#56 - A chat with Dan, the CrossFit OG

Dan is in the studie today - and the danglish continues. Dan is from the US and recently came to Denmark. 

Dan has quite the resume regarding training. He owned a box in USA and has been coaching for many years. Dan played american football and has been coaching american football for many years as well. Is has been a big deal for him, for many years. CrossFit has also been a part of his life since his football years, so he has been doing CrossFit since 2008 he's an OG - and he trained with Rich Froning. Let thank sink in for a second.

He started his membership in CrossFit Odense some months ago and we wanted to invite him to the studio to have a chat about him, his training life and what made him end up i Denmark.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Right, Dan. So I'm just gonna do the introduction of the podcast. I'm gonna say that in Danish, and then we're going to switch into English again.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

So we do a what's called a cold opening.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

If we can, of course. But but sometimes it's just that then it's just us starting. But then sometimes it's not. Velkommen til Cross For Dudens Podcast, en podcast til dig som træner i Cross For Dudelser, som godt kunne tænke sig og vide lidt mere om hvad der sker i uden for bokset. I dag har vi fået et besøg. A deter. Og lige om lidt, så skifter jeg lige over til engelsk, fordi da han er ikke originalt set fra Danmark, han er fra USA. Og han har noget af en fortælling. Som vi skal igennem i dag. Ud over dagen, så sidder Jonas også, og ham kan jo høre at træk vildt tænkt i mikrofon lige om et øjeblik. Jeg har prøvet at se til, om han skal lære. Men nu ser vi, hvad der sker.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Det må prøve at bære over med mig.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Welcome, Dan. Så jeg just did a quick introduction. And let them all know that you're going to tell us an amazing story now about your life. No pressure. Yeah, no pressure.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

I've seen your resume. I think it's impressive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Oh, yeah. Yes, of course. I I actually uh saw your um CV. Yeah. Uh or I didn't see it, I just saw that you uh made the application.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Very interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:33

Yeah, it's long. It's been it's been a long, long time in athletics.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah. So before getting into that, maybe we should know why you've decided to travel to this little country compared to your own.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Yeah, you know, long story short is um I've been with my my girlfriend Jane for uh six or seven years, and um she's a Ukrainian citizen. She was in the US as a research scientist at Yale, and she was trying to get her own lab there. And very recently our government changed and took away a lot of funding. So she lost the opportunity in America for a job. Okay. And just so happened to get a job opportunity at SDU. Oh, okay. And when she decided to take it, um, it had been a a foregone conclusion that I was moving wherever she moved. Okay. I just thought it was gonna be in the US. Yeah. So here we are, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Um when you first realized, oh shit, I might be moving to Denmark, what did you think?

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Be honest, she kind of uh fooled me a bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Told me the language wasn't so tough and it wouldn't be so hard to find a job. And I was excited though. I've been to Europe a few times and I really enjoy the culture, and it's a lot more easygoing than where we are in the US. Yeah, you know, so I was excited and scared. Yeah, you know, leave my family.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Does she know any any day any Danish since she's able to sell it to you like Danish is very easy?

SPEAKER_05 3:03

No, but uh in her in her defense, she was in uh Finland for about five or six years, and she says that that language is harder. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, I think so too.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, whenever I look at uh Finnish language, uh the way it's written, I'm like, how the fuck would you pronounce that?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

It doesn't really make sense, yeah. So like Swedish and uh Norwegian is rather close to Danish, but I don't know what happened to the Finnish people, but they just decided not to be anywhere near any or any of us. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

So this is this she didn't she did not know Danish before she got here. No, no, um, but she does know a few other languages, and so she just kind of told me what I needed to hear, I think.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

So she knows English, she speaks Ukrainian, of course.

SPEAKER_05 3:51

Ukrainian, Russian, Finnish, some Polish.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Oh, okay, that's quite a bit.

SPEAKER_05 3:55

Yeah, she's she's knowing learning Danish as well. Learning Danish now, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Are you guys taking classes together or is it a different time?

SPEAKER_05 4:02

She's ahead of me, so she's in a different track than I am. Yeah, she's been here for three months before me, so she started before also. Okay. So but we are both taking classes.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah. Is it something that um you have to have your resident residency before you can apply for a spro school?

SPEAKER_05 4:20

Well, the thing about it is I pay for the sprout school. Okay, so I don't know that I need the residency, but okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Okay. So so um when it comes to working at uh the university, I people working abroad like um sorry, what what Jay Jane. Jane. Yeah. Um it it tends to be for a few years and then maybe they move somewhere else. But but what's your uh what's your plans for the for the next couple of years?

SPEAKER_05 4:57

This is long term. Um you know, again, short story here, but her family was in Ukraine when the war broke out. Yeah. And uh they escaped and made their way to Orinsa.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 5:08

And they're here. Okay. So her plan is to be here forever. She's got a great contract at the university with no end date. So you're staying here forever? Kind of, yeah. So I'm kind of learning the Ukrainian culture and the Danish culture at the same time. Oh how did you how did you t uh you guys meet? Uh well, I owned a gym in the US. So it was right on Yale's campus, and she was my uh member for quite some time. Okay, and then she would come in and do some more competitive things after class, and we started working out together more and started communicating more that way. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of how it all started.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

That's a story we are familiar with down here.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Okay, sorry, but I wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Uh at least some of us are you know, in in some sense, you know, yeah, people meet up in the gym.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Oh, that kind of stuff. Sorry, I'm like missing. Yeah, start talking like in general.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, like in general. Okay, good, good, good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

I thought that you meant his story specifically.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Oh no, no, just you know, how uh relationships flourish uh in the CrossFit community, I would say. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so now we heard a little bit about why you moved to Denmark and everything, but you haven't heard anything about you, isn't it? Uh like in particular, little like tell us um, for example, how old are you?

