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We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.
I was born to kill it.
I was meant to win.
I am down and willing,
so I will find a way.
It took a minute,
now it didn't happen right away.
When they get hot in the kitchen,
you decide to stay.
That's how the winners made it.
Stick a fork in the hay to
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
where today it's a really
special edition.
It's something that is a
little different than what
we normally do.
But I've been more nervous
for this interview than I
have been for a lot of the
ones I've done.
We have Caitlin Johnson with us today.
Caitlin competed at the
Um,
and she's a CrossFitter and she uses
CrossFit to train for
swimming and we're going to
get into all that.
But as I was researching her,
our worlds collide in a weird, weird way.
And so we're going to dive
into that a little bit.
Um,
and I have no idea where we're going
with this show.
We're just going to have a conversation,
see where it goes and have
a good time with it.
So welcome Caitlin.
Thank you.
So let's start just with
this year's Olympic trial.
I went over for the opening
weekend because it was only
a two-hour drive.
Yeah.
My mom is an Olympic nut,
and she supported me
through my swimming career.
So we went over for that,
and what a cool atmosphere
in a football stadium to
have swimming trials.
Yeah.
Were you there?
Did you get to go for finals as well,
or did you just go for prelims?
Both.
Both.
Yes.
Finals was amazing.
Like so cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they, they built what?
Three pools?
Yeah.
Well,
two of like the warmup pool had a
short course and a long
course course pool connected.
So it was like two in one.
So like one big one, the rate,
like the competition pool and then two,
yeah, two others that were connected.
So one big one.
And they built it on the
floor of where the
Indianapolis Colts play football.
And I was the opening night.
It was like 23,000 people.
Yeah.
It was crazy.
Yeah.
It was insane.
Just like look around and
see all those people.
And that was the largest
crowd to ever watch us with me.
Yeah.
Like bigger than even the
Olympics themselves.
Right.
It broke the Olympic record in Rio.
Right.
Yeah.
which was crazy.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
But,
but what was odd is you're going into
a football stadium and it
smells like a swimming pool.
It brought back all those
memories like immediately.
Yeah.
The smell of chlorine,
like out of a swimmer's nose.
Like maybe my parents say that,
like my parents weren't swimmers,
but like going to my swim
meets all the time.
They're like, takes me back.
I think it took me 20 years
to get rid of the green tint in my hair.
Yeah,
my mom used to have to it was like a
secret.
I don't know.
It was like lemon juice,
like crushed up Advil or
something was like supposed
to get it out.
But I went through a lot of
those treatments.
Yeah.
Back in my day,
Speedo used to sell a swimmer shampoo.
Yeah.
It didn't make any difference.
Yeah,
I remember I'd go get a haircut or
whatever, and my hair would be green,
and the hairdresser would be like,
you should try washing your
hair before you get in the
pool so it doesn't get saturated.
I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing that.
I go to the pool constantly.
We're not doing that.
Yeah, yeah.
So it was a really cool...
with the big jumbotron board
all that stuff when you
came out how did it feel as
a swimmer like and it's run
like like better than any
competition I've seen live
like so it's out this eats
in like boom boom yeah
they're very efficient how
did what was that experience like for you
I mean, so I went to trials in 2016.
So like,
obviously that was amazing as well.
But just like you said,
being in a football stadium
was just like massive.
Like it was just so big.
And like you said,
seeing like the huge jumbotron and like,
I've been to plenty of like NFL games.
So like,
it was just like crazy to walk in there.
Like the first time I walked,
so I swam the very last day
of the meet and the meet was like a 10,
11 day meet.
And so everybody had already
been there and like taking their pictures,
this and that.
So I get there,
I don't swim until Saturday.
So I got there Wednesday and
I went in between sessions
to like go warm up.
And I was in the competition pool,
like taking my pictures and stuff.
And one of the, um,
like workers came over and he was like,
are you going to take pictures?
Are you going to get in and swim?
I was like,
I just got here and I'm in a
football stadium and I'm
going to take my pictures back off.
This is awesome.
So yeah, that's, it was insane.
It was so cool.
so I just pulled up your Instagram.
This is so CrossFit and yet
so swimming because you've got the big,
the big swimming thing behind you,
but you're doing the
CrossFit handstand to get
your picture outside of
Lucasville stadium.
Yeah.
My friends were real troopers.
I was like, guys,
I need to take this picture.
Like where was here?
We got to get the perfect picture here.
So I had like three friends,
like take all kinds of
pictures trying to get the
best one for me.
So got all the angles.
Yeah.
Um,
So yeah, that's really cool.
And then let's get into your
swimming career so people
know how good you were.
I don't know about that, but thank you.
So first, you grew up in Uniontown,
Pennsylvania.
Yes.
Which, for people who don't know,
is just south of Pittsburgh.
Yep, about an hour south.
Yeah.
And it's funny because my
daughter lives in Pittsburgh right now.
So,
so we drive 70 over to Washington and
then up into Pittsburgh.
So we're what, like 15,
20 minutes North of
Uniontown when we're doing that.
Yeah.
Not too far.
And then you went to Clarion
University to swim, which is wild.
And just for the audience to know,
that is where I went.
I grew up in Oil City, Pennsylvania.
Okay, Oil City, yeah.
And when I was coming up swimming,
my parents paid for me to
get private lessons.
And I would go to swim camps
at Clarion University.
So my first counselor was Mark Van Dyke.
Oh my goodness.
It gets even better.
I cannot believe this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He was my first camp counselor.
I'm going to have to call
them after this and be like,
listen to this.
And then,
and the first year I went to swim camp,
I went from like,
below average swimmer to like really good.
That's how good the coaching
was at Clarion back in the day.
And then, um,
so then my mom and dad hired Bill Miller,
who was the head coach of
Clarion at the time and to
be my private coach.
And I would go over every
Wednesday night and just
work on technique,
work on pacing with Coach
Miller throughout my career,
all the way until I
graduated high school.
