Joel Filliol

It's a relatively simple formula

2012-01-28T18:04:00.001Z

The Problem & The Solution

The U.S. is very much an instant-gratification culture where the best talent is often burnt out at a young age, he says. Talent isn't so much nurtured and developed as it's exploited, marketed and capitalized upon. The values of sport have given way to those of entertainment. Coaches aren't rewarded so much for teaching or nurturing talent, but rather for more wins than losses or riding the coattails of genetically gifted individuals who survive the training they're subjected to, rather than being developed to their full potential.

"It's a relatively simple formula," says Snell. "Develop endurance as early as possible. Developing endurance is difficult and time consuming. Developing speed is a relatively short process with a fairly strong genetic component."

- excerpt and then quote from a Running Times feature on Peter Snell, the Kiwi 800/1,500 Olympic gold medallist, who 50 years ago today lowered the world record to 3:54.4 in the mile thanks to running 100 plus mile weeks and 22 mile long runs. A great read, particularly page 4 which slams the US college coaches for only recruiting, not developing talent.

This was the QOTD from LetsRun.com.

The first part of the quote above is particularly relevant in the age of olympic funding which is driven by performance outcomes now, with little emphasis on appropriate athletic development over the long term.

The second part, developing endurance, in my experience rarely happens with young athletes. The emphasis is all about being fast in the short term, vs getting progressively stronger and better conditioned over time.

There are many gems from this article:

"I came to the conclusion that it was all about the conditioning,"

"long runs were beneficial because they caused the adaptation (training) of both slow-and fast-twitch fibers"

"Another valuable lesson Snell learned from Lydiard was that training, like science, takes time to get results; adaptation isn't an instant process. "

"Lydiard gave his athletes valuable advice on patience and peaking, telling them not to worry about results in the buildup phase of their training, that the real rewards would come in the spring and summer track season."

"Another thing Lydiard discovered was that high-intensity training was something one had to use sparingly and judiciously because it could as easily break down an athlete as build one to a peak. "

"Just because it's published or comes from an authoritative source doesn't make it gospel, he learned. You have to see if it works for you, Snell says; that's the essence of the training process. Science doesn't lead in this process, Snell adds, it follows. "

"But as Snell looks back on his experience, as well as the training and racing patterns of others, he concludes, "It's quite possible that the majority of top level athletes are overtrained." The drive for success, winning, that motivates top athletes and coaches plays into this potentially counterproductive behavior"

"Champions are everywhere, all you have to do is train them properly" A. Lydiard

The Top 20 Rules for Faster Triathlon Swimming

2012-01-05T17:17:00.002Z

The previously* most popular post on this blog was a 2007 post on swimming, which is mainly a link to another blog post from The Triathlon Book. Over on ST there has been a lot of chatter about swimming for triathletes. And Rappstar, Paulo and Coach Daz amongst others have weighed in on the topic.

Without further ado here is an update to my brief 2007 post:

The Top 20 Rules for Faster Triathlon Swimming

1. Conditioning trumps drills. Technique matters, but the way most athletes try to improve technique doesn't work. Get fitter, and your ability to hold good technique improves. It takes a lot of work to develop aerobic conditioning in your upper body. If you think you are already swimming a lot but are not improving, swim more and keep at it. There are no shortcuts.

2. Traditional drills don't work. The type of drills and the way that most triathletes do them don't actually have any material effect on swimming technique.

3. Swim more often. Frequency is the best way to improve your swimming. Also see rule #4

4. Do longer main sets. You can't expect to swim fast and be fresh on the bike if you rarely do main sets with the same or higher volume and pace than you expect in the race. For short course these should be at least 2km, for IM 4km, or more. And that looks like 20-50x100, not many short broken sets adding up to 2-5km.

5. Don't over think it. Don't under think it. Be engaged with what you are doing in the water, and use tools to help get a better feel for the water. But don't over think every stroke, and suffer from paralysis by analysis. Swimming fast is about rhythm and flow, when good technique becomes automatic.

6. Increased swim fitness translates to the bike and run. Being able to swim harder, starting the bike both fresher and with faster riders is how that works.

7. Deep swim fitness allows you to swim on the rivet. See rule #6. Most triathletes don't know how to really swim hard for the duration.

8. Include some quality in every swim. If you are swimming less than 5x per week, having easy swims is a waste of time. Always include quality, from band, to paddles, to sprints, in every swim.

9. Don't count strokes. See rule #2. The objective is to get faster, not take fewer strokes.

10. Learn now to use your kick but don't spend a lot of time with kick sets. Kicking is about stroke control and body position, not propulsion for triathlon. Kick fitness doesn't matter.

11. Use a band frequently. The best swimming drill there is. Do short reps with lots of rest at first. Both propulsion and body position will improve.

12. Use paddles with awareness of engaging lats. Paddles are primarily a technical tool to take more strokes with better mechanics, the result of which is learning how to use your prime swimming movers: your lats.

13. Keep head low on breathing and in open water. Head down, feet up. It's a common body position error.

14. Do many short repetitions for stroke quality. It takes fitness to swim with good technique for long durations. Start shorter, and swim faster. 50x50 works wonders. Don't have time to do a 2500m main set? Drop the warm up and warm down.

15. Learn to swim with a higher stroke rate. This takes conditioning. It will pay off on race day, and particularly anytime swimming in a group and in rough conditions.

16. If you need to write your swim session down on the white board or paper, it's too complicated. Keep it simple.

17. Find a good masters programme. Long main sets is a good sign. Swim with others to challenge yourself. Good programmes are the exception rather than the norm, unfortunately.

18. Don't use swim tools as a crutch. Paddles and bull buoys are tools with specific uses. Don't reach for them out of simple laziness, because the set is hard.

19. Do use swim tools when you are very fatigued, and will otherwise swim with poor quality. See Rule #18.

20. Dry land and gym can help swimming for some via improved neuromuscular recruitment. Use body weight and tubing not machines.

Bonus: Love swimming if you want to get faster. Embrace the process of getting faster in the water. Chlorine sweat is a good thing.

Follow the rules above to swim faster, and ultimately to be a faster triathlete. Enjoy.

EDIT:

#21 Repetition is your friend. Variety is for the weak minded, and interferes with the learning process. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition.

*Before this posting which now has surpassed the previous most popular post by a wide margin.

Kyle Jones opens own Banana Stand

2011-12-27T07:49:00.001Z

“You spend too much time and too much hard work just to be mediocre,” said Jones. “I want to be one of the best in the world. In order to do that, I’ve got to have a plan that’s going to get me there.”

Nice quotes in this article by Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star on the Canadian men working toward London 2012.

In related news, at the Hamilton Boxing Day 10 Miler:

The 10-miler — held in sunshine, with seasonal temperatures and no snow on the ground — was won by Kyle Jones of Victoria, B.C., in 50 minutes, 28 seconds. First-place female honours went to Lucy Njeri of Toronto (15th overall).

“I ran with three other guys for the first five miles,” said Jones, a 27-year-old native of Oakville. “Then there was an uphill section (at Chedoke golf course) where I was able to pull away. I just kind of pushed the pace the rest of the way.”

Solid effort from Kyle - getting the work done on his Christmas visit home to Ontario.

A update with Slowtwitch.com

2011-12-20T07:16:00.002Z

I did an update interview with Herbert Krabel from Slowtwitch.com yesterday:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/A_Joel_Filliol_update_2496.html

The previous interview was back in March 2008. As Herbert's initial questions goes, a lot has happened since then. The 2008 interview is here.

Nice that they found a couple relatively new pictures, as I'm usually either behind the scenes or well out of the spotlight.

Thanks to Herbert and Slowtwitch for the interest.

Kyle Jones.ca Track Tuesday

2011-12-12T19:35:00.000Z

Track Tuesday from Kyle Jones on Vimeo.

As seen on twitter.

Project Rainbow Jersey

2011-10-27T21:44:00.000+01:00

The two articles highlighted below lend some insight into the process that went on behind scenes of Mark Cavendish winning the elite mens World Cycling Championships in Copenhagen back in September.

The Inner Ring has a excellent piece with some perspective on all the elements that needed to be in place leading into the race over the past years, to give the team the best chance to win: "The moment Cavendish won the Worlds "

"Above all there is Mark Cavendish, a phenomenal athlete who is so good he can win without a plan."

Cav has proven he can win in many circumstances, but is usually quick to credit his team, which the last years has demonstrated brilliant organisation, delivering him to the point where he could execute time and time again. But the World Champs is different, with the teams made up of riders whom many work for different teams/employers in their 'day jobs' the majority of the season, and therefore this team is not purpose built to deliver Cav in this same way. On top of that, Cav came into Copenhagen as the heavy favorite, on a course that everyone knew suited him, and in road cycling which involves teams working together, and often against other teams and favorited riders. Consistently great performances are about controlling what can be controlled and limiting how much luck is involved in achieving a result, i.e. making an unpredictable result more predictable through better preparation, knowing what really matters and doing those elements better than everyone else.

More interesting fact than the fact that Mark rode in a skinsuit, or used a plastic film over his helmet, is the process that went into the win, some of which is highlighted back in the "Project Rainbow Jersey" piece dating back to 2008 by CyclingWeekly, where coach Rod Ellingworth detailed the approach that British Cycling would put together to form the winning team over the course of three years, the challenges he knew they would face, and how they'd approach them.

There is rarely is much of that process and planning towards achieving world class performances out in the public domain. It's easy to focus on the training plans, the physical preparation, looking at 'key workouts', recovery protocols, innovation and technology, but the elements that resonate in these two articles are how much success is about getting the human factors right, the motivations, familiarity and ease of working together as riders and staff, the riders working together and arriving in good form, and even the plan to get a full team on the start line.

"If Cavendish is to pull on a rainbow jersey, or win the Olympic road race title in London, it will owe everything to the work and planning started in the cold air of north-west England in November 2008."

Indeed: Process, Process, Process

Coaches Coaching

2011-10-25T20:45:00.001+01:00

Google sent me a link this morning in advance of the Noosa Triathlon, about Australian James Seear:

"He is without a coach after the barring of Australian Institute of Sport's head triathlon coach, Shaun Stephens, from guiding individual athletes.

While Seear admitted that losing his coach of six years was not ideal, he graciously said it was for the betterment of the sport." - James Seear

I won't be as gracious as James - with so few triathlon coaches world wide with the experience that Shaun has, Australian Triathlon is worse off with him in essentially a management position. Triathlon is a small sport, with a relatively brief history, and few coaches specialising in the Olympic discipline. The pool of world class coaches with the experience to lead at the top level is very small, and now Australia has one less such coach at the coal face, where there preparation happens that backs medal winning performances. Conflict of interests be damned, get great coaches coaching, with minimal management overhead and athlete performances will come.

On Focus and Attitude in Iten Kenya

2011-10-23T22:28:00.000+01:00

A couple quotes from an article on runners based in Iten Kenya:

"And the focus, he says, is total. "You sleep and eat and train three times a day, there are no distractions," he says. "There's no place like Iten, I almost feel like I don't want to go home." - Richard Goodman

and

"Today, European running is full of athletes who are like "accountants" who "want to control everything" but the Kenyans have the "instinct and aggression" that's needed, he says" - Renato Canova

On Focus and Attitude - these can be applied most anywhere, it comes more easily in environments like Iten, but we can apply these principles anywhere.

Read the piece from The Independent here:
"Iten: At the highland home of the fastest people in the world"

Stephen on Steve

2011-10-08T19:58:00.002+01:00

When I read this I knew it had to be captured it here - from Stephen Fry via the macalope:

Only dullards crippled into cretinism by a fear of being thought pretentious could be so dumb as to believe that there is a distinction between design and use, between form and function, between style and substance. If the unprecedented and phenomenal success of Steve Jobs at Apple proves anything it is that those commentators and tech-bloggers and “experts” who sneered at him for producing sleek, shiny, well-designed products or who denigrated the man because he was not an inventor or originator of technology himself missed the point in such a fantastically stupid way that any employer would surely question the purpose of having such people on their payroll, writing for their magazines or indeed making any decisions on which lives, destinies or fortunes depended.

The whole piece by Fry excellent and worth a read.

I draw much inspiration to my coaching from Apple's approach - the 'relentless pursuit' of excellence indeed.

Steve Jobs On life

2011-10-06T15:55:00.001+01:00

Three great quotes from Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement speech that resonated with me:

On life"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Nothing to lose, follow your heart - Why I went to the UK in 2009, and why I came back to Canada in 2011.

On work"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

Doing great work, and not settling - Why I love coaching and helping people reach their goals, and why I left British Triathlon.

On instinct"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

Connecting the dots backwards- Why getting sacked from the Triathlon Canada National Triathlon Centre in 2003 was the best thing that happened to my coaching career - it forced me to make my own way and discover my own approach to coaching that I wasn't able to develop within the Federation structure.

RIP Steve Jobs

"I had a point to prove to myself ...and I'm back."

2011-08-28T22:45:00.001+01:00

Chris McDonald takes his second Ford Ironman Louisville title

From a plan put together over a skype call in April to executing on race day in August with determination and consistency in preparation: "I will give it hell and let you know how it goes" Great effort Chris!

Edit: Chris' race report

Frustration in New Zealand

2011-08-14T12:34:00.001+01:00

From an article in the NZ Herald: "Triathlon: Docherty hears the call of London"

Broadcaster Mark Watson ran the TNZ's high performance programme in the south of France for three years. He resigned from the TNZ board last year in frustration at what he says was the elite arm of the sport needing to change its approach.

"They're over-staffed and over-researched but not enough is spent on coaches. There is too much ticking boxes to appease Sparc. There is no longer an utter desire to commit; often the greatest test to reach the top is adversity and we're doing everything but wipe their arses.

and

(Jack - Hamish Carter's former coach) Ralston's biggest issue for ongoing development is the lack of support for coaches:

"No-one will speak up because no-one wants to bite the hand that feeds. You get the danger of a herd of people with their noses in the trough. I'd love an accountant do an in-depth analysis of where the Sparc funding is spent. Once you group in the bio-mechanists, nutritionists and psychologists, there is not enough left for coaches."

No comment necessary.

