Kelly Baker | A Clydesdale

Sevan Matossian (00:00):

Thanks for doing this.

Kelly Baker (00:01):

Yeah, of course.

Sevan Matossian (00:02):

Bam. We’re live. Nice. What does this mean? Hello? From your fellow greetings. Uh, uh, Cornholio Greetings, fellow 0.1 percenters.

Kelly Baker (00:16):

Uh,

Sevan Matossian (00:17):

That means everyone in the chat’s like just filthy rich

Kelly Baker (00:22):

Austin, us included.

Sevan Matossian (00:24):

Oh, look, there’s your buddy, Mr. Scott Schweitzer.

Kelly Baker (00:27):

Aw, I love him. He is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

Sevan Matossian (00:31):

I, I, I plagiarized. This entire podcast is plagiarized off of him. I just, I just went and watched all of the podcast he’s done with you.

Kelly Baker (00:39):

Oh, nice. Yeah. Does a good

Sevan Matossian (00:40):

Job. Hey, where, where, where, where are you at? What state? You’re in Texas.

Kelly Baker (00:44):

Yeah, so I’m originally from Philadelphia and then I met my husband there and he’s from Texas. So we moved down here.

Sevan Matossian (00:52):

Philly, uh, trippy place. Uh, I’ve never had a good experience there.

Kelly Baker (00:57):

Oh no. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I feel like you gotta be from there to love it and then people that visit don’t really love it.

Sevan Matossian (01:04):

Yeah. Ho Um, um, hostile? Hostile? Well, I haven’t been there in probably 10 years and, and I’ve only been there like four or five times, but every time extremely hostile. Like,

Kelly Baker (01:15):

Like Yeah. I remember when I moved to Texas, I was like, ugh, feeling like all these people are hitting on me, like holding the door, but that’s just Oh, oh, now being kinda

Sevan Matossian (01:24):

<laugh>. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Both. Both.

Kelly Baker (01:27):

Yeah. No, <laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (01:28):

Both. Both. Both. Wow. Yeah. Um, uh, I grew up in California and I was always told that Texans were just like the fucking worst, uh, ho worst conservative fucking assholes, like racist scumbags. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then, uh, as I matured and got into high school or something, I made a trip there or something and I remember like, holy shit. These are the nicest human beings on planet Earth.

Kelly Baker (01:51):

Yeah. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (01:52):

Howdy, eye contact. They stand up when you walk in the room. Whole doors open for my mom. I’m like, Hey, you know, she’s a democrat right, though. 2020. Yeah. I’m like, what the fuck is going on here? Yeah. The south is nice.

Kelly Baker (02:04):

Yeah, it is. I think Houston is a pretty big kind of melting pot though.

Sevan Matossian (02:09):

Oh, that’s where you are. You’re really far south.

Kelly Baker (02:11):

Yeah. So, so many people are pretty much like from all over at, at my gym, I feel like everyone is from somewhere else.

Sevan Matossian (02:19):

Right, right. Is Houston a hurricane country? Do you guys have any, like, what’s up with Houston? Does Houston have any issues down there?

Kelly Baker (02:28):

More towards the coast, but we do get some, like, pretty big storms, but, uh, where we live, we had that really big flood before I’d moved here. That like crushed a lot of houses. But Are

Sevan Matossian (02:40):

You below sea level? Is Houston below sea level?

Kelly Baker (02:43):

I don’t know.

Sevan Matossian (02:44):

Oh, not elevation though, for sure. Just flat. Yeah. No,

Kelly Baker (02:47):

It’s just so humid.

Sevan Matossian (02:50):

Um, hey, I don’t like Houston for one reason. It’s to, it’s just too far away.

Kelly Baker (02:56):

Well, Texas in general, like I’m from the northeast. If I drive six hours, I can go through like seven states and then you can go from the west of Houston to the east of Houston in six hours. You’re like, ha, you’re only in the middle of the state. It’s wild to me.

Sevan Matossian (03:13):

Yeah, you’re not fl you’re not even flying anywhere fast.

