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 the wheel as the
wheel find a way.
It took a minute,
now it didn't have to ride away.
When they 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 is going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
where we're featuring the
athletes of the 2024
CrossFit Games semifinals.
And I have with me Spencer Pancheck.
What's going on, man?
Hey, how are you?
I'm good, man.
Like, it's funny.
I had Saxon on earlier this week.
I see you guys like all the
time back in the day, right?
And then it's been like a
minute since I've had
either of you on the show.
The last time I had you on,
you were yet to be married.
Yeah,
it's been I just got married last year.
So coming up on coming up on
our first year.
So it's good stuff.
So there it is, man.
You she let you wear a cowboy hat.
Oh, yeah, that was... I was like, come on,
please let me wear... Well,
it started with boots,
and then she's like, no.
And I was like,
just let me show you a picture.
And then I was like, all right,
if I wore jeans,
what do you think about that?
And then I was like, all right,
what about a hat?
She's like, all right.
Well,
you got a good one to let you do all
that.
Oh, she's a keeper.
So, you know, is she...
with you into all this fitness thing,
is she into all that with you?
Uh, yeah.
So she's probably the most
selfless person that I've ever met.
Um,
So we actually met in the gym,
but what's really amazing
is she's there for every
session that she can be.
So she works during the day,
but something we always do
is she has the weekends off.
So Saturday she comes in and
she does everything that I do.
And it's pretty darn cold
because I feel like she's able to just –
really be a part of it and
and understand of just have
a good understanding of
what a day is like not
saying that she doesn't but
I think being able to like
step in and and have the
feeling of pain through
workouts and it's like oh
man like that was so hard
like we're getting some
pizza tonight yeah what's
what's cool is like if
people don't know and don't
see the pancheck clan at an event
Like, everybody knows of you,
Scott and Saxon.
Your sister,
she competed at semis on a team.
Scott's wife is competing in
the age groups right now.
Like, it's a whole family thing.
And mom and dad are at the center of that.
And nobody cheers louder
than they do at an event.
No, not at all.
You'll find my mom anywhere.
Yeah.
Two years ago,
I got to sit with them in the stands at,
uh, Waterpalooza.
Um, and it was just a, it was a treat.
It was funny cause they were
like right to the right of me.
And then, um,
Matt Frazier's parents were
right to the left of me.
That's amazing.
So like parent royalty right
there at Waterpalooza.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
It's always cool being able
to see like the, um,
the other side of it.
And I think, um,
Watching is way worse than
actually competing,
especially just growing up
with Saxon Scott.
I felt like I was always a
little bit delayed with
really finding myself in the CrossFit,
the competitive side of it,
and being there and
supporting them through the early years,
especially Scott through CrossFit.
I think Saxon qualified in like 2015,
but there was like a
stretch where it was just
Scott competing.
It was like 2012, 2013, 2014,
and then 2015.
And it was like insane just watching.
And the stress,
like everyone would be like, oh,
it's a vacation.
I'm like,
it does not feel like a vacation
going to the games.
Yeah.
So what's funny is I ran
into your dad in Orlando
last year after semis.
Can you guess what he said to me?
That means a wild card.
I had no idea.
He said,
why does that kid always have to
make it so close?
Just keeping it exciting.
My wife said the same thing.
And what's funny is once you
get past semis,
like you do really well at the games,
your two appearances are both top 20.
You've made it through all the cuts.
You make it to Sunday.
Are you a better games
athlete than you are a semifinal athlete?
I think they're different stages.
At the CrossFit Games, you have two,
sometimes maybe three times
as many events as you do at semifinals.
So you're able to really –
it's just a – I don't want
to say it's a more complete test, but –
you were able to have highs and lows.
And if I've learned anything at the games,
it's you have to let a bad
event just roll off your
shoulder and you have to keep moving on.
I've had like a few
unfortunate things that
happened at semis.
