Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Lacey Truelove | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends CrossFit Games

Transcript

Lacey Truelove | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends CrossFit Games · Clydesdale Media Podcast

• 0:12
  I was born to kill it.
• 0:15
  I was meant to win.
• 0:16
  I am down and willing,
• 0:18
  so I will find a way.
• 0:19
  It took a minute,
• 0:20
  now it didn't happen right away.
• 0:21
  When it get hot in the kitchen,
• 0:23
  you decide to stay.
• 0:24
  That's how it win us, man.
• 0:25
  Stick a fork in the head of a man.
• 0:34
  what is going on everybody
• 0:36
  welcome to the Clydesdale
• 0:37
  media podcast my name is
• 0:39
  Scott Switzer I'm the
• 0:39
  Clydesdale we are so stoked
• 0:43
  to be able to profile all
• 0:45
  the well not all but a lot
• 0:46
  of the athletes from the
• 0:49
  2024 legends masters
• 0:51
  crossfit games and I have
• 0:53
  with me tonight Lacey
• 0:54
  Truelove Lacey how's it
• 0:56
  going hey good thank you so
• 0:58
  much for having me I'm
• 0:59
  excited to be here a little
• 1:00
  bit nervous but excited
• 1:02
  Nothing to be nervous about.
• 1:03
  We're just going to,
• 1:04
  we're just going to chill
• 1:05
  and have a good time.
• 1:05
  Yeah.
• 1:07
  How many times do you get asked?
• 1:08
  Is that your real last name?
• 1:10
  Oh, so funny.
• 1:12
  Like all the time, all the time.
• 1:14
  Everybody thinks it's a fake name,
• 1:16
  but born and raised with it.
• 1:18
  Never changed it.
• 1:19
  Got married.
• 1:19
  Never changed it.
• 1:21
  Wow.
• 1:22
  Yeah.
• 1:22
  It's all mine.
• 1:25
  It is very unique.
• 1:27
  It is.
• 1:27
  Yeah.
• 1:28
  Yeah.
• 1:28
  It's different.
• 1:28
  I don't know the background of it.
• 1:30
  I've always wanted to do one of those, um,
• 1:32
  Big 23 and me to see where it came from,
• 1:35
  but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
• 1:37
  One day.
• 1:38
  It's funny.
• 1:39
  I'm friends with Ariel
• 1:40
  Loewen and her maiden name is Armstrong.
• 1:42
  Okay.
• 1:43
  She always wanted to keep
• 1:44
  that because her IG after her name,
• 1:47
  she put
• 1:49
  the arm, the strong arm, right?
• 1:52
  And getting married,
• 1:54
  she didn't want to take
• 1:54
  Dylan's name because she
• 1:56
  didn't want to lose that emoji.
• 1:58
  Yeah.
• 1:59
  You know,
• 2:00
  I've always found it so strange
• 2:01
  when you get married.
• 2:03
  I got married, got divorced, kept my name,
• 2:06
  thankfully, throughout the entire thing.
• 2:08
  But it's always so strange
• 2:09
  to me when a woman gets
• 2:10
  married that she just has
• 2:11
  to give up her name that
• 2:14
  she's had her entire life.
• 2:15
  And so it's
• 2:16
  It's funny you say Ariel's
• 2:18
  maiden name is Armstrong.
• 2:21
  My children are true love
• 2:23
  Armstrong hyphenated.
• 2:25
  So they have the best of both worlds.
• 2:27
  So now they can use the emoji.
• 2:29
  They can.
• 2:30
  They can.
• 2:30
  Thank you, Ariel.
• 2:31
  I will use that for my children one day.
• 2:34
  There you go.
• 2:35
  I've been I was researching
• 2:37
  you today and I learned one
• 2:41
  that you were doing Irish dance at two.
• 2:44
  Oh my gosh.
• 2:44
  Hilarious.
• 2:45
  Well,
• 2:46
  so I was from a very small town in
• 2:50
  Strathroy.
• 2:50
  They had no real sports
• 2:54
  really at the time when I
• 2:55
  had first started.
• 2:56
  So my mom was like,
• 2:56
  I have to put her in something.
• 2:58
  So Irish dance was just this
• 3:00
  little thing that they,
• 3:01
  they had going on in a
• 3:02
  teeny tiny little nook.
• 3:05
  And she threw me in there.
• 3:06
  They had a little gymnastics
• 3:07
  class that followed.
• 3:08
  There was maybe 10 girls in it.
• 3:10
  It was tiny, tiny, tiny.
• 3:12
  So yeah, Irish dance.
• 3:15
  And that was not your
• 3:16
  passion because you left
• 3:18
  that to go to gymnastics.
• 3:20
  Yeah, I did.
• 3:21
  Yeah.
• 3:21
  It's so funny.
• 3:22
  My mom and I were talking
• 3:23
  about that story just yesterday.
• 3:25
  Um, I was so little,
• 3:28
  I was so little at the time
• 3:29
  when she had put me in it
• 3:31
  and it was such a short lived experience,
• 3:33
  but the girls who followed me were,
• 3:35
  were gymnasts and I would
• 3:36
  always just watch them.
• 3:37
  I was so mesmerized by the
• 3:39
  gymnast that followed.
• 3:40
  And they were also very, very young.
• 3:42
  They weren't like,
• 3:43
  they were no Simone Biles by any means.
• 3:46
  But they were just, you know,
• 3:48
  walking on a low beam,
• 3:49
  doing some cartwheels and somersaults.
• 3:52
  But I guess I found that
• 3:53
  more appealing than
• 3:55
  tiptoeing around and doing
• 3:56
  some high kicks for the Irish dance.
• 4:00
  Yeah,
• 4:00
  we actually have really good friends
• 4:02
  whose daughter,
• 4:03
  I think she still does
• 4:05
  Irish dance in college.
• 4:07
  Oh, really?
• 4:08
  Wow.
• 4:09
  Yeah, like she took it the whole way.
• 4:10
  Yeah.
• 4:11
  They're actually quite amazing to watch,
• 4:14
  really.
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  The dress alone was, like,
• 4:18
  extremely expensive.
• 4:19
  Yes.
• 4:20
  Yeah.
• 4:21
  Maybe one day I'll give it a go again.
• 4:23
  We'll see.