SPEAKER_05 6:27

I am 53. Yeah, yeah, 53. Uh I don't like to admit it, and that's you know, as I get older, I'm starting to feel it more.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah. When I look at you, you're a handsome man, Dan. Hey, thanks. So even though you're 53, no, I would be happy to look like you when I'm that age. I appreciate it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:46

Where did you grow up? I grew up in New Jersey in the U.S., it's near New York. Yeah. Uh I lived there.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

I actually been there to uh what's it called? Hoboken.

SPEAKER_05 6:56

Hoboken, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, not too far. I lived in East Brunswick, which is a little south of there. Um, and I had lived there for 17 years, and then my family moved to the Poconos in Pennsylvania, which is just nothing but trees everywhere. And I lived there for one year before uh going to college in Connecticut.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:18

And then uh I went to school for four years and kind of met my ex-wife there, had made a career there, and kind of stayed in Connecticut. And that's what did you study? Uh communications. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It had a couple of different I went in for uh economics. Okay. Um, but those economic classes were at eight o'clock in the morning, so it didn't work out as well as I wanted it to. And then ultimately communications worked out perfect for me as a coach and a teacher, and it just really worked out well.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

So you studied communications. When did you start your coaching?

SPEAKER_05 7:51

So I played football my whole life, from seven years old all the way through college.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

And what when you say football, you mean American football. Oh, okay. Sorry, American football, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:01

Uh so I for about 17 years, and then the year after I finished college, there was a local high school that had a position open, and I took that. Uh coached there for a year. We were very successful. And then the following year, a position opened up at the university that I played at, and I applied and got that.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

And as a coach as well.

SPEAKER_05 8:21

As a coach, yeah. And I did that for 15 years. Spent so much time in the office, it was it was so much fun. But I look back on it now and I can't imagine spending that much time in one place anymore.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

No, no. So that was uh as a football coach. As an American football coach. American football coaching. Do you have different coaches for different things when it comes to American football? I don't know anything about American football, so please enlighten me.

SPEAKER_05 8:45

Eight people on staff. Oh yeah. And uh, you know, you have different capacities and I was an offensive wide receivers coach, a special teams coach, and then travel coordinator. And you do a lot of different things. You wear a lot of hats.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Offensive wide receiver coach. Yes. Can you try to uh specify it a little bit just so yeah?

SPEAKER_05 9:07

So if you watch American football, the offense is the team that has the has the ball.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:12

Um and the quarterback will get the ball, and if he throws it downfield to somebody, he's throwing it to a wide receiver.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

All right, good.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

Right. So I would teach them how to run routes and catch and how to get in someone else's way if they don't have the ball and the different concepts of what we're doing, and yeah. Yeah, and recruit and watch the other team's defense and figure out what they're doing to let my younger guys know this is what they do and this is how we're gonna beat it.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

So uh run making people running fast and change directions. Correct. You're very good at that.

SPEAKER_05 9:45

Yes, yeah, yes, uh yeah, there's a lot of techniques involved, and like it's a lot of hand-to-hand combat, also. It's interesting to think about it this way.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

But like they know they should know how to fight.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

They should know how to keep someone's hands off of them. Oh, yeah. You know, not necessarily fight, but protect themselves, I suppose. You know, and yeah, and to be able to read, it's like a chess game. So you line up and there's 11 guys on the other side, and you have to try to figure out what they're doing. Yeah, and then you adjust what maybe trick them not to know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Correct.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

There's a lot behind it.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

So um, I've watched a lot of uh movies regarding American football or football, as you would say. Um how accurate would you say they are?

SPEAKER_04 10:31

Yeah, not very much fun to watch these things.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I I I generally enjoy watching the um uh what's it called Friday night lights is one of my favorite movies. Yes. I love that movie.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

Yeah, it was uh it's a lot more it's just work.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:48

It's just work. You know, the only fun part is game day, you know, and players and coaches.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

And your season is remarkably short. Yes, it's compared to soccer or what we would call August to November.

SPEAKER_05 11:02

Yeah. Yeah, and that's full pre-season all the way through postseason. Right, so that's four months in season. Yeah, you play every week ten games, and then playoffs if you make it. So it's ten weeks.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

So sorry, you said uh every week ten games. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

One week every game.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

One game every week. Okay, sorry. Sorry, yeah. Yeah, one game every week for ten weeks.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

And uh, you know, if you make the playoffs after that, it can go three or four more weeks after that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

All right. So it's actually like eight months a year, you could potentially be off-season?

SPEAKER_05 11:35

Yes, but you know, as a coach, the off-season is the hardest part. That's where all the recruiting and all the preparation and all the the um self um evaluation goes into. Yeah. And then, you know, lifting and running and all the fundament fundamental stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

But obviously the sport is very physically demanding. A lot of um I would not not punching like um there's collisions. It collisions, yeah. Um, so I guess you couldn't do that for let's say half a year or uh three quarters of a year.

SPEAKER_05 12:10

Right. I mean the time off is extremely important. Yeah, you know, and then you know, so it's one game a week, and you practice five days a week, and of those four of them have contact, and yeah, yeah, there's a lot of time spent in the training room trying to get better.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah. That's very nice to hear because um um, you know, I think most of ours who who who's a little bit into sport know that there's a lot of concussions uh related to the American football. Um, so I think that's uh very, very nice to hear that uh uh that that goes a lot of thinking into how we take care of the athletes and how we make them last as long as possible because that's they they take a lot of uh of hitting uh doing that kind of sport.

SPEAKER_05 12:55

Yeah, we have trainers, what you would call medics here, yeah, full-time staff, yeah, four of them, and like they're allowed. We we have guys in the training room on the regular treatment.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So one thing uh I've always been very you know fascinated about the the college football community, it's huge. Yeah. It I I wouldn't would you say it's larger than uh the NFL?

