The Sevan Podcast - Emily de Rooy & Fee Saghafi | 2023 CrossFit Games Prep

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

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Oh, bam, we're live. You're in the States. Yeah. Oh, sweet righty are you mayhem athlete emily yes yeah i am who isn't i did see a um on your instagram a uh a proven a proven cup or a shaker or something, but it was way back in your – Oh, that would have been over a year ago. Yeah, that one. Yeah, way back.

Were you a proven athlete? Yeah. And then you switched to Mayhem. I stopped proven and started doing my own stuff, like personal stuff from my coach. And then going into semis and games, I moved over to Mayhem. Is it invigorating starting new training programs? You know, like you might be just running and you might just be kind

of going through the motions and then you get a new pair of shoes you're like yeah i mean even though it doesn't mean anything it's just like a new pair of shoes or you know what i mean all of a sudden you're like yeah i'm gonna take these suckers out for a spin is it like that with programming too uh a little bit i reckon yeah um like the first the first week definitely i was like oh this is this is great like new programming new workouts things like that but it's all pretty much a much of a muchness like it's all really the same in a way eventually you're like yep these are just shoes yeah yeah these are these are these these are just shoes uh when did you come to the states um about a week ago just over a week ago, just over a week ago. Your first CrossFit Games?

Yes. Yes, it is. After only one previous semifinal? Yeah, yeah. So my first one was last year and then this year's second one and yeah. That's like, that's rocket ship status. Are you pretty pumped? Yeah, I'm very excited. Last year you got the experience with so many great athletes, and you were only 21? Yeah, last year being my first semifinal,

and I was able to do it with Tia and Kyra and all those top athletes was awesome. It was all just like an experience. And then this year, it was definitely a little bit different compared to that. When you go in this year, are you like, I'm going? I'm going to try. Yeah. Emily, say your last name for me.

D-Roy. D-R try. Yeah. Emily, say your last name for me. DeRoy. DeRoy. Yeah. But people like me want to say DeRue. Yeah, it's the two O's that get people. It's spelled, like, or said the same as R-O-Y, but. In lane number six, Emily DeRoy. That's it.

That's it. Okay, got it. That is it. Perfect. that's it that's it okay got it that is it perfect and uh god i'm i'm like is it uh is is this pretty dreamy is this pretty crazy uh yeah it's only 40 of you guys go to this event and it's like you're one of them representing australia that's for sure it's definitely taken a while to sink in and like with oceana only having three spots as well like to be in that top three was pretty surreal in the moment like i couldn't

believe it for a very long time and i think now that i'm finally over here it started to sink in a little bit but it's still it's still definitely a pretty crazy thought yeah it's um it's stacked someone might there might be the misconception to say oh uh tia wasn't there and carl wasn't there but that field is stacked oh yeah there's already still so many games athletes like that have been there before like there was who else was there like hayden Kate Van Zyl, Laura Clifton. Like, there's still so many strong girls and, like, all so many, like, up-and-comers as well. So, like, the field was strong.

Maddie Sturt, four-time Games athlete. Yeah, looking better and stronger than ever. Yeah, oh, she, yeah, she's amazing. I don't know how she just has been doing it for so long and is still so young. Hey, no one got any breathing room, huh? That was a tense event. Look at you guys. 592, 568, 556, 525, 524, 521.

Top six was a war. Yeah, the top six the whole weekend were just, like, back and forth, back and forth. I think I, like, traveled between first and fourth, like, for the first actually no for all the every day actually so did you show up to the region uh semi-finals healthy this year yeah yeah last year not so much this year I definitely did can you I heard you tell that story on a podcast you were on about event number one last year at the regionals. Do you mind telling that story again? That's a great story. So what I do, a few months before that, I'd hurt my shoulder doing a rope climb, I think it was.

And that kind of just brought up the issue. And then when I went and got it all checked out, they told me that it like I got it checked out after Torian actually um but they told me it had been dislocating and subluxing and all that fun stuff um for a few years apparently I'm not sure but um that's what it had been doing and ring muscle-ups were probably like the most aggravating for it like because it's so dynamic um and yeah that first event at Torian or at the semi-finals last year was scary for me like 30 ring muscle-ups I haven't hit that for who knows how long um before doing that event so it was all just quite quite a scary one um but I was able to make it through I didn't really have too much issues with the shoulder but it was yeah just uh like a um what's the word i'm going for a bit of damage control in

that one and yeah made it through it you literally went into it thinking willing to accept that you might not finish that you probably probably would not finish but then you won your heat it's like something happened like in between the starting line and you grabbing the ring something changed i don't i don't know what happened i think i just like i don't know if it was the adrenaline being out on the competition floor for the first time in that like bigger uh arena and competition um but something something happened and i was able to finish it top heat uh sorry top in the heat and then yeah top eight finish which was not what i was expected um i was saying to my coach before that like i will be happy if i cop a last place like i don't mind as long as i can just get

through it without hurting myself more and then yeah to win the heat was just like a cherry on top there was there a minimum uh work requirement on that workout no no no minimum work requirement so so you i mean you were even in the headspace if you do one muscle up and something goes wrong you're gonna tap you'll chill yeah pretty much yeah crazy dude well congratulations that that's gotta be a crazy, um, learning experience that anything's possible. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It just shows what the body can do. Um, when like put in such a, like a high pressure environment.

You said you originally injured it, um, doing rope climbs. Was it on a descent? Yeah. On the descent. I think I must've just like grabbed it funny and um it I don't know pulled it but the injury has been there for a long time it's just that kind of um brought it um like oh told me that there was definitely something wrong it just had taken its time to really show what did you call itating? And what was the other word you used? Sublux?

Subluxing. Sublux. Yeah. What is that? It's like a, I'm not great at explaining it, but it's like a small dislocation, I guess. Like it's still, yeah, there we go. Partial. Okay.

Partial. Okay. So it just like, it might just pop in and out like slightly but not fully come out of the um joint and and and no pain no i was never experiencing any pain with it so that's why i had no idea that it was there until i i think i'd um done something to my rotator cuff tendons which then brought it to light a little bit more hey when um when did you think you were going to go to the games what was the plan how does someone i mean it must be crazy being in oceana and being like okay there's cara and tia fuck we have one spot um i had i guess i

had like a a life plan like on on when I wanted to get there by. Like, I wanted to get there by the time I was 25, so that's still another three years away. That was my overall goal. And then this year, like, my goal, like, going in now, like, was always, like, I'm going to try and get top three no matter what. But with such a strong field, like like it definitely wasn't um like expected or anything like that i was like if i get it i get it if i don't i don't um but it was the goal was to make the

games by 25 and i exceeded that so i yeah i don't think i could really be happier i mean even if you the thing is is even if you the thing is even if you beat cara and tia it doesn't change anything there's still only three places yeah and really and really they're and they're going so even if you take first they're going to be in second and third like you and all the girls know that in that region huh that's just like just the way it is yeah tia and like they're both just such like strong athletes um tier especially obviously being like the six-time fittest woman on earth like having her in your field you never want to count yourself out but you just know that it's going to be the toughest

battle ever if she's there and in in the truth is too i guess is you also know that jamie simmons could probably qualify anywhere in the world too. Oh, absolutely. She's yeah. She did amazing. And like she came back off injury as well. So she, yeah, she is just blows my mind every time I see her compete. Yeah, man, you really, you, you, you really earned it. You really, you really did it. Congratulations. What a trip. Tell me, how did this happen, the CrossFit passion for you? So I used to be a swimmer or like I did ocean swimming and surf life saving and things like that.

So I was doing that for a very long time before I started CrossFit. And at my pool, we had like a little CrossFit box just at the back of it um tiny little one not many members but I was kind of reaching the end of my whole swimming thing I was getting sick of it a bit burnt out sick of the 4 30 5 o'clock wake-ups then having to go to school it was just a lot of um it was just a very very exhausting um so i was like you know what i'm gonna do one more season of swimming stop that i noticed like the little crossfit box at the back of my uh swimming pool i was like you know what i'm gonna give give that a go and i started i stopped swimming at 17 started crossfit at about 18 and um yeah i shit't, haven't looked back. You haven't been doing it very long.

Bit over four years. Hey, I mean, that's a long time relative to how young you are, but there's just so much to learn. Yeah, I'm still learning. Why would you go back there and want to mess with CrossFit? Was there like a cute boy back there or were there some girls you wanted to hang out with or like, what the like why would you do that i don't know it just looked fun like um because swimming is so repetitive like you're doing the same thing over and over and over um swimming up and down pool following a black line i was just looking for some more like variability to my training um and just what they were doing looked cool they were throwing barbells around they were doing handstands doing

all the crazy pull-ups and stuff like that i was like oh that looks cool I would like to see how that goes and yeah do you remember the the the first time you went you were doing crossfit and you went to the pain cave you went somewhere where you're like oh this is this is uh this is new I'm not am I gonna throw up what's going on here I do it was It was my first time doing Cindy. I completely ripped the palms of my hands off. All of my calluses on my hands were gone. Well, I didn't really have many calluses then, but all the skin on my hands

were gone. I think I only did like 14 rounds as well. Compared to now, not many rounds, not many pull-ups. I was hurting. My legs were sore for days. I don't know what made me go back after that, but something did. And yeah. Was that early on? Yeah, that was maybe a month or so in. Um, how about, how about the first time you did CrossFit? Did you have a pull

up going into it or did you even have to learn pull-ups um i could do a couple strict pull-ups um i didn't understand the kipping for a little bit so i had to my coach made me do like you're not getting uh you're not learning how to do keeping pull-ups until you can do at least five strict pull-ups so that was that was my goal for a while get five and then then i was able to learn how to do the kipping yeah great. Great coach. Holy shit. Yeah. Who, who was that? Oh, back in the day, I don't even think they coach anymore,

to be honest. Jack Stocker. So he, he doesn't coach anymore. He was my first ever coach at strain CrossFit. I was there for a couple of years before I moved over to CrossFit Townsville. That,

that gym in the back of the pool was it actually a crossfit affiliate or it was just it was yeah yeah it was was it a public pool area described what what's what who owned the pool um so yeah the pool was owned like it was a public pool that you like you have to pay to get into kind of thing there was an entrance one end for the pool entrance the other end for the crossfit gym and they all kind of like work together like if we want to do a swim wad we'd speak to the owners of the pool and um vice versa if they needed the back area for something we'd give it to them um but yeah it was all affiliated it was just a very small space very very small amount of members um yeah have you ever been to a crossfit gym besides that one that has a pool yeah yeah so uh that was

strain crossfit that was my first one i'm now at crossfit townsville which is um they also have a pool no no oh have you ever been to one that has a pool besides that actually no sorry no i haven't yeah crazy i i've never been to one that has a pool. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. No, it was pretty cool. Like, that was, like, while it was still such a small little box, that was probably one of the good things about it.

