Rudy and Lynette Berger | An Intimate Discussion in the Garage Gym

We catch up with our Dear Friends the Bergers as they take on their training in advance of their third CrossFit Games and trying for the third consecutive win.  What are they up to during the lull between semifinals and the Games, what is Scope Creep, How important is community and what is New with Coach Lynette and her first trip to Elite Semifinals.

What is Clydesdale Media Podcast?

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.

We are back with the burgers again.

I always love catching up with you guys.

Likewise.

We're deep in the Masters

CrossFit Games season.

Lynette, you've done some other things,

so I want to catch up with

some of the things you've done.

I want to talk about the

Masters Games and kind of

how the season is going so far.

So let's start with,

you're in kind of this big lull.

How hard is it to stay

motivated for three months

while you're waiting for

the games to come up?

Yeah,

so like 12 weeks from qualification

to the games,

which is four or five weeks

longer than normal.

We kind of took the approach

that in the beginning,

we're going to take a

couple of weeks to kind of breathe in.

We still work out,

just kind of take the

intensity down just to

start to warm up to the season.

And then once we get out to

that 10 to eight weeks range,

we'll start to ramp it up.

And so that kind of gave me a little bit

more mental break of like, hey,

we'll do fitness once a day.

It's much easier on the

schedule and just kind of

start touching special stuff,

minimizing the time.

And that gave me a pretty good refresh.

But overall, how do I keep sane?

How do I keep going?

Lynette helps the logistics

behind this of getting training partners,

going to different gyms, going

you know,

traveling and working out with

the pan chicks, like changing things up,

making it different, knowing, hey,

this is games training.

We're going to do things

different and just going

into that with that mentality.

Yeah.

And you should also mention

your fitness outside of the gym lately.

Oh, yeah.

What's that?

And we have a distraction.

That was my next question.

Okay, there you go.

On the same wavelength.

There you go.

Climbing ladders, carrying odd objects.

We partnered with a friend

and bought a property that

had an older barn,

and we're refurbishing the

barn into a gym,

just like a personal workout space.

And so Lynette has to really

pull me from it because I

would work on it all day, every day.

But we started with the rule

that training first,

get the training done,

then whatever energy I have

left over after training, family, work,

I can go work on the barn.

So it's slow progress.

So we're at the end of June right now.

So there's still eight weeks

before the games.

Yeah.

You're not even to that six-week mark yet.

Right.

So it's kind of the ideal

time to do other stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, it is.

Why the barn?

I know that's a loaded question.

It goes back to his childhood.

Yeah.

His parents had a property

with a big barn.

I had a big barn.

And I think it has nostalgia to it.

Yeah.

And we live in kind of a

tight neighborhood,

and I always wanted to have

some property and literally a barn.

And it used to be that would

be a shop where I would

repair cars and build wood

and build things out of wood.

Now it's, okay, well,

that's going to be my home gym because...

you know, we've kind of,

we're outgrowing our space here,

our home gym in the garage,

or our corner in the basement,

and it just made sense, hey,

let's get a property that's, you know,

just a little bit of drive

outside the country,

and then we can go out and train,

and it just creates this

space that we can focus on it.

Because we, like, during the cold months,

we move everything to the

basement and then we move everything.

It's a lot of work.

Like,

it's not really a choice because of

his work.

It's not realistic that we

can make it to the gym we love,

Choctaw's.

That's still going to be our community,

our actual gym where we

would do qualifiers.

I mean, nothing replaces that community.

Stop asking my questions

before I get to ask them.

We just.

we just know each other too

well but like the reality

of it is if we have a

window in the morning

before his meetings or a

lunchtime break that we can

get something done here

it's just something

convenient and so kind of

having that one space that

he can work from and work

out you know it will make

it yeah very very

convenient so is there a

house on the property there is yeah

Are you doing anything with the house?

So yes, we, the goal is to have it rented.

Um,

it's funny cause we tell this story

that we bought a barn that

came with the house.

Um,

but we actually have to do something

with the house.

So like he said,

we partnered with our good friend.

He's also a realtor,

so he has a lot of

experience and that's why

we actually went into this.

I think by ourselves with

everything we have going on,

we couldn't have pulled it off.

But so we are rehabbing the

house currently and

hopefully we can have it

rented and hopefully we can

have some really cool, um,

people that move in there

and get the whole working

out thing in a barn that is

behind the property.

Yeah, don't bother the renters.

Yeah, that would come with a little bit of

Possible conflict if you

don't have the right tenant, right?

Yeah,

but it's like the way it's laid out

is actually on its own like

parcel like so it It's in a

two acre lot and it backs up to the wood.

So Yes, it's kind of weird.

But at the same time it's

out of the way the garage

doors will be in on the

back of the barn So it like

we won't have it shouldn't

be on their face, you know,

I mean so and we'll be good good people.

Yeah, I

So, speaking of chalk dust,

I know that's your community,

that's your gym, that you love that.

And you say you're not doing

this to like get away from that.

This is just your home gym, right?

Do you ever feel guilty

about some of the time you

spend at chalk dust like

it's not class time or not...

Yeah, so for sure.

So we are very good friends

with Mike and Caitlin.

And from the beginning,

they have been super accommodating.

They've always opened the

gym to basically anything we needed.

