Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast

Cowgirl Era with Ellia Miller

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On a thrilling journey across the country, we're joined by the aspiring CrossFit athlete, Ellia Miller. Leah pulls back the curtain on her plans to take up residence in Nevada, where she'll train under the watchful eye of CrossFit pro Sean Sweeney and contribute to his Cowboy Way athlete program. From her preparation regime to the logistical challenge of transporting her beloved felines and an assault runner, Ellia's story is not only inspiring but also teeming with practical insights.

We shift gears as we reminisce on our personal experiences of relocating and the plethora of challenges that often accompany such a life-altering decision. The discussion also veers towards the CrossFit Games, where we scrutinize the pros and cons of joining a team versus competing solo. We're unflinching in our exploration of the determination it takes to follow your dreams, even when it means packing your life into a moving van and setting off towards the unknown.

As we round off, we take a deep dive into the world of CrossFit athletes. We dissect their strategic decisions in the run-up to the season and their approach to the offseason. Together, we unpack the importance of recognizing and addressing weaknesses, the aspiration to compete solo, and the trust dynamics in the CrossFit Games. As we delve into the financial implications of quarterfinals for CrossFit Sport and the customer relationship, we share our predictions for the upcoming season and engage in a lively debate about semi-final athletes' participation in local contests. So, buckle up and join us for a rollercoaster of a discussion!

tayl:

What up dogs? Welcome back to another sort of the hungry dog barbell podcast. I have no idea how many times it says that you've been on. Now You're just on. Oh, we have a Leah Miller back in to talk about all things crossfit and all things. A Lee Miller again. Leah, how are you doing?

Ellia:

I'm doing good. You're an official, official co-host.

tayl:

Hell yeah, A Leah. What do you have going on right now? What's your training looking like like today? What did you do?

Ellia:

Today was a rest day. Actually. I got a trailer hitch installed on my Jeep.

tayl:

Hey, when you text that to me, I was like that is the most random Kansas. Is that where you live right now? Kansas has shit to be doing Like oh, I know that five days in advance, I'm going to get this hitch put on my whatever to tell us why were you doing that.

Ellia:

So I am actually leaving Kansas beginning of next month. I'm moving out to Nevada.

tayl:

Oh shit.

Ellia:

I would have just sold all my furniture and packed up my car. But there's two reasons I can't do that. First reason is because I have to put my cats in my car. And they basically take up the full backseat of my car, which yeah, with all their transports limits the amount of things that I can put in my car.

Ellia:

And then on top of that I need to transport an assault runner from Kansas to Nevada. So I am going to pull a trailer to put the assault runner in, put the rest of my stuff in that doesn't fit in my car, so I can move out to Nevada and I am going out there. I'll be at CrossFit Powerstroke in Fallon and I'll be training with Sean Sweeney. I'll be at his gym, I'll be helping him with his Cowboy Way athlete program and, yeah, it's going to be a great time I'm going to be with the Cowboy.

Ellia:

I'll be living in a trailer in his front yard, so sweet.

tayl:

That's the way you're going to be a Lee of the Cowgirl. Is there going to be an Instagram name change coming on?

Ellia:

Oh man, I can't do it.

tayl:

I can't walk away from this classic.

Ellia:

Yeah, well, because I feel like there's so many things that are tied to my Instagram handle as what it is right now. I don't want to change it.

tayl:

Yeah.

Ellia:

And even if I get married one day, my last name changes, I still kind of want to keep my Instagram as a Lee of Miller.

tayl:

I heard that because it's hard to call people by their new names. Man, yeah, you know she always be car-web to me. I'm sorry. All right, one of those things.

Ellia:

Bethany Shadburn.

tayl:

Exactly.

Ellia:

But I still always call her Bethany Shadburn.

tayl:

Vax. When I heard that on the games, I was like what is happening? Who are you even talking about? Like when we were texting about her injury during the lift, I was like I don't even know who you're saying right now. So how did that relationship come about? How did you end up on the path to make that move?

