S01E10 - David Syvertsen - Legends Masters Championship 2020

December 26, 2020 - LAST EPISODE OF THE YEAR -SPECIAL DOUBLE LENGTH FEATURE! Today's episode is again with David Syvertsen, owner and coach at my box, CrossFit Bison, in Midland Park New Jersey. Dave recently competed in the 2020 Legends Championship for Masters CrossFit athletes, where he took 1st place in the 34 to 39 year old men's division. We talk about the challenges of hosting and competing with restrictions in place, strategies going through each event and what he took away from competing amongst elite athletes.

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2020.12.26 S01E10 DAVID SYVERTSEN - LEGENDS COMPETITION

Full transcript (click here for PDF)

Sam Rhee: [00:00:00] Today I'm really excited because we're going to do a full debrief about his amazing performance at the 2020 Legends Championship. So for those who are not aware, the 2020 Legends Championship is the marquee event this year for masters.
It was December 10th through 13th. It was at Goodyear ballpark outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The organizers are Bob Jennings and Joe Linton. And they've been fixtures in the masters CrossFit world for many years. And this year there was no. CrossFit games for the masters. So this basically served as the games for the masters.
It was amazing that they were able to pull it off. I think with COVID and all the other issues that were on the fact that they were able to pull off a successful event was really  amazing and kudos to them. You got in either by placing a top of the within the AGOQ, or you had to go through the legends open qualifier, which was August 12th through September 1st of this past year.
And they took the top 25 male and female of each division. And Dave, you placed fifth in the legends opens qualifier, which is which was I did some of those events and they were horrible. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:01:09] Yeah. I remember what first time seeing this event marketed. It was over the summer and I think I sent it to you and Kathleen first, I was like, the, to the masters athletes at bison, you guys both made that age online qualifier last year.
She made it two years ago. And I sent it to you guys both on Instagram Hey, this looks cool. And this is during the gym was still locked out at that point. And we were all just reaching for something like we want it to be back inside doing real CrossFit. And I was like, Hey man, this would be a really cool thing for us to do.
And it turned into 12 of people from our gym doing the online qualifier and talking to these guys. They said that was the most they had from any one gym. 
Sam Rhee: [00:01:49] Oh, is that right? Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. The workouts were very challenging, but it was a great opportunity to work out during a really down time and 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:01:59] It had an open field to it.
Sam Rhee: [00:02:00] Yes. And the fact that we were able to share our experiences and talk about it and yeah. That was really great. I really enjoyed that. It was awesome. It didn't do as well as you did in it, but it's okay. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:02:09] Oh, that's because I wanted it. I wanted to do it and you're like, ah, I just want to do the qualifiers if I make it, I'm not going.
Sam Rhee: [00:02:14] So I wanted to go and volunteer and work, but obviously I got I got shut down with the whole thing, but so that I don't bury the lead here. You actually won your division. You won the whole thing in the most competitive division, which is the 35 to 39, arguably cause it's the youngest group.
And then, and there was a write-up in the Morning Chalkup, which I'll read very briefly is the 2018 regional team athlete. David Syvertsen took home the championship and his masters competition, debut the owner and head coach CrossFit Bison, New Jersey won by 22 points, despite winning just one event, his consistency across the nine scored events was a difference maker, logging seven top five finishes.
Chilean Andre Escobar, rallied from a slow start to the competition to average a third place finish. Over the last six events that claimed second Patrick Midgley overcame Dustin McWilliams and Chuck Brehm to take the final podium position. And these are all top master athletes that were competing here.
Yeah. So give me your first takeaway after it. Now that it's been about a week, what you think about it? What your lingering thoughts overall about the competition? 
So like for to echo you just the first I want to say is the two guys that ran this thing, Bob Jennings and Joe Linton. As admirable job as any competitor, as anyone that was involved with this thing, the fact that they pulled that off was the most amazing feat of the weekend because I'm pretty sure they found out less than a week prior to that there was a 50 person limit for outdoor events in Arizona.
So they had to last minute cancel all the vendors, all the sponsors. It was literally just the athletes. The staff that worked there and a few spectators, but probably not a quarter of what they would have had. And so the fact that they pulled it off, that's like my first takeaway is like a thankful that they stuck to it because nobody would have blamed them if they pulled the plug and B what they did to police and just recognize the issues that we're dealing with in today's world, that they had circles on the ground drawn in chalk.
How many people were you allowed to stand? And, they had very, they were constantly on a microphone telling people mask over your nose and mouth, they would call people out. So it was a really good job by them. Personally, the biggest takeaway for me was I want to go down there and tooth to do two things.
First one prove to myself that I can go four days in a row by myself, not on a teams, I've already done it on a team, but it's just a different demands when you're by yourself. And just be able to stay on top of my performance four days in a row, because part of this is a battle of attrition.
And we'll talk about that later. I'm sure. And then part two was how do I stack up in this new age group? I'm the rookie of the age group, and you could say, I have youth on my side. Because I was the youngest person, youngest competitor there. And they told me that. And so I wanted to see where I stood with these guys.
But like you said, they're elite level CrossFitters at, in my division at that comp. And I don't get to compete against that  in New Jersey, I just don't. So that was, those are the two big things I wanted to walk in. Can I go four days in a row? And can I hang with these guys through a, a bounce test?
How did you feel? Your training had prepared you going in. Did you feel confident? Did you feel ready? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:05:15] Yeah. Release the workouts until I think they started releasing them like two weeks before and it was like one every other day. So there were a few workouts you didn't know until a few days before. So you really couldn't prep for specific workouts, although they did tell us what movements to be ready for.
So that did steer my training. I. Knew I made it in early September. So I made a 12 week kind of training program, like three phases, phase one, phase two, phase three, and just broke things down. You did it all yourself. Yeah, I did all that myself. I didn't have a coach for it again. I can plan 12 weeks out like that pretty easily.
I'm doing it right now for the gym, for the open and just building things up so that you can try to peak at the right time. And I think I can do it because I've done it incorrectly in the past. Where I did not use those 12 weeks to send it. I really went hard, probably the four to five weeks leading up to, 
Sam Rhee: [00:06:06] So what's one, two, three, then. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:06:07] So like one, two, three was like a lot of positional work with lifts, like lifting off blocks, pause, squats, tall cleans. And then it was all strict gymnastics or tan sands dips. Pull-ups didn't practice butterflies until maybe two weeks prior to Oh built up ring muscle up volume capacity.
Like I started off doing example. This is, I don't want to get into every movement would be boring, but the ring muscle up, I started off just doing in phase one about 30% of my maximum broken set, just doing EMOM 10 of that number. So I was doing about four ring muscle ups, EMOM 10 minutes. Did that a few times.
All right. Then I started break throwing in complementary movements, meaning movements that would not tax the actual movement pattern of a ring muscle up. So assault, bike legs only. All right. And then phase three would be, I'd start throwing the ring muscle up into, mixed modal stuff like clean and jerk snatches stuff that would tax my arms that I would need for the pole, for the dip.
And just building up rather than just say, Hey, I'm going to do a max muscle up set every single week for 12 weeks in a row. So that's like where I think I've matured a little bit with programming for myself. Planning for myself, is it doesn't need to be like, Oh, I qualified. I'm going to go all in for 12 weeks and max effort because you do you want to peak at the competition, not four weeks prior to 
Sam Rhee: [00:07:24] what are you doing outside the gym for those 12 weeks in terms of your nutrition and sleep?
Dave Syvertsen: [00:07:30] The biggest thing was I got extra treatment. I went and saw Dr. John Hartman. More often. And, even then, he's got a lot going on, there's days or weeks. I couldn't get there because of my schedule with the gym Brock and we had some work done on the house. So it wasn't ideal. Like I didn't live the life of a professional athlete where my life was revolving around competing, but definitely cleaned up the diet.
Lot less like alcohol intake, social drinking, and that kind of stuff. Did try to sleep more again with with, at the time of five months old, it's, that's touch and go, that's back and forth. But I think the biggest thing I would say is just a little bit more treatment. And a little bit cleaner eating slash drinking habits were just those are probably the two biggest things that I think really enhanced performance.
When I am training, we working out twice a day. I try to, again, it was, I remember when I trained for the French Throwdown last year, it was really easy for me to get here two or three times a day. But with just the schedule with Hey, we're we can't have that much going on in the gym. With classes going on.
So I tried to work around that schedule, my coaching schedule Brock schedule. So there were days I tried to get in twice a day. I would say the biggest thing I did do to help is I made a mock weekend where it was two workouts, a day, four days in a row. With hours in between, it wasn't like a workout, then come back 10 minutes later, do another workout because that's time convenient.
It was do a workout and come back six hours later and do another workout. And I think that I actually do think that helped me a lot. 