But sometimes, you know, for example,

if we are working out at

noon and we need the rings,

that is a particular

member's square that he always goes to.

So we're like, oh.

And everybody's like, oh my gosh, please,

go ahead.

There's never a hesitation

and we work around it

really as much as we can.

But there's always this like,

don't want to interrupt classes,

don't want to take

importance away from what

the members need.

And that,

I don't think it has been an

issue at all.

I think it's, I mean,

the community saw us grow

from day one there.

So I think there's a very...

great like working

relationship but sometimes

it's like if the gym is

packed and Rudy's like

moving equipment around it

just feel like we're

invading people's space so

um again it's not something

that they ever make us feel

that way but it's just

something that we're like oh like

yeah you know yeah it's

natural it's it's not your

space even though as a

crosser you always feel

like your gym is part of

yours right yeah yeah I

mean it's like our second

home like our kids grew up

there like it's literally

yeah so it is really fun

like we I think he trains

there probably three times a week yeah

so it's really nice to see

like sometimes we drop in

during the noon class

sometimes it's the evening

so we get to see kind of

everybody um and the the

the goal is to make this

barn like an extension of

the community so right now

there is really only work

to be done there not any

workouts but once we have

it in good enough shape

that we like we want to

host everybody like anybody

that wants to come change

it up and work out with us

on the weekends or whatever

is more than welcome too yeah

So I was watching an

interview with Saxon

Panczyk and Dave Castro today.

And I just talked to Saxon a

couple of weeks ago.

So he's really into,

after that year of injury,

like getting more connected

with the community.

He learned that like not

being connected with the

community actually was hurtful to him.

Especially when you get hurt

and there's like nobody around, right?

So he asked Dave Castro if

in order to win the prize

money at the games,

should it be a requirement

that the person have their L1?

Dave Gastro said, I think it should be.

We need to get that

connection back with the

elite athletes and their community,

which is why it's so cool

watching you guys at Chalk

Dust in that community you have.

Is it a stress release when

you kind of get to go just

drop in on a class?

Oh my gosh, yeah.

This week, I've made it to the 6.15 a.m.

class three days, and on my notes,

more than the score or the

actual workout I get,

it's just so refreshing to

start the day with friendly faces that

I don't know,

it just sets your day up to

be a better day.

So for sure.

I personally, I program for Rudy.

I program for other people.

And I don't want to program for myself.

I program for the kids.

I just want to show up and

do what's written.

So for me, when I'm programming here,

I tend to overthink things for myself.

And then I just end up doing

something that, I don't know,

is probably very biased for myself.

So taking that away from my

plate and just going to

class is personally my favorite.

He knows that.

615 is like most recently

the class I could make

because the day gets kind

of busy and I get back

before his first training session.

So I love it.

It's the best way to start my day.

Rudy and I were talking

before we hit record on

this camera about that

sometimes you forget what

this is all about, right?

It's about being healthy.

Yes.

Being mobile into your latter years.

Being able to run around

with your kids and grandkids.

Yep.

By being connected with the community,

lose sight of that for sure

yeah for sure and like I

guess our story is not

necessarily the traditional

individual elite story

right um it's more like you

know we had this goal in

our community saw us like

come up with this goal and

support us all the way

through winning the first

game so like it really felt

like everybody's investment

was in from day one yeah

like at first I'm sure that

some members were like what what

What are they doing like why

is it working out so much

and then they started to

get it and so it's just

been this journey that we

Like I can't even picture

not having a community like

that's not even something

that it Would make sense

for us like I feel it's

it's I'm part of that community.

It's my community and I know

the community feels like a

I am one of them.

And that's why I think they

have such a strong connection,

because they're like, oh,

that's one of us.

We're going to Madison to watch Rudy.

It's one of us.

So it's strong.

Yeah,

Saxon told me that one of the best

things he ever did was go

back to coaching.

That's cool.

That's cool.

And it gave him that

connection with the

community that he missed.

That's cool.

And you guys know the story.

He had an affiliate that he

owned and coached and

programmed for and all that.

And that got kind of taken away from him.

So it's cool that he's found his way back.

That's really cool, yeah.

So one last question about the barn.

I watch you guys on

Instagram like a hawk and I

see like these structures

that look like they're outside the barn.

Yes.

Is that like rings, rope climb, fire tower,

skyscraper?

What's going on there?

Just like any other good

home renovation project,

we've had some scope creep.

And the size of the barn

extend it a little bit,

extend it some more,

and then at a certain point we're like,

well,

I want to be able to do 50 feet of things,

because that's such a CrossFit standard.

It's got to be longer than 50 feet,

so it kept growing.

And then the inside,

I designed an area that had

basically a 17-foot truss

with very open space so

that we can have rope

climbs in the rings and all that.

So yes, it is by design.

So I work with systems all day.

I hear the term scope creep

probably 30 times a day.

Correct.

And usually that comes with a no,

you can't do that.

That was me until I said, fine, fine.

I give up.

Like, sure, have this barn.

Now it's like double the size.

But if you look at it from the side,

it's just like half a barn

and then dirt and poles

sticking up at this point.

Right now.

And I am like his

construction partner apparently.

And he puts a lot more trust

in my abilities.

She's fantastic.

