Miles to Madison Ep. 07.21: Thorisdottir, Guðmundsson, Pearce, Shadburne, & Brandon

things have been very different for our family this year so things have had to be a little more flexible than what we've been used to a little less free time than what we've been used to but it's all about balance and i think it would be incredible to prove to not only ourselves but also to others that it is possible to balance all those things and still compete at an elite level we actually have one night this week where we slept at my parents place and my parents left at our praise and took care of freya and getting that full night of sleep it's it's amazing i actually made the decision earlier on this season that this season was going to be about annie she's fought through a lot this year um her birth was rougher than what we wanted it to be it was both the most incredible experience i've ever had having my baby girl but it's also the lowest i've ever gotten she is not where she would want it to be if we look at 10 month postpartum but she is extremely fit and hopefully we can make sure that everything still keeps on progressing in the right direction no baby baby's going to sleep so 7 p.m i'm starting this well i'm just hanging out i'm just uh here's uh it's the pit crew today yeah don't worry we're gonna do the workout tomorrow so now it's just all about getting this lady through it as fast as you can the good thing is it's at home so i don't have to travel traditionally the lowlands throwdown is a crossfit competition based out of the netherlands but due to restrictions this year it is a virtual competition that will host athletes from all across europe we're very used to competing against each other training together i don't see why you know all of us want to great things here just because the competition is virtual doesn't mean you have to do it by yourself and the smarter athletes will find a way to pair up so you have someone there to push you so you get that immediate feedback that you wouldn't get competing by yourself i am not sure how many people will be here over the weekend hopefully a little like yeah hopefully we can make this a little audience yeah i miss being in front of the crowd and the adrenaline that you get from there i think i'll be able to fire myself up because i'm thinking this is this is what stands between me and competing on the big stage again would it be nice to start out with something a little less aggressive this is like probably going to be the worst one of the weekend you might feel fine for the first three and then it's going to feel like getting slept in the nuts for another two minutes so uh it's gonna be a good day i still have the butterflies and the stress and all of that coming in my stomach i'm so nervous i think if annie qualifies for the crossfit games it's a big moment in terms of wow what a comeback from having had the pregnancy having had the baby but i also have such confidence in her doing so one boy now we have started there's a very specific structure for virtual crossfit competition there's a 24-hour window during which athletes have to perform two workouts they have to submit videos and scores for it and they're gonna do that for three consecutive days just the motivation to compete again can be really hard to find when you become a mother and you're going to have expectations of your old self and realizations of your new self so the fact that she is where she's at is really impressive i really like we decided to do that it makes it a little bit more like a competition in a virtual competition you actually have opportunities to retest events if you want but there is a risk to that because if you retest it you're obviously not going to be as fresh you really have to ask yourself is this worth it yes that's it way to go nice job annie so much fun i just had to get another go at it i just love this shawn so she comes in with a time of 1106 absolutely just blows the doors off of this event and this is so special to me because you know obviously she didn't compete last year because she was having a baby and so for her to come in with such a dominant performance on this event it really just makes this statement i think that she is not only ready but excited to be back at the crossfit games we're here at the west coast classic in sunny las vegas nevada probably just going to get me like whistling and singing a ton the whole the whole weekend so just be prepped for it what makes the west coast classic most unique comparatively speaking to the rest of the semi-finals in addition to being one of the very few is that the brand ethos and message is all about honoring the history of our sport one of the big stories was the underdog athletics crew led by justin kotler they're from vegas they trained just up the road and they got a little bit of that home court flavor i don't want you to line up until they grab you and put you in line okay so literally if they're gonna have to call you six times the ultimate goal is one two three we we want a podium suite now it's just a matter of going out there and performing and we are underway this is basically an underdog athletics roster carrie pierce danielle brandon and bethany byrne all go top five in event one obviously a great start for the underdog athletic crew overall i think the first event went pretty well i think the girls finished third fourth fifth top five listen if you go top five all weekend should be pretty good if there is an american woman out there who might be able might be able to push tia to me it's carrie pierce i would say in my 14 years of coaching this sport that she's the most mentally tough disciplined regimented and habitual athlete that i have ever been around she's a coach's dream this is your race right so you dictate the pace right don't worry about chasing at the beginning because if you remember