S05E149 - The Pressures of Pursuing Competitive CrossFit with Guest Amy Edelman

As Mother's Day rolls around, we embrace the spirit of motherhood and athleticism by bringing you a heartfelt conversation with Amy Edelman, a CrossFit competitor whose strength extends beyond the gym. Balancing the demands of life with the rigors of CrossFit competition. Her candid revelations about the pressures of maintaining peak performance while trying to achieve life balance will resonates with all of us.

This episode peels back the curtain on the often unseen struggles that come with the territory of elite fitness. We traverse the landscape of burnout, the necessity of an off-season, and the psychological gymnastics athletes like Amy perform when transitioning between intense competition and necessary rest.

Her experiences underscore the reality that the pursuit of athletic greatness must be tempered with periods of recovery and personal reflection, lest the joy of the sport become overshadowed by the weight of obligation.

As we close our time with Amy, we reflect on the future of fitness, the shifts in mindset that accompany the evolution of a competitor into the next stage of athleticism, and the courage it takes to step back from the limelight for the sake of well-being.

Whether you're an athlete, a coach, or an admirer of resilience, this discussion invites you to consider the harmony between pushing limits and embracing life's other passions. From coping mechanisms to setting new goals, we explore the full spectrum of what it means to be a competitor, a mentor, and a devoted parent in the dynamic world of CrossFit.

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

00:00:05 Navigating the Competitive CrossFit Season

00:11:31 The Struggle of CrossFit Competitors

00:14:58 Navigating Off-Season Transitions in CrossFit

00:26:31 Competitive Training and Future Goals

00:33:40 Mental Pressure and Competition Advice

S05E148 - CrossFit Quarterfinals 2024 Recap with Guest Mindy MacDonald

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: Hey everybody, welcome to the HerdFit Podcast with Dr. Sam Rhee and myself, Coach David Syvertsen. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition, and most importantly, mindset. All right, welcome back to the HerdFit Podcast. I am Coach David Syvertsen.

I'm here with my co host, Dr. and Coach Sam Rhee. And we have a very special guest with us today, a CrossFit Bison athlete, a 2024, here it is, quarterfinalist, Legends competitor from this past December as well, uh, Mindy McDonald. Mindy, what is up? Thank you for coming on.

[00:00:42] Mindy MacDonald: Thanks guys, thanks for asking me.

[00:00:44] David Syvertsen: Yeah, we actually tried to set this up, I think it was post Legends, right? We just couldn't figure out the right time, or it might have been pre Legends, I forget. Yeah. We did try to a couple of times that one time to have Mindy come on, and I'm really glad she is giving us this opportunity. Time on a Sunday morning to come break down with Sam and I, the 2024 CrossFit quarterfinals.

Uh, which was a really unique test this year compared to what we've had in the past. A first ever with CrossFit in multiple mediums that we'll talk about. Uh, but before we dive into that and the mess of the Uh, that is making the waves right now. Um, I just want to introduce Mindy a little bit. And have, uh, give the Sam, we got to, uh, trademark your CrossFit Star Story.

[00:01:26] Sam Rhee: Oh.

[00:01:26] David Syvertsen: Yes. But that's how we like to kind of just, you know, quickly introduce you. Like, what is your CrossFit Star Story? Is there some background on you for those that don't know you?

[00:01:36] Mindy MacDonald: Um, yeah. Okay. I mean, I was born in Louisiana.

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

[00:01:42] Mindy MacDonald: no, no. I, I cross, I mean, it goes back to my gymnastics roots, I guess. I was a competitive gymnast growing up.

[00:01:48] David Syvertsen: Okay. And then important to know. Yeah.

[00:01:50] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah. I mean, that's a huge, um, advantageous base. I think all gymnasts,

[00:01:54] David Syvertsen: how long did you do that for?

[00:01:56] Mindy MacDonald: Seven or eight years

[00:01:57] David Syvertsen: at ages, like into the teens, like

[00:01:59] Mindy MacDonald: seven to 14. I guess. Yeah.

[00:02:01] David Syvertsen: That's like, that's the prime gymnast competitions. Yeah,

[00:02:05] Mindy MacDonald: yeah, I think at that point, like, when you enter high school, you're either, like, in it or you're not, and I think I was like, Oh, I'm not going to the Olympics, so I'd rather have a social life than, like, spend hours in the gym.

Uh, and then that led into cheerleading, so high school and then college, I was a cheerleader at the University of Oregon.

[00:02:20] David Syvertsen: Okay. Go

[00:02:21] Mindy MacDonald: Ducks. Go Ducks, that's right.

[00:02:23] David Syvertsen: Bob Jennings is going to be a big fan of this episode. I

[00:02:25] Mindy MacDonald: actually, uh, uh, tracked down Bob at Legends and I just, I took two minutes and I was like, Bob, Go Ducks.

We got to connect on this. It was very

[00:02:32] Sam Rhee: cool. I think he goes to every home football game. He does. Awesome. And good for Bo Nix, man.

[00:02:36] David Syvertsen: He got drafted well. Yep. Went to Denver and then they drafted his wide receiver teammate. Troy Franklin in round four. That's a big deal. Yeah, that's awesome.

[00:02:44] Mindy MacDonald: I was there the the Joey Harrington era

[00:02:46] David Syvertsen: That was the last like him and Justin Herbert, too That was like the yeah That was that kind of put a tarnish over the Oregon program because he was a big time prospect like a lot of people like this is going to be the next big thing and then just kind of and

[00:02:57] Mindy MacDonald: they pushed him Hard to like I remember the Times Square.

[00:03:00] David Syvertsen: Yeah

[00:03:00] Mindy MacDonald: ad

[00:03:01] David Syvertsen: yeah, they poster boy.

[00:03:02] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah And then

[00:03:03] David Syvertsen: he got drafted by the Detroit Lions, and no matter what, you're just not going to have success there. Oh, it's so sad. Well, not back then, at least. Yeah, back then. Yeah. All right, so you went to Oregon. Gymnast background. Yep. Um, what was the fitness routine around that time, after that time, leading up to your CrossFit days?

[00:03:20] Mindy MacDonald: I mean, I was sort of, you know, during that time, I was just sort of on my own, doing what I knew to do as a gymnast. Right. Um, mostly body weight strength, uh, stuff. And then Um, got out of college, got into running big time. So the third, my, my late twenties and thirties were like my decade of running. I did every road race you can imagine.

I've done six marathons, 13 marathons. Yeah. 5k, 10k, all the things. So, uh, that was my thirties. And then like 39, I had a friend who was like, just come try this. And actually at first I was like, CrossFit.

[00:03:56] David Syvertsen: Losers. That's

[00:03:57] Mindy MacDonald: not for me. No. Yeah, and then, uh, I tried one class.

[00:04:01] David Syvertsen: Where were you?

[00:04:02] Mindy MacDonald: Um, my first official CrossFit class was Murph.

[00:04:07] David Syvertsen: Oh, wow. At

[00:04:08] Mindy MacDonald: 201.

[00:04:09] David Syvertsen: Wow. Yeah, that is a, that's a real way to start CrossFit, right?

[00:04:12] Mindy MacDonald: It was an eye opener. Yeah, but I loved it.

[00:04:15] David Syvertsen: Yeah.

[00:04:15] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah. Um, and then, uh, Uh, yeah, at that point, I think Soar, at that time, Yep, in

[00:04:23] David Syvertsen: Hawthorne.

[00:04:24] Mindy MacDonald: Yep, I live in Fairlawn, so at that time, Soar was closer to me, so, That's awesome. Uh, started up there, and yeah, just never looked back.

I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the, the skill, the challenge, the community, Um, the mindset, all of it. So

[00:04:38] David Syvertsen: whenever I hear someone's CrossFit star story like and like high level athlete like Mindy, I kind of just take some notes here I'm like, okay, so gymnast Cardiovascular running. All right, and just kind of prepping Brock for his future, you know Because I do we do talk about we talked about this yesterday with people in class It's like what is the best sport background for a kid not just for CrossFit kidding aside just in body awareness strength And wrestling and gymnastics come up all the time.

Just the mental component, the flexibility component. And then I do think at some point, a lot of high level athletes, I know that didn't play. Specific sport through college to have a running background at some point. It is the best way to build the aerobic base So I do think that's probably a huge contributing factor Like you really do have a great background James Fitzgerald talked about this a lot with CrossFit sport Instead of getting into sport right as you start CrossFit He goes if I had to put someone in the factory, it would be bodybuilding, gymnastics, and then running or some sort of monostructural Mastery, you know, like running marathons, and then we get into the actual sports specific of CrossFit.

And I think that's, uh, that's kind of like, without even knowing, Mindy during those times at 20, you know, 7 to 8, age 7 to 14, running in her 30s, really kind of helped pave the path for her to being a really high level athlete. Uh, so, fast forward to current day, current day CrossFit. You've been with us for a little over a year now?

Over a year, yeah. And You know, you have, in my eyes, just from a coaching perspective, coming from someone that has not known you that well prior to that year, but known of you, um, you've seen a lot of gains, you know, just in terms of like fitness, like you're hitting lifts that you never used to hit, you're still a monster with gymnastics, um, and part of this is the environment at Bison is great, you know, you have A cluster of athletes, um, Masters athletes that I actually think helps that really kind of bring out the best in you and you help bring the best out in others.