QOTD

2011-08-11T18:57:00.000+01:00

The Dalai Lama was asked what surprises him most:

"Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."

If you're not winning, what do you have to lose?

2011-08-05T23:49:00.001+01:00

From Lets Run

"I just want to be the best I can be. And I'll do whatever it takes to be that. I could have been really comfortable where I was in Teddington, nice house, family, friends, watching the Arsenal. But if you want to win medals, then you have to do whatever is necessary. Every second counts. One, two per cent could make a difference. I went to the US to find those percentages. People say don't change when things are going well, I felt the opposite. And it's worked."

- Britain's Mo Farah, who is a perfect 10-for-10 after moving to the US to be trained by Alberto Salazar.

Also posted by Dr Sousa

There are many reasons to respect Farah's decision to move to a new environment, particularly off the back of a relatively successful 2010 season, and so close to the 2012 games. He's really pushing to win, and willing to takes some risks to do so, rather than being happy being the best Brit, and perhaps otherwise being off the pace at the sharp end, and out of the medals.

A successful athlete making a change to keep progressing is interesting and noteworthy and shows no complacency - interestingly in my experience many of the top athletes in triathlon are surprisingly complacent. Many are happy to be around the best in their countries even if they are not winning or close to the podium. Despite not achieving at the very highest levels - every athletes dreams of standing on the top of the podium - too few are willing to change in order to reach the top. So they stay stuck where they are, in some ways settling, as change is hard, risky and unknown.

Farah is a great example for any athlete - if you're not winning*, what do you have to lose by changing?

*Even if you are winning, continuing to do the same thing for too long is a sure way to let the competition catch up to you.

Elite national championships still relevant?

2011-06-28T12:22:00.003+01:00

This past weekend the majority of cycling nations held their national elite championships in the road race and time trial. Cyclingnews.com has a round up of all the results here. Many of the big names around the world ride their national championships, and it's seen as prestigious to win, and entitles victor to race in their national champion colours for the remainder of the season. I don't know how the UCI has managed to coordinate each country to use the same dates, however it's an idea that could be applied to elite triathlon as well.

In the early days of elite triathlon, winning national champion title was taken more seriously than it is currently. With the plethora of racing options available to elite triathletes these days, for many athletes the national championships has become less relevant. Compared to cyclists, triathletes can race a much more limited number of times, and with the ITU World Championship Series, the Olympic qualifying/ranking pathway, as well as commitments to French and German clubs, in addition to the numerous other non-drafting options, many countries 'national championships' are not really representative of the best of their countries, with the top athletes often taking a pass, when they are permitted to do so.

Looking at the British Triathlon site, the information on the 2011 elite national championships is not even listed, however 'insider' knowledge says that the Windsor Triathlon was indeed designated as the National Championships at a relatively late stage - however a quick look at the results shows no Brownlees, Clarke, Hayes, etc, or Jenkins, Blatchford, Holland, etc on the women's side. With all due respect to the respective winners, when the top athletes don't show up, it devalues what it means to be named a 'national champion' for all involved.

British Triathlon tried a different approach in 2010 when the elite national championships was held over a sprint distance in an effort to draw the best British athletes with minimal disruptions to their racing programmes. However even with a national team contract clause requiring funded athletes to race, and the promise of respectable prize winnings and television coverage, it was still a struggle to pull it off. Now back to 2011, the funded athletes were allowed to pass on the nationals again, in order to pursue other races.

Other countries have faced similar challenges, a quick look at the results shows Australia used the Mooloolaba World Cup this year as their national elite championships, so 'tacked on' to another bigger event. Meanwhile New Zealand, and the USA suffered from the 'not all the best show up' problem. Other countries no doubt are facing similar issues.

The solution is to look back at cycling - say what you will about the state of the UCI, however they have managed to coordinate an integrated international calendar across many competitions with different organizers, including fixing dates for the respective national championships. The ITU could do the same, and solve the date conflict issue. It would of course be a big challenge to do so, but coordinating dates and avoiding conflicts with their own racing properties, the World Series, World Cups, and Regional championships would be a good start. The UCI also seems to have managed to have southern hemisphere countries racing the same dates, out of the normal 'summer' season, so as far as the elite championships in triathlon go that could work as well.

The other aspect is adding prestige back to the title - again looking to cycling, have unique racing uniforms in national champion colours, and promote these athletes on the WCS television coverage. The ITU is already part way there toward the uniforms, now that at the World Series each athlete must wear a country-colour uniform already - just add some national champion stripes and off we go. The coordinated dates also highlight the respective countries events, and make the winners newsworthy. When the best athletes are racing for their national colours and these athletes are highlighted, it will help restore some pride to what it means to be the national elite triathlon champion.

Perhaps none of these changes would be enough to have better representation at respective elite national championships, but looking at other sports like cycling shows that it's possible if the will is there to make being a national elite champion significant again.

Now what to do about making the ITU Regional Championships relevant enough that all the top athletes show up?

"There is an alternative to Periodisation"

2011-06-13T12:45:00.000+01:00

There is an alternative to Periodisation.
It’s called Coaching. You may have heard of it!

This is from the follow up post from Wayne Goldsmith on the "Coaching without Periodisation" post.

Article: Coaching without Periodization

2011-05-30T15:31:00.000+01:00

Wayne Goldsmith has posted an thought provoking article entitled "Coaching without Periodisation" on his site Sport Coaching Brain.com.

Many coaches get bogged down with the process of periodization. Planning an athletes's season, including what preparation is necessary for the identified goal competitions, is the most common way for coaches and athletes to plan - i.e. work toward specificity in training, and then plan backwards to today, to build up towards those training and competition objectives.

Another way is to take the approach of where the is athlete currently, what are they capable of today; coaching in the moment, 'in the now' as Brett Sutton has described his approach. Darren Smith also talks about his approach in the comments below the article. This approach has advantages; allowing more time to develop capabilities and skills, which can often take longer than 'planned' to achieve, and give them time to bed in, and stick, ie. make real, significant and stable changes to performance. This way athletes only progress to new training objectives at the right times, rather than a pre-determined '6 week block' or other arbitrary period of time, or worse, progress because they have to 'peak by friday' for an upcoming competition. Many coaches following more 'text-book' approaches don't dedicate enough time to developing any particular capability, and thus limit the athletes' improvement, year over year.

The big idea here is the following:

"The key principle is this: every time we work with an athlete, it is our responsibility to ensure that the training we provide is the optimal stimulus for them – at that moment, at that time and specific to their unique physical and mental status as they exist right now; "

This is where coaching, or 'real coaching', as Dr Sousa would say, comes into play. The art of coaching is being present, 'on deck', observing, and communicating with athletes about what is the right session for the day. Working with the Canadian national team in Victoria, I'd often come to the pool, or training session with an idea of what specific training I wanted to accomplish with the athletes that day, but I would watch the warm up and get a sense of where each athlete was at before setting instructions for the main work of the session. This is why I tend not to write sessions on the white board at the pool, or simply write up one set at a time, in case I decide to change from the session I first had in mind while the athletes are warming up, after having spoken to and observed them, or when they are doing the first main set. I would rather they aren't aware that the set or session has changed, in order to avoid the feeling that they may have 'failed' by not being able to complete the original 'planned' session - which is not the case, it's simply my coaching process to make a decision about what is the right stimulus/amount/type of work on that given day. The method takes into account how the athlete has recovered from the previous days sessions, what they already may have done that day, or have coming up that same day, and what follows the next day. I see these as all in flux based on individual responses and adaptation to the training load, and it's the coaches job to make good decisions about what is the right training for each athlete on any given day. This process is hard to do effectively via distance coaching. The most skilled coaches can be very good at estimating what an athlete should be able to accomplish on a given day within a programme, however these skills are difficult to develop when mostly sitting behind a screen.

Planning is of course important, as much as a coaching process to drive thinking about where an athlete is and how they can progress toward their goal performances, however good coaching is about good decision making, and if the planning process over-rides observation, intuition and experience in the moment, then the 'plot' is being lost.

There are lots of other thought provoking articles on Wayne Goldsmith's site Sport Coaching Brain - it's a great resource for coaches or anyone interested in high performance sport.

the endgame begins...

2011-05-21T15:24:00.001+01:00

Great piece of writing on Cyclesport Mag by Lionel Birnie on the unravelling of the Armstrong storey:

"The Lance Armstrong story is so convoluted, so conflicted. It’s like a tightly knotted piece of string. Myth at one end, truth at the other."

I grew up with cycling watching first Greg Lemond, then Lance win the Tour. I was a fan of both, complete with posters of them on my bedroom walls. I admired Greg for being one of the pioneers bringing North Americans to the front of the traditionally European dominated peloton, and for his innovation in technology from training and racing with an SRM, to aerobars, and aerodynamics. It was a thrill to meet Greg a few years ago when in Minneapolis for the lifetime fitness race. I admired Lance for his approach to racing, the meticulous preparation, including the impressive psychological game ('TSTWKM', etc). I found the later Lance years of the Tour formulaic and too predictable, and as a result stopped following the Tour until recently.

The latest allegations against Armstrong don't change anything for those who have been following the sport since the pre-Lance era. Cycling has been rife with doping for a long time. It's been very impressive that everything has held together for Armstrong for so long. It illustrates how powerful the culture of silence has been within the sport. I'm hopeful that this culture is gradually changing, but not naive to elite sport and the desire to win at all costs, and associated financial incentives. For the sake of young talents like Taylor Phinney, etc, let's hope they can be successful without pharmacological support. It'll be interesting to see if the UCI's recently proposal to ban dopers from team management goes anywhere but if it's not retroactive, it would take a long time to have any chance of affecting cycling culture given the number of former riders who are currently involved with teams, not to mention those staff behind the scenes who play a large role in the implementation of doping programmes.

"Let’s prevent one generation of blatant cheats from becoming the encouragers and enablers of tomorrow."

On Kenyans' Recovery

2011-05-18T11:47:00.000+01:00

Olly Freeman and Will Clarke recovering between sessions

Back to the last weeks Let's Run week in review from the previous post: http://www.letsrun.com/2011/week-0510.php

Jordan Rapp @rappstar pointed out another piece from the review on recovery from training:

"The Kenyan model, however, demonstrates a new level of achievement in the field of recovery. After a run and a meal Sally collapses over the couch and does not move until it's time to run again."

from #5 Julia Lucas On Kenyans' Recovery: Sally Kipyego The Dark Fast Cat

Many 'western' elite athletes, especially in a relatively wealthy sport like triathlon, have trouble with this type of recovery - just sitting and doing very little before the next session. Particularly those pros living the triathlon 'lifestyle' who are always on the way to another appointment between training sessions, or another coffee shop visit, and who generally live and breathe triathlon 24/7.

'Recovery' is the latest training buzz word, requiring all sorts of active interventions and devices like compression machines that costs thousands. However doing nothing requires very little energy and the price is right, requiring only the ability to relax and to be content doing so. This is one reason for the 'training camp effect', including altitude camps - being away from the home environment removes many distractions and particularly in the 'boring' camp locations that I favour - there is really very little to do or be done beyond the basics: train, eat, sleep, repeat. Pure focus on doing the training and absorbing the work. Athletes who are based in their home environment more often than away in camps would do well to find ways to incorporate this old school recovery method. Keep it simple.

The Week That Was In Running - May 3 - May 9, 2011

2011-05-12T12:40:00.000+01:00

Always good stuff from Lets Run's weekly reviews:

http://www.letsrun.com/2011/week-0510.php

Particularly the look at the extraordinary depth at first diamond league meeting over 3000m. Americans who are getting excited about a certain young runner/triathlete who is a 'relatively' good runner and getting lots of attention as such, keep perspective on the depth of east african running. My advice would be to keep working on the swimming to someday make an impact in a major championships or Olympics, i.e. develop the running, but with the aim to eventually win on the world stage in triathlon. There are indeed many athletes who identify as 'runners' who have no real chance at making a major distance final, medalling at a championships, or ever really making a significant living as runners, who might have the potential to be great triathletes and make a career out of it. Most of the federation backed, so-called talent-transfer programmes to get fast runners into triathlon are flawed in execution, but I support the concept of teaching fast runners to swim in order to change the game. If it's done right, 29:30 off the bike won't be fast enough to win in the future. Craig Mottram was watching the London WCS race last year, too bad he didn't give it a try.

The Scottish equivalent to "I am Canadian"?

2011-05-12T12:16:00.000+01:00

Yes I am drinking one right now...

Lagat is Fast

2011-05-11T17:43:00.000+01:00

Watch more video of Flotrack's Workout Wednesday, Season 5 on flotrack.org

"They can't eat you."

2011-05-10T15:27:00.000+01:00

More here: http://www.43folders.com/2011/03/28/scared-shitless

Mediocrity Sucks

2011-03-15T14:51:00.000Z

Moving on Up

2011-03-06T00:28:00.000Z

Over the coming weeks and months I'll be talking here on the blog about what I'll be doing 'next'.

For now I can say I am excited about the opportunities and possibilities that lie ahead.

A couple of articles that have been published on the move:

Inside the Games: British Triathlon rocked by resignation of head coach

Slowtwitch.com: Whitfield Speaks Out

Inside the Games: Whitfield: Filliol left British Triathlon after running into bureaucracy "brick wall"

Updated: An Open Letter to USA Triathlon

The job of a coach

2010-10-19T21:05:00.000+01:00

"MAGIC

For some, there is a disconnect between ability and desire.

Even though some people want to create magic, they often find themselves coming up a bit short, and delivering more drama or confusion than magic.

Their heart is in the right place, but sadly, they just don't have what it takes.

Your job is to give them a little nudge and helping hand to see if you assist them in achieving their dream."

from: gapingvoid gallery

Inspiration is everywhere. Creatives have a lot in common with coaches (giving weight to the art vs. science of coaching discussion). Good coaches challenge and stretch their athletes, and their beliefs of what is possible. More than a 'little nudge' is required in some cases.

One year on...

2010-02-13T17:39:00.000Z

I'm writing this post from our second national camp of the 2010 campaign. Will has a report on the happenings in Spain. We have a great group of athletes here, and all are getting on with the work, while having a few laughs. It's been interesting to explore new training venues on this side of the pond. A year ago I had just returned from a camp in warmer climes than we are experiencing here in northern Spain, however we have been extremely productive and a dose of HTFU has done the athletes good, and puts a new spin on 'winter' training camps: they needn't be warm and fuzzy vacations. Not much character is built laying on the beach...

