Derek Yorek Podcast
Full Transcript
Yorek
Rich Ryan : [00:00:00] joins the podcast today. And Derek is a highly accomplished runner. Three times please. All American he’s held his triathlon pro card for templates years. And now he’s a member of the Spartan protein. So anything Derek has done, he has found great success. So we talk a bit about training and the mechanics that led him to this success, but we also touch on the mindset to competition and the pitfalls of success and chasing that success.
[00:00:26] It was a very honest and relatable, at least for me, conversation about what it is like to strive toward greatness and how to handle those type of expectations. So we do talk about the transition from. Running to triathlon from triathlons, OCR and things that are our struggles and the things that do translate fairly well.
[00:00:45] We also touch on our definition of coaching and we talk about what runners can expect out of events like DECA fit and high rocks. It was a great conversation. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks. You’ll get a lot of good content out of this one. So let’s get into it there York. Today, we have Derek York in the house, Derek.
[00:01:07] What’s going on?
[00:01:08] Derek Yorek: [00:01:08] What’s going on? How are you?
[00:01:10] Rich Ryan : [00:01:10] Good, man. Yeah, I appreciate you hopping on today. I’m really excited. We were just talking offline. We have a ton of weird connections and we could probably talk it up for hours, but want to get in here. We want to talk training, but first I have a couple of like a, just straight up ice breaker questions.
[00:01:25] So you’re ready for them.
[00:01:26] Derek Yorek: [00:01:26] Right. Bring it on.
[00:01:28] Rich Ryan : [00:01:28] So I know you’re a talented runner, a talented athlete, but do you, do, do you have any hidden talents?
[00:01:34] Derek Yorek: [00:01:34] Hidden talents. No, none whatsoever. I can’t sing. I can’t dance.
[00:01:40] Rich Ryan : [00:01:40] I’ll expose talents and talents.
[00:01:43] Derek Yorek: [00:01:43] Everything that I have and if I could sing or dance, you would know that’s, that’s what I would, I would have done that immediately
[00:01:49] Rich Ryan : [00:01:49] cook you can’t like do a Rubik’s cube.
[00:01:51] You’ve got nothing
[00:01:53] Derek Yorek: [00:01:53] to tell you. So like the only thing I’ve ever shown that I had any talent in is writing a, I’ve got 150 poems, a couple of published. Um, from back in the day, um, But I don’t, I don’t get into that much anymore.
[00:02:10] Rich Ryan : [00:02:10] I would say that that’s, that, that qualifies. And w what’s that process like for you, we just kind of sit down and write, or it was how, where is it now?
[00:02:19] Why did it where’d it go,
[00:02:21] Derek Yorek: [00:02:21] right? No, I was your classic. I say was, I still am a headcase, but it’s a, it’s a very emotional. Uh, we’ll say like late teenager, things like that. So it started as like a junior in high school and I had some talent, um, with writing and then it went into college and, um, I would, I would fail English classes and then have to sit with the, with an English professor and they.
[00:02:48] Tell me how talented I am at writing, but it’s not a writing class. So do the work. Yeah. But check this out. Uh, so no, it was, it was fun. It was something that I could do. That was a, it was a release that wasn’t, um, physical. Uh, and so I just. Put them all together, some were better than others. And then, um, a couple of them, um, I mean, it was, it was the real deal stuff.
[00:03:13] Shakespearean, sonnet.
[00:03:15] Rich Ryan : [00:03:15] Uh,
[00:03:16] Derek Yorek: [00:03:16] I am big pentameters, some of, I mean, stuff like that, but, uh, yeah, that started to go away. I don’t write as much, um, as much anymore. I’ve got a, I got two little girls that I just will, you know, we, we read a lot to them and, um, I think I just, yeah, probably spend too much time on my phone or something.
[00:03:43] My dog’s yelling at somebody that showed up. It’s all
[00:03:47] Rich Ryan : [00:03:47] good. Um, yeah, cause I didn’t, I, growing up, I didn’t do writing at all. I was not great at grammar. I didn’t really pay attention in class. I just like completely shied away from it until later in life. More of the last, like four or five years into is where I really kind of started writing and, and more along the lines, just writing content for the coaching business, but I found it to be so.
[00:04:07] Like therapeutic almost, and just, I really enjoy the process and just the craft of it and poetry. I think about that sometimes, and being able to write in these short form and to be able to create emotional response and just write so small is unbelievable. I can’t even wrap my head around trying to write a poem.
[00:04:27] Derek Yorek: [00:04:27] It’s what’s really fun about it. And again, there’s different types of writing, but what’s fun to me is I will hang and I think it’s a byproduct of being super emotional to things, but I’ll hang on how you said a word, why you said it, did you take a breath before you said it right? Every one of those things has a, a connotation, right?
[00:04:53] So you elicit a particular emotion. With a particular word. Right? So, uh, I always found that to be fascinating, right. That I can get you to feel certain ways. So you really need a, you need a comma here to make sure someone stops and breeze and thinks on that word. Or there’s a, there’s a reason for that.
[00:05:15] Right? And in poetry, there’s, there’s, uh, I can capitalize where I want, I can use basic punctuation where I want and why I want it there. Right. So things like that, you have a little bit more leeway than in a grammatically correct MLA or APA style format. Right. Paper or book or something like that.
[00:05:38] Rich Ryan : [00:05:38] Huh?
[00:05:38] And like I’ve never studied poetry even really thought about poetry that hard, but that makes, so this is like the first time, anything like that has dawned on me where it writing and like the emotion and that is happening on the paper. And that’s, what’s internally happening to the reader is the product.
[00:05:52] And not necessarily just what is written, um,
[00:05:55] Derek Yorek: [00:05:55] right. The word is less meaningful than what it’s going to. Bring about,
[00:06:02] Rich Ryan : [00:06:02] huh? You should start writing poetry again.
[00:06:08] Derek Yorek: [00:06:08] We’ll see about that. I don’t know if I want to go down that route. That’s a rabbit hole for sure.
[00:06:12] Rich Ryan : [00:06:12] Just, just get back to that angsty teenager that you once were and just,
[00:06:16] Derek Yorek: [00:06:16] I have no, I have no wants to go down that route.
[00:06:22] Rich Ryan : [00:06:22] I’m grown. I’m grown up now. Don’t need that. Yeah. Cool. That’s awesome. Um, so tell me, what is the, what’s like the coolest thing about country music.
[00:06:31] Derek Yorek: [00:06:31] Cool thing, a country music. What a great question. I don’t know, country music. Uh, it there’s a real song is, um, you’re right. And songs about me. Right. And, uh, and I think that that’s, that’s the coolest thing about country music is that there’s, there’s something that we can all relate to that everybody, uh, can, you know, um, One of my favorite songs right now, there ain’t nothing a beer can’t fix.
[00:07:01] I like eight that the truth, um, which is, which is horrible. When you think about it, like, Hey, it’ll make everything better
[00:07:10] Rich Ryan : [00:07:10] journal, maybe write poems. You could do that
[00:07:12] Derek Yorek: [00:07:12] instead. Maybe do something a little different, but it is, um, it’s fun that we all kind of have those those different times. And it, it seems like a, I don’t know, a country artists like to.
[00:07:25] Keep it a little, um, a little bit more real
[00:07:29] Rich Ryan : [00:07:29] and everything’s there on the surface, man, whatever they’re thinking, it’s coming out of their mouth and they’re
[00:07:35] Derek Yorek: [00:07:35] not
[00:07:38] Rich Ryan : [00:07:38] open. They’re saying it in words you understand, and exactly you can understand it. And I’m like, I agree exactly what that person is saying. Yeah, that’s it, it’s a fun time for me.
[00:07:49] I like it in the summertime when I’m outdoors. I mean, it’s not great. This summertime. So not outdoors and around people, but being able to like, be at like a tailgate or, you know, just anything at a pool party falls on some country. It’s a fun time. Yeah.
[00:08:02] Derek Yorek: [00:08:02] Yeah. There’s, there’s not too many times. You’re going to get, you get a group of people together and you put friends in low places on everybody will say that’s going to happen.
[00:08:10] They’re going to know it.
[00:08:11] Rich Ryan : [00:08:11] They’re going to know even if they like to test the song and they’re still going to do it. Yeah.
[00:08:15] Derek Yorek: [00:08:15] Yeah, for sure.
[00:08:17] Rich Ryan : [00:08:17] Um, what’s your favorite CrossFit workout?
[00:08:19] Derek Yorek: [00:08:19] Oh, God. Uh, Murph, Murph, Murph.
[00:08:24] Rich Ryan : [00:08:24] Interesting.
