Luke Hopkins - #003

0:00Luke Hopkins: Luke Hopkins. Jake Dearden. Welcome. Thank you, man. Thank you for having me. No, I appreciate it. Obviously, we're in Austin, your hometown. First of all, I want to ask for recommendations for the best barbecue in town.

0:17Jake Dearden: Best barbecue? I mean, I'll go just classic. I'm not going to try and give you a niche spot. It's Terry Black's. And they also, I am slightly biased. They are such big BPN fans, take great care of us. So anytime that I've gone there, anytime that I've brought my family, it's been phenomenal service. There we go. So if you're ever in town, Terry Black's is the place to go. Yeah. And before we even get started, because I know you'll never say it yourself, I'm going to give a first and foremost. congratulations on this past sunday running the 222 marathon absolutely crushed it dude i know you're too humble of a guy to say it yourself so i wanted to be the one to say it so no thank you

0:54Luke Hopkins: man thank you i uh at the time when i finished up marathon i i was pretty good because i'd set out for a goal and didn't achieve it but looking back i actually am proud of myself i couldn't to give more on the day and i'm not gonna lie i have been trashed this week my legs have been so so sore this is the least i've trained for months and months and months um i'm genuinely

1:23Jake Dearden: battered from it so i mean that just goes to show like you gave it you're absolutely all and like you said even if it's not the objective result that you're looking for like subjectively speaking that was an effort that you can hang your hat on because that day and the day is following you know oh, you had nothing more to give. It would be different if the next day you're springing up, running a 5K PR and you're like, all right, I could have tried a little harder. But you saying four days after now, you're still hobbling around a little bit. That just goes to show, dude, that sometimes it's less about the true result and more about the mental satisfaction with the effort that you gave.

1:58Luke Hopkins: No, thank you, bro. Thank you. And you've had quite a successful year. Obviously we're in a new year now, but last year you was hitting PRs after PRs in your Ironman training I feel like it just all came

2:11Jake Dearden: together for you especially that Arizona race so yeah Arizona was actually a race that I wasn't planning on doing and it's because the races leading up to it didn't go as according to plan like Ironman Texas I set out I was like I'm gonna break 10 to have the fitness for it I had the worst cramping in my life due to dehydration during the marathon and I had to walk from miles eight to the finish line finish 10 hours and six minutes like just shy of my goal Ironman World Championship in East France I get food poisoning three days before you have to do the whole thing throwing up stopping at every single port-a-potty on the run and these aren't excuses these are just like the reality of the events but in the moment of those races you have to imagine there's significant amounts of frustration similar to how you probably felt after that marathon where it just I was so close and it didn't go my way after I put in all this effort and then Ironman Arizona came at the end of the year and things finally came together and they finally clicked and obviously it feels good when the race does go right you know what I'm saying like nobody's going to take that away you can try and sugarcoat a bad race as much you want but when like things go right, you feel satisfied.

3:25Jake Dearden: But it wasn't like I looked at those past races as failures. I looked at them as learning lessons, especially from like a human being perspective where I'm walking a marathon and I'm not going to quit. I'm stopping multiple times in the run at the end of an Ironman and I want to be done so badly, but I'm not going to quit until I cross that finish line. And that's the same thing that you embodied in that marathon on Sunday where you're not going to hit your goal but you're not going to stop just because of that and sunday's not the last marathon that you're ever going to do just because you missed it one time you're going to keep showing up and keep doing it because that's who you are at your core that's sick that's inspiring and

4:04Luke Hopkins: i think i was listening i was actually watching a youtube when cycling and uh i was watching clayton young and i heard him say he didn't have a good race and he was like oh well fitness is stacked and all the training that he did up to that race even though the result wasn't what he wanted he still built that fitness and that's just gonna shine in maybe the race after maybe the race after that uh and that's what i saw with you like all this hard work we're just talking then about the attention to detail you have especially I think you probably take Ironman as seriously if not more seriously than the pros I don't know if you agree with that and

