Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Tammi Saunders | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

Transcript

Tammi Saunders | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games · Clydesdale Media Podcast

0:11
I
0:35
what is going on everybody
0:36
welcome to the clydesdale
0:37
media podcast where this is
0:39
attempt two to go live um
0:42
and this one seems to have
0:43
worked well we are
0:45
continuing our series on
0:48
highlighting the athletes
0:50
of the 2024 legends masters
0:53
crossfit games and I'm so
0:55
pumped so honored to have
0:57
with me tammy saunders
0:59
tammy how's it going
1:00
It is going really good.
1:01
Thank you.
1:02
I'm honored to be here.
1:03
This is super cool.
1:06
Well,
1:06
we're honored to have you because and
1:08
what I'm learning is the
1:10
Masters community is just super cool.
1:13
We're all right.
1:14
We're a pretty cool bunch of
1:15
guys and girls.
1:16
Yeah, for sure.
1:19
It's been fun getting to know everybody.
1:21
Because to be honest,
1:23
we've all lived lives longer, right,
1:25
than the elite division.
1:27
We've been through things.
1:28
We have cool careers.
1:31
And we're doing all this
1:32
with balance and all that through life.
1:34
And it creates a better story.
1:38
For sure.
1:40
I agree.
1:41
So let's get your story.
1:43
So did you have an athletic
1:44
background growing up?
1:47
Not really.
1:48
I did gymnastics from maybe
1:51
second grade to like middle school.
1:55
But it's an expensive sport.
1:59
And I come from not a family
2:01
with the means.
2:01
So by eighth grade,
2:03
when it started to get like
2:04
super competitive,
2:05
and it was more like club type stuff,
2:08
I wasn't able to continue.
2:11
But I always did like,
2:12
I like tumbling and stuff like that.
2:14
But that was about it.
2:16
Not athletic.
2:19
I found a testimonial that
2:21
you wrote when you were at one gym.
2:24
I don't think it's where you are now.
2:27
Where you talked about
2:29
putting together a
2:30
slideshow for your brother's wedding.
2:32
Yeah.
2:32
And you went through old pictures.
2:34
Yeah.
2:35
And so can you,
2:37
you didn't have the big
2:38
athletic background and
2:40
then you got yourself in a
2:41
position that probably
2:42
isn't where you wanted to be.
2:44
And what was it that shook
2:48
you out of that?
2:51
Gosh, you know what?
2:52
I think about this often.
2:54
What was it about that period in time?
2:56
What was it that made me
2:58
make that step into going
2:59
into a CrossFit gym?
3:01
My brother had started going
3:03
and was talking about it.
3:04
And I think really I was at
3:05
a place in my life where I
3:07
was just really feeling stuck.
3:09
I was feeling unmotivated, unfulfilled.
3:12
I was about 40, a little over 40, 41,
3:15
42 years old.
3:16
And I was like,
3:17
this can't be all there is to life.
3:19
Um,
3:20
my mom then passed away and then it
3:22
just really kind of shook
3:23
some things in me where I was like, uh,
3:24
this life I'm living can not,
3:26
this can't be it.
3:27
Like there has to be something more.
3:29
And so my brother had been
3:30
asking me to go to a
3:31
CrossFit gym and it was very culty to me.
3:34
And I was like, I don't know what, like,
3:36
it's just weird.
3:37
And we'd go on vacation and
3:38
he'd go do a drop-in and I
3:39
didn't know what that meant.
3:40
And it was just very strange to me.
3:43
But my daughter wanted to go.
3:44
So I went with her.
3:46
We went to a, like a foundations class,
3:50
a trial.
3:51
And
3:52
I don't know what it was.
3:53
But when I walked in,
3:54
there was there was
3:55
something about this group
3:56
of people there was I don't
3:58
know what it was,
3:58
I can't put my finger on it.
4:00
But whatever they had,
4:01
I just knew in that moment, I was like,
4:02
I want that.
4:03
And I'm going to keep coming
4:05
back to this place till I have that.
4:07
And it, it wasn't fitness, it was this
4:11
this sense of joy.
4:12
They looked like they had purpose.
4:13
They looked happy.
4:14
They looked fun.
4:15
They looked like they had,
4:16
they had community.
4:18
They had all the things that
4:19
were lacking that was lacking in my life.
4:21
And I don't know,
4:22
it was like from that first workout,
4:24
I was like, this is it.
4:27
So in this testimonial,
4:29
you talk about having smoked,
4:31
you talk about having an eating disorder,
4:34
but most importantly, you talk about,
4:37
there was a voice in your
4:38
head that you had to attack.
4:40
Yeah.
4:42
So yes, all of those things are true.
4:45
I think that I
4:48
There was a story that I
4:49
told myself that like I
4:50
didn't belong or I couldn't
4:51
do it or I wasn't good
4:53
enough or there was this
4:54
whole narrative that I had in my head.
4:56
And I don't know what it was,
4:58
but I was just like,
4:59
we're going to go for it.
5:00
We're going to see like how
5:02
far we can take this.
5:03
And truly, when I started,
5:04
I just wanted to survive the class.
5:06
Like, let's be honest,
5:07
I had no aspirations.