And it's kind of this mutual beneficiary. Um, what's one thing that you've done over the past year that has kind of just brought you to a slightly higher level or maybe even an improvement over where you were prior to?

[00:06:45] Mindy MacDonald: I mean, I think you, you hit it with that first point, the, the community, like the, you, there are so many high level Masters athletes here and surrounding myself with these people has really elevated, you know, I spent I think a good two years, uh, while I was at, still at SOAR training by myself.

[00:07:02] David Syvertsen: Oh,

[00:07:03] Mindy MacDonald: yeah. That's rough. I think that there's value in that, like being able to train by yourself. You know, there's some mental toughness. There's some, you know, you have to dig in on your own. Yep. The external factor is not there. So you have to find it yourself, which is, which is beneficial. Um, but it gets very weary.

You know, I just, I was so tired of being by myself all the time. And second I stepped in here, I was like, Oh, this is what I miss. I was losing my joy. I was like, I don't know. Why am I doing this anymore? It's not fun. I wasn't having fun. And the first day I stepped in here, I was, I felt such relief just to be with people again.

And then, um, to be with such high level people on top of that, I think it's been just really great. That's been the difference maker.

[00:07:47] Sam Rhee: I remember when you were at SOAR and the first time I met you, I remember you dropped in to do quarter five. It was AGOQ. It was

[00:07:54] Mindy MacDonald: the Open.

[00:07:55] Sam Rhee: Open. Yeah. And, um, and I remember meeting you and you moved really well.

Obviously the gymnastics stuff. But you, um, obviously were a very, very good athlete, and it's nice when, uh, and then you started to make friendships and, you know, grow relationships and sort of connect with people, and as Dave said, you push them, they push you, and it's always, it's been a huge benefit, and I've actually seen that with other athletes.

There are some actually here who also Coach at other locations, but they come here to train. Yeah, which is such a weird thing for me But it I mean it doesn't really matter. It's like wherever you find your thing but I I would say that It really helped like the community aspect and like minded people With that sort of talent like it it really helps and I've seen how many other people here have I've worked with you and, and continue to push, uh, I see it on all you guys social media, too, so that's really, it's fun, it's good, I really, really like that, like, that's, that's important, especially when it comes to post open type of competition, and And work, it's like, it's a grind, it's really grindy and you need people to help you with that.

[00:09:08] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah, for sure. I actually have an Instagram post written up that I'm about to put up, but I feel like there is just, um, greatness in the air here. I feel like it's, um, contagious and it's more than just like our individual pursuits and accomplishments. Like, we're here rooting for each other, we're championing each other's efforts, we're trying Um, make sure that the other person succeeds without feeling threatened, right?

Like, I'm happy when you succeed. I trust that you're happy when I succeed. Um, you know, regardless of our own disappointments. Like, I came out of this quarterfinals super disappointed, but I'm so happy for my training buddies. You know, they're, they're amazing. They're killing it. So, this place breeds that.

[00:09:52] David Syvertsen: Yeah, I think, remember, I reflected on that a lot myself. I've been here from the beginning, but I still reflect on that. Like, at the announcement last year, that was a big deal for us. And I just remember thinking, like, you know, we're only here in the positions we're in because of each other, but we're also here for each other.

And like, I really do, down to my core, feel that way. And it humbles you. It kind of keeps you in check. Because, uh, you know, I do, I want to dive, I kind of want to circle back to that at the end. of like your quarterfinal experience and the highs and lows and where to go from there because there's so many people from the shim and from outside the shim that listen to this podcast.

They're in the same exact mindset, and unless you win the games, you're gonna be in that mindset at some point. So, um, I can't look I can't Looking forward to that part of the episode towards the end. I want to break down quarterfinals, macro first, like big picture, um, and then we can dive into the workouts, because there's only four this year, and that could be part of the discussion too, should there have been more.

Uh, but I wanna kinda just look at it from this bird's eye perspective. Um, they've played around with things. The stage after the Open, so many different times since they shut down Regionals. Um, and, you know, I don't want to get into are they doing the right thing or not. Because, I don't know, to be honest with you, there are advantages.

I love the 25 percent this year. When I first heard about it, I liked it, didn't love it. And selfishly, it was just like, wow, it's going to make it really tough to run. Because you know you're going to have a lot of people qualify. And yeah, CrossFit Bison, because they upped it to 25%, you know, it's going to be tough.

Had 75 athletes qualify. 55 masters. That masters number, I should say age group, because of Manny, alright, our teenager. Our teenager wonder boy, by the way. Um, that he, that was the most in the world, Sam. 55 master athletes moving on to the next stage was the most in the world. Isn't that cool to be a part of?

That is very cool. Yeah. And 75, I think, ranked 5th in the world in terms of total number. Sorry, in terms of total numbers. So, that's a really cool Instagram post to make. But then you break down like, holy cow. It was tough last year to run with 24 athletes in quarterfinals. And you're multiplying this potentially by 3.

How are you going to do this? And I want to give kudos to CrossFit before we talk about this leaderboard situation. That they made these very affiliate friendly, class friendly. And I've got some feedback from some Bison members. I want to get your feedback now. Um, what it was like to schedule this. You know, we shut the gym down for one class on one night.

And then other than that, it was just a bunch of open gym periods where the whole staff contributed there. So thank you to those guys. Um, the members, the athletes were very flexible, you know, very respectful in that regard, didn't have any issues really. And then, last, we had two bison workouts in the, we had two bison wads as quarterfinal workouts, where the whole gym got to participate.

But, it also made it very easy for some people that were not videotaping especially, to come in and just get the workouts in. What did you guys think about that part of it, is getting the whole gym involved in these workouts?

[00:12:59] Mindy MacDonald: I, I think it's fabulous. I mean, if it's, if it's friendly for the class workout, I think people should participate.

Yeah. I think they, um, should get a taste of what, you know, what, what these athletes are doing. And, and it's, I, I mean, I don't know, from my perspective, I would think it would be fun to participate and be part of it. Um, as far as, like, the whole weekend goes, I mean, I, I texted you, I, I, you know, I was so impressed.

The weekend, yes, it was chaotic, but it was very well managed chaos. I felt like you and the staff and everybody handled it so well as far as the timing and making sure things like moved forward. And those that were not signed up for the quarterfinals and not actually doing the, having the experience, You know, some of the Open Gym pushed into class time.

[00:13:44] David Syvertsen: Yeah, it did. We had to start a few classes late.

[00:13:47] Mindy MacDonald: People were so good about that. I don't, I mean, from my perspective, I didn't feel any complaints. I didn't feel like anyone was like rolling their eyes at this process. Like the whole gym was supporting this and that's phenomenal.

[00:13:59] Sam Rhee: Yeah. I think, uh, kudos again.

I agree with CrossFit. The four workouts were Extremely accessible. They were clearly very carefully thought out. The two that you chose to be the workout of the days on Friday and Monday of that weekend were the, uh, the lift, the clean and jerk one, and then the, uh, the wall. Oh my God. Yeah. The wall ball, uh, burpee box jump over.

This

[00:14:25] David Syvertsen: is so cool to be a part of guy. Wait, what?

[00:14:28] Sam Rhee: And I think it was great for a couple of reasons. One is it gave people a little taste of. what that next level workout is. And it was really challenging. Uh, but you also provided really good scales. So people who didn't want to do it, uh, as prescribed were able to still get a really good workout.

Even if you had just started CrossFit last week. And I think everyone really enjoyed it. The feedback I got was that it was super positive. Uh, they enjoyed it. Um, they were tough workouts and, uh, and people did amazingly well. I think, I think just knowing, I think for some people that these were quarterfinal workouts, it gave it a little bit of extra.

Kind of push for them and uh, and maybe also got them to think, well, you know what, if, if I really want to, I have more capability than I thought I did, and maybe I could, you know, sort of work a little bit next year and, and, and get to that level.

[00:15:22] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I remember when CrossFit came out with the top 10%, we talked about it on the podcast and I said, man, that's like, it's really attainable for a lot of people.

And then I still do feel that way, but there's, especially with only three open workouts, There's a lot of luck involved if you're trying to make the top 10 percent and I hate using that word, you know, um, but there is some, you know, because we all have strengths and weaknesses and you can't use that as an excuse.

But in terms of getting to the next level, I know multiple athletes that worked their butt off and I wouldn't change anything about their work ethic, their approach, but that one workout showed up in a three workout open where a third of, so 33 percent of your score is really your weakness and their strength never showed up.

So it's kind of like, you're just kind of fighting uphill. And the top 25 percent kind of opens the door, obviously, to a lot more people, but I also think for those that are kind of on the outside looking in and want to do this as a goal, I think it's very attainable. Um, we had an athlete, for example, make quarterfinals that scaled one of the workouts.

Think about that. So if you don't know how the leaderboard works in the open, If you're first place in the world in scaled, you are a spot behind last place in Rx. Do I agree with that? Not really, but that's, I don't really have the solution for it, so I think that's the way it is, and that's the way it should be until you have a more logical, uh, solution for that.

But, that goes to show, you don't need to be dominating these workouts, you don't need muscle ups, you don't need to snatch 185 guys, 155 women, like, You don't need any of those markers because it does seem like CrossFit is trying really hard to make the open very community involved. Classic CrossFit. And if you're part of a gym that does classic CrossFit programming, you apply yourself, you clean up the stuff outside the gym, you work really hard, you're coachable, you scale properly.

