Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr. Sam Reed and myself, Coach David Siverston. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition, and most importantly, mindset. All right, welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I am Coach David Syverton. I have a very special guest. This is actually a repeat guest here on the Herdfit Podcast. I have with me Dr. Alandra Greenley, uh, a CrossFit bison athlete who is also at this point, I would say is worldwide known. Uh my dog's walking real quick. Hold on. Do you hear him in the background? It's been very slightly uh a worldwide known high rocks athlete that was just on a global stream for the fact that she was at the high rocks world championships. Where was that? That was in Stockholm. In Stockholm, and she did the race women's double pro women's double, which is for those that don't know, one of the top athletes in the world in the high rocks realm, a absolute exploding sport. And she did the race pregnant, and we're gonna get into that. But the fact that she did it at that level being pregnant is no surprise to me personally. Someone that doesn't know Alondra that well personally, have coached her a lot, I've seen her in a professional environment. But I would say, of all the years that Bison has been around, I don't think I've seen someone with the work capacity of Alondra. And I mean that. And to see that she's accomplishing something at a at a high level on a global stage, not just a national stage, um, does surprise a few. Definitely doesn't surprise us. Alondra, could you look back on your somewhat still new to career to high rocks, among everything else you're doing, and kind of reflect on how fast it got that big?

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah. So it's kind of funny you say like new career for high rocks. Um, so high rocks goes back to I think like 2017 was their very first race. And then with COVID

Hyrox Worlds While Pregnant

SPEAKER_02 2:05

and everything, they kind of like took um a break. And my first time doing it was 2022, which I don't know to some people that might sound like a long time ago, some people not so much. Um, but that was my my first race. So from then that's kind of like when things really started to take off. I did the New York race there. Um, and since then it's just exponentially grown. And so many people are hearing about. I remember when I first was talking to people that I was doing this race, uh, they're like, you know, what is that? Why would you ever want to do that? And now people are asking me, like, oh, have you ever heard of high rocks? You'd be good at that. You'd be good at that. Um, so it's it's completely changed, and I'm really excited to see like where it's going to go. Um, it's, you know, we are probably going to touch on this later, but like compared to CrossFit, it's it's very similar in some ways and very, very different in other ways.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah. And it's funny, I'm interested to hear eventually as our conversation goes, like how you can blend everything together. And that's one thing that I really do try to take on myself, but also as a coach, you try to say, like, hey, all of you guys, these goals that are in front of you, they are obtainable. You do know how to get there. Whether it's something as simple as some, you know, loot shed five to 10 pounds or compete at a high level or go get that first pull-up, you can do it. You have done these things in your life in other areas, career relationships, other physical accomplishments. And I'm gonna try to tie a lot of what you do physically to why it helps you in cross it, why it helps you in high rocks, maybe even your career. So I'm really interested here on that. We have had you on before. And anyone that wants to get like the intro from the herd fit perspective to Elantra, season five, episode 155, it came out June 24th, 2024. So you can simply just scroll back about, I guess at this point, 60 episodes, and that that's like kind of her uh introduction to Sam and I because you were still relatively new to bison at that time. Um, but before we get into the weeds, can you discuss some of your background prior to just kind of like go over it in terms of what was your athletic background growing up? Because some people do need to know that, you know, because that does bleed into what you are now and what you do professionally. And again, it's like you're gonna start tying a few of these things together.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Yeah, absolutely. So I get that question a lot, kind of what's your athletic background? And people are really looking at some of the higher level high rocks athletes and like, oh, like what's making them good at good at high rocks. So I come from a swimming background. I started when I was really, really young, and I swam all the way up until the end of high school and decided not to swim in college just because I wasn't really sure where I was gonna go from there. And then in college, I realized I really liked having some sort of athletic endeavor.