4:58Jake Dearden: I don't because I'm not a pro I would say I take it pretty seriously but like those guys like it's their profession they're professionals for I think like as someone new to the sport and is entering my third year of competing in it I do take it pretty seriously maybe more serious than an amateur should but it's that desire to want to get better that's what makes me like really push saying that how many hours a week do you train on average I would say in season season probably close to

5:27Luke Hopkins: anywhere between 28 and 30 hours a week okay so you're training just as much as the top guys within Ironman you mentioned about like you've just had three well in total you've had three bike fits because gradually you want to improve how you sit on a bike and you want to do that over time so you don't get too much lower back pain and you want to perform as best as you can you've got one of the best bikes I've ever seen you you're constantly upgrading it making it lighter making it faster i think you're selling yourself so i think you are doing as much work if not working harder than the elites and the reason i say that is for everything that i've just mentioned but also you probably have realized that you are not the traditional physique you are jacked and how old are you i'm 23 you're 23 you're absolutely jacked you're weighing probably 15 kg more than these guys so what's that 30 pounds 30 40 pounds heavier than than the pro guys and you're still knocking out serious times and i feel like you're just playing catch-up and I think you're also a lot younger than the top guys yeah I mean I like the idea of playing

6:53Jake Dearden: catch-up but I like the idea more of just following my own timeline you know what I'm saying and I think that's sensible yeah then you're not going to burn out exactly and I think that's what we can like really dive in is that every single athlete has a specific timeline and on that timeline, there are going to be races that go super well. There are going to be races that flop. There are going to be training sessions that are amazing. There are going to be training sessions that you question all of your fitness, regardless of how many days, how many good days you've had prior to it, you know? But at the end of the day, it's learning to separate yourself, like having that athletic identity, but also having that emotional identity and that social identity.

7:34Jake Dearden: Because if your life is entirely centered around one thing being, you know, your sport, then you're, you become one dimensional and God forbid something happens to that. What becomes of your identity when it's so wrapped up in that? And I know you and I were talking about it before, but having outlets outside of athletics, I feel like is such a powerful tool to improve mental and physical performance. Because if you spend every single minute of every single day, thinking about that bike fit and the micro manipulations that I've done to it, to try and shave off two, three seconds, then I'm going to lose my mind.

8:11Jake Dearden: But if it's, oh, I'm able to separate and go for a walk and read a book, you know, or write. And then when I come to the bike, it's like, oh, this is exciting for me because it's not the only thing that I spend my time doing. That's what I think is more important. And that's what I think that other people should acknowledge when looking at their timeline is that if I just sat here and I'm like, well, I'm 23 and I have to play catch up and I have to do all of this. So I'm only going to focus on this. like you said i'm gonna burn out super easily you can't accelerate your own timeline you have to live through it in order to have those experiences wise beyond these years i just talk a lot i try

8:47Luke Hopkins: and wrap it all up together i appreciate it no i don't like you you're literally this is informative for me because it's something that i need my question to you would be in regards to you said you've got an identity in the gym on the bike whether it's swimming whether it's running what's your identity if you take all that away like who are you what hobbies do you have who do you like to spend time with yeah i mean i was this has been i know we're

9:23Jake Dearden: only what two and a half weeks if that into 2026 but what I've been so focused on or trying to put an emphasis on is outside of sports who am I that's been my like mantra for this year because I did seven races last year three full Ironmans two marathon you know it was a big year of racing for me and that felt great when those races would come around but there were a lot of moments in like the long training sessions or when I was still six weeks out from a race and you can't really see when peak week is, but you're still logging all the long days where you lose track of yourself a little bit because all you're doing is training.

10:02Jake Dearden: So this year, my re-approach to everything has just been outside of all of that. Who am I? And I'm an empathetic person who loves to read. You know, I picked up writing poetry again. It's something that I'm super passionate about because it's a creative outlet that allows you to almost disassociate from the real world for a little bit and write a narrative based on whatever you want. And I spend time with my girlfriend who I love very much. I spend time with my friends and go out to coffee and do small things because I'm a human being. And that's what we all need to recognize is that you shouldn't feel guilty for reflecting inward and wanting to do something just for the sake of doing it.

