The Sevan Podcast - Dallin Pepper, Luke Parker & Paige Semenza | 2023 CrossFit Games Prep

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

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Save on home and auto like only you can at tdinsurance.com slash ways to save. TD. Ready for you. Bam all right wow that was easy easy timing he's dude what's up just chilling just woke up not that long ago i'm guessing you just woke up too you can't tell i look you look ready to go is this like your favorite time to no 7am is good 6.15 is a little early 6.15 is a little early I see

when you is there a perfect world when you is there a perfect time to wake up like don't wake up until you wake up. Like I get up because like, I got shit I'm trying to do, but for like in your position, are you like, okay, I'm going to go to bed at eight every night. And when I wake up is when I wake up.

I mean, that sounds like a dream life. Is that your life? Uh, yeah. Usually like I'll set, I'll set an alarm for like nine. Um, and then depending on when I go to bed, that can be like up to 10 hours of sleep. Like if I have to get something done in the morning or get to an earlier session. But it's really just like sleep as long as you can to get as much as recovery. But it gets really old at this point in the season.

Like sometimes I'd rather just sleep for like a good eight hours. Like that's plenty and like be normal i guess like it starts to drag on when you have to like just sleep sleep sleep god i'm not even sure if i understand how that works well sleeping is good because you're healing right yeah that's the whole thing you put in the work and then to get the best return on it you sleep yeah you get exhausted every day but right uh physically and mentally yeah um i think like last year i didn't do this year i'm doing a better job like when i wake up i just get up last year was like no you have to get 10 hours of sleep or else it's like a waste and so i was like forcing myself to go back to sleep or else it's like a waste and so i was like forcing myself to go back to sleep and it's just my quality of sleep went down and now if i sleep a little bit less than my quality is better

and i actually rest more i'm trying to think what that's even like to force yourself to go back to sleep so like maybe you'd be asleep eight hours you'd wake up you'd see what time it is and you'd be like okay close your eyes down yeah and you just doze off again try and relax as much as possible yeah go back to sleep hey it sounds it sounds awesome it's a it's a shitty life i see um a clock at night and when it goes past 10 i know the quality of my life and i'm not in bed i know the quality of my life is going down your day getting worse i just know that i just lost every minute i'm awake on that end is when i'm not going to be it's sleep i'm going to lose when do you go to bed uh i usually try and get in bed at like 10 30

and read for a minute but i'm like like 9 30 is And I started like take the dog out, get ready for bed last, like my snack before bed, that type of stuff. Um, King size bed. Hmm. No other options. And you sleep in the same bed as your wife.

I do. Yeah. Do you think that you would sleep better if you were in your own bed? Let me be honest. Diagonal. No. When we first honest diagonal no when we first got like when we first got married i'd say yeah it was just like you can like feel someone's like sitting on the bed uh but now it's like it's i'm so used to it so normal i would prefer that that she's in there yeah yeah it's crazy crazy. But I'm going to be completely honest. I mean, I sleep, I'm sleeping by myself.

There's nothing better. I would just go to hotels when I would, when I work and travel and I'd be like, oh my God. And I would sleep diagonal. On king size beds? Anything. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

Just full like this. Just like a big X across the bed? Yeah. I don't give a. Spread your legs? Yes. Yes. Yes. big x across the yeah i don't give a spread your legs yes yes yes uh it must be amazing being on this team dallin all of you the synergy must be nuts right everyone's just so proud of everyone

yeah i would say like we're all we're all very serious competitors we're all we're all rooting for each other like we'll do a workout and and it's like, I'll tell James. If he saw me do it and he knows my time, I'm like, hey, go try and beat this. That would be pretty impressive. We're rooting each other on, especially as semis. I know going into the last event, I already had a spot. Going into the last day, Emma danielle basically had their spot locked off locked up mathematically and it was like i just all i wanted was james and fee to uh make it in

that last event i think that's a that's a cool thing to be a part of when it's such an individualized sport and there's still some team aspect to it it's fun i mean it's brought a lot of eyeballs to the to the brute camp i mean there were already a lot of eyeballs there. You guys are a wild group, really different, and draw on a lot of different people's, you know, what people like in the team or in athletes, and yet you're all together. But for you all to go is nuts.

How many coaches are there? How are they going to do that? There's Torres and Dom, right? Some guy named Dom? Yeah? Some guy named Dom. Yeah. Some guy named Dom. Yeah. Are you,

are you asking at the games? Yeah. How do you do, how are they going to manage five of you? Yeah. So we'll have Matt and Dom and then coach DC. He's with brew as well. Okay.

I've heard of him too. Okay. Yeah. He was in Naples for a little bit and now he's back in Switzerland. So he'll fly out. He meets us there Sunday for a little bit, and now he's back in Switzerland. So he'll fly out. He meets us there Sunday. And then Al, Fee's fiancee, is going to get a coach's pass as well. And then we have one more coach's pass.

We're still trying to figure out what the best situation will be. Mostly, like, Al's going to help Fee, I'd imagine, with food and just like debriefs. And if really if any of us need someone to talk to, like Al's going to be there. Where Matt and Dom and DC are going to provide most of the coaching. Okay, it's kind of like filming. It's interesting. There's like the water guy and the food guy are crazy important yeah exactly um but then you also need the guy if you run over and you're like hey dude uh my judge is fucked up and he missed five of my reps you need to tell um Torres that or Dom or DC

so then they can talk to the judge and put in the protest or whatever exactly and like when it comes to getting warmed up like those three are going to have our warm-ups on their phone they understand what they need to be doing cool downs debrief strategy all that and um worse i mean worst case scenario from a timing point would be worst case scenario from a timing point would be danielle emma and fee are all in different heats or do you as a coach do you want them all in the same heat so you can eyeballs on all of them or do you want them in all in separate heats uh the way that they've been letting us do it at least last year um we'll like start our warm-up in the athlete area and then we'll corral and walk over to whatever venue we're competing at and then they have another warm-up area so we'd basically i think we'd send like

matt with whoever is going first and he would be over in the secondary area and then we'd have a coach with us in the athlete area and he would do our general warm-up and then we would we could walk by ourself and matt would be there um really like matt's gonna be the coaches will probably be watching on the tvs and that in the warm-up area because they'll have other athletes going but you can still see quite a bit from there uh extra slop uh obligatory donation for behind the scenes footage well thank you tell everyone you're gonna be out there yeah dude when i heard when i heard that i was stoked because that's like my whole childhood the behind the scenes i mean i've watched those more times than i can even imagine or count just like anytime i wake up like i do my stretching

when i was 13 and it was like behind the scenes uh like working on my snatch in the garage watching behind the scenes and then when you stopped doing it i was like heartbroken because it was like 2019 right or 2018 yeah 2019 i think 2018 was the last year yeah um yeah in 2019 that was my last year as a teen. And I was like, oh, man, that was like one of my favorite parts. You'll see everything no one gets to see. I hope it may just end up being about Brute. Let's do it. Yeah, you guys have five athletes.

I love Torres. I haven't met Dom in D.C. yet, but I love Fi and Emma and you and James and Danielle. For me, it's like it's going to just be raining gold off of you guys. I'm so excited. We should provide plenty of content. Yeah, I'm so excited. I'm so, so, so excited. Sevan, do you like Michael Jackson's music?

Yeah, I know what you did there. You're making fun of the questions I ask. Okay. Okay. he's making fun of the questions i ask okay um uh someone thought about uh going up to the attic and pulling out the old every second counts dvd just for old times i think it's on youtube now you can just watch it on youtube yeah oh look now we're now we're talking down now down's bringing in the cash. Here we go. Allegra, what a lineup this morning. Can't wait to see how Dallin and the rest of the Brute crew do this year.

Been watching the behind the scenes and pumped its back. Thank you, Allegra. What obligations are yours when you go there? How does that work? Every morning, are you like, hey, you put a duffel bag and it's your water and your pre-workout and your food and then you hand it to whoever your coach is going to be and then they make sure or are you responsible for that how does that work what are the no details is too much i'm so curious how it works like in the morning corinne my wife like she she's good enough at this and she's been around long enough that she

based on the events and like how many events and all that she essentially knows what I need every single day for the games um so she'll she packs most of those bags while I'm either sleeping or eating or getting ready for the day um I'll carry the bags in. There's a locker room section, put all my stuff in there. And then who, when I start warming up for an event, I'll have my pre and post workout, nutrition, whatever that might be for the event. I'll take the pre, give the post to whatever coach I know is going to be right at the, right when we come off the floor at the end of the end of the event and I'll grab that from them and just always have extra food with me no matter where I'm going extra whatever bag I'm bringing around in case we get a surprise briefing or

we're unable to get back to the athlete area because some days they'll have us under the coliseum for like five hours straight and all of our other stuff's back at the athlete area so that's kind of what the day looks like could you eat could you eat too much yeah i think i did it semis honestly you could so like you go out on the floor and you're like fuck i'm gonna lose a few seconds here i got too much in me yeah i think the best the best way that works for me is getting a lot of it in at night and like staying super simple throughout the day um where it's stuff i'm very used to and even at night something i'm used to but just way more dense in calories and and how about the water thing

how about do you ever feel like you drank too much water uh i've never had that issue i sweat so much that like that's the that's been the biggest focus all summer for me with my nutrition coaches, hydration. It's tricky. Do you put any of that electrolytes or any of that stuff? I use this stuff from Swolverine that's supposed to hydrate you. I use Element stuff or other hydration packs that i've got and and when the when the week's over will you be all emaciated will you be like will you have you lost five pounds on sunday night ideally you gain weight through the games if you

did it right if you fueled enough like so i know a lot of people are going to lose weight which is not ideal it kind of sets them up for failure a little bit you kind of well i just remember specifically rich rich always looked like uh like he lost weight by the end of the games i remember he used to just like not eat during training, which is crazy. Right. Right. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know about that. The, the, the, the training groups are still the same.

Dallin when I think the last time I talked to you, you were training with, um, Danielle after, uh, fee and Emma would train in the morning. Yeah. So it'd be like fee and Emma and then me, James and Danielle. And that just, that keeps working out great? Yeah, I mean, we got a small space, so more than three is tricky anyway. And then I think these groups are fun. It gives people what they need. And, like, when we do, like, field sessions, running sessions, biking,

like we're all together. And there will be some days where, like like someone has body work or a phone call and we'll flip and get trained with other people. So mix it up and keep it fun. So like, if explain that to me, so meaning like if you were getting body work and James didn't have someone to train with, he'd go, maybe then go train with in the morning with V and Emma. Or like if it's like the other day

i had body work like when i would normally train so i just went in with fee and emma oh okay okay and they're cool with that yeah yeah i think like as long as we can keep it like three people in there like really during a session um i think it works great do all five of you ever get together yeah during it's easier during the off season like during games training and like prepping for semis it's just like we always take up more space with just the type of training we're doing while in the off season it's like strength or you're sitting on a machine forever and so i'd say in the off season during like our second sessions you'll find like seven eight people in there where like corinne and al and even matt sometimes working out with us and that's that's

always a lot of fun where's home for you originally like where are your parents at spanish fork utah yeah okay any chance that they like do you think your parents are gonna move to florida are you a florida guy now i love florida i do like i think recently i've been the most like homesick for like mountains and not humid air like i've i've been since we moved here but like we love florida it's where we need to be right now but definitely like I think the dream is to have something like a house in like Utah or Wyoming and then also in Florida yeah I would think that there becomes a part of Florida that you event you just can't leave eventually yeah like it's imagining a winter like when it's 85 and i

call my parents and it's like perfect here for six seven months and they're freezing for seven to eight months it's like no it's not it i wonder if they'll eventually come out and see do you have siblings yeah i have four younger siblings where are they at uh one is actually in california um the other one it will be a senior this year and then i have two younger sisters that are just at home oh okay so they're far from they're not they're far from chasing you yet yeah no yeah all right moving um and the the what are what do you do in florida um that you think like i see you guys doing pickleball are you going to the beach a lot too are you have are you taking advantage of the scene there yeah i more during the off season like i don't know the last time i've played

pickleball but during the off season it's like pickleball a couple times a night we'll try and go to the beach two or three times a month like every other week every week um we're just hanging out playing games getting crumble cookies uh like naples has like incredible food um there's just so many options so going to those places when we can eat a little more relaxed um it's just such like a chill place like we're just embracing that it's like there's nothing i don't know it's not like surfing it's not like this crazy florida life it's very chill yeah it's the time i was there it's just a shit load of like really healthy looking old people. Everyone had gray hair.

Biking, walking because it's just beautiful weather. It's awesome. Sevan's head just exploded at Crumble Cookie. I don't even know what Crumble Cookie is. Do we have that in California? Is that a California thing too? We do. It actually started the guy who started it went to the university i went to what is what is it

what is a crumble cookie is just a cookie just a it's basically a cookie shop and every single week they have rotating flavors they have like their chocolate chip and their sugar cookie that stays the same every week. And then every week they release four new flavors. So it's constantly changing. Are they stopped? What? It's like an incredible business model because it's like you could crave it every two weeks and just go get the same cookie. But they release a new cookie or four new cookies every week.

And you just have to try it even if it looks disgusting oh they're huge cookies yeah they're massive uh are they soft uh some of them i don't like a cookie unless it's chewy i mean yeah it's like that's where you get tons of variety and like some people hate one flavor some people love it so every week we rate them and you rank them one to four and which ones and then there's usually arguing and every once in a while someone will throw out a 10 that's a good day hey think think of all the dumb people who've had kids have had the idea of like starting a lemonade stand or selling making cookies and selling them and this this dude Sawyer Hemsley yeah you went to school with him no he's he's quite a bit older than me but we just went to

same school uh 330 locations holy cow yeah they exploded wow okay yeah i don't know that but everyone talks about it it seems to be a huge hit in the crossfit group yeah i don't know he should tap into that because everyone he looks buff too yeah i don't know much about him but he doesn't look like he eats too many cookies too many yeah any um any uh do you get stuck at Daniel Brandon stalkers at the gym? Uh, not at the gym. There's been a couple of times,

like we're getting Italian ice one day and they were ordering, they went and sat down everyone else. And then me and Corinne were still ordering. And some guy did not do CrossFit. Um, he comes up. I was like, is that Daniel Brandon? Is she with you guys?Fit. He comes up, he's like, is that Danielle Brandon?

Is she with you guys? Can I go take a picture? And, like, that's happened multiple times where, like, just random people in Naples who don't even know or do CrossFit, like, will spot her out. And, like, they'll usually come up to someone else in the group before they go up to her. But no one goes by the gym or shit like that not that not that i know of they're

doing a pretty good job staying secret about it if they are you've never been in there and someone comes in with their uh uh their down pepper card and asked to get it signed that is say it again you look at that every morning? Say it again? You look at that every morning? Every morning, every night. In the shower? Yes, in the shower. Look, they got a plastic case. This is the shower.