In time, I think the top 25 percent is attainable for anyone. I really, I believe that. Uh, especially with the Masters, how the age groups change every five years and you kind of get a fresher breath there. I can't wait, by the way. Alright, uh, so The, the last thing we'll talk about from a broad perspective is just, without shaming CrossFit, uh, because we're loyal to them and we love those guys, um, It's been a little messy again, for in terms of how they're handling the no reps, the scores, the online scores, the videoing, right?

And this is coming from someone that Mindy and I videoed our quarterfinals. And it's probably the most stressful part of the weekend. It's worse than the workouts. And now we're seeing that the online leaderboard for workout one, which we will talk about, people are getting crushed with no reps via video submission.

And now there's messaging going out. Two athletes about workouts three and four, how they have until X time. I think it's tomorrow. If there, if you guys don't have videos, your scores are zeros. Um, And I've noticed that I don't even know if they're watching all the videos. I had two of my videos watched and I don't know if they're being watched or not.

I haven't got a penalize yet. I keep checking, which is great. All right. But I think what they're doing is for some people, it's just making sure you have a video. I don't know if they're watching all of them. This is too many people, but the people that are getting watched and not moving to perfect standard are getting crushed and it's causing an uproar.

And, uh, the age online leaderboard wasn't available for 18 hours after they told us it was available. And this is coming off of your year where Don Fall, CEO, said, We're taking money out of the sport. So they're pretty open about it. So, what have your thoughts been on just from the outside looking in, in terms of how, just the controversy.

Every year I feel like there's some sort of controversy about videos and reps and no reps. What do you guys think about that? Because I don't want to just share my thoughts on it.

[00:19:02] Mindy MacDonald: I mean, if CrossFit's still kind of, CrossFit's still kind of a baby, you know, as far as like the sport itself. So, they're figuring things out as they go and I think, you know, the biggest thing they have to figure out is consistency.

I think that inconsistency, uh, in, in all, in all aspects is super frustrating for everybody. Um, so I, I, you know, they're, I feel like maybe, I hope that they're doing the best they can. Um, but, you know, when it's like year after year like this, yeah, it's like people kind of lose faith in CrossFit a little bit.

They get their, their, their view is tainted. They're like ready to throw up their hands. So hopefully they can start to find some consistency within, you know, their standards and whatnot.

[00:19:44] Sam Rhee: I'm going to take the opposite view. I am a full stalwart CrossFit. I'm on their side for this one, like 100%. I, I don't see, uh, I honestly don't see, first of all, they're not going to apologize for crap anyway.

Yeah. Like, they are very uncompromising, and I've said that before, but in retrospect, when you look at it, what would you expect? You know, people are complaining, and we can go through the complaints, but what would you expect them to do? And what have they done that is wrong at this point? They told you how to submit the video.

They told you what the standards were. They are working through the video submissions. And this is not a live competition. It doesn't matter what your judges think. It matters what the video shows. And if you don't have your video, if your video shows you not doing, uh, holding to standard, Regardless of whether they warned you or not, whether or not they enforced these standards in a particular way in the past or not, when you go speeding down a highway at 75 or 80, like, whatever, 85 miles an hour, and you're like, Man, I've been speeding down this highway, like, every day at 85 and I never get caught.

So, Why are you dinging me now? What did you expect? Like, this is, this is the standard. So hold to the standard. If your video is not good quality, get dinged. So what, so what if everyone else doesn't get checked and you get checked? Like, that's a big argument. Like, oh, if you get, get dropped all the way down every, you're all the other videos need to get checked.

No, they don't. You got caught. You were in the top 40. As long as those 40 videos of everyone else in that 40 are clean, that's good enough for me. Why do you have to go down 200 places to check everyone else's video? You got caught. That's unfortunate. That's, that's like the cop catching you. I love this, I love that, that parallel.

Right, so, it's like, it's unfortunate. They're not gonna catch everybody, but if they catch you and they scrutinize you, it's like, or, like, cheating on your taxes, you might be able to get away with it, but if they audit you, Everything better be clean on your tax return, and it doesn't matter what everyone else's tax, like that, the guy next to you didn't get his tax return checked, you got your tax return checked.

Your pros, like especially, especially the pros, like, like, listen, we're AGOQ guys, like we're age group, we got jobs, we got other stuff, it's like, I understand, I watch you guys with the videos, it's crazy, but if you, but the professionals, Have no excuse, none whatsoever, and um, and anyone who hopes to make it in the sport, what did they do that was so wrong?

You tell me, and, and I'm pretty sure I, I, I feel

[00:22:21] David Syvertsen: completely opposite. That's a, that's great, great words there. I think it does circle back to personal responsibility. Um, you know, Hiller has made a living on finding people who don't perform reps clean on video, and he puts YouTube channel for thousands of people to watch.

so much. And comment on. And now he, uh, an athlete that he was, um, employed to, to judge and count and make sure he did his reps clean. That guy gotten so many no reps that he's no longer in a qualifying spot. He previously was. And the irony there, and he, his complaint is, you know, and Sam kind of just shot it down.

His complaint was, all right, so my athlete was in 30th place. He got bumped down to 600th place in a workout. You can't say that he's 600th place because you're not watching the 599 videos prior to his. Is he really in 600th? And Sam's like, no, he was just the guy that the cop found speeding down the highway.

And it does, it always, a lot of this stuff does circle back to just, it's personal responsibility. And we talked about this and it's easy from coaching. We all have coaching experience on this table. It's easy for us to be like, hey guys, move well, do your pushups correctly, blah, blah, blah, right? And I do want to get into this if we have time at the end.

I really strongly believe part of the, one of the best ways to get better at performance, better scores, better weights is moving well. And in a lot of cases, moving well means slow down, get it, get a worse score today than you could so that when something really matters and there is a camera on you or you're at a competition, it's second nature and that will make you fit.

And also, if you want to go down the safety train, that makes you safe as well. But that's where I think we can end that conversation is like CrossFit is doing what we've been asking them to do. is uphold standards. Make sure these guys aren't cheating their way. People have been cheating to get through the Open since I've been doing CrossFit.

I remember guys making regionals in 2012 that were not regional athletes, but they made it because they cheated. And I still don't get why you would want to because you just get crushed in front of a live crowd. Um, and you know, that's not even a moral high ground. Like, yes, that's part of not cheating, but what are you gonna say, Mindy?

[00:24:31] Mindy MacDonald: I was just gonna say that, you know, the other side to this is anything performance based, right? You have Gymnastics, you have ice skating, anything where there's a judge involved. There's the there's an element of subjectivity to it Yeah, so you you my eyeballs might see something different than your eyeballs See, yeah, and that is the part that we have to just sort of swallow.

Yeah, right We have to know that like, okay, this is that this is our judge. This is the person watching the video I can't, I can't fight it because this is what they saw and they're making the call. Right. So it's, I think that's part of it too.

[00:25:01] David Syvertsen: Judging is tough. You know, uh, being an umpire in baseball is tough.

A football, like it's, it's easy when it's slow motion, you get to pause the video 18 times and then make a call. Uh, but I, I think it does. It always, it's always going to circle back to personal responsibility and CrossFit will say that about themselves sometimes. They try to make it better, but you rarely hear the athletes talk about it, right?

You're just going to hear them, you know, kind of bitch and moan on, on their social media platform. So, let's now get into some of the workouts. Let's talk about this first workout that causes, uh, that has caused most of the issues. And it was workout number one. And we're going to kind of just go down the ladder.

We all did it. Um, we'll get Mindy's feedback on each one of these first. And, uh, just a couple little things about it with anything you've done different, anything you're glad you did, you know, a victory or loss in that workout that you want to share. I'm not going to go through all the age group scales.

I'm just going to give the workouts. All right. So four rounds for max reps. One minute of snatches, one minute of rowing, one minute of dumbbell box step ups. That's the dumbbell in each hand, farmer carry style. And then a one minute rest. So a workout that had a fight gone bad type flavor to it. A. K. A. get as many reps done in the minute as you can.

There's no transition period. And then you do get a minute rest at the end of each round to maintain intensity. Score is pretty simple. It is total reps. Mindy, when you saw this one, this is a pretty good workout for you because you have good work capacity. Strong, lower half. All right. Pretty good. Lifter, what did you think about this one in terms of when you should do it?

In terms of order and, um, strategy wise? Because there is some strategy here.

[00:26:34] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah, I mean, when they all came out, I thought, well, I guess I'll just do 'em in order. , and then I, I talked to some people, I asked you if what you were doing, what your advice was. Um, I ended up doing this one number, uh, second. Um, I didn't feel like it crushed me, and I don't know if that means I didn't push hard enough, but it was, it was definitely one that was, it was hard, of course, we had to make it as hard, you know, as hard as we could, but I didn't feel like it was like, I didn't die, I wasn't sore afterwards, um, I, I, in retrospect, I mean, we, we have 2020 in retrospect, right, but I feel like I, there, I could have gotten a few more reps on each round, if I were to redo this, Um, I definitely could have gotten a better score.

[00:27:12] David Syvertsen: Where, where would you see those extra reps? Just trying harder, slash, gritting your teeth? Or is it a specific movement? Slash, hey, make sure I'm here at this time?