10:43Jake Dearden: not everything has to be super optimized, super productive. And that's coming from someone who struggles with that a lot because I'm eating my breakfast while reading emails, while, you know, planning out my workouts. I'm trying to have it. And sometimes I need even like someone else to take a step in and be like, Hey, like just chill, just be a human being. And that's really what I've been trying to embody in 2026 is just being a human being. Because now like I've been going into my training sessions and I'm fired up every single time you know whether or not they go exactly how I want them to go it doesn't matter because my ambition to do them is so high because I realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to call that my life to be able to push myself

11:24Luke Hopkins: that hard that's that's pretty sick and I guess being from Austin and being in Texas you almost have so many different things that you can do here you've got so many opportunities to do things whether it's you've got the best comedy clubs in the world that you could you know go in watching your favorite uh comedians could be a hobby you could go i was gonna say run around ladybird

11:53Jake Dearden: but that's that's my obsession i'm challenging you jake i'm challenging you we know you're an

11:58Luke Hopkins: athlete we know but like who is jake dearton yeah like i think first time in austin right

12:03Jake Dearden: like you come here you can't do anything fitness related like what are you looking forward to

12:08Luke Hopkins: what did we do the the sailing the surfing thing what was it paddleboarding no the one where you

12:14Jake Dearden: hold on the wake surfing yeah so i know that's technically a sport maybe i don't know but uh it's definitely not fitness you know yeah so so learning how to do that we learned how to do that

12:24Luke Hopkins: last time i was here um on one of the lakes which was pretty sick we don't get to do that in the uk

12:29Jake Dearden: well you could do it in the uk but you'd be freezing and you'd need to wear a wetsuit

12:32Luke Hopkins: so uh that was cool food but that can be a negative as well no man it's food you don't

12:42Jake Dearden: gotta reason it yeah big thing i'll point out right there when you were talking about wake serving is you said like learning how to wake serve yeah which i think a big thing with these hobbies that we're doing outside of athletics you already know how to run jake you run very well you know you know how to perform in a high rocks competition but like what are things outside of athletics that you can lean more on the learning side you know of like you don't have to be the very best at this you can be a novice you could potentially even suck at this but you enjoy doing it because it's new to you yeah talking is definitely one of them but uh we're getting there we're getting that's a if you if you would have said do this three years ago i couldn't even

13:22Luke Hopkins: do a video speaking to a camera yeah um so we've got a little bit we've learned a little bit along the way um but uh yeah i think the podcast that is one of the reasons why i started this podcast is i wanted something that was kind of like a halfway house that was still productive if i wanted it to be productive i can learn off incredible athletes like yourself and i can then convert that into my sports but i can also talk about whatever we want to talk about yeah and if it's alien conspiracy theories if it's uh food what's your favorite food then we we can talk about that and that's yeah that's why i wanted that was one of the reasons why i wanted to start this podcast so um no no thank you um in the uk i think i feel like it's a little bit different because it's dark it's cold and there's not that much you can do apart from go to the gym sit on the sofa and watch netflix yeah which i actually will admit i do quite a bit like we like to actually watch you know netflix netflix series and stuff like that i feel like a lot of people don't admit that they do that but no yeah um well yeah that's admitting that you're a human

14:39Jake Dearden: being yeah which you are you know that's you saying like yeah sometimes i go out and i have a meal and I'm not thinking about how this is going to affect my performance because it's just a good meal because you're a human being, you know? And it's like you said, with this podcast, the intention of it is to show other people that it's not just about performance or it's not even just about posting on social media. It's about being your authentic self and outwardly displaying that to the world because you don't realize how much value people find in being able to relate to you. You are a role model to people.