How Hyrox Went Mainstream Fast

SPEAKER_02 4:45

And so I joined the fencing team, which is very much like a mental thing and kind of a social thing too. So that was really, really fun to start a new sport and just have that beginner mindset and not being good at something. Um, I think there's definitely a growth mindset there. Um after that, I went to med school and really didn't focus too much on exercise or like anything specific, but I would go to the gym. I think like started maybe my second year, like halfway through or something like that. And I got into the habit of like training on the or start studying on the elliptical, just because like just mindless, just constantly moving, so we're just sitting all day long. I think that's where I really built up a really solid endurance base, just like being on there for an hour, nothing like just totally zone two. I wasn't even thinking about it, I wasn't really like checking my heart rate at that point, but you know, just keeping steady so you can um read. And then I kind of like dabbled in some um marathons and half marathons at that point, a couple like sprint triathlons afterwards, and then I started CrossFit in 2017 when I started my residency because I was like, you know, I needed like time to go to the gym and just have it structured. That's that time. I do it, I leave, and like that chapter's over. Um that's really when I started.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Okay, and this so that's when you started CrossFit, and then you said high rocks. So it's it's funny again. You start putting these things together, it kind of makes sense now that the swimming background for those that have not swam, I'm not a swimmer, but I have trained to swim for CrossFit competitions on a few occasions. Nothing blows me up like swimming, like not the assault bike, not running, not putting the assault bike and running together. And it's partially because I'm not good at it, so I'm definitely not efficient and you're underwater, it's a whole different kind of breathing, different level breathing, but the conditioning gains that you can get from swimming probably bleed into everything, a lot of what your work capacity is as a high-ox athlete and crosshitter. Do I have some of that right?

SPEAKER_02 6:37

I think 100%. I was actually just reading some study recently about how it develops, swimming develops your brain. And if you start it when you're very, very young, just kind of like like synchronizing your breath with movement and being able to like um hold your breath under pressure or know, you know, under pressure, knowing that that next breath is coming. And I find so much during difficult workouts, I'm so focused on breathing and I try to synchronize, like, okay, I'm gonna take one breath in between these two breaths, and then I'm gonna, you know, do that. And I found that that makes a huge difference. And I know probably people at the gym can hear me breathing when I'm coming up on them, like running, because my breathing is so like synced to how I'm I'm going. And I, you know, one, two, three, one, two, three. And I've had people like comment to me before, like, yeah, I know she's I know it's a laundry coming up back there.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

I actually that's one of my things I remember from uh Chris Henshaw's aerobic capacity course was how how you're syncing your breathing with your steps. And he touched on it with us somewhat again. This is a seminar with people just trying to learn as much as they can in one day. But it was one of the things that stood out to me um about controlling your breath and really kind of self-analyzing how tired are you actually in a workout? Meaning, if you can't sync your breathing with your steps, you need to slow down a little bit. But he always says the breathing is the tell. That was the line that he would always tell, uh, that he would always use, even for his highest level CrossFit games competitors in their quote, endurance events, which is could be a 5k, which is not actually real endurance, but from CrossFit perspective, it absolutely is. And he said he trained his athletes to listen to the breathing of other athletes to analyze how tired are they actually, and that's something that you have to train. But I think swimming is probably neurologically the best way for you to train that. So for anyone that is trying to enhance their engine, you might want to look a little deeper than interval running and assault bikes, you know, like the the getting in the pool and really kind of training in that regard probably would create more gains than doing more running intervals. Do you agree with that, especially for people who don't run a lot, uh swim a lot?

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Um, I definitely think so. The other interesting about interesting thing about swimming is that it's something that's so much easier to learn when you're younger. And if you haven't done that and you try to do it later, it's a completely different workout. Like you're saying it blows you up, and like for me, I like I don't know, like I'm just you know cruising along in the

Swimming To Med School To CrossFit

SPEAKER_02 9:05

water, but you can get such a good workout out of swimming, you know, granted that you're you're safe and everything like that, and get so much out of it. Um, if it's something that you're not really very good at. Um, not saying that I'm great, but I have you know solid background, I can swim like pretty well, and to get something out of a workout, like a swimming workout for me, like yeah, it's it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah, um, so yeah, I think so. Sorry, you go.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Oh no, I was just gonna say you don't have like the the option of breathing. If you're doing you know freestyle like side to side breathing, it's in a rhythm, you don't really have a choice with it.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

True, very true. That actually is a great point. Because and I do think breathing in CrossFit sport and cross in whether it's long, short, medium, the ability to know when and when not to breathe, it's kind of like just up to you. Where in the water, the water makes a decision for you. That's a good point. Um, can you touch on your training lifestyle, right? So that's kind of like your background, but your current lifestyle, you could even say over the past three years, can you touch on some of the why? Because one thing I respect about you from a coaching perspective is that when you show up to the gym, like you're you're very what I would call locked in. And we have a lot of these at Bison, not everyone, and everyone has their own different reasons, and no one needs to be like anyone else. I'm from my coaching perspective, I've done this for a long time. I have found that people that get consistent results and don't plateau as easily or as often, they have a locked-in approach when they're in the gym. Like they are personable, they will talk, they're not gonna shut people out, but there are some people like they're there to train. That that is what, and I feel like I get that vibe from you. Like you are there to kick ass, and then you leave and you go kick ass on a bike or a hike or run um or in ultra marathon. Can you touch on like what is the the why behind it? Uh is there a why, or is that just who you're trained to be?

