Rory McKernan | Ep. 15 - The Cult of Recreationalism

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
chip away at it because you didn't get towipe it clean and then you know, so I'm
happy to say that this is like a verycleansing start of the week.
Now, if you see that on a Friday, itbasically means I went surfing all week.
I am.
It's not I'm sure the show is not theintention of the show, but I would love to

(00:20):
know about your wipe the clean wipe thewhiteboard clean process and how that
works because I'm looking at I'm lookingat a very busy whiteboard right now and
it's just like a constant state of stress,you know, keeps me like right here.
Yeah, I actually actually read a reallyneat article and I don't know, let's just
let it rip in here.
But it talked about sleep patterns beinglinked to your to do list.

(00:42):
And it was like, hey, we're talking we'renot talking iPhone because you know, blue
lights and all that crap.
Whatever your methodology is pen paper bythe bedside.
Because I guess a
As you're on your wind down, it's verycalm until you'd be like, I forgot to do
this.
I got to do this.
then I had this other idea.
Like things just pop into your head.
And it was the idea that if you spend theending time reflecting on what you did, it

(01:07):
actually stimulates your brain more tothink about what you didn't do.
So the opposite approach is, Hey man, justfuture.
Think what you didn't do, write it downand it allows your brain to
compartmentalize.
And adjust to view those tasks as a futuregoal, which allows you to like calm down

(01:28):
and sleep because you've made note of it.
It's not going to like rattle around inyour head and wake you up from sleep.
Like, I forgot this one thing.
So you kind of have this ability to, youknow, to just jot it down.
So apparently literally go an old schoolpen paper by the bedside, just to whip
down an idea.
Then when you wake up, you're like, yeah.
Now you just add it to the board.

(01:49):
I love this journal in particular.
It's got kind of like, you know, it's gotyour daily to -dos and whatnot, but it
also projects out like on a 90 daycalendar, so to speak, and whatnot.
But you can actually like, it encouragesyou to like preview the day, review the
day, and then do exactly what you'retalking about.
And you'll love this, man.
Like, whoever brought these things back,you know?

(02:11):
Not just old school pen and paper, likeold, old school, but this was like cutting
edge technology once upon a time.
And...
Yeah, allows me to color code, you know?
red.
That's a hot item.
Yeah.
Yeah.
be distracted for the rest of the podcast.
Just trying to get all my colors out.
Cool.

(02:32):
to be wiping through all of those, but no,it's, there are these like neat little
hacks.
I'm just like, yeah, notepad pen by thebedside table, like whatever your thing
is.
And I use notes in, in, in the iPhone.
So it's like, you know, put the littlebubble next to it.
If it gets a check mark, it means the taskis either complete or if it's a project,
we use Asana, which is like an onlineproject management tool.

(02:53):
And I, the part of the business that Itend to spend a lot of time in is like,
lifting off a project and getting itstarted.
And then there's a team that it's like,Hey, like here's some of the detail work
that's going to happen.
Those are the checklist in Asana to makethe project go from working to complete.
But like that means there's a lot ofhunting that goes on.

(03:15):
And that's where the notes thing helpsbefore it, like, does it qualify for an
Asana task?
Does it, does it actually make it inthere?
Or is it just some thing?
And I got to imagine when you're workingwith mayhem nation.
and you are the lead of businessdevelopment, the vice president of all
things, biz dev.
Are we gonna do like an actual intro,Sean?
Or like, are you just stealing things fromthe intro right now?

(03:37):
Nathan, that's crazy.
It's crazy.
We're just going, dawg.
and let you play some music and do aproper intro and then let's talk.
the intro.
We haven't even, people, yeah.
Also, Rory, real quick, do you have to bedone by a certain time?
No, dude, I'm all yours.
I mean, let's not make this like a JoeRogan three hour podcast, but you know, we

(04:01):
got time.
I'm not that interesting.
We're gonna play our little jingle andthen we're gonna do a little intro and
then Sean, you can get into all thatstuff.
So, boom and.
All right, what's up everybody?

(04:22):
Welcome to the Cult of Recreationalismpodcast.
I'm one of your hosts, Nathan Morris,along with Sean Lake.
And today on the show, we have RoryMcKernan.
Welcome Rory.
Even though we've been going for likethree, four minutes already.
Yeah, I hope we didn't lose all that.
There were some gems.
Now I'm going to leave that in.
So Sean, you can do the next part.

(04:44):
Yeah.
mean, I, I, I, here's the thing, you know,I would do the next part, but, but, you
know, I don't know if I want to do thenext part, but you know what?
I'm going to do the next part.
All right.
So, so some things you guys need to knowabout Rory McKernan, not only is he a
husband and a father and often referred toas the best looking man from CrossFit, but

(05:06):
he's also about as OG as it gets in theentire CrossFit space.
We'll get into that in a little bit.
Rory is a personality.
If you can't tell some people might referto him as a character.
And he's also the head of businessdevelopment for mayhem nation.
An avid skier when time allows to get upinto the mountains and a mountain bike

(05:27):
enthusiast.
He is the longtime host of the CrossFitopen announcement famous for the Roe
versus Boz battles near to the death.
It feels like any recently shot with a bowhis first truck and.
Little known fact, Rory McKernan was alsomy very first fitness coach, CrossFit, if

(05:50):
you will.
And Rory, welcome to the show.
I mean, that's, that's the show, you know,we covered all the bases.
There's so much to say.
Don't, don't let me forget.
Don't let me forget that this comingweekend in Knoxville, there's a, there's a
community event and it's a three personteam on Saturday and Rose no longer versus

(06:12):
Boz, but Rose teaming up with Boz and oneof Boz's training partners.
And we're going to, we're actually goingto track down.
I was so bummed to see this, but therewas, there's only four RX teams.
which means that we have to just not getlast and we're on the podium, but which
makes pressure even better.
But the worst part is that Rich Froning isone of those four teams.
And so, yeah, could go poorly.

(06:34):
Battle for second.
look at, you could also like just makesure that everyone on his team gets
explosive diarrhea, you know, just sayingbefore the event.
always thinking.
And listen, you know rest in peace Larrybud melman, but he did famously say on the
Dave Letterman show sometime back in the90s Do you know what they call second

(06:56):
place?
loser.
The first loser!
that's a rich just lives by that that'snot even a that's not even a joke around
here.
He's very serious when he says it
no doubt that working for Rich Froningincludes a whole lot of what we won,
right?
And if there's ever that utterance of,well, actually, we got second place.

(07:21):
It's more like when I, when I explainedhow I think about things, you know, which
is, and like you said, we, we spent, we'vegot a lot of miles in my early career, but
even back then I was like, I'm just kindof here to have fun.
You know, probably I don't drink anymore,but it used to be like, we go work out and
be like, Hey, okay, cool.
We're going to beach bar now.
Right.
Like, or we're going to go surf now.
But when I, when I explained that to him,like he's, we're going to do a triathlon

(07:43):
and I'm like, yeah, I just kind of want tosurvive this one.
He'll like, he'll just kind of turn hishead sideways, you know, like a confused
dog, like.
I don't, it doesn't compute what you'resaying.
It's competition, bro.
Like, what do you mean you're not gonnawin?
I think the competition thing, like, look,we all have that gear in us.
And like, you can kind of tell yourself,like, Hey, I just want to survive it.
And I think we've said that in our heads anumber of times, because it's kind of a

(08:07):
mechanism that calms you down from some ofthose like pre -race jitters or those
opportunities that you get, you know, alittle bit anxious about.
I'll use yesterday as an example.
Yesterday for me was the first time that Idid.
I'm sorry.
First time.
was the 15th time that I did Murph.
So I've been doing it since 2009.

(08:27):
And it's like, I haven't missed a year,sometimes multiple times a year, usually a
few times a year.
And here I am at year 15.
And I went into it and I'm like, you know,I've got this knee thing happening.
I've got this, that, and I'm like, bing,bing, bing, excuse, excuse, excuse.
I just want to, you know, I just want toget through it.
I made it about maybe 50 meters into thefirst mile run, like first hundred yards.

(08:50):
And I'm like,
fuck it.
It's on.
Like.
Yeah, it's funny man though I I yes I havethat but not always so like very similar
situation yesterday and very similargripes You know like listen off my excuses
and whatnot some of which are legit rightlike you get to a certain it like I've got
extras on my knee I've got a bone spurlike things aren't always stacking up nice

(09:12):
and We me and my training buddies wouldmake fun of it I'm like just like you have
good hair days and bad hair days like Ihave good knee days and bad knee days
and on a good knee day, bro, like I'mswinging for the fences, but on a bad knee
day, like I am legitimately happy to bethere.
And especially with something like Murphor you do Glenn, yeah, it's like forever
bad hair days for you.
Luckily, you got a dope hat, man, a dopehat.

(09:40):
But like with the Hero workout, I still dohave just as much, I don't wanna say
pride, happiness, like.
I get as much fulfillment out of it justby doing Murph and not mailing it in,
right?
Like that's not the, like you can't dothat.
Like it was, it's a suffer fest no matterwhat.
But yeah, I don't, I don't feel like I'mstealing from myself.

(10:00):
Like you're not going to PR every year.
You're not going to PR every time you gointo the gym, right?
And so for a workout like that, I do, I dohave the ability to not beat myself up
afterwards where I'm like, I was the lastone in or, you know, like my run really
sucked, whatever it is.
It's like, no, man, it's not what thisone's about.
Yeah, yeah, it's about something differentand bigger.
And, you know, it's also when you reachinto that, your pocket of suck and like

(10:24):
pull something good out because like youhave to because you're in there.
Like, I don't care what approach you take,you're doing hundreds and hundreds of reps
of movements, and you're putting your bodyunder stress and like, you know, look at
get through it.
And there's a bigger reason that you canjust draw so much energy from to get
there.
But like, again, back to that comparisonto like a rich froning.