5:08
I am the most unlikely
5:10
CrossFit head coach or games athlete.
5:13
It's still weird to say that
5:14
out of my mouth that I'm a games athlete.
5:17
But I really just wanted to
5:19
survive a workout.
5:21
And the early ones, I'm not I mean,
5:24
I cried every time I left the gym,
5:26
because it was just so hard.
5:28
And I didn't do hard things.
5:30
I would walk up to that line
5:31
of hard and I would quit.
5:32
I was I was afraid I had
5:34
given up on myself didn't know.
5:36
I didn't know how to get
5:37
myself to do the things I wanted to do.
5:41
If any of that makes sense.
5:42
Totally.
5:43
I think the one thing that
5:45
almost everybody can relate
5:47
to is the voice in your head.
5:49
And it doesn't matter who you are.
5:50
Everybody has one.
5:52
And it just comes up in
5:53
different situations.
5:55
And you could be the most
5:57
elite athlete in the world.
5:59
And at a critical moment in
6:01
a game or a competition,
6:03
that voice comes up and you
6:05
have to attack it.
6:07
Am I going to give in or am
6:10
I going to overcome?
6:12
Whether you're starting your
6:13
journey or at the end of your journey,
6:16
everybody faces those voices.
6:18
Right.
6:20
So I think it's the most
6:21
relatable story that anybody could tell.
6:24
Yeah,
6:24
there are truly days where I look at
6:27
myself and I try to step
6:28
back from myself and look
6:29
at myself from someone
6:31
else's point of view.
6:33
Because when I look at myself,
6:35
I can't really remember
6:36
that person that I used to be.
6:37
I do, but it seems so surreal.
6:40
It's like, who is that?
6:41
I can't relate to her anymore.
6:44
Uh,
6:44
she was a girl who smoked two packs of
6:46
cigarettes a day.
6:46
She had a raging eating disorder.
6:48
She didn't know how to like
6:51
functioning was hard for me
6:52
on the outside.
6:53
I looked like I had it all together,
6:55
but on the inside, it was like,
6:56
there was anxiety.
6:57
There was like worse issues.
6:59
There were just a lot of stuff.
7:01
um and so what I realized is
7:03
the further I went in my
7:05
crossfit journey of just
7:06
like showing up for myself
7:08
doing the hard thing
7:10
listening to some really
7:11
great people that I
7:11
surrounded myself that they
7:13
the it just started it
7:15
didn't get easier but it
7:17
became more like that was
7:18
just what I did I just got
7:19
really used to doing the
7:20
hard thing and now I do the
7:23
hard thing all the time
7:24
because that's what I make myself do
7:27
I think the analogy I use
7:29
most in doing anything now
7:31
is you got to put in the reps, right?
7:33
Whether I'm doing a podcast,
7:34
whether I'm doing CrossFit,
7:36
whether you have to put in
7:37
the reps so that it becomes
7:39
just what you do.
7:41
Yeah.
7:42
I think that it was just
7:43
really easy for me to quit
7:46
if something got a little bit hard.
7:48
I didn't understand that
7:50
what I was actually looking
7:52
for was on the other side of that heart.
7:54
The change that I wanted to see in my life,
7:56
the things that I wanted to
7:57
come to fruition, they all really,
7:59
I was my own roadblock.
8:00
They were there.
8:01
They weren't not for me.
8:03
I could have them if I just
8:05
leaned in a little bit to
8:06
that really uncomfortable space.
8:08
And I think that
8:09
We get as people to this
8:11
uncomfortable space and
8:13
it's hard to make yourself lean into it,
8:15
right?
8:15
And be like, I know,
8:16
but I know on the other
8:18
side is everything that
8:19
I've been asking for is all
8:21
the things that are going
8:21
to make my life feel better
8:24
or more complete or give me
8:25
purpose or give me direction, right?
8:29
So does that overcoming the
8:32
hard thing become addictive?
8:34
Because now not only did you
8:36
get yourself back on track
8:38
and start CrossFit,
8:40
but now you coach CrossFit.
8:42
I do.
8:43
You live CrossFit.
8:45
You are a CrossFit Games athlete.
8:47
Is it just leaning into more
8:49
and more hard things
8:51
because of what you do now?
8:53
I think so.
8:54
I think I tell my members here, so I work,
8:56
this is kind of a sideway.
8:58
I don't know if this is a
8:58
good time to talk about it,
8:59
but I work in a gym that is,
9:02
it's a CrossFit affiliate
9:03
and we serve only people
9:05
who are in recovery.
9:06
So to be here,
9:07
you can have a free membership,
9:08
but you have to identify as
9:10
someone with a substance
9:11
use disorder and you have
9:12
to have 48 hours of sobriety.
9:14
And then it's a free CrossFit class.
9:17
I think that
9:19
having to do the hard thing
9:21
and lead people like I have
9:23
to kind of lead from the front, right?
9:24
Like they're not going to
9:25
believe me and they're not
9:26
going to do what I say is
9:27
good for them if I'm
9:28
leading this crazy lifestyle.
9:30
So I think that it,
9:33
it has kind of become my life.
