Hi, everybody, welcome to a special Games event edition of the
CrossFit Games Update Show. I'm Sean Woodland with Tommy Marquez and Pat Sherwood,
we have some wardrobe additions, these 5.11 tactical weighted vests, because
Murph is back at the CrossFit Games.
This is something I like to coin as business tactical.
You know, Castro announces something on the 4th of July, we're just following suit.
It's just a reminder of how tough this workout is, just standing here with this on
is difficult, I can't imagine doing the full event in this.
Well on July 4, Dave Castro took to social media
and he announced the first workout of the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games,
and it was one that we did for the first time last year.
The first announced workout or the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games
is ... Murph.
After that announcement, one day later,
Dave Castro posts this picture of six vests
hanging on a pull-up bar, which leads us to believe—and again, this is all speculation, we don't
know for a fact—that the teams are going to be doing Murph.
Murph is back, what do you think about that?
Man, that Dave Castro, he's a snake in the grass.
You gotta watch out for him. I love Murph
coming back just because I know there's a lot of hullabaloo, you know, some athletes went
down, but in my mind, if somebody's going to be crowned
fittest in the world, and I'm asking them what they can do and they're listing all these things,
and I say, well, can you work out on a really hot day for about an hour and they go, "Huh, I can't do that,"
then you're not in the running for the fittest in the world.
Yeah, I absolutely love it, and I agree with Pat there
and I think this is one of the few times where the athletes maybe underestimated a workout,
in particular, so to be able to see them bounce back on a workout with their mind set straight and see
what they're capable of, I'm excited for.
I underestimated the weight of this vest.
I like how you're popping the collar around that, man.
I went, what'd you call it, business tactical?
Going business tactical there. We're speculating, we don't know, all we
have to go on is the picture and Dave Castro's announcement.
But let's assume for the sake of argument, that the teams are going to do Murph.
What do you think that looks like?
I think just to make it all happen
so it doesn't take 8 hours, you've got to split these guys up,
and maybe it's something where a man and a woman
do an 800, a certain portion of the calisthenics, then
another 800, tag the next pair and they kind of roll through like that.
Well I'm going to go full Magnum PI here and look at the picture and
deduce what I can. There was sets of three on each side so I think
groups of three are going to go, all the men and then all the women,
and then it looked like Dan Bailey in the reflection, so
we're going to switch the push-ups to bench press at 185,
and since it's a reflection of Dan, I think they're going to do it backwards.
This is deep, wow. You put a lot of thought into that.
Last year the individuals did Murph, as we all remember, and
while the majority of people got through it relatively unscathed, I'm sure they were tired, a couple
instances we saw where this event really took its toll on a couple people. Kara
Webb had her troubles and needed to be tended to by the medical staff,
Annie Thorisdottir had to withdrawal because of the difficulties that she suffered because of heat exhaustion,
with that in mind, what lessons can everybody learn for this time around?
I think credit where credit is due, love him or hate him,
Dave Castro does one thing very well, and he kind of just throws a twist on what most athletes are doing.
We're lucky that we get to talk to athletes all the time,
and I hear about their lifts, I hear about these things, last year I never heard
people saying, you know, I'm doing these long grinding sessions, out in the sun,
calisthenics heavy, a lot of running, I just never heard that.
All of that is classic CrossFit but then, you take something that maybe the athletes don't do frequently
then you have them do what they're not used to doing in a competitive
environment, and a lot of people walked away with, I need to make sure I'm not
negating some things from my training.
And I think some athletes are going to pay a little more attention to detail with the little things
that maybe slipped through the cracks in particular events and I think that happened in Murph,
if you forget a water bottle when you walk out to the Tennis Stadium for double DT,
or Heavy DT, it may not be the biggest thing in the world, but
the longer the time domain, the more movements, you add the heat, the other
elements, those little slip-ups just get exaggerated beyond belief
and athletes like Mat Fraser not having water out there, I guarantee you, those things won't happen again.
Let's assume now for the sake of argument, and it gives us something to talk about here,
again we don't know for a fact but so we can talk about it, we're going to say look, let's say
the individual athletes do Murph again, let's look at the women's side of the house. Last year,
this was the way it played out with Samantha Briggs winning the event, now,
she's still having some problems with immigration, there's a chance she may not be competing at the CrossFit Games,
we'll have that update for you on a different segment. Alethea Boon, she's back, Kristin Holte is back,
Carleen Mathews is back—a lot of women who did very well in this event are coming back in 2016.