And I think training with Saxon and Scott,
I've always set my expectations very,
very high.
And anytime I get in and start competing,
it's,
it's like I'm going for it.
And rather than it's, it's,
I need to run my own race.
And I think that's something
that really this last year I've,
I've really,
I really dove into trying to
find that and just be as
relaxed as I possibly can.
And I truly believe by me
going out on the floor with
a game plan and just
sticking to that game plan,
it's going to allow me to
have the most successful season yet.
Yeah.
Well, and you and Saxon look alike,
but you are not alike in
the way you think about working out,
right?
When I got to sit beside you
when I was judging Saxon for Rogue, like,
your idea is all gas,
let's see how long we can hold on.
And Saxon's very methodical
and pacing and that kind of thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Have you, have you curbed the, the all gas,
no break approach to working out now?
That's old school CrossFit.
That's definitely how it used to be.
It's who could go out the
fastest and hold on.
And I look at our sport and
it's evolved significantly.
I mean,
I've been doing CrossFit since 2008.
So it's been quite some time.
And I feel like I had a
chance to really go through
different stages.
I've had a chance to work
with different coaches.
And again,
I've learned something from
every single person that I worked with.
And I think that
There's so many different
ways to obviously train for CrossFit,
but everybody's completely different.
I look at Saxon, Scott, and myself.
We're all different athletes,
and we each have different
needs for what's going to
make each one of us
independently successful.
Corey Leonard says,
that clock looks like Spencer has a halo.
It's a big clock.
My wife picked it out.
You just need to show that
picture to your wife to
show her that you do have a halo.
Yeah.
There you go.
So you're drastically different.
I saw you at the games last
year as you were packing up to go,
loading up the pickup truck,
just kind of sitting on the
back tailgate.
When it's all over and
you're sitting there doing that,
what's the thought process?
Are you reliving the weekend?
Are you like,
I just need to get home and rest?
Yeah,
you're always going to relive the
weekend.
It's going to be if I did
that or I would have changed this.
I mean,
every athlete's going to go through that.
You really,
you look at how much work goes
into competing at the
CrossFit Games and it's
summed up in five days and
all those hours.
And not many people really
understand the amount of
time that we put in and the sacrifices.
It's the hours we're spending in the gym.
not really steering from my
diet not having as much
time with friends traveling
all that all that stuff and
you look at it and all
those sacrifices come down
to five days and um but you
you obviously want to go
and put on the the best
performance that you
possibly can at the
crossfit games but again
it's so unpredictable and
Once it's over,
it's just all those
thoughts just roll into your head.
It's like, did I do everything?
Did I do everything in my
power to show up?
And sometimes you do, sometimes you don't.
And I mean,
I would say a majority of the
time and a majority of the
athletes would say, man,
like there's something that
they would have changed.
And again,
that's what's so beautiful about
our sport though is
you refine and you go back
and you change it for next year.
And then maybe something else comes up.
And again, that's, that's just,
that is what's going to
make you become a better athlete.
And again, it just takes time.
So like in that moment, are you,
are you beating yourself up
for what could have been,
or are you praising
yourself for making it this
far and enjoying the weekend?
That's something that's so
that's a really good question.
And again,
I look at my older brother, Scott.
Obviously,
he went through the sport and
he's felt all these different emotions.
And he'll say, like,
you have to go and really
be proud of your performance.
But at the time and coming
off the floor and really
thinking about it, when you're there,
it's so hard to put
yourself in that position
and really think about the good.
And that's something that, again,
I think –
I'm changing my perspective
on that a lot more and
really being able to enjoy
that and take moments
through the weekend.
Because again,
I remember watching Scott
compete and it was like that.
And that's the last thing I
want to happen in my career
is to just become so
consumed with it that it's
just gone in the blink of an eye.
And again, I think it's,
When I think about Scott
asked me this yesterday,
it was actually a really good question.