9:35
I don't think that it gets easier,
9:37
but I think that it just, I know that it,
9:39
I know that that's where the work is,
9:40
right?
9:40
Like I have to do that if I
9:42
want something.
9:42
So it does kind of just
9:44
become how I do life now.
9:46
Like,
9:47
I don't know that I even think about it.
9:49
I think I get up and I just
9:51
do hard stuff because I
9:52
don't know what else to do.
9:55
Did you suffer?
9:58
Yeah, so everybody,
10:00
all of our coaches in our
10:01
gym are in recovery.
10:03
So some of them identify as
10:05
alcoholics or addicts.
10:06
Some of them choose not to
10:07
use those words.
10:08
They carry a really big stigma.
10:10
Some simply say, yes,
10:12
I identify as someone with
10:13
a substance use disorder.
10:16
So for myself,
10:17
I wasn't an everyday drinker,
10:19
but I would drink to excess.
10:21
So anytime I drank,
10:23
like I thought about this a lot,
10:25
anytime I've ever drank,
10:26
it's always been to like blackout.
10:29
It's always been to like some really bad,
10:31
not good decision.
10:32
I come from a family of
10:35
addiction and alcoholism.
10:38
And so
10:39
It's while it's very normal to me,
10:42
I'm realizing it's not
10:43
really normal to everybody else.
10:45
So things that I just were like,
10:46
that's just how my family is.
10:48
I didn't know that everybody
10:51
didn't live like that.
10:53
So, yeah, so yeah.
10:55
All of our coaches are in
10:57
recovery and we actually
10:59
develop them from within.
11:00
They have to be members for
11:01
three to six months and
11:03
then they show promise and
11:05
then we work with them and
11:06
we help them find a job and
11:08
they work for us or they
11:09
work in another place.
11:11
But yeah.
11:14
Midlife CrossFit journey.
11:18
That's one of my athletes.
11:19
Hi, Ed.
11:23
It's so wild like how
11:26
how small this CrossFit community is,
11:28
but yet it's big, right?
11:30
You know,
11:31
I talked to Carly Matthews like
11:32
two weeks ago.
11:34
She runs a recovery program
11:35
out of her gym.
11:36
Oh, really?
11:37
You know, and then here in Ohio,
11:38
we have Dale.
11:42
Yeah, Dale Kings.
11:43
Yeah.
11:44
Who's running a recovery program, right?
11:47
Yeah.
11:48
Do you ever like reach out
11:49
to other programs and share ideas?
11:53
Yeah, so I actually, I live in Phoenix,
11:57
and Dale last year was in Scottsdale.
12:00
I don't know if he comes here often,
12:02
but he was here.
12:04
There's a woman who was on our staff.
12:05
She is a professor in social work,
12:07
and she actually helped
12:08
write the grants that got
12:10
our gym our initial funding.
12:13
And she was in conversations with Dale,
12:17
seeing about like researchy
12:18
kind of data-y stuff.
12:19
And she's like, hey,
12:20
I'm going to this breakfast
12:22
with Dale King.
12:22
You have to come with me.
12:23
And I was like, okay.
12:25
So I got to sit down with him,
12:26
which was really cool.
12:27
And just talk about the program he runs,
12:29
the program we run, like what works,
12:31
what doesn't work, what have they found.
12:35
It's super weird.
12:36
I was in Hawaii at the Mana
12:40
Games that the NorCal
12:41
Classic put on this year.
12:43
And three of the women who podiumed, um,
12:47
in a couple of different age groups,
12:48
we were chatting and we were,
12:49
we were like, Hey, I'm, I'm in,
12:51
I'm sober.
12:52
And I don't even know how
12:52
the conversation came up.
12:54
It wasn't like, hi, I'm Tammy.
12:55
I'm sober.
12:55
But in our conversations,
12:57
we had realized that we all
12:59
are sober and we like live
13:01
a sober lifestyle,
13:02
which it was just crazy.
13:03
Like it's a huge community,
13:06
but it's a really small community.
13:07
So yeah, I think that, um,
13:11
For our members here,
13:13
and I think for myself,
13:14
like learning that I'm not
13:15
alone and learning that
13:16
there's more to me than
13:18
like whatever labels I put
13:19
on myself or that like, oh, my people,
13:23
they're amazing.
13:24
Daniel Roberts says,
13:26
that's our head coach.
13:29
That's what he calls me.
13:30
I have many, many nicknames.
13:33
But yeah, I think that that.
13:36
That sense of community.
13:37
I think that that's what
13:38
makes like programs like
13:39
12-step programs or AA or
13:41
Alcoholics Anonymous or NA,
13:42
Narcotics Anonymous work is
13:45
that feeling of I'm not alone.
13:47
And so I think it's very
13:48
similar to the CrossFit community.
13:49
We're going through all this
13:50
hard stuff together.
13:52
Like, right, I've been there,
13:53
I've done it.
13:54
When I first started CrossFit, in fact,
13:56
one of the girls had smoked
13:58
and I had walked into the
13:59
gym one day and she was
14:00
doing the burpees.
14:01
And I'm like,
14:01
why are you doing extra burpees?
14:04
Who does that?