Who do you like in 2016?
Man, take down that leaderboard a little more, I love Kara Webb. Really?
Yeah, I mean, it devastated her last year, affected the rest of the Games for her but didn't
take her out, she's so tough and I think when she comes back
with a better understanding of the event, you're going to see her match her performance or do better,
but then, be in a capacity that it doesn't negatively effect the rest of her events.
I love that pick, I think Kara Webb's going to do phenomenal in this
workout, but you mentioned, Sean, there's a strong field coming back in this particular event. Twelve
of the top-13 finishers in Murph last year, Kara Webb included, are coming back. The only
one, Denae Brown, she's basically retired from competition.
I could really look at this list and pick 3 or 4 that could win but if Sam
makes it to the Games, I will never bet against her in a workout like this.
Yeah, let's go over to the men's side now where once again, there's a strong field returning
as well for them. In fact 7 of the men who finished in the top 10 for Murph
in 2015 are back at it this year.
Led by Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson, that was really the first time he kicked down the door and showed up on the radar
at the Games last year, Mat Fraser finished second, followed by
Noah Ohlsen, a lot of athletes behind them who do very well on events like this
so same question, with the men, who do you think the favorite would be, and there are some
men here now who are going to be able to hit this event for the first time that we didn't see last year.
I'm going to pick a young man who is on the warpath, we got to see
him crush the California Regional, that's Josh Bridges.
So eager to make it back to the big stage, in a workout like this,
engine, grit, determination and suffering,
Josh Bridges all day long, and not to mention that Murph is named
for a fallen SEAL, Josh Bridges was a SEAL so I think there's an
added factor there that's really tough to quantify.
I think you have to look at the top of the leaderboard from last year. Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson
won and I think he did so with preparation because he was one of the
athletes that got to California a few weeks early, was training out in the heat
constantly, and it showed up big time with how well he managed the elements in that particular situation,
and then Mat Fraser, he finished second, he was only 40 or so seconds behind Bjorgvin,
but he did so, again, without water, and if you look at how good he is at things
that he shouldn't be good at—I spoke with Chris Hinshaw a long time ago and
he said most people don't realize, Mat Fraser's a 5:10 miler,
and that's one of the fastest mile times amongst CrossFit Games athletes, so
I think with water and a little bit more prep, Mat could push for it, too.
And there are a couple Games rookies who very much deserve to be
in this conversation if the individuals end up doing Murph again.
I'm going to go with the whitest dark horse out there,
Brent Fikowski, I believe that's his own hashtag.
Walked away with the regionals up there in the west and if you look back at his history,
it's his first time going to the Games, but how he does at regionals
—engine, capacity, lungs, he's a taller guy, he's got that stride to eat up
the miles and I think this is someplace he can really buckle down and just
crush some people.
You mentioned a source of pride for Josh Bridges, this being a workout named for an American hero,
I think the same thing goes for the cowboy from the South West, Sean Sweeney.
I thin he's going to destroy this workout, I spoke with Sean not too long ago via Skype and he
said some of the longer, grueling, gritty workouts that really just kind of test how
tough you are mentally are the places he loves.
Those are the workouts he thrives in. I even spoke with Sean's coach and said so what do you think
about this Murph announcement for Sean? He just texted back, that's Sean's jam
smiley face, that was it so I think he's going to do well.
If it happens that the individuals are going to do this again,
it should be a lot of fun to watch, and these things are no fun to wear so I don't envy the athletes
having to go out there and take on Murph in this weight vest, but
after Dave Castro took to social media of course there was the Castro action and then there's
the social media reaction and there was a lot of good ones out there and I think
the best one that we saw was the side-by-side picture of
late 80's early 90's wrestler Razor Ramon
and Dave Castro both sort of rocking the mullet. I would love to see Castro
rock a mullet for the Games but yeah, that was an effort well done there.
Remember tickets are still available for the CrossFit Games
in the Soccer Stadium, won't be able to get into the Tennis Stadium but you will be
on site there, you'll get to take part in all the cool stuff like Vendor Village, and
you will in some sort of capacity be able to watch all of the events that go down
at the StubHub Center, live. For Pat Sherwood and Tommy Marquez,
I'm Sean Woodland, we're going to take these vests off and
continue to speculate on what could await the athletes in Murph at the
2016 Reebok CrossFit Games.