Take down to the shower with you. It's the shower case. Well, that's good. I was picturing that it's getting to that with all five of you guys there, and especially Danielle, people would start coming by there. But I guess it's not like that. And it's a really private gym, there's no randos yeah I mean it's the same people it's just an industrial area it's near Matt's affiliate so I mean

occasionally we'll get people looking for the affiliate kind of walk in and they're like oh This is not it. But, yeah, nothing crazy. Dallin, you're 23? 21. 21. Yeah. And you were the kids champ. Yeah, the kids champ. How many times were you the fittest kid? Three times.

Nuts. And how many times did you do the kids competition? Three times. Wow. Which year did you miss? The first year? Yeah, that was the first year I started CrossFit when I was 14. So if you would have started when you were 12, you could have, you may have.

Potentially. Has anyone ever, who else has won it three times in the boys or girls? No one right now, but the, I think the kid that's 17, he won when he was 15 and 16, so he's kind of in the same spot. What's his name? I think Ty Jenkins. And do you guys have a kid? Don't you guys have a – is Nate Ackerman a brute guy?

Yeah, he's working with Coach Dom. And how old is he? He is – he was 19 this year is he does he work out in the same gym as you guys uh no there's another gym that's like close by that's a friend's um and like dom's kind of been training people out of there just because it's so packed uh every time uh court uh cave dasher every time sebi says kid a part of dallin dies i like it's weird how senior you feel um compared to like even just two years ago like like you're this is this your third games uh second as an individual. I was just there last year. Man, do you feel already like a veteran?

Yeah, in a sense. I think all three years I was competing as a team. It was in Madison. So I know the venue really well. I know that process. So that takes a lot of surprise away but i mean it's still definitely just my second year is like in the individual division um but i think i've gained a lot of experience yeah i think people i think that people have a a ton of uh respect for you too

like a ton and those three years you know doing the um teenage division they count yeah like they got to count for something like i learned how to compete um it's still like the best in the world for where i was at at the time it's still nothing like it's not really comparable at all to the individual division but there's there's stuff to be gained from it uh dealing with the days how to eat like you said how to compete the crowds yeah exactly um uh mrs burns 399 hey thank you i got your package also thank you i started opening it and um and my wife was in the room and it's sitting on our kitchen counter and then i was like hey we better open this one we're more

focused you ever do that get a package that you know needs attention and then like you start to And my wife was in the room and it's sitting on our kitchen counter. And then I was like, hey, we better open this one. We're more focused. You ever do that? Get a package that you know needs attention. And then you start to open it and there's stuff in there. And you're like, oh, I better not open this now. Yeah. It's like it'll take the next hour of your day. Yeah.

There's stuff in there. I don't think so. Barry McCaulkin, does Dallin drink? No, I don't. Zero, right? Yeah, I've never drank, actually. Oh, never? Mm-mm.

Never had a sip of alcohol? No. I've decided at this point I've made it this far, and it's like, yeah, I'll just stick with it. Yeah, good on you. Another less significant question from the peanut gallery. Jake Chapman from the aisle of man. Does Dallin feel the benefits of baseball caps indoors?

Yes. And I rolled out of bed and came in here. So a little bed head. Wow. You have a, you have a bidet sponsorship down. I wish happens with trying to help me. Oh man, that would be crazy on like the

the threads app have you seen that the instagram oh yeah yeah yeah yeah uh like one of them was like i posted it was like the best part about florida summers are the water from the bidet is always warm and i started a bunch of stuff and then like the tushy bidet attachment company trying to get them to sponsor i'll be sick that would be amazing you you've gotten you're pretty light-hearted on your instagram you're funny yeah i'm trying i'm trying to show people who i really am where i think I've held back in the past. A couple years ago, when I first interviewed you, you mentioned, you're like, yeah, it's cool that Danielle's found her groove,

and you were kind of like, hey, I hope I find my groove and can let you know. Dude, you fully found it. Yeah, I'm just trying to embrace. You fully found it. Just embrace who I am, yeah. Yeah, and you're having a blast. Someone said, are you Mormon? I grew up Mormon, yeah. Do you drink caffeine?

Yeah. Are you guys allowed to do that in that religion? I thought you guys weren't allowed to drink caffeine. No, caffeine's good. Okay, caffeine's good. Caffeine is good. When you say you used to be, you're not still practicing or you're searching or you're

yeah we'll go with that okay fine fair enough fair enough save something for the after the games to talk about yeah there you go oh no hot drinks are mormons not allowed to have hot drinks i promise the last mormon question uh interesting question okay good yeah uh uh lee pinkman he's so hot fine i told lee he does our body work and he wanted me to make sure i said that he knows how to touch us perfectly you know how to he does all of you yeah we're we all go there weekly there's a couple places we go but uh there's a couple places we go but uh please no like that's where we go most of the time all five of you yeah i think danielle not as much i think but everyone else is like a weekly kind of thing why do you do body work does that does that stuff really help yeah um i mean there's only so many things i can do like stretching and like mobility tools that i have around and i'm not smart enough to do a couple things

is it um do you think that um if you didn't do it you would have what do you think the consequences would be like more injuries stiffer more sore yeah i think you can i think you can get away with outdoing it i guess i'm sure people do um that's why why take the chance of if like something's nagging like just go get it taken care of by someone who knows what they're doing and it's probably not going to be nagging for much longer do you remember the first time you had body work yeah i cried oh you did when how old were you it's like 14 i was got i got like a deep tissue massage and uh the massage therapist like stripped my it band with her elbow uh-huh and is that in the front is that in the front it's like uh between your quad and your hamstring oh in the

back okay oh i'm singing so as sorry sorry okay that's not that's not great either but like going down into your knee and just it's so uncomfortable but you feel better when it's done yeah it's like immediate relief wow crazy i i'm sure i don't think i've ever had a massage you should you should get in my time hiller massaged my shoulder once or my bicep. He massaged my bicep once. That's it. Hiller's probably great at that, right? I enjoyed it.

The other one, another guy we go to will strip my diaphragm or release my diaphragm. He goes up under my ribs. That's probably the other most uncomfortable thing oh my god so he's pushing in there yeah he's like pulling up and like pulling the muscle off the bone essentially no shit yeah wow god that yeah uh look eric why it's painful yeah eric knows but you feel better yeah like the diaphragm one like lets you breathe better too it's pretty weird yeah i was gonna actually ask you that i was thinking maybe it was a dumb question but does your voice sound different after he does that not even voice but you can definitely like if you were to go run

before and after you could like tell a difference where everything just is like more opened up you think the brute camp is because of where you're at um there's benefits to the it being in madison the heat acclimation you have i was talking to um i don't remember who it is seminar for someone someone went to orlando for a couple days to acclimate to the heat for not and and then jay crouches in nashville for a month no i think we have a huge advantage because as hot and humid as madison gets some of those days like this summer and i'm sure every summer here is just brutal like if you're outside doing anything past 10 in the morning you're you're dying a little bit

but you do it yeah we'll do we'll do some stuff like our big track and field sessions we do try and get done in the morning because it's still 90 degrees and super humid um but we'll do outdoor stuff we'll run and bike and do some some some sort of outdoor training in the middle of the day once at least once a week you ever do you ever do anything where you're like okay guys this is gonna be heat exhaustion day and he takes you out and and tries to really put it to you like like have you do like a uh a murph or some shit at the track that's basically every day here oh it is okay not on purpose it just damn um uh esc sounds uh this dude's gonna win the crossfit games i like harry harry's good dude it does feel like it's um i don't mean to put pressure on you but it does seem like

you're on course like it's an inevitability it's only a matter of time right yeah and maybe sooner than people think hey um this this story that fisa goffey has where she i think she she went out there and she was going to do 180 pound snatch and she puts an extra five pounds on yeah and that's what gets her to go to semi-finals if it wasn't for that just this bizarre move that like she can't even like really fully explain yeah but but it sounds completely insane but she does it i remember uh i was still at the venue and like all the girls were in the last heat. So I was getting body work and eating some food. So I ran over to watch with Matt and Dom and DC.

And we knew like that was kind of a make or break event for fee. And we saw our load one 85, like last minute. And when she hit it, I've never been like more hype everywhere i'm sure people were watching us like what are they doing like it was it was pretty sick this i i feel like unfortunately i'm never gonna have an opportunity to do what she did there like what do you think was going through like do you ever feel that way like do you see that when you're like competing at semi-finals and you get on the um let's say

you finish the snatches and you get on the runner for 800 meters and some party was like hey dude push as hard as you can other parties like dude shut up you have this just pace this normal it's like no push yeah i think try to kill yourself you're like who's talking yeah i mean in that 800 even like i kicked and i wish i would have kicked a little sooner honestly but i kicked sooner than i was planning and it was like that voice where it was just like go for it it's gonna be over in just a second that type of thing and and and and you did it you listened to it yeah i just went for it it's gonna be over in just a second that type of thing and and and you did it you listened to it yeah i just went for it um and do you have to take those risks to win the games will there be a time this weekend where it's like there's a plan and it's a good you know uh seventh

place finish but something inside is gonna be like hey dude do you want to take third in this do you want to try to get first in this i think yeah i think you definitely have to take risks but you have to you have to know yourself well enough to maximize the points you can get in each event um so like you you'll have your game plan and if it's if it's a workout or you see something in the field that makes you think or know like you can just send it for a second and abandon the game plan then you definitely have to do it to come out on top did you uh do you do you like more events do more events suit you are you a guy that prefers the more the more the merrier yeah i i think think so. Is that because you're young, you think, or just the kind of athlete you are? I'd say more the athlete because at semis, I try and be very consistent.

And the more events there are and the more consistent I am, the more chance someone else will fall on something. someone else will fall on something. A ninth, a fourth, an eighth, a seventh, a ninth, a seventh, a first. A first? Yeah. Damn. Tell me about that event. Event number seven, that was the echo bike, toes to bar,

and then carry that big-ass bag. Yeah. Three rounds. What's the plan going into that go as hard as you can that's one where it's like uh i mean that's a great example roman was like four or five points behind me or something uh it was basically whoever beat the other person would end up on the podium it's's like, you're lining up against Roman. He's known for machines. So it was just go for it because no one's going to really care

if you take fourth or seventh. You're still going to the games. So it was like just try and get on the podium and see what happens. Yeah, that's crazy. What a good group of guys, right? Down Pepper, Jason Hopper, Roman krennikoff alex vigno luke parker tyler christophe james pregg oh tyler tyler didn't end up making it huh no i don't think so yeah but it is a good group of dudes and we have a lot of we have a lot of fun in the back

for the most part samwell cornway uh will morad noah olsen oh jack farlow jack farlow's going to the games you know him from the um teenage comps yeah me james and jack were all there in 2019 and and were you did you have time to make a friendship with him during the teenage competitions yeah i, I'd say we competed at the games as well as Waterpalooza as teens a couple times. So I got to know Jack pretty good. Man, 290 is seventh place. That is nuts. Crazy, right?

That is nuts. How about that snatch event event did that go as planned yeah i i wanted to hit 290 or 295 um it wasn't the cleanest lift i've ever had but i got the job done it was it was definitely a chaotic i think everyone after hitting a heavy snatch and having the adrenaline dump for half a second, you forgot that you got to do another thing and sprint an 800 right after because it was like what did I hit?

What did everyone else hit? You have a two-minute reset and you got to go again. Man. Now you're going to the games. Mom and dad will be there? Yeah, my mom and dad and my sisters. And your wife?

And my wife, yeah. And a bunch of family too. So in-laws are coming. Oh, that's cool. You like that? Yeah, it's awesome. Everyone's very supportive. And so I have a good group of people there.

And people give you the space you need. Everyone knows like you'll just have your head down. No one like puts any demands on you or anything. They don't expect to see me all week. Oh, wow. Look at this. Jeremy World Dallin. It's my birthday today.

Happy birthday, Jeremy. Although I'm not sure I believe you. Do me a favor and tell Danielle Brandon I said what's up. You say hi to me first? I know. What a just, just ruthless. Oh, my God. Yeah, he's going to have Danielle go to your Instagram and.

I'll have her put it on her story or something. Yeah, he's such a good dude. That's his first thing. Have you guys stopped training yet? Like, is it like tapered way, way down? Yeah, we're on deload again, so just one session. Usually shorter, keep it intense. And then some extra accessory type stuff just to keep the body feeling good.

Do you notice mood difference in people in the camp? Are people more shorter, more more moody yes and no more yeah short i'd say shorter is the right word and it's dependent on the day like i'd say last week i was more stressed than i am this week i'm feeling really calm right now uh and it's like day by day with all five of us so you'll catch one or at least two people feeling that way every day for the next week. You notice it from the coaches too? I think they, no, they do a great job just like keeping things light and reading how we're feeling just right when we walk in. When you see people switching camps or – you know what I mean?

Even not even like switching camps but just people like who are coming from foreign lands, right? Like Jay is coming to Proven for a month, and they have to change up their stuff. Do you ever think, oh my god, I would never want to do that? Like you just get to stay in Florida. It's like kind of like, I don't know if this one's going to resonate with you, but it's the difference between giving birth at the hospital and giving birth at home. Like people who give birth at home,

you don't got to do shit. Yeah. After you do the baby, you're there. Yeah. You're chill. Yeah. And the,

but other people, they got to put their baby in the baby seat and then someone's got to come out and make sure it's tied. Right. And your baby's now in plastic and you're moving your wife and it's like i don't know it's crazy i just think it must be so nice for you guys to just be situated with these five people you got all your homies with you you got your wife and then you just have to pick up once strike the target and then come back retreat to home yeah i mean it's definitely not an advantage having to travel

across the world and spend a month in a place you're not used to um i think like like jay's good dude i've talked to him quite a bit like he having spent like a whole month here that's an advantage because he's at least like got a place to call home for a little bit, and he can make the trip to Madison. But some of the athletes that might not have that as an option where they got to come out just a couple days before and head straight to Madison, it's a huge time change. They're just not at home. Everything's completely different.

It's definitely a disadvantage, I would say. Yeah, you are friends with Jay Crouch? Yeah, we talked a lot during quarterfinals and semifinals and when you say talk you actually talk to him on the phone uh no i just messaged him okay yeah he's cool he was on last night i really like him yeah he's a good dude actually i met him uh flying to the games because him and rob forte their team was training in utah before the games in like 2018 and we were on the same flight and so they've been like rob and jay both like since then i've always like reached out and they're they're good people it was jay competing

as a uh teen on a team oh team oh oh he wasn't okay yeah he's cool as shit i really like him i hope he does good too yeah he's good dude all right man well thank you i really appreciate you taking the time i know this was crazy last minute and the scheduling's been uh tough but thanks for making this time for us yeah you guys are busy appreciate you yeah we're gonna see you i'm pumped say hi to everyone for me uh to tell uh dom and dc can't wait to meet him yes sir will do we'll see you next week all right brother thank you later bye oh i almost put end broadcast that would have been that would have screwed the whole show up get to the choppa down pepper and i having a Chatty fast discourse

That was fun We got his buddy James Sprague coming on tonight Today's my big day Dallin, Luke Parker will be here in a minute Should we look over at Luke's Instagram? And then Paige Semenza Who who I'm the most prepared for. I knew she was going to be last. I've never talked to her.

