The Sevan Podcast - #434 - Granite Games Event 1 | Colten Mertens, James Townsend, Andrew Hiller, J.R. Howell, Self

Episode Date: June 5, 2022

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Oh, yeah, yeah. Somebody, somebody. Before we get dark, I want to do this real quick. I want to congratulate a CrossFit Games athlete athlete from long ago uh talena fortunato uh today oh wow yeah she home birthed uh she home birthed twins oh gee that's an og right there doing it doing it she would have killed this workout because she she was a gymnast. Later, man. Let's be clear, too. In California, that is illegal, women. Those of you who want your women's rights, to have twins at home in the state of California

is illegal. I don't know if it's in Florida. No shit. She had twins at home, yeah. What are they going to do, arrest you? Brother. They sent Talena to jail. I don't know what the rules are in Florida, but I think that guy over there. Could you imagine sitting in a jail cell?

It's like, what are you in for? It's like, I gave birth at home to twins. Right. And then you're like, oh, I killed six people. It's like, ugh. I really enjoyed this. JR, do we love this event? Do we like watching it?

Yeah, I mean, it was fun to watch. It took the athletes to a point where they either need to make a calculated risk or wait. So, I mean, in that respect, if that's what they were going for, they succeeded there. You weren't here, James, but I was pushing yesterday. I don't think you were here. I was pushing about how CrossFit's, there's this evolution with Fran, where it was just do Fran and then do it unbroken and then move the bar closer and then event and then butterfly and then, and then pull the bar down. And eventually there were no transitions there. It's not pull ups and thrusters. It's all just one fluid thing like driving. It's not switching lanes. You flow.

Right. Right. A perfect example of this was Mal O'Brien. And I'm going to, and I'm going to show you a video of, uh of Travis Mayer does it. And the conflict I have here is this. Chase says it's okay to break. No, Mal O'Brien said it in the beginning. It's not, or at the end, it's not okay to break. This is two minutes as hard as you can go. And there kind of aren't two separate movements from the push standpoint. I want to show you this. I want to show you this. I know you guys are... I appreciate you guys bearing with me here. Okay, watch

Travis Mayer's body here. He's finishing his thrusters. He's putting the bar down. Watch this. Already bent over. Already... If you don't do that shit you are not winning the crossfit games you might not and soon you won't even be going to the crossfit games and i think it's those transitions that have finally made this a legitimate sport

now no one can just walk in from just any like anywhere and be like hey i can do friend in three minutes it's not fast enough right did you watch all three heats or did you just watch the final heats i watched i watched everything i was dead on the cat was dead on the couch and then i was shot up with testosterone so i could get off the couch oh baby i don't know if i don't think it works that quick but but uh the biggest difference from heat to heat was what you were just saying right there was the transition from the handstand walk to the barbell it's almost like they stayed hunched over to put their hands on the ground stayed hunched over to pick up the Marvell. Those were the final heats. But also the thruster kittens.

There were people there, I'm like, interesting. These are the semifinal athletes. And it's because just the thruster kittens were so slow. And then you see people like Mertens, too, and Mel O'Brien just kind of flying through them. Compared to the first heat, it's like, interesting. Okay. How about Fikowski's paws in the hole? Not paws.

Sorry, that's not fair. But like a compression. He moves differently in the hole. Do you guys see that? He's not, he's not, he comes out of the hole slow, like something that would make you concerned that maybe he only has a few reps left, but he doesn't. Did you guys notice that?

I wish I could pull it up. No? I'm unfamiliar with the Fikowski compression technique. One more bit of housecleaning to do. JR, did you work out with Jason today, Mr. Hopper? No, he worked out with me. Oh, okay, good. Perfect. No, I'm just kidding.

No, I did something very short with him earlier today, yes. And can you tell us what it was and who won? I cannot. Okay, fine. That's good. Can you tell us what it was and who won? Uh, cannot. Okay, fine. That's good. Can you tell us who won? Uh,

no, Jason. You're a good dude. Is that a good coach, James? Yeah. Yeah. I concur.

Yeah. Either way. It's a losing answer. If Jr says it either way, right. Yep. Um, something I thought was very clever that Chase said in event one. Sorry, my brain falls out of my nose here.

When the handstand walk is a weapon, you can push the thrusters. And that was in reference to Mal O'Brien. You guys have any thoughts on that? Mr. Howell? Yeah, I think going back to what you said about the thruster cadence and what Hiller was saying about thruster cadence, I think people who go a little more slow and methodical on the thrusters have the handstand walk in the back of their mind. They're thinking about that round of 21. The ones that attack the thrusters are the ones that don't care about the handstand walk.

They're going to attack that movement regardless. You think so? explain that to me I'm not following that don't you have to attack all of it? it depends like Tim Paulson said in his interview

he's good on his hands under fatigue so he could go all out on the thrusters and be able to hop right into on his hands because he's good on his hands under fatigue. To whereas other athletes who aren't good on their hands under fatigue would go slow, methodical.