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Um, I mean, I feel like every day there's a different why for it, and there's different things on my mind, different things that I'm I'm working through, things that I'm like training for. Um, it's just kind of part of my personality. I like to push myself and see how hard I can I can go, what score I can get, what what pace I can keep. Um I and I think that it's exciting. I try to keep like the competitions that I do pretty varied, you know. Like you mentioned, like the ultra marathons. I did like uh Iron Man Distance Triathlon, and last night I was looking at like a swim run in a couple weeks. I was like, well, that sounds like fun. But I try to do like so many different things. So I feel like my why really changes, and obviously with my life changing coming up, that's gonna change too. So excited to see.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah. Um, and how so I mean, you're gonna be balancing a lot of things coming up in the near future, but you've balanced a pretty strenuous, demanding career in addition to all the training. Have you found ways to blend the two with each other? Because I have heard a lot of that. Of you in my position, you just listen to a lot of different stories and scenarios and situations, and we all have our reasons why we get pulled away from the gym or pulled away from training. And do you find ways to push yourself in the gym because of the way you have pushed yourself to the career where you are sitting right now?

SPEAKER_02 12:24

I think that they definitely go hand in hand. I think for both things, whether I'm in the operating room or in the middle of a workout, you have to be completely locked in. There's nothing else that I'm thinking about like during surgery. I'm completely shut out. Like my life on the outside, like it's it's just crazy the mindset that you get in. You're like in a flow state with that. And I feel like you're training that like also in the gym. Like if you see somebody says something to me like during a workout, I'm like, I'm like not even thinking in words. Like so much, like, wait, what? Or like when I like if I don't know, if it's some like weird rep scheme and I start like getting confused, like it's just like all out the way. I should have should have written taken better notes for like what we're supposed to be doing right now. Um, but I think it's really just like mind training, getting getting locked in and being being able to turn that on and turn it off.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

I do think a lot of endurance athletes are trained mentally. I'm not gonna say better, but uh very different than other athletes, where it's like short spurts, like sport, like baseball, football, basketball, like short spurt, short spurt distraction, short spurt, short spurt distraction, and crossfitters. You know, we're very rarely working for more than 20 minutes at a time. It's very rare. A lot of times workouts are shorter, or there are intervals that add up to that amount of working time. Endurance, like true endurance, like one, two, three, four hours of non-stop work. Even if I told the gym to go for a 30-minute row, there are, I would say, most people will be like, Oh my gosh, that is so boring. That is not a good workout. And it is, and but I think part of the challenge that you hope some people would take on is that it's like it's a mental grind. The first coach I ever had in CrossFit was the first workout is a 60-minute row. And he goes, Afterwards, he's like, I don't care what your score is. I was actually proud of my score. He goes, I don't care. He goes, I just want to prove to you, I want you to prove to yourself that you can do something very boring for 60 minutes and stay mentally locked in. And I was like, Wow, that actually was because I remember the first 20 minutes, I'm like, This sucks. Like this, my butt hurts, my arms are getting tired, and then you find that flow state where you're not even paying attention to the clock anymore. And that is something that you can get by endurance training, and it really can bleed into career anything, but also in sport. Yeah, so okay, high rocks sport. So I know that you actually were you were on, I don't know how to describe this, you were pretty well profiled in high rocks for a lot of good reasons over the past few years. But this past year, something happened to you at a race that you know it it you can tell high rocks is very much in the growth stage right now. They're they're going from popular and awesome and inclusive. I think

Breath Control And Aerobic Base

SPEAKER_00 15:10

they do an outstanding job from the outside perspective, but they're going through a lot of what the CrossFit Games went through in their growth stage where they're starting to make mistakes or they just don't know what to do when certain situations come up. Can you touch on what happened at that whole? I still have not gotten the full story from you about missing a meeting, getting disqualified. Can you touch on what happened and um just we'll expand on that?