Sam Rhee: [00:09:02] The couple of weeks before the 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:09:03] actual did that three weeks prior to got it. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:09:06] Let's get into the events then. So they had a number of different events and they were all they look absolutely horrible. And unfortunately, because of the restrictions, there was no streaming. There was no way for anyone to really watch it. I don't think that even as athletes, you guys couldn't watch the other athletes in different heats. So this was so I, that's why I want to go through it a little bit, because we weren't even able to watch what these performances were like.
So on day one and they all have Greek names like mythology names, which is great. It said four 24, you did Thanatos, which was four time, a 12 minute cap, four rounds, 25 handstand pushups, and then 10 deadlifts at 315. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:09:46] Yeah. So it's funny that workout, when I saw that, I'm like, Oh, that's a great way to start.
You know what? We should actually say this. Yeah. There was an asterisk on this, on the win, because the first workout. Was I forgot what it was called whatever it was a one rep max snatch in fives minutesor something. Yeah, 
Sam Rhee: [00:10:03] Hearacles 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:10:04] Yeah. Yeah. You had five minutes to do a one rep max snatch. Yeah. Into seven minutes to a one rep max clean and jerk. Yeah. So it's really not that much lifting. You have to go pretty heavy. Pretty fast. Yeah. And that was supposed to be event one on Thursday, but there was rain in Arizona, which almost never happens and they delayed it by two hours, then four hours, then six hours. They eventually said, Hey, we're scratching the first event.
We're going to throw it in on Sunday. And I was happy about it because that might've been my worst score of the weekend. And. So I was like, all right, mentally, it's just get ready to do that on Sunday. We're all going to be beat up. Maybe that'll help me out because there's some, there were some guys there that are much stronger than me.
Like one rep max strength would crush me. So that was the event that you just talked about. That was the first event. It was supposed to be the second. Got it. Now back to that event. I did see that as, Hey, that could be a really good event for me because I can pull really well, three 15 isn't anything that's going to scare me.
And the 25 handstand pushups it was at is a lot, it's a hundred handstand pushups done at an intense rate. And, but I was like, you know what? My capacity there is decent. I train handstand pushups so often strict deficit. So I'll say this though, that was the worst I felt after any of the workouts. I like for a half hour after I had this, like Fran long feeling of weakness, I think part of what it was for the week leading up to it.
Yeah. The competition. I didn't train that much. I tried to come in a couple of times, a couple of things came up. Schedule wise. I just could not get into train. And then I flew out there. We sat around for a day. I was awaiting a COVID test, but you had to have pass a COVID test to compete. And I didn't get mine until 12 hours before the comp started.
And It was just, it was like a very stressful time leading up to, and then all of a sudden, and the warmup, we can talk about the warmups too. It was really tough to like really warm up there. And that's, that happens at a lot of competitions. It freaks people out sometimes. And I've done this enough where I like, you just kinda know Hey, you're on.
You gotta do you, you just gotta figure it out. 
Sam Rhee: [00:12:03] Why, what are the warmups like out there? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:12:04] It was just, it was like they only let you warm up. During the heat prior to your heat or two heats prior to heat. Oh, I see. 
Sam Rhee: [00:12:11] A lot of comps do that. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:12:13] Yeah. These big ones. So what it was, you had to be in the warm up area, ready to warm up.
And your warmup was as long as the workout. So that workout was 12 minutes long. You got 12 minutes to warm up. No bikes, no rowers, literally just barbell and florist. There's nowhere to do handstand pushups. And again, this is not bashing them. That's really hard to you go to any competition, that's usually a one off issue and you just have to figure your stuff out on your own.
And so I just remember going out there, like I was like, man, my heart never got up at all. And this goes back to coaching. I always say, get your heart rate up before you work out. Yeah. Don't let it shock you. Yeah. So my heart rate hadn't been up in a week. Yeah. So all of a sudden 25 unbroken, handstand pushups, 10 on broken heavy deadlifts, 25 unbroken again.
10 unbroken again. I was actually in first after the first two rounds. And I was like, man, and then I really fell apart in that third set of handstand pushups. I think I can't, I don't even know what place I came in, but so yeah, a few guys pass me on that third set. And I just remember sitting on the curb after that workout by my car on FaceTime with Ash.
And she was like, are you like, is something wrong? And I was like, I don't know. Like I can't my, I couldn't see straight out. My eyes were getting blurry. Hide that Fran lung, you start thinking about COVID obviously right. And it was the worst I felt. And I don't think it was the workout that did it. Or the lack of warming up.
It was just like, I had not gotten my heart rate up like that in a really long time, because I train hard. But there's a difference between training hard at a gym, whether you're by yourself or with a class and not a competition. 
Sam Rhee: [00:13:38] Yeah. I know. You'd like to really warm up. You do a lot before you actually do.
And I do. I know some people criticize it. Like my wife hates it. Yeah, I need to warm up for half hour. But that's just my system, it's not, that's not the way you need to do it, but that's the way I like to do it. And yeah, you just don't get to. 
So how did you get better? How did you feel better after that?
Dave Syvertsen: [00:13:54] That was it, I was thankful I'd have to do anything else for the rest of the night. And so I went back to my hotel room and, because of COVID and because I was allowed to watch, I went back and forth between the comp and my hotel. I spent 21, 22 hours a day in the hotel room. I didn't go out and see people.
I just, I had all my food ready to go. So I went back to my room and just pounded as much food as I could. And I just sat in bed and eventually I was fine. I take a shower, you get, you get comfortable in bed, but that just remember, I was like, wow, like I can I do this? That's how I was starting. I was like, can I even, can I handle this anymore? You almost start to not have fun. Cause it hurts so bad, but 
Sam Rhee: [00:14:31] okay, then you had a little bit of time because then your next workout was like you said, the second day it was like 2:28 PM. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:14:38] Yep. 
Sam Rhee: [00:14:38] And it was clash of the Titans. And it was for time, 
14 minute cap four rope climbs and then 35 double unders with Kronos, which is how heavy is that rope?
Dave Syvertsen: [00:14:50] One pound jump rope is the heaviest you can find 
Sam Rhee: [00:14:52] one pound jump rope from the RX and then 30 wall balls. Three rope climbs, 50 double unders with hades, which is 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:15:00] three quarter pound. But that's the one I have. I have one of those. I've been training with that. 
Sam Rhee: [00:15:04] Okay. And then two rope climbs, a hundred double unders with a regular jump rope and then 30 wall balls and then one rope climb.
Yeah. And you finished fifth with a timeof 9:18. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:15:15] Yeah, that was probably my biggest surprise of the weekend. I, that was the workout. I was stressing about the most because I've had some nightmare workouts with the jump rope, as silly as that sounds like everyone's got one thing that is almost gives it makes them nervous or like just not confident with, and the jump rope is mine.
And I was like, dude, if I suck on the normal jump rope, how am I going to do these with this jump rope? But I just that third, I just said, I remember Liz actually said this to me a few days. Probably that if it doesn't, if it scares you do it, like that workout scared me. I was legit scared.
I was nauseous before the workout, like dry heating. I went outside the fence and dry heat. Didn't get anything out of my mouth, but I was ready to throw up. My lips are chapped and I'm just like the second three, two, one starts. I just went. One thing I do know I can do, I can rope climb pretty fast. Yeah.
And I can, my wall ball, I can stick to a wall ball. So I was like, you know what? I just went into it saying those two movements. I'm going to pull ahead as best I can. So if I do trip up on the jump rope, I'll be okay. 
Sam Rhee: [00:16:14] You had never picked up a one pound jump rope for that day. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:16:17] Yeah. And it's definitely different. But I think that set of 35, I tripped up once. And a lot of people next to me were tripping up and I was like, dude, I'm okay. Because I think I was one of the first ones there off the rope plans, got 30 wall balls done on broken that the road climbs on fast. Again, I did trip up, I think three or four times on the three on the Hades rope.
But still this is where like working out people helps. I can tell the guys right next to me. I was still ahead of them. So I'm like, all right, I can't be doing that bad. Now I'm getting to the part of the workout I can do well with wall balls and rope climbs. And then I got to the a hundred double unders I want to say one or two guys are there ahead of me.
And I did trip. I got to 50 unbroken and then I've probably tripped up five times. So I did struggle on that, but I think again, you now have 30 wall balls. Like I know really good athletes, like my buddy, Matt, who was on my Fratly team. Yeah. He like will view 30 wall balls as something like what you would view a 30 Cal assault bike when you're tired.
It's I can't do it sucks. I'm like, dude, I'm going on, broken on that. No big deal. It sucks, but I'd never have to stop them. So even though I knew that jump rope beat me up a little bit, I knew I was going to go I'm broken wall ball. And then on the rope climb. And I think rope climb is an adrenaline movement.