There was a couple of athletes who put the bar, the 21 bar down and then had to breathe and think about it. Yes. You know, before they go so and we everybody everybody was dropping down at the at the yellow tape but tim paulson was able to keep going so for paulson the handstand walk was a weapon sorry go ahead hillary when are you bringing up chandler smith i know you've got your notes i i actually don't have chandler smith because by the time um he was finishing, I had run to the bathroom. Well, because I feel like this might be a good

point in time to bring up Chandler Smith and how he finished 18th in this event and Jr. And James, what do you guys think the issue was there? Cause I have my opinion, but I'll share it after you share yours if you have one. So, so when I saw him finishing up that workout, I actually immediately thought granite games last year, the final ended with double dumbbell overhead, walking lunges with seventies. And he crushed that. Like I remember watching really well. So, I mean, you know, they're two totally different workouts. I mean, I think it was like row rope climb and a devil press and ended with a lunge. Very different workouts, but still a lot of shoulder fatigue at the end. It's interesting. James, do you have an opinion?

I would just say it comes down to the mechanics. I know he has some mobility limitations, so I was really intrigued by the way he was doing his thrusters. That's what I was going to bring up, and how it limited his ability to handstand walk, right? Right, correct. Why? How's he doing his thrusters? I have a bit of a rabbit hole to go down if you want to do it. Please. All right.

And I always kind of relate to what I know. So right now, I tore my pec away three years years ago and currently my right elbow is bummed out. Right. And I think that it's from a bunch of movements that I've done, which had a mechanical issue caused by the pec tear so many years ago. guy who was going through chiropractic school his name is anthony copp and anthony copp brought up chandler smith and his injury to his thumb at one point and the injury to his thumb he said was going to have some sort of deleterious effects downstream from that because he's losing part of the mechanism of engagement of the the structure that he's got and on every single year you see his movement get worse and worse and worse and i know that I like to kind of bang on Bergeron a little bit, but I start to wonder whether or not it's that injury, just like missing that piece of his thumb, which is causing his movement quality to deteriorate bit after bit.

And you see it in the front rack, like he's barely able to hang out to a 115 barbell. And you would think that with the things at his disposal, he would be moving the right direction and not the wrong direction. And I'm starting to wonder if it's even something that he can work towards. It's just a little bit of speculation on my end. You think he's losing range of motion? Correct.

He's just so wound up in there. And you can tell that because he's struggling so much to keep himself in that position, he couldn't handle it. You could tell watching the round at nine, like up, he's going to be eating it. I'm going to long handstand walk at the end, the 21 yarder. Right. But he's, you know, one workout though. Still a long weekend. Correct. It doesn't mean he's screwed. It just, that's something I saw in the first event is in trouble. I'll say this. And this is kind of an interesting distinction between the far East and all of

the other semifinals and all of these-finals that we've seen so far someone can take a 23rd or a 17th and come back that's not going to happen in the far east because the guys at the top are just so good but also because only two go right but even in australia we got to see a little bit of a battle where they only got three people so but chandler smith is going to be that guy this weekend who the kind of the story is around him around him, right? He's an 18th place. He's bet. We know he's better than a bunch of these guys in front of him. We're going to have to watch him jump up. No more room for mistake. It'll be, he'll come back on the lift. We, we think,

we think there's a lot of people there who are going to be doing real well. Hiller don't we have the same issue there in the front rack? He's got to catch both of those, touch and go in the front rack, and now we have the mobility issue screaming at us again? That's why I said we think, but somehow he always ends up doing well. And I just get pictures in my head of the Rogue, that online Rogue event where he beat everybody in. It was like, oh, my God, how is this possible?

You got, what's his face, the old school weightlifting guy talking in the background. He's like, oh, my God, just give me one month with him and we'll fix all these issues. What's his face? The old school weightlifting guy talking in the background. He's like, oh my God, just give me one month with him and we'll fix all these issues. What's his name? He's always at- Bergener. Yeah, Mike Bergener, yeah. Sydney Wells lost two seconds at the transition.

She started past the line in her first set of handstand walk, but then did the handstand walk unbroken. Does that scream? I mean mean is that all of her she's only been in one crossfit competition prior to this um that's a good sign right she kept her shit together she didn't come yeah yeah real good sign i thought she did very well and what stuck out to me was that on that last bar i don't know if y'all caught on this but the bar was like really close to the line so when athletes would run up to the bar you know because they're they are rushing they clean the barbell and then they start their thrusters and then they move the barbell back

so whereas in the first two lanes they would grab the barbell move it back and then go so those those ones that got to the round of 21 and got no rep i think it's because they started their thrusters where the barbell was at and then you know the line was right there and then they tried to you know speed up and kick up into the hands and then their hands were on the tape when you guys see these scores that I'm about to show you, I'll write them down so I can remember. 214, 215, 234, 237, 237. I got a couple questions to ask you about these, and I'll go back and forth if you need to look at them again. Just tell me.

I want you to look at that fastest time for the women is 214, and that fastest time for the women and fifth is 237. look at that fastest time for the women is 214 and that fastest time for the women and fifth is 237 a topic that we really like to talk about a lot is this are the bars the right weight for the women and the men great great james run with it then so here we have the men 220 and 240 for first and fifth and for the women we have 214 and 237. Seems pretty darn close to me. What do you think? Get it, James. Barbell needs to be heavier for ladies. Okay. Okay.