15:13Jake Dearden: Any creator online is considered to be a role model and it's up to them to decide how they use their platform to provide value to others. And like, it doesn't have to be this extreme of, oh my goodness, I have to give them the best running tips or the top five food seats, optimize performance. It could be yourself because if you say one small thing on this podcast in any episode that someone relates with, they're going to remember that forever and then oh my goodness I thought I was the only one that thought this way and Jake has alien conspiracy theories you know Jake likes to wake surf yeah it's little things like that that I think people can do a better job at including myself on social media is just being authentic admitting that you like to watch Netflix with your girlfriend at the end of a long training day like it seems very small it might even seem unimportant to mention but it shows the reality that nobody is above it.

16:09Jake Dearden: We're all living the same life for the first time. Nobody really knows what we're doing. We're just going by the day by day. We're following our own timeline and we're living through those experiences.

16:20Luke Hopkins: So with incorporating that this year, obviously you said we're only two and a half weeks in and you've been spending more time with your girlfriend, enjoying yourself away from fitness. Do you feel like you've slept better?

16:35Jake Dearden: yes and it's because i've been meditating right okay 10 minutes a day dedicated time to focus

16:42Luke Hopkins: breathing and like is there a certain time of day morning evening i'll vary it up i mean like it

16:48Jake Dearden: really just depends on whenever i feel like i'm the most calm because i've meditated before in the past and the reason why i stopped is because it felt like it was like a chore to me and it was just something to cross off my to-do list and i'd force myself to do okay like i have to like calm down and meditate and then you go to meditate and you can't turn your brain off and it's like constantly going through it but like the whole point of taking time to yourself 10 minutes out of your day you know and you have to convince yourself to give yourself that it's a crazy thing that goes on but it's too slow down and it's too recenter yourself so if I have time in the morning where I'm feeling good it's like all right you know let me sit down let me start my day right if my morning's a little rushed I woke up a little bit late and I have to get to a training session I'm not going to try and force in a meditation because it's going to do the opposite of what's supposed to do like i'm gonna spend those whole 10 minutes like trying to calm myself down thinking about what i have to do next so giving myself a time of day whenever it may be to like sit and be present with my breathing and sit and be present with myself has helped me out tremendously like i even look at my garment and my stress levels are down i'm like that's cool like that it's even if it's a placebo effect it's working that's sick and then overall that will

17:57Luke Hopkins: result in better performances in the in training and then hopefully in race day so it all it all does tie back to being a better athlete um taking yourself away from being an athlete actually makes you a better athlete which is the craziest thing in the world it's not who'd have thought that yeah

18:14Jake Dearden: it's kind of like the idea of like running slower to run faster you know it seems like it's an oxymoron and it doesn't really complement itself but when you take a step back and look at it from like a bigger perspective that's like oh it makes sense yeah interesting you said about meditating

18:30Luke Hopkins: and i don't know how how do you meditate so obviously there's everyone perceives meditation as different and how do you do it do you sit down in a quiet room do you cross your legs do you do you look like a traditional person meditating or are you doing something else are you in a different posture i lay down on the floor because that's most comfortable to me yeah i think i think

18:55Jake Dearden: about i think about sitting down you know my lower back and i'm gonna be thinking about oh my lower back hurts and i'm trying to come or i'm such you know yeah exactly so i lay down on the floor and i close my eyes and really what i do is just focus on breathing because even when my mind wanders off because that's the big thing about meditation is it's not about not letting your mind wander off because naturally we have thousands of thoughts every single day, but it's recentering yourself and finding how many times during practice can I get back to just focusing on one thing, which is just my breath.

19:26Jake Dearden: And really learning, I could go into the whole neuroscience side of things, but you are trying to get your body activated in the parasympathetic nervous system, which is nicknamed the rest and digest state. Naturally, as human beings throughout our day, we're in the sympathetic nervous system, which is fight or flight. Just due to the amount of activity levels that we have, our cortisol levels are naturally spiked, especially when we're working out so much. There's so much stimulation and then meditation or any time of day when we can like really focus on our breathing and just like allow ourselves to calm down.

19:56Jake Dearden: That's when we get more to that, that rested state. So that's why I look at meditation. It's like, I can even nerd out a little bit about it and be like, oh, like my deeper exhales are actually helping me to calm down. And that's why I'm doing this. Interesting. And is there a simple method that you use?

