Fuck. What time is it right now? Too early. It's almost 7. This will be year number eight at the CrossFit Games. Finished third twice and first last year. I would say really the one difference was that I wasn't injured. You'd be surprised at, in the years past, how little I trained leading up to the CrossFit Games. Sometimes, when my back was really bad, I trained one time a day on a bike, because that's about all I could do. Biking and push-ups or biking and strict pull-ups. Got another one. Got a whole 'nother lap. Nevermind. I have to pee. There was one minute. And then I just went out there and I competed like I was afraid to do anything in the gym because I would hurt myself. So I was really healthy going in, and I was mentally focused. A lot more hungry than I was in years past. I kind of feel like I switched to a different gear that I'm kind of sitting in now, and I just feel good going into this year again. It's just a different mindset. You guys all want to run this last one? One more? Hey, why one more? Make it an even 30. I was pretty nervous because we didn't know how many we were going to do going into it. DId you hear the guy on the run? He was like, "Holy crap. You guys are big as crap," but he said the s-word instead of crap. Did you guys see that one guy that's running? Have you seen him? He's the legend of Oak Grove. He just keeps running. (singing) Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Ugh. I usually have, like, some idea of what I want to do, but I want to just focus on a lot more cardio and lungs today. 2014, I was full time in school at UVM. That summer I was working a summer internship at an aerospace company here in Vermont. Fuck. 2015, full-time student for one semester. I went part time for the other semester to focus more on CrossFit. 2016, just CrossFit. No, no, I do not have an addiction to suffering. I have an addiction to what the product of suffering is. The same way as anything I do in life. When I was in school, I would literally sit in the library for 10 hours on Saturday. I would read the textbook cover to cover. When I'd finish a chapter, if I couldn't tell you every single law that was in there, or every single formula, I would go back and read it again. That's not because I was addicted to reading the textbook. It's because I was addicted to the day that we got our exams and the exam wasn't challenging. That's the feeling I chase. Getting your test score back and you got the highest grade in the class. That's a good feeling. When I'm downstairs by myself and no one else around, no one else is watching, that's when the work gets put in. I don't love doing rowing intervals or max-out squats. That shit hurts. But the day you show up to exams, and you put up a top time, that's the feeling I chase. Coffee with Progenex and some coconut oil. We'll go to a burger place for lunch. That'll be my first meal probably. I'm just not too hungry after that run. Come on, let's go. You're supposed to go outside. I love coaching. It's like, that's why I started the gym. I wanted to help people. People come in, and they have this goal they want to achieve, and if you can help them in any way, or you can assist them in any way, that's awesome.. I mean, that's something that--everybody should strive to help others The CrossFit gym gave me a great opportunity to do that, and that's all you gotta do, is care about every single person that walks in the door like they're your best friend. That's a little long, so shorten that up a little bit. That's ok. You're getting it. That's why we practice, right? Nice job. They end up being your best friends. It's awesome. It's just what I love to do. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, Ben's a great coach. We have a very small gym and we had like 20 people in that class. I mean, it's--you know, and I think at some point during the class he addressed a few things with everybody, and, you know, to everybody individually. As you dip, keeping those elbows up, alright? Because they're wanting to drop a little bit. If you can motivate or inspire one person, you can change their life. That's what it's all about. Hold that bar up there, alright? Good job. Never run with Ben when you don't know the workout. Heber: How often does Ben just sucker you guys into doing stuff like this? Everyday. Three times a day, everyday. Yeah, we usually run twice, twice a week, and then usually work out a lot. Yeah, those are probably just as bad as the runs. Heber: So after a workout like that, what hurts the most? My right calf. Heber: Very specific.