Ellia:

Yeah, so back in the beginning of August, he made an Instagram post about looking for somebody to come out coach at his gym. He has a tiny house on his property and he has a trailer, and initially he was looking for somebody to come out and live in the tiny house, coach for him, train with him, you know whatever and in return for coaching at his gym, helping him run his businesses, you can live in the tiny house for free. And so I was at a point where I, when I moved to Kansas two years ago, I quit my job, I quit everything so I could go all in on CrossFit, and I had about two years worth of money in my savings account. So when I came out here, I knew I was kind of on a clock to either figure out how to make more money or, I don't know, figure out something else, right? So I was coming up on that, and then my friend Allie sent me this post that Sean made.

Ellia:

I was like, holy crap, that would be like the perfect thing for me. That's exactly what I'm looking for. I can't afford rent anymore, but I still want to be able to train and try to make it to the games, right? So I sent him a message actually the day he posted it, which was August 1st, and then didn't get a response. And like he didn't even read the message, I'm sure he got hundreds of messages after he posted that, literally. So I was like he's never going to see my message.

Ellia:

But, you know, got to shoot my shot and then after like two or three weeks not hearing anything back, I was like, all right, moving on, that door is closed, not going to happen, but that's okay, I'll figure out something else, right? So then I kind of like looked into some other opportunities. I thought about maybe going team with a couple different people. And then mid October actually it was while I was competing at Crash Crucible I got an Instagram message from Sean.

Ellia:

Wow, he was like hey, well, and so the other funny thing, is maybe like two or three weeks before that he had posted about, you know, he had found somebody to come out. There was a girl living in the tiny house coaching forum, training with him, and he was looking for somebody to come out and do media, for him to live in the trailer, do media. And I saw that post and I was like, well, I don't do media, so I don't know, Not for me, yeah. But then, maybe like a week or two after that, I got a message from him and he was like hey, I'd love to chat more. You know, can you like record a YouTube video and suggest a video? Record a YouTube video, answer these questions, send it over to me.

Ellia:

So I sent him a video and he texted me back. He's like hey, watch your video, I'd love to get on a phone call. So we got on a phone call. We talked for like an hour and by the end of the phone call, um, I had plans to fly out to Nevada test it out for a couple of days, like a week later, um, so I went out there for about three or four days, tested it out, lived in the trailer for a couple of days. Coach Jim met everybody, um, and it was awesome. So, um, by the time he was dropping me off at the airport, I was like all right, let's do it.

tayl:

It's dude man. That's crazy. Had you guys ever had any like interaction before, or was this like the first time, like any sort of like uh, working relationship was developing?

Ellia:

So, uh, funny story, I actually dropped in at his gym back in I think January of 2020. Um, when I did my cross country CrossFit road trip, so I was moving from California back to New Jersey and I bought a car in California and I drove back to New Jersey and, like plan my route based on CrossFit gyms, I wanted to drop into.

tayl:

So I did his gym.

Ellia:

He coached the class that I took Um, and he had no idea that I was, that it was the same person Right when.

Ellia:

I went out there a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned it, and he was like, oh my gosh, I remember that, um. And then back in September, he competed at NorCal Classic and I was out there with Victory Grips and this was like maybe a month after he had first posted saying that he was looking for somebody, and I saw him walking across Vendor Village and so I ran up to him. I was like, hey, sean, just want to introduce myself. You know, I sent you an Instagram message. Yeah, did you find people? And he was like, oh yeah, we got two people coming out this weekend for a test run.

tayl:

And I was like, well, if you know, if anything ever comes up in the future, let me know right and so like I really thought the door was closed on that opportunity but I guess, well, really, you gave him a face to put to the the, the image you know well so, and he actually didn't even realize that was me until I was in you got there a couple weeks ago yeah, and I told us about it, but I guess one of the people that came out was the girl who's now there living in the tiny house, and then the second one kind of just like fell through at the last minute.

