Barbell Shrugged - 66- Interview w/ South Central CrossFit Games Regional Champion Mike McGoldrick

Episode Date: June 17, 2013

This week on Barbell Shrug, we have Mike McGoldrick, winner of the South Central Regional. Yo, this is CTP and you're listening to the Barbell Shrug Podcast, the number one strength and conditioning podcast for CrossFitter. If you want to check out the video version, which you should, go to fitter.tv and watch that because it's way cooler than just listening. And how do you spell fitter.tv there, Mr. Budso? F-I-T-R.TV. He's a good speller.

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Welcome to Barbell Strugged. I'm your host, Mike Bledsoe, here with Doug Larson. We're at the Central East CrossFit Regional. Our guest, Mike McGoldrick, winner numero uno from the South Central CrossFit Regional. What up? This is your fifth time on the show? You might be setting a record. It's good to be back, guys. Thanks for having me. Dang, man, your voice is hurting.

You've been screaming all weekend. I'm going to go ahead and apologize in advance. I've been yelling for my girlfriend, Brandi Bonifay, who competed individually this weekend. She's been doing great. Who also has been doing very well. Real quick before we get started, make sure to go to barbellstroke.com, sign up for our newsletter.

That way we can notify you of all the stuff we've got going on. We've got training camps and we've got online coaching stuff going on. A muscle gain challenge starting soon. So make sure to get on that newsletter so we can get you notified of all the stuff we're doing. Say what? Follow us on Instagram. I don't know how you do that.

Just look at barbellstrokerugged, I guess. Not very tech savvy. The whole Instagram thing is new to me. BarbellShrugged.Instagram? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where you need to go. No. Yeah, so McG, you won the South Central region outright.

How does that make you feel? On top of the you feel on top of the world on top of the world until I came here and watch these guys yeah I gotta compete against these guys soon yes I mean damn damn damn central eastern fucking super stack oh yeah it's pretty incredible to watch it's bad I feel I feel bad for the two or three guys that could definitely be games athletes that aren't going to the games, that are in this region, that are getting knocked out by, you know, the guys that are, like, you know, top three in the world.

Yep, I agree. It's a shame. And actually, back to you, Mike. So we're not talking too much about Central East, but I want to talk about you. You were interviewed recently by another podcast, and they forgot to ask you a question, I think. Who's your coach?

James Fitzgerald. James Fitzgerald. Optimum Performance Training, James Fitzgerald. Just wanted to get that across, just in case maybe it got left out of another interview. Sorry, this part of the sock really smells. Again, I apologize for the socks. I originally was able to blame the TSA for the mistake,

but now that we're on our fifth podcast with socks, it's actually my fault for not buying new pop filters, so I apologize. They're at least $15 each. We don't have that kind so I apologize at least $15 each we don't have that kind of cash at least $15 each if you want to help us get pop filters on our microphones you can donate yeah no just pay pal it to me micah fitter TV you know so last year you couldn't compete as an individual you and you went team and I gave you a whole extra year really to focus on your weaknesses and kind of build up some strength and, you know, come out this year and really absolutely crush it.

Yeah, my training started May last year. Like as soon as we finished the team competition here, I went back home, I emailed James and was like, I'm ready to go, you know, let's start now. And he was like, all right, we'll start next week. So I've been at it full force since May last year year which is the longest i've ever trained that consistently um and with that much focus for a full year so it was it was nice and i'm glad to see what could actually happen when i put a full year into it you know no injuries no time off nothing do you have an idea of what your the difference between some of your prs is between now and a year ago when you hired James?

Clean PRs, brand times, anything notable that you remember? You know, I mean, I can name some numbers, and I will, but I'll say first, you know, like my strength numbers weren't really the issue. So we didn't focus on that at all. Yeah. And they still went up over the year. Yeah. But my motor, like, just grew way more than what it was. didn't focus on that at all. And they still went up over the year. But my motor just grew way more than what it was.