The most disappointing thing
for me is I wanted to swim
for Clarion so bad.
And Coach Miller said, sorry,
you're not good enough to
swim on my team.
They were really good back then.
They were really good.
Now,
I was recruited by West Virginia where
you end up.
No way.
I walked on at Ohio State.
Okay.
I couldn't make Clarion's team.
That's so funny.
Which is insane.
So you went there.
Yes.
And I used to coach those swim camps.
What's that?
I said I used to stay over
the summer and coach those
swim camps that you used to go to.
Yeah.
Yeah, back when I went,
the dorms were so bad.
They weren't much better when I was there.
I think they were the same ones.
They didn't get new ones
until after I left.
It's unrecognizable when I go back now.
I know.
I don't even recognize...
Because my wife is from the Clarion area.
Okay.
And so we're back there periodically.
So you go there.
And how good were they then?
Because...
You did amazing things there.
I did.
So Uniontown, like what growing up, I mean,
I joined the swim team when I was four.
And so I was like an eight
and under forever.
And so like we had talent,
like there were always,
always like older kids that
were good at like
I trained with that were better than me.
So, um,
but it wasn't like a big swimming area.
Like I didn't go,
my high school wasn't like
super into swimming.
I didn't, I swam YMCA growing up,
which like, isn't the same,
like quite as intense as
like USA swimming, like club swimming.
So, um, I feel like.
I was good in high school.
Like I went to States and stuff like that,
like placed at States and everything.
But I, there, I,
that was just kind of like on my own,
like hard work.
Like I never really had
anybody that pushed me or like,
I didn't really know what I
was doing at that point.
Um, so when I went to Clarion,
like I like dropped my freshman year,
like I dropped so much time
and like from my freshman year,
like my times in high school.
So by the time I graduated as a senior,
um,
Like it was a huge difference.
Like I think I dropped like
10 seconds in my 200 freestyle.
Like that's insane.
It was like four seconds in my hundred fly,
like a second and a half or
something like that in my 50 free,
which is a ton of time in a 50.
So yeah,
I got a lot better under Mark Van
Dyke's coaching since I
actually had a coach that like,
that was like the first
time I'd ever trained.
Like a lot of people like
are training in high school
and they go to college or
like burn out at that point.
But I had just started
training in college and I
learned so much and like
was actually pushed and coached.
And so I got a lot better in college.
So just some numbers so
people know is you are a 28
time All-American at Clarion.
Yes.
Which is the maximum amount
you can be because you can
only be All-American in
seven events a year.
That's right.
You can only be in seven
events at Nationals.
Yeah, times four, that's 28.
So you did it.
So you improved quickly in
your freshman year.
I did, yeah.
So I like walked on and I
got a scholarship.
But as soon as I got there,
like most people,
I would have to work their
way onto relays.
But I can't remember what
the situation was if
somebody had graduated,
but I was able to like walk
right into those relays and
take that spot.
So from the beginning, I was like in it.
So yeah.
Yeah.
And you ended up breaking
four individual records and
five relay records?
That's right.
50, 100, 200, 100 fly.
Yeah, that's right.
And that was my next.
So you did the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle,
200 freestyle and the 100 fly.
Yes.
I think I did.
I had never swam the 200 fly
at that point in college.
So I think I swam the 200 fly maybe four.
four times in college so
yeah I growing up and it's
it's weird you talk about
why because that's where I
got my start too uh was why
swimming and and why was
much bigger in pennsylvania
than like it is here in
ohio or other certain areas
like ymca's or like usa
swimming is like huge in
ohio but yeah it was more
so ymca where we're from I feel like
Yeah.
When I was growing up,
there was a divide between
us swimming and another organization.
And basically you had to pick one.
And once you pick that, you couldn't.
Yeah.
Cause you couldn't swim for three teams.
Like you couldn't swim high school,
USA swimming and YMCA swimming.
Like you only swim for two.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think there was another
organization when I was a
kid that no longer exists.
Oh really?
Yeah.
I, I, I can't even remember.
But yeah, it's been, my gosh, I'm 54 now.
So it's been a long time.
Yeah.
So I swam 100 fly.
I swam 200, 500.
So we're close, but not the same.
And then later in my high school career,
I went to IM.
Okay.
With a really, really bad breaststroke.
Same.
Can relate to that.
Yeah.
Uh,
and so did you stuck with those pretty
much throughout?
Um, yeah.
So after college, um,
that's when I moved to Ohio
at one point and I was
swimming under Jerry Holtry,
which I'm sure you're
familiar with that name.
So he was very much like a distinct coach.
Um,
so I had built a pretty good base at
that point and my aerobic
capacity was just like insane.
So I got like decent at the 200 free,
but I got really good at the 200 fly.
Um, so I like to think that like, I,
I mean,
I was good at the 200 fly and I
didn't really focus on that.
Um,
because I obviously had to pick between
the 50 and the two fly.
Those don't really like go
together training wise.
Um,
Um, so I stuck with the 50, but I mean,
I love the two fly.
Like when I was in swimming shape,
like that was,
that was a fun event for me.
I loved it.
But probably again, because like,
I didn't start swinging
until I was like 22.
So most people are like,
I don't want us to the two
or fly at that point,
but it was fun for me.
Yeah.
I,
I loved butterfly and I got kind of
pulled out of it when I got
to high school where I just
got two five and, and I, I,
it bummed me out big time
until I got to do I am and
at least swim it again.
A little bit.
Yeah.
And then, um, so 50 freestyle, I,
I hate it.
Yeah.
I feel like you either love
it or you hate it.
And even if you love it,
you still kind of hate it.
Because if you make one mistake,
it's over.
I know.
It is so fast.
So it's like,
it's like the hundred and track.
Yeah.
Like it's a, and that's a 10 second event.
This is a 20 second event.
And like you have a bad start.
If it's short course,
if you have a bad turn, it's over.
Yeah, it's completely over.
But yet you've done that in
the Olympic trials two different times.
Yes.
It's like my baby event.
