Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Cory Kinley - The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

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Cory Kinley - The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games · Clydesdale Media Podcast

0:11
I was born
0:35
What is going on, everybody?
0:37
Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
0:39
My name is Scott Switch.
0:40
I'm the Clydesdale.
0:41
We are here to celebrate and
0:44
highlight the athletes of
0:45
the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games.
0:49
And I have with me right now,
0:51
Corey Kinley.
0:52
What's going on?
0:53
Hey, Scott.
0:55
Hey, thanks for doing this, man.
0:58
I've been watching a lot of
1:00
your other interviews.
1:01
And, uh, I just think to give us, you know,
1:04
15 minutes of fame, a lot of us, you know,
1:07
don't really think too much
1:08
about like ourselves as,
1:09
as a interview worthy.
1:12
Uh, so I really appreciate it, man.
1:15
Actually, I think,
1:16
I think the stories that
1:17
you guys have are much more
1:19
interesting to me than the
1:20
stories of the elite athletes,
1:22
the lives that you lead and
1:23
the balance that it takes
1:25
for you to do what you do, uh,
1:27
is way more interesting to me.
1:31
You got a good point.
1:32
The other thing too is like
1:34
a lot of these guys I
1:35
consider friends and
1:37
listening to these interviews,
1:39
getting to know them better
1:41
has been really fascinating.
1:43
Yeah.
1:44
I didn't think I could like
1:45
Brandon Fontenot any better,
1:47
but I think I do now.
1:49
Yeah.
1:50
He's a good dude.
1:51
He's awesome.
1:52
Uh, Carol Hunt,
1:53
thank you so much for joining up.
1:56
Uh, yeah, you can,
1:57
you can join the channel
1:58
for as low as $2 and 99 cents a month and,
2:01
uh,
2:01
help support the channel and helps us
2:03
get to different locations
2:05
to be able to do what we want to do.
2:07
Shout out Carol.
2:09
That's your mom.
2:09
That's my mom.
2:11
Ah, gotta love moms.
2:13
She's she, I have to, yeah,
2:16
let me shout her out.
2:16
She's gotta be one of the
2:17
most supportive people.
2:18
Um,
2:20
I was just thinking about a
2:21
bunch of stuff leading up
2:23
to this and I really wanted
2:25
to be a good soccer player growing up.
2:27
And I tried out for all
2:30
these teams and I tried out
2:33
for a team that was two
2:34
hours away from where we lived.
2:36
And yeah,
2:38
You know,
2:38
we're not much of a sports family.
2:40
And she and my stepfather
2:43
thought there'd be no
2:44
chance that I could make it.
2:45
So they're like, yeah, we'll support you.
2:48
So we went up, tried out.
2:49
It turns out I made it.
2:51
So they used to drive me two
2:53
hours during the weekday
2:57
and on weekends to practice.
2:59
Well, four hours,
3:01
two hours up and two hours back.
3:02
And she's still the most
3:04
supportive person.
3:07
My mom was the same way and
3:09
my dad as well.
3:11
I was a swimmer growing up.
3:13
I got private lessons
3:14
because I wanted to be the best.
3:16
They would drive an hour or two.
3:18
So you were born in Lock Haven,
3:21
Pennsylvania.
3:22
That's right.
3:22
Which is one of the PSA, PSCA,
3:25
whatever it is,
3:26
Collegiate Athletic in Pennsylvania.
3:29
I went to private lessons at
3:31
Clarion University.
3:32
Okay.
3:33
So they were our tribals
3:34
kind of in that division.
3:37
And it was good 45 minutes from our house,
3:41
and I thought that was a lot,
3:42
but two hours, dang.
3:44
Yeah.
3:45
It was – yeah,
3:46
I ended up having to
3:48
basically have like a host family.
3:50
I would –
3:53
they would drive me up on
3:54
Saturday mornings, we'd have practice,
3:57
and then they'd drive home
3:59
on Saturday morning,
4:00
and I'd stay up there.
4:03
But this is when we moved to Delaware.
4:06
So I was born in Lock Haven
4:09
and Williamsport area,
4:12
where they do the Little
4:13
League World Series.