And it was, when you think about the,
like the glory days of, of doing CrossFit,
what is that?
And I think of Saxon,
Scott and I training in the gym,
like it wasn't really any competition,
but it was the hours that we,
that we went into the gym.
We,
took GHDs and we took a
punching bag to the beach
and did like sandbags with
the punching bag and the
punching bag busted open
and stuff flying all over the place.
And I look back and I'm like, man,
like those are like,
those are the days that I
remember and the days that
not everybody gets the
chance to see and experience.
And to me, like those,
those are the days that I
really remember is just
grinding in the gym with those two guys.
Speaking of Scott,
last year at Waterpalooza,
something unique happened
where your third teammate
got hurt and the two of you
got to take the floor,
just the two of you,
to compete in a
three-person team as two people.
And you beat most of the field.
Yeah, that was really cool.
We were begging to go out on the floor and
I was supposed to be with
Nick Matthew and then Luke
Parker were my teammates.
And then I'm trying to think
there was somebody else.
I can't even remember
because we filtered through
so many teammates that weekend.
Somebody kept getting hurt.
But we got through one event
and that was something I
really wanted to be able to
do was go out and
experience individual and
the team in the same weekend.
I was like, man,
that'd be a cool thing to
just add on my bucket list.
And that didn't happen.
But I remember we were just
begging to go out on the
floor and all we wanted was
one workout together to
really be able to go out there.
And it was a pretty good workout for us.
And it was it was really, really fun.
Well,
what was cool about it is it had like
three levels of barbell.
And the two of you took the two heavy ones,
so neither of you got the
rest of the light barbell
like other teams could rotate through,
and yet you still did that.
Will that be a memory with
your brother that is one of
those things that you can
think about later in life and go, man,
it was really cool when
they let us take the floor and do that?
Yeah, absolutely.
I remember, I mean, we were on the,
there was like double unders,
there was like 300 double
unders and we're just like
smiling at each other.
And we get off and Scott's like, all right,
you're on the heavy bar.
he's retired he hasn't been
training as as much and
he's just like pushing me
forward um and anytime we
drop like he would just
like he was behind he was
just like pick up the bar
um and then obviously saxon
came over and was cheering
us on and I was laughing
because saxon's like I was
gonna hop on that third bar
because they ended up they
were one of the the few
teams that beat us but I'm
like man that would have
been really cool if you
jumped on the the 135 pound bar
but yeah that was I mean
that's that's one of my
highlight moments for sure
yeah it's just it's because
of the situation and it
just being the two of you
it's something nobody else
is probably going to
experience as brothers like
on the floor like that so
it was just really cool
yeah anytime I get a chance
to compete with those guys
and wadapalooza has always
done a really good job at it
It's just, it's so fun.
I remember it was two years
ago at Water Palooza,
but like we were all in
like the three lanes next
to each other and we all
did pretty well in the event.
But to like be able to be
under the lights and just
look and it's like, man,
there's not that many,
like there's a very small
percent of people that
compete at the highest
level in the sport and to
be able to do it with your two brothers,
like that was always like,
that's pretty darn cool to be able to do.
So I also saw on your Instagram that,
that you have made an
attempt at tactical games.
Yeah.
Is that something new that
you've dove into and really enjoy?
Yeah.
I had a chance to go out and
train with Hefner and,
once I went out with him, I was like, Oh,
man, this is like, really, really fun.
But I have a fitness and I
was always passionate about
police and first responders.
And anytime I get a chance
to really surround myself with those guys,
I want to be able to do that.
And going out and training with them.
I was like, this is this is fun.
This is I have half of it.
I went in and I did a little
bit of the police academy.
So I had a little bit exposure to
shooting and, and, uh, that kind of,
that kind of stuff.
And I think, uh,
I think being able to blend
the two together, it's, it's even, it's,
I'm trying to think of the
best way to describe it.
It's humbling.
It's very humbling.