(10:45):
you know, for some of us to be like, Heyman, like we're going to go into this and
give it our all.
And he's just like, cool.
That's not enough.
You there's more and let's go.
that, that can, that's a heavy presence tohave in the room.
And you're just like, like, no, no, I justwant to get through this now, man.
I don't even understand you.
You know, like one thing, like one massivetakeaway for me is cause he'll, rich will

(11:07):
laugh when, you do like a train with richseminar.
There's always whenever there's a questionand answer, inevitably somebody's like,
well, what can I do to make myself morecompetitive?
And he's just sort of like, it's not a,you could probably teach yourself like
tools and tricks to, get yourself into themindset to compete, to get yourself like
as best prepped as you possibly can.
But if you look at like his history andthe run -up to it,

(11:30):
I'll compare it to another, to like one ofmy son's friends here in a second, but he
is like the youngest or second to youngestof 32 male cousins.
His parents were, you know what I mean?
Like you got to look at the landscape oflike who people are that absolutely like
lines up to make them more aggressive.
We were talking with one of my really goodbuddies, our sons play lacrosse together
and his son is an absolute menace, justlike in the best way.

(11:53):
Like you don't want to be across from himwith helmet and pads on, you know?
And my son like,
when he wants to be like, he can fire itup, but he just doesn't naturally have
that killer instinct.
But he's an older brother to a girl, youknow, and he just didn't grow up this,
this other kid grew up with three olderbrothers and he was like, literally just
fighting for every scrap, you know, andthere's something to be said by like,

(12:14):
your, you know, your, your situationgrowing up and then how you're hardwired.
Yep, I couldn't agree more with that.
And like, that's, I've got friends likethat, too.
They're like the youngest brother of likefour older brothers.
And you kind of watch how they act.
And you're just like, yeah, you're you'redefinitely looking out for yourself.
Like you got, you know, you're, you'reused to like, you have no like, grab and

(12:35):
scrap and fight for everything you got.
Alright, so I got to go back in time alittle bit.
And and again, this is for folks thatmaybe they don't know a lot of your
background, but you
Tell us a little bit about like how youfell in love with the mountains, like that
transition from being a teenager, likekind of like growing up into like, okay,

(12:57):
here's school, but schools, you know,schools there, but Jackson holes over
there.
Take us through that journey.
Yeah.
The irony of the whole thing is that Igrew up in Texas.
And so obviously not a lot of great skiingin Austin, Texas, but really blessed to
have parents who kind of put this priorityon it.
And every spring break, like my fondestmemories growing up were spring breaks, we

(13:19):
would jump into a family suburban and we'ddrive whatever it was 15, 16 hours to
usually like Winter Park or somewhere likecentral Colorado ski resorts and spend
like just a week where.
It was literally my favorite childhoodmemories of all time.
And yeah, so the love was born there.
And I'm sure like you're seeing with youroffspring, mine are just 14 and 12 now.

(13:44):
And they're already to that speed wherethey're like, they can keep up.
They've got a little bit more, they've gota little bit less inhibition than I do.
So like, I remember being like 14 or 15and being like, this is the future.
That's all I wanna do.
Like I could ski and snowboard everysingle day of my life.
And...
If you fast forward a little bit, I wasreally drawn to the West coast.
So I only applied to West coast schoolsfor college ended up out there.

(14:06):
And I, my intention was always to playfootball, but when I got to, I went to USC
and it was a little bit bigger of amountain than I wanted to climb.
So I opted out of playing football and Iwanted to fill the time.
And I saw that they had a ski andsnowboard team.
And so for my freshman year onwards, I waslike,
I joined up and we would go to MammothMountain.

(14:27):
It was a whole different type of ridingthan I'd ever done.
Sunny, beautiful, all about terrain andbig hits.
Just a different attitude, right?
And yeah, there's love deep in change.
Just got into racing a little bit, triedborder cross and we're actually in a
league, like a Southern California league.
So we were racing against other schoolsand party a commensurate amount as well.

(14:51):
And then to your point, I had some buddieswho were a year above me.
And they just on a whim, they moved out toJackson Hole after they graduated.
And so they had been in Santa Barbara.
I would go up there and visit all thetime.
We go ride all the time.
And they were just telling me storiesabout Jackson Hole, man.
It was like pulling at my soul.
Cause here I am stuck in Los Angeles onthe weekend, like when I couldn't get up
to, to Mammoth and they're telling methese stories about the back country and

(15:13):
what they had done that day and what theyhad seen and avalanches and crazy snow.
And so, yeah, I made it a goal.
And I literally, I literally took summerclasses for two years that I get out of
semester early.
and went straight from my, well, I didn't,I had to come back for graduation, went
straight from like my final day of schoolto Jackson Hole, showed up with just a
snowboard bag and a backpack.

(15:34):
And I actually, I literally got droppedoff by a bus at the gas station and I
called a friend of a friend who happenedto be living there, because my buddies had
moved on to other places.
And I was like, hey dude, I'm so and so'sfriend.
And they said, I could probably stay withyou and ended up just couch surfing for a
winter and.
and fall in love with Jackson Hole.
And for anybody who is into the mountains,if you go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I

(15:58):
don't even know what to compare it to.
I've been to mountains all around theworld now, but Jackson Hole, you know,
it'll take the Pepsi challenge withanything on earth.
And yeah, it just, it took it from here tohere.
yeah, that's a super fair statement.
Mammoth is great.
And when it snows at Mammoth, you have aphenomenal time.
but it's different.
Like there's backcountry access inMammoth, which you could say, well, that's

(16:22):
Jackson -esque, but you got to earn thoseturns.
but you know, I would say, you know,Palisades, Snowbird and Jackson are the
top three that constantly revolve aroundwhen people say, well, what are the top
three resorts in North America?
Or I'm sorry, in the U S and I would go.
I go, well, I say Snowbird first, Jacksonsecond, you know, Squaw, Palisades third.
And that's an arguable point.

(16:43):
I love the debates back and forth on whichone, but Jackson is inarguably.
go ahead.
Jackson's in arguably it's it's in thattop three it has to be.
yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I was going to say like, when I gotthere, there was even this, and I'm sure
it was just my personal experience, butthe cultural side of things too, I was

(17:03):
really impressed by like the caliber ofperson and the desire.
There was so many people that really firedup to like learn more about the mountains,
take avalanche safety courses, get intolike, go to the, go to the rock gym at
night and learn knots and learnmountaineering skills and, and then take
that to the back country.
So you had, you had an additionaleducational component that was also sort
of,
you know, linked to like, it was like aconservation mindset, people that really

(17:26):
wanted to be outdoors, not just in thewinter time.
And yeah, it was a different type ofperson that I found there too, where I was
like, and some of them are still lifelongfriends.
I actually, I finished that first season,my parents were super proud.
I got out of USC and my first job was aDomino's pizza, delivering pizzas while I
was a ski bum.
Got a, started a friendship with my firstroommates there and he worked in Alaska as

(17:50):
a fishing guy.
And I was like,
I got to see Alaska, let's go.
And so in a $1 ,200 Subaru that he hadbought, we took about a month and a half
to drive up through British Columbia,through Yukon territory, and through back
countries of Alaska.
Like basically super early season whenpeople aren't on the Alkin Highway and do
back country and probably get ourselves insituations we should not have been in, but

(18:15):
learned a lot from them.
But then was introduced to Alaska as well.
So like in very quick succession, it waslike,
Yo, check out Jackson Hole.
Mind blown.
Hey, check out Alaska.
And it was, again, it was one of thosetimes where I was like, man, I feel sort
of guilty, but this is the only thing thatI want to do in my life right now.
Yeah, sorta guilty, but also, this isabsolutely next level.

(18:38):
I mean, not, not that, you know, I droppedout of college, you know, after my
freshman year.
So the Glenn and I could move to Utah, goto Snowbird and do that very, our version
of that minus the college degree that camelater.
but, so you kind of knocked out the degreein this, I'm going straight adventure.
So after Alaska, was it like, I went rightback to Jackson.

(19:00):
How'd it like, cause you kind of bouncedaround and you ended up.
creating a little bit of a career foryourself during that chapter.
Well, I did seasonal work for three fullyears.
So I would go Alaska Jackson, AlaskaJackson with, you know, like, and I would
drive every time.
So whatever happened in between was justsort of like my little Don Quixote
adventure around the United States, youknow, burning a trail of tears behind me.

(19:26):
And yeah, exactly.
Of sorts.
And yeah, let's see.
So my last winter, instead of going toJackson, I ended up in Bozeman because
there was Alex Kurz was there.
And we just sort of remodeled the house,terrible snow year.
But we got way into, I mean, I was alwaysinto fitness, but at that time, and I
linked this in my mind to the movie, The300, but around that time, The 300 came

(19:51):
out.
And as with many people, like the rabbithole, if you followed it far enough, it
led back to CrossFit.
And so we kind of found, we were doing.
Jones, right?
It was the famous Jim Jones 300 workout.
So everyone saw these.
at that time, you couldn't mark twice JimJones, you couldn't figure out the link
exactly.
But if you found Jim Jones, you would findCrossFit as well.

(20:12):
And it was all this crazy mixed modalitytraining that like, nobody had, it just
had these cool elements.
And it was still early days, obviously,this is probably 2005.
And yeah, it just had this kind of likemystery and appeal and aura to it.
And,
And then I had to go back to Alaska.
So I was like, shoot, how am I going tokeep this up?

(20:33):
And what I managed to do was, the lodgethat I was at in Alaska, I should say, was
pretty bougie.
It was owned by a communications companycalled GCI.
And so while the generator was on, you hadinternet access, which was very unique,
obviously.
We're in the middle of nowhere.
The national park that I worked in was 1.7 million acres.

(20:54):
It's the biggest state park in the UnitedStates.
and we were up like in the boonies, right?
But yeah, well, the generator was on, theyhad communications, because obviously
they're a communications company.
And so I was able to follow CrossFit .comwhile I was in the Alaskan wilderness.
And I had somehow talked these guys into,there was already free weights out there.