4:15
But when I was around nine or ten,
4:19
we moved to the
4:21
the, the, the Atlantic, you know, in,
4:23
in Rehoboth beach, Delaware.
4:25
So I was driving,
4:26
they were driving me from
4:27
Southern Delaware up to
4:29
Northern Delaware in Wilmington.
4:32
And I would have to stay
4:32
overnight Saturday and then
4:34
we play the games on Sunday.
4:36
So then they would come back up,
4:37
watch the game and take me home.
4:40
Wow.
4:41
Yeah.
4:41
I've been to Wilmington a few times.
4:43
Um,
4:44
My one co-host, Kat, she's from there.
4:49
And we went out and covered
4:51
a Green Beret project
4:53
competition in Wilmington a
4:55
couple years ago.
4:56
Wilmington, Delaware?
4:57
Yep.
4:58
No way.
4:59
Oh, I have to get a hold of Kat.
5:01
That's really interesting.
5:02
Yeah.
5:03
She'll be with me at the games next week.
5:06
So she'll be on some shows with us there.
5:07
Is she coming to Birmingham?
5:10
I haven't heard yet.
5:11
All right.
5:12
Let's get her to Birmingham.
5:14
Um, so you, you played soccer.
5:18
What kind of foundation did
5:19
that give you for overall
5:20
fitness in life?
5:24
Um, that's a great question.
5:28
I think that it, it basically,
5:31
it set my default.
5:32
Um, I just,
5:36
I say this often cause I coach
5:37
CrossFit and I've been
5:38
doing that for like 12 years.
5:40
And I think that the, the,
5:44
The worst curse to me would
5:45
be to like not like to sweat, you know?
5:49
Cause I just, I'm a sweaty,
5:51
I'm a sweaty workouter.
5:53
And it's just kind of,
5:55
I think growing up where,
5:59
You know, I played in high school,
6:01
you know,
6:01
played during school and then I
6:02
played travel teams and
6:05
Olympic development.
6:06
So just all year long playing soccer.
6:09
So it just became my default
6:12
to to do workouts and, you know,
6:14
move my body.
6:15
And if I wasn't, you know,
6:18
before I before I got old, I might have,
6:21
you know,
6:22
participated in some drinking a
6:23
little bit here and there.
6:24
And I remember, like,
6:25
if I didn't feel good the next morning,
6:27
if I didn't.
6:28
do some type of exercise,
6:30
then I was worthless.
6:32
So I think playing all that
6:34
soccer just gave me a base
6:37
where you got to move your
6:40
body to feel good, I guess.
6:44
Yeah.
6:44
Yeah.
6:45
That's really cool.
6:46
But what I find fascinating
6:48
is I talked to a lot of
6:49
athletes and there's a,
6:51
there's some connections
6:52
and backgrounds and soccer
6:53
seems to be one of them.
6:55
And it's just because you're
6:56
constantly moving.
6:58
Right.
6:58
So you're used to like that
7:00
wide pace of just keep moving,
7:02
just keep moving.
7:06
You ended up playing in college.
7:08
Yeah.
7:10
Moravian university.
7:13
Do you,
7:14
So you – I listened to some
7:16
other of your interviews,
7:17
and you kind of mentioned wrestling.
7:22
It was – I was listening to
7:23
the rec interview.
7:25
So Lehigh University is in Bethlehem,
7:28
Pennsylvania also.
7:30
They have a pretty good like
7:31
a wrestling program.
7:34
Moravian University is kind of like –
7:37
the little stepbrother of
7:39
Lehigh university.
7:41
But it's been there since 1742.
7:43
It's the sixth oldest college in the,
7:46
in the country.
7:47
It's small.
7:48
We had, we had a thousand students.
7:51
Yeah.
7:51
I think if I remember right,
7:53
Chris Spieler actually went
7:55
to Lehigh to wrestle.
7:58
I think he went to Lock Haven.
7:59
Lock Haven.
8:00
Was it Lock Haven?
8:01
Yeah.
8:01
It was one of the Eastern
8:03
Pennsylvania schools.
8:04
And so that – when I read –
8:06
the reason that I
8:07
remembered it was Spieler
8:08
went to Lock Haven because
8:10
I was born in Lock Haven.
8:11
And I read the coolest thing.