Like, if we wanted to do a swim workout, the coaches would talk to each other, and yeah. Do swimmers ever do that? Does swimming have a pain cave? Do swimmers go to a place the same place crossfitters go did i break up did i freeze can you hear me emily do you see So in a way like the. Yeah, you're frozen. Do you see her, Caleb? OK. Can you hear me now, Emily? Yeah, I can hear you. OK, go ahead. So do swimmers go to that dark place? You were familiar with it? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like swimming compared to CrossFit is very different.

Like doing doing sets on a time base, you're getting very minimal rest and you're doing it for 20-odd minutes or something like that. Like you've got to go 100 metres, you'll get five seconds rest and you have to do it again and again and again at a pretty fast pace. And by like halfway, at least three-quarters of the way, you are burning your shoulders, your lats, everything, especially now when I don't swim as often. The pain definitely sets in a little bit quicker.

It's like you don't get to breathe as much because your head's always underwater. And it's just it's a different kind of pain, I reckon. And I guess it makes you mentally tough because some part of you when you're in the water, like you may not want to go doing crossfit because it hurts or you can't breathe but the water there's another thing you could drown yeah it's too tough because you still have to go you have to take the risk right yeah uh chase uh chase ingram uh mid-distance swimming races get dark what's that what's mid-distance like how far like he's saying like some is that like a 400 meter uh swim or what's a mid he's saying that there's some that it's like oh this this is not good this hurts i'd say yeah like a mid-distance would be like

year 400 to 800 meter swim um like for myself when i was swimming i was doing like long long swims like ocean swimming four kilometers um things like that um those ones you just settle into a pace and it's only by the very up like last little bit that it starts to get hard because you're trying to go a little bit faster to finish it um the mid-distance ones are probably definitely the hurdier the the more painful ones because you're trying to go fast the whole way because it's still such a short amount of time um but it's long enough for everything to just be burning you can't breathe and yeah you you're you're looking forward to the swim this year yeah i am i'm hoping hoping something comes up and and that would be, is that even an event that you would dare strike out

and try to take a win on? I'm going to try, that's for sure. I'm never going to, like, I won't count myself out on it, but I still know there's, like, a lot of other strong swimmers in the field as well. So everyone's, like, going to put up a fight. But I'd like to think I'd be able to push that top spot in whatever swim event it is um and just

see how I go what what are your uh what are your parents uh think about you uh your dedication how many years did you swim I'd say about 10 years what do your parents think 10 years in swimming and then shift over to crossfit do you get pressure no no no don't do it stay in swimming you put in not really so my mom my mom was a swimmer as well. So I did a lot of my training with her throughout the years, like through my schooling years and stuff like that. Excuse me. But she, she was happy. Like, she's like, as long as you find something that you love and if you're going to put all

your effort into it and everything like that, she is happy. Like as long as I'm trying my best, I'm doing what I can and I'm staying fit and healthy, then she doesn't mind. Same with my dad. He's all for it. He loves the whole CrossFit thing. He doesn't do it, but he loves to get involved. And yeah, they just love it. He's a huge fan.

Yeah. Yeah, they both are. Mom's actually a very huge fan of your podcast as well. So when I told her about this, she was over the moon. Oh, awesome. Tell her, said, hi, they both are mom's actually a very huge fan of your podcast as well so when i told her about this she was over the moon oh awesome tell her said hi what's your mom's name kylie kylie hi kylie hey that makes me happy hey um why why do you think um why do you think you gravitate to uh crossfit over swimming and do you think that the same burnout, do you think, do you look out? I shouldn't say you didn't use the word burnout, but do you look out for the same reason that you switched swimming?

Do you pay attention to that? Hey, is that going to come for CrossFit too? Like am I two or three years away from maybe wanting to switch out of CrossFit? I don't know. I don't really think about, want to think about that really too much, I guess. Like the swimming thing just kind of came around. I was like, oh oh I'm kind of sick of this um I want to try something new if it doesn't

work I'll come back to swimming um like it wasn't something where I like hated it I never wanted to do it again kind of thing um so it was just lucky that I was able to find CrossFit and find something new but with CrossFit like because it's so varied, you're always doing something new. I feel like you're able to last that little bit longer just because it is always being varied. But, again, like, the toll it takes on your body is also a lot higher. Like, the impact is a lot higher than swimming.

So, like, both of them, like, will have their, like, reasons for, like, burnout their like reasons for like burnout and exhaustion and things like that. Um, which I guess you do have to be wary of, but it's not something I think about or anything like that until it kind of comes around. I, I don't know when it was, but a couple of years ago, I think we had Haley on and she was basically saying that, um,

rich doesn't go to the pain cave and like, you never see him fall down after a workout anymore. And then we had Rich on and he's like, yeah, I'm not doing that so much anymore. And that it must get even just for the hobbyist CrossFitters like myself, the people who are just kind of like, you know, faking it. It's a scary it's a scary spot like when you hear someone like say to fraser say hey he sells his soul every day on the assault bike like that uh yeah that shit is fucking scary that's just like oh i don't know scary's right the right word what is the right word for that there's just a lot of pushback you get on and you're like say it again intimidating

yeah i guess so i mean even if you say you're going to give it your all after the workout like someone like me maybe like uh maybe i only gave it 89 you know like there's a spot where i'm like oh this i don't like the way this feels yeah yeah so so that's when i think of burnout for crossfitters that's what i think or mental fortitude i always think how the fuck do they do this every single day do you know how you do it um just uh i guess it's not oh what's the word i'm going for discipline i think it is like just knowing where i want to like what i want to achieve and where i want to go with the sport is kind of just what what keeps me there every day pushing hard but um i guess like with what you said about Matt and Rich like being different,

like Matt sells his soul every day. Rich doesn't. And maybe Rich did back in the day. These were different times by the way. Rich was talking about like in his current iteration as a, you know, 10-time CrossFit Games athlete and I'm comparing him to, you know, Matt in his second year. So let that be said before someone texts me and fucking choose me a new one. Yeah.

Yeah. Like either way, like whenever it was said, I guess there's like points where you definitely do have to just go that extra little bit and sell your soul. Right. But that's not something I don't think you need to do every single day because otherwise you will just burn out and just not want to train anymore um so yeah there's definitely times where you should sell yourself there's definitely times where you should just take it take it back a notch and like that even balance i think is is good keeps you keeps you

wanting more a little bit is there a story you tell yourself to get up and go? I remember that teacher said to me in the third grade, I'll never amount to anything, or fuck that girl who said that she'll be better than me someday. I'm not going to let her catch me. I would think that you need some sort of chip on your shoulder or some sort of narrative

or motivation, or I'll show them or I'm going to do this. Kind of a little bit. Yeah. A little bit. I don't know if I should say it on here. It's a funny one, but stop it.

I'll say it. Baden Brown last year said to my coach, I posted an Instagram post saying to my friend who was moving to America, I was like, have fun in America. I'll see you next year if you know, you know, like winky face about the games. And he saw that and said to my coach like, oh, does Emily think she's going to make the games next year? This is what I've been told.

So I was like, oh, that's a little bit, it's a little bit funny. My coach told me that one. I was like, oh, okay. And yeah, here we are yeah that's great and so you keep that yeah you hear that and you keep that and it's so like maybe one day when you're like i've done enough workouts today but you're like you know what i'm gonna go in tonight and and talk to uh baden my little baden story yeah yeah that's the one best of luck in america i'll see you next year in august wow uh caleb impressive holy shit dude wow

this is like a real podcast the way how fast he pulled that up it's crazy yeah i think people need those. There has to be some – I think there has to be a story or some motivation. It can't just be just for nothing, right? Yeah, yeah. So that definitely added a little bit of fuel to the fire. I never take anything like that. I just took it with a grain of salt. I was like, oh, she's not going to make make it she's only been doing it for so long and um yeah it just

add a little bit of fuel to the fire and it was it was good yeah um there's a instagram uh picture of you a video of you standing next to a swimming hole and it looks like you're about to go swimming and then the camera pans over and there's an alligator or crocodile in the water is that real and and oh it is fake that's not a real alligator crocodile oh where is that yeah that's just that's um returning seniors pond he has a he has a fake crocodile or alligator out there yeah fake alligator head yeah oh shit hey do they have alligators or crocodiles in cookville or no too far away from the gulf um no i think i asked that question to someone yesterday um if there were any but um no they said there's none in tennessee maybe okay yeah yeah yeah okay i was like she's just a

fake floating one no just a fake floating one um your your semi-finals announcement um when you finish the workout do you know that you made it or is it a stressful stressful announcement it was stressful so going into the last event i was second um and like all i knew was kind of like i had to stay close to uh caitlyn van ziel and um that was pretty much it just stay close to caitlyn van ziel and you'll be sweet i shat the bed in that workout. It was my worst finish. Thankfully, like, she was only a place in front of me. So it was, I was, like, 99% sure that I'd kept the at least third place position, but there was still that little thought

in my head, like, I've just stuffed this up. Like, could have been my only chance to make it, and I've just messed it up. So I was sitting at the finish line, felt like an eternity, just like that little thought in my head, like what if, what if you just lost your chance? So there was a little bit going through my head like that, but I was for the most part pretty sure.

But yeah, there was just that little thought in my head that what if I didn't. 11th place. Yeah. So that one if I didn't. 11th place. Yeah, so that one was my, yeah, 11th place was my worst finish. No shit, you got your worst finish on the last workout. Yeah. Yeah, I had nothing left. I was just, all the nervous energy had been like running through my body. I was exhausted.

I had nothing left to give. So you were in the final heat yeah and did you take last in the final heat um i think i did yeah holy shit that is stressful and what happened where was the tough part was it how tall are you? Uh, five, nine. Okay.

So you could, when you put your arms around the sandbag, you could touch your hands. Yeah. Where was the, uh, where, where did you feel yourself coming apart? Toes to bar?

I think it was probably the echo bike. I thought the total bar were going to be like my, um, like the harder part but i just didn't have anything to give on the echo bike i just slowed slower than i wanted to be i started out i was already the last off the bike off the first round um yeah i just didn't have didn't have the power that i wanted emily when you when you before you start that workout do you know that, can you look into your fuel tank and be like, okay, this is a four and a half minute workout and I only have 82 seconds of fuel. Is there any, like you do assessments like that?

No, I probably don't think about it like that. I like, I was like, it's only a four and a half minute workout is probably what was in my head. Like you just have to hold on for four minutes. Like that was probably what was going through my head more than anything than, than the energy thing. But yeah, I just didn't have enough for four and a half minutes. Can you do anything? Do you know that before the workout that you're not, I guess what I'm asking and can you do anything?