I'd say I've settled into life in the UK, and my Loughborough home base well, although it feels like I've hardly been home in one stretch long enough to be 'settled', however being reunited with my chihuahua Napoleon moved across in September, made my new house feel like a home again. Elite sport is often all consuming and the process of becoming the best is not a 9-5, Monday to Friday job. The new challenges have been what I was looking for and more. Our team of athletes, coaches and support staff have made significant progress, and are beginning to put the pieces together. All in all, it's been a smooth transition and the support from my family, British Triathlon and my new team has been outstanding.

2009 was a successful year for British Triathlon in a number of areas, and I am looking forward to the action starting in 2010, knowing we can, and will, strive to be better every day.

I'll close with a fantastic quote from a close friend, Jordan Rapp, who had a breakthrough year in 2009, winning two Ironmans:

"It's about the process. It doesn't matter what you do tomorrow and it doesn't matter what you did yesterday. It's about today, and making today count. That's especially true in training, but it's the same mentality that I carry into racing. Focus on the task at hand, not on the finish line, or the next part of the race, but what it is that is right there in front of you in the moment."

New Role with British Triathlon

2009-02-16T00:43:00.000Z

The news of my new role as Head Coach with British Triathlon has been out for a couple weeks now. I've wrapped up my duties with Triathlon Canada and am now preparing for the move from Victoria BC to Loughborough UK. Lots of things to get organized but very much looking forward to getting started on the ground in March.

I'm excited to be working with a world class team of performance staff at British Triathlon, including Performance Director Heather Williams, Performance Manager Mark Pearce, Head Coach Talent Development Ben Bright, and Performance Development Manager Simon Mills. I'm also looking forward to backing some exceptional athletes in the Podium and Academy Squads, from the veterans like Tim Don, to the young talents like Hollie Avil.

Here is a bit from the BTF release:

After a world wide search to find a leading international coach with a proven track record of success, Canadian Joel Filliol has been appointed as the new Head Coach and will provide support to athletes and coaches identified in the Olympic Podium and Academy Squads to convert them into medal winners.

Filliol is one of the world’s most experienced and successful triathlon individuals having been involved in the sport since 1989, both as an athlete and a coach. He has worked for Triathlon Canada since the 2002 Commonwealth Games and was their Senior High Performance Coach during the 2008 Olympiad. He was also the personal coach of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games silver medallist Simon Whitfield.

Joe Filliol commented:
“I am so excited to be taking on the new head coach role with British Triathlon. Heather Williams and her team have done an outstanding job building the foundation for future international success, and I look forward to leading the coaches and athletes toward delivering medals for Team GB. My first few months will be spent observing, talking with coaches and athletes, and developing the plan to get the right results in 2012.

“The standard of International Triathlon has never been higher and is continually improving. Winning medals at London 2012 will be tougher than at any previous Games. However there is no greater incentive than a home Games, it is up to our team to meet that challenge and ensure British athletes enjoy a hugely successful London 2012.”

Thanks Canada

2009-01-29T08:19:00.001Z

Thanks Canada, its been a great trip.

I'm moving on from Triathlon Canada effective February 9th. It wasn't an easy decision to take as I have enjoyed great support in Canada, but its the right time for me to make a change and take on an exciting new leadership role.

The three years I've been in the role of Senior High Performance Coach at the National Triathlon Centre in Victoria, and the years before that in development roles have been an invaluable experience. I am enormously proud of the continued success of the NTC as a centre for international excellence, and particularly proud of the achievement of our Olympic goal with the silver medal for Canada in Beijing, both as Olympic Team Coach and working with Simon Whitfield as his personal coach since 2005.

It's been an honor and a privilege to have worked with everyone at Triathlon Canada, from Tom Patrick, Alan Trivet, Stephen Holmes, and Larry McMahon, to all of the coaching community, from Barrie, Craig, Patrick, Gary, Phil, and Benoit, and many many more athletes, coaches, volunteers and staff. I have appreciated their support, and trust to make the tough decisions and take a risk to demand excellence in attitude and practice.

Most of all, thanks to all the athletes I was fortunate enough to work with along the way, from our "BAMF" squad in Victoria with Simon, Kyle, Jordan, Lauren, Andrew, Colin, Dano, Paul, Kirsten, and Brent, to the other National and Development athletes representing Canada around the world. I will remember all the fun times, and know you all will keep going with the 'trial of miles, and miles of trials'. Remember, if in doubt, keep it 'organic', and go with "Steadystrongsolidgiveitagoseehowyoufeelstartfastandbuild" :-)

Canada is in great hands with the newly appointed High Performance Director Kurt Innes and is situated in its best position ever coming out of Beijing and into London 2012. I wish the best for the Canadian team and hope to continue to see them all at the races in the future.

So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish

Joel

Photo of the Day from Maui

2009-01-25T22:03:00.001Z

Race Start, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Race start of the Polar Bear Fin Swim. Andrew McCartney and Sarah Groff were victorious.

Maui Photo of the Day

2009-01-23T06:25:00.001Z

Maui Group Shot 1, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Photo of the Day from Maui

2009-01-21T07:29:00.001Z

Andrew is a surfer, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Andrew from the coffee shop does Maui

Photo of the Day from Maui

2009-01-20T06:48:00.001Z

Group start, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

From Saturday's ride up Baldwin, with some 2 minute efforts.

Photo of the Day from Maui

2009-01-17T23:08:00.001Z

Andrew, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

3hrs + ride today finishing with some 2 min'ers up baldwin climb. Andrew won the polka dot jersey today with his climbing efforts - nice job Andrew!

Maui Group Pic

2009-01-16T09:59:00.001Z

Maui Group Shot, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

(L-R) Kyle Jones, Jordan Rapp, Adam van Koeverden, Andrew McCartney, Jeff Symonds, Lauren Groves and Sarah Groff

Article: Sports Science is NOT evidence based - and it can’t be

2009-01-11T05:56:00.000Z

I came across this article on the sports coaching brain site - an great resource for some thought provoking articles. The following quote from the article summed up what coaching is to me, and why the art of coaching is something special:

"evaluate the research, look at the data then use your experience, instinct and intuition to make an intelligent, calculated judgement call."

This article contrasts to the recently increased prominence of sports scientists in the high performance sporting community. Taking a more sophisticated and structured approach to preparing athletes is an important evolution in elite sport, however coaches continue to drive the process of improving sport performance and their experience, instinct and intuition will continue to play the lead role in world leading athlete preparation.
As the article suggests, while sports science can aid athlete preparation and performance, its not as simple as "evidence based" vs "belief based" as some would suggest.

The challenge for coaches is to make sports science work for us, and that the bottom line is that its purpose is to improve performance today.

The Boot camp starts soon

2009-01-09T21:44:00.000Z

Looking forward to starting 2009 with our first camp in Maui, Hawaii next week and doing some 'team building'exercises.

Top 20 Canadian moments of 2008

2008-12-20T17:21:00.000Z

Thanks to Craig Taylor for the image

This article was in the National Post paper this morning:

Top 20 Canadian moments of 2008
Sean Fitz-Gerald, Bruce Arthur, Joe O’Connor and Daniel Nugent-Bowman, National Post
Published: Saturday, December 20, 2008

Nobody finishes second like Canadians finish second. If they gave out a gold medal for a second-place finish in 2008, Canada would probably have won, unless another country edged it out a few metres from the finish line.

Cutting to the section about Simon:

>>>>

1. A silver stretch run

As the heat suffused his skin, as pain burned in his body, Simon Whitfield was watching the men's triathlon run away from him at the Beijing Olympics.

He had been in a similar position eight years before, and then, the little lean man from Kingston, Ont., had tapped some secret reserve of will and sprinted past everybody for the gold. Then, it felt like a miracle. Of course, then, he was 25.

This time, though, he was falling away from three younger men, including the top two triathletes in the world. The gap reached 40 feet or so with about a kilometre remaining. Whitfield's coach, Joel Filliol, thought to himself that after everything, it just wasn't going to happen.

"Normally," he would say, "when you get dropped, that's it."

Except that eight years after Sydney - eight long years of training, of racing, of getting married and starting a family, of pondering retirement - there was one miracle left. Whitfield threw his visor aside, and he reached for whatever was left, and three words flashed in his mind: Sing like Kreek.

And Whitfield closed the gap. He thought of Canadian rower Adam Kreek bellowing the Canadian anthem on the podium a few days earlier, and he emptied himself of will. And with 100 metres to go, our boy was alone in front as in the crowd, his coaches were screaming out, "Sing like Kreek!" And for a moment under a Chinese sun, anything was possible.

It was not enough, of course. Jan Frodeno of Germany had a little more, and he kicked past Whitfield to finish five seconds ahead, and Whitfield earned a silver. But what a silver it was.

"That's got to be the best race of his career," Filliol would say. "All things considered, that's got to be the best."

Yes, it was.

>>>>

Read the full Top Twenty Canadian moments of 2008 here

Kona Photos

2008-11-29T00:21:00.001Z

IMG_7757.JPG, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

I posted some photos I took in both Kona and Arizona on my Flickr pages, enjoy!

(3-4 of the AZ pics weren't taken by me, but were good ones of Rappstar...)

Jordan Rapp @ Ironman Arizona #2

2008-11-27T23:38:00.000Z

Jordan's first 'real' Ironman was this year in Arizona where he had a solid 3rd place, kicking onto the podium with the following splits: 55:03/4:32:42/3:02:33 8:35:04
This was a reasonable performance, not totally representative of where he was at preparation wise, but a step toward learning how to race a new distance effectively and lay it all down on the course.

With the Olympics in August and his role as a team mate and training partner for the Canadian National team here in Victoria, we planned the middle of the season to include some halfs and olympic non-drafting races then a 2 week break while he cheered his mates on in Beijing. Ironman Arizona #2 was a nice fit post Beijing to ramp up the training again over 2.5 months and finish with another go at the same course. Although he trained on his own in Los Angeles in the fall, rather than with the team in victoria, we kept the same short course, raise the ceiling, training style and pushed through a few 'shake the rust off' races like Dallas Lifetime Fitness and Jamaica.

I was fortunate enough to be able to make the trip down to Tempe and support Jordan's race and I am glad I did, as nothing makes me more proud that to see an athlete leave it all on the course and race with guts like Jordan did last weekend. He swam a level up from his April debut, much more like the level he's shown in the pool this year, and paying off the trials of miles in the water, to start the bike solidly within the second bunch. Onto the bike he got rolling like he does, and with good conditions, he patiently made his way within 2 mins of the leaders, posting the fastest split of the day. Finally on the run, he got a bit excited on the first lap to catch Lieto and Doe very early, and then learnt what it is like to lead an Ironman. Its a different game once you get a sniff of the win, and then it became a real race. Unfortunately the fast early pace and the swift legs of Raelert coming off his 2nd place in Clearwater meant the pass around mile 20 was definitive, but to his credit Jordan worked through a pretty rough patch for about 5 miles and pulled back within 20 secs of Lieto to finish up on the podium again. The way he raced and competing with a surprisingly high quality of field made it a very pleasing progression, in his maiden year at the Ironman distance. A new overall PB and improved splits in each discipline was the result of a lot of hard work and discipline in getting the job done since April: 50:28/4:26:12/2:58:43 8:19:45

Lots of upside for Jordan to continue to improve and now learning how to win is the next step.

Read Jordan's report here: http://blog.rappstar.com/2008/11/426-to-tempe.html

a quote

2008-11-18T00:01:00.000Z

'We tend to celebrate risk only after it has led to great things, which means we rarely celebrate the risk-takers who haven't yet been rewarded for their efforts. The paradox here is that we are often unwilling to embrace ambition and originality until it is safe to do so - in short, we're unwilling to take risks ourselves."

Sports Excellence Series

2008-11-13T01:41:00.000Z

First, a reminder that Simon and I are speaking at the Sports Excellence Series in Victoria tomorrow, Thursday November 13th at 6pm. Details are a few posts down in this blog.

Here is an article related to the series: here

I was in Calgary all last week for 2 days of Triathlon Canada meetings, 1.5 days of the Road to Excellence Olympic conference, and 1.5 days of the Sport Leadership conference. All in all a very productive week and a valuable learning experience. I was also fortunate enough to be asked to speak on Triathlon Canada's altitude training program along with legendary athletics coaches Jack Daniels and Wynn Gmitroski.

At the conference there was also the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Awards - which I was lucky enough to receive, in the company of the top coaches in Canada. Here is a list of the recipients: here, the triathlon canada story: here, and finally a Times Colonist story on the 9 coaches from Vancouver Island:

Island coaches to receive awards
Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist

Published: Friday, November 07, 2008
They were the silent architects of the Island's remarkable Summer Olympics and Paralympics success in Beijing, but not able to climb the podium.
Read the article here

Another item: the prize purse of the 2009 Hy-Vee triatlon has been announced here Nice to see the race paying very deep. Kudos to Hy-Vee and the organizers for making that a reality.

Video from Ironman Florida

2008-11-02T03:01:00.000Z

Tom Evans crossing the finish line today at Ironman Florida:

Evans takes the title

2008-11-01T20:10:00.000Z

Congrats to Tom Evans for his second Ironman win of the year, and a new course record and personal best overall time at Ironman Florida, along with a new bike course record at sub 4:20, all at 40 years old. I've had the privilege of working with Tom since early 2004, and his 4 Ironman wins and several other podium performances are among my proudest coaching accomplishments. Tom has continued to get stronger over the years and has raced with patience, and experience to execute some world class Ironman performances, including his two wins this year, which are probably his best performances of his career.

This past year we made some small adjustments based on feedback from the past few years. We felt we were close to the optimal formula for Tom, but were coming up short for the second Ironman of the year. Some tweaks in workload and timing, and also a renewed focus on the fundamentals has paid off with another world class race in Florida to add to his win at Ironman Coeur d'alene in June, and also qualifying for Kona 09, which will be his only Ironman next year.