8:13
You know,
8:14
those wrestlers are just monsters.
8:16
And they did an airdyne test
8:19
at Lock Haven.
8:20
Like I guess every year the
8:22
wrestlers did an airdyne test.
8:24
And, you know, I've always complained.
8:27
I'm like kind of a shorter lever athlete.
8:29
And so, you know,
8:30
I don't have a lot of power
8:32
on the airdyne or whatever.
8:34
but it turns out that
8:35
spieler for a long time had
8:39
the the airdyne record and
8:41
he was you know a
8:42
lightweight yeah I think he
8:46
told that story on our show
8:47
when he was on no way
8:49
something about like
8:50
breaking the record of that
8:51
that um and he and he
8:54
attributes a lot of it to
8:55
to wrestling putting you in
8:56
positions where you're
8:58
uncomfortable and like if
9:00
you're comfortable being
9:01
uncomfortable it helps you in workouts
9:04
Yeah, absolutely.
9:06
I have a heightened sense of
9:07
self-preservation.
9:08
And maybe it's from not
9:12
doing like the one-on-one
9:15
like in a wrestling sports.
9:16
Like in soccer,
9:20
you have to have something left.
9:23
And, you know, it's 90 minutes.
9:25
So, you know,
9:26
it's particularly if you if
9:28
you still need to win the
9:29
game or whatever, if you need to score,
9:30
you got to have something left.
9:33
So I've always been kind of
9:34
conservative in trying to
9:36
figure out the best way to
9:38
move through a workout where I don't fail,
9:41
don't blow up.
9:43
And I think.
9:48
If I'm going to improve,
9:51
it's either getting a
9:52
mentality that I need to
9:55
put myself under more
9:56
stress or at least have
9:59
coaches tell me to do that.
10:01
We have a hello from Argentina.
10:05
Wow.
10:06
Hello, Gisela.
10:09
Is that real?
10:10
That doesn't look real.
10:12
I don't know.
10:15
I know we have listeners all
10:17
over the world,
10:17
so I'll take it for what it is.
10:21
It's funny,
10:22
just the different sports and
10:24
the different mentality.
10:24
I was talking to Caitlin
10:26
Johnson last Friday.
10:27
She was a swimmer,
10:28
and she talked about how
10:30
when she went to CrossFit,
10:32
the mentality of swimming
10:33
is there's no option to
10:35
quit or to stop in the middle of a race.
10:38
If you do, you drown.
10:40
You have to keep swimming to
10:41
get to the end.
10:43
And in CrossFit,
10:44
you have the option to put the bar down.
10:48
And when she first went in,
10:50
she was trying to do
10:51
everything unbroken because
10:52
that was the mentality that
10:54
she grew up with swimming
10:56
all those years.
10:57
You can't stop.
10:58
Yeah.
11:01
Yeah.
11:03
you bring up something to me that's,
11:04
I think it's interesting that maybe,
11:06
you know,
11:07
the difference between a team
11:08
sport like soccer and,
11:09
and these one-on-one like wrestling where,
11:12
so in soccer, how, what's the,
11:15
the saying go that the,
11:17
the whole is greater than the sum,
11:21
the sum of the parts.
11:22
Like there there's that,
11:24
there's like this
11:25
intangible thing that like,
11:29
maybe, maybe you don't have the,
11:31
the team doesn't have the best skills,
11:32
but just something about, you know, there,
11:35
there are underdogs can win, you know?
11:39
And in it, it's a lot about,
11:42
I think these intangibles
11:45
of what's the best way to say this?
11:47
Like you can be,
11:51
you can behave in a way you
11:53
can play in a way that's,
11:54
that's higher than,
11:57
on what you have on paper, you know?
12:02
And it reminds me that I
12:03
think that mentality,
12:07
it helps me in CrossFit because, I mean,
12:11
you know, on paper, let's say,
12:14
a guy's going to beat you, but you,
12:16
you can, you can outsmart,
12:19
you can do a workout
12:20
smarter than another guy.
12:21
That's that's faster and
12:23
bigger and stronger.
12:25
And you can, and you can, and you can win.
12:28
You can be way smarter, you know?
12:32
Yeah.