[00:27:20] Mindy MacDonald: No, so I, I gamed it in that. So I had the full 60 seconds on that rower.

[00:27:24] David Syvertsen: Yeah, that was smart.

[00:27:25] Mindy MacDonald: And I pushed, I pushed what I could. I was trying to maintain a certain calorie each time.

And I, and that's what I did. I think though, uh, I wanted to stay above 15. I'm not the most powerful rower, I know that, that's, that I, um, I think I was 15 to 17 every round. Um, but I feel like I could have gotten one or two more snatches each round. I feel like I could have gotten a few more step ups each round.

So the, I was gonna say the weight on this, normally the RX weight, the 135, 95, and this and the lift workout were both 85s for the women, which was interesting to me, and I'm very curious why they did that. Yep. Not complaining, but it's, it's curious. So because of that, I feel like I could have cycled a couple each round and then gone to singles, and I was singles the whole time.

So, uh, I could have picked up a few there and then a few on the step ups too, I think.

[00:28:15] David Syvertsen: Sam, you started off your quarterfinals with this workout.

[00:28:18] Sam Rhee: Yeah.

[00:28:18] David Syvertsen: Um, Do you just want to do them in order to take the thing out of it?

[00:28:21] Sam Rhee: I did, I, I didn't, you know, it's funny, uh, Mindy, you were at 286, so you were right, like, on the edge.

There were a couple people in our That's so bad. We had a bunch of people in our chip that were right on the edge of making it to semis. You, Koda was close, pretty close, uh, Yerchak, um, couple others. And, uh, Uh, you're right, like every rep does count. I think, um, It's stressful, yeah. It is. I would've, if I was really gaming it, I, I think this would've been what I would've done with, like Mindy did, uh, do the clean and jerk workout first, I assume you did that.

Yep. And then do this one after that. Um, When I did it, uh, And I think this was actually really good for a lot of people even the quarterfinals that were like looking at the snatch Like I can't do this. They just rested during the snatch. Yeah, and ended up doing the row Uh step ups and they actually were decent like it wasn't like, you know, it's still a really good workout for them.

Um I sold it on the row Which was Uh, probably, I probably should have dialed it down just a little bit. I hit like 27, then like 20 plus every time, and it took me 30 some seconds after that to recover to do some step ups, and I think if I had dialed it down maybe 2 cals per, um, I would have gotten way more step ups than I did.

The snatches are the snatches. Like, how many did you get per, like, uh, Eight or nine. Yeah, that's really good. Like, I got maybe like four or five. So, um, this one would have been more of a damage mitigation for me if, um, but I, like I said, I, I got to the boxes and I was literally like, Karen McKinney was my judge and she just watched me for 30 seconds.

Awkward! You feel bad for her. But then the last 5 or 10 seconds of that minute I would eek out a couple more box step ups and so I knew I had it, it was just my motor took a while to get back there. I should have judged a little bit better. Was it engine or grip or Like what, what, what made the step ups really tough?

Yeah, so when I saw you and, and Alex, like you guys, the high level guys, it's, it's grip, right? Because you're doing so many. You're putting on the whole time. Right. But for us who aren't doing so many, it's not grip, it's just, uh, engine. Yeah. Like, you know, having the motor to, you know, do them. You guys could do them.

It's just like Can you actually hang on? Yeah, grit your

[00:30:45] David Syvertsen: teeth. Yeah, and hold on to it. For many.

[00:30:46] Mindy MacDonald: grippy.

[00:30:48] David Syvertsen: Really interesting part of this that I think made a huge difference, especially for myself. I think you too, Sam, and guys in general, is that it was a 20 inch box for the guys. Yeah. And yeah, it was, and Fight Gone Bad, maybe that's where the inspiration comes.

Because I've never seen 20 inch step ups in an RX guys competitive format, but Fight Gone Bad, which is where this kind of inspiration comes from a little bit, I think, yeah. Yeah. is a 20 inch box jump for men. So if we do fight combat, which we do it once a year, it's, you know, it's 20 inches. That's what the workout is.

We don't get, we're not putting my own spin on a workout that CrossFit creates. And I think, I wonder if that was where the inspiration came from, because I'm telling you this, I think I average like 13 to 16 step ups. Um, not a good movement for me. And if it was 24 inches, I really think it would have been half that.

Just a four inch difference. It's a, it's huge. Yeah. I'm pretty good with difference that makes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, that was a really, uh, kind of like a, a fun workout to watch people do because the, the grit it takes to try it, like when you say every rep matters, especially if you have a goal and you're on the bubble, it's, you know, no matter what you do, you're going to walk away from the work.

I mean, like probably could have gotten a couple, I was the same way. Probably could have gotten a couple extra reps here. I probably could have rested a little less and got four more reps. This was a really good workout for you though. You were 54th. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, it was all the row, you know, like that.

I'm not like I was, I think nine to 11 snatches or nine to 13 snatches, uh, for most of the workout, which is pretty average for people that were up there. The box step ups, I was below average guys I talked to over the weekend. Um, I have a couple of guys that we just compare scores, 16, 17, 18 reps. I wasn't that high, but the row.

Everyone knew that the most reps you were gonna get in this workout for men would be on the rower.

[00:32:29] Sam Rhee: Let me ask you this, on the box step ups, did you look at your video again to see? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, cuz what people got dinged was, was their head was looking down when they got to the top of the box instead of Being in line with the rest of their body, yeah.

Is

[00:32:42] Mindy MacDonald: that written in the stand? It

[00:32:43] Sam Rhee: is written in the stand. Is it? Okay.

[00:32:44] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I think the reason why, I don't know if they added it in there, but in the open, 24. 2, the deadlifts. There was a lot of ugly looking deadlifts where people, their face was, everything was locked out, but their face remained in front of the barbell from side profile.

And I think they wanted to get away from that. Um, which is hard because you're looking down. You're doing a box step up, you're looking down, you're naturally going to have a forward chin movement. Right. And you're not going to stop at the top, you know? One thing I try to do on step ups is feel, I have two thoughts about this, is feel both of my, uh, hips go forward at the top.

Mm. Like, I will stop, like you feel the knees straighten out, but then you feel that actual forward movement of the hips. And when I saw a few no reps, that's something I saw a lot. It's like, Yes, the heads were down, but the hips kind of like had that angle to them, which is pretty easy to see. So what do you think about your standards?

And I think I was good. I actually think, um, should I be saying this? I will say this. I think I, um, there's a few snatches actually where I would come, especially I was touching going a few at the start where, you know, you're that whole like stand Up, bring it down before I get the full lockout. Yeah, there's a couple questions in there.

Hiller was killing one of the proven athletes. Yeah.

[00:33:52] Sam Rhee: For

[00:33:53] David Syvertsen: Oh, his were bad. I saw those. They were bad. There were no, like, he literally just got the bar above his head and just dropped it. Yeah. There was no, no control whatsoever. Right. Here's another thing about this workout that I think needs more clarity from CrossFit.

In the judges course, step ups had to be done facing the box, straight through. Almost every games athlete that I saw was doing that diagonal, and I got asked by a few people in the gym, Can we do diagonal? And I think a few of them might be a little upset with me because I said no. Because of the judges course.

And they're like, well, like it doesn't say it in the standard. I'm like, you're right, it doesn't. And I was like, but I'll be really mad if they, you get dinged for that. Right. And I told you to do it. Right. And I don't think it makes a huge difference, but I do, what I do think is, What that does, that whole corner thing, doing step ups on the corner of a box, A, it looks like you are gaming it, cheating a little bit, I do think that, the best athletes are doing it, so I'm not, that's like a call out for everyone.

Um, but I also think it kind of makes it more likely you're not going to finish the rep correctly. Oh, right. Because you're not on like that flat surface where you have to really fully Get yourself moving forward at the top of the step up, where on the, when you're on the corner, you can get away with both feet and never move forward at all.

It's like you stay in the same line, the same plane the entire time. So I think that needs to be something across that needs to put moving forward very simple, no corner step ups. And everyone will know what that means. Workout number two! I think this is the one I have some PTSD from. Yeah, we all do. Yes.

All right, three rounds for time. 50 wall balls, 50 lateral burpee box jump overs. Lateral burpee box jump overs simply meant you could do the burpee box, burpee however you want, next to the box. Diagonal, facing, um, actual lateral, jump sideways, whatever you want. Just get on the ground, get on the box. Have to step off the box every time.

Traditional wall ball weight, traditional wall ball height. Mindy, we did this, did you do this one third? Because, yep, okay, and you did this on Friday, obviously, because it was due. Saturday. You did Saturday, it was due Saturday night. Whew, man. Um, what do you, what do you think? Because you are a CrossFit veteran enough to be like, Wait, what?

Is that a typo? What's your first thought on this? When you just look at it. That's a lot of burpees. Yeah,

[00:36:04] Mindy MacDonald: that's a lot of burpee boxing. I'm I'm not I'm not a wall ball fan I've it's always been a kryptonite for me, but I was not worried about the wall balls That was a lot of burpees to get through.

[00:36:14] David Syvertsen: Yeah Sam, first thought when you saw the workout?