It's funny because when I work, train them here. Yeah. Usually it takes me three poles to get to the top. Every poll, there was two polls. Like you just pull harder, you stand harder, you reach up. There was a guy next to me. He was short. And I felt like he was going up like one six inches at a time.
Like he got on the rope before me and I got done before he even got to the top. So 
is that where the technique helps? Like 
technique helps of like really sitting back, like you're doing a TOSA bar and getting your knees as high as you can, and then you stand up, you make yourself tall, and so that's where but I do that with adrenaline.
That's why competing there's things I can do in comps. I can't do in training. 
Sam Rhee: [00:18:04] If you had to tell me three movements that I hate most, it would be rope climbs, double unders and wall ball. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:18:10] All right, good. So we're going to program, you're going to do that next conversion Monday. 
Sam Rhee: [00:18:15] After you did that, you had a second event.
So how did you feel between the first 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:18:19] of all? I actually felt really good after that event. Yeah. And I was happy. I think it was a confidence thing because I thought I was going to be like, Hey man, if I can be taught, I told Ash, if I could be top 10, I'm pumped. That was fifth. So yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:18:29] And then you had done six for the F the one before that.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:18:31] So you're right there for both events. That was like where I want it to be. And then that next one coming up was another one where I'm like, Hey, this is going to hurt a little bit. I really had to go into a dark place. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a 
Sam Rhee: [00:18:44] Pandora that was at seven o'clock.
That was a 14 minute 
cap. So you had five hours 
between 10 burpee box jump over to squat cleans. 
10 more burpee box jump overs for squad cleans. 
Ten six squad cleans 10, eight squad cleans 10, 10 squat cleans at 225.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:19:02] Yeah. So that's a heavy barbell for 30 reps, right? That's 30 reps of a squat clean.
Yeah. And again, I know one thing I can tell you that I'm confident with this. I know where I stand with like strengths and weaknesses and certain movements. I know there's guys they're stronger than me. Yeah. I also know that my leg stamina, isn't what my upper body Seminis. So I knew that workout was going to be hard.
So I went into it and said, Hey, if I can be a little quicker on burpee box, jump overs and get a rep or two in before, like I had a guy next to me that was one of the games guys that. I was like, Hey, if I can get to the barbell one or two reps before him, I can maybe hang. And so I, that ended up being the case for the two, the four, the six is, and that he started to catch up a little bit during the eights.
And that's where I think I tried the hardest, the entire weekend, the sets of eight instead of 10, like I would literally do a squat clean. They were hard. I put it down. I took a breath and put my hands back on the bar. And I just said, Hey, if you don't fail, rep, just try again. And I remember my last three reps of the set of 10.
And 225s, a 70% weight for me. I think if I'm doing the math right, 70, 75%. Think about that weight for you. What is your 70 to 75? You probably have never failed that weight on the squat clean. Yeah. I was going to those last three reps, not knowing if I was going to get it, so I would catch it and just try as hard as I could to stand up screaming my face.
I probably, I hope there's no video screaming my face off and I got it up. I'm like, all right, I didn't fail. It's going to go again. Cause I was ready to fail the rep. Cause I want to make sure that I was literally going to my breaking point so that I didn't get crushed in the workout where these other guys I could tell.
I could tell it's very demoralizing when you start a squat clean. Yeah. You catch it. And the side view, you see the other guy. Start his squat clean and he gets done before you, because they're just so much faster at squat in that way than I am. And it ended up working out. But I was the w I was, I cramped up my quads and calves.
After that workout badly, 
Sam Rhee: [00:20:55] you finished third in that workout. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:20:56] Yeah, I was, that was my biggest surprise of the week 
Sam Rhee: [00:20:58] 10:13. And I think the two things which would have been demoralizing to me is the ascending number of squat cleans. Yeah. I would have felt so much better going down 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:21:09] I'll every now and then I'll sprinkle that in at bison and someone says it every time.
It's I hate workouts where the reps go up. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:21:15] And then the squat. Like it's so difficult. It just sucks the life out of your legs. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:21:22] I just think like you, everyone has a different DeCarlo would love that workout. I actually want to program it here. Please, because like his leg, his squash stamina is outstanding, but no, his pulling stamina is not right where like I could pull like as tired as I am, I could pull all day.
But if you tell me to squat, like it's demoralizing and they should feel like. It makes me fucking, I'm gonna throw up and it's, I feel like I'm moving at a snail's pace. And that was, if there's one thing I was proud about the weekend that it was that workout. So no fails on any of the stuff fails. My last one was probably the, it probably took me no exaggeration, five seconds to stand up 
Sam Rhee: [00:21:58] and no reps no reps, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:21:59] No reps 
Sam Rhee: [00:21:59] where people getting no ripped in that.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:22:01] I heard a couple, I always hear no rep sometimes, like you're close. They were over six feet apart, but you're close enough where you can hear the other judge counting people's reps. Yeah. And you hear no reps. So at first was that me? Yeah. And then you look at your judge and he, he didn't do the hand signal.
So I did hear no reps for it's very common in the workout like this, you do a squat and you get it off your shoulders before you actually stand up. I got no rep that, that at the French throw down at the, there was a workout to 45 squat cleans. And my first rep. I chucked it off my shoulders before I stood up and judge said, no rep sucks.
Yeah. But yeah, I did hear a few, no reps for, and I'm pretty sure that's what it was. For drop dropping the barbell too quick. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:22:38] How was the judging? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:22:40] Good. I'll say there's the next workout we'll talk about is. It's really tough to judge fast shouldered overhead with the elbows locking out.
And I saw a video of our heats one of the guys in my heat, his wife video, and they put them on their gyms, Instagram. And I remember watching it. I'm like, dude, there are almost every rep some of these guys were doing with her overheads were no reps. So I think overall the judging was good.
I don't think it was as tight as something as you would see at the games, but I've really think judging at the games. It's a different level. Just like the athletes are different levels. It's a different level of judging. Yeah. I think the Jew, I thanked every judge. I did I always say the judging without them.
There's no competitions. They're all volunteer. And I ain't getting paid. They might get a lunch or two But I th I always thanked them and said, Hey, you guys do a great job. You guys are going through hell. Like they have to judge with a mask on Sunday. Some athletes are very high maintenance with like how you count, where you stand.
So I always, I think they did a really good job considering all the circumstances. And, these guys are all just local CrossFitters that are helping out, 
Sam Rhee: [00:23:43] did you have a chance to get to know the other competitors and talk to them? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:23:47] Yeah, there was a lot. I probably, I would say there was a handful of guys.
I talked to a lot and a couple of other guys I tried to talk to and whether they're, whether they're pricks or they just don't like to engage in conversation and they're focused on a cat and I get it that's, I'm like I'm capable of just flipping the switch. The second, the workout starts.
Like I loved hearing about these guys, something, you guys have kids, like I had just had a kid, some of these, I had the guy that was he's active military right now have another guy that I'm from green Bay, his name's Chuck. He was just a really good guy to talk to. I actually think he was probably one of the top two or three athletes there, for sure.
Sam Rhee: [00:24:23] Yeah. Yeah. I think he won the qualifier. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:24:25] Yeah, he's known he's a nice guy. He
Sam Rhee: [00:24:27] He was he's he was 46 in the open and 38 last here's 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:24:31] the bad-ass. He's another guy. He would have benefited a lot from the one-rep max. 
Sam Rhee: [00:24:35] He did the highest in the open last year. Yeah. Who competed. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:24:39] Got it. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, he was like, I love talking to those guys. Just getting their background. Like he's a teacher and he coaches golf and like that kind of stuff. It's cool to hear the human side of it. Yeah. And this is one of the more unique things about CrossFit that I feel like I didn't get in sports growing up.
Is I don't dislike the guys I'm competing against, if anything, I am using them to get my scores because I'm, I was basing my pace off of Chuck on the squat clean workout. And so he helped me get my score and in sports growing up, I feel like I was just hated everyone I played against.
But I think it was really cool just to see the human side of it. And just to have a, just a mutual respect that, we're all going through the same thing. Life-wise and we're chill, trying to bounce in the training. None of us are ever going to be pro athletes, but we try to do our best and it's just, it's cool.
It just brings up a different level of appreciation for cross-country. 
Sam Rhee: [00:25:30] It's good to be around people who care about it as much as you do. And they think about it the same 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:25:35] way. Yeah. That's a great point 
Sam Rhee: [00:25:37] because everyone else out there doesn't really get it or understand 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:25:40] it unless you're actually right and teach their own.
I know there's a lot of people out here that are like, why do you do this to yourself? What's the point? And it's not even worth trying to explain so something I'm passionate about and I'm trying to pursue. And I've been thinking about this since I known any of you guys. I started thinking about this on a run in 2012, like that's where that dream started.