SPEAKER_05 13:21

I think so for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

Yeah, and I think the what's the most attractive about it is those kids are still playing for the fun of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

You know, some of them nowadays are getting paid, but it's for the fun of it and it's for the camaraderie and it's for your school and you know, all the people that played before you. It just it's a little different than as as a business. You know, yeah. When I was in college, if you got hurt, you just played. You just played. I mean, yeah. You're in approach, you get hurt. You're gonna get better at your career and you don't want to jeopardize your your money. And this is it's it is uh the tradition is incredible.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

You know, we had guys coming back to our team when we were playing from 25, 30 years ago, talking to the guys, and you can see the excitement in their eyes. And and now that I'm older and I can look back on wish I could still be there and play, you know, you can feel feel a part of it forever.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

I would love to watch a game sometime. Uh you know, one of the like hundred plus thousand people stadiums.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

Yeah, it's incredible how many people go to those games every week. And we figure there's yeah, 35, 45 games a week, too.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

So yeah.

unknown 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Wow, it's amazing. I think it's so big. Like like we we like we live in a so such a small country, right? We can't relate to any of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

The biggest stadium here in in Owens is like 15,000, I think.

SPEAKER_05 14:44

I have no clue. Yeah, the soccer stadium. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Uh they are expanding it to 20,000, I think. Yeah, that's uh that's it's just another scale.

SPEAKER_05 14:53

Some high school football fields in our country. Honestly, there's some fake football field.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah, it's just another scale.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah. So the the place where you and Jane met was your gym. It was my gym, yeah. Yeah. At the time, what kind of gym was it? It was a CrossFit gym.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

It was a CrossFit gym. Yeah, I had I have been doing CrossFit since football, since I was coaching football. There was another coach on the staff that found it online before I even knew it was a thing. Okay. And what year was this? Ooh, uh probably 2009. Yeah. 2008. Yeah. And there were three of us coaches that would go into the weight room and do this stuff, and everyone's looking at us like we're crazy. And yeah. No, we learned everything on video, and people still think that we're crazy. Yeah. And uh, so I've been doing it for that long. And then just coincidentally, I was in my hometown one day driving by and I looked over and I saw a CrossFit gym. I didn't even know they had gyms, you know? Yeah. And that's where it all started. I went to a just found a gym in my town.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

And joined and and then joined that. Yeah. It just saw was also at the time when my I have two children, they're older now, 21 and 24. Um, they were just getting to a s an age where they were gonna play sports. So I needed to kind of take a step back from American football because there was no time. And so I transitioned right into coaching CrossFit at that time, just like within months. And doing that full time or yeah, uh I just I worked at a gym that um it's a very successful gym. A lot of owner, uh, the owner's very good at programming, and he's high level into uh CrossFit training. Um, and we had exposure to you know all of the athletes and all the coaches from around the country. Like at the time, um Rich Froning was like the champion, and he would come through our gym and he would train with us, and we'd have like all the big trainers like Coach Bergner and oh wow, I would love to experience Bergeron and like all these guys were there at the time. So, anyway, um that gym was a a sister gym to two other gyms. So I would work two hours at one, two hours at another, just kind of like find the right amount of hours to support my family, and yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

So CrossFit became like a huge part of your life at that point.

SPEAKER_05 17:17

Yeah, it was my it was who I was. Yeah. Yeah, I was at a CrossFit gym, I didn't do much anything else, honestly. And between working out and coaching, it was everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Sounds familiar in my case. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:30

This was also the time when I was competing heavy. So I'd be at the gym working out for three hours a day. Yeah. So I just like literally was in the gym 24-7. That's what it felt like.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah. So that was another gym. And you ended up opening your own?

SPEAKER_05 17:44

Yeah, and then I ended up opening up my own. Yeah. Um, which was in a neighboring town, maybe 15 miles away from the gym that I was um raised in, if you will. Yeah. Um yeah, open up a gym of my own.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Um what's the name of that?

SPEAKER_05 18:00

That was CrossFit Science Park. Yeah. Um does it still exist? It's there's another gym in its place now, but no. It we closed it right after COVID. Uh-huh. Or right during COVID. Somewhere in there is when it kind of closed.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 18:12

Um, but yeah, it was it was that was hard. I mean, as you know, it was hard. At the time, I was the only staff also. I didn't have other coaches, I didn't have anyone to clean, I didn't have anyone.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

I would one man army.

SPEAKER_05 18:25

Yeah, man. I'd wake up at 4 30 in the morning and I get home at 7 30 at night, you know, five, six days a week. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

That's very American. Yeah. You know, I know. If we, you know, this is also um uh I forgot how to say self stendi.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Uh yeah. Yeah. Umdependent. Independent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yeah. Well, is it that um uh so when you own your own business? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Oh yeah, entrepreneur, yeah. So that's it's that's um that's that's very uh entrepreneurish to do that in Denmark, but but you know, other besides that working let's say 8 to 16 or 8 to 4 um is quite normal in Denmark, but you have some you you work quite a bit in the in in the US. Yeah, like that's very normal.

SPEAKER_05 19:17

Very normal. Yeah, yeah, it's one of the things I noticed right away when I came here. The w the work um life balance is completely different. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we in a good way. Yeah, honestly. In a good way. I was hustling about I was waking, like I said, 12, 13, 14 hour days, and yeah, you know, it was not ends meet after that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, because you're exhausted when you get home. Extremely yeah, don't want to do anything, yeah. And then you have to take care of your yourself, yeah, your relationships, all the other stuff. Yeah, family.

SPEAKER_05 19:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, most of my free time besides that was spent with my kids doing whatever they were doing, you know. Of course, yeah. Yeah. Sounds tough. Rough. I look back and I can't imagine doing it again, I'll tell you that much.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

I I can definitely recognize some of you know, I I definitely don't uh have that long hours now, but definitely during the first year, maybe the first two years, there were some long ass days. Yeah. Uh not necessarily just coaching, but you know, everything. Everything that goes into it.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

And then you're constantly worried about like you know, at the time we were brand new too, and trying to get clients in, and I'm counting every day. Okay, there was this many today. I mean, you know, oh man, we're someone didn't show up, what's going on, you know? It's constant stress. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

I don't think people can comprehend how many hats you need to have when you're uh owning a box. Yeah. Because they only they only see the training part or the teaching part, coaching part. Yeah. And then maybe a little bit of the cleaning. But that's only just like there's so many things. Yeah. So many things. Yeah. People get hurt, or there's some something's broken, or um somebody lost something, and now you have to find an uh be a police officer as as well. And then look through the the tapes of um of the video here. Yeah. Um, yeah, yeah. So that's so many things.