14:05
And she was doing a burpee
14:06
for every day she hadn't
14:08
smoked for a year.
14:09
So she did 365 burpees and I was like,
14:11
wow, if I,
14:12
cause I still smoked when I
14:13
started CrossFit and I was like, wow,
14:15
if I could quit smoking,
14:16
I'm going to do that.
14:17
And so now here, 12 years later, um,
14:20
this year I dedicated the whole year.
14:22
I'm on day,
14:23
I think three 26 of doing a
14:24
hundred burpees every day
14:26
just to celebrate what my
14:27
body can do now.
14:29
And then not forget where I came from.
14:32
That's amazing.
14:33
And I'm a little off, a little,
14:35
a little off, but.
14:38
So how many,
14:39
how many classes do you run a day?
14:41
So we have three classes in
14:44
the morning that are just
14:46
regular CrossFit classes.
14:47
We have two in the afternoon.
14:49
So we run five CrossFit classes a day.
14:52
And then in the middle of the day,
14:53
we have billable classes.
14:56
So a sober living house or a
14:57
residential treatment
14:58
facility or some
14:59
organization will bring their folks here.
15:03
And we're actually part of
15:04
their treatment plan.
15:05
So we are on somebody's treatment plan.
15:08
Because we are in recovery, we're also,
15:11
we're peer support specialists.
15:13
So we can actually bill for
15:15
those classes under a
15:16
behavioral health code.
15:18
So CrossFit is being prescribed.
15:21
It's like part of someone's
15:22
treatment plan.
15:23
They come here.
15:24
Actually, we're doing peer support.
15:25
CrossFit is the vehicle
15:26
we're using to do peer support.
15:28
So yeah, so we run two of those a day.
15:31
And then we run like
15:32
sandwich or bookend the
15:34
regular CrossFit classes.
15:37
very very cool it's crazy I
15:39
if I could not believe when
15:41
I came here I worked um
15:43
long before I came here
15:44
when I first started
15:45
crossfit in my old gym back
15:47
in iowa I remember um
15:50
People would,
15:50
I'd been there for a long time.
15:51
So people, they knew my story.
15:52
They knew I had a journey.
15:53
I lost weight.
15:54
I quit smoking, all of these things.
15:56
So they would just start
15:57
asking me for like, how do I do this?
15:59
And how do I get better at that?
16:00
My head coach and I decided like,
16:02
let's get your L1 and like,
16:04
let's see what we can do.
16:06
So I did, I started coaching there.
16:08
When I started coaching,
16:09
I worked for the school district.
16:10
I was actually a life coach
16:11
with at-risk kids.
16:13
Um,
16:13
cause I get at risk kids cause I was one.
16:15
Uh,
16:16
so it was like one of the best jobs I
16:18
ever had.
16:19
I got to sit around all day
16:20
and talk to kids about life and like,
16:23
how do you life and how do
16:24
you make better life choices?
16:26
Uh, and then I coached part-time.
16:28
So come here.
16:30
had a friend who lived in Arizona,
16:32
I wanted to change I had
16:33
never done any competitive
16:35
CrossFit except for the open.
16:37
Until I moved to Arizona four years ago.
16:39
I'd never done legend.
16:40
I'd not nothing.
16:41
I didn't even know any of
16:42
this stuff existed.
16:43
Like my goal was to get to
16:44
the online qualifiers.
16:46
That was like my big life goal.
16:49
So what flipped that switch?
16:53
I you know what I got here.
16:55
And so I left Iowa.
16:58
I have two grown kids.
17:00
They were both doing really well.
17:01
They were in their late 20s.
17:03
One lived in Colorado.
17:04
The other one was living in Florida.
17:07
And I have siblings there.
17:08
But I was like,
17:09
I don't really have
17:09
anything tying me here.
17:11
And I've never been anywhere
17:13
outside of the safety of Iowa.
17:15
So anyway, I came here.
17:15
I was working at a gym.
17:17
And someone said, have you ever...
17:19
heard of this Legends thing,
17:21
because it had been in
17:22
Arizona the year before I moved here.
17:24
And I was like, no,
17:25
I don't do any of that.
17:26
And they're like,
17:27
I think you should really try out for it.
17:28
You're really good.
17:30
I think you could make it.
17:31
And on a whim, I did, and I qualified.
17:34
And that was the first year
17:35
I qualified for the online
17:36
qualifiers as well.
17:39
You know when you just don't
17:40
know what exists until you
17:41
know it exists?
17:42
And then your eyes are like, oh, wow.
17:45
OK, maybe I could do this.
17:47
So I don't know.
17:48
I just kept trying.
17:51
Once you did that first one,
17:52
did it become that itch you
17:54
needed to scratch?
17:57
Um, yes,
17:59
but I probably wouldn't have
18:00
admitted it out loud.
18:01
Um, I don't know.
18:03
I felt like when I showed up there,
18:05
what's really weird is the
18:06
other day you had someone on the,
18:09
I think a gentleman
18:09
yesterday I was listening to,
18:10
and you were talking about how,
18:11
when you go to these competitions,
18:13
you really become friends
18:14
with these people.
18:14
You spend like four days with them.