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, so the way the high-rack season works right now is they had like regional um competitions where you could qualify for the world championships. And I had qualified to be in the regional in both individual as well as in the doubles. Um, so that was you know great. I think like two weeks beforehand, or it might have even been less than that, 10 days or something, they told us that we had to be there for a meeting on like Friday evening. Or yeah, I think it was Friday.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

And with my work schedule, I can't do that. I have patient schedule, I have like surgery and everything like that. I need more than than two weeks. So unfortunately, I missed that that individual meeting. I was there later that evening afterwards, and so I was able to attend the meetings for the doubles, which was the competition was the next day. So that was kind of an interesting scenario and kind of like a different I don't know, I guess like in type of thing that happened with HIROX, because they gave me a call on Friday night and said, You missed the meeting. The rules are that you can't uh participate. And I, you know, I understand that that's what they said, and I was accepted it, that was fine. I told them I was, you know, on my way there, I was going to be there the next day for the uh doubles meeting. So, you know, I accepted it. Then the next day I found out somebody else wasn't at that meeting either, and they were allowed to compete. And when I brought this up to the race director, the technical director, it that's when things got really, really fishy. Um the I don't really want to get into the nitty-gritty details.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Yeah, no, no, and honestly, I don't even want you to either because I'm trying to keep this more surface level and compare it to, I mean, there's gym owners that listen to our podcasts, and there's people that coach classes, and you know, we deal with this all the time. I deal with this. Like you have rules, but then you kind of look at a certain situation or a certain person, you're kind of like, Oh, you know, you want to be keep it inclusive, you want to keep it positive. Um, and it's tough to like, hey, this is the rule, it's got to be the same rule for everyone, but you don't want to come across as some sort of drill sergeant or power trip kind of situation. But as the sport grows and gets very professional, now you have a lot of money and even more money coming in. You you're gonna have to go in one of two directions. And the craw I speak to be is the crossway games have struggled with this as well. There has not been a lot of consistency with their sport season for as long as I've been involved in it, but especially over the last seven to eight years, it almost gets to the point where it's laughable, where we can't make any plans as an affiliate, as a coach, and myself isn't as an athlete, because we know the only inevitable thing is that rules are going to be changing within the next year, and that it's really tough to grow something if you're trying to use people. I mean, you are someone that really helped high rocks get off the ground, whether you think that or not, from my perspective, you have you've been a high-level contributor that has continued to come back. I think how many high rocks races do you think you've done? I mean, I think so. There's actually a website that tells you, I think I'm at like 33 or 34 now. Wow. So, like again, that's like that's a huge something that high rocks is it's obviously not just a one and done activity where some people do say that, oh, one-time experience, never want to do it again. And there are a lot of reasons to go back and do them again. There's different kinds of races, different divisions, and different goals you could pursue, but you have to kind of make sure that you're taking care of those people. And I'm not saying Alondra deserves special treatment, but she does deserve consistency in ruling. So if it's a rule for her, but not for someone else, that's a huge red flag that you hope they don't make that same mistake uh a year later. Let's touch on some of where they're at with influencers, right? And um the change in rules. And now I I paid attention to the world championships this past year, A, because you were there, and B, I kind of just wanted to watch. And I watched a lot of the stream and I saw that the guys, someone left a platform at on the skier with like three meters left, and he got DQ'd. And um, Hunter McIntyre, I think he got all these penalties for Burpee Broad jumps, which honestly I still don't understand the standard on those. Um, but again, they're a growing sport. Do you think they're doing a good job of hey, we're recognizing a problem that we uh a mistake that we made. Uh, we're gonna try to fix this for next year. Because at the end of the day, that really is all you could ask for. Um, do you think that they're doing at least a good job in that regard?

SPEAKER_02 20:07

I think that they're doing it publicly, and maybe it's just kind of like petty of me or whatever, but I just want them to acknowledge, like to the athlete, like, hey, we understand that that was like an unfair scenario. Like the call we made, you know, might not have been consistent. They don't have to say it was unfair, but like just admit that. And I think that that, like, for me personally, would make me feel better about it. Just be like, make me feel like I wasn't like completely wrong or or crazy about that, because the rules aren't being consistently applied. Um, I think that they're doing a good job, like now, even just like in the past few months, saying like publicly, okay, this is why this person got that penalty, and this is why the other person didn't. Whereas before it's just like, this is how it is, cheers. Yep. Find so-and-so. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. I think that they're that was brought to their attention. Like, if you want this to be high profile, you want the athletes to trust you, you need to have transparency as far as what's happening and why these decisions are being made.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yep. And I and just remembering what Dave Castro, the director of the CrossFit Games, things that he has said, and I agree with him to a point where hey, you look at any sport that has gotten big over the years, a lot of development happened in those early 10 to 20 to 30 years. Like rules still change in