(21:14):
But when we left Anchorage in the littleturban otter to go out to the camp for the
first time, I had bought a really crappy,jinky little treadmill off of eBay.
and I brought it with me or Craigslistprobably at the time, right?
And so we loaded that thing up, brought itout there and I was able to like, I
started doing CrossFit basically in theoutback of Alaska with very limited

(21:36):
knowledge of what the hell I was doing andI'm sure doing everything wrong looking
back.
But it's cool, kind of fell in love withit, you know, followed the blog and looked
at all the comments and tried to learn asmuch as I could.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, look at this is earlyfitness, right?
Like you thank God you had a shitty snowyear, which I would never normally say to
someone.
But if you had like a glorious power yearand you're in Bozeman, you wouldn't have

(21:59):
been in Bozeman.
You would have been rallying out to bigsky.
You would have spent the whole winterthere.
The house probably never would have gottenfinished.
You still would have made it to Alaska,but you would have been so busy skiing,
snowboarding the whole time.
Chances are this, this might not havehappened.
I mean, that's wild.
I actually never knew that detail.
I didn't know that it was the movie 300because we all watched that movie and we

(22:23):
were all like, you know, whether we're inour twenties or early thirties, like those
guys are super jacked.
I want to get super jacked.
And then it was like this legend of earlyinternet of this mysterious workout.
But then you.
like, and I did the same thing the otherday with Joe Rogan, but showing, I saw my
kids watch the 300 for the first time,probably two weeks ago.

(22:45):
And of course, Gerard Butler just lookslike a God, you know?
And I'm like, hey, guess what?
Like that's the same dude.
And I showed him like a bunch of othermovies that he was in and they're like,
no, no way, no way.
Cause now we got two decades afterwards tobe like, you know, body changes for
different roles and things like that.
But they do the same thing cause they fellin love with Fear Factor watching it on, I
think,
I don't know, Hulu and Netflix now has allthe episodes of Fear Factor and they love

(23:08):
Fear Factor.
And I was like, hey, did you guys knowthat that's the same podcast that I like
to listen to?
And I showed them a picture of Joe Roganand they were like, nope, that's not true.
Because in their mind, Joe Rogan's 25years old, you know, like just in his
prime of life with the sideburns, yeah.
He has an age.
He has an age.
Look at maybe to them you're you're theexact same as you were 10 years ago, too.

(23:28):
You never know.
They know.
Damn it.
They.
when I was working for CrossFit and doingall the broadcast stuff, they were young
enough to where when people would ask whatI did, they said that I was in the
CrossFit Games.
And I was like, yeah, daddy's a hero.
Now they're old enough, and they're like,you kind of work in an office, you're
around CrossFit, but you're not anathlete.

(23:51):
Exactly.
so, so this begs the question.
So you wrap up Bozeman, you head up toAlaska, you get some janky ass treadmill
up there and you know, you're, you're,you're knocking out CrossFit workouts.
Season's over.
Now you're going into fall.
did you go right back to the mountains orwas this part of your journey?
Cause obviously like now it's five sixpretty soon.

(24:14):
There's a, there's a little chapter in SanDiego.
Yes, so this is the San Diego chapter wasI drove directly there with a pit stop in
Vegas and a few other places.
But the purpose was that myself and mybest friend Alex were going to become
commercial helicopter pilots.

(24:35):
And so he was already like, he already hada ticket to Hawaii.
We were gonna, you know, he was gonna godown there, go to a commercial thing.
I had to get all the loans and stuff inplace, but I was like, look, I'll come
down.
I'm gonna stay at your dad's place.
And as soon as I can get my stufftogether, like I'll make it out to you.
Well, car trouble in Vegas, and I'll dothe long story short, but effectively like

(24:56):
there's this really, really cool GrandCanyon Rim Road that you can go on if you
find it or you used to anyways, but it wason the Havasupai Indian reservation.
Well, I decided to drive it, blew my tireout.
And there's a whole long story there beinglike trapped in the Indian reservation for
a long time.

(25:17):
Finally got the car fixed, finally gotout.
But by the time I got to San Diego, I waslike, I got a lot of stuff I need to get
fixed in my life.
Right?
Like I got to get this, this car undercontrol.
I got to, you know, get the bank accountvamped back up.
And so I ended up staying at Alex's dad'splace, which is a gorgeous, you know, on
four street in Encinitas overlooking theocean.
So it's not bad situation by any stretchof the imagination.

(25:39):
But I'm, I'm on my.
I'm on my buddy's dad's couch.
I've got a broken truck in the shop and asluck would have it, they had tried this
gym down the street and they were like,yeah, dude, there's a CrossFit gym down
the street.
It's like two skateboard, like twoskateboard kicks away, you know?

(26:00):
And I was like, no way, because I hadnever seen a physical location.
Like to me, it was still just an onlinething.
And yeah, man, this was the first time Ilaid eyes on US CrossFit, which.
I don't know how much you have or haven'ttalked about it on the show, but it was
like a gorgeous, very unique, physicalspace.
Like it was made for, it was made to be ashowroom for like fancy automobiles,

(26:23):
right?
It was like a thousand.
original vision of it was that it wasgoing to be like an auto showroom.
And it's an all glass building.
So three of the four walls were glass soyou could just see through it everywhere.
And however it happened.
it was a classy looking building.
It was, it was pretty radical.

(26:43):
Yeah, it never ever meant to house a bunchof heathens chucking kettlebells around
like not what this thing was designed for.
And we're talking like vaulted giantceilings with like gorgeous wooden beams
across it like very modern kind of notmodern, whatever they call that like
airplane architecture, like those kind ofbig arcs like an airplane hanger, but all

(27:05):
glass walls.
Somehow, a former Navy SEAL named MarkDevine gets the lease on that building.
And he's like,
this is going to be my CrossFit gym.
And this is like 2006, I think, like, am Iright?
Six or seven.
Yeah.
And I mean, listen, looking back at all,like what a dumb kid I was.
Like I never would have known it there,but to Mark's credit, like it was the

(27:29):
embodiment of like a long -term visionthat he had and it wasn't working at the
time, but like he has absolutely done atremendous job of bringing like his dream
to life.
But, but yeah, he was running NavySeals.com out of the upstairs office.
He had his little storage room downstairsand then he wanted, you know, he had this
dream of basically, seal fit was.

(27:50):
in inoculation for kids who wanted to gointo buds.
And so it was he was going to get themready by doing mock hell weeks and and
just really beating them up.
And in the meantime, him and Rob, Iactually don't know how they found
CrossFit.
Like it was introduced to them orsomething.
And it was obviously the SEAL community isa small place and there was a lot of SEALs
involved in in CrossFit.
So I'm sure they got the word.

(28:10):
But.
CrossFit just like that, for myremembrance of it, as soon as it came in,
it wasn't like there was a question.
It was like, have you seen this new thing?
We got to do this.
It wasn't like there was up for debate orthat's stupid.
No, man, I'm going to go back and take aPilates class or do regular PST stuff.
It was like, no, this is a whole newworld.

(28:32):
It hooked people in quick.
And at that time, like at the very least,and there's probably more that I'm going
to miss, but like Castro and Andy Stumpwere both active in the SEAL teams.
and I think they were both teaching atBud's at that time.
So like it was, they, you know, peoplewere highly involved in both communities
and it was, it was overlaying, reallynicely as it does.

(28:53):
But anyways, yeah.
So I went down and had to work out with,met Rob Ward for the first time, who was
just sort of like a force of nature.
and did my first CrossFit workout in aCrossFit facility and realized, of course,
that I was doing everything wrong.
And also that like I was whole, I washalf, that wasn't even half as fit as I
thought I was.
I was a fraction as fit as I thought Iwas.

(29:14):
And just, yeah, absolutely loved everysecond of it.
I mean, it's the most insanely humblingthing ever.
So, so you're in Encinitas, you're kind oftrapped, you're in financial duress, and
then you're looking for work.
Because you know, you got to rebuild thatbank account, you're sleeping on your
buddy's couch.
And Alex, by the way, who I did Murph withyesterday.

(29:36):
So it's always great bumping into him whois now a licensed helicopter pilot and saw
the dream through, you know, 18 yearslater.
So proud of him actually.
Like, yeah, he did eventually.
Like I sidetracked him for a while becauseI guess we'll be, you know, getting ahead
of myself, but he did go back to it andyeah, he's fighting fires now and doing a

(29:57):
lot of cool work and helicopters.
So super stoked for him.
But yeah, for me personally, it was like Ihad been working in a gym.
I could tell from what was going on withlike my vehicle and the fact that like,
helicopter school is not cheap.
So if you're going to go the civilianroute, I mean, you're talking about
probably taking out $100 ,000 of studentloans or something along those at least.

(30:19):
And I was not extremely marketable to thebanking community at that point in time,
as luck would have it.
And, and the luck, the luck that I washaving with, or sorry, the, the
interactions I was having with CrossFitfelt the same as like, not quite the
mountains, right?
You're not getting the same thing out ofit.
But like, the more I got of it,

(30:41):
And the more I heard the theoreticalframework, listening to Glassman talk,
listen to other people talk about whyCrossFit was what CrossFit was, it just
kept smacking me in the face like a ton ofbricks and I fell in love with it.
So yeah, to your point, I needed a job andI wanted that to be my job.
Unfortunately, Mark wasn't hiring at thetime.

(31:02):
So my first fitness gig in San Diego, Idon't know if you remember this, but I
worked at an LA boxing.
I worked at LA Boxing, and this one wasin, I think it was in Carlsbad, with a
bunch of real fighters, gritty dudes.
So I walk in there and I'm the manager andthey're just shaking their heads at me.