18:16
You develop these friendships.
18:17
I never thought that I would
18:18
develop friendships,
18:19
but I still am very close
18:20
to women in my age group.
18:21
We, we have a group chat going on,
18:23
on Instagram.
18:24
We communicate with one another and,
18:26
And I,
18:27
I showed up there thinking I don't
18:29
belong here.
18:30
Like that imposter syndrome,
18:31
like they've made a grave
18:33
mistake and I am not going
18:36
to do well this weekend and
18:38
it's going to end really badly.
18:40
And it was a lot of learning, um,
18:43
And I actually had I had a heat win,
18:47
which was so surreal
18:48
because there's Annie and
18:50
Bill and Sean and they're
18:52
commentating and they're
18:53
commentating about me.
18:55
And I watched it back afterwards.
18:57
And they're like idols of mine.
18:59
Right.
18:59
They're people that I grew
19:00
up like come up in CrossFit
19:01
watching and then they're
19:02
commentating and they're saying my name.
19:04
And that was super cool.
19:06
You mean this guy?
19:09
Yes.
19:10
I had to come cheer on my bad ass.
19:13
Um, so fast forward, he's now my coach,
19:17
which is, it's, I can't even, I don't,
19:21
I don't know if anyone else
19:23
wakes up and is like,
19:24
how in the heck did I get here?
19:25
Like, how do I get to,
19:26
I get to live this life.
19:27
It's, it's pretty freaking cool.
19:30
So he was an idol of mine.
19:33
My quick,
19:34
quick and dirty Bill Grundler
19:36
story of meeting.
19:37
Oh, please.
19:37
Yes.
19:38
I want to hear it.
19:39
So I was a volunteer at the
19:43
2014 regionals in Cincinnati.
19:45
Okay.
19:46
And it was the first time
19:47
I'd ever volunteered for a
19:49
CrossFit competition.
19:50
So I had no clue what I was doing.
19:53
And I didn't really know.
19:55
I hadn't dove deep into who
19:58
all the players were, right?
20:00
Right.
20:01
So I'm just standing in line
20:02
with this guy that looks like Wolverine.
20:04
I love it.
20:06
getting my,
20:07
getting my rice and beans and chicken to,
20:10
to go sit down and eat and
20:12
having the greatest
20:13
conversation I like ever.
20:15
And then someone goes,
20:16
you know who that is?
20:17
And I was like, I really don't.
20:20
And, uh,
20:21
And they're like, that's Bill Grundler.
20:22
He's calling this whole thing.
20:23
And I was like, no way.
20:25
And then Bill just became
20:28
one of my favorite people ever in space.
20:32
I love that.
20:33
Like he was so down to earth.
20:35
I didn't even know he had
20:36
anything to do with what was going on.
20:38
I love it.
20:39
Another volunteer.
20:40
I love it.
20:41
That is so cool.
20:42
Yeah,
20:43
I have been working with Bill for the
20:45
last two years.
20:47
Like I said, when I moved to Arizona,
20:49
I did before that I did
20:51
classes in my gym.
20:53
I was I would always stay
20:54
and do extra stuff because
20:55
really my mind gets really
20:57
loud and it's just really good,
20:58
cheap mental health therapy for me.
21:01
But so I'd always do extra stuff,
21:02
but I never had like
21:03
one-on-one programming.
21:04
I just, I didn't like,
21:05
I never thought it was for me.
21:06
Like I thought that that was
21:07
this different set of people, but not,
21:11
I didn't have that.
21:11
I didn't think I had that skillset.
21:13
Like I wasn't on that level
21:14
where I would hire a coach.
21:16
It just didn't dawn on me that I would.
21:19
I moved to Arizona.
21:20
I started working at this
21:22
gym and my boss here, he's an athlete.
21:24
He's a master's athlete.
21:25
He's a very good athlete.
21:27
And we started doing some
21:28
workouts together and he was like,
21:30
you're going to the effing games.
21:32
And this was three years ago.
21:33
And I was like, what?
21:35
I thought he was just giving me like,
21:36
you know, pep talk was like, oh,
21:37
you're going to the games.
21:38
Every single day he saw me
21:40
when I came in the door to work, he said,
21:41
you're going to the games.
21:43
And
21:44
I'm going to the games.
21:45
It's crazy.
21:47
But he was like, you should get a coach.
21:49
You really should get
21:50
someone to give you some guidance.
21:51
I had a guy I was working with for a year.
21:53
It was great.
21:54
I learned a lot.
21:56
I wanted a little something different.
21:57
And I just randomly reached out to Bill.
21:59
And I was like, hey,
22:00
I don't know if you're taking any clients,
22:02
but
22:03
I'm interested in seeing if
22:04
you would do some
22:04
one-on-one stuff with me.
22:06
And I had seen him at
22:06
masters or no at the NorCal classic.
22:09
He was calling that one.
22:10
So I had like saw him a little bit.
22:12
Um,
22:12
and we were like Instagram friends or
22:14
whatever,
22:14
cause I probably Instagram stalked him.
22:16
Cause I'm just a weirdo.
22:16
And like,
22:17
so I see people that I think are
22:18
interesting and cool.