in practice right the greatest american woman to ever do it carrie pierce who i feel like is oddly flown under the radar after one event anytime you mention some high rep upper body pulling you have to mention carrie pierce she's so good at everything whether it's pull-ups muscle ups legless rope climbs she is going to be at the front of the pack here and she's probably going to set the pace early carrie pierce finishes unofficially in 6 20. brandon out of nowhere finishes second shad burn third i think the training camp in vegas is working yeah that was great just chomp away right just keep taking just bank those points just keep taking top fives um that's great it looked like justin cottler made the right decision to put every one of his athletes in the same semifinal lowlands day two starts off pretty good i would say for both annie and bkg in that uh bkg he was just outside the top ten getting 11th on event one but then wins event two and annie has two top ten finishes on day one getting a seventh and an event win also on event two we basically agreed that he's gonna trust himself we're gonna have plan a plan b and then whatever feels good in the moment he's going to do so just you know trying different things for the strategy so the way the athlete dynamic would work bkg would go first and do the test be able to provide some feedback and strategy for annie who would then tackle it using all the information gleaned from his go through yeah i mean the volume that these athletes can handle nowadays of course is very different they have both the training history they have the technique the capacity to handle the loads guys can you highlight this bjorgen carl goodmanson didn't have the best start to this competition but now he's doing exactly what we expected him to be doing at this point right that 11th place finish kind of came as a surprise to me especially considering the event that it was in but the first and second place finishes in the next two events were much more what we expected from bkg now he sits you know right where we thought he would be halfway through the competition over to the women as an elite athlete it can be very frustrating to not be where you would like to be at a certain point but i think that if annie can be patient and diligent almost like a torn meniscus or something where you really just have to treat this like an injury and go about healing the right way i have no doubt that she can make a full comeback nice job not good but it was better than i expected to a lot better than i expected to it hurt on the first 100 150 and then it didn't hurt anymore it's funny it's like this thing that's like difficult for women to talk about post-pregnancy i look at what happened to my pelvic floor as an injury because it's like an injury it is a muscle that i sprained really really badly i was unlucky and had more severe injury than most women but by dealing with it as an injury i also know that i can heal heal it up and that's my goal is to get rid of it it might never become exactly the same as it was before but it wasn't perfect before either i heard the doctor told me i would never be as strong as i was before that's i've gotten stronger than i was because the goal isn't always just to flatline or be where you where previously it's to progress and become better and better and better and it's the same with this i'm gonna make it better than it was before mom strength is a real thing yeah she has had such a great first two days of competition and i just couldn't be happier for her to see not only you know a comeback but a postpartum comeback she's only 20 points out of first place right now sean there's two events left i'm not saying she couldn't take it at this point you know we are high atop here at the orleans arena you know tommy marquez my name is joel cadet you also know this guy justin berg joins us he is the vice president of sport and partnerships at crossfit welcome to las vegas it's good to be here guys when we started planning this whole stage of the season it was uncertain how many if any of these semi-final competitions would be able to go in person so we decided to create a framework where we would guarantee the dates so athletes could commit to their training schedules and then we would give a flexible arrangement so that if the event could not run either for financial reasons or for safety reasons they could pull back and crossfit would run that competition online i think like the tail end of coded and things you know like it was a gamble big time no pun intended no i with any of these events and so you know landing where we did i think this event really helped i like looking at the event from a lot of different vantage points and so what you see in the truck is what 20 000 people are seeing at the same time during that event now you snap forward to the finals that could be 250 000 or more people watching at a given time or 600 000 when we're on broadcast and it's really important to kind of see these events in person you can't fully understand what the event feels like or how it works just watch it through a camera screen so i like being on site and seeing the teams in between things if you know anything about las vegas you know that it is very very very hot in the summer day two at the west coast classic they had to start earlier than they wanted to it was an outside event a ruck run and it helped a little but not a ton it was still super hot for that event hydrate we're having record-breaking highs it feels like the whole country is steaming right now that we're all in a sauna so we're looking at 115 degree high days here in las vegas which isn't totally unexpected in the middle of summer it's 6 26 in the morning and we are prepping for the ruck run we live in vegas we've been training in vegas we've been running in vegas so i think this is the event where