The Sevan Podcast - #94 - Pat Vellner

Episode Date: July 30, 2021

The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Brian's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/brianfriend... https://morningchalkup.com/author/bri... Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.

Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Disney's Young Woman in the Sea. Now streaming on Disney+. I've decided to swim the English Channel. A woman? I believe she'll die in that water.

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joachim Roening comes the must-see true story. Daisy Ridley. I go to England or die trying. Trudy, you don't have to do this. Don't let anyone take me out of the water, no matter what. Disney's Young Woman and the Sea. Now streaming on Disney+. All good.

Did you put Pat V just in case we weren't sure if it was Velner or Vanier? What was it when we were in Dubai? Verl? Verlner. Something like that. I feel like I've had Velmer with an M before. Just make it easy on people. I don't know.

But no haircut yet? No, I did get a haircut oh that hurts no i can't see your hair you can't see it yeah your head's cut off on my camera oh there it is there it is i feel like did you get the haircut there show you the back show you the back yeah that Yeah, that's nice. No, I got it just before I left. That's a Canadian stylist? Yeah. Local Vancouver Island. Do you have a regular person you go to? Yeah, just someone at their house up the road from me pretty much.

You should have got a haircut in the States so you would fit in with the local look. What did you just ask for the special yeah the madison special what is the local look i'm not sure what the local flavor is you would look like a block of cheese oh nice i already kind of do i think um do you want to start with like some like formalities or just dig in i don't care it's your show oh good you're so easy we'll start with a quick formality even though i don't like formalities but this is sincere thanks for doing this i know this is i know this is weird to ask crossfit games athletes in the middle of the competition um to sit down and do an interview but it's all we got you know it's

all we got it's all good it's pretty easy we got a day off today so i got nothing else to do i did a little bit of exercise this morning and did some stretching so now i'm pretty much doing nothing for the rest of the day are you a fan not that this is nothing not that this is nothing this is nothing this is nothing are you a fan of the off day during the games? Oh, Brian, best day of the CrossFit games. Seriously.

You do like the off day? Uh, yeah, I think it's nice. I think it's nice too. Cause like say last night I kind of stayed up a little later and like had dinner with my folks and got to hang out with Michelle and the baby and stuff a little longer.

And it's, it's like, you don't feel as guilty or stressed about that so it is tough when you know people come out to see you compete and you kind of have to lock yourself away and especially yesterday being an off-site day for the start and like we had five call times and if you count the opening ceremonies and then tomorrow tomorrow will be the same we have five events on the schedule tomorrow. So it's like it's busy. You don't see people all day. So having that off day does give you a chance

to kind of see people and just, you know, actually kind of enjoy it for a little bit and have a night of less stress. It's nice to be focused, but I think it's hard to just stay on for five days straight. So it sort of gives you a period of grace where you can do that. And like I said, not be not feel like you're not doing everything you can by by relaxing a little bit.

Is that your nanny in the background? It's just the housekeeper for the hotel. I got the timing was perfect. Are you are you staying alone or are you staying with your wife and kids? Uh, I have a separate room and then they have, we have another room that my parents and Michelle and the baby are in. That's like next door basically.

And do you pay for your own room or does CrossFit pay for your rooms? I pay for the rooms. Okay. Noted. Um, one day, maybe one day I was, do they pay for any of the athletes rooms no i was um trying to figure out if you tend to count semi-final prize money i guess

no you don't count that there you go i'm trying to figure out um who's cooler you or nick of time nick of time it Nick of time. It's a guy who just gave us five bucks for interviewing you. I swear to God, I just saw it pop up on YouTube. Oh really? Five bucks. Yeah. That's awesome.

He gave you five bucks for interviewing me. Yeah. I like it better when I say it. I don't like it when you say it. He sounds like he's cooler than me then. Um, why? It sounds like I should be thanking him. What? We'll split it with you

we'll send you two nice nice i can use it for the laundry money why um why do this podcast like i was trying to ask myself that question this morning and um like why brian why why brian and i are doing this i guess i get off on just like staying relevant. It's all I've known for the last 15 years. Um, I've kind of taken a break from the game from the last three years. I do like, um, I do like podcasting. I definitely like talking to people and picking people's brains and kind of going deep with people, but why, why, why would you do this? Why, why would you jump on with us you you have your own mindset you're you're supposed to be you know in your in your in your game in your game game time well first of all i like that you have a pretty honest self-assessment i think that's awesome

uh i think i don't know that that the real nanny right behind you? Yeah, that's Michelle. And the baby. Hey, girl. Oh, nice hair. He says nice hair. She can't hear you. I think, I don't know.

For me, doing stuff like this is kind of fun. It's part of the fun part of being at the games like i said it's hard to be just like in a killer mindset all week long like for five days straight i think that if you walk around with your shoulders up all week long it just it actually is exhausting um so finding the times where you can relax and just sort of like let your guard down for a little bit i think is beneficial for me as an athlete i think in general most people will probably tell you they compete better when they're relaxed um sometimes those really stressful situations can just get to you or being stressed non-stop for five days is gonna beat you up like you probably won't sleep great you might not you

know deal with other things well so i think it's nice to be able to do this kind of stuff and it's just kind of the fun part like being here i'm not gonna lie to you like doing some of those workouts isn't the most fun all the time it's fun when you finish but you know sometimes it's nice to find the other stuff that's actually really enjoyable uh so those these are the things and i think it's part of our responsibility almost as athletes who have kind of become public figures in the space, especially right now where there's still a lot of people wandering around the venues. And I'm a little less likely right now to stop and take a bunch of photos with people just because of concerns with COVID and whatever. I got to get home still. And I need to have a negative test, you know, Saturday in order to get home. So it's another way that you can kind of give your time to the community

without maybe getting swamped by people. Did you go to vendor village today? No, I haven't been to vendor village ever in Madison since we've ever started here. Oh, I was over there a little earlier i did see one of your competitors wandering around the vendor village i thought it was kind of kind of surprising actually especially given what you just said about you know just the

precautions and stuff you don't want to who who was it yorgos karavis okay george okay it's it's i don't know it's kind of weird. I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but I think in my first year at the Games, I went to the Vendor Village in Carson, and it was fine because I was a ghost. Nobody knew who I was or cared, and I could walk right by people. But that's just simply not the case anymore.

So it's challenging enough. Some days in the warm up area when all the age groups and teams and people are there, you know, you're trying to go do something and people will stop you and ask questions or whatever. And everyone's super well intentioned. And it's nice. And I'm happy to give my time when I have it. But it's hard, I think, in the vendor village, it could take you an hour to move, you know, a hundred meters if you aren't careful. So that's just kind of the risk. And I think that we just try to avoid it because if I need something from there, I can probably send somebody to go grab it. Like either, you know, my coach or somebody is happy to go run and do that because they can typically run in and out a lot faster than I would. And it's hard. You don't want to, you don't

want to look like a dick by like running through and being like, Oh, sorry, I don't have time and turning everyone down when they ask for a photo or an autograph. Like, again, I generally like to give my time when I can, but sometimes it's just not the time. So I think avoiding those situations when you can is, is prudent. I don't want to shit on your simile, but I think you meant to say in your first year you were the invisible man

because you still look like a ghost. Right. You're from Canada. There you go. Are there actually times during the competition where there is something that you need from Vendor Village? What would an example of that be? Well, so yesterday we went to the ocean or the lake in the morning.

And before we left, I had, I had turf shoes for event too, but they weren't the shoes that would be eligible for the Reebok bonus. So I sent Michelle, my coach, after the swim was done, I just said like, Hey, can you go to the wit tent, pick up a pair of the like Reebok adventure nano 11s or whatever they were that have a little bit of a deeper tread, but they are still the nanos. Um, cause I want to wear them in event two,

cause I think I can win it. And so I did, she, she did. And then I did, and now I got a bonus, but I, I couldn't,

our turnaround was, was tight all day yesterday. So it would have been hard for me to run and do that. Um, so, you know, there's like, there's not a lot of situations like that, but occasionally something might pop up and it's nice

to not have to go do that myself i guess that's awesome that you did that what a fucking great story um had you worn those shoes before and if you would have put them on and they would have felt uncomfortable would you still rock them for the 10k um i hadn't worn them before uh so i basically just put them on right before we started that event they look good they look brand new i was like oh man those shoes look nice i wonder if you had them specialty turns out he did yeah they were yeah they were fast right out of the box i had to cut the tag off right before the event but uh they were i think were really uncomfortable i probably wouldn't have like i had my other shoes with me but sometimes those turf shoes are just a little bit uncomfortable and you have to deal with a little bit of discomfort uh for a short event and that's fine uh it wasn't going to be

a super long event if they were really stiff i would i might not have worn them just because coming up and down off the bars and off the rings and landing on your feet might have hurt my feet a bit but i don't know i was trying not to be a wuss and I'm glad I wasn't. Aren't you a Reebok athlete? Yeah. I would just pick picture like that. They would have had like you get your hotel room and they have like 20 pairs of shoes for you with a, well, they have some, get some, get some powder. We're not resigning you. Something like that.