Kelly Baker (03:16):

No, it’s terrible. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (03:17):

And that, in that regards, yeah. If I lived in Houston, I mean, I, even where I live in California, I feel like, um, I’m not going anywhere. But if I lived in Houston, I definitely would never go anywhere. Yeah. Wow. You guys are south? Mm-hmm.

Kelly Baker (03:29):

<affirmative>

Sevan Matossian (03:31):

Crazy big city.

Kelly Baker (03:33):

Yeah. Huge.

Sevan Matossian (03:34):

Um, uh, per permanent ho you got married and went there?

Kelly Baker (03:38):

Yeah. Well, we kind of a weird story, but we met when he was at his fellowship in Philadelphia. And then

Sevan Matossian (03:45):

What’s a fellowship? Is he a priest?

Kelly Baker (03:47):

Uh, <laugh>? No, he’s a surgeon. Okay. So

Sevan Matossian (03:50):

He was, wow.

Kelly Baker (03:52):

Yeah, he’s very smart, much smarter than me, but

Sevan Matossian (03:55):

Cuts people open.

Kelly Baker (03:56):

Yeah, he does, uh, hip and knee surgery. So he was doing, his fellowship is basically the last year of training where he specializes in hip and knee. And we happened to meet during that time when he was at Penn and we had met and gone on like a, a date and it was great. And then he was like, well, I actually just took a job in Texas and I was kind of like, well, it was really nice meeting you, you know, we’re, I’m not gonna keep going on dates with you. And then I went on dates with other people that were like horrendous dates and he and I had still kept in touch and he was like, why don’t we still just hang out or go to dinner? And then we just kept hanging out. And then he was like, do you wanna move to Texas? And like a few months later I did. So, and I quit my teaching job. So it was kind of a wild, a wild time.

Sevan Matossian (04:41):

Does he CrossFit?

Kelly Baker (04:43):

Oh no.

Sevan Matossian (04:45):

Oh God. That’s a lot of doors open. Okay, hold on. So, so this is far, this is Philadelphia way up here.

Kelly Baker (04:50):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (04:51):

And then, and then you met a dude. How did you meet him?

Kelly Baker (04:55):

Uh, on Hinge, like an online dating app.

Sevan Matossian (04:58):

H I N G E?

Kelly Baker (04:59):

Yeah. During Covid.

Sevan Matossian (05:01):

Wow. How’s that work? You, you’re on an online dating app and then how does that work? I’ve never seen an online dating app. I mean, I heard a lot about him. I heard the only one I know is Tinder and Grindr.

Kelly Baker (05:12):

Uh, well, yeah, I wasn’t on Grindr, um, or Tinder, but really, I didn’t go on that many dates. It was just a weird time. Like during Covid, like me and my girlfriends would go to the bar or go to a dinner or something, you’re like trapped in a plexiglass box. And we were like, huh, how are we ever gonna meet people? Um, so I just went like on a few dates and honestly, I had a great experience. I really enjoyed dating. I know people think it’s like the worst thing in the world, but I am so annoying. I’m one of those people that if I sit next to you on a flight, like I’ll probably wanna talk to you. Mm. Um, so I don’t know, it was a cool experience. Just meet people and whether dates went good or went bad, it was, I don’t know. I learned a little bit about humans and I’m still friends with a lot of people that I did go on dates with. Um, but then, yeah, so he and I both matched on that and went to get food and just kind of hit it off.

Sevan Matossian (06:03):

Was he freaked out by you at all?

Kelly Baker (06:06):

Well,

Sevan Matossian (06:07):

Like tongue-tied. Was he tongue-tied at all?

Kelly Baker (06:09):

No, I think he was more, I don’t know, I think just in our sport, us females, we, we look like something that came from outer space. Yeah. Yeah. Like for instance, we went to Napa this past week after semis.

Sevan Matossian (06:22):

Oh yeah.

Kelly Baker (06:23):

I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere without someone. I don’t know if it’s that area or what, but someone coming up and just being like, what do you work out? And first of all, like, no, this is genetics. Like, oh, fucking work out. You know? Um, but I think in his mind he was probably just like, well, this, she looks different than most girls that I see. But,

Sevan Matossian (06:44):

Uh, uh, e even even like the first time he hugs you, it’s gotta feel different.