Well done Tom! You are an inspiration to those who continue to consistently put in the work over the years and show that you can keep improving with age and experience!

From IronmanLive.com

Evans takes the title
In a time of 8:07:59, Canada's Tom Evans has just moments ago shattered the Ford Ironman Florida course record. Carrying one of the largest Canadian flags in existance, the Penticton, BC local is currently retracing his steps up the finish chute thanking all the supporters lining the stands and streets surrounding the finish area.

Speaking with Mike Reilly, Evans spoke of his plan to hold back on the bike and blaze the run, but with the opportunity to bike with Torbjorn Sindballe and put time on him was to good to refuse. Stopping his watch mid-sentence, he realized he had broken 3 hours on the run.

Keeping a steady run, he decided to get home at a safe pace, and not risk the win from his vantage point.

Mike Reilly also pointed out Evans is the first Ironman champion over the age of 40, which is an amazing feat, consider this makes title number two for 2008. And not to mention, this win gets Evans a confirmed slot to the Ford Ironman World Championship. A slot he has mentioned he intends to take.

Breaking the course record, and breaking his own record, it's been quite a day for the 2008 Ford Ironman Florida champion, Tom Evans

Interview with John Cook

2008-10-31T23:07:00.000Z

The Canadian Athletics Coaches Centre has a series of excellent audio interviews including the latest with American athletics coach John Cook, who coaches Shalane Flanagan in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres and Shannon Rowbery and Erin Donahue in the 1500 metres.

John tells it like it is, and doesn't hold back on the ups and downs of the US Trials system, the USATF holding camp in China and the Beijing Games. Good stuff, and worth the 50 mins or so.

Link to audio page here

Taking Applications

2008-10-30T18:46:00.000Z

To give this its own post - if you want to be part of a winning culture, whether in ITU, non-drafting, or long distance, Canadian, American or otherwise, I am considering new applications for my squad. Train with the best to race with the best. Email me at info @ joelfilliol.com for details.

This video and the last one demonstrate the ATTITUDE required :-)

Thanks to Andrew for the video link.

"No Apologies"

2008-10-30T03:58:00.000Z

Australian National Performance Director Bill Davoren has announced his resignation from Triathlon Australia, to take a position with an AFL team as head of physical conditioning. It was well known that Bill would be leaving TA at the end of 2008, but this announcement makes it official.

At times Bill faced criticism internally in Australia, but he stuck to his vision despite the naysayers and was a key driver of Australian Triathlon's international success the last 4 + years. I have a lot of respect for Bill, his coaching and his leadership.

"I also leave with no apologies to anyone for the way I have done my job. I was given a task to do and I did that task. I recognise that some of you may have found that challenging, but change nor striving to be the best is ever easy. "

Read Bill's letter here: Triathlon Australia

Best of luck to him in his new career.

"I want Winners...."

2008-10-29T19:22:00.000Z

...People who WANT TO WIN"

This video is about a team sport, but I'm sure we can think of ways it can apply to an individual sport like triathlon, especially when talking representing your country.

Its also a good advertisement for what I am looking for at TEAM BAMF. I'm taking applications for 2009 - email me at info @ joelfilliol.com for details.

I meant to post some thoughts on Kona. Its a bit late now, all the analysis has been done and done. Chrissie was completely dominant and other than the flat looked in control the whole day. The euro Iron women proved their record times earlier this year were legit with solid performances in Kona. Probably the race of the day for the women was Linsey Corbin with a real breakthrough to come 5th. On mens side, Crowie looked patient and in control. We saw him get gapped from Timo and Cameron on the Alii section of the run after the turn around, but he slowly made his way back on and eventually into the lead. A couple of missed opportunities for Cameron and Llanos to take it, but its tough to put it all together and Crowie was able to get it done on the run under pressure. All in all I had a great time watching the race and always learn something seeing the action live.

I'm now back in Penticton, BC, where I'll be until the annual Sport Leadership Conference, to be held in Calgary AB next week. We are rolling in a week of meetings including Triathlon Canada meetings, the SPIN - Sport Innovation Summit, the Road to Excellence Olympic meetings and the Sport Leadership conference (coaches, administrators and sport leaders) into a full week.
I've also been asked to present along with a panel to discussion on how we've used altitude training. The lead presenter is Jack Daniels, and athletics coach Wynn Gmitroski, both of whom have significantly influenced the way I've thought about and implemented our altitude program.

edit: added this news article link: Two-time Olympic medallist Whitfield promotes teamwork in sport, business

Sports Excellence Speakers Series in Victoria

2008-10-08T21:47:00.000+01:00

An update on Kona is coming soon, however here is some info on a series of talks in Victoria, one of which I'll be speaking at:

Canadian Sports Centre Pacific, the National Coaching Institute of BC and Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence are proud to present the Sports Excellence Speakers Series.

Join Olympian and Paralympian athletes and coaches for an evening of sports excellence. World class athletes and coaches will be presenting and answering questions on their Olympic and Paralympic journey through the last four years leading to the 2008 Games in Beijing. Presentations will focus on training and coaching philosophies, keys to world class preparations and personal learnings in the pursuit of sports excellence. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to hear from Canada’s best about their Olympic and Paralympic experiences.

Location: Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence - 4371 Interurban Road, Victoria, BC
Room: 329A/329B
Time: 6 – 8 pm

October 16th - Paralympic Gold Medalist Michelle Stilwell
Athletics - Wheelchair Athletics Coach Peter Lawless
Register Now - Olympian and 2007 World Championship Silver Medalist Gary Reed
- National team Track and Field Coach Wynn Gmitroski

October 30th - Olympic Rowing Silver Medalist David Calder
Rowing/ - Rowing National Team Coach Terry Paul
Swimming - Olympic Swimming Bronze Medalist Ryan Cochrane
Register Now - Swimming Canada Coach Randy Bennett

November 13th - Cycling Time Trial World Championship Silver Medalist Svein Tuft
Cycling/ - National Cycling Team Coach Houshang Amiri
Triathlon - Beijing Triathlon Silver Medalist Simon Whitfield
Register Now - National Triathlon Team Coach Joel Filliol

Session Fee: $20.00

Enrollment Limited – Be sure to register early. Registration Deadline: 1 day prior to session.

Road Trippin

2008-10-04T04:42:00.001+01:00

Flagstaff backdrop, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

I've done a few road trips in my time... mostly for training camps in southern locations. Ontario to Florida a bunch of times, Ontario to Texas, and now living in the west, Victoria to Palm Desert, Tucson, and Flagstaff Arizona for camps. This time, there was no training camp at the destination, at least not one of my camps, so I set off on the road trip to spend some time on my own, get away from the usual routine and check out some favorite training destinations and also some new ones along the way.

I started out in Penticton, BC. Its one of my favorite places for training and I place I could see living one day. I was able to catch up with Tom Evans, as well as Jill Savege and Jordan Rapp before they head south for the winter. There are many great roads with long climbs, a variety of trails for running and riding the dirt bike, and lakes for swimming. I didn't get up to Apex, but there are some nice runs up there at a moderate altitude, not to mention a solid climb on the way up.

Next stop, the tri mecca of Boulder, CO. I'd heard a lot about Boulder of course, but had never been there. While in town I took in a few of the classic running trails around the Rez, the wonderland lake trails, and magnolia road up over 8000'. All great stuff. I did some rides over the the Lee Hill road and out to Lyons, and even a couple swims (rare for me), to check out the pools. Overall I really liked Boulder and can see why so many endurance athletes call this place home. Easy access to great training right out the door and a great endurance/outdoor sports community.

After Boulder I drove down to Las Cruces, NM, and joined the Paulo, Jonnyo and the PS Triathlon crew who were doing a training camp. Great weather (too hot for Napoleon however), and great company got me out the door for a real training camp, with swims, bikes and runs most days. Very different from Boulder, but a good location for winter camps, and a great swimming facility with Danny running the NMSU pool.

My next stop was supposed to be Las Vegas for the Interbike Show. I decided to spent a night in Flagstaff on the way, and once I got to Flag, and did a run on one of my favorite routes out the urban trail and up sinclair wash, I bailed on vegas and instead spend the week in Flag doing my caveman training camp. I'm glad I did, as I had a great week exploring some trails I wasn't able to do last time we were here with the amount of snow that was still up in the hills. I rode my cross bike over shultz pass, did the bagel run, got a tour from local legend Paul Brinkman, and did an epic run in the trails behind the airport where I just followed my nose and eventually found the car. I also got a chance with catch up with Jack Daniels again. Jack acts as the director of the High Altitude Training Centre in Flagstaff. I've been meeting with Jack a few times over the last couple years as part of a mentorship project with the COC and he's had some valuable insight into training and also some great stories. Torbjorn Sinballe was also in town training prior to departing for Kona. I had a great chat over dinner with Torbjorn, Canadian expat Rob Krar and Paul. We traded ideas about training/racing in heat, altitude, and similarities between the Danish and Canadian high performance training systems and approaches.

Finally I am now back in Penticton, and will head over to Kona in a few days. I am looking forward to going to Kona this year purely as a spectator and observer. I am staying with Shawn Frack of Nunn, and his wife Tracy Robertson (and fellow Canuck), who is racing pro for the first time, and also the infamous duo "The Sergio" and "Jonnyo" Should be a great time. We are right next to Lava Java, so anyone who wants to shoot the shit about training, racing, coaching, etc, drop me a note.

'Coach Reflections On Beijing' talk in Ontario

2008-09-30T00:38:00.000+01:00

I've been asked to speak at the Coaches Association of Ontario's 'Coach Reflections on Beijing' event on October 26th. Its really an honor to speak at the same event as two of the giants of Canadian coaching: Mike Spracklen and Pierre Lafontaine. Both men have had a significant influence on my own coaching. Such is their influence in Canadian sport, that without even knowing either one personally, just listening to them speak and seeing them walk the talk of high performance inspires me to raise my game.

I just hope I can be a "riveting" speaker - its a bit daunting to put together a hour long presentation, but I am looking forward to sharing my experiences of Beijing both with the preparation and the competitions.

Here are the details of the event:

Coach Reflections On Beijing: Conquering the Wall

Take your coaching to new heights and listen as Olympic coaches returning back to Canada share lessons learned from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Moderated by Sheilagh Croxon, Olympic Coach, Synchronized Swimming and Chair of the Coaches Association of Ontario, our list of riveting speakers include:

Joel Filliol, Triathlon,
Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming
Mike Spracklen, Rowing

http://www.coachesontario.ca/content/view/416/270

In partnership with the CN Tower, the event takes place on Sunday, October 26, 2008 from 9am-4pm at the Maple Leaf Theatre - CN Tower. The cost is $65 or $50 if you're a CAO Member and includes a light lunch, as well as an opportunity to ascend the CN tower at the end of the presentations.

Seats are limited, and registration is filling up quickly! To secure your sport, visit https://www.karelo.com/enter_res.php?&BID=154#Ev6498 to register.

Beijing: The Men

2008-09-20T07:30:00.001+01:00

Closing Ceremony, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Someone recently pointed out that I hadn't yet posted my thoughts on the mens race. The performances we saw from Simon and Colin really did the talking from my perspective. There isn't a lot to add that hasn't been said in any number of interviews, but I'll add some of my observations here.

After the competitions were completed the team moved from the Jundu villas into the Olympic Village. We had a great time checking out the other events and soaking up the Olympic experience. I saw athletics a couple of times, along with diving and mountain biking. The closing ceremonies were great and we partook in a visit or two to the village McDs. Good times. Overall impressions of the Beijing Games were very good, organization was smooth and the venues were fantastic. A tough act to follow for London.

So onto the mens race... The swim was a more tactical swim, similar to what we saw in the women's race. No great separations in the water and a large main pack out together. Colin and Simon were out in fine position, mid pack and didn't have to chase very long to crest the first time up the hill at the front of the bunch. Our team tactics were discussed plenty in the Canadian media and it was no secret to the other teams what our strategy would be. So Colin went to the front during those crucial first few laps and controlled the race by chasing down any gaps and keeping the momentum up as needed. Early on during the bike I was nervous that a break might get away as my impressions were that it seemed pretty active at the front as different athletes tested out the pack. Colin did a great job keeping the situation under control and Simon also stayed near the front to keep and eye on things as needed. We really wanted to make sure he got the chance to run with the main favorites out of T2 and that strategy along with the dynamics of the race, the conditions, and the course benefited all the favorites in a similar way, although knowing that we had options to use if needed no doubt saved some level of energy for Simon. When the break of three got away near the end of the ride, that was the perfect group to gain a small gap, and the boys just monitored for counter attacks at that point. Colin led Simon into T2 in fine position and mission #1 was accomplished.

Early on in the run the pack was a good size, with the big boys perhaps waiting to start their charge given the heat, and not wanting to risk hitting the pace too earl, then blowing with so much on the line. Although I haven't seen the TV coverage of the race yet, one defining moment came with Rana lifting the pace on the hill on the second lap. That seemed to really separate the bunch and gave a preview of who might have the legs for a medal on the day. Up until that point we hadn't seen Javier's usual charge and Rana's move seemed to be the ideal opportunity, however it never came and the group was down to the select 5-6 for the final 2 laps.

A question I've been asked frequently is whether I was thought Simon was done for, when he kept having to close small gaps that would open to the front 3-5, and of course the answer is yes it was worrying. With the hot conditions and level of competition you don't usually see athletes claw back on after being gapped, even if just small gaps, but Simon was able to come back on each time and keep himself in the hunt. Coming into the final straight, I was in my usual position just before the final water stop. I was screaming as loud as I could for him to give everything to get back on, loud enough that all the spectators and officials around that area were staring at me....

Finally the visor with thrown off and the long kick started. After he sped past where I was standing I hoofed it over the bridge and down to the finish area so I didn't even get to see a lot of the final action, but I wasn't really in a state to analyze what was happening as the energy and emotion of the moment was right there, everything we had worked at for 4 years was coming down to this opportunity over the next 60 seconds. Seeing pictures later it took Simon much of the back straight to charge back on and make contact. From there a short pause and he went around keeping the momentum going. A number of people commented that they thought he went too early, and I can only say that he gave so much to get back on that maintaining the rhythm and flow of the push seemed to be the best option at the time. Who knows really what might have been, as we've seen some awesome kicks from Bevan, and Frodo was a bit of an unknown. The kick totally spread out the final four and only a huge charge by Frodeno in the final 50m saw the gold slip away.