So I really dug into Paige's life. I listened to a couple of podcasts she's on. She's a misfit athlete. They're kind of different, those guys. They seem like the nerdiest group of athletes. Like really, I don't know, studious is the right word. Yeah, Luke Parker's coming on.

I guess I should prepare Paige's Instagram too Paige I'm talking to her alright there was this girl man Paige looks just like this girl i wish i could remember her name who used to compete out of denver way back in the day 2008 2009 uh did you happen to pull uh dallin's twerking video no i didn't i didn't um i didn't uh

i missed the twerking video luke is the real deal yeah man he really is right Blake Blake Smith I had no idea uh honestly I had no idea uh he would he would come this far it's crazy dude what's up brother what's happening hey big fat congratulations dude thank you you made the lead it says live for 45 minutes am i late no no no no no i i was on with um uh um who was in here james sprague down pepper down pepper was just in here okay i just want to make sure mr pepper yeah jesus dude uh i haven't seen it uh se, did you see Mayhem's doc about him and Bailey? It's crazy, the content they're producing. The content is crazy. I haven't.

When did that one come out? Taking a picture of you, Savan. Please. It came out a couple days ago. Oh, I just watched the one with Paige and Samuel and Roman, and it was crazy good. You and Bailey got one of those too yeah yeah they try and cover most the games athletes for road of the games episodes leading up to madison for the mayhem youtube channel how was polk street luke i grew up in Winter Haven when were you on Polk Street

what's Polk Street Polk Street in San Francisco you were not on Polk Street in San Francisco that's short for Polk State Polk State was awesome Winter Haven was awesome for JB what's JB

there's a Jack in the box there I don't know his name his handle is it's your boy jb oh oh oh oh uh dude um that was college baseball if you're like why was luke in winter haven i played it was my community college oh okay you. You went back there recently or he's asking you about your past? No, he's asking about my past. Like, how was it? Oh.

Which I think is cool because I absolutely loved Winter Haven, Florida. I mean, it was an interesting area. You're like 30 minutes from like Disney World. And then on the other side of you, you're like 45 minutes from like Clearwater Beach, Tampa, Florida. So a lot of my teammates in the weekends we go to the uh like tampa beach it was a good life yeah it was a nice little spot uh luke how um you made the leap and yeah it's it's kind of crazy uh i honestly didn't

think you were gonna make it like i appreciate the honesty I honestly didn't think you were going to make it. I appreciate the honesty. Yeah, I mean, not just you in general. I just don't, I just, when anyone leaps off a team, I just think, oh, you're fucked. You're fucked. I totally know what you mean. Only 40 dudes are going.

You're in the worst spot in the world to make the leap, the United States of America. Yeah. And you made the leap. Can you tell me about that decision? And if it was scary or not, cause you could have gone team again, right? You could have found a team. Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, so for sure. I mean, the decision's all always scary, right? Like you're on your own. If you're an individual individual versus team i like to tell people this and joke around about it but i'm serious like if i get tired out there on the floor i can't tag in angelo

you know what i mean i gotta think i'm on my own i gotta figure it out on my own and 2021 i actually was going to take the leap of faith and go uh individual again or excuse me sorry i did go 2021 2022 last season i was going to go individual and. Or excuse me. Sorry, I did go in 2021. 2022, last season, I was going to go individual. And so was Angelo. And excuse me, Rich was the one to tell me, hey, I think it'd be beneficial for you to go team and get some experience at the games

and then make sure you're fit enough next season to be able to, you know, bridge that gap. So I think that was huge listening to Rich, obviously. It's always big listening to him. But yeah, I think last season, 2022, I thought I was ready. Looking back, definitely had like as far as my weaknesses, my holes have been closed up more now um they're a little bit bigger last year but I still think I was gonna be like right there um but I'm just glad that I made sure I went to the games and with Angelo and man like I would have I would never change that for the world even if you told me I was gonna qualify last year like i got to throw down head to head on the worm with angelo against rich and sam cornier for mayhem freedom the whole season on his last year before retiring officially and winning his last gold medal so that whole

that whole season and experience training and working out rich was like gold. I would never trade that for the world. And so you, when you, when you, when that, when it was over last year, 2022, you come off the floor, do you know at that point, okay, I just stepped off as a team. And the next time I come back on, it's going to be individual. Like when does that set in and are you wishy-washy about it no not at all uh you made it sound funny like i'm like a little baby bird yeah yes i mean it's it's yeah hey dude there's a there's a ton of the teams is kind of this is people might not like this uh description but teams is more like grid league, right? I mean, there's some specialist shit going on there a little bit. Like you can hide.

You can have some holes and still make it pretty good. Yeah. For the most part, you're right. Like some tests you can't hide. Some tests you can really hide some holes depending on the format and the structure, obviously. But, yeah, like to answer your question, I knew going into that season. So I talked to Angelo, finally convinced him to go team with me. And yeah, I told him, I was like, look, bro, we need to crush it this year.

Get on the podium, which we didn't. We ended up coming in fifth last year, which is still awesome. And I was like, hey, we need to go individual again together next season and he was like let's just focus on this season and we'll talk about all that stuff after the games and I knew like being on the floor I remember on that last event watching like man freedom gather around and they just won by like 10 seconds to Oslo Navy blue. That last event they won. I think it was the seventh event. Maybe in a row. Quote me if I'm wrong there.

Maybe it was the seventh event wins. I think they were in a row. I don't remember. Anyway, they won the games. Right. And I just remember being there, like giving Rich a hug and Sam a hug and the girls and being like you know telling congrats and being happy for him and it for sure was going through my mind like I'll be here oh already wow yeah I had made up my mind that before that season even started like this is just experience for me to get to the games as fast as possible and get experience as fast as possible in Madison. And then obviously like knowing it's preparing me for my individual career.

You opened the day with the 21st. Did that hurt? At that point, you're like, oh shit, I'm going to have to work out of this. You're talking about orlando uh no sorry sorry uh this year oh oh yeah orlando sorry sorry is that where you guys were orlando yeah yeah you're talking about semifinals right yeah yeah yeah yeah i just didn't know what you were talking about sorry because i jumped from the games i apologize you're good, brother. Apologize. You're good. Yeah. No, I mean, just being totally transparent with you. Like, yeah, I know I'm super fit right now compared to, like, last season.

But going into the semifinals, I was very confident I was going to qualify just because. God, I love hearing that. I love hearing that. I was peaked at the right time. I was the fittest and strongest I've ever been. And like I said, being fully transparent, the programming was amazing for me. And a lot of these athletes and people listening understand like, if the programming is really good for you, there's not really much anyone else can do, you know, like you're going to go out and do well. That's just the bottom line. So I knew I was prepared, like they could

have thrown anything at me differently and change the programming and I was going to do really well but because a lot of those events were my favor I mean it was I was really happy about it so I knew and honestly that first event was a really good event for me and it just didn't go well that sled man that's glad man and that air runner oh oh interesting so who who else did i we had uh oh yeah page page that that should have been a good event for your uh teammate uh page powers yeah for sure and she i think she may have gotten a 21st also exact same uh placement as you really yeah and i think maybe she had to dig out of it the whole week the weekend but i you know i asked her the same thing she wasn't phased by it you weren't phased by it when you got that 21st your feelings weren't hurt you're like fuck it i still got this

yeah for sure i mean it was frustrating because i'm like man like you know you never know right you're in you're in the heat of battle but obviously like when you're in the heat of battle you want to be the most positive as possible so you're for sure you have thoughts across your mind like man i hope that 21st doesn't come to bite me in the butt later in the weekend because i just lost points right there but i wasn't phased because it wasn't like i came in 40th place you know what i mean and i knew like the best events for me were coming up i just thought that was going to be a really good event for me like i thought in my mind i'm like oh yeah first event top 10 finish no problem hopefully show out and crush it and maybe have a podium finish and i came in 21st but i mean it is what it is. Greg Glassman, poor Sevan.

He barely slept. What the fuck? No, I'm great. What are you talking about? I'm awesome. Oh, language? Am I swearing a lot? Sorry.

Okay, clean that up. But no, I'm good. I'm firing on all cylinders. I'm sharp. Sharp, sharp, sharp. Before I got on, I mean, I'm not gathering the context here have you been up since like 3 a.m or something i'm just charging through uh i'm coming to madison for the first time in four years or something like that and i'm and i get to film the behind the scenes so i wanted

to like re before i get there i want to rekindle my relationship with all you guys like have as many of the athletes on as i can again so i can like see you face to face and then when i see you there we can just charge together let's go i didn't know you were doing that that's epic yeah and i'm so thank you so athletes i mean i think it's great for everybody yeah me too i'm pumped anyway so i um uh again so these guys are just fucking with me. Tell me like I'm off my game a little bit because I'm up an extra 45 minutes early. I'm doing five interviews a day. And they might be right, but I'm in denial.

21st, what was the second workout, Luke? The ruck. It's like ruck, ring muscle-up complex, pistols. And then you have to do like your scores your burpee boxing covers that was that complex thing on the rings yep wow you did good at that that's a hey that's a good sign going into the games right because i kind of picture the games having weird shit like that yeah absolutely i mean you never know but as far as like having to figure things out especially with a rock or i don't know there's there's many torturing devices right the games will have so

yeah i mean they're gonna find a way to make things more difficult if it's not just more reps more sets so yeah i'm comfortable with ruck no matter what we're doing. And that total, you kind of got to be excited about that. You took third on the snatch, 300 pounds. Yeah, that felt good. I don't know if you saw that, but I almost hit 297 and a half. I ended up loading the bar wrong and finally put the right weight on with, I think three seconds or five seconds. I can't remember,

but I just remember like looking up at the clock and I hear the lady on the mic go three, two. And I'm like, all right, well, I got to go now. And then as soon as she said one, I picked the bar up off the ground, which that felt good that like under that kind of pressure without really much time to gather myself and, you know, approach the bar on my own timeline. I felt good. How many times in your life have you hit 300 pounds? That would be the first time technically. My PR. uh that would be the first time technically um my pr so the only time i've ever snatched more than 300 was one time in my life and it was

this is actually really comical it was the day of the 2021 games when they snatched in the coliseum and gee hit 305 to win that event against royce dune from australia yeah um and i was in the vendor village because i didn't qualify in 2021 but i did like games training with uh rich's team that year and just like was hanging out watching rich and i was at the army warrior fitness like trailer car in the vendor village like courtyard and me and jacob faff were doing like a power hour challenge where we did these different events against each other and we did a max snatch against each other and we both hit 305 i actually actually hit 295, which that day was a PR. And then we only had 10 pound increments. And we're on like a little piece of green turf on like uneven concrete. And I was fired up. I was tapered out. I've been resting four days watching Rich just hanging out at the

games. Felt really strong and yeah i smoked 305 so that was the only other time i've ever hit anything over 300 was um 2021 it's just interesting like i know that may not seem like oh man well that must be like really heavy weight well it is really heavy weight but like we lift here at mayhem based off rpe rate of perceived exertion it's a fancy way of saying like if i feel like i only have 70 in the tank today i'm gonna only lift like for example like if my 90 lift is 300 pounds then i'm only gonna lift like i don't know 275 for the. And based on how I feel for training, because with the high volume, we're like smoke. Most of the time, our shoulders are burnt toast and we can't

lift very anything very heavy over our heads. So we have to just go lighter. But knowing that when we taper when the time's right leading up to competition, I mean, it's a huge trust factor, but you got to trust that, hey, I put in the work and i am strong and that when i taper off and i feel good and feel fresh and feel strong i'm going to be able to hit a pr or at least match my pr so we don't lift very heavy very often as far as like trying to hit prs and stuff during the season damn that you explained that so well that what a psychological trip that is so you're telling me that how and so how many times have you hit 295 um like twice in my life so but i have like right now like to answer your question i've hit 295

twice ever in my life but if you came here today to Cookville and were like, all right, you need a max snatch right now. I'm fully confident I can smoke 300. Yeah. It's crazy because you did, yeah,

you did 300. You set a PR, except for this other fucking bizarre PR. Man, all your PRs are bizarre. They're great data points for the trust in your programming. Like it's proof is crazy proof of concept. Yeah. Well said.

God, that is cool. I know that Todd Tucker, that is very cool. I know. What a great story, Luke. Holy shit. So are you, are you, uh, you walk out there, the the clock's going do you have time to think does any part of you think you know like um skateboarders like they'll keep doing the same trick over and over and over and they're missing it over and over and over and you're like i'm watching my kid i'm like he's not even trying now like he's trying to land the crash he's not trying to land the trick you know what i mean like they do some jump off the stairs and they're trying to land the crash not land on the board and is any part of you out there sometimes it looks like crossfit games athletes

are doing that when they do big lifts you're like they weren't really going for the lift was any part of you like hey there's only one second left fake it just faked it no no god damn you're a savage well it was cool like i mean walking out there so for example like one of the other heaviest lifts i have ever had in my life was last year for semi-finals we had a max snatch um like ladder for teens so i was at the mac and i was so how it worked was you you keep hitting more weights until you hit 275, which was the last barbell. And then one of your teammates, so me and Angelo both at 275 and which was awesome.

And then you choose one of your guys to go to the final platform and you can lift as much weight as you want. You can lift 280, you can lift 400. It doesn't matter. Like you can pick whatever weight you want. You can lift 280. You can lift 400. It doesn't matter. You can pick whatever weight you want, and that's your score. In my mind, last year, I was like, I want to hit 300. I'm trying to get the crowd going. I want to smoke this. That was a big weight at the time for me last year in semis. Rich was in the stands stands and he's like, no, 290, 290, because 290 was to tie for first.

And we knew that the girls were coming up, our girls and Sasha Nianis, one of our girls was really good at snatching. So we knew like if we just put her in the driver's seat, we're going to win that event. So I hit 290. So similar thing happens. But it's Jake Locker instead of Rich. And Rich was there, too, as well, telling me like, hey, look, like just hit something safe. Like there's there's no need like you're in the driver's seat to qualify for the games this year. Like just hit something around 290 again. So in my mind, I'm like, you know what? I'll just go for 290 because one thing Rich has told me, if you're ever in a competition and you're about to go for 295, you need to put on two and a half because it's just two and a half to hit 300.

Like, don't ever put on 295. So in my mind, I'm walking up. I'm like, I'm going to hit 290. I'm going to run, give myself enough time for like four or five attempts, and I'm going to hit 290. That's my plan. give myself enough time for like four or five attempts, and I'm going to hit 290. That's my plan. As we're walking out in the corral to the floor, I hear – Jake?

Who was it? Was it Jake? I can't remember. But someone on the like Jumbotron, they're like showing the camera on – oh, Jake Farlow, yeah. They're like, hey, he hits 300. And I'm like, well, I'm going to have to hit 300 now. Oh, you knew right there?