I've swam that event my whole entire life.
I love that event.
No matter how frustrating it is, tens,
hundreds of a second,
I just love that race.
It's so fun.
And shaving time off is nearly impossible.
Right, yeah.
Yes.
So I'm going to jump into
the CrossFit piece of this a little bit.
When did you find CrossFit?
So after Olympic trials in 2016,
I retired and I like tried
for a little bit to just
like go to the gym,
like keep up my normal like
lifting routine that I had
done when I was swimming,
just like bodybuilding stuff.
And I was like, this is so boring.
Like, I hate this.
And so CrossFit had like a
CrossFit gym and like just
opened up in my hometown.
And I knew some people who did it.
There was a guy that used to go, well,
we did CrossFit in college, I guess,
for a little bit because we
didn't have like a real strength coach.
It was just our assistant
coach that did stuff.
And she had started doing CrossFit.
So we did dabble with CrossFit in college.
So then after like I was
done swimming and I wasn't
really into just like lifting, I was like,
you know what,
maybe I'm going to try this
CrossFit thing.
Like I said,
it had just opened up in town.
So I like gave it a try and I was like, oh,
this is kind of fun.
So that's how it started.
And,
and you made the 24 trials by swimming
one day a week.
I did.
Yes.
Yeah.
Which,
which is unheard of in the swimming
world.
I mean, yeah, it's insane.
Cause as a swimmer, like you swim,
like no matter what event,
even if you're a sprinter,
like you're doubling every day,
like you're swimming.
Yeah.
Like my high school,
high school was an hour and
a half before school,
two hours after school.
And then some, some dry deck stuff.
Yeah.
And, and you're saying,
and I think I read you like
around 2,500 yards one day.
I literally,
I wouldn't even call it a practice.
Like I was swimming as recovery.
Like I'd go in and do like a
bunch of drills,
like maybe a little bit of like explosive,
like fast stuff,
but like no more than 2,500 yards.
Yeah.
Because I would go like when
I did start swimming again,
I would go to like prelims, finals meets.
And like when I had to warm
up and race and cool down,
like I was swimming more
than at a meet than I was
like used to training.
And I was like, oh,
I maybe need to start
swimming more if I'm going
to be doing these prelims, finals meets.
Like this is kind of a lot of swimming.
Yeah.
Which is crazy when you do
one length of the pool.
I know.
Yeah.
Uh, but I,
I read that like you trained
kicking like during that,
that one session you,
which is super important for a sprinter.
Yeah.
Cause I was like never, um, I mean,
not a terrible kicker,
but definitely not a great kicker.
So I was like, if I'm going to like,
I'm going to keep up with
this because that's not,
it wasn't never my strength
to begin with.
So that like breath control
stuff for the 50,
like that's pretty much all I did.
And you said that after
doing CrossFit and training,
like the end of the 50,
you felt stronger than you ever had.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And you attribute that to CrossFit?
I do.
Because like I said,
like when you're training for swimming,
like you're just swimming so much.
So like,
Um, yeah,
like obviously I felt better in
practice when I swam all the time,
but I wasn't like when you do dry land,
like strength training for swimming,
it's very much just like to supplement.
At least what I was doing
was more so to supplement my swimming,
but not necessarily getting
like super strong from it.
Um,
so I think like taking that time off
away from swimming and like
just getting so strong with CrossFit,
because I was never like
super strong to begin with,
especially my legs.
Like I always had upper body
strength just from butterfly.
Um, but just, yeah,
the strength from CrossFit.
And again,
it was kind of like a mental thing, like.
I go through these CrossFit
workouts that are sometimes
like 30 minutes, like an hour long,
you know,
like something like Murph that's
an hour long that you're pushing through.
And my race in the pool was
only 25 seconds.
I was like,
I don't even have to think about this.
Like I just have to dive in
and swim as fast as I can.
So like that was kind of
like the mindset I had at first was like,
I've done this my whole life.
Like I've literally swam
since I was four years old.
Like I don't even have to,
I just have to dive in and
swim as fast as I can.
I don't have to think about it.
Yeah.
See,
that's the difference between a
sprinter and a distance
swimmer is we overthink everything.
Yeah.
Well, I was definitely there.
I mean, sprinters do that too,
but I've been there in my
swimming career.
So like,
I feel like I've had grown a lot
in over the years.
So in college I was very
much an overthinker and
that ruined my 50 here and there.
So I've learned from that for sure.
Yeah.
Um,
Gosh,
so many fun stories that we'll talk
about at the end of this,
but I want to get through
this part of it.
So one of the things that
really was hard for me when
I retired from swimming is
there was no CrossFit back then, right?
I had nothing to go into
that gave me that competitive feel.
How cathartic was it to have
something where you can
compete in a class every day?
yeah it was nice and now
like I have so many like
friends who were swimmers
that have like either been
like hey like what's this
crossfit thing all about or
like decided to go into
crossfit like also love it
like so many of my friends
from college like we're
doing crossfit and stuff
but yeah there were like so
many times because like as
a swimmer you're just used
to training you know so it
was like even before I was
like taking crossfit
seriously and I was just
like doing extra because I
felt like it people would
be like what are you
training for and I'm like
nothing I'm just working out like I'm
just having fun working out.
So yeah, it was, it's a great outlet.
And did the,
did the competitiveness in you
ever leave?
Well, at CrossFit, it was just like,
so I remember, um, so I started in town,
then I had moved to Iowa
for a little while and
started a CrossFit gym there.
But so that's like where I
really got into CrossFit
because the people who owned it, um,
had previously had like,
like games athletes.
We're talking like early, like 2012 ish,
you know, like that area.
Um, so like everybody was so good.
I'm like, Oh my gosh,
these girls are so strong.
These girls are so good.
And I remember going in and
I'd like scale everything.
And they got to the point where like,
Caitlin's like, you can't,
keep scaling these workouts
and crushing everybody.
Like you can do the weight, just do it.
And so like,
they kind of like pushed me into like,
like gave me that confidence.