• 4:24
  There you go.
• 4:24
  Just for the dress.
• 4:25
  Yeah, just for the dress alone.
• 4:28
  So you do gymnastics.
• 4:31
  It said in the article I
• 4:32
  read that you wanted to be
• 4:36
  an Olympic gymnast.
• 4:37
  You wanted to be Spokehouse.
• 4:38
  Yeah.
• 4:39
  Yeah.
• 4:40
  Yeah, much older than Simone Biles.
• 4:42
  But yeah, I don't know.
• 4:45
  At a young age,
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  I just knew that I wanted
• 4:47
  to be excellent.
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  And so whatever sport that I
• 4:51
  decided to go into,
• 4:52
  the goal was to go as far
• 4:54
  as I could go in it.
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  And so with the sport of gymnastics,
• 4:58
  the Olympics,
• 4:59
  that's the peak of success
• 5:01
  within that sport.
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  So yeah, at a very young age,
• 5:04
  I knew that it was either all or nothing,
• 5:06
  really all or nothing.
• 5:09
  I can relate to that because
• 5:10
  I was a swimmer growing up.
• 5:12
  Okay.
• 5:13
  And the, the,
• 5:15
  the only place you can end to
• 5:17
  be the best is the Olympics.
• 5:19
  Exactly.
• 5:20
  Exactly.
• 5:21
  And I realized in high
• 5:23
  school that that was a
• 5:25
  fleeting thought in my mind.
• 5:27
  Right.
• 5:28
  And then it just became,
• 5:30
  can I pay for college?
• 5:32
  Yep.
• 5:32
  Right.
• 5:33
  And then, you know, which is,
• 5:37
  I know you hit that point, too,
• 5:39
  where you realized the
• 5:40
  Olympic dream was not there.
• 5:42
  Yeah, yeah.
• 5:43
  At such a young age, at 15,
• 5:46
  like 15 years young, you realize,
• 5:49
  you know what?
• 5:49
  My life is not going to
• 5:50
  amount to what I want it to
• 5:53
  within this sport.
• 5:54
  And so we made a decision to
• 5:58
  switch sports.
• 5:58
  But it's one of those sports,
• 6:00
  gymnastics especially,
• 6:01
  we know this about the sport,
• 6:03
  that it's a young sport.
• 6:06
  If you don't have it,
• 6:07
  you know pretty quickly.
• 6:08
  I'm not necessarily sure if
• 6:11
  it was I didn't have it or
• 6:13
  I didn't have the means to
• 6:15
  succeed within the sport
• 6:16
  because what we had
• 6:17
  available within my city
• 6:19
  and slightly outside of the
• 6:20
  city just wasn't enough to get me there.
• 6:23
  I do think I would have had
• 6:25
  to have probably gone to
• 6:27
  the States in order to make that happen.
• 6:30
  At 15 years old, we weren't
• 6:32
  We weren't going to move to
• 6:33
  the States to do it.
• 6:34
  It's not like I was going to
• 6:35
  school or anything.
• 6:36
  So that wasn't in the cards.
• 6:39
  So we made a quick switch to
• 6:41
  a different sport.
• 6:43
  More towards my end of the spectrum,
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  and that is you were diving into a pool.
• 6:48
  I was, yeah.
• 6:49
  So gymnastics,
• 6:50
  just instead of landing on our feet,
• 6:52
  we landed on our head instead.
• 6:54
  It's so funny you say that.
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  I was just watching a
• 6:57
  YouTube video maybe two weeks ago,
• 7:00
  and there's an influencer
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  who is a mega high diver from Canada.
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  Okay, yep.
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  Her name escapes me.
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  And then there's a gymnast
• 7:12
  who was a gymnast at UCLA,
• 7:15
  and they both have channels
• 7:16
  where they try different sports.
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  Right, okay.
• 7:18
  They came together,
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  and the gymnast tried diving,
• 7:22
  and the diver tried gymnastics.
• 7:24
  Right, okay.
• 7:25
  And it was so cool.
• 7:27
  The one thing they said is
• 7:29
  the rotation was the
• 7:32
  hardest part because in one sport,
• 7:35
  you land on your feet.
• 7:36
  In the other sport, you land on your head.
• 7:38
  Yes.
• 7:39
  Yes.
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  I would think watching that,
• 7:42
  I would think the gymnast
• 7:44
  would be thrown off far
• 7:45
  more than the diver because in diving,
• 7:48
  we would land on our feet.
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  In all of the buildups to the head entry,
• 7:53
  you would do the foot entry
• 7:55
  at some point.
• 7:56
  And so it's a little bit, obviously,
• 7:57
  in gymnastics,
• 7:58
  the goal is never to land on your head.
• 8:00
  So one of the sports has
• 8:01
  access to the other side of the spectrum.
• 8:05
  It's funny.
• 8:06
  I think I used to coach a
• 8:07
  girl when I was in Houston.
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  Her name was Ellie Smart.
• 8:11
  She's a Red Bull cliff diver.
• 8:12
  Sounds awfully familiar as
• 8:14
  to the YouTube channel that
• 8:16
  you're saying.
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  I just saw her put up a
• 8:18
  video the other day of her trying.
• 8:21
  maybe it was skateboarding.
• 8:23
  It may have been skateboarding,
• 8:24
  but just a one-off sport, but just a very,
• 8:28
  very talented Red Bull cliff diver.
• 8:30
  That sport is just, that's wild.
• 8:32
  It takes it to the next, the next level.
• 8:35
  Yeah.
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  This girl is a Red Bull cliff diver.
• 8:37
  Yes.
• 8:38
  Okay.
• 8:38
  Yeah.
• 8:39
  One of the girls I trained with in,
• 8:41
  in Houston, she,
• 8:43
  she competes for the
• 8:43
  Netherlands in Red Bull
• 8:45
  cliff diving and is just loving it.
• 8:48
  Yeah.
• 8:48
  I I've bungee jumped in my life.
• 8:52
  But the older I get,
• 8:54
  the harder like that big
• 8:55
  heights thing is.
• 8:56
  Yeah.
• 8:57
  Oh, yeah.
• 8:58
  Yeah.
• 8:59
  It's you have a respect for
• 9:01
  life as you age.
• 9:04
  You respect your time on this earth.