It needs to be heavier for ladies. And how much heavier? A lot of people always point to main site for everything. What's main site say? What is main site doing? And a couple times this year, if you've paid attention, they've programmed 135, 105. I mean, I think that's the direction we probably need to go in. I mean, when you have someone that's 150 pounds that clean and jerks 245 in that complex, and then you have a guy that's 180 pounds that clean and jerks 285, like the females comparatively are super strong like i think it

should be 115 85 okay so you think it should be five pounds more for the women the women were currently 80 for sure this was uh it was 75 right for the ladies in my notes i have 80 but i could be wrong see yeah yeah i'm always i'm always seeing a 115.75 to where I always thought it was 115.85. But normally it goes 135.95, but I do like that 135.105. I do like that. And then I bring up this to you. The spacing here between first and second place is one second then the next is nine seconds and then three seconds and then fractions of a second and then four seconds and then you switch

over to the men um and it's basically uh 10 seconds six seconds two seconds two seconds, two seconds. When you go down for your handstand, you're not done. There's a half a second to make up there. There's 30 people you're competing against in a time domain that's less than three minutes. Why are some of these athletes just lollygagging across the finish line and not trying to go for that extra half a second? You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

I think most of them aren't as confident on their hands as they think. I mean, Tim Paulson pulled a veteran move. He's confident on his hands on the fatigue. Do you know him, James? Huh? Do you know him? I met him last year. He actually, him and Quan shared the same coach.

Oh, okay. Yeah. But then with Spiegel, I think that was a rookie move to where as she kicked down, didn't know where Mal was at, took that two to three seconds and then kicked up. And then that's what cost her first place. seconds and then kicked up and then that's what cost their first place to where as Mal knew she was confident on her hands made the veteran move and kept her head down and just

kept rolling. Did you guys know Mal won? When I watched it and it was over I thought Danny won. Why did you think that? Maybe because I'm sick or I'm old or you're seeing a bit or you know whatever. Interesting. Did you guys all see that Mal won there at that last better. Yeah. Or, you know, whatever. Interesting.

Did you guys all see that Mal won there at the last second? Yeah. I thought Jamie, her guy is the best floor interviewer ever, by the way, just my two cents out, shout out to her. She's great. That's a homie. She has great confidence out there. I want to show a couple reps here. Let's see. I was trying to figure out what the rule is for crossing the line.

Because when I saw Anthony Davis cross the line, he crossed the line and he had control. But I saw some guys from the handstand walk. He had control, then he lowered, and then he ran. But we saw a couple of these. Nope, sorry. Actually, listen. If you want to win the event, you have to go unbroken. That's just the deal. But if you want to

get top five, you don't. Amazing. Good? Good. Wait, one more time. Actually, listen. If you want to win the event, you have to go unbroken. That's just the deal. But if you want to get top five, you don't. And Josh hung.

Actually, listen. Is there a slow-mo button on there? No, but I think it should be good, by the way. It just seems out of character for CrossFit. What do you think, JR? Normally, they would ask for a lockout and control. It's you know like in the nfl you gotta have control of the ball but they're not asking for it and i think it's smarter to do it this way especially listen if you want to win the event you have to go unbroken that's just the deal but if you want to get top

five you don't let's assume all you have to do is break the plane of the red line and not have your feet on the ground well typically typically in the open or quarterfinals or whatever the standard usually reads both hands and that's like the entire hand so not just like the fingers like the entire hand palm and fingers let's cross the finish line before the feet hit the floor and if that's the standard then this guy does it yeah he for sure breaks the line i can't tell if the back of his palm crosses but who cares if it's the standard then this guy does it yeah he for sure breaks the line i can't tell if the back of his palm crosses but who cares if it's just break the line it's got to be on the it's got to be on the surface on the other side of the line it's not just break the plane well yeah yeah i'm sorry sorry break the complete plane of the thickness of that line both sides of it

so what if so so what if the back side of his palm i mean the bottom side of his palm is on the red tape is that a no rep or i think it's supposed to be oh so his whole entire palm should have so seven the thing that you're bringing up here is very similar to the ghd issue that we keep talking about it's that when you say all you said where it is where's the center of the ghd and then where do your hips have to say like you have to do it in relation to wherever your butthole is? How do you know? Try to say anus. This is a science show, Hillary.

Yes, the anus. Wherever the anus is in relation to the center of the GHD, and all of a sudden now you're putting arithmetic into it. The way that they have it set up right now is there's nothing up to speculation. You get both hands. If this is the bottom of the screen like this is no good all right but both palms are now clear of the bottom of the screen and then you're good to go you can move to the finish line so as long as both of his hands hit before any other point of his

body did then the judge gives him the go-ahead if they say oh you got to be erect over the top we get that but what james is saying is does it how much like i think just just both sets of fingers have to cross probably the red line. Well, that's not. But James is saying you have to let your palm. Say that again? You can see that there's a giant surface, right? And then both hands have to get.