Like you can do this, like you're fine.
Or like,
you could be really good at this
and like kind of taught me the movements,
like how to butterfly.
Like I remember I started
CrossFit and then like,
I started CrossFit in like September,
October,
and then the open came up in February.
So like I hadn't ever done
half those movements at that point.
So they were like teaching
me like a week before they opened,
like how to do handstand pushups,
how to do ring muscle ups,
like all this stuff,
like teaching me how to butterfly.
So I was ready.
So they're like, yeah,
it's just like swimming,
like the movement.
It's just like butterfly.
And I was like, great, I got this.
So yeah,
my friend's stat gym like really
helped me a lot,
like gain confidence and
like get into it.
And so I'm really thankful for them.
What gym was it in Iowa?
It was called The Foundation
when I was there,
but previously it was Quad City CrossFit.
Okay.
Yep.
Heard of them.
So eventually you get enough of a bug.
Let me ask you this first.
How many years have you done the Open?
Not that many, actually.
Maybe like four or five.
Maybe four.
Okay.
Okay.
four or five, I think.
And when you went back into swimming,
you couldn't do the open, right?
Like you had to focus on
what you were working on.
I did the open.
I did the open in 2022.
Wait, well, I guess it'd be 2023.
So I started swimming again in 2022,
like realized I'm going to
do this in 2022.
Then I did, uh,
open like quarterfinals like
was taking crossfit very
seriously at that point in
2023 and then this past
year 2024 I didn't do the
open because I was like I'm
not risk like I have
olympic trials in like four
months I have swim meets
coming up like last last
like tune-ups and stuff I
was like I'm not risking
this so I didn't do the
open this past year but I
did do it and take it like
seriously in 2023. and so
23 you made it all the way
through quarterfinals
Yeah, I actually, um,
cause my gym used to follow comp train.
So I was like a comp train
athlete and I actually got
to go up and like do quarterfinals with,
um, the comp train crew.
So that was really cool up at CFNE.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
It was a lot of fun.
Yeah.
I think I was definitely a
little intimidating at first,
but by the end of the weekend, I was like,
this is awesome.
Like this is such a great experience.
So.
Yeah.
I think I've seen where like
Ben Bergeron was commenting
on some of your stuff.
Yeah.
Ben's great.
Ben's been really great through it all.
Um, and so then it,
but before you go back into swimming,
you dip your toe in the
competitive water of
CrossFit by doing TFX.
Yeah.
Well, I got lucky with water Palooza, but,
um, yeah, so I had, I was like,
I'm doing all this training.
Like I said, people would always be like,
Oh, what are you training for?
And I was like, you know what,
if I'm going to do this,
like maybe I should get out
of my comfort zone and like,
see if I can qualify for
some kind of competition.
And like most,
like I had never competed at that point.
And most people like would
do one close to home or something.
I was like, no, I like,
this is going to be so embarrassing.
Like,
I don't want any of my friends coming
to watch me.
Like I'm going, I'm going elsewhere.
I'm doing a competition.
I'm going to mind my own business.
No one's going to watch me suffer.
So I was like, yeah, let's try TFX.
And I like ended up just sneaking in,
I think.
And I was like, oh my gosh,
I cannot believe I qualified.
But you did.
So, and how,
what was that experience like?
Um, it was a lot.
It was great.
I'm glad that I did it.
Um,
but I didn't expect it to be that cold
in Texas,
like with all those outdoor events.
So that was like something, uh,
that I wasn't ready for, but it was,
I mean, it was a lot of fun.
I'm glad I did.
I met like a lot of great girls that like,
I'm still friends with today.
So like,
that was super cool that like our
paths crossed.
And then like later we ran
into each other and we're like, wait,
did you do DFX?
And we're like, yeah.
So we're like friends now
and stuff like that.
So it was, it was a good time.
What year did you do it?
That was 2022.
Oh my God.
Like I was there.
We were covering.
I remember, I think I remember that.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Another, another weave.
Yeah.
And it was cold.
My wife was with me and she was freezing.
Yeah.
I mean, it was really, really cold.
I think like the last day we
had that event,
like outside on the rig and it was like,
32 degrees or something in
the morning like I was like
oh gosh I don't know how
I'm gonna do this my hands
were so cold I was like how
am I gonna hold on to the
rig and you enjoyed the
cold so much that you
decided to move there I
know in july summer so
definitely not cold here
right now no um so then you
you did a team at wadapalooza yes
And were you, you asked to be on a team.
Did you help organize the team?
How did that come about?
So I was actually had done
the qualifier with some
friends up in West Virginia
and we did not make it.
But the girls down here at
CrossFit Car Hoop had
qualified with another girl
and she ended up backing out.
So they were looking for
somebody to fill the spot.
And I had come down here to Rogue.
the rogue invitational that October.
And like, we had a mutual friend.
So he had introduced me to
like all the girls down here at the gym.
We hung out, like I came to the gym,
dropped in for a workout.
So like I'd met everybody
and then they had qualified
for water Palooza.
And then the girl, um,
didn't want to do it so they
were looking for somebody
to fill in and I was like
at the meet trying to
qualify for olympic trials
and they called me the
night before and they were
like hey do you want to
fill in and I was like
absolutely like yes so it
was like that night I got
asked to be on a water
palooza team and then the
next morning I ended up
qualifying for olympic
trials and I was like two
check marks in the the goal
box so that was a really
cool time were they like we
know there's one swimming
event and we want to win
that so let's get caitlin
Yes,
except then the swim event was paired
with Squatch,
which is like literally my
worst thing ever.
And so like I had to get
through the squads and then
I swam like past everybody.
But the squads were I was
like the probably the
fourth to last person in the water.
And I think I was the second
person out of the water.
So thank God for the swim.
But it was a struggle for sure.
Are you comfortable open water?
Um, yes.
Yeah.
I, so I had never swam open water before.
And then in West Virginia,
I live like super close to
the lake and I was like,
it is beautiful here.