• 9:07
  And so as you age, it's like,
• 9:09
  I don't know about that.
• 9:10
  When you're younger,
• 9:11
  you just have this complex
• 9:12
  of nothing can hurt me.
• 9:14
  And so you age out of that, I think.
• 9:17
  when I was in high school,
• 9:18
  I was at a swimming meet
• 9:19
  and they had a diving well beside,
• 9:21
  and there was a girl
• 9:22
  practicing on the 10 meter platform.
• 9:24
  Yeah.
• 9:25
  And she missed a dive and
• 9:28
  smacked like the water hard.
• 9:30
  They pulled her out on a stretcher.
• 9:32
  Yep.
• 9:33
  Then my buddies were like, Hey,
• 9:34
  let's go off the 10 meter.
• 9:37
  Let's do that.
• 9:38
  Hey, let's go do that.
• 9:40
  Yeah.
• 9:41
  Don't sign me up.
• 9:42
  Yeah.
• 9:42
  I've had one of those,
• 9:43
  one of those occurrences where,
• 9:45
  where I had to be pulled out,
• 9:47
  taken to hospital.
• 9:48
  It was a whole ordeal.
• 9:49
  It's a scary sport.
• 9:50
  It's risky.
• 9:51
  So what, what did you dive?
• 9:53
  I was a 10 meter platform.
• 9:55
  That was my specialty in
• 9:57
  university because we were,
• 9:58
  I was in the States.
• 10:00
  And so it was the NCAA circuit.
• 10:02
  We did all of them.
• 10:03
  So we did the one meter springboard.
• 10:05
  We did three meter,
• 10:06
  we did synchro and my
• 10:08
  specialty was 10 meter platform.
• 10:10
  And so, um,
• 10:12
  Yeah, there was a lot of smacks.
• 10:13
  Let me tell you,
• 10:15
  there was a lot of smacks.
• 10:16
  It's scary.
• 10:17
  There's a lot of fear
• 10:17
  involved with that sport.
• 10:20
  I know they've gotten better
• 10:21
  with bubblers to break the
• 10:23
  surface tension as much as
• 10:24
  you can and all that stuff.
• 10:27
  But it's cool that you were
• 10:28
  a 10-meter specialist
• 10:29
  because that even lends
• 10:31
  itself even more to
• 10:32
  CrossFit and that your
• 10:35
  gymnastics background
• 10:36
  because a lot of times you
• 10:37
  start on your hands.
• 10:39
  Yes, yes.
• 10:40
  Yeah, so not just with gymnastics,
• 10:42
  doing a lot of handstand work.
• 10:43
  I actually got much better
• 10:45
  with my handstand work when
• 10:47
  I went into diving because
• 10:48
  the difference in
• 10:49
  gymnastics is you can fall down,
• 10:50
  but you're just going to
• 10:51
  kick up to handstand and
• 10:52
  then land on your feet.
• 10:53
  And diving, when you're on the platform,
• 10:56
  you're 33 feet up in the air, 10 meters.
• 10:59
  So we kick up into an arm,
• 11:00
  they call it an arm stand
• 11:01
  instead of a handstand.
• 11:03
  You kick up, you have to hold it,
• 11:04
  show the judges control and
• 11:06
  then proceed to do your dive.
• 11:08
  So you're kind of forced
• 11:09
  into a situation where you
• 11:11
  have to have that body
• 11:12
  control in order to hold it.
• 11:14
  And if you don't execute it properly,
• 11:16
  then you've fallen off the
• 11:18
  platform and then you're
• 11:19
  just trying to survive at that point.
• 11:22
  Fallen 33 feet.
• 11:24
  Yeah.
• 11:24
  Yeah.
• 11:25
  Yeah.
• 11:25
  Crazy.
• 11:27
  It's amazing what as young
• 11:29
  individuals we will do.
• 11:31
  Yeah.
• 11:31
  Yeah.
• 11:33
  Yep.
• 11:33
  Like I said, just fearless at a,
• 11:35
  at a certain age.
• 11:36
  I remember just not,
• 11:38
  not having fear on the 10
• 11:40
  meter platform until I
• 11:42
  started to learn the big, big dives,
• 11:44
  like the Olympic dives.
• 11:46
  And, um, there were,
• 11:48
  there were a few of them
• 11:49
  where I would literally see
• 11:50
  my life flash before my eyes.
• 11:51
  And it was one of those, like,
• 11:53
  we're going to survive.
• 11:54
  We're not going to survive.
• 11:55
  We'll find out kind of things,
• 11:57
  but we went for it every time.
• 11:59
  And, uh,
• 12:01
  It's not dissimilar to
• 12:02
  Olympic weightlifting, I always say.
• 12:04
  Your body moves so quickly
• 12:07
  that it's just the neural
• 12:09
  pathways are carved.
• 12:10
  Your body knows what to do.
• 12:12
  Your brain knows what to do.
• 12:14
  There's still fear involved.
• 12:15
  But at the end of the day,
• 12:16
  you're going to end up
• 12:17
  landing on your head.
• 12:19
  Olympic weightlifting, very quick.
• 12:20
  Your body naturally knows
• 12:22
  what to do because you've
• 12:23
  put it through the movement
• 12:24
  pattern so many times.
• 12:25
  that it ends up pretty decent.
• 12:27
  There's a couple of
• 12:28
  technical flaws along the way,
• 12:30
  but you're always going to land it.
• 12:33
  Yeah.
• 12:33
  My sister was a diver.
• 12:35
  So I watched a lot of it.
• 12:37
  Right.
• 12:38
  And she was amazing.
• 12:39
  Like as, as a tiny, tiny girl,
• 12:43
  she was like eighth in our state,
• 12:45
  like up against people much
• 12:47
  older than her.
• 12:48
  And,
• 12:49
  and then she had a couple accidents
• 12:51
  where she hit the board,
• 12:53
  hit her head on the bottom of the pool,
• 12:55
  hit her face on the bottom of the pool.
• 12:57
  And then that,
• 12:57
  that really like slowed her
• 12:59
  progress way down.
• 13:00
  Of course.
• 13:01
  Yeah.
• 13:01
  That that's a bit of trauma.
• 13:03
  When something like that happens,
• 13:05
  it's so hard to get past it.
• 13:07
  I've seen it happen many times.