It's interesting because we're in a, you know know we're in the noble games now right so i think i i maybe took for granted what it's like to have your your sponsor sponsor the event in previous years and you know how everything fits and everything's really readily available for you but reebok doesn't even have a tent at the games this year so they're kind of operating in the wings they've they've got a trailer in the campsite they've got some trucks rolling around giving out stuff, but if you need things we have reps around that are happy to kind of go for, for you and get things. But it's, it's not as quick a turnaround as it might've been in previous years.

So you gotta be a little more organized. And I just, I wasn't on the ball leading into day one and I should have been more. And I kind of just thought, just thought i'll just do it in my nanos and then i i feel like at night or i was thinking about it and i was like you know what i might want a little bit more tread than i have on my nanos so it was it was lucky i was able to go do that but they have supply around it's more limited than it's been in previous years so you gotta be on top of it if you want stuff and um but they're around they're just kind of they're working in the shadows yeah normally they had like a 20 000

i don't know i'm making that up but they had the biggest booth at the games 20 000 square feet 40 000 square feet i mean it was crazy it was a full-on massive store and i totally i totally get your point it's got to be quite the shift and uh i haven't personally worn the nobles have you worn any of the nobles yet uh we put them on a check-in we thought we had to wear them for the opening ceremonies but as it turns out we didn't so i haven't really worn any of them like i put them on my feet at check-in but that's it do you have wide feet uh a little bit not too bad i know some people are pretty wide i'm not not, I'm not terrible. Yeah.

That's why I like the nanos. Most of the nanos are wide. I can really, the nano twos have just completely spoiled me. Thank God I have 20 pair. Yeah. Wide in the toe, in the front.

Yeah. Wide in the toe. I like, if I put it, I've heard the nobles and the Metcons are narrow and I got like, I got really wide feet and my toes aren't all squished together. Like I, I didn't do the Japanese binding. So like most of the Americans do.

Isn't that funky that they teach you that like in the third or fourth grade, you know, like they're like in the Japanese people used to bind their feet and we're all sitting in class with our feet bound thinking that it's weird that they did that. You know what? I think if you dig deep enough, you probably don't even have to dig that deep. There's probably some weird stuff that we did in North America in the early days that you don't like either. Pat, Michael Wright just gave us $4.99 for interviewing you. And I want to tell you I'm feeling a little less generous now that I know that you won the $10,000 from that first event. I know you earned it.

I think Brian and I are going to split that one between us, if you don't mind. That's all right. Man, I thought it was $5. You're already down a cent? Yeah, this guy is cheaper than the last guy, $4.99. The man is taxed. Pat, you said not all of the events are fun. What was the most fun event for you yesterday, and what was the least fun event?

I think the Moselup one was the least fun event oh the one you won yeah i it's funny i remember thinking while we were doing it like the muscle-ups i thought it was a muscle-up workout until i like got to the sled of the way back and i was like i finished the sled and i was like jesus and that at that point we had about an hour turnaround before we had to do the sprint. So I, as soon as we finished, I was like, man, I have no idea how I'm going to run. Like I couldn't even stand for like three minutes after I finished that event. So that was like kind of miserable.

Like that kind of grunt work just sucks. Like, and even with, once you got to the pig flips and things, you were just like, you know once you got to the pig flips and things you were just like you know you wanted to go but it's a lot of grunt work and you were just tired and you could kind of keep trucking but you didn't want to um and then i don't know the most fun i mean personally i probably had the most fun on the sprint because i didn't i i i outran my expectations on that one uh so i think it always feels good to do that. Like, I think looking at the muscle up workout, I knew that was a pretty good workout for

me, but the sprint, I was kind of like, that's such a toss up. Like it's such a fast event that, you know, a second or two could cost you 10 places really fast. And so I was, I was really happy that i executed well and i and i was very aggressive more so than i usually would be uh but it paid off so it was like that was a fun one it was like done in the blink of an eye and it was nice when it goes well the last one was fun it was fun to be back in the coliseum but i feel like the the sprint was cool were the top three sprinting times on the men's all from the same heat top five the top five were all times on the men's all from the same heat? Top five.

The top five were all on the same heat? Yeah, they're all from our heat. Did you guys just get the luck of the draw there? I was like, when we were lining up, I didn't really look at the heat closely. I just knew I saw it was heat three. And then when we were lining up, they called you to the line like five minutes or like three minutes before you started. And we were like, it was like three minutes before you started and we were like it was like me and i know i didn't know he was as fast as he was and he was awesome but i knew

obviously we had will and saxon who are both quick and did very well in the sprints the years that we've had those uh and andre who day i knew that he was a good runner but i didn't know if he was a good sprinter or not yeah so and we had the other guys we had that I wasn't sure how good they'd be. Like we had cool Sager and he's, I wasn't sure how he'd be for the whole, for that kind of distance, but he's an aggressive guy. Um,

and I think he's, you know, someone who's not afraid to like body position someone. So looking at that and even other guys, like we had like Alice Caron and like Royce Dunn and like some big guys that it was like you don't want to get caught behind those bodies because it's just going to be it's going to make it really tough on you so i knew we had fast guys and i knew you didn't want to get pinned in behind any of the big guys so i was like i just decided i was going to be really aggressive and run the first like hundred quite fast and get out in a lead pack and try to

not get caught behind anyone and then just like hang on like try to pick a pace early that's fast and aggressive and then hang on till the end and i was running out of gas at the end like had there been another 10 20 meters like i would have saxon would have for sure passed me like i towed him out but he was coming on strong and will just got me in the end but i i was fading by the end for sure so i just kind of went for the fly and die approach i called it the wall of meat like if you got stuck behind the wall of meat i mean cole cole was toast from the beginning he got stuck behind the wall of meat and then there's just no way it's just it's just shoulder to shoulder it's almost like it looks

like almost like a chippendale dance the way these shirtless guys are running at you and And it's just like, there's no, like, you're see who won and who the top two or three in that heat was. And it seemed pretty consistently that the people who came out fast and were in the lead in the opening stretch would hang on to be, you know, first or second in their heats. So it was there was very little exchange after the first corner. It seemed like from the first couple of heats. So I was just like, hey, it's hard to convince yourself in a 500-meter race to go as fast as you can in the first 150. It doesn't sound like a good strategy, but it felt like the right move. Do you talk to Brent Fikowski after that one? Because I was pretty curious about the little exchange you had with BKG towards the end.

That he had with BKG? Yeah, BKG I think came up behind him and just gave him a little elbow and shoulder and ended up passing him by in the last stretch. Oh, I didn't really see it. He mentioned it in passing that somebody did that and that there was a lot of jostling

in the last, like once they were on the turf. But, no, I don't think there was anything sinister there. But I did the same thing to Guy on the way around the last corner. I tried to like cut him off a little bit. And then he just was clearly a better sprinter than me. And he had another gear that I didn't. So at the end, I was like, hey, sorry about that.

You're better, you're better running than me. Matt, Brian, the thing is, and maybe this isn't fair to say, but I think it is, uh, Fikowski is such a big guy. It's like in basketball. If you're a big guy, more guys are going to lean on you. And then on top of that, BKG had such a dominant performance that a little shoving when you shove a guy, you better really run past him fast. That being said, Pat's performance on that really screams, uh, what you've been saying all along about Pat.

I mean, I'd like to see that race again and see if Pat beats Guy. They finished so close. And what we're seeing here is a guy that people did not expect to do well on the sprint. He lined up there. You look like you're you're made to resist the wind pat you look like you have nothing aerodynamic about you and yet you fucking pulled off an incredible incredible event i also want to go back to event number two you didn't just win that event you decimated the pack there is some uh this is very uh fraser-esque and the the next five places after you had a

wider spread than your spread between uh first and second place on the second event so i mean i mean clearly this these are these are more than just signs of a champion this is this is you're ready you're you're truly ready well there's a long way to go and i still have a hole that i'm climbing out of that i put myself in at the start of the weekend um but it's a good i was i'm happy with the trajectory after event one that's for sure um the last event was like i'm fine i think i i would have liked to have taken like a top five but not quite there but i think if i think i i would have liked to have taken like a top five but not quite there but i think if i think i can consistently put up more performances like that and i should be

i should be back on the tracks in no time but uh you're also you're not the first person to tell me that about my running so a few people have told me that they're like you don't look like you're fast but you killed it like when you're running you don't look like you should fast, but you killed it. Like when you're running, you don't look like you should be fast, but you just are like, well, thank you. And you look good. You look good. Your arms weren't all over the place. I mean, you look good, but just at the lineup, I think even the commentators were like, there was some tension around that because people do want to see you do well.