The emotion at the finish was overwhelming... over the years I'd imagined what sort of response I might have to achieving such a huge goal, but I wasn't really prepared when it actually happened and seeing our team chiro Rob caused a few tears to come flowing out...

There was some irony in Simon being out-kicked by a German this time, given he out kicked Vukovic in Sydney, but Frodo was ready for the opportunity and took it with a fantastic race and well timed finish. He was perhaps a bit of a sleeper, but he did have six world cup podiums coming into Beijing. Beven has been so consistent the last few years and now is a two time Olympic medalist, and finally Javier finishing in fourth speaks to the quality of the podium on the day. I said it many times before the race, but we truly felt that there were 10-12 guys who had legitimate chances at a medal on the day and a well executed race could have meant any result in the top 10. Anyone who wanted to medal needed a number of the right things to happen on the day and be ready for the opportunities when and if they presented themselves, and if needed to create those opportunities. To come into the race with the pressure of being a true medal contender, with that pressure and expectations, dealing with those factors along with the ups and downs of training, recovery and preparation in the months leading into the race and then being able to make the right decisions in the race at the right times, made achieving a medal performance a fantastic victory for Simon, for Colin and for the entire support team that believed in the process and goal all along.

I could not have been more proud of the performances of Colin and Simon as a team, and of the efforts Simon made on the day to come back on each time he was gapped, and give himself every opportunity with that final charge back into medal position. As a coach, you can only hope that all the training, and everything that you do to prepare and support an athlete in the months and years leading up to a race like the games can prepare an athlete to be ready for the opportunity when its there. All I could ask is that an athlete gives everything they have on the day, and to do so with all the pressure and everything on the line made the challenges and sacrifices that go into an Olympic campaign all worth it. It was not even just the result of the medal itself, but the way it was won, racing with courage, and heart, and that is what seemed to resonate with so many people across Canada and the world even. The mens triathlon was apparently the highest rated Olympic event on CBC and to be able to play a role in that performance was a fantastic experience for me.

So where to from here? I am taking my first real holiday in a long time... currently on a road trip through the Canada/US with stops in Penticton, Boulder, Las Cruces, Flagstaff, and Las Vegas, where I'll check out the Interbike show before heading back to Vic, then over to Kona for Ironman. Whether I re-sign with Triathlon Canada or go in a different direction is still up in the air. With success comes many options and there is interest from other federations, and also significant potential to re-enter the private world. So over the coming weeks and months I will evaluate all my options and decide where my next focus will be. I'm fortunate to have had success in a number of areas within the triathlon scene and am in a position to decide the next steps based on what I will enjoy the most, and what kinds of challenges I am most excited about.

Finally I want to thank everyone who believed in me, and supported me through the process to get to this point. Sport isn't an easy business, and I wouldn't have had the success I've had without great people around me.

In the meantime, I'll try to post some more original content when I am so inspired or when I have something newsworthy to post about.

Cheers

Colin Jenkins on FloTrack

2008-09-10T16:28:00.001+01:00

Simon, Colin Medal Pics, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Colin Jenkins

Christopher Kelsall
September 8, 2008

(c) Christopher Kelsall - 2008 - All Rights Reserved.

You may remember Colin Jenkins, the Canadian triathlete who celebrated finishing the Beijing Olympics Triathlon more than any other athlete did. He was joyously demonstrative running down the home stretch, motioning to the crowd to cheer more as he ambled in - and cheer they did! Yet Colin was finishing dead last.

Considering this, you may wonder why he was celebrating so much. For those of you who may not follow triathlon very closely, Colin was celebrating because he had just done his job as instructed, to the letter. Like in hockey, he scored an assist helping fellow Canadian, Simon Whitfield score an Olympic Games silver medal, mere seconds from gold.

Read the rest on FloTrack

Colin Jenkin's Olympic Special Cervelo SLC-SL

2008-09-08T04:37:00.000+01:00

Bike Course RIde Day 2, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Colin Jenkin's Olympic Special Cervelo SLC-SL new

Written by: Jordan Rapp
Date: Fri Sep 05 2008

Slowtwitch: Light weight was obviously a primary focus on the bike, can you explain why you felt weight would be a major factor during this race?

I thought that weight would be a major factor in the Olympics because we had to climb a substantial hill six times during the bike portion. Knowing how World Cup style racing works, most of the attacks would come from the climb, and it would be very important to be able to respond to these attacks and get to the top of the hill with spending the least amount of energy. At the race in Athens, the climb on that course played a big role in the outcome of the race, so I wanted to be prepared for people trying to do the same thing in Beijing.

Read the rest at Slowtwitch.com

Simon's final Globe and Mail blog

2008-08-31T19:55:00.001+01:00

CBC Studios, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Whitfield: What a journey

Well that chapter is over, what a journey.

Four years ago Coach Joel and I set the goal to get back on the podium at the Olympic Games after what can only be described as a what-doesn't-break-you-only- makes-you-stronger experience in Athens.

Read the rest at The Globe and Mail

Beijing: The Women

2008-08-29T15:30:00.001+01:00

The Crash, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

On race morning for the women I was up early again after a decent sleep. I did my usual run on the course to prep for the day (same loop every single morning over the bike course plus a bit). One positive aspect of arriving in Beijing closer to the race with the jet lag timing was being able to go to bed early and get up early. With a 10am start being a bit earlier than the athletes are used to (especially the men) its important to get food in and digestion happening, so the body needs to be awake for all the to happen efficiently.

With all three women ready to leave the villa about 7.45 we made our way to the race course. The road from the Jundu villas to the race venue was shut down expect for official vehicles so we opted to walk the 10 mins or so. In the Jundu parking lot some athletes were gathering for what looked like an official bus to the venue but it didn't look organized enough so we stuck with the plan of walking. Of course the bus eventually arrived at the venue about 30 secs before we did...

Getting through the security to the race venue went smoothly and the women set about their race preparation and warm up routines. One difference with major races like the Olympics is the pre race start formalities take a lot longer and they like to give themselves extra time so they can start at the exact time given the live TV, so the athletes had to have all their warm up done 30 mins before the start and then were held in a waiting area until they were marched out to the pontoon. Not a big change but the warm up routines have to be adjusted to accommodate.

Onto the pontoon, we had Kathy and Lauren on the right side, near a number of the top 10 ranked athletes, and Carolyn closer to the left side. The start went off and I was able to walk alongside for the first 200m before arriving at the swim exit and being blocked by the media areas. Lauren and Kathy both had good starts and I could clearly pick them out of the group closer to me. I could see Kathy was on Haskins' hip and moving well. Lauren was stuck on Vanessa's hip after a great dive and start. I couldn't see Carolyn on the other side of the field, so I was hoping she got going cleanly. I was able to take some nice photos with the zoom lens of the start sequence - check out my flickr page for more pics of the race.

After the women passed the swim exit I couldn't see much so it was a wait until they finished the full one lap swim to figure out what was happening. When the group came around the last turn before the exit it was clear that the swim hadn't spread out very much. I had expected a faster swim that might set up for a break early on the bike, perhaps from the americans among others but a huge pack of women exited together including Kathy in the top 8, which was an excellent swim for her and Lauren just 14 secs back, and at the tail of the front group, a great swim for her as well. There were a few more swimmers just off the back of the first group before the main second bunch came in over a minute back including Carolyn. Not a bad gap to the first swimmers in terms of time for a non-wetsuit swim, but still work to be done, so the chase was on.

As the riders came back towards the exit to the dam after the transition the first swim pack had actually spread out a lot more than it appeared coming out of the water. The big favorites were still together including heavy medal favorites Fernandes and Snowsill, but the back of the front pack was strung out by the quick early pace. Lauren was just a few seconds off the main first bunch so it was going to be all on for the first lap to get up there. I could see Spirig riding up behind her which I knew could be a back up plan as well if she didn't latch onto the first bunch. Kathy was in good position to make it up the first climb in the front group.

As a coach at a race venue there is really not a lot of coaching going on. Really I am there for the just in case support before the race and after the race, and to observe first hand, as often you see different things in person that if you follow online or even on TV. Sure often coaches are yelling encouragement or technical cues at the athletes but you can't rely on any message getting through given the speeds and crowd noise, not mention the often glazed over eyes of the athletes as they are focusing on what's in front of them, so you hope that the preparation you've done allows the athletes to make the right decisions out on the course in terms of tactics and strategy.

My spectating strategy was to stand near the entrance/exit to the dam to see the athletes going around that corner and along the front of the stands, and then run back over to the athletes recovery tent where there was a TV with the live feed so I could see the rest of the race unfold. Fortunately the athlete tent also was air conditioned and had free mini-snickers bars and coke....

After the first lap of the bike I could see Kathy in great position in the front bunch. Lauren was in the next group but within 10-20 secs, close enough that the gap could be closed with Spirig taking some big pulls. Carolyn came through in the next group about a minute back. The following laps the front bunch remained basically the same but Spirig simply rode off the front of the chase group dragging Ide from Japan with her in a very impressive piece of riding. With Spirig gone the momentum of the chase group was lost. Lauren took some solid pulls but was battling Spirig again who was now pulling the front group farther away. Eventually the second and third packs merged and settled about a minute back. With two laps to go out of the six, I was standing in my usual spot as the pack came up the spillway in the dam to the front straight away when "the" crash happened. I was snapping a few photos as it happened right in front of me. The course narrows before making the final turn onto the straight and one athlete touched wheels with another in front and down she went. I watched Lauren, as if in slow motion, have no where to go, ride overtop of the crashed athletes and go over the handle bars. The artificial surface of the course made things a bit worse as instead of sliding along the pavement they came to a dead stop right away, leading to some nice road rash. Lauren ended up bracing her fall with her arms outstretched and landed on her elbow. As soon as it happened I rushed over and tried to see if she could continue. It was obvious she was in quite a bit of pain and when it was clear should couldn't grip her hand or straighten her arm I knew she couldn't continue. She was very disappointed but it wouldn't have been safe to keep riding. There was lots of medical support as the medical area was right in that spot and soon enough Lauren was off the hospital in the ambulance.

Back to the race, the first group continued to gain on the chase bunch. Coming off the bike it was somewhere around 90 secs but the majority of the main contenders were all there in the front. Onto the run, Snowsill simply ran away from everyone in a display of absolute dominance that was very impressive to watch. To be able to do that with all the pressure in the world on her was just awesome. Fernandes never got going with Snowsill so was left of battle for the silver. For a while it looked like she would be challenged, but eventually found her legs and got some distance to 3rd. The battle for bronze was great with Bennett and Moffatt have a go at each other and Ide from Japan not for behind having an outstanding race. Eventually Moffy got clear and Bennett and Ida went back and forth before Bennett was able to dig in for 4th. With Snowsill, Fernandes and Moffy being the medals we had a very worthy podium of the most consistent performers of the last couple of years. There were no major surprises in the top 10 but Ide and Ryf rose to the occasion with big performances on the day.

As far as the Canadians, neither Kathy nor Carolyn seemed to really find their legs on the run. Kathy did everything right until the run but right from the beginning she didn't look light on her feet. The chase on the bike was always going to take a toll for Carolyn, but she's been in that position before. We saw some nice running from both women earlier in the year, but both struggled to get moving at that level today. Either from the heat, the efforts from the bike, or the expectations and pressure of competing at the Olympic games, its hard to say for sure. Being able to put it all together on the day you want it most is not easy and there are so many factors that go into a performance, which is what makes the podium so impressive in the Olympics.

With Lauren's crash the disappointment was also that she simply didn't get to show her run in the hot conditions which she usually excels in. Lauren had a challenging year with injuries and I was really impressed by how she was able to overcome those obstacles and arriving in Beijing fit and ready to go. Her swim was one of her best at a championship race and a few seconds more there or in the first lap of the bike might have made all the difference, but to not get a chance to show what she had on the run was frustrating.

All in all, although I didn't go into the race expecting to have a medal, I thought if things went right we could have top 16 performances and if everything clicked we might have a top 8 or two. So it was disappointing to come out of the race without anyone in the top 20. We have some work to do with our womens program leading into London, and there will be a hard look at where we are at in the coming months.

My major impressions of the race were Snowsill's dominance under all the pressure and the lack of any significant tactics on the swim and bike. There was a number of athletes whose strengths suited making the bike more tactical and who might have been able to get away had they taken the risk. Tactics like we saw in the womens race in Vancouver for instance. However doing it at the games is another thing all together with everything on the line. Much like in athletics, the higher stakes at championship races often means athletes are less willing to take risks and tend to conserve until closer to the end. The conditions also played a role with the course and the heat, but I can't help but feel that there were some missed opportunities.

Back in Vic

2008-08-27T06:05:00.001+01:00

At the CBC studios, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Will post thoughts on the races in the next coming days. For now here are a couple articles:

Olympics turn ratings to pure gold for CBC
Viewership up 15 per cent over 2004 Games; 2.574 million watch Whitfield's silver triathlon finish

From my hometown newpaper in Cornwall Ontario:
City native Filliol shares in Olympic medal victory
Coached silver medalist Simon Whitfield to victory

And some props from Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star:
Canadian coaches stand out among the best in the world

National Post Article

2008-08-20T10:08:00.000+01:00

"This was a story of possibility. If we fund our athletes, if we are innovative, if we do not bow to the nattering chorus, if we are talented, and if we are brave enough to commit our whole selves to winning knowing how much more crushing it will be should we fail, then Canada can compete with anybody. Then Canada can win."
- Bruce Arthur, National Post August 19, 2008

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/beijing-games/story.html?id=734442

My thoughts on the races are coming - I'm going to enjoy the Olympic experience for the next few days.

Beijing Day 4

2008-08-17T16:10:00.001+01:00

Team Canada, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

The clouds rolled back in for day 4 here in Beijing today, but it was still relatively cool temperature wise. I went out for a run first thing again (4 days in a row - woohoo :-), and didn't see too many people out this time. The early morning runs (which Kim pointed out are actually the same time as I usually run at home, 5pm pacific) have been great to get onto the time zone.