[00:36:17] Sam Rhee: Uh, I didn't think it was gonna be that bad. And then like, well, yeah, I was just like, all right, I'll just do whatever I can. And I thought the wall balls were gonna be the issue. And like everyone else, this one just smacks you in the face with those burpee box jumpovers. And, uh, it's, it's such a mental grind.

It is. And I just looked at both of your guys scores. It was, um, you guys, this, this is the one you guys both did the worst on. You did 335 and 677. But you had, and this is, Uh, what speaks to the video stuff? Yeah, the video skill. Like, so why don't you talk about that first? Yeah. Because this is a, a, an app like this is, you know, videoing is, is a skill.

Yep. And, and it's, it, it takes a lot of experience

[00:36:59] David Syvertsen: so. Yeah, um, I first saw the workout, I said, this, this will be the one that hurts the most, it's the longest, to me it's a, it says, it looks like a 300 rep workout, to me it's 450 reps, because the burpee box jump is two reps, right, which is incredibly high volume, like very few workouts with this kind of stuff are you doing, ever, doing 450 reps, um, but I will say this, the brilliance behind the workout, nobody, nobody trains 50 burpee box jump overs for multiple sets, so it's like, we all think we're programming, like, Kings, and we know exactly what's coming, we know how to train, like, I've never done 50 ever in my life, alright, let alone three times, or tried to.

Uh, but yes, back to Sam's point, um, I, I've had video issues in the past, nothing catastrophic, but Enough where I shouldn't be making mistakes anymore with it. And I still use my phone and I cleared all my storage off my phone and I had, I think 30 gigs going into it. And for this kind of workout, that's more than enough.

So I'm in the middle of the workout. I actually started off pretty well. I wanted to finish the workout. That was my goal. So I'm in the 19s. And my first set was six minutes. I did start to slow down a little bit in the second set, but I knew in my head, I'm like, I'm good enough. I'm going to be able to push on the last set.

So. Ash comes over to me at around, I think the 940 mark, I'm in the middle of my second Burpee Box Jump Overs, and she says something to me, I'm like, Will you, are you really no repping me right now? Like, I, Tara's counting, that was my first thought. I thought she was like, get your chest on the ground. I thought that's what she was trying to say, so I look at her again, she's like, your video, I'm like, what?

And she goes, you ran out of storage. I'm like, no. She goes, your video stopped and like that like you're in the middle of the set and I'm like, oh boy So like I I composed myself about Less than a second, and then I lost composure, and I threw my box. I walked out of the gym, kicked the roller, hit the whiteboard, which I think is still broken.

Went outside, started cursing. I hit my truck three times. I thought I broke my pinky. I broke skin on my pinky. I'm like, I think I just broke my pinky. And then I walked down the street with my knee sleeves on, no shirt. And just screaming bad words, like I could not control, and it was good, it felt good actually to get it out.

And the CrossFit gods wanted to make fun of me one more time for acting like this over a freaking CrossFit workout. Where a RAV4 drove by me, circles around, and drives up to me, and I'm like, Like, what? Like, are you gonna yell at me for cursing? Like, what? And this, you know, cute little 20 year old couple, guy and girl, it's like, Do you know where we can get some coffee?

I like, I like drool coming out of my mouth. And I'm like, A, who still asks for directions? Like, check your freaking phone. And then, and then B, I just, I couldn't even, I just pointed to the stop sign and said, that stop sign, make a right. I don't even know if I said it correctly. And, you know, then I, I eventually calmed down.

So what ended up happening was my storage was off, but part of clearing storage on a phone, this is a lesson for everyone. You can offload apps. What does offload app mean? It means that every, uh, all the storage that that app is taking up, you can offload so that available storage is now on your phone, but you can't use that app.

Unless you tap the app and then it comes back to life, but then you lose storage. And I had my, the YouTube app, um, I took it off because that's where I'm uploading my videos and submitting from. It was taking up 18 gigs. I'm like, all right, you know, I'm just going to take it off and I'll, I'll add it back on later on.

And as I'm setting up my video, my, I must have tapped it, because that's all it takes, is for you to, it doesn't ask you are you sure you want to bring it back, like if you tap the app, and I didn't notice it, because I, when I got back to my phone that, that app was live. So the, the criticism here is, um, don't do that, but the other side of it is like, you know, Rafi and Koda are like, dude, just buy a freaking GoPro.

Like it literally, like there's none of that, there's no phone calls that get in your way. Um, it tells you, you have two hours, lots of filming. You don't have guessing gigs. Like Kathleen asked me like, how much, how much gigs do I, how many gigs do I need if I need a nine minute video? I'm like, I don't know, but that's such a master's question, you know?

But the, uh, I did, I was really upset. I was really angry. I think part of the anger was this was, I knew this was probably going to be my worst workout. And being almost two thirds of the way in and knowing my legs are really bad at recovering. I was like, I don't know. Now I'm like, I don't know if I can do it, let alone get a good score.

Um, I did come back that night and did it five hours later at five o'clock, uploaded the video and sent it in by the deadline.

[00:41:22] Sam Rhee: You almost finished, 293.

[00:41:24] David Syvertsen: Yeah, I was, uh, I think I was nine reps shy. Um, yeah. Seven reps? Is it 300 reps? Is it 293 or 291 the score? I saw you 293. I think my score was 291. Oh, okay.

Um, anyway, so, um, maybe it was seven, whatever. So, the, uh, The lesson there is that a lot of people say is like, just put other people in charge of setting up the videos, which is always hard, it's easier to say that than to do it, because there's a lot of people that I still, more than competitor, I'm still coach here and owner before athlete.

So that's, that's, I don't know if I always buy into have other people do it, but I do think having backup cameras is a thing where you, you know, really need to qualify, need them to qualify for the next stage, I think is really important. Having backup, like the next day that the gymnast won, uh, gymnastics won, we had four videos.

So, um, listen, but Mindy, I remember you reflected on this one a little bit and I want to hear about kind of just the mental experience, the grind, because this workout to me was a, it was a grind. It was never like, I can't do a wall ball or I can't get on the bike, but it's, it's, it's overwhelming. What was harder, physical or mental components to this?

[00:42:30] Mindy MacDonald: Uh, I mean, honestly, both. I don't know. I, I, I knew, I know it was a slog for everybody. I'm, I'm not a special case, but it did feel like a special kind of disaster for me for whatever reason. Maybe I was. My nervous system and body were fatigued because it was workout three. Um, I, I, I don't know, maybe my cycle played a part of it, you know, like being in that phase of my cycle, it's always like low energy and whatever.

So. That day was just not my day, um, and so both physical and, and mental were tough for me that day. I mean, I, I knew it was going to be tough going in, but round one, I was like, oh no, I don't even think I'm going to finish two rounds of this. That's when you found, round one of the Barbie Box Jumps? The first round, I was like, I'm not going to finish two rounds, I, this is not going well for, I, I mean, I felt like I had an out of body experience.

I'm watching Who is this person doing this workout? Cause it's not me. Like I feel like on a different day, I really, I could have done better. I don't ever want to do it again, but I do feel like it, I mean, listen, this is all excuses, but yes, it was a slog and it was, it was gross.

[00:43:28] Sam Rhee: I think finding a way to get your mind occupied so that for me, especially when I was sort of dying, first of all, I had people around me like Liz and some others who were really.

Cheering and yelling and and that always helps and then the second one was I did five I would always like when I got the slog I would just break it up into fives five burpee box jump overs Rest for a sec because you can always do more but you're like if I just get through five Then I can get through another five and then I can get through another five and so whatever way you can trick your mind into like doing that like you said like I've been there where you watch yourself in that out of body experience performance and it's a horrible feeling.

I don't know why that happens, sometimes it does, but it's a tough thing to break out of. Because you're not in flow state. You're not in flow state at that point. At

[00:44:14] Mindy MacDonald: all, yeah. I think, I mean, you get to 25 burpees and you're like, Only halfway done. Yeah. It's a, it's a big, I mean. That is

[00:44:21] Sam Rhee: the mind to F on this one for sure.

[00:44:22] Mindy MacDonald: I don't, I don't shy away from hard work and none of us do. That's why we're here. Right. Right. And I never feel like I want to quit a workout. I always love, you know, I want to see it through. I want to do the best I can with that workout. First time ever. I was coming up from a burpee and I was like, I don't want to do this, I don't want to go home.

[00:44:40] David Syvertsen: I'll take my ball and go home.

[00:44:41] Mindy MacDonald: Yes. That's right.

[00:44:43] David Syvertsen: You know, just the last thing on that in regard to what you just said. Um, you know, these workouts, I think that's part of what this workout was because, you know, we talk about lower body capacity and skills and Olympic lifting. I do think every now and then you'll see workouts come down from whether it's bison or, um, or CrossFit in this kind of format where yes, you could take lower body capacity and all that jumping, all this stuff.

But I think they will make some workouts sometimes where it's like you want this or you don't, and it's not that you don't want it, but in that moment. Can you block out the negativity? And that's a skill, that's something that we can try and train over the course of the year. Like every now and then you might see a bison watch a week from now like, this sucks.

You know, it's like, warning! No, just kidding. Thank you, Cross. But it's like, can you overcome that? Because like, we'll look at a heavy barbell, and I'm like, can I lift that thing? Let's go. I'm gonna go for it. It's like, can you overcome a monotonous workout like Cindy even? Like some people, I love that workout, some people hate it.