People do have high expectations for you. And like, you could feel it in my house as I'm watching it on the 90 inch. Oh shit. Pat, poor Pat. Like this is like this is a box that's going to be running next to some, you know, more svelte. But you fucking killed it and you look great. You look great. And you look a little more lean. You look a little more lean and ripped than normal.

Oh, thanks. It's probably because we didn't have time to eat yesterday. But if I took a picture of you and then just turned up the sharpening a little bit, you'd look like an underwear model. Yeah, you got to get the contrast going. I think I'm hard to light well, so you might have just seen something in good lighting. Pat, what do you think about people who wear a suit and tie in their avatar photos, in their profile photos, like on Instagram? Or does that give you a different – like you know how some people like I don't know what you have you probably have or just like in a t-shirt and Brian and I are probably in t-shirts but like what do you think about the guys who are

doing the suit and tie look I think in my Facebook I'm wearing a shirt and tie oh you are okay because I've got some gala with Michelle I think but uh I don't know I mean it depends what you do like it depends what your profile is for. Like on my social media, which is primarily like an athletic account, that's sort of the image I'm going to put out. Right. If you're a lawyer, like maybe that's the image you want to put out. Right. So I have lots of friends who are, yeah, like lawyers and professionals, and they present a little more clean cut version of themselves than maybe I

know. Like your wife would wear one of those white coats and a stethoscope in hers. They present a little more clean cut version of themselves than maybe I know. Like your wife would wear one of those white coats and a stethoscope in hers. Maybe. She probably has one of those kicking around. I don't know what she has up right now, but either that or scrubs. I asked because Andrew, Adam Drew just gave us $10 for this podcast and he's wearing a suit and tie in his profile pic. And normally.

Sounds like a professional. good dude that's probably and that's probably he doubled down on the amount of money the rest of the people gave yeah he's got more money because he wears a suit and tie maybe i don't know i wouldn't say it assuages my opinion one way or the other really you you had that 35th place and then you have a first, a third and a seventh. If you hadn't have dug out of the hole as well as you did standing in fifth place now with a pretty tight race, would you not enjoy this day off as much as you probably are? Probably. I think it'd be a little more stressed. I think that the you i would probably feel like i wished i could be doing something actively to be digging myself out further um so it would be

like you you'd be chomping at the bit to get back started because like i want to do another event now and like start to erase that point step sit but the fact that i've erased the most of it is good and like i feel a little bit more and also it just it gives you confidence like nobody likes to crash and burn in an event and it makes you question like oh shit like am i as prepared as i thought i was um and then being able to follow that up with a few solid performances it's like okay i'm i am where i need to be or should be um and it's it's all good like you just need to you can chill you can relax um so that takes the edge off a little bit you're a little less stressed for sure uh and i think i was talking with my coach yesterday about it and it's

it's this exact same actually as when in 2018 um i was 36 i think in the crit race after i crashed and that day we had four events we had the muscle-ups and the total and the marathon row and it's it's almost the exact same day i crashed and burned on event one and then i think my muscle-ups was like a seventh place or something like that basically what i did on the last event today i took a second on the total which was like outperforming my expectations and then i think i took a fifth on the total, which was like outperforming my expectations. And then I think I took a fifth on the marathon row. So like a very similar scoring trajectory for the day. And then, uh, yesterday I was like 35th, first, third, seventh. So, you know, I, and that year I came back to finish second. So I think that it's fine. I, and you know, I've as much as I hate that

I do it all the time, I know that I can do that. And I, uh, I've proven that it's fine. I, and you know, I've as much as I hate that I do it all the time, I know that I can do that. And I, uh, I've proven that it's fine and I can sort of, uh, right. The ship and keep trepping forward. So I don't know.

I think that it's nice to have that in the back of your head and know that you can do it, but it's definitely a lot nicer when you've already done a lot of that work. And now I feel like I'm more or less back to a level playing field and i can almost just zero out that first day and then start moving forward when you come out of the water for the swim do you know what place you're in does someone say pat you're in 12th or anything like that no and the swim i wasn't like i wasn't crazy on the swim i actually was tried to be pretty conservative on the swim because in the past in those events like when we did the swim paddle run um i'm just like i'm not the best swimmer for sure so i think that year i

came out of the swim in like 30 if ish and then i made up a lot of ground on the paddle and passed up like seven people on the paddle and a couple people on the run and then i kind of kind of expected it to be similar. So I figured like, be a little conservative and save your arms a bit in the swim. And then on the paddle, you'll have to just start to pick people off. And I just, I struggled on the paddle a lot more than I thought I would. I couldn't, I couldn't get any speed. I felt like I, no matter what I was doing with my stroke, I was, I had one speed. Uh uh so it was frustrating and it was a long paddle to be frustrated on so it was difficult to finish that event and know like fuck I just gave up five six places on the paddle where I expected to make up ground and you know now I've got like

a bottom five finish and now I've got to like try to get my shit together here for the next event that starts in like an hour. Um, so it was, I don't know, it was, it was a bit dark there for a little bit, but, uh, that's why I think I, I, I needed to be aggressive on the second event, uh, was to like start that comeback. And I wasn't going to wait around for it. Like I, I needed, I knew that I needed to get points now. Uh, so. So that event, I started quite aggressively. And I kind of expected people to be a little bit faster on the muscle-ups. So I was happy that everybody was clearly at least as tired as I was when we got back to the rings. So it was good.

I'm glad it worked out. And it's nice when that's the draw. Like if I'm going to have a bad event, it's nice when the events are random and it's nice when the next one's one that allows you to rebound well and give you some momentum back because it matters. Like if you're down on yourself for three events, that's tough. But if you can start to just generate good momentum, I think that, you know, having a lot of success on event two probably helped me be a little more confident to be aggressive in event three which is what i needed to do um and then you know i think by the evening i was like comfortable and back to a place where i was like all right you're just you just need to be controlled again uh and compete smart so yeah i don't know it wasn't great was there an at what you were in the kayak for let's say an hour is that fair to say less a little less than that but it was long for sure the total event time was like i don't know i think the fastest time was maybe like an hour 10 i think i got in at like an

hour 18 or 19 okay was there so you're saying that in that basic hour of the kayak paddle there was never like a time where like there weren't like minutes where you're like oh my god i'm gliding or holy shit i'm in the zone you're saying the whole thing was just like what the fuck yeah i had trouble like i felt like i was i felt like i was just plowing water like i really had trouble getting like a good glide and a good smooth paddle like i don't know it was it was uh except very frustrating and i tried i tried a bunch of different things to change my stroke i know some people who are competitive paddlers and, uh, I got some good tips before and I just, I don't know, couldn't put it together. And it was very frustrating. I feel like for the first 20 minutes, you're like trying to figure it out.

The next 20 minutes, you're like, I don't, I don't get it. And then by the end, I was like, you just need to like, just get done and then start to move on because uh it's just like it's clear it was clear at a certain point that i wasn't i wasn't going to suddenly figure it out and start to just like put the turbo boosters on um so yeah it's tough to see that and then and also it's tough to see that and have to have that reality exist in like for like the next 30 minutes and just be like okay fuck like i'm giving up ground and i'm and it's it's a slow event on the paddle like even when you're getting past everything happens really slow like nobody flies by it's this like slow drift and everyone's like

how you doing so it's a pain it's painful when people pass you you're going four miles an hour and they're going 4.5 miles an hour and there's nothing you can do about it. Yeah. Nice. Nice hair tie. Uh, uh, Reagan Huckabee. Oh my God.

Uh, I didn't realize your traps were so big, uh, Fikowski and like, you're like, Jesus Christ. Yeah. So it was frustrating for sure.

Like that was the biggest challenge of it was like trying to just be cool with it and be like, look at a certain point it was clear it wasn't going well and it wasn't going to magically change. And then it was like, how do I start to regroup for the next one? I need to get to the end and still try to give up as few spots as possible. But, uh, you know, it's like you're here we go again, basically. Right. Uh, it reminds me of bumper cars at the fair, you know, like those ones that they have, like the steel pole that touches the ceiling. Yeah. And like, you see, you have a direct they have, like the steel pole that touches the ceiling. Yeah.