Kelly Baker (06:48):

<laugh>, I guess. I haven’t really, I I guess you have a profile and I definitely put it out there that I look this way because I feel like if I showed up on a date,

Sevan Matossian (06:59):

How do you say that? How do you say that?

Kelly Baker (07:02):

Uh, how do I say I

Sevan Matossian (07:06):

Can? Yeah. Like how do you say, how do you, how do you, how, how, how does someone like, like how do you, how do you let someone know you look like this? Let me tell you something. I’m <laugh>. This is Napa. This is how you walked around in Napa, right? Like this. Yeah. Yeah. People were fucking losing their mind. Yeah. This is, this is like, this is probably, is this the greatest photo of you ever taken?

Kelly Baker (07:29):

Uh,

Sevan Matossian (07:30):

Do you like this photo? I mean,

Kelly Baker (07:31):

Look at that background. You can’t take a bad photo there, I guess.

Sevan Matossian (07:33):

Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah, it’s crazy. I mean, I mean this is re how many, how long has it been? This is three days after you worked out at the semi at the west semi-finals.

Kelly Baker (07:45):

Uh, this was that night, that Monday, that

Sevan Matossian (07:47):

Night?

Kelly Baker (07:48):

No, no, I’m sorry. Like Monday night we drove from, uh, where, where did we end up? So we stayed in Pasadena, but I was thinking where if we were stopping in between, but we didn’t, um, mark

Sevan Matossian (08:00):

And Marco Calderon. Sorry. Savon is giddy. I’m crazy giddy. I I thought I was, I didn’t know how I was gonna bring this picture up, but

Kelly Baker (08:08):

Here we go. Yeah. So that then we

Sevan Matossian (08:09):

Just, we’re already here. Okay. So, so you go on a date with him and you let him know ahead of time, Hey, I’m, he knows somewhere in your profile. It’s like, I’m not normal.

Kelly Baker (08:18):

Yeah. You, you put pictures up on your profile.

Sevan Matossian (08:20):

Okay. So

Kelly Baker (08:21):

He knows like, right, like included one, like working out so that they wouldn’t be like, who is this Shrek that just walked into the state with me? <laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (08:30):

Yeah. It’s like, um, uh, you’re kind, I’m trying to find a horse that kind of matches

Kelly Baker (08:38):

<laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (08:38):

Like, have you ever like this, it, it would be like, hey, if someone said, Hey, do you want to go horseback riding and you show up and it’s fucking this thing,

Kelly Baker (08:46):

It’s better be at Clydesdale or something.

Sevan Matossian (08:47):

Yeah. Yeah. It’s like this

Kelly Baker (08:49):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (08:49):

And you’re like, I don’t know, like, is that rideable? Like what? Like what? Look at that thing.

Kelly Baker (08:55):

Yeah, you’re gonna need some training to get on that thing.

Sevan Matossian (08:57):

That thing has veins in its nose.

Kelly Baker (08:59):

I’m dead.

Sevan Matossian (09:01):

My goodness. Okay. So And is he smitten right away? Can you tell?

Kelly Baker (09:07):

Yeah. Uh, I think so. He wasn’t acting like super nervous or something. That’s what you

Sevan Matossian (09:12):

Mean. What about the horrendous guy? Why did that go horrendous?

Kelly Baker (09:16):

Uh, it’s funny, my husband will say it all the time. Like, he owes this guy like our relationship, I don’t know. I got picked up by this guy. He had a red Mustang and he was just like the, like the date was just terrible. I went into the bathroom and like texted Zach, my husband, during the date. I was just like, God, terrible date. But we were so friendly at that time, uh, that it was like normal. He knew that I was going on dates, I was open about it. And then, uh, the guy dropped me off, which is also weird why I got in a car with him like a stranger. But I think he was like a mutual friend of some people that I knew and he like tried to kiss me, but like, I wasn’t like going for it. And I don’t know why he got the feeling that I wanted to. And he ended up like, kissing me on the neck. Ugh. It was just fucking torturous. So dating is fun unless you have one like that. We were just like, what the fuck just happened when I walk in my house?

Sevan Matossian (10:08):

How many years ago was that?