Can you eat something? Can you drink a little pre-workout? Could like can you do anything is there anything you do to yourself yeah let's start there is there anything you eat knowing that's the last workout of the day before you go out there i don't know no i've never really thought about that i just eat what i get told to eat before the workouts like my dietitian will just say make sure you eat this and this before you work out like an hour before have these have some lollies right beforehand I probably don't have anything like specific um yeah I don't know it's just like I just used all my energy like nervous energy because I was sitting in second going to that last workout like I was just

freaking out and I think doing that had like used up all my energy without realizing and then as soon as i went to go i was like i have nothing oh so you realize that when you're out there that must be a trip oh that must be a trip almost like it wasn't almost like you're in quicksand kind of yeah i don't know if my head just wasn't in the right place when i went out there like just because i was overthinking everything obviously being in second it was stressful just very stressful um so yeah i don't know my head just wasn't in the right place going into it i guess um which is definitely something i have to work on just my mental game um but that i think played a role there um barry mwkner uh jeremy wants to know if emily

is single emily do you have a mate i think what do they call it in your country no not a mate a mate's just anyone in your country you have a um a significant other do you have anyone that you like you kiss every case no no she no. She is single. So 10 years of swimming and then you get into CrossFit, do you have a sudden body composition shift? Like a pretty quick one? I don't know. Like swimmers don't have butts, do they?

What? Sorry? Swimmers don't have butts, do they? They're like runners. Like you guys just swim your asses off, right? We have no legs. Yeah, no legs, no butts, nothing on the lower half really. I've always had like quite large shoulders. But yeah, CrossFit probably changed like composition-wise,

like changed my lower half a lot more just because we started to finally use my legs do some squatting which is not something you see a swimmer do too often and um and did your body how did your body react did it react quickly and appropriately or was it uh after 10 years of swimming was it a tough transition i actually think it was okay like i i can I can't remember too much, excuse me. Um, but I think like still with swimming, I was doing some strength training. So there was still a little bit there. Um, the volume just increased. And I think just because I've been so used to high volume training, even if it was a different muscle group, I think it all still like, um, came together pretty well and like i think i

transitioned pretty well regarding that you you don't remember like the first time you were working out doing like squats or lunges and then after the workout done you're like holy shit like i can feel my ass right now like when i started crossfit i remember there were two workouts in particular i was like holy fuck like i actually have my quads are fucking feel like they're gonna explode like every step i could feel them and then i remember the first time i felt my butt i'm like whoa say it again that was probably that cindy workout that i spoke about yeah as well like my first like hardcore workout i might i definitely could feel my legs after that and it was only i don't know, 200 squats maybe.

Not too many really. Like if you think about it nowadays, like 200 squats in a workout isn't too bad. Just air squats. So, yeah, I definitely felt it in that one. I think another one that people feel probably who've never done a pull-up too, you probably didn't notice this one as much being a swimmer, but is lats. Like if you never had lats before and then you get CrossFit, all of a sudden you're like a fucking flying squirrel.

Yeah. I think, yeah, the whole swimming thing helped with the pull-ups, like not having the doms there, all the doms were focused on my legs and I was just in pain for a week, like walking downstairs, trance it on the toilet. I was just trying like holding onto the walls while trying to do anything leg related. It wasn't fun. I don't miss those days. What's DOMS again?

Delayed? Delayed onset muscle soreness. Yeah. That shit's great, isn't it? Do you like that? So great. Yeah. I mean, because then you know you did.

Are you joking? Because then you know you did are you joking because then you know you did something kind of fun yeah yeah as long as they're not so bad that they inhibit you from walking right like going downstairs and each step is like oh shit i better hold the railing yeah yeah um you talked about in um uh one of the podcasts that you were doing a yoke carry and you had some doms that were unique to you, I think. Does that sound right? You did a yoke carry in some workout and you'd been doing CrossFit for like two years and all of a sudden you had some soreness and you're like, holy shit, how do I still have soreness in muscles that I've never felt soreness in before? I thought I had done everything. Do you remember that?

This is a podcast from over a year ago okay you like the yoke you like the strongman stuff i do i do yeah um i love the strongman and you have access to all that stuff in australia where you train we do now we've recently, we got a yoke a couple of weeks before the semifinals. Um, and have we gotten anything else? No, I think, yeah,

the yoke we got it. Yeah. We got two yokes just before the semifinals and then they decided not to put them in. So I was a little bit sad about that, but that, so that picture there is the first time I've ever used the yoke. At the semifinals two years ago yep when um whenever i see you guys do those it's like there's i have this stress for you guys the whole thing i've never used a yoke but i'm assuming

the whole thing is is you do not want one of those legs to touch the ground even for a second right no because then you'll just start wobbling all over the place you'll have to put it down reset and then it's just a big waste of time so you have to set the height of the thing um perfectly so like obviously as the workout goes along you're going to compress a little bit um so if those plates are only just off the ground you're going to hit it you're not going to be able to walk properly with it and it's just going to be a mess so what's the deal if it's too high it wobbles too quickly and if it's too low it hits the ground you're gonna hit it you're not gonna be able to walk properly with it and it's just gonna be a mess so what's the deal if it's too high it wobbles too quickly and if it's too low it hits the ground yeah yeah pretty much so yeah if it's too high um it'll start to like sway

either way too low it'll hit the ground so yeah you have to find that like happy medium with the height i really don't enjoy watching that that event yo yo carrie i think has been my favorite event ever in the semi-finals how come i don't know it was just i think like a bunch of my strengths um in that workout i love strongman and handstand push-ups were great as well so i think that one was yeah just, just... And it went really well. I came third behind Tia and Cara, so I don't think I could really complain about that one. No shit.

You took third behind them. Yeah. Hey, see that? Congratulations on that. See how high that yoke is off the ground? Is that where it's supposed to be? Like that? Or is that too high off the ground?

Can you see that? It probably looks like it's like... I think it's like... Four inches. Looks like it's like that high. That's how high it is supposed to be off the ground can you see that it probably looks like it's like i think it's like four inches looks like it's like that high that's how high it is supposed to be off the ground good job i think it's all right yeah like you know i think yeah all that shit would stress me out it looks it looks all right to me um who's coming to uh madison with you um so i've got my my current coach now um daniel strickland he he'll be coming over the week of the games um and i've also got my manager patrick or and um

photographer ben watson as well and they're like i'm very good friends with all of them so it'll be good having the support there. You have a manager already. Is that like an agent? Yeah. Yeah. And what's he do? He's just looking out for ways to,

to make you money. I guess a little bit and just making like, he just like make sure like on the socials, I'm doing all my stuff. Right. Um, and yeah, things like that did you have a uh instagram account that got hacked

yeah yeah at the start of last year how does that happen tell me so you wake up one morning you open your instagram and you're like this doesn't look right or you can't get in or what's the deal i clicked on a link and I think they must have been able to, I don't know exactly how it worked. My friend got hacked who sent me a link saying, go check out these photos I took of you. Thought it was legit because they do take photos. Oh.

And yeah, just a dumb mistake. And then you lost your account. Yeah. And there's no way way like you write instagram back and they're like fuck you eat a dick nothing i actually i didn't i didn't bother trying to get it back um i just let it i'll cop that that was my dumb mistake so i just created a new account. Emily, I'm looking at your account now. What do you do

about the name? How do you get your name back? Or did you have it under a different name? I just ended up reporting the other account and they got deleted because they still kept posting stuff. If you pick the number that's in this you'll win five thousand dollars and they kept posting that so people were reporting it and i was reporting it and it got deleted no shit crazy yeah so i was able to keep my name and they

they changed my username actually as well so like i couldn't log in to anything like change my username and password god that shit is so fucking annoying can you imagine that being your life hacking into other people's shit what a shit life i don't know why they have why they do that and why they don't have anything better to do but it's whatever i've learned my lesson don't click on random links um hey i would those people should have to bear crawl 1,000 miles. They can take as long as they want to do it. There's a cell, and you're either bear crawling or you're in your cell eating. Yeah, I agree.

And you have to do 1,000 miles. That may take you six months or two years, but you're going to come out stronger. You're going to have a lot of time to think. I 100% agree. Douchebags. So Jake Chapman doesn't have to ask. Can she say – oh, my goodness. Miss Emily, could you say – I don't think it's get on the chopper.

I think it's get to the chopper. The Arnold Schwartz – I don't even know how to say his last name. Could you say that, Get to the Chopper? Get to the Chopper. Wow. That might be the best one I've heard. Look at Rosie. My business Facebook account actually got hacked last week.

No, it's not excessive. No, it's not excessive. No, it's not excessive, Kenneth. A thousand miles is not a little excessive. Excessive is hacking my shit. Yeah. I'd love to find someone at Instagram actually banned my account. I'd like to find out who that is and make them run 5,000 miles. Bear crawl 5,000 miles.

Asshole. Absolutely. It sucks to think that there's some fucking kid over there who's just like you know what i don't like what that guy's posting i'm pulling his shit down it is like that yeah or they just they just find random accounts and like see if they're vulnerable do you i vulnerable. I never report anyone's account for anything. If I see something I don't like, I just fucking keep going my way. Yeah. You ever report anyone's? At the time of our show.

You ever report anyone's accounts? You ever report anyone's accounts? Only ones that are being hacked. It's happened to a few nights as well. Daniel will be there. he's your coach um patrick your agent and ben watson the photographer what about um mom and dad they were looking at coming over um but they just because it's such an expensive trip they wanted to help me out a little bit more financially than spending all their money to come watch yeah so they've helped me out with a little bit on the money side which I'm very grateful for so yeah I definitely I don't think

I'd be here this early at least even without them and then just the whole trip in general that yeah they've been very helpful with yeah athletes need that yeah and and you've only been you've been in the sport so such a short time also so it's like and you've climbed to the top so quickly that it's like yeah you need time for like those types of things to catch up are you yeah yeah so I don't have like go ahead sorry no you go ahead I was just gonna say like I don't have like go ahead sorry no you go ahead I was just gonna say like I don't have like the massive following base and things like that or like um what's cool like I've got sponsors who also like help me out with um some money side of things as well but um like a lot of the athletes there train full time and they've got like a constant income which is something that I don't have have yet so it's definitely just it's nice to know like it's nice to have the help like from my family and stuff like that i wonder how stressed

out your mom and dad are going to be watching this on um on youtube or wherever it is or on tv god that would be fucking stressful to watch your kid do this yep yep saw my mom cry for the first time when she came to oh not for the first time but for the first time in a long time when she came to my semifinals. So I can't imagine what she'll be like for the games. She cried during the week or at the end when you made it? Like when I made it. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

You looked over and you saw her in the stands crying? No, she came down to the front because they had to go catch a flight. They're like, we have to go but well done and yeah they were just they were very very happy you like to make your parents proud yeah yeah they've done a lot for me yeah that's cool over the years do you do you feel that pressure for them from do you feel that pressure like sometimes like hey my i know my mom and dad work extra hard and they give me money and they're behind me. And that puts a little added like needed pressure to perform.