[00:08:25] Derek Yorek: [00:08:25] Why hands down? Uh, I mean, one I’m good at it. That’s always, that always helps. Right?
[00:08:32] There’s no barbell insight. Um, I don’t have anything against a barbell. I just suck at it. And I think it’s a. I think there’s a reason for it. I think there’s, there’s always gotta be a motivation for a workout, right? So it’s a hero wad, you know, you know, a MERF story most people do by now. Um, so it’s super motivational.
[00:08:54] It’s hard, everybody fears it. Um, everybody kind of comes together and cheers you on for it. For most people. It’s just a shit day. Right. So you just, you’re going to get through it, you know, together,
[00:09:09] Rich Ryan : [00:09:09] you’re going to get in over your head and, and still get through it.
[00:09:12] Derek Yorek: [00:09:12] Yeah. And, uh, I’m, I’m absolutely going to walk that line of rhabdo every time I do it.
[00:09:19] That’s just, what’s going to happen. So, yeah,
[00:09:23] Rich Ryan : [00:09:23] that’s a good one. Again, it’s simple. It’s like, it’s the country music of, yeah, just do it. And everybody can understand, like there’s some CrossFit workouts that, you know, that there’s, you wouldn’t know how hard it is unless you, unless you did CrossFit, but you could tell anybody that you’re going to run a mile hard and do a hundred pull-ups 200 pushups, 300 air squats and a run running of the mile.
[00:09:45] And you’re going to wear a weight vest and everyone’s going to be like, That sounds terrible. That sounds a man. Doesn’t matter what,
[00:09:51] Derek Yorek: [00:09:51] and there’s not, there’s not a lot of technicalities. Like I love a workout with ring muscle ups in it. I can do them. I do them decently. Well, I like it, but it’s super technical.
[00:10:03] It depends a lot on, um, you know, male versus female. Um, Can have a lot with upper body strings and weights and things like that. And then your, how technical those things are, or like a, you know, a snatch workout that’s super technical. Right. You know, um, what’s your shoulder mobility like Murph is just a grind.
[00:10:28] Most people can do some sorts of pull up. If you got a new jumping pull-ups or with the band, or it gets your chin over the bar. Lay down on the ground, get up off the ground. That’s a pushup. Right. And then, and then squat, which is the basic of human endeavor, right? It’s quite down.
[00:10:48] Rich Ryan : [00:10:48] You can be bad at CrossFit and then do pretty well at Murph and still do it, you know, can, you may never have been CrossFit before ever.
[00:10:54] And you could still do, you know, five strict pull ups at a time. If you’re decently fit, you know, it helps to have some CrossFit and because the modality is similar, but. You don’t even have to, you can just do Murph. Right?
[00:11:05] Derek Yorek: [00:11:05] Right. When it comes to Murph is just a great day, all the way around again. Yeah. You don’t have to do CrossFit to do it.
[00:11:12] Rich Ryan : [00:11:12] It’s a fun time. That was such a bummer this year, too, because the gyms were closed. I went out and did it by myself. I don’t have a pull up bar on any gym. So I was doing it like a train tress, like this flat. Oh, that’s awesome. My fingers like cramped the whole time. So I had to do a part two. I didn’t on partition that, cause I wasn’t trying to do a hundred pull-ups like that.
[00:11:30] Cause I think to do that day and I wanted to have time to do that. Yeah. Um, so yeah, totally. But it was still fun. It kind of ruined my week of training. And to the point where I like, Oh God, that did it. I’m like Thursday. I was like, I might have to hang this up. I might be washed. And then I was like, Oh, that’s right.
[00:11:49] I did Murph on Monday. That’s why I feel awful.
[00:11:51] Derek Yorek: [00:11:51] I wasn’t able to do it this year. I had just torn up my knee, um, at that point. Um, and I was taking like two weeks off, like nothing. So it was a, it was a bummer for me, but I’ll, uh, I’ll make up for it. Um, Yeah, Murph Murph will be a big deal here in the next couple of months.
[00:12:11] Uh, everybody keeps talking about a particular number and, um, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go for it. So
[00:12:18] Rich Ryan : [00:12:18] Hunter’s
[00:12:18] Derek Yorek: [00:12:18] number. So, yeah, uh, I told Hunter personally that I was going to break 30, uh, and I’m right there with it
[00:12:26] Rich Ryan : [00:12:26] on partition.
[00:12:28] Derek Yorek: [00:12:28] So at the time it wasn’t an partitioned. Uh, so my last year’s time was 30, 50. Hmm.
[00:12:35] And that was broken five, 10,
[00:12:36] Rich Ryan : [00:12:36] Cindy. Yeah.
[00:12:38] Derek Yorek: [00:12:38] Yup. Yup. Um, so I can go, you know, close to 30 minutes there, but when he went 34 on partitions, um, that became, that became, uh, a huge goal.
[00:12:51] Rich Ryan : [00:12:51] It’s just those pushups man, like 250 pushups of the weight fast. I’m going to be out of gas. I’m going to just. Not at a gas, just like I’m just going to be completely spent upper body.
[00:13:02] It’s not even to be hard at that point. It’s kind of like, wait, and just until my muscles recover, um,
[00:13:09] Derek Yorek: [00:13:09] so long, um, So that’s, I mean, that’s what I’ve focused the last, I mean, um, three weeks on this it’s simply like pushups and starting to build more run back up the runs, not my weak point. I think I’ll be fine.
[00:13:25] Rich Ryan : [00:13:25] Blue. Try to hit those miles in,
[00:13:28] Derek Yorek: [00:13:28] uh, with a weight vest almost every year. I run about five 30, the opening mile. Uh that’s too fast. You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t go that fast. Uh, just because it’s, if you slow down 30 seconds and run, uh, you know, just run a six minute mile at that point, you’re like, you can kind of recover.
[00:13:53] You’re almost as fresh. I say that, right? Yeah. Yes. The six minute mile with a weight vest is still hard,
[00:13:59] Rich Ryan : [00:13:59] but being like right onto the bar,
[00:14:02] Derek Yorek: [00:14:02] you can get straight onto the bar. You can, you know, still think. Right. You know, like where you are in time and space, but if you start running, you know, five 30, five, 20, something like that, then you’re, you have to recover.
[00:14:16] And now you’ve got lactic acid in the body that you don’t need there. Um, yeah, if you can really control control the first mile and you’re gonna make up that 30 seconds in the pushups.
[00:14:30] Rich Ryan : [00:14:30] Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s like hard for me. Like, I’ll do the same thing. I’ll go and run five 36, but this is where I gotta make up time.
[00:14:36] I’ve got to hit it now. This is my strategy. Um, and then I do come back off in a puff a little bit. What do you, what’d you finish the last one in last year? Do you remember?
[00:14:43] Derek Yorek: [00:14:43] 30, 51?
[00:14:45] Rich Ryan : [00:14:45] Uh, no, the last mile.
[00:14:46] Derek Yorek: [00:14:46] Oh, the last mile. Oh, uh,
[00:14:52] Oh, it’s some seven, but I couldn’t get down to six.
[00:14:55] Rich Ryan : [00:14:55] Yeah. It was the same deal. Like, yeah, that was exactly what I did to see, like coming off of that, like, like wobbling, like, Oh boy. Yeah, exactly. Remodel to really get things rolling. Yup. Well, sweet man. Yeah. I hope you get back to it and hope that you crank out that’s up there.
[00:15:10] That’d be sweet. I mean, that’d be really working. Um,
[00:15:13] Derek Yorek: [00:15:13] sounds nice. Uh, it’s a completely different thing to, to do it right.
[00:15:18] Rich Ryan : [00:15:18] In practice. Yeah. Um, well, cool man. So for those listening might not be familiar with who you are. Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are as an athlete and a coach.
[00:15:27] Derek Yorek: [00:15:27] Oh, man. Uh, yeah, grew up originally in Texas.
[00:15:33] Um, and then ran basically in high school. I got recruited to go to Adams state. Um, if you don’t know, Adam say it’s a pretty good run program. Um,
[00:15:47] Rich Ryan : [00:15:47] It’s really like between it was Adam state in Western. They either clean, they clean up to nationals every year or
[00:15:55] Derek Yorek: [00:15:55] so. Western had a pretty good run, basically when I was right before I got there.
[00:15:59] And a little bit, before I left, they had a, they had a good run and they’ve got like, I don’t know, 10, 11 national titles, which is solid. Right. You’re a good, you’re a good program. Uh, Adam state has 55 national titles.
[00:16:17] Rich Ryan : [00:16:17] That’s ridiculous.
[00:16:19] Derek Yorek: [00:16:19] 55. Uh, nobody is close. Uh, I live in Northwest Arkansas right now where everybody is a big fan of the Razorbacks and they talk about Arkansas track and field there.