• 13:10
  And it's something that
• 13:12
  stays with you for every
• 13:14
  single dive that follows.
• 13:16
  So I would, yeah,
• 13:19
  I would understand how that
• 13:20
  would deteriorate pretty
• 13:22
  quickly after that point.
• 13:25
  So you were good enough to
• 13:26
  make Olympic trials in diving?
• 13:28
  Yeah, yeah.
• 13:29
  I went in 2012, 2008, and 2012.
• 13:34
  So here you are as a gymnast
• 13:36
  wanting to be an Olympian,
• 13:37
  have to give up on the
• 13:38
  dream in just four short years where I,
• 13:43
  I'm not doing the math well,
• 13:44
  all of a sudden you're at
• 13:45
  another Olympic trials for a different,
• 13:47
  completely different sport.
• 13:49
  And at least you have a shot.
• 13:50
  Yeah.
• 13:51
  Yeah.
• 13:52
  It was wild.
• 13:53
  My first, so retired from gymnastics,
• 13:57
  retired at the ripe age of 15.
• 14:00
  And then started diving, um,
• 14:03
  just because honestly,
• 14:04
  just because the sport is so similar,
• 14:06
  I picked it up,
• 14:08
  obviously quite quickly
• 14:09
  qualified for my first
• 14:11
  nationals after the first
• 14:12
  competition that I had gone to.
• 14:14
  And it all just moved very, very quickly.
• 14:17
  And so I think because it moved so quickly,
• 14:19
  I recognized immediately like, okay,
• 14:23
  the Olympics is not off the
• 14:24
  table for this sport.
• 14:25
  So we trained really, really hard.
• 14:27
  2008, we went to trials.
• 14:29
  Four more years, we were like, okay,
• 14:31
  next one.
• 14:32
  Next one will be okay.
• 14:34
  2012 came up.
• 14:35
  We missed it.
• 14:37
  That one was a hard one to miss.
• 14:39
  We trained really hard for it.
• 14:41
  There's girls in the sport
• 14:43
  who have done it for a lifetime.
• 14:45
  So whilst I had done
• 14:46
  gymnastics for such a long time,
• 14:48
  they had started in the
• 14:49
  pool the same time I had
• 14:51
  started gymnastics.
• 14:52
  So that experience was just
• 14:54
  far more robust than what I
• 14:56
  had even just from the gymnastics alone.
• 14:59
  But the experience was,
• 15:02
  it was something that I
• 15:03
  carry with me today into CrossFit.
• 15:06
  Yeah.
• 15:07
  I never got to go to the
• 15:08
  Olympic trials in swimming,
• 15:09
  but I did go to the Olympic
• 15:10
  trials like two months ago.
• 15:12
  Here in the States.
• 15:13
  Yeah.
• 15:13
  It was only like two hours from my house.
• 15:15
  Okay.
• 15:16
  It was the coolest, coolest experience.
• 15:19
  Just being a spectator.
• 15:20
  I cannot even imagine.
• 15:23
  It's one thing to watch it on TV,
• 15:26
  but then to be in the same place,
• 15:28
  area as the athletes to see
• 15:30
  how they move through space,
• 15:31
  to see how they warm up,
• 15:33
  how focused they are.
• 15:34
  Swimming is a very different sport.
• 15:36
  Those athletes are, um,
• 15:38
  they're so dialed in.
• 15:39
  I remember in university,
• 15:42
  the swimmers were just at competitions.
• 15:44
  They were like laser focused.
• 15:46
  They always knew down to the,
• 15:48
  down to the second or the
• 15:49
  millisecond what their time
• 15:52
  was going to be in their swims.
• 15:53
  And I was always just so amused by
• 15:58
  the detail that they put into their,
• 16:00
  into their swimming,
• 16:01
  regardless of the distance.
• 16:02
  It could be a sprint.
• 16:03
  It could be a long distance
• 16:05
  and they knew exactly what
• 16:06
  time they were going to get.
• 16:07
  It was just wild.
• 16:09
  Yeah.
• 16:10
  Yeah.
• 16:10
  That's probably was my
• 16:11
  problem is there was a
• 16:12
  little variance there.
• 16:13
  I could never figure out the
• 16:15
  perfect pacing.
• 16:16
  Right.
• 16:16
  Like I had a private coach
• 16:17
  we had and I could just
• 16:19
  never hit that perfect pacing.
• 16:22
  Yeah.
• 16:22
  Yeah.
• 16:23
  I either went out too hot or
• 16:25
  I didn't go out hot enough.
• 16:26
  What was your specialty?
• 16:27
  So for most of my career, it was distance,
• 16:28
  200 free, 500 free.
• 16:29
  In college, it was 1,000 and 1,650.
• 16:38
  Okay.
• 16:39
  1650.
• 16:40
  Yeah.
• 16:42
  Wow.
• 16:42
  Yep.
• 16:43
  That's, that's a good track.
• 16:44
  And then my,
• 16:47
  my favorite time is for a
• 16:49
  brief moment in my career as an IMR.
• 16:51
  And I love that.
• 16:52
  I wish I could have done
• 16:53
  that much longer in my career.
• 16:55
  I think I would have been great at it.
• 16:57
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  Just a little more variety.
• 16:59
  I just missed nationals by
• 17:01
  like a half a second.
• 17:03
  No.
• 17:04
  And I,
• 17:04
  and that's with not doing it my
• 17:06
  whole career.
• 17:07
  Like,
• 17:08
  Yeah.
• 17:09
  That's a, that's a tough one.
• 17:11
  A half second.
• 17:12
  And then you go through your mind and you,
• 17:14
  you think of all of the
• 17:15
  areas in which we could
• 17:16
  have gained that half second.
• 17:19
  That's always so tough.
• 17:20
  I was a great butterfly or a
• 17:21
  great backstroker and a great freestyler.
• 17:23
  My breaststroke was atrocious.
• 17:26
  Yeah.
• 17:26
  There's so much technique.
• 17:27
  There's so much technique in it.
• 17:29
  Honestly, so much.
• 17:31
  I've been swimming.
• 17:32
  I'm not a swimmer, not a swimmer,
• 17:34
  never going to say I'm a swimmer,
• 17:35
  but I've been swimming in
• 17:36
  preparation for the games.