Kelly Baker (10:10):

Uh, about four.

Sevan Matossian (10:12):

And and how old are you?

Kelly Baker (10:14):

31. I know I’m a geezer in the sport.

Sevan Matossian (10:20):

W w when, when the first time I saw you was in Albany, uh, Texas.

Kelly Baker (10:27):

Do you know what’s really funny about that? So I did the first event, which is the triple three. It was the first event I’ve ever done. And I ended up taking fifth in that, or sixth in that event. My first one. And this is how new I was to the sport, I was like, oh, they only take top five, so I don’t think I’m gonna be able to make the games <laugh>. I just had no idea. Right, right. I had no idea what I was doing. And then that third day you had interviewed me and I think I was sitting in seventh or eighth and you were like, yeah, you have a chance to make the games. And again, I just like, I didn’t have a coach that really knew what was going on at my second year of competing. I was like, do I, like, I didn’t even know the math. Um, and

Sevan Matossian (11:04):

I What year was that? 17.

Kelly Baker (11:06):

Yeah, cuz I, I went team 2016 and then 1718 went indie.

Sevan Matossian (11:15):

Um, I want to go back just a little bit more. You’re born, you’re born and raised in Philly.

Kelly Baker (11:19):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (11:20):

And, um, uh, you, were you always, um, into sports? Were you into fitness, sports

Kelly Baker (11:26):

Movement? Yeah, so I was the, I’m the youngest of four, so I have two older brothers. Um, so that just made me competitive by nature. I think I also was like obsessed with W w f wrestling and so were they, so I was like the pawn in their little games that like we would be, yeah, that’s my two brothers, but we would be on the trampoline. I would getting like stone cold stunned and like, I just wanted to play with or hang with them all the time. So that made me a little bit more competitive. But yeah, I played soccer, basketball, and run track in high school. And then I played college soccer. And then after I kind of did the running scene of like marathons, half marathons and then found CrossFit.

Sevan Matossian (12:08):

W tell me, tell what sports did you do again? You did, you did, um, say that again. You did soccer.

Kelly Baker (12:13):

Soccer, basketball. And I run track in high school and then I played college soccer.

Sevan Matossian (12:19):

You didn’t play soccer in high school, but you played college soccer? No,

Kelly Baker (12:21):

I did.

Sevan Matossian (12:22):

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. And um, do you have, do you have a surgery? Did you have a surgery on your knee? You got a knee surgery?

Kelly Baker (12:28):

No, I’ve had only shoulder problems from CrossFit.

Sevan Matossian (12:33):

How many years did you play collegiate soccer?

Kelly Baker (12:36):

All four.

Sevan Matossian (12:37):

Wow. No. Wow. You’re, I mean, you’re, you’re lucky you got out of there without some sort of fucking knee, knee incident.

Kelly Baker (12:43):

Yeah, it’s pretty funny. I found CrossFit through, um, we worked pen camps when we were in college just over the summer to make some money. And a girl named Emma Chapman, she wa she played at Marshall and it was the summer after she had graduated. She still worked the camps and she was doing CrossFit. She’s like, do you wanna come lift with me? This was my senior year of college and I was like, I need to get to the track. I don’t really need to lift weights, you know? And anyway, I go to the gym with her and I think her workout was like three kipping pull-ups a minute for 10 minutes. And I, she has like a video of me. I can’t even do one. It’s pretty funny. But she ended up making semifinals in 2017, the same year that I did. Uh, we just happened to be in different regions, but it was pretty cool that we both had, you know, started so small and kind of worked our way up.

Sevan Matossian (13:34):

And when you say Penn camp, you mean Penn State? Penn State’s a, a university?

Kelly Baker (13:37):

Uh, university of Penn. Penn.

Sevan Matossian (13:39):

Okay. University of Penn. Okay. And that’s different than Penn State?

Kelly Baker (13:42):

Yeah, they’re different.

Sevan Matossian (13:43):

Yeah, I don’t. Thank you. And, and that was your first introduction to, had you ever deadlifted up to that point? Had you ever, you touched a barbell?