[00:16:30] They were amazing. John McDonald is awesome. Like they have a wonderful program. They pale in comparison to what Adams state has done. Um, it’s, uh, they have a very, very, very good program and you go there to do, to run across cross country. Like, uh, we used to always say we ain’t Harvard. Yeah. You’re there.
[00:16:58] You’re there to run. Yeah. So I got to run for them. That was awesome. Um, I learned a lot there. Uh, I was a cocky shit. So it wasn’t nearly as, uh, successful as I could’ve been, um, I feel like coach Damon, Martin would say that’s the understatement of the year, but, uh, but yeah. Um, so I got to run there and then, um, on July 4th, 2007, I decided that running would not be my profession any longer.
[00:17:30] And I went to triathlon cause, uh, That was the Peachtree 10 K and I ran an opening mile of four 20 and was in like 22nd place. And I was like, I quit
[00:17:46] you open up the 1430 opening 5k in a road race. And you can’t see the leader that’s yep. I’m out
[00:17:54] Rich Ryan : [00:17:54] writing on the wall, right?
[00:17:56] Derek Yorek: [00:17:56] Yep. Triathlon here I come. So then I went to triathlon and I, uh, earned up professional elite license in 2008. Uh, did that for 10 years, uh, just a struggling artist of triathlon. Um, And then I started to do CrossFit about eight years ago now to just try to help triathlon.
[00:18:25] Um, I loved CrossFit and then this whole OCR thing started, uh, I thought combining CrossFit and running and stuff like that might work out pretty well. I did a few of those and I won a couple. That was fun. So I decided to, uh, Go a little bit more in that direction. Triathlon takes a lot of time. Uh, I do have two little girls, um, a wife, uh, you know, things to do in the day, uh, and training, you know, an eight hour training day, just wasn’t gonna, wasn’t gonna work out.
[00:19:02] Rich Ryan : [00:19:02] And that’s what it seems like with in try that with theirs, with the bike and swim where you’re not just going to be completely. Like physically demolished, like running, you kind of have to pull back at some point. It seems like the bike and swim. You can just go forever. And the volume that you have to amass to, to stay up with the top guys, it’s almost like he kind of drives itself.
[00:19:22] You just have to keep putting on more and more miles.
[00:19:27] Derek Yorek: [00:19:27] A lot of mileage. It really isn’t. It’s a lot of time. I love the sport of triathlon. I still train on the bike. I have an open water swim later today. I love triathlon. Um, I suck at swimming. I didn’t do the work I needed to, but, um, but to, to be competitive at iron man, um, you have to go, you have to go put in the time, you just have to, uh, uh, Jesse Capell, Nikki is one of the better coaches, uh, in the country.
[00:19:59] If not the world, as far as Ironman triathlon goes, and he has discovered a. Basic idea of if you want to be successful, here’s the amount of hours and he’s got a ridiculous amount of data to back it up. And it’s like minimum 15 hours a week. Just to, just to be okay as an age grouper, like you’re not having no,
[00:20:24] Rich Ryan : [00:20:24] and that’s just volume too.
[00:20:25] Like not even like, not stretching, not like transient,
[00:20:30] Derek Yorek: [00:20:30] just training. Yeah. That doesn’t include like meal prep time or room or none of that
[00:20:36] Rich Ryan : [00:20:36] fish an hour.
[00:20:39] Derek Yorek: [00:20:39] Um, so it’s a lot, it’s a lot of time. Uh, I was. Never going to be successful. I tried so hard to be good at like ITU style, triathlon racing, which is fun.
[00:20:51] It’s fast, but I just never had the swim. If you don’t have the swim. And it’s a, for those of you that don’t know it, you style Olympic style triathlon is draft legal on the bike. Um, if you don’t know about cycling, if you’re not in the pack, you will not catch anyone. I don’t care who you are. Uh, you’re just.
[00:21:10] Going to be riding around by yourself and then you’ll get lapped out and they pull you off the court. You’re you’re done. Um, so even though I could run, I could run 10 K and I think my best was 30, 40, right. Mid range, 30 minutes off the bike, if you can’t make it to the run, nobody cares. Right. So, um, so yeah, I tried to do that for a really long time, then it was okay.
[00:21:36] You know, you could do half iron mans or iron mans. And I just, uh, I don’t, uh, I don’t keep bodyweight on very well. I don’t keep body fat on very well. Um, uh, it’s hard to eat enough. I’ve done one iron man and I simply can’t get the amount of calories from my stomach. To the rest of my body in enough time.
[00:22:01] Right? You have to be very, very efficient at lower heart rates. You have to be very good at burning fat. Um, I am just a high. High energy burner and I’m more efficient at 170, 180 heart rate.
[00:22:16] Rich Ryan : [00:22:16] Yeah. And that’s the thing like if, if you were able to burn fat, you could go with sustainably longer without needing to eat as much.
[00:22:22] But if you’re burning carbohydrates like that, eventually there’s going to be a limit to how much you can literally stomach and just carrying it all and being able to take it down the
[00:22:34] Derek Yorek: [00:22:34] 1500 calories in. During my bike. I was, it was not a fast bike, but it was right at five hours. Right. So, I mean, it also, wasn’t terrible, but you just can’t, I mean, that’s just so much eating your stomach.
[00:22:50] Stomach’s just so full. And then I was like, okay, I feel all right. I ran the first eight miles averaging like six fifteens, which for an Ironman is pretty fast. I was rolling. And then I walked for the remaining whatever. Cause you just can’t, you can’t burn energy like
[00:23:10] Rich Ryan : [00:23:10] that. You
[00:23:11] Derek Yorek: [00:23:11] have to be super, super efficient.
[00:23:13] Um, and those guys are just, they’re so efficient at like 150 heart rate and they can go forever and they, they know, they know their body. Right. Um, Uh, like guys, like, um, here’s the a hundred mile guy that broke the record, Zach,
[00:23:31] Rich Ryan : [00:23:31] Zach better,
[00:23:32] Derek Yorek: [00:23:32] Zach, better. Like it blows me away his ability to keep an energy level with that.
[00:23:38] It’s
[00:23:38] Rich Ryan : [00:23:38] crazy.
[00:23:39] Derek Yorek: [00:23:39] That’s what blew me away. Um, knowing what it’s like to go hard for, you know, 10 hours, just the ability to do that. And the efficiency was super impressive. So. Yeah, I just don’t, I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do it well and moved on.
[00:24:03] Okay.
[00:24:05] Rich Ryan : [00:24:05] Yeah. So it is interesting to me, the way that you have been able to kind of switch things up. I mean, like you could have like, yes, there are going to be where races, where there are going to be people who are able to average four twenties for the entire time. And, um, well, your times were still, you know, Up there where you could have continued to compete and push that, and kind of the same with the triathlon where you had your, your professional status and you could have kept pushing toward it and now, but then you moved into OCR.
[00:24:34] Uh, so what is it where you could have been successful and had a good long career in any of these things, continue to do it. So what is the driver behind switching these kind of things up
[00:24:44] Derek Yorek: [00:24:44] for you like to see different things? Um, running was never a passion running was something that I was good at. It got me in the newspaper when I was a sophomore in high school.
[00:24:55] I thought that was awesome. Right. Uh, it was, it was the coolest thing in the world. And then
[00:25:03] Rich Ryan : [00:25:03] that know it’s,
[00:25:03] Derek Yorek: [00:25:03] Hey, Whoa, you might be able to go to college and do this, and then it’s, Hey, we’ll give you money for college. If you do this and then there’s, Hey, we’ll give you, you know, I had a very small deal with Adidas, so like I got Adidas, dear.
[00:25:18] And that was, I felt like that was the coolest thing in the world. Right. So eventually, you know, you have little things, but it was. The reason I wasn’t successful was I just simply did not enjoy running. Um, uh, just super simple running was not something that I, I like to do. And I think it’s a great exercise.
[00:25:38] I’m, uh, I have a natural gift for it, but just the act of running was not something that I loved. And if you I’ve been around some of the best people in the world, um, Olympic medalist and, um, you know, marathon winners, they love it love running. They don’t care. Like, yes, they’re very competitive. Yes. They, they do everything correctly, but they would run every day as much as they could.
[00:26:11] Right. We trained with a, um, a girl. She ended up fourth at the Olympic trials in the marathons Willa Gomez. Okay. And she’s a 32 minute 10 K runner. She’s fast. Um, I want to say two 34 for the marathon, but she would like it’s long run day and like re but you’re excited. Like it’s long tempo day. Like she loves 16 mile tempo runs and I was like, shoot me in the face so I can get out of it.