Like I love it.
So I'm going to like start
trying to do open water and
it took me a while to like
put my face in the water,
like open my eyes.
But yeah, I was fine with it,
especially like in the competitive, um,
like environment.
Like you don't, for me as a swimmer,
like comfortable in the water anyway,
like I didn't even think about it.
So.
Yeah.
To me, the only difference in,
in the open water is sight lines.
Yeah.
can you make sure you're
swimming straight?
If you can make sure that's happening,
you're okay.
Sorry, my dog is a psychopath.
Mine usually is interrupting as well.
So first event of the
CrossFit Games is Run Swim.
How much would you like to try that?
What is it exactly?
Do they release what the
distance are and stuff?
So the speculation is,
and Dave has kind of
confirmed that everybody's
speculating is correct,
is it's a 3.5 mile run into
a 800 meter swim.
Okay.
So I could probably like do
that on my own if I wanted to.
I don't want to say anything though,
because sometimes people get into,
I don't want to be putting
any times out there or anything.
I'm just having fun.
So I don't want anybody to be like, oh,
you should do this.
What's your time?
Yeah.
Yeah, and it's a man-made lake,
so it's not going to be too
bad of a swim for most people.
Yeah,
I always feel like an 800 swim to
most people is probably a lot,
but I always feel like the
swim is never that long.
Maybe a little longer.
When I was swimming,
it was not uncommon for our
warm-up to be 1,000.
Oh, right.
That's standard, yeah.
Standard warm-up.
And so like when they're doing 800,
it's like, and I used to judge.
And so like, this is so bad.
I shouldn't even say this out loud,
but when I was a judge,
I would do events where
they were swimming and I
was not only judging the event,
but I was judging like the
swimming style.
Like crossfitters are not good swimmers.
No, I've had so many people like,
can you help me out?
Like, can you teach me?
And I like try to go and I'm like, yeah,
you're like,
that bad I'm like no be
honest I'm pretty bad I'm
like you're not that bad
it's okay some of them are
really bad yeah I did I did
a master's event years ago
where I wasn't sure people
were going to survive I
believe that so yeah it was
and that was in a pool yeah
yeah it would be pretty
sketchy if you're not a great swimmer
Yeah,
I think the first year that he went
to Madison,
one of the favorites in one of
the Masters divisions had to be saved.
Really?
Yeah.
Yikes.
And that made him ineligible to compete.
Oh, my.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Yep.
So now you've done the Olympic trials.
You go...
You're doing your CrossFit.
You're training once a week.
Did it ever pick up more
than once a week as you got
closer to the trials?
It did.
So, um,
that first year that I started
swimming again,
I was just following the general, um,
calm train programming.
I didn't have a coach.
And so my national meet for
swimming was literally a
week apart from the CrossFit games.
So the like taper worked out
perfectly because obviously
like people were coming
down for the CrossFit,
like it was tailored around
the CrossFit games.
And so that first year,
like it worked out great.
And so then the next summer, 2023,
Um,
it was a world championship year for
swimming.
So our national meet was
actually in June rather
than at the end of July.
It was like the beginning ish of June.
And so again,
like I was still following
just general programming for CrossFit.
And so I was like mid
training cycle and I tried
to taper like myself off
that for the swim meet and
I didn't do terrible,
but I just didn't do,
I wasn't like as snappy as
I felt like I normally am.
Um,
And I'd also like run into a
couple like weird injuries
and I've like never had
really any injuries.
So there was like one point
like hurt my back doing
stupid 35 pound dumbbell
snatches and couldn't bend
over for literally like a month.
And I was like, this is terrifying.
Like I'm this, I can't do this.
So that's when I decided to
go with a coach and do more
like swim specific stuff.
And I started swimming a
little bit more with WVU again.
So I ended up, I was splitting my time,
like three days in the pool,
three or four days in the gym.
But even my time in the pool,
like one day was a circuit.
So I still probably wasn't
doing more than like 25, three grand.
And all of it was like
sprint specific stuff.
And then another day was like recovery.
So again, like easy stuff.
And then another day was
like stuff from the blocks
to like race pace.
So it was still very minimal swimming.
And I like called the shots.
So if there was a set that I
didn't feel like I needed to do,
or like didn't need to do
the whole thing of like, I would just
kind of still tailor it to me basically,
but at least I had people
to train with at that point.
So having gone through this,
do you think that we can
change the way that at
least sprinters could train for swimming?
I mean,
I think it shows that it could change,
but I don't think that
anybody will adopt that training.
I think it's very hard to
change people's minds about
like swimmers are so old
school and it's just,
I think that's just how it's going to be.
Like, I don't think they're going to take,
they might do like swim a little bit less,
but I don't think that
they're going to take day.
I don't think it's going to
convince anybody to take days,
even though like I proved
that it can be done.
Like it obviously works for
sprinters at least,
but I don't think anybody will,
will do it.
Well, when I first got into CrossFit,
we had a bunch of marathon
runners that joined our gym.
And they were able to train
less for the marathon when
they did more CrossFit.
Right.
Well, which I forget who it was.
I'm terrible with names and such.
But one of CrossFit Games
athlete like ran her
fastest marathon or something,
didn't she?
She used to be a marathon
runner and then she like wasn't training,
but she did a marathon and
she was like super fast.
I don't know.
I have,
I have friends that ran multiple
marathons,
started CrossFit and dropped their time.
Yeah.
Like multiple.
And like,
if you can break into the running world,
I mean, it takes time.
There's still people that
were still going to run 8
million miles of running
and swimming are very
similar training wise.
And I feel like it's like
the same mindset.
Like, yeah, runners run,
swimmers just swim.
That's just what it is.
Andrew Sten answered the question for you.
It was Christy Aramo O'Connell.
Yes.
Yes.
Who is my coach now?
Oh, and how I didn't remember that.
I don't know.
Um, yeah.
Um, and she was a swimmer too.
Yeah.
She swam at the university of Louisville.
Oh, who knew?
Yeah.