Ellia:

So he was still looking for somebody else, and that's how I ended up.

tayl:

You became this somebody else. That's crazy. So I feel like you've told us in all the different occasions about you you essentially packing up your life and moving across the country, or you know, halfway up down northwest south, something like that. But how many times in total have you done that now, like moved across the country and packed up your life?

Ellia:

so I moved from California to New Jersey when I started grad school, packed up all my stuff, moved out there, and then, while I was in New Jersey, I got deployed. During my deployment I lost my apartment in New Jersey and sold my car. So when I came back, I went back to California to live with my parents for a couple months while I figured out like finding a new place to live and all that in New Jersey. So then I drove from California to New Jersey a second time wow, psycho employment.

Ellia:

So the first time I did it it was like four and a half days. I had my dad with me, I had my two cats in the car and it was like oh get there as fast as possible the second time I did it.

Ellia:

I didn't have the cats because they were in New York with my sister. She was watching them for me while I was deployed and I had just bought my new Jeep and I was super excited to like take my time, drop into all these gyms. So that was like a 12 day wow country drive.

Ellia:

And then when I left New Jersey, my cousin came out and helped me move to Kansas, so he drove a moving truck and I drove my car out to Kansas and I had actually considered getting a trailer and towing all my stuff from New Jersey, but at the time I looked into like what it would cost to get a hitch installed and all that stuff and it was infeasible like it was worth it yeah and now I'm kind of regretting that, because if I had just paid for it back then, I would have to pay for it now yeah, yeah, but and you were at the top of your savings account, not at the bottom.

tayl:

But that's hard too, you know. I feel that, though, man. It always seems like like when you have like the most money, you're like I don't want to spend it right now, and then, when you get to those moments when you have to spend the money, you're like, oh man, it's gonna look so much worse now in my account.

Ellia:

Oh, man I am. I am very lucky.

tayl:

My parents are helping me a lot with this move that's awesome super grateful for that so yeah, hell, yeah they came and watched me at semi-finals.

Ellia:

That was my mom's second time at semi-finals and then my dad's first time. And so my mom had seen me in Knoxville at syndicate last year, but that was her first time seeing me at like a high level competition. And then this year's semi-finals it was her second time and my dad's first time seeing me at a high level competition. That's so dope yeah, and after that my dad was just like we're gonna we're gonna do anything we can to make sure that you get to, yeah.

tayl:

I was gonna say it's like you're gonna do positive things with it. You know like it's just trajectory keeps going up with everything you're doing, you know, so that's awesome yeah, so super supportive parents.

Ellia:

I'm very grateful for them that's dope.

tayl:

So you were saying a little bit before that you would almost considered going team um. And when you're in this, like changing period of your life, like was there a a long period of time where you kind of let go of the the indie games goal?

Ellia:

so I don't think I ever let it go and I think that's part of the reason why I am still gonna go indie this year. Right I, when I was coming up on having to decide whether or not I was gonna renew my lease for my apartment in Kansas, I was trying to figure out if there were other like more financially feasible options for me and like, at the end of the day, I could have always moved back home with my parents. But you know what adult wants to move back in with their parents, that's right, you don't want to go backwards again yeah, and like I just it would.

Ellia:

It would have been rough, um. Also, my dad doesn't want cats in his house, so really I gotta hold the cat, yeah, um but I had seen um Angelo de Chico had posted about looking for a female for the mayhem team. Um, so I reached out to him and talked to him for a little bit and it didn't end up working out. But, um, I was considering maybe going out to cook bill um and get that training in.

Ellia:

Yeah, if it could have been a more financially feasible option than what I had in Kansas. Like I said, that didn't work out. I think they ended up going with somebody else. But then there was a guy in Missouri, josh Matz, who had reached out to me about the possibility of going team, and I think part of the reason why I was considering going team was because it would have given me a little bit more flexibility with my schedule. Like you, still have to try hard to be on a good team, but it's not quite as much pressure as going individual.