I can't do this on this freaking thing. You got to get both hands over the line. That's all you got to do. And he did it. Listen, if you want to win the event you have to go unbroken that's just the deal but if you want to get top five i like it i like it and then if you say he's got to do anything other than that then you're adding like speculation and people can say things about it but he did what he had to do and right right

there's something also that chase is saying there and and this is where I think the language has to change. You have to do it more than unbroken, and that's the nuance. It's not okay just to do everything unbroken. The transitions have to be seamless. You have to be going into your next movement. You have to. I even saw last week, girls were bending over and chalking their hands as they moved forward. There's no dilly-dallying if it's a short workout. I think the workout was made this way.

I think this was actually a very good workout. Just had to change the name of it. God, we're a tough crowd. Do we like these standings? This makes for an exciting start. I'll talk yeah yeah i think i think i think the complex is going to shake it up a bit um they showed us should be on fire and i'm pretty sure a lot of guys are worried about their shoulders on a jerk but um yeah this this complex is going to shake up a lot. We got some really strong guys in the top five.

There's not a slouch in there, right? Let's see. Oh, it's on the screen. Tim Paulson, Phil Toon, Colton Mertens, Brent Fikowski, Travis Mayer. They're all strong as shit. Nick Matthews is also strong. He's got a 300-pound snatch, I know. He finished right on the outside line.

I think Colton was the one who beat him for sixth last year. Actually, the leaderboard is rather similar to last year. Tim Paulson was in there, so was Colton, so was Travis. No, he wasn't here. He was at MAC. A lot of similar competitors from the Granite Games last year here.

Let's cruise over to the women. Is this what we expected? Anybody in the comments who is saying that that wasn't a rep doesn't understand what a good handstand walk rep looks like. So frustrating. Yeah, the Hiller. Guys, defer to Hiller hillar quiet quiet in the comments

uh mal o'brien in first place danny spiegel in second uh just or just over a second behind her amanda barnhart sydney wells emily rolf all the big names we got even feast of coffee in eighth place um it looks like this is playing out exactly like it's supposed to he had to get his hands into the red line he didn't have to cross the red line oh um how about this do you know this lady james victoria caruso yeah that ain't yeah that's the um i mean she's just as ripped as me yeah yeah yeah she's just as ripped as you she looks like an anatomy drawing yeah how's she gonna do in the uh complex she should win it yeah she's she gonna do in the complex she should win it yeah

she's strong heck yeah I think she has like a 255 power clean oh shit yeah yeah she's strong I think she

she does like 270 full clean looking to see if I can find yeah so it I'm expecting her spiegel barnhart uh because spiegel or barnhart james who do you think oh barnhart easy easy huh because i think spiegel is gonna you. You think so? Yeah. You want to make a bet?

Let's put $10 on it. You got a Venmo. I got a Venmo. Venmo you $10 if Barnhart takes it. Don't worry. I'm going to go text Danny Spiegel real quick. I got her phone number. Hey, you better take out Barnhart. When you type into Instagram, Victoria Caruso,

there's quite a few of them, and I don't think any of these are her. They look like all fans. Is Caruso the one with the jack leg? I think it's Vicky. I think it's Vicky. Okay, let's see. JR, are you shaking your head yes to me? Yes.

Is she the one that Castro posted about that one time? Yes. Yes. Okay, that's Caruso? Okay, she's – well, we might both lose. Is it just mano-a-mano, James, Barnhart versus Spiegel? No, I got Caruso winning the whole thing. Oh, okay.

I got her winning the complex. Yeah, she's had some jacked legs. Yeah. Awesome. If we go Spiegel versus Bonhart, I got Bonhart. Hey, look at this vein that comes down off her stomach,

down through her shorts and outer leg. You got one of those James? No, you don't got that one. I got sprinter legs. You've never seen a cheetah with big legs. That's what I got. Cheetah.

They're strong as shit though oh all right so the 30 muscles won't go so hot for her go to go to another video i got jared smile victory is mine yeah she either has a really bad mosquito bite or the craziest definition of all time yeah i think i think she's from Jersey, too. She's pretty close with Quan. Yes, scroll a little bit. Find some legs. That one right there. That one right there. Which one? The clean video.

Oh. In the middle. Are you sure you didn't want that one? Nah. We know the one you wanted. My goodness. 282. Oh goodness 282 Oh 282 Look at that pull Jeez Jesus

Yeah we'll see what that jerk's like It all comes down to the jerk Seems like Yeah She's winning the complex I love how the weights are just everywhere just all over the place just who cares matter of fact that's kwan jim yeah yeah yeah oh my goodness so that's a 227 she's at a pr and overhead squat by 17 pounds look at her head when she does this clean look at that look at it look at her the way it it shakes almost like the way someone's

body shakes when they do a deadlift sometimes do you see that that's yeah but that's how you know somebody is confident and they're clean they don't there's no weight on her she just pulled awesome yeah it's only 7000 those are rookie numbers we gotta pump those numbers up crazy that's a Wolf of Wall Street quote for everyone who didn't laugh you have such a good memory

I know you don't know that but that's a movie you'd enjoy it's got plenty of debauchery in it I saw it I just can't remember anything I'm too busy doing podcasts ooh he knows

I know that Mal O'Brien the youngest to ever win the games a games event she took first in the open this year she's never been on the Sevan podcast she's 18 years old the youngest to ever win the games, a games event. She took first in the open this year. She's never been on the Sevan podcast. She's 18 years old.