Training wise it was a pretty smooth and simple day with the women doing their pre race routines including morning run with strides, short activation swim in the pool and a bike spin with accelerations, while the guys did a ride around the reservoir early and then the pool swim at the same time as the women. We had 8 athletes swimming in the pool today with 5 different workouts going on, all in 3 lanes.

Today we watched the mens eight rowers dominate and "crush the dreams" of the other teams - awesome performance and an inspiration to the women who are racing tomorrow to really go for it, and leave everything on the course. Going into the Olympics as a gold medal favorite is a whole other experience than "making the team" and just being happy to be there. Seeing the rowers execute under that pressure was a real highlight and what it is all about. Canada is on the medal board now after a great weekend with some excellent performances in rowing, wrestling and a great swim from Ryan Cochrane of Victoria finishing with the bronze medal in the 1500m.

Before dinner Tom, Gabor and I took the womens bikes to the race venue, where they were inspected for logos and handlebars (there are strict logo rules in the Olympics for equipment, in the case of bikes, only one manufacturer logo per side). They'll pick the bikes up race morning before the warm up and finally placing them in the transition.

The few days we've been here have flown by and its time for the women to have their go. They are ready and looking forward to giving everything they have tomorrow. Send them good vibes!

Beijing Day 3

2008-08-17T08:38:00.001+01:00

Cold Tub Shots, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Our third day in Beijing was another beautiful day, with the sun shining on clear blue skies. I am told that the pollution index the last two days was near the lowest in a few years. The rain that passed through a couple of days ago has cooled the temperatures off from what most were expecting. We prepared a number of cooling methods to deal with the heat post training but haven't needed to use many of them yet. We're prepared if we need them but so far have been fine. We had this great bug ice tub provided by the COC sitting the lobby of the villa so we decided to pump it up and put it to use anyway. After the battery unit supplied with the tub failed, Gabor, Tom and Rob took turns pumping it up with a bike pump. That took a while... Meanwhile to fill the tub with ice the hotel was charging us ~$8 per grocery sized bag... lets just say it took more than 10 bags to bring the temp to the right spec...

Training wise yesterday was similar to the previous day. Most of the team did a run in the early am, had breakfast then went off to the course for the cycle, followed by another swim on the course. All the athletes were at this session as it was the last official swim training session before the venue is closed on Sunday for rehearsals. It was interesting to see all the athletes in various states: some looking nervous, some tired, some joking around, others very serious. A couple of the favorites looking like they may be having issues... we'll see soon enough!

At the end of the swim training triathlon Legend Greg Welch was on site working for Oakley, giving his sponsored athletes fresh specs for the race. Country colored frames like Aussie green and yellow, and of course red and white for Canada. Greg was kind enough to give the coach a pair too, thanks Greg!

The next activity was the race briefing. The briefing content is all pretty much the same as you get at any ITU World cup, plus after the managers meeting I gave our troops the need to know info. There was definitely some energy among the athletes as the briefing means that the race is really almost here. Also at the briefing the pontoon draw was held. The ITU has done away with this at world cups now as it takes too long, but for the Olympics for TV purposes they still use it. This time the top ten athletes drew blind, followed by the rest of the field drawing publicly, and revealing the top ten once all the selections are made. The mens side lined up mostly left to right and the women right to left, interestingly. The pontoon selection can make a difference depending who an athlete starts beside (faster or slower for instance) and where they are relative to the fastest swimmers in the field. But mostly its a lot of drama compared to its actual importance.

At the briefing the ITU announced the replacement of a few athletes, with Nadia Cortassa out and replaced by another Italian woman, as well as Hendrick Devilliers and Dmitry Gaag also out, but replaced by a Hungarian and Ukrainian. No official reasons were given for the mens replacements.

Also at the briefing Les McDonald announced that the ITU has secured a new multi-million dollar sponsor to replace the BG group which pulled out of triathlon earlier this year. Its supposed to be revealed on Tuesday after the mens race... stay tuned...

Beijing Day 2

2008-08-15T10:46:00.001+01:00

Swim Course Training Day 1, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

It was a beautiful day in Beijing today. The skies were blue and clear, revealing the spectacular venue where the triathlon will be held. Check out my flickr page for the latest pics. We started the day early with another jog on the bike course. I got in another 50 mins to yesterdays 56 mins - I'm feeling a bit more fit than last year when I could barely make it around one lap of the bike course from the villa (about 8km). Last year Rob H had to practically escort me back to the villa as I'm sure it looked like I was going to die. This year I debated doing another lap or two, but then thought I'd better conserve energy for the remainder of the day.

Our main activities today were a bike ride and a swim on the race course. Since this was the first official training we had to go through the security check point prior to gaining entry to the swim course and transition areas. Fortunately everyone got through without any trouble including Kyle and Kirsten who were able to get in a swim on the Olympic course. The bike ride went smoothly with Gabor on hand just in case any adjustments were needed.

The swim went well with the crew doing about a lap and a half of the course including some mini sets to tune up. Its a unique swim course compared to many of the races on the ITU circuit with one 1500m lap rather than two laps. Its 560m to the first buoy which gives some time for things to spread out, instead of the mad dash to the first buoy which is often the case. Its still be a dash alright, but slightly less hectic that usual.

After the swim the athletes did their CBC interviews with Barrie and then headed back to the villa for some R&R. Tomorrow will be another similar day, with the last official course training before the local organizers shut down the course on Sunday for rehearsals prior to the womens event on Monday.

Tom and I headed off to the Managers meeting as well today. No surprises - basically the same meeting as we've experienced dozens of times, with everything taking a little longer due to the levels of organization surrounding the Olympic games.

Our full team is now here at the villa with Carolyn arriving from Korea this afternoon. The team looks great and the energy is very good. All in all things have gone pretty smoothly so far (it sure helps having excellent food to keep the spirits high).

Beijing Day 1

2008-08-14T10:05:00.001+01:00

already on the bell "crackberrys", originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

The second wave of the Canadian triathlon team arrived in Beijing yesterday, including myself, team massage therapist Kim Ward, Doc Steve Keeler, athletes Lauren Groves, Kathy Tremblay, Paul Tichelaar, and team alternate Kirsten Sweetland. The travel and arrival at the airport went pretty smoothly, with plenty of volunteers eager to assist. Lauren and Paul had to head over to the Olympic Village to fix an accreditation issue, but made it back to the villa not long after the rest of us arrived. They were pretty excited seeing all the international athletes for their short stay in the village and mentioned that the food was pretty good...

The travel up our accommodation went smoothly and everything looks great here at the Villa. We are between the Italian cycling team and the Portuguese triathlon team. The French and Japanese teams are here as well, with many of the teams opting to stay here within walking distance of the race course. The Jundu hotel is also the ITU hotel for officials so the place has the feel of a regular world cup, with all the familiar faces from the World Cup circuit.

The first wave of the team, including the team leader Tom Patrick, mechanic Gabor Herner, chef Cosmo means and assistant coach Phil Bertrand did a great job setting up the place before we arrived. The villas have been renovated since we were here last year, no doubt with the amount it costs to stay here they could afford to clean the place up for us and the other teams staying here. The Jundu hotel and villas is a bit of a bizarre place. I get the feeling it must be pretty dead here most of the year. The compound and hotel are enormous and its mostly empty, even for the games. I'll take a few more photos of the area in the next few days to post on my flickr page.

Seems everyone slept well last night and was up this morning ready for the final preparations before the races next Monday and Tuesday. The athletes did a jog this morning before heading over to the pool here at the hotel. They have an indoor 25m pool which is handy being right on the hotel grounds. Today were we the only ones swimming at the pool, most teams were likely at the first open water training practice this morning.

I went for a run with a loop of the bike course also this morning. There was a bike course tour scheduled for 10am, but at even at 7.30 there was a plethora of volunteers out around the course, perhaps practicing for when the cyclists eventually come through. The volunteers are very keen to help with anything and there is more than enough to line most of the course cheering for the athletes out training. No doubt they were impressed with my pace this morning given the clapping and cheering as a shuffled by... :-)

Our afternoon cycling session got rained out by a torrential downpour that flooded many of the roads. Paul went out just before it started to darken and he was back in a hurry when the rain started, unfortunately getting his new Olympic Cervelo dirty... Good thing we packed a few trainers as the rain has been coming down for a couple hours now.

The final team members arrive this afternoon, including athletes Colin Jenkins and Simon Whitfield, team alternate Kyle Jones and Chiro Rob Hawsagawa. Tomorrow we are going out for a ride on the bike course and the open water swim. With the race start at 10am for both the men and women we'll be getting most of our training done in the mornings. Thinking we might have a bit of free time in the afternoons we set up a sling-box to watch the Canadian CBC Olympic feeds, and I brought my Nintendo Wii for some entertainment. However when setting up the Wii today, I forgot to check if the power brick was a dual voltage (most are), and judging by the loud "pop" and ensuing burning smell, I quickly figured out it was not... ouch.

Here are few of the latest news items:

Simon Whifield on his way to Beijing in search of gold
Sharie Epp, Times Colonist

Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
With kisses for partner Jennie Sprigings and 13-month-old Pippa, a big smile, and a wave good-bye, Simon Whitfield walked through the departure gate of Victoria International Airport on his way to Beijing Wednesday.
More

OUR OLYMPIANS: Lauren Groves
Fellow Kingstonian athlete inspired woman's interest in triathlon

Posted By JANE SWITZER FOR THE WHIG-STANDARD

Fifteenth in a series profiling Kingston's contributions to the Canadian Olympic team.
Lauren Groves' athletic accomplishments come from a combination of hard work and persistence, but not necessarily genetics.
More

Knox column: More than medals make Olympians
Jack Knox, Times Colonist

Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008

So, there I was wobbling downhill on my bike, the twin laws of gravity and incompetence bringing me ever closer to Ryder Hesjedal's back wheel, when this imaginary headline popped into my head: "Times Colonist writer crashes into Olympic cyclist, crushes Canada's dreams."
More

Where are the medals?
Sun columnist Terry Jones looks back at the wait Canada's endured at prior Summer Games

By TERRY JONES, Sun Media

The woman who has been described as “the Wal-Mart greeter” at Canada House, the first person a medal-winning athlete sees before coming into contact with the other 30 volunteers at the venue where our nation celebrates medal victories with family, friends and fans, hasn't seen anybody show up with a medal around their neck yet.
More

Olympic athletes look for strategies to fight smog and heat
August 09, 2008

JOHN KERNAGHAN
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
(Aug 9, 2008)

Environmental fears hung over these Olympics like toxic storm clouds.
Would these be the seriously and literally dirty Games, as opposed to other merely drug-dirty Games?
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Latest news articles

2008-08-10T20:55:00.000+01:00

Lauren's super little system
Victoria athlete packs pill that's said to ease stress and boost endurance

Paul Luke, The Province
Published: Sunday, August 10, 2008

Olympic athletes groaning under the weight of overstuffed suitcases may envy Victoria's Lauren Groves when she arrives in Beijing this week for the triathlon.
Groves will be lighter on her feet than rival triathletes who have crammed dozens of bottles of vitamins and minerals in their bags to see them through their gruelling event.
Groves, 26, avoided supplement angst by finding pretty much everything she wants in a new product called 7systems.

more at The Province

Turn the spotlight to the athletes

Times Colonist
Published: Friday, August 08, 2008

The Games of the XXIX Olympiad officially open today in Beijing. For the next 17 days, it's time to place the focus where it belongs -- on the athletes. They have trained years for this opportunity to test themselves against the best in the world. Through hard work and sacrifice, they earned that chance and deserve their moment to shine.
That's certainly what Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France had in mind when he spearheaded the advent of the modern games in the late 19th century.

More at the Times Colonist

Simon Whitfield defies heat, hills, and smog in Beijing

By Jeff Paterson
To give you an idea of just how far the sport of triathlon has advanced in a relatively short time, Victoria’s Simon Whitfield can only laugh at the suggestion that the performance that was good enough to earn him the sport’s first ever Olympic gold medal in Sydney, back in 2000, could garner a similar result in Beijing this month.

“Our sport has evolved so much, with different players coming in and taking the level up,” Whitfield told the national media on a pre-Olympic conference call, fondly reliving his greatest achievement.

More at Straight.com

Colin Jenkins Special Edition

2008-08-10T07:08:00.001+01:00

Colin Jenkins Special Edition, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

New article from Jenkins on Slowtwitch:

Cervelo Presents The Road To Beijing: Part 5

Written by: Colin Jenkins
Date: Sat Aug 09 2008

The Olympics were kicked off this morning with the Opening Ceremonies to open the 2008 Summer Olympic Games! I was able to catch a little bit of the spectacular show on my computer before I was off to swim practice here in Victoria. Yes that is right, I am still in Canada when the Games have already started. We are actually do not leave for Beijing until the 13th when we fly FIRST CLASS to Beijing from Vancouver.

Read the rest on ST

Photo of the Day

2008-08-07T08:20:00.001+01:00

Observatory Action Aug 6, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Latest News Articles

2008-08-06T19:55:00.001+01:00

Colin has a message, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Whitfield eyes return to glory
2000 Olympic champ has firm belief in abilities

Cleve Dheensaw, Victoria Times Colonist; Canwest News Service
Published: 2:02 am

VICTORIA - In 2000, Simon Whitfield sprinted to the finish line in the shadow of the Sydney Opera House. It seems he has been trying to run out of it ever since.
The moment that has come to define him is both boon and curse. Ever since winning the inaugural gold medal in the men's triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Simon Whitfield has had to live up to being Simon Whitfield.

More at Canada.com

Road to Excellence looks ahead to 2012

Posted By DONNA SPENCER, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Posted 5 hours ago

WITHIN FIVE DAYS OF BREAKING A bone in his foot, diver Alexandre Despatie was on a plane to Boston to see rehabilitation specialist.

When Canada's triathletes, including Kingston native Simon Whitfield, arrive in Beijing next week, they'll have a house to themselves a few metres from a training pool and less than a kilometre from the Olympic course at the Ming Tombs Reservoir.

The men's gymnastics team has been to China each of the last two years to train at the Olympic venue and compete against the host Chinese.

