On On Michael

Note: I had to think about posting this but think that awereness is the key to this battle against depression so many people face silence.

So today I intended to do a couple posts on a couple things but had some bad news on facebook that a friend from San Diego who I had only the pleasure of intercating with a couple times this past February had decided this world wasn't for him any longer early this christmas morning.

As I see all the messages on his facebook page this afternoon/evening I just wanted to put a note out there to anyone who is contemplating ending their life that there are so many people out there that love and care for you and no matter how much you do not realise that these people will do anything for you if you can find the strength to reach out.

I have been very lucky to spend a great day with my wife and her family today while getting to enjoy a run workout (hurt like hell though) and it just shows how much I have too grateful for even on the days I wake up or come home feeling grumpy, sad and angry at the world.

Not much else to say but if you are facing struggles and challenges in your life please don feel like you need to suffer alone. If you are up front your family and friends will be more than happy to help if you reach out. If you don't feel comfortable reaching out to somebody you know please reach out to the people that are there to help in your city. Some numbers are below;

BC, Canada - 1800.784.2433
www.crisiscentre.bc.ca

Australia - 13 11 14
www.lifeline.org.au/

USA - 1-800-784-2433

Sorry to bring such somber news to my blog but I thought it was an important topic to raise.

On, On Michael - You will be missed by many people

2009 - The Season in Review

 The Year in Review

2009 is coming to a close and thus far it has been an awesome year. I have had the opportunity to race 20 times covering over 15km in the water, 540km on the bike and 251km running on race days alone.

Training has included a lot more miles and enjoying the process as well as the racing is always important and this year I have had had a lot of fun training both on my own and with others. This has included swimming, riding and running in all conditions from snow in the Vancouver Winter to scorching hot days in the Okanagan Summer.

Thank You

To work toward your goals requires the support of others and at the risk of missing out people here goes a short list;

Leslie (My wife) – Puts up with 4:45am alarms and long training days on the weekends. She also took up running in 2009 and completed her first 10km run.

Family & Friends – From my parents in Australia who watch online for split times during races in the middle of the night, to those who supported me up in Penticton, gave me a place to stay and sent messages of support.

Forerunners – For continued support from this awesome locally owned Vancouver running store.

Newton Running – I have run with my Newton trainers and racers all year in all conditions and these shoes have helped propel me to top 5% run times in most of my races.

Speed Theory – For keeping the Orbea in working order throughout the season

Jerry – For all the help with the running in 2009 including some awesome sessions in the lead up to IMC.

Dr Carla Cupido - For keeping me healthy in 2009 and teaching me a lot about how to manage my body through the volume of training that is associated with triathlon.

Training Partners – All those who have suffered with me or made me suffer in throughout the year. Learned a lot form everybody I trained with and had a lot of fun.

Season Highlights

The main thing about the year was and had a lot of fun and I have definitely achieved that getting to meet and hang out with great people along the way. However there were definitely some highlights that are worth pointing out.

New Personal Records

2009 saw me PR across all the distances I competed at some point during the year. It definitely showed the base work over winter was worth it and I hope to be able to replicate this achievement in 2010. My new benchmarks to target in 2010 are;

Running 

5km - 17:00 @ 2009 Mothers Day Spring Classic (May, 2009)
8km - 27:13 @ 2009 Icebreaker 8km (Feb, 2009)
10km - 34:51 @ 2009 Chilly Chase 10km (Jan, 2009)
Half Marathon - 1:19:32 @ 2009 San Diegeto Half Marathon (Feb, 2009)

Triathlon

Half Ironman - 4:30:26 @ 2009 Victoria Half Ironman (Jun, 2009)
Ironman - 10:26:07 @ 2009 Ironman Canada (Aug, 2009)

Ironman Canada - The A Race
Detailed Race Report

The A race for 2009 was Ironman Canada. This one went good but not great, after a slow swim of 1hr 18mins (lots of room to improve there) I passed 1300 people on the bike with the 100^th fastest bike split of 5 hours 14 minutes before hitting the run course with the 150th fastest split of 3 Hours 46 min which included picking up 2 spots in my age group in the mile. Although the run was not what I was hoping for, I held it together on a tough day in Penticton and came in 143^rd Overall and 13^th in the M25-29 Category.

I learned a lot throughout the day and the training leading up to it and had a lot of fun even through the painful parts of race day. With this knowledge and another 10 months of training and experience under my belt I am aiming to get fast for Ironman Coure'd'Alene in June 2010 and see what I can do.

Oliver Half Iron – Surprisingly Quick
Detailed Race Report

Sometimes going into a race with no expectations can be a good thing. Oliver was a "c" on the schedule and given a lead up week that included a crash and a 160km ride the day before race day I was more just seeing it as an experiment about racing on tired legs.  

In the end I had an awesome race which included a my fastest ever average bike split covering 93km in 2hour 28 minutes (Avg Speed 37.5km/h) followed up by the 11^th fastest run split (including pro's) at 1:25:16 for the half marathon. This brought me in for a total time of 4:36:40 and 24^th place overall. This race gave me belief that I could push hard on the bike and still execute a fast run at the Half Ironman distance.

Epic Days that were part of the Process

Sometimes it can be a solo session; sometimes it can be session with friends. Regardless training sometimes brings some of the most enjoyable experiences. Some of the highlights this year have included;

• Taking the road bike up through the snow at Mt Laguna in San Diego with Kevin and Madelene to finish 4 hours worth of climbing to get to about 6000ft from close to sea level
• Flying past people on the Stanley Park seawall at the end of a 3 hour run trying to hit the last 5 minutes at 5km pace.
• My second annual solo "queen stage" up and down Seymour, Grouse, Cypress on the north shore for approx 13000 feet of climbing and 200km of riding.
• Circumnavigating Skaha Lake on foot in a pre Ironman Training Run with Doug, Cam and Rachel
• Getting to help pace parts of the run leg for Wolfgang at Ultraman Canada
• Starting to get some good work down in the pool post Ironman Canada and starting to enjoy my time in the water
  
  

The Plan for 2010

2010 is approaching and the main goal is pretty simple - Get Faster!!!