12:32
Like everybody can do 10 thrusters,
12:36
135 pounds, you know, unbroken,
12:40
but you shouldn't, you know, like,
12:43
And I guess just like not
12:46
working out with the ego,
12:47
just saying instead of ego,
12:50
just do the smartest thing.
12:52
And that can go a long way.
12:55
I know a lot of guys that
12:56
are not going to the games
12:58
that are fitter, stronger,
13:00
and faster than me and a
13:02
lot of the guys that are going.
13:04
Well, you look at you're a mayhem athlete.
13:07
You look at Rich Froning,
13:09
the guy never lost on Sunday.
13:13
And the reason is because he
13:14
played the week in a way
13:17
that allowed him to
13:18
dominate when it mattered most.
13:23
So it is a lot about strategy.
13:25
It is a lot about the brains
13:27
that you put behind this.
13:30
What was the main reason you
13:31
went with Mayhem as you were programming?
13:36
I think so.
13:38
So my story is interesting.
13:39
I haven't been real competitive.
13:41
Um, you know, like I, I'm in a, in a,
13:44
in a thread with a bunch of great guys.
13:46
Um, very inspirational to me.
13:49
Um,
13:51
like Dave Johnston, Chris Anderson,
13:54
and Ryan Redkey, these guys,
13:56
and it's really good for me
13:57
because I don't have like
13:59
the same approach and
14:00
mentality that they do.
14:02
And so for me to get exposed
14:04
to how they think is really good for me.
14:09
So I'm kind of,
14:10
I'm new to competing in CrossFit.
14:13
And my first Legends was 2021, I think.
14:20
And so at the time, I was 44, I believe.
14:25
And I didn't even understand how – really,
14:29
I didn't think too much
14:31
about how – where you are
14:32
in the age group affects
14:36
the possibility of doing well or not.
14:38
So I think I was 44.
14:40
But I never thought about it.
14:42
I just don't have – I don't
14:43
have like a real –
14:45
analytic brain for this stuff.
14:48
And so I went to Legends and
14:50
I think I got dead last.
14:52
And so I got into CrossFit
14:57
at 35 years old.
15:00
Um, similar story to, to Brandon, where,
15:04
um, I, I, I went on this run and I was,
15:08
do you remember the barefoot shoes?
15:11
Oh yeah.
15:11
The five fingers.
15:13
Oh man.
15:13
I was, I was into it.
15:15
I was born to run.
15:17
barefoot.
15:19
I went out on what I
15:21
consider a longer run
15:22
because at that time,
15:24
exercise for me at 35 was pull-ups,
15:28
push-ups on a jungle gym and a trail run.
15:33
I went on this long run and I had...
15:38
one of those gel packs, you know,
15:41
and my key in my shorts.
15:43
And so I think I went out
15:44
like five miles out or no.
15:49
Yeah, maybe it was like a,
15:51
maybe I was three miles out
15:52
and I was going to come back three miles.
15:53
Well,
15:54
I get back to my truck and I don't
15:56
have my key because I
15:58
dropped it when I ate my gel pack at like,
16:02
you know, three miles out.
16:03
So I had to go run and get my key.
16:07
so I did I think I did 12
16:09
miles in barefoot shoes so
16:13
I had this terrible plantar
16:15
fasciitis so I couldn't do
16:17
my my exercise I couldn't
16:18
trail run anymore and
16:19
that's when I i found
16:21
crossfit um and you asked
16:25
me about mayhem um so
16:29
So I'm going to ask, anytime you go run,
16:31
do you now put your key on
16:33
the little piece of yarn
16:34
like they do for the kids
16:35
so you can put it around your neck?
16:37
Oh, yeah.
16:38
I duct tape it to my leg so
16:41
it doesn't go anywhere.
16:42
Well, I don't really run anymore.
16:45
So that's how I solve that.
16:49
Just don't go on long runs.
16:51
The first six months I did CrossFit,
16:54
I left my wedding ring at
16:55
the gym like 12 times.
16:59
Yeah, the owner's like calling me like,
17:01
hey, is your wife around?
17:02
I'm like, no.
17:03
And he's like, I have your wedding ring.
17:05
Yeah, you did it again.
17:06
Yeah.