And now you meet these guys that have very similar stories to you and you're like, all right, maybe I'm not a black sheet. 
Sam Rhee: [00:26:04] That's why I always say, and we should talk about it at some point, if you've never done it, if you're a CrossFit athlete and you've never done a comp you, there's nothing like you have to.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:26:13] Yeah, I think I would love, that's another reason why I like to push the open. Hey, if you don't want to sign up for a local cop, it's too scary. You don't have the schedule. Don't want to pay a hundred bucks. That's part of what the openness for me, it's there are people here that do the open that are not competitors, but for those three weeks, you get to get a feel for what it's like, and then you start to see, wow.
There's things I can do in this environment that I cannot do at my gym. 
All right. So then day three the next event was Athena. That was at noon. And I got a story about this. Yeah. So you had nine minute time cap, 50 Cal row. 40 toes to bar 40 shoulder to overhead at was at one 14 and then 30 cal row.
So that was the event. When that came out, I'm like, I'm going to win that event, like first place. He got second. I know. All right I'll tell you what happened. No, excuse I was my own fault, but I just remember seeing like, all right, and this is another thing, while you're sitting in your hotel room for 21 hours a day, you have no choice.
But the thing about this Hey, get through day two, Dave, don't get slaughtered it's day three. You can make your run. 
Sam Rhee: [00:27:13] Where were you sitting at this point? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:27:15] I want to say, I don't even remember, I think third or fourth. Okay. All right. But I said, I'm like, I'm winning that event. That was my goal. I asked her to talk to me before every workout, what place you want to come in?
And that's the first and it's a supportive way. She's Oh great, Dave. And I'm like no, I'm going to win this event because of the rowing. It's 80 cows of rowing. So if you break down, like what, the time domain of that workout is you're looking at six minutes probably. So I'm like 80 cows of rowing.
Is going to take two thirds of the amount of time of the workout. And I will. And I don't care how this sounds like I can roll with anybody and CrossFit in the sport, throw a wrong workout. That doesn't have one of my weaknesses. I can hang with anybody in the world. All right. So I'm like, there's no reason for me not to win as be as toast the bar.
That's not, I think that's probably why gymnastic strength. I can do a lot of them broken. I could do them fast and shoulder it overhead. Even like it's 40 reps at a weight that I could, if I'm fresh to do that, I'm on broken. So let's go get off the rower. I think first get off the toes. The bar first gets to the shoulder overhead and in my head.
So the way they set up the lanes at a competition like this. Every day, they Rhee, they put you in a different lane and it's based on what place you're in. 
Sam Rhee: [00:28:25] Yeah. So they reseed you and 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:28:26] then, so you're always next to someone that's next to you in the standings. Yeah. So example, if you're in first place, you're directly in the middle to your right.
A second place to your right. Is third place. Was set. So I think I was in third place tied for third. Now that I remember, I w I had first place on my left. All right. And I had second place, two spots to my left. And the kid that I was tied with for third was three spots to my left.
So I, everyone I really wanted to like really beat in the workout was three spots next to me, beat them all off the rower, beat them off TOSA bar, beat them all off the shoulder overhead because you're right next to them. So I got to that 30 Cal row at the end. Yeah. And I said, Hey, I'm the first one at the rower.
There's nobody that's going to catch me on that last row. I got this. Yeah. All right. I wrote 30 and I wrote hard, but I did not go all out and send it that did not send it. I was drawing probably 1900 to 2000 cals an hour. I know I can go 2300 2,400, like this again. You got to know yourself. Yeah, I know I can do that.
And I'm just in my left vision. I'm like, dude, I'm on the road before all these guys, none of them were going to catch me. I got this, I put my 30 cows. I get my 30 cows. I put it back in the thing I unstrapped my feet. Yeah. As I'm walking towards the finish line, I see a guy, eight lanes down across the finish line.
And I was like, and and then I go across the finish line and I yelled out a really bad word. And, I came in second place. I should be, I beat all the guys that were near me in the standings, but because. And this is a this is a rookie mistake as a competitor. And like anyone that's played sports, like in an event like this, you want every point you can get over the whole weekend.
Absolutely. All right. I lost out on that point because I was too focused on the three guys next to me, not doing as best, my best. And that was, I was so mad at myself. That was the most angry I was all weekend. And Ashley's they have great jobs. Second place. I was cursing. I was so pissed off 
Sam Rhee: [00:30:18] because you could have done better.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:30:19] And in my head, I'm like, I'm going to lose by a point, or I'm going to miss the podium by a point. And if I did, I would have been really upset because that wasn't a Cape. It wasn't me. Hey, Dave, you're just not strong enough. Hey, Dave, you're not fast enough. It was Dave. You didn't try hard enough.
And that's one thing that would rub so much salt in the wound. If you said you didn't try hard enough, right? Oh, so that was like a learning experience for me. If I ever get put in a situation like this, again, stop worrying about what's going on next to you. Unless it's the last event of the whole comp, right?
At most comps you have multiple heats though, so you can't just judge yourself against them. The one positive is you do when you're the heat before you went, you were in a corral is basically everyone had to get ready to get. We're going to send you right out after the previous heat, right?
You do. I did get to see times from the first seat of my group. So I saw the first, the fastest was like six 20 or something. And that first group was six 14. Yeah. And you were 
Sam Rhee: [00:31:12] 5:57. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:31:13] Yeah. So I just knew Hey break six. And that was my goal is break six and I'll be fine. But that one guy, how much was it?
A second or two fast three. And he's the guy I ended up coming second. I have a good story to tell about him too. He's a, I respect that guy a lot. Oh, Andres Escobar. Yeah. Yeah. He came up to me and said, Hey, we competed against each other. I'm like, I was like, aren't you from Chile? And I guess he, Bo I don't know where he lives right now, to be honest with you.
I just know he was under chili in the open third number three and Chile, and He thought we competed against each other at a partner comp at CrossFit Hamilton two years ago. The one I did with him. Oh yeah. So I was like, hi there. Yeah. I remember him to be honest, but that kid real quick on him, he hurt his back in the first workout, the deadlifts.
Oh, I think he came in 13th place and then his back was bothering him the next day during wall balls, which I've seen that I've actually seen that a lot with history of coaching, deadlift wall ball combo. I think it's the fluxion of the back. And he struggled on that workout. So I think he had a, like two or three, like 14th place finishes and 13th.
And then he turned it up the last two days and I bet if he was full strength, it would have been a little closer. Yeah. Yeah. Good for him. I was so pissed about that. 
Sam Rhee: [00:32:22] Wow. And he remembered that you were there at 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:32:24] the it's funny. A 
Sam Rhee: [00:32:27] good lesson on that one. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:32:28] Yeah. Never do that again. 
Sam Rhee: [00:32:30] At least you didn't pay for it.
Let's put it that 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:32:32] way. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:32:33] And then the next event was after at Athena was Icarus, which is only a, it was only four hours after it was like four 50. It was a max distance assault run in eight minutes. And then there was an Icarus B, which was after one minute of that one minute rest, then it was three rounds.
20 dumbbell snatches. Was it 50 pounds? Yep. And then 40 dumbbell, overhead walking lunge, single dumbbell, and then 40 foot handstand walk, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:33:03] Three rounds of that
Sam Rhee: [00:33:04] Three, three rounds. And so you came in fifth for the run and then first for the three rounds of snatch lunch, 
Juan. So shout out to the owners of dead-end fitness, Chris and Brittany Arsi in Wanaque, New Jersey, not in the Midland Park area.
They they let me use their air runner twice. Leading up to the comp I just, I, they told us that the air runner would be involved. Yeah. So I was like, all right, I want to get on that thing. So I don't like running. I'm not good at it. Part of the reason is I feel like my joints get beat up pretty badly on it.
And so to me, I just don't want to waste my bullets on running, especially in a sport where running doesn't pop up that much. Especially in the open or the online format, I should say 
while you make us run so much. Just kidding. Go ahead. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:33:52] The so I ran on that thing twice and the, I actually, it was a huge deal for me to go on that thing and know what my pace was that I could hold for X amount of time.
Okay. Because right now, if you said Dave, go run a mile. I could probably be in the sixes somewhere, but like I'd be spent after and things would hurt right on that thing. I was running like a five 50 to six, 10 pace. 
Sam Rhee: [00:34:14] And that's a lot harder than a regular run that 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:34:17] run me. I actually felt it was easier because my joints didn't hurt.
It was more robotic for sure. And it's more like muscle demand. Like my hamstrings and calves get blown up because you are pulling, it like you're pulling that treadmill. That's a treadmill that you're initiating the movement. You're not, there's no machine running. 
Sam Rhee: [00:34:31] My hamstrings feel like 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:34:33] hamstrings and calves blown.