Kelly Baker (13:51):

No, not a barbell like we did, we did leg press or lunges and things like that in college with our strength and conditioning coach. But God, like what a disservice. I would, I think about how much better I would’ve been if I did a quarter of the things that I do now. Like I would love to step on a soccer field and I would just manhandle girls.

Sevan Matossian (14:11):

No bench, never, never done bench press before. CrossFit?

Kelly Baker (14:16):

No, no, no. Never.

Sevan Matossian (14:17):

No pull up, no clean, no deadlift.

Kelly Baker (14:20):

No. We, I think we tried to do power clean in college, but it was just so different between guys and girls. They would be power cleaning, benching, setting, like, you know, records for the school. And us girls were like on the track doing like lunges and Ryan the elliptical or something. I don’t know if it’s stupid.

Sevan Matossian (14:37):

Did you go through a crazy, uh, body comp change as you started CrossFit?

Kelly Baker (14:42):

Oh yeah. I was, I think when I started CrossFit I got down to like 1 35 or something, like weighed 135 pounds. Cuz I think I just

Sevan Matossian (14:51):

Lost And, and how tall and how tall are you?

Kelly Baker (14:53):

I’m five three and a half. I claim five four though.

Sevan Matossian (14:57):

Fine.

Kelly Baker (14:58):

Yeah. Um, me too. <laugh>? Uh, yeah, I definitely lost weight pretty easily. I’m a nutrition coach, so it’s my favorite type of client is someone who, well everyone comes to me saying they wanna lean out and get more muscular and it’s like impossible to do unless you’re one type of person and that’s someone that has weight to lose but has never lifted in their life. Oh. So they’ll start lifting, put on muscle and they’re just going to shed fat at the same time. And I feel like that’s kind of what happened to me.

Sevan Matossian (15:31):

Is this your, is this your, are these your homies? This is who you work

Kelly Baker (15:33):

For? Yeah. Yeah. That’s the company I work for.

Sevan Matossian (15:35):

Yeah. Okay. Um, uh, I, I do want to, I, I do want to talk about this, I do wanna talk about nutrition. I wanna go back. So, so the first time you go into a CrossFit gym, you’re uh, did you say senior in high school or senior in college?

Kelly Baker (15:46):

So it wasn’t actually a CrossFit gym, I just did one workout with this girl at the UPenn camp that we were at. But my first time walking into a CrossFit gym was, uh, it’s probably maybe two years after I graduated college. So it was 20 16, 20 15 because I went team 2016 season and somehow made the games with them.

Sevan Matossian (16:13):

And um, so so you go in there and, and then do you like, or, well you didn’t go into a CrossFit gym, but you were introduced to CrossFit. Yeah. And then where, when was the first time you actually went into a CrossFit gym?

Kelly Baker (16:22):

Yeah, that was two years after college. Okay. Okay. I walked in a ClassFit gym. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (16:27):

Um, and did you like it right away?

Kelly Baker (16:29):

Oh, I was obsessed. Well, the workout was like run burpees and maybe deadlifts or something. So it was something I didn’t really know how to do, but I was gonna be good at all three of those things cuz they weren’t high skilled. If it was something that was like bar muscle ups the first day I walked in, I think that would’ve been different because I don’t do well when I’m not good at something. Um, but because it was like in, you know, things that I would be good at and I was just beating people that maybe I’ve been there, I was like, oh, I think I could, I could do this. I think this could be pretty cool.

Sevan Matossian (17:02):

And, and you and you got a new, um, adaptation right away, right? So you were already in shape, you could already push hard and then all of a sudden probably like within weeks you were like, oh shit, something’s happening to my body.

Kelly Baker (17:12):

Yeah, and I really, in the beginning it wasn’t so much for aesthetics, I was just kind of looking for an outlet cuz I was doing the running scene and I just felt like, I don’t know, I, I, I can’t be, I can’t do this much longer. I’m getting really bored. So it was more trying to find that void that I think I had.