22:19
And I'm like,
22:20
I must find out more about them.
22:21
So anyway, um, but now he's, he's, um,
22:24
he's, he's my coach and he's, uh,
22:26
the keeper of all this crazy stuff.
22:29
so what kind of improvements
22:31
have you seen since hooking
22:33
up with bill um you know
22:35
before I started working
22:36
with him I asked one of his
22:37
former athletes about
22:39
working with him and he's
22:39
like you're gonna get
22:40
effing strong like you're
22:42
gonna get strong and I have
22:43
I've gotten a lot stronger
22:45
um I uh I think a lot of my
22:49
changes it have really been
22:53
in my ability to push myself
22:54
harder than I have,
22:56
because he would just give
22:57
me these like crazy, ridiculous workouts.
22:59
And I would be like,
23:00
he either thinks I'm a real BA,
23:03
or I can actually do this, or he's crazy.
23:05
And he's trying to kill me.
23:07
And I was never sure which
23:08
one of those things were true.
23:09
But I just in my head, I'm like, okay,
23:11
if he put it on there,
23:12
I must be able to do it.
23:14
And some days he would even like,
23:16
put the wrong weight or put
23:17
a weight like that would
23:18
like he would he would like
23:19
kind of like mess something up.
23:20
And I would try it one day I
23:21
did this whole workout with a vest on.
23:23
It was supposed to be a mile run.
23:25
like 75 wall ball or no a
23:27
hundred wall balls,
23:27
a hundred pushups and a
23:29
hundred something else.
23:30
Only the run was supposed to
23:31
be with a vest on,
23:33
but I did the whole thing with a vest on.
23:35
And I was like,
23:36
why would you have me do 20
23:38
pound wall balls with a 14 pound vest on?
23:40
What is wrong with you, sir?
23:42
And he's like, Oh shoot.
23:44
I didn't,
23:45
you weren't supposed to use the
23:45
vest for that, but you did it.
23:47
I was like, I did.
23:48
He goes, all right,
23:49
guess we know you can do it.
23:50
So yeah,
23:51
I think a lot of it is my mental game.
23:53
He,
23:55
He's really good at making
23:58
sure that I know that I can
24:00
do the things that I need to do.
24:03
And he's helped me work the
24:05
things that I have not
24:06
historically been good at
24:08
and maybe not become the best at them.
24:12
But where I can be like, all right,
24:13
this is not going to take
24:14
me out of anything like you can do this.
24:17
You just you have to like
24:18
just keep grinding through it.
24:21
So you mentioned early on in
24:22
your story that like your
24:23
brother was going to CrossFit,
24:24
your daughter was going to CrossFit.
24:26
Do they still CrossFit?
24:29
Yeah, so my brother is an L1.
24:31
His wife is an L2 and a
24:33
CrossFit kids coach.
24:35
My daughter is going to a
24:37
CrossFit gym in Colorado
24:39
and she is shadowing to do her L1.
24:42
My niece goes to CrossFit.
24:45
I haven't gotten my son to come yet.
24:47
He just kind of pats me on
24:48
the head and is like, oh, there, there,
24:50
old woman, you're so cute.
24:52
So his girlfriend has done
24:54
CrossFit and she's like, you know,
24:55
your mom's a really fit person, right?
24:59
And he's like, sure she is.
25:00
He still sees me as like his mom,
25:02
not like as this fit person, but yeah.
25:05
Are you going to be able to
25:06
bring anybody to Birmingham?
25:08
Yeah.
25:09
So my sister and brother are
25:10
coming and my daughter is coming.
25:12
And then I have these amazing,
25:14
crazy friends from Phoenix who,
25:17
Uh, some of them have done legends, uh,
25:20
and a couple of them, uh,
25:22
have volunteered with, uh,
25:23
Joe and Bob before.
25:25
Uh,
25:26
so I have about six or seven people who
25:28
are coming with like this little posse.
25:31
And I was like, God, that's a,
25:33
that's a lot of people.
25:34
Like I I'm not asking that's expensive.
25:36
I'm not asking anyone to come,
25:37
but they just show up for me.
25:40
That's pretty cool.
25:42
Yeah.
25:42
I'm, I'm,
25:43
I I'm living in gratitude for sure.
25:47
What are your expectations?
25:49
I knew you were going to ask
25:50
this because I listened to
25:51
all the other ones and you
25:52
asked everybody.
25:53
And so a couple of different things.
25:59
My goal this year,
26:00
and I had said to Bill at
26:00
the end of last year,
26:01
this before like the structural changes,
26:03
my goal was to make it to
26:04
semis because I had never done it.
26:05
I'd gone to
26:07
So first I want to say,
26:08
I asked this question of
26:10
everybody knowing that
26:11
nobody wants to answer this question.
26:13
I know.
26:14
Nobody wants to give me a
26:15
number and that's fine.
26:16
I want to hear how you get
26:19
out of and what you want to
26:20
tell me about the bigger goal.
26:22
Yeah.
26:22
That's why I asked this question.
26:24
Gotcha.
26:25
So my original goal was just
26:27
to get to semifinals
26:28
because to me that would have been a win.
26:29
I hadn't made it there before.