Holy cow. You're just pushing so hard off that first time I ran on the Arsi's one. I got in my car right after an idiot didn't stretch. And I got out of my car after driving home 15 minutes and both my calves cramped up. I couldn't walk into my house. Like it was So I, but it helps so much to know what I could do on that.
Because again, this is another one, know yourself as an athlete. I knew that second workout, even though it's a one-minute rest, I trained that way all the time here. When I, you give me a minute of rest or two minutes of rest, whatever I can that's enough time for me. 
Sam Rhee: [00:35:06] Yeah. You programmed that a lot for us.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:35:07] Yeah. It's enough time for me to recover. Yeah. I actually think bison has been programmed that way since we've had the masks on. You give me a minute rest. I'll be fine. And then throw in the fact that the dumbbell snatch overhead lunge, Hanson walk. Those are, I would say three good movements for me. I said, Hey, I'm going to push myself on the run more than any of these guys.
And that's still not going to be good for first place, but it'll make me not get slaughtered. And then even though I'll probably be more fatigued. When part two starts that I can, will myself through that. 
Sam Rhee: [00:35:36] What is eight minute run speed per se? That's not a full 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:35:40] sprint for eight now. For me, it was hard, 
Sam Rhee: [00:35:42] but like I said, an 85%, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:35:45] 80 to 85%, and they had us do a max Cal run. One thing they changed is another good decision by the guys that ran. It was when you run meters on an air runner. And this goes for rowing and bike, a judge. There's a time where three, two, one time you're done. The judge has to like, get you out of the way. Look at the monitor.
That could be a rollover of around 15, 20 meters. So they change it to maximum. How that's cows not, so I ran 150 cows. Yeah. I was wondering, I was like, yeah. I thought maybe there was some sort of scale that I didn't understand. So I remember it. So this is one thing I did. Like I'm very strategic. I looked at scores from previous heats.
Yeah. Just to get a gauge, like, all right. What are the top girls running on this? Yeah. Because the 35 to 39 girls did one event while we were doing the other. I see. So they had already done this event. So I looked at all their scores and it said one 60, I'm like. They didn't run a 160 meters in eight minutes.
Maybe that meant 1,600. That's what I was wondering. So we found that right before that they changed it to cows. So I go into this and I don't know what my cow paces. So they had air runners there to warm up. Yeah. So I D I did a couple, like one minute, two minute, three minute runs. Yeah. To get I can average 16, 17, 18 a minute. Yeah. And that's just like the number I played with, and again, you still what's cool about that. And this was echo the qualifiers that we all did. It's a blind leaderboard that you have no idea what place you're in. I see, the, in the qualifiers, you didn't see anyone's score until everything was posted in this workout.
You can't see if you ran on a road, you would see other people in front of you and behind you run past someone and have someone run by you. No idea. Yeah. You're 
Sam Rhee: [00:37:18] just putting up a number and you don't know what 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:37:19] anyone else's number. Yeah. I actually think that if you have a monitor in front saying who was in what place.
Maybe some of these guys would have beat me in that run. 
Sam Rhee: [00:37:28] What do you think your mile pace was for that run 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:37:30] between five 50 and six 10, 
Sam Rhee: [00:37:32] which I honored assault AirRunner is very challenging. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:37:35] Yeah. Yeah. It w I was spent trust me, but again, pulling is my strength. So the dumbbell snatches for first lunges is only 40 feet.
That's about six steps down six steps back and enhancing walk. I work handstand walk under duress all the time. It's something I've worked on so long. I couldn't seen him walk in 2016 at WodaPalooza. And that was like, Hey, that was embarrassing. I heard my team work on it. And now I feel like I'm really good at it.
And so no matter how tired I am, I'm going 
Sam Rhee: [00:38:03] for it. Did that last year in the open, they frigging made people walk on their hands after this whole 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:38:07] two years in a row thing before they had the yes, the handstand pushups, shirt, pants, and pushups. Was it? Yes, 
Sam Rhee: [00:38:14] it was. I remember watching that event the stream on that one.
Yeah. I forget it was, people did not finish it actually. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:38:20] Yeah. Most, a lot of people didn't get to it. It was 50 because there was 50 shirts, handstand pushups before. Oh my 
Sam Rhee: [00:38:24] God. That was awful. Yeah. Even for those games out 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:38:26] here, years in a row, they've done handstand pushups, handstand walk. They have to back hired.
That's what you call a non complimentary workout. And that's something that you should be training. People at the gym, like, why are we doing wall balls and thrusters in the same workout? There's a, Rhee it shows up, you've got to train. Yeah. Thank 
Sam Rhee: [00:38:41] you for doing wobbles first and then the 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:38:42] three this time through.
Sam Rhee: [00:38:44] Yeah. All what do I was going to ask you, what do you think of just before the workout starts? Cause I have about 500 thoughts in my head that I'm trying to shove out all the negative shit. Why am I doing 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:38:54] this? Trust 
Sam Rhee: [00:38:55] me, hate this. I can't, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:38:57] Oh my God, I love this. I have aspirations.
That it may be beyond my reach at times. I still to this day, I'm like, why am I doing this? There are times I think that, but I do think I think about Ash and Brock a lot. 
Sam Rhee: [00:39:10] So that's your mantra just before you start a, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:39:11] yeah, I can think about them a lot. I don't wanna get emotional here, but Like they, they do.
I tell Ash this and I think she does. I don't know if she believes me, but I think about them during the workouts all the time. Like I want Brock to look back on me 10, 15 years down from now and be proud of me first thing, because I'm proud of my dad for things that he's done in his life.
And it's it does. I want him to think the same way. Ash puts up with so much with my lifestyle, with like training and like eating this and eating that and going to the gym at nine o'clock on a Saturday, like. When most people are like, hanging out with each other and I do my best to balance the two.
But I do know there are pockets of time, a year where she gets the short end of the stick. And I do dedicate a lot of my effort. So I'm like, Hey, if I'm going to make her do this, I want to at least show her that there's a reason behind it. Like whether it's bringing money home or it's just, her feeling proud, that kind of stuff.
So I do think about them during. Like I think about them during almost every competition workout. Like when I'm really tired Hey, like it's for them. I think about people at bison, like I love the support that I get from bison. It does put pressure. It does make me feel more pressure that people are like, Hey, Dave's in first right now.
If he doesn't come in first, I'm going to suck. 
Sam Rhee: [00:40:19] Yeah. That's why I hate saying stuff like that. Cause I'm worried about 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:40:22] that. And trust me I don't want to say it. I don't appreciate it. I do. And I actually think it helps. Like when you have a hard behind you, especially like the one we have, it definitely helps.
You'd be an idiot to say it doesn't help, but it, so I think about that during the workout Hey, I gotta do it for them too, because they feel a sense of pride. If bison gets a shout out on morning Chalkup or, on the legends, Instagram or something like that. So like I do, those are the things I think about to keep me going during a workout.
I will say that there's times three for Oh, man. I got to go to the bathroom again. I feel nauseous. My lips are chapped on dehydrated. These guys look like monsters. I look some fat that's trying to like still compete with them over here. 
Sam Rhee: [00:40:59] That sounds more like my mental state.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:41:01] It's hard. Not your, I'm a human being, right? I'm not a machine, but I'll say one mantra. I've lived by competing. I read this in a book, so I don't want to take credit for it. But I said like, when you're an athlete and you're training, you're supposed to be like as much machine as possible, but when you're on game day, you need to turn into a Viking.
Like you're no longer a machine. Like you might not get the water that you want. You might not, you have to pee in a port-a-potty. You might not get to warm up. You might not get the pull-up bar. You want that's why sometimes like at the gym, I probably sound like a little bit of a Dick with. The pull-up bars.
I don't care if you want a certain pull-up bar, be a Viking you're bad-ass show me that you're a bad-ass and that's when someone has a pull-up bar, that's too high for them, like jump, jump up and get it and be a Viking that I actually think about that stuff before workout.
Like you're not a machine stop trying to act like one view of Viking. And that as silly as that might sound to some that helps me get into this mindset. I am less talented than a lot of people that I beat at competitions. And if they had their mental game, they would beat me. But as long as I'm going at this goal, as long as I'm pursuing this.
I will, I won't let anyone mentally beat me. 
Sam Rhee: [00:42:18] It's easier to think like a Viking, if you have Norwegian descent, let's put it.
So your next event was the thruster ladder diadema seventh. That was again a, about three to three hours after. Yeah. Yeah. You placed 11th on that one. It was a four, three, two, one thruster ladder. Didn't really say what the weights 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:42:36] were. Yep. So the weights for us were 95 for four reps. Yeah, no big deal. 135 for three, 185 for two, 225 for one, one minute cap. So you had to sprint through it. It was a sprint workout. Some of the times were like absolutely ridiculous. 