17:08
Yeah, Scott,
17:08
you got to figure out how to
17:11
keep this ring.
17:12
So I went with silicone so I
17:13
don't ever take it off.
17:15
Yeah, there you go.
17:16
Solved the problem.
17:17
So to answer your question,
17:19
I think I was dead last at
17:21
my first Legends.
17:22
And I hadn't been really
17:24
competitive up to that point.
17:26
And so here I am, I think.
17:29
We were in San Diego and I'm like,
17:31
you're spending a lot of money and time.
17:36
So you either should quit
17:38
this or figure out how to be competitive.
17:44
And so I think going to the
17:47
games this year is kind of
17:48
the victory lap of that.
17:51
So three years ago, I said,
17:52
how can you be competitive?
17:55
You have to figure it out or
17:57
you should quit because
17:58
this is expensive.
18:00
So I start asking everybody
18:03
at Legends that's whipping my butt,
18:07
what do they do?
18:09
How do you do this?
18:10
And so two things –
18:12
everybody said the same two
18:14
things essentially is that
18:15
you have to find programming.
18:17
You have to find –
18:20
programming that is designed
18:21
to lead you to where you want to go.
18:23
And you basically have to
18:27
fit your schedule so you
18:29
can get the volume in.
18:31
And
18:32
you know,
18:33
basically that was everyone else.
18:34
That's the approach now that,
18:36
that makes perfect sense.
18:37
But I didn't, I didn't know anything.
18:40
So that, and that was the year like Grubb,
18:42
Jason Grubb was super,
18:44
was like Mr. Mayhem.
18:46
And so, you know, he's beaten everybody.
18:48
So I'm like, well, mayhem sounds good.
18:50
And another couple of guys
18:52
mentioned mayhem.
18:53
Um, and so I said, well, I should do that.
18:56
And I think right around the same time,
18:58
um,
19:00
Because I was in proximity
19:02
to Ryan Redke at the time,
19:04
we kind of stayed a little bit in touch.
19:07
And I think that's right
19:09
around the same time that
19:09
he decided to switch over
19:11
to Mayhem to get more serious too.
19:16
I think about like this, this week alone,
19:18
I think I've talked to four
19:19
of you from that group and
19:22
cat is coming up this weekend.
19:24
Yeah.
19:25
Um,
19:26
and you all did semifinals together and
19:30
what a collection of
19:31
different style athletes.
19:34
We all made it.
19:37
Yeah.
19:37
All with one mission,
19:38
all with it in one place.
19:41
What a cool, what a cool story that is.
19:43
It was an incredible camp.
19:45
Um,
19:46
Yeah.
19:46
I mean, you want to do a documentary,
19:48
do a documentary on that camp.
19:49
Like we all came from all
19:50
over the place and all qualified.
19:54
It's nuts.
19:56
Well, like if you stand beside Chris,
19:58
beside Ryan,
20:00
you guys don't look anything
20:02
like the same sport.
20:07
And yet you're all going to
20:08
the CrossFit games.
20:11
Yeah.
20:11
It's you.
20:13
You talking about Chris Anderson?
20:14
Yeah.
20:15
Well,
20:17
I think if we talk about my
20:20
perspective in CrossFit and
20:22
how it's – my perspective
20:24
of how all this goes down
20:26
is a lot different than
20:27
like a Ryan Redke or a Dave Johnson,
20:31
Chris Anderson because they're aliens.
20:36
Like I do – You're in that group.
20:40
What's that?
20:40
You're in that group.
20:41
Okay.
20:44
Okay.
20:45
I appreciate that.
20:46
Um, I think there, there's,
20:48
there are tears though, you know, like,
20:50
and, and Chris Anderson,
20:53
like we had this workout at
20:54
legends this year that was like heavy, um,
20:59
heavy cleans too.
21:02
Well, they were heavy for me.
21:03
They're 225 pound cleans and, and, and, um,
21:07
handstand walk.
21:09
And like,
21:11
You know, I did very well on the strength.
21:14
We had to do a snatch and a
21:16
clean and jerk.
21:17
And so, you know,
21:18
I think I clean and jerk 295.
21:22
But I did not – I struggled
21:24
with the high volume
21:26
225-pound weight in this clean workout.