Seriously? Yeah. Well, I was like, well, in my mind, I'm like playing this mind game. I'm like, listen to your coaches and the people that know. Like, you need to hit just 290. You're in a good spot. Like, you're still probably going to come top five and then I'm thinking in my mind I'm like but I want to win this event yeah and not knowing that Jason Hopper is going to hit 305 but man I felt so good out

there on the floor like I hit I think it was 280 was my second to last one and it felt so easy and that's such a heavy lift for me but in the heat of the moment i was like man i feel like i could hit 315 right now if they gave us an extra minute and i put on to um the plan was 300 and then i ended up putting on 297 and a half I met I messed it up I didn't put one two and a half on when did you realize that uh well I looked at the lady because I'm like tighten my belt again and you're supposed to declare the weight to your judge over here on the right corner so I look at her I'm like hey 300 and she goes she like looks at the weight she goes that's 295 and I'm like i look over i'm like because that's 300 on this side and i look over and it was missing a two and a half on this side

i'm like oh crap so i went and put it on and then like i said you reset your belt or no oh no i literally put it on put the clip take a step over put this hand on the barbell put this hand on the barbell and pick it up oh my god dude crazy crowd go crazy i mean yes the sec little section behind me and like my friends and family over here like not really because i'm in the last little thing yeah and the all the camera and everyone's focus is on jason hopper because he has his time he's cool calm and collective like you're supposed to be right because yeah right weights and he's like taking his time his bells chalk i don't know if he was doing this or not but every all the focus was on him because he had 305 on and he smoked it

and it was a beautiful lift which he deserved the focus to be on him but yeah it was it was a cool moment uh judy reed uh luke parker is a great storyteller he makes you feel uh like you're there yeah these are great stories this is so cool to hear all this man and and then you make that lift hey do you look is your does your do you ever see your judges give emotion to like is your judge happy for you or she's just like good oh she's laughing because oh man she's like flipping the little like uh paper things yeah go the right way yeah she had 295 on there so she flips the two to a three so then the time i'm like holding it over my head and like slamming on the ground and like cheering or whatever

she she has it like three like i hit 395 so she's like just she's like she's laughing she's just like fumbling through the numbers like trying to show the right weight which i thought was funny because because it happened so quickly. Like the time I put the clip on, I pretty much put my hands on it and lifted it. So it was like she's just trying to put the right numbers on, which was funny. But, yeah, I mean, they're not really supposed to get emotional. And I don't remember my judge getting emotional as far as like cheering or anything. But I remember them coming up to me and being like

that was awesome nice job uh uh mike uh pool boy i remember seeing that in person it was nuts i got a half chub oh that's nice let's go yeah that's cool give the people what they want yeah people it's you know like when you crash on your bike or something or you fall down or like you you and there's no one there to see it and you're like man what a waste i just ate shit on my bike no one got to see it there's no video of it there's no i always felt like like you know what i mean or like you drop your cell phone and it breaks and no one saw it but you i'm always like what a waste yeah 20 people deserved it so it's cool when people like yeah i remember that like they got to actually live like oh shit lu, Luke's not going to make the lift.

And then you got it. Any chance that you thought when it was overhead, like, fuck, maybe I didn't get it off the ground in time? No, because I knew like I saw previously. I think it was Marquand Jones. I was even like, man, if they give that to them to him i should have no problem because they say three two one and then they like the beep like almost sounds like an alarm goes off right right you got one second after they say one you still have one set you still have like i guess there's it's the horn so the horn goes off right and literally like the horn is like mid

like peak of like volume right and then marquand pulls it off the ground and sticks it and it was like five seconds after the horn he still got it overhead and then drops it but man i was like all right. Because I didn't know if they were going to give that to him or not. And I think they ended up doing it like a heat or two before mine. So I was like, all right, I should be fine if I pull off at one. And no matter what my weight was going to be, the plan was to pull off the ground at like one second left anyway. I just wanted to do it like, you know know without rushing myself and taking my time but

it worked out it was good look at how look at how nice people are jamie ladner seve tagged you in the reel so like i could pull it up god if there was just one more of me here i could do that thank you um who who will be in your corner at the games who which which uh which mayhem coach will be um luke parker's coach so with my coach's pass it's gonna be my brother and not it's funny like i feel like in the CrossFit community unless you're a mayhem athlete or like really close friends with me you don't really know who my brother is as far as like his CrossFit experience and all that but I mean he's been my coach like my entire life he was like my baseball coach when I was in college I mean talk about like I don't want to say mental health coach but like

mentality mindset he's always been a stud like he's always been a huge role model of mine growing up and like when i did triathlons and like aerobic capacity work a year before i started crossfit he was writing me like aerobic capacity progressions is this him in the middle yes wow he's He, uh, he's focusing now on being a father and a farmer, but, uh, man, he used to be like not too long ago, absolutely shredded and stupid fit. He and I were doing triathlons a ton before I, uh, started CrossFit. But anyway, he's, he's going to be my coach officially, but I'm going to have Rich, Jake Lockhart, Jake Foster. I mean, a lot of these other mayhem coaches in my corner. And it'll be nice even to talk to like Angela,

if I have any questions about anything. I mean, those are like my favorite people to go to, honestly, is Rich, Angelo and Jake Locker. If I have any questions about workouts or anything, and they're all going to be there in the athlete warm up area at the games. Look at this. That's right after the lift. Oh, bar still bouncing. Yeah. Oh, man, you are on fire look at it it almost looks like the the the ink on your arm is popping off you're yelling so loud geez louise hey go to uh

so you're on my ig page yeah click out real quick and scroll up is this it no keep scrolling up it's a couple more this oh yeah here it is oh shit okay god i wish i knew how to zoom in on that so that's one friend film on an iphone and then memes for times film this film this one well you can see my judge like flipping through the the numbers oh yeah she didn't even she's not even watching you oh the poor lady hey who took this picture well it's funny because like oh that picture was our media guys through oh he killed it through people's like through fans and stuff because they weren't allowed and there was no like media area in orlando yeah that's why i didn't have like professional footage of it and like that video you just saw was just friends with

iphones god it's so good yeah thank god for for iPhones. Everyone's got 4K out there. Yeah, right. Hey, Luke, you seem very settled in your, I don't know, just facing you like this from thousands of miles away. You seem very settled. Are you the best place you've ever been in your life? What do you mean? Like as far as being in Cookville?

Yeah, you just seem like so at peace you seem just like just awesome you i'm just getting good i'm just getting good vibes from you you just seem really settled like stable as fuck yeah i appreciate that yeah i am for sure i mean can't complain man i'm in good old cookville tennessee what we're a week out from the games. I'm feeling really good. About to go ball out, have a party in Madison, and then have a real off season. God is good, man. I appreciate the compliment. I mean, it's hard not to be at peace or feel stable, you know, when I know God's got my back.

He's taking care of me. He's got me right where he wants me. So I'm just excited, man. I'm excited. You're going to be in Madison behind the scenes. Thank you, dude. I can actually dab you up and not just do it virtually through the zoom or whatever. Yeah. Let's see how happy you are when I'm there when you're crying, but okay. Hey, Hey, you know, when I really hear the, when I heard,

what made me really think that you sound great, this is going to sound so weird. But when I hear you say Angelo's name. Yeah. It sounds like you have a friend. Like the few times you dropped his name. I'm like, oh, shit, they're homies. Like I could tell the way you say his name. Like it like it.

You dig him. He's cool. I got a ton of like like super close homies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Like he's bridged the gap of, I mean, I feel like everyone here is family, but he's a brother for sure.

And you're married to now. How's that going? And marriage is awesome. We actually, oh, you're loving it. Oh yeah. Last night we were just kind of joking around chatting about how last night was five months officially so five months married man i haven't upset my wife once yet so i got it figured out and she's in cookville too yeah she's in cookville she lives with me so yes

and and and that's um uh is cookville home for you now do you think you're a cookville guy you think you'll raise your family there and like that's gonna be yeah i mean that's a good question i mean this is what i tell people look i don't know where i'm gonna end up i don't know if next year i'm gonna be living overseas or wherever i'm gonna go wherever god leads me and right now I'm competing in CrossFit. And if I'm going to be competing in CrossFit, there's no better place to be than Cokeville, especially with this family that I've built here at Mayhem. And obviously having Rich watch over me, make sure I don't do anything stupid. And yeah, I mean, I got a core family here. I don't know.

I could see myself living here the rest of my life or just another few years while I'm competing. I have no idea, but I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. That's what I try and tell people. This you said twice now that like you basically you feel you feel good. You trust the path God's put you on and you're in God's hands. And that's a great feeling what about on this really um micro level do you have a plan to accept situations that go bad at the games like you're about to go out on the floor and

your pre-workout's not there or you forgot your shoes like do you have a you know what i mean like do you have a do you have like a okay do you know what i mean like that also is in the plan don't get upset stay chill luke like do you have a plan like do you have a do athletes prepare for that mentally those little things that could go wrong that could like throw you off but have no business throwing you off shit i packed a banana instead of an orange right the orange is supposed to be for at night you know like yeah i mean micro level like that i mean that's why i have my my coach there my brother right like he's he's gonna make sure i have my banana and not my orange you know like he's gonna make sure i have my work out on

that but as far as like well what if something happens that throws me off what if i don't have my pre-workout or whatever like you're saying something my car breaks down on the way to the venue and someone tells you that now it's in your brain as you got onto the floor and you're like what the fuck then you just gotta remember it's the games you know what i mean then i feel like that just comes down to the athlete like i don't care if i didn't eat the entire day if i'm at the games and the lights are on and three two one go is about to happen i don't care if i'm barefoot out there and i don't have i don't care if i don't have knee sleeves grips wristbands whatever like i could be naked i could be in the nude out there i'm gonna go send it you know it doesn't matter i pictured you when you were actually saying all that i was picturing you out there naked i'm like

well what if he went out there naked i was gonna up the ante on you but you took it you said it yeah all right do you so do or die you're bringing everything absolutely i mean you got to you train your whole life prepare for for this you know um uh cuts did that get in your head at all i mean as far as getting in my head in a negative way no but yeah they're definitely in my head in a positive way i think it's a good like guideline and goal to remember like day one this is this is how i like to look at competition right a lot of people stroll in there and they're like all right shake, shake the rust off, shake the nerves off. No,'t have to be you know like i'm not gonna be freaking out but i don't want to be i don't know i might like being close to the cut line

might make me work harder but anyway yeah i definitely want to be inside the cut yeah um more games for you? You go this year, you're going next year too. Now, are you in now? Yeah. They hooked me,

man. I got the CrossFit bug. They got me. I mean, this, this, this is why I have such a cool head about like competing and stuff is at the end of the day, I'm competing against myself.

Like, I don't care who's next to me. Right. if there's someone like if you and i are doing a workout savant and there's we both have two reps to go and we just have to jump over the bar and run to this buzzer yeah we're gonna both push harder than we would normally but the other day we're competing against ourselves and that's what i'm trying to do right now is find out who the fittest Luke Parker is. And I'm trying to be the fittest version of myself and see what, how I stack against these kids and some of these dads out there,

respect all the dads out there in the field. And yeah, I mean, I definitely, definitely don't see myself stopping doing CrossFit or competing and trying to make it to the games and succeeding and doing well. It's just crazy, man. I really haven't been doing this that long. And every year I just keep getting better and better. So just, yeah, every year you contemplate life because training at this level sometimes, a lot of times sucks. And you're just like like why am i doing this to myself but it's it's cool to remember your why and it's cool to see the progress and how far you've come just from

not too long ago and i know that you can say the same thing about yourself like even with this podcast look look at look at your ceo podcast man look how far you've come from literally last year and then you look back two years like dude what is going on you're behind the scenes of the games this year crazy crazy next year we're gonna be laughing bro you're gonna this is gonna take off it's gonna be a good thing uh luke i so let's talk about that you came i thought the first time i met you that um you were smoking crack came i thought the first time i met you that um you were smoking crack i was like this guy is completely fucking delusional he was that was that 2021 you had me on the first probably a couple years ago early on and i just remember thinking he's too old to this is not like this isn't

baseball this isn't um this isn't a show this is like really fucking hard work. Even hard work that I can't even fathom. you went to the Mayhem Camp and I'm like, he probably has no business being there. It's notoriously just hard. I asked Rich the other day. It was so funny. I said, hey, Rich, you guys just chew people up

and spit them out over there, huh? And he goes, no, no, we just make their dreams a little more realistic for them. Like, or something like that. And, but you made it through all that. It's, it's, it is really, it's not a, it's an understatement to say that you haven't been doing this very long. Not only have you not been doing it very long but you're you're late to the party yeah and yeah and here you are i'm late to the party but at the same time i feel young in the party you know because nowadays we look at kids that have been doing crossfit who are 25 years old today yeah but how old are you how old are you 29 okay but so it's not that you're old but you are late to the party you just started

late exactly like but but the point i was bringing up is like there's kids they're doing the sport today that are 25 ish years old but they've been doing CrossFit since they're 12. Yeah. Yeah. All that wear and tear on their body for that long. Right. Like over a decade, over 10 years. And I have, I'm just now like, can say I've been doing it for my fifth season, my fifth year. So I'm like my knees, my joints, I still feel young. Granted I've had dings and stuff and like tweaks and maybe some micro tears but like that's just part of it especially when you're trying to bridge and

close the gap so quickly you know what i mean you're putting your body through hell and back literally every day so you're obviously riding the line of getting hurt but i still feel young you know i feel like i'm just now learning how fit and resilient I can be in certain skills and areas. So I just like to look at aerobic athletes, like endurance athletes. They don't really reach or bridge their potential until they're in like their mid-30s. Not that I want to be doing CrossFit like I'm 40 or anything, as far as competing. Fed up with road rage, gas guzzling, and backseat battles of road trip vacays? Beach, it's time for a reality check.

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Snacks, drinks, and everything we can win in a new game at Circle K? Check! With Circle K's Summer Road Trip game, you can win over a million delicious instant prizes and a grand prize of $25,000. Play at games.circlek.com or at participating Circle K stores. It's nice watching kind of Rich. i'm enjoying watching rich tone it down well i'm enjoying watching just maybe tone it down is not right pivot to biking yes i'm enjoying that yeah you're right toning down is not the right yeah i'll give you that look because dude no one has any idea how hard this man is working he's probably doing more volume than the majority of the crossfit athletes right now as far as training he's just doing on a mountain bike now

and he's he's stupid fit on the mountain bike right now just from a few months of getting after training for this 100 miler it is and he has to start in the back like because it's part of some charity thing too right i want i i was kind of surprised he's doing that. Yeah. Yeah. He won't end up in the back. Yeah. It was something, something, it was something crazy. Like, I don't know, less than a dozen people who started where he's starting finishing the time, time, uh, cap or whatever, the 24 hour time cap or whatever. Yeah. Well, no one,

no one's as savage as him when it comes to passing people on narrow trails if anyone knows that it's me i'll never forget like we're in this last year we're in this 24 hours in the canyon so texas right palo duro canyon and we're on a 24-hour bike ride it's a 24-hour bike race but we're doing 24-hour bike race, but we're doing teams of four. So we'll ride like an hour lap. Well, for him, like 40-minute lap. And then you'll rest a few hours, and then you go again for 24 hours. So we only did like – I think Rich did like nine laps.