To do this will mean focusing to working hard consistently day in, day out, improving my technique and trusting the process. In the end I am already enjoying being back training and believe that if I focus on the key things will have a successful and rewarding 2010. I am heading to Australia for the first time in nearly 4 years on New Year's Day for five weeks to visit family and friends. While I am there I will have an opportunity to train in the summer weather and get to do a couple races.

At the moment the main races for the first half of 2010 are;

Cadbury Half Marathon in Hobart, Australia on January the 10th 

Geelong 70.3 in Geelong, Australia on February the 7^th

Ironman Couer'd'Alene in Couer'd'Alene, USA on June the 27th

There will be others in the gaps and the second half no doubt, however Ironman Couer'd'Alene will serve as the A race for the first half of the year. It will also be how I am going to celebrate my 30^thbirthday which falls on race day. This could turn out to be a regrettable decision but I figure most birthday's involve the possibility of passing out, sitting in the gutter etc. So doing an Ironman on my birthday shouldn't be a stretch

The Blog and Twitter – It Has Been Fun.....

........ and will continue to be. 

Firstly before I get into some stats one may ask why blog and tweet. I have never kept a paper journal but I see the blog as something like that but even better. As you get feedback and energy from the online community and end up meeting and interacting with some great people.

From 2009 here are some stats from the blog and my twitter presence;

The Blog
opensourcetriathlon.blogspot.com

• 91 Posts
• 4131 Visits to the blog with an average visit time of 2:02 minutes
• 6271 Page Views
• 993 Unique Visitors
• Visitors from 35 Countries and all 5 continents
• 2647 Visits form the Lower Mainland & Victoria
  

Twitter
twitter.com/jeremyhopwood

• 166 Followers
• 1086 Tweets

Thanks again for everyone's support and looking forward to good times in 2010.

Fall Classic 1/2 Marathon - The Quick and Nasty Race Rpeort

Fall Classic 1/2 Marathon @ UBC - Nov 15th 2009.

5 celsius, wet, raining and windy as heck. Twisty course with total elevation for course 490 Feet)

Think finished 9th overall - Approx time 1:20:20 (dubious about course length (figure was a few 100m long) but oh well).

1:26 faster than last years time.

My Grade for the race = a B. Executed race plan perfectly and felt strong throughout. First 12km felt nice and easy then drove it home to the finish and making up 3 spots in the last 10km. Just lacking a little bit of speed but happy with result and time considering craptacular conditions.

Second half was 6.4% faster than first half (neg split) so maybe took it out a little bit to easy which is a first and means my race pacing is getting better.Needed an extra km or two and think would have been able to run down a few more people.

Calculated 5km splits as follows;
19:30 (3:54 min/km)
19:50 (3:58 min/km)
18:40 (3:44 min/km)
18:40 (3:44 min/km)
Final 1.1 km in 3:40 (3:20 min/km)

Log Out - Shut Down - Go Out

!!!! Scary that there is an element of truth to this !!!!

Ironman Canada 2009 – The Race Report

If My Race was a Movie

"If you have not watched "Dude Where's My Car" more than six times skip this section or go rent the DVD now!!!

I do not have the literary talent to compare my race to a movie ala Jordan Rapp but if I had to choose a movie title for my report it would be "Dude Where's my Run" - As for the full 26.2 miles on the run course I looked for my run mojo just like Jesse and Chester looked for the Continuum Transfunctioner.

Unfortunately for me I never fully found it and although I did see a cheetah, blow up dolls, tigger, superman and the cast from a kodoo commercial on the course (For real!!!). I did embezel about six slices of pizza straight to my stomach in the post race area.

My Race Report in a Few Words

The full race day analysis ala "Science of Sport" for another day with HR data, mile splits and nutrition summary will be saved for another post as put bluntly it is quite boring to write and I am sure it is just as boring to read. So brief qualitative of analysis of the day is located below

• Overall = Good not Great
• Pre Race = Good
• Swim = First 1/2 - Good / Second 1/2 - Blah
• Bike = Very good
• Run = First 6 Mile - Good not Great / Last 20 Mile - Blah to OK and not a disaster

The Main Feature -Ironman Canada - August 30th 2009

Total Time - 10:26:07
143/2602 Overall
125/1866 Male
13/107 M25-29

Race Week

Good lead up -was super relaxed and conserved my energy well. Coming into the race weekend felt ready and fresh for race day. The day before the race just followed my routine and kept relaxed. Had lunch and dinner with friends and grabbed a good nights sleep. There is a lot of hype around IMC and if I am not racing it next year I plan to go enjoy it - however a lot of energy can be wasted but buying into it all pre race and I made sure to spend most of my time in South Penticton and Westbench prior to the race.

Race Morning

After my normal pre race breakfast of eating whatever I feel like on that day I dropped of my special needs, checked my transition bags and loaded my bike with bottles and nutrition before lining up for the washroom during which time I put on my sunscreen and did the other pre race stuff.

Leslie was volunteering at swim exit so got her to zip up my wetsuit and after a quick kiss got in the water and did 3 x 40m as a warm-up. The just tried to zone out as much as possible until soaking in "Oh Canada" and then focused on the day ahead.

3.8km Swim 1:18:45
1596/2602 Overall
1248/1866 Male
86/107 M25-29

Was not to worried about getting beat up so positioned myself middle right on the line and about 5 or so back. Once the gun went started swimming asap as it was more than waist deep and did not see the point in wading like many were. First few 100m was rough but nothing crazy, copped a good few shots to the face but nothing big and just worked on keeping my fingers pointed down and trying to hit a rhythm.

Was pretty much in packs the whole way and just used others for my sighting with the cursory check now and then. Felt I executed the first half of the swim well and was 38 minutes after the about 1950m which had me on track for about 1:14:00. Must have faded in the last 1800m as came out of the water in 1:18:42.