21:30
Chris Anderson weighs like 150 pounds.
21:32
And –
21:32
225 pounds is probably 90% of his max,
21:41
right?
21:42
Well,
21:42
he can move 90% better than I can
21:47
move that 75%.
21:50
Yeah, we don't look alike.
21:56
And he's from another planet.
21:59
To be honest,
22:00
when you look at Chris
22:01
Anderson on the floor...
22:04
He doesn't look like he belongs,
22:06
yet he's one of the best in
22:08
the world in his age group.
22:10
It is mind-boggling.
22:14
I look at when workouts come out,
22:16
I have this Chris Anderson filter.
22:18
It's like, oh,
22:19
no one's beaten Chris
22:20
Anderson in that workout.
22:22
If the movements are a certain thing,
22:24
no one is beating him in any age group.
22:30
Corey Leonard says,
22:30
this guy has a great first name.
22:32
Yeah.
22:33
Yeah.
22:33
He,
22:33
Corey Leonard spells his name the right
22:35
way.
22:35
Yeah.
22:37
So Corey's in your age group.
22:38
He's, he's,
22:40
he's been training so hard so
22:43
that he can compete when he turns 50.
22:46
Well, he's looking, I just saw his photo.
22:48
He's ripped.
22:49
Yeah.
22:49
He, he has really dialed it in,
22:52
in the last nine months.
22:55
He's, he works out with Brandon Luckett.
22:59
Where do they live?
23:00
Louisiana.
23:05
I don't know if you know Brandon Lockett.
23:06
He made it to the games in the elite.
23:07
He runs email company and
23:10
that's the programming that Corey does.
23:12
Well, where does Brandon Fontenot live?
23:15
Does he live in Louisiana?
23:16
Yeah.
23:17
Yeah.
23:17
And he's,
23:17
he's part of that group down there too.
23:19
That's a good, that's a good,
23:20
that's a good camp down there.
23:22
Yeah.
23:23
Yeah.
23:23
They have a camp called the
23:25
Southland group, Southland camp.
23:27
And Rudy Berger goes down there and,
23:31
Roy Vijay,
23:33
some other people that are in
23:34
the Masters world.
23:37
Lake Charles is what Corey said.
23:39
Okay.
23:41
Yeah, it's really cool.
23:42
There's a lot of different
23:44
camps out there.
23:45
Really, really cool community.
23:49
Yeah.
23:50
And that's why I want to
23:51
document this year,
23:52
because I think that's what
23:55
you guys bring that the elites don't.
23:58
And that is that sense of
23:59
camaraderie and the
24:00
community behind it all.
24:04
Yeah.
24:04
Yeah.
24:05
You mentioned that at our
24:08
semis camp at mayhem this year,
24:12
there were four of us in
24:13
the same age group doing
24:14
workouts together.
24:17
And I mean, not at one time,
24:19
did anybody think, oh, you know,
24:21
this guy's – we should be
24:24
competing against each other.
24:25
I mean, mainly, I guess, because, you know,
24:28
there were 40 spots,
24:29
so there was plenty of spots.
24:31
But, yeah,
24:33
there was – it was a brotherhood.
24:35
There was no competition whatsoever.
24:38
I don't think that would have mattered.
24:39
No.
24:41
Like, in this community,
24:42
it just doesn't seem to matter.
24:44
But you went from 58 at
24:45
quarters to 31st at semis.
24:49
Probably that environment is
24:51
10 of those spots alone.
24:55
Absolutely.
24:58
And the main thing that I think informed,
25:03
like,
25:05
led to that was likely because we
25:10
had the 40s to 44s and us 45 to 49s.
25:11
We did everything together.
25:20
And, you know,
25:22
so I could see like what
25:24
Jonathan Varela and Brett
25:26
Owsley were rowing on their
25:28
50 Cal intervals.
25:32
And so I would,
25:34
I could see what they're rowing.
25:35
They're rowing 1200s.
25:39
let's say maybe they were
25:40
rowing 11 hundreds.
25:41
And I was like, I, you know,
25:42
I can't do that.
25:43
So I'm going to row 12, a 1200.
25:46
And I put a perfect workout together.
25:49
You just, you just can't get that.