And like, you see, you have a direct hit on someone and you have it floored and you're coming from 20 feet away, but you taught like, like you're still only hit them at four miles an hour. You're like, dude, if you would have just given me seven miles an hour, I'd lifted his car up, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So that's what it felt like. It was a slow motion. It was a slow motion paddle. That's for sure. And, and, and so those three events and the reason why i asked about the day off and how it's going for you if because you you did show some um great success in the last three events is we were talking to some other athletes brian specifically and he was telling me this one other athlete who's not doing as well as you said to him hey this this day off is just brutal like i

wish i could just get it i like they want to get back in there right away and prove something. Right. And that may have something to do with the fact that you're a veteran also. I it's funny. I like to, I always joke that I'm like the laziest games athlete back there. I was like all day. I was just like, Oh, you guys excited for your day off? Like best day of the games. Um, but i think you're totally right and i think it depends on like i just kind of said that earlier like if you you would want to start to do something to put that comeback in motion like how do i start to erase that deficit so you definitely feel like you're you know a duck on a pond like you have to just you're sitting still in your room but like things are turning and you're like you want to you want to figure out like how to make this go forward.

And you just, there's nothing you can do today. Right. So that's a stressful way to exist for a day. And the best thing you can do is just appreciate the fact that it's a day off, like it or not, take care of your body, do the things you need to do, and then be ready for tomorrow to to go for it um but i totally like i i think i would be in that exact same mind mindset if i was you know still in 20th after that i'd still feel like man i've got a long way to go and i want to start doing it it would suck if you were below 30th the first event too the really shitty part about it is well also because of the tremendous comeback you have to make but you're below the first cut line so that's got to give you at least some reprieve right it's like holy shit at least i'm i'm now above both cuts i mean i know there's still

a lot of events tomorrow but that the the guy who's in last place is tripping i'm sure who is that let's see who's in last place because i mean his shit like he knows his days are numbered yeah i mean i hadn't really thought much about the cuts uh zach watts poor zach watts especially after my um my first event i like i'm confident that i would be able to get back above you know above 30 at a minimum you know but uh i i heard uh some people told me that the announcers were already saying oh man talking about cuts after one event it was crazy i was getting uh i was getting so many messages messages on instagram also like hey look at your boy pat 35th what's going on i going on? I'm like, what are you guys talking about?

It's one event. Like, have you never watched the games before? It's not 2019. It's going to be okay. Yeah, there's like seven events is a lot of events. All right, nine events, sorry. Yeah, I was not overly concerned. But I agree that, like you were saying, the other athletes you talked to, after that first event, I could feel the sense of urgency.

And I was like, well, that was really bad, and I can't wait to do something a lot better. And just feel like you're showing a better version of yourself, too. Because, of course, it's a letdown, personally, when you bonk on events like that, right? So, yeah, I'm not worried about cuts, but, yeah. There's also this too. If you hadn't have come out, what did you come out? 35th. The camera crew would have packed up 20 minutes earlier and moved on to the next event.

I mean, probably. Matt Velner comes out of the water 35th and you have fucking 10 cameras on you discussing your fucking your performance. Yeah, that's the thing it's always the water are you like jesus christ i mean maybe a little you're just like i don't know let's get out of here let's get on the bus like it's not uh but it's a little bit of that like i don't want to talk about it like yeah i know like i already know you don't need to ask me about it right and i actually didn't know what place i had finished in that event but i knew it was i were talking when i got into the kind of tent and so people asked and i was like oh i bet

you bottom five is what i said and so like i knew where i was at roughly but uh when we finished event two that was like the first thing i'm like mike arseno did the interview on the floor and the first thing he said was like so you finished 35th and then you finished first. I was like, oh, thanks. It's just like, yeah, it's, you know, it's annoying, but I do it to myself, right? Like if I didn't want to hear that, I should just finish better in event one. You know, it's bad if you get out of the water and someone goes, are you injured? Yeah.

Yeah. A couple people asking, are you okay? You're like, I'm fine. yeah yeah a couple people asking are you okay you're like i'm fine um pat do you know what happened to um alexander illin um we're seeing he's in 38th place and we don't see a score for him on the fourth event has anyone figured out what happened to him i don't know i i didn't uh yeah i wasn't actually aware of that but uh it says withdrawn actually in the third event there's a wd i'm assuming that's what that means do you know what happened okay so he didn't he didn't run

okay do you know what he withdrew he withdrew prior to that event i i have not heard anything about why i'm just i'm pretty bummed about that because i was really happy that he was able to make it over and and obviously we barely get to see him wow no kidding hey we've like all the russians can't get visas and the one that makes it withdraws after two that sucks i saw him after the second event and i feel like uh i mean i don't i didn't like talk to him or anything but i know i think that might have been the last time i saw him now that you mention it um it's there was a few like there's some people licking their wounds yesterday it was a hard day. After the last event, too, people had some ice on the shoulders.

There were some people nursing a few things in the back after we finished with the wall walks. How does that day one stack up for you from a physical perspective compared to some of the others you've done? It's hard to remember. I feel like it's like childbirth. Your brain wipes it as soon as it's hard to remember i feel like it's it's like childbirth you just your brain like wipes it as soon as it's done you're gonna get in so much trouble for that too bad yeah if we had any female listeners you'd get destroyed for that but we don't have any so don't worry no but i think you you just kind of like forget it and you always you usually remember the like kind of positive bits of it, but I mean, 2018 was hard. And that was one that was, I feel like it was pretty similar, you know, like we had the crit

was not a long race. I forget what it was exactly, but like a little bit around 20 minutes, maybe time domain, the marathon was like death by volume. And then the other two events were quite short. But yesterday felt kind of like that, you that you know the the pig flip event wasn't that much volume it was pretty fast and then the sprint was nothing it was a blink of an eye it was not you're not going to be sore from that as long as you don't like pull a hammy or something um and then yeah the the paddle really i feel like personally like that's all i feel is like my little bit of like triceps and back from the paddle and uh because of all the volume and then a little bit of like my quads from the thrusters and that's pretty much it so i it wasn't that bad of a beat down it felt like running around a lot um i think maybe i think maybe the ranch day one in 2016 might have been the hardest day one that

i've done um and that might be also be combined with the fact that we had to fly in and out and we got like delayed on the way back like i don't know if you just felt more sore as a result of some of those things it was a hard day one for me for me i had uh watching the end of the um the final event the fourth event last night there was it seemed like there was a pretty good balance. Like some people seemed like they were in good spirits and okay. And others looked pretty beat up and devastated. And to me, it had a different feel than the end of 2018 day one, after the marathon row where almost everyone looks pretty defeated at that point. Yeah. Yeah. That was a long, and I think that it's true that I think that was a long and i think that it's true i think that was like a mental defeat a little bit as well

where you had spent so long on the rower uh the volume got you down you were like crampy and um you definitely you had run out of kind of mental bandwidth and emotional bandwidth and people were a bit fed up by the end of that but the rest of that day wasn't terrible you know like doing the total and doing 30 muscle-ups for time is really not that much in terms of wear and tear or volume but that one event alone and having it at the end of the day was definitely a lot we were joking about it like that i think last time we had a day off last time was probably 2018 uh and it was after that marathon row and everybody really needed it and there was just a hilarious amount of like posturing on the day off where people would go try to move their body around

a little bit and shake off that row and everyone'd be kind of like hey how are you how do you feel after yesterday oh i feel great i feel good like no problem how do you feel and everybody kind of faking it but it was that one was hard on the body for sure. You're not meant to sit on a rower like that for three hours. What will, are you going to do like a ton of recovery today? Will there be like an hour or two of just, I don't know, whatever you guys do, like those foam rollers or balls you push into your skin or that gun that, that gun that you guys pay 400 bucks for that like hammers a muscle or something. Are you going to be doing a lot of that today? This episode is brought to you by PC Optimum.

If you like a curated playlist, why not try a curated grocery list? With Swap and Save, the new feature in the PC Optimum app, you'll get PC Optimum's best price for your grocery items. Simply add products to your shopping list in the app, and it'll show you similar items at a lower cost. Add coffee to your list, then swap it for one that's cheaper. Craving chips? The app will suggest some on sale. To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that.

