09/15/2026
The Bike Won - By Ken Phillips 2026 Masters Games Athlete
By the end of Wednesday, my arms were pretty cooked but I still had thrusters and burpees to conquer.
I figured the burpees would be easy.
The thrusters were the problem.
I planned to break them into sets of three.
Then 3-2-1…
I picked up the bar and ripped out 14.
So much for the plan. 😂
The burpees went easily, and I actually thought I might be leading. LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN, I was in first place at the CrossFit games, even if only for a few seconds.
But by the end, my arms were completely done.
I capped out only finishing 1 burpee of the final 6.
Somehow, that was still good enough for 4th in the event.
I finished the day tied for 4th overall.
And the calf had survived everything.
Pretty good day.
Unfortunately, I knew what was coming next.
The dreaded bike.
The final workout was bike calories and DT — deadlifts, hang cleans and shoulder-to-overheads.
I knew this one could be trouble.
And it was.
I pushed hard on the first bike and got through the calories in under two minutes. After that, I was hanging with the leaders.
I thought, Hey… maybe this isn’t so bad.
Then came the one-minute rest.
Apparently, one minute wasn’t enough.
The bike won.
The second round of calories took almost as long as the first, and I couldn’t finish the next round of DT.
Back to the bike one last time, then the final reps.
7th in the event.
5th overall at the CrossFit Games.
Going in, I figured 7th was probably realistic.
5th was the “looking at the stars” result.
Turns out the stars were a little closer than I thought.
***I didn’t add music to this one so we could hear his name called by the announcer!!!!! It’s true, he was there. lol.