Um, cause you have,
you have people that can shoot,
you have people that have
fitness and you have people
that obviously do both of them.
And, um,
Again, it's just like CrossFit.
The person that's the most
well-rounded is going to be
the most successful in that sport.
Well, I've had Margo on,
and I've had E. Shershon,
both former CrossFitters
who have dove into tactical.
E., she's dominating the tactical games.
She was a prison guard who
was a CrossFitter.
The blend of the two just
fit her perfectly.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I hope we start to see more
CrossFitters kind of switch over to that.
And again,
I think that's kind of a – I
think that's a cool
transition through – I
don't want to say out of CrossFit, but –
it gives you more events to
be able to train for.
And again, as you get older in the space,
like you want to like,
like everybody's competitive.
Everybody wants,
like some people go run marathons.
Some people do five Ks.
Some people do Spartan races.
And I look at this,
this sport is something similar to that.
And it's all right.
This is like,
it's cool because it's
bringing awareness to
fitness and heart rate.
And you have to really be
able to manage all of those
things together.
Yeah, and there's a lot of CrossFit.
You mentioned Jacob, Jared Stevens.
There's a lot of
CrossFitters switching over
to this and really having a good time.
Yeah,
I think Cody Anderson is another one
in there.
He was at the Games.
Okay.
So, yeah,
I'm doing two later after the
Games this year.
I set them later at the end
of the season so I can
really dive and have a
couple months to really
train hard for it.
But I'm excited about it for sure.
Yeah.
I'd love to have you back on
to talk about it.
It's something that just
really fascinates me in that space.
Cause it's,
it's the same type of community
with just like some different goals.
Yeah, absolutely.
And everybody's, I mean, from what Jacob,
what's Jacob has told me in,
in a few of the
interactions that I've had
with a lot of those people is it's,
it's such a tight knit
community and everybody's
willing to help and, and,
if you're going to compete,
there's people it's like, Hey, like,
what do you need?
What can you, what can I lend you that,
that you can use to just
get your feet in it.
And again, it's, it's,
it's a sport that I look at it.
And again, I,
I have a very high level of
fitness and I'm okay at shooting.
But to be able to have a lot
of the people that are like
really good at shooting that it's, hey,
like I recommend this.
If you need to borrow this,
I can send it to you.
I can help you get your guns dialed in.
And there's so many people
that are just willing to
help you get set up in that space.
Corey Leonard says only
sickos run marathons.
I know I've run two, finished one.
So let's get to semifinals a little bit.
You're going back again.
This has been, what,
like your sixth or seventh semifinal now?
Yeah, something like that.
Counting regionals and all of that.
We're in Knoxville.
The workouts have been released.
I talked to Saxon,
like you guys are classic CrossFitters,
right?
You grew up with the sport.
If you take these workouts
and drop them in to 2015,
they still work.
Yeah, absolutely.
Is that an advantage for
someone like a paycheck?
I would say so.
I think, I mean, a lot of it is just,
it's so hard because we have them in,
We got them like four or five weeks early.
So everybody's going to get
a chance to be able to get
comfortable with them.
And us being the last semi-final, I mean,
people run through them.
I mean,
some people run through them
probably four or five times.
I wouldn't be surprised.
So I think each week you're
going to be able to see
people and scores really progress.
I think – I mean,
obviously CrossFit left out, like,
some of the different standards of, like,
how are you going to hold the dumbbells.
They just released that
we're going to be running outside.
But, yeah,
I look at it as it's – we always
talk about it as, like, your CrossFit IQ.
And it's how comfortable are
you with these workouts?
Do you know your paces?
Yeah.
And every workout is just a
fine blend of everything.
I can't find one workout in
there that's like,
this is for just an
endurance person or this is
for just a strong person.
The strength, for instance,
it's like you have to be
able to have the capacity
to be able to move a barbell for 30 reps.