Ben: Yeah. No, it's just my calves are tight. That's about it. Uh, I live, I live with my parents in the house I grew up in. Got maple brown sugar, cinnamon and spice. Get at me. I'll usually do this work out a little bit, and then have my big meal. I live as close to possible as expense-free as I can. Between sponsors and prize money, I make my living. I feel bad, I turn on the TV and just pretend (indecipherable) not here. TV's just for decoration. I'm just--this is it. There's no cable, so I just have Netflix, and that quit working, so I was just kind of like, "Nah, alright." Bullet doesn't do anything unless it's a .45, right? Duh. I used to take 10 percent of any prize money and buy myself something nice, something I wouldn't normally buy myself. I don't live too luxuriously. I bought a Rumba a little while ago. That's pretty luxurious. That kind of stopped. I just found myself buying stuff. I was like, "Why did I just buy a watch?" I've never worn a watch. Like, I didn't really know how to do it, so I just put them up, the trips that have been purely for CrossFit, so I've got a bunch up there, a couple down here . I bet we'll fill that up a little bit. Because I look at any money that I earn during my CrossFit career as kind of bonus money. I don't consider it work, so it's people just paying me to have fun I guess, because I'm doing something that I genuinely love. So today was a long warmup. 15 minutes. So although we're in the same house, he has his own apartment. I love it. I absolutely love it. I think some of the nicest moments are when his country music turns on, starts blaring, and I'm like, "Oh, that's cool. He's going to be training downstairs." I love it. Mat was a--he was a fun kid. Very adventurous. I remember at a young age I had to make him a cushioned helmet that went around his head so when he pulled up to the coffee table and then let go, he'd just fall backwards, because mission accomplished. He got what he wanted and now he's moving onto something else. The first time he really kind of started getting into fitness was he was doing push-ups outside, and then he wanted to take his mind off of his arms hurting, so he gives me this plastic golf club and says, "Alec, hit me in the legs as hard as you can" while he's doing push-ups. And so, I take this plastic golf club and just, I'm whacking him in the legs, and he's like still doing his push-ups, trying to take his mind off of his arms hurting. I really legitimately don't remember that. Did he actually tell a story like that? Did he dream of that? Because I have never heard of that in my entire life. I thought he was crazy. Like, he just wanted to work out all the time. It's been cool watching him progress. Sounds like something I might do, but I don't remember it. Mat's always had the competitive spirit. It doesn't matter what he's gone into. I remember the end of the season at Sugar Bush. He was doing the downhill aerial competition. So somebody came down and did a backflip, so then Mat came down and did a full layout, and then we heard some girls get off the lift and say, "That last kid's going to do a double back." We just--you know, "Oh no. It better not be Mat. He's never attempted that in his life He's never done it. He's never tried it. He's going to break his neck." You know? And sure enough, he came off the jump, and up he goes, and double backflip, and he lands, and I went over to him afterwards. I said, "Congratulations, Mat. That was wonderful, but what ever, ever goes on in your mind to make you even think you could do that?" He said, "You know, Dad, I did a back layout. So did another guy," and he said, "There's no such thing as a one and a half," so he said, "I just did the double." Because he just wanted to win so badly, and at the end of the day, he was competing for a snowboard, and he's not even a snowboarder. He's a skier. Just a lot of times, he would just, it would just be Ben in the garage working out by himself. I don't think there's ever going to be anyone like him again, because he really taught himself everything. He taught himself how to snatch. He taught himself how to clean and jerk, and it's all from the CrossFit videos that you guys put out. I mean, it's really honestly--he would watch for hours and hours and hours. He would take video of him from over there, and then he would put his video up against, like, you know, the Russian Olympic lifter versus the American Olympic lifter, and he would go frame by frame and see when he was forward, when he was back when he was on his heels, you know. It was just, you know, constant, analyzing the stuff. When you see some of the old videos where he's 2 inches away from the fridge when he gets a snatch up, you know, that fridge has got a lot of dents on the bottom of it from heels and kicks and, you know, misses that he wasn't real happy about. A lot of time out here. Candy and I always had one concern when he was weightlifting. Weightlifters just do not work cardio, and I remember meeting him at one of his meets, and the elevators were down so we took the stairs, and actually Candy and I were not huffing and puffing at the top of the stairs, and he was. He was out of breath, huffing and puffing, and I said, "My gosh, how can this be healthy?" And I think CrossFit is one thing that's really worked cardio for him. He's made a complete turnaround when it comes to what he came into CrossFit with and what he has today cardio-wise. Just hasn't grown in yet all the way. I'm sure it will grow in a little bit. It's just not there yet. Any competition, any time that I compete, I want to win. It wasn't a fluke last year. I train, if not harder than anybody else out there, every single day, all year. It's just a matter of me staying healthy and feeling like I have a shot to win any time that I go to the Games. That's what I've always thought in the past, and this year is absolutely no different. I'm feeling better than I've ever felt. The day I got home from the 2015 Games I bought one of the pigs from the Games. Literally, I don't think I touched it for like a month or two purely just because I was, like, scared. I was like, "What if the reason is I'm just not good enough?" And then one night, I was just like, "You know what, screw it." Going