20:13Luke Hopkins: I hear the box method thrown around where, you know, four seconds in, four seconds hold, four seconds out, four seconds hold, just repeating that.

20:23Jake Dearden: Do you do something similar to that? I literally do four seconds in, hold for a second, six seconds out. And I just keep repeating that. And it's like, I like, you want to get into a rhythm where you are doing it subconsciously, not even thinking about it. And it's like, if your mind wanders off, you're thinking like, oh, like, what am I going to eat after this? Or, oh, what's my training session? Like, go one two three four break and then sick you know but a little slower than that i just didn't

20:47Luke Hopkins: want to count to four and take a time no it's cool it's interesting and you know keeping it simple i think is is the main thing um i i do that in a different way i do that before i'm going to bed that's how i get off to sleep heck yeah so i'll lie there on my back and just because again science says that is one of the best ways to fall asleep if you can i'll take my mouth so i can't mouth breathe yeah um and also just breathing through the nose relaxes and gets you into that sympathetic nervous system uh kind of feel as well um so i'll do that and then i'll do the box method whilst trying to switch off any muscles so sometimes you'll be tensing your glutes and you don't even know that you're tensioning your glutes.

21:36Jake Dearden: So I kind of do like a body check and then sit there,

21:42Luke Hopkins: well, lie there for five to 10 minutes and then hopefully drift off to sleep. If not, then I'll try something else. But yeah, that's how I like to do it. How long have you been doing that for? I've been doing that. I'll tell you what, I went to Hyrox World Champs in June and I had a severe nerve injury where I actually slipped two discs in my back. But my symptoms were nerve symptoms and I had loss of feeling down my left side. And because it was a nerve symptom, I was basically waking up every day praying that I would get more sensation down my leg. And it was just like, how can I rest as much as possible?

22:27Luke Hopkins: So I was studying and this is what people were talking about. We're talking about this sympathetic state that you need to be in to recover. If you're in the fight or flight, you're not recovering. So I spoke to a couple of people. A friend actually gave me like a meditation audio book. It was like 20 minutes long that you listen to and it basically does all this for you. So it tells you when to breathe, when not to breathe, like what muscles to relax and stuff like that and i was doing that every single night and i've just followed it on from them because i slept better and i just felt more relaxed yeah it didn't really work because i i still had the nerve pain for quite a while and i i had to dnf the world champs but i was desperate at the time and i felt like something worked so yeah when when you

23:22Jake Dearden: were i guess getting more so into it did you ever find it hard to convince yourself to start that practice or like to do it on like a nightly basis like were there nights where you like i don't want to do this and just kind of put it to his side or were you consistently with it the whole time

23:35Luke Hopkins: i think there's still times now where i'll purely just forget yeah and um if if i forget i think i'm probably not stressed enough to need it and i feel if i can fall asleep without even thinking about it then i'm either super tired or i'm not stressed enough but uh yeah i think i use it as a soul to try and sleep better no absolutely whereas i think doing it maybe midday maybe in the morning just to kind of clear my thoughts might be a little bit better yeah i mean that didn't go

24:10Jake Dearden: at all where i was trying to get to what i was thinking is that like a lot of people struggle to give themselves time to like just sit for a moment to breathe yeah and i feel like as a high-performing athlete like you there might be times in your day where you might not even realize it but you're just going from like one thing to the next to the next because you have these training sessions at these meetings or this you know life that you have to live that you might even forget at times to give yourself a second to rest yeah and that's why i was talking about this podcast of like as opposed to it just being purely like objective here's how to get better at an iron man or you know here's this marathon runner and here's what they do to get faster it's like okay like you've just crossed off all my notes you say who are you like what makes you you and outside of that like when you're not training or when you're not working on a business or this podcast like what what are you doing how are you giving yourself time in your day to be yourself