Because it's kind of boring. And you feel like crappy about yourself because you can't do push ups or an air squat. It's like, is it really that hard? And I think that's something that can be trained. And I don't have like, the life changing advice for you to think about. But I think there are some things, if you could be present with what you're thinking about during the workout.

And then reflect on it, just like you would reflect on your lifts. It's like, alright, next time something like this comes up, can I, can I be a little bit better? And I've been working on that with Rafi, and there are a lot of things that I've, that I've picked up on. Not because he's told me what to do, but because I'm going into it, like, what can I pick up mentally about this workout?

What I was thinking that can help me in a future workout. So that's something I think as we get older, we're all looking for another, another edge at some point, right? Some of us turn to PEDs and I think some of us can actually tap into some mind space stuff that would help out a lot. Uh, workout number three, this was my favorite workout.

Um, so three rounds, 10 handstand pushups, 20 toes a bar. Right into two rounds, 10 strict handstand pushups, five rope climbs, and then into one round of 10 chest to wall handstand pushup. We call them wall facing handstand pushups, 20 ring muscle ups, 15 minute cap, a workout that's really tough to finish, but I love the flow of it.

I love that the handstands are, There's three different versions of them. Just like there's, uh, different versions of a weightlifting workout with different weights. I like that they're paired with different pulling muscles. Um, that really kind of caused a lot of interference as the workout gets deeper into it.

I just, I thought it was a really well. I geek out on programming. I thought this was like the best programmed workout of the weekend. Mindy, gymnast background. Were you pumped when you saw this?

[00:47:11] Mindy MacDonald: I, yes and no. So, I love all the gymnastics stuff, of course. Um, strict handstand push ups, for whatever reason, in my gymnastics background have always been such a thorn in my side.

And, um, They shouldn't be anymore because it's been enough years that I should be, you know, put in enough time to make them not a weakness anymore. Um, and they're better than they used to be, but they're still a stopping point for me. So, the Strict Hansen push ups really, um, you know, hurt me on this one.

Okay. I got through all of them, but, um, I should definitely be able to crank out more than singles at a time. Okay. In previous years, I don't think I would have gotten through all of them. So that's progress, but clearly I need to still be putting in more time. I would love to have gotten to those ring muscle ups.

I know.

[00:47:53] David Syvertsen: Because you are, Mindy's very good on the rings. Yeah. Just her, her movement, her timing, her coordination, her consistency. And we know, That, that was probably the biggest separate in the workout. If you got there and got one, you, you know, go up the, up the leaderboard like that.

[00:48:08] Mindy MacDonald: But they were put at the end on purpose.

[00:48:09] David Syvertsen: Oh, for sure. For that very

[00:48:10] Mindy MacDonald: reason. You know, the people who got stopped. Um, so again, I agree. It's a very well programmed workout. I just, um, you know, in the future, those will not be weak.

[00:48:19] David Syvertsen: Yes, yes, yes. Strictly said pushups are a. A little grind to get better at like it really and I and I've seen so many athletes over the years similar thing get just Caught up in workout and like that's never happening again and the motivation is there for two months and you're like wow in two months I got right six percent better Like I still can't get my fourth rep, you know, like what's going on is this working?

It's a long fight and there's a lot of reasons that people get to a struggle point with them. Like Mindy, I don't think it's strength. Um, I think some of it is more just stamina, but also just some tightness. So if you're a little tight, um, you just don't get to activate things that other people are activating that are looser and have more mobility in their thoracic.

But, um, it, there are a lot of things about short tansent push ups that require a lot of not fun work for small gains. You know, there are some stuff with like snatching and cleans where You can work on it for three months and see huge gains. Shirts handstands, like you might go from four to six reps and it's still gonna, but I do think the needle can be moved.

Um, it just, it takes longer than you think. Sam, thoughts on this workout?

[00:49:25] Sam Rhee: This was accessible. I mean, a lot of people can, I mean, but they also struggle with a lot of points with it. Like the kipping handstand pushups and toes to bar, like for some people that was sort of. A challenge to, to get through. Yep.

Um, and then for a lot of people I saw, even really good athletes like you and um, like Julia Kelly, like the strict handstand pushups became like the roadblock for her. Uh, for me This one is, was the most disappointing for me because I left a lot on the table because I, and I consciously did because of the rope climbs.

I personally hate rope climbs, uh, and I know a lot of people don't like going up 15 feet and like coming back down. Especially tired too. Yeah, and the other thing is, is that it really beats up my hands and I've burnt myself so bad on, on rope climbs before. And I just came into this saying, I'm not going to make semis.

So why do I have to sell out on this? And I was thinking I got to operate on Monday. I have, if I blisters, it's just going to be a mess. And you've seen me on rope climbs. Like I take every part of my hand. Cause I, I don't, I'm afraid. And

[00:50:34] David Syvertsen: that's, that's completely understandable. Like if I was coming in to get a surgery done by you.

Right. So I kind of get a nose job or lip job. Right. And you're like, yeah, I don't know how this is going to go. My hands are all blistered.

[00:50:45] Sam Rhee: Like I know exactly where they blister on this. So, so I went slow and I left it on the table. And then afterwards I was like, cause I didn't get through all the rope climbs, but I knew if I, but I'm really good at the strict handstand and I could have gotten through some of the chest.

And I wonder how far I could have gotten on that. And it was like, so. In my mind, I was like, well, I, man, it's so hard not to send it anymore. I know. And so I made that deliberate choice, but then I look at my numbers and I was like, man, if I had, maybe I could have gotten real close. So can you. And so, but, you know, watching, Like this one was really up the alley for a lot of people.

Like I saw Kevin Urchak and he just like dismantled this workout perfectly. Like he just analyze it. Like you 1201, like surgical, like you guys, when you guys are good at these movements, it just, it's actually a joy to watch athletes do that.

[00:51:40] David Syvertsen: Yeah. When you've, I think that's something that we could all try to just get better at is really knowing what you can do.

Like sometimes you don't know. So you like, you go to these handstand pushups and you're like, Can I do one every 20 seconds? Like, I think, can I do one every 20 seconds? Or is it one every minute? Because that's a big difference. And you don't want to start failing reps. I saw a couple athletes, they were failing reps at some point.

And in your head, you're like, Man, I wish you just waited 10 more seconds. Because A, you didn't get credit for that. And B, now you just restarted the recovery clock. But it, and yes, there are times you have to take some risk and just go for it. And sometimes it hits you in the face, sometimes it doesn't.

But it is, um, like Kevin and I as an example, we've been doing this for 12, 13 years, and we're both, in addition to that, we're probably too into the numbers and pacing and, you know, his, I can't even follow his strategy sometimes, it's like, You know, take a left step at 21 seconds, take a right step at 22.

You know, this needs to be three feet away and that needs to be five. Uh, but it helps him. It really does help him get the most out of himself. And I think he's a guy that I'm looking forward to seeing what he does over the next few years. I think it's going to help him get fitter and fitter as he gets older.

He ages up into the next category

[00:52:52] Sam Rhee: next year. So nice. He's going to be a beast next year. Nice. Awesome. How did you feel? I saw you, you, you're a ring muscle ups. I've never seen you sort of get a little janky. You, you really pushed it at the end, because like your last couple, like, they were, you know, but your legs are always like so tight, and then at the end you were like pushing it, like you didn't rest as much as you normally probably would have wanted to, and you, but you finished with a really, really good timing.

[00:53:18] David Syvertsen: Yeah, no, I'm, I'm careful on ring muscle ups, like I rarely, Rarely go to a failure point. Like, if I start catching them below a certain point, in terms of like, my, uh, shoulder above the rings, I usually won't do try another one. It's to me, it's not worth the risk. Um, and like, I I've I've just when you coach a lot, you see a lot of bad things happen.

On like, ring dips and ring muscle ups that, um, to me, it's just not worth that risk. Um, not out of fear, it's just like, I don't want to get hurt and not be able to do the next workout or not be able to train the next, you know, two, three months. But, um, there is a point, like I just said, towards the end of a workout, you could take a couple of risks or two.

You just don't want to train like that. You know, like the whole Rich Froning body, like, you know, listen to your body while you're training to help to shut up when you're competing. That's kind of like where that mindset goes. And I do agree, I think what happened in that workout, normally I have pretty good grip, that when I get on the rings, I usually feel like a nice, secure let's go.

So, Every set, every rep that I started, I think I did it in four sets or five sets. Um, I was like, I don't know if I can hold on. Something with the rope climb really caused a lot of interference. And I, I texted Boz about it and I said, Hey, that, I don't know if that was your plan, but that messed a lot of people up.

And he said him too. He, he was like thinking he was going to crush that workout. And I'm like, well, you should, you programmed it. But, but, but. He said that interference that came from the rope climb was, was a huge deal. Like you just couldn't squeeze and it's hard to be confident in your motion. When you feel like you don't know what's going to happen to your hands as you're flinging your body up in the air.

Um, but yeah, really like, I'm glad how I executed the workout again, came up with a plan, broke things up where I didn't need to, but I wanted to for the future. Like, that's something I don't think I would have done five years ago. I would just would have went for it. Um, I saw a couple of athletes really send it the first set because they're good at the first set.