(31:23):
But I worked there for a while, exactly.
And eventually I got to coach one of theactual boxers on his return fight.
He's 42 years old, he didn't winunfortunately.
But yeah, I passed the time with thatwhile I was still doing CrossFit for my

(31:44):
passion and my own fitness.
And then eventually a spot opened up tohelp Mark out.
And that's, so that's kind of like myentry into the story with you.
w which was absolutely next level waslike, so Rory was my very first CrossFit
coach.
Glenn came home from deployment in like, Idon't know, like late 2007 and he's like,

(32:08):
Sean, I got this new thing.
Holy crap.
And he was over in Iraq and he discoveredCrossFit and it was just the website and
he had, I remember he would pull it up onhis Blackberry.
And we had a membership at the local YMCAand we would go in there and kind of like
what to your point, Rory do everythingwrong, but we're in this global gym

(32:29):
setting.
And it's mostly like, if you're in theweight room part of a YMCA, it's basically
a bunch of kids in high school that arejust trying to drink as much protein as
possible and just, you know, do maxbenches.
And then you got, you know, Glenn and I,and he's like, Hey, let's go over in that
corner.
We're going to learn how to do handstandpushups.
Like the fuck is that?
And then.
we're going to learn how to do pull ups,but not just pull ups.

(32:50):
We're going to do these kipping pull ups.
And he's like, it's all about the hips andlike this rotation.
And almost like we look like two guyshaving an epileptic seizure in there, but
we just worked on it and worked on it andworked on it.
And they didn't even have kettlebells inthere.
So we would take dumbbells and just holdonto the end of the dumbbells and just
kind of swing them.
And like that would be our kettlebell.
And then eventually Glenn's like, youknow, you know, I was living in Carlsbad.

(33:14):
He was in Encinitas.
And we just team up there and do ourworkouts.
And we teamed up there one day and he'slike, Hey, there's some gym in town.
It's owned by a seal.
I heard it's called us CrossFit.
We got to go check it out.
And I'm like, wait, like a real gym thatjust does that.
And so we just went down there and we rollon in there.

(33:35):
And I mean, I I'll never forget you werethere.
Mark Devine was there and we roll up.
And Glenn just walks in like full peacock,just like walking around.
He's like, Hey, who's the Navy seal aroundhere?
And you know, Mark walks up and he's like,hello, you know, I'm Mark Devine.

(33:55):
And Glenn's like, I'm a seal.
You need me to work out here.
I validate your gym.
He's like, I make your business look cool,brother.
And I'm hanging off his coat tails.
And I'm like, I'm friends with the Navyseal.
I'm going to come in too.
could play one in a movie!

(34:16):
Yeah, that was it, man.
Like we just, we rolled right in and outthat, you know, like I'll never forget.
Glenn was like, he had this whole policyin life, never pay retail.
And it was like, he would say it all thetime.
He's like, all right, where's the deal?
Where's the deal?
And I'm like, dude, come on.
You make okay money.
Like you just pay for some things.
He's like, no, no, no, no, no.
There's going to be a way coupons.
We're cutting coupons.

(34:36):
We're figuring it out.
We're getting the deal.
And when he's like, I'm an ABC, I'm notpaying for the gym membership.
Like that's just not going to happen.
So.
Well, and that was actually the so thatwas one of my questions for you Rory was
Sean had told me back in days like thatyou never actually charged him for a
membership at US CrossFit.

(34:56):
Dude, hey, we're on the air, bro.
Mark might see this.
Well, here's what I'll say is I was never,I never claimed to be, and it was nowhere
on my resume that I was a business guy.
You know, the, and I'll tell you what, ifit wasn't somebody like Sean and Glenn,

(35:18):
you know, actually this is the termrespect gets respect, right?
It's like, if you have people that youwant to be around and you respect and you
love and like it, it,
it brightens your life great.
But what CrossFit also gave me was theflip side of that.
Because anybody else who would come in anddo like similar BS to be like, hey,
where's the deal, whatever, whatever.
The coolest thing about CrossFit was thatit allowed you to basically turn those

(35:42):
people away.
It was the first time that I ever heardand Mark, if you're listening, I love you.
He didn't subscribe to like, you know, Iwas listening to like Glassman and I got a
good story about this later, but.
You know, Glassman would would preachthings like, Hey, if you got like a
cancerous client, like fire them.
If somebody questions the quality levelthat you're bringing or the value, like

(36:03):
just don't, don't let them come to thegym.
And I've got a couple of interactions thatI remember like that, where it'd be like
some guys coming in and like you do theintro class and you'd be like, yeah, it's
150 bucks a month.
Like I'm limited classes, whatever.
And they just keep on trying to, you know,whatever, whatever, like you would
probably at a regular gym.
And, I'd let them go.
Maybe like.
three goes around and then I'd be like,look, dude, this is it.

(36:24):
Take it or leave it.
There's no deal.
There's no hidden, whatever.
Like if you don't want to be here, don'tcome, but I got to go teach this class.
And it was super refreshing.
But, the fact that Sean never paid, it wasprobably just an oversight, Nathan.
And I'm going to go back now and look atthe books.
I'm gonna dig in my heels a little bit onthis one.
So a bro knows a bro.
And once I realized that Rory was veryinterested in snowboarding and he learned

(36:49):
that my day job was I was the director ofsports marketing at DC shoes.
And I knew it was coming.
Like I knew I couldn't ride Glenn'scoattails forever.
And I knew every once while Mark could belike scratching his head like, I like this
guy, but what's the deal?
And the first thing that Glenn and I did,

(37:09):
was Glenn had a rower that had been storedat my house.
And we had to give it like we gave therower to the gym and you know, rower is
like 900 bucks.
So it was like a gesture like we're gonnakeep it at the gym, the gym can use it.
It's our rower.
And that was like deposit number one.
And then at one other point, Mark needed acouple kettlebells.

(37:30):
And I remember being like, I'm going toget those kettlebells.
And I like, you know, found them onCraigslist brought in a couple of
kettlebells.
And I was like, all right.
I think I paid 20 bucks for him, 50 bucks,like, you know, scamming my way through
like acts of goodwill.
And then one time just finally like Rory'slike, Sean, man.
listen, I think I'm, I'm supposed tocharge you members.

(37:51):
I just remember being like, what's yourfoot size?
And he's like, I'm a, I'm a 13 or, youknow, some giant foot.
I'm like, what you are double XLouterwear.
He's like, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm like, I think I got you, man.
And he's like, really?
And I just brought you the.
biggest box of DC swag from the warehouse.
And I just remember like kidding you upand you're like, my God, it's Christmas.

(38:13):
I just got all free outerwear, like bunchof different kits and outerwear and boots
and stuff.
And, Hey man, never saw bill from a U SCrossFit.
It worked out great.
the grand scheme, I'd say it was veryequitable.
Like you really did throw your heart andsoul into it and like eventually helping
mark out with the seal fit stuff, right?
So, and, and.

(38:35):
I
I was gonna say, these were early days,right?
Like, so I don't know if it still happensthis way, but there was tons of barter.
You know, we should mention, yeah, right?
And so not the least of which was therewas this smoking hot blonde girl that used
to come as well, and she happened to be ahairdresser.
And so she started cutting me, Alex, andMark's hair in exchange for a gym

(38:57):
membership.
And 15 years later, whatever it is, we'remarried with two kids.
And so it all works out, you know?
Everyone like and should walk into the gymand everyone be like, who's that?
And Rory's just like, back up boys.
I'll never forget unceremoniously and thisis a photo that I wish we had or video

(39:18):
footage or something.
So I have this great photo the first timethat I did Murph with Glenn and it's like
we were just kind of in prep mode and wedid it with you Rory and you probably
don't even remember it but it's like
Yeah, I can pull it up.
Keep talking, I'll pull it up.
was from that was from the grinder thatyear.
And I'll never forget, like, I didn'treally I'd never done that workout.

(39:40):
It was my first time and I didn't reallyunderstand I think the level of intensity.
I remember like, slugging some water inthere.
And I go down to do like some push ups.
I just blew it all over Angie's foot.
I am so sorry.

(40:00):
Yep.
collared shirt like a gentleman.
You know?
How else do you pay respect?
I'm gonna be super respectful.
my golf shirt on that day.
What a great day to learn about Murph.
I'm wearing one of Glenn's old flackjackets, like some training stuff that he
had that he just stuffed the weight into.
And, and there we go, man.

(40:22):
I wish I still had that thing.
I think it disintegrated from all thestink and sweat.
It was like the worst hockey pads ever.
The DC on the really baggy shorts downhere too.
You can kind of see.
It was a different time.
It was a different time.
I want to go back through all the gymstyles that were, you know, because you

(40:44):
had the geographic regional style, right?
It's like the DC and the surf or whatever.
But then you also had what was going on inCrossFit at the time.
We went through a tall socks phase, wentthrough like Innovates became the thing
for a while, different shoe styles,whatever.
And,
Reebok ZIG was supposed to be like the newCrossFit shoe?
Yes.

(41:04):
And actually my personal memory of whenthat was completely obliterated was the
Rogue versus Again Faster thing that wedid in Tahoe and Rich and Graham Holmberg
did like a kind of a rematch, like a head-to -head thing.
And Graham was trying to overheadsquatting them.
And it was just, it was almost hard towatch, you know, it was, gosh.

(41:26):
And yeah, at least for me, and I think alot of fans, it was like, yeah, we'll
never put those on my feet.
But yeah, so many things, man.
It's funny, I was listening to my kidslove country music.
Here we are in Tennessee and I lovecountry music, but you know, all the songs
are like, they're looking back to, I wishI could learn to drive again.
But what you were describing in that gymof you and Glenn, like let's learn
handstand pushups.

(41:46):
Let's swing a kettlebell around.
Like, don't you wish you could go backthere just for a second?
Like when it was so new and gritty and notthat it's lost its magic, but it's just
like, there was a thing back then where itwas like, we were.
revolutionizing fitness, we were changingthe world.
It was something you'd never triedpersonally.
It was like, it was just so freaking cool,man.

(42:06):
It was a chapter.
I look at snowboarding in a similar veinand like these different cultures and
experiences that you capture and you get amoment of and every new generation puts
their own spin on it because it's new tothem every time they experience it.
But you know, and country music likeHeather will be like, my God, new Morgan
Wallen song.

