thing. Yeah, I mean the spectators who went from Bison one of them a shout out. Yeah, one of the things they all said was just watching the caliber of athletes and how many good, amazing athletes there were in every age division, just blew them away Like this was like the elite of the elite type people.
David Syvertsen
Host
46:27
Yeah, I do wanna give them a shout out, because part of that I think the emotion that came from Mike in that was you know, we have people. I don't think any gym had as many people that we did out there and we live across the country. You know it's a five hour flight. It's a lot of money too, if you add everything up with the hotels and food and everything, and Mike and I were both in that front lane for that workout. So it is a little bit of a disadvantage that you don't know where everyone else is during the workout. And they were so good about like you just give them a quick look, like you gotta hurry up, you're good, you're good, you're good. Oh, you're passing, he's passing you. I mean, you have nine people screaming. You can't really make out the words. Yeah, you think you, you understand what's going on, but that combination of that and then that floor, the way it's set up, you had people looking at you on top of you from the balcony and then that's where it got crowded and you know the 35 to 39 heats. There's, just there's. It felt like there was a lot more people there watching and you almost had like a stadium arena type feel to it. It just increases the intensity, it increases the emotion and our fans, spectators were a huge deal, just like good people. Hey, what do you need? Is there anything I can get you? They check out the heat before you, they give you a time, they give you a pace, a video. They definitely don't need to do that at all. I never would expect them to do it. I've been out there by myself before. Like that's again, you go out to compete for yourself, but they made a big difference all weekend and I definitely want to give them a shout out and a big thank you on here. And then spectators as legends grows, they have the games next year. Like we need to try to go out there and watch the spectate and support the actual organization itself, because it's the only way it's gonna stick around and whether you're competing or not, it's a big deal that you go out there and watch and support. Now the last three workouts. We're gonna group this together because this is where I do want to throw little constructive criticism. Their way. They added scaled and team this year and I understand why and I love the concept behind, why Either they're doing it for the community and you want other people to experience this. We had two athletes out there and we had another one qualify that couldn't go out there. Dave and Ella were out there for scaled yeah, for scaled and they did an awesome job. They had a great experience too and it was fun to watch them. I got to watch each of them one or two times and it's great to see them in that environment.
48:57
The debate here and Bob said this on our podcast it's I hate to say this because it's not, it's I want to find a different way of saying it because it's a resource suck. Like it takes judges floor space time scheduling. Like we had an event on Saturday. We didn't start till 4.30 PM. Amy started after us. Yeah, I saw that and it's hey, you're an athlete, you have to adjust on the fly. I'm not, but it's because they had so many more divisions and, as Bob said, they don't. A lot of them can't show up or don't show up Like they. You know it's easier, they're easier for them to drop last second. So you had divisions with two or three people on it, right, and the team division. It's kind of messy. When you got four people on these small floors out there, I wonder if they could go back and rewind, if they would do that same thing again.
Sam Rhee
Host
49:45
Well, I think, after they, you know analyze it, I think it's worth asking them what they think, because what it also does, it can impede our program, the programming for Rx.
David Syvertsen
Host
49:55
Right, like shorter windows. A lot of the guys that I talked to when we were talking about the workouts, a lot of them said it's very short this year. Right, the workouts are very short and it's because you have logistics to deal with. Yeah, we were on the rig once.
Mike McKinney
Guest
50:07
Yeah.
David Syvertsen
Host
50:07
The entire weekend Right, and because I think that floor only had 10 zones, 10 lanes in it. Was that my, my 10 spots on the rig or eight?
Mike McKinney
Guest
50:17
Yeah.
David Syvertsen
Host
50:17
I think it was 10 or eight. And so when you have four to 500 athletes and they all have to get on that floor, that's 50 heats that you know like don't you wish we had? Could that floor could have had 20 spots, or you had more time to work with, to make the workouts longer and throw a gymnastics element into it. That's where you know if you really are trying to find the best competitors there, the most fitness there. I think that does need to come first.
Sam Rhee
Host
50:43
I think I was going to ask you about this. I was asking now they deliberately chose no machines this year. Yeah, no long pieces, like you said. Yep Really hurts someone like you who's good at machines. Good at long pieces Like that might have helped a lot.
David Syvertsen
Host
51:00
Oh for sure it would have helped but would that?