See the PC Optimum app for details. I might do some of that lazy guy stuff this afternoon. I actually went and did a bit of biking, a bit of rowing. This morning? Earlier, before this, this yeah i went in and like biked and rode for kind of 20 minutes and then i went and got some body work done so i'm not doing too bad and then i might just do a little bit of just stretching and maybe sit on the couch and watch the olympics and there i got myself like do some little bit more

lazy layup kind of stuff but overall i don't feel too bad like i agree with some people that are saying you know i'd like to get going i i can go today i i don't need the day off but if i have it i'll be happy to kind of spend it with some people and and relax hang out with the baby how many monster energy drinks have you drank oh man so many um they're they're water right right do they have the do they have the other stuff there the stuff that like makes like your like hair stand on end not in the not that i've seen in any of like the athlete areas or the coolers that are on the field but i actually find it really annoying because it's nice to have bottles with a cap and like i can just take a water bottle with a cap or i could put some whatever pre-workout in

it and just use that water bottle and we will reuse it if i want i feel like there's so many cans standing around everywhere it kind of kills me um but you have to yeah you like crack these cans and then people drink half of them and leave them i don't love the can thing but so ecopat doesn't like the cans it does look kind of fun to drink water out of the can yeah i mean i don't know i'm not a big canned water guy where i'm from you just drink tap water it's all good it's fresh from the mountain springs you know holy tap water yeah you'll grow a third eye you drink that shit in states but uh anyway it's it's a different look it feels funny to be drinking monster cans like after an event i agree it does look weird uh it is what it is it's the only thing that's available is the thing like it's the it's the only water

that's around anywhere so you could um pour one on your head that would be cool because i really like that when jessica griffith did that because like i saw that we didn't even know that we thought those were energy drinks and i was like trying to process that in my head i'm like okay she's so hot that she's willing to pour sugar-free drink on her head and the reason why i say sugar-free is because that way i guess i guess it's not sticky but i was tripping but i thought it was just a baller move but then i realized it was water and i was like yeah okay yeah it definitely is a good look but uh i saw that video yeah we'll see my luck i'll grab the wrong can and it'll be a i'll be sticky for like the whole day you'll turn orange and be tell the guy the guy's there the guy the the guy who does the the the representative for that who's

like i follow him on instagram because he's a UFC guy. Tell him for $1,000, you'll pour a bottle on your head. You'll pour a can on your head. Yeah, next event. And only take 3% for that idea. Oh, yeah. Cool. Sounds like a good deal.

Who are you hanging with back there? Who are your new friends? Who are your old friends? I don't know. I feel like a lot of it is i was hanging with bkg a lot yesterday i feel like yesterday when we were in the second warm-up area you just kind of get wherever you drop your bag like the people that are next to you so i was kind of by bk and annie and yana like and uh henrik haplinen so i was with a bunch of the Europeans for a party yesterday.

You like people whose names are impossible to say? Well, they're all vaccinated, so I know it's safe in that corner. You're a good dude. You're a good dude. Do you really do that? Do you ask the guys? Are you like, yo, Danielle, get away from me. You're not vaccinated.

It's been kind of like vague conversation over the last few days. Cause it's just, you know, I feel like that's just world conversation these days. So there's a little bit of, I don't know. I think that the way the whole stadium is filled up in the warmup areas, chaos, I'm trying to be a little careful. Cause I gotta, I gotta take a PCR test on Saturday in order to get home. So if I gotta make sure I pass my test so I can actually go home and I don't

spend two weeks in a hotel here. Yeah. Is that really your primary concern that you're not too worried about not necessarily getting it, but you just don't want to be away from your baby for two weeks when you get home. Yeah, basically.

Yeah. It's going to be, it'd be a waste of time and money to stay here for two weeks after the games and just sit in a hotel. So I'm not overly concerned that I'd be super sick. I won't let you get on a plane if you're sick or if you're infectious.

You can come stay at my place. I'll put you up. Throw me in a room somewhere. Oh, God. You would wake up every morning with Brian cuddling you. No, no, no. I might just leave a bowl of oatmeal outside his door oh nice gruel please sir is it a different is it a different vibe with matt being gone or

is it just the same shit just lines in a cage i'd say it's kind of similar like i don't think that there's a big difference like people are here to win like everybody is every year. Even if it's not, you know, the years where MAD was very dominant, like even if by the end of the week you knew you weren't going to win the games, you still are trying to get your wins on the various events or, you know, what constitutes a win changes, you know, maybe by the end of the weekend, maybe person to person as things develop. So you're still just trying to shoot your shots and get points when you can.

So it's still a lot of the same. People are kind of posturing on each other and trying to figure things out and figure out where everybody sits and earn points where they can. So it's fun. There's still a little bit of playful banter in the back between events. I like it. It tends to be pretty light up until it's time to kind of warm up and then people start to kind of uh turn on so it's cool i got spent lots of time chatting with guys like travis and chandler and noah still and and brent so it's good i feel like there's less people in our where our lockers are we used to have like recliners and stuff back

there and there isn't any of that anymore so uh there's been a little bit less kind of lounging in the back and we frankly we didn't have that much time to lounge yesterday we were we were pretty much on call all day they were lining us up at some point or you had 10 minutes to be here and then you had to be in another line and it was a lot of hurry up and wait yesterday so but it's fun it's been it's been cool tell me about my boy travis mayor give me a little scoop on how's he doing uh i said in 20 seconds he's okay you didn't see him i saw i saw him on the screen last night in the last event he looked like he was laying on the ground a lot but not what i want to do so i don't know to be fair depending on when you looked everyone was laying on the ground a lot but not what i want to do so i don't know to be fair depending on when you looked everyone was laying on the ground yeah yeah it's fair i don't know

if he was loving the wall walks but i don't think he was alone um i think he's doing good man the guy's got four kids actually i was talking to him the other day and uh we were just talking about kids and babies and stuff uh and I was just talking about family. And he, I forget what the comment was, but I thought that he was like at least my age or maybe older. And I realized I was a year older than him. And I was like, man, he was making some old man comments about himself. And I was like, dude, I'm older than you.

Relax. I didn't realize I had seniorityity over Travis mayor with his four kids. It was like surprise surprising to me, but he's fair. He said, you know, each, each kid adds like two years.

So how old are you? I'm 31. Yeah. He's, he's a, he's like, he's pretty hardcore religious. I don't think they use contraception.

I think that's why religion is so popular. Actually. Maybe, maybe, but he's got, he's got more highway miles. I don't think they use contraception. I think that's why religion is so popular, actually. Maybe. Maybe. He's got more highway miles. I've got city miles. Pat, do you know who Susan Clark is? The name rings a bell.

She's a master's athlete, is she not? Isn't she a dominant master's athlete? What age group is she? It's hard to know the age groups. Susan Clark is a Canadian woman. She competed at the games this year in the women's 60 to 64 age division she won her division i'm updating the script for the age group ceremonies right now she won her division and this is now her fifth career championships at the crossfit games it's a record anyone's ever had she's undefeated at the gamesFit Games. It's the most common record anyone's ever had.

She's undefeated at the Games, and she's Canadian. Look out, Matt Fraser. I'm going to say something not nice about the Masters right now, and I've really learned to like the Masters. But this morning I was watching the 65+, and they were trying to do double-unders, and I swear to God it looked like satire. I swear to God. They were on were on the turf though weren't they uh i yeah i guess but they're all lined up try to do go try to do double unders on the grass for me quick seven

it's bad actually come back inside and apologize it still looked like satire though. It was crazy. I was talking to one of the guys from the masters 35 to 39 division who looked just like he was more frustrated than ever been in a workout trying to do double honors on the turf. And he goes, Oh my gosh, I did unbroken 21.1 double honors, which ended with 210 in a row. He said, I've never had a harder time doing double honors than I did today. Was it a heavy rope or was it just the normal rope? He told me he likes to jump low and spin. And spin your little slower graphs was like,

the turf was kind of dragging it. So I think it was a normal rope. He just, it was like the total opposite of how he usually does them the turf is quite soft too we all of the athletes for the individuals were talking about it yesterday when we were doing the sprint that when you went from road to grass it like it was like you slowed down a lot like you felt like you didn't get the same kind of ground reaction in your stride so you were it felt weird like if you could really feel the surface difference and it's like it absorbed a bunch of your energy so i could see you doing double unders on that like you would be a different kind of feeling like this soft ground and then the grass like the

the uh the turf that sticks up kind of trying to grab your rope i could see it being hard and you have to be very good at changing your technique uh in to do it. Okay. Well, I'll, I'll ask Dave tonight if that was like, just like, um, a practical joke on them because man, for a guy who, who's really interested in the spectacle, man, it was a shit show. It looked like my little, it looked like a three-year-old, like trying to catch a butterfly with a net. I mean, it was just like, it was ridiculous. I mean, it was just like, it was ridiculous. I felt bad for them. Even the Canadians are doing well in the masters divisions,

Pat. Nice. Good. I'm glad we're having representation. We're not doing so bad in the individual divisions right now. I think, I think, uh, Emma Lawson's winning the 16, 17 as well. That's right. And I have a, uh, have a, I wouldn't say it's a bet, but I had a proposition to your friend Nate Edwardson the other day. I said, what do you think? Can all six Canadian men in the individual field make the cut? I think that would be pretty impressive if they did it,

and I think it can happen. All six Canadian men. So it's brant and i vigno caron cornway and adler oh yeah i think we can all make top 20 yeah it's

pretty side right now urgency uh i i'm not looking at the leaderboard i think adler might be like 21 or 22 um vigno is definitely in like

4 13th or 14th carons no cornway is 10 and i'm not sure what Caron is. Yeah, we could. We got a comment saying I should respect the Masters, and then I look to see who it's coming from, and it's my mom. Perfect. She's one of our 12 listeners.