[00:26:40] I was heard at pumps. Like we get to race today. Uh, I remember being on the start line with when I was running professionally and there was like three or four Kenyans and they were like, you were going to run fast today. And they were so excited and these big smiles on their faces and they were telling me if you believe you can win.
[00:27:04] And I was like, Nope. Uh, you’ve run 13, 10. I’m not winning today. I don’t like, yes, we are going to run fast. God. Okay. I never had that. Um, plus my a long successful career was never something I ever wanted to have, which is, it sounds awful, but it was the best or nothing like. Going to the Olympics was never a goal.
[00:27:35] I had to win. I wanted to win the Olympic games. Not only win the Olympic games, I wanted a world record and then I wanted to do something else. Right. It was, I am motivated by doing things that nobody has ever done before, which is why I could never, I didn’t just want to have a good, solid. Triathlon career.
[00:28:00] I wanted the fastest run split anyone had ever seen while still winning the race. So I couldn’t let go of those precious two minutes on the run to be able to gain five minutes in the swim.
[00:28:18] Right.
[00:28:20] Rich Ryan : [00:28:20] Hmm, I see. And then to help the overall time. And so is it driven just by pure, um, competitiveness or the kind of, it sounds like it’s like we can compete. I mean, you gotta go well and like the drive to wanting to
[00:28:35] Derek Yorek: [00:28:35] win. I think you really gotta go pretty deep. Like, uh, you know, we were talking before about, um, No, the writing poetry and eliciting emotion and things like that.
[00:28:47] But for me, I want to be able to hang out. And by that, I mean, if you’re the winner, people ask you to come hang out, nobody says anything bad. Right. You’re you, you won. Everybody looks good in first place on the podium. Right? So you, that, that feeling of walking around. When you’re the winner. Nobody likes that more than I do.
[00:29:15] There’s nobody on the planet that gets as much from being the guy that won than I do. Uh, it’s a high that I can never, you know, you, you can’t really touch. So I always wanted to, I always want to be the winner at everything because you’re that. That feeling is awesome. So it could be the CrossFit workout of the day.
[00:29:39] I will push so hard to have the top time on that dumb little whiteboard, just so I can headline. Hi. I had the top time for that day. Nobody loves that feeling more than I do. And that’s um, if you’re, if you’re listening, don’t let that be your motivation because it’s detrimental, right? You can’t win everything all the time.
[00:30:05] Hence, I’m a decent runner. I’m a decent triathletes still, and I’m a decent OCR racer, but I’m now in any world titles, because you’re going to have to let some of those other things go right.
[00:30:26] Rich Ryan : [00:30:26] right. And like the triathlon analogy uses a good one. It’s like I wanted like the goal of being the fastest runner that might have not led to the best, um, triathlon times because there wasn’t this shift in time and I’ve had this type of battle with myself in obstacle course racing, uh, specifically is okay.
[00:30:44] I can. Running’s my thing. I want to be an awesome runner. I want to be faster than anybody else out there, but like my time would be better. Well spent carrying a bucket or, or being in the rock climbing gym. So how, how has that transition been from these other sports? And like, sounds like running is still something that you hold on to so much.
[00:31:05] How’s that transition been for you into obstacle course?
[00:31:08] Derek Yorek: [00:31:08] Runners don’t understand. Number one, a lot of these guys are really fast. And, and there’s running fast on, right? If we go out onto the open road, right. And I’ve had conversations with some of the top guys about this, but we go out onto the road and we raised a 10 K I’m probably going to win.
[00:31:28] You want us downhill in the mountains over rocks. We’re not, not worrying. Foot strike is solid. I’m going to get trounced. These guys are so fast. Over uneven surfaces and you’re there, their hip stability is just really, really, really good. Um, and I mean, they’re fast in their own, right? Like they’re solid runners, but, but to be able to perform like that, and then there.
[00:31:59] Their grip. Strength is phenomenal. Their capacity for work is phenomenal. Their backs are life steel rods. I mean how they could carry buckets like that is beyond me. Um, so it’s, it’s a combination of things. And I think, uh, the transition to OCR as with most runners, we think we’re going to come in and just, you know, smash people like, like you.
[00:32:29] The guys fastest times is 1645 more. I’m going to kill that person and then they just run away from you. You’re you go? Oh, alright. Maybe there’s something else to this.
[00:32:46] Rich Ryan : [00:32:46] so what are some things that you’ve done? Because I shared almost the exact same, like for me it was the terrain and my story is fairly similar as like I was an above average runner. I went into it. Above average shape and got works by a lot of people by a lot of people. And just like, what in the act like, how did this happen?
[00:33:05] And, you know, reviewing things and figuring out doing more races. Like for me, it’s the terrain that, that really does slow me down. As much of the downhills is in particular, you know, uphills are a bit slower. So for me, anyway, I’m able to do fine on the uphills, but the downhills and just like through the rocks and swamp and everything is okay.
[00:33:22] It’s hard. So what are some things that you’ve done for your training to help with? Uh, right. So
[00:33:27] Derek Yorek: [00:33:27] I’ve gone
[00:33:29] Rich Ryan : [00:33:29] fabulous
[00:33:29] Derek Yorek: [00:33:29] and making sure that her performance on point to make sure I’ve got a nice strong back. I also had to really work on weaknesses. So I struggle with back spasms. I mean, even in Tris, like it’ll, it’ll flare up pretty bad.
[00:33:44] Um, But there’s causes for that. Right. And it turns out like most runners, my glutes don’t fire right. Or correctly, and I don’t warm them up properly or didn’t before. So I’ve spent a lot of time, core stability, activate a neuromuscular activation of the glutes. Right. Making sure your glute needs are nice and rolled out.
[00:34:04] The glutes are doing what they’re supposed to. Um, And then anytime I go for a run, I try to, right. If you’re running on the sidewalk, hop into the grass where it’s super uneven, right. And any chance that I can get, um, I’ve kind of let go of, Hey, my Strava segment is going to go much slower and one, nobody cares anymore.
[00:34:26] I’m not that fast anymore, but two it’s right. What are you working on? So constantly trying to run on, on, uh, uneven surfaces as best I can, um, work on control, uh, downhill is for sure where I’m going to lose most of the time, um, especially with my knee now. But, um, but yeah, those are some of the, and then, and then grip work.
[00:34:52] You can’t do enough grip. We’ve got a climbing gym here. I started going to a climbing gym. Um, um, That has been a really great for grip strength, have the, uh, I do almost all of my bar work now with the fat grips, um, on the bar almost exclusively, just so that way, when I grip a real bar, I feel I can hang on forever.
[00:35:20] Uh, you know, uh, constant grip work.
[00:35:31] Rich Ryan : [00:35:31] Yeah, that’s I echo a lot of the same things. And it’s funny that you mentioned, um, I have some questions about some of the, uh, the warmup and the, and the glue stuff, but the straw, the Strava thing that does go through my head too. And I actually, I, I stopped sharing all my Strava, just so I had just so I don’t worry about it.
[00:35:48] Like I’m all private, not because I care what. What other people are doing other than, I don’t want other people to see. I just don’t wanna have to worry about my pace per mile and having it like matter because like, yeah, I need to do some burpees now and that’s going to screw up my base per mile and Strava is going to screw it all up.
[00:36:04] So I was like, all right, I’m just going to not have this even be something in my brain. This is not a positive. Yeah. Just forget it, but it’s ingrained as runners. You know, it’s like, if I’m not averaging six forties on my run, like, is that like, I usually can. And is that an it’s a bit of an ego hit, right?
[00:36:20] Derek Yorek: [00:36:20] Yeah, I try, I
[00:36:23] Rich Ryan : [00:36:23] don’t need this. This isn’t helpful for me in any way.
[00:36:25] Derek Yorek: [00:36:25] I want to be able to look back Chavez is a great, um, it kind of keeps, keeps tabs on things. And I feel like if, if somebody wants to see it, I think it’s great when people can see it. Right. Cause you may see. I post everything every day. So today you could see, I ran a four mile run.
[00:36:44] I think I average seven 30 pace and that’s the slowest run I’ve done in a long time, but I was in a ton of pain. I had my little girls with me riding their bikes next to me. Like you, um, I’ve got the, the mileage in and it it’s good for me to be able to see those things, but you can also, I think it’s good for when people start to understand.
[00:37:10] I hear a lot of people think, well, Oh, well he’s a lighter weight. He can run five thirties. Like it’s nothing. Oh, well of course he’s a runner. He can run those faces. Like it’s, it’s super easy. It’s not, and it takes a lot of those really crappy days to be able to okay. You you’ve made it through, so hopefully, um, yeah.