Sam Rhee
Host
51:03
wouldn't that be part of finding someone who's like? I understand why Bob said listen, machines are prone to breakdown Absolutely Logistically. They're expensive. You have to rely on the vendor. It's a pain in the ass.
David Syvertsen
Host
51:14
I had to fix two rows yesterday during the while I was so pissed off. I get that, but 100%.
Sam Rhee
Host
51:20
But if you are, it's been integral to CrossFit from the inception. Shouldn't that be part of determining Like a staple, yeah of who the fittest is? I mean seriously I do.
David Syvertsen
Host
51:33
I do think machines, a machine, should be in every single four day competition. If it's a comp with three events, four events, then no, I don't. But that kind of aerobic capacity and heart rate and muscle contractions that can affect the rest of a workout are huge. And if you don't have capacity on machine, like no, I don't think you can deserve to win. But that's coming from someone that's good on machines and not good at some of the stuff that they did program. So I want to take myself out of that discussion. Like example, I want no max lifting at comps. You know like I could tell you that it's part of safety and there's other ways to test strength, but it's partially because I'm not good at it. So you have to consider the source when you hear things like this. But when you have 10 events, I think a machine needs to be there, or a run and I'm not that great of a runner, so like an air runner, meaning, which is a machine, I think one of those things has to be in a 10 event comp I respect. And here's another thing Dave Castro, greg Glassman, adrian Bosman what's her name? Colleen Lawrence or Heather Lawrence the big shots of CrossFit were at there. Yeah, that was amazing, like, and it was really cool. But I would be nervous if they were coming to a comp that I was running after. They just agreed to give me the games.
52:51
In my opinion, the program had some feel to it that said, let's make sure nothing gets screwed up and make us look bad. So, conservative yeah, not easy, definitely not easy, no, but Just more conservative in terms of, like, taking a little of a risk on a comp, Because if a machine starts to go out or four bikes start to go out, air runners start to go out and those guys are watching and that's a really hard problem to solve on the fly. I've seen CrossFit struggle with this. Remember the year at Regionals they had to count white stripes on the treadmill? Yes, like that, there are issues, but you know, if you are gonna be running the most prestigious master's comp in the world starting next year, that stuff needs to be a staple. But I liked the idea like, hey, this year we did no machines, they'll be back, dave, don't worry, next year they'll be back. I'm cool with that, because one of your Regionals CrossFit Regionals did no barbell. You know how many people were pissed off about that and of course they complained about it. But Dave Cascio was like I don't want you to know what to prepare for, so I prepare on the machines. And I had all of our athletes prepare on the machines. We didn't see a machine shortcoming on my fan maybe, or you just you can't predict this spot. This is what James Fitzgerald hates about CrossFit sport. You don't know what's coming and you could prepare your ass off for this and that, but if it doesn't show up, it's kind of a waste. So, yeah, I do think machines be involved.
54:13
To sum that up, where to go from here? Because we don't need to break down that last workout. Bison's doing that one as well. Dumbbell Snatch, galva Squad. But where to go from here, mike? Our other athletes we had we also had Amy out there and Mindy and Kathleen Five, six, yeah, and they're all different divisions. We got to see them work out a few times and they're all different areas of life, different experience levels, different performances, different goals. I would even say, are there any macro piece of advice, mike, that where do you go from a competition like this? Because you had highs, you had lows and I could tell you're already itching to kind of get back at it. Well, mike, how about you share that? Where are you at right now Mentally?
Mike McKinney
Guest
55:07
Yeah, mentally I already feel the desire to do it next year again, really. Yeah, yeah, I do. I think it's a combination of how emotionally I felt towards the end, coming out of that negative hole, and I think also that one event, when I finished second at my heat, it was kind of like, oh, if I stick with this I could just keep doing better. And just the sense of accomplishment I mean I told this, I said this to you the day before like that was, hands down, physically, the hardest, most humbling thing I've ever been through in my entire life, ever, ever, like no exceptions, not even there's no question in my mind Just the mental, the physical, was unbelievable. And then just the sense of accomplishment, of getting through it, was very rewarding, and so I could see how even performing even better could just be even more rewarding. I can't imagine, dave, you winning that, how the sense of accomplishment you would feel. But I think that's kind of where I'm at. But I think you gave me great advice just give it a month to just kind of sit on it and by the end of that month you're still feeling that sense of like I wanna do this. That's really where you're at, not so I don't have any like impulsive reactions to it, so I'm just kind of sitting on it now. But macro advice is I don't know if you think you can do it like, go for it. And I think Two things that just come right off the top of my head. One is just like, if you've never done it before, be prepared like it's gonna be a challenge. It's just gonna be a mental challenge.