This time was pretty much my C Goal (B was 1:15 and A was 1:10) - It was what is was though so started trucking into T1 as this point and started to focus on the bike. I am going to become a swimmer over the next few months with the aim of being a FOP swimmer by next year so I can start to mix with the cool kids early on the bike.

T1 - Swim to Bike 3:37

520/2602 Overall
352/1866 Male
38/107 M25-29

After getting "stripped" grabbed my bag (Doing pre race jog throughs makes this easy) and got into the tent. Made sure I was methodical and got my bike shoes on well before repacking my bag quickly and exiting the tent. I think I need to drink a little less pre race as once again (As in last year) I needed to use the porta-potty in T1. Once this was done grabbed my bike and began down main street.

Nothing special about T1 and overall pretty happy with process and executed it well.

180km Bike 5:14:54
101/2602 Overall
98/1866 Male
10/107 M25-29

My bike was all about keeping in the zone . After the swim my HR had spiked a little so worked on getting that down while going down main. Had to yell a lot to get a clear path on the left and really only got into aero about 3 or 4km into the course once it was a little bit safer to do so.

Based on my HR data I executed the ride well and spent 98% of time in my zone. The first major test is McLean creek road and spun up this nice and easy pulling back my effort whenever my HR spiked. Knowing the descent helped and I nailed this staying aero for all but one of the corners. I was super cautious around other riders as in IM racing the bike handling skills can be creative at times.

It was then onto Highway 97 and to Osoyoos. Took this section nice and controlled and made a lot of passes through here before hitting the base of Richter. It was then past the husky and up the hill. Looking at the flag the wind was non existent and at this point I thought it could be a fast day on the bike. Did not spike my HR at all on the climb up Richter and just focused on executing my nutrition and hydration.

Once I hit the summit of Richter just focused on getting as aero as possible for the descent and felt I nailed it. Overtook a lot of people and maxed out around 80km/h through this section. Then hit the rollers and my tactic was to keep the effort as smooth as possible. Felt I did this well even into the 20km/h headwind that had sprung up.

Through the out and back just tried to keep on concentrating and keeping an equal effort and before I knew it was at the base of yellow lake where my support crew was at. Hardest part about yellow lake was keeping my effort low as the crowds out supporting give you a shot of adrenaline which can cause you to work too hard.

After spinning up Yellow had to work all the way to T2 due to the head wind. Once again nailed the descent and overtook quite a few people although had got closer to the front of the field at this stage and the course had thinned out a bit.

My Goal on the bike was to keep it in zone and definitely achieved this and based on my bike time relative to the field would have to give it a "A"

T2 - Bike to Run 1:38
13/2602 Overall
10/1866 Male
3/107 M25-29

Doing jog throughs on transition check in day always helps. Pretty much started unpacking my bag as a ran to the tent and got out of there quickly. Not much else to say although pretty cool that of the people I train with we had 4 of the top 17 T2 times.

42.2km Run 3:47:15
150/2602 Overall
127/1866 Male
14/107 M25-29

Came out of T2 and the legs felt ok but not great. Set into a rhythm coming out of town and was holding 7:37 Mile pace through the first 5 miles. Then I hit my first decent uphill and started on the verge of cramping. This continued to be the theme of the day where could run well on the flats and downhills but had no mojo going uphill and really had to condense my stride. Was hoping it would come clear but alas it was not to be.

It then turned into a 20 mile interval workout where I would push the flats and downhills and drag myself up the hills. Saw lots of carnage out on the run and saw a lot of people toughing it out. Hit OK Falls and halfway at about 1:49:30. Uphills out of OK falls where a struggle more due to a leg wanting to cramp rather than effort which makes me think my run struggles were due to a lack of core strength rather than pushing the bike to hard or a lack of run fitness.

Kept working on the way into town and made sure to yell support when I saw people I knew. Ran the whole way in except walking at every 2nd aid station or so. Once I hit the peak of main started the run into town and this is where it gets interesting.

With 1 mile to go somebody came up on my shoulder and my thought process was as follows "please don't be in my age group". Looked down and saw 28 on the calf so had to get into race mode. Re overtook so I had the inside line on the corners to Lakeside then put in a mini surge just as I was passing a couple friends cheering. This didn't change the situation so eased back until the aid station before the turnaround and put in a bigger effort. Did not dare look back but at the turnaround I had put a gap of about 30m on the guy. From this point on its just 600m so just worked as hard as I could, passed one other guy in my age group with about 400m to go and just gave it from his point on. Looked back with 75m to go and had a 125m gap so was able to enjoy the finish.

Not happy with my run time but happy with how I toughed it out for a 3:47:15 run and made two age group spots up in the last mile . In the end the run goal would be put down as a C Goal achieved as I did not totally blow up however I did not achieve my target time of 3:20 (A Goal) and 3:35 (B Goal).

The Finish and Overall

Had some fun in the chute with a few high fives and had the energy to hurdle the finishing banner. Thinking to celebrate IM CDA I am going to limbo the banner if I am not in a race down the chute - this may take a bit of practice during the Christmas party season :) This year I would give my finish celebration a B Plus - looking for an A come next year!!!!

Overall this race achieved my B Goal of 10:30. A perfect day would have seen me go sub 10 hours (A goal) and my C goal was sub 11 hours.

Post race

Post race after a quick visit to medical and some Gatorade knocked back 6 pieces of pizza. It was then home to clean up, have a beer and then go out for a steak dinner and a couple margaritas before heading back to see the last 30 minutes at the finish. To me this is one of the best parts of the day where you are still on an adrenaline high and can share in others achieving their goals.

If you are every at or racing and Ironman try to make the effort to get back for that last 30 minutes.