Sam Rhee: [00:42:52] You had 42 seconds 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:42:54] when you tell people, like, when I tell people I'm a slow squatter, I don't think they understand. The people that do that in 30 seconds, like it blew my mind really?
Sam Rhee: [00:43:01] Yeah. Including running to each barbell, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:43:03] running to each barbell, and they're just fast. Everything they do is faster, so that was their surprise workout. We did not know that workout until Saturday at 6:00 PM, Whoa. An hour or two before it started. And we knew that there was a surprise wad.
Yeah. I told us not to leave. Hey, after your second workout, stay here. There's a surprise workout. And we had a good idea. It was thrusters. But we were like, man, they have all these heats three minutes apart for every age group. How are they going to what is it was a one rep max, but no, you don't get one minute to lift one, one rep max.
So the way they ran it was really well, like they just said, like it was a woman at cap and it basically all came down to the last bar bell. Yeah, I have 
25. 
I knew I was not going to do well, like top five in that event. I knew it. So I didn't try to. So I think there was another video of someone, the guy next to me, one that I think was first place in the heat.
He was done on the 95 pound thrusters. He did four reps before I was done with my second, like just a short guy that like squats fast. And I did not try to catch up to him. I just put the bar down, walks to the one 35, got it. Done. Walked to one 85. Got it done. A lot of this time guys were already done before I even got to the two 25, Dustin, that in my opinion, the best athlete there, he got to two 25 and he failed it.
And this happened a lot. I got to watch every, I was the last feat. I got to watch every heat. It happened a lot. You got to two 25 failed it. And why. It just like he caught it and he just couldn't press it. Like you got it above his head and he couldn't press it. And then he tried again, he failed again, and I just stood there and just gave myself five to 10 seconds because I was like, I don't want to fail this.
I'm not going to try to do this fast. I just don't want to fail. And I got it and I cried and I think that might've been his worst finished of the weekend and that probably bumped him down. Finished fourth. Yeah. I don't know if it was a true representation of his fitness, but I do think that.
Because they canceled the one rep max lifting that was an opportunity for the big strong dudes to go on, get their score, get their big display of strength, because the thrusters, there's not a lot of skill and the thruster, if you're a strong dude, you're gonna get that stuff up.
Snatching fingers, a bit more skill and speed involved. Dustin, like I've seen him lift before, like he, on his Instagram videos, I think he cleaned jars like three 55. 
So if he took maybe. Two or three extra seconds 
before it took Eddie would have done it, the jerk it, like I say that about Dallas and Chris Tafaro here all the time. Like Dallas is not as strong as Chris Tafaro. 
Sam Rhee: [00:45:34] His technique is so clean that 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:45:35] he's so fast and he's mobile and he's just like really smooth with his mood. And he's like fat, those like fast Twitch muscle fibers. Yeah. Some people are more developed.
He was a basketball player. So of course he has those. Yeah. So I bet if I really looked into Dustin's background, he's probably some has some sort of background where the fast Twitch is there, like a dude that can't thrust their two 25 at that point, but he can clean and jerk three 55. That's a brute strength issue.
He like, he can lift more weight than any of us probably, that's the thrusters, it's more a truce of feet of strength. 
Sam Rhee: [00:46:06] Actually. I was wrong. Chuck Brown was 46. Dustin McWilliams is 28th in the open last year. In the division, the 35 to 39 in the AGOQ he was third. 
He was right behind Nicholas Urankar and above Graham Holmberg who was 16.
Yeah, those are some big names. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:46:22] And Dustin was at the games, I think three years ago. I think he came in fifth. 
Yeah, 
it's amazing. It's he really is just watching him. I've saw videos of him working out. He is, as he reminds me of Dallas, just smooth, like everything looks easy for him, and that's a good sign.
That's a sign of a really good athlete. 
Sam Rhee: [00:46:38] All so then after the thruster ladder, the next day, you only, you had a Hydra, which was in the afternoon. So it was two parts, seven minute AMRAP CALS. How many cows on the assault, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:46:52] 30 Cal bike, different for every age group. 
Sam Rhee: [00:46:54] And then an AMRAP of a one ring muscle up five hang snatches.
And then 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:47:00] At one 
Sam Rhee: [00:47:00] 35, a one 35. Five. And then you add two yeah. Ring muscle up. So then it was three ring, muscle ups, five, hang snatches, then five and then for seven minutes and then a two minute rest. And then you did another 30 Cal assault bike, then five chest to bar and then seven hang power snatches at one 15, one 15.
Yep. Yeah. And But there were no ascending rep counts on that, right? Just that straight, right? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:47:30] Yeah. So that was the day. So you knew that was the last workout did they did say Hey, we know people have to fly out after this. There's not going to be a surprise workout, not going to be a final workout.
This is it. And it was two scores. Those are two workouts, two different scores. So I had a lead going in. And. I 
Sam Rhee: [00:47:48] was in the, were you in first at 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:47:49] this point? I was in the first by 15, I think. Wow. And again, you gotta be careful with this, right? Because the one thing I learned at the French Throwdown, and I saw if you take your foot off the pedal a little bit, or you make a mistake or an injury, you'll get passed by 10 people like that.
Sam Rhee: [00:48:05] Yeah. The opens like that 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:48:06] too. 
Sam Rhee: [00:48:07] Like a little different, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:48:09] because honestly it's, so if you want to say that mathematically, if I came in seventh place in both events, guaranteed win. Seventh, 
Sam Rhee: [00:48:15] you calculated that out before, 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:48:17] because that's an easy calculation to do and that you would only, so like seventh place in both get you a win.
So I even thought about taking it easy on the first one and just trying to be more fresh than everyone in the second one and destroy it, but I didn't, but that's where like your head starts to go. There is strategy when there's a last workout involved and it's the last one. And also I was in the middle lane.
So second was on my right. Third was on my left. So what my strategy was I worked on the bike the past 12 months more than I ever have. So I'm really comfortable on the assault bike. I knew I could be the first or second one off the bike. Got it. Done. 30 cows, I think in like a minute 10 maybe.
And so now I knew I'm off the bike before these two guys next to me, I'm just going to try to, I'm not, my pace will be dictated on them. I'm going to stay one movement ahead. Okay. So I got my ring. Muscle-up done. Yeah. And then they were already walking back to the rings. So when they started the ring muscle up, I started my snatches and then I would get to the rings when they started their snatches, I started my ring.
Sam Rhee: [00:49:19] So you would pause if they hadn't gotten to that movement? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:49:22] Actually never really jacked my heart up that high. I was tired, but I wasn't like sending it. Oh my God. Like how can I do this? So in that's where like strategy does play a part. In contrast to the Athena workout where I just, I was focusing too much attention on the guy you finished second.
Yeah. And and again, yeah, that it's a workout. That's like my, in my strength because of the bike, not because of skill or strength, just I'm good on the bike. So I got down on the bike and just gives you a headstart. 
How much faster were you on the bike off 
versus say 15, 20 seconds. Wow. That's a lot.
Yeah, that's a lot. And then that's when people are tired. Those guys are going hard. You get a two minute rest. What did I say? Like you give me two minutes. I'll be fine. Yeah. 30 cow bike again. Yep. That's where, if you don't like the bike, that's where you're like, screw this. So again, first one off the bike.
And then I just started doing my AMRAP of five chest bar seven snatches again, stay a movement ahead. And I think I came to second, third story about that though. Okay. The guys that came in first and second were in the first heat. I see. And from what I heard, I didn't see it from what I heard they were, they didn't go after the first one.
Like they purposely like there. I think if you look at what place that came in the first workout, the Athena a are I forget what it's called Hydra a was they, I think they had they came on 24th place and then they came in first place in the second one. Oh, so that tells you, they I don't know if they got hurt on their muscle up or something.
That was my biggest fear is I was confident with the position I was in that I would win. But if you get hurt on a muscle up like a pack or something, You're screwed because you're going to have 20 guys pass 
Sam Rhee: [00:50:57] skill movements. So if they're just not as 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:50:59] great on that, it was really windy that day.
Yeah. And these straps that are straps that bison, the ones that train on the straps are about, I don't know, four feet, three feet. Yeah. The straps, there were 20. It was really windy. So they were just like, they were all over the place. Like you would jump, grab one and try to crack the other. And then start muscle-ups again, like the long 
Sam Rhee: [00:51:19] or distance to, or short distance for the rings.
People talk about doing ring muscle-ups and it's different. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:51:24] Oh yeah. It's harder on long. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. There's no doubt about it. No doubt about it. Now you probably, you could probably figure out the physics behind it or I'll ask Ramzan. It's no doubt easier when the straps are shorter.