But I think it impacts the later sets. Um, what do you think this workout would have been like You know those qualifying workouts where like, hey, if you're done by 5, you get to move on, if you get by 10. I think that would have been a cool part to this workout. That would have added some intensity and actually taken some strategy away from people.

Because you can gain this a little bit.

[00:55:22] Sam Rhee: Yeah, I think knowing where to take breaks and not to go out hot. Uh, is so important for so many workouts, and if you had to, if it was gated like that, you would just have to kind of send it to see how far you could get with it, and, yeah, that, that Not as inclusive.

Yeah, that would cut it, yeah. That would

[00:55:42] David Syvertsen: be, that would, that wouldn't be as inclusive, I agree with that. The top times in the world to me are like, amazing to this workout. What was them? Seven and eight minutes. Oh my god. It's like, amazing to me. Ugh. Alright, so Final workout. Mindy and I did this one first.

Uh, we had our You did this last? I did it twice. You redid it? That is Why? That is another advantage because, we should talk about that, they had windows where workouts 1 and 2 were due Saturday night. Workouts 3 and 4 were due Monday night. So that really kind of takes away the repeat possibility unless you do one of the later workouts first.

So Mindy, why did you decide to doing this one? Why did you end up deciding to do this one first?

[00:56:19] Mindy MacDonald: Well in previous quarterfinals They've always had lifts or usually they have lifts and i've always wanted to do that first because it's fresh Strength is generally my weakness historically and I want to do that when i'm freshest Um, and I also you know, I texted you and you and you prompted me in that direction as well Um, and i'm i'm glad I did I was fresh and I was ready to go and I really surprised myself on this workout I was happy.

[00:56:40] David Syvertsen: Yeah, I remember you you were like really pumped

[00:56:42] Mindy MacDonald: fired up

[00:56:43] David Syvertsen: You made a cool post about this workout too, in terms of redoing it and why you slammed your thighs and all that good stuff. I'm so dramatic, but it helps. I, I think everyone needs something. Dan Dodd talks about this a lot. He goes like, you need a pre lift routine.

And it could be a workout like this. It could be before a workout. Um, these, there is something that you, hey, you think it fires up the quads, but there's probably just as much mental, here we go, kind of grit your teeth together. Like, I see people do weird things with their feet. They do like a wiggle, like, you know, Britta used to do like her like hair, like before, like try to look majestic.

And I was like, why do you do that? And she's like, it's just, it gets me ready. Like, let's go. It dials me in. Do you have anything, Sam, that you do pre lift? No, maybe I should start

[00:57:26] Sam Rhee: thinking about that. Yeah. Yeah. Like something really cool. Fancy and cool. And smelling salts.

[00:57:32] Mindy MacDonald: Put some flair

[00:57:32] Sam Rhee: on it. That's right.

[00:57:33] David Syvertsen: Yes. Um, but so that this workout to me This one can really like beat you up more than you think. And it's, and you want to feel full, like fully energized prior to it. Not because of the early weights, but because of your heavyweights. And I do think there's some truth to the traditional approach of always do the strength workout first.

Um, my Toronto, my former coach. was always big on that. He goes, because as the weekend goes, your nervous system just gets less and less. Now, can you go beat a score? Absolutely. Like I think you did, right? Kathleen did. Um, I think Amy did. Alex did. They all, they all beat the scores. To me, that's not because they were physically recovered.

It's because they had a number to shoot after and these guys are ultra competitive and you put a number in front of Mindy, she's probably gonna go get it. Yeah. Well,

[00:58:23] Mindy MacDonald: now I feel like I could have gotten all 10.

[00:58:26] David Syvertsen: Example B. So you got 28 reps. I got eight on the third bar. Eight on the third bar. Yeah. So this workout was ten clean and jerks, weight one, rest a minute.

Ten clean and jerks, weight two, rest a minute. Ten clean and jerks, uh, weight three, rest a minute. And then if you get to the fourth bar about as many as you can in the remaining time. This was actually the same exact workout as the semi finals in 2022, but it was with snatches. Okay. Completely different workout, right?

Snatch is a lot tougher than clean and jerk for most lifters. Like, I remember doing this and I got, I think, two reps at the third barbell. I got crushed. Everyone crushed me in that workout. Where, as opposed to this one, it was, um, 43 43 reps. So it's a huge difference. Yeah. Right? Um, And, uh, the strategy for this is different for everyone, just based on what the weights are in relation to your percentages.

Like, I wanted to get through the first two as fast as possible. 135, 185. Yeah, like, touch and go, like, even if it jacked up my heart rate, I think the one minute rest in there is enough for you to But, Alex was the other way. He actually stopped going touch and go his second time through, but he's a lot stronger.

Mm hmm. He's a strong athlete. His engine isn't as high. Mm hmm. So, it's like, you have to kind of know, this is another situation, know yourself. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Do you like to go faster to give yourself more time at the end but your heart rate's higher potentially? Or do you like to go slower, you don't have as much time till it's at the end, but your heart rate isn't the issue?

Um, what, where, what was your approach on those early bar battles, Mindy?

[00:59:49] Mindy MacDonald: So I did it, I did it both ways. The first round, the first time I did it, I, I um, I broke up my first bar. I didn't need to, but I did. And then the second round, I'm sorry, and then the second bar, I did singles but not as fast as I could have because I didn't want to be jacked up when I got to that third bar.

I wanted to be as fresh as I could. Um, and then the second time I did it, I just went as fast as I could. You wanted more

[01:00:09] David Syvertsen: time. I wanted more time and it helped. I would recommend that for you because of your aerobic system.

[01:00:14] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah.

[01:00:14] David Syvertsen: Cause you ran those marathons in your thirties.

[01:00:16] Mindy MacDonald: That's right. Still coming back.

[01:00:18] David Syvertsen: What were the weights for

[01:00:18] Sam Rhee: you

[01:00:18] Mindy MacDonald: guys? So, we had an 85, 125, 155, and then 165 if you got there.

[01:00:24] Sam Rhee: Got it. And I think for a lot of the women, they could do 85, and then, like some of the other quarter finalists, and then they kind of got tapped out somewhere in the second round of barbell, and very few, I think, could actually do three rounds, like from in our gym that competed.

Yeah, I don't,

[01:00:41] David Syvertsen: I think only four or five athletes in our gym got to that fourth barbell. 30 plus reps. Yeah. I think four or five reps. It's really hard. It is. It's kind of like,

[01:00:49] Sam Rhee: 10 minutes goes fast too. It does. It does. I mean, I heard Castro talk about it, and he said like, Listen, we do program strength, but we program tired strength.

So this wasn't like a one rep max, this was a relatively heavy weight, but you had to do a lot to get to that weight. Yeah. Which is why For someone like you who, like, maybe, like you've mentioned before, top end strength isn't, like, your number one forte, but you got 204th place on this, and that's because you have a motor, a lot of people who are strong can't get there and continue to perform doing 245.

Yeah,

[01:01:23] David Syvertsen: I would imagine a lot of guys that had the same score as me probably got there a minute or two later. So they were, they were doing more reps per minute at 245. Like I was resting, I was resting like 30 seconds in between reps at some point on that last barbell. But because I got there quick, I just, it's not because I'm stronger than them.

I just got, I had more time to lift. Yeah. And that's where strategy comes in. Know yourself, how do you train throughout the year. But, you know, just to piggyback that, I love This kind of strength test, not for me personally, like take myself out of it. In terms of what CrossFit is, I think this is the best way to test it.

I really do. Um, you don't have to put burpees and toes to bar in, you know, do it if you want, but just like, you know, they've done this throughout the year and open quarterfinals, uh, regionals where it starts off here and eventually the big boys get to lift, but you have to, I always say you have to earn it.

You have to earn your right to go lift that barbell.

[01:02:14] Sam Rhee: I love this one also because even though it's a strength test, you approach it a lot of different ways. And you can go fast, you can go slow, you know, you work to your strengths. Brian DeCarlo was in front of me, and when I started I could sort of see him out of my eye a little bit, and I was like, Wait, is he doing the full clean and jerk?

He's going so fast. Yeah. Like, like, it looked like he was just doing power cleans, and I was like, oh my god, he is doing, like, he did, like, five when I did, like, one. So he wanted to give himself enough time at the end, and because he has the motor, like, you know, like you do, to, to get there and, um, and give himself the time at the, at the end.

So, you know, So, that was fun to watch different people, like, sort of approach it different ways. That's

[01:02:52] Mindy MacDonald: definitely my favorite workout. Was it? I had the most fun on that one. That's awesome. And, for the first time ever, the strength workout in the competition was, like, my best workout. You did well.

[01:03:02] David Syvertsen: It's never happened to me before.

You did really well on that one.

[01:03:04] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah, so. That's

[01:03:04] David Syvertsen: a great takeaway. That's awesome. Very exciting. That's really cool. I want to give a shoutout to Chase, who's one of our nighttime athletes. He did this Monday Night 615 class, which was right before the deadline, had never cleaned Endure 225 before, 215 was his POR, so he gets to that 225 bar with like 3 minutes left, fails the first one, and just like, you know, quick little tip here, and he gets his mind right sometimes, it does help to fail a little sometimes, sometimes.