• 17:38
  Just at a YMCA, a local YMCA,
• 17:41
  trying to do a thousand
• 17:44
  meters of just like a front crawl.
• 17:47
  And so I've been doing there
• 17:49
  and back front crawl and
• 17:50
  then breaststroke, front crawl,
• 17:52
  front crawl, breaststroke.
• 17:53
  And there's actual swimmers
• 17:55
  next to me doing
• 17:56
  butterflies and backstroke
• 17:58
  and just smooth, just so smooth.
• 18:01
  And here I am just trying to survive,
• 18:03
  really, just trying to survive.
• 18:04
  But it's a tough sport.
• 18:06
  It's very, very humbling.
• 18:08
  I wish CrossFitters would
• 18:09
  just learn backstroke
• 18:11
  because it's the best
• 18:12
  recovery stroke because you
• 18:15
  don't have to plan your breathing.
• 18:18
  Your face is exposed at all
• 18:19
  times and it's faster than breaststroke.
• 18:23
  If a CrossFitter could just
• 18:26
  figure that stroke out,
• 18:28
  they would be so much
• 18:28
  better in the water.
• 18:29
  Okay, I'm taking that.
• 18:30
  I'm taking it.
• 18:31
  I'll go crawl, crawl, backstroke.
• 18:34
  Taking the notes.
• 18:35
  Going to use it.
• 18:36
  One,
• 18:37
  your arms are moving in the opposite
• 18:38
  direction than they are
• 18:39
  when you're doing front crawl.
• 18:40
  Right.
• 18:41
  So it's loosening back.
• 18:42
  It's breaking up the lactic acid.
• 18:44
  And your face is exposed the
• 18:46
  entire time so you can breathe.
• 18:47
  Okay.
• 18:48
  Well, let's give it a go.
• 18:50
  We'll see how it goes.
• 18:51
  It's funny you say that.
• 18:53
  I was just talking to one of
• 18:54
  my teammates the other day.
• 18:55
  We were laughing about Wadapalooza.
• 18:57
  We had done some swim
• 18:58
  training for Wadapalooza.
• 18:59
  And then we get there.
• 19:00
  and end up just swimming
• 19:03
  with our head above water, no technique,
• 19:06
  survival mode only.
• 19:08
  Everything that we had
• 19:09
  trained had gone out the
• 19:10
  window because at that
• 19:11
  point after worm thrusters and burpees,
• 19:15
  it was just keep my head
• 19:16
  above water so I don't drown.
• 19:19
  All that training.
• 19:21
  Yeah, yeah.
• 19:23
  It's fight or flight.
• 19:25
  Yes.
• 19:26
  Yeah,
• 19:27
  you do weird things that you don't
• 19:29
  think you would do in
• 19:30
  stressful situations.
• 19:31
  Yes, yes, absolutely.
• 19:34
  Well, I try to keep these to 30 minutes.
• 19:36
  We're already at 20,
• 19:37
  and I haven't even got into
• 19:38
  your CrossFit.
• 19:39
  All right, let's do it.
• 19:42
  So we're going to try to
• 19:42
  speed this up so I can be
• 19:44
  respectful of your time.
• 19:46
  But,
• 19:46
  but I do have one more question and
• 19:48
  that is you're from Canada,
• 19:50
  which I don't even think
• 19:51
  we've said on here.
• 19:52
  Yeah.
• 19:53
  And at a point you made the
• 19:54
  decision to come to the
• 19:55
  States to go to college at
• 19:57
  the university of Houston.
• 19:59
  Yes.
• 19:59
  That is,
• 20:01
  you said in this article that that
• 20:03
  is frowned upon in the
• 20:05
  sports world of Canada.
• 20:07
  Yeah.
• 20:08
  Go to the States.
• 20:10
  I did not know that.
• 20:11
  Can you,
• 20:12
  cause I'm a co-host with Carolyn
• 20:13
  Prevost on and she left
• 20:17
  Canada to go to the
• 20:19
  university of Wisconsin.
• 20:20
  Yeah.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:23
  It's I can't say,
• 20:25
  I don't want to blanket
• 20:26
  statement it and say that
• 20:27
  it's for all of the sports.
• 20:30
  Diving is very big in Canada.
• 20:32
  We're very well known for
• 20:34
  high quality diving and,
• 20:35
  And so they like to keep it
• 20:37
  very close to home and
• 20:38
  develop the athletes themselves.
• 20:40
  And so the idea of an
• 20:42
  athlete going to the States,
• 20:43
  they've lost control of
• 20:44
  that athlete at that point.
• 20:46
  So, you know, when,
• 20:48
  when I say frowned upon,
• 20:49
  maybe not frowned upon,
• 20:50
  but not overly encouraged
• 20:53
  to step outside of the
• 20:55
  training framework that
• 20:56
  dive Canada has built out.
• 20:58
  So it's, yeah, it's, um,
• 21:01
  it's a tough decision for an athlete,
• 21:03
  but opportunity is opportunity.
• 21:05
  And so if there's an
• 21:06
  opportunity to get a
• 21:07
  university education while diving with.
• 21:11
  At the university of Houston,
• 21:12
  I had the opportunity to
• 21:14
  dive with Russian Olympians and just,
• 21:17
  you know,
• 21:18
  level up my diving by putting
• 21:20
  myself in an environment
• 21:22
  where I was forced to watch
• 21:24
  the best in the world train.
• 21:25
  And I got to train with the
• 21:26
  best coach in the world.
• 21:27
  She's at the Olympics right
• 21:28
  now and just won an Olympic silver medal.
• 21:31
  So it was a huge opportunity.
• 21:34
  and not something that I was
• 21:35
  ever going to pass up.
• 21:38
  Well,
• 21:38
  and I guess like the weird thing in
• 21:40
  my head was you don't want
• 21:42
  to piss people off in a judge sport.
• 21:45
  Yes.
• 21:46
  Yes.
• 21:47
  It's a tight knit community.
• 21:51
  Yes.
• 21:51
  And do you, you don't have to answer this.
• 21:56
  Did it ever affect,
• 21:57
  do you think it ever
• 21:58
  affected your judging at
• 21:59
  like Olympic trials?
• 22:01
  Um,
• 22:04
  Possibly.
• 22:04
  Yeah.