Lots of trust in ladders I saw.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He said, let's go do a little framing.

That's not the framing I had in mind.

I think the real episode we

should have done is out

live at the site of the barn.

We should.

Next time.

I thought about it, but I was like,

I don't even know if

there's like internet

connection out there or if

we don't have wifi.

We will, we will have wifi.

Not yet.

Yeah.

All right.

So,

so let's get into a little bit of the

master's CrossFit news.

This is the first year of

your split off from the games.

I've talked to Jason Grubb,

I've talked to people who

have been to the games several times,

talked to you.

They're not as affected

about the split off as

people who have never made it.

And there seems to be a

clear delineation about

that because they feel

cheated that they don't get

the experience that you all

got being at the big show

with the big kit.

I think the big kit is the

straw that broke the camel's back.

You're talking the gear kit.

Correct.

Okay.

So it's been announced that, well,

it's been assumed that

based on the survey,

you all will get three tops,

three bottoms, and some other stuff.

One wristband, which for him,

I don't know.

The sweatbands, yes.

Yes.

And that it is required that

you wear this uniform for all events.

Correct.

I've known you a long time now, Rudy.

You sweat like nobody's business.

Yes.

It's going to be a challenge.

Who is going to run your

stuff to laundry in between

events so that people can

bear to watch you finish the event?

Well, that might be part of strategy.

Because if I get ripe enough,

it'll affect my competitors.

He will.

Yeah, I mean,

we'll just have to do laundry quick.

We'll have to pick up some

extra stuff just to be prepared.

At the same time,

I'm still grateful for this opportunity.

Yes,

those that are just joining us this

year from a master's perspective,

it is different it's a new

thing but I think it's an

opportunity where this this

will be the better thing I

really I really do and I

would say it I i can

absolutely understand

people that are comparing

you know what they got for

the last however many years

to versus what they're

getting now and I don't

want to sound like I'm

complaining but I think

like with the expansion of the

the athletes, I mean,

it's going to have to be

different because the

budget has to be different.

And I know there's a big

controversy around all of that.

And all I'm just going to say, like,

If they have to make some

cuts on the things that

they're giving the athletes,

then I feel like they

should make some

concessions too as to what

they're allowed to wear.

So for example,

if they're not giving out

hats or headbands or more

than one pair of wristbands,

then allow the athletes to

wear their own.

So there has to be some kind

of a compromise because...

Here's my proposal.

Every day there's one

highlighted event that you

must wear your uniform for.

On the other events,

wear what you need to to

get through the weekend.

So this is our highlighted event.

Everybody's going to be in uniform.

It's going to look cool.

And then on the other ones, Hey,

You can wear your sponsor

stuff so you might be able

to make some money to get yourself here.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's true.

And help pay for these trips.

Yeah.

I think there just has to be

some compromise.

You know,

it should not be so rigid where

you're not giving them what

they have gotten in the past,

yet you expect them to have

fresh clothing for every day.

Like, that's a little bit tricky.

Yeah.

I mean, like, it's a first world problem,

right?

Like...

It's not the end of the world.

I think what happens in the

CrossFit space is we get

into these arguments and

it's either all the way

over here or all the way over here.

Why can't we meet in the middle and say,

you know what?

We're streaming this.

This is going to be the prime time thing.

Wear your uniform for that.

Exactly.

That's a great idea.

I mean,

we're here to find the fittest people.

What you're wearing doesn't

really matter that much.

And at the end of the day,

if you're stinky, you're stinky.

It's just what it is.

Yeah.

And you could have like a

dress code policy that you

must wear at least a pair of shorts and,

you know,

just to make sure nobody goes

completely off the rails.

Yes.

I mean,

most of the field takes their shirt

off anyway.

So it's like,

why does it really matter that much?

Right.

You're right.

Right.

So it's in Birmingham, Alabama.

Do we know,

have they told you guys what

the facility is?

I mean, they told us where it's at.

I forget the name,

but they said it's at this place.

I'm trying to remember the name.

Some guy's name.

Yeah, some guy's name.

But from what I understand,

that's where it's at.

That's where it's going to

be completely contained,

unless there's some crazy

thing with like a swim or a

trail run that we aren't aware of.

But I would expect it to be

all at that one facility,

the convention center.

I talked to Joe,

I've talked to him a couple

of times in the last couple of weeks,

and he's super excited.

Like the venue they got, he said,

is really nice.

So I'm excited.

I take him at his word.

Legends this year was at a

beautiful facility.

Yeah, I heard.

So I take him at his word

for that because they

followed through on that.

My hope is that I get to do

behind the scenes at the Masters Games.

That's why I've been talking

to him so much.

I'll find out tomorrow.

Okay.

If we have full-blown coverage.

Media access.

Good.

Yeah, so I hope we can do that.

So you're going to ramp up mid-July.

Yeah.

We're kind of starting to

just throw a little bit

extra spice here and there,

but nothing really too crazy yet.

Yep.

Do you do any kind of odd

object training more now

than you do during the rest of the year?

I would say yes because, you know,

earlier on in the season we

focus on what is likely to come up.

So sandbags are typically not a thing or,

you know, carries outside.

So, yeah,

I would say that the training

changes the closer we get to the games.

Totally.