you're going to see a little bit of uh of home field advantage this is the point in the weekend where we start to see it become a mental battle and uh i think we're pretty tough so uh i'm looking forward to it should be fun it's cool it's cool we call her the the engine because i've never you know i would put her up against anyone in the sport when it comes to cardiovascular capacity is this is her skill set right here i mean look how comfortable she looks look at that she is loki one of the most dangerous athletes out on the floor uh you give her a workout that's in a real house she's going to bury you quick transition bethany quick transition the ruck run is where bethany shadburn really showed up at the west coast classic she won that event easily bethany shadburn unofficially is your winner on the women's side here in the 6k rock run and look at the utter devastation across the finish line as these athletes begin their immediate recovery you know the ladies the ladies all did pretty well um obviously bethany won she's great i think kerry was top five and then danielle was 14th with you know which honestly i think it'll keep her in the top five and uh she'll you know i know she was hurting a little bit out there it's tough but you know what it's over you did well nice job my shoulders are yeah on fire yeah they will they're everybody's are sweetie i've never coached an athlete who's as talented as danielle's she has everything that you need athletically to be the best in the world don't think anything ahead because it's still going to work for tomorrow and he's gonna needle you later and he said he's gonna fix it heading into event four i think danielle brandon was in a little bit of pain and you could start to see it creep in on the competition floor here we go underway on our final heat here for the triple g chipper brandon still fighting the 70-pound dumbbell in that arm with the kinetic tape on it brandon finally gets across in 13 minutes very upset at herself sometimes when she's not feeling great you know she'll let things get to her so for me it's just a matter of continuously building her up you're an athlete you've been hurt your whole life with gymnastics and track and field you've had to fight through so much you know what i mean don't let that define you okay you're tough it's not broken you can do it she's like blood in the water over there like she just looks like she's ready to just eat people what makes justin cotter i think such a good coach is that he understands that it can't be a one-size-fits-all approach with his athletes after a couple down performances cutler had to build brandon back up and he did just that and spiegel's starting to slow on these burpee box jump overs i think danielle brandon has pulled just slightly ahead of her five had a great race between danielle brandon and danny spiegel danielle brandon racing ahead touch and go there is no time to spare brandon to her final two spiegel just behind but danielle brandon how about the comeback quoted speeding edger out so close even though it wasn't the event win that she wanted she's still got a lot of points and a good finish on the board to help to start to pump the confidence back up for the rest of the way i really believe that sky's the limit for her and it's just a matter of time until like the light goes on and it's just like holy like i can be this good you know and i'm really proud of her that was awesome day three of the lowlands throwdown we have two very different events the first event is just a long grueling kind of grinder of a workout and then we close out with basically a sprint to the finish there's no reason to leave anything in the bank absolutely no reason over the course of a semi-final weekend you can negate a bad finish by consistently balancing them out with top five finishes and bkg has done that feels like it's been a lot of qualifiers so starting with the open and then the quarter finals into semi-finals but it's all mixed up into the same competition i feel you know now we can focus on real thing you're over carl goobison after day one he was lights out right he kind of had a slow start but like you said after that third event he was in first place he never looked back finished the competition exactly where we expected in first place i think everyone knows now what the goal is the goal is to finish on the podium and top of the podium to win the crossy games hi baby being a mother and a competitive athlete can be very conflicting to be a competitive athlete you need to inherently be quite selfish and to be a mother you need to inherently be completely unselfish and reconciling those two things can be really hard so many times i have thought that this is not happening this season and it still sometimes comes into my head that maybe this isn't happening and then somehow the pieces come together right before our competition i'm so sore and then my thighs are also so sore finally i'm seeing a real difference in my body with the recovery like i've always said it's never about what i look like it's about what i can do and i tell everyone that you shouldn't care about what you look like so i should not care about that i don't look the same as i did before i had a baby i'm just trying to live by my own sayings here this last week i feel like we're getting more and more ready and my body's getting more and more ready now i'm not gonna hold back i am gonna see what i can do for big and strong i'm one of the emotional athletes let's say that it would mean a lot to me seeing from how i felt less than a year ago and how difficult it's been and how irritated i've been with my body but grateful living for my body and for my girl and the roller coaster of emotions that i've gone through if i'll be ready to compete and stand on the competition floor at the games and be be able to push and enjoy myself and