[00:37:32] What if. Um, if you’re listening now understands there’s, there’s a process it’s slow. You’re going to run slow. A lot of times you can’t PR every day, or even when you’re my age, you can’t PR uh, again, you just may have to be better than you were yesterday.
[00:37:59] Rich Ryan : [00:37:59] Right. And it, and that’s something that I’ve had to swallow as well as, especially, you know, um, what the purpose behind the training is because I also wanted to win and like my, my, if I was running a race, like that was the main deal, but it’s kind of shifted into. Like you said what the purpose is of the run, what the process is, making sure that I’m doing what I should be doing to make myself better for that day.
[00:38:25] Um, and that’s, that’s hard, you know, especially for people who are just starting to get up or who have big goals or who have made, who might be behind the eight ball and running, if they’ve come into it later in life, like many obstacle course race athletes have. So we’re trying to back at it every day.
[00:38:38] They’re like, no, I’m trying to average eight minutes per mile. No matter what, when they should be running nine thirties, trying to get there to prove to you really
[00:38:48] Derek Yorek: [00:38:48] touched on something. There is that you’re,
[00:38:51] Rich Ryan : [00:38:51] you’re
[00:38:51] Derek Yorek: [00:38:51] striving for eight minutes a mile. You don’t run eight minutes a mile every single day. The, it took a long time for me to learn that.
[00:38:58] Probably not till I was a senior in college and I was already on my way out. So I’m rather frustrated that I learned it that late. Um, But we, we had a couple of new guys coming in that had some talent. Um, one of them ended up being fifth at the Olympic trials, uh, in the 10 K later on, but he, he ran like seven thirties, eight minute pace for his easy days.
[00:39:22] Like he was always way, way back. Right. And, and we’d get frustrated and be like, Hey, run with the team. We’re running six 26 minutes at 7,500 feet altitude. And he’d be like, I have no reason to run that. Today’s an easy day. I’m going to run easy, like walking and still does that. He’s a two 12 marathoner.
[00:39:42] Um, Aaron Braun is his name. Yeah. Good, good, good guy. But he’s, he’s the smartest trainer I’ve ever come across and he was that way since he was a freshmen. I mean, he he’ll run nine minute pace. Now he’s two 12 marathoner. Right? So if you’re, if you’re really struggling to run eights and you can’t swallow your pride to run nines, you gotta think about a guy that can run five flats.
[00:40:11] 26 miles in a row. He’s running nines. I think you’ll, I think you’ll be fine. Yeah,
[00:40:21] Rich Ryan : [00:40:21] you’ll be just fine. And isn’t that, like, I had a similar story. My guy wasn’t in college wasn’t nearly as good, but he was like a top five guy on our team. But in practice he was like the 12th or 13th guy, but like, he just. I don’t think he understood it. I actually didn’t, his guy was kind of lazy, but he was lazy enough to the point where he would recover where, but also is banging, banging, edit over and over what we’d never really recovered.
[00:40:45] So when it came to racist, he raced well and the rest of us raced like shit. Um, and that was something that we also were talking about and, um, Before we jumped on is just the idea of what coaching is. And to me that’s so strange that college programs operate like that. Even then a coaching, a college program that is the most successful collegiate program in the country.
[00:41:08] Right. Arguably like, you know, so. And, but they’re still out there banging it. And like, they’re like, there’s a person there who should be kind of relaying this information. And I find that with, with collegiate coaches and in particular, you know, I only had one experience and it wasn’t great, but, um, from the other collegiate athletes I talked to, it sounds pretty similar to that.
[00:41:28] It’s never like the coaching that is provided isn’t necessarily for. The individual it’s just for like the team, that’s trying to get the best results out of whatever they can out of these 15 guys. So, so in your definition
[00:41:43] Derek Yorek: [00:41:43] of, cause we talked
[00:41:44] Rich Ryan : [00:41:44] about this a little bit, like, what is your definition of
[00:41:46] Derek Yorek: [00:41:46] coach erection and motivation for an athlete to accomplish a goal?
[00:41:58] Yeah. Hmm. And
[00:42:00] Rich Ryan : [00:42:00] then the motivation piece was something that we were talking about. Like, what is like, what does it mean? Like, how is motivation provided? Where do you get motivation from a, well, how do you provide motivation,
[00:42:10] Derek Yorek: [00:42:10] motivation,
[00:42:12] Rich Ryan : [00:42:12] your coaching
[00:42:13] Derek Yorek: [00:42:13] that I provide? Most of my athletes is, um, he’s really in.
[00:42:21] Letting the athlete know that where you are, is where you are and that’s okay. And that we’re look at where you were. We are well beyond where you were and we still have some goals to get to. Right. So really trying to, um, Let every athlete understands. We’re better than we were yesterday. Right? We need to, um, w let’s not do a Derrick York and keep your head in the clouds.
[00:42:53] I tried and very much, Hey, listen to what I did wrong. Right? You may want to qualify for Boston, right. But you never finished a marathon. Let’s let’s. Hey. You ran five miles faster than you ever have. Let’s make sure that we stay right there. That’s awesome. That’s an incredible thing. Not a lot of people do that.
[00:43:18] Um, and so I really try to, I try to keep the motivation here right now and, and focused as opposed to you’re great. The way you are, no matter what happens, right? Yes. We have some things to do. And we’re going to accomplish those, but you’re, you’re much better than you were. Let’s let’s focus on doing it again tomorrow.
[00:43:49] Rich Ryan : [00:43:49] Hmm. So it sounds like it’s a lot of like process, like being focused on the process, but also with perspective. So like being able to look back and be like, we may not be there, but we’re better off where we were because we’re following these steps. Um, and if you could just continue that and appreciate where you are, as well as understand the process of improvement.
[00:44:09] Like that is kind of the motivation, right? Like, like you’re doing it. You’re not there yet, but you potentially will be if you keep, if you stay oriented where if you lose sight of it and you’re just like, no, I need to qualify for Boston. It’s like, all right, that’s not going to get you there. Bio is like willing it, or just
[00:44:25] Derek Yorek: [00:44:25] like you conjuring yourself right out of a good, uh, a good performance, right?
[00:44:33] Like. If you keep skipping things. And I, and again, I use myself in that I, I never wanted to win a division two national title. That was never a goal of one that was so beneath the goals that I wanted. And yet I never, I never attained that. And I never got anything positive from the things that I did do.
[00:44:55] Right. I was a three time. All-American. That’s awesome. That’s fun division too. But, um, I got to be a decent runner, but I never celebrated that. That was, that was a failure at the time. Right. And what, what more could it have been, had you just focused on, Hey, let’s try to make the team here. Hey, let’s try to, let’s try to be an all American or, you know, be a point score.
[00:45:23] Okay. Let’s try to win a national title. It was every day was trying to set. A world record or trying to set the world on fire or do something this, this grant, you know, wonderful thing and, you know, just crashing and burning. So, um, I really try to try to get all athletes to, you know, um, be present, you know, where you are, understand where you were and let’s, let’s be able to come back again tomorrow.
[00:46:03] Rich Ryan : [00:46:03] and it’s, it’s, it’s a good lesson coming from you, but I feel like it
[00:46:06] Derek Yorek: [00:46:06] would also be hard
[00:46:09] Rich Ryan : [00:46:09] to accept because the way that you did approach things, just banging at it and like, no, this isn’t enough more and more and more, you found more success in like 99% of runners will, you know? So it’s like, but you never really, but like in your mind, You probably have accomplished as much success as anybody else, because like you might cause you never.
[00:46:30] Like you said you never took that time to, um, be present with it and you was always like, what’s next.
[00:46:36] Derek Yorek: [00:46:36] Right. And
[00:46:37] Rich Ryan : [00:46:37] this isn’t what I wanted to do. Like, I need to do more.
[00:46:42] Derek Yorek: [00:46:42] I try to put myself in someone else’s shoes. Right. Because you have someone talking to you that’s it’s run a 29, 30, 10 K and still has a six pack at 36 years old.
[00:46:52] Right. So I get that. Yeah, I understand that it’s not a bragging thing, but I also have to understand what I’m
[00:46:59] Rich Ryan : [00:46:59] congrats,
[00:46:59] Derek Yorek: [00:46:59] what I’m presenting. And I try to make it clear, you know, how, how those things come about. Right. And, um, I’ll get people, you know, I want to be, I want to be like you, I want to have, you know, what you have in my, why come to is always, you don’t hate yourself enough to ever look.
[00:47:21] Like that there’s a lot of, and we’ve touched on things like that. There’s a lot of mental health issues that happen to be able to push yourself like that day in, day out from the age of like four, like I used to just get up in the middle of the night and do pushups at four, who does that? That’s weird.