SPEAKER_05 21:11

Yeah, never ending.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

No.

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Never ending.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

So you closed down during COVID?

SPEAKER_05 21:17

F right after COVID. So they locked this, you know, the country. I don't I don't know if what happened here, but in the US, they shut down the country basically. Yeah. No work, no anything. We had that as well.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

We shut down for a period.

SPEAKER_05 21:27

Yeah. Yeah. Ours was a little longer than one would like, and you know, there was so I couldn't have anyone even come to the gym. No, so I owned the gym with nobody there. And you know, the the the owners of the building were fairly helpful at the time.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

But only in that they put off payments towards the end of things. Yeah. But um, so it was extremely tough. You know, I got in great shape though. You had a private gym? Oh man, I had a gym to myself. I worked out so much. And you were still competing at

SPEAKER_00 22:00

That time?

SPEAKER_05 22:00

Um, no, I was kind of done competing. I mean, once I owned my own gym, all that kind of shut down. There was no time to compete. So at that point I was working out one hour a day.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Okay. But you told me you actually went to the games?

SPEAKER_05 22:13

I did, man. I made it to the games in uh 2013, early in my career. Um, the first year they had the 40-year-old division. Yeah. Yeah. I finished the open in 20th position, and that was what it took to make it to the games.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 22:27

And this was great. I'll tell you the best part of it was I have like my children were young at that point and they could see their daddy competing. And oh man. Like a lot of a lot of my friends have to tell their kids stories when my kids were like there to see it. So it was fun. It was a good time.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

So uh did you um did you uh work out specifically for the the Job and uh and the games?

SPEAKER_05 22:49

Yeah, so the gym I was at when I originally started, the highly competitive gym. I mean, they had our team made it to the games, they finished second. There was a couple of individual athletes, some masters athletes. We've had a highly competitive gym, and so I would say maybe two years after I joined the gym, I had personal programming at that point. Okay, with the intent of making the games.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:10

And uh yeah, everything was geared towards that. Everything was you know planned out. The season starts February 12th or whatever the first open was, and you planned your season accordingly.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

And at that time it was five workouts, five weeks, right? Five weeks, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:25

Yeah, I didn't know other sports, I wouldn't allow myself to do something to try to get hurt. I was 100% a CrossFit athlete. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

So did you um oh there's so much so much nostalgia um when it comes to this? Because uh in Denmark we had this, we called it the the Friday night lights, right? Like we would we would meet up here and then or that that many years ago it wouldn't be here, it would be somewhere else. But but we would meet up uh and then uh have all those who wanted to do the yoga and then cheer them on. Would you guys do the same?

SPEAKER_05 24:00

Well, we did, but I would tell you that like I didn't work out at that time. No, I am not I don't like to be out in front of everybody. No, no, I would work out the day before, usually when the gym was closed, and uh do everything.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

Yeah, like uh but we had the Friday night lights and I was a big part of it and cheering everyone on. But as a competitor, I just didn't like people in my face watching me. It just felt weird.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Okay. But what did you think when you went to the games? You couldn't avoid people then? No, but at that point you were obviously people weren't that close to you.

SPEAKER_05 24:43

It's a little different than like when you're in the gym and you're doing the open, and like, you know, there's competition. You remember the workouts where you have four minutes to finish this, and if you make it, you get four more minutes, and the next thing you know, you're like the only one working, and there's a crowd of people like within five meters of you, and it's really intimidating when you get to the games, they're up in the stands. I mean, it's just you and the other people you're competing with. Okay, yeah. It's just a bit more space. Yeah, it just brings you back to when you're an athlete, and okay, for the next however long, I'm just gonna focus on this. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Yeah. So um, if we can pick your brain just a little bit. So um, any open workouts uh you remember being the worst or the best?

SPEAKER_05 25:25

Uh both, but the worst one was the 27-21 down to three of Burpee's thrusters. That one was soul crushing.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Was that the one with no time cap?

SPEAKER_05 25:39

Yeah, you had to finish, yeah. Yeah, it's like just make your way through and finish. I did that one twice.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

27 to 1. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

So Shuachu, Fiat 2, Aina 2.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, with thrusters and burbies. Yeah. How many years ago?

SPEAKER_05 25:57

Oh man. Um, gonna say was it 17? 10, maybe 10 years, nine years. Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no time cap. Yeah, my favorite one was the one, this is the last open qualifier of the year that I made the games. Yeah. And that was the four minutes to finish, three rounds of 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups. Yeah. And I just crushed it. At that point, I was pull-ups were so I don't want to say easy, but so I had the technique down and it was almost resting to do pull-ups. Okay. And I just crushed it. Impressive. Yeah, yeah, it was good. Things have changed. They always do.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

So coming from that level to gradually uh decreasing your fitness, not necessarily intentional, but uh, how is it going from you know what you could do to what you can now?

SPEAKER_05 26:54

Yeah, it's very humbling. Yeah, yeah, it's very hard, I'll tell you, because your mind still thinks you're where you were. Yes. And you quickly but you just don't understand what the hell is going on. Yeah. In some ways it helps, and in some ways it hurts, you know, like you have a better idea of how to pace and what's gonna help or what's gonna hurt. But I'm also that a competitive athlete at heart. And you know, I I think that I often chew off more than I can swallow.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

But I like that, you know, sometimes just um I think it's it's also a very good ability to have or skill to have. Because you know, um I am I am I am directly the opposite of that. Always try to do I I aim more for uh the long-term goals and then just buy it just a little bit every time, and then I know that if I do this all the time I will get very far. Yeah, but you know, I never get I never get out of my comfort zone doing that. I never I never uh maybe I could achieve things faster if I chose to use that method, yeah. Or a way of thinking.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

Yeah, there's two ways to go. And I you know, you just look at burpees, for example. You can pace your way through burpees and finish them, or you can go as fast as you can and get as far as you can and next time hope you make it further, and you make it further, and hope you that's kind of the the way I've kind of worked out all along. Just go hard and fast and find out okay, that was the limit.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Yeah. You know, yeah, reaching the limit.