56:54
I loved listening to Kevin and Koda talk about their experience and they all said, right, when they're in the middle of it, they're always like why am I doing this, what am I doing? But then when you finish, you're like that's why I do it and I went through that same thing. So I understand that. Just be prepared that it's gonna. It's going to challenge you more than you probably ever been in challenging your life. The second thing is more practical. Another thing that really helped me was was when I figured out a rhythm and routine to how to like warm up, cool down, warm back up and then recovery and the recovery, the back to back workouts. That was part Out there, right, yeah, out there. Like when you get out there, like figure out how, what am I gonna do, what's my rhythm gonna be? Where am I gonna warm up? How am I gonna warm up? How am I gonna cool down and just stick with that? I didn't figure that until after the second workout, and that's when things really turned around.
Sam Rhee
Host
57:56
Did you do something fancy like ice baths or anything like that?
Mike McKinney
Guest
57:59
Yeah, that was one of the coolest things is they had three ice baths out there, and one of the things that was amazing is, as I got out there, I was like all right, how much are these? And they're like, oh, they're free. They had free ice baths. We would have paid. By the way, yeah, they had free cold plunges, not ice baths cold plunges throughout the whole weekend and I took advantage of that like crazy. Had you done it before?
David Syvertsen
Host
58:22
Yeah, yeah, mike's a big ice bath. Oh, you're a big ice bath.
Mike McKinney
Guest
58:26
Yeah, strangely, but yeah, I think I would. Once you get out there, like what's your rhythm gonna be? Find it quickly and just stick with it, Cause that's really gonna help you to manage the stress. That was amazing to me was figuring out how to manage the mental stress of the events.
David Syvertsen
Host
58:49
That's like half the battle. Yeah, definitely, I mean fitness. It takes fitness to get there and then the mental slash routine to do well out there.
Sam Rhee
Host
58:57
Where are you?
David Syvertsen
Host
59:01
I'm not injured. Last year I was injured at this time and I knew that was gonna be a really crappy. Four to six months impact training, not to quarter finals. Very much looking forward to the open, very much looking forward to quarter finals, which I have got to. How do you feel about?
Sam Rhee
Host
59:17
what you did here.
David Syvertsen
Host
59:19
Well, I got asked a lot are you gonna do well or how do you think you're gonna do? And I was like I could see myself doing really well, winning, and I could see myself coming in last place. And I've never felt that way before, cause I just didn't know where I was at fitness wise and I kind of ended up. I ended up in 14th right and I was what is that? About a third of the way up the leaderboard and that kind of is. That's just the truth of where my fitness is. So that was accurate. Yeah, I don't think I got screwed. I don't like the machines. I don't think that's why I didn't win. I really don't. I'm just. I looked at the guys at the top and I competed with them before I beat them before and when I was watching them I was like I can't do what they do right now. Simply put, you know it's and I want to take a lot of that responsibility myself. I'm not going to come up with any excuse of like being sick or injured. I just did not train well this whole year. I didn't feel very fit going down there compared to what I've been in the past, and I do think I've lost some of my mental edge. That's part of why I've done well.
01:00:21
I've always said I'm not the most talented out there, but I can out tough anyone, and I feel like I've lost some of that kind of like swagger a little bit. Why Just? I think life some stress. My passion is still there for competing. I think I train with more fear than I used to, which at some point, I always try to coach myself, because this is what I tell other people At some point you're going to have to accept risk because you've gotten burned, yeah, and if you can't accept risk, in my opinion you shouldn't pursue this.
01:00:53
And that's honestly. You're not soft, you're not a loser If you don't want to accept that risk, it's just the fact because you really do have to push your threshold. That's what this training is. You have to push against the threshold and that means sometimes you're going to get tweaked or have to be not afraid of getting tweaked, and I've lost some of that. But without talking to Ashley. I always I'm teamwork with Ash, with everything we do and every decision I make is through her. It's never going to be without her knowing or having a discussion about it, because training to me it's a lifestyle. It's not just showing up and hoping for the best. So I have to make adjustments to schedule coaching. I need to have some discussions with coaches about that too if I want to pursue it. But I still want to pursue what I've been pursuing.
