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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 it get hot in the kitchen,
you decide to stay.
That's how it winters me.
Stick a fork in the heater
on my dinner plate.
what's going on everybody
welcome to the Clydesdale
media podcast where we are
highlighting the athletes
of the 2024 legends masters
crossfit games and I'm so
honored and privileged to
have with me tonight
Claudia Ragsdale what's
going on Claudia hey Scott
how are you doing
I'm good.
Got Holly in the chat.
She says, hello.
And for people who don't know Holly,
like when you see the links
to all the fundraising
t-shirts that we put out and,
and all the stats and
graphics to this girl.
Awesome.
She does all that research
and she loves the masters community.
That's awesome.
So, so Claudia,
you are going to your first
ever CrossFit games.
I am.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is pretty exciting.
Yeah.
You've been doing this since 2019.
Um, actually 2012, 2012.
Yeah.
So you have one of those
split accounts on CrossFit.
Yeah.
It's split on CrossFit.
So like I started in, uh,
like November of 2012,
did my first open in 2013 and
Okay.
Okay.
Yep.
Yep.
I saw the second version and
then it didn't have a games appearance.
So I was like, well,
it's either her second account or,
or somebody that I don't know.
Yeah.
It's weird how they have,
have that split sometimes.
And I think if you change
your email address that like, right.
Doesn't pick it up.
Yeah.
If you change your email
address or last name,
there's a couple of reasons
I've seen where it happens.
um so yeah so yeah so you're
you're going to your first
games it's separated out
are you are you excited
about that were you more
looking forward to it as
part of the main show um
you know for the longest
time like I was looking
forward to it as part of
the main show but
I don't know.
I've heard so many great things.
I haven't done the Legends comp,
but I've heard so many great things about,
you know, that team, Joe and Bob,
that I'm excited to see
what they do for us because
I feel like they really know who we are.
And from what I've seen,
programmed pretty appropriately for us.
So I'm excited to see what
they're going to throw at us.
So I got word that they had
a meeting today with all
the athletes up to 55.
So I'm guessing your meeting is coming.
Yeah.
Tomorrow.
Yep.
So are you excited about that meeting?
It'll be interesting to see
what they share with us, you know, um,
for sure.
Yeah,
I've heard it's like duration of workouts,
how many workouts, things like that.
But not real big details.
Sure.
Yeah.
I don't know if they're
going to release anything
to us ahead of time or
we're just going to find
everything out when we get there, right?
Yeah.
I know that when they did Legends,
they did not release them
until we got there.
Well,
that's good because then you don't
have to stress about it.
Yeah.
You don't overthink things.
I tend to think through things a lot.
Larry Young said,
I personally thought it was
dead at the games without
the masters there.
I got to meet Larry at the games.
It was so cool to finally
meet him in person.
For people to know,
that's John Young's dad.
Oh, cool.
So that was cool meeting him there.
So what's your background in sports?
Um, so when I was in my youth,
played a bunch of sports, so tennis, swam,
played soccer.
And then in high school,
I played soccer all through high school.
And then beyond that, pretty much,
I also rode horses a lot
when I was younger,
but not super competitively.
And then as I got out of
college and was able to afford it,
really dove into that
passion because I just love
that sport the equestrian
sports um and love horses
so I competed in three-day
eventing for quite a few
years I rode for about 20
years after college so and
competed in three-day
eventing so um that was my
background coming into
crossfit really there's a
handful of athletes elite
athletes that came from
horse riding as a
background uh jacqueline
dalstrom uh annika greer
they all from that background
Yep.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, I think that sport for sure,
like makes you super strong
in certain parts of your body.
Like your whole posterior
chain gets super strong, right?
Your legs are really strong.
So coming into CrossFit,
like I'd never touched a barbell.
And from the get-go,
like my squat and my
deadlift were pretty decent, you know?
So I think it was just a
result of so many years of
horseback riding.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So everywhere where I found your name,
it kind of said you're a
health and wellness like aficionado nut.
Yes.
I completely geek out on
anything health and wellness and fitness.
Those are the rabbit holes I
love to go down.
Also,
I feel like I love helping people too.
I have friends or family
that are always reaching
out asking me questions.