Locked In Mindset From Surgery

SPEAKER_00 21:25

in the highest profile sports in the league. And there are still arguments about officiating and judging any sport, and that's kind of what makes it um unpredictable. But I do think objective, you have to be as objective as possible. Um, do you think there's anything standard wise that needs to improve? Like whether it's a specific movement, a specific standard, with I mean, we don't even have to get into the squats on wall balls. I know CrossFitters like to bash high rocks for that, but the biggest personalities in in CrossFit media have made a living off of CrossFitter. Not moving to standard as well. I mean, that's going to happen no matter what in intense physical activity. But do you think it has found a flow of like, hey, you Alondre, you as an athlete, you know what is expected of you. Now it's just up to you to train to that standard. Do you do you feel like everything is now on point? I really don't.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Um like you brought up the the burpees at World Championships. So they have a standard now. And this is the same thing and cross it with like the burpees over the bar.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

I don't even know what the standard is now. Every time we have it like an work, I'm like, wait, is it two foot, one foot? Like I don't even know. But yeah, and they even after the world championships, they just change the rules again to like a you can have like a five-centimeter stance like stagger. That's gonna be so subjective for the judge looking at you. Like that's even more subjective than they have to be like side by side. Um, so that's just absolutely crazy in my mind. And and so many athletes are putting so much time and money into you know performing at the high level, traveling to these events. And now, if if that I guess maybe not necessarily that, but if you don't finish a station, so say you get off the skier one meter before 1000, you can clearly finish 1000 meters. You're not, I don't know what what's happening where you couldn't finish that. You're disqualified, you don't even get a time for that event for the whole thing. That's right. Um, so if you travel to Ireland for your high rocks race, and this was the the the event that you're seeing you don't you have no evidence that you even did this this race.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah, that that's that's um I agree. Do you think again this outside perspective here? Do you think high rocks movements should ever be changed, or do you do you like the objectivity? This is what it is, it's never gonna change. Like, whether a movement or even an order, like I'm trying to think like the burpee broad jump to me, I don't know if there's really a clear way to come up with an actual standard for it. Like, what if they made it a burpee box get over, a burpee box jump over, or just something where it's just like you got to get over something, then come back, like and there is no five centimeter subjective line. Or do you think, hey, it's too we're too deep, we can't change anything about it?

SPEAKER_02 24:05

I think they're in too deep. I think that they've built the whole thing, like this is the same race every single time. This is it's the perfect race, or something like that, and they're not gonna change it. I think like it would have been smart to do that earlier on when they started seeing these things, the inconsistency with the sleds. Like I did a race in the US, and then I did a race like a month later in the in the UK, and the sleds were I was just hand over handing this this sled. It was crazy how much different they were. I'm like, these are not the same at all, and you'll have I don't know, just like so much. And I think um we kind of mentioned DECA a little bit too, but they're they kind of change that a little bit with their um what do they call them, prowl prowlers, whatever the yep, their sled push type thing.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Okay, but I don't think hierarchies is gonna change it. I think that they're this is gonna be like one of those just like kinks in the system, and it's gonna be up to whatever judge you have and what they see and their word against yours.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Because I I they changed the rules about video replay too, and I'm not sure exactly where where they're at with that now. So okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Oh yeah, I I've always been curious, but that's that's me, the CrossFitter speaking, and I understand there is a lot of value to keeping things the same and really just seeing how far that needle could be pushed. Um, do you lean? So do you like I know you like to sign up for a lot of different things, right? And that kind of keeps you like you know spontaneous and and keeps your body guessing, you get to train for different things. Do you lean towards high rocks being like your number one thing that you're really pursuing as an athlete? Or is it just one that you kind of probably are the best at?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I think more the latter. It just happens to be something that plays to my strengths, that that type of training. To be honest, I really see myself more as a CrossFit athlete. I see CrossFit as like my base training. And then if I have something else like on the side of like add in long runs on the weekend, or I'll add in some sort of swimming or biking, um, whatever that is. But I think like CrossFit is just like a baseline for anybody in any sport, is incredible. It builds like all the engine systems that you need, the strength that you need. You learn techniques, and then like you can apply those in in other scenarios. Um, so I think that's really beneficial. So I see myself as a CrossFit athlete.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Good. Yeah, that's a great endorsement for CrossFit. And I did not uh tell her to say that, everyone, by the way. Um, we we actually the high rock's crowd at at our affiliate, CrossFit Bison, has grown. Um, I think to the point the New York City race, if I had to do some quick math over the past two years, including repeats, I think we had we've had about 50 people do that race um from in 2025 slash 2026. And you hear more and more like, hey, I want to do it next year, I want to give it a shot. I've had some people do doubles that have said, I want to do it as an individual. Um, and you know, you have mentioned this in the past, you just said it now. And some people have actually said this post their first HyROX race, it's like I felt so prepared to get this done because of my cross-it training. They did a little specialized stuff in the eight to nine weeks leading up to that Coach Bobby uh programmed and did a great job programming. But do you think there is something missing in a traditional cross-it program that high rocks, if you do want to be competitive, right? I don't know about making worlds, but if you do want to get, you know, if you want to end a time around an hour, hour five, that that takes a different level of ability. Do you what do you think is missing in a traditional cross-it program?