So I want to move away from...

that piece and I want to

talk about kind of what's

been going on around you

guys this year your

daughter got to compete in

the open for the first time

ever that was really cool

um your kids are they're so

involved in so many things

I get to watch track meets

and cross country and all

this stuff on instagram and

it's so cool seeing how you

guys have set the example

for them and how that's

working leah did awesome in

the open thank you

But you guys made the choice

to kind of take a step back

this year and let her do

her school thing.

When we look around the CrossFit space,

a lot of young girls are

backing out of the sport.

Does that weigh heavy on

your mind when you see your

kids moving into this CrossFit thing?

Yeah,

I think that it would be silly not to

learn from what other very

successful teenagers in the

sport have gone through and

for sure take some red flags that,

you know, say, hey, you know,

for us it's like CrossFit

is going to be there.

You only get to do middle

school track once or cross country once.

And while CrossFit has been

part of their lives since

they were three and four,

I mean,

we have old videos of them doing

toes to bar in the basement

when they were toddlers.

It's not that we don't want

to take it seriously,

it's just that we see it as

a compliment to the sport

that they're working on.

and when they decide to you

know take it on a little

bit more competitively

we'll be there to help them

but I think they see the

hard work that goes in and

the dedication that

It's almost like, you know,

if they don't feel like training with dad,

I don't make them train.

But they know that if they

want to do really well,

they're going to have to

make choices that are

different than what they're making today.

And so, for example,

with Leah doing really well

in the open and qualifying for quarters,

it happened that it was the

same week as like a big

track meet she had.

And if the workouts would

have been different and she

wanted to do them,

I would have been open to let her try,

but they were very leg heavy.

And I was like,

the last thing I want is

her to be lined up on that

start line on Saturday

morning and like feel unprepared or

her confidence be shaky

because of the workout she

did that she didn't really have to do.

So it was an easy choice that, hey,

focus on track and CrossFit

will be there.

Because they have so many

external pressures nowadays

that adding to that and

what they have to deal with

is just not something we want to do.

The other thing that helped you avoid,

and I know this wasn't the intention,

is that if she would have made the games,

those would have been on

the same weekend.

Oh my gosh, that is so stressful.

We did talk about that.

Mason asked me, he's like,

who would you have chosen?

And I'm like, duh, Leah.

I have to be there for her first.

And then he's like, who would be with Dad?

I'm like...

you he's like me so um coach

mason there you go jump on

the phone yeah call mom so

no it would have been extra

challenging for us yeah

yeah but yeah yeah so I was

actually talking to tony

tursky who qualified I

think 55 to 60 okay uh and

he coaches a mother and

daughter who both meet oh wow

and we're actually going to

try to get both of them on

as to what this

complication does to them.

Another proposal I'd like to make is

It's all age group.

Why not have them in the

same place at the same time?

I agree.

And get all the eyes in one location.

Yes.

I agree with that.

That's a really great suggestion.

Yeah, for sure.

And pool the budgets.

Yeah.

Then you only have to pay for one facility,

not two.

Yeah.

Equipment is all the same.

Right.

Yeah.

No, that's a great idea.

It is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like you said,

it's like separating like the...

The potential for viewers to

keep track of two things,

it's much lower than if you just said,

you know, stay tuned for,

you're gonna see teenagers

through 60 plus compete.

I think that's much more

attractive than two.

While I'm on my proposal riff,

I'm gonna go with,

you guys should've competed

before the Indians.

The way it's set up in

Dallas now that some

information's been released,

the vendor village is going

to have the beer garden and

the big screen TV.

Well, with all the elites going and team,

there's going to be a lot

of breaks during the day.

Why not have you guys

compete ahead of time and show,

re-air the events in that

beer garden in between all those events?

And then you guys are all highlighted.

Still on the big stage.

At least in some way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree.

Yeah.

I mean,

I feel like there is a risk with

people being, like,

CrossFit out by the time

the Masters compete.

You know, like, people... I don't know.

Another reason to go first.

Yeah.

So, how long do the Olympics last?

Have we talked about the

fact that the Olympics start, what,

July 26th?

And when do the CrossFit Games start?

Oh, smack dab in the middle.

Yeah.

So, like, we...

we're okay we're after all

that you know that's a

labor day so yeah I will

say I think I saw that the

um uh adaptive olympics I

don't think that's the right

The Paralympics?

Yes.

Are the same weekend as the Masters.

Really?

I believe.

I'm almost positive that that is the case,

which I see it as like a

great opportunity for inspiration.

You know,

we watch the Golden Girls every

night before bed when he's competing.

That's what he chooses to watch.

I think this is the nugget

from the interview.

There you go.

Rudy watches the Golden Girls to relax.

Yeah.

Hey,

next time you can wear his Golden

Girls shirt.

Yeah, you can have a shirt.

Yeah.

Who's your favorite Golden Girl or kid?

The old lady.

What's her name?

The mom?

The mom.

I forget her name.

I have no idea.

I only knew of the Golden

Girls when he told me.

He's like,

let's find the Golden Girls on TV.

And I'm like, the who?

Yeah.

So it's a thing now.

My go-to is Friends.

I've seen it so many times

that I can fall asleep to

it and not feel like I'm

missing anything.

Mine is The Office.

I love it.

It never gets old.