I don't think it makes you go from. 12 to 24 muscle-ups but it definitely, probably, I would say 20% is significant. You can feel it. So yeah, that was like another fear. It's you have all these factors where you can tell it's like right before the workout, you're in a zone and you hear guys behind you complaining about it.
I'm like, if that is your thought prior to any event having competition. Yeah. Just complaining about something. It was windy too cold. Like it was weirdly cold that day. Yeah. And like people were like wearing sweatshirts Oh no, I'm not warm. Dude, shut up. That's not a positive training for eight years.
The last five minutes are not going to make that big of a difference. Fact. And again, if you don't have a big competing, I've been competing for seven years now. So like again, I probably have done something like that in the past, like water or the first year we did it a workout in the down pouring rain.
Sam Rhee: [00:52:22] I was like, totally slick. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:52:23] Oh, it was so like, we were doing overhead squats and like I'm freaking out because my hands are slipping. So and I was like, we shouldn't be doing this. So it's not that I'm looking down on someone for thinking like that, but you are hurting your performance if that's your mindset.
And the end, the discussion. 
Sam Rhee: [00:52:36] So then after those two, you knew you were in first place, you were done. Yep. So how'd you feel? 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:52:44] I really like honest, fulfilled. That there's purpose, like I'm by myself a lot. I'm an introvert. So it's not like people don't, hang out with me or people are mean it's more like I am by myself a lot often by choice.
And there, when you're by yourself a lot, especially during the pandemic this past year, you ask yourself a lot is there really a point to me doing this? Do I have to be doing this? Why am I doing this? Why am I putting myself through this? Why am I getting out of bed two hours early, every single day to do this?
And that was like, I almost enjoyed being down there without anyone I knew, because it had so much time to reflect on what training is like for me, it's like by yourself a lot, and thank God I've had Liz I've had Dallas. I've had my Colosseum crew. I've had the whole bison community is trained with.
But still I am half the time I train them by myself. 
Sam Rhee: [00:53:35] I was going to say, you probably trained by yourself more this past year than every other time 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:53:39] ever. And I still, I want to give like shout outs to like Dallas and Liz and the Colosseum guys and bison, because. I do think those, all those guys have trained with Laura teary.
I remember one time we did a Saturday Parker partner workout here at bison. You remember that? And was like, so this is you're so happy. You need to go at your own pace. Don't go fast. I'm like teary. Like I like working out here because teary, she goes after it. Yeah. She does care what capabilities anyone has or what they think they don't have.
I think teary is a bad-ass and I think she goes after it. I love working out with her. Those people have helped me so much with training and maybe I should be more vocal about that, but I also, at the same time was standing there looking at them, like getting the podium ready. And I'm like, that was like, it's a great feeling to know that it's been worth it.
Like even if that's the unfair me and I never get to like my end goal that's that it gave me like a lot of fulfillment, that there is a reason behind all that crap that sucks in the moment. And I try to preach that to people all the time. Like you don't need to love the moment to really feel like you're pursuing something worthwhile.
Sam Rhee: [00:54:48] I think there's validation obviously, because you're looking to be the best that you can be and you put this time in, and then when you go up against others and it, and you're doing really well and you finish first that's a huge validation for the effort and time you put in. 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:55:04] Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:55:04] And these aren't, these are elite athletes. And not that the only reason and why you do this. And so you can beat elite athletes, be among them, but you certainly are always looking to do the best that you possibly can. And if you felt like you had this potential within you it's your obligation almost to try to see just how good you could be. It would stink, Everyone feels listen, I got something in me and you have to try to pursue it because you will always feel like crap. If you're like, you know what I could have, but I didn't 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:55:36] layers back on me. Like I don't want to go too deep into it, but I do feel like I have sold myself short in the past with other endeavors athletically.
And it's this is one thing I can say throughout my life that I've really stayed on the path and blocked out noise from the outside.  Think over the years it's become almost popular to be like, Hey, like screw competitive CrossFit, you're going to get hurt. Or Hey, this, I just don't have the time for it anymore.
Hey, it's it's not worth it. It's become a popular trend to turn towards. But like I stayed on the path and that's what I'm most proud about. Like I blocked out a lot of stuff, then I felt like it was pulling me away from pursuing something that I decided I wanted to pursue at my brother's wedding in 2012.
That was when I was like, Hey, I really want to do this. And I've had so many sessions where I'm like, I am never going to get to that level more often than not. I would say for every 10 session for every session that I felt I was on that level. I've had 10 where I don't think on that level. And I mean that 
Sam Rhee: [00:56:36] your growth in terms of progression from that athlete to this athlete now is amazing and it's not and it's a growth of a lot of stuff. It's not just Your capability, but it's how you approach things. It's, I listened to you thinking about your training program because all of it and how you fit it in to everything else that you're doing. And you've become a much more mature, thoughtful athlete about how to approach this before you had so much energy and eagerness, but it wasn't necessarily yeah, efficient in terms of focusing and especially this past year, you were like I'm. I remember after the open last year, what were your Instagram? You had a lot of work on your weaknesses. No weaknesses. Remember, like that was a big mantra for you. 
And let's look at your open performance last year, because this is where your changed from last year to this year is evident in your performance in this comp.
If you had been a masters last year, you would have been 173rd place based on your open performances you would have done on 20.1 22nd place 20.3 32nd, place 20.5 a hundred ninth place 20.2 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:57:51] slaughtered by 1,095. And that was. 
Sam Rhee: [00:57:56] Four dumbbell thruster, six toes to bar 24 double under us in 20 minutes. And double unders where you we're so frustrated by that it really dogged you. Yep. 
And then the other one was a 20.4, 420. Exactly. It was the 30 box jumps, 15 clean and jerks, 30 PO. And then, but then you got to the 30 pistols and again, so you took. All of the things that you didn't have as strong, right.
As your other movements and you really worked on them. Who would've thought that you would have taken on that clash of the Titans of the no. Was it the jump rope workout with that frigging one pound rope 
that you would've finished fifth on that day? Yeah. That's where you really took to heart.
What you preach, you practiced it. You actually worked on these things 
Dave Syvertsen: [00:58:46] like easy. Yeah. If you want to be competitive in the sport, again, we're not talking about fitness here. We're talking about the sport of CrossFit. You don't need to be the best at anything. 
Sam Rhee: [00:58:55] It helps, to have a strength or strengths.
Dave Syvertsen: [00:58:57] You don't like, but you don't need it that much. It's but you can't suck anything. That's like the thing, you just can't, you can't have one, because if you in a big competition like this, where there's 10 events, I think nine or eight workouts, 10 events, it's going to pop up, right?
Like you can't hide. You can get lucky at a local competition where there's three events one day Hey, I suck at pistols and they're not there. Or I suck at double and there's all like the nine nine Oh eight garden state open didn't have double on. There's got lucky there. But if you're going to put eight workouts, nine workouts, it's something that's going to pop up.
And if your weakness is that bad, it does. It drives you down 
even more. There was running in here and you still manage to train for that and do well enough. I think when I see the top athletes here, the ones that are really good work on their weaknesses. There's a guy here at 6:00 AM he doesn't like the way he does his handstand pushups.
He's doing all sorts of accessory, handstand, pushups stuff all the time. 
And honestly, he's never going to be elite at Hanson pushups, but the weaknesses, 
Sam Rhee: [00:59:59] cause he's six, two 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:00:00] he's tall and he's long. And like he's always setting like upper bodies pressing has been tough for him, but. Yeah, it's not, you can't ignore the issue.
You can just make it less of an issue. All right. If you want to bring competitive cross into the discussion, you can say Hey, he ranks last year, he ranked 24th in a handstand pushups. If you had a rank on that, now he's 14, right? Like it's still not a strength, but it's less of a weakness.
And I think that's more important in the sport. Then how good can you get at lifting? How can you, how good can you get at muscle-ups, which you're already good at? And that if anyone ever came to me is I want to compete in the sport. That's the number one thing I would look at is what are you bad at?
What are your weaknesses? But just try to get a little bit better at them and not, we're not going to ignore your strengths. Yeah. Let's like, let's become more well rounded. Let's continue. Like I've built my strengths with rowing and TOSA bar and some other things, but you can't suck at anything if you want to be really good at the sport, 
Sam Rhee: [01:00:58] the mental aspect, because the people who seem to do really well can go dark.
They can go real. They can dig deep. They have some sort of mental fortitude where you can just you're in so much pain. 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:01:10] You did that during the first workout last year. I remember the lash. Yeah, I was laughing. You mean Susan were cracking up. It's a lot more fun to watch them to do. 
Sam Rhee: [01:01:19] Yeah, that's the thing. When you have to dig deep that, that pain cave. 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:01:23] Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [01:01:23] Some people can go in it and some people find it very difficult. 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:01:27] That's where I think it's really important for you to know. Why did you see at this comp people really pushing it to that point, pushing, and then also succumbing really more succumbing on the machines, rowing and bike.