A little bit. But they always like just say like as long as you do your best, then they're happy. Like they don't care if I come 40th. Like as long as I did my best, tried my hardest, they don't mind at all. They're just happy that I was there. And, yeah. How far are you from Mayhem now? You're in your hotel?

Five-minute drive. And are there a lot of athletes there already? Yeah, yeah, there's a few there. Like, obviously, like, the Mayhem athletes that live here, like I've been training a bit with Paige Powers and Bailey Rail and Victoria Campos. I've been training with them for a little bit now, like for the past week or so, which has been really cool.

And then there's like a lot of like the other guys there as well, like Luke Parker's there, Sam Cornier. Who else is there? Like Royce and their team is here as well. The Torian mayhem team. They're here. There's a lot, a lot of people. When, when you train with people like a Victorian page and Bailey, do you, do you call them ahead of time or DM them ahead of time and say, Hey, I'm coming to town or like, is it weird? I'm wondering how it is,

especially for like Bailey and Paige, cause they probably have their whole thing already like going right. They're regular training partners. They definitely like they train together a lot. And I kind of just like slid myself in there. They asked me like I was there. I hadn't spoken to them before um i'd gotten to the gym um but we were both getting ready for the same workout and they're like um they're like oh do you want to join in and we're just kind of being like jumping in and they do say that they're they do say that

they're nice like that yeah yeah yeah wow definitely oh is there an orientation when you get there how does mayhem onboard people like that like so you're doing their program you're a games athlete do you reach out to them and say can i come out or do they reach out to you are they like hey emily yeah i reached out to them um about coming over early and training and they were all for it like they were super helpful and yeah they were like yep come on over and once i got there they like explained the whole thing like how it works to me and yeah it's just been really good they've been super welcoming um and everything there all easy like hey you can come out work from here the gym's open between this time and this time make yourself at home very easy and did you see the

little coffee shop there yeah it's a cool little coffee shop yeah if i ever go that's all that's the reason why i want to go to mayhem i want to see that little coffee shop there and do you hang out in there um i haven't yet um i don't drink coffee myself so i don't actually go in there at all do you do you don't do any caffeine no wow that's amazing congratulations thanks i don't know i don't know if it's something like sorry no caffeine no i don't have pre-workout or anything i don't know if it's something like, sorry. No caffeine? No, I don't have pre-workout or anything. I don't know.

Do you know any other athletes who don't do caffeine? I mean, it's not something I ask, I guess. But whenever, like, if someone says, oh, do you want to go for a coffee? It's like, oh, I don't drink coffee. They're always very shocked. So most people, I think, still drink it. People who don't drink coffee still usually have some sort of caffeine addiction. My buddy Andrew wakes up and has two pre-workouts right when he wakes up in the morning.

It's his pick-me-up. That's interesting. Wow. Why don't you you just never have or do you have some sort of um give some sort of issue with caffeine like where you're like um against it morally or ethically or i don't know you don't think it's healthy i don't like the taste of coffee so there's that so that cuts out coffee completely um and just like pre-workouts i never i never really enjoyed drinking them they didn't taste very good um and they always just make me like very shaky and anxious so i wasn't there's no i didn't think there was any point me trying it and i've been able to get through so far so um eric weiss says uh i heard uh andrew hiller snorts

coffee and then andrew doesn't miss a second and says careful hombre oh you know hombre spanish for man but it it uh when you use it it elevates the the nuance there in the United States is it elevates the tension. Wow. Yeah, coffee is an acquired taste of it's weird. I think coffee is weird too, but I just like having warm drinks and I'm addicted to caffeine. Yeah, yeah. It's easy to get addicted to caffeine.

My mom and dad have many cups a day. A lot of people I know have multiple before 12 o'clock in the morning. About 12 o'clock in the day. When will you head over, Emily, when will you head over to Madison? 30th of July. So in a week. And do you fly there by yourself or do you go with some of the mayhem people um so I think there's a couple people on my flight I know

Paige Powers is on the same flight as myself um and I think there might be a couple others as well um and I'll be meeting people in Chicago when I get there to drive to madison isn't um i thought that you guys had a oh you're for in your orientations on the on the morning of the 31st so you get there on the 30th and then the next morning it's it's straight to work yeah the monday morning yeah we've got our um rego and stuff 8 till 11 awesome hey uh great meeting you i'm excited for you congratulations thanks so much for having me on yeah yeah you're amazing what what a cool experience i'm glad i'm gonna have a front row seat and get to see you uh to see you in your first year there at the crossfit games battling it out with the fittest people on the planet. It's going to be cool. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm definitely, I'm very excited.

All right, dear. Talk to you soon. Yeah. Too easy. Thanks so much. And thanks for doing this. Yep. All right. Ciao. Too easy. Bye. Bye. Too easy. That's the, that means that that was too, like, I enjoyed that. Thanks for making that easy. She said too easy twice. Too easy. That's that was too, like I enjoyed, thanks for making that easy. She said too easy twice.

Too easy. That's got to be a compliment. Yes, Evie, too easy. And this girl, that was her nickname in high school. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. Fee Sagafi coming up. What is this? How come every time I say dear, yeah, dear. I don't know Fee Sagafe coming up.

What is this? How come every time I say dear? Yeah, dear. I don't know how to do it. Dear. She's a little kid. Dear. Stop trying to make chow happen.

I could do chow. Did I do chow? Did I say chow? You didn't do chow this time. I do chow now and again Tweezy she meant you need to do your eyebrows Tweezy me so easy

yeah that may have been the best female or male get to the chopper pretty good so far oh Fisi Goffi's coming on in seven minutes it's exciting yeah i guess i could tell her to come um oh and matt suze is on his way to my house oh my goodness holy shit lindsey mercado mercado mercado lindsey mercado mercado mercado rhymes Mercado. Mercado. Lindsey Mercado. Mercado?

Mercado. Rhymes with avocado. Lindsey, I finally caught a live one. Behind the scenes one. Holy shit. Thank you. Caught a live one. Lindsey, I'm going to use that money to put gas in my rental car when I drive

home from Madison to Chicago. I think I have to return the car full of gas or something. Just above a three-quarter tank, right? Yes. Thank you,

Carol. Back in the day when I was a baller, I'd just always return it however I wanted. They're like, it'll be $11.25 per gallon if you return it, fuck off don't talk to me yeah just take this shit sir you vomited in the car

yeah clean that shit up Tank Reeves you need to vindicate to make a dump truck hottie shirt, I'm so glad you like that I think it's so funny dump truck hottie shirt i'm so glad you like that i think it's so funny dump truck hotties i do remember the first time i felt my butt after doing a crossfit workout and like i was walking and it was like jiggling and shit i was like wow i have an ass back there do you remember that can

you remember that man i don't know i don't think so i remember the first time i saw like quad separation in my quads that my legs just didn't look like poles i was like wow oh yeah i gotta remember that too it's like holy shit i wow i'm on the juice i'll juice that uh i thought you were big time you were driving yourself i think i'm driving if andrew will drive i'll probably let him drive i was gonna say isn't hillary gonna drive you i have the rental car i suspect that hillary's not a very good driver why is that i just suspect that he he'll be a little like a robotic. Like I flow. I'm a soul driver. Like I just change. I picture Andrew Hiller driving like segmented.

He turns on his blinker. He shifts. He switches lanes. He turns off his blinker. Like me, I flip it on, check the mirrors, cruise over. I don't mind switching two or three lanes at a time if I have to. I just see him being very segmented. You know what I mean?

He doesn't flow. He's not. Oh, I love driving. That doesn't answer the question. That doesn't answer the question. I used to have to teach people how to drive in Jordan when I was deployed. And some people were just terrible. Just like,

like it was like segmented, but it was just aggressive segments. Like slam on the brakes, put on the blinker, swerve over to the other lane, swerve back over, flick the blinker, accelerate aggressively.

Like anytime there was a speed bump, slow down right before it, accelerate over it, accelerate through it. Like, it was insane. Driving's not like you're doing anything. It's a Venn diagram. Everything's always crossing into everything else.

Like, you're describing, like, this person who, like, thinks they either have to be gassing or braking. Right. You're like, dude, that's not how driving works. Driving's about, like, looking down the road. It's a flow. Yeah, it's a flow. Oh, here, here. I will wait for you to let me know my skill at the road. It's a flow. Yeah, it's a flow. Oh, here, here. I will wait for you to let me know my skill at the wheel.

I should come with a clipboard and like a driving assessment. Just make sure that you have like a brake on your side of the car too. Savon, I just had my blood work done from California Hormones. Oh, that's awesome. How are your chromosomes chromosomes are you a man can they is that how can they tell your chromosomes from your blood work they can't right your chromosomes are everywhere i guess yeah you could if you're right hey ed hiller i'm having some camera issues.

What kind of camera issues? I don't even know if I have time to get into it because he's coming on in two minutes. I don't even know if I should try to explain this. This is probably horrible for the viewership if I talk about my camera. I'm not really... What? Say it again? Who wants to know? Oh, okay. Okay, so... I'm not really what say it again who wants to know oh okay so it's been a while since I since I shot but normally what I do is I shoot in manual focus

mode and then there's a button on the back like an AF button and I push that button and then it spots focus spot focuses really quick right and then if I hold that button down it stays in tracking mode right so let's say someone's running across the field and i have it manual focus i get that that spot on them and i hit the auto focus button on the back and it that square will lock onto them and track them that's how i used to do it or if i'm doing an interview with someone uh you know with the 24 mil and i'm right in front of them i it's on manual focus and i hit the spot instead of manually focusing i just hit this,

the button and it turns on the autofocus for a second locks them in. And for some reason on the a seven R four, it won't let me get into that mode. That's the DMF mode, right? Anyway, I, I,

I started looking at it this morning and i started stressing myself out before the um it's not something i should be fucking with at six in the morning i have the um i'm gonna use the a7 uh s3 greg on um to shoot slow-mo i'll have a second i'll have two cameras like i always do um and i'll shoot 4K 120 with that but I'm just talking but I still need the because I need two cameras not sure why you're using the a7R IV

I knew I shouldn't have asked fine yeah what do you think I should do i also noticed that the a6600 also shoots a 4k 120 does it shoot 4k 120 no i'm not switching to canon oh great here come here come the solutions why are you shooting that camera you should throw it at the wall

uh gold fox trot yankee i hit i have teenage drivers the arizona drivers test they are not allowed to fail anyone everyone passes no shit that's that can't be true i failed mine first time in what state nebraska i um i uh i was getting on the freeway the other day i can't remember ever seeing this in my fucking 45 years of driving and the guy stopped on the on-ramp because he couldn't merge onto the freeway so imagine imagine there's six of us in a line accelerating to get on the freeway and then this dude slams on his brakes and stops i slam on my brakes and i see the guy behind me slam on his brakes. And then I just,

all I hear is horns honking. Oh, that's horrible. That's a nightmare. Yeah. Peace. I'm in your hand. Hi.