SPEAKER_05 28:26

Yeah, a lot.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. But that makes you fit as well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Yeah, yeah. We um you know, uh being a former competitor, uh, we have um we have a former CrossFit Games athlete who sometimes visits the gym whenever he's in Denmark, and it's right the same or just the same thing, you know. He still has that competitive mindset. Yeah. But now he has a daughter, he's uh had home renovations, you know. So he just completely crashes doing the workout, thinking he can still do the same pace.

SPEAKER_05 29:03

You can't help it. Your mind tells you. I mean, I'm still 20, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah, that's and that's um uh you know, you're you've got a couple of age uh couple of years on us, but you know, I I it it's it's just um it's just a funny thing to think of that when you we get when we at some point get to the age you're on now, do we still think that I don't know, we're you will, yeah. Hopefully you will. It's it's just a su it's such a weird thing, you know, not not realizing you're getting older, but you are, yeah. And there will be some limitations. But you just can't no, you can't comprehend them.

SPEAKER_05 29:40

Because I mean it I look back to when I was a young child, right? Or a kid, and I would go to a store and I would see somebody working at the register, and they're like 18 years old, and I'm thinking, oh, look how old this guy is, you know. And then you get to 18, you're like, oh, I guess that wasn't that old. And yeah, you're looking at someone who was 30 at the time, and they're like, Oh, look how old he is. And when you get there, you're like, I guess I was wrong, you know. It just constantly changes.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

This the cycle repeats.

SPEAKER_05 30:04

Yeah, you just constantly know I'm like I'm 50, and I look at oh, my dad was 50. I was like, damn, he was so old at the time, and now I guess he wasn't. I shouldn't have been so mean.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah, oh that's very good. You know, you're going to the CrossFit games uh once, right? Yeah, once.

unknown 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

You never thought of like, let's try again.

unknown 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

I know that life uh gave you some. I did, I did. I got hurt a few times. Okay. Yeah. Uh a couple years later I was in pretty good shape, and like the the week of the opens, I was doing a one rep max clean and caught it wrong and like broke my hand, and that season was over. Oh man. And then a couple years later, I kind of tweaked my back, and then I own a gym. You know, it's like this was really I think every year, every five years, I'm like, this is my year. Yeah. This is my year. And I'm coming up on it, like I'm 53, and for me, 55 is the one. That's when the weights change, and like, you know, that's a new age group. Yeah, but it's the first time when you go with like lighter weights. Oh, yeah, that's right. So like I'm like, that's that's my opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Like, so can you tell me about that?

SPEAKER_00 31:12

I'm not sure I'm um whenever there's obem or like any kind of competition, there's usually you know, masters from 35 to 55, they compete at the same weights that the obm categories do. Right? Yeah, yeah. And then uh from 55 plus, yeah, 55 plus you usually get it it's like the RX weight or the uh scaled weights. Yeah, and a little bit easier gymnastics and such.

SPEAKER_05 31:37

Depending on, yeah, like you won't be doing uh muscle ups as much as pull-ups and other things, and like I said, like okay, I gotta start getting ready and that two years. But it's also been one of those things where like I'm smart enough to know that you can't train hard for two years. You know, you gotta kind of bide your time and just like uh the American football, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Yeah, like like we talked about. You can't just uh full throttle all the time, especially as I get older.

SPEAKER_05 32:02

I mean, the recovery time's so much more important now. You know, yeah. I do a workout here, I sign up for three days here, and the next thing I know I'm I gotta cancel that class. I'm too sore, I can't can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Oh god. Looks it sounds amazing, sorry. Yeah. Um so um let's talk about just a little bit about you know the the Crusader games that you went to. How uh like how many days were it lasting and like how many events did you have?

SPEAKER_00 32:31

Was still in California? It was in California at that time, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:34

At the time, yeah. Um it was three days. Um there was five events, yeah. And then I always say, like, I'm not out in the front. It was out-of-body experience. First of all, everybody there was like six foot two, jacked like monsters, and here I was a little at the time. I was like 170 pounds, I was like little, yeah, and I just like you couldn't even see me as the line was walking at me.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

That's actually quite lightweight for a competitor.

SPEAKER_05 33:05

Yeah, I come from American football background, so I was strong from that size.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:10

And um, I felt like it helped me in gymnastics and things too. Yeah. Like it was just um, these people were just so much bigger than me, you know. I remember walking in to get our gear and like sign in and register, and I was looking around like, do I belong here? Like, what how did this happen?

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Like what do you call it? Uh, imposter syndrome. Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 33:29

Yeah, and then um the first event, so coincidentally, overhead mobility is not great for me because of American football. I've hurt my shoulder so many times. And the first event was uh the five rounds of 400-meter run, 15 overhead squats.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

So I finished last in that event, but I was so happy to finish. And then, like, obviously, that took all the stress away. I was like, okay, it can't get worse than this.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

And how did the rest of the competition go?

SPEAKER_05 33:56

It went very well, and then after that, there was the 2115-9 of uh 315 deadlifts and 30-inch box jumps, and I did pretty well on that one.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Oh man, you must be hurting.