He did the most because his team was the fastest. Anyway, my second year doing it was last year, and I wasn't on Rich's team. So I can hear him yelling at me. He's like 50 yards behind me. He's like, I'm coming boy. And I'm, I knew starting this lab, I was like, I got to get after it. Or Rich is going to catch me and pass me. And I'm going up this like nasty climb, like climbing up these rocks. I'm out of the saddle. I'm grinding. And he just goes,

just right past me. And I'm like, I'm like literally the saddle. I'm grinding. And he just goes, just right past me. And I'm like literally thinking in my mind, there's no CrossFitter that could pass me on a bike when I'm grinding up this hill. And then sure enough, Rich is like, when he passes me, he nudges me and throws a bow at me. He pulls his foot off the clip, kicks my tire, clips back in. While he's on the climb just keeps going i'm like dude what the heck savage not real um what's going on what's going on with gee luke

um two-part question what's he doing how's he doing and does it fuck with you guys that he didn't make it like you got the brute team and the whole team's going and they're like high as a kite over there and then you got one of your superstars on your team who didn't make it like you got the brute team and the whole team's going and they're like high as a kite over there and then you got one of your superstars on your team who didn't make it does that hurt and uh and how is he doing now yeah he's doing great i just talked to him a lot actually yesterday we uh got a chance to catch up he's doing great mentally i mean he just took his like official, official offseason. He's been in Brazil with family and friends. And, yeah, obviously it sucks.

Like, you don't want to be a superstar and, you know, have some unfortunate events happen to the point where you don't even show up to the games. And it's just part of his story. And he's extremely faith-driven. He's got a really strong relationship with god and he'll tell you himself like he's he feels like god's testing him because he felt like his first year he was more faith-driven in his identity and then like this past year his

identity his mind was consumed with where he was in the leaderboard and not where his identity was supposed to be and then he just felt like God was really testing me, like, hey, if you're going to put your faith and trust in me, then all right, you're going to go a season without going to the games. And I want to make sure that your faith is still strong. And he feels great mentally. He's like, look, I get a whole year to just get my mind right, get my body right for next season.

I get to plan my whole calendar year the way I want. I get a real off season. I get extra time to rest my body compared to some of these athletes who are competing right now. So I know he's got a good head on his shoulders and not to get too nitty gritty in the details or make excuses or anything, but it's just tough. I mean, if there was Z scoring in that semifinal, he would have smoked those other guys. I mean, you look at that second to last workout, like he beat everyone by like five minutes. Like second place guy, I think was literally like if it wasn't five minutes, he was at least three minutes behind his score. And yet he's like only two points ahead of that guy.

You know what I mean? And there was only like a handful of guys he's actually competing against in his semi-final so it's just tough like you can't bomb one event he almost has to literally win every single event to qualify because there's only two spots which is just rough but it is what it is and he's got a good head on his shoulders and i know he's going to come back in 2024 and be the star that he is and put on a show for the, for the fans. He's definitely missed. That's crazy that you mentioned Z, Z score as Will Branstetter says, Tyler Watkins just wet his pants. Yeah, I agree. What, what it, Jesus, look at that. Look at, there he is. Tyler Watkins, Luke was the winner of the first comp to use Z score. My God. Wow. You've arrived, Mr. Watkins.

I cannot believe Lukeer dropped the z score jason notes when i was over there at jr's competition which i don't know if you know about me savon but i'm friends with jr he's run the crash crucible yeah i didn't know that i didn't know that so the programming has been phenomenal Actually every single year he's hosted the crash crucible event at his crash fitness gym. I've competed and it's kind of nuts. Okay. I didn't know that. Okay. I didn't know that. My brain's always like a few steps behind. I didn't know that. You're good. And it was interesting this past year they use the Z scoring and I believe, I i might have won anyway maybe not maybe by a few points but i won because of the z scoring i had a few events in that competition where i did really

well and i separated myself yeah you earn separating yourself and i like using this example so if there's people listening right now and they're like well what the heck is he scoring and one of these guys talking about. My favorite example is 2021. Rich broke the record of every single event on the first day with Mayhem Freedom. He won four events in a row. Oslo Navy Blue came in second, I believe in three of the four events.

They were only like four or five points ahead of Oslo Navy Blue. And Oslo Navy Blue is in second place and there is two events where they beat them by minutes like smoked them absolutely spanked them but on the leaderboard it looks like they're like right there tied yeah and if it was z scoring you know like rich's team and freedom would have been up 100 points so that's the best way to describe it. It's like, it's the same thing. If there's a small, it's kind of like the ghee situation. If there's only a few people that are, you know,

the people that have the points that you're competing against, it's just tough when there's not a whole lot of people in the field to mix up the leaderboard. Anyway, I just can't get over the fact you're talking about the Z-scoring. God, Tyler Watkins must be so happy. Hey, dude. Thanks for coming on. You the man. So good talking to you. You seem like you're in great spirits.

Man, you're on fire. Love you, buddy. See you in 10 days. Sounds good, brother. All right. Ciao. See you. Now for the mysterious secret of CrossFit Paige Semenza. Hey, girl. What's up? Not much. How are you? now for the mysterious secret of CrossFit,

Paige Semenza. Hey girl, what's up? Not much. How are you? What's awesome. I am pumped. Yeah. I am pumped. Oh my goodness. I am so pumped.

Yeah. Good to have you on. I've never. Great to be on. Paige, when was your first year at the games? 2018. 2018. The marathon row.

Oh. Wow. A wonderful year. Okay. So we have cross paths. Yeah. You have such a familiar name, but I was trying to think, I don't think I've ever like met you in person. I've never like shook your hand or said hi to you or anything. I was a rookie back then. I was super quiet. I mean, I'm still super quiet. Yeah. You are quiet, huh? Yeah. Maybe not at home, but. But you're not a shy person. No, not really. Welcome.

I'm glad you're on the show, and congratulations. What number of games is this for you? So this is my fourth individual. I actually went 2017 with team. So I was on Timberwolf with Andrea Nistler back before she was yeah no right back before she was you know on all these amazing teams hey um luke was just on and i was and we were talking about how that was luke parker and we're talking about how he made the leap from um team, team to, uh, individual. Uh, and I, I never thought he'd make it. I don't ever think anyone's going to make it. It just seems

like too big of a gap. How did you do that? Was that scary doing that leap? Uh, it was, I knew back then though, that I originally wanted to go individual. So when I made my first regionals in 2016, I was like, wow, I like I fell in love with it so hard. And Kelly Wild and I were former teammates at Ohio State. We played ice hockey together. She was on the team at the time. They had been to the games a couple of times then. So she's like, hey, we need a third teammate. That was back in his teams of six so that was uh that was how that you know kind of came together so 2017 we went team i lived out there uh in minnesota with kelly and her family um they were you know kind enough to take me in for the year so it was really awesome uh barry mccawkenner uh kelly is a wild beast kelly oh no kelly wild is a beast

she is a wild beast kelly wild you can double down on the wild uh she's awesome mike pullboy page is the most underrated athlete on the field four years at the games as an indian never gets the respect what did she gets the respect yeah i don't think it's not that i don't gets the respect. She gets the respect. Yeah, I don't think it's not that I don't get the respect. I think I have the respect. Again, I'm on the quieter side. I'm not huge on social media. I just kind of

keep my head down. Tell me, that's fascinating to me that you're an ice hockey player. I'm trying to think if there are any other. Carolyn Prevost. Oh, well, she was everything, wasn't she? Yeah, but I think ice hockey was her main college sport. Okay.

Yeah, we played against each other. So that's kind of cool. Where were you born? I'm from Pennsylvania. Okay. so you're a scranton area okay so you're american yeah american canada a hockey player yeah correct and uh in in your first sport was ice hockey no shit yeah i think i started i actually started later than most i started when i was eight played with the boys and then moved on to uh the women's sport how come you played with the boys there weren't girls to play with not where i lived um at least

the teams weren't like up to the caliber of taking it to a higher level. So I had, we traveled a ton. Me and my mom traveled so much, man. Like those, I look back on those times. I'm like, I don't know how we drove six hours here, six hours there, eight hours here. Like we drove everywhere together. To do hockey. Yeah. And when you started at eight, um, how many, um, how many days a week were you training? Was it just it just thrown right in the fire? Pretty much. Every day I was like, please take me to the ice rink. I live three minutes away.

So I basically lived there. It was like my second home. And why not figure skating? Why not twirls and jumping? No. Honestly, I mean, that is a super, it's like, you know, gymnastics, you have to be perfect on your feet when you're out there doing figure skating. But I was such a tomboy when I was a kid, I played every sport with the boys. So that was it just, I don't know,

I was a magnet towards ice hockey. and and and I didn't I meant it um in in this sort of tongue-in-cheek and facetiously because if you go somewhere right let's say I mean I remember in the seventh grade taking sewing and I show up there and I'm the only boy in the class I'm like where's the other boys and they're like you're the only one that wanted to take sewing I was like why you know like that shit's important right yeah and i was one of the few girls yeah at least here so you signed up and you're like any other girls i'm like let's fuck them up let's go guys page were there any other girls or were you the only girl yeah there were some there were a few yeah yeah um we had a women's team. We had a girls team here. But again, just the caliber, the level of play wasn't like up there to get to a level of I actually lived in Vermont for three years. I went to an all girls school for ice hockey. It's called the North American Hockey Academy.

I didn't even know this shit existed. Yeah, yeah. There's a hockey high school for girls. existed yeah yeah there's a there's a hockey high school for girls yeah that's the best thing i ever did was go to that school um i wouldn't even thought there's a hockey high school for boys uh for i'm sure there's a lot out there for guys guys it's a little bit different right like they have like juniors there's college there's different ways of of playing at certain levels for the guys as opposed to the girls um but yeah going to the school in vermont we literally lived in an old ski lodge out in vermont um up in stowe vermont so it was really awesome uh the school was meant to be like you would go to your regular school in high school and then you would um kind

of come out a month or two into school and you would go to the school for five months and then you would like enroll back in your regular high school at the end of the year when the season was done um but i ended up going to this school full time um well why why you full time that makes me feel better too when you said you were you switched back and forth i got anxiety that's that would well that was the thing i was like i don't think i could handle like you're following your school's curriculum while you're away at the school um with the teachers that you had um and i just i was not that kind of athlete like person kid that can do like juggle all of that so I was like when

they had a full-time school I was like that's it like I feel like that's probably our best route um and then it was just hockey all year round you're in Stowe Vermont in the summer times like you know you guys see like Matt Fraser up in Vermont in the summer times like it's just such an amazing place um so that place always has a special hold on my heart where are you now i'm home in pennsylvania oh we live yeah so my we live up in a little town called oliphant um the home of tanya wagner pennsylvania oh is it i didn't know that. Yeah. I don't know where about in Pennsylvania, though.

It's a big state. 30 miles probably outside of Philly. I want to say north of Philly. Okay. Yeah, so we're on the same east side of the state. Eaton Beaver, do you think you should warn newbies to the show before you say our names? Listen, when I had a curse that are on here i'm not reading eaton beaver and uh barry mccawkin or and i'm i'm uh uh you're at you're 18 right page yeah okay much older i don't even realize isn't it in the title of the show what how old you are

no no like our names oh oh yeah right yeah no no no this no see this guy's name is eating beaver like eating beaver and so there's a bunch of people in the chat like that tons with crazy names and like look at this guy barry mccauchner i competed against page's brother at crossfit kop he is a monster agreed he is still a monster wow you hang out with a wild beast and a monster what say it again yeah he is a state trooper now so that's cool yeah he's still a monster yeah uh and so I don't read I uh there's some there's the names are too crazy if you're not 18 I don't read your name sorry and I forget how risque this show is until I have someone on like that like I have Olivia on I'm like wow this show is really risque I don't read your name. Sorry. And I forget how risque this show is until I have someone on like that. Like I have Olivia on. I'm like, wow, this show is really risque. I didn't realize that.

Uh, seven, you're a good dude, uh, for not reading those when Olivia was on. Thank you. That's right. I just picture her dad coming over and beating me up. Um, so, uh, the, you know, jujitsu is like that too my kids do fighting and at the at the young age the girls and boys are mixed together and what's interesting is there's but there's equally as many girls as there are boys and it is in that sport it's kind of unfair i wonder if it was like this in hockey because the women are eight-year-old girls a different creature than an eight-year-old boy eight-year-old girl feels more like a 10-year-old girls a different creature than an eight-year-old boy eight-year-old girl feels more like a 10-year-old boy like she's more agile she's

she seems more aware she's not like staring off into the crowd you know what i mean more limber faster stronger was it like that in hockey at eight were you more did you have an advantage over the boys uh i don't know if I had an advantage. I was athletic, so I really took to the sport quickly. But yeah, you are. I'd say there's a finesse to it back then because as I grew up, like you can start hitting, you can start getting hit and I didn't want to get hit. So, you know, you have to avoid that by skating better. You know, otherwise you're getting robbed because guys, they would target you.

Like when you were a girl on the ice and they're like, oh, you think you're better than us. Like, well, tell me I'm not. I love human beings are so fucked up. Oh, you think you're better than us? True. Do you ever lose any teeth? No. No.

Oh, wow. These are all my good old pear old pearlies wow you have very nice teeth too fuck emily rolf was on here the other day she has crazy teeth too oh my goodness wow congratulations aren't you supposed to lose a tooth in all seriousness yeah i feel like that is kind of like your way in i think more for the guys though it's a it's not just a stereotype it's it's like yeah it's a it's a thing i mean you're playing without a cage right like as women in the sport we were where the cage men do in college but as you get into the higher levels like or you're playing you know beer league with your buddies you're probably gonna lose a tooth somewhere beer league uh and and did you play any other sports i played a bunch growing up um you know again i was such a tomboy growing up basketball baseball softball field hockey um i kind of played a little bit of everything

basketball i never got into soccer though that was one of the sports I didn't really get into. You got both your ACLs, your knees good? Yeah, they're good. Yeah. Well, that's cause you didn't get into soccer. All right. And, and, uh, those are all team sports, anything individual? Uh, not until CrossFit. No, I definitely grew up being a team, team player for sure. Um, which is why I think I enjoyed going team my first year, uh, and knowing I had a teammate that I got along well with and Kelly, like, you know, there was a lot of, um, mutual like effort, attitude, everything towards the sport. So that was kind of cool. Um, yeah. And then, And then tell me about this leap. Why did you make the leap?

And did you always know since you started having CrossFit Games aspirations that was teams just a vehicle to get to individual? Or was there some sort of switch? Yeah. Back in 2016, I actually went into regionals by barely making it. I think I finished back then. It was like, they would take the top 20 from your region. Um, and I finished 29th. So somehow it backfilled all the way up to me. And they're like, Hey, here's your surprise invite three weeks away from regionals. And I was like, Oh, wow. Um, so that was my first individual back in 2016.