For example, just how I was after workouts and my recovery between workouts and the volume I was able to handle, that kind of thing was where it was more noticeable. But clean and jerk went up 10 pounds. Snatch went up 10 pounds. And we didn't even focus on that so right you know can't complain there You've always been more of a a strong powerful athlete That's kind of like what you're naturally built to do and so you guys had a heavy emphasis on kind of the the other end

Of the spectrum to kind of shore up some of your weaknesses. Yes, definitely I was I did I didn't live for like three months You know I touched on it here and there but no focus No, there's no strength or lifting program for almost three months. Yeah, I was doing long Long workouts, you know twice a day six days a week. Yeah, I want to say long. I mean like 20-minute am rap rest five minutes 20 minute am rap rest five minutes 20 minute am rap Yeah, I mean long stuff and you're doing 12 sessions like that per week? I was doing, well, no, no, no. Maybe two or three of those a week.

But 12 sessions total a week. So the training volume was higher as well as the sessions. They were longer duration. We've got to watch you. I mean, you train at Faction here and there. Like, you're in there quite a bit. So, like, we're able to see, like, some of the transformation over the year. Yeah.

But I was just standing here talking to somebody who doesn't see you very often and uh he was like man mcgolder just looks different than he did a year ago just uh the transformation that you've got gone through like yeah you just look like you look fitter you know leaner got more muscle mass looks good thanks man very. I've had a lot of that this weekend. People I haven't seen in a year, they're like, you look like a different person. I didn't, you know, I wasn't expecting that at all. I haven't lost any weight. I weigh the same as I have for

three years. Right. But, you know, I guess I've leaned out. Yeah. I always thought I was pretty lean, but I guess not. Yeah. During the summer, when I was in that long phase, I was really thin. I think I was down like 185, which I haven't been that light in years. And then I started lifting again a little bit leading up to regionals, so I put some weight back on.

They probably wouldn't have really recognized me then either. How tall are you and what do you weigh? I'm 5'11", I'm 195. So I know you, for a while, went through kind of the same progression food-wise that a lot of crossfit athletes go through where they're like super strict paleo and they want to like do their best so they'd be really really really really really strict and then you figured out that well fuck i need some more carbohydrates which is a huge trend right now for athletes that carbohydrates aren't

quite as bad as they thought they were and they help you perform and i know you went through that phase too where you started adding in sweet potatoes and and rice and you've been eating just more food and more carbohydrates and you feel a lot better you've been performing a lot better yeah absolutely uh it did start with that you know i was very strict paleo um you know i considered like oh i upped my carbs this week i had three sweet potatoes right you know like whereas now i'm eating rice twice a day ice cream at night like i mean when you're hitting the volume uh you know 12 sessions a week yeah like it got to the point where i didn't even it's not that i really chose to change my food

that much i had to yeah i was hungry and i couldn't cook enough fruits and vegetables and you're not you're not gonna eat enough meat i mean i was like i was like whatever like i have all right i'm boiling four cups of rice. Like, I have to eat this. You know, like, it's just not, I'm going to fall apart. But what was great was that I didn't notice any negative side effects. I got leaner. You know, I couldn't believe it. You know, so.

Sounds crazy and counterintuitive. I know. I mean, I was eating coconut milk ice cream at night. You know, like, high sugar before I go to bed. What's your favorite sources of carbohydrate for fueling performance? What do you think helps you out the most? Coconut milk ice cream. I heard it gives you the farts, though.

It does. A lot of fiber. A lot of fiber. He was being polite when he said he heard. Yeah. Did you really hear it right now? I mean, I heard it. Not from somebody, but straight from your ass.

That's what I mean. I'm like, crap. His microphone's strong. Yeah, I mean, that's just a joke. But no, on a serious side, rice. And, I mean, lots of rice. Lots of rice? It doesn't bother me at all.

Any rice product. I eat a lot of gluten-free breads now. Make a lot of sandwiches that have, they're made of, like, rice flour and, you know, different kinds of stuff. Rice is not going to bother most people. No. It's not something that's going to irritate your stomach. But if you don't train a lot, you probably don't need to eat it either. Right.

I mean, these past two weeks, my volume has been down kind of low, so I haven't been eating as much. You know, it's just you've just got to monitor it. You've got to know your body. You've got to know, like, what's good and what's bad. Like, if you eat something and you're gassy and your lips start itching, you probably shouldn't eat that anymore. Your lips itch.