Canada's top medal hopefuls at the 2008 Summer Games, which open Friday, got a sports psychologist when they needed it and had their massage and physiotherapy sessions paid for.

All of the above cost money and it doesn't come from a magic ATM.

More at the Kingston Whig-Standard

Swim, bike, run and be Mr. Support

Triathlete Tichelaar is entering the best summer of his life, even if he might be Whitfield's caddy
By TERRY JONES, SUN MEDIA

BEIJING -- As the Olympic Games get set to begin here, Paul Tichelaar remained at home preparing.

For his wedding.

And the Olympics.

Three weeks after he competes here, the Edmonton triathlete returns home to be wed to Lindsay Acheson.

More at the Edmonton Sun

Bill Davoren's Olympic Games Preview

Wednesday, 06 August 2008

With the Olympics just around the corner, we asked Australia's Head Triathlon coach, Bill Davoren, for his views on how both races might unfold. Bill also gives us an individual look at the whole Australian team. While the team is split at the moment, with Densham, Kahlefeldt and Davoren in France and the rest of the group in Australia with their medical and coaching team, the group comes together later this week to make their final preparations to vie for an elusive gold medal.

More at First Off the Bike

'Systematic doping'

5:01 PM Tue, Aug 05, 2008
Andy Friedlander

That's the term used by Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC's medical commission, regarding the case of seven female Russian track and field athletes suspended last week by track's governing body, the IAAF. Five of the athletes were on the Russian Olympic roster, including middle distance star Yelena Soboleva, considered by many the favorite in the 1,500 meters on Beijing.

More on the Dallas News Olympic Blog

All-out war in the water
Murray loves many things about triathlon, but the swimming low blows are not one of them

By DEREK VAN DIEST, SUN MEDIA

To Carolyn Murray, it's not about being next to other competitors during the swimming portion of a triathon that's an issue.

It's having them on top of her, kicking and punching in order to gain an advantage that's a problem.

Especially since she's had to train hard in order to become a world-class swimmer.

"There are moments where you want to stop and say 'OK girls, lets just settle down and swim,' " Murray said. "It's not a problem just having people close by, it's because they're beating you up and trying to slow you down that's a bit frustrating. It's the same for everyone and I really just try to keep moving. But I find that if you retaliate, you're just going to get it back worse.

"There are certain athletes that are more aggressive than others and I try not to start beside them," she added. "But there is not much you can do, you just have to keep your head down and keep swimming."

More at the Edmonton Sun

Some news items and original content coming

2008-07-31T03:16:00.001+01:00

So some people have suggested to me that blogs are supposed to have original content... My plan starting this blog was to track the various news articles about the athletes I work with in the build up to the games, which has provided plenty of content to keep me busy with updates. However, there will be a few opportunities in the coming weeks to provide some original perspective and commentary on the final days leading into the Beijing games, as well as during the games. The endurance world keeps moving after the games, so I'll keep this going as we move into the fall season and beyond.

Anyway, here are a few recent articles:

Colin Jenkins' CBC Olympic blogs here

In his element out of the elements

Triathlon team forego athletes village for mansion and fresh air

Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Victoria triathlete Simon Whitfield won't be with the Canadian team when it marches into the Olympic stadium for the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing on Aug. 8.
Whitfield will be watching them on television at a Victoria bike shop with training mates, friends and family, and a big order of Chinese takeout.

"We've already organized it to be at the bike shop with some Chinese food," Whitfield, who won the 2000 Olympic gold medal and finished 11th in Athens four years ago, said Tuesday.

More at canada.com

Brown bagging it in Beijing

HAYLEY MICK
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
July 30, 2008 at 9:23 AM EDT

Forget the Peking duck. When the Beijing Olympics kick off next week, Canadian athletes will be dining on quinoa and summer vegetable salad, baked salmon and organic chickpeas - dished out by premier Canadian chefs imported to the Games.

For the first time, the Canadian Olympic Committee has hired two chefs who will cater low-fat meals at a Canadian performance centre. Some teams, such as Canada's triathletes, have also packed personal cooks, while other teams will dine in hotels outside the athletes' village on tailor-made Western menus hammered out through delicate negotiations with Chinese kitchen staff.

More at Globe and Mail.com

Whitfield still has eyes on the big prize

Eric Koreen, National Post
Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008

After an 11th-place finish in Athens, triathlete Simon Whitfield will try to climb back to the podium this August in Beijing.
In 2000, Simon Whitfield completed the triathlon of his life, winning the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics as a 25-year-old underdog.

Eight years later, Whitfield thinks that racer would have his lunch handed to him in the upcoming Beijing games.

"I think I couldn't swim, bike or run with myself if you could ghost-race yourself from eight years ago," Whitfield, the Victoria resident born in Kingston, Ont., said during a conference call on Tuesday. "I couldn't compete back then.

More at the National Post

Whitfield likes his start position in Beijing

Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008

As athletes go, Simon Whitfield isn't particularly superstitious, but the Victoria triathlete isn't above latching on to what he believes will be good omens.
Nearly a year ago, the new licence plate he picked up just happened to read 001 FPL, which Whitfield quickly interpreted as reading first place. Now, he's learned that he's drawn the No. 16 position in the transition area at the Beijing Olympics.
"That's my birthdate, that's got to be good luck," Whitfield said Tuesday on a conference all with Canadian reporters.

More at the Vancouver Sun

Whitfield: My brakes must be rubbing

Well it's been a couple years since I turned in one of "those" races. To sum it up I was looking down at my brakes about halfway through the bike and thinking they must be rubbing on the rim because I can't possibly feel this bad. It's disappointing to come all the way to New York City and DNF a race I've won in the past. But that's racing.

More at the Globe and Mail

BONUS
Here is a real whopper of a story and here

Jordan Rapp's Felt DA

2008-07-29T07:08:00.000+01:00

Jordan Rapp's Felt DA

Written by: Herbert Krabel
Date: Mon Jul 28 2008

Today we are taking a closer look at the Felt DA of Jordan Rapp for our series "the bikes of the pros." Jordan has posted some of the fastest bike splits in a few races he has entered and we wanted to know more about his setup.

More on ST

Just remember... its NOT about the bike :-) (really. I am serious.)

Sydney Olympics revisited

2008-07-24T04:57:00.000+01:00

247.com has a retrospective look at the Sydney Olympic Games, of course with a Brit slant, but worth a read:

Sydney Olympics revisited
Posted by: Annie Emmerson

Posted on: Wednesday 23rd July 2008

Eight years ago triathlon made its Olympic debut in Sydney, and since then it has become one of the fastest growing participation sports Great Britain has ever seen. In our Beijing Bound series, Annie Emmerson takes a look back at the sport's history, the 2000 Olympic course, the British team and the athletes that won the first ever Olympic triathlon medals.

More at Tri247.com

Canadian Triathlon Team ride with Gear West Bike

2008-07-18T01:54:00.000+01:00

I will tri .com

BBQ with Greg Lemond

2008-07-17T19:08:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Kevin of the GearWest bike shop Yesterday we went to a BBQ at a fund raiser for a local school district that Greg Lemond was supporting. After doing a group ride with the Gear West tri club, we headed over for some food and were able to chat with Greg for a while. Greg was my cycling hero when I was racing, and it was great to meet him and hear some of his stories.

Years have changed Whitfield but his desire for an Olympic medal remains

2008-07-17T05:38:00.000+01:00

Years have changed Whitfield but his desire for an Olympic medal remains

Jim Morris, THE CANADIAN PRESS

There have been changes in his sport and dramatic shifts in his personal life, but a constant remains buried inside triathlete Simon Whitfield.

He wants to win a medal at this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. The method of how he gets back on the podium may be different, but the desire remains the same.

"I'm a competitive bugger," Whitfield said recently, huffing over his cellphone while he rode his bicycle training in Victoria. "The way things are going I am on track to be very competitive, not just podium, but to possibly win.

"Of course that's the goal. That would be an extraordinary thing to do."

It will be an older, wiser Whitfield that will compete in the 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometre bike race and 10-kilometre run at the Ming Tomb Reservoir in the Changping District of northern Beijing on Aug. 19.

The kid who won a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games has matured into a husband and father. With the responsibilities of maturity have come the security of family and an understanding of what is important in the world.

"I was a wide-eyed kid when I went to Sydney," said Whitfield, who turned 33 in May. "I had an amazing race on that one day and caught that Olympic fire.

"Now I'm a father. I'm trying to help run a training group, trying to be involved in helping Triathlon Canada grow. I have a lot more responsibilities. At times that feels like a bit of a burden and at times that's very rewarding.

"I think life is just a little more complicated now. But with (daughter) Pippa and (wife) Jennie, it's a lot more rewarding."

More at Canadaeast.com

Dr Jones 10th in Hungary ITU World Cup

2008-07-13T21:11:00.001+01:00

Whitfield turns in a record-breaking run

2008-07-13T21:00:00.000+01:00

Podium Presentation, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Whitfield turns in a record-breaking run

Simon Whitfield will be in Beijing for the Summer Games, as will women's winner Emma Snowsill.

By JACKIE FRIEDMAN, Star Tribune
Last update: July 12, 2008 - 9:55 PM

MEN'S WINNER simon whitfield (1:48:01) women's winner emma snowsill (1:58:04)

Simon Whitfield and Emma Snowsill, winners of the men's and women's elite division of the Life Time Fitness Triathlon, stood on the podium Saturday, their $60,000 winnings in hand.

Greg Bennett, who came in third, lunged onto the stage and toward the top finishers. He gave Snowsill a congratulatory kiss on the cheek -- then offered the same to Whitfield, who outright denied it, before patting Bennett on the back, smiling with appreciation.

Whitfield broke Bennett's course record, finishing in 1 hour, 48 minutes and 1 second. Snowsill finished in 1:58:04 for a series-record third Life Time victory.

More at the Star-Tribune.com

Photo of the Day

2008-07-12T23:36:00.001+01:00

Mens Start, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2008
Pro Men:
1. Simon Whitfield (CAN) 1:48:01
2. Andy Potts (USA) 1:48:04
3. Greg Bennett (AUS) 1:48:07
4. Stuart Hayes (GBR) 1:48:48
5. Matt Reed (USA) 1:48:54
6. Brent McMahon (CAN) 1:48:56
7. Paul Tichelaar (CAN) 1:49:23
8. Craig Alexander (AUS) 1:49:34
9. Paul Matthews (AUS) 1:50:41
10. Hunter Kemper (USA) 1:50:47

Whitfield: He's a triathlete now!!!

2008-07-11T20:03:00.001+01:00

Whitfield: He's a triathlete now!!!

Dave Leeder, today at 1:56 PM EDT

He's a triathlete now!!! But in those cold winter months Andrew Ference plays hockey for the Boston Bruins. He's a first-line defenceman with Zdeno Chara and went to general manager for the Bruins on TSN's Off The Record and when Michael Landsberg asked the GM what was one of the most important moves he'd made in the last couple years he answered "bringing in Andrew Ference because he brought so much character to our team". I met Andrew through RIGHT TO PLAY after seeing a Cervelo Soloist in one of his "what play means to me" photos (After seeing how fast he rides I figured it must be the bike and switched to Cervelo). He came and trained with our squad in Victoria last summer for a few days and went head-to-head with us in some bike sprints. At this year's World Championships, Andrew showed up the day before the race and joined me on the "athletes only" course tour ride, we solicited some funny looks and the Aussies asked me later if the dude with the "tats" could swim.

More on the Globe and Mail

Mimi Boyle Checks In With Jordan Rapp (again)

2008-07-11T04:18:00.000+01:00

Mimi Boyle Checks In With Jordan Rapp

By Mimi Boyle
7/10/2008

Keeping up with Jordan in May was a full time job as he raced his way from Boise, ID to Canada! He did manage to stop for a while and chat with us…here’s what he had to say about back-to-back race weekends, and his apparent passion for Western movies…

Mimi Boyle: You recently did two 70.3 distance races back to back weekends. What made you choose these races and how was the recovery between the two?

Jordan Rapp: Everyone says you get sort of a "freebie" race after Ironman about six weeks after, when you've gotten a chance to fully recover and absorb the load of the day, so I figured I'd try to take advantage of that. So the timing of that coincided with the first race, Shawnigan Lake. The race was local, so it was easy to do since it involved driving roughly 30 minutes to the race course. The post-Ironman fitness was really nice; I had a much better race than I thought I would given the amount of training I'd done right before the race.

More on Xtri

McCartney wins Skagit Valley Omnium

2008-07-10T21:35:00.000+01:00

Read his report at andrewmccartney.blogspot.com

Bike track set to be recycled in twist of Games legacy

2008-07-10T21:10:00.000+01:00

Bike track set to be recycled in twist of Games legacy

SHANNON MONEO
Special to The Globe and Mail
July 8, 2008

VICTORIA -- A legacy from the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games - one of Canada's eight velodromes - is slated to be buried by tonnes of dirt and to resurface as a sports field. It's a recycling of facilities that 2010 Olympic Games hosts don't expect to carry out when it comes to their own legacies.

"Our whole plan is based on postgame uses," City of Richmond spokesman Ted Townsend said, of the 2010 speed-skating oval. "We really looked long and hard at the experience of other Olympic venues. Most admitted when they built facilities, they didn't consider legacies."

After the Winter Olympics finish, Richmond's $178-million centre will be converted to eight basketball-size courts, two ice rinks and a track and field zone where athletes can seriously train or simply have fun.

In Whistler, the Nordic centre, sliding centre and a portion of the athletes village will become the property of the Whistler Legacies Society after the 2010 Games. "We're being left this gift," Paul Shore, manager of the Whistler Legacies Society, says.

It's a gift that will keep giving: Everyone from high-level athletes to weekend warriors will be able to use Whistler's Olympic venues in perpetuity, he said.

But in the Victoria suburb of Colwood, Mayor Jody Twa said the town is going ahead with plans to bury the outdoor oval cycling track and replace it with an artificial field and a 1,500-seat stadium, forecast to cost $4.8-million.

More at the Globe and Mail

Really disappointing to be losing this legacy, one of few velodromes in Canada. Here in Victoria we already lost one of the all weather tracks in place of more artificial turfs. If they want more turfs, I say build them somewhere else, don't destroy perfectly good existing facilities.