Good morning. You guys, you made it. That was easy. Can you rotate your phone? Oh, horizontal. Yes, please. Thank you. Yay. There you go. morning you guys you made it that was easy can you rotate your phone speed oh horizontal yes please thank you yay there you go i'm on i'm using my tripod so that's i'm adjusting there you go i wish i could see your tripod it's actually it's called uh what's it called it's like it's called

tentacle because it looks like a little octopus oh yeah yeah and it um yeah it moves all over the place actually really cool i saw it on an ad and i immediately got two so it was a bogo sale uh when you say immediately oh oh yeah oh my gosh there it is hey um did you see it on an ad on Instagram? I did. I did. Oh, man. They got me real good. Yeah, I wrote that off. I'm a sucker for the shit on Instagram, but they made it so hard for me to buy so that I kind of slip out.

It's funny. It's like when I wake up, I usually the the phone like I check my phone first thing yeah and as I'm like scrolling through Instagram at like 6 30 in the morning I see this ad and I'm like oh I need one and I also would love to because buy one get one free and sure enough after my fiance is like you got two why do you need two you got a million tripods and I was like yeah but eventually those break and at some point I'm probably going to need these anyways so yeah so I just got two hey feet um uh some people say you shouldn't um uh look at your phone first thing in the morning but I like to do that too I like to wake up and I like to uh open a window or open

the front door let the dog run out and then I like to get my phone or open the front door, let the dog run out. And then I like to get my phone and check to see what I missed during the night. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of, why do they say it's bad checking your phone though? Cause I feel like that's the first thing I need to know is like who messaged me, who called me, maybe my coaches, you know, Matt usually tells me, you know, certain updates in training or something so my wife wakes up and sits in um like half lotus and breathes like some someone a healthy person yeah like like like a monk yeah and she closes her eyes for how long I don't know. You tell her good morning and she's like, I'm in meditation. I don't know.

But I talk to her when she's in that state too. Obviously, she doesn't talk back, but I'll say stuff to her like, hey, I'm going to go do the podcast. I'll be back in an hour. Hey, don't forget. You just hear her deep breath. What did you say? You just hear her deep breath. Yeah, totally.

I'll be like, hey, like she just woke up and I'll be like, hey, just so you know, the forerunner is out of gas. So if you go somewhere, stop at the gas station first. You know what I mean? I don't ever expect her to talk back. But just like. Why is that such a dad? That's such a gross thing in the morning. Something about the car, something about the gas.

Yes. Yes. My dad used to knock at my door at like six in the morning or whenever he would leave for work and he would just like knock really loud and you say i'm leaving make sure you change the oil in your car oh what a good dude six in the morning it's such a great hey look at that setup behind you over your shoulder on the left. Two external monitors, an iPad, and a

laptop. Look at that shit. Look at that. That's not my desk. Yeah, what's going on over there? That's like my desk. That's like a serious podcast setup over there. What's going on over there? That's my fiance's work from home. We ended up getting that desk

dollars from all these and if you touch it in like just with your finger it like does it like shifts around but he has three monitors up there he's a cpa so spreadsheets and shit spreadsheets documentsets, documents, lots of meetings, lots of phone calls, lots of everything. So he monitors to get the job done. Barry McCall, she has a fiance with a sad face. Oh, I'm sorry, Barry. Oh, look, Barry's flexing in his picture and everything, too. No, that's Lucas Parker.

That's Lucas Parker. That's not Barry. I'm looking at it. I was like, Lucas Parker. Yeah, I'm married. I got engaged last year and now we're getting married right after the games. It's been a stressful like couple months. Where are you getting married at?

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Cancun, Mexico. Oh, that's nice. We're getting, if you've ever are looking to go to Mexico, in Cancun, there's a palace resort

and it is the most beautiful resort, vacation spot I've ever been to. i've been there twice now the last two years every time we've gone and it's an all-inclusive resort and moon palace is actually on the resort there's three different hotels and it's this huge campus of all-inclusive drinks food entertainment every night is a party somewhere and yeah that's where we're getting married so let me see if this place suits me i like a place where um i can just walk around in shorts and nothing else barefoot and just shorts okay and

the water is um clean and safe i can Okay. And the water is clean and safe. I can walk out into the water and swim? Yes. Oh, the water in Cancun. Oh, you can see it. It's that crystal blue clear water. Exactly what the pictures show. That's actually exactly what it looks like.

Wow. It's absolutely beautiful. You can do a lot of snorkeling. And there's like bars like in the pool. Like you can swim and get your swerve on. There's those swim up bars, right? And these pools are huge. I mean, there's almost like 10 pools connected with each other at this resort. How much is that?

Is that expensive? How much is that? No. So, which is crazy. How much is that? Is that expensive? How much is that? No. So, which is crazy. So, this all-inclusive resort, at least for Al and I last year, for a seven-day trip, all-inclusive, we paid $2,600. $2,600 each? No, two. $2,600 total.

Wow. It was like $ 65 so and when you stay all inclusive you could eat food and drink and all that 24 hours seven days a week you could eat literally at any time of the night there's actually room service so and the bars are open until late and you could drink as much as you want eat as much as you want and it is exactly what you pay for you don't have to pay out of pocket other than like maybe if you go and you use so you get certain amount of credits at this resort to apply to excursions or if you want to get a massage if you want to do a little trip outside of the resort, certain credits. No, thank you.

No. I know. No. But we went swimming with dolphins. We went to Isla Mujeres last year. Yeah. Actually, the last two years. And we got to swim with dolphins and enjoy a little cruise ride to the island. But anyways, the only thing you really pay out of pocket is like

your service fee. You know, you're tipping your, you go to dinner or you go to the bar and you have, you know, you give tip. So that's really the only thing you're paying out of pocket. You might stay two weeks. We're actually staying. Yeah. Yeah. It's too good good we're staying for 10 days this time around do they have a gym there they probably have a little gym there too they do they have actually it's called the grand and it's hence it's the biggest hotel on the entire resort there's and there's two more others but at this gym it's it's huge it has like sauna steam all the equipment all the bikes and machines and a good amount of space so i'm excited i'm gonna be i'll be probably working out one just to like earn the drinks a little bit yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah just a little sweat plus

that's your natural state right just a little you gotta have a little sweat. Plus, that's your natural state, right? Just a little, you got to have a little sweat. Yeah. I love, so I, so being with Matt, I'm known to like love long, sweaty, e-moms, aerobic, everything. And that's actually what I don't do anymore. I'll be taking advantage of a long, like a a power hour don't stop moving for every day when i'm there and i gotta make sure i fit into my wedding dress i gotta make sure i'm not too chunky fluffy um will you fly straight from madison to there

almost and so we're gonna go from madison we're gonna come back here and then we'll have we'll get back here on monday sometime in the afternoon and then the next morning we have to leave at like three in the morning oh shit go to miami and we fly to miami wow oh god it's gonna be so nice when you get there and you can just be like. And take a breath. That's right. I feel like from the time we get to Madison to the time we leave, I feel like I won't be able to like relax yet until all is done. If you're at a, you're in Naples now. I moved to Naples here in November. I've been here since I actually, my sister got married, and two days later, we moved.

We left. And we've been here since November from Cleveland, Ohio. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And so you came there to Naples with your fiancé. What did you say his name was again, Matt? Alex.

Alex. Sorry. Sorry, Alex. You came with Alex. Matt and Al look like cousins a little bit. Yeah. I get a DeChico vibe, Matt Torres vibe from your husband a little bit. Like they make.

Do you know who that is? Angelo DeChico? Oh, yeah. Angelo. Yeah. Give a little Angelo DeChico matt torres yeah yeah well because al's italian de chico is very italian oh okay and uh yeah they're both like dark beard pictures up so you guys are in cle, and you say, hey, I want to go train down there. Alex gets a waiver from his work to train off-site or to work off-site, and you guys go to Naples. And now you've been there November, December, January, February, March, February, February, June.

More than half a year. Yeah. And so is that your home now, do you think? What did you do with your apartment in Cleveland or your house in Cleveland? Did you ditch it? Well, actually, no, actually I, cause ever since being in Cleveland, I had always lived with my parents. Okay. I was always at home. That's nice. I was working. I was safe. Well, honestly, it was kind of, it was really nice because my parents are very, um, I'm so lucky with my parents. They, they're the kind of parents, very um i'm so lucky with my parents they they're the kind of parents very old-fashioned but also in a way where when my mom and my dad was younger growing up they also came from a household where it's like they stay at the parents house as long as they can until they maybe find a wife or find

a husband old school iranian a born in iran father and then old school Mexican mom born in Mexico, right? Yeah. Well, my dad wasn't, I'm sorry, my dad wasn't born in Iran. His parents came from Iran, made it to the States, and started a new life here. Okay. First born. He looks very, he's very Iranian. My dad has like this big mustache, crazy. He looks like Albert Einstein a little bit.

But still very traditional family. I left and you could only imagine. I'm 28 now and my dad was not. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. He looks like Albert Einstein. What's your dad do for a living? He's a neurologist.

Oh, yeah. He looks smart as shit. Wow. What is that? Is that Cisco also eats at the same breakfast place your dad eats at? Is that Cisco over there? Who's that on the wall over there? In the background?

I have no idea. It's a wall of fame of so many different celebrities. Oh, my God. Your dad looks just a classic Iranian fucking Berkeley dude. He looks like a professor at UC Berkeley. Holy shit. He actually, he is a smart, smart man. I mean, he studied mathematics and chemistry when he was in college.

And he was a math tutor for his friends. And eventually wanting to pursue mathematics to pursuing medicine and yeah and he met my mom in mexico i have those same headphones i think god i'm embarrassed that could be me he has the bluetooth headphones that wrap around he has those headphones on at all times like every morning he rushes out of the house at some point forgetting his headphone or his bluetooth and he's so yeah that's my papi i call him papi so that's what i call my dad papi yeah and so you lived at home so when you left do you still have a room there at that house fee i do every time i go back every time i go back to uh to visit home my

my bedroom is actually very uh very college like there is this um like a very broken uh sheet that covers one wall and uh it has a sun and then all my like everything that i had in college i think it's called the tapestry you were a hippie tapestry yes yeah i tapestries in my room uh-huh everyone like everyone in college i remember had a tapestry and so i wanted one and anyways that's still there like i graduated from john carroll university in 2016 and i still have a and know, I have my wall pictures, board, like the mess of my room, uh, is still pretty much there and they leave it for me to come home to. I just visited, uh, not too long ago. Well said Bernie. He looks like the Persian Mark Twain.