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Um, so I guess I have kind of like two parts to that. So the the first part is like missing in like the traditional CrossFit programming. Honestly, not too much. I think different gyms have different like levels of running in their in their programming. It kind of depends on what part of the country you're into. But you definitely need to be able to, you know, do the run, not absolute, at least the my technique is not absolutely kill yourself on the run and then be able to get straight into doing something else.

Disqualification And Rule Consistency

SPEAKER_02 28:05

I think you know, technique-wise, also something there is like you're on the high rocks course, you're running around and around, and then you go through the rock zone and then you get to the station. A lot of people see that rock zone as like a rest. You know, I walk to the water thing, like that's part of your cumulative time. You're losing like seven to ten minutes in there if you're walking and you're not going like straight to the next station. And but if you just you're able to run straight in, start doing the work. Like I always tell them, like, as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the next, you're going to finish eventually. So whether you're tired, you just need to be like, okay, changing gears, we're going from the running, we're going into the next thing. I think there's a lot of CrossFit workouts that have that in it, but we don't always do them, maybe like you know, once a week or something like that, but just kind of like training, training that and having them be different engine systems. Um, I think that's really, really valuable.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Yeah, that's the mixed modal approach to CrossFit is I I see it just from a coach. Like it's just it really is helpful. Like you have to be good at running, but you can't just be good at running. You have to be good at moving some weight, but you can't just be good at moving some weight.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Yeah, you have to be moderately good at everything, but you don't have to be really good at anything. And I guess like the one thing that like I try to implement that like whenever we have a running workout in CrossFit is we have um a doorway and then we go to like our stations where we're where we're doing the work. So many people, you know, stop running right at the door, which is perfectly fine. But I really try to like, okay, pretend like this is a high-rox workout, run straight into your station. Maybe you slow down a little bit and you kind of catch your breath and like change your mindset. Um, but that's kind of like, and I so I think like people can implement that in whatever type of workout that they're doing, or be like, okay, I'm gonna take a few breaths, but like three breaths before I pick up the barbell going from like the pull-up bar. Um just kind of changing your mindset with that.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

The other thing I was gonna say at like the higher level of higher ox, and it's kind of the same thing with with CrossFit too, is it kind of gets into technique. Like, how are you doing your burpee broad jumps? And every time I've like done a doubles race with somebody, we kind of like talk about, okay, this is how I do them, and like I kind of move my hand like this, like just settle, like get all the rules, and like how are you doing your your farmer's carry, and like what how hard are you pushing like on your road? It's these little subtle things start to make a really big difference when you're kind of getting into like the the nuances of the sport and you're trying to be at the highest level. And it's the same thing in CrossFit. Like, we'll have workouts that I'm like, okay, if I put my barbell here and I put my box here, and you know, and then like that, just kind of like the way you set up the woo your workout makes a huge difference for your trans transitions, and like in the open, that it's kind of like regulated for like how that is, but like other workouts where like we don't necessarily have a specific setup in our job. Uh, people have commented, you know, like my my transitions, like I'll just like roll off the road into my sit-ups, and then like I'm like as I jump up and then jump up into the pull of bar, it's just like yeah, really quick. So, like little things like that make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