(42:27):
And I'll be like, I got to remember whenmy dad would play Whalen Jennings for me.
And it was just like, you know, mindblowing stuff like songs I listened to 40
years later.
And like that's going to be my kidslistening to Morgan Wallen, you know, and
hopefully a little whale in Jennings too.
but like all of those experiences inCrossFit, I think part of the appeal for
me, and I don't want to speak for you, butI definitely think it has to be is like,

(42:48):
you touched on this a little bit, which isthe culture.
There's a community.
There's this new learning.
There was this like zest for adventure,but to be better.
And like, man, that's really fun tosurround yourself with a tribe like that.
And I mean, Glenn.
fully embraced that in the mountains.
He brought it into the SEAL teams andcommunity.

(43:09):
But like for me, he brought me into thatand introduced me to it in what ultimately
became like, you know, what are we 16years in on CrossFit, like 17 years.
Like it's, I've done more CrossFit thananything else, you know, fitness wise.
And I couldn't be more grateful for it.
It changed my brain, man.

(43:29):
Not just the CrossFit, but CrossFitcombined with access to people like Glenn
or Dave Castro or Andy Stumpf or any ofthe service members that I had.
But even being at those Seelfit campswhere, I'll be honest, when I growing up,
I was just sort of like, I didn't get it.
I had a grandfather who had been in WorldWar II, but there was nothing in me that
was driven to service for the country.

(43:52):
And I don't say that as a point of pride.
I say it as a deep regret, if I'm beinghonest.
but being introduced to Jim in SouthernCalifornia and then meeting these guys,
Mark Devine, who's just like, he's thishuman who's like, lived by a code, who's
done some pretty freaking amazing thingsin his life.
And he's constantly like sharpening theknife.
And then you would meet, you know, otherpeople of his ilk who had accomplished

(44:13):
those kinds of things in their life likeGlenn.
But then you would see these kids whowanted to do something.
And where I think, so like, I'm still sorefrom my Murph yesterday, but we would
bring these kids in, we would.
Mentally just annihilate them on the beachfor three hours They would come back get a
little snack and then they would do Murphat like midnight that night Whereas for
me, it's like I got a carb up the nightbefore and I got to get ready Whatever you

(44:35):
see these guys who like you would watch intheir head.
You're like, wow, there's so much of thisThat's a mental who wants it and who
doesn't which is I guess what those Steelfit camps are ultimately trying to show
you anyways, right was like It's what'sbetween the ears.
And so yeah CrossFit
CrossFit definitely enhanced me as aperson in that sense where I was like, I
don't know what it was, maybe things cameeasy or maybe it was, whatever it was, it

(44:59):
showed me like, wow, you can always levelup.
And there is this code, and I still gothrough it today, right?
You got lazy days, you got unmotivateddays, whatever it is, but you hit the gym
and you're around, your bro's having agreat day or you're in a class and there's
a unique energy or whatever it is, you'relike, shit, man, this is like an unlock
code for constantly increasing and gettingbetter.

(45:21):
Yeah.
So you had, you, you, you touched onsomething with Glenn Castro, Andy stump,
like Mark Devine, like the, you're, you'rearound a very intimate.
You know, setting it's not like anyone'sup there.
Like, you know, no one's famous.
Like Andy doesn't have a super successfulpodcast.
Mark hadn't written his first book.
you know, and, and, you know, Dave wasearly into his career.

(45:46):
kind of guiding CrossFit and reallybecoming the face of, of CrossFit for all
those.
those years.
Tell me a little bit of those early yearswith Glenn because I mean you got you know
you got some time in there with him in thegym like any stories jump out at you or
stand out.
well, so you told, he told the one aboutyou guys intro.
The, my favorite one is it like, you know,here I am as a kid and it's been decades,

(46:10):
right?
So I've learned so much about coachingsense and got to work on the seminar team
and do a bunch of things.
But one thing that you can't really, youcan't really teach anybody.
They just have to get reps and they haveto get experiences is like managing
people.
Right.
And so I've got.
YouTube jokers in there, you've got somesoccer moms, some ladies who like all
different motivation levels, old peoplewho are like, don't push me too hard.

(46:32):
Young people who are like, you're notpushing me hard enough and trying to
manage the crowd.
Well, and of course, like I'm learningthese things to try and be a seminar
instructor and I'm trying to do the bestjob I could.
And I remember specifically a lifting daywhere I didn't even know if we were
supposed to be doing back squat, but yousure were.
And, and I'm going through like the basicsof air squats and here we are.

(46:53):
And I wanted you to get here and I wantyou to focus on these muscles, wear a
belt.
If you don't feel safe, I'm going to comearound and check all your reps.
And like, as I remember it, like I'm a midsentence talking to the group about safety
and I turn around and Sean's like asses inthe air and his head's touching the
ground.
He's dumping probably a 300 pound, but Idon't know if you could lift 300 at that
point and extremely heavy bar.
He's dumping weight over the top of hishead, like onto his head and bounce it off

(47:18):
the ground.
And Glenn is like, there's not a seriousbone in his body and he's just geeking out
laughing.
I'm like, my God, this is embarrassing.
And of course I was like red faced andfurious at the time and thinking, come on,
you guys are doing it wrong.
Taking myself way too seriously.
And so that leads into the second one,which is, I don't remember a specific

(47:39):
episode, but I do remember many where, I'mnot joking, we would go and we'd have
beers right after we worked out or we hada good social scene.
And...
I do remember this and I still havefriends who are like this and I never was
before or after I stopped drinking.
But I remember all of us going like fairlydecently hard, right?
Like I was never one to turn down a beer.

(48:00):
And so if somebody wanted to stay a littlebit longer at the end of the night, I'd
stay with them.
And I remember the ability for Glenn to bethere and be like the last one in the room
and then show up the next day and justshow out like full speed, whatever, no
holds barred.
And it blew my mind.
And I was like, I don't know if that's anearned skill.
I don't know if you practice that.

(48:21):
But again, I think, yeah.
skill.
You got to put in your reps at the bar andat the gym.
It was unnerving.
can show up and snowboard the next day,but to go to the gym and push hard, I was
like, no, that's, that's, that's, that'sinsane.
and then actually like the, the, the onething that I made wanted to make sure that

(48:42):
I talked about today and I know that Seanand I have talked about it before, but I
guess the funniest thing for me thathappened was, in the wake of Benghazi and
everything happening, wherever he was justlike,
discombobulated and turned around and likenot understanding that Glenn had been
there but like then kind of little bylittle like a trickle of information came

(49:04):
out and like yeah it was actually GlennDoherty who was who was there.
Like five gyms pop up and they're likeactually there's a dude in my office Tyson
Old Droid and he's like dude I don't knowif you heard the news but like this dude
trained at my gym man he was a good buddyand I was like the hell he did he trained
at my gym he was a good buddy of mine.
And then like four other gyms were like,yeah, Glenn was a local here at CrossFit

(49:26):
such and such.
And he had like, he had these microcommunities where he had gone and little
by little was like, holy shit.
Like he wasn't just there like being lovedand loving in cross, in US CrossFit, but
also these other gyms.
Cause obviously he traveled for work andhe was all over the place doing, you know,
doing whatever he does.
And that really, that really, I had a goodlaugh about that.

(49:48):
You know, the fact that he could, he couldbasically.
be that same thing to all those differentpeople, whereas I was like, I felt this
not ownership, but like, you know, I feltlike he was part of our community, which
he was, but it spoke volumes to him thatit was like, there was, I want to say at
least five other gyms that said the samething, right?
Like they're like, yeah, Glenn was a localhere and he, you know, trained with us

(50:09):
frequently and whatever.
Nope.
Literally like he was this, like you justkind of said it right there.
Like we had to share our best friend witheveryone.
And it's like Tyson, wait, Tyson wait inmid -Ville Utah.
Like, yeah.
Glenn and I used to go in there do 6 aworkouts and then rally up to Snowbird
afterwards and go, you know, go ski andride all day.

(50:31):
And that was like, that was Tyson's gym.
And like, I'll never forget meeting Tysonmeeting Miranda and like, you know, those
are early impressionable times becauseCrossFit was so new.
Like this is 2008, 2009.
Like it's, it's, it's cultish and it's,you know, in those early, early years.
And then like a guy from CrossFit Boston,I remember Glenn would spend, he spent one

(50:52):
summer working in Boston, I think it waslike, nine or 2010.
And then he does the demo video for theGlenn hero workout that pops up on YouTube
somewhere in like late 2012.
So that's another story that, that Ialways think of is, you know, for those,
uninitiated into CrossFit.
Don't worry about it.
Like it's a thing and it's, it's, it's a,it's an amazingly transformative form of

(51:16):
exercise, a little cultish, some wouldargue.
but one of the things that CrossFit as aculture and sport does incredibly well is
honor the fallen.
So we talked a little bit about doingMurph earlier.
CrossFit very quickly honored Glenn withhero workout.
that wouldn't have happened without youreally driving it.
Cause you, you know, I,

(51:38):
It was kind of your deal.
Like you, you knew enough about CrossFitInc.
You had switched from U .S.
CrossFit to working for CrossFitheadquarters.
I think you'd already moved to Santa Cruzwith Ange and like you guys were in that,
that next chapter of life.
do you remember that, that whole spin up?
100%.

(51:58):
And honestly, man, I can't, yes, I got tobe, it was an honor that I got to be like
an intermediary for that.
But I would also say this, I was never thegatekeeper, but I would always often
answer like the customer service stuff.
And you'd have many, many, many,unfortunately, especially during Iraq,
Afghanistan, an influx of like, hey, canwe make a hero workout for this person?