She's the youngest competitor out there. And she trained two years with James Townsend. And then how many months ago switched over to Matt? Let's say November. So what is that? Eight months ago, Seven months ago? Yeah, about seven months ago. It seems like a – if you weren't here, we would talk about this.

But since you are here, we'll talk about it too. It seems like a wild thing to do to switch coaches when you're having such a amazing career. Have you ever seen anyone else do that? You don't like the question, Hiller? No, someone in the comments said, now she's Mel 500. What's that mean? I don't get it. It's James. It's Mr. Color Mel 1000.

Yeah. Yeah, that's old news, but I'm past that As a coach, we own no athlete So if athletes want to go ahead and make that decision Best of luck So you were asking whether or not that's something that athletes have done before, Siobhan?

Well, yeah, and I want to kind of jr in the same spot too man jr it wasn't hot jason hopper your athlete and and he also went to uh matt fraser no he was definitely my athlete yeah yeah um a little bit of your athlete a little bit it's like a stallion you couldn't control no he's no he's always trained back and forth at Crash over the past couple years after he competed there. And then just over this last year, started training full-time at my gym. But Jared Shaw was the guy who was coaching him when he made the games that year. And how did Jared take that? He was super supportive of Jason and the opportunity. I didn't talk to Jared specifically about it, but I know Jared well, and I know the relationship he had with Jason with bringing him up in the sport to the point that he got. And even talking to Jared, he told me he was amazed at how far jason had come and when he won the

mat you know it wasn't something he expected but he wasn't with matt when he did that no he's with jared yeah it seems like such a bold thing to do it just as an athlete just uh especially if everything's going well. It just seems like a lot. Have you ever had an athlete switch? Go ahead, James. You know, it is what it is. I mean, some people, you know, it is what it is. Yeah.

Old strategy, Cotton. Let me ask you this. You have someone as high profile as her, and you also have Tudor Magda who's exploding on the scene. Does he get more attention now that she's gone? Nope. You know, that's another topic for another day. Okay.

But no, no, he doesn't. Not at all. And to be honest, I don't think he cares, man. Like Tudor, the way he was brought up by his family is being very professional and sticking to his morals and values. Well, I don't think he, he really cares so much about that. He just want to work, you know, he just wants to work. What's your relationship with him? Like, would he come to your house for dinner?

Oh yeah. Every Sunday. Oh yeah. He loves my kids and you know, he, uh, hangs around with them, talks to my wife and everything, plays with our dogs. Yeah. we have him over every Sunday. Okay, family. Yeah. She did say this, and I brought this up in the beginning. She said it's basically she knew that the workout was only two minutes and she had to move as fast as she could, and we actually saw her do that. I mean, did you guys ever see her take any even tiniest little break?

Well, I just had no rep, but that wasn't a break. So no. And do you think that she's that good or that Danny Spiegel just wasn't pushing hard enough? Or it's just Mal's the champ? She's that good? Yeah. I was actually watching that thinking there's athletes who are in the three-minute range, and then you see Mal at, what was she, 214,

and I don't really think that could be done much quicker than 214. Maybe you could say 210, but other than that, the only way you make that workout any more challenging or a better test at some point in time, they're going to need to bump the weight, make the handstand walk further, do the entire thing that we were talking about with Ben Smith and the ramps do that sort of thing but as far as a two minute test like that goes there's gonna be a point in time where everyone's gonna be right there at about the time she put up today i mean spiegel's cycle rate on her thrusters on the round of 21 did look faster and you know that's the only way you can go faster cycle it quicker but they were going pretty quick on the thrusters on the round of 21 did look faster. That's the only way you can go faster, cycle it quicker, but they were

going pretty quick on the thrusters too, both of them. Do you think Spiegel had depth in her squats, guys? They look nothing like Mal's. It's hard to judge when she's next to Mal. They look nothing like Mal's. The most interesting thing about Spiegel is that she does have big legs.

She has a wide stance too. She does. most interesting thing about spiegel is that she does have big legs and they almost get in the way of stance too yeah she had that wise and i know i know you guys know why she does that i don't know if simon knows why she does that no i don't know it makes the the reps turn over quicker shorter shorter range of motion yep uh you hit you hit an end range quicker when you put your legs out that far so you know she's probably trying to do that. And then it makes the reps look close on every single one of them. The camera angles that you see on her, they're all rather far away. They didn't look good from a distance. So you have to assume the judge was making the right call on those. Right. You have to assume. Okay, fine. you have to assume okay fine until we have anything more concrete you have to assume the judges are doing what the judge is supposed to be doing right but yes they did look very very

different from malice who was hitting her butt to the floor and still putting out a crazy good time let's see if i can find one more video here that i let me so i'll start this one more time. So this is the final. This is where they both kick up to do handstand and Mal gets sent back. Down for both of them. O'Brien kicked up and it's over. That's what I said.

He got to be careful. Spiegel has about a five-yard head start. Will she kick down here, though, and give O'Brien an opening? Yes. And Mal O'Brien stays on her hands. Danny Spiegel broke at the halfway point and opened the door right back open. Mal O'Brien. That is a start in 2-14.

Are you assuming that because you're recording that with your cell phone that they can't get you in trouble or what? No, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know. Because I can tell you didn't screenshot that or screen record it. No, no, no. That's like, oh, shit, I better get this with my cell phone.