• 22:06
  Possibly.
• 22:06
  Yeah.
• 22:08
  It's yeah.
• 22:10
  Judge sports are judge sports.
• 22:12
  Right.
• 22:12
  And I think when the judges
• 22:14
  are all within that tight knit community,
• 22:17
  you're going to have biases always.
• 22:19
  And so there's certain areas
• 22:21
  that excel and they have
• 22:24
  additional funding and they have support.
• 22:27
  And so those athletes often
• 22:28
  get highlighted.
• 22:30
  And if you're outside of that,
• 22:32
  even within Canada, it's very difficult,
• 22:34
  um, to be viewed in the same way.
• 22:38
  So stepping outside of the
• 22:39
  country and then coming
• 22:40
  back into the country to compete,
• 22:42
  it was a bit tough.
• 22:43
  It was a bit tough.
• 22:44
  Yeah.
• 22:45
  Humans are humans and
• 22:46
  they're going to have biases.
• 22:47
  Of course.
• 22:48
  It's only natural.
• 22:49
  Yeah.
• 22:50
  So, so you qualify for the,
• 22:53
  we're going to skip way ahead now.
• 22:54
  Let's do it.
• 22:56
  You qualify for the CrossFit games.
• 22:58
  You're a rookie.
• 22:59
  Yeah.
• 23:00
  Um,
• 23:02
  Are you, I,
• 23:03
  so I don't know your exact age.
• 23:05
  Are you just turning into the masters?
• 23:07
  I'm 35.
• 23:09
  I'm 35.
• 23:09
  So this is, yeah,
• 23:10
  I will be the first year of, of masters.
• 23:13
  Yeah.
• 23:13
  So this was your first
• 23:14
  opportunity to jump at this
• 23:16
  plan all along.
• 23:19
  No, was it the plan?
• 23:22
  Oh my gosh.
• 23:23
  No, I was at, um, so funny.
• 23:26
  I was at Waterpalooza.
• 23:27
  With one of my friends,
• 23:30
  her name is Meg Garrett,
• 23:31
  who also qualified in the
• 23:33
  women's category.
• 23:34
  She'll be going for 40 to 44, I believe.
• 23:38
  She looked at me when we
• 23:38
  were at Waterpalooza and she said, Lace,
• 23:40
  like you could qualify for the games.
• 23:43
  Do you know this?
• 23:44
  And I said, Meg, you know.
• 23:47
  I don't know.
• 23:48
  I don't know if that's actually possible.
• 23:50
  It's always been a dream,
• 23:51
  always been a dream.
• 23:52
  And so when she said that,
• 23:54
  it just started the wheels turning.
• 23:57
  And my coach was like, yeah,
• 23:59
  I've known this all along.
• 24:01
  This has been something that
• 24:02
  I've always known you were able to do.
• 24:04
  But for me,
• 24:06
  because the games is like the
• 24:08
  Olympics of CrossFit, amazing,
• 24:10
  let's get there one day at
• 24:12
  35 years old after having two kids.
• 24:16
  owning a business,
• 24:17
  starting a brand new
• 24:18
  business within the year,
• 24:19
  I didn't think that now
• 24:21
  would be the time to do it.
• 24:22
  So was it in the plan?
• 24:24
  Probably in the master plan, yes.
• 24:27
  But did I think it would
• 24:28
  happen on the first go at being masters?
• 24:31
  No, I didn't think so.
• 24:33
  So it's kind of come out, not come out,
• 24:36
  but
• 24:37
  It's been revealed to us
• 24:38
  that a lot of athletes that
• 24:39
  are competing in the elite
• 24:40
  division have the same
• 24:41
  background that you have.
• 24:43
  Gymnastics and diving seem
• 24:45
  to be a really good mix for
• 24:48
  body awareness or whatever
• 24:49
  it is that gets you to that elite level.
• 24:53
  So you came in with that behind you.
• 24:55
  You've been doing this since 2014.
• 24:56
  It's been a long time.
• 24:58
  Your first Open was 2014.
• 25:00
  Yes.
• 25:01
  So 10 years into CrossFit,
• 25:03
  you make it to the Games.
• 25:05
  But your quarterfinals, you finish 40th.
• 25:08
  Yeah.
• 25:10
  Then,
• 25:10
  I don't know what happened in the 20s,
• 25:14
  between quarters and semis,
• 25:16
  you finish 5th.
• 25:17
  I finished 5th, yeah.
• 25:19
  Skill level go up.
• 25:22
  did the skill level go up?
• 25:24
  Um, I, nothing changed.
• 25:26
  My skill level didn't go up.
• 25:29
  The workouts were beautiful
• 25:31
  workouts for me.
• 25:32
  I will,
• 25:33
  I will be fair and honest when the
• 25:35
  workout started to come out.
• 25:37
  I was like, Oh, Oh, okay.
• 25:40
  Another one.
• 25:41
  Yeah, we can do this.
• 25:42
  We can definitely do this.
• 25:43
  And as they released,
• 25:45
  it just became quite
• 25:47
  apparent that this was, um,
• 25:50
  Something that we could not
• 25:51
  just qualify for,
• 25:52
  but put ourselves in a
• 25:53
  pretty good position going
• 25:55
  into the games themselves.
• 25:57
  And I have to say,
• 25:58
  I've had a lot of help to
• 26:01
  get to the point that I've gotten to.
• 26:02
  I have an amazing programmer I work with,
• 26:05
  Mammoth, and my coach, Billy Gooding,
• 26:08
  is phenomenal.
• 26:09
  We've worked together for
• 26:10
  such a long time.
• 26:13
  I've had some teammates that
• 26:14
  have just been phenomenal.
• 26:15
  The environment in which we train is
• 26:18
  sets all elite athletes up for success.
• 26:20
  And so I think it's been a perfect storm.
• 26:24
  Really,
• 26:24
  semifinals was a perfect storm for me.
• 26:27
  So stepping into that and
• 26:29
  executing the workouts how
• 26:31
  I did has given me a lot of
• 26:33
  confidence going into the games.
• 26:35
  That's for sure.
• 26:36
  Well, I'd say you finished fifth.
• 26:38
  That would have qualified
• 26:39
  you under the old rules.
• 26:42
  Where they only take top 10.
• 26:44
  Yeah.