I love to try and guide them
to find answers or if I can
share anything with them
that will help them along their journey.
Super passionate about that.
Are you able to do any of
that for your employment?
Um,
I did coach for several years in
CrossFit.
It's always been kind of a side thing.
So for my employment,
spent many years working in
the ad agency business.
And then most recently,
I was at a tech consult
consultancy doing tech
implementation and recently
just transitioned to
another opportunity helping
a friend that I've known
for years within the CrossFit community,
help them scale their small business.
So kind of working in that
um realm right now but never
really I mean the health
and fitness thing I would
love to do that as you know
a full-time career I think
it takes time to build
right those kinds of
businesses so and I'm not
in the position to do that
at the moment um
I've got a kid going off to
college next year.
So you know,
like different things that
I've got to consider as I
make those decisions.
But regardless,
like just having coached
CrossFit for many years in
several different locations.
That alone was I mean,
I didn't do it because the
money obviously hits like
it was really just because
I loved like seeing people
make progress and like
helping them along their health journey.
So it was that part of it's
just super fulfilling.
Well, one, I,
I just finished the college
journey with my daughter.
Um, she's now working in the real world.
Um, and the other thing,
so you had to leave coaching,
was it because like,
you just didn't have the time or yeah.
Yeah, it was a time issue.
So like when I moved,
transitioned into the tech consulting job,
it was just really, um, demanding.
So of my time.
So I just couldn't allocate it.
Um,
in order to keep doing that.
But it's not to say that I
wouldn't want to go back
and do that again.
You know,
I think it's just a matter of
juggling everything, you know, job,
two kids and get trying to
fit my training in, you know,
everything else.
So.
So what kind of athlete,
what kind of CrossFit
athlete would you say you are?
Definitely strength biased for sure.
Yeah.
Like give me a barbell any day.
I think for me, I'm, I'm probably like,
one of the larger athletes in my age group,
I think, you know,
I think there's a lot of
smaller athletes.
So like, for me,
like I tend to not do as
well in the open when it's
like just purely like body
weight endurance stuff.
And then I tend to do better
in like the qualifiers and
semis when they bring in
some other things into the mix.
So yeah.
Although we've been working very hard on,
you know,
all the things that are
challenging for me.
So I feel like we've made a
lot of progress over the
past couple years, which is great.
Just, I mean, I love to train.
So that's really the fact
that I made it through is
like icing on the cake
because I just love to
train and see the progress.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how excited are you to be
able to go and compete in person?
You've done semis for a couple of years.
You've done the age group
online qualifier for years.
Now you get to go on a
competition floor against your peers.
Yeah, that's going to be,
I just feel like I tend to
always perform better in
person and I haven't done
like a ton of individual comps.
Um,
you know, at the last gym I was at,
I was at that gym for over 10 years.
And like,
there was a huge masters community there.
And so I had done like a ton
of team competitions and it's like,
you definitely, I mean,
the adrenaline definitely
puts you on another level, right.
When you're doing those in-person comps,
that is just different.
So I'm definitely looking forward to like,
see how much I can push past
what I think my limits might be.
Because, you know, a lot of times,
that atmosphere just makes
you achieve things that, you know,
you maybe thought you could before.
So that part of it's super fun.
It's kind of like an
interesting study because
all the online stuff,
you don't know how fast to go, right?
You don't know what anybody
else is doing and you're
trying to push to the best you can.
Then in person,
you may have someone that
comes out like a shot and
you got to be careful not
to go with them.
absolutely I think part of
that too is just knowing
like knowing how you are as
an athlete right and
knowing like where you need
to make your moves um and
where you need to just stay
in your own lane right like
and manage your capacity
because you know I think if
you and I've done this
before like in just in
class workouts too or you
know where you're kind of
getting caught up in like
trying to catch someone and
then it's like you blow up
so I think just over time learning like
how you can manage different
movements and like the
volume and like what your capacity is.
I think those things you
just have to stay in your
lane from that perspective.
And then knowing when you can push, right?
Like, I know certain workouts,
it's like people will pass
me on one movement and then
I'll pass them on something else, right?
So it's just like knowing
where you can push, right?
Yeah.