Sam Rhee
Host
01:01:39
It sounds like you have more fire maybe both of you guys for the open and for what's coming up for the start of the next season.
Mike McKinney
Guest
01:01:45
I'm excited this guy being excited for the open, for sure, yeah and just. But it also made me think like how do I get there successfully and ready to go?
David Syvertsen
Host
01:01:54
If I had to make a plan for Mike, I would say, yes, you can try to qualify for legends If the body holds up. But I would do what I'm doing is really keep an eye on that 40 year old year where you're in a new age group. Are you guys both a year away from that? I think Mike, you turn 39 when April, so Mike will be next year will be Mike's last year in the 35 to 39 group. Yeah, for both legends and CrossFit. Yeah, I have two years left in the 35 to 39 for CrossFit, one year left in the 39 year old group for legends. Okay.
01:02:28
So what I really want to pursue right now, again without finalizing this, is, yeah, still stay in the training competitive mindset. When you lose, sometimes it either tells you like all right, I don't really care, or you're kind of upset about it and it makes you want to go. But, like Mike, you sit on it for a few weeks because I've seen this a lot People come back from legends or a local competition and they're so fired up, yeah, and then they kind of lose the fire and then it's like they get really upset with themselves. If you still feel the fire in a month, then I think it's time to go and honestly I've already talked to Mike because I haven't had this in a long time I would like to try and train with him, because there's things he'll crush me in, there's things I'll crush him in, and I think that's good for both of us. Keep us accountable to it and if we can make that work schedule wise, I would love to go out there and beat him for the second year in a row.
01:03:19
I hate it.
Sam Rhee
Host
01:03:20
I don't know. I don't know where the smart money is gonna be on that one, that one. So this was his first comfort, guys. No, I know, Trust me and I remember when Mike came, when I talked to him like three times and every time I talked to you you were like I just wanna go out. I'm like you sounded so hesitant. You're like I just wanna see what this feels like. Yeah, if it's not getting hurt.
01:03:41
Yeah, and to hear you now is it blows my mind. It's very transformational in terms of what you went through for those four days, so that's pretty cool.
David Syvertsen
Host
01:03:50
Yeah, and I think he's set up well for the sport. I've told people for over a year that Mike I think Mike is as talented as an athlete as we had here. He just doesn't have the experience and he doesn't have the capacity yet and that takes a long time to train. But he's on his way up and I hope he sticks with it and that's it. Anything else you wanna add, mike, before we wrap it up? Because we gotta get Karen's gotta come in and get her open gym session. That's got.
Mike McKinney
Guest
01:04:18
No, I'm just really thankful to you, Dave, for pushing me to do it and you helped me a ton, Just even like give me guidance and wisdom on how to do it. Even like the rim of state in grocery shopping and the cool down. It was just cool to hang with you, get to know you and just my wife shout out to you Kari, you came out, You're, honestly, you're probably my biggest fan. You are my biggest fan. She's the one pushing me more in this and, honestly, also the people, everyone who came out. I have nothing to compare it to. So I just thought, oh, this is just what we do, Like everyone's here.
David Syvertsen
Host
01:04:56
It's great.
Mike McKinney
Guest
01:04:58
And I could totally see, like man, if the Bison fans weren't out there, it'd be a different deal. Even just like not only just like the cheering as you're working out, but as you finish, you come out and everyone's there to greet you and say great job, awesome job in the workout, whereas if they're not there, you get there and you're just like by yourself and just standing there. So thanks to everyone who came out and yeah, I just yeah. My three goals were have fun, not gonna hurt and don't get last, and so I did all three.
David Syvertsen
Host
01:05:32
Yeah, I'll tell you which was great so.
01:05:35
All right. Well, thank you, bob and Joe, for another year at Legends. You guys hit a home run with the venue program. Let's just get those machines back, all right. No, but this is a huge year for them 2024,. I told them to their face. I'll say it to them on this podcast we have your back. Bison's gonna support you guys as much as we possibly can and I hope we have an even bigger crew out there for December 2024 Legends and maybe even get a couple of games athletes in there at some point with the fields expanding. So the open is coming, guys, let's get it. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Herdfit podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.