Jer vs Pro

Here are my times in comparison to the winner Jordan Rapp

Overall
8:25:13 (Jordan) vs 10:26:07 (Jeremy)
23% slower

Swim
51:20 (Jordan) vs 1:18:45 (Jeremy)
53% slower

T1
1:42 (Jordan) vs 2:09 (Jeremy)
103% slower

Bike
4:34:47 (Jordan) vs 5:14:54 (Jeremy) 15% slower

T2
1:05 (Jordan) vs 1:38 (Jeremy) 9% Faster

Run
2:55:33 (Jordan) vs 3:47:15 (Jeremy) 29% slower

The Self Interview

Have reflected a little bit this week on the day and trying to piece together what my thoughts are post race. So here goes a few of the questions others have asked and I have asked myself;

Question 1 - Are you Happy with the Result?

This is tougher to answer than most people may think. The race was a PB over the distance by 1 hour and 1 minute and I improved my times in all three disciplines. Having said that all that I am not content with the result and I will be using the day as motivation over the winter and into next year where I plan to use what I learned from race day and the process to improve my execution and results in 2010.

Aside the above thoughts I was happy with the day and how I worked through the race and most importantly I had a lot of fun out there. This was the first step in a multi year process to get fast and achieve some good results and there are enough positive aspects for me to be confident that will happen.

Question 2 - What would you have done different?

Still trying to work this one out - are thinking maybe a little bit more hill running and a lot more swimming. Also think the stronger I can make my core the less likely I am to have leg issues on the run. My core is a lot stronger than 12 months ago but there is still room for huge improvement.

Question 3 - You are Australian - shouldn't you know how to swim?

If I had a dollar for every time that has been asked. Through a few chats and reflection over the past 6 weeks or so I have decided that I am going to become a swimmer and not just someone who views it as a stepping stone to T1. For 2010 my aim is to be a FOP swimmer and are looking forward to a lot of technique work and miles in the pool over the coming few months and rocking the swim in 2010.

Question 4 - You going to do this again?

Heck yeah - looking forward to starting training again and my main race at the moment is Ironman Coure'd'Alene which falls on my 30th Birthday. Also thinking of trying to get a race in back in Oz and the Geelong 70.3 could be a candidate but still need to work that one out.

More to Come

I am sorry but still have more to post on IMC 2009. Are cutting the many photos and video form the day for a short youtube production (Less than 5 minutes is my target) and will do a technical post with HR, splits, nutrition, gear review/summary and tips from Jer for those doing IMC in years to come.

All of these will be posted by the contest draw (Sept 15th) as mentioned below.

Enter the Contest!!!!

Congrats - you made it this far!!!!!!

Please feel free to leave comments, challenges, dares or the location of treasure in the comments section. I am going to select the best 5 comments in my humble opinion (If I get that many :) ) and undertake a random draw that will be videotaped and may or may not include tequila (If you have a really good idea for the method of prize draw this may get you in the Top 5!!!)

To thank all those who read my blog and have sent me messages of support during the year I am offering for the winner I will purchase a 12 month digital subscription to Triathlete Magazine. Flame away!!!

Contest closes on September 14th 2009 and I will announce the winner on the blog.

If a Picture Said a Thousand Words

It would tell you a lot of other things about my race at Ironman Canada - Race Report which includes photos & videos will be coming soon. However for now this will need to suffice.

Not a great day out there but a good day none the less and a lot learned for the coming 24 months.

Thanks all for the support and look forward to IMC 2009 - The Full story coming soon to a good computer near you soon.

Giddy Up - Its Go Time. IMC Pre Race Thoughts

I sit here typing away at Smith and Co in Penticton. The last fewdays have been great as I have been able to get acclimitised to the weather and gradually ease into what is Ironman Canada week in Penticton.

Training has all been maintanence in the lead up with no more than an hour per day since Tuesday and I have been focussing on getting as much sleep as possible (Avg about 10 to 11 hours a day) and keeping as "chilled as possible. Only today am I starting to get amp'd up for the race which is a good thing, I will try and chill again this afternoon then focus on the last 36 h of prep and rest prioir to go time.

Part of racing is amking sure you have A, B, C and so forth plans. So as I approach race day I am trying to ensure I have all of these thoughts clear in my head so I am ready for both the good and bad possibilities. Rather than ignore the possibilities of things going bad I like to visualise my plan so if it does happen I just have to execute the plan on race day.

Key Thought for the Race

"Respect the Zone"

My key thought for the race is to respect my zone - anytime I lose on the bike by staying in my effort zone as much as possible will be rewarded with interest on the run. Coming on to the run it is a similar gain - part trying to hold my target pace while monitoring what my effort level is. Essentially i want to red zone the last 5km of the run and if I can do that it means that my day has gone well.

Predictions

Super reluctant to do this as this is the IM distance and there are so many variables so I am not going to through to much out there. Needless to day my main aim for the day is to go fast but controlled. This means exiting the swim around 1:15 and hopefully being of the bike at around the 6:20 to 6:45 mark depending on winds, heat etc. Then it goes to the run whihc is the key variable - hopefully by respecting the bike and my energy output and nailing my nutrition I can have a good run and hold a good pace and cadence. I am looking at the run as a tough progression run where I will gradually build the pace (or hold on) in the second half if everything has gone well.

So I am not going to throw out a finsh time prediction that is specific except will hopefully be somether around 5pm give or take half an hour.

Time to Go Chill

Thats it for now - Thanks to all for the messages of support and are looking forward to enjoying the day on Sunday and having fun while at the same time digging deep and pushing to the limit. Afternoon nap is on the agenda today as well as keeping fuelled and hydrated for the day. Will get all my bags finalised today as well so tommorow is just a quick visiit to Transition to drop off my gear and do a T1 and T2 walkthrough.

good Times all and my next post will likely be on the flipside after the carnage!!!!

Thanks All - Ironman Canada is Nearly Here and Could Not Have Got Here Without You!

Hey All

It is nearly go time for 2009 and Ironman Canada on August 30th in Penticton, BC. I come to the start line healthy and ready to put down the gauntlet and have a good race and that would not be without the support, assistance and help of all of you. Being Ironman race day can bring anything and my number one aim will be to have fun out there followed by the mantra of no regrets. I really want to lay it all down on the line come race day (In a controlled manner of course) and look to execute my plan as best I can.