Just like in quarterfinals
where most people got to
the last bar and they were
top level athletes were
between 20 and 30 reps some
people just a little bit
above that but it wasn't
necessarily like your top
tier strong athletes that
went and won that workout
like you had to be able to
have the capacity to get
through all of those light
bars relatively fast and
still be able to move that
heavy bar same thing with
the endurance event it's
185 like a 185 clean and
jerk like I mean you're not
gonna you're not gonna really
Your light guys aren't going
to be able to cycle that
barbell as fast as a strong person,
but they're going to be
able to make up time on that run.
So you're going to see a lot
of back and forth on that.
And I really think that's
how all the events are.
Yeah, I completely agree.
Boz did reveal that the
dumbbells are farmer's carry.
Oh, did he?
I didn't even see that.
Yeah, it was on Barbell Spin a week ago.
Got it.
Wow, man, I'm out of it.
I didn't even see that.
I remember picking those up.
I was like, dang, man, this is crazy.
And then every time I played with it,
I was like, oh, all right.
This feels a lot more comfortable.
And again, I think something like that,
you look at it as these events,
if you look at them as games events,
and it's like, all right,
this is your next event.
Hour ago, warm up.
And it's all right.
how well am I going to be
able to adapt and be able
to really come up with a
solid game plan without
being able to run through those workouts?
And kind of like what we
talked about earlier, how,
how the semifinals quarterfinals,
the open are completely
different than the games.
Exactly.
So you can stop trading the
overhead walking Lodge with that.
I actually did.
And I was,
I figured they'd be on the side
and then I was like, ah,
I looked at it.
I'm like, that's pretty heavy.
I mean, that's a pretty heavy weight.
70 is pretty heavy for the girls.
Um, I mean, I saw some girls doing it,
which is insane, but I mean,
even for the guys, it's pretty heavy.
And I just, yeah,
I figured they'd probably be on the side,
but you never know.
I figured they'd maybe say, get them,
get them down any way you can.
The only thing they haven't
really talked about is what
the handstand walk is going to be.
Yeah.
So what we'll find out what
it less than a day.
Yeah.
I think for, for that event, I mean,
whether you go fast or you do obstacles,
I still think, I mean, you'll,
I feel like you'll still get a,
a relatively similar result.
That's just my opinion with your,
with your top love.
Obviously if you have like
handstand ramps with like
parallettes in between or
something like that.
Um,
but I think if you're doing like
pirouettes and stuff like that,
So you were at West Coast Classic in 21,
right?
With the snatch ladder.
Yeah.
I blew up in that one.
Are you excited to take it
on a second time?
I'm very excited.
I think it's actually one of
my favorite tests that
CrossFit has put out.
I think with it being,
I think it's event five.
I think it's going to be a lot different.
I think...
think you'll you'll really
be able to see different
athletes shine in it yeah
the past two times they've
done it it's been event one
yeah and I still think I i
still think you'll have
people put up like top
scores that would would
have been a top score then
um but I don't think it'll
be as many yeah there's a
lot of squatting before
that this weekend yeah
Yeah, so they're squat snatches, right?
They have to be squat
snatches in that ladder.
Yeah.
So that's a lot, man.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
That'll be a fun event.
I think Sunday will be a
very exciting day to watch at the semis.
Oh, I agree.
I think really they've done
an awesome job programming this year.
Absolutely.
Way more balanced.
Yeah.
if, if you haven't seen it,
I think barbell spin did an
analysis of like,
they always do this thing.
Like what workout impacted
the weekend the most.
And like during quarterfinals, it was a,
it was an even split.
Nothing,
nothing would above anything else.
And looking at these workouts,
the prediction is it'll be the same.
I agree with that.
I think, um,
Yeah, like I said,
I look at all the events and I'm like,
man, I don't see one event that it's like,
all right,
this favors a certain body type
or a certain type of athlete.
So what is the realistic
goal for semifinals?