Ellia:

So there would have been more flexibility for, like, part-time work to generate more income and stuff like that.

tayl:

All set. Yeah, I mean like those people you're still in, like the like 2%, but like that small difference between the one to two is like a big deal of time and effort that people are putting in, you know.

Ellia:

Yeah. So that was kind of like okay, well, if I go team, maybe I'll still be able to work enough to pay rent, yeah. And so I was considering that for a while and then got this message from Sean and I think so part of it. I was talking with Brian Friend at Crash Crucible. It was the day before competition started. He was there during the athlete check-in and him and I were just talking for a little bit and I wanted to ask him about, like some of the potential people that I was thinking about going team with, just to see like what his thoughts and opinions are on if we would be, competitive team, all that kind of stuff.

Ellia:

And he was like you know, I don't like really recognize any of the names, but he's like you've been on a good path as an individual. And he's like you know I feel like a lot of times people will go team when they feel like they've hit a wall on the individual side and they're not making any more forward progress and then it becomes like okay, well, how else can I get to the games? Let's try team. But he said you know you continued to improve every year. You seem like you're on an upward trajectory.

tayl:

Why stop?

Ellia:

Working. Why stop yeah? And so that was that kind of made me second guess the team decision and it was. It was tough. I spent that whole weekend. I was like because that was before the competition and I was like, all right, if this competition goes really well then maybe that's the sign I need to go into the jewel. And unfortunately the competition didn't go super well on day one you're like oh. I did manage to climb my way back up, ended day one and second to last place, 29 out of 30.

tayl:

That never feels good.

Ellia:

Back up to 12 by the end of the weekend, with an event when another top three finish.

tayl:

So I mean that's finished it good. Yeah, that's finished it good.

Ellia:

But anyway. So that kind of had me second guessing like, do I actually want to go team? And then when the opportunity with Sean became a real thing, I was like, all right, I think this is the sign that, like, my heart is still in individual I, even if I went team, I would still always want to go back to being an individual Like I at the end of the day.

Ellia:

I want to make the games as an individual and yeah there's like I know that I don't need to like prove anything or anything like that, but just deep in my heart that's what I want.

tayl:

Yeah, hell yeah. So on that note, what we were talking about at the beginning do you feel for and you have the aspirations to go on and we're on the upward trajectory. So we'll talk about this in two different sex of it. But do you feel that for someone who's like, this season's cap is semi finals? Do you feel there is an off season, and when would you consider it?

Ellia:

If somebody is going to make it to semi finals but then not make the games.

tayl:

Correct.

Ellia:

Um, yeah, I mean, I think it's different for everybody and I think it depends on why your season stops. When it stops, like if you have some major holes in like specific skills or strength or something like that, you really need to take the time to like focus on fixing that hole.

tayl:

And then I think after semifinals.

Ellia:

That's kind of when your offseason starts and that's your like, your building season.

tayl:

Yeah.

tayl:

But then when does that person have to get, start sharpening their, their edge again to get back into it? Because I feel like there was supposed to be a time that, after the games up through the holidays, was supposed to be a and I'm not talking about like sorry for everyone out there like the quarter finals athlete who's going to compete on the local level. I feel like that between, like I said, the end of August, september time till about January used to be what people would consider the offseason, so much so that when they put that different time to open in later on and we had two in one year, everyone was like, well, they got rid of it offseason. But now it seems like for the higher level, like you and above, you guys are taking September, august off and then you're sharpening the X back up for whether it be a rogue qualifier, hopes to compete at rogue, things like crash, things like what's the one that you did last year that Hiller was the judge at Zalos Zalos, things like the, things like that.

tayl:

It seems like the water peluzas in January. Now it seems like those are becoming as important, if maybe not as important, but right there with like a semi-final for, like the high level athletes year, and then they have to do quarter finals and semis in the spring. So when do you consider the time period, I guess, to start sharpening your X again? When is the time period that you're kind of down? What does that look like for you?