The main purpose of this note is to say thanks to all those whose have helped along the way thus far in 2009 and at the risk of missing people and leaving people out I wanted to send some specific thanks;

Family

Les - Thanks as always for your support in these crazy schemes and one of my goals for 2009/2010 will be to do more dishes (I hate dishes but I figure everyone must)

Mum and Dad - Thanks as always for the support. Still wish I had been forced to go to swim lessons every day as a kid but the exposure to sports of all different types and the 4km runs to the railway tracks and back on flaxmill road with the hill gave me a taste for going fast and running distance as a kid. Race day will just be 10 of those runs :)

To my BC Family - Thanks for all the support, the digs to crash at in penticton and all the support. Hoping to see everyone before or after race day who is up here.

Sponsors

Forerunners and Newton - Thanks for the support thus far this year. For Forerunners it is an awesome store and everyone is super friendly and genuinely interested in how things are going whenever I am in. looking forward to the Fall Clinics and the pizza and beer at double D's post workout.

If you need shoes, clothes, nutrition etc I can not recommend the crew at forerunners highly enough. Also for those of you running in the fall come out to the Wednesday Night clinic - its fun and you will get to look at me shuffle through my first run post IMC on Sep 9th :) - Visit them at Forerunners.ca or on west 4th in Kits.

From a shoes perspective have been really happy with my Newtons for the past year and love the shoes to train and race in. Looking forward to the new models coming out in Fall 2009 and 2010. My feet are definitely a lot less beat up this year and a lot of that comes down to having shoes that just work.

Jerry - Thanks for all the help with the run program this year - have learned a lot and it has worked well thus far. Wasn't thanking you when running the last 10 minutes of a 3 hour progression run but I figure that's to be expected!!

To the Local Businesses in Kits I Use

A huge thanks to Dr Carla Cupido - I have had a couple small injuries this year and she has rocked with treatment and rehab and I am really luck to have access to you as a my Chiropractor and will definitely be in there post IMC.

Thanks to Jeremy, Doug and the rest of the crew at Speed Theory for keeping the Orbea in good nick and advice on the bike related side.

Those I have Trained with this Year

There is a lot of people I have swim, bike, run with this year (Too many to mention names without missing somebody). I have learned a lot from each and everyone of you and hope to bring those pieces of info and inspiration to race day. The best part about the whole training process is you get to train with, hang out with and meet a whole group of interesting people. Add to this some fun stories including Tin Man, Turkey No Mayo, riding through snow at 5500 feet in San Diego or rain on 0 Avenue its been another fun journey and I look forward to sharing some of the winter suffering as well.

To my Non Tri Friends

I can assure you I am not a reverse Vampire who is scared of the night!!! Thanks for putting up with me missing my birthday party - photos were great though (I was truly sick!!!) me drinking water at the bar and various other absences. Looking forward to your support come race day and catching up Sunday night and on Monday - don;t indulge in too much wine on Saturday otherwise Sunday could be a long day. As a reward i think I will sign you all up for Sun Run in 2010 to see who is the fastest over 10k

To the Online World

To those who read my blog, follow me on twitter etc etc. Thanks for all the support and the inspiration I get form reading about your endeavours.Keep on blogging and tweeting and say hi if you see me around town in the next few days.

Follow me on Race Day

If you are interested my number is #261 and updates with splits will be on Ironman.com - follow the link to Canada. My twitter account will also be getting updated at http://twitter.com/jeremyhopwood and my post race report will be on my blog at http://opensourcetriathlon.blogspot.com/

That's it For Now

For those racing on Sunday - Rock It, Have Fun, Keep Smiling and remember that its going to be an awesome feeling running down lakeside. For all those out volunteering and cheering thanks and have a fun day.

Jeremy

Taper = Sleep

So easy to fill up taper with all the non training things on your to do list. While I am still trying to knock of a few my sleep is now officially becoming sacred and instead of posting a highly insightful blog post about how I feel, what bacon tastes like or the fact pilates was designed for the Canadian Military I am going to head to bed and catch 10 hours worth of zzzz's

I leave you however with a slideshow of my last long run of the the Ironman build which included a 1 hour 33 minute warm-up at 4:59 min per km pace followed by a 1 hour 27 minute progression run which averaged at 4:30 min km. This made for a total distance of 38km in 3 hours of which I have recovered really well whihc is a good sign for IMC.

For those of you not lucky enough to have been to vancouver its a sweet place to live and the seawall run is something special so I shared the day with many others out exercising and did my interval work around Stanley park.

Enjoy the photos (FYI I do not slow down to take photos so what you get is what you get)

Respect Not Fear

So It is now 12 days or so from the A Race of my year. So as I now enter Taper mode one thoughts go to race day and thinking what one is capable of. I tend to like to have a focus statement/mantra in my head for the key events and for Ironman Canada at the moment it is;

"Respect Not Fear"

This will likely change before race day but at the moment it sums up what I am thinking.

"Respect"

I need to respect the distance and be clear in the understanding that the day is going to hurt and it is not going to go exactly to plan. Things that I don't want to could happen but I just need to respect that possibility and have a plan for these eventualities (I.e Flat on the bike, nutrition issues etc etc)

"Not Fear"

While having respect for the race and the distance I will "Not Fear" it. What this means is that I will be mentally ready for things to go right as well as wrong. Also it means to "attack" the race and execute my plan and push when I need to push while "Not Fearing" the potential things that could happen

More posts to come as I near taper including a couple looking back at some of the fun times I have had training as part of this build.

Taper Activities - Help Needed - You Tube Videos Wanted

Not into taper quite yet, but figured should get some material together. One of the great activites on a friday Night in the house is watching you tube videos. In fact I am going to have a youtube party post IMC but that is another story.

Anyway, leave the youtube link to any inspirational, funny, triathlon, swimming, cycling, running in the comments section. To start this of I have included a few videos that may be of interest.