SPEAKER_05 34:09

Oh, it was tough, but like I remember I made the uh on the last jump over on the box to get off the box. You know how people fall off the box all the time, and damn it, if I didn't fall off the box on my way through it. I was an athlete enough to do some sort of roll, but it was uh yeah, it was humbling. And then there was um one with a sled where you had to drag the sled across the field, and it was a grass field that was all muddy, and it was like so hard. So crossing like how ridiculous this is, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Yeah, yeah. So that was uh three events, right? Yeah, and then the last two is is that like sort of final events or it was yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

They're yeah, that's on the the last day, the last two events, and like um I I have a trouble remembering exactly what order the events went into, but like there was important that's when there was like dumbbell um snatch um and then like shuttle run across again across the field and back. And I had gone to the store like a couple days before and bought some cleats just because of the cleats, uh something you put on the shoes?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Uh football stroller. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:22

Spikes like yeah, brand new shoes. That was not uh that was not ideal, but Duba Hillopodensk.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Okay, yeah. Yeah, cleats is uh duba. Duba? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:33

That's what you call them, but yeah, yeah. And then uh then the last one was more gymnastics, yeah. And I did probably want like toes to bar pull-ups and uh the j double unders. And I did okay in that one. Yeah, yeah. But uh I think it wasn't for the first event I would have finished really fairly well.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Yeah. So over the years um CrossFit has changed quite a bit. Um also when it comes to the programming. Um so when I think when when CrustFit started out, you know, heavy lifting was rather big part of it. And then during the last couple of years, machines have been a really big part big part of it. Yeah, conditioning. Conditioning, yeah, yeah. But also um that's uh if you're a big guy, that's uh it makes it easier, you know, doing the calories on the machines and lifting heavier. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I think that back back then, you know, being a bigger guy was probably a more favorable position.

SPEAKER_05 36:36

Yeah, I mean it's you know, technique was not good back then either. I mean, nowadays people have been or kids have grown up like learning how to Olympic lift and do all these things when we were learning it and it was you know it was who is stronger, yeah. You know, who who actually was just in better shape, you know, like yeah, so it's changed in that way also. Like the technique behind everything is so much more um ingrained now.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah, I see some clips every now and then of like some uh 18 or 19 year old uh snatching 140, 150. Yeah, I'm like what the fuck? And then they are just and it's so jacked, and they can do everything else as well. Yeah. I remember the Brazilian athlete uh Guillermo Heroes.

SPEAKER_05 37:21

Guillermo.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Yeah, yeah. When I saw him the first time, he wasn't he wasn't I think he was 19 or something, and he was just so fucking strong. Yeah, I'm like this dude has been doing it for 10 years maybe. Yeah, yeah, like his whole life. He started early.

SPEAKER_05 37:38

Yeah, that's like uh so as a couple kids um that this is their sport, you know. So we were talking about I did American football, is like some kids do CrossFit as their sport, you know, like Olympic lifting from the age of eight is unheard of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

It just gives you so much like when doing all these types of different sports is very good for you when it comes to um transferring to CrossFit.

SPEAKER_05 38:03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it well endurance sports are the number one. If you're doing an endurance sport that will help you on CrossFit most, yeah. You know, come in with some sort of career.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

We've actually had you know a just a discussion uh every once in a while. If you had children, what sports would you like them to uh do in order for them to become the best possible CrossFit athlete? Gymnastics, yeah. We talked about gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, uh-huh. Uh because conditioning is something that you can learn or work on quite quickly, but strength and like the body awareness, yeah, that takes a lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Right, but you know, getting into very good shape, like we see some of the um some of the runners doing, let's say 5k, 10k runners, they're in very good shape. Like I don't think and I know I know that we're saying that um getting to that point is faster than building very like quite quite a bit of strength. But I don't I don't really think so. I think that you know aging with it is going to give or and using a uh spending a lot of time on it is going to get you very, very far because I don't think that you know I don't think that um conditioning is going to come easy either.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Definitely not easier, but I think uh easier.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

A little bit easier maybe perhaps swimming is a good one to also you learn how to breathe when you swim. You know you can't uh just panic breathe when you're swimming. So you like you learn how to be calm when you're tired and have a rhythm and yeah, yeah. I find that people that's that were swimmers in the past tend to do well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

But I uh I interrupted your question because you I think you wanted to ask uh Darren about uh what type of sports uh you had you have children of your own.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Yeah, yeah. Did you I think uh some parents you know you know as long as they do something they think is funny or they enjoy, that's fine. Like, did you try to nudge them a little bit maybe? I sure did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:06

We tried gymnastics and martial arts.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:09

Yeah, the two I thought the two of them would be because like you said, for a body awareness, yeah, and like just body weight movements and that kind of strength. Yes was what I kind of I had two girls also, so they were lucky enough that I wasn't trying to push them to American football.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

But I'll uh when you say martial arts, I also think about uh wrestling, you know, they are jacked, yeah. You know, like the male athletes, holy shit. Yeah, uh you've seen uh Chandler Smith. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. He used to do wrestling, I think.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's another guy that came through our gym. Okay, yeah. Know him a little bit. Not like we're friends, but yeah, he's incredibly jacked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Oh well, so yeah, gymnastics and martial arts. Gymnastics and martial arts.

SPEAKER_05 40:55

And then uh then they moved into what you call football. And like uh that's where they they kind of ended up. And this was okay, I mean, for footwork and balance and conditioning and this kind of thing, it worked out really well.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Sprinting.

SPEAKER_05 41:09

Yeah. And my kids also did CrossFit since they were able to do it. You know, one of the things I did as a coach was I had kids' classes and they grew up with it, and they were a couple of those kids that were talking about that and knew how to lift from a very young age, and they can lift more weights than most of the adults, and yeah, you know, it was impressive.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

Yeah. Yeah, sorry, I thought you were going to uh I I I think uh it's your turn now.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Yeah, sorry. Um so when looking ahead um for let's say the next couple of years and um thinking about the future and physical activities, do you have anything that you are setting your your head up for or having focus on, or is it just you know, I I just need to show up and and and make sure that my body's in good shape, or do you have any anything that you're focusing on?