When I first started CrossFit,
there was a guy who we
competed every night in class, right?
He was a better runner than me.
I was a better lifter than him.
Like, and it was,
and I just had to get good
enough to keep up with them.
Right.
So when we got back to the barbell,
I could cycle faster.
Right.
Yeah.
And it's,
so with this being your first time,
you don't really know the
people around you.
You're going to meet them
for the first time this weekend.
Yeah, I'll meet them for the first time.
But I feel like I've been
seeing these names on the
leaderboard for 10 years, right?
Like, so it's like,
it's the same women that
have been moving up in those age groups.
And it's kind of the same.
And some people filter in
and out for different reasons, right?
Maybe life things or injuries or whatnot.
But for the most part,
I think it's a core little group.
And you can kind of follow
their journey as well on
social media and kind of
follow them a little bit and
get to know a little bit of what they do.
So it'll be exciting to meet
them in person.
Cause I mean, some of these women,
I feel like it's cool to
see like what we're able to
achieve at our age.
So it's almost like inspiring to be like,
Hey, if they can do this, well,
it's not impossible for me
to try and do that as well.
Right.
So I think it's encouraging
to see their journeys and like,
try and like, just keep pushing.
Right.
Because it is possible.
So.
I think one of the most
fascinating things is,
and I see this in the
masters community is you're
in the corrals together.
You're in the warmup area together.
And after a weekend,
it's like you've hung out
for four straight days.
Yeah.
And you leave like really,
even though you're competitors,
you leave really good friends.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've heard that.
I think that's, that's exciting.
That's fun.
I think masters the different environment.
Right.
I mean, for sure.
Everyone's still competitive
and wants to do really well,
but I think there's just,
there's definitely like a
camaraderie there that kind of, you know,
um,
Because I think we're all
just happy to be able to do
this right it's like so
cool that we can be doing
this at our age so and
achieving the things we are
achieving like I've shocked
myself so many times right over the years,
what I do so it's really cool.
It's that thing where, yeah,
you want to compete,
but this isn't number one
priority for most Masters athletes,
right?
Right.
There's no fame or fortune, right?
We're not doing fame or fortune.
You work full-time jobs.
You have families that you
have to prioritize over
your own training.
Yeah.
For sure.
It's like just fitting it in,
juggling it in or figuring
out how to fit it in, you know,
either before or after and between,
you know.
Which makes what you guys do
all that more impressive.
Yeah.
But honestly, for me, I feel like.
my training is like the, the one time,
like it's my time.
So it's like,
I get to focus and not have
to think about everything
else I have to do.
Right.
It's like my,
my peaceful time where I get
to just focus on my
training and then I feel recharged,
refreshed,
and then can come back and like
deal with everything else I
need to deal with.
Right.
So it's almost like it,
it rebalances and like resets, you know,
the system.
So how did,
how did you find CrossFit in
the first place?
Um, so funny story.
Like I had no idea what CrossFit was.
And, um, after I had my daughter,
I'd been working with a
friend of mine who I rode
horses with for a long time
and she was personal trainer.
So I told her I need to like, you know,
start moving again, get back in shape.
So I worked with her for a
little while and then, um,
started just buying like different,
like group bonds to
bootcamps and things like that.
And I happened to just buy
one for CrossFit and ended
up showing up and
the gym I had joined at that
time was a very small gym.
They literally had just opened.
It was a group of, um,
young adults that had left
another gym they were
originally at and like
started their own gym.
And there was like a couple,
only a couple of us in,
I remember I went to the
6am class and they were so
excited and like,
do you know what CrossFit is?
I'm like, I have no, I have no idea.
It's like a bootcamp, right?
Little did I know, but, um,
Yeah.
And I think for me, what I loved,
cause I've,
I've never really been like a gym person.
I've always loved being like outdoors more,
but I think what hooked me
was just the fact that it's
never the same.
It's always different.
And like,
you can always make it harder.
Like you can always get better.
Right.
And there's always something
to like try and learn and
different skills to try and acquire.
So just that,
like chasing those things
becomes addicting, I think.
Right.
Like you want to figure out
how to master it, you know?
And nobody ever masters it.
No, no one masters it.