Armstrong Short Cut

Armstrong showing awesome downhill skills



Performance

This is hitting thew forum's as we speak and Lance's tweet on this has caused a you tube explosion.



Julie Moss

One of the big things that made Kona famous



The Crawl

Unbeleivable that this fight wasn't even for the win.




I Can

Another Ironman vid from Kona



Great Aussie Sporting Moments

Remember were I was for most of these. especially jumping around my living room for Bradbury in the speed skating and a nightclub in Mount Gambier when we beat the South Africans in the cricket. Should be good inspirational material.




Hy-Vee Triathlon Finish

Whitfield wins 200k this year.



JD Does a Triathlon - Scrubs



Graeme Obree Documentary

A documentary on the flying scotsman. Long watch but worth it

















Ghosting - Hamish and Andy

A new sport to take up



Boom Goes the Dynamite

How Flexible are you?

So this weekend being 5 weeks out tested my "flexibility".

• Friday Night I got in a great run session which totaled 90 mins trails and 90 mins of interval work (58 Min Hard Running). Normally after this it would be home to bed but decided to catch the end of a ball game and socialize with the non - tri crew who is coming up to drink and support me in Penticton. Made the decision this would be my last special occasion night and had a couple of beers and a few rums. Also watched the hangover and did some cross training while playing the Wii.
  
• Saturday I just took easy. Has been a hard couple weeks of training and work and rather than run myself into the ground caught up on sleep and some chores and then went for a 7km run to grab the car from where I had left it last night so I could have a few beers at the ball game. That night had to do some work for a release and after a couple hours online finished up some of my home office setup and set the alarm for an early wake up.
• Sunday 5:00am alarm goes :( plan was a couple hours of work max and then hit the road for a ride then a swim. Plans don't always shake out :(. 5am became 7am which became 9am and finally at about 1pm I was free. This is where flexibility comes in -definitely wanted to swim so got in 5 x 550m at Kits pool which was book ended by 1.5km runs. I then got on the bike a rode to the bbq for a group of friends, luckily they are from the tri world so they understood me turning up in Lycra. Chilled around that eating BBQ for a couple hours and then did a short 50km Hard ride before returning to the BBQ wrap up.
  

So all in all hit most of my objectives for the weekend. Are going to crash early and set out on a 5am ride to get the rest of the weekend bike mileage in that I had planned. In the end will have swum about 3km, Ran about 45km and biked about 160km (If I get in 100km in the am). Can't complain with that especially considering I also worked 11 hours, caught up on sleep, caught up with two groups of friends and organized the office.

Is there a lesson in this - not really. However the fact that most of us have lives with conflicting priorities at times it is still get stuff down if you have an upbeat flexible approach. I could have moped about because things didn't go as planned but instead rolled with it had some variety in my weekend and achieved my objectives.

Feeling nice and fresh now for a 4 to day training camp in Penticton beginning on Thursday. Will look to adjust my schedule a little to allow for a quality weekend.

Chores to do and sleep to be had - stay flexible out there!!!

5 Weeks to Go Time - IMC Awaits

A short post on the next 5 weeks. At the moment are a mixture of excited, nervous and ready for IMC. From a training perspective swim is slowly improving, have had some really good weekends on the bike and run is feeling strong although I suppose I will not know until race day.

Have gone through some big sessions that will prepare me well for race day and the focus for the next few weeks will be dialing in my nutrition. This coming week are heading to Penticton for 5 days and plan will be a mix of all 3 disciplines with a Race Day Simulation on the bike.

Some specifics on the last big workout for each discipline;

Swim - 10 x 550m at race pace (40 Laps of Kits Pool)
Bike - IMC Course Race Simulation
Run - 90 minutes easy + 90 minute progression run (45 minutes at marathon pace - 20 minutes :10 to :15/km faster than marathon pace - 10 minutes progressing gradually from threshold to 5k pace)

These above workouts will give me an idea of where my fitness is at and target times. From a racing strategy the following is the approach I will take into these workouts and hence race day;

• I will be looking to focus on technique in the swim
• Maintaining my target HR range on the bike using course time checks as a secondary indicator
• Focusing on form and cadence on the run and using any spikes or drops in HR as a warning indicator. Achieving my potential on the run is going to be about pushing hard but not hard a using the pain as energy.

That is the quick thoughts for today. Looking forward to the next few weeks and formulating the final race plan for IMC

Video Post of Epic Ride in Penticton

traditional Blog Post of this ride is located at


http://opensourcetriathlon.blogspot.com/2009/07/epic-riding-day-in-penticton.html

If you understand this behind accent and wind congratulations

Epic Riding Day in penticton!!!

Ok for something new a video post - Post Ride Re-Cap. For those Who can't be bothered watching a Vid, can't understand my accent, was too much background in the video a summary is below.

But wait...my video will nto upload to a slow connection so will post that as soon as I can get it on youtube!!!! Text Version of the report below.

So the objective of today's ride was to get some exposure to the Okanagon heat, stay away from the IMC course as much as possible, explore some new territory and climb as much as possible.

We are staying at the Lost Moose Lodge overlooking penticton and decended down to the town. head out along the IMc course and down McClean Creek Road as wanted to practice the decent whihc is not technical but has a few bloindish corners which are hard to attack if you do not have the confidence.

From tehre it was through OK Falls up Green Mountain Road to Whitelake Road and past the observatory. The scenery up here was very unique with a desert landscape and temperatures touched around 42 degrees in the open sun off the taramc according to my watch.

Hit up twin lakes golf course for a turkey bun and more gatorade before decending down from twin lakes towards keremeos and picking up Green Mountain Raod again toward APEX and down through the Indian Band Lands to Penticton.

At this point had covered about 105km in 4 hours and was only 7.75km from the campsite. Only issue those 7.75 km where up a 7.5% Average grade with multiple switch backs and sections definetely exceeding 10%. Pretty sure I bonked half way up and ran out of liquid making the last 4km and absolute brute. Did not break any records on this ascent and averaged around 8km/h (Lol). Dragged myself into camp rehydrated and looked at the crazy amount of salt caked on my jersey :) More sodium next time out.