Like I always felt like I'm remember Tim Carol ltold me one time. It doesn't make sense that I'm good at rowing because I'm not tall. I don't like two 50. And I, and so there was a discussion, like, why are you so good on the road, blah, blah, blah. And Tim just pointed to the temp, his temple, his head, he goes, it's a desire thing, right?
Like it's not that you're physically blessed to be a good rower. You just want it. So I remember seeing in that workout on the bike and the road, I always feel like the machine workouts. And then cross it by us and guess what's coming. The that's where you really show yourself that you want it, but you could always push a little harder on that thing.
Wall balls Hey, your legs, get tired, your arms get tired. You can't reach the target barbell stuff. Your capacity is X amount on the machines. You could always push a little harder. And I feel like when I watch someone on that 30 cow bite, the second one, or that last workout. Just like the pain face.
Like they're like, someone's actually torturing them. It's a sign to me, not of mental weakness. There's I don't want to call someone mentally weak that I don't know, or I don't see train day to day, but that's like just a sign that you don't want it as much as you might think you want it. There are so many people that say they want something in this sport.
But when it comes down to making a decision, which is what the machines are asking you to do, make a decision. Don't tell me I, like I weigh this or on this, or on my engines, this good or this bad, do you want it? Or do you not want it? That's where you prove it. And that's where I found the bike in the road in that event Hey, you got to row 30 cows when you're tired.
You should be able to do that in a minute. 
Sam Rhee: [01:03:17] I think it's pain tolerance. Yeah. I think 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:03:20] also programming does play a part. 
Sam Rhee: [01:03:22] Yes. Yeah, because if you're yes. Yeah. Listen, it's your training. Your training allows you to push yeah. Where you hit that pain threshold right later or farther, or, but find that for a lot of these workouts, it's really how bad, like you said, how bad do you want and how much pain are you willing to tolerate?
And on any given day. I'm about to I'm. I'm I'm going to tolerate like this, like a tiny amount of right when the stakes are higher, I'm willing to tolerate more, 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:03:52] nothing wrong with 
Sam Rhee: [01:03:53] that. And then if you're a competitive athlete, I would assume you should be able to regularly visit that deep.
Dave Syvertsen: [01:04:00] I made a post about this on Instagram. Like it was the last workout of the legends qualifier. Yeah. And it was about going dark. And I said, it's actually not a smart way to train if this is for exercise, but I do want to every now and then know that I still have it. Because that probably is my greatest trends because I'm not a good athlete.
I don't care what anyone says. I'm not a blessed athlete. I'd never have been, but I can try hard. And that's probably my greatest gift in the sport, right? Because like basketball and baseball, like talent takes over at some point, in CrossFit, it's usually just a desire. We'll write a will. 
Sam Rhee: [01:04:33] That's why the machines are hard. The other movements you could hurt yourself. Exactly. You could be careful. Wobble could hit your face, but in a machine you're just, you just keep going, 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:04:43] Because especially a bike. 
Sam Rhee: [01:04:44] Yeah. You're not gonna, you're not going 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:04:45] to break. There's some wrong, you gotta be careful with, but like a bike do you want it?
Sam Rhee: [01:04:50] So it's just moving. You just have to keep moving. 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:04:52] So like your muscles move dark like that in training. Like I think you should do it every now and then, but I don't think it should be an everyday approach. No, if anything, I think it does more damage, 
Sam Rhee: [01:05:01] but the training allows you to increase your capabilities actually hit your pain threshold.
Dave Syvertsen: [01:05:05] Minimum is higher. Yes. That's why you train at an intense rate. It's not that your intense, most intense rates are the highest, it's that your basement level intensity is higher than what it used to be. So if you do pace it, if you do crash and burn you don't get to a point where you're actually stopping.
And I think that's conditioning. And a lot of people don't like to do conditioning. Because it's boring. Like I think the draw across a training is, you're constantly doing different things. You're going back and forth, blah, blah, blah. If I say you have a 35 minute workout, you're gonna be on the rower only.
It's not fun. 
Sam Rhee: [01:05:37] Yeah. You push that a lot now. 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:05:39] Yeah. And that's just work now, and that's where, like you just have to like, do you want to actually get better the way you say you want to get better? Because at the end of the day, that's how you're going to get better. You can't tell me that yet.
If you really want to get better at rowing said it doesn't crush you every time. There's a long row in a workout. You have to roll longer than that time. That crushes you. If I want to get better at three minutes, rowing. You have to run for six to nine minutes. You have to get good at that. 
Sam Rhee: [01:06:01] I think that speaks to what you've learned as a programmer, because you never used to say this 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:06:05] stuff like two years ago, 
Sam Rhee: [01:06:07] you're constantly preaching longer, longer intensity monostructural capability.
Dave Syvertsen: [01:06:15] I'm growing as a coach, as a programmer. I'm still like, I still have more to do. I don't want to ever want to come across as I know what I'm doing. Like right now, I'm confident with my ability to do that. But I also know that I'm probably making mistakes right now that I won't really know about for another year or two.
Sam Rhee: [01:06:29] So now that you've had, and I know as soon as I congratulated and everyone you're like, onto the next. Yeah. You don't want to dwell and bask in the glory too much because that's not going to help you get better in the future. If you sit there 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:06:40] and use it, wasn't the goal.
Sam Rhee: [01:06:41] But it was a good start, like he said. Yep. And so now, and we're going to talk about the CrossFit open and you know how they've changed, but clearly, and I told you that your future looks very bright if past performance is any indicator of future success. You're on the right path. Do you feel like that? 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:06:59] But it doesn't, you can't let that. Tell you that the foot co I'm on the right path because my foot has stayed on the gas. If I tap the brakes and, this past week I ate poorly and had a few drinks and hung out with Ash a lot, but like trainings back starting, tomorrow.
And it's CrossFit like this competition was like a microcosm of what CrossFit training is in general. It's a battle of attrition. Last man standing and you can't just touch and go. You can't be motivated for a week or two and then stop for a week or two. You'll never make it. And there have been so many times I don't want to come here.
I feel burnt out or I am burned out. No doubt about it, and it just adds more fuel though. Adds more fuel it this as no way does that make me feel accomplished? Because my goal is I want to make the games I want to compete there. I've wanted that for almost a decade now. And it's so competitive now that if you do take your foot off, there's a hundred people chasing now.
Now there's people that will chase after me. Like now that your name's out there a little bit there's a target on your back a little bit with when open source started coming rolling around and people are gonna try to beat your scores yet I'll have to start gaming that like when I post stuff like you're going to have to You can't take your foot off the gas.
And that does not mean send it every day. It just means that like you're, if you want to say, you want to make it to something, just do it, and whether it's this year, next year, and that's the goal, this help boost my confidence, throw a fuel on the fire, but at no way, my feeling accomplished right now that I've made it because this wasn't the goal.
Sam Rhee: [01:08:30] This was amazing. I'm really sorry that the public exposure for this competition was so limited 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:08:37] known that it wasn't on these, the guys that ran the event, it's not their fault. Yeah. If the vendors that we're going to pay, this is it's having the CrossFit games, team broadcast and event is six figures and it's you only have.
That opportunity if your vendors and sponsors are there and they had to cancel it. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [01:08:56] And I followed Bob Jennings and Joe Linton, they have podcasts. I've been listening and watching them for a while and you can see how dedicated they are every time they talk about it. And so kudos to them for pulling it off 100%.
I think just listening to you talk about it was a, it was amazing. Yeah, I was, I really can't wait to be there either as a competitor or more likely 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:09:20] all. I'm going to push that thing in respect to Bob and Joe. Yeah. And just knowing how this, some of the people in this gym are, I'm going to push that on our gym next year, the qualifier.
And I'm going to try to get as many people to sign up for that thing as possible. Yeah. And I was thinking about you singing about Kathleen, a couple of other people as well, that if they really wanted to make that a goal, I can make it. 
Sam Rhee: [01:09:41] I was 45th in the qualifier. 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:09:43] You can make it. Yeah. And you didn't repeat any of them?
I did not. I don't think you sent it on all of them. I don't think he did. I think you did on a couple. Okay. I think you had some more reps than you in a few. And I 
Sam Rhee: [01:09:51] know Kathleen will definitely be right in the mix. Next 
Dave Syvertsen: [01:09:54] time you guys can make it. You can. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [01:09:55] So I'm looking for it. I think that it's usually in California, they just had it in arizona.
Dave Syvertsen: [01:09:59] And the venue out there is sick. It is awesome. It's where the Southern California regionals where it's one of the best venues in CrossFit. It really is. 
Sam Rhee: [01:10:06] Can't wait. Thank you very much, Dave. Appreciate it, man. Thank you.