25:52
You know,
25:52
when I'm at my home gym and I got
25:55
people running in front of
25:56
my camera and they don't,
25:58
they don't care.
26:00
Nobody cares about a
26:02
semifinals video workout at
26:04
your home gym.
26:05
But we were so dialed in and
26:09
feeding off each other so much.
26:12
I mean,
26:13
I know that Brandon had to repeat a
26:16
workout that if he hadn't,
26:18
he wouldn't have qualified.
26:20
And it was simply because we
26:21
had all this data of everyone's scores.
26:27
that's crazy.
26:28
He was saying like,
26:30
and we'll move on from this,
26:31
but like that Ryan is so
26:33
good with the numbers.
26:34
Like Ryan was like,
26:35
he could tell you based on
26:37
how you finished, where do you,
26:39
are you in, are you out?
26:40
Is it going to be close?
26:42
Like Brandon was like,
26:43
I could not believe he was like rain,
26:44
man.
26:45
He is literally rain, man.
26:47
I don't know what the best way to put this,
26:50
but he, he's so analytical.
26:52
Like,
26:55
I think we're a good
26:56
yin-yang because I am the exact opposite.
27:00
You have to remind me of how
27:03
all of that works and how
27:05
important it is because
27:06
it's just not natural for me.
27:10
But I was...
27:13
I was, I didn't repeat any workouts,
27:18
which I think I had a
27:19
really good camp because I just,
27:20
I was all one and done,
27:22
which I think will prepare
27:23
me good for the games.
27:26
But I was contemplating
27:28
doing a workout because, you know,
27:32
It was a workout where I
27:33
could have probably improved.
27:35
And I'm thinking, well,
27:35
maybe I should do this.
27:36
And Ryan just says, well, you know,
27:38
that's not where you would
27:39
make up ground.
27:40
If you want to repeat a workout,
27:42
you'd have to repeat workout like two.
27:44
You know, I was like, yeah,
27:45
I never would have thought of that.
27:46
But you're totally right.
27:48
He.
27:49
Yeah,
27:51
I think it's the common feedback is
27:53
that Ryan is the rain man
27:56
of like competitive exercise.
28:00
Yeah.
28:01
Yeah.
28:01
I, I could talk about Ryan forever.
28:03
That dude,
28:04
like his mind works in ways that
28:07
just fascinate me,
28:08
but you're going to the
28:10
games for your first time.
28:12
It's your rookie season.
28:14
Like how are you going to
28:16
keep all the nerves, all the excitement?
28:19
Are you going to go out in
28:20
that first workout at like,
28:22
like your hair's on fire?
28:23
No, I don't do that.
28:27
Um,
28:28
oh, I know me,
28:29
I'd be like all gas right
28:31
off the start line and die
28:34
right after it started.
28:35
No,
28:36
the way I know that a workout has been
28:41
successful is simply that
28:44
the plan you put together for it,
28:46
you executed that plan.
28:49
You stuck as close to that
28:51
plan as possible and you
28:52
worked really hard.
28:53
So
28:57
And especially now,
28:59
I have never had a coach before.
29:02
And so I have Michael
29:04
McElroy in my corner now.
29:07
And so for me, I don't let –
29:15
you know, the, the atmosphere like dictate,
29:19
you know,
29:20
interfere in anything I were
29:22
literally have the exact
29:23
plan that I want to do.
29:25
And I'm just going to execute that.
29:26
And that,
29:27
that takes all the nerves away from me.
29:29
Um,
29:31
I think I did a semis camp with Ryan
29:36
two years last year.
29:37
And we,
29:40
I went down to his place in
29:42
Huntington beach and
29:44
there were four of us, um,
29:47
doing the workouts at,
29:49
at Tustin CrossFit.
29:52
And,
29:52
and I was the only one that didn't
29:54
make it.
29:55
Um, but I learned a lot from watching, um,
30:00
Rachel Sessa,
30:01
Leka Fineman and Ryan Redkey
30:03
do us do semis.
30:05
Um, because what I found, and again,
30:08
I'm kind of new to this.
30:10
What I saw was that, um,
30:13
They didn't have amazing workouts.
30:17
You know,
30:17
they didn't like blow a workout
30:19
out of the water and, you know,
30:21
have this miraculous finish
30:22
that put them in.