Sevan Matossian (17:33):

Why do you think you liked sports so much growing up strictly because of your brothers? Or do you was

Kelly Baker (17:39):

Uh, I don’t know, I’ve just always been competitive. My mom even says when I was four or something, I was playing soccer and they didn’t keep score when you’re that young and she’d be like, you’re doing great. And I would be yelling, no, we’re losing. Like, I, at a young, I don’t know, I think it was just ingrained in me, but now that I’m older, like I, if I was to think about myself more and try to diagnose myself, I think I’m just really am obsessed with just seeing what I’m capable of. Like, I, after I’m done CrossFit, I’ll probably do an ultra or try to do an Ironman or something just to, because I think it’s really cool when you think you can’t do something, then you’re like, fuck yeah, I can. And I don’t know, I’m kind of obsessed with that.

Sevan Matossian (18:21):

It it, you, you’ve been going at it a long time. This is the first year you ever went, um, individual, this is the first year you’ve made individual

Kelly Baker (18:27):

To games. Yeah,

Sevan Matossian (18:28):

Yeah. Crazy, right? Yeah. I mean it’s it’s a long road, right? You’ve been on.

Kelly Baker (18:33):

Yeah, so not that I’ve taken anything away from this year, I just also haven’t really given myself the chance to make it as an individual. I’ve had really awesome teams that asked me to go team and I felt like I couldn’t turn them down. Um, and I, not that I didn’t feel like I was fit enough then to, to make it as an individual. Um, but this year I truly like was I made it my goal after last games in August, I kind of let, went home, sat on the plane, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna, I’m gonna take put my clients and cut them in half and I’m gonna give this season everything I’ve got and I’m not gonna have any regrets. So I just decided to go for it.

Sevan Matossian (19:17):

I, I was watching that Ascend podcast. And is that guy Tristan, your coach? Yeah. Is he still your coach?

Kelly Baker (19:24):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (19:24):

To, to this day. How long has he been your coach?

Kelly Baker (19:27):

Only since August. So when I decided I was gonna go individual, I was kind of thinking the route that I wanted to take, like okay. Kind of some big name coaches I could reach out to. Um, but I just didn’t, I didn’t wanna be one of 20 athletes or one of fucking 30, you know. And, um, he works at my gym and he’s, he nerds out and he smart. He just hasn’t really had the opportunity to have any like high level names. And he shows up every day at the gym to watch me and he’s, he is really fucking incredible.

Sevan Matossian (20:03):

Sorry, someone just said name tags are off. You know what? I don’t even know how to turn those on. I used to know all that stuff. I don’t if I do, if I do that, does that. No, I don’t. No, I do that. No. All right. Fuck it. Who knows? Sorry. Thank you. That’ll be have to be something I figure out with suse that just started happening as we started fucking with the sponsors and putting ’em down there at the bottom. Hey, um, he’s he’s at a local gym in Houston.

Kelly Baker (20:30):

Yeah. So when I moved to Houston, I only went to one gym, CrossFit Greater and I was like,

Sevan Matossian (20:35):

Cross it. What? Say it again.

Kelly Baker (20:36):

Greater Heights.

Sevan Matossian (20:38):

Uhhuh <affirmative>.

Kelly Baker (20:39):

And I was like, damn, this place is fucking awesome. They have everything and they’re kind of like an OG mentality. I don’t know. Remember during that whole time when everyone started dropping their affiliate? Yeah. And it, like everyone, I feel like CrossFit gyms got like two,

Sevan Matossian (20:54):

I think I do remember that. Hold on. Yep. I remember <laugh>,

Kelly Baker (20:57):

But like, I feel like CrossFit gyms got too cool to do Friday Night Lights or I don’t know, themes and throw parties at their gym. It was like everyone was kind of over that scene and then I went to Greater Heights and they’re so community based. They’re, they’re fucking awesome. Like they flew a apart where we left for semis, like a big barbecue for the three of us that made it. It was just really awesome.

Sevan Matossian (21:23):

Did he, um, did he have any other, uh, games athletes?

Kelly Baker (21:27):

Uh, so his, he has a team that had made it to games. They were something ascend.

Sevan Matossian (21:33):

How did you know you weren’t out of his league?