In the end an epic ride where I had to push myself as was out solo and climbed around 600o feet over 110 or so km.

Total ride time was around 5 hours and average HR held at 146 (72% of MAx). Spent lots of time in zone, lots of time climbing, saw some new territory and had fun. Once agains proves that the best riding in Penticton is off the IMC course (did not get buzzed once by truck, camper etc!!!)

Nutrition summary was a lara bar, cliff bar, turkey bun with mustard, 2 Gatorade, 2 Powerade, 2 Water. Deifnetely needed more fluids and salt in retrospect but oh well....live and learn. Also if it is smoking on race day aero helmet may be left at home....was hot even under my cat like...whished I'd spent the extra $100 for the whisperlite.

I met pain and fatigue today and survived!!! Tommorow's agenda is long run, maybe one repeat up the hill then lunch with Family before a country wedding and reception. Sunday will be a long ride with the kiwis. Hoepfully I can sneak in a couple swims as well.

Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon - Half Iron Race Report

No real theme to to this race report. It was fun to race on home turf and in front of so much local support. Thanks all and the final stretch to IMC and beyond has now begun. The next few months have a bit of this in order....

Pain, Fatigue meet Jeremy

!!!!I believe you have met before but I sense you are going to become really good friends!!!!

Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon - Half Iron Race Report

Total Time - 4:38:47

23/211 Overall
19/147 Male
2/12 M25-29

The Lead In

So the Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon was a B Race on my calender and as a result although I did not give it on the bike the day before like Oliver, I did partake in a long run with an interval finish on the Thursday prior to the race so was feeling a little bit tired but more the normal feeling associated with training load.

In the days before the race I had a good shakeout swim on the Friday along with a shakeout ride on the Saturday. A big brunch at the cannery followed by some home style Mexican on race evening had me fueled up for Sunday.

Race Morning

After about 5 and half hours sleep the alarm went at 3:40am and I awoke to some home made espresso, toast and Vegemite and a little bit of the TDF preview show. The race site for the Half was about 3km from my house so after a short drive I parked and arrived at Transition about 1 hour 20 minutes before race start and proceeded to set up transtion.

Transition set up went smmothly and after a coule last minute things headed down to the swim start and did about a 100m warmup. As the race was being taped for TV this was a beach start which suits me to be honest and the gun went.

1.9km Swim 40:04
131/211 Overall
93/147 Male
6/12 M25-29

Although I had a slow swim I though I focussed well and kept working through out the swim. To increase speed will be down to technique improvements which is a focus before IMC. The first buoy was definetely one of the roughest I have been involved in and I felt a little bit lost between the 1st and second buoys.

Coming back in a felt like I was getting pushed a little to the right. After a beach exit my first lap time was 19:26. The second lap I thought I swam well and worked with another guy for the duration and was able to recover on feet for quite a bit. In the end my time was 20:38 for the second lap. It seems that most of the fields second lap was slightly longer due to the location of the start vs the beach exit.

Swim was definetely slower than target however I feel if I can do the technique work required should be able to get some key improvements for the rest of this season. It seems swim times were a little slower around the board here so are happy with how I worked the swim even though still not happy about giving up 7 to 9 minutes to most of my competition.

T1 - 2:09
34/211 Overall
21/147 Male
2/12 M25-29

T1 involved a sand run across the beach. Unfortunately most of this was "matted" as I would have been up for a early test of leg strength. I picked up 14 spots in T1 and although it wasn't super quick it was methodical and I was on to the bike course.

91km Bike - 2:33:50 (Avg 35.5km/h)
25/211 Overall
21/147 Male
2/12 M25-29

The biggest disadvantage about having a sub standard swim is that the bike leg is effectively and Individual Time Trial for myself with no one to really guage my effort off as I tend to be significantly faster than the people in front of me and do not have much pressure from behind.

For this ride I aimed to keep my heart rate just below red line for as much as possible. All in all I was happy with my ride, I know my workrate slackenned off in a couple sections but managed to pace the ride pretty even through out the four laps.

All in all I hit my target for this leg and although it looks like my Heart Rate dropped a little bit throughout the leg meaning I left a couple minutes on the course I was very happy with the bike. Add to this no mechanical issues and life was good.

T1 - 0:53
9/211 Overall
8/147 Male
1/12 M25-29

Went real smooth, had a slight hiccup in identifying my exact racking spot but only lost about a second due to hesitation. Also re racked bike to leave my neighbors enough room. My transition approach for bike to run seems to be working well so no need to change just perfect a couple of the small things.

20km Run - 1:21:51 (Avg 4:06 min per km)
13/211 Overall
11/147 Male
1/12 M25-29

Coming on to the run I figured I had about a 10 minutes to make up on Nick Gottfried who was running near the front in my age group. This being a b race I wanted to see what going out at open half marathon pace would be like and give the catch a chance. Nick's run at Victoria was pretty strong so I figured would have to nail the run to have a chance of a catch along with a bit of bad luck on Nicks side.

Out of the blocks I hit a 4 minute km at which point the bike for the lead male was approaching. I figured this was my best chance to push myself hard and see what pushing a hard pace on the run was like. Jordan Rapp had smoked the bike course and was in the lead so I just tried to pick up my pace to maintain the gap I had on him (Note I am 1 lap down). I was able to do this through the trails of Jericho and through about the 6km part of the run. At this point I felt my heart rate was beginning to spike a little bit (data corroborates) too much and decided to turn the pace down a notch at which time Jordan Rapp ran away to his victory in a smoking time of 3:53:17

From km's 6 to 10 I just tried to find a rythm and pick targets on the out and back. With 10km to go its essentially just a matter of continuing to work, around the 12km mark I passed Tony Buckingham and was holding 4:10 min km's. In the end I made a couple other passes and managed to hold off Cheryl Murphy over the last couple of km's who was charging through the womens field.