I mean,
you definitely get better and then
it just gets harder because
you try to master things
that are more difficult or challenging.
Right.
Right.
But I think that pursuit is,
that pursuit is definitely
addicting and super fun.
And I for sure have like, like,
I definitely came into it
having limiting beliefs of
what I could do and I feel
like over time it's like
you just kind of start to
embrace like the failure is
what leads you to the next
stage because I for sure
have always like early on
was like trying to get it
exactly right and be a
perfectionist right but
it's like I feel like it
let me kind of let go of
all that and just failure
is part of the process and
it's like that's the only
way you're gonna move forward
Right.
By letting it be messy.
So, um, so I definitely,
I've grown a lot just as a person too,
through the whole,
through my whole CrossFit journey.
Right.
I feel like it's expanded my
mindset to embrace that
discomfort of like getting
through the messy part to
get to the acquisition of
the skill you want.
So,
so you said you were buying Groupons
for all kinds of things
when you did the CrossFit,
did it stop your Groupon buying?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I pretty much signed up for
a membership like within a month.
So,
and then pretty much never looked back.
I mean,
I've pretty much been consistent since,
since 2012,
other than having like a
couple of things here and there,
like 2014,
right after the age group
online qualifiers,
my appendix ruptured like
weeks after that.
So I was out for a bit there
and really just
did, you know,
I was swimming to recover from that.
And then when I came back, you know,
you jump in and you get a
little caught up in trying
to get back to everything.
And then my core wasn't as
strong as it had been earlier.
So then my back was like,
not feeling great.
So I feel like it was just like a journey.
And I, at that point, I was like,
you know what,
I had kind of a hiatus from the open,
like, um, in 2015 and 2016,
where I literally just did class.
Um,
And then I did the open in
2017 and I almost made the
online qualifiers,
but I literally had just
been doing an hour class, you know,
that whole time.
So I'm like,
then that fired me up again to like, hey,
if I actually try and like
work on some of these, you know,
things that I'm not the greatest at.
and put some effort behind it.
Maybe I can make the qualifiers, you know?
So,
so what does a training day look like
now?
Do you still just do the
class and some accessory work or?
No,
I pretty much have been working with
like one-on-one coaches,
like as far as like getting
programming for probably
since 2014 and then took a
little bit of a break.
I don't know if I took a break,
but like basically was
doing class and then I do
like a little bit of
accessory work on the side early on.
And that then evolved to
like full programming,
full individualized programming.
And that probably was like starting in,
I want to say like, you know, like 2017,
2018.
And how many hours a day is that?
It varies.
I would say...
maybe I mean right now it's
like prepping honestly like
this is probably like the
most I've trained ever
right um just doing like
double sessions so like
maybe like an hour session
in the morning and then a
couple hours in the
afternoon like two or three
hours in the afternoon and
then my weekends are
usually pretty long like
three to four hours and
that's pretty much my I
usually have gotten like
bigger sessions in on the
weekends always just
because I have more time um
so the week during the week
in the past it's been
maybe a couple hours each day, you know,
but definitely heavier
right now just as we're
leading up and building.
So,
so you're in the 55 to 59 year old
division and you're doing
that many hours of training a day.
That is remarkable.
Yeah.
And I, you know,
I think that's the timeframe,
but you know,
not all of it is obviously
like Metcons and things like that.
Right.
There's a lot of bodybuilding in there.
There's mobility.
There's, there's a little bit of,
everything, right?
Zone two works.
So it's a mix, right?
So it's not, I don't know.
Definitely early on when I was in CrossFit,
when I first started,
I definitely like overtrained,
like way overtrained.
Even though I was just doing
class sometimes too,
it's like just doing that
high intensity all the time was like,
just beat me up.
And I think over the years
I've learned like,
it's just not sustainable, right?
And especially as I've gotten older,
it's like,
it's definitely not sustainable.
So it has to be more of a mix of like,
bodybuilding, like gymnastic skill work.
Right.
Um, and,
and the Met cons come at
appropriate times,
but I would say it's not,
it's not an everyday thing.
Right.
Yeah.
And you listen to your body, right?
Like if it's a day where you
just don't have it, just back it down,
get through it.