So, um,
I think in the piece I was
reading about you,
you said that you think
that swimmers could go to a
50-50 style instead of a 75-25.
Meaning they could go 50 in the pool,
50 out of the pool from a
75 in the pool to 25 out.
And you're a firm believer
that that and they could
still do as well?
Well, when I said that,
that was before I was doing
the 50-50 split.
That was when I was like only swimming,
like I was mainly doing CrossFit.
So then I switched.
Basically what I was doing
was the 50-50 split and I
found it very hard.
Like, I guess being a swimmer,
I never realized how hard
swimming was on my
shoulders until like I
started trying to swim more
without actually being a swimmer.
And so I was trying to do CrossFit,
which is obviously tough on
your body and also swim,
which is very tough on the body.
And it was rough.
So like I that was like one
of the other reasons why I
switched from CrossFit to
just like more specific training,
because I knew that I
wanted to swim more.
And it was just it was too
much on the body.
But I was fine to swim a very little bit,
like basically just racing
and do CrossFit full time.
So like I said,
I don't know if it would
work for like 100 or so.
Maybe I mean, maybe 100,
depending on the training and stuff.
But it worked for the 50s.
But I feel like you just
have to play around with it.
I mean, it was a lot of, I mean,
I didn't know what I was doing.
I was just listening to my
body and adjusting like as I went.
So I think it would take
some trial and error, but it might.
Yeah.
I mean,
I don't think that sprinters need
to swim as much as they do.
Period.
Like, I just don't think they do.
And that makes sense to me.
Like,
I don't think people who
sprint in running just run all the time.
Right.
Like explosive race space.
That's in that's like resistance training,
different things like that to,
to get explosiveness.
And yeah, that, that makes total sense.
I think you just play around
with the programming too.
Right.
Like maybe you don't do as
much shoulder work in CrossFit.
Right.
Like I was still trying to
do the fun stuff like ring muscle-ups,
like handstand push-ups,
like all my favorite things
or upper body stuff.
So like I probably didn't
need to be doing that stuff.
It would have been fine.
But yeah,
I think it would just take some
like playing around and
figuring out like what works for you.
And I've had like a lot of
people DM me and stuff like
swimmers saying, hey,
how did you do this?
Like what was your training plan?
And I'm like, honestly,
like I was just making it up.
Like if I felt like crap,
like I just adjusted that day.
Honestly,
they were like just played around
with it.
Yeah.
It worked like you just got
to figure out what works for you.
I think it's a fascinating
concept and it's cool that
you tried it and were successful with it.
So you get to the trials and
correct me if I'm wrong,
I'd sense that you were
disappointed with how it turned out.
I was.
Yeah.
I mean,
I hate to say that I was
disappointed because it was
like an amazing experience.
Like the whole journey,
like even the fact that like you said,
like it's great.
Like I still can't believe
that I made Olympic trials
swimming one time a week.
So I hate to say that I'm disappointed,
but like,
obviously you always want to do your best,
but I mean, they even say at Olympic,
like the 50 is a hard event
to go a best time anyway.
And even at the Olympic
trials meet across like all the events,
they say that there's only like,
I don't know,
10% of people go best times
at Olympic trials.
So like it is what it is.
Um,
but I had like full confidence going into,
I mean, I didn't,
my body definitely didn't feel great,
but I was like,
I didn't let it get me down.
And I was like,
I'm just going to do the best I can,
but that's how the cookie
crumbles sometimes, I guess.
And we haven't mentioned this.
You were older than all but
two swimmers at the trials, right?
Yeah.
And the youngest girl at the
meet was actually in my
same heat in the 50.
So that was kind of funny
how that worked out.
I was like, Oh, great.
So for you to do this at 34 is,
is an amazing accomplishment.
Yeah.
I keep, yeah,
there's definitely positive
things to look at.
So I don't let, let my time overshadow it.
Cause like you said, it's the 50,
like it's a crap shoot for the most part.
So
I want to do a quick
comparison with CrossFit.
So you have these athletes
that work their tail off
all year and they make it to semifinals,
which is a pretty big stage
for the CrossFit world.
Right.
And some people that is,
that is everything they
want is to get to that stage.
Right.
And then you have the people that,
that fight for that top,
whatever it is at that
semifinal to make it to the games.
Right.
Olympic trials,
they only take the winner
and maybe one other,
depending on relays and stuff like that,
whether you get to go
because they have a cap
that they're allowed to
take to the games.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Swimming is absolutely brutal.
I mean,
they say that the US Olympic
swimming trials is more
competitive than the Olympics.
I would not doubt that.
Yeah.
I mean,
it's heartbreaking because like you
see all these amazing swims,
but then you feel so terrible,
like so much highs and lows
that you know what they're going through,
like all the training.
I mean, it's the same with any sport,
but like to get third place
or second place by like 0.02,
like something that's faster than this,
like you can't even fathom
how fast that is.
And you don't get to go like
that's so heartbreaking.
I think when I was at the trials,
the men's hundred
breaststroke from one to 12
was 0.8 seconds.
It's insane.
There was, um,
at one point there was a swim off.
There was a swim off for a relay spot.
I think it was a relay spot
at the Olympics or something.
It was between two girls.
So literally you have two
girls swimming in the pool
next to each other.
And you know that one of you
is going to the Olympics
and one of you is not like,
Can you imagine?
I cried before I even started.
I don't know.
This is so terrible.
In front of all those people.
So when you go into an event
like the Olympic trials,
what is your goal?
Is your goal like a certain place?
Is it a time?
Is it...
I mean,
because only two people are making
it to the Olympics.
And 50, what, you get four maybe.
Yeah.
Because of relays.
Yeah.
Well,
the 100 you get four because of relays.
The 50 is only the top one
or two depending on spots.
But, yeah.
So, I mean, it's hard.
And I learned this.
I feel like in college it
was very much I want to go
this time or I want to go this place or,
like, I want to win, like, this and that.