Have your lips ever itched before? I don't mean just whatever side effect may happen. What are some other side effects you might notice? I get itchy gums sometimes. My gums itch. Oh, gum. Oh, okay. I really didn't hear what you said.

Yeah, yeah. My gum is like in my mouth. Okay. Those gums. Itch if you eat something unfavorable? Yeah. Sometimes if I'm like slightly allergic to something, I itch.

It's weird. I'm like. It is weird. Yeah. So you eat a lot of sushi, Thai food, things like that? something, they itch. It's weird. I'm like. It is weird. Yeah. So you eat a lot of sushi, Thai food, things like that? Yeah, man. Just get the calories in. You got healthy fats from the fish, protein, plus the rice?

Yeah, yeah. That's another thing, too. The fats. You know, I used to focus on, like, oh, I got to get, like, 48 almonds in and cover my salad in, like, three cups of olive oil. Right. I don't hardly. I mean, I don't supplement a lot of fat anymore. I get a lot of them animal meats.

Right. You know, it's a lot of bacon grease. Like, a lot of them animal meats. You know, it's a lot of bacon grease, like mainly like animal fats. Yeah. And butter, but, you know, not near as much as I used to. Because, you know, if you're training twice a day, six days a week for a number, you don't want to slow the digestion. You know, you want everything to get in your system quick, and you want to feel light all day long and tight.

You do most of your shopping at Costco, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you buy everything in in bulk and they're getting better with selections you know they sell like you know um health food selections now in bulk you know have organic vegetables yeah yeah yeah are they doing grass-fed beef yet no you know they do i mean but they do uh grass-fed butter they do oh yeah we do get our butter i mean. I bought, like, a 10-pound bag of rice for, like, $8. I'm not even halfway through it yet. They sell organic quinoa pasta now. It's awesome.

Oh, wow. Never had that. Boiled the pasta. We crock pot, like, three pounds of chicken. We add a bunch of, like, pasta sauce to it. It's great. Yeah great yeah i mean you're talking about trying to vary your meals pasta yeah that sounds fantastic and you guys have like three or four crockpots don't you we have four crockpots four crockpots and you'll use them all we do we

fill them all up we usually do two of them with ground beef one of them with chicken and then we'll do one with um you know like something something special. We'll splurge that week. We might buy a brisket. Ooh. Ooh, wow. Man. Most of your meals are pretty. Off the deep end.

Are they pretty boring most of the time? Are you eating the same thing throughout the week? To some people they might be boring, but to me they're delicious. Like you saw how excited I just got about talking about quinoa pasta. Are you eating the same thing four days in a row? How do you kind of split that up? We cook. We'll cook.

Like we'll say, you know, we cook four things in the crock pot, two or three things in the oven, and four or five things on the stove. I'd say we have, like, five meats during the week, five vegetables, and three starches. We'll have quinoa, rice, and sweet potato. So it's quite a bit. That's a lot of variety. Right, right.

But we don't have time to cook meals each night, so you've got to kind of have the same thing each day. You're training three, four hours a day. When are you going to cook? Right. I don't want to. I want to come home, I want to put the food in me, and I want to sit on the couch.

Someone was asking us not too long ago about what makes you a person that can go from not competing at that level and placing at all to all the way to first place over the course of two years. I'm not saying this is my opinion, but your willingness to absolutely destroy yourself on a lactic type workout and to grind through that pain, that's hard to teach someone to do, to be willing to put themselves in that kind of pain. And then also your willingness to recover and cook for yourself and go to bed when you're supposed to go to bed and to get enough sleep.

You put as much dedication into cooking your meals and shopping as you do into your workouts, and it all comes together. You've got to have both sides of that equation. You're exactly right, man. It all adds up. I mean, you think about points here. I mean, how many athletes have looked at the scoreboard and been like, oh, man, if I just did one or two more reps, you know,