(52:22):
And there was criteria that was clearlylisted.
Like they had to be known to be aCrossFitter.
You had to have some movements.
Like ideally, you know, somebody who wasmaybe a representative of the gym would
help curate the workout, whatever it was.
Glenn was just such an obvious slam dunkfit.
Because like we said, there's fivedifferent affiliates, much less people
like you and myself who were, you know,had very personal stories of his

(52:44):
interactions with the communities andstuff.
So it wasn't as if it was a hard seller.
There was something that I had to like,you know.
politic for, but yeah, absolutely.
I remember.
and I don't, you'd already had, youalready had the workout created, right?
So Danny Miller, who was another one ofthe US CrossFit coaches, Dan and I kind of

(53:07):
picked up the torch for coaching when youleft.
So you and Alex left, Alex took off andstarted his own gym.
You ended up taking off and going to workfor CrossFit HQ, which is like a huge
opportunity at the time.
And it was like the next level up andeveryone's just like, you know, Mark was
like, crap, like I'm losing like this coregroup, but.

(53:27):
Glenn had started coaching there when hewas in between deployments and I would
pick off a class or two.
Mark made me go get my level one.
I say he made me because he justeventually after you left, I'm like, I got
no one else to give free gear to.
And Mark's like, Hey, man, can you justcan you just coach like a class a week to
pay for your membership?
And I'm like, honestly, you want me tocoach?

(53:48):
I remember him being like, you do great atthat.
And like, when he said that, I was like,let's go.
I go get my level one, I, you know, Istart that process and I'm like, I
absolutely fell in love with coaching.
the idea of helping others with thesimplest basic movements was, I mean, it
was kind of inspired by you.
Like you tore me down and rebuilt me.
Like I thought I knew how to squat.
I didn't squat.

(54:08):
I'll never forget you sticking a door,literally a door in front of me and being
like, put your nose next to this door andthen, you know, drop your butt to the
ground.
And I'm like, I couldn't do it.
You know, and I'm like,
a magic trick!
God damn it.
And like those little basic fundamentalsthat I remember from 15 years ago, still

(54:29):
get into my head.
And, you know, like that's, that's themagic of that.
And Glenn was a natural.
He never got his level one.
So I'm going to say, sorry, CrossFit, likeno one ever checked.
but he coached classes all the time.
He loved it.
You know, he was so good at like, justgetting the group energized and involved
and helping them achieve their own, theirown PRs, their own way of doing a personal

(54:52):
best.
but when it came to Glenn's passing, you,you started the process.
You're like Sean meet Tony budding orsomeone from the CrossFit Inc group and
Danny Miller and I got together and wewrote down all of Glenn's favorite
movements.
I found the old emails where we like,we're very passionately writing about who

(55:13):
he was and the things that he loved doing.
And there was only one movement that theyput in there that was, you know, what was
what Glenn.
would have chosen.
But we felt like we were very, verypridefully controlling of this process.
And I don't know if it was Tony or whetherit was a committee, but they absolutely

(55:34):
magically created the most appropriateworkout that they could have in honoring
Glenn.
Like, I remember putting pull ups inthere, but they didn't do pull ups.
They did rope climbs.
yeah, rope climbs are like the hardestform of a pull up.
Like, of course, that's what they woulddo.
Ground overhead was the only thing thatGlenn was always, always doing clean and

(55:55):
jerks.
Like that was like a go -to movement.
I remember, but like, we got to put rowingin there.
Cause that was like the start of ourjourney into cross.
It was this old dilapidated rower with awooden handle that we would trade back and
forth and ultimately share with the gym.
And they're like, no, we're not, we're notgoing to row.
What you can't, you're not rowing.
Now we're going to put a couple miles ofrunning in though.

(56:15):
And I'm like, Ooh.
And then Glenn always did pushups.
He had this like giant barrel chest.
And they're like, yeah, no, we're going todo burpees instead of pushups.
And we're just like, but he hated burpees.
But then I'm like, man, there's a geniusin this whole workout.
And it was a mental slog.
It was, it's a challenge.
Like you got to, every time he turned thecorner, there's another daunting task in

(56:36):
front of you.
And I was like, man, well done.
Crossfit took all the things we said to doand just leveled them all up.
They punched them all up in a way thatmade it so appropriate.
Yeah, I have to think, and I don'tremember, but I have to think that I wish
I still had access to that email, but thatDave was involved and, you know,

(56:57):
programming was often fell into hispurview, especially when it came to like,
hero workouts.
Tony certainly was a massive part of it atthat point too.
So, but yeah, the Glenn workouts, the onlyone that, you know, I do like, again,
yesterday is a, it's this crazy importantday to me.
and I've got this emotional attachment toit, but Glenn was the first person that I

(57:20):
can really say, hey, I knew this personwho died in combat.
And it's the first workout where I'veactually shed tears while doing the
workout.
I've actually had the emotions bubble up.
And I know a lot of people have that kindof experience.
You can't fabricate it, you can't make itup.
But yeah, the first time I did that, man,it was one of the most, it's cool because

(57:40):
I really, working out for me, and again,we'll go back to the.
the competition thing.
Like it's more of like a movingmeditation.
And it's just like part of my, just partof my day.
It just makes me a person, right?
It makes me the person that I am.
But that one in particular was hugely,just an amazing experience.
Like I'll never, never forget it.
Yeah, it's a it's a it's funny.

(58:02):
I remember bawling my eyes out on thatworkout and just like just pouring my
heart and soul into it.
And I can't do Murph without thinkingabout what like the kind of big picture
and I can't do Murph without thinkingabout Glenn and like to be able to tap
into that.
It's an emotional energy source.
It's a it's a it's a grounding force.

(58:23):
It's a you know, it's the WWGD.
What would Glenn do?
any of those inspirational moments, I'mlucky to be one of the hundreds and
hundreds of people that knew Glenn and gotto call him best friend, you got to coach
him, like you got to be a part of hisearly CrossFit experience and like be able
to have that in you.

(58:43):
And I mean, man, I'll say it, it's a giftthat keeps on giving.
percent.
Yeah.
And that's a, you know, it's a, it's a wayto, to take a tragedy and, and yeah, turn
into a positive.
I mean, Hey, we all wish he was just here.
We all wish he was with us.
well now we've got this.
So, you know, it's an opportunity toremember him, remember the fallen and,

(59:07):
and, and, and dig in.
And, I mean, I'm so it's, it's, it's justfunny how life comes together.
Like, of course our first real CrossFitcoach is.
happening with another guy who loves themountains and being skiing and being in
the, you know, being in that environment.
We had a gym that's owned by a Navy seal.
Like what a perfect storm of fun.

(59:27):
And yeah, there happens to be a beach twoblocks away and there happens to be a bar
about 14 steps away that we can go andtear it off afterwards.
had it pretty good.
We had it pretty good.
I'd like to think that I didn't take thosedays for granted, but I probably did a
little bit.
But yeah, tremendously fond memories.

(59:49):
And like everything that, and I stillbelieve this to be true, but like
CrossFit, you just can't argue that, andwe may be getting way too inside baseball
for some of your viewers, but there's beensome ridiculously turbulent years, right?
Where any other, I'm convinced, like anyother...
community fitness or otherwise would haveprobably disbanded, gone their own way,
whatever, whatever splintered and ours hassomewhat.

(01:00:12):
But like that, that community that we hadback then where, you know, again, like
you're curating relationships outside ofthe gym, you're not just friendships, but
like I've known you and been close friendswith you for whatever, you know, shit, 17,
15 years, 16, 17 years.
I mean,
And, and I married a woman who I met inthe gym and, and all the things.

(01:00:37):
So, that is just like such a cool reminderfor me.
And like nowadays I'm, I have to remindmyself to like run away from the online
space and run back into the gym becausemayhem has something really similar,
right?
You can go in and if there's bullshithappening in the inside baseball CrossFit
ecosystem, you walk into that room andthere's probably 50 to a hundred people

(01:00:58):
who have.
no idea of any of it is going on, right?
Like they may have, like they saw oneInstagram post or they're, you know, they
have a question, but really they're justthere to get their workout in, see their
friends, do their thing and go out and geton with their day, you know?
Yeah, it's kind of a beautiful thing.
That is a simplistic.
I mean, Nathan, you're a gym owner.
Like you, you probably see the same thing.
was just about to say like all the stuffthat like 2020 was probably the most

(01:01:20):
polarizing year for all of that stuff.
And like, I had one of my members, she'snow 78.
She'd probably like 74 at that time.
And she's like, I heard there's somethinggoing on with CrossFit.
Like, is everything okay?
And I'm like, yes, don't worry about it,Pat.
It's not gonna affect you.
Like we are fine here.
But I had so many of my members who like,just they're oblivious to it.

(01:01:43):
Like it's
more of a suburban population, no one'strying to make the games, they just want
to get a good workout in.
And so it's, yeah, like the, all of thepolitics and like the game, like they
don't, they probably couldn't name threecurrent games athletes, like a lot of my
members, which is actually awesome.
Cause our community is so strong.
They're not like, but yeah, it's, andevery gym is different.

(01:02:05):
That's just kind of how mine is.
And a lot of that's just where like it'slocated geographically.
But yeah, it was funny cause people arelike, so I heard.
the owner of CrossFit might've said somenot nice things.
Like that was, I'm like, yeah, you couldsay that.
So anyways, the workout today, let's getyou warmed up.

(01:02:26):
-huh.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Yeah.
think it's a great segue into a mandatoryrapid fire question.
Nathan, I are going to take turns.
He's going to lead this off.
I don't know what his first question isgoing to be, but I know I'm not going to
like it.
Just rapid fire here through some of theseand.

(01:02:48):
Also, I just want to say, because I'll askthe question, I'll go right into it, but I
know I was really quiet during all thatconversation.
I was like, as someone who's been in theCrossFit space for a long time, but just
seeing a lot from the app, that was reallyentertaining for me to watch.
And like, I never knew Glenn, butobviously I know Sean and TJ super well.
It's like, it feels like I did know Glenn,just kind of through him and like, and

(01:03:11):
Rory here and you talk about some of thatstuff.
I'm like, yeah, like just, yeah.
So that was really cool for me.
So like, I know I was really quiet, butlike,
yesterday is probably the only snapshot ofthings I would never do in normal life,
but I do every year on Memorial day.
A typical workout would have ended withgoing across the street to this bar called
the beach side, grabbing a couple IPAs andGlenn would be like, well, you drink an

(01:03:33):
IPA because that dumb ass over theredrinking a bud or, you know, Coors light,
like he's got to buy three of those toequal the alcohol content in one of these.
So this is a more economical choice.
See,
So I'm going to drink the IPA.
I'm like, man, that's good thinking.
I only need to drink like three of thosethings.
And that guy's got to drink like eightbeers.
And then.