[00:47:40] Um, you know, we, we. We just had these things that are constantly wanting to know, just push and I had to be better and had to always be like that. Um, you know, I would really like to just go for a run and not care ever. Like I’m jealous of a lot of my athletes and people that I’ve seen that person running in the middle of the pack, just having a grand old time high-fiving people.
[00:48:13] They have no idea what pace they’re running. They don’t care. I hate them, but I also am. So I’m so jealous because I’ll never, I’ll never have that
[00:48:26] Rich Ryan : [00:48:26] experience.
[00:48:28] Derek Yorek: [00:48:28] Just let’s take a selfie in the middle of a race, like, Oh, I want to like bash my head into the wall. Like, what are you doing? Stop, stop smiling.
[00:48:39] Like, um,
[00:48:41] Rich Ryan : [00:48:41] put that camera away.
[00:48:43] Derek Yorek: [00:48:43] It’s one of those things that you understand that you want those things, what you’re going to give up. And it’s a constant just, um, you know, I, I nearly threw up in my garage last night. It was like 97 degrees. I was doing a really hard trainer bike, a bike workout on the trainer for no reason whatsoever.
[00:49:07] I have nothing on the calendar. I’m not a triathlete. I don’t have a pro license. There’s nothing there at all for no other reason than I just got sucked into going really hard. And then just decided to just crush myself. Uh, That’s not, you know, don’t be there, you know that you don’t need to do that.
[00:49:36] okay.
[00:49:36] Rich Ryan : [00:49:36] I’ve uh, I was recently reading, um, a book kind of on the perspective of performance for athletes. And they had like this analogy of this tree and at the base of the tree was like self worth and like self esteem. Right. And at the top it was more like skills and like performance oriented. And that’s kind of what I like to get to the base of things is where like your basic needs are.
[00:50:00] To figure out really what’s going on, like really what, what you’ve been, what you’re doing this for. And it sounds like, you know, you’ve done a lot of thinking about this, a very in tune with that, with that, with, with this idea of there’s more to running than just like hitting it hard or entrusting, or like going out there and performing as, as well as you can, like there’s, there’s deep rooted issues there or reasoning.
[00:50:23] So like, have you done work behind this? Because it sounds like you, you are really aware of who you were as an athlete. I know how that kind of process it. Like I understand what’s
[00:50:33] Derek Yorek: [00:50:33] happening, but no, like I’m, um, I believe a lot in genetics and you are who you are. Um, and it’s, uh, it’s the same as like someone that has OCD, right?
[00:50:50] You may understand the rituals that you have to do all the time are dumb. Most people will. Right. Every case study, they’re going to go. It’s ridiculous. It’s something bad going to happen if I don’t want to flip the light switch on five times? No. Do I understand that I have that I’m going to do it and I have to do it.
[00:51:09] Yes. So you have to figure out a way of living with it, right? Uh, I think it’s along those same lines in that. Is that the smart way to do things? Absolutely not just, you know, hammering yourself into oblivion or having these grandiose ideas of, um, winning a world title in some record time. It’s probably not the greatest way of going about things.
[00:51:35] And so I try to tell as many people as I can, the correct way. But I also understand who I am. I understand what motivates me, whether it’s good or not. And, uh, I, I just try to feather that. Right. I try to live with it.
[00:51:59] Rich Ryan : [00:51:59] Yeah. It’s more of a, like, along the lines of acceptance of
[00:52:03] Derek Yorek: [00:52:03] correct
[00:52:05] Rich Ryan : [00:52:05] person. Right? Cause they are, they are intertwined. And then
[00:52:09] Derek Yorek: [00:52:09] you never really let you never really let go of it. And so I’m going to keep, I’m going to keep pushing and keep putting it out there. And, um, every now and then I’ll pop something fun.
[00:52:23] It’s fast. And most of the time I ended up injured or doing something else. Um, It’s part of the fender. I know we had
[00:52:36] Rich Ryan : [00:52:36] talked just what you were born into
[00:52:38] Derek Yorek: [00:52:38] kind of being a better human being. Um, and I think it’s one of those things that I really, I always want to be invited and I always want to be able to, to perform, right.
[00:52:50] So if you’re going to go, Hey, Derek, we’re all going to go do this marathon here in a couple of weeks. I want to be there and I want you to invite me and I want to be able to go and I want to be decently competitive. But it’s the same thing. If like, Hey, we’re going to go to this Olympic lifting meet. Am I going to be super good at it?
[00:53:07] No, but I want to be proficient and I want to be invited and I want to go and I want to, right. We’re going to go rock climbing. We’re going to go anything that’s athletic of some sort. I want to go. I want to be able to hang out, but I also. Like I want to be competitive. Um, and so, you know, I, I continuously do new things.
[00:53:31] Um, so long as you can, as long as your ego can take the hit, right? When you walk into a CrossFit gym, you’re gonna lose at a lot of things. It’s the same thing is when you, you know, you do enough OCR, you’re going to find, uh, an obstacle that you suck at. Or some course that’s that you’re not good at or some something.
[00:53:54] Rich Ryan : [00:53:54] So you constantly work
[00:53:56] Derek Yorek: [00:53:56] at getting better, right? I, I thought I would be pretty good at CrossFit until I learned about a guy named rich Froning and then I’ll never, I’ll never think I’ll be good at CrossFit again. Um, Okay.
[00:54:15] Rich Ryan : [00:54:15] That, that, yeah, that’s a humbling experience. When like you go, I was the same way. I probably got into it. Same time, 2012, 2011. And then I realized, I was like, Oh, I can just go. And then I realized the kind of weights people were putting up and I was like, this is
[00:54:28] Derek Yorek: [00:54:28] strong and can do it this fast, every sport, anything that takes, um, that takes a lot.
[00:54:35] Right. You start to go home. My God, like these people. Are incredible, you know, what it takes to hit an amazing golf shot is much more difficult than what you think, right. What it takes to, um, you know, to be a Matt Frazier, right? If you don’t know who he is, you better get Google out. Cause that’s one of the greatest athletes on of the planet, but you know, he can, he can run sub six minute miles for a while.
[00:55:05] He can run. He can swim his hundreds and one 30 meters. Right. That’s a guy that can snatch 315 pounds. Like it’s, it’s absolutely incredible. So, um, you constantly have things to work on again, your ego has to be able to take that hit, but it makes you so, so much better. Right? Cause once you realize how good people really are, once you really understand.
[00:55:34] What it takes to run four 30, six per mile and then do that 26 times in a row, then you realize, okay, I was never really that good. So let’s keep, you know, um, there’s some really, really incredible people in this world and you can start to really enjoy just the show, just the, you know, the human endeavors that are out there.
[00:55:58] It’s incredible.
[00:56:05] Rich Ryan : [00:56:05] and that’s something that I haven’t kind of visited. Just watching that Michael Jordan documentary, that 10 piece. Did you watch that at all?
[00:56:13] Derek Yorek: [00:56:13] So bad.
[00:56:19] Rich Ryan : [00:56:19] because it’s along the same lines. It’s just the determination and the singular focus that people have. And I think Froning and freezer, like if you ever follow any of their stuff, it’s the things that they say in the way they say it. It’s the same way that Michael Jordan is saying things. It’s just, he’s like, I’m going to do the, I’m going to outwork you.
[00:56:36] I’m going to. Do more to when to drive. So it doesn’t matter what you do because I’m going to be the best, no matter what, because of that singular,
[00:56:46] Derek Yorek: [00:56:46] there’s just a perfect quote
[00:56:48] Rich Ryan : [00:56:48] sister. And I’m happy to hear that
[00:56:50] Derek Yorek: [00:56:50] my sister was a gymnast for Bella Karoli. So I’m going to throw that out there. I have to, as much as I can.
[00:56:56] So she’s the talented one in our family, but she would always say, and she tells me, uh, Hard work only beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. And so when you get somebody like a, like a Michael Jordan, right. That not only is, has clear talents, right? He’s six foot six. He can jump over a house. Right.
[00:57:22] But he’s going to find a weakness and drill it and work it until there is no weakness. When you put those together, then you end up with just things that are. Out of this world, you end up with you saying bull, you end up with Matt Fraser. You ended up with the, you know, Michael Phelps. Yeah. I didn’t mean to cut you off there, but yeah, when you find that combination, it’s awesome and scary.
[00:57:50] And.
[00:57:56] Rich Ryan : [00:57:56] I think about that a lot too. And just it’s if someone has both, like a lot of times people will, if they are. Right. Really talented. They won’t be that person because they never had to be that person to drive so hard. And then if it’s the opposite, if someone is just always been driven, but it lacks talent, it’s, it’s kind of the same thing.