Yeah, okay. Can you see this sweat dripping off me because I'm so sick? Can you see that? No, I thought you said you had a heater on, though. Look at that. What is wrong with you? I have wool socks on. I got, like you had a heater on, though. Yeah. What is wrong with you? I have wool socks on. I got, like, long johns on.

I'm trying to sweat this shit out. Oh, you are old. You're still trying to sweat things out, huh? Yeah, I try to sweat it out. Just drink as much water as I can. And, like, you should have seen me last night. Wool socks, wool hat. The younger generation just takes a bunch of ibuprofen and sucks it up.

No, no. Especially, listen. Okay, I hate to show my my boy so wait what were you showing that for not just because who knows you just want to show us the finish okay yeah do you want to say something about it no i was just wondering as you know i'm just trying to piggyback off you you know oh okay let's do let's say this this is we're seeing tia toomey shit right i've never seen that is there a video of it somewhere tia toomey shit, right? I've never seen that. Is there a video of it somewhere? Tia Toomey shit?

Okay. I hate to pick on my boy Travis Mayer, but let's look at this. JR has his microscope out. Let's look at this here. Listen, if you want to win the event, you have to go unbroken. That's just the deal. But if you want to get – Sorry, wrong clip.

Shit, I don't have that clip. Darn it. Which one are you looking for? Sorry, wrong clip. Shit, I don't have that clip. Darn it. Which one are you looking for? There is a clip of Travis, and I think on his last handstand rep,

he may have actually started one of his hands maybe over the line. I can't remember, but it wasn't, or his foot was over the line when his hands touched. Something was wrong, and the guy didn't catch it. All right, fine. You're lucky. That's destiny. That's fate for me not to call Travis Mayer out, my homeboy. I did notice that one of his elbows looked not as great as the other one.

Somebody asked in the comments if I noticed anybody. There was a guy in there who was really tall. He was standing next to Pekowski. He looked taller and lengthier than Pekowski. And from a distance, it looked like one arm was just wait. That was Paulson. Wasn't it?

No, not Paulson. Paulson's look great. Was it Norman Woodring? Or maybe a bit. No, Norman was in an end lane. Wasn't he tattoos?

Yeah. Yeah. Tattoos. No, not him. Not him either. But I know he is taller and it wasn't DeLugos. DeLugos, who did rather well in that event, I think, considering his height.

Yeah, someone in the comments was saying something about them having planned breaks on the thrusters. Did you see DeLugos break the thrusters? Yes, I actually did. The round of 15, right? Yeah, people were saying that that was a strategy from the coaching, the, them and maybe one of his training partners. They had a planned break on that round. That's interesting.

With a workout like that, that everyone is saying gas pedal, gas pedal, gas pedal. If you break, you lose. It's still interesting how you can manufacture good scores. Not doing that. For him. I think a 307 is a gas pedal i think he executed perfectly he's just taller and has a harder time with the handstand walk he's also heavier right 218 yeah you saw him yank the rower on that final workout

yeah is he strong do we know how strong he is or is he just powerful on the machines i know he's a really strong snatcher i think think he posted a video, like a 280 power snatch, and I know he snatched three. I want to say three wheels. I want to say 315 snatches max, but I'm not sure how strong he is in the cleaning jerk. Look at all those tabs. What do you got open? Let's not look at that.

Well, he's good on the rower. He's got his rower. This dumbbell looks a little small. No, that's because he's huge. Oh, shit. He's getting paid, dude. He's getting paid. No, that's because he's huge. Oh, shit. He's getting paid, dude. He's getting paid. I think that's a sponsor.

Dude, Sevan, he's 76 inches tall. Yeah, he's huge. That's 6'4". There you go. That's a normal-sized dumbbell. So that's 350. Way to go. So he's not going to be Hitting

Hill two numbers He's a good dude He's got a shot with his mom He'll hit He'll hit 325 330 I can see that

Are dudes sitting PRs out here James? Is the crowd hyping them up that much? Yeah. Anthony Davis is going to put on a show. He is? He's going to put on a show, yeah. He's pumped for this moment to show the world. You kind of have to do that if you don't have a chance to win, right?

Take your one event that you're good at and just – I see him going 345, 55, 360. Wow. Maybe 365. I bet he opens 335. That's the only other thing I got to say about that. But he's still going to put on a show, yes. Yeah.

For some reason, I feel like he'll open up at the weight that the guy opened up last weekend just to show that it can be done and then he'll take off from there but that's just speculation uh let's do a top let's do a top five for the women real quick before we check out here and then a top five for the women for the um for the women and then the men for the uh for the complex oh top you want. You want to go top five? Yeah. Okay. Let's do top three.

Let's, let's do top three. Do you think Mal is in the top five for this next, uh, uh, event? James, that's you.

I don't think so. But what do I know? That's Jr. Do you know? Well, I know, I know Brian has talked about a a couple females that i wasn't aware of being really strong i know he said alex willis or gazan i think maybe is what she's okay

yeah it is willis here he said she's really strong um i want to say chloe wilson yeah i heard i heard about chloe wilson and then you got dann and Amanda. And then Caruso, right? So that's five. Yeah. But I don't know how strong Mal will be comparatively. Yeah, no. No, I see her hitting maybe 210, 215. Really?