SPEAKER_05 42:05

Well, I think uh the two-year plan is to get in good enough shape to compete again. Yeah um when the opens come around and when I'm turning 55, so in 2028, that'd be the plan. The next year is just to stay healthy, which seems to be a problem at this age. Every time you turn around, something's wrong. But yeah, so the next year or so, just kind of stay in shape, try to get better shape and um and then gear up for another push.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Do you always have a goal? Like do we have is there always something that you're trying to achieve, or or do you also have periods where you know I just I just like to work out or uh for the last say five or six years, it was just going to the gym and working out, like trying to spend some time with my girlfriend.

SPEAKER_05 42:49

That was the time we got to spend together, was at the gym, and yeah, so that became what it was just trying to like push ourselves there and to spend time together, not with an end game. No, um just try to get in some good shape and you know, being able to do whatever shows up. If somebody says, Hey, you want to go for a run? Sure. Hey, you want to go do this? Yeah, I can do that, no problem. You know, just be in that kind of shape.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

It's it's it's um I think um I think it's uh a very, very, very nice mindset, it's mindset, you know, being able to do all the things that you would like to do, but also just enjoying working out because um I um I've had some I have to I've had some talks with myself because I always have something that I want to achieve. Um and at some point it's going to be very hard getting better. You know, I have a squad goal at the moment, but at one point there's a turning point where I'm not going to get better. Yeah. But but what should I do then? You know, uh it's uh the thing about enjoying working out and everything is is uh is very interesting, yeah. And you know the good thing about CrossFit is CrossFit is uh all the all the people that are doing it, all the social yeah uh stuff that uh are related to it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

Yeah we started this talking about how r relationships start at the gym and it's because everybody's in here doing the same and you look to your left and you look to your right and these people are working so hard. It's just so so attractive so so drawing.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Definitely yeah yeah um yeah I recently had some discussions or like talks with a good friend of mine regarding working out you know working out with an goal in mind a goal in mind or just you know doing it for the love of the game. I generally tend to do better when I have something to train for like right now I want a squad 200 I want a front squad 160 um I want a deadlift 250 no I have something that you know I have to push myself to in order to reach these goals otherwise I'm just staying content with where I am yeah but I think that's not uh something for all.

SPEAKER_05 45:13

No, exactly. Yeah I think it works out best when the two things kind of come together. Yeah exactly you really love what you're doing and then you're pushing hard you know again as you get older you you realize that every day is different. I'm just gonna give what I have today and hope that's good enough.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

Yeah um you've probably met uh Meibrit one of the masters athletes here down as well she told me as long as she can keep hitting her same PR not necessarily increasing it uh she's actually PRing because as she gets older she's supposed to get weaker yeah but as long as she stays where she is she's actually per se getting stronger.

SPEAKER_05 45:55

Yeah yeah yeah which is impressive it's not easy to do no some of my PRs I just can't imagine ever getting again sounds horrible yeah no it's it's like I said it's change it changes you yeah it changes you and we we you and I mod we have to face that someday yeah you're at some we never know when that day comes at some point you will lift the heaviest weight of your life and you will never lift it again and you will know that it was that it was your heaviest lift yeah god damn then looking back on all your experience with um uh with the physical activity and sports and everything what's the most important lesson or thing that you take with you accountability and teamwork. Yeah yeah accountability and teamwork I mean when I played all team sports as a as an athlete usually it was all team sports and um everybody's relying on you so if you decide to take a playoff or whatever you're really um doing a disservice to all of them and then the accountability is like you know what you do when no one's watching. Yeah you know it's easy to say you're preparing but you know like are you are you is right yeah so you know it's two lessons I took with me and I try to put to everything I do.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Yeah so I I I can see that making sense you know when especially when you're a uh football coach you know you had like such a big off season you know day one of the offseason you know you you you you can't relax you can't take it easy you know maybe for a little bit but you know you gotta get back at it.

SPEAKER_05 47:36

Yeah yeah there was not much time to take off you did take a week or so off and then getting right back into the next thing and making sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing and the funny thing about you know calling it uh what do you call it in season and off season?

SPEAKER_01 47:50

Yeah yeah I when you when you when you talk about American football I think that it like you should turn it around. You know so uh so in season is the eight month yeah and then off season is where you compete because you can't in these in these months you probably can't do any work to get better. You just need to maintain your level because now you're competing. Yeah and your focus is on trying to be the best level you can be but you did that in the other eight months. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:22

That's exactly right you what you did is you tried to keep the games yeah that you've achieved in eight months like try how much can I like not depreciate in this season.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Yeah yeah that's exactly right I like that I like the I like the thought about the accountability like um it's not nothing is really given yeah you have you have to put in the work yeah like and and and you can you can use your version uh you uh you what what what you said you buy it more that you could chew yeah or you can use my version which is you know small step uh small step for a long time doesn't really matter the thing is that you have to put in some work yeah you just need to find the way which is working for you yeah and the great thing about athletics is you can't fool anybody because once once you get out there it's easy to see yeah what what happened you know yeah and that's also you know whenever we get close to the OM we try to um get people on board yeah and you know there's some uh that they just don't want to compete they hate that setting um and there's definitely some people you know who might be taking it a little bit easy who might be rip shaving a little bit not completing the full reps you know yeah that's not the people who are showing up for the open um yes so they they don't want to be held accountable yeah yeah yeah so that's that's also why we try to you know enforce standards and you know come on guys you you gotta hit depth you gotta log out um in the real world it that probably doesn't matter but you know uh otherwise how how can we measure your improvements or where you're at right now yeah yeah um standards yeah yeah the standards are all the time I think if you're gonna do anything you should do it the best you can right and if you're gonna shortchange or cut the reps then maybe this isn't really for you. I I I sometimes I I say that to some people you know this is the one hour of your day where you can give it your all improve yourself but sometimes you know people just show up they've had an awful day maybe their head isn't uh somewhere else yeah their head is somewhere else you know and at that point I'm also you know as long as you're here do what you can yeah we'll get back at it next week.