25:06Luke Hopkins: yeah so it's a good point because i've seen this happen and i'm kind of scared of following this into myself where if you stray too far from being an athlete and you start showing that you're a normal human and you do normal human stuff whether it is going for nice meals out whether it is going to the cinema and people see that you're having popcorn i know it sounds like the the least crazy thing ever but i've seen this in the past where people then don't get the results and it's nothing to do with what they've done or what they haven't done like they've still been training hard they've still been recovering and optimizing their life but they don't get the results in an important competition and in the comment section there's people saying oh they were too busy partying they were too busy enjoying themselves on holiday when they should have been training and it's simply not the case but I saw how this affected them and I was just like maybe maybe you can't share everything or maybe you can it's it's one of them because there are going to be people that's that's probably the toxic thing about social media is everyone has an opinion on your life and everyone will say oh

26:23Jake Dearden: he didn't get that result because he did that or he did get that result because he did that

26:28Luke Hopkins: and whichever way you look at it like you've got to block them people out because that's simply not the truth but it's it's very hard and i don't know how you found like if you have ever receive criticism how a lot a lot and like you say like some people just say oh block it out but until it's you they don't understand yeah like how it affects you well what i try and remind myself

26:55Jake Dearden: is that you said like a the thing about social media is that everyone has an opinion that they can share that's not just social media that's that's real life so anytime you meet anyone they immediately are form of opinions or perceptions of you. And in real life, if someone says something about you and you don't really like it, you can just choose to walk away from it. But like it still lasts with you, like you said. And that's the same as a comment on social media. You could look at that comment and be like, I'm not going to reply to it. You could even block them, you know. But at the end of the day, you read that comment and it had some effect on you.

27:29Jake Dearden: What you have to realize is like what we're talking about and what we all have to realize. I'm not saying this from a state of like, oh, I figured this out because like I said, I get criticism and it affects me too. It affects everyone. But it's the idea that that person is forming this perception on me and we've never had a conversation before. If I'm looking at that comment and I look at them and I'm like, don't even know your name. Like, and that's not even coming in a disrespectful way. It's like, we've never interacted before. Therefore, you don't know who I am. and I think people might look at you on social media and be like stoic like extremely driven never takes a day off like all this stuff but then if they were talking to you in person like whoa Jake's super genuine like wow he's actually like really caring he wants to know about me and my life you invited me onto this podcast you came to us and said hey we've got this whole setup I want you to come here and I'm like dude that's that's Jake you know but like that's the importance of showing your authentic self.

28:27Jake Dearden: Yes, like there is the potential of people looking at you and being like, oh, here's why he didn't do this. He was slacking or wow. Like, why is he talking about his feelings? Be a man. Or they can be like, wow, that's a human being who outside of their outstanding athletic feats, they feel and I feel and we all feel. And that's just what you have to continue to remind yourself and anyone out there who's posting on social media really is that no matter what, we're all feeling and it's up to you to put out whatever you want. Because if you want to put out just your training, go ahead, do it. It's your social media platform.

29:07Jake Dearden: Feel free to do that. If you want to put out your whole life, go ahead and do it. Just don't let other people's opinions detract you from doing so, especially those that you've never talked to in real life before, or have never taken the time of day to even get to know their history. People might see one post from you and in that very moment they develop this perception of you and they comment something and they open up your page and see a bunch of different stuff and they're like oh shoot I was entirely wrong because I saw and I made this quick judgment and that's about like the importance of slowing down in life and just like taking your time and it doesn't have to be every workout doesn't have to be perfect every interaction doesn't have to be right people are going to say negative things about you you know and it's just like okay like don't let that spiral don't let that affect who you are at your core just take it moment by moment

29:52Luke Hopkins: yeah that's that means a lot because yeah there are trolls out there as well that literally just buzz off how many likes they get on their comment and they're looking for that and they're searching for that what can i can i say the most offending thing so people find that funny and they get buzz off that which uh you have got you've got to ignore uh but yeah i'll be honest i'll very rarely read the comments anymore just because uh just because there are some people that you know it for it's probably i know this is thrown out a lot but for every 10 nice comments one negative one over in your day or even out of a list of 100 comments if there's one negative one