(01:03:56):
was that I would still drink eight IPAs,you know, I was just, I was a thirsty guy.
Yeah.
You know, those were dangerous years forall of us and then show up the next
morning and do it all over again.
Like, and just put out man and show upwith a smile on your face.
So it was, it was a magical time.
And like that's yesterday we, you know, wedo Murph, got a little work done, go grab

(01:04:19):
the kids and Heather and drive up to MountSoledad.
I packed a cooler full of beers.
it's 2024.
So I had a couple athletic non -alcoholicbeers in there as well.
And go and meet up with, you know, Marine,my buddy, John McKinley, Danny Miller
showed up.
Nikki Miller shows up, the girls, AndyLots, like all these old friends.

(01:04:40):
And also we got 15 people huddled aroundthis plaque up in Mount Soledad honoring
Glenn and just getting a couple of quietmoments and a couple of stories, like loud
moments.
Mike Mahoney is there and where everyonegrabs a beer.
And cheers to Glenn and just to have thosemoments and like we're lucky to be able to
do that.
And it's like, you know, go work hard,play hard, remember those folks that are

(01:05:02):
important to you and get back and do itagain the next day, man.
It's it's it's super, super important.
So I think Nathan's got a couple of rapidfire questions for you.
Yeah, do you just wanna go back and forth,Sean, like we did last time?
I like the way that, okay, cool.
Okay, Rory, close your eyes for a second.
Clear your head.
Viewers, you can also close your eyes andclear your head.

(01:05:24):
Rory, was Sean a good student in class?
Bye.
I was the worst.
Sean was not a Sean.
It depends, man.
If you're grading on.
Sorry, I don't know if these are supposedto be quick answers, but like to your
point about Glenn being a good coach,despite a level one, there's some
intangible things that you cannot teach,whether you take a level 15.

(01:05:46):
I think that for a coach, those areempathy.
Those are certainly energy and the abilityto inspire people.
And so, yeah, you know, if we're lookingat it, this is like a chart.
Then he was off the charts fantastic interms of like energy and vibe in terms of
rule following and attention to detail.
He was close to, you know, let's give hima one, two, but he, he remembered the

(01:06:08):
door.
He remembered the door squat.
So, I mean, maybe it was just my, maybe Iwasn't paying attention.
No, no, I wasn't paying attention.
So you had to pull the door out to correctmy ass.
so, you know, that was,
it.
Yeah.
No, I stand by it.
Some of the best people for the gym arelots of times the worst listeners in

(01:06:30):
class.
That's a real thing.
guilty.
What was your very first job?
ever, ever.
I worked in a, I was a lifeguard.
I was a lifeguard.
We were in Austin, Texas and we lived in aneighborhood right down there by Lake
Austin, which at the time was so ghetto.
And now if you went like two blocks downthe road is where like Lance Armstrong

(01:06:52):
lives and there's all these crazy likeestates on the river.
But back then it was like, you weren'tgoing to get shot or anything, but it was
like, it was pretty redneck.
What was your dream job growing up?
just talked with my kids about this andthere's a couple.
Last night, if you guys haven't done thisin a while, the 1989 film Abyss is
tremendous.

(01:07:13):
And that's a segue that I wanted to be amarine biologist for the longest time.
So marine biology was my big one.
And then we also watched, it's patheticthat all of my memories come from movies,
but we just watched Fall Guy.
And I remember like through our entiremiddle school career, I wanted to be a
stunt guy.

(01:07:34):
And...
you know, go do stunts and stuff.
I used to read books and take them out ofthe library and stuff.
So Stuntman was another big one for me.
funny.
We just spent some time two weekends ago,we were at Summer Strong, this great
fitness event that the guys at Sorenex puton.
And Kai Furnow was there and she talksabout how she always wanted to be a stunt
woman.
And she had like a 15 year career beinglike all the Marvel stand -ins and like of

(01:07:57):
doing all these crazy superhero movies.
And I remember having one high schoolfriend who went off to be a stunt person.
And I just read this guy, John, John tookoff to LA to like go and work in stunts.
And we were all just like, that'sfascinating.
I want to be a snowboarder so it didn'twork for me.
Quick ranking here.

(01:08:17):
real quick, Pat Velner's brother, John,I'll mess up his first name, but Pat
Velner's brother is a stuntman, he'sradical and he's a great follow, I'll send
it to you.
He's a Cirque du Soleil guy, but he alsodoes all these gnarly stunts.
All right, go.
send me that one.
I always look at looking at humans performamazing tricks is a is just good fodder.

(01:08:38):
So if you're going to be scrolling, youmight as well get a little something like
what how does he do that?
I rank these from best to worst salsa,queso, guacamole.
Where's the queso from?
You decide.
Texan.
If it's like Mottie's, Mottie's Queso inAustin, Texas, like Queso is untouchable.

(01:09:02):
It ranks above all.
Guacamole is fighting for first position.
So they're tied on points, but whoever,you know, depending on location, like one
of them wins.
And then salsa is salsa.
Although you can find a fantastic salsa.
It's just sort of, you know, it's, yeah,it, I don't not love it, but it ranks

(01:09:24):
lower.
Okay, that's fair, totally fair.
Nathan?
on that, what's your Chipotle order?
Okay, so I have to get the context thatright now I'm not eating gluten or dairy.
And so the queso question was tough.
But I always go, so what I do is I order abowl, not a salad, because if you order a
salad, they'll give you too much lettuce.

(01:09:46):
I order the bowl, but then you ask for thesalad dressing at the end.
And I'll usually do double meat witheither carnitas or chicken, depending on
like, if you can tell that the chicken'sfresh, I'll always go for the chicken and
steak.
I'll go with the corn salsa.
I'll get the pico de gallo and then alittle bit of lettuce on top, salad

(01:10:10):
dressing.
Good to go.
sorry, white rice, no beans.
White rice, no beans.
No beans.
No beans.
are just like a filler at Chipotle.
Yeah, fair enough.
Do you play any instruments?
For the first time, I'm the guy who hasowned a guitar since I was like 15, but

(01:10:31):
all I could do was just make it soundawful.
And so for the first time in my life, I'vedisciplined myself to play about five
minutes a day.
And so if we talk in about a year, I'llplay you a song.
Okay, I'm gonna hold you to that one yearfrom now guitar song Rory go And this this

(01:10:51):
you you could do this on social media Youcould just you know record your song and
just post it just tag me and then I'll beable to find you there Because if you
don't you just send me a video of it.
I'm gonna post it for you.
So, you know
That's fair.
Actually, I like the pressure.
But the first year that I went to Alaska,I brought a violin with me because I was
convinced I was going to play the violin,which is a very difficult instrument.

(01:11:14):
And in that environment, I did manage toget to where I could play like one or two
jigs.
And like Mary had a little lamb typestuff, you know.
But unfortunately, when you come back outof the woods, there's so many more
distractions that the violin went the wayof the dodo bird for me.
I'm going to say guitar makes a lot moresense.

(01:11:34):
I got a, an animal house vision of youjust strumming away at the guitar and you
know, probably just, you know, 15, 16girls down below just pining away and then
Angie coming in, picking up the guitar,smashing it just like Belushi did.
I yeah, all I want to do is be able to Ijust want to be able to kick out a couple

(01:11:56):
around campfire, you know
That's awesome.
I think you're well on your way.
And I'm on that note.
receiving gifts?
hell yeah.
What do you got?
Just kidding.
That went back to a conversation Sean andI had about love languages and both of us

(01:12:16):
were like, I don't really like receivinggifts.
And it's just like interesting, like,yeah.
So what kind of gifts do you like toreceive?
like the, it's funny, my whole family isthis way.
I don't like the social pressure.
If I had a birthday party when I was akid, I wanted the birthday, I wanted the
presents to be open after everybody wasgone.
Not because I didn't appreciate them, butI hated the forced interaction of thank

(01:12:40):
yous and whatnot.
But yeah, meaningful, thoughtful giftsnowadays, me and Ange are far more focused
on experiences than things.
And so we're trying to focus on that.
If it's something as simple as like aconcert or a date night or a vacation
we're going to go on, you know, somethinglike that supersedes any kind of, you

(01:13:01):
know, physical thing about what's it.
I agree with that, those experientialones, those are good.
Why did you shoot your truck?
God, this is a good question, man.
And it was really hard to answer thisquestion to my children.
We were, did you see, okay, so did you seeJoe Rogan shoot the Tesla truck?

(01:13:24):
I heard about it.
I didn't actually see it, but like it, itmade the rounds.
that's vaguely my why is because we weretalking about that on the podcast.
And with the videographer here at Mayhem,I was like, Hey, should I say that I'm
going to shoot my F -150 and like, youknow, be a dumb ass about it?
He said, yeah, definitely do it.
Definitely do it.
So knowing full well that it was he'd gothrough my truck door.

(01:13:44):
I was like, you know, I, I, I've mouthedoff on the rich frowning podcast and then
enough people were fired up about it.
That I was like, fuck you guys.
Like, I'm going to show you.
They're like, I'll talk, he won't do it.
He won't do it.
And I was like, dude, this truck's beenthrough way more than this.
Pink, ooh.
good reason.

(01:14:05):
No good.
though, and you put at least the bag inthe truck, because it would have gone
through both doors.
I almost regret it if I'm being honest.
If you're gonna do it, why not do it allthe way?
I'll tell you what, the second way toanswer this is to say, who doesn't wanna
shoot their truck door with an arrow?
Let's be honest.
And so I was going for it and I was like,it fully, the way that it sailed through

(01:14:28):
that first door, it would have gonethrough both doors and then out into the
field a significant distance.
So yes, you're right, it was goodforesight and I got a credit rich with
that.
But...
I almost wish that I would have done bothdoors.
I mean, just put a punctuation mark onthat one.
Yeah, if you're gonna do it, do it right.
This one, so if you've ever heard of like,what's your stripper name?