Splits for the run are in the data section of report, but in all was happy with my run. I did not negative split after my "attacking start" which covered 5km in 18 minutes. However it was a risk I needed to take make up places and I was happy how I was able to recover after having red lined early in the run. From a time lost perspective I do not think it cost me more than 1 minute in the overall scheme of things.

The run definetely was a hot one and I was happy with how I kept my core temperature down and kept hydrated. Having said this I may be tempted to go wioth a visor over a cap in future races but are still undecided (I could do a post on the pro's and cons as I see them)

I continued my record of not being passed on the run and in the end I had the 2nd Fastest Age Grouper run split on the day. My run is feeling good and considering I had my hardest run workout of the year 3 days prior are confident going into IMC I can put on a good show.

A Podium Finish and Key Highlights

• Quickly met a couple people form the blog world - Meyrick and Erin
• So my efforts today got me 2nd in the M25-29 Age Group finishing 4 minutes 38 behind the category winner Nick Gottfried.
• 13th Fastest Run Split and 2nd Fastest Age Grouper Run Split.
• 14th Fastest Bike/Run (4th in the age groupers) - !!!!!Swim Focus Needed!!!!!
  
• Bike under pre race target time
• Post Race BBQ ..... mmmm BBQ!!!!!
  

Goal Review

I hit my C Goal in terms of time for this race but given the comparative times of others at the race I am upgrading my result to a B.

The key thing that jumps out as always is the need to improve my swim while I think my bike is where it needs to be at for Ironman although a few weeks of intensity work will help push up that threshold. From a run perspective looking at the avg times across the fields I would have to say my goal was achieved and I learned a lot about how I can recover mid race.

Joe vs Pro Time

So today my times are compared against Jordan Rapp who absolutely destroyed the course record.

Overall
3:53:17 (Jordan) vs 4:38:47 (Jeremy)
19% slower

Swim
26:15 (Jordan) vs 40:04 (Jeremy) 52% slower

T1
1:42 (Jordan) vs 2:09 (Jeremy) 26% slower

Bike
2:13:03 (Jordan) vs 2:33:50 (Jeremy) 16% slower

T2
1:05 (Jordan) vs 0:53 (Jeremy) 18% Faster

Run
1:11:15 (Jordan) vs 1:21:51 (Jeremy) 15% slower

Shout Outs

• To Leslie for coming out and supporting as always
  
• To my Sponsors Foreunners and Newton.
  
• Harry once again took out his age group and was the third age grouper across the line in 4:30:12
• Vincent Lavalle who came second in his age group with a time of 4:32:52
• Rachel Kiers who backed up from 5th at IM CDA three weeks ago to come 6th Female in a time of 4:40:18
  
• Tony Buckingham came thrid in his age group with a time of 4:41:23 and won the draw prize - a trip to go watch Kona!!!!
• Andrew Powell who had a time of 5:21:38
  
• Paul Walker made his Half Iron debut with a time of 5:49:2 - Congrats
• Erin Lee broke her target time of 6 hours with a time of 5:53:35. was good to finally "meet" on the run course
• Jared who hit all his training goals for the race by staying in "Zone"
• Amy & Cyrus who were part of the winning mixed relay team.
  
• Calvin Gehlen and Jenny Cheung who raced up in the Desert Half in Oysoos. Looks like it may have been hot and windy up there.
  
• Meyrick Jones - Was good to finally meet face to face
• To all those in the Twitter/Email world who sent messages of support along with those out at the race who cheered me on.
• Everybody who dropeed by the impromptu post race/pre award bbq.
• To all the volunteers including Barb, Gerry Mike and Doug from Speed Theory (Who spent his whole weekend volunteering)
• Murray form Speed Theory who tweaked my drive train on Saturday
  
• Jerry Ziak from Foreunners who has been helping me with my running - I promise I will not over analyze my run splits
• Thanks to all those who follow my blog, twitter, paper notes left on the side of the road. One of the cool things about tri is the sense of community and I hope my blog helps add to that.
  

I don't want to but I will write this note

Unfortunately there seemed to be a lot of littering on the bike course today with bottles, gel wrappers etc everywhere. Bottles I can understand if they launch but there is no excuse for gel wrappers and the like. If we want races in Vancouver it is up to athletes to keep the course clean.

Drafting - I am shocked that there were a sum total of ............. ZERO drafting penalties today. I saw and passed a couple of loosely formed pace lines today especially down marine and chancellor. I would rather see some people get hit with a drafting penalties that could be "considered harsh" in a zero tolerance model rather than this warning approach. If you need to warn somebody hit them with a 4 minute penalty end of story. The winds were up a little on marine today and there would have definitely been benefit for those sucking wheels.

Data Summary

Overall Bike/Run Heart Rate

Avg Hr = 170 (83% of Max)
Max HR = 191 (94% of Max)

Swim

Lap 1 = 19:26 (2:03 per 100m)
Lap 2 = 20:38 (2:10 per 100m)

Bike

Lap 1 - 24km Including Out - 39:42 (Avg 36.27 km/h)
Lap 2 - 21.5km - 36:36 (Avg 35.25km/h)
Lap 3 - 21.5km - 36:32 (Avg 35.31km/h)
Lap4 - 24km Including In (Avg 35.12km/h)

Avg Hr = 164 (80% of Max)
Max HR = 185 (91% of Max)

Run

Lap 1 (4.7 km) - 17:11 (3:36 min/km)
Lap 2 (5.3km) - 22:40 (4:17 min/km)
Lap 3 (4.7 km) - 19:54 (4:14 min/km)
Lap 4 (5.3 km) - 22:06 (4:10 min/km)

Avg Hr = 178 (87% of Max)
Max HR = 191 (94% of Max)

Splits (per km)

3:58, 4:00, 3:30, 3:42. 3:41, 4:20, 4:22, 4:22, 4:20, 4:23
4:28, 4:21, 4:24, 4:15, 4:15, 4:18, 4:20, 3:40, 3:40, 3:40