Now it's going to kill me

until it comes to my head who that is.

Sophia?

Sophia, yes.

Oh, really?

Okay.

That's the old lady.

In real life,

she was actually younger than

all of the other ones.

That's so funny.

That was the cool thing.

She was in the,

now we're just way off the tracks,

but in the Stallone movie, Stop Her,

My Mom Will Shoot.

Yes, exactly.

Maybe she played the mom to

semester school.

Oh, yeah.

I want to talk about Lynette

and some of the additional

things you've taken on.

It kind of started last year

with Emma Tall at the games.

And we talked about that

post-games last year.

But now I find out,

not from my friend Lynette,

but from Max himself,

that he had hired you as his coach.

Yes.

And then I called you,

I texted you right after that going,

how come I have to hear

this news from someone other than you?

It's so funny timing because

I think it happened like

two days before that interview.

And I was like, I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know, excuses.

I'm sorry, Scott.

But yeah, Max, super exciting.

So it's funny because...

We've been following Max's

career for a couple of

years because Jamie picked

him as a dark horse two

years ago at the Orlando semifinal.

And he almost made it.

And he's so close, so close.

So he said that he needed

somebody to kind of take

over some of the thought

process and let him just train.

And I thought, well, you didn't pick any,

you couldn't have picked anybody better.

Thank you.

So what exactly do you do for Max?

So I would say right now

we're kind of in the learning process.

So when he first called me up,

I was super honored.

And honestly,

I didn't expect it because

I'm in the master space.

So he's an individual.

But I interacted with Max at

Southland camp.

So kind of everything goes

back to Southland, which is great.

um and you know I think that

he was a really great guy

great athlete and we kind

of stayed in touch a little

bit and when he called me

up I was like totally I

can't like it's really hard

for me to not to like want

to jump in and help people

that are amazing humans so

I was totally in from the

beginning I was like then

we'll just figure out how

to make it work but yes

And so it was,

I think like maybe three

weeks before semifinals.

So at that point, you know,

we weren't really changing anything,

right?

The fitness was done.

The fitness was in the bar.

There's not much you can do at that point.

And what I just started

working with him on was like, Hey,

the workouts are released.

You're going to test them, send them,

send me videos,

and then we'll break them

down and talk about it.

So that was something that

I'm comfortable with

because it's the same process for Rudy.

So we just kind of hit it

off that way and shared strategies.

It's a very collaborative process.

I mean,

I respect the way he thinks and how

he approaches things.

And I am more than anything

just trying to bring a

different perspective.

to challenge his thinking a

little bit and just, you know,

maybe pick up on certain

biases or things that he

might not be noticing.

So that was kind of the

initial work together.

Then he's like, hey,

do you think you can come to Semis?

And I'm like, yes, we'll make it work.

So it was Leah's last day of

middle school.

So it was a little tricky

leaving town a little late,

but made it there before his first event.

And seriously,

I am so proud of how he

performed at semifinals.

He did so great.

And what I brought to the table,

like I said, fitness was already done.

He knows what he's doing.

It was more about trying to

take things off of his

plate so he could focus on

just performing and executing his best.

You know, I did all his timing for, okay,

this is when you need to eat.

This is when you need to start warming up.

This is when you need to go

to the bathroom before they call you.

Basically,

forcing him to eat more than he

wanted to.

And scheduling his, like...

recovery appointments and

just more like the

logistics of it and also

that kind of support in the

warm-up area of like hey

you're looking down when

you're about to snatch or

some things that you know

from a coaching perspective

are details that the

athlete has so many things

going on that it just helps

to have that person there

to you know be there to support you yeah

I can't help but notice that

Rudy is nodding his head as

you're going through the

list of things you do.

Because I'm assuming he's

been through this a number of times.

Rudy,

it's just been you and Lynette for a

long time.

And now she has other athletes.

How does that make you feel?

I love it because it's

giving her the opportunity to grow.

She started as an understudy

under Scott Panczyk,

one of the greatest coach

programmers of all time.

And so now it's like, all right,

you've been taught all these things.

Spread your wings and help others.

And like she said,

she's only going to do this

for people that are

fantastic and that she knows well,

at least right now.

Anyways,

we'll see how wide those wings can

spread.

But I love it.

She actually had me test a

couple paces for the semifinals for Max.

So that was kind of fun.

But yeah, I love it.

I want to see her grow.

So athletes make the worst spectators.

I agree.

So she's not on the floor,

but like her success depends on Max.

When you're watching that,

how nervous did you get?

Very nervous.

I felt like I was on Max's team,

and I actually was texting

Lynette all the times from

the previous heats and

trying to make myself useful.

I was like, hey,

I need to try to help

something from just a

support perspective.

It was, yeah, I was very involved,

absolutely.

And you've been blessed to

have an athlete that has

won the games every time he's tried,

right?

Yes.