26:31
It was just a bonus that
26:32
they took 30 people.
26:34
I ended up in 17th, which I was like, okay,
26:36
it wasn't like I barely skated.
26:37
Like I had some really good,
26:38
I had a top three finish
26:40
and I had a not so good finish,
26:41
but it was, I was consistent enough.
26:45
I look at the games as like,
26:47
the cake, like I got my cake.
26:49
So anything else is just extra frosting.
26:53
Um, but for me,
26:54
I want to show up and
26:55
attack every workout the
26:56
way bill thinks I can.
26:57
I want to get that into my head.
26:58
I want to do the hard thing.
27:01
I want to make, um, I'd like top 10.
27:05
God, I don't want to say that,
27:07
but I would like that.
27:07
That would be, I would be happy with that.
27:09
Um,
27:10
But if it doesn't happen,
27:11
I'm not going to beat myself up.
27:13
I really want to celebrate
27:14
and showcase all the hard work I put in.
27:15
Because I have worked, like all of us have,
27:18
my butt off and have sacrificed.
27:21
And I have said no to a lot of things.
27:27
in order to say yes to this.
27:28
So I really wanna soak in the experience.
27:31
I have some friends who are
27:32
CrossFit athletes and I
27:33
would go to regionals back
27:34
when there were regionals
27:35
and I'd go be pit crew with them.
27:36
And it was super cool.
27:38
And I remember Street Horner,
27:39
I don't know if he is listening to this,
27:40
but his mom and I are very good friends.
27:42
And I was there when Street
27:43
made it to his first games.
27:45
And I remember him saying to me,
27:47
I saw him this summer and he's like,
27:49
just soak it all in.
27:50
Just enjoy it.
27:51
Be in the moment.
27:52
Don't worry about where you place.
27:53
Don't worry.
27:54
Like you do your best.
27:56
Do everything you did in training.
27:58
Do it as perfectly as you can do it.
27:59
Know that mistakes are going
28:00
to happen and just roll with the punches.
28:02
And so that's really my goal.
28:04
I just want to,
28:05
I want to make myself proud.
28:07
I want to walk away and be like, yeah,
28:09
that one kicked your butt,
28:10
but you really did good on that one.
28:12
That's kind of my thing.
28:14
Corey Leonard says, I love expert.
28:17
Right.
28:18
Right.
28:19
Only if it's cream cheese frosting.
28:20
Well, cream cheese frosting is the best.
28:22
So yes, I, I agree.
28:24
Um, so yeah, I think that, um, I think,
28:28
you know, I would like to, I don't,
28:30
I I'm really, for me this year,
28:32
it's the experience.
28:33
I'm in a place where I
28:33
didn't think I'd be able to go.
28:35
This year has been crazy.
28:36
I got my L three after my second try, um,
28:39
which is insane.
28:41
Uh,
28:43
that thing is so hard it's
28:46
so hard um and it I will
28:49
say that after I took them
28:50
never take it away from you
28:52
no and I remember it's so
28:55
crazy I took it the first
28:56
time and I walked out
28:56
feeling super confident
28:57
like I was like oh I think
28:58
I did really well and it
28:59
was a day after my birthday
29:00
and I was like almost like
29:01
a birthday birthday to you
29:03
and then I got my results and I was like
29:06
oh this is not happy
29:07
birthday to me and I
29:09
started to not tell anyone
29:11
and then I was like no this
29:12
is just some things that
29:13
happen your members need to
29:13
know that your members need
29:14
to know that you don't
29:15
always win that things
29:17
happen and how do you
29:18
recover from that what am I
29:19
gonna do am I gonna be sad
29:20
am I gonna cry am I gonna
29:22
like be oh poor me no I put
29:24
my head in a book well in a
29:26
computer and I just like
29:28
nerded out for like six
29:29
months and then I took it
29:30
again and I passed so that
29:32
happened I made it to the
29:33
games my kids are happy healthy
29:37
i have a great community
29:38
here so I'm just trying to
29:40
have fun but I'm super
29:42
competitive so I will try
29:44
to do some work for that
29:47
top 10 finish I'm looking
29:49
for it I am yes so we'll
29:52
see a lot of people don't
29:53
know this who've been
29:54
watching this series that
29:55
we've been but we're coming
29:56
to the end of it okay the
29:58
games are next week I know
30:01
like running out of time oh
30:03
Yes.
30:04
So the guy, the guy I put up,
30:05
Corey Leonard, who loves frosting.
30:08
Yes.
30:10
You,
30:10
the athletes to know what you mean to
30:13
him.
30:14
He is in the journey to make
30:17
the CrossFit games.
30:18
He's trying to set himself
30:20
up to get there.
30:21
Okay.
30:22
Every one of your stories,
30:25
it's inspiring him.
30:26
Oh, I'm going to cry to get there.
30:30
And he texted me that last night.
30:32
And, and so I just want to share that.
30:35
Like it, it's been awesome.
30:38
I've enjoyed this series so
30:39
much getting to know each
30:40
and every one of you,
30:41
but then to find out that, you know,
30:44
here's this guy in the chat
30:46
putting in the work every
30:47
day and then listening to
30:49
your stories and giving him
30:51
that little bit of push.