And I went from barely making regionals to finishing like 14. So I knew that there was potential there. So we kind of just started running with it. Team was kind of a catalyst in that just, I wanted to get the experience, I wanted to be around better people. And take it from there. I always knew I wanted to move back home. I didn't want to stay in Minnesota, although I met amazing people out there. I still keep in touch with some of them. But everyone that was on the team then has kind of gone a different route. Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis was there. He's our big snatch guy. Yeah. Wow. I think he just left Minnesota. They just moved him and his wife. Another guy, Roderick, he actually is from St. Louis,

and he ended up staying out in Minnesota. And I know he's still out there today. So, yeah. Someone asked, I actually didn't ask this question. This is a good question. Where's the question? Chelsea Miller, sorry, late to the podcast. what age did you play hockey with the boys until good question how long did that last a good question um not super long i played through like junior varsity

so like middle school um and then 12 is it was at 12 or 13 yeah kind of that age yep and then when i knew that like you know this could be a potential college sport for me and there was, you know, wanting to get more competitive with the women, knowing guys are getting more aggressive. Like I wasn't out there wanting to get, you know, hit and injured or severely hurt or anything like that. So always going into a female sport, like taking the sport that way, that direction was always going to happen eventually. Um, and then I played on a few like girls clubs teams and, um, eventually went out to, uh, Vermont in high school, my sophomore year. And that's where the crazy driving takes place when you start getting on the club team. Yeah. Your mom's taking you.

Yeah, we played on a team from Florida. So there's a lot of flying as well. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Surprisingly, we had a pretty good team in Florida too. So that was also a really cool part of my life, getting to travel there. We went to nationals. that was out in San Jose. Um, yeah, a lot of travel my younger years.

Are you still close with your mom? Yeah. Yep. Dude. What? That's, that's some wild shit. Uh, wow. Cause I do a lot of stuff with my kids and the farthest I drive them now is like 40 minutes to skate with the pro skater once a month or once a week, 40 minutes there, two hours there, 40 minutes back. And I want to, I'm like, I don't, I think he's Mac. They've maxed out my loyalty to them. You you'll, you'll find the superpower as a parent. Like when your kids start traveling for other sports and it's just, it's going to happen.

You're just going to start traveling and driving and doing all these crazy things with them. And you're going to look back on it and be like, I'll never regret it. Oh, you're going to love it. Oh, my God. The tennis coach said recently he's like, because he's eight and he plays with 16-year-olds. And he's like, hey, dude, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? What's the plan?

I'm like, the plan is he's going to be the greatest tennis player ever to play tennis out of Santa Cruz. And if Djokovic wants to play him, he's going to have to come here. Like I'm not fucking going in. I'm not taking them over the hill. Yeah. Like our area, San Jose. Yeah. I'm not going over there. That's like, all right. So you're like, so one of my friends, she lives super close to the gym, owns the gym. I'm going to call her out here. She has a hard

time driving anywhere else that's like 10 minutes away from home like the grocery store now we're gonna instacart that but like for me i'm used to driving like 20 minutes at a time here 20 minutes there um so traveling was always like a couple hours isn't a big deal. So you're living in Pennsylvania and you're so dedicated to your craft and your mom is so dedicated to helping her daughter feel her daughter's passion that she signs you up for some soccer, some hockey team in Florida because they must've had some amazing reputation. Um, we had a really good connection through a friend here. Uh, her name is Tina Podrosky. She actually got us connected with the Florida team. She played as well. Um, and they just needed more players, better players. And then we tried it out and got along so well with every girl and every parent on the team like it just everything kind of blended together and it just made sense how do you practice with the team in florida if you live in pennsylvania how do you

practice with them we would take just long weekends so you had to have a requirement of like 10 games with the team so we would try to get like in when were your kids and you're playing ice hockey you could play like six games in a tournament um in one weekend right so it was very easy to get those weekends in it only took like two or three um but we had such a good like crew of girls that we just some of us got along so well on and off the ice that you know you can read each other you know exactly where along so well on and off the ice that, you know, you can read each other, you know, exactly where they're going to be on the ice. It's all about the chemistry. And the chemistry for us just clicked super early on.

Wow. Hey, did you ever, did you ever fight? Do girls fight in hockey like the boys do? Kind of. I mean, you get, it breaks up a a lot sooner you can't really just like drop the gloves and go at it um but there are definitely moments of aggression right and that's not to say the women's sport isn't physical like being at Ohio State in the like like Western Collegiate League like we were the most physical out of any league um in college so you had to learn to be super gritty league um in college so you had to learn to be super gritty yeah uh by no means did i think it was um not by nature that sport is gritty you're on those skates and you have a stick and a ball and or puck and you guys hit each other basically so you hit each other but you guys don't make it as overt as the guys you don't turn it into a boxing match but you're still hitting each other

right like if it if they can tell that it was like an intentional check you're getting a penalty for that um but as far as like you know being in front of the other team's net and the defenseman's trying to get you out of the way they're gonna they're gonna put hands on you they're gonna push you they're gonna do whatever they can to get you out of the way right you don't say sorry if you knock someone down and hear them lose their breath as they hit the ground no say that's what you get hey uh uh what do you think it does um um i i uh you think it's good that as a as a young lady to have so much interaction with boys you think it changed your um as opposed to like if you would have just had tons of interaction with girls, like I'm trying to think like, I didn't get any interaction with girls as a kid. Like I went to school, but I only played with boys.

Uh, maybe, but I mean, I also went to an all girls school in high school, so I didn't get the main interaction with boys then. Yeah. Right. Um, so it definitely was different for me. I definitely had a different experience there. Um, so I didn't date boys in college or in high school. I kind of had one long-term relationship in college. Uh, that one

kind of fluffed out. Um, and then I didn't date anybody for a long time. Um, a couple of like smaller things here and there through my like mid twenties. And then now i am in a long-term relationship so how long is long how long is now we're almost three years oh shit congratulations over two and a half yeah so my boyfriend ben we live together um he moved here he actually used to coach at scott panchuk's gym out at mentality so he's a crossfitter he is a crossfitter yeah that's how he played did he play hockey no he was a track star track runner um interesting you say that because uh we had emily rolf on here yesterday and she said something that i wish i would could have dug into a little bit more too but she i god she said something that basically maybe she went to an all

female college or something, but basically she didn't find boys until she was 22. Oh, she was a gymnast. She was just a gymnast, right? You know, just wake up in the morning and just being the, doing gymnastics. She wanted to be an Olympic gymnast. So for 20, she gave 20 years of her life to that. And then, uh, I didn't actually know that. And then pull your head up and be like, Oh, maybe. And then she said she took pull your head up and be like oh maybe and then she said she took a year off it sounded like she drank and dated boys and i was like oh that's cool yeah you know you got to get the college feel somehow uh michael banyan uh hockey players rule therefore page does too oh some algebra awesome thank you for the money that's that's a lot of

money i thank you page for coming on here and having people throw money at me sure you come on they throw money at me this is like a i used to actually before crossfit i used to deal cards at the casino we have a local casino here um that's just like you know a nice little tip right there i actually loved it too. Dude, that sounds scary as shit. Why? Just because it's a casino? No, because even when I deal cards with my 8-year-old and my 2-6-year-olds and we're playing blackjack, I always feel bad like I'm going to throw a card and it's going to flip up facing up when it should face down. I'm always like, dealing cards is stressful. Tell me about that. How old were you when you did that and how do you get into that? Do you have to go to card dealing school?

Yeah. So I actually, that makes sense. Yeah. I, um, how did I get into that? Wow. You're wild. This is getting, I don't, I don't quite remember how I got into it. Um, but we have a casino that like my parents live about 20, 20 minutes from where we live now. Um. And the casino is like five minutes away. So we learned that there was going to be a dealer school opening in the summer and it's six weeks long. You go for free. So they don't pay you for it, but they pay for your gaming license, which your gaming license is like a thousand bucks or something. So you're not going for free. How much is the school? You go, it's free. Like you go go to dealer school like you can sign up for it um and you don't pay anything they don't pay you um they just eventually will pay for your dealing license oh okay does that make sense you're gay okay okay okay okay yeah yeah yeah

yeah so um it was six weeks of learning blackjack spanish 21 let it ride three card poker so those are the four games that you learn first um and for someone like me who has like the personality where everything needs to be neat tidied up uh organized like dealing cards and having a beautiful like table of chips laid out is like that was like so satisfying. But you're doing quick math, you're interacting with other people, like you have to be super outgoing for that kind of position, which, you know, I think of myself as being super introverted, but yet I'm in all these positions where I need to be super outgoing. So yeah, I loved it. But what I hated about it was the hours like I worked the swing shift. So it was like, you're working 6pm to 3am or 8pm to 5am.

Yeah, it was nasty. So that only lasted like six months. And then that was when I first made regionals. And I was like, well, if I want to take it seriously, I can't be working in a casino where I'm possibly in the smoking section, I'm breathing in cigars, cigarettes, like that was the worst part of it. And the late hours. But I do love like, I love the games that we played. I wanted to learn uh craps eventually i wanted to learn poker poker would have been a really fun one um just because those games can go on for a long time and you get paid for it all which is pretty sweet you um uh you have good hands yeah like like you get yeah like you would get like uh you're dealing blackjack, like it's a deck of six, like six decks of cards.

And you'd have to eventually when the deck runs out, you have to wash them. You have to shuffle them. You have to stack them in this perfect tower of cards. And then, you know, your supervisor has to come over, make sure that you went through the procedure correctly. There's no cheating involved, all that stuff. So it's pretty cool. What do you mean wash them? When you, you take them out, you lay them all on the table. You have to spread them for a good, like two minutes and make sure that they are completely like shuffled around. Yeah. Essentially like that was a way of shuffling them. And then

you would go through like the fancy looking shuffle yeah is that and that's one of the things you learn in school it's like two minutes it's like cpr like you have to do compressions but this is a mixing yeah like a minute it's like the time yeah like it was there was like a full procedure to the way that you started and finished um and then there's a procedure to the way your chips were laid on the table there's a procedure to when somebody gives you cash and you have to lay it out on the table because all the cameras have to see everything that's going on so they don't want you know there's a lot of money involved um so everything had to be done by the book uh rosie that i play a lot of go fish rosie view photography go fish i rock i do a lot of yeah i'll crush you uh um uh jedidius nelson uh or be like my wife and i where our daughter's artsy and wants nothing to do with

athletics or do you do you have artsy in you no i can't even draw a stick figure very well. Do you create anything? Not really, no. The most artsy thing I do is read every once in a while, but that's not even artsy. You don't do any crafting? No. No, I'm not very good at that stuff. Not super handy either. I let Ben take care of that stuff.

Draw your dagger. Page is an absolute g she was the first athlete to thank me for sending her some photos and has always taken the time to reply if tagged on something she definitely deserves more shine in the space you can't give any more shine than this show you're talking about it's true this is a pretty cool show to be on hey i actually have a question were you was there a podcast before this that you're on with crossfit or was i just seeing that somewhere else today yeah did you have a podcast before this this morning i did dallin and then luke parker and now you oh okay i thought you had something because you're doing the behind the scenes this year right i am I am. Is that confirmed?

That is confirmed. That's awesome. Are you excited? Oh, Paige, I'm so excited. I bet. I'm so excited. But there's still time for me to screw it up. There's still some time for me. I know I'm trying really hard not to say anything crazy between now and after. I'm just trying to be cool. So you're saying like be yourself, but don't be yourself.

Don't be myself. And I have no no issue i'll do everything in my path i mean i'd be the nice part of myself but like uh try to curb the four-letter words or yeah or like i mean you know there's authenticity to that too right i just have i have opinions that are opinions that are, I don't know, but I'm open, but I'm open to my mind being changed. I just want everyone to know. Okay. Well, I think it's going to be cool. I think you, I mean, like you're doing with this show, right? You've gotten every athlete that you possibly can get in touch with to come on the show, which is super awesome. Yeah. Thank you. And Hey, you want to hear something crazy? I'm looking up at the numbers right now i don't want to freak you out but these are the biggest numbers we've had in

two weeks let's go yeah i don't yeah we we've pulled all the people from dallin and luke and collected them and now they're here to see page some ends it's over 500 people watching live this is crazy nice very cool appreciate it uh mr switzer Schweitzer says from Clydesdale Media, she built a cat barricade that was phenomenal. Oh, he says you do have some building skills. Yeah, you know. I mean, I have this little slug. She's laying right there.

Oh, oh no, Paige. Are you not a cat fan? I love cats, but is your cat fat? No, she's not fat. I think it's just the eggs. That's what I mean. I started judging you. Wow. No, hey, we actually, when we first, because I used to just refeed them, and she did get

like overweight, and now we have her on like an automatic cat feeder. So it's just, it times out every day when the food comes out, and that helped her lose like four pounds. I love that. Take all the emotion out of it. It's not that. It's not me. feeder. So it's just, it times out every day when the food comes out and that helped her lose like four pounds. I love that. Take all the emotion out of it. It's not, it's not me. But now she's, she's super healthy. Um, she actually, we just had to take her for like a thyroid treatment. She had hyperthyroidism. Um, and we caught it super early, according to what the vet said. So she is, she's 12 years old. She'll be 12 soon. And she's healthy as an ox. Is she Ben's cat or is she your cat?

Oh, she's mine. I've had her since college. Oh, he's cool with cats. Yeah, he is now. He's a true cat dad. Look at yes, Todd, Seve's heart was broken when he thought the cat was fat i'm so bummed when people have obese pets it's not i know look at i'm so bummed it's like not necessary yeah so not necessary and you don't like you know for a while when you're a kid and you don't think about that stuff like you like it you don't think about how that is abuse to them. But now anytime I see an overweight animal, I'm like, Hey, like, you know, you got to treat them like you treat a kid. Like, you don't

want your kid to get overweight and unhealthy. Like, you know, they're, they have a life, right? Like they they're here living, they want to be a companion to you you got to treat them with love especially when i see big dogs that are obese yeah like like you already have a hundred pound dog and now you haven't he's 130 because you made him fat and it's like dude that dog has a limited life expectancy already he should be like you should see ribs on that dude right right yeah we we are true. Like, uh, all of our friends here, like true animal lovers, like we all treat them just like our own. So we're, we're big on that. What do you mean? Where are you? What do you mean? Where are you? Like in all of it, like all of my friends, like our, the owners of our gym have two,

uh, two rescues. They have two pit bulls. Um, they take take treat them super well like we we love our dogs our other friends you know three dogs at home um like you know they're they get more attention than the kids sometimes you know um ad i'm so excited for the behind the scenes return you're the man looking forward to great content for years to come sincerely no no no vacs here no vac oh no oh thank you that's awesome uh it's a very creative crowd hey um this is way off subject here we're not going to get to shit today um the pitbull thing uh so i had a friend who always had pitbulls he like always had pitbulls always had pitbulls and then recently i've known him now for like 15 or 20 years and he said oh my god he

got he got uh he has a couple labradoodles now and he's like man this is so much less stressful than having pitbulls and i you say why uh because the because his pitbulls were aggressive he had a pitbulls and um what's that what's that terrier that oh go ahead go ahead you're probably gonna answer my question here just when i see people who have pitbulls i'm just like i just think of as people who like to live life on the edge a little bit uh i don't think so i i mean um no not at all no i mean we have my mom we have a pit bull back home you know he's american bull like he pit bull is just it's a an umbrella name for the many different terriers and and bully breeds that are out there and it

just gives them such a bad rep um ours like ours like train them, love them, treat them like you would treat any other dog, like at home, like, you know, a lab, they all have different personalities and different temperaments. And if you treat them with love and affection and, um, you know, they're going to turn out to be good dogs. If you treat them like an asshole and yeah, don't be an asshole. good dogs if you treat them like an asshole then yeah don't be an asshole uh pit bulls are amazing uh pits are the best yeah see these are all people who live life on the edge uh dude my pit is the most friendly dog ever he would run away if you took a step towards him here's the thing let me say one more thing let me push back a little bit um uh they're the kind of dog that once they get in, if they do get in a fight,

like, well, let me anecdotally, they're the dog at the, at the dog park that's always taking the tennis ball from the other dogs. Like, no. Okay. I don't agree. Okay, good. Like we train your dog and they're going to be the kind of dog you want them to be. If you're training them, right. Like ours are gym dogs. Like they know um they know when to be on their leash they know when they can move around the gym like they are just you know super friendly towards anybody and oh i mean i i can't i. Oh, you gave that an uh. Yeah. I love them. I love them.