Now you have an athlete

that's trying to get over

to be crazy when you're

there mm-hmm I would say

yes and I and maybe is

because we our relationship

is so recent you know that

when we broke down the

workouts he outperformed

the things that he was

going to crush and then he

executed about the the

performance that we

expected on the events that

were not his strengths so

regardless of the outcome

like the execution

was really well done and so

you know while the ultimate

goal is to make it to the

crossfit games I think

right now the goal was to

say okay let's kind of

identify what are those

areas that we need to focus

on and then just hammer

them and not from the

traditional approach of

doing necessarily more it's

like let's solve it to root

cause so he's actually visiting um

early july so in a couple

weeks he's gonna stay with

us our our kids love him

because he is a taylor

swift fan so just by that

and at southland they yeah

they spend so much time

doing the ramp the

handstand walk ramp yeah

every every time we looked

in this corner there's max

and mason and there's max

and mason like battling so

they're looking forward to

hanging out with man they

already know him well it's

wild so we are going to you

know like as you know i

like I am very resourceful

and so when I don't know

something I am not really

um embarrassed or ashamed

to say I don't know the

answer to that so my goal

for his visit here is to

link him up with people

that we trust that help us

identify all right this is

what he needs to focus on

and then we're going to

execute on those things so

it's going to be a fun visit

So this is going to be an

interesting question

because I've been around

you for a couple years

documenting the journey.

For Rudy, you only need a look, right?

Now you have new clients

that I'm not sure that's

the technique that's going to work.

So how much better of a

coach are you becoming because it's

other ways of communication.

Yes, that is a very great point.

And maybe I just got lucky,

but Max's and Rudy's

personality are very

similar in a way on the

competition floor in how

they approach things.

They're both very calm.

They don't really get flustered.

They manage stress really well.

So from that perspective,

our communication was

fairly kind of smooth from the get-go.

I did get a little excited

the first day because I'm

used to the master's

timeline for warming up.

And you know,

Rudy needs a solid hour

before he's even like touching anything.

And Max is like rolling in

with like 40 minutes to go and I'm like,

you're making me really nervous.

And then I'm like, okay,

he's half Rudy's age.

Younger muscles, younger muscles.

But yeah.

Yeah.

So anyways,

there was a little bit of a

learning curve, um, for that.

And then the,

what I loved about being

there is that I got to see him

You know through the highs

and the lows and got to

learn about how he handles

all of that Which is not easy,

especially by yourself Like

I don't know how anybody

does this without a coach

by them whether that coach

is your spouse or some

close friend that you trust

but there has to be

something kind of Somebody

there for you to kind of

celebrate with you and also

kind of pick you up when

when things don't go your

way so the fact that he's

done this by himself is

it's kind of you know

impressive on its own but

it was great after every

event we took a walk kind

of like a cool down walk

and we debriefed and

celebrated things that went

well and kind of took notes

of things that we need to

work on and then we moved

on so it was kind of like I

said I got lucky because

he's not a really emotional

person kind of gives you the same look

whether things are good or not so good.

So, yeah, it's like him.

Except, you know,

I can kind of boss him

around a little more.

Max, I have to, you know,

be a little more professional.

So,

the only time I saw Max get emotional

when I talked to him was

when we talked about Taylor Swift.

Yes, he, like, right now, I saw that.

Yeah, so...

Leah, actually,

I had these like little

ideas to kind of occupy our

time when we were in

between events or killing time.

So Leah made Taylor Swift

trivia for him and his wife.

And they have some work to do.

I told Leah, I'm like,

make it hard because

they're like top five fans.

Not only did she do Taylor Swift trivia,

she did CrossFit trivia for

like the whole group that you were with.

Yeah.

You know, the...

let's call it the southland

crew like brandon and his

wife are all there so she

had a pretty good crossfit

trivia that she sent there

yeah it's cool it's always

a family so speaking of

family the southland group

has become a family of

yours oh yeah yeah um I had

brandon on last night and

he talked about how you've

become an integral part and

are part of the planning

and uh he relies on you so much

So here you are at this

iconic place in California

where the games used to be held.

And you have Scott Tetlow, Brandon Luckett,

Max Krieg, Bill Leahy,

all there hanging out.

When you're there competing,

is it still a family?

Or do they kind of go to

their separate corners?

for the weekend?

No, it truly felt like a family.

I got so many hugs.

I loved hanging out with Scott.

He's such a great guy.

I missed the briefing

because I was flying in

late and they changed the

run for the event one,

kind of last minute,

and Scott is the one who

took me to the new course to see it.

Yes, they're competitors on the field,

but everybody wants to do their best.

And like Brandon said yesterday,

they just push each other.

They set the standard,

and they have their

strengths and their weaknesses,

and they just use that to

really make each other better.

a better athlete yeah so

yeah it was it was really

great to be with the crew

um roy uh was uh brandon's

coach so roy and I oh my

gosh we were like like this

is stressful because it's a

big deal like the countdown

of what before they

announced who made it like

I think roy and I were like

like this we're like

sweating we're like you

know he was texting us all

I have to say is so I was

keeping score from

remotely in ohio and I had a

spreadsheet with all the

scores so I technically

knew before they announced

I was like all right

brandon's good but it's not

until you hear it that's

what you're like anyways

yeah so no it was really

great it was a great

experience that's cool well

the part about that weight

and every athlete I've

talked to that weight is

just miserable but there

are there could be a

penalty there could be an

appeal there could be

And so what you think

happened on the floor may

not have happened and you're waiting

And I swear your brain just like,

like you look at the

leaderboard and then you,

you have so many thoughts

going through your mind that you like,

I don't want to rely on my

math and I will not be the

one to tell Brandon he made it.