Ellia:

Yeah so and I mean that's kind of what I was getting at is like it depends on like what type of athlete you are so like. If you're somebody who needs to fill in a serious hole, then I think your off season starts after semifinals and it lasts until the open and you're not doing anything in that off season except working on fixing your holes. If you are somebody who is like okay, I got to semifinals, like I feel like me this past season, I got to semifinals, I could do everything. I didn't have any major holes anywhere. It was kind of just like an overall. I need to raise my level up just a little bit.

tayl:

What I would call like your 14 to like 21 spots. Yeah, right, that's how I would look at it. If I'm looking at the leaderboard, you know, because what top 14 from West went, kind of 11 maybe, okay, so somewhere. So then yeah, your 12 to number 20 on the leaderboard. Those people there who are back at the competition scene again.

Ellia:

Yeah. So in that case, like yeah, I'm still going to train and I'm still going to have an off season where I'm not like 100% of my training revolves around like, okay, so I did crash, I did the robe qualifier, I did the water Calusa qualifier, but I didn't focus my training on those things. I kind of like trained through them. So that I could focus on the season that matters coming up, starting with the open.

tayl:

The open yeah.

Ellia:

But I feel like when you, when you don't have major holes to fill, you can take that little bit of like distraction during your off season to go and compete. Maybe, you know, try to get your name out there. Pick up some sponsorships, pick up some money that kind of stuff.

Ellia:

And so when you don't need a full, dedicated off season to fixing a big hole, it's a lot more manageable to do that, and I think that's kind of how it is now for the games, athletes who come off the games in August, and then they've got Rogue Dubai, waterpalooza, you know, now there's Fit Fest, german throwdown, all that kind of stuff.

tayl:

All kind of stuff popping up, yeah, and so we're starting to see the growth of the what do they call it? The CrossFit sanctioned event. Like I go on the thing it's like all these events, yeah.

Ellia:

And I think for a lot of the games athletes they can, they can do that because they can compete in the off in the off season and still maintain and and like, build enough in the off season to still be okay. Because, also for those athletes. The open and quarterfinals are still basically off season for them.

tayl:

We're going to get to that. I love that. I love that it's a small little shot, that's great.

Ellia:

So, like they can afford to, you know, go compete a couple of times after the games, especially in a situation like Rogue, where Rogue is going to pay out through last place. They're going to cover your travel and accommodations, so you're going to be able to do that. Your earning potential is astronomical by going to a competition like Rogue. There's really no downside not to do it, unless you're seriously injured.

tayl:

Yeah. So in the same way we talked about, like semi-final athletes, semi-final level athletes and like that six to 21,. Right Now, let's drop down and let's think about this question with quarterfinal athletes in mind People that are gonna make it to the quarterfinals, especially with the expanded breadth of it, but they're not gonna make it any farther and let's really think about the ones that don't have it in mind to make it any farther than semi-final. They just wanna have a cool quarterfinal weekend. Your CrossFit HQ or CrossFit Games sorry, let's not mix those two up, right? You're the CrossFit Games. How much consideration when you're making your schedule and you're making choices for the game season, how much consideration do you have to put in for the quarterfinal level athletes People are all talking about, oh, the open quarterfinals don't matter anymore.

tayl:

But I'm sure if you go put on Hillar, savine, barbell, spin, anything that Castro or Bosman have been on, they'll keep saying this phrase the cream will rise to the top. I mean, we saw Frazier doing it for however many years. We saw Tia do it. We saw them both doing it in the year of COVID. We saw them both doing it in the year with two opens, all that stuff. So how much consideration do we need to give to the quarterfinal athletes? Are we ruining their season?