I'd have been up four places. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you would have gone to bed one or two more nights earlier that week, that kind of thing. I mean, you would have gone to bed one or two more nights earlier that week that kind of thing i mean it's all gonna add up and and i i just don't see if you're trying to make it to the highest level why you would even flirt with that i mean there's a sport of like split seconds now yeah i mean it all adds up so you know give it everything you have why not at least try it for a year and see what happens that way you know hey i did that i did everything and and sometimes it may not make a difference you're good enough that you don't need that that's fine but you know some of us do so what is your sleep schedule you get eight nine seven between eight

and ten eight and ten every night yeah that's fantastic you take naps oh yeah so you get between eight and ten hours of sleep every night and you get to take a nap yeah i take five to ten minute power naps you know one or two a day yeah yeah and i mean people are like how do you have time to take a nap i'm like who doesn't have it's five it's a bathroom break like come on five to ten minutes seriously go lay down for five minutes even if you don't fall asleep lay down slow your breathing down close your eyes and relax you'd be amazed what it does for you yeah for sure that's very true it is about as long as a bathroom break no one says i didn't have time to go to the bathroom yeah i mean if all right so i understand i'm extremely blessed i have a job where i'm able to work from home and travel and set my own hours so that that like the lifestyle

i have allows me to be the athlete that i can be but and i understand people have you know full-time jobs that go to office all day long but you get lunch breaks most people get lunch breaks and can leave i'll tell you what if i was there at the office i would go to office all day long, but you get lunch breaks. Most people get lunch breaks and can leave. I'll tell you what, if I was there at the office, I would go to my car and I would sleep for 10 minutes and I would eat my lunch at my desk. You do that all the time. I would not leave and go eat lunch for an hour. No, no.

I mean, it's easier for me to sit here and say that because I'm not in that situation. Sure. Yeah, it is, Mark. Dude. You jerk. I mean, try it. Are you doing everything you can or is that just another excuse? Yeah.

I've taken many naps in my car during lunch hours. Open up your lunch box, crush something in five minutes, and then you have 45 minutes to do whatever the hell you want. Take a 30-minute nap. I'm going to sleep if I want to. Yeah. Yeah. I actually used to do that in the Navy.

I'd rush the food, take a nap. Everyone thought I was taking hard, long lunches. Some of them are probably listening right now. That son of a bitch. He tricked me. All right, guys, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will talk to Mike more. Great.

Hey, guys, this is Rich Veroning, and you're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to fitter.tv. We ready? And we're back! You're listening to Barbell Shrugged, of course. Doug and I are here, and we are interviewing. He's hanging out with Mike McGoldrick. What up?

South Central winner. He's still here. Hey, so you just bought a new house. I did. You got new digs, and it's pretty fucking exciting because you got a big garage. You got like two garages or something like that? Yeah, the home we bought already has a regular two-car garage, and then the previous owner, for some reason,

had some of her family move back in, so she was like, okay, well, I'll build you guys your own garage. She added onto the house another two-car garage, like separate driveway, garage door. They even added another door into it from the kitchen, so it's on the other side of the house, completely separate from everything else. So you have a two-car garage to turn into a gym.

It is. The whole thing's a gym. We we're not ever gonna put a car in it and you already got a bunch of stuff from rogue yep ordered it last week they were incredible it showed up in like two days I like call I like emailed him was like hey I'm so excited like I was your a bunch of equipment I'm coming up Columbus weekend can I pick up some of it and they're like well me we'll ship it there by Wednesday I was like oh okay i guess i'll wait it'll get here early but i just wanted some of it the service is fantastic oh man it's awesome like i love buying stuff from them what all did you get i got a a 10 foot rig it's like a wall mount so they're like going to the corner yeah it's got a spiel bar on it a dirty south bar um ordered a new barbell ohio bar some plates um we got a Spiel bar on it, a Dirty South bar. Ordered a new barbell, Ohio bar, some plates.

We got a, what else, oh, a yolk, and just a few other odds and ends. Right. Did you decide on a name yet? Manifest Fitness. Manifest Fitness. Mm-hmm. I like it. Thank you.

Have you actually gotten to use it yet? Any of it? No, it's still in boxes. You haven't even trained yet. As soon as we got it in, we had to leave town. Yeah. But next week, Rick's going up. I'm excited.

We're going to put it up. We're going to hold a weightlifting meet there, huh? Yeah, I want to call it. I don't know. What should we call it? I don't know. We'll bring some barbells and bumpers down and have a good time. The silverback open. The silver back open.