It's good that you say that because the what when you are an athlete in a class and you see someone doing that, I think the automatic default that most people go to is like, oh, they're just so competitive, they're just trying to beat everyone, they're just trying to do this, or and I really do think Alondra's a good example. And a lot of people in the gym, Ryan Radcliffe is a guy that used to do this a lot. He was at the gym before he moved to Texas, he was there before you were there, Alondra. But he reminded me of you, like he would set up his zone day to day based on how the quickest possible transition. And it's not necessarily a competitive thing, although the environment creeds that kind of like we're pushing each other, which is a healthy thing, in my opinion. But it's also for you to train that element of a workout is to get the most out of your workout. You don't have the excuse to take nine steps, hit the chalk bucket, look at the clock. It's no, I am setting it up that it's three steps away, and you you're trying to maximize the time. Um, and yes, it does show up in a score, but I have I think it goes deeper than what the score is. It's just a better way to train, it's a more mindful way to train, and it obviously works. I mean, it creates more work capacity for you that allows you to do things that you've done uh from an accomplishment perspective.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Yeah, and you know, it's not even always like, okay, I need this to be like as fast as possible, but someone's like, I'll set my my box up a little bit further. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna take like two steps and three breaths, and then I'm going into the box jumps. Like, yep, I just know what every single round I'm going to do, and it I just keep it the same.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Yeah, it kind of like makes the decision for you, not how tired you are, right? Like sometimes if something's preset for you, and those I've I program this way sometimes. We create the level of hard by the way we program things at the gym sometimes, and that's you just taking the initiative. Like, I'm gonna set it up this way so that I don't get to make the decision how long should I rest. It's kind of preset for me that I'm taking my three steps and getting my butt on the ground and doing my burpees and then my baksham. So that's something just training advice for people in general. That if if engine improvement is a goal for you, that's a lot of where it can lie. It's not you just trying harder, it's being a little bit more mindful with how you set things up so that decisions can be made for you. Um, the last thing I want to touch on is we've uh we've seen a lot of this at the gym, and now you're entering a different phase of life. Um, you are how many weeks pregnant now?

SPEAKER_02 33:15

19.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

19. Congratulations, by the way. And this is um, you trained for worlds while being pregnant. You trade uh you competed at worlds while being pregnant. Have you obviously things maybe mentally have changed, and you don't have to get too much into the how things have physically been uh for you as training and what you're changing up and what you're not changing up, but mindset-wise, mentally, where does your head go to when you train um while pregnant? Because I think that's something a lot of women still want to hear about, especially doing it at the level that you've done it at.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah, so this is my first pregnancy. So I feel like I'm still trying to like figure everything out, you know, what's what's like a healthy amount to push yourself and what's not. And there's so much changing research and recommendations about how like women should exercise, or they shouldn't exercise, they should squat, they shouldn't squat. Um, so I'm just trying to figure out like what feels best for me. And my OB is saying, you know, whatever you feel up for doing is perfectly fine. I say like those first three months like were really, really difficult. Um, like just showing up at the gym. Like, I think my training

Training Details That Drop Your Time

SPEAKER_02 34:20

like load in general just like cut in half. And it wasn't until like two weeks before the world championships. I'm like, I'm finally like feeling alive again. I feel like I've got some more energy here. And I'm like texting Chris, my partner for the world championships. I'm like, yeah, I think it'll be okay. I'm finally feeling alive. I've got two weeks to, you know, I don't know, get my training in and like get my taper in and travel there and everything. I can do this, right? Um, but I'm I'm glad that I started feeling a little bit better uh for that. But I'm just kind of like, you know, keeping myself moving, figuring that anything, if I do anything, it's better than doing nothing. Um, definitely not pushing myself like all the way like red line to the limit, although with this heat wave right now. I feel like everything's just like I don't know if I should be doing this right now.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, it's rough, it's rough. Yeah, I mean, I was gonna ask you because I've always kind of tracked what you've done outside the gym, you know, just like whatever you put on Instagram. Um my my security dog is barking at the door. Um, but I've always tracked what you've done outside the gym just because I know like you and I try to again, I'm always just trying to learn from other people's experiences, not necessarily like what to do myself, but what other what you could tell other people to do? Have you cut down on some of like the long endurance type training outside of cross? Because I know a lot of times you would go to cross it and it would just be the first thing you do of the day, like later on, you're taking a long bike ride or you're going for a really long hike. Are you still not can uh not including the heat wave that we're going through right now? Are you still pushing that endurance train in addition to your crossfit or have you cut that out?

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I've definitely like modified, like I said, the first three months were really rough. Like, like the the structure of my general day is I train first thing in the morning, like crossfit, that's like my baseline. I for me, if I get that done, like I think that it's great. If I have energy for something later in the day, whatever like chapter of my life I'm in, like I think that that's fantastic. So obviously, I I work all day, usually get home or I'm done with work around five o'clock. And then if I have energy, like I I tr like to do something else. A lot of times I'll like do yoga classes. Um, I have a regular Globo gym membership, and sometimes I'll just do like I really like imam workouts when I'm alone because you can keep that intensity. I just set it for like 20 minutes um and and do that. And that's that works really well for me during the week. During the weekends, I like to spend time outside, and so yeah, do that long stuff. As long as I'm feeling good and like maintaining hydration, I think that that seems okay. I did do an ultra marathon at I think it was like eight weeks pregnant, so a 50k. That was that was rough, but I'm overall pretty happy with how it went. And I did a hundred mile bike ride, and this this baby's done actually three high rocks races so far. So wow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