Ellia:

I think you need to give a lot of consideration to the quarterfinals athletes, the ones that aren't gonna make it past quarterfinals, because the people who make it to the semi-finals, the people who make it to the games, like you said, the cream will rise to the top. They're gonna be okay. 99% of the decisions that CrossFit makes will not affect whether or not they qualify.

tayl:

As long as those decisions all lead to the fitness is the way that you get to the games, then you know.

Ellia:

Correct. The one kind of maybe cause for concern this coming season is just the fact that there's one and a half times two and a half times as many people eligible for quarterfinals now and you're cutting qualifying spots to semi-finals. So now, like you, better make sure that the programming and the video review is gonna be something that will make sure that the fittest are at the top of the leaderboard.

tayl:

What's your level of trust that the games will do just that what you said, that they will have a thorough video review process and that the workouts, the test, will be legit to test the right people through to semi-finals?

Ellia:

I wanna say I have trust in them. It's hard, I don't know.

tayl:

I know Give us a percentage if you had to-.

Ellia:

I know that they're aware of the issues and I know that they're aware of how these changes can potentially impact things, and I have 100% confidence that they're gonna try to fix the issues that this presents, whether those fix-.

tayl:

So you're not like other people that think that they're just sitting back on their hands, like, oh, we see all your ass videos, but we don't care. You don't think that they're like that.

Ellia:

It's not that, and I have talked to a lot of people in CrossFit Sport. I know a lot of people in CrossFit Sport and they care a lot about making a fair season, making a good season. You know they want to solve the problems that people present. I think a lot of times it just comes down to trial and error and sometimes there's more error in that than we want. But CrossFit is still such a young sport that we kind of have to be willing to go through these fumbles and figure it out and get through it so that we can get to a point where we won't have these issues coming up anymore. But going back to your original question, like I think we really do need to consider well when I say we, crossfit Sport really does need to care the quarterfinals level athletes, because ultimately the parts of the season that make money are the opening quarterfinals.

Ellia:

When we finals lose money, I'm sure. Well, maybe the games make money. I don't know. It's freaking expensive to put the games on. I don't know if they're turning a profit on that at all.

tayl:

Maybe not a straight revenue from the games itself, but from some of the buy products, some of the things that happen as a result of it.

Ellia:

Yeah, yeah so, but just from like a business standpoint, the open is making money for very little expenditure and quarterfinals are making money for very little expenditure. When I say expenditure, I mean like monetarily.

tayl:

Right.

Ellia:

And so if you are trying to create a system where you can actually make enough money to continue existing, we need the open, we need quarterfinals, we need people to want to sign up for them. We need people to want to participate in them. And so, if we're looking at, 25% of athletes are now gonna be eligible to register for quarterfinals. They need to find a way to make 25% of athletes want to register for quarterfinals.

tayl:

Yeah, hell yeah, I think it was. Hiller made a great post last week talking about if you pay to go to your affiliate and do the in-house open, that you don't pay any money to crossfit. If you do the open, you do quarterfinals. That's when you have now become a customer of CrossFit Sport, you know.

Ellia:

Which is an important thing. There's been a customer of your gym and a customer of CrossFit.

tayl:

And very few people inside of the affiliates understand that distinction you know, or if you're not a spectator to events that are put on by CrossFit Sport, then you haven't really been a customer of CrossFit Sport yet, which is lacking. And since they don't have a metric of how many people attend each different affiliate, then the only way that they truly have to track how many people consider themselves across that are enough to put money behind it is through the open and quarterfinals. You know, yeah, yeah, the level one is one thing, but a lot of those people probably over 60% of them walk out of those and like, don't follow any sort of CrossFit media or guidelines, you know. So there's no way to classify them just from the level one or the level two. I should say who will be on top of the men's field next year? Will it be Roman, or will Jeff hold on to it again, or a dark horse? I think it's gonna be Pat. You think Pat's gonna come back? I do. After that, do you think Pat has?