The silver back open. I like the silver back open. That's mine. All right. All right. It'll be like a party. You have to bring your own bumpers. BYOP, bring your own bumpers.

I like it. I'm bringing my own bar, too. I'm bringing my own bar. I've never used the Ohio bar. Have you seen the bar yet? I haven't used an Ohio bar. I've never used the Ohio bar. Have you seen the bar yet? I haven't used an Ohio bar. I don't know the differences between that and the Rogue bar. I think it's a little bit more money, but this one I got is all black,

so I'm pretty excited. It's awesome. It's all blacked out. Okay. Murdered out bar. That's right. I'm pretty excited about the home too, though. It's in a new neighborhood.

It's got almost a 400-meter loop. Oh, really? Yeah, it's like perfect to run. And then directly across the street, there's like all these soccer fields and like playgrounds. Really? It's just cool stuff around here. Nice.

Wow. All of Brant's a little nicer than Memphis. Yeah, definitely. Or a lot nicer for that matter. Yeah, and it's still pretty close to faction, like 35-minute drive. You got a place to swim now? Yeah, there's a YMCA right down the road. Man.

Very exciting. Got it all set up. I'm kind of jealous. If you want to swim at, like, 2 o'clock in the afternoon instead of 5 in the morning, I'll go with you. Yeah, no kidding. They're the last place. They weren't very flexible. I was like, I come in to swim, and, like, I'm not a member at the place, but I came in.

I'm like, look, I just need to swim. I just need to use the pool. And they're like, okay, we can buy a master's pass. I'm like, all right, thank you. They're like, it's $25. I'm like, that's a member at the place but I came in I'm like look I just need to swim I just need to use the pool and they're like okay we can buy a master's pass like all right thank you like it's $25 I'm like that's pretty good deal you get 10 swims with that like awesome like but you can only come in the hours of 5 and 6 a.m on Tuesdays I'm like so I do that for like three weeks and then I come in late one time because I'm like screw it if they don't want me in there they can tell me to get out and it was like it was like 7 in the morning. Yeah.

And I get done swimming, and they come up, and they're like, we really don't need you here at this hour. We need you to come to the master swim hours. I was like, and there was literally no one in the pool. It was completely empty. Well, I went and swam with you one day. Yeah. When we weren't supposed to be there.

Yeah, there was no one there. And there was nobody there. They were like, well, we don't want you to intimidate the old people. I'm like, what old people? There's nobody there. They were like, well, we don't want, you know, you to intimidate the old people. I'm like, what old people? There's nobody here. So, I mean, it was cool. They still let me pay a little bit to come swim, but it was more of a hassle. Like, you know, like I would swim to recover, but who's recovering at 5 in the morning?

Like, I don't work. I don't function like that. I'm usually recovering at 5 in the morning in bed. Yeah. I mean, it was better to just sleep some days. Yeah. So, is that actually a to just sleep some days. Yeah. So is that actually a pretty big part of your training this year? You do a lot more swimming?

It has been, yeah. That was a hole in your game in the past, wasn't it? It was, like, probably two years ago, a year and a half ago. Should tell the triathlon story. Do we tell it? Yeah, it's on the swimming episode, the whole story. Oh, that's right, when we interviewed Lucas. Long story short, though, basically I did a triathlon

and was like dead last in the swim. It was awful. I didn't know how to freestyle for that long. I turned and my back was just fluttering along and got lost. It was a disaster. Way off track. But to be honest, we started swimming not in the hopes of, like, we're playing for the games, you know. Right.

It was more like, hey, you know, you could use this. It's something you're bad at. It could teach you how to breathe and relax. Right. Which could translate into way, you know, several other things in your training. Right. And then I got better at it, and now I'm able to do intervals with it, and it's one more interval training session a week I can do without beating my body up.