• 26:44
  You made it by a long shot
• 26:46
  under the rules.
• 26:48
  Yeah.
• 26:49
  Do you train at your own
• 26:50
  facility or do you train at
• 26:52
  an affiliate or.
• 26:54
  Yeah.
• 26:54
  So our facility is a bit different.
• 26:56
  So, um, I am an owner at the facility,
• 26:59
  so it's team London hybrid
• 27:01
  training center.
• 27:03
  And we have Team London CrossFit,
• 27:05
  the affiliate within the training center.
• 27:08
  We have a hybrid program that we run.
• 27:10
  We have a High Rocks
• 27:11
  affiliate that we run in there as well.
• 27:13
  We have a weightlifting club that runs.
• 27:16
  It's a registered
• 27:16
  weightlifting club as well.
• 27:19
  So there's a lot of
• 27:20
  excellence under one roof.
• 27:23
  And what we've created
• 27:25
  within our program is we
• 27:27
  have Team London Academy.
• 27:29
  So the Academy is a lot of
• 27:30
  elite athletes and a lot of ex-athletes.
• 27:33
  So a lot of football players,
• 27:34
  track athletes who have
• 27:36
  retired from their respective sports,
• 27:38
  not dissimilar to when I
• 27:39
  retired from diving,
• 27:41
  who have come in and said,
• 27:42
  I'm done with that sport,
• 27:44
  but I still want to be
• 27:45
  excellent at a sport.
• 27:47
  And we all know that
• 27:48
  CrossFit is so accessible.
• 27:49
  And if you have a sport background,
• 27:51
  stepping into it,
• 27:53
  they'll have strengths in
• 27:54
  different avenues because
• 27:55
  they come from different sports.
• 27:57
  But when you take
• 27:59
  all of these elite athletes
• 28:01
  and you put them under one
• 28:02
  roof and have them train together,
• 28:04
  magic happens.
• 28:05
  And so that's the
• 28:06
  environment that we've
• 28:06
  created within our program.
• 28:09
  And, um, it's,
• 28:11
  it's nice because I'm a
• 28:12
  product of that program.
• 28:16
  Um,
• 28:17
  and being an owner of the gym and a
• 28:19
  creator of the program
• 28:20
  itself has been such a
• 28:22
  beautiful process to go
• 28:24
  through wearing all
• 28:25
  different kinds of hats along the way.
• 28:28
  So.
• 28:29
  How do you balance all of that?
• 28:31
  How do I balance it all?
• 28:34
  You're also a mom of two.
• 28:36
  Yeah, I'm a single mom of two.
• 28:41
  I have a lot of determination.
• 28:44
  I'm stubborn.
• 28:46
  You asked my coach.
• 28:47
  I'm very, very stubborn.
• 28:51
  I know what I want and I will work very,
• 28:53
  very hard to get there.
• 28:55
  Like I said before,
• 28:57
  when a two-year-old decides...
• 28:59
  that they want to go to the Olympics.
• 29:02
  I think it's,
• 29:04
  it was pretty clear that at a young age,
• 29:06
  there was vision.
• 29:08
  I've always had a lot of
• 29:09
  vision and determination to get there.
• 29:10
  So, you know,
• 29:12
  the kids get to watch me do
• 29:13
  it and that's just
• 29:15
  additional motivation and
• 29:17
  additional drive.
• 29:18
  And there's so many people
• 29:19
  within the affiliate and
• 29:20
  the training center that we
• 29:22
  run that get to be a part
• 29:23
  of the process with me.
• 29:24
  So it's, I've, I've always said,
• 29:27
  it's not me doing it.
• 29:28
  It's all of us doing it together.
• 29:30
  How old are your kids?
• 29:32
  My daughter is two and my son is four.
• 29:35
  So they're at that wild age.
• 29:39
  Yeah, they're busy.
• 29:40
  So it's almost good that you
• 29:41
  have a playground for them
• 29:43
  to hang out at when,
• 29:45
  when mom's doing some work.
• 29:47
  Yeah.
• 29:47
  Yeah.
• 29:48
  They,
• 29:48
  they go wild when they're in the gym.
• 29:50
  Usually I'll,
• 29:51
  I'll only bring them in
• 29:52
  really when it's off hours
• 29:55
  because we have over 500
• 29:57
  members at our gym.
• 29:59
  It's very large.
• 30:00
  It's a 20,000 foot square foot facility.
• 30:04
  So it's very, very large.
• 30:05
  So they'll have free reign of, of the gym.
• 30:08
  I try to keep it when it's quiet,
• 30:10
  I'll keep them in there when it's quiet,
• 30:12
  but they love to, they love to watch.
• 30:14
  I don't think they quite
• 30:15
  understand yet what's happening,
• 30:17
  but knowing that one day
• 30:19
  they will understand is just, um,
• 30:22
  It's something that I hold
• 30:24
  really close when I'm training.
• 30:27
  So, like, I'm super impressed by you.
• 30:30
  Thank you.
• 30:31
  One, you're the owner of a 500-member gym,
• 30:33
  which is beyond impressive.
• 30:37
  You picked up diving in a year,
• 30:40
  made it to university,
• 30:42
  made it to Olympic trials.
• 30:44
  You did gymnastics forever.
• 30:45
  This isn't a one-and-done
• 30:50
  thing with CrossFit and the games, right?
• 30:53
  Is it a one and done thing?
• 30:54
  I hope not.
• 30:55
  No, it's so funny.
• 30:57
  Everybody's always afraid of aging up.
• 31:00
  We're afraid of aging in general,
• 31:03
  but I've seen this now as
• 31:06
  this is a start point.
• 31:08
  This is just year one.
• 31:10
  You know,
• 31:10
  when they released the new age
• 31:12
  group of what, 70, 70 plus, I'm like,
• 31:15
  okay, we're going to keep going.
• 31:17
  We have a full lifetime of
• 31:19
  games opportunity and just
• 31:22
  encouraging so many people
• 31:24
  to continue training.
• 31:26
  Like there is,
• 31:27
  there is opportunity beyond
• 31:29
  the age of 30.
• 31:31
  And so we have to train,
• 31:33
  we have to change the way that we train,
• 31:35
  but if we can just keep our mindset very,
• 31:38
  very focused on what the
• 31:40
  end game is and what the goal is,
• 31:42
  it's just a start point 35
• 31:44
  to 39 start point.