And then something is not

right or the opposite, you know?

So it's just like, everybody kind of knows,

but nobody is certain until

that is announced.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

It's.

And I think like the masters

don't get that feel because

You do it at home and you

wait for the leaderboard to be released,

right?

And then you wait two more

weeks through video review,

which who knows what's

going to happen there.

I have told my listeners repeatedly,

the best time to go watch

CrossFit Live is at the semifinals.

Way more tension, way more stress,

and everybody's accessible.

Everybody's hanging out.

At the games,

they have everybody on lockdown.

Yeah, they do.

You know, where they're like,

everybody's just hanging out,

having a good time until Sunday.

And then it becomes really

tense and you're watching it all,

especially this year with that last event,

fall apart on that last event.

Especially this year too,

with being kind of like day

three had just as many

points up for grabs than

the previous two days.

So, you know, it was like,

like there was nothing set

in stone until maybe for

some people at the top,

but like there's a lot of

movement that could happen on day three.

So yeah, it was, it was fun.

So my last question is about

this is do you have other

athletes or do I have to go

interview a bunch of people

until I find out?

Nope.

That is the only elite athlete.

I have other athletes that

are not as competitive, um,

but are more like local competitive, um,

working athletes, so yeah.

Okay,

so do you have plans for Max in the

off season to do maybe some

of the bigger events?

Yeah,

so we actually just met on Monday to

talk about some of those dates.

He is kind of looking at the

calendar and prioritizing

some events he may want to do.

One that we're looking at is

the Desert City Classic.

I'm biased towards that

because I know that what's

got behind the programming

is going to be amazing.

Like it's going to be a

really good test of fitness.

And if there was like an

open or a master's division,

Rudy would be doing it too.

But yeah,

I am encouraging Max to do that one.

And it's at the same

location as Legends was last year.

Oh, okay.

I didn't realize that.

I knew it was in the same city,

but I didn't know the venue was the same.

Yeah,

actually Desert City tested it first.

Okay.

Then Legends went their second.

And I think they both signed

a two-year contract.

I do remember that.

And I think it would be

really cool to see if he

wants to do Rogue.

So yeah, some maybe big things.

A little Scotland trip.

Hey, I tell him, like,

I got to go to that.

You need your coach there.

Of course he does.

Rogue pays for the athlete

to go if you make it.

It would be really cool.

So now we're back to Rudy.

You've won it two times in a row,

but you're getting old in this division.

I know.

I know.

And there's a lot of guys,

young guys coming up from the 35 to 39,

which is a really competitive age group.

Does that give you pause, stress?

It gives me more fire, honestly.

I can't settle for where I

was at last year or the year before.

I know.

I have to keep pushing my

fitness and keep progressing, which, yeah,

when the years start to tick on,

it gets more challenging,

but I'm not concerned.

We just add 15 minutes to the warm-up.

We just warm up a lot longer.

No joke.

A lot more warm up.

And it just, it makes it to where,

you know, we're very detail oriented,

but we focus on more and more details.

And there's just more things

that you can uncover, you know,

from recovery and nutrition

and just balancing the

stress load of work and

family and exercise.

So I know how data driven you guys are.

It's hard when you keep

winning to figure out where

you need to be.

And the target is moving now, right?

It is.

You're getting older.

Younger kids are coming up

into your division.

Do you dip down into 35 to

39 to see kind of what's

happening so that you have a target?

Or do you just worry about

yourself and getting better?

I think personally, I, you know,

what we do is, you know,

after a competition,

whether in live or online,

we debrief and we pick

those things that weren't as successful.

And, you know, maybe two years ago,

I was fine with, you know,

how many double-unders I could string.

But like this year, I said, hey,

I felt more fatigued on

those than I feel I should have.

I wasn't the most competitive.

We need to dig into those.

And so it's really,

it's almost like what

Glassman and Castro say, where it's like,

all right, if you get good at something,

start back over on the fundamentals.

And if you want to get better,

it's like you have to start,

deconstruct it,

and start from the

beginning again to then progress.

So that's really what we're doing.

And that also keeps it more

fun and interesting, too.

And I will say, on the data point,

I think like something that

I've done and it's because

until the leaderboard is final,

I can't relax because it's just, you know,

it's a waiting process.

I do like compare his scores

to the 35 to 39.

So kind of get an idea of

would he have moved on if

he was in that age group?

So I can't say that I do

that a lot or do it consistently,

but every once in a while

there might be an event that I'm like,

Hi,

I wonder how he would have ranked in

this younger age group.

So, but yeah,

it's not something that we do

all the time.

So my last question about

data is for the last couple of years,

it's either my boss or Dave

that have done the

programming for your CrossFit Games.

This year it is Bob and Joe.

Correct.

Do you go back and look at

the legends workouts?

I know our stats and info person, Holly,

which you guys have become-

Holly is amazing.

Yeah.

So she actually posted like

all the legends modalities,

all the legends timeframes, all that.

Do you look at that data

more than what you've seen at the games?

So to be honest,

I haven't dug into that yet,

but I probably will a

little bit more as we get closer.

Yeah,

we probably need a long time to talk

about this,

because I have a lot of

opinions on this topic.