Ellia:

Oh, I hope he has a few.

tayl:

A few more. Oh, you wore two. Damn, that's dope.

Ellia:

I love watching Pat compete. I just I think he's such a cool dude.

tayl:

How could you not love Pat?

Ellia:

And he was awesome at Rogue this year.

tayl:

Yeah, like how could you just not love the Northman? Next question who will be on top of the women's field? Actually, better question, but will Tia lose between January and August when the games happens? Will she lose anything?

Ellia:

Like, will she lose the open quarters, semis or games?

tayl:

I mean events in the open, events in the quarters, semis and games. Do you think she takes the games crown again?

Ellia:

I don't know. I think Laura is going to be hard to beat, especially after she has the. Fittest on Earth title and she beat Tia at Rogue. So, now she knows it's possible. Yeah, like there's no more doubt in her mind that she can never beat Tia.

tayl:

Yeah.

Ellia:

And that's scary.

tayl:

Now another top dog here. Will Mal O'Brien return to the CrossFit Games?

Ellia:

I don't know. Has she confirmed whether or not she's competing this season?

tayl:

Not to my knowledge. My hot take is that I don't think that she'll be back to CrossFit. I think she's going to get some like hot deal and like with a brand to be either model ambassador or something like that for it and just be like bro, I'm fine, I'll catch you all later.

Ellia:

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if she doesn't compete this year at all. I think that she will continue to do CrossFit as a training methodology. I don't know, just based on like what I have seen from her very limited social media posts. Like she posted a. I think she posted a story a couple days ago at like a spin class.

tayl:

Yeah.

Ellia:

Or it looked like it was either like a spin class or orange theory or something like that. Like not CrossFit?

tayl:

Yeah.

Ellia:

And I think if she was going to come back to competing the way that she was, she wouldn't be doing things that aren't CrossFit.

tayl:

But I think right now she's back into the spin.

Ellia:

I think right now she's enjoying being a teenager again.

tayl:

Right.

Ellia:

Young 20s, whatever she is.

tayl:

Yeah.

Ellia:

And I say again, I don't even think, I don't think she ever had the opportunity to enjoy that before.

tayl:

So, like I, think the past like seven years.

Ellia:

Yeah, I think she's learning what it means to exist outside of CrossFit and I think that's really cool for her and I hope she's happy.

tayl:

Hell yeah I. That's why I don't think she's coming back. I think she's found happiness and you know, I think that once you find that, it's hard to let go. How do you feel about semi-final athletes doing local competitions? Got you? I don't even want to shit on myself, but something that I would host the KOP.

Ellia:

Yeah, some of the words like the you know, 20, 30 mile radius of CrossFit gyms are going to come out.

tayl:

Yeah, yeah. And also teenagers. Don't count in this, for all the people out there. Adult semi-final athletes.

Ellia:

I think it depends on what level semi-final athlete you are.

tayl:

I think the level we talked about earlier. Anyone that's below we'll go a little bit lower. Anyone 18 and below on the leaderboard.

Ellia:

I don't know if you can quantify it by a number. I think it's more like maybe maybe you can quantify by a number, because I'm kind of about to do that.

tayl:

Like you could kind of think about it.

Ellia:

you know, if you finish it in an area, Thinking about the semi-finals last year that had the fields of 60. First two heats versus last two heats, there's six heats.

tayl:

True.

Ellia:

So heats one and two versus heats five and six. There is a very stark difference between the athletes and heats one and two versus the athletes and heats five and six. On almost every event. I think if you're a heat one and two like a consistently heat one and two athlete.

tayl:

Like not that you make it to the later heats by the day three you know.

Ellia:

Yeah, I think it can be appropriate to do local competitions, depending on the level of the local field. Like, if you have some really good competitors in your area where, hey, maybe they were like 10, 20, 30 spots from making semi-finals.

tayl:

The bubble athletes, yeah, yeah.