Kelly Baker (21:37):

I don’t How did

Sevan Matossian (21:38):

You know that you weren’t too good? Too refined, too too much experience? Too much? Like, like why not go to like, because I never heard of the guy. Yeah. So how do you know, how do you trust? So it’s your, it’s your, I’m seeing like, oh shit, you’re getting down to like your last hurrah, but you’re also gonna try to jump over your biggest, uh, you know, uh, canyon Chasm and, and you go with some unknown dude at some gym in fucking Houston.

Kelly Baker (22:03):

Yeah, I mean, I did know him before. It wasn’t like he was just some stranger. Um, okay. But like I said, I just, I wanted someone to be there and I, I knew that the journey individuals is can be lonely. And having a remote coach doing my programming on the other side of the gym by myself, I, I didn’t wanna just celebrate also alone. Like when I qualified for the games, there was a, that was like half for me, half for him. Um, and, and a big part for my husband. I know he’s not like in the sport, but I don’t think that’s the part that a lot of people don’t see is, you know, the, the people that are closest to you, the hit that they take and the toll they take. Having someone that’s emotionally and physically just kind of drained all the time. Um, so yeah, I, I don’t know. I just decided if I was gonna trust him, I was gonna trust him a hundred percent. And yeah, he, he’s been nothing I couldn’t have asked for better.

Sevan Matossian (23:01):

I, I’ve heard a lot people say a lot of shit about CrossFit athletes and, and analysis and thoughts and you, he said something in that Ascend podcast I had never heard before. It was kind of crazy. He said, and I, and I was like, wow, this, I’d like to hear more on this subject. He said, so, so I, I made a, um, I had um, uh, Michelle Bassinet on the other day and I made this joke just basically like, teams are just for fucking jack asses. Like, hey don’t teams just for people who don’t wanna compete at the highest level, they’re scared. And it was over the top. I was, it was kind of plain, right? Just like, what’s the worst thing I could say about teams? And I threw masters in Adaptive and kids in there too, just, just kicking some ass, you know?

(23:40):

And like, like Teams is a place you go to hide, right? But he said about you, and this is the part I’d never heard before, that actually teams didn’t allow you to show your true skills. So it was the opposite for you that basically you, um, you have things that you’re better at as an individual that can’t be expressed as a team athlete. And I was like, holy shit, I never heard it that way. That basically you’re a better individual athlete. Like I, I’ve always made this assumption that if you’re a good individual athlete, you’ll be good team, if not a better team athlete, right? Cuz you don’t have to go quite as hard. There’s not, but this guy’s saying, nah, nah, it’s not like that for Kelly Baker on this. Kelly Baker’s actually gonna be a better individual athlete than she is a team athlete. And I, and I was like, holy shit, I never, I’ve never heard anyone say that or I’ve never even pondered that.

Kelly Baker (24:37):

Well, I, where I think he’s even coming from is, I’m just pretty consistent. And with teams, unless you’re hit getting first through fifth in a lot of these semi-finals and things like that, you’re not really gonna podium or, or you know, maybe even qualify. It’s like the top 10 are getting the top 10 for the most part, I would say. But for individuals you can be top 20 and, and qualify. You just have to not have any big holes. And not that I haven’t worked really hard to have, I do have holes. I’m, I’m not saying that, but I pretty even keel across the board. I’m probably not recognized a ton by sponsors or by people because I don’t really have any home runs. Like, you know, Danny Spiegel or, and my best friend Kelsey, like they can lift a fucking house. Now my clean is like two 60. My snatch is almost, it’s like 1 95. Like it’s good enough. I’m not gonna lose the snatch event. I’m not gonna lose the lifting event. Uh, my runs are pretty good. Um, you know, I’m, so, I’m just, I think in his mind it’s like, yeah, I can kind of chip away at workouts and and do pretty well, but you don’t like Justin Maderis. He won the games and didn’t win one event.

Sevan Matossian (25:56):

I know. Crazy. Right? So

Kelly Baker (25:57):

It’s just like, I think that’s kind of what he means is, um, and also the mentality of team is very much big sets, like short output, big sets, then rest. That’s how it used to be at least. But for me, I’m kind of remind myself of like an 800 meter runner where I’d rather just keep an 80% heart rate and I can sustain that for 25 minutes and I’ll do really well in that workout rather than Fran or something like that.