But, like, I feel like you learn, like,
as an athlete in anything, like –
you can only control like how you do,
like you can't control the
people around you and how they do.
So, um,
very much my goal this time around
was just like, enjoy the experience,
like take it all in.
And I very much did that.
Um,
so I know like when I touched the wall
and I was like super disappointed,
but I had all my friends
and family there.
So I was like, okay,
like as much as I want to
cry in the locker room and
crawl in a hole,
like I have so much to celebrate here.
So,
That's cool.
Yeah, that's cool.
And are you planning on doing this again?
Or was was this the final retirement?
Everyone keeps asking me that.
I'm not sure yet.
I'm still like, I mean, it's great.
It feels like I've lived a
whole life since Olympic trials,
but it's only been a month ago.
So I don't know.
But
being in Texas,
like there's so many more
swimming opportunities down
here than there are in West.
I mean,
I was very lucky to have the pool
West Virginia and we
definitely had like a lot
of meets and stuff like that.
I was so thankful to have
that in my backyard.
Um,
but there's just like a lot of more
opportunities just in terms of, I mean,
there's masters swimming
and stuff down here.
If I want to get into that
or I can continue like
regular club swimming with
big little kids.
So there's just a lot of
opportunities down here and we'll see.
If I do,
I'd probably go back to the
swimming one day a week and
just doing CrossFit and
seeing how long I can do that for.
But we'll see.
Is there any goal in the
CrossFit world to compete?
Um, I don't know.
So my goal in CrossFit was
always to make water Palooza and I was,
um, lucky enough to, I mean,
I didn't necessarily qualify,
but I got to compete there.
So, um, that was kind of the goal there,
but the gym that I'm at
right now in Texas is pretty competitive.
Um, and it's been fun,
like training with other
people who are very
competitive and like push
me and stuff like that.
So we'll see where that takes me.
Uh,
And I know,
I know they're great at putting
together teams.
They are great at putting together teams.
Yes, they are.
Yeah.
You're close to masters,
which is cool too.
I want to ask a couple of things just like,
what are the major
differences between
swimming training and CrossFit training?
So it's funny because I love swimming.
And if I have to pick,
I don't even want to think
about picking because that's too hard.
But I love swimming,
but I hate getting wet.
So I love CrossFit because it's fun.
It's more fun than swimming is.
You get to do with your
friends and laugh and have fun.
And swimming,
you're just by yourself with
your face in the water all the time.
But I like swimming because
like you have an event and
that's what you're good at.
And you put,
every second of every day of
training into making
yourself the best at that
one event and CrossFit,
you have to be good at
everything and you have to do everything,
even if you're bad at it.
So like we said,
like I'm terrible at breaststroke.
I haven't raised
breaststroke since I was 16
years old and I have no
problem with that.
Great.
Love that.
But like CrossFit, I suck at squatting,
but I have to squat anyway.
And I hate that.
A swimmer that hates getting wet.
I mean, I,
Does anybody like getting wet?
I mean, once I'm in, it's fine.
But like that initial jump
in is just terrible.
I never even thought about that.
Really?
Yeah.
I hate it.
What's funny to me is like,
I think like why I
gravitated across it so
much is I got pigeonholed as a 200,
500 guy.
And I swam freestyle like all the time.
And I just, you know, almost burnt me out.
I would swim high school those two events.
I swam them every event from
freshman through junior year.
Yeah.
That's a grind.
I would go to the Y swim meets,
like the invitationals,
and I would sign up for
every single event just for variety.
Yeah.
Even breaststroke,
which I was terrible at.
I mean, I only swam the 15.
That's why I started doing
butterfly again.
I was like,
I don't want to just swim
freestyle all the time.
What fun is that?
I'm going to do a little bit of butterfly.
Yeah.
Yeah,
it just... It was just something to do,
something fun to do.
Exactly, exactly.
So then those are the differences.
The one thing I found very
similar was interval training.
Swimming is nothing but interval training.
Yeah, that's why I was initially,
I feel like,
pretty good at CrossFit
because I already knew how
to pace myself pretty well.
I've always been pretty good at pacing,
so...
that definitely helped out in CrossFit.
Do you find any other
similarities between the two?
Um, I don't know.
I feel like they're very different,
but like mentally,
like just being able to
like push through those things.
Um, yeah.
And it's like,
it's weird because in CrossFit, like,
like in swimming, you can't stop.
Like if you get tired in the
middle of the pool, like you can't stop,
you have to keep going.
But in CrossFit, um,
like if you get tired,
you can drop the barbell,
but like swimming kind of
helped in that way.
I'm like, okay, like that mentality,
like I can't stop, like just keep going.
Um, kind of carried over into CrossFit.
I mean,
I still stop a lot and take a lot
of breaks in CrossFit,
but I think that definitely
like mentally that helped.
Yeah.
I see that from swimming
definitely carried over
into CrossFit to this day.
Occasionally that part of
that brain clicks in,
like you can't put this down.
Like you, you've got,
you've got to bike more.
Like,
Like it,
it sometimes kicks in and it's
cool when it does.
Yeah.
Um, so when you were training,
you said you're doing comp
train and just kind of their,
their online programming.
Yeah.
My gym, um,
the whole gym followed comp train.
So I was just following their,
like they follow the
regular class stuff and I
would do like the semis track.
So it had like a,
like some extra
weightlifting and just extra pieces,
but yeah,
it was just the standard programming.
Yeah.
Do you think you'd ever get
to a point where you do
more specific programming,
something designed for you?
Like if you decided to come again,
maybe get someone to work
with you and play with that
experiment of what kind of
training works best with
this swimming thing?
Yeah, so I did.
When I had switched to like 50-50-ish,
I did have a strength coach
at that point.
He was a PT, Kevin Kirsch.
um,
does program for several other cross
athletes.
But so he's like familiar with everything.
He used to keep compete in
CrossFit as well.
So he's familiar,
but I didn't do a whole lot
of CrossFit stuff, but, um,
he probably could program that for me,
but yeah, there's,
I feel like there aren't a
lot of CrossFit coaches
that are like super familiar, um,
with swimming.