Like, if we get a dog, it might be, you know, a bully breed. David Weed, no bad pits, only bad owners. Greg Glassman, someone just hates being wrong. Oh, no. I love being wrong. Every night I go to bed and I count the ways. Oh, I love being wrong today. How profound of you, Greg? Hates being wrong. Is this like a fake Greg Glassman? Is that just someone putting that as their username? Because that definitely that selfie doesn't look like Greg. You know, what's funny is it kind of looks like his son, Blake.

Oh, really? Yeah. He has a 30-year-old son. It kind of looks like, oh, it looks a lot like him. But no, I think that's got to be a fake gray glass. This is a, oh, here we go. God, I knew it. Man, these comments are just bullies everywhere.

These people all, do you believe in God, Paige? Yes and no. I'm not super religious. Oh. These people all believe in God page yes and no i'm not super religious oh these people all believe in god too just so you know that's my way see that that's me my way of taking a jab yeah now i'm fighting with the with the chat oh god i'm supposed to watch what you say i am here i can't jake chastity i don't even know that i walk in line. Jake, you can never 100% guarantee any breed of dog is going to stay attentive as, oh, here we go. Regatta is good. Okay, fine. That's it.

Back to hockey. Oh, so good. So the hockey thing is going, and where do women stop playing hockey? What's like for boys? It's, um, uh, NHL national hockey league. That's the pinnacle. What is it for the ladies? There's a women's league. Uh, now I, I honestly have not done enough research to know how professional it has gotten. gotten um it is semi-pro I knew that much uh Carolyn Prevost would know more I think I know she still played I believe last year I'm not sure if she's playing again this year um I would think she still is um I mean

she loves the sport you know so uh for a though, like back when I was just graduating, you'd have to go like overseas if you wanted to play semi-pro. So that was not something that I wanted to do. Um, though I would have loved to continue to keep playing. And I'm assuming there was some, somewhere you were playing, um, hockey and someone said, Hey, you should do CrossFit to supplement your training. hockey and someone said, Hey, you should do CrossFit to supplement your training. No, I actually, I did not do CrossFit back in college. And looking back, I wish I did. But I, my brother was doing it. My brother started back when CrossFit like was just coming out and,

and he was way into it way before anyone else that I knew. And I was like, I'm not, I'm not doing that. I'm, I'm playing ice hockey. I'm in college. I don't need that. I'm a real athlete. Yeah. Right. Um, so I never did it then. And then after college, uh, I wanted something to fill the void, but I still wasn't doing CrossFit. I did power lifting. Um, so I built a really strong base with that. And then when I, wait, how did you get into that? How did you get into powerlifting? I had a friend in college who, uh, we were, we lived on the same floor our freshman year of college. Uh, his name is John and he was big into OSU's powerlifting team. So he competed, he competed like at the Arnold and did all that stuff. Ohio stateu's power lifting team so he competed he competed like at the arnold and did

all that stuff ohio state had a power lifting team yeah they had a club team um not like it wasn't division one but it was stuff that you do for fun um and i think that's really go ahead is that where katie henniger went i is that't know. Is that the Buckeyes? Is Ohio State the Buckeyes? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. She was a basketball star there. I think she, like, mega star there.

I didn't know that. That's awesome. Yeah, crazy. Yeah, okay. That's wild. Yeah. I love that. Go Bucs.

Yeah, she's a mega, mega star there. Maybe she was even drafted to the WNBA. But she was,, like one of the best ever to do there. She might be in the hall of fame there. Okay. I didn't know that. Yeah.

Okay. So that's where you went. That's where you played hockey. Yeah. And that's where John got you into powerlifting. Yep. Okay. Sorry.

Back to the powerlifting story. Wow. Small world. Good. Yeah. So, uh, he ever, like we were really good friends from freshman year. He always got into it. I never did it during my years of playing in college.

But then afterwards, I got into it a little bit. I did my first USA powerlifting meet in 2015 back here in Scranton. And then that was like the one and only. I was like a couple points shy. I think it was like your Wilk score in powerlifting. I'm not sure. It's like your body weight and then your lifts, you know, all that stuff. I'm not exactly sure how it went, but I was just a couple points shy of getting to compete

at the Arnold, which would have been really cool. Yeah. Um, so I did that for that year. And then by 2015, I had just started really getting into crossfit so i kind of transferred over and did that so so basically you were you found crossfit by by what you were powerlifting and then you were googling looking for something and you're like fuck these people are doing high reps and so you started doing high reps and then you fell into an affiliate and then the rest is history no i i found crossfit

through a friend tina pedrosky her she we played ice hockey together back like way back um and she was coaching oh you froze oh maybe someone called on page's phone you think she's on a phone or a computer no i'm on my computer oh you froze for a second yeah Tina Podrosky so she introduced you to it after you when you're like oh yeah my brother does this shit yeah so she introduced me um I was hanging out with like her and her cousin Mia and kind of got a little core group of friends when I first moved back home from Ohio State. So I lived in Ohio for a couple years after college. And then I just I was homesick. So I ended up moving back home. And she's like, Hey, why don't you try come and do CrossFit with me. So that really was just

like, I just showed up. I didn't ask them. Uh, Kalina, who's the owner was like, uh, uh, okay, let's throw you in. Uh, we'll figure it out. Um, so they were super awesome. She was so great. And now, you know, she's one of my best friends, the owner of the gym and, uh, it all just kind of fell into place from there. So, and you must've been stoked when you found out you could compete at it yeah I mean it was you know when you're a high level competitor no I don't know no I don't know anybody that can relate to being a high level competitor um and you like lose that like you're done with that sport like you want to you know there's a void to fill a little bit. And CrossFit did that. I think even if I didn't do it competitively,

I still would have fallen in love with it. And I still plan to do it far after I'm done competing. When you dealt cards, did you, did you ever dress more provocatively so that you would get better tips? No, we weren't allowed. You had to wear a uniform. Oh, you did? Yeah.

Would you notice that there'd be hair – if you did your hair differently, you would get tipped differently? Yeah, if I wore it down, you are – yeah. I don't wear my hair down often, like at all. Like this is because I went swimming before I got on here, and it's still soaking wet. Yeah, I don't wear my hair down either. I'll get that little man bun there. I barely even saw it. Oh, that hurt my feelings there. I'm going to be hearing about that in the comments for months. Oh,

that hurt. So wear the hair down and you get more tips. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely could. Yeah. I know. Who plays more cards, boys or girls?

Who's the typical customer? Mostly men, I would say. Mostly. It depends on the night, too. If you're just on a random Tuesday, it's 11, you know, it's 11 PM. You have some random, you know, customers in there. Like these are people that are sitting in the casino for a very long time and probably should not be there. Oh, like they're not even going to remember being there.

Yeah. Like, you know, you got, you would get some pretty people that you don't want to be around. I don't want to say... Addicts. Addicts. you know use that term the way i did but um you had people who were very much you know obsessed with spending their money and trying to win money and um yeah gambling problem there's there's um you know like there's the guy who like can hold his breath the longest like like he's addicted to going deeper and deeper he lives like in the cayman islands or something he's like trying to go like 500 feet underwater without a tank you know i mean there's people who are addicted to crossfit like rich had to like peel himself off of individuals hoping that it would mitigate his addiction to crossfit and then there's people who are fucking addicted to gambling and fentanyl and alcohol and cigarettes

and they manifest differently and there's some that are crazy unattractive no one wants to be around someone who's addicted to something that makes incapacitates their brain it's not fun being around people who um have an incapacitated brain from uh sniffing glue out of a bag and i'm not saying that they don't need help or that they don't deserve compassion i'm not saying any of those things but it's like shit and in the casino does that right it draws in it's like what a great i used to smoke cigarettes i hate gambling i hate gambling but i would go to the casino just to smoke cigarettes please yeah drinks are free fuck yeah i love getting drunk yeah and it always seemed like you know the the ventilation system in there like you can be in there at 2 a.m and you have no

idea what time of day it is like you know they know, they just get, I think you just, you know, that time warps when you're in there, especially if you are someone that does love to gamble, like you can totally get lost in a casino and, you know, six hours can go by and you're like, what, like what, what just happened as a dealer though? Like six hours goes by and I'm like, yeah, six hours. It's been a long time. It feels like 12. Yeah. Or Jonathan Lane. I just like to go to Disney to eat. Yeah. Disneyland. They say it's an amusement park, but it's really just a place to go eat sugar.

Hey, um, uh, do you ever, do you ever someone ever gambling and then they, they start crying cause they like lost their like rent money and you're like, Ooh, No, I never had that. I was in the high roller room once and actually this like, we have an AHL team that's local and this one, I don't remember his name, but this profession,

like this guy comes in to my table and he just will like, you know, easily drop like 10 grand and lose it in one hand. And I was will like, you know, easily drop like 10 grand and lose it in one hand. And I was just like, wow, like that is just insane to me. Cause I, you know, I know from my side of the table that like, you are much more likely to lose than win, you know? So it was just nuts. Like being in that high roller room is crazy. What's the AHL team?

Like the American hockey league. So it's just crazy. What's the AHL team? Like the American Hockey League. So it's just like the set below the NHL. So we have like the Penguins AHL team is the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins here. You recognize the guy? He told me he was a player. Did he know you were a player? You know, you converse with them. We did talk about it.

Yeah. That was so long ago. player did he know you know you converse with them you uh we did talk about it yeah as i was so long ago that's just so weird that a hockey player would come into another hockey player yeah it was pretty weird that was my first time in the high roller room like i was super nervous because again you're dealing dealing with a lot of money seve's not impressed by 10k oh i dropped more than that i lost uh 60 gambling at a blackjack table once when i was like 20 i never gambled again yeah right i was devastated i was devastated it was like three seconds i was done i was like what i know it happened so fast it's like one flip of the card nope let me just take your money there yeah I was like, oh, this isn't cool at all. You're a Misfits athlete.

Yep. I am coached and I also coach for as a remote coach through Misfit Athletics. And have they always been your, since you started doing individual, have they always been your since you've started doing individual have they always been your guys yeah yep so i actually the owner of our gym back in 2016 2017 she programmed for me uh kalina programmed for me and then we decided to um you take, take it into something a little different. Um, the gym was getting bigger and, you know, time and things like that. So attention wise, it just made way more sense to follow a program. So I followed the blog back then when it was free in 2018. And, um, I knew when I made regionals, I wanted an actual coach. So I signed up with a coach and it's, you know, nothing but them since.

Paige, in 2016, when you went to regionals, was that in Albany? Mine was mid, uh, mid Atlantic. So I was down in Florida or Atlanta. It was in Atlanta then. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it was like New York and up was Albany. Who's the owner of Misfits?

Is it a guy? What was his name? Is it Jordan? No, so it's Drew. Drew Crandall. I believe they co-own. So him and Ted Bonifant. And I'm not sure if anyone else has part ownership.

I don't know the full details. I believe so. So yeah. Who's the guy on the podcast who kind of leads the podcast? He's on the left hand. I watched two podcasts you were on. Yeah, that's Drew. Oh, that guy was a game. I remember that guy being very nice.

I think he went to a couple. He didn't even look like a – he wasn't all fucking massive like a lot of the men were. He was a pretty like just regular looking guy but he did great at the at the regionals and he went a couple times and he um uh austin spencer is that the guy's name was is he a misfits athlete yep austin is one caroline too caroline spencer okay they both live up there in maine yeah okay okay i'm sorry i'm I'm piecing it back together. Cause it's kind of a blur and they've been around forever. I was really surprised how, um, I watched two of your podcasts, how nerdy they are, like in a good way. I love it. Yeah. They are fully nerded out. Oh my gosh. They are just fully enveloped in the training, in the philosophy, all of it. And like,

that's why I love to work with them so much. And they, they always, you know, explain the why of why we're doing our training and things like that. And for someone like, I love that part of it. I love knowing why I'm doing something. And I love seeing it, you know, kind of blossom within a competition of, okay, well, this is, you know, we, you did all that work. You did, you know why you did it. And then it shows. How old are you? I just turned 32. Happy birthday.

Thanks. Is, is your life getting, I was talking to Emily Rolfe about this. Is your life as each year you do the games getting like narrower and narrower in the. I didn't know I really had to ask her. Yeah, kind of just like your life is becoming more and more simple, like as the competition becomes more and more serious and consumes more and more of your life, like maybe you used to do date night once a week. Now it's once a month. You used to do a box of red vines once a week. Now it's only in the off season once every six months. Like have you noticed like you used to go to bed at 10.