Yeah. Even a hard, like, I can go hard in the pool. Yeah can do without beating my body up even a heart like I can go hard in the pool yeah and it makes my body feel better as I get out so once a week once or twice a week I was doing intervals in the pool and I'm just kind of ramped up you know it got to where I was doing some serious distance in it for a crossfitter yeah yeah I went swimming with you one day I was I got to see the I didn't I didn't watch you progress I saw you suck in the beginning and then I went and swam with you

a few months ago and I was like oh shit Mike can swim this is awesome so if he does come up at the games he'll be perfectly fine

I think I'll be alright I mean I still got a lot of work to do open water I know is way different than swimming laps in the pool but I'm gonna go out

and get used to that you'll still be more prepared than a lot of people I think yeah hopefully when we go out to open water we need to go we need to go out and get a piece of that. You'll still be more prepared than a lot of people, I think. Hopefully. When we go out to open water, we need to go to the coast. Name it, brother.

Let's do it. I want revenge on that triathlon. We need to do some open water swimming with fins and then some with no fins. A little bit of both. I want to rub it in that old lady's face that passed me. Be like, ha, I have the power now. Yeah, and that sprint triathlon, you spent the entire race trying to catch up to everybody.

I was like, I got to the bike and was like, ah! I was going so fast. Well, I thought, I remember passing Ashley, your wife, and she was like, what are you doing behind me? She was thrilled that she are you doing behind me? Yeah.

She was thrilled that she beat you in something. She passed me in that swim in, like, the first 20 meters. The funny thing is. She didn't know it, but I saw her, and I was like, crap. The funny thing is, Ashley was like, I might drown during this race. And then she passes Mick Goldrick. It's like, ah. What do you think I was going to say, guys? I might drown, too?

I wasn't going to say anything. There's a lot of confidence going into this race. I was just going to let it happen. It's going to be a surprise to everybody. That's been good. It's been good for the training. It definitely helps the body recover. I enjoy it.

I crave it now. I was going to see how long I could hold it without laughing, but I couldn't do it. Don't do that to me. This is where Chris Moore would step in. Yeah, that's right. Don't do that to me. I can't sit in silence when people are talking.

Maybe you're uncomfortable. Because I feel like I have to say something, and then I have, like, diarrhea of the mouth. I was waiting for you to say something awesome. I did. More? Keep going. No.

McGoldrick's never coming back on the show. All right, let's wrap this up. All right, anything you want to promote? I'd like to promote mobilitykids.com. Go to the website. Sign up for our newsletter. Check out the products that we have for sale. I want to give a shout-out to Brandi Bonifay, my girlfriend,

for competing in her first individual competition this weekend. She did an amazing job. Shout-out to her coach, Max, at OPT for doing an awesome job helping her progress throughout the year. I'm blown away with the improvements she's made. That's fantastic. Yeah, we had Max on a couple weeks ago, and he came on here and did an awesome show with us.

He was super, super, super smart. I was really excited I got to meet him. We were down at the South Central Regionals. And actually, before I plug, I haven't really talked to you much about Mobility Kids lately because you've been training so hard for Regionals. How's that been going? It's going really well. We had a large

inventory built up and it actually sold out in a month and a half way, three months quicker than I expected it to. So we're completely out of stock right now. We're in the works with a new manufacturer trying to get that nailed down because I don't want to move forward until we get a new design going and hopefully have

something in people's hands by late June. That'd be the best case and I'd say worst case late July. Okay. If you want to sign up for the six month muscle gain challenge, that's going to start here on July 8th. That program is about three-quarters of the way full right now.

So if you want to do that, sign up sooner rather than later. If you want to sign up, you can go to barbershop.com, click on shop, click on online coaching, and click on the six-month muscle gain challenge, and you can read over all the things that are involved in that program. With that, you get the faction foods Foods Nutrition course and Maximum Mobility. As a bonus, those will be on the days that you're not training, the Faction Foods course and Maximum Mobility will be a part of your homework, so to speak. That way, on the days that you're not training, you're still taking care of your nutrition and your mobility, which, you know, that's something that everyone can get better at no matter how good you are at it.

So, again, if you want to sign up for that, go to barbellshrug.com, and you can check it out there. If you have questions, you can always email me, doug at barbellshrug.com. And speaking of more muscle, we're in the Progenix tent here at the regional. And if you want to buy some Progenix, which will help you put on more muscle, you should use the promo code SHRUG at checkout. You'll get 10% off. Make sure to go to iTunes if you like this podcast and give us a five-star rating.

Leave a comment and like us on Facebook. See you next time. Thanks for coming out, McG. No problem. Thanks for having me.