[00:58:15] Like they’re there, they’re going to probably get further, but, um, there’s just gonna be a natural capital on what they can accomplish, but. Those people who are the best of the best and who are doing things, they have done that. They have figured it out and done it in a way that’s sustainable. And that just makes sense.
[00:58:32] And from all angles, it’s not just about hitting it as hard as possible and doing work that no one else is willing to do, but also doing the smart things like we were talking about, like recovering and, you know, and, and like doing the mental work and doing all those other pieces. And just knowing that there’s more to performance and just going.
[00:58:50] And like, those are the people that have that inherent talent as well. And that’s just like what greatness is. And that’s like,
[00:59:02] Derek Yorek: [00:59:02] had to write to a T like I’m going to recover. Better than everyone on the planet. And then I’m going to work harder than everyone on the planet. And then I’m going to do mobility harder than anyone and you get those there. They’re incredible, incredible beings. And I think, I think you have to really try to try to understand what those are.
[00:59:33] It’s fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
[00:59:41] Rich Ryan : [00:59:41] Totally. Um, and. Just to kind of switch back gears into the training and a little bit OCR stuff. So a lot of the things like, it sounds like as you progressed through, you’re like, okay, I’m going to do some CrossFit with my endurance work and Oh, here’s OCR. So this is just something that I happened to be training for on accident for a long time.
[01:00:00] And, and it’s like, okay, let me see what I can do. And let me see if I can do, um, to the best of my ability. And now there’s like something else that kind of has come that’s even like more in line with that, with the Chiraq and DECA fit, which. Which is just even, it takes the terrain completely out of it.
[01:00:18] Derek Yorek: [01:00:18] So, hi Ross,
[01:00:20] Rich Ryan : [01:00:20] how’s that? Ben? I know we’ve done a couple of events
[01:00:22] Derek Yorek: [01:00:22] in about, like I thought I had the fastest run splits. I still don’t know if anyone’s going faster, but that’s okay. Because the weight you have to push on and pull on the sleds is astronomical. It’s ass align. It’s easy. Um, Mmm. I don’t know if you’ve seen the footage of Chris Spieler right.
[01:00:44] Pushing a sled. Yeah. Um, again,
[01:00:56] that’s it that’s the same weight that we’re supposed to push. Right. That games athletes were pushing. Um, and I. I mean, I weigh 145 pounds, 150 when I’m, when I’m big. Right. So like to push, uh, I can’t even remember what the weights are. Three 70. Yeah. Push that kind of weight on, on those types of little carpet deals.
[01:01:23] Like
[01:01:24] Rich Ryan : [01:01:24] 75.
[01:01:25] Derek Yorek: [01:01:25] Yeah. It was crazy. Right. Um, It’s it’s just so much weight, but high rocks has a really, really, really good idea, a love. Um, I got to meet there, the owners, the founders, the people that run that they do a really, really great job and then DECA fit, um, with Yancey. And, um, I work with Nancy if you knew that, but, uh, uh, took that same idea.
[01:01:52] Not everybody knows it, but, uh, made it much lighter weight. Um, yeah, I felt like I was going to knock that one out of the park. I felt like that one was finally something built for me. Um, I feel like I could go really, really good there. Um, we’ll have to see how the knee heals and health training would, we’ll go with that, but I think it’s awesome.
[01:02:13] Um, and I also get in, I get in behind what Spartan tries to say and what, what everyone else is kind of getting behind is whatever gets you off the couch. And the more events and the different types of events that we have the better, I think there should be more and more and take it outside, put it inside, whatever will get you moving.
[01:02:39] Right. Maybe that maybe doing a deck of fit in, you know, indoors with no terrain, a little bit lighter weight, then you’ll start to, Ooh, maybe there’s something I can do here. And you start to push a little bit more in the gym or Hey, maybe I do need to try a Spartan race. Okay. Now there’s other things I want to try.
[01:02:58] And that, that really gets people into something that you might think is, is really fun, right? Like CrossFit has launched more weightlifting careers, Olympic lifting careers than anything lately, but they wouldn’t have known that unless they were in a CrossFit gym. You may have no idea that you’re really good at these particular things.
[01:03:17] You, if, uh, if OCR gets you into a climbing gym, And it turns out you love climbing and you have that type of mobility to move. Then that may be something that you, that you do, um, and, and have a passion for. So yeah, the more things that you can do and the more you can get into, um, I think, I think Yancey is a marketing genius.
[01:03:42] Um, I think the, the DECA fit is, um, is awesome. I think it’s going to make a lot of people’s lungs pop. Which is great. Hello? Yeah. Oh God. Yeah. If you don’t know, if
[01:03:59] Rich Ryan : [01:03:59] you haven’t run into a cough,
[01:04:02] Derek Yorek: [01:04:02] especially if you haven’t done it at altitude, if you don’t know the indoor cough, you’re going to find out it’s an awful fire that you just breathe fire for
[01:04:13] Rich Ryan : [01:04:13] you.
[01:04:14] Yeah.
[01:04:20] Yeah. And the, I can get on board too, because when, you know, DECA fit com came out, there’s a bunch of people hating on it. It’s like all they’re just moaning. Hungary’s want another Avenue here. They just stole it from hierarchies, whatever, whatever. But these are like the hardcore OCR people, but yet it’s about the mission of, of making.
[01:04:38] Fitness accessible to the masses. And that’s ultimately what they want to do at the top, which Otis in a, he doesn’t care about the, like the Spartan protein. So when he has to deal with us complaining about contracts,
[01:04:51] Derek Yorek: [01:04:51] he’s like, are you serious?
[01:04:52] Rich Ryan : [01:04:52] I’m trying to change the world here. And we have these people worried about like a couple of bucks.
[01:04:58] Get out of my face. Like, you know, so it’s, I totally get it. I mean, I wish he would care more about it, but like it’s, it’s not, but like the mission is the mission. It’s not to create a, a sport for people like us it’s to create a better generation of healthier people. And I think that that’s something and when I spoke to Nancy and that just became clear, it’s like, Oh,
[01:05:21] Derek Yorek: [01:05:21] okay.
[01:05:22] This is
[01:05:22] Rich Ryan : [01:05:22] obviously what they want. And like, their mission is always tied back to this one. Cause, but everyone else is losing it because they’re worried about what’s better for them. And so like the pro team members are like, this is worse for me. The brewers are upset about showers or some shit like stuff that doesn’t matter, you know?
[01:05:43] Right. People, people not doing burpees like the
[01:05:45] Derek Yorek: [01:05:45] school OCR talking about, Oh, it’s not hard to know. It’s like a track meet. No, it’s not. No, it’s not just get faster. Yeah. You’re not, you’re not nearly as, as, uh, as all around fit is run harder.
[01:06:06] Rich Ryan : [01:06:06] It’s harder than most of the horses behind you. More. I had the feeling
[01:06:12] Derek Yorek: [01:06:12] over and over and like, well, have you done it with a bucket? Have you done it? Have you done it just with shoes? Run as hard as you can, if you, if you do it right, you will never want another 5k as long as you live. Um, and, and that’s the thing.
[01:06:31] I think people don’t understand how much is in the tank. I think that is very real. You have no idea how hard you can hurt.
[01:06:40] Rich Ryan : [01:06:40] Yeah.
[01:06:40] Derek Yorek: [01:06:40] And it’s just as fast as you can possibly go. Um, if you’re not hurting at a half mile in for a 5k, you’re not, you’re not, you’re not there. If you’re still under control, you have not gone to that point.
[01:06:58] It should be very scary. You shouldn’t wonder if you’ll be able to walk again ever. Like it’s a, it’s a really, really crazy thing. So, um, I’m glad that there’s, there’s more, um, I mean national class runners getting into the sport that these national class runners are getting their ass kicked. Don’t get me wrong.
[01:07:20] OCR people. I’m not trying to tell you are not losing. I’m just trying to tell you that there’s a, there’s a different type of pain out there and there’s different ways to go about it. So, um, we will have courses like big bear we’ll have courses, you know, like Killington, um, There’s always going to be those types of things.
[01:07:44] Right. Um, but then you have, why not have a DECA fit? Let’s see who is the fastest and that’s all that you’re proving. You’re not saying that you’re a better OCR person. You’re not saying that you’re bitter cause fitter has the most wide yeah. Definition. Um, it’s just, you’re better at that. And fast needs to have a place in the OCR world.
[01:08:11] Just like long needs a place in the OCR world with a 24 hour race and beyond, um, you know, uh, super crazy conditions. You need to have good conditions. Um, it cracks me up. People think it’s not a real. You don’t OCR race unless you’re frozen and you can’t move. And it’s crazy. Like you’re going through mud, neck deep.