That's good for you. That's inspiring because it really is. It's cool to see that. I mean, we I've seen this at I mean, I'm blessed to have been around it at the gym, just watching so many women just go through pregnancy and just crushing workouts and and kind of women at our gym are so inspiring, so inspiring, yeah. It really is. I think I always tell them, like, you guys may not even realize what you're doing for other people by showing up and doing your thing because you have a lot of young women that are gonna be pregnant. It's inevitable at some point you're gonna have pregnant women at the gym. I mean, we had at one point, I think it was last year, we had 12, and it's that's it's just inevitable with the kind of membership, the age group that we have at the gym. Is it's and I think I hope you understand, like it really does help them, and they're all they're always watching you, and I think that's really awesome that you could set the example for them.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Well, I mean, I saw the example from other women, like they can do it, like I should be able to do this too. So yeah, pay it for full circle.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

So, so to wrap this up, what's next for you? I mean, have you do you are you someone that really maps out the year? Is it three months at a time? Are you looking two years down the road? I mean, I know this is all new that there's a whole new phase of life for you, and that's it's part of what makes it fun is the fact that you don't know what's coming. But are you really looking towards what's next? Are you kind of just trying to take it one week at a time?

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Um, so yeah, with like the pregnancy and everything, I really don't know what what everything is going to be look like, looking like I'm kind of keeping my mind open.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

But for me, I actually feel like I have really bad luck. If I sign up for something like really far in advance, I get an injury or something like that. So I try not to do anything like more than like a few weeks, possibly a couple months or something like that. And I try not to talk about it too much because I feel like that's bad luck too. Maybe I'm superstitious. Um, this might just like talk about that race that I saw that's in a few weeks. I was like, oh, that's like perfect time frame. I can't get injured before that. Um yeah, so I think I'm just gonna kind of take things like one step at a time. Um, Chris, my doubles partner, she she was saying she wants to do some more doubles high rocks races with me this fall, so that would be really fun. But it as you know, it's so hard to get tickets now. So it is how that goes. Um, but I definitely want to do high rocks races and and keep on

Pregnancy Training And Future Racing

SPEAKER_02 39:05

doing them. I think that they're they're fun. It's a great way to see the world if you're willing to travel to go and do them.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Um yeah, I think that's one of the coolest things about high rocks. And I know a few of the girls have started talking about maybe trap like doing a trip where you you go out there, you do your race, they spend two, three days extra just kind of seeing whether it's a part of the country or part of the world. But I do think that's something that high rocks has done very well, is really economically spread around the world that you could just constantly get people traveling to them and seeing a different part of the world, but also making it at least somewhat fitness-based, which I think is more and more popular now to you know travel, but also make it a health-related trip by just doing a high rock's race at the start.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

Yeah, yeah, that's about I had like just the ads for that. It's so easy to travel for a high rox race because you just need like your outfit and your running shoes. Great compared to a crossfit competition where you're bringing like four pairs of shoes, you've got like different belts, you've got your grips, you've got like your tape and everything, like or triathlon's even worse. But like for a high rox race, like that's not that bad. And I've gone to so many places I never would have gone to before just for a high rox race. That's a great so many people.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

I've traveled multiple times with CrossFit stuff, and it's a it's such a pain. Like, you're literally bringing an extra bag just for work, like just for workout stuff, uh like Olympic lifting shoes, they take up space, they're heavy, all this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

You can like put some of your underwear inside of the shoes, like absolutely have to have to. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Well, Alondra, thank you so much for the time. Um, really, I love talking to you uh just because I think you're a very unique person, very well accomplished, but I also think a lot of what you are going through, have gone through, can help others um on multiple levels. So I really do appreciate the time uh on this holiday weekend, and I can't wait to see what you do next. I feel like we're blessed to have you around and and really you are inspiring a lot of people. I know you've been inspired, but we're a big pay it forward type group, and I think you're doing the same for others. So I do appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Yeah, thanks. I do want to say, like, I'm definitely the locked-in person when I'm at the gym, but if you talk to me, I'm actually pretty friendly. So if anybody wants to say anything, just like go ahead. I'm just usually like thinking

Wrap Up And Next Week Tease

SPEAKER_02 41:10

about what I'm doing. Yeah, but yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

I I verify that. So I agree with you on that. And uh, yeah, this is awesome. All right, thanks so much, and I'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Bye. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Herd Fit podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.