So that's why I kind of felt at first,
like I, since I do both, um,
why I just kind of handled it myself.
I was like, okay,
like I've swam long enough.
I don't know a whole lot.
Like I've done CrossFit long enough.
Like I get it.
So yeah, I feel like if I did it again,
like it would just take a
lot for a CrossFit coach to
like sit down and tailor
like a whole season of that.
I feel like, so I don't know.
I think you could be with it.
Innovation for the swimming sport.
What do you say?
I think it could be a major
innovation for the sports.
I know.
That's what people actually
keep telling me.
They're like, you should write a book.
I'm like, I don't know.
The first thing you're writing a book,
like I made this stuff.
I was just making this up.
Should have made more notes along the way.
So I want to finish this up
with a little fanboy stuff.
Because when I was a little kid,
when I was a teenager and
going to Clarion all the
time for lessons and camps,
Tippin Gymnasium and
Auditorium was full of
these pictures in the hallways.
of hall of famers uh from
clarion university who went
on to do great things and I
would I would walk the
halls and I always wanted
to be one of those people I
wanted that was my goal
yeah and you became one of
those hall of famers I know
it's crazy so when when you
were approached saying hey
we want to induct you into
the clarion hall of fame
And you knew you were going
to get one of those
pictures up on the wall.
Like, what went through your head?
It was, like,
super cool because my coach
is actually the only other
swimmer at Clarion that was
a 28-time All-American,
Christina Tillotson.
So it was so funny because growing up,
we always had, like,
state meets at Clarion.
And I actually hated that pool.
So when they called to recruit me,
I was like, I don't even want to go.
Like, I hate that pool.
I don't want to go to Clarion.
I told my parents,
but I really liked our assistant coach.
She went by Tilly.
So she did a really great
job recruiting me.
And then I went on a trip up
there and the team was just so nice.
Like all the girls were amazing.
Like I just loved everything about it.
So it was so funny that I ended up there.
And then the Hall of Fame
banquet was always like my
favorite time of the year
when like all the alumni
would come back and like
we'd all party together or
something like that.
it was always a lot of fun
so it was like always my
favorite time of year I
think it was my freshman
year that my our assistant
coach that recruited me she
I we watched her get
inducted to the hall of
fame so and it never really
occurred to me like and
probably until my senior
year that like hey if we if
we can just seal the deal
with these relays like I
got it in the bag here the
whole 28 time all-american
thing so um at the time I
didn't really like think
too much of it because my
goal was to always be like
a national champion and the
highest I got was second so
I remember when I was in college,
like at that point,
I like didn't even care
that much about like,
like wasn't even thinking
about the hall of fame.
Like I would just knew that
I was never a national
champion and that like tainted it for me.
Um, but then,
so like years later when I
got inducted and like looked back on it,
I was like, actually like, no,
that's like really freaking cool.
Like I'm really excited about that.
So,
and I had a bunch of friends all come
back for like my induction
and stuff like that.
My family was there.
So it was a lot of fun.
I, uh,
I want to share just a quick
story about Coach Miller.
And so I was swimming.
It was either a sectional or
district meet in at Edinburgh.
And did you get you?
Did you guys still swim them
when you were?
Yep, we were up in Edinburgh.
And my mom was sitting right
in front of Coach Miller.
And we've been working on
the 200 and on and on.
And anyway,
I break break my PR by two seconds.
And when I see it,
I almost came out of the water.
I was so excited.
My mom almost fell out of the stands.
Coach Miller grabbed her by
the shirt and saved her life.
Oh my gosh.
That's so funny.
Um, but it was, it was really cool that,
that he was there.
Cause it was not a college
meet by any stretch.
And he was there to support
me even as a little high
school swimmer at the time, uh,
to do that.
And, uh, he's just,
he is a great guy and I
want to go on to say,
so he did that for you.
And, um, in 2016,
when I went to Olympic trials,
so I was four,
five years removed from
college at that point.
Um, and.
Coach Van Dyke actually
surprised me and drove out
to Omaha to see me swim at
Olympic trials.
And it was like, I cried.
It was so nice.
I was so happy that he could
be there to watch me.
He was the coolest counselor
when I was at camp.
I'm sure he was.
The coolest.
He was the best coach.
Um, so yeah, so we'll, we'll end it there.
Um, this has been a lot of fun going down.
I didn't want to ask.
I cannot believe all that.
What was your favorite
restaurant in Clarion?
Oh my gosh.
Everybody loves Bob sub,
but I don't like mayonnaise.
So I was never a Bob sub fan.
Oh my gosh.
We're twins.
Really?
You don't either.
We are twins.
I don't know anybody else
who doesn't like Bob subs.
Yeah.
I hate Bob sub because of the mayonnaise.
Yes.
Was pizza pub there when you were there?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Pizza pub's where it's at.
It is.
That's my, that's my, see?
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
I'm clearing and go to pizza
pub and reminisce.
Yeah.
Do you know Bob's up burnt down?
It did.
Yeah.
And I would,
I keep telling my wife it's
because of all that damn
mayonnaise caught on fire
and they couldn't control it.
Went up in flames.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, this has been a blast.
It has.
I'm so glad we got to do it.
Thank you for having me.
Are you going to the games?
You're now in Texas.
I know.
It was actually very poor planning.
I'm going to a concert in
Philadelphia on like
Tuesday and the games start Thursday.
So I'm not going to be here for the games.
I have to go home for this concert.
And I'm heading to Texas that week.
Oh, dang.
I'll wait until you pass on my way.
Well,
it's so awesome to meet you and
hopefully our paths cross again.
I'm sure they will.
And I can't wait to see what
you do in the future.
Thank you so much.
It's been so much fun.
Yeah.
Thank you for joining us, Caitlin.
Thank you to people in the chat.
This has been awesome.
And we will see everybody
next time on the Clydesdale
Media Podcast.
Thank you.