To cut it close again?
To make your family like...
It's never going to cut it close.
For me,
I think it's to be able to just
show up the best athlete that I can and
I know exactly what I'm capable of.
And if I can go out and just execute,
I'll be extremely happy with my outcome.
Yeah.
Corey says, wait,
you can't power the last two at 265?
That's BS.
I know somebody would if they could.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All I remember from that
West coast classic was Tola
trying to go touch a go over that last.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And missing it.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, I mean, he, he,
he put himself in a
position to be able to do
it would have been really cool.
I think that's what I love
about the sport is a lot of
times the athletes take
advantage of that shot to
do something really cool.
Yeah.
And that's what I think.
I think that's what's
awesome about the CrossFit
Games is you have so many
events that you're able to
do that a lot more.
I look back at my history
competing and I've tried to
take those shots at points
that I should not have and it backfired.
And I think it's really
being able to be smart and
understand there's a time
and place to be able to do that and
You could end your season.
You really could end your
season if you miss fire.
You told me when we were
hanging out at your gym for Rogue that...
always got to do it for the
people so now as you've
gotten older you're saying
you don't always do it for
the people you wait for
your moment to do it for
the people yeah you you
know your capabilities and
then you do it for the
people there we go because
young spencer it was just
you always do it for the
people yeah and that was I
mean my year at west coast
that was I mean I went in and I and
my goal was to go and put
try and put up a top score
in every event and I mean I
won one of I won an event
there but I also really
ruined my weekend and
another event there by
trying to do the same thing
and again there was one
event that I knew exactly
what I was capable of and
that was something that I
could really throttle down
and it paid um and there
was an event that I'm like
I'm gonna do it like this
is like I trained for this and
I was not completely aware
of my capabilities and it
was actually the run, but like,
I just wasn't smart about
how I approached it.
And again, that, I mean,
that ruined my weekend.
And I mean, I truly believe it.
It knocked me out from going
to the games that year.
Yeah.
You,
you had some ups and downs that weekend.
Like you set a world record
in the one event.
And it was an event that
Matt Fraser had done
previous and you beat his
time by like a minute.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think, again,
I think it's being able to
know your capabilities.
And that's something that
I've really explored
through training this last
year is being able to find
that line in training.
And that's the time.
That is the time to be able to do it,
not on the competition
floor and to be able to
become more aware of your
capabilities through
training so that you can go
out on the floor and have
moments like that.
that are good,
not bad moments where it's like, ah,
like I'm not sure,
but I'm going to push it
and not be smart.
And you end up taking a
bottom of the pack finish.
So I'm going to finish with this,
that West coast classic.
So old Spence,
you had a workout that you
knew was a home run.
You knew that you could give
it all you got.
Are you an athlete today
that if you were going back
to West Coast Classic with
the same workouts,
would you go as hard in that workout?
Or are you a different
athlete now where you kind
of pull back on that a
little bit and just win by a little?
No, I think a workout like that –
I'm very very comfortable
and and understand my
capabilities and those
specific movements that yes
I can push something like
that and I can ride that
red line and if I cross
that red line I'm able to
dial it back just a little
bit and still be able to
finish um so yeah like that
event I i wouldn't change
and I'd maybe even push it
a little bit more today um
But yeah, I think an event like that,
like I would,
I would really push and I
think other events I would
dial it back and I'd be like, all right,
like this is what I'm
capable of in this and do
not cross that threshold.
So that beast is still in
there wanting to get out.
Oh, it's there.
It's there.
You can't, you can't lose that.
Well, Spence, this has been a blast.
I want to thank you so much
for doing this.
Thank everybody in the chat
for being here.
Good luck in Knoxville.
I'm still trying to get down there.
So that's the one I probably can get to.
So hopefully we'll see you down there.
Heck yeah, I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, thank you everybody in the chat.
We'll see you next time on
the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
Bye, guys.