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Behind the TYR WZA Move to Miami Beach
Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.
In today’s edition:
We sat down with Dylan Malitsky, VP of Sport for Loud & Live, to discuss TYR WZA's move to Miami Beach this winter. Get the details below.
How to rethink your training motivation into your 40s, 50s, and beyond.
Alison Scudds has been in CrossFit at an elite level for a long time but has yet to break through to the CrossFit Games. Learn more about her quest and her plans for 2025 below.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I would definitely look there for ways to train…the stages are going to feel very similar to how they looked in Huntington Beach.” - Dylan Malitsky, VP of Sport, Loud & Live, on his advice for how to train for TYR WZA Miami Beach.
COMPETITIONS
A Change of Scenery: Behind TYR Wodapalooza’s Move to Miami Beach for 2025
TYR Wodapalooza Miami, the wintertime fitness festival that draws huge crowds and elite CrossFitters from around the world, is moving from Bayfront Park to Miami Beach.
We sat down with Dylan Malitsky, VP of Loud and Live Sports, to get the scoop on what prompted the move and what fans and athletes can expect from the competition in 2025.
Remind me: For 12 years, TYR Wodapalooza has been one of the premier competitions outside of the CrossFit Games. The event always falls in the bleak winter and draws hordes of fans and athletes from around the globe to compete in the Miami party vibe. The 2025 competition takes place from January 23 to 26.
Malitsky has been with TYR WZA from the start, first as a volunteer, then as an emcee, then as media director, and now as VP of Loud and Live Sports, organizer of TYR WZA Miami and TYR WZA SoCal.
In the last couple of years, TYR WZA has struggled with the maximum spectator capacity in the stands at Bayfront Park, leading to long lines and even more frustration.
“We were starting to burst at the seams as far as what we could do from a competition perspective,” Malitsky told Morning Chalk Up.
This led Malitsky to look elsewhere for a new home for the event.
“The reception we got from the city of Miami Beach, which is a completely different municipality, was over the moon about us,” said Malitsky.
The hope is that Miami Beach will become the long-term home of TYR Wodapalooza and that the event can grow in the bigger space.
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SPEED READS
🛍️💪 Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deals from CrossFit: Through December 3, select CrossFit Online Courses are 15% off, as is the Crossfit Mentor Program. Also, you can get the CrossFit Online Nutrition course for free when you sign up for an in-person L1 or L2 Seminar. Finally, CrossFit gear is 25% off sitewide (U.S. and Canada only).
💪 🙌 Working with Larger Bodies Seminar: Athena Perez and Scaled Nation Training will be delivering the Working with Larger Bodies seminar at CrossFit ELM Turnberry in COmmerce City, CO on Saturday, February 15, 2025. Register now.
🏋️🐐 Rich Froning’s Basement Gym: Check out the first part of this video series touring Rich Froning’s Cookeville, TN, fitness compound from our friends over at Garage Gym Reviews.
📺👂Hear Their Stories: CrossFit’s new video series, Hear Their Stories, brings viewers into the heart of the CrossFit community. The newest episode, “Taking the Capitol By Storm,” features Games athlete Rebecca Fusilier and one of the most iconic moments in CrossFit Games history, “The Capitol.” Watch now.
😎🌴 2024 TYR WZA Miami Beach Roster Updates: In case you’ve missed it, TYR WZA Miami Beach has begun to announce the athletes “confirmed to celebrate!”
So far, the roster includes “the Boys” (Noah Ohlsen, Chandler Smith, and Travis Mayer), “the Broadway Girls” (Haley Adams, Brooke Wells, and Sydney Wells), Ricky Garard, Pat Vellner, Dani Speegle, James Sprague, and Arielle Loewen. Many more to come.
ICYMI: FitFest 2024 will pit “Team Europe,” captained by Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson and Emma McQuaid, against “Team Rest of World, led by Arielle Loewen and Dallin Pepper. Get to know the teams in our preview here.
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Rethinking Motivation: Pursuing Fitness in Your 40s, 50s, & Beyond
A Chasing Excellence listener recently posed an interesting question: As he enters his mid-50s, CrossFit is becoming less rewarding because it's no longer about gaining new skills but simply maintaining the ability to do foundational movements like back squats and box jumps.
How, he wondered, do you stay motivated when you're no longer chasing big PRs and new skills?
Here’s what I told him about what happens when those big, audacious goals start to feel out of reach.
The Shifting Goal Posts of Fitness
In our 20s and 30s, fitness milestones often revolve around impressive feats of strength and skill – the unbroken muscle-ups, handstand walks, and heavy snatches.
But as we enter our 40s, 50s, and beyond, those goals can start to feel less attainable and less motivating.
So, it's time to reassess what we're really chasing.
Do we keep showing up to the gym because it boosts our ego and is a status symbol amongst our friends? Or is it because it allows us to continue doing the things we love with the people we love for decades?
CYBER MONDAY
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PROFILE
Semifinal Veteran Alison Scudds Readies Herself for 2025 Season and Another Run at CrossFit Games Glory
There are 19 Individual athletes who competed in the 2017 and 2018 CrossFit Regionals, in at least one Sanctional in 2019 and 2020, and at all four years of Semifinals from 2021-2024.
Seventeen of those athletes have qualified for the CrossFit Games during these eight years — only two of them haven’t.
One of the two is Yuko Sakuyama, a Japanese athlete who has now aged up to the 35-39 division. The other is fan-favorite Alison Scudds.
Re-Tool and Re-Focus
After placing 31st at the 2023 North America West Semifinal, Scudds knew she needed to make a change if she was ever going to qualify for the CrossFit Games, a goal she has been pursuing for so many years.
She began a bulking phase to help with her strength, as the one-rep-max lifts have always been damage control events for her.
She has since gained 15 pounds and has been focusing primarily on the holes that have held her back.
Roughly a year ago, Scudds left Underdogs Athletics and began training with David Spurr and Jeremy Meredith, who both also coached Brent Fikowski. Her hope is that the coaching shift will sharpen her skills and prepare her for the 2025 season in a new and better way.
HIGHLIGHTS
Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.
🏋️♀️Congratulations to Paulina Haro, who just hit some big numbers at a recent weightlifting match. She snatched 91 kilos/200 pounds and clean and jerked 121 kilos/266 pounds.
Congratulations to Colleen Fotsch and partner Sinan, who just got engaged.
Great work to Kelsey Kiel, who hit a triple back squat at 156 kilos/345 pounds.
Check out this friendly roast between Chandler and Jessi Smith.
🔥Try out this spicy EMOM from Zack George - how long can you hang on?