30:36Jake Dearden: then you're like well because you almost feel like they're questioning who you are at your core and that's where you have to be like have i ever talked to this person directly yes or no yeah and that's like like because people will comment things they'll say you talk funny and i'm like that's a personal attack on the way that i sound and i have to be like bro you talk you talk great i wish i had your action no but i'm just saying like people will say things regardless and like it's something too because i've had those moments where i'm not reading any comments but and especially on something where you are speaking your mind and you're being very authentic in yourself i think i strongly encourage you to actually read every single comment i do try because

31:15Luke Hopkins: obviously a lot of people are saying nice stuff yeah and i want to acknowledge that and i want to say thank you and i'm super grateful for all the comments um but but yeah it does like you say it's um moving on and obviously your background has shifted a lot you used to well you have done

31:37Jake Dearden: natural bodybuilding yeah i did two natural body or i did two bodybuilding competitions one was untested meaning that i went up against other competitors who could have been taking peds and then the other one was tested which was where i became a natural pro i won my class in both of them i won the overall at the natural pro show which is how i became a natural pro bodybuilder

32:00Luke Hopkins: wow so you you beat people that were potentially on steroids and more than likely were on steroids

32:07Jake Dearden: at their own show when you was natural yes yeah yeah that's what i'm doing that's and then and then you go get your your pro so you've got a pro card i do i mean technically it's expired like i have it in my wallet the piece of platinum no way it's pretty cool that that is

32:26Luke Hopkins: pretty sick yeah not many people can say that they've got that it's always a fun one to pull

32:29Jake Dearden: out they ask for id at the bar and i pull out my pro card and they say get out of here but so were you always a genetic freak in the best way possible funny enough i was super late to hitting puberty like i i played sports my whole life played baseball and i swam competitively up until high school and then i played football and rugby in high school and then i had an opportunity to play collegiate rugby um but i entering high school which i guess for you guys is secondary school i want to say is right there at 13 years old i was five feet tall and 110 pounds wow which is is pretty pretty small nothing yeah you know heavy gust of wind could take me away damn near uh and it wasn't until summer going into my junior year, like obviously I grew a little bit, but junior year was when I hit that first growth spurt.

33:27Jake Dearden: And then I went from third string JV cornerback on the football team to starting varsity. And I've always been the youngest in my grade. Like I just am born later in the year. I have a September birthday and I was moved on because I have two older brothers. So I remember that first game I was 15 years old, starting varsity. And I was shaking, like so frightened because I was so nervous about messing up that I couldn't even tell you like the majority of conversations I had on the sidelines during those games. Cause all my big thing was don't mess up, don't mess up, don't mess up. And this ended up being a really, I want to say like negative habit that I had in a lot of the sports that I played growing up.

34:07Jake Dearden: And even when I started getting into the gym a little bit was just, I was always playing with the idea of like not to lose, Like don't make a fool of yourself as opposed to winning or like being the best version of yourself. And it took me a really long time to reshape that perception of myself. And I think a lot of it actually comes from the fact that it took me so long to grow into like my own body or to feel like I was the athlete that I trained so hard to be. And it's something that I talk a lot to younger athletes out there. it's like, hey, you are capable of accomplishing so much more. You have to believe you can first because a lot of people will chalk it up to genetics or the word talent where people are, oh, I'm just not talented enough.

34:54Jake Dearden: It's such a small thing. It's all about your work ethic. It's all about your self-belief. So regardless of your genetics, regardless of where you come from, it's like, how hard do you work? That's what's the most important. And you have to believe in that hard work that you're doing. Wow. I think I just spiraled that question entirely, but you struck a nerve, my bad.

35:17Luke Hopkins: Nah, nah, that's sick. So you was literally turning up to games and was you excited for the games or was you like dreading the games? Dreading, like petrified. Did you enjoy training?