Pat, you talked about this killer instinct, and I want to get to that, but first I want to ask about your mindset coming to the games. Do you have rules for yourself? Like during this week, like, like if you turned around right now and the podcast was over and your wife was like changing the baby's diaper, like on the outfit you're going to wear tomorrow, like would you snap or do you like, like what's, what's your mindset? Or if like you made a cup of coffee right before you're about to walk out of the house and she had poured it out and cleaned the cup or something like how

are you are you on edge or do you talk to yourself before and you're like fucking not i can't let anything bug me this week i think it's hard to not be a little on edge but i try my best to compartmentalize things and i always do that when it comes to like my life and CrossFit. Uh, so I try to when I leave the stadium not be thinking too much about it and, and leave that there. And even like when we went yesterday, I brought most of my gear there and like left it at the locker and stuff like that. So when I come home,

I'm not like surrounded by my stuff and things like that like my jerseys are there my stuff is there like i go to the venue and then i'm in competition mode and i'm there for the whole day and then when i come home it's like you're not competition pad anymore and it's hard to avoid it like you come home and i talk to my folks and you kind of recap the day and they watch and they want to talk about it that's great but uh at least that time you're kind of spending with them and uh i try to i try my best to do that i don't think i do it perfectly but uh i think it's important to like try to leave that there because otherwise it's just you know it feels borderline abusive if you're kind of like

a tyrant for everybody around you for like a whole week because it's hard enough like months leading into the games when it's like all about you and your training and things like that and then it's all about you still and it's all about it's just like I really try to avoid that as much as I can because I think it's just it's not a good version of me that I like. So, um, yeah, I don't think, and if I don't like it, I'm sure everybody else doesn't like it either. And honestly,

in the long run, it's just a waste of energy too. Right. That's kind of how I feel about it. Like, like I said, about reality, about like the,

like the days and like the late in stuff like that. It's just like, well, you can be, you could be turned on all day today, like focused stops dialed, but for what? Like, I don't think it's just like you can be you could be turned on all day today like focused up dialed but for what like i don't think it's like you might as well take the time and try to relax and regroup and spend some time with people that you might not be able to see a lot of for the next two days or

three days um and i think yeah it's hard when you're in it to realize that i think sometimes so i think part of that might come from having been here a few times that I know it's like, all right, you know, you're going to, you're going to wish maybe you enjoyed parts of this a little more, did things a little differently when you get gone. So it's fun. It's fun to be able to share it with the people that kind of help make it possible and support you. Right. Exactly. What do you think about Jason Hopper's performance or do you think about it i talked to him a couple times yesterday like i checked in on him a couple times just like yeah how's it going how do you how's that one and uh i don't know i didn't see how he did most of the day i think he did reasonably well on this first event and i think he did reasonably well on the third event i think he got a bit of a punch in the second one and the last one yes but oh i don't know i think that that's fine you know it's a long weekend it's

the first day like you know i think he got hit with a couple things that he knew he was not great at and probably was i'm sure he's happy with his event one i think if he thought he was going to come in here and bully all the men's field he came in with their own idea um but you know everybody like it's hard not to be disappointed when you don't finish high and especially when that's been his experience so far right uh i think it can be a little bit of like a crash landing back down to earth when you're like, Holy shit, there's 30 other guys here who are, who are just like me. Right. And like, or they're better at some stuff, maybe worse at some stuff, but, um, it's tough.

And we did some weird stuff yesterday. Like, I'm sure he didn't go in thinking he was going to do a bunch of wall walks and he'd probably be the first to tell you that it's not his favorite movement and you know i talked to him a bit after the i think maybe after the sprint but he like 48 muscle ups in a row for a big guy like that like i'm sure that's not the role he wanted right i mean sure he didn't struggle at all on the pig in the sled i bet but when you got to do all those things in a row it's tough uh so it you know i think he's doing fine and he needs to if he's if he's down on himself at all he needs to kind of shake it off because there's five events tomorrow and that's a lot of it's a lot of work and i'm sure he'll be great at a lot of them

but and he might still take a couple punches this weekend, and that's totally fine. Like I said, take it from me. You can be fine if you bonk on a few events. It's not the end of the world. I'm sure he's doing great. It's his first year here, and not that that means you get a free pass to just be blasé about poor performances, but I think it's a reality check for everybody when they first come to the games.

Sometimes you're a big fish in a small pond. And then sometimes you show up and it's like it can be alarming when suddenly you break through the ceiling and like now you're back on the ground level of the next floor. And you're just kind of like, oh, shit, there's a bunch of other guys who are really, really good. And those are your peers. Right. And that's what the competition is going to be like. So you'll trade punches all weekend and you just got to get it in when you can. They keep you guys very close to each other the whole week, the whole event.

At least they used to when I used to have access back there. Like it's just all you guys, you know, in a close area. You're either in the corrals together. You're either both grabbing for the same plate at the same time during warm-up you guys pass each other you're sitting on bikes next to each other ice baths i mean it's a pretty tight area in carson it was i don't know let's say 5 000 square feet you guys are all packed in there to you guys is it um is it is it like a palatable it's like do you realize oh holy shit this isn't like my three training partners at my affiliate with 20 regular people around us like are you guys

all aware like is it is it a really unique experience to be a top athlete and then just be surrounded by people everyone's nipping at everyone's heels it's like it's like 40 it's like 40 bears trying or 40 uh bulls trying to mate with one cow it's do you feel that i don't know i kind of think it's cool and i mean at this point i i know most of the people so but it's fun because you're like you know you're warming up and it's like oh my god hey there's bkg or noel olson and like guys that i've known for years but like you know that they're very good. And especially in this last while, we're like,

the only thing you've seen of people is maybe what's on their social media for like the last year. So it's cool. And I still feel that way when you see new guys come up and like a guy like Hopper, that was stellar earlier in the season, but I like, I don't,

I've never seen much of them. Right. So it's like, you watch people warm up a little bit and pay attention to what people do and how they behave and what their general affect and demeanor is. I think it's fun. And I don't ever train with people. I'm by myself pretty much all the time. So I think it's kind of cool and energizing to have a lot of that high

caliber athlete and experience in one place. And yeah, so I kind of think it's cool. And I think everybody's always sizing each other up and trying to figure out when we're warming up for the next event, like, okay, who's going to be threatening? Who's going to be what? So I think it's part of the game, and I think it's really cool. It's a cool energy that's packed into those areas

when you have all the best CrossFitters in the world in one place. Ricardo, thank you so much. What a kind donation of $30. Ricardo Garcia. We'll split that one with you, Pat. That's a big one. $30 each. What about Colton Mertens?

Have you stood next to him? I think you should stand next to him. I've talked to him a couple of times. Yeah, you talked to him. Did he talk? a little bit he's pretty soft-spoken dude yeah he passed me on the paddle oh that's awesome i love it did he say anything to you like eat a dick or like no no just sort of shook his hair out one of my favorite crossfit game stories is when emily abbott was i don't know what run it was but

she was running and she passed um oh josh yeah josh bridges and talk some shit to him yeah has there been have you heard any shit talking out there i don't like i think it's always kind of tongue-in-cheek right like people maybe give somebody a little ribbing but it's not nobody's like actually trying to fucking right rile someone up so it's always a little bit of that i do it to people all the time and just kind of like you know whatever it is if you're just like starting before the wall walks and you're just like you know are you gonna i'm gonna you guys gonna do singles on the thrusters or what or like go unbroken are you gonna go touch and go wall walks and then people just kind of like what the fuck and just just like throw little things in that make people

think like what's going on like wait a minute am i thinking about this all wrong or does anyone ever does anyone ever respond that you're like you can go touch a wall wall box you're like yeah first five but then after that i'll slow it down you're like oh does that ever come back all the time yeah people are like again i think it's it's kind of just fun banter like people are you know i think that that conversation was with sean sweeney i think and like paulson maybe so he's like all over it right so it's fun to do I think it keeps, you gotta, I think I'm a little bit aware of who you do that to though. Like, I think there's some athletes that know me a little more

or have that similar kind of sense of humor. And some people, when they get stressed or in game mode, they want to like shut everybody out and focus up. And I respect that. And I generally won't bother them too much um but you know i i kind of try to keep it light and it makes me feel a little bit more relaxed and and prepared so and some other people are exactly like that so you'll find those people and you maybe throw

a few jokes out but um it's yeah i occasionally will give somebody one in the corrals and when they're focused and like i used to do that to Matt all the time when he was just dialed in and I thought it was funny. And I'm sure he didn't, I'm sure he didn't think exactly. Right. It's like, what an easy target. Yeah. It's like, it's like a, it's like a really still pond and, and there's a bunch of people standing around meditating and you're like, all right, fuck it. I'm going to throw a rock in there. I just can't, I just have to, you know, it's like, um, all right, fuck it. I'm going to throw a rock in there. I just can't. I just have to, you know.