I nailed it. Persian Mark Twain. I've never, I'm going to have to, you'll make them feel good. Yeah. I've never I'm gonna have to you'll make them feel good yeah um and so so you go down there and do you think Naples is going to be your home now is this that's a long time yeah well well I mean the last time we chatted I was in uh I was training out of CrossFit Mentality and with uh Scott with Scott Panchik uh-huh yeah with Scott Panchikzyk. Uh-huh. Yeah. With Scott Panczyk. He, he owns the affiliate mentality. And I actually always thought I would never leave home. Like I always thought that I was the kind

of person that would never leave home. I'll never leave my affiliate. I'll never leave, you know, this bubble that I've always known and loved. And, um, ever since action, but at the time I didn't have a coach. So at the time I really just trained with at the time I didn't have a coach so at the time I really just trained with Scott but I didn't have any camp anything like that and so until I got connected with Matt um we kind of my life completely pivoted and the direction in the sport changed and last year I got the opportunity to come down here and he was like you could come down here and we are gonna get you to the games and we're gonna bring you along and you're gonna be he says that he says that you we're gonna get you to the games yep that's pretty ballsy you know that shit hard that is it's taking me forever to get back um but yeah he believed in me and invested in me and

just like really saw something even before um I was able to uh truly show and get back you know it's I think the first couple I got I was there in 2019. And ever since then, I was always missing something. I'm very sure and confident that he had the secret sauce to getting me there. And sure enough, we got to do it this year. Fee, what's the first year you did CrossFit? I did CrossFit. What year? I walked into an affiliate in 2014 and 2013 technically

yeah i walked into an affiliate in 2013 and i think my first open was like 2014 so 2013 you walk into an affiliate 2019 you go to your first games 2020 2021 and 2022 you tried to go to the games and don't make it in 2023 you're back yes sir yeah it feels like uh it feels like um that's 10 years that's 10 years you're you're 10 year in your your 10 year anniversary of crossfit yeah technically that's right that's crazy from the first time i started it's crazy. From the first time I started. It's crazy to think that there's been people competing at the games for 10 years. You know, Cole Sager and Katrin and Noah Olsen and so many others. I've been doing it for 10 years.

I can't imagine even going to the games for 10 years. Was 2019 the year they had the national champions yes like a roster of 170 people almost or something something ridiculous something and yeah that was that year and then i made it i finished 24th i believe that was yeah so um you you train with a um a pretty motley crew it's it's a pretty trippy group of people uh you got all your best friends there too yeah all my best friends yes there's a crew there uh daniel brandon a weirdo down pepper weirdo emma carrie super weirdo james sprague fucking beyond weird different planet and and then the sweet little iranian mexican girl there you couldn't ask for a more diverse group of people yeah what a what a wild what a wild group how do you how do you um who who did you have someone there that you kind of glom to more than the others?

I actually – well, so Emma and I train together in the same – her and I were a small group of two, a small party of two in the mornings. And then Dallin,ielle and james train right after us and matt to be able to like put his attention in that way when he breaks us up and he pairs uh us up together we work very well but danielle and i get along so well we're the older we're the oldest one i'm the oldest one I guess out of the whole crew and how old are you just a year younger than me 28 okay wow that's the oldest one geez yeah you're right because I think of James and um Emma as like kids yeah I mean you kind of forget that I honestly forget that I'm

28 when I'm around them because I then eventually like, I feel like we're all just the same age. Like I want to feel like a 20 year old, 21 year old. But yeah, most of them are literally 20, 21 and Emma's 19. But Danielle and I connect very well inside and outside of the gym. And we have a great, you know, great friendship and we'll hang out outside. We'll go to the beach, we'll go get our nails done, we'll go to the beach we'll go get our nails done we'll go to the mall and it's just cool to have you know a girl my girl here and someone I connect with but also I connect with Emma so well like we get along she's like a little sister to me like and school and what we love outside the sport and path you know just adversity and just like everything like we've opened up and we've shared tears and joy and all of that all the emotions

in the gym so we connect super well and dallin and james are just they're completely different opposite people but they're who they're so fun to train with and be around and a fun crew every day is always something is it a trip to to to be around emma because it's like you're kind of looking at a giant sequoia like like that made it past its um uh you know when you plant a plant in the ground by a seed and there's like a period where like fuck are the snails gonna get it is someone gonna step on it like yeah she made it past all that and now it's like oh shit this is a rooted powerhouse but it's still a baby or is it a trip being with her like you must you must have seen growth in her in the last six months right like just like what the fuck is going on here i see it's cool to be able to train with each other because i feel like she makes me better in so many ways.

And hopefully I make her better in so many different ways. It's cool because now you get kind of the young athlete, but who is just an absolute superstar in the sport. Growing at rapid rates, right? Rapid rates. It must be insane. And it's crazy. And I get to push that and witness that, but also it's not perfect and it's not pretty.

And it's not, you know, I think everyone outside looking at what she posts and, you know, sees her success and they don't realize how much, you know, she goes through and everybody goes through like behind the scenes and in training like same with Danielle and Dallin there and James they're incredible people and athletes and you see the end result maybe at the semi-final this year and at the games their successes but you don't really see the down eyes on Instagram but yeah it's incredible I feel I feel very honored. I'm I only have maybe,

you know, three to five more years, I would love to keep competing five more years. And Emma is just like, she got she can compete for another 15 years if she wanted to. So I'm kind of at more towards the end of my spectrum. And she's at the beginning. And I'm just so I'm excited for her. Very excited, almost a proud older sister is what I feel like so what I'm hearing you say is is like every single person there went to war like to get to where they're at like there's you don't look at any of those people and be like oh they had it easy you're like fuck Emma had it hard fuck James works so hard oh my god Danielle I can't, I can't. All of you guys are, it's hard. It's hard.

I think I always wish that there was a way to truly highlight athlete stories where you see more of, you know, the adversity and the hardships. And, like, I've cried in so many training sessions and, like, broken down and, you know, feel like I'm not progressing or feel like I'm not great or good enough. And, you know, but then you get a moment like it's like, oh, she made it. But there's so much that went into it. And same with Danielle and Emma and everybody like training is so hard. And it's Mac is the glue that keeps us together and maybe more sane.

But we got each other. And so even though we train in separate groups and we're all individual athletes in some way, shape or form, each other strong. And I'm excited to be able to go to the games and feel like I'm a part of a big team versus going as an individual like I'm doing this alone so that's gonna be cool to see how we come together why do you think um Matt um took you on I'm guessing that there's limited space too what do you think he saw in FISA Goffey he's like oh yeah I want this one you know? I would be interested to hear his response because a couple of years ago, so I first met Matt. Oh my God, there, Coach Matt.

I know, that's a great picture. I first met him. So this is actually funny. This was back in 2021. So after COVID year, games finally got back to Madison in 2021. I was coaching her. Her name is Molly Chacon.

And she qualified to the games out of CrossFit mentality at the time she was 16. That's a great name, Chacon. Chacon. Yeah. Very athletic. But I was there as her coach. So I was there for her that entire week. And I ended up going to Big Dane CrossFit.

GoWOD is having events there again. But anyway, so I see Emma and Matt. I see Emma and Matt. Matt has no idea who I am. Emma probably has no idea who I am. But anyways, I walk up to them and I say, I congratulate Emma and I cheer for her and I introduce myself to Matt. And hi, my name is Fi, you know, I wish congratulations and best of luck. I stick my hand out, I give him a good handshake.

And that was the first time and then later that summer uh cooper got me connected with matt because i was kind of talking to different coaches and oh because cooper was your agent yeah coop's my agent cooper marsh from lab management he actually manages all of us Dallin, DB, Emma, and myself. Wow, I didn't know that. James too? No, James is managed by his agent. His name is Benji. Okay, okay. That's the blonde-haired guy.

Yes, yes, big tall guy. Glasses. And, yeah, so that was my first time connecting with Matt. And then so soon after, probably like a month or so, I got connected with Matt. My first meeting with Matt, I think I realized this is who I want to coach me because we hop on the phone and he knew every statistic of my Open and kind of semi-finals and he knew my strengths he knew my week talked to me about his vision for how he sees me progressing and as an athlete and in what direction he'd like me to go and this is the very first meeting I had to like never truly chatted with him and um he did his homework and he the first first thing he said was, I see you as a professional athlete and I want to take you on, um, because that I could pretty much help you tap into.

And he had said, um, along the lines of you haven't tapped into what I know you are truly capable of, and I want to help you get there. And that was the start of it. It's interesting. Couldn't, there's this discussion that I've been having with this group of people for, I don't know, it's been going on for two years, I feel like, but the difference between taking on Ath, I mean, you did make, you did make the games in 2019. You have a lot of promise.

How tall are you fee five one five one for someone to take you on it's not like they're it's not like they're um like you could take on a kid like if you see a mom and dad and the the parent the mom is six foot one and the dad's seven foot tall and the kid's 4 years old. You're like, yep, I'll turn this fucker into a basketball player. Yeah, like you already know the genetics are there. But let's face it. You are – well, I mean your dad's Iranian, but your mom's Mexican. That's a very small – indigenous people down there.

Mexicans are basically Native Americans. They're fucking midgets. They're pygmies. And you've got that. And then you're older and you've already probably built all the bad habits. Oh, your mom's pretty. Wow. Oh my goodness. My mom's beautiful.

Look at my mama. My dad, he still has that mustache. You gotta work on your dad's hair. He went from a messed up hair to a fucking fucked up haircut. Holy shit. Did my mom cut his hair? That's the haircut I had when I was seven. I didn't even realize he had that cut.