just be there with the girls again like it will mean something completely different to me this year and in so many ways be one of the biggest victories that i've had it's been nine years since annie torres daughter last won the crossfit games but she is still a podium contender right now definitely i think she has to be in the conversation and i'm just really happy for this athlete you know again to come back from having a child have such a great weekend i'm not going to the crossfit games to don't go to the crosstalk games it's an incredible accomplishment and i will never take anything away from that but i'm not competing for 30th place i want to be podium happy father's day appreciate it thank you of course of course thank you the father of our underdogs thank you thank you there's a rumor going around here that you're you're here to scout the competition for tia oh yeah you guys said i'm just like hey justin have last will be good you tell me everything you know i think a lot of people probably questioned why we we put all of them in the same one and it was for the reason and you know the home court advantage sleeping in your own bed there's 2 500 foot elevation here in vegas which people don't really think about i don't think there's a doubt that over the weekend it's going to have an effect day 3 i mean body's a little tired but no complaints everyone's feeling the same way so this one should be fun it's gonna be a super pump so i'm excited to get after it get today started this is a great day for you let's just let's just make it a great day right yeah that's it usually we've had one person jump out ahead of the pack bethany shadburn is that person right now but there are so many people on her heels her teammate carrie pierce just behind her to her left her teammate danielle brandon just behind her to her right those are the top three in the overall standings they're all in the same gym look at how quick bethany shadberg is going through these toes to bar shadburn does safely pass carrie pierce in the lane next to her their tanks got very very close anthony shadburn is defending an eight-point advantage over her teammate carrie pierce danielle brandon coming down the home stretch that's a fourth place finish in the event for danielle brandon going into the final event at the west coast classic i think some people were probably a little bit surprised that it was bethenny shadburn who was on top of the overall leaderboard and not carrie pierce but justin kotler wants to have carrie pierce ready at the games she will be ready for her best performance when she gets to madison yeah so we're going to the last event right now with the girls sitting one two three bethany gary danielle this could be a home run event for danielle yeah yo chloe wilson's coach came up and said she's going to win this workout exactly she moves up to the 180-pound barbell just two more left here for danielle brandon she can lock in a ticket to the game she's in third overall has yet to win an event this weekend on to the final bar 200 pounds for danielle brandy time to beat his 151 from lauren fisher and it's easy money for danielle brandon great way to finish leaves a good taste in the mouth and thank you for looking around and taking your time on those last two bars yeah that was really good that was smart one two three that's pretty good man carrie all y'all love you guys love you so good so proud if there were any doubts about what justin and the underdog crew were building out in las vegas i think the performance of those three women really really highlighted their strengths and it only added excitement to what this crew could accomplish once they got to the crossfit games i think the semifinals were a huge success it was so nice to see live competition back in this sport after everything we went through in 2020 this community and this sport needed something like this to get us back to where we were just a couple years ago this year has felt different because we have so many different stages in between and we're in the tail end of a pandemic we're doing as much as we can for the athletes and preserving that competition experience but the games are really going to be sort of the first full comeback event that we have um but i think this is a necessary step and something that i think the community is excited about so we're starting to build momentum up again once we get to madison all eyes are going to be focused on the finish line and that's when everything sets in place we'll have fun he's not gonna have fun i kind of had this joke with him that like 50 of the testing workouts were for actual information and the other 50 is just for his amusement so the idea is you want to get a diversity of athletes so you see what more of the field is capable of how'd that feel gross yeah that's a great one dave has a very specific stimulus or idea of how he wants an event to go and so he'll just test retest and retest until it has the kind of look and feel that he's looking for the athletes are great they're really really good sports about that oh she's gonna do a beating tomorrow well if that's the case you guys are gonna come back tomorrow morning and retest that so you'll get your beach muscles up

Channel: CrossFit Games

Views: 63,042

Rating: 4.9678068 out of 5

Keywords: Annie Thorisdottir, Bethany Shadburne, CrossFit Games, Documentary, Fitness, Kari Pearce, Miles to Madison, Post Partum Fitness, Preganancy, Road to the Games, Sports, Bethany Shadeburne, postpartum workout, postpartum care, postpartum, postpartum abs, Justin Cotler, danielle brandon crossfit games, danielle brandon crossfit, kari pearce, kari pearce crossfit, kari pearce power abs, kari pearce interview, kari pearce crossfit games 2021, crossfit games 2021

Id: Ow9L65p7qDc

Length: 29min 45sec (1785 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021