Now you go to bed at nine. Like you're just like, just ratcheting everything down each year you go to the CrossFit games. Like how can I just make this more and more every edge i can get what am i learning is that is that the whole 100 i i definitely agree with that um especially you know because you're only getting older um you know she's an old lady in the sport too right like i couldn't believe it she is she's 34 crazy 34 i think that's really awesome yeah um i'm actually curious i haven't done the math on it yet but I would like to know what the average age of the field is this year I know it's gonna

it's got to be like mid-20s like mid to late 20s I would say seriously um but yeah like you know I think year after year especially um this is my first, like truly being all in and having done it like back to back years. I think it takes more and more of you to be better at it. And it's hard to, you kind of spread yourself thin if you have a lot going on. So you really do have to kind of pinpoint like the necessities and like, you know, we are that couple that hasn't gone out very often throughout the last couple months since semifinals since before semifinals. So and, you know, Ben is all in on it, too, which makes it easier. But still, you know, we have our our moments probably more so me than him of like you know we haven't done anything in a long time we haven't gone out with friends we haven't

taken a vacation um all of that stuff really does add up uh in the long run I think um but there is a goal in mind and you know we're both moving towards that goal and it's what you want like it's not a sacrifice when it's what you want i agree perfect i agree that saying something's a sacrifice is just fucking i hate that term um unless unless you have to chop off your arm or something um right uh do you do you i'm gonna try to make a distinction here do you do you actually want to go out or do you feel like you think you should go out like i don't want to do any of that shit but sometimes like maybe i need to like yeah uh like yesterday yesterday you know the guy wad zombie is yeah yeah so yesterday

he was in town and i went to the beach with him and his family with my kids and i was fucking dreading it and then he got there oh he was awesome yeah so easy i watched our kids play in the ocean together we went to the pizza place. I drank a kombucha. I was chilling. Yeah. Our kids got like basically stripped down and jumped in the ocean. It was and we just got to just chill for a couple hours. I was like, holy. But I did not want to do it. Do you want to do it or do you just think you need it like medicine like hey i probably should go sit down at a restaurant and like order a diet coke or something yeah i i'd say a majority of the time before we're about to go and do something i go ben i i don't want to go yeah yeah he's like let's go and he loves he loves to be out with friends, to be spending time with other people, friends, family, all of that. He loves quality time. Like that's definitely one of his, you know,

five love languages. So, but at the end of the day, I do genuinely love spending time with my friends too. It's, it is a bit of like, at this time of year, I have to force myself a little bit more to get out and do things. But, you know, in the off season and stuff like I love we love going out to eat with our friends. Like we have a local place that we love to go to every Saturday. And I genuinely love those times. You dickhead. I see what you did there. They only brought one towel for both times. You dickhead. I see what you did there.

They only brought one towel for both families. You dick. He's making fun of me for something I said yesterday on the show. I was, damn it. How am I supposed to stay cool when the fans are tagging me? Do you and Ben share a towel? No. No.

I mean, we can. Yeah. He doesn't care if he accidentally uses your towel towel but you don't want to use his towel oh no that's i don't care okay so like if if if if you were in the shower and there's only one towel and you knew he had used it you wouldn't care you wouldn't call him to bring you a clean towel you'd use that one to go get your own clean towel maybe yeah probably see we are see jonathan how normal people work yeah it is kind of weird but no it's not weird don't don't don't page it's not weird but i mean like we live together like we are you know i'm gonna eat off this plate i'm gonna drink out of like his straw like yeah i don't know it's not like it's clean, right? Sometimes I shower with my wife. Don't tell anyone.

I think that's normal. I know. Mason, don't laugh at him. Don't laugh at Jonathan. Patrick Clark, always with thoughtful bits of information. There it is. By the way, the average age of the women's field is 26.775. You young guns. So what's weird about that is there, when you have someone like Kerstetter in there fucking up the whole age average, that means,

you know, it's a, it's a, it's an old field too. Like it's an older field. Yep. Yeah. Like I know Amanda Barnhart is 30.

Um, you know, there are still athletes at the top of the field that are, you know, nearing 30 or are 30. Um, we're old ladies. Holy shit. shit wow 12 women are 30 plus yeah that's great that's awesome i want i wonder if the men's what that is compared to the men's field i'm not talking let's find out i'm not talking to you guys about towels anymore i know

i'm right i'm a family man i'm way smarter than you guys i'm old tell me what to teach me towel etiquette at 51 i know towel etiquette um i don't let my kids hug me though when i'm really sweaty like yesterday i did like a 40 minute workout and my shirt's just soaking wet my kid comes over to hug me and i i hold him i feel bad i don't let him hug me he would be so they don't care he they don't i they don't i care if i don't want to get them dirty it's okay it's like i'd rather like rinse my shirt out over my wife's feet and freak her out just the dickhead move hey when when you, um, you must see a lot of, uh, since, since you train, you feel comfortable training with boys and you've been around a lot of boys in sports, you must see a lot of like crazy boy behavior.

Uh, I used to, I don't love the, I don't love the etiquette of like a boy's locker room. Snapping towels in each other's asses, punching each other in the balls, stuff like that yeah it's just not really my thing um i've never been like a ball buster like i've never been someone that's like you know i'm gonna just talk shit about somebody and think it's funny and stuff like that yeah just never been like that yeah that's how my brother's a ball buster that's how we show affection for each other.

You call that thing a dick? Translated to, I love you. That's pretty accurate. Oh, boy. So you must be all revved up the the page simenza uh machine it's it's time right it's like now you look at the calendar and you're like shit this might as well be tomorrow let's just do is it like that like a let's just do this it does feel like that a little bit like we're leaving on sunday i fly out um so you know but it's you

have to have patience right now you have to still keep the intensity up in your training like there's still one more week of training before you know you really kind of settle into it you know the volume's not as high but you still want to keep the intensity up and and stay sharp on movement you know will there be tears during the week is it is it just uh probably you know have you gone to games and not tiered i can't imagine competing at that level in the emotional demands and physical demands not letting a tear shed i i actually don't think i really am that kind of athlete. Even I'd say more so like leading up to semis this year, I had a back problem and I think more so the training during the weeks leading up were really hard.

And a lot of ups and downs where I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to go and compete and be healthy enough. So it was more of that that kind of leaves like an uncertain feeling. But then when I got there, you know, it's I'm gonna go and do what I can. I think I've matured enough that I'm not that athlete that's like, well, if an event doesn't go my way, I'm gonna stomp my feet and you know, walk away and cry and be pouty about it um i actually had a really crappy

event at semifinals on day one which was event two where i was actually super confident in that event specifically um with the ring muscle ups and the go rep bag and you were confident with that i was super confident with that workout i was ready ready for it. Um, and then I absolutely shit the bed on it and I, I was failing the muscle up complex. Um, and like, I wasn't crying. I wasn't, you know, I was upset. I was disappointed and I was mad at myself. But, um, again, I, I just, you know, it was shitty. It happened and I needed to turn it around the next day. Wait, Paige, isn't that event number two? Yeah, it was event two, right?

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Wait, why were you confident about that? That's a crazy workout. I tested it at home and I was, you know, upwards, like, I want to say I was like near 40 or in the forties, like testing it out. Um, and I just, you know, I felt like I love ring muscle-ups, like they're a high skill movement. I felt like I was ready for it. Um, and I got there and i think event one really just taxed my upper body with how much of a change that sled was um and i just didn't do well i just i you know i was just not getting my ring muscle ups right crazy and yeah if you would have gotten a 40 would have got you probably like seventh place would have moved you up 20, 20 places. Yeah. So yeah, that one really, that was probably one of those workouts where I, I've never had like a major disappointment in an event like that, where like, I was super confident in it. And like, I needed needed to I was learning how to respond in that moment

like that was pretty new for me um so and I was you know without if if I didn't have to manage training with a back injury and having to change so much that for those couple of weeks leading up like I was super confident in like I I knew I could qualify I was going in with the confidence of like I'm shooting to be a top five placement um like I just had that silent confidence there and then when I ended up hurting my back in training and I had to completely change my expectation from like, okay, I'm going in to be like a high competitor in our region to I'm going in to qualify for the CrossFit Games, no matter what that meant. Damn. Yeah. Is your back better? It is. I still, you know, I'm super cautious. I think

anybody that's dealt with something with their back is, you know, you sometimes it can be unpredictable if it's going to aggravate you again. So we have been super cautious with training. I think this has been, you know, the most communication I've, I've had with the whole team at Misfit Athletics, as far as my coach, other coaches, just to make sure that we are still preparing for what to expect, but also not overdoing it in certain areas of training. So and I think at this point, it's probably more mental. So, but I feel excited, I feel ready. I feel fit. And you know, those are important in making sure that I can handle the volume of events of events when we get there, um, has, you know, been a priority in training to making sure that I'm able to, to handle the

volume and stuff, the stress. I mean, you're going to think I'm crazy, but, um, I, uh, I'm no coach. I'm not certified in anything. I'm no doctor, but you could, you should lay down and, and, and, and talk to your back, send a love letter to your back. You know what I mean? Put all your attention on that spot and be like, Hey, we got a crazy week ahead. I'm really going to give it to you. I need to rely on you. I can't, I'm not gonna be able to think about you for a week.

I'll get back to you when I'm done, but pull it, pull in there for me, buddy. And right. I think, uh, I think anybody that's dealt with an injury, like I know Bethany Shadburn, her and I had kind of gone back and forth a little bit. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Um, and wow. Good. What a network. What a network. Yeah. It was pretty cool. It was in, again, I don't talk to too many athletes outside of like our circle of athletes that I know. But it was pretty cool to connect with her. And, you know, I wish her good luck in her semifinal. I knew she had been dealing with her back for a while. And adrenaline is a hell of a drug that your body just reduces when it needs to. And, um, when you can get your brain to shut off and you just let your body do the work, it makes a huge difference. So, um, that's, that's part of what I love about competition. Um, uh, you were, you took the last spot page. Yeah. And, um, they're doing when they're doing the announcement do you already know or are you just on um i had no freaking clue where i sat with the points um my coach had no idea like they're all trying to put in the the scores and we had drew who was back in maine he's like trying to input

things and seeing if he has the math right. But no one in our team of people that were there, I would look at everybody for a head nod or a head shake or anything like that. And nobody was giving me anything. And it was so stressful. But they also didn't want to be wrong. If someone gave me a head nod and all of a sudden they don't call my name, like that would just, you know, sink, like you just sink into that feeling. Um, so no, I'm standing there in that lane waiting the 15 minutes, just like everybody else for, for the calculations to go through and be accurate. So that was the shittiest, most exciting feeling I think I've ever had. So he says, uh, Shelby Neal and then, or she, whoever the answer is, and then Carolyn Stanley.

And then do you know, has someone told you, Hey, just so you know, it's going to be between you and Anika, like even before you start reading the names? No I mean I had a feeling I even had a feeling that someone like Brooke can really you know kind of make a stretch to get in there like I knew there was probably a good five or six girls that it could be um between based on the points alone and where everybody placed I I didn't know so it was just like you just have to go and kind of send it in that event and you know at that point it, I'm going to hope for the best with the points and hope that I hope that I did enough. And when they say your name, do you have a, um, like a visceral dump? Like, do you have a, or do you cry or like, do you flush or like what happens? Yeah. Like tears wouldn't come out, but like that, that,

that moment, like you want like that emotional dump to just kind of like flow out of you yeah um but again like I don't know I'm just I'm not that kind of person like my reaction you know I was super excited on the inside and just the relief of it itself was like I don't know how to act in this moment i am just super excited and grateful and just you know you put in all that work and all that like the trouble with the back and like you just look back on that and you're like holy holy shit like i you know all of that just paid off and that you know it still kind of gives me chills yeah you you're like i didn't cry then but you're about to cry now. I am.

I'm about to cry now. And it's still like, you know, even these last few weeks leading in with training, there's still a ton of ups and downs through training. And, you know, it's just you're excited to see it all kind of come to fruition at the end of the season in this this final bit with the games yeah dang girl how are you how are you with um you you've been great on those podcasts you're great on this podcast i'm definitely having you on again you're so easy you're a great conversationalist yeah i enjoy talking with you you have amazing skin thanks i don't know you know that's that's lake skin right

there i was just out of the lake wait and you kind of have like a hockey face you look like like you live in canada you know what i mean like you got like just like like you look like you're like a snow person a hockey player at heart although i'd much rather like warm weather i won't lie that is from buffalo so when we go to games in Buffalo, it's cold like Buffalo Bills. Yeah, you look like you. Yeah, you look like you belong in the cold, but no, you're you're you prefer the heat. Yeah. How are you with cameras and stuff like in person? You're good. You seem so comfortable. Yeah, I don't think I mind it. I think I've I mean, I haven't had a ton of experience, you know, live cameras, but when we shoot stuff up at Misfit and, you know, they're getting content of workouts and stuff. I think I've gotten a lot more natural with it. So yeah, I don't mind it as much. Sorry, I got to go back into the chat and kick someone's ass again.

Who's this asshole? God, Greg, you are in so much trouble today. You have a hockey face. That's like saying you have a face for radio. No, I mean like she has a winter face. Like she looks like a ski bunny. You know what I mean? You're like, she has perfect. She doesn't look like she has any pores.

My God, what the fuck is going on with you guys? Behave. I really appreciate you. Say it again. So people don't know how to behave no no I'm looking forward to meeting you in person yeah me too

thanks for the time what a pleasure today was going to be to be honest with you it was going to be a hard day down Luke Pepper and then you all three in a row and I was really hoping that I was like fuck am I going to have enough energy I didn't really care about Luke and Dallin because I had met them before. I was like, am I going to have enough energy for Paige?

And you really carried the show, man. You're wonderful. Thanks for doing that. Thanks. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. Yeah.

I hope you guys enjoyed too. And tell the gentlemen at Misfit, I look forward to seeing them again. I haven't seen them since. I can't remember seeing them since Albany, but they were so generous with their time and they were great there, even though that was like 2015 or 16. But I look forward to running into those guys again, too. Yeah, for sure. All right, girl. Thanks. Yeah. Congratulations. All right. I'll see you soon. All right. Ciao. All right. Bye. Bye. Paige Semenza. Wow. I liked her

I dude I'm kind of I'm getting good at interviewing girls I um I was vibing with her I liked her she's good

Luke Pebber is that what I said I meant Luke Parker I did fucking dude I'm just excited I can't believe i did that i did was didn't even feel in a row i'm only getting off because i'm going to go on with

chase in 29 minutes um yeah i do feel like i need a cigarette i was i was it was like god i hope ben and ben and uh my wife aren't watching she was cool i know greg i know i appreciate you you're good father for the show i love you baby yeah she is good huh david she's good you feel it she's a beast i like her she's cool i do need to pee how did you know 29 minutes he hasn't even sent me a link yet that's the kind of shit that uh oh he did send me a link oh the question is is where should i do the podcast from should i do it from here or should i do it from like somewhere else i feel like i should do it from somewhere else oh that's your daughter my baby girl joanne that's your daughter oh she's cool shit you're stoked

she's fun Seve needs a bump not a Siggy no I don't I don't need either I'm gonna go inside and play with my kids for 15 minutes Matt Suze Suze is telling me hey you gotta give yourself a break between shows

that's probably right alright hey, you got to give yourself a break between shows. That's probably right. All right. I'll see you guys in 29 minutes, 28 minutes over at the CrossFit Games podcast. And tonight we have James Sprague on, which is going to be awesome. Thank you, everyone, for your help. Patrick Clark, thanks for the numbers. Greg Glassman, thank you for just all the fun and the jousting.

Of course, Pool Boy, Jonathanathan ortega all you guys uh mr switzer uh captain rogers i'll draw your dagger you guys are awesome uh thanks for participating the show make it easy for me give me someone to lean on cave dastro you guys are great robbie myers i need a dick in me all you great you guys were great all right guys i will see you soon love you guys and i mean it some of you bye