Yeah, for sure.
And I feel like too, like even just
Well,
having gone through like this life
transition right in the
menopause period years.
I mean,
I've been working with M2
Performance Nutrition since 2018.
Because as you get into like,
I remember it was one of the...
qualifier workouts,
and I was doing a rowing work,
which I'm usually rowing is great for me.
But I like could not hold a row pace.
And I literally was overheating.
And I didn't know what was
going on at the time.
But obviously,
I was kind of getting into
that transition period of life, right?
Where like,
I couldn't regulate my body temperature.
So and that's
kind of when it had started, you know?
So I think like going through that,
definitely just having like
the help of a nutrition coach,
like just kind of helping
like to navigate that whole
thing has been super
helpful and just doing a lot of research.
Like there's,
I think there's a lot of
great resources out there.
Stacey Sims,
Dr. Stacey Sims is great from
a female hormone
perspective and she
specializes in athletes and performance.
So a lot of great people
that you can tap into and
reference and follow that
have some good suggestions
and science-backed information.
So I got to ask the question,
from a nutrition standpoint,
that you could reduce the
side effects or the
symptoms of menopause?
Yes.
It's definitely,
I would say it's kind of
more managing them.
Right.
So like hydration, super important.
You know,
things that certain things can be
disruptive to your gut,
which I'll show you
affects your hormones right
so just looking at things
holistically and sleep is
obviously disrupted during
that period of life as well
and when I say nutrition
like obviously you know
when you get nutrition
coaching so much of it is
more more than just
nutrition itself right like
it's kind of more lifestyle
so like reducing your
stress um because when your
estrogen goes down you
become more susceptible to
stressors right I mean
there's all these different factors um
to think about and maybe to
try and optimize, you know,
are the way that we process
sugars also is impacted.
I mean,
there's just a lot of things that
are impacted.
Right.
So I think the one thing
that we know for sure that
becomes super important is protein intake,
right?
Because our estrogen drops,
the only way for us to
maintain muscle is to
really do the heavy lifting.
And again, the protein,
getting the protein to be
able to sustain putting on
muscle or maintaining
muscle is super important,
especially as we go through
that stage of life and beyond.
So yeah,
I think there's a lot of just
considerations that are helpful, right?
To ensure you can recover appropriately,
um,
from your training and then just try
and help manage like your stress,
your sleep, um, hydration,
like when your estrogen drops also,
like you don't, your receptors,
as far as thirst receptors are off.
So it's easier for you to get dehydrated.
Um, all,
all these little things that you
learned along the way.
Right.
But I think having that
knowledge helps you better
optimize like your performance,
your training and just how
you feel overall.
So,
Jeffrey Birchfield, that's interesting.
Never thought about
menopause and performance.
And Holly says, all those pesky hormones.
Yep.
Yeah,
that's a really interesting thought
and subject to kind of dive into.
And Mike Malloy, who started M2,
is just one of the nicest
guys I've ever met in my life.
Yeah, Mike's fantastic.
He remembers everybody's name.
Yeah.
And I met him for the first time.
I went to power monkey one
year and I met him there
for the first time.
And yeah, he's just super knowledgeable,
you know?
And he has a great team in
place there as well.
So yeah,
I feel fortunate to be working with them.
Power monkey.
That's another subject.
That's something I would
love to do sometime in the future.
Oh, yeah, that it's,
that's a great experience
to another great team of
people and coaches.
And I think like any
opportunity I've over the course of time,
it's like any opportunity
you get to be around other
folks in the CrossFit community.
You know,
I feel like you walk away with so
many new friends.
Right.
So from Power Monkey,
and then also the coach
I've been working with, like he
um had a training camp um
and so I went to that and
got to meet a ton of people
I met john young john young
there actually because he
was being coached by the
same coach and it's like
you walk away and all of a
sudden you have all these
new friends right yeah
that's so cool yeah I've
met dave dranny um he's
been on a show before and
he's the one who brought
who created power monkey um
yep uh he's just one of the
coolest dudes too and you
you know all the cool people
They have a great
opportunity there for
anyone who's interested.
I think it's definitely
something worth considering
going to if you can swing it.
They have experts in every field.