Oh, dad. What the fuck is going on? Caleb, do you hate Fi? What are you doing to her? That's rhyming. Hey. Oh, my God. Your dad dresses just like me

I always For 10 years I always had that Those headphones on And I always wear a zip up sweater Like some just shitty Oh my god I better have

Sometimes we try to help my dad with Some fashion and I'll get him You know maybe some clothes Some new shoes and. Sometimes we try to help my dad with some fashion and I'll get him, you know, maybe some clothes and new shoes. And sometimes we'll try to help him out. But he's truly like. So a couple of years ago, I wish I could pull it. Someone took a picture of him at Rogue Invitational the first year. It was 2019 in Columbus. And he's like hanging on on the fence with pens on his like t-shirt and his bluetooth and he had a hat like a whole Hawaiian cap and then like his shirt is tucked into his like swishy sweatpants the best picture ever it was just like that is dad that's puppy so so something's wrong with matt torres he got daniel brand who could fucking like no one's gonna be surprised if she ends up in

fucking jail tomorrow uh james prague is way too fucking big it's like he got a giraffe as a um and then emma carrie's way too soft-spoken. The only kind of, like, I don't know, good piece of granite he got is Dallin Pepper. The rest of you guys are – I don't know. I'm just trying to think what – oh, he sees Feast of Goffey. Look at this little Mexican girl. Yeah, I could take her to the game. We've got to hear what he saw in you. It's crazy.

I feel – next time you have him on the show i will you gotta ask you gotta ask i'd love to hear that from him i mean he definitely saw some potential and i think it was too because at the time that i had met with him and let's face it really fee it's impossible to get to the games let's face it so it's not like he's like oh i can turn feast of coffee into a good lawyer or i could turn feast of coffee into a i don't not like he's like oh i could turn feast of goffy into a good lawyer or i could turn feast of goffy into a i don't know like a good mom or i could teach feast of goffy how to become a fashion designer the fucking games it's hard it is yeah what is it like point one percent of i guess the entirety of people that do crossfit that's the that's what you see at the games it's got to be

less than that way less than that it's like point oh oh oh it's yeah 40 people yeah it's tiny yeah that's true that's true at the time though i had so i guess when i met with him so i had gotten 24th at the games in 2019 but that at that point it was almost like so irrelevant you know it's like so much time passes um that I mean every year is a new slate so you definitely in the sport whether you make it to the games or not the next year what you've done in the past all new season starts because all that matters is how you're performing in that moment in that season right um at least in my eyes and so anyway so at the time that i was talking to him every year before that it was like i was almost so in 2020 when covid everything changed and so and everywhere

obviously but i got fourth at um a sanctional that was still kind of the year of sanctionals and mayhem um ended up at CrossFit Mayhem they put on a sanctional and I and Danielle was there Tia was there Christy Aramo was there um so many other athletes and anyways I I got fourth there so that was technically like my ticket back. And everything got rearranged. And so only the top individuals in the open, maybe I think top 20 or top 30 individuals in the open ended up going to the games or online games, right? So I had gotten fourth that year and then the following year I got uh what six or seven no I got seventh I think at the MAC so and then so yeah so years prior it wasn't like I was off the radar and I think that was another piece that he saw like kind of kind of just scratching

at the door and knocking just ever so slightly and so i think there was always something there that he saw uh extra uh extra sloppy fee is a good dude good luck this year i'll be rooting for you who is the extra slop oh hey what do you think his name is i don't know this is a this is a this is a cantankerous group um thank you and you had never had a coach in 10 years you had never had like a coach oh no and i that's your first one matt's my first coach and it was truly like No. And I, that's your first one. Matt's my first coach. And it was truly like, I, when I was starting to train with Scott, it was kind of just, um,

I think I was very, I went into the sport, very OG CrossFit. So if anyone recognizes that, oh my gosh, Barkley's coming over because she's. Hi Barkley. Hi. You brought Barkley from Cleveland? No, this is matt's dog he's living in my apartment until his apartment decides to allow for dogs oh god you guys really are like a family taking someone's dog is intimate that's some intimate shit yeah he sees her almost every day though so i know if she feels like it's she's like i'm i'm aunt i call myself auntie fee but anyways um first yeah i was very like i was og crossfit like og crossfit do you remember those days where it's like you just do a bunch of workouts

or maybe you know when when rich was you know at the peak of his career and on the podium and you would get a little insight on what his day looked like it was just tons of amazing long crossfit workouts and um and so at the time that's what i thought is what you needed to qualify for the games naturally and um scott is also very much known to just he just he has this i say this and i'll say it to his face too and i think he knows it he has an obsession with like working out and working out in volume and grind and loves to hurt and uh that's what i got kind of poured got into and once i started to qualify for higher level competitions, I started to, you know, follow what Scott was doing. So for those years, the programming that

I did was Scott's, like what Scott was doing for that day. And you know, maybe I tweaked a human some adjustments, but for the most part, I was doing what Scott was doing. And the things that Scott were doing were the things that he needed to get himself to the games and perform at his highest level. And I was just kind of along for the ride. And it I mean, I got incredible fitness, obviously, like, and that's why I think I've what I'm known for, CrossFit style workouts, like my wheelhouse workouts or movements are very OG CrossFit style. And if you kind of look at my stats, I guess, and the workouts that I do very well in versus not very well in, you'll kind of see that trend. And I think it's because I did that for so long. And then I started to work with matt and he

took everything that i love he threw it at the door and was like we are going to work on your strength and your power and we're not going to do three four mechons a day and you're not going to be lifting tired after a long endurance workout and And actually, when I first started working with him, I even asked, I was like, Are you sure I can't do like an extra Metcon or just like one more little sweat session thing? He's like, No, no, don't do anything extra. Don't do more volume. Don't do another round of anything. Just follow what I'm giving you. And that was hard. Yeah, trusting him was hard. Changing was hard. Yeah, the change the trust, almost like the feeling that I wasn't doing enough,

working out was hard. Because that's all you ever see at the games, right? Like, that's all you ever have competition. It's just met cons and met cons and events. And, and I didn't realize what it actually takes to make it to the games is truly honing in on number one well your fundamentals number one or number two your foundation right and the foundation to movement is you know your strength in that movement um and it's something you know the best coaches talk about and strength takes a long time and it takes years and years and years to build. So you see the girls that have, you know, extremely heavy lifts and are the top of those events. was CrossFit workouts and Metcons and aerobic conditioning, maybe some lifting after. But then I can't take advantage of truly building that strength when I've exhausted everything.

So even though I incorporated lifting in my training, it wasn't in a way that actually made me a stronger athlete. So yeah, going with Matt, there's a lot of strength, a lot of strength sessions. Even this year, I feel the progress, but it's this much progress because it's strength. It's something that, I don't know, it's just taken me a long time.

It got you to the games. Yep. That was actually one of my favorite stories of the semi-final weekend i don't know if i i don't think i shared it so my favorite of my weekend actually wasn't necessarily qualifying so every year i've ever competed in any competition it's always been the strength events that have just kept me out of a contending spot every year at the mac at granite games even and off-season competitions it's i always place

in the very bottom spot and it's very hard to become a five spot or top you know whatever this year was the first year that uh we were the snatch event. It was, you know, part of the event was a 800 meter run into a one RM snatch. And we had gone through every single event and I had kind of gone through what I'm going to hit the three lifts that I wanted to hit something in me in the last like 10 seconds of window of time that I had to make my last lift. I originally had 180 on the bar, and I slept on two and a half and turned it into 185 bar and snatched it overhead. And by the end of the weekend, I didn't perform the best on sunday but the 180 actually gave me enough buffer and enough points to make it to the games and it was the first time that a heavy barbell actually

saved my ticket to qualifying um and i had every other year it's always been the thing that has kept me out so that was a huge moment for me. I'm very, very proud of that. Fee, go back to when you – It just showed me that it's in there. Tell me – this is crazy. Look at these points. 409, 398, 397, 395, 386.

Yeah, by the skin of your teeth. Very close. So tell me about what happened. So that's the workout where you had to do, um, you had to, did you have to, you had to run first? Yeah, it was an 800 meter run into a one RM six minute window to do it. So it was a six minute window, 800 meter run took, you know, four, four minutes. It was a very light jog pretty much, at least for me, it was because I had to save it for the snatch. So yeah, and then so the remaining time you had to

have a max lift in there. And so so tell me so so how many lifts did you do? I did three. So I did like I opened up at 165, which is kind of crazy. I was nervous because I was actually I had a couple of misses at 165 in the warm up area. So naturally, I was immediately already nervous for the event because I'm already missing at my opening weight. But anyways, I hit 165 on the floor, hit it solid. I go up to 175, which was the plan, hit that. And then Matt and Dom, Coach Dom also, he was there. We had talked about hitting 180. And like 180, if we hit 180, like it's an amazing day.

If we stay with 175, we're happy with 175 because that's very close to my max. And Coach Dom, before going onto the floor floor he realized that i was for this event he realized what he realized i was nervous he just saw like something in me that was just not right that was not you know i didn't have the same excitement that i usually have before events because this is a very nervous like any lifting event is usually something that gives me some extra butterflies and so anyways he he comes up to me maybe two minutes before we go on t i don't care nothing else matters other than when you step up to every single barbell and you rip it off the floor you gotta rip it knowing that this is your ticket to the games he said this to

me like i kid you not right before we took the floor he goes every time you get your hands on just know that this is your crossfit games ticket and trust yourself it's in there it's in you and he was like hey i got this and i look at the tom said this to you what a genius genius like that's and that's all i needed to hear i didn't hear like you got it and it's okay and do your best like i wanted to you know run my more pressure on you he saw you're stressed out instead of taking pressure off you he put more pressure on you what a calculated move he gave me gave me the right kind it was just enough where you know it's hard to, I guess I have a tendency to overthink a lot, especially when it comes to heavy lifts. And I get very in my head. And sometimes you just

got to like, think of nothing else other than just like ripping it off the floor. And especially with how much we do these lifts and training. But anyway, I hit the 175. I'm putting on 180. I take a look at the clock and I got about 15 seconds to make this lift. And I'm just like, oh, screw it. I just put on the two and a half and I turned into 185. Why? Why? Something in me was, the reason was because I had never taken that risk in competition. Every time I lift, I've always kept it very safe and very conservative. And I was just like, I'll never know if I could hit this lift if I don't give myself a chance. And it was freaking scary because you're feeling this bar and 185 is so heavy. Like even just a couple inches off, you're like, oh, this is heavy. And you kind of just and I'm so happy that I did.

That was the first moment I've ever felt that brave, I guess, to go for it. And if I missed, at least I went for it. But it was always that moment of like, but what if I make it? And I think that was the thing that kept me going. And Oh, what if I didn't back down? What if I make it? Yeah. But what if I succeed? And that's what I was saying to myself. And, you know, I had five, I literally by that point, I had five seconds. So I didn't have, you know, the extra time to set up and get my hands all good. So it was just kind of grab and go. Dive Bob under the bar. Sophie, a bunch of questions here.