Photo of the Day

2008-07-08T07:37:00.001+01:00

hilton pool, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

From the 2007 Winter Training camp, a morning swim in Sedona.

Rousing sendoff for Island's Olympic athletes today at Bastion Square

2008-07-06T17:27:00.001+01:00

Rousing sendoff for Island's Olympic athletes today at Bastion Square

Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, July 06, 2008

Maybe the old blue flag of the Colony of Vancouver Island should be dusted off and marched in to the magnificent Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing on Aug. 8 and again Sept. 6 for the opening ceremonies, respectively, of the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

If the Island was a separate nation, it wouldn't fare too badly in either event. There are entire countries that won't have the Island's representation at Beijing of between 49 and 53 Olympians and Paralympians, pending final Canadian team selection and qualification trials

More at the Times Colonist

Dr Jones in Hamburg

2008-07-05T21:14:00.000+01:00

12th Place, solid start to Kyle's European campaign.

Photo of the Day

2008-07-05T21:02:00.001+01:00

Paul takes a phone call, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Photo of the Day

2008-07-05T05:17:00.001+01:00

Team Pay-n-Take, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Interview: Stuart Hayes

2008-07-05T00:24:00.000+01:00

Interview: Stuart Hayes

Posted by: Annie Emmerson
Posted on: Friday 4th July 2008

Two weeks ago we spoke to Andrea Whitcombe about her disappointment of not making the Beijing Olympic team. Someone else who was also disappointed not to make the team was Stuart Hayes, but unlike Andrea, who had been suffering from a serious injury problem, Stuart's Olympic dream ended not because of illness or injury, but because of a flat tyre. Stuart has been one of the leading British athletes for nearly 15 years. In 2004 he had one of his best years ever, finishing the year as the third ranked athlete in the World, in that same year he just missed out on Olympic selection, but did go to the Games as the number one reserve. Known for his happy go lucky and positive attitude, he has quickly overcome this year's Olympic disappointment and is very excited about his 2008 season as Annie Emmerson found out.

>>>>>

AE The guys that are going to the Olympics all had good races in Madrid, but obviously, the unexpected and quite outstanding result of the day, came from young Al Brownlee. What did you think of his performance?

SH To be honest I think all three of them did really well! It was a real hard man's race and considering the conditions they all guts it out and did a great job, people were really cold on the bike and a lot of people pulled out. Al's performance was amazing, he's an incredibly tough athlete and trains really hard, in fact he'll do anything to get a session in. I remember last year when I was training with him in France, he'd been hit by a car and come off his bike, but the day after he went to the lake with his wetsuit and was trying to swim one armed - the other arm was to sore from the crash - around the lake. I guess he is a bit of nutty, but that's what makes him the athlete that he is and that's how he qualified on the day because he's a hard nut.

AE A lot was made of the weather conditions in Madrid and a few athletes have complained that the conditions were very different to what they will be like in Beijing, what are your thoughts on this?

SH We'll we all had three selection races to try and qualify, but no one did in the first two - the World Championships in Hamburg and the Beijing World Cup - we were fully aware of what was needed to make the team in those first two races so it came down to Madrid. A race is a race, no matter what the conditions are, if it had been boiling hot people would have been moaning that it was too hot. Beijing could be similar to Madrid, as apparently it will be cyclone season, so it could be pouring with rain.

>>>>>

Read the full article on on Tri247.com

Tony Soprano pushes me on

2008-07-04T21:35:00.000+01:00

Tony Soprano pushes me on

Posted by Colin Jenkins | Jul 2, 08 10:02 AM |

Since I moved to Victoria, B.C., three years ago my life has become rather simplified. It has become a continuous rotation of eat, sleep, train, repeat. No days off, no weekends to hang out. The days become a blur and I never seem to know what day it is. Mondays become Tuesdays become Fridays and before you know it we are back on Monday.

The reason why I have enjoyed the triathlon training in Victoria and why it has been successful for me is because there are no distractions. I have no family out here so I never have any family commitments. Also, my friends are part of our squad with similar goals and work ethic so they never bug me to go out partying, drinking and staying out late.

More at CBC.ca

Canada's Cervelo Cycles a major player in Tour de France, Olympics

2008-07-04T02:02:00.000+01:00

Canada's Cervelo Cycles a major player in Tour de France, Olympics

TORONTO — Some of the fastest legs in the world will pedal Canadian-made bikes in both the Tour de France and at the Olympic Games this summer.

This is the sixth year of the Tour that the bottoms of the multi-national Team CSC will be on bikes designed by Toronto's Cervelo Cycles. The 95th Tour de France opens Saturday in Brest, France. The 21-stage, 3,500-kilometre race ends July 27 in Paris.

CSC Saxo Bank includes previous stage winners Fabian Cancellera of Spain, Jens Voigt of Germany and perennial contender Carlos Sastre of Spain.

The Canadian men's triathlon team - Paul Tichelaar, Colin Jenkins and gold medallist Simon Whitfield - will be on Cervelo bikes in the Olympic Games. World champion Javier Gomez of Spain will also be on a Cervelo in Beijing.

More at http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijYz6hiWDJbggp2Cd8kRQCi-_UPg

Andrew McCartney

2008-07-03T19:06:00.000+01:00

Andrew placed 1st in the Newton Heights race in the Victoria Cycling League race yesterday. This was his third 1st place of the year, nice racing Andrew!
http://duanebc.com/raceresults2008/VCL2008results.html

Another article where the author doesn't speak to anyone involved in the descision making process

2008-07-03T17:53:00.000+01:00

Triathlon: Great expectations
Pressure? Accountability? Bring it on

Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, July 03, 2008

When the excrement hit the spokes during the contretemps that surrounded the selection of Canada's men's Olympic team during the world triathlon championships in Vancouver in early June, Simon Whitfield was caught in the splash.

The 2000 Olympic champion from Victoria was seen to have been a key player in Triathlon Canada having set tough qualifying standards. Only Whitfield met the standard, meaning the federation's high-performance committee wound up selecting the other two men, adding Paul Tichelaar of Edmonton and, in the most controversial move, Whitfield's training partner, Colin Jenkins, over stronger overall athletes Brent McMahon and Kyle Jones.

Read the rest at Vancouver Sun

Why let the facts get in the way of a good story? :-)

Jones making the best of Olympic team snub

2008-07-02T18:38:00.000+01:00

Jones making the best of Olympic team snub

By Herb Garbutt
Sports
Jul 02, 2008

Since the world championships, when he found out he wouldn't be a member of Canada's Olympic triathlon team, Kyle Jones has been in a bit of fog.

"Obviously I was disappointed,"said Jones, who was named an alternate and will still travel to Beijing. "It took a few days to sink in. When they originally told me, they said I hadn't made the team and then right away said I was going to be an alternate. I wasn't happy about not making the team but now that it has sunk in, I'm going to take whatever I can from it. It will be a good learning experience."

More at the Oakville Beaver

Tichelaar follows his heart to Olympics

2008-06-30T20:07:00.000+01:00

Tichelaar follows his heart to Olympics
Beaumont native combines 'average' swimming, cycling and running abilities to become triathlon medal threat

The Edmonton Journal
Published: 7:11 am

VICTORIA - The story of Paul Tichelaar's Olympic journey begins with a teenage crush on a girl down the street in Beaumont.

Some may call it unrequited love.

"Her dad was big into cycling, so I decided to give it a try," the Beijing-bound triathlete said recently over coffee at a quaint café in downtown Victoria. "I wanted to impress her."

"I never got the girl. We went out for about three weeks. But nope. Didn't work out."

So Tichelaar rode off into the sunset and pedalled away his disappointment over dusty back roads between Leduc and Beaumont and through Edmonton's lush river valley.

Somewhere along the trail, he heard about a triathlon in nearby St. Albert.

Tichelaar was a decent runner, but not about to break any records. The same applied to swimming and cycling -- better than mediocre, but decidedly short of dazzling.

More at the Edmonton Journal

Photo of the Day

2008-06-29T23:23:00.001+01:00

Like a well oiled machine...., originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

A look back... Tucson camp, Jan 08.

SQW reports on Des Moines World Cup

2008-06-26T20:24:00.000+01:00

Whitfield: Squandering an opportunity

Dave Leeder, today at 8:42 AM EDT

To be completely honest I just don't know how I feel about today's race here in Des Moines, Iowa.

In our sport you don't have many chances to race for a $200,000 first place prize and when it drops to $40,000 for second and eventually $12,500 for fifth you're simply left with that "if only" feeling. Especially when, in the history of our sport we've only had a handful of "the BIG checks" given out and I've been 2nd, 2nd, 5th and 6th..... Close but no cigar (and no mortgage helper).

I feel like I did race well today, I just simply didn't "take" the opportunity that was there. Having worked so hard on my swimming its been, quite frankly, fun standing on the start line with the attitude "I'll be first pack no matter what" (a change from days gone by where I stood on the line and just fought to keep the anxiety at bay)

more at the Globe and Mail

Photo of the Day

2008-06-26T05:02:00.001+01:00

Da Boys, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Training in Des Moines

Dr Tom Evans wins IMCDA

2008-06-24T16:40:00.000+01:00

Canadian Sweep at Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene

Shawn Skene wraps up the day of Ironman racing in Idaho

Published Monday, June 23, 2008

Canadian Sweep at Ford Ironman Coeur d'AleneThe 2008 Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene is in the books and what race it was. In both the men and women's fields the eventual winners led from the sound of the starting cannon to the finish line.

Canada's Dr. Tom Evans hooked up with Bryan Rhodes within 75 yards of the swim and the two remained virtually tethered for the entire swim. They eventually distanced themselves from the rest of the pro field by 2:35 at the end of the 2.4 mile swim. Evans made quick work of getting rid of his swim companion on the bike and methodically built up a lead of over six minutes on one of the favorites in the race, Michael Lovato, by the end of the 112 miles. An old nemesis of Evans, Victor Zyemtsev, who has beaten Evans on two occasions in the later stages of the Ironman marathon was 13:39 in arrears to the dentist from Penticton starting his marathon.
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Lovato made a gallant attempt to put the heat on Evans in the early stages of the run and at one time had clawed back two minutes of his deficit. However, by the second half of the run the bounce had left Lovato’s stride and he was left to hanging on just to protect second place.

The 2005 and 2007 Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene champion, Zyemtsev, displayed his foot speed throughout the marathon, but could only come within 9:00 of Evans for second place after passing a faltering Lovato in the late stages of the run.

Evans, a few weeks out from his 40th birthday, pounded out the fastest marathon of his career to secure his third Ironman title.

More at Ironman.com

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Des Moines World Cup

2008-06-24T16:32:00.000+01:00

Stories at Insidetriathlon.com and Triathlon.org

Dano Wells at the NB Half Iron

2008-06-24T16:28:00.000+01:00

Triathlon: Corbin and Yastrebov Victorious as New Balance Half

The 13th running of the New Balance Half IM took place today under near ideal conditions at Elk Lake in Victoria, Canada. The race, steeped in tradition, has included Ironman legends Lori Bowden, Peter Reid, and Jasper Blake to name a few. The race was originally billed as the “Battle of the Champions” with local stars Blake and Cheryl Murphy set to take on respective international competitors and fellow Subaru Series Champions Andrej Yastrebov (UKR) and Linsey Corbin (US). As fate would have it, illness kept both Blake and Murphy from competing paving the way for Corbin and Yastrebov to take the titles and for other local stars to shine.

Daniel Wells, a swim specialist and former Junior Canadian Triathlon Team member lead the men’s heat out of the water by an astonishing 4 minutes. This lead however did not hold up on the bike as he was overtaken by Trevor Wurtele of Victoria and Yastrebov. Yastrebov then carried on into a blistering run pace to set a new run course record with a split of 1:12:06 - good for an overall time of 3:57:14. Wurtele finished a strong second in a time of 4:00:57, while his wife Heather Wurtele was concurrently winning Ironman Coeur D’Alene with Wells rounding out the podium in 4:02:58.

More at RunnersWeb.com

Men:
1. Andrej Yastrebov (UKR) 3:57:14
2. Trevor Wurtele (CAN) 4:00:57
3. Daniel Wells (US) 4:02:58
4. Steven Kilshaw (CAN) 4:05:37
5. Julian Hatcher (UK) 4:13:26

Results at Lifesport

Cervelo Presents The Road To Beijing: Part 4

2008-06-23T17:01:00.000+01:00

Cervelo Presents The Road To Beijing: Part 4

Written by: Colin Jenkins
Date: Sun Jun 22 2008

Hello Slowtwitchers!

So it has been a while since my last post in this Road to Beijing series chronicling my journey to the start line in Beijing. I have just been so busy with all the endorsement deals that I have been signing and the commercials that I have been shooting... man it's been CRAZY! OK, well that was all a lie. Training has just been taking up all my time and when I am not doing that, I am eating and resting... not much more energy to put a couple of words together. But now that I am on taper and resting for my race tomorrow at the Hy-Vee Triathlon World Cup in Des Moines I have lots of spare time.

Read the rest on Slowtwitch

What is High Performance?

2008-06-22T02:30:00.000+01:00

What is High Performance?

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Coaching Tips, Performance Science

One of the most commonly asked questions in this business is, “What Exactly is High Performance?”

People talk about, write about, think about sports science, sports medicine, exercise physiology, talent identification, performance psychology, biomechanics, skill acquisition, elite coach development, recovery, sports physiotherapy, sports massage, performance analysis and all the elements and components of high performance sport, but what is it? What is this thing called High Performance?

I can summarise it all in one word………Change.

People make High Performance seem a lot more complex, tricky and mysterious than it really needs to be. Sure there is some really cool technology and terminology involved - as there is in all industries - but the essence of High Performance is Change - or rather, accelerating the rate of it.

More at Sports Coaching Brain

See my previous posting from the coaching brain site about how many people resist change in sport...

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a quote

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Evans takes the title

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"No Apologies"

"I want Winners...."

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Colin Jenkin's Olympic Special Cervelo SLC-SL

Simon's final Globe and Mail blog

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National Post Article

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Some news items and original content coming

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