to the gym late at night by myself, turn on the one light, move the pig out into the middle of the room and just started flipping it. And it got to the point where I was going late at night. I'm like, "Alright, I'm going to do 60 flips for time, do 100 flips for time," and it was like a every Sunday night type thing, and I would just flip it, flip it, flips it, just to make sure that if that comes up again, I'm as prepared as I can be for it. No, the regionals is not fun at all. Regionals is like the competition you kind of have to do, and you just gotta get it over with. I mean, it's fun winning the regionals, but it's not fun competing at the regionals. It's very stressful because it's like one slip-up, and that one event could be a dramatic change in your whole weekend. You know how the last event is. People jumping all over the leaderboard at the end, and so I was just lucky that I wasn't in that, like, third through sixth range like I was in the year before, so it was nice to push early in the weekend and have that little bump to sit on for the last day. No, no I wasn't trying to make a statement at regionals. I was just-- I was angry There's a handful of guys in the North East Region that have 300-lb. snatches, and I'm just kind of looking at it like, "They're here to beat me, and I'm not going to let that shit happen." All those guys showing up to the Games, they're there to win, and to win it, they've gotta beat everyone else and I'm one of those people that they have to beat, and for me, that's how I pay my bills, so I look at it like they're trying to take it from me. Of course I am. Yeah, I have a feeling, so-- I mean, we believe, so-- I felt it last year. Yeah, Ben will win the Games this year, for sure. Mat is the most competitive guy I've ever met. Mat suffers more than anybody else I know in training. Mat trains his weaknesses and adapts to training faster than anybody I've ever seen. Those three things are by far and away, fact. Is he capable of winning the Games? I might be very partial, but I think he is. I know he's got an inner drive that's going to work him through anything they throw at him. So last year was the first year he competed healthy. The year before that he twisted his ankle. The year before that, had knee surgery, so it's always been little things that have kept him back. Last year he was healthy. This year he's healthy. A lot of it's psychological as well, and I've never seen Mat in such a positive psychological state. I really think he's out with a vengeance this year. I hope he can be incredibly proud of whatever he does this year and where he places. Does he want to win? Absolutely. Would we love to see him win? Absolutely. We're incredibly proud of him. All year has been for the Games. Just from the numbers I'm putting up, the consistency I've been putting up, I am a much, much better athlete than I was last year. I'm lifting more, my cardio's better, I'm healthier, my mental game is stronger, so whatever the other guys bring, that's on them. This year my year has revolved around CrossFit training for the 2016 Games. I think I'm going to win the CrossFit Games this year. I love the Games. I love it. I show up, and I'm like, "Bring it on, Dave." Like seriously, it's cool. I love the surprises. The harder the better, and hopefully it's raining. You know what I mean? Like, that's what I love. I don't know, I'm weird. The challenge, I'm telling you, you gotta be driven. You can't be motivated by, like, the money. You can't be motivated by the fans. It's awesome, sure, but you gotta be internally motivated. You gotta love the challenge, and you gotta just put your head down and work through it. The harder the better. Don't take that out of context. You're going to go to the Games and you're going to see your competitors like almost passing out next to you. Yeah, I saw people carried off on stretchers last year. You know, you gotta expect that. You gotta know that whatever you do today in training, you have to push yourself to the absolute max capacity. In the competition floor, you don't want to be that person that's carried off on a stretcher. You're gonna be pushed physically. You're going to be pushed mentally beyond your capacity. You're not going to think you can go on and do another event, not just for one day, but for multiple days. If they're going to test the Fittest on Earth, it's gotta be a freaking grueling test. You know, it's gotta be challenging. It's gotta push you not only physically but mentally, and it does it every year. It's--I enjoy it. Sean Woodland: We've seen the event record get broken once, and we're going to see it happen again! An event win for Iceland Annie. Sara Sigmundsdottir, an event record! And the champ is here! Katrin Davidsdottir! We are being treated to a great preview of what we're going to see in July in Carson. And here's a footrace to the finish. Thorisdottir! Sigmundsdottir!
That was awesome. Interesting to see Fraser was a book worm in school, and it was cool to see Ben come out of his shell. That episode was fucking intense!
HYYYYPE!!!!
Fairly certain Mat Fraser is insane.
Only kinda sorta /s
Thoroughly looking forward to watching them both.
I am so hyped to train now.
Fraser saying he's going to win the games this year. That's a BIG statement to hear out of him. Really hope he pulls it off. Looks ready to eat anyone in his way.
Really excited for the next episode. Any Sara Sigmundsdottir content is good content.
Both these guys seem so good. I was thinking Fraser for sure this year but Smith will be hard to beat. Bigger than Fraser so likely to beat him on the lifts, sprinting doesn't seem to be in Fraser's skill set at all so he best be hoping for no speed tests this year.
Mat Fraser is kind of insane. Ben Smith is all zen. I think his mental game is strong.
Ben Smith has really grown on me the last year. I used to think he was kind of boring. Now I really enjoy his laid back approach.
Great contrast in two really talented athletes.
Fraser's intensity is really admirable, very focused and goal-driven. It's almost scary.
Smith's relaxed attitude is equally compelling, albeit completely juxtaposed from that of Fraser's.
Really, really looking forward to the games this year to see how it all pans out.