But what I'm trusting is

that there's collaboration

to make the tests really balanced.

right now like I said hasn't

been a huge focus but

definitely as the season

gets a little bit more

critical towards games

preparation we'll look at

past events and just maybe

pick up some trends or you

know potential movements

that we haven't tested but

at the end of the day we

want to be balanced you

know the tests are going to

be what they're going to be and

We can't predict that.

So trying to stay as

balanced as possible is

going to be the goal.

So my last question on

programming is the games

seem to be going back to

cross-finish type workouts.

Yeah.

Back to like 2014, 2015 era style.

Is that better for you guys

or do you like the newer

let's throw in some new

stuff here and there?

I mean.

What do you think?

I don't think I care that much.

I roll with it.

Let's go classic.

Let's go new.

The only thing I will say is

I'm not a huge fan of

overly creative things just

to make it weird.

I think just keep it to what

really needs to be tested.

Make it challenging,

but nothing so weird that it's just...

Almost unsafe.

You know, that's where I draw the line.

Like, let's test the fitness,

keep it safe.

Yeah.

It has to come down to a test of fitness,

not who can figure this out, which,

you know, we've experienced that.

So there is some form of

athleticism about figuring it out.

Sure.

Do you think you're strong in athleticism?

Um, yeah.

I think under pressure,

I will say three years ago,

probably not as much.

Three years ago,

let's say he had in his

head that he was going to

do a set of 10 of something.

And he got up there and did

two and came down.

That was more like, oh,

that didn't go to plan.

Less ability to pivot and kind of adapt.

Obviously, as we got serious...

Adapting is a critical part of the game.

So,

I would say he's been getting a lot of

practice doing that over the years.

So,

people I would say are strong in

athleticism are like Scott Pancheck,

like Dan Bailey, like Paige Semenza,

Carolyn Prevost.

These are people that played

other sports their whole lives.

They're going to slide under a pole.

They're going to... Yeah.

Right.

Do you have that in you?

I think I do.

Yeah.

Cutting?

I mean,

my hips may get a little sore at

this age.

As long as you have an hour to warm up.

As long as I warm up for an hour.

I would say if volleyball

shows up at the games,

we might be in trouble.

We may have to add some

volleyball drills just in case.

What else?

Softball maybe?

Softball, yeah.

Oh, football throws.

Please don't put those in the games.

That would not.

We may have to like FaceTime

Scott for like a urgent tutorial.

Yeah,

I don't think any throws are coming

back ever again after the softball throw.

You were a wrestler growing up, right?

I was.

Brandon and I talked about

that a lot last night.

The correlation of pain

threshold and being a

wrestler and there are a lot of

really good athletes out

there in the CrossFit space

who came with that wrestling background.

Absolutely.

How much do you attribute to that?

A lot.

I mean, so when I was growing up,

I had three older sisters,

so I didn't like have a rough household.

But when I joined wrestling,

I learned I had this other

gear or this just

grittiness of being able to continue

with a lot of discomfort, right?

If you're put in a position

and you're very uncomfortable,

you gotta fight through it

and just live with it.

And what I learned from that

in wrestling definitely

plays out in the CrossFit world.

Yeah, it does.

Yeah, I say it all the time.

One of my first ever

interviews was Chris Feeler,

who was a college wrestler.

And he said,

wrestling is all about being

in positions that are not comfortable.

Right.

And that's what CrossFit is.

It is.

It is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One of the...

you know, quotes that we bring up often is,

I think it was Josh Bridges

basically said, you know,

things are going to get difficult,

things are going to get hot,

things are going to get hard.

It's basically like when

things catch on fire,

you have to be willing to

run into that fire, not avoid it.

So that's kind of what I

think internally when

things get really hard.

It's like, all right,

I either lean in or this

isn't going to pan out.

And that's... Well,

I've witnessed your career

over the last two years.

You lean in, and it is fun to watch.

Thank you.

I love when you finish a workout,

and you look, and you're like,

I don't even remember the

last 30 seconds.

That's true.

I wish I would have gotten

to watch him wrestle.

That was way before my time.

So I have seen pictures,

but no live wrestling videos or anything.

Maybe we can get Spieler out of retirement,

and him and Spieler can go out.

You know, it's funny.

At Southland, Brandon would, like,

kind of wrestle Rudy, and I'm like,

please don't hurt him.

Like, he needs to warm up first.

And then you came up and

kind of tried to grab him.

Yeah.

And he, like, it was a little scary.

Yeah.

So the last thing on wrestling,

I don't know if you saw it.

They did that live

quarterfinals with Colton, Jason.

And all those guys.

And Colton,

and Jason tried to wrestle Colton.

Yes.

Yes.

And Colton dropped him quick.

And seeing that little guy

take down that big,

tall football player was

really impressive.

That's awesome.

Those wrestlers are gritty.

We don't mess around.

Yeah.

That dude shows as much grit

as anybody out there.

It's all about that wrestling background.

Yeah.

Well, guys, as always,

it's always a treat hanging out with you.

I'm so glad you live so

close and that we can do

this all the time.

But I can't wait to see you at the games.

Yeah.

And hopefully we'll have

some backstage access to

get some of your thoughts

post-workout and in the

warm-up area and stuff.

That would be great.

Awesome.

Well, thanks, guys.