30:55
And then like, as he said,
30:57
and it lets me know I'm on
30:58
the right path.
30:59
Dude, you are so on the right path.
31:01
It's here's what I've
31:02
learned is that I had to
31:04
see someone who looked like
31:06
me or came from a place
31:07
like me or who had a
31:08
similar something like me
31:10
to doing it to let me know
31:12
it was possible.
31:13
And so I swear I not a lot.
31:16
I mean,
31:16
I had a slight gymnastics background,
31:19
so I can't stand stuff.
31:20
I love that.
31:20
That's like my jam.
31:21
But for for real, I lived a really,
31:25
really not healthy lifestyle.
31:27
And if
31:29
I swear if I can do it and
31:30
you just keep showing up
31:32
for yourself and every
31:34
decision I would make, I would say,
31:35
does this serve the life
31:37
I'm trying to create for myself?
31:38
And if it didn't, I had to say,
31:41
it's not for me.
31:42
And it's hard.
31:43
It's really hard.
31:43
And it's really lonely sometimes,
31:45
but Corey, you can do it.
31:46
I'll be your biggest cheerleader.
31:48
Is he going to be at the games?
31:50
Is he going to come and watch?
31:50
I don't think so.
31:52
Oh, Oh, I do think he's going to be.
31:57
So I know his next goal is
31:58
to go to Legends.
32:01
Oh, I can see you there, hopefully.
32:04
Yeah.
32:05
That would be super cool.
32:06
I know that's the next
32:07
checkbox on his list of
32:09
items to get knocked down on his plate.
32:14
So fingers crossed, praying hard.
32:16
I'm excited for him.
32:17
If that happens.
32:18
Yeah.
32:20
I want to say, I didn't even get, you know,
32:21
the workouts were announced today.
32:22
We didn't get to talk about that.
32:24
Yeah.
32:26
I'm not mad about them.
32:27
Yeah, but they were released.
32:29
Make sure you go out to IG
32:31
and check those out.
32:32
When I was on with James earlier today,
32:34
they announced them while
32:36
we were on the air.
32:37
So we did pull them up and
32:39
go over them if you want to
32:40
check them out.
32:42
I'm going to be in Birmingham.
32:43
We're going to be doing a
32:44
behind-the-scenes.
32:46
Ellie Hiller and myself will
32:47
be backstage in the crowds,
32:49
in the warm-up areas,
32:50
just capturing your
32:52
conversations with your competitors,
32:54
with your friends, with your coaches,
32:56
all of that kind of stuff,
32:58
and putting it into a
33:00
multiple-episode
33:02
documentary that will come
33:03
out after the games.
33:04
So cool.
33:06
That is so cool.
33:07
Thank you so much.
33:08
You guys are crushing it, crushing it.
33:12
so well thank you you're
33:14
welcome and I think
33:15
sometimes masters are are
33:16
like feel overlooked
33:19
sometimes and so you doing
33:20
things like this uh with
33:22
everything that's going on
33:23
in the landscape right now
33:24
I noticed I'm like no one's
33:26
really talking about that
33:27
there's still some games
33:29
left like there's still
33:30
some people yet to go so I
33:31
love that you guys are
33:32
doing this I think it's
33:33
fantastic with everything
33:34
that's happened we have to
33:35
find a way to move forward
33:38
And what better way than to
33:41
go watch the athletes that
33:43
demonstrate what the
33:44
original methodology taught us,
33:47
that we don't want to go
33:48
into older age in decrepitude.
33:53
You guys are flipping what
33:55
it means to be a certain age on its head.
33:58
Isn't it crazy?
34:00
It's wild.
34:01
My friends call me Benjamin Button.
34:02
They're like,
34:03
how are you aging in reverse?
34:04
I'm like, I don't know.
34:05
I just keep going to CrossFit.
34:07
So it's the perfect thing to celebrate.
34:09
Let's go back to our roots.
34:11
Let's look at the population
34:12
that are fighting age with
34:17
both hands and killing it
34:19
and celebrate that as a way
34:22
to move forward as a community.
34:24
I love that.
34:27
That sounds awesome.
34:28
So that's what we're doing.
34:30
We're going to go celebrate.
34:32
We're going to do wrap up
34:32
shows every night from there.
34:34
We're going to, you know,
34:35
do all the things we do.
34:37
And Corey,
34:38
just to legends is his first check marks,
34:41
then TFX.
34:43
Nice.
34:43
I'll be cheering for you, Corey.
34:46
And with that, Tammy, you're the best.
34:50
Oh, thank you so much.
34:50
This was a blast.
34:52
Thank you to everybody in
34:53
the chat for being here.
34:54
Yeah.
34:54
I can't wait to meet you in person.
34:56
Thank you to everybody in
34:57
the chat for making this a fun,
34:58
fun little episode and tune in next week,
35:03
next week, next one week from today.
35:09
Crazy.
35:11
I'm cheering for you, Tammy.
35:13
Oh, thank you so much.
35:16
With that, everybody, thank you so much.
35:18
We'll see you next time on
35:20
the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
35:23
Bye.