If you 175, let's say you've missed that lift, you wouldn't be going to the games? Oh, yeah. If I hit 175, I would have been going. If I would have hit 180, if I would have done what we had planned, I also would have been going in. Oh, shit. So if you would have missed the lift, you wouldn't have gone to the games. If you wouldn't have had this like, okay, I'm going to go 185. Okay, so when you put the two and a halfs on do you look over at dom or at torres

or you don't even look at them i wonder if they would have been like yeah no i didn't even actually i had no idea where they were i just knew that um i could hear al like i could hear my fiance and like the fence behind me i could just hear hear his voice and every, every, you know, lift I could hear him screw type me up. And, um, I'm just putting the plates on and I like, look at my place and I look at the, you know, the one 80 way. And I like have this green and I'm just like, okay, here we go. And yeah, I had no idea where my coaches were at. and yeah i had no idea where my coaches were at was um yeah i don't sense this from you but i want to ask it anyway was any part of it like you felt pressure from the crowd that 180 wasn't enough was there any ego in it or no no no no and i don't

sense that from you at all not even in the tiniest bit i just wanted to check okay i i've never been you weren't like fuck it there's all these eyes on me i gotta do 185 wasn't like that no i didn't even feel the pressure from i didn't even feel pressure from the crowd i just felt the hype you know have you ever been like when you're in like such a flow state just going and you're not feeling you can't really hear the music you can't really like see exactly what's going around you other than just energy and you're just going and when shelby neal told me she was black on the podcast the other day i went into a flow state i was like this is amazing i was just it was like i had uncovered fucking like the truth about life oh god she's a red-headed girl with blue eyes and she told me she's black i was

like god i love this planet god i love human beings in what way her do yeah anyway we'll come back i just love her i just love that yeah she put me into it's the last time i've been in a flow state it was great uh yeah okay if she can make you black out then that's a big deal so so then so you hit it you stand up and then who do you what do dom and matt say to you when you come over did they check your temperature are they like are you okay like what's wrong with you well it's funny it's actually i uh dom was so hyped matt didn't see my lift um he didn't see me hit 185 because he was getting pulled in so many different directions because he also was out on the floor danielle was out on the floor i was out on the

floor and i think emma maybe had gone for her last so he was like kind of in the middle of just trying to watch everybody and we were all we're all we've been you know all in the same heat all weekend so and i mean when you lift a barbell, it takes about, you know, two, three seconds from start to finish. So it just happened to be the lift that. So he didn't know I hit 185. He just knew that I made my last lift. So he was excited thinking that, oh, she got, you know, 180. It's exactly what we wanted for execution job well done but dom had watched my seen my lift and actually dallin uh i love dallin he was he actually stayed to watch that event um and he was like he watched it and he was it was cool so i finished the event and it was just like uh i felt like the first time i felt strong

what a what a uh but you couldn't get too hyped because we had we had to do the eight snatches into an 800 meter sprint so it was like i think i gave myself like a little yay i, I made it. And then I had to focus on the next thing. What a, I don't know. It's like, what a growth moment to make a decision like that. I'm trying to think if I've ever had a moment like that in my life. I can't, I mean, like there's things that just happen to you in life like that, that you don't have a choice, puberty like just coming but this was like you

made the decision to like put on your big boy pants and yeah and it's crazy that's something that I think I had always missed too like just through the years of competing I've always been comfortable and I've always wanted to do things that I know I could do or hit numbers that I know I could hit like that I've done. And I think fail like failing in front of a crowd or failing to the point where you know, maybe you don't like maybe that's the one thing that keeps you out is was always scary because I think this sport has also become my career and you know not making it to the games I feel like is you know it feels like I'm not doing what I am set out to accomplish and become the best athlete that I can and be on that floor and so yeah so part of that like

there's so much fear that goes into sometimes making those decisions as an athlete where if I fail I don't you know I'm not doing my job if I make it amazing but then you know you just never know in a sport like this or in anything but I think what has helped me us you know six seven months is coming down here to Naples and being around the training camp, which before I was kind of, you know, starting to train alone for a long time for a year, I was training by myself, always in my head only really being, it's just me, myself and the clock and myself and my camera. And I think being around Dallin and Emma and Danielle, they all have, you know, an edge to them. And I think that has helped me evolve a little bit and just going for it and the grittiness that they all have. And I've definitely learned a little bit of, you know, a little bit from each one.

And especially I get to train with Emma the most. And anyone that, you know, has watched Emma Carey compete, she's very soft spoken, but when she competes and just trains, she's an animal. She is willing to go to dark, dark places. And she's willing to fail, you know, to see a sliver of success and lift after lift. She's willing to hit a lift 10 times until the 11th one she makes it but um yeah it's and that's i think the a very strong training camp and a coach what what an awesome uh group you're with yeah looking from the outside i think everyone's like so um enamored by the group,

the Brute group led by Dom and Torres and just all you guys. When people see the pictures of all you guys together, like when the Buttery Bros went down there, it's really cool. You guys are cool as shit. Sevan's dog, is Barclay single? Oh, Barclay, she's a girl. Oh, okay. I don't even know if Sevan's dog is a boy or a girl.

Wait, can I show you? So this is what she does. I think Sevan's dog is gay, so maybe it's not a good match. Oh, my goodness. She's a princess. God, you're a good one. You let the dog sleep on your couch and everything. I get yelled at when she sleeps on the bed. Because I love when she comes up on the bed just

like i think she deserves a nice bed and i actually let her sleep on the bed this morning when my fiance went to the airport just for a couple minutes she's not allowed on the bed but where's he going who is he picking someone up from the airport where's he going uh his brother came to visit and he went to go drop him off see if you aren't failing you aren't growing keep crashing oh thank you jeremy heck yeah yes that's exactly it and that's exactly what i want to bring to the games too like at the games i feel like i'm a rookie again and there's nothing to lose and i want to have more of those moments. That's my goal.

Sebon's dog, I hump them all. Oh, so you don't even care. That's fine. What's your dog? What's that picture? What kind of dog do you have? That's not my dog. I'm telling you,

the chat is a weird... It's a weird... Look it. We got a great... I know. the chat is a weird... It's a weird... Look it, look it. We got a great... I know, it's just a weird... Look it. Look at this person. Anita Dick in me. Fia's awesome.

Oh, my God. Thank you, Anita. It's very inappropriate. It's inappropriate. Look at this. Enormous tits. This is the best show ever. Wait, but...

Look at this. Look at this. Someone being mean to you. I love this comment. Fee reminds me of my mom before she got social media. I know. Isn't Fee so wholesome? I know.

Is that what that means? That's how I take it. Oh, my gosh. Before social media. Hey, thank you. I'll take it. Oh, my gosh. Before social media. Hey, thank you. I'll take it as a compliment. I take it as a compliment. Hey, thanks for coming on.

You're a wonderful human being. You're so easy, man. I'm going to put you in. I have this pantheon of people I have on the show that are, like, the easiest. You rank in the easiest ever. You're so easy. Yeah, you're a great guest. You know, two years ago, you said you would have me on sooner,

and I had to wait two years to get a message, so... Oh, good. I hope it was worth the wait. Worth the wait. Worth the wait. I'll FaceTime him every now and then. Thank you, Siobhan. Thanks for having me.

You're awesome. Okay. Say hi to Al. I look forward to seeing you at the games. Heck yeah. I can't wait. Thank you. Okay.

Ciao. Bye. Bye. Bye. Dude. That was easier morning than I thought. She's awesome. Dude.

She's so easy. She carried the show. Big time. Yeah. There's some really good pictures of her dad. Dude, she's so easy. She carried the show. Big time. Yeah. There's some really good pictures of her dad. Oh, really? That one with the bowl cut's crazy. Let me see this.

Wow. Oh, that's, yeah. Wow. So he's got a ton of different looks. Yeah. It's awesome. He's great. it's awesome he's great

what a unique cast of characters they got over there what a trip it's like the island of misfit toys um Thanks. yesterday i was at the grocery store and i was grabbing bananas and my wife was handing me some onions and neither of them had bagged like a plastic bag in them so she just was like handing me them without like having bagged them i was like whatever me them without having bagged them. I was like, whatever.

Usually, I just throw them in the cart and all that. This old black woman comes up to me and just starts handing me plastic bags. I was like, it's okay. No worries. She goes, no, no. You're going to use them.

I was like, okay, fine. As I'm doing that,'s okay. No worries. She goes, no, no, you're going to use them. It's like, okay, fine. And then as I'm doing that, this like. Did she charge you for them? No, it was just some like random like grandma. Oh, okay. Just gave me like, not like, it's like the ones that they give you or the ones that you can like rip off of the. Oh, okay.

Okay. Yeah. Isn't it funny? Those ones are free, but the ones when you check out cost money. Anyway, go on. Yes you live in an idiot world but she had like walked off grabbed like a whole handful of them and then like hands me three of them yeah i was like oh it's okay no worries and she goes no no you're gonna take them i don't want people touching my shit whatever i was like okay final appease the old black woman as this is happening this like just raggedy ass dude is walking like but

we're there's maybe like a body width space between me and this woman and our carts yeah and this guy just like barrels through just starts like yelling like i'm gonna fucking fight somebody and then i'm like whoa okay. I'm just trying to bag my bananas here. And he's just yelling that he's going to fight somebody today. And we saw him out in the parking lot. He had ripped his shirt off and started doing fucking kung fu moves in the parking lot. Meth? Meth?

Absolutely meth. It was awesome. What city do you live in? I live in Hampton, Virginia. It's like the shitty part. Virginia Beach is really nice, and then you go north, and it's the shitty part. It's sketchy alright

two hour show there'll be no raggedy ass people fighting on this show there'll be no force of bagging bananas um uh show tonight though say that again show tonight though oh with J.R. Howell

yeah oh yeah I'm a little nervous for the show me too the notes are fucking outrageous it's in depth in depth oh yeah we're releasing we're releasing The notes are fucking outrageous. It's in-depth.

In-depth. Oh, yeah, we're releasing all the games workouts tonight. Yep. If you want to find out. No one even knows. We know workouts that fucking even Adrian and Dave don't know. Exactly. Probably some games from next year are going to get released tonight, probably might even some see some of the rogue invitational or something

oh my goodness i love it okay 6 30 i'm glad you told me that too i was thinking about maybe going to the beach just now and getting a cocktail but that's good i won't do that even though that show is not for another just Just slam a coffee beforehand. Nine hours. I want to treat myself to something. I feel like I deserve something. I'm not sure what I should have. Busy.

You've been busy. Yeah. I want to give myself a treat. I don't know what. I was going to give myself an alcoholic kombucha or something and walk on the beach with my kids buy a new camera there you go singing something a little more affordable like a snickers at the gas station

all right uh caleb thank you are you coming are you on tonight oh yeah you are oh yeah because you got the notes too all right good luck study study up thanks and uh we'll see you guys tonight 6 30 p.m it's gonna be a big show uh jr howell nostra nostradamus howell will be on the show and uh we'll be talking about uh predictions for the games all right bye-bye a hooker no no