I think it's a great post. This is coming from the former executive director of CrossFit Media. Some advises to you, Pat. I think it would be good if you stood next to Colton Mertens and then even stood like on a couple plates and put your arm around him and then framed it so like your feet weren't in the shot so it looked like you were even taller than them and took the picture. And then with some catchy post like, I love competition.

Just really, really, I think it would blow up. Maybe. We've got to get Brent to do it. Yes, yes, Brent. That would be awesome. They were standing next to each other when we were sizing our yokes. They were in the lanes next to each other for event two also. So as they took the field, they were right next to each other when we were sizing our yolks on like they were in the lanes next to each other for uh event two also so as they took the right side by side and lane whatever he's so awesome people need to be just working him in social media he's such a he's so

awesome and he's so soft-spoken but but he's a savage under there he's like a lion man i was hoping i thought he might uh crush that last event yesterday because he's like on a barbell like for a heavy thruster like that he can move fast so i thought he would just eat those thrusters up and then i wasn't sure i think the wall walks were harder for the smaller athletes because we had one standard distance um you want to tell us about me yeah go ahead and tell him he was going to crush that. He was going to take second. Go ahead, Brian. Tell him what happened. He would, he would have finished in the top five. He cramped up in the round of seven and the wall walks. I couldn't,

and it was on the wall walks. Actually. He said he had to do them with straight legs. Like if he bent his legs, his hamstrings were just seizing. And so he had to slow way down. I think it legitimately cost him two minutes in the workout the video footage was crazy like he couldn't even walk from the wall walks to the bar it looked like he was on stilts like his legs were perfectly straight maybe even look like they were uh what is that hyper extended like it looked like his like his his knee was bending backwards and then he would waddle over to the thruster. I thought that's just how he walked. His legs are like as wide as they are long. He's like, he's got thick legs, that guy.

Dude, he is. That's too bad. I didn't watch all that heat. And I think that really when we're watching the footage, they just are showing the leaders. So I saw a lot of Scott Panchik doing trusters, but not a lot of anybody else. So, uh, I got a fun,

that's fun stat for you here. All right. Do you know the guys fantasy fitnessing on Instagram? Yeah. Yeah. They do. They do a lot of good work and cool stuff. So they put a thing up a few minutes ago.

It says Pat Velner with 11 romance events remaining in his career at the crossfit games 2016 10th place 2017 25th place 2008 place 24 1 5th place so i'm in i'm in a better position than i've ever been is what you're saying that's right so you're saying there's a chance thought you'd like that. And I wanted to acknowledge them. They do a lot of cool stuff. If you ever checked them out, they're always putting up good stats about the athletes in the competitive field.

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I know what I have to do for the rest of the weekend. And it's a whole lot of what I did in events two, three, and four and not a lot of what I did in event one. So it's pretty simple pat we interviewed scott panchick yesterday and uh he it was so freaking cool he basically said on the drive down to the games he decided he was going to retire and when he decided he was going to retire this like massive relief came over him like oh and he was so elegant in describing it i wish i could remember some exact quotes but one of the things he said was in that workout in that thruster wall walk workout that he won he basically said i said did you know you were going to break them

did you know that you weren't going to break them up? And he goes, yeah, that was part of the thing of just retiring. Since I've retired, there is no, it's almost like there's no strategy anymore. The strategy is out the door. He said, prior to thinking, like if he didn't, hadn't decided he was going to retire on the way down, he would have, he would have used strategy. And I go, well, how did you know you didn't think that you were ever going to put the bar down or rest? And he goes, no, I just figured that if I fail, I was going to go until I failed a rep. That's where my mind is now, now that I'm going to retire. So it's just go out there and fucking just throw a fucking brick on the gas pedal and go.

And it's interesting. It becomes really apparent of his different mindset than like speaking with you or with some of the other athletes you talk about who are still in that strategy mode right but he's sort of just like hey i'm just going to burn it down now and he's injured so he kind of he's really really injured bad yeah we gave him a hard time about that he was all complaining about his knee and then he went and did 55 thrusters at 185 we're like hey scott sounds like your knee is not doing so bad well one of the commentators pointed this out and it was really a trip they said hey notice every time scott panchik lowers the bar to his uh front rack his whole body shakes and would vibrate and i asked him about that and he goes yeah that's my knee like i it's it's basically

like he's on a on a working with a coffee table with a loose leg right yeah and uh i go so what's going to happen this week he goes i have no idea he goes in the sprint i had no idea what was going to happen he goes i know that i tried to take off as hard as i could and four steps in it was just like oh one of my legs isn't working yeah it's an interesting way to compete like i i talked to him a bit about it me last night and like i say we're ripping him a bit after the event but um when there's no there's no pressure in a situation like that right uh right and i and i think he's kind of released himself from that and everybody kind of thinks of scott as like this fourth to sixth place like no matter what no matter when doesn't matter. Like he can,

he'll always be like a top five ish guy all the time. And I don't think he feels any pressure to do that anymore. You know, he's happy with his career and happy with what he's done. And we were talking a bit last night and he's saying with his knee, it's like every, every event, it could be it, you know, like he doesn't know like especially this year where we don't have much information about the next events it's like you know you take the floor you do it as hard as you can because i don't know when the next event comes out maybe i can't even

do it like it could be over and i had a similar experience when i was in 2016 when i hurt my arm in the regional and um tore my bp. And it was kind of like, I had the medical team hovering around me all weekend, like ready to withdraw me if I even made a face. So it was like, every time I took the floor, I was like, well,

this might be the last event. So might as well just like give a shit. And then every, the next, the next event was like, maybe I'm going to be able to do it. Maybe I'm not going to be able to do it. So you warm up and then you just did whatever you could do.

And so knowing that there, you weren't looking at the long game, like I'm not looking at the 15 events. I'm looking at like the next one. And that's really all you're focused on. And it's actually probably the best way to compete. But it's hard not to do that and like extrapolate forward when you know that that's what you're competing for. And I think in his situation, that's just where you're at. He knows that this could be it. Every event, it could be it.

And I don't know. So we'll just take it on one at a time and do your best. And I think it's cool. I'm glad he's doing that because it's sweet. I talked to him a bit about him retiring. And he told me the same thing that he had decided. And he had to kind of put it out there because he figured if he if he made it to the end of the weekend before he made that decision

he wouldn't make it he he'd get to the other weekend and say ah one more ride but uh it's cool so i'm glad i'm glad he's uh you know like i said we gave him some shit because he couldn't run but then all of a sudden he could do all these thrusters. And he's like, man, I don't know. It just felt how it felt, and I just went for it, and it is what it is. So it's cool. I'm glad he's able to do that now and take the governor off and maybe win some events. And who knows? He might blow up in a ball of fire on a couple events,

and he might win a couple more. I don't know, right? And I don't think he does either, So it's kind of cool to see. He may carry his leg off. I mean, I hope it's not that he goes down with an injury, but it could just be that when you go out with reckless abandon, you know, your strategy blows up in your face. So we'll see.

But I think it's really cool to see him. Even, you know, he doesn't win a lot of events either, right? So it was cool to see him win one, especially if it's going to be his last year and maybe like i said there's only a second career second career event win it's been since 2012 yeah so awesome that's that's so awesome it is i will tell you it is a little um sad he's a staple right and so like when matt retired it's like oh the champ's gone but for some reason i didn't mourn it as much as thinking that Scott won't be back. I know everyone has a shelf life, but like you said, he's a staple.

He's the guy up there that can ruin some people's days. Yeah, it's funny. I feel like he's the guy that's just always there. He's just reliable, right? I feel like every year, you kind of almost forget about him because it's just that reliable. He just shows up every day does the same thing and it's like at the end of the weekend oh yeah where's Scott yeah he's in 5th alright it makes sense

and everybody talks about contenders and podium threats and whatever and he's just so often overlooked but he's always that guy so it will be it will be different when he's not there for sure do you know what event five is uh we know we don't know the details we know it's the rope climb ski and sandbag carry

but we don't know the distance of the carry or the weight of the carry or the variety of the rope climb yeah and is that is that bag you carry? Is that, that, uh, has a door. Yeah. The kind of triangular one, the strong man one. I think so. They kind of took over the name of it instead of they're calling it the cheddar.