Ellia:

Like I think that's totally fine. If you're performing better than that at semi-finals, then I think it starts to get a little sketchy. Like I personally wouldn't feel right doing a local competition in my area where I live right now, because I know that there's not really any high-level athletes around here.

tayl:

Like you would go to the RX division and you'd be against a girl that's probably going to get her first chest bar for the first time at some point in the day. She may not be the number two spot next to you, but she's probably going to be, you know.

Ellia:

In the field. Yeah, like that. I would feel like an asshole, because I remember when I was like a local level competitor and I would go to these competitions and every once in a while there would be that one athlete that you're like, oh they are way too good to be in this competition and they just show up clean sweep Like it's right, don't break a sweat.

Ellia:

Yeah, and like when I was that local level athlete, I'm like man, look at that girl, she needs to leave Right. Like I don't want people to think that about me and I don't want to be the asshole that ruins a competition experience for somebody, especially if it's somebody who's like just getting into competing Maybe it's their first local competition. Like I don't want to be that.

tayl:

Hell, yeah, yeah. You want to pass it down like everything that you got to experience when you were at that level. You know you want to keep giving the same thing to other people.

Ellia:

And honestly, like most, of the reason I compete now is to try and win money. I think that's because local competition is a career, yeah. Yeah, the local competitions aren't going to be a substantial amount of money, so like it's not even worth it really.

tayl:

I've seen some people go out and take the $300 at the competition was given. I thought it was pretty funny when it happens, not going to lie, but that's because I'm not competing, that I'm. That's usually how I feel about, in fact, but you know.

Ellia:

I think that was like when I was a local competitor winning $300 would have been the coolest thing in the world, yeah yeah, I feel you. Now, when I'm going to competitions that have like a couple thousand dollar price purses like I, I don't want to be the asshole that takes the $300 from the local competitor.

tayl:

Right, right, yeah, not, I have other opportunities to spend my time on true competitor mindset right there. I love it. So, dude, with the, with the next new journey on the horizon. Wow, we've gone through. This is now at least the second journey that we've gone through on the podcast here. But the next new one on the horizon, like what are you hungry for?

Ellia:

Moving out to Nevada with that journey.

tayl:

Yeah.

Ellia:

I, I want to make the games. I feel really good about this season. I want to get out to Nevada and start to really establish myself in the crossfit space. I want to find other ways to get involved with crossfit through, you know, coaching, media, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, I want to. I want to figure out how to make crossfit my life and like I think you're definitely breaking it.

tayl:

I think you're definitely breaking into the avenues. You know, I think, just like Brian said, like you have an upward trajectory going on in multiple, a multitude of different aspects of crossfit, and like why, why take a step backwards from that? You know, like, so I think that's what it's going to be and I think this is, like we said, the second iteration of the journey, not even the second, just the journey continued on to a different path that, like you didn't really foresee before. Yeah, and one of my friends actually just asked me yesterday, like how do I deal with like failure or feel like you're not like doing enough? At the time, and I said, well, first, mostly depression, and then, second, I remind myself that that faith is being able to see things that are not tangible yet, like they're. They're literally on the other side of your. You're not able to put your eyes on it. You know, and that's the, the number one thing that leads to success, of faith in yourself.

Ellia:

Yeah, have you seen? It's like a meme on Instagram, or I don't even know if you can call it a meme, but just like a graphic that. I remember on Instagram and it's like a guy tunneling through to a mine. Oh yeah, he's gone through this whole big tunnel. And right on the other side is all of the diamonds that he's looking for. And there's like a centimeter of dirt left, but he turns one little whack, like you're right there. Yeah, that's what I think about, like you never, know when it's going to happen.

Ellia:

You never know what's going to push you over the edge, get you to that goal, so just don't stop.

tayl:

Hell yeah, wow, dude. I think that is the perfect note to end this ninth or 100th podcast on here. Well, this, this has been a Leo Miller again for the 100th, 1000th time. Peace.