Yeah. And what do we see the top women getting? 285? Yeah. And what do we see the top women getting? 285? No. I bet Danny Spiegel hits 250. Yeah. Really? We've seen 245 a couple times.

Tia and Colin Brander were both 245. But as a complex? Yeah, that's what they hit last week. Two weeks ago. Kalarina Key last week, I think, was around that. 235, 240. Correct. The young girl from Mexico that's underproven.

Excuse that, Senator Key. So you think Barnhart's going to hit more than 250, James? Or you think she'll be the one to hit 250 she'll be the one to hit 250 interesting okay i think spiegel's got 240 in her so barnhart always misses that jerk man that jerk i know that i'm like man can i just can i just you know you're gonna be sweating that 10 bucks on the jerk when she's wrecked the second front squad on that 250 like come on yeah okay so we're going with danny spiegel then amanda barnhart and then well unless you ask james and then it's barnhart spiegel but either way caruso is going to take the top spot i think we said okay caruso up top and then willis and fourth we can't go wrong who cares it's our show

that's right yeah i think i think tia toomey's gonna come out of the crowd and beat everybody with no warm-up i just went over and looked to make because i didn't believe jr like an idiot and she did she did get 245 and it's it's just t is just nuts. Speaking of nuts, let's see here. Hello, sir. Hey. Yes, sir. Mr. Mertens, what's up, baby? Barely.

We just want to look at you. Did you get no rep on that set, the 21? Oh, great question. Yeah, let's see if you can hear me run that by him one more time colton uh andrew hiller's got a great question for you oh you miscounted yes yeah that's not something you hear very often i just miss counting issue no i don't i don't ever usually do that what happened andrew what did you see that made you ask that question i just saw him pick the bar up and do one rep and put it back down and continue on okay i was wondering if he had no rep on the final rep i did 20 reps and I did one rep. There's a planned break, actually.

That was a mental mistake. I just lost focus. As you cross the finish line there, what are some of your most immediate thoughts, Colton? Are you happy with what you did? No, I didn't win. I'm pretty much not happy with what you did no i didn't win um yeah i'm pretty much not happy once i win i i could take second here at every event and i would not be happy with any events um i just want to win like that um i mean shoulders i think i did about as well as i could have on that event um you know shoulders were about to fail right towards the end so i think i pushed it pretty well and looking forward to the

second event now did you have any doubts when you were handstand walking that last time that you were going to come down yeah definitely i did uh there's a few steps but i didn't know if i was going to make it it's getting pretty close to failure there i think that's how a lot of guys are feeling at that point. But you just have to go and kind of trust it. I don't do a ton of handstand walks and training. Just with training in the garage is not really a spot to handstand walk except for in the basement.

There's a little bit of area. So it's kind of difficult to gauge it. But you just kind of have to trust yourself sometimes and let it fly. Were you worried? Were you worrying? Panicking? Was I worried? Yeah.

Failed. How long until you got to go warm up for that clean? Isn't that coming up pretty soon? No, I don't think my heat goes until like 8.30 central time. So I have almost three hours. So I'll probably chill at the hotel for like an hour and a half. Are you by yourself or are you there with friends and family? I have Allison here.

Congrats. She just made the game. Coach Allison, Zerky. Yep. Team CrossFit Kilo too. Congrats. Hey, did you get to

celebrate at all with her that she's going to the games? Not really. I haven't gotten a chance to celebrate yet. Just been preparing for the Granite Games and she just got back

from Tennessee like like, Monday. And then I took off for here Wednesday. Colton, when you see all of – have you done all of these workouts? Yeah, I did them all last weekend. Facebook low-comp simulation. Oh, wow. And what did you think about your um finishes in them were you happy does that help you or does that get in your head make it worse

um like my times um or even how you felt the damage it does to you the memories none of them uh are like the kind of workouts we do. I mean, like, shit, I don't want to do that again. No, it's a lot easier than training, to be honest. I mean, there's days where I do that much volume in one day of training. So just the intensity is high, and it's going to hurt, but it always hurts, even in training. So, I mean, physically, this weekend is not that difficult. It's mentally, emotionally, and then just executing

and hoping that you are fit enough to do well. Do you like what you're hearing, James? Yeah, yeah, I like that. Is that too much training that he does that much workout for the entire event in one day, and so that this is easy for him just two a day? Yeah. Is that too much training? Is Colton pushing too hard?

No, not at all. Nope. JR, do you like what you hear? Does he sound like a man who can win? Does he have a strong mindset? What cracks do you see in Mr. Mertens? No, absolutely. I mean, I think Colton and, you know, all these guys this time of year when they're about to peak like this, their training volume is super high and they taper off for a week. And that way their intensity can be as high as possible on game day. Colton, are there any workouts you hear about workouts where, OK, this person is going to attack this one, this person is going to attack this one. But then there's workouts like, OK, I just need to mitigate how much damage is going to happen to me meaning they know that they're not great at it

so they have to try to just do good enough so that they don't it doesn't cause them to lose not qualify do you see any of the events like that is there any one where you're like okay i need to make sure i do this one really smart yeah i don't know if i'm this way into it smart but event six the road climbs and running, shuttle run, is one that is probably going to be my weakest event of the weekend. And, you know, I'm just going to have to go as hard as I can. And, you know, my rope climbs right now, it is not as fast as some of these other guys. I just take usually six poles to get to the top.