Yeah. What in Wisconsin? Um, and, and you don't know what event six and seven are, right? No, I think we know that they're back to back,

but that's it. Um, do you think there's going to be a bike in the games this year? Maybe. I feel like every year there's going to be a bike. What kind of bike do you mean? I've crashed it. Like a bike with two wheels and you pedal?

Not a C2 bike, but an actual road bike or mountain bike. Is there going to be a road bike that Pat can run over Brandon Luck? Brandon? Yeah. I already warned him. I told him if there is another one, I'm going to finish the job. Dude, I watched that clip

like a hundred times prior to interviewing him. Man, you were like the drunk guy that switched like six lanes at once as you came around that turn to avoid that corner. Well, it's because I got clipped by another rider from the other side. So somebody had cut me off and clipped by another rider from the other side so

somebody had cut me off and clipped my front wheel and it sent me over the left really hard that's why it's such an aggressive like zip across all of a sudden is that i got i got clipped on my front wheel as somebody else merged in front of me and so they just turned me and then i fucking was gone i had like i went straight into the side of them i don't know if it's true but supposedly they didn't even show that in the um in the crossfit games broadcast but if anyone wants to see that go over to brandon luckett's instagram you should steal that yeah there was a couple videos of it uh i've seen a couple angles of it that are oh yeah it's and it like because the way i went into him it basically like my spokes kind of went like right into his wheel and so i my gear like

my whole derailleur just ripped right off the bike so i was just then like i had nothing my oh that took you out too yeah so my but i my feet were still clipped in but i just like my my whole gear shift was gone off the bike so but because it went into his tire he like flipped straight over the handlebars like i got off so easy like i got clipped on the tire then i went into him and i was still i kind of like bounced but was still upright and then i just like i couldn't i was spinning into nothing because my my gears weren't attached so i had to unclip and run my bike to the mechanic station and then he like was basically the same picked himself up and went to the mechanic station so i had to get a brand new bike that was like not it was just like not

set for me it was just like a super low seat and whatever but yeah it was like wow that's funny i don't i didn't know it was him that i hit like later on we were riding and he we were riding together for like most of the race and it was just like it happens so fast and you just like immediately i just picked up and tried to ride and i was just like it happens so fast and you just like immediately i just picked up and tried to ride and i was like i have no i just have to get to somewhere and i just like started running um just like running away from the scene of the crime right but uh yeah that was epic but i think that and in 2017 when we did cyclocross too i had a collision with uh street horner i think street yeah street

um and we both went head over heels on that one and it was like you weren't clipped into those and we were on grass so it was significantly less like and there wasn't such a big pack of riders um so it wasn't as big a deal it wasn't as dramatic as alone with brandon but the video is intense i'm glad he was like not more hurt because he got a little road rash but he didn't like break his collarbone or anything because he went over pretty hard yeah he was agile like a cat I think the way he tells the story too is that neither of you knew who you had hit but until long after but the irony was is that since both of you were in the back you guys teamed up and made a plan to draft off yeah to catch the pack yeah totally that's kind of cool we were like uh yeah because we were basically we were if not last if somebody else might have got caught in that but in the end i think he caught up another one or two

riders other than me but i ended up 36 that he would have been like 35th or 34th or something but uh we yeah we just rode together for like the whole race and like we didn't have a pack so we had significantly less draft potential but we uh we tried to just alternate lead and ride for a while and we caught up like four or five riders there was like a trailing pack that we passed so it felt good did street horner end up winning hit that heat that you guys crashed in no okay for some reason i thought it was the one who is the really good bike rider no i don't know who won in ours that year uh because i think it was i don't remember how many heats we had honestly i think it was

through maybe four heats of 10 but has ricky reached out to you and wished you luck this week? No. That's all right, though. Yeah, he knows. He's watching closely. Have you spoken with Justin Medeiros at all? Yeah, I sat next to him on the bus on the way back from the lake on Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday. Did you tell him to get a haircut? No haircut no no i told him to trim the sides higher you're gonna start growing out his back hair that would be good he's too young to have back hair i know um is there anything else you would like to say to, to your, one of your favorite athletes of all time,

by the way, thank you for bringing up Susan Clark. That was really cool. That's amazing. We got to get her on the show. Yeah. Did she, did she like win every event or like,

was it the last time she was at the game? She was seven for a seven and event wins this time. I think she won five out of seven. So she has won the games one year without losing a single event yeah i mean for her division she's the most their divisions because she keep you know she ages up every so often she's the most dominant cross i've ever seen wow that's awesome make sure that everybody knows that when people start talking about tia and matt like throw susan out there well actually they're not the most dominant

susan is the most out of it yeah susan when we do our all-time top 10 men and women combined susan clark will be the top of the pile next time somebody asks you that question like what who's your mount rushmore of crossfit they got like matt tia rich susan cl Susan Clark. Susan Clark, that's right. Below everyone's mind with her stats. That's wild. That's very impressive. Yeah, she's awesome. And she doesn't compete every year. She'll take a year or two off.

She'll come back. That's even better. Yeah. She just shows up now and then and is like, yeah, I'll take another one. When the kids get too rowdy, she just comes in and she's like someone else gets too wise so she comes up and is like no remember who's in charge here i've got it here she wants so she won't do that she won in three years 2014 15 16 then she took off 17 18 1 and 19 last year there was no masters and she won this year unless. Unless is she strategically avoiding the years where she's the oldest in the age group?

I don't know why she didn't compete in 17-18. It could be, but who knows? I kind of doubt it. I'm just saying. I'm sure it was just whatever was going on in her life. And you never know when you're – because she's been at least 55 all of those years. It's a pretty big toll on the body to come back and train for that year after year after year.

You don't need to tell Pat that. He's not 55 yet. Right. I think it's just how she cycles on and off. Oh, boy. That's a joke, people. That's a joke for crying out That's a joke, for crying out loud. Sorry, one other question.

It looks like, from the little bit that I've seen, when Tia wins, she immediately leaves the play of field. Does she seem pretty isolated to you? Have you seen her around? Have you chatted with her? She's staying across the hall from us. I haven't seen her much. I don't know. I chatted with her a bit before we started. I feel like since competition's been on, I haven't really seen

her much. I think she kind of does her own thing. Her folks are here as well, so she's spent some time with them, I think. Have you thought about banging on her door at 3 in the morning and then running back into your room? We just had the baby cry We just let the baby cry all night Seven I think she'll stay around if she knows she's going to do the interview

afterwards but otherwise you know I think and you know there was a lot going on yesterday and it was hot outside in the afternoons One of those events hot outside in the afternoons. One of those events that was in the, I don't know what you call it, the North Park or wherever. I can't even remember which event it was, but literally she won, and then the camera followed her just straight out of the stadium. Probably the sprint, because I think they basically made us leave immediately because the next heat was coming so fast.

I don't think. Was there another event in there in the north well the other the other one was the pig flip one but i think she stayed to did the interview after that one okay but that the sprint one because they don't if you because they went in heats they don't know if you won right away so i don't know i guess she did win the sprint too and she was in the last heat so i don't know they caught they i think they caught hayley adams after that because he had already won two events they'd already talked to her twice that day so i think they wanted to talk to hayley share the wealth yeah maybe have you been tested at all there pat for drugs or they just wait till the end no they do some random selections throughout the weekend um i haven't been randomly selected

i think it you know i think it kind of depends. I know they test the top five, I believe, every year, no matter what, at the end. So I think part of it might be strategic in the way that they select their random ones. You probably wouldn't want to randomly select someone who you think is a favorite to finish in the top five somewhere because you're going to test them anyways.

So it would be like redundant testing. You might as as well instead of testing the same person twice in a weekend because it costs money to test you might as well test more people so i think i think they tend to like and i think sometimes it happens after things like whoever wins the one rep max snatch might be walking out into a random selected drug test. You know what I mean? I think there's a little bit of that that goes on sometimes. Or if you have a vein that's as thick as a king cobra on your forehead or your bicep, you get the test. Yeah, so I haven't yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if I see one before I leave here.

Okay, well, I hope you get tested. That's always a good sign if you get tested after the event. Yeah, that's right. It's a compliment. Yeah. And it means you're in the top five, right? Yeah, exactly. I'll try to stay there for the rest of the weekend. No more big bonks. All right, man. Thank you. That was a long one you gave us. Really appreciate it. No worries. Thanks for keeping us relevant.

Likewise. Cheers. If there's anything you need, Brian has got a lot of free time on his hand. He can run you over a sandwich, a pair of shoes. He'll run to the store and get you diapers, any of that shit. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. That's not a joke.

A little baby time? I don't know. Oh, yeah. There he is. There he is.