You see like, you have the confidence, like, alright, clean I can do, I got the jerk to where I needed to, I just didn't finish it, I wasn't in a good position at the end, that's why we talk about positions all the time, like, what are you trying to actually get to, and it went up, and I think he lifted it three or four more times, um, which is like, those are still to me, like, I love those moments, like, I've never done this before, but because of this competition, and Chase does not compete, He now has a new Clean Jerk PR.

And I would even say after watching him, he's probably closer to 245 than he is to 25 now. So it's like those situations I love. Even for the people that are just kind of into it because, Hey, I made it, I want to have some fun. There's so many gains that come from this. It's not just about making semifinals or the games, right?

So this kind of, let's wrap up this conversation. How many people made semis from here? Well, nothing's official. Okay. Until tomorrow, but right now the list is at, um, Amy, Kathleen, Tracy, myself, and I think Mandy Myers is literally in 200th.

[01:04:22] Mindy MacDonald: Because of the shakeup. Yeah. The

[01:04:23] David Syvertsen: leaderboards say they are. Did she video her workouts though?

[01:04:27] Mindy MacDonald: So that's the question.

[01:04:28] David Syvertsen: That's the question. Yep. Not going to say that. I, I, I know that she videoed them. I don't know if she went, um, to, uh, template it the way they want to. So I'm not, I'm not sure what I told her, send whatever you have. Right. And then maybe they'll, should we not, should we cut that part?

Yeah. Well, I just don't know. I, I, I don't know what, what their, what their stance on that is going to be, but she was 11 spots out. So 11 spots, they'd get docked. So they are watching the videos. My videos got watched. Okay. Um, and then we had another, I think, 7 or 8 people that were within 200 spots. Yeah, it's really close.

Which is, you know, don't want to rub salt in the wound, but it could be 3 4 percent of every workout. Yeah. Which, to me, I've been on that side before. That should inspire you. I want this to, let's talk about that, let's close it up this way, because there's a lot of people in this position. And there will be more people in this position after semifinals.

Um, you know, you take something on the chin, you get upset, and you made a post about not tying yourself worth the results. And we've talked about that a few times. Together, There's a difference, in my opinion, between tying your self worth to CrossFit performance, but also having a freaking goal that you really want and not getting it.

Like, you're allowed to be upset. You're allowed to walk down the street and yell bad words as a car drives by. I don't think I've ever seen you do that before, honestly.

[01:05:44] Mindy MacDonald: I was gonna say, I also had some emotions after that workout on a walk. I went to the 400 meter mark. Cried my eyes out, came back, apologized to a few people.

Yeah, I know you do feel bad,

[01:05:55] David Syvertsen: but yeah, it's funny. People probably driving by this place like, what is going on in there? But let's talk about, you know, as long as you're comfortable talking about this, like that, that pursuit of like, if you work hard, you're very consistent in and out of the gym, you are a very good athlete, competed at legends last year.

Um, I do think you belong in semifinals. I'll put that out there. Um, Where, where is your head at immediately after and where is your head at a week after?

[01:06:26] Mindy MacDonald: So it's interesting because after Legends, I wanted to do better at Legends as well, but I came out of Legends Disappointed yes, but also very revved up like I was like, yeah Okay, let's do this.

Let's go. Um, totally different than this experience. I came out of this. I was so depressed for like, I had to take two days away. I couldn't even come back for two days. It was, it was really hard for me to swallow this time around. And I don't know exactly why I have to still think on that. I think part of it, honestly, if I'm being really honest, I don't want to take, I said this to you the other day, I don't take away anything from my friends.

Who made it forward, but it's a little bit of a sting to feel left behind, you know? I understand. Um, so happy for you guys and how you crushed it. Um, but I want to be there too. So I think that may be part of it. Um, but I'm, I'm definitely coming out of the funk and I'm, I'm getting revved up again. The other perspective I'm trying to hold on to is, Um, for me personally, I was never going to go to the games this year, right?

I want to go as far as I can, but that wasn't actually a realistic end goal. I want to get back to Legends. That's my real goal for the year. Okay. So great. I'm now get to get started right now.

[01:07:33] David Syvertsen: Yep.

[01:07:33] Mindy MacDonald: Dive into those weaknesses, make sure they're not weaknesses, come qualifiers in September.

[01:07:37] David Syvertsen: Yep.

[01:07:38] Mindy MacDonald: And then let's go back to Arizona.

[01:07:39] David Syvertsen: Yeah. Yeah. You have a lot of time between now and then, right? Um, like we always talk about this. Like if someone comes at you a month before a qualifier, it's like, all right, I really want to do it. And I'm like, well, yeah. We'll do it. It's probably a little too late. It's not too late for you to get better at all these weaknesses between now and September.

It's a lot, a lot, a lot of time, a lot of training sessions.

[01:07:55] Sam Rhee: And this was a good, uh, sort of midterm exam. For sure. And, uh, I don't feel that sting. I'm like, You guys go! These workouts are gonna effing be so horrible for semifinals! Enjoy all of them! I will watch and cheer every single one, being glad that I'm not doing them.

Opposite

[01:08:10] David Syvertsen: end of the spectrum there. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, do you, it, it's, I think if you compete long enough, you're gonna have the exact, and this honestly, maybe might happen again, you know, like we're, and I think that's really being present with You know, how you're responding and understanding. It's so good and natural to have, like, these emotions of, like, these up and downs.

Like, you know, if someone were to come up to you and be like, Mindy, get over it. It's just CrossFit. Like, I would step in front of you and tell that person to back off. And just, because we all have different pursuits and, you know, whether it's career, whether it's family, whether it's social, whether it's, you know, your own personal endeavors.

Like, Kathleen always says that this is for me. Like, this is what I'm trying to do. It's, it's not for you. It's not for, you know, You know, my family, I, I'm trying to accomplish it, and you're putting a lot into it, um, but I would try to, the only thing I would challenge you on this is, I'm not gonna say don't be disappointed, but I do want you to find the pride in what you've accomplished, because, you, you deserve everything you're doing.

That, that is good that comes your way, and because you earn it. You work your butt off, um, you're a great member of the community, you're not here just for yourself, you're not just, you know, only here to train, and like, you are, you have a great attitude, and I think you also should take some pride that I think you helped tracing Kathleen right to the next step.

Tremendously, and like, they would both say that. Yeah, and I think as you get deeper into this, like, I still want you to pursue everything that you want to pursue, and I think you can get there, whatever level you want to get to, because I think you have it, what it takes mentally. And to me, that's more important than how strong or how fit you are, or how many marathons you ran when you're 30s.

All right, really?

[01:09:43] Sam Rhee: That's a sticking

[01:09:44] David Syvertsen: point for you. I'm not running a marathon. That's why I keep saying it. I'm not doing it. Don't stop putting pressure on me. All right, you're going to run a marathon someday.

[01:09:51] Mindy MacDonald: Someday, yeah, that's right.

[01:09:52] David Syvertsen: Um, but the, uh, I think that the positives in some ways outweigh the negatives here.

You just don't see them right now. Like, I think sometimes, I've seen this myself, and I've seen this with a lot of people, when you do hit a goal, you actually tap the brakes without even realizing it. And this is like, you have to fight, but sometimes it takes you getting burnt. Sometimes it takes a loss, if you want to view this as a loss, for you to be like, I hate this feeling.

I don't want to feel this again. So if you have a great run in May, in June, in July, and you're feeling great, like, you're gonna have to keep this in the back of your head, not rob you of your joy, because But I think this is just part of the maturation of an athlete, is that you take situations like this, take it on the chin, go for the walk, cry your tears, take your days off the gym, but at some point you need to know, like, that, what just happened over the past week, is what needs to happen for you to reach your end goal.

[01:10:46] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah, like fail now so you can succeed later. Right. I thought about that too, like if, if the strict handstand push ins hadn't stopped me, like I still did singles, still made it through the workouts, still got to semis, like would I have an impetus to improve on them?

[01:10:59] David Syvertsen: Right.

[01:10:59] Mindy MacDonald: Probably not. Yeah, right. Oh,

[01:11:01] David Syvertsen: I'm good enough at them.

Right. Um, and that, that's a, that's a never ending fight. That's a never ending circle for a lot of us that we, we, we hit good times and then we kind of tap the brakes. We hit bad times, now I'm going for it. Right. Yeah. And, uh, I think the best athletes are the ones that manage the straight line, meaning like they don't get too happy, they don't get too upset, they just know that everything that happens is, is meant to happen for you to get to whatever your end up, uh, wherever you're going to end up.

[01:11:24] Mindy MacDonald: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for your kind words.

[01:11:26] David Syvertsen: Yeah. So that's it, guys. That's going to wrap up the CrossFit quarterfinal recap here at the HerdFit podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Um, I have no idea if it's going to be the same next year. CrossFit has a way of changing things up. Um, I think financially it was a good move for them.

I think that matters somewhat. Um, and I, and I don't think logistics, the videoing, all this stuff. That's, I don't think that's on CrossFit at this point. I think athletes, that's on you. Coaches, that's on you. And You know, you can be the coach that ignores it, but then says, complains about it, uh, 11 months later.

Athletes, you can be the one that complains about it in 11 months, or you can start working on the quality of your reps right now, so that you aren't the person making that really annoying Instagram post, complaining about someone else. Pointing out your personal irresponsibility, you know, that, that, that could be you.

So that's how we're going to wrap up. No more complaints, guys. We hate them. All right. See you guys next week. 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.