And I don't have that pulling strength yeah to where i can get it down in four poles or so so it takes me just longer to get up the rope and my sprint is also one of that great so it's gonna be hard for me to make up time there but like i'm just gonna go hard and keep racking up top five event finishes until then. Yeah, smart. If I could give you one advice, it would be on that rope climb one, it would be don't cut your jump short. There's a lot of guys that just jump and they grab like this, like reach,

like allow yourself to get up. And I guarantee you that'll cut your pull down. I'll give it a shot, for sure. Colton, what will you do to refuel now? I'll just drink a bunch of carbs and electrolytes. A banana. A small sauce. I'm going to finish one of my Ice Age meals I started earlier.

Get some protein early. Just keep putting the carbs in. A lot of carbs on competition weekends. What's the weather like there? It's very nice. Last year was hot as hell, wasn't it? Last year was ungodly hot.

Everyone has given out popsicles that have melted already. They're not doing that this year? Yeah. This year is really nice. I don't know if the they roll play a role i would rather be hot because i mean i work outside all day and i train outside as well um so i wish it was you know 100 100 and to break some of these other guys but it's pretty nice out right now it would also be helpful if there was like a septic leak around there because you're used to that all day too. Colton's like, yes. You guys are all screwed.

Colton, how's the crowd to you? How's the crowd treating you? Good. There's a lot more people here than there was last year. I expect to be more people here on Saturday. I think last year just the heat turned a lot more people here than there was last year. I expect to be more people here on Saturday. I think last year, just the heat turned a lot of people from coming out. I don't want to say it's done all day, but there's a good bit of people here this year. It's fun. I'm looking forward to it on this complex because they have the platform set up pretty close to this big grass area where a lot of people sit.

So the crowd will be pretty close to you, and'm pretty excited for that you'll feed off the crowd yeah for sure you'll feed off the crowd i was never p i was never pr anymore it's in a competition with a crowd um i'm expecting a good pr oh jr you love to hear that, right? Absolutely. That's a good mindset. Absolutely. Man, man, man, man, oh, man. What are you going to open with? Do you want to tell us or you're going to warm up and figure it out then?

Or you don't want to tell anybody? Never mind. Don't answer that fucking question. That's a stupid question. I'm going to fucking tell these other guys now. Yeah, don't tell anybody. It'll depend on warm-ups, but I'll probably open

315 to 325. It'll be somewhere around there. It'll depend how it feels, but last year for the snatch lift, I hit 265 in the warm-ups twice, and I said, okay, I'll open it then.

I think I need to be more conservative with my opener I might just try and get like 315 and then maybe 320 somewhere around there would be a good opener I think so I mean for a good to finish around 335 maybe 340. Well I should also say it doesn't matter what you open with it matters what you finish with right? I should also say it doesn't matter what you open with. It matters what you finish with, right? Yeah, I just want to have to make huge jumps. I know I can hit 335 and I'd love to get 340,

but, you know, I don't want to get out there and hit 325 and then miss, like, attempt at 340 and, you know, run out of attempts. So I'd have some good strategy going into it. I also figure since you're putting it on the internet like that post that you showed the other day you're not too worried about what everyone else is hearing or seeing about what you do right you're just gonna go kill everybody shoot oh oh his air conditioner turned off amazing gonna go kill everybody shoot oh oh his air conditioner turned off amazing in his hotel room now the audio is everyone hey colton everyone in the comment section on the live stream is all about it there's like little pig emojis and they're on the colton train i know you probably don't see that so i'm just letting you know

god it's so hard to find the workouts for me. How do I find workout number three? I can't. All right, fine. Hey, Colton, I appreciate you taking the time to check in. It's really cool. Really, really cool. Right in the middle of your day.

I really appreciate it. Workout three is the wall ball chipper. Yeah, sure. I've been listening to you guys. Bam. Okay, dude. I'll talk to you soon and we'll be rooting for you. You're our number one guy. Thanks, guys. Bye. Bye.

And pig farmer. Mike M., your mom buys me chocolates. All right? Why? What did he say? What does Hiller buy himself on your mom buys me yeah oh yeah yeah get out of here with that uh thank you guys for coming on um is there anything else we want to talk about we will be back at i don't even know where my schedule is anymore we

will be back at 7 30 pacific standard time i don't know if all of us will be awake, but I will be here for sure. That's 10.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. 9.30 for us. Say that again? Say it's 9.30 for us. Oh, okay. And I think what we're going to do, I think what we were planning on doing is come on at 7.30 and not show the heat, but have every person watch it on a separate screen and commentate it.

Do all of you have that available to yourself? Like you could be on the podcast with one and watch it on another screen? All right, we'll do that. Let's do it. That way we're not up all night. We can talk about the final heat in real time. We have the technology. Okay, guys, thank you very much.

Everyone who checked in, you guys are the best. And we'll see you guys tonight at 7. pacific standard time and 10 30 eastern time bye