SPEAKER_05 50:52

Yeah well there's two like you said there's two types there's the competitive person in here and then there's not yeah and as long as you know who's who yeah and treat them that way it works out great.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Yeah exactly so you have to know your uh your members yeah yeah and I that's what I love being a uh a coach you know getting to know people knowing what I can say to her and what I can say to him to get them fired up uh get them better.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

I think we've um been through it all now Dan and I want to thank you a lot for telling uh uh your story it's um you know having having these uh conversations and uh getting to know people from all around the world you're our second uh English uh podcast we're doing and we had uh Giampiero um who also told us about his life he's from Italy and it's just uh it's very inspiring and very interesting to hear where where you come from yeah it's very different. Yeah it's it's really different. And I I think that what what makes it uh amazing to hear. Yeah yeah I also think you know having these conversations you know we would never have them uh down on the gym floor no we don't have the time no we don't have the time or you know something else comes in the way yeah so I really enjoy these conversations and getting in uh in depth yeah yeah yeah yeah and hopefully uh people listening would uh yeah will think the same and and and come back ask uh Dan a lot of questions he's uh you you've got a lot of wisdom and knowledge yeah when it comes to CrossFit yeah yeah doing it's a long time yeah and speak Danish to him because uh he has to learn yeah I am I'm learning do you do you have do you have any um like do you have any fun words or uh it's just about to ask the same like do you have any have have you uh learned any words now uh as of now that you find like particularly funny or um I really um no I can't think at the time I so Jan Pieter we talked with his favorite word was extension court in Danish oh yeah for linger learning yeah there's a few of these but I can't even pronounce the ones like uh um I was trying to think obviously it's like uh what's the word for obviously um um obenloosed yeah oben loosed yeah there's um yeah there's a few words but I can't think of them right now it's okay I wouldn't put you on the spot like this it was just fun if you had anything on top of your head I did but yeah but um we'll have them come and uh speak a little with you uh in Danish so that you uh you you you get uh get a little better.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

Yeah small talk is all I got right now so like one word in English that we Danes sometimes uh joke about is moist. Yeah moist that's such a it's a it's a weird word uh moist yeah moist so uh I I I'm I don't know if uh you know it's the same way uh yeah or the other way around I mean to be honest I'm just so trying to pick up what the language is that I haven't even paid attention to what sounds funny and what doesn't no no but you told me you understand numbers.

SPEAKER_05 54:04

Yeah we're good with the numbers now yeah yeah um like I said small talk like I tell you tell anybody where I'm from you know my name and things like this.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

Yeah but the numbers in Danish don't make sense at all.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

No but you know somebody gave me a good clue and it was very helpful like with the 10, 20 30 like back in the day everything was by 20s and it was like you know that's where fear and uh uh hot trace and I was like oh okay well that makes sense now 50 makes sense it's 60 minus 10 like okay I can figure this out like but it's extremely weird how we go uh single digits and then double digits but if you're gonna say hundreds it goes hundreds then single digits then double digits and like oh lord oh lord it took me a minute yeah could imagine yeah um but yeah so you're no numbers right now are you you just you can do some small talk but um how are you do you understand most Danish even though you can't necessarily speak it yet it's a little easier to read it um because I'm still try I still have to translate everything in my mind.

SPEAKER_05 55:13

Oh yeah so by the time they get to the second sentence I haven't finished translating the first sentence so it's like I can never catch up. So I just kind of right at this point I'm just sitting back and like trying to catch key words like okay I know that word I know that word so I try to have an idea of what we're talking about not necessarily what the conversation is. So it's but it's getting better and better.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

Uh one thing I've heard is good uh good practices you know just turning on the television. Do you ever do that?

SPEAKER_05 55:40

Yeah yeah yeah I tend right now I am um we put something on put subtitles both ways watch it in English with the Danish subtitle watch it danish with the English subtitle and then Jane and I are doing as much speaking in Danish as we can yeah when you're home yeah and mostly when we're texting like when we're texting and trying to do it in Danish because then I got a little more time to think it through and you know so we're doing the best we can. So um I've heard can't remember where but I've heard that uh we Danish people we tend to keep to ourselves what's what's your uh experience like and and you can say whatever we're not gonna we're not gonna haunt you or anything uh what's your experience with uh you know danish people are we hard you know to get to know I don't think so you just as it's you're easily approach you're not easily approachable by face no people look to be like pretty stern and like but as you approach and you start speaking everybody's been very open and very you know easy to talk to and everyone's willing to speak English because I don't speak Danish and I think everyone I've spoken to has been extremely inviting. Yeah um you just have to be outgoing yeah which is something new for me like I told you I'm not usually out in the front.

SPEAKER_00 56:53

Yeah so Danish people tend to be a little bit introverted. Yes. Whereas the Americans I've met usually are extroverted.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

Yeah yeah yeah you walk down the street in America and you're saying hey what's up to people you don't know who they are hey hey where you are here you always say how are you doing but you don't expect an answer back an answer no on an answer keep on yeah that's so funny you know these cultural things yeah um because I I've just heard that people that I I I I I just don't want to bother people so I just I just you know let's just stay in my own bubble yeah and then I have no trouble at all speaking to people if they want to spark speak to me but I'm not gonna you know I'm just gonna let them do their thing. That's best somebody has to burst that bubble yeah exactly yeah yeah right yeah well Dan thank you very much and um I'm just gonna do the ending here in Danish. Som jeg har glemt, for nu skal jeg lige stille ud af. Skal vi lige stille om til dansk tusind tak, fordi I har lyttet med til dans super fede historie her. Og som vi plejer at gøre, så husk atdelig tage fattig i boksen, hvis der I har nogle emne, som jeg synes kunne være super fed at tage med. Vi prøver at følge med der ud. Der er ret stor efterspørgsel i forhold til at få alle events med. Og det er supersvært at få alle kalender til at gå op, men vi gør hvad vi kan. Og ellers så husk at skriv til os på infosnab af. Crossfitbindest ud.dk. Så tager vi da også gerne i mailsende der. Jeg håber, I får noget fedt trænge der ud.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

Tak fordi I lytte noget.