Sevan Matossian (26:26):

When you saw Ariel Lowen make the games a couple years ago, did that pop on your radar,

Kelly Baker (26:31):

Uh, at all? Cause she’s a mom or just because,

Sevan Matossian (26:34):

Just because I, I sort of see her in your category. You, you, you know, sort of just like, hey, uh, maybe not a lot of people believed in her. She was a warm body at the vent. She did good. She, she stayed in the fight and then, you know, at the, at the end of the day she didn’t, she wouldn’t make it, you know, maybe to the games and um, she’d been around a while and she just kind of cruising.

Kelly Baker (26:54):

Yeah. Uh, I mean I’m always rooting for like an underdog, but she wasn’t someone that was

Sevan Matossian (26:59):

Is there anyone who, is there anyone like that on your radar? You’re like, fuck, if they can do it, I can do it. Or like, inspires you or,

Kelly Baker (27:05):

Uh, not really. I mean, I think I’ve always kind of put my head on the pillow and thought about, I remember my first time at regionals hearing that fifth place spot cuz they were always a wild card, you know? I mean at that time it was top five, so it was really hard to make it, but it was always like one through four. You kind of knew who was gonna get in and that fifth place spot was always up for grabs. And I always thought, how fucking cool would it be to just hear your name in that last qualifying spot? And that’s kind of been a motivator for me. But I don’t know if there’s anyone totally on the radar. I guess someone I, I don’t wanna say I compare myself to, but kind of like a page se menza. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that girl does not get enough credit and she’s mm-hmm. <affirmative>, she does, she doesn’t, she does the work. Like she’ll be top 20 at the games or something and she’s still just doesn’t get any recognition cuz she’s not, doesn’t have that many home run hits. Right. But she’s just fucking really consistent. Um, so yeah, those are the kind of maybe the people I cheer for the most. Cuz I, I kind of know what that’s like.

Sevan Matossian (28:09):

Um, did you, did you have a good cry after this? Uh, the semi-finals west?

Kelly Baker (28:16):

Uh, yeah, to be honest, I

Sevan Matossian (28:18):

Picture all the athletes just going back to their room. Like if I, if it was me, I just would picture myself going back to my room and just putting my head in my pillow and just crying for like five minutes. Like, for no reason. Yeah. Just like fucking, like a teapot, just steam off.

Kelly Baker (28:32):

Yeah. You’re so anxious the whole weekend. Like whether people think the top dogs aren’t even, they are, you know? Um, I, I think I was a, like, as much as I was so proud and excited, I I was disappointed on my outcome. Like obviously

Sevan Matossian (28:49):

You were, you were disappointed.

Kelly Baker (28:52):

Yeah, I like had written on my hand a whole, the whole training season, like you are top five and not, I now looking back at those workouts in the field, like, I’m not saying I should have been top five, but I

Sevan Matossian (29:04):

Still No, no, I’m, I’m with you. I’m with you.

Kelly Baker (29:06):

I still think, um, if that last event just didn’t go the way it did and if it would’ve went how I, how confident I was in myself for that event, I think I would’ve been at least seven and or if I didn’t drop the bag, I would’ve been eight. Um, so I, I just

Sevan Matossian (29:24):

Oh, oh, that’s right. I forgot about that. You had the bag incident.

Kelly Baker (29:28):

Yeah, I would’ve just, I feel like I looked like, oh, she just called

Sevan Matossian (29:32):

And you tumbled and rolled pretty good too, right? You tumbled and rolled pretty good, right?

Kelly Baker (29:36):

Yeah. At least I felt like I looked athletic enough.

Sevan Matossian (29:39):

You look crazy athletic. Is that, did you post that on your Instagram?

Kelly Baker (29:43):

N not the tumble rule? I posted the announcement.

Sevan Matossian (29:45):

Oh, you need to, you need to, okay. Sorry. Go back. So if you would’ve done better at that seventh workout

Kelly Baker (29:51):

Yeah, I

Sevan Matossian (29:52):

Was You would’ve felt better about your placement.

Kelly Baker (29:55):

Yeah. Like obviously just made for it that feeling being here in my name announced to be.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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