30:23
They literally just exercised, you know,
30:26
and their baseline of when
30:29
they do workouts is top 10 in the world.
30:34
So it took away that, you know,
30:38
I don't know how to describe it.
30:41
like there's not this like
30:42
big unknown miraculous
30:44
thing that's going to happen.
30:45
Um, you're just going to exercise,
30:48
you're going to do a
30:49
workout and the way you
30:50
finish it will put you in a
30:52
certain place.
30:53
So I just,
30:56
there's not a lot of nerves in
30:57
that for me.
30:58
It's just go to execute, you know,
31:00
and work hard and have a good plan.
31:05
Who are you taking with you?
31:07
Um, that's a great question.
31:10
Um,
31:10
my mom's coming obviously
31:13
and uh and my girlfriend um
31:17
and I was actually thinking
31:18
about because we I get so
31:22
caught up in the last three
31:23
years I've been very
31:24
serious about like training
31:26
and everything and and I
31:27
basically train alone um
31:30
but thinking about talking
31:33
to you it I made me realize
31:35
like how much crossfit has
31:37
has meant in my life um
31:39
And the first thing that I'd
31:40
say is that when I moved to
31:42
this area at Folsom, California,
31:44
I didn't know a soul.
31:46
And so I joined this
31:48
CrossFit gym and it turns
31:49
out that every important
31:51
person in my life,
31:51
like my entire social network, you know,
31:56
the people that I would
31:57
consider my family are
31:59
entirely from the CrossFit gym, you know.
32:04
And the two people that are
32:05
coming to support me and, you know,
32:08
and watch me are
32:09
are my mom and my girlfriend, Noah, N-O-A.
32:13
Her name's Noah.
32:13
She has the coolest name.
32:17
I met Noah because she and
32:20
my mom work out at the 830
32:23
CrossFit class up at
32:26
CrossFit Destination in Walla Walla,
32:28
Washington.
32:30
So when I would go visit my parents,
32:33
I would drop into this gym.
32:34
It's an incredible gym.
32:35
Like a lot of times when you
32:37
go away to another gym,
32:39
you lose a lot because you know,
32:41
it's a small town.
32:42
You think the gym's not going to be great.
32:44
Destination CrossFit is an incredible gym.
32:47
I don't lose a beat.
32:50
And so I would like work out
32:51
with my mom and I met my
32:54
girlfriend there at the
32:55
beginning of this year.
32:56
And so now they're both
32:58
going to come watch me in Birmingham.
33:00
So the secret is work out with your mom,
33:03
make it to the CrossFit Games.
33:05
That's it.
33:06
Simple.
33:09
Man, love it.
33:11
As a mama's boy here,
33:13
that would be really cool.
33:16
Well, Corey, I want to thank you a ton.
33:18
We're at the 30-minute mark,
33:20
which I promised everybody
33:21
we would stick to.
33:22
But we're going to be in Birmingham.
33:24
We're going to be walking
33:25
around with a camera.
33:26
Ellie Hiller and myself will
33:27
be just back there chatting with you guys,
33:30
collecting all that stuff
33:32
so that we can put together
33:33
a cool little scrapbook
33:36
documentary of what
33:37
happened at the games behind the scenes.
33:43
And I can't wait to chat
33:44
with you some more.
33:45
Yeah, I can't wait to see you down there.
33:46
Thanks a lot, Scott.
33:47
I appreciate you doing this.
33:49
Corey Leonard, well, hell,
33:51
I got to go get my mom to the gym.
33:53
Wait,
33:54
people aren't working out with their
33:55
moms?
33:55
You're crazy.
33:58
Yeah.
33:59
With that,
33:59
don't forget to like and
34:00
subscribe to the channel.
34:02
Hit the notifier.
34:03
We got a ton of these
34:04
interviews coming up.
34:05
You're only going to know if
34:06
you hit that notifier and
34:07
you are made aware that
34:09
they're coming on.
34:10
So make sure you do that.
34:12
Thank you again to Carol Hunt, Corey's mom,
34:15
for supporting the channel.
34:17
And we'll see you next time
34:19
on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
34:22
Bye, guys.