You can go to different
workshops and work on what
you need to work on.
I know Dave Newman from RX
Smartgears there for jump roping there.
Margo Alvarez goes a lot.
yeah feast of coffee goes I
so I know there's a lot of
really high-end athletes
too yeah they had when I
was there were some of the
group athletes were there
and then also chris henshaw
was there you know I mean
it's just everyone that
they have on the team you
know mike service and chad
and everyone's just
fantastic yeah so back to
you in the games what are
your expectations this year
Honestly,
I'm just excited to see what I
can do and see where I'm at.
I obviously have a very good
understanding of the things
that are challenging for me.
So I can easily look at the
workouts and be like, okay,
this is going to be great for me.
This one's going to be a little bit,
you know,
more of like strategizing and
figuring out how to manage it.
But I'm excited to just meet people.
And then as far as expectations,
I really have no
expectations as far as like placement,
because I feel like there's
always things that I would
love to be further along as
far as mastery.
but it'll be a good test to
see where I'm at you know
and I feel like sometimes
when you're in those
environments it's like in
training you might not
think you're able to do
something but then when
you're in those
environments all of a
sudden you're like pulling
it off right so so I'm just
happy to be there I
honestly like I'm I'm
excited to have that
opportunity to be there yeah
Yeah.
I'm, I'm one of those athletes.
It's the rollercoaster, right?
I'll,
I'll win an event and then I'll
finish dead last.
And then, you know,
middle of the pack win dead last.
Um, because my, my bias is all in one,
one direction.
Yeah.
I mean,
definitely gymnastics are
definitely more challenging for me.
I never did gymnastics as a kid.
And when you're trying to learn it,
when you're like in your fifties, right.
It's,
like takes a little longer
with coordination and just
like body awareness and all that.
So, and even just like, for me, it's like,
I feel like in certain things,
like I have the strength
like to handstand walk,
but how do you figure out
how to breathe when you're upside down?
Right.
Right.
Like little things like that.
It's like,
I'm always like asking people
that I know that are gymnasts.
I'm like, you have any tips for me?
How do you breathe when
you're upside down?
Yeah.
Yeah.
so you bring in you bring in
anybody with you um I have
some family from that's
based on the east coast and
so they'll be coming out
like my dad my stepmom and
a couple sisters will be
coming out to cheer me on
and watch and then um
there's a couple from our
gym whose sister-in-law is
going to be competing also
in the same age group so
they'll be coming out so
it'll be fun to see them
out there as well yeah you
have a coach coming
I do.
So my coach is with Brute Strength.
His name is Coach L. Oh, wow.
You're with Coach L. Yeah.
So I've been with him since
November of 22.
And so he'll be there.
And then I think Lindsay also,
who's the gymnastics coach for Brute,
is also going to be there.
So it'll be good.
Yeah.
It'll be my first comp with him.
So it'll be fine.
Hey, you're at the CrossFit games.
You need all this.
Right.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think it's just more,
I feel like it's going to be like, okay,
here's how, how,
how do we want to approach this?
Right.
Like just trying to like
stay calm and focused and enjoy it.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, Claudia, this has been a blast.
Thank you so much for taking
the time out to do this.
My team will be down there.
We're going to record a
behind the scenes of the
Masters CrossFit Games.
So Ellie Hiller and myself
will be in the back just
chatting with you guys and
recording all that.
And then we'll have some
people out front recording
the workouts and we'll mash
it all together and do a cool video.
however many events there are,
that's how many episodes of
the documentary will be.
That's great.
I love that.
I love that you're doing that for us,
you know?
Yeah.
I mean, you guys deserve it.
You've, you've come all this way and,
and we want to highlight what masters do,
you know,
I don't think anybody's taking
the time to,
to do this and highlight
everything about it.
And the stories you guys
have are so much cooler.
Like you've lived lives, right?
Right.
And so we want to share all those.
That's great.
We appreciate you being there.
So with that,
thank you so much for being here.
Thank you to everybody in the chat.
And if you're watching, thank you.
Support by hitting that like button,
subscribe to the channel,
and we'll see everybody
next time on Clydesdale Media Podcast.
Thank you so much.
Bye, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks, Scott.
Bye.