• 31:45
  So yeah, this is, this is year one.
• 31:48
  I'm hoping to go as long as
• 31:49
  I can physically go while managing.
• 31:51
  being a mom and business
• 31:53
  owner and being excellent at all of it.
• 31:56
  So this is my last question.
• 31:59
  And this is,
• 32:00
  this has gone nowhere where I planned.
• 32:02
  And those are my favorite interviews.
• 32:06
  So you're a business owner and a coach,
• 32:08
  and I can tell that you love it.
• 32:11
  And you speak like a coach.
• 32:13
  Thank you.
• 32:14
  What gives you more pleasure
• 32:16
  and satisfaction?
• 32:18
  Your success or your client's success?
• 32:21
  Yeah.
• 32:22
  Yeah.
• 32:23
  Oh, it'll always be theirs.
• 32:25
  It'll always be theirs.
• 32:28
  It's a different experience.
• 32:30
  I think it's such a
• 32:31
  different experience to...
• 32:34
  I feel like all coaches say
• 32:35
  the same thing to see their
• 32:37
  athletes or their members.
• 32:39
  You know,
• 32:40
  we have elite athletes and the
• 32:41
  elite athletes are wonderful.
• 32:43
  They're spectacular.
• 32:44
  They they're so driven.
• 32:45
  They know what they want to do.
• 32:48
  Then you have your gym
• 32:49
  member base and a lot of
• 32:51
  them come in with different
• 32:53
  life experiences and have
• 32:55
  no idea what they're capable of.
• 32:58
  They have no idea what's
• 32:59
  actually possible.
• 33:01
  And so to watch them do things and
• 33:04
  surprise themselves and feel
• 33:07
  this sense of pride and joy
• 33:09
  and what they're accomplishing.
• 33:11
  I don't think there's any
• 33:12
  better feeling than seeing that,
• 33:15
  than seeing an average
• 33:18
  everyday person put themselves in a scary,
• 33:22
  scary position to be very
• 33:24
  vulnerable and surpass any
• 33:27
  expectations that they ever
• 33:28
  had for themselves.
• 33:30
  We, yeah, it's,
• 33:33
  It's such a beautiful thing to be a coach,
• 33:36
  honestly.
• 33:37
  So hands down,
• 33:38
  hands down what the members
• 33:40
  are able to accomplish.
• 33:42
  So last follow-up, and that is,
• 33:45
  how hard is it for you to
• 33:46
  be selfish enough to make
• 33:49
  sure you're prepared to the
• 33:51
  best of your ability going
• 33:53
  into the CrossFit Games?
• 33:54
  Yeah, it's hard.
• 33:55
  It's really hard.
• 33:56
  It's an emotional battle.
• 33:57
  I'll be honest.
• 33:58
  It's an emotional battle.
• 34:00
  You feel like
• 34:02
  This will be pure honesty.
• 34:04
  You feel like you're not
• 34:05
  doing enough in every category in life.
• 34:10
  So trying to be the best mom I can be.
• 34:13
  I'm trying to be the best
• 34:15
  business and partner that I can be.
• 34:17
  I'm trying to be the best
• 34:19
  athlete that I can be.
• 34:20
  And so sometimes when you're
• 34:22
  trying to do all of it at the same time,
• 34:24
  you feel like you're just
• 34:25
  mediocre at everything
• 34:27
  instead of excelling where
• 34:29
  you truly want to excel.
• 34:31
  There is a level of acceptance in that.
• 34:34
  There is a level of a little
• 34:36
  bit of guilt in it.
• 34:39
  But at the end of the day,
• 34:41
  I always look for the positives.
• 34:43
  My children get to see this happen.
• 34:45
  The members get to be a part of this.
• 34:48
  The business gets to be a part of this.
• 34:52
  We all get to grow together.
• 34:54
  And I said, I said to my mom the other day,
• 34:56
  you know,
• 34:57
  it's not always rainbows and
• 34:58
  butterflies getting to
• 34:59
  train for the games.
• 35:01
  It's not because you can, you know,
• 35:04
  I've been lucky enough to
• 35:05
  be able to do this.
• 35:07
  I can physically do this.
• 35:08
  I can mentally do this.
• 35:10
  Doesn't mean that it's always the most,
• 35:13
  you know, exciting experience.
• 35:16
  It's exciting, but man, it is hard.
• 35:19
  Training this much is very, very hard.
• 35:22
  It's very hard.
• 35:23
  Is it worth it?
• 35:24
  Absolutely.
• 35:25
  But it is, it's challenging for sure.
• 35:28
  Are you taking a lot of people with you?
• 35:31
  I'm taking my coach,
• 35:33
  just my coach and I. Yeah.
• 35:34
  Yeah.
• 35:35
  It'll be,
• 35:37
  I think it'll be exactly what I
• 35:38
  need it to be.
• 35:39
  It'll be exactly what it should be.
• 35:41
  We've been working really hard,
• 35:43
  he and I together for such a long time.
• 35:46
  And so it'll be,
• 35:49
  it'll be what it's meant to be.
• 35:50
  I think.
• 35:51
  Yeah.
• 35:52
  Cool.
• 35:53
  Yeah.
• 35:53
  Well,
• 35:53
  I want to thank you so much for doing
• 35:55
  this.
• 35:56
  It's been a treat getting to know you.
• 35:59
  I will be there.
• 35:59
  We,
• 36:00
  we have negotiated full access to do a
• 36:04
  full behind the scenes
• 36:06
  masters CrossFit games.
• 36:08
  So Ellie Hiller and myself
• 36:10
  will be chatting with the
• 36:11
  athletes in the back and
• 36:14
  capturing as much of that
• 36:15
  as we can and putting out
• 36:16
  episodes of a documentary following.
• 36:19
  That's amazing.
• 36:20
  Good.
• 36:21
  Okay.
• 36:21
  Well, I'll get to meet you in person then.
• 36:23
  So that will be lovely.
• 36:24
  You will.
• 36:25
  And everybody that is listening,
• 36:27
  thank you so much for that.
• 36:29
  We will see everybody next
• 36:30
  time on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
• 36:33
  Thank you all so much.
• 36:35
  Thank you guys.