(01:14:52):
And it's based off of what was your firstpet and the street that you grew up on
determines your stripper name.
I would be CW Birkdale and it's importantand it's important to know that CW stands
for country western CW Birkdale would havebeen like that was a big old chow mix dog

(01:15:16):
and Yeah, so with that it'd have to belike assless chaps and a cowboy hat, you
know
I think that would be the only thing tosay.
Yeah.
Sean, you got the next one.
All right.
Probably a big one here.
What's the best piece of advice you'veever received?

(01:15:41):
You've been around some amazing people inyour life, so I can only imagine you
probably have a lot to sift through there.
for sure.
So maybe I'll go with recency instead oflike all time because there's so much,
right?
But in recent conversation just with aclose group of friends, it was, and it
wasn't necessarily advice, it was justmore, you know, somebody had made the

(01:16:02):
observation through reading and theobservation was that you don't find the
meaning of life you created.
And so a lot of people are, you know,
searching and say, it hasn't happened.
This thing hasn't happened before yet.
My hit, you know, my, my big breaks goingto come or whatever it is.
And, you get caught up in that kind of BSof waiting for something or, you know,

(01:16:24):
this, this faith that's been promised toyou, whatever it is, as opposed to making
the meaning of life, right?
Because you can, you can wait and wait andwait and wait, but you can also take
action and, and create meaning out of whatyou've got.
And I think,
especially in this day and age dude,Instagram and seeing what other people
have going on and jealousy and comparisonand all that bullshit, you can really get

(01:16:46):
lost in the weeds instead of kind offocusing on gratitude and what you've got
available to you now.
And so being grateful for it, but alsodeciding what the meaning of your life is.
Amen.
Yeah, man.
That's good stuff.
You've been a lot of places.
What is your favorite place you've evervisited?

(01:17:07):
or top two, top three, like.
Okay, so the one that springs to mindalways is, well, Alaska will forever be
like one of my places.
So I'll put that on there.
But the island of Corsica, which iscurrently Italian owned, I suppose.

(01:17:28):
It's an island in between France and Italythat, if I remember correctly, it's where
they sent Napoleon when he wasexcommunicated.
Yep.
then we went and we visited there and itwas the one of the coolest places ever
been.
And all of these things, like I asked her,I was young, no responsibilities, just

(01:17:49):
traveling.
So you got to factor all that stuff in.
But if you have the opportunity to go toCorsica, it's absolutely tremendous from a
historical point of view, but also from a,it's got everything kind of like in Santa
Cruz where you can go and be at the beachand then be at the Redwoods.
This was like amazing forests on theinterior and just gorgeous beaches with
like.
Rosemary and sage just growing naturally.

(01:18:11):
So the whole place smells good.
and then the other one that springs tomind is that I went to the Amazonian
rainforest in Peru, did the Inca trailthat same year.
And so I'm throwing a bunch out there, butthe rainforest was mind blowing.
And the fact that, you know, as a kid, youread about it, you hear about these kinds
of things and, it definitely, it was, itwas all the hype was real.

(01:18:35):
That's awesome.
It's funny.
Heather and I are been planning our 10year wedding anniversary.
Also a woman that you meet in a CrossFitgym that you fall in love with and just
absolutely chased down and have to spendthe rest of your life with.
And here we are, you know, years later andwe're looking at 10 years and we're like,
we want to go to Italy.

(01:18:56):
But like we're talking about going toRome, Mount Vesuvius, the Malphi coast,
not that far from Corsica.
There's a couple other spots we've beentalking about.
And one of them was, do we go to Peru?
Do part of the Inca trail and end up inCusco, like, you don't have part of that
experience as a full adventure.
And we're like, like, which one speaks tothe 10 year anniversary better for us.

(01:19:20):
And we've been like going back and forthand I'm like, man, there's just no bad
choices here.
so I love that your top two are literallyin our top two list of like, where should
we go for this amazing?
chance to just you know be energized bynature the outdoors love all the all the
good stuff that's important
Italy sounds more romantic.

(01:19:42):
I, we're leaning that way.
We're leaning that way.
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The other one who will have it's adventureplace and maybe, you know, maybe it's part
of that with the kids and like, see whattheir cable they're, they're a little on
the young side for that one right now.
A hundred percent.
If they ever open up Machu Picchu, theyclose down to Taurus, right?
So I think that if they ever open thatback up.

(01:20:04):
Yeah.
of the, it was part of the bucket listwas, was to do that.
And yes, that is back open.
Like the, there's a series of hotels,well, more like lodges that are, in the
base area that you can, you can, you cango to.
So that would be part of that experience.
Nathan, what do you got?
You got the last one, I asked the visitingone.

(01:20:25):
there we go.
What do you do to relax?
What does relaxation look like?
Man, we do a lot of, this would be funny.
So we moved up here from California,right?
And we now live on 13 acres, which istremendous, but it's also a lot of upkeep.
And so I got a zero turn tractor that Ilike to jump on to keep the grass down,

(01:20:46):
lift things, cut things up with achainsaw.
There's a lot of like outdoors that justhas to do with like land maintenance that
I really and truly love.
Cause I'm, I need the solitude, right?
So like anybody who's spent the summer inAlaska.
as much as I want to be with my family 24seven, I got to get away from that as
well.
So, not my family.

(01:21:07):
I have to get away from life.
and so yeah, love, love being outside onthe land and then, mountain biking do we
talked about it, but it's like, I can'tsurf here.
and so that's a great, easy outdoor outletwhere you can throw some headphones in or
not and be in some pretty incrediblenature, but also kind of like get the
heart rate up high and just get some goodthinking done.

(01:21:29):
you're in God's country for that.
When TJ, you know, the other half of bubslived in Knoxville, I went down to visit
him once.
And we were doing some like just, youknow, workshop meetings.
And he's like, well, we got to go for amountain bike ride.
And I was like, okay, I mean, yeah, I'mout and bike at home.
And I hadn't felt the vibe on mountainbiking.
I just I just kids and running around toomuch.

(01:21:50):
And we went out for a couple of hours, andI could not believe how pristine.
The trail systems and the forest and theoutdoors are in Tennessee in your area.
I mean, you are truly in God's country formountain biking.
Dude, and you forget it's like, you get ontwo wheels and it's like being a kid
again.
You know what I mean?
You get that feeling.

(01:22:12):
It's almost like, and downhills are likelittle video game and super interactive.
It touches the same dopamine centers asskiing and snowboarding when you're going
downhill.
And it is, it's just gorgeous, man.
Yeah, couldn't agree more.
on that note, Rory, thank you so much fortaking time with us today and joining us
today.

(01:22:32):
if people want to learn more about you andcross it mayhem and, and things that
you're involved in, where can they findyou?
So man, I'm on Instagram, but I've been ajust a total, I lost my voice on Instagram
a little bit.
So I'm committed to, you know, gettingback into the game and sort of making sure

(01:22:53):
that I'm promoting what I want to promoteand talk about what I want to talk about.
So just my first and last name, RoryMcKernan.
Mayhem is easy to find.
Usually our best content goes on Rich'schannel.
So on Instagram, check out Rich Froning,check out the CrossFit Mayhem to see like
the Mayhem athletes stuff.
So.
Most of the work that I get to touchluckily is on those channels and the

(01:23:13):
YouTube channel for Mayhem also is we'realways up to some pretty fun stuff.
So worth checking us out there.
and your podcast.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The podcast funny enough.
I think that we're probably, I don't knowif this is unique to podcasts, but we get
as much viewership on YouTube as we dopeople downloading and listening.
And so every, every episode is on YouTube.

(01:23:35):
really just us kind of shooting the shit.
Like we talked CrossFit, but Rich is wayinto the outdoors.
we talk about family life, the wholething.
So, yeah, if it hits your vibe, try out anepisode of that too.
And, yeah, or you could check out my pageon bubs .com.
and buy some product using the code Rory.
you have a code?

(01:23:55):
Who let that happen?
Wait a minute.
Dang.
You know what?
This is where I, I'm on a need to knowbasis.
I didn't need to know that.
That's amazing though.
No, I don't need to know that.
here and pimp their code.
Like.
Just tell them all that their code isRory.
yeah, you know, you know, the edit buttonis you just, you know, just mute that one,

(01:24:17):
make him earn it.
Don't let him, don't let him use a podcastfor that or better yet, give him that
snippet to post so that he always got iton his own on that channel.
I love that.
That's actually the last thing we do onour podcast.
Always is we're just like, cause he did itso much, we're like, all right, Angela,
what do you want to talk about?
And he'd be like, well, you can use mayhemathlete code, blah, blah, blah.
And you could do this, blah, blah, blah.
So we'll give him like, we'll give him astraight 90 seconds or two minutes just to

(01:24:39):
promote his codes.
Yeah.
check the show notes because it's allgoing to be listed there alphabetically.
Yeah, yeah, and we'll throw all of likefor the listeners will throw like Rory's
and mayhem's and everything in the shownotes so if you're YouTube or on the audio
channels I can go in there and click andfind all that stuff so Cool Rory yet.

(01:25:01):
Thanks again for being here with today.
We'll outro and then be on our way So guysas always Yeah, thank you for coming in
Stay on for just a second though, I thinkNathan is that correct?
I...
Please?
be here.
Damn it.
Okay.

(01:25:21):
Guys, thank you for listening.
You can find the Cult of Recreationalismon all podcasting services.
And don't forget to check us out onYouTube as well as our social media.
Just look up Bubbs Naturals and you'regonna find us.
And while you're at it, leave a thumbs up,leave a five star, whatever platform
you're on, leave a positive review.
It all helps.
So Rory, once again, thank you.

(01:25:42):
Thank you, my friend.
Awesome, guys.

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Rory McKernan | Ep. 15

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Rory McKernan | Ep. 15