[01:08:40] Uh, I’m looking at you, Alex Walker, but you know, it’s, it’s those things. It’s like, ah, I need a real, I need a real OCR course. Well, there’s those courses out there and, um, it’s just a matter of, okay, let’s get good at all of them. Hi,
[01:09:05] Rich Ryan : [01:09:05] and things are gonna start splintering, right. They kind of already have, right? Like now the person who has the best that the short course probably isn’t going to be the best of the beast. And like they’re much like, kind of how triathlon must’ve started, right? Like, like now there are iron Ironman competitors and the best who are at like Olympic distance are probably not the same.
[01:09:22] I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but, um, So it’s along the same lines. Like it’s just going to be a bigger sports that way. And yeah, I always found it. I thought it was always funny too. When people want worst conditions is always like the slower runners. It’s like, Oh no, it’s not muddy enough. I want it to be raining.
[01:09:39] Derek Yorek: [01:09:39] You want that? Hey, I’m telling you right now. If the race is cold, I’m going to lose. It was cold at all. I’m going to lose. I’m not going to do well. Um, if there’s a lot of technical downhill, I’m going to lose. You’re going to run right away from me. It’s just, that’s a weakness of mine and it’s something I should, I should get better at.
[01:09:59] Does that mean that I’m going to avoid all races that are cold or all races that have technical downhill? No, it just means I understand. I need to get better at it. Um, and that means when you come to my course, then I’m gonna probably do pretty good.
[01:10:22] Rich Ryan : [01:10:22] and yeah, maybe that’d be, um, whenever the DECA fits or high rocks come back around. Cause I, yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing what you, what you were going to do on
[01:10:30] Derek Yorek: [01:10:30] those courses.
[01:10:33] Rich Ryan : [01:10:33] That feels awesome. And we’ll take that heavyweight out of there.
[01:10:37] Derek Yorek: [01:10:37] I’ll probably do pretty good there. Um, it’s it just happened again.
[01:10:43] Um, it just happens to lands in, in my wheelhouse right now.
[01:10:54] Rich Ryan : [01:10:54] Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, cool man. So I won’t keep you all day, but what, um, what, what were some of the goals you had going on this year? I mean, it’s hard to, so now w whatever, what are you kinda thinking?
[01:11:07] Derek Yorek: [01:11:07] Um, some decent mileage again, uh, I will probably throw my hat in the ring and like a 70.3, try. It’s just good.
[01:11:18] All around training. It’s good base training. It makes me get in the water, which is, um, it’s just great recovery, uh, for any, for anybody out there. I think swimming is a great human endeavor. Like it’s something we should know how to do. It’s something you should be proficient at. Right. Um, and it’s really, really good recovery for running.
[01:11:38] So, um, great for shoulder mobility, which again, for OCR is incredible. So that type of training is just good. It gets me doing some mileage, gets something out there and then, uh, yeah, I’ll probably go really hard at the DECA fit scene once that really gets, gets going. Um, I know I need to just go hang out and just start knocking, like knocking out
[01:12:05] Rich Ryan : [01:12:05] East coast races.
[01:12:06] Come up my way.
[01:12:08] Derek Yorek: [01:12:08] I have a marathon PR of two 30 Oh one. Which sucks. So I’ll probably have to run another marathon at some point. I hate it. I’m just
[01:12:20] Rich Ryan : [01:12:20] going to kick
[01:12:22] Derek Yorek: [01:12:22] for like a quarter mile. It just, um, so eventually I’ll have to do another one of those and then never do another one again.
[01:12:39] Rich Ryan : [01:12:39] yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cause like now, like my marathon I’m run two months, like two 42, and I know like my training right now, I could probably be like two 35 maybe, but, uh, and I’m thinking, Ooh, damn marathon might be the only feasible race this year and CIM isn’t December and that’s light enough.
[01:12:57] I was like, I’ll be, but then I was
[01:12:59] Derek Yorek: [01:12:59] like, yeah.
[01:13:00] Rich Ryan : [01:13:00] Oh, I don’t want to do that too. I don’t want to do
[01:13:02] Derek Yorek: [01:13:02] the 16 mile tempo run. I do. I really never need to run. It doesn’t seem fun. Um, so I may, um, I mean, eventually I’ll have to do another one of those, but yeah, I think it’s, that’s it.
[01:13:15] Rich Ryan : [01:13:15] Um, yeah,
[01:13:16] Derek Yorek: [01:13:16] I think the deck of fit is kind of be kind of where I.
[01:13:20] Um, if I want to be competitive and really win some things, that’s probably where I’ll go to. But, uh, but yeah, there’s going to be new things popping up. Um, I’ll still do OCR races. I’m not scared. I’ll go do a mountain race. Uh, I want to play, um, you, you’re not gonna, um, I know where I’m good and where I’m not, but I, I’m not scared to race anybody.
[01:13:46] So, um, I’m excited to just get out and do that again someday. I’ll do. I mean, if it’s on the calendar and around the stadium, um, my favorite one is, is Dallas just because I’m a huge Cowboys fan. I grew up in Texas. I know we’re going to get into it over that, but. Yeah, but, but I mean, it’s in cowboy stadium and so
[01:14:13] Rich Ryan : [01:14:13] that’s one of my
[01:14:14] Derek Yorek: [01:14:14] favorites.
[01:14:16] We won’t be able to do it this year, but yeah, if there’s, if there’s a stadium that I can make it to, um, Like I said, uh, I want to play, man. So if there’s something I can make it to and it’s happening, it can be like a bunch of guys just like, Hey, we’re gonna meet in this parking lot. And race from a to B uh, in the winter gets a six pack then.
[01:14:38] Yeah. I’m probably down. I’ll probably go brace. Yeah.
[01:14:47] Rich Ryan : [01:14:47] Nice man. There’s Oh man, I’ll be, you’re still kind of hurt. I was gonna say public, they’re doing that burpee 10, the mile they’re doing like some paint events they’re paying out.
[01:14:57] Derek Yorek: [01:14:57] So.
[01:15:01] Well,
[01:15:02] Rich Ryan : [01:15:02] what’s your PR cause those guys are
[01:15:11] Derek Yorek: [01:15:11] crazy. That’s crazy. Yeah.
[01:15:17] Rich Ryan : [01:15:17] Stupid. It doesn’t
[01:15:20] Derek Yorek: [01:15:20] make sense.
[01:15:22] Rich Ryan : [01:15:22] Practicing chugging,
[01:15:26] Derek Yorek: [01:15:26] the amount of gases. In particular beers and how to get rid of those gasses. And I mean, like for six weeks when with the, uh, Stanford, um, like postdoc or something, and they just ran these tests on those types of thing, I mean, they got into it.
[01:15:45] It’s.
[01:15:50] Yeah, but these things are supposed to be fun.
[01:15:53] Rich Ryan : [01:15:53] People need to chill,
[01:15:55] Derek Yorek: [01:15:55] but
[01:16:00] Rich Ryan : [01:16:00] I know if he was probably saying the same thing, it’s like, well, people will run those races to win. It’s like people say that about five K stuff. It’s like when those racists like won’t they might as well be me. Um, well, cool dude.
[01:16:15] Yeah. Yeah. Right, exactly. So I guess that’s true. That’s true. So I got, I’m going to do a beer mile, so maybe if you’re healthy by the 4th of July, or maybe we just want to throw him down for fun. Cause he would do well on the
[01:16:24] Derek Yorek: [01:16:24] bar. The burpee 10
[01:16:26] Rich Ryan : [01:16:26] K is like 800 meters and do 20 burpees for 10 K like you do really well.
[01:16:33] Yeah. That’d be awesome. That’d be like, yeah, just like a fun thing to do. Um, it would suck. It would take a long time, but it would be fun.
[01:16:42] Derek Yorek: [01:16:42] For sure.
[01:16:43] Rich Ryan : [01:16:43] Can we find you on socials or anywhere
[01:16:46] Derek Yorek: [01:16:46] you could go to reach out to people and then York fit a Y R E K F I T that’s on Instagram. Um, I’ve, uh, I’ve kind of shied away from social media lately for a number of reasons, but you can see some workouts on there.
[01:17:03] And I try to, I try to give tips on run form and things of that nature, but yeah. That’s me. I really appreciate your time.
[01:17:15] Rich Ryan : [01:17:15] Yeah, totally appreciate you, man. Uh, yeah, the Instagram’s great lot of good stuff. Again, like you said, everything’s out there for you to do good inspiration to get after it.
[01:17:26] Derek Yorek: [01:17:26] All right, man.
[01:17:27] Rich Ryan : [01:17:27] We’ll see. Cool piece. Well, I appreciate you guys hanging in there, Derek. Appreciate your joining me. And we’ll talk to you soon.