35:29Jake Dearden: I loved training and I wanted to love the game so much. That's the thing. And there's probably so many people out there that want to love training or want to love anything that they do in life, but they put so much pressure on themselves to be perfect, to be the best right away that it detracts them. And when one thing goes wrong or when it's not going as quickly as they want to on their timeline of life, I feel like that's the theme I keep getting back to, but they get frustrated and they quit or they just like start to get down on themselves and they never make that progression or they entirely deviate from it and say, this isn't for me, you know, because they're trying to look past it without looking inward first.

36:13Jake Dearden: You have to look inward first and ask yourself like, what am I doing? Like, why am I so nervous for this? Or why am I putting so much pressure on this? What does this truly mean to me before you can start looking at the results or before you can start looking at even improving? You have to have a starting point,

36:30Luke Hopkins: a foundation before you progress anywhere that's really interesting and do you do you have that now obviously i know that you love training you train 28 to 30 hours a week like yeah too much or borderline too much uh but uh do you feel like you carry that over to ironman at all where you almost dread the race or are you looking forward to the race more than the training or because i'll admit although yes i look forward to a race when race day comes i'm like i get nervous yeah and i think that's important because the pressure i actually perform better with pressure yeah but i cannot wait until it's over i i love training though training is completely different i love rocking up to train every day so grateful and i think that's what separates it's longevity in athletes.

37:24Luke Hopkins: If you're turning up and you're super talented, but you don't enjoy the training, then you're never going to be in that sport very long. So I know that you love training. I feel like whatever sport you choose, you're going to succeed in because of that. And you understand that hard work means more than just genetics. And you're jacked. You've got super genetics anyway. so um do you enjoy the actual race day now or can you admit that you potentially don't yeah i mean

37:58Jake Dearden: within a nine hour ironman race there are definitely moments that i don't fully enjoy but there are definitely moments that i what about before what about the night before you're like oh yeah and this is the big thing that you said is like you get nervous and like every athlete in in my opinion, should get some feeling of nervousness because it shows how much you care. Like, you know, like if you went into the race and you're like, eh, look, I don't really care what happens to my, that just like negates the months of training and like, like how much preparation you put into this. Like you should be like, dude, I've been building up to this.

38:30Jake Dearden: I've been checking off the days in the calendar. You know, this is the big one that I've been telling all my friends about is today's the day. Like it should fire you up and it should get you nervous because the feelings of nervousness and the feelings of excitement are like the same in your brain. They're so close together. They activate the same part of your brain. And that's where it's the idea of perception and how you flip the narrative. That's where it gets you. Because if you like get to the starting line and you're still like, just like, I want this to be over right away. Like, I don't want to do this at all.

38:58Jake Dearden: Like, as soon as you say, like, I don't want to do this or like, I don't want to be here. Boom. Nervousness. You're going to inhibit yourself. You're going to get in your own way. Self-sabotage. You have to be like, man, I'm excited for an opportunity to show off my fitness man i'm so excited for the fact that i worked so hard to get here and now it's my time to show it like regardless of the like outcome result it doesn't matter about that because it's just like your process to get there was so fulfilling for you and that's what you said it's like the people that love to train the people that love the process are always going to end up being like the long lasting or go farther because they realize that the results aren't always going to go the way they want to but they like no matter what they're going to keep showing up because when the results do go the way they want to it's what not with like their owed or anything it's what they earned i love that and a lot of people that i've spoke to

39:55Luke Hopkins: especially um professional athletes they believe just to deal with the nerves and obviously spinning that into excitement is incredible but sometimes in the back of the mind you can say i'm excited i'm excited i'm excited i'm going to trip my brain and you're like i'm still nervous i'm still like deep down you admit that you're still nervous but uh a lot of athletes i've spoke to say relax the story has already been told and whatever happens was meant to happen yeah are you a believer that what when it is race day it's already been told yeah absolutely like

40:41Jake Dearden: because it's told in who you chose to be in every single day leading up to that race and like every single training session that you showed up to regardless of how they went like you you did it like you went through it you went through so much effort you changed around your entire life to get to that day so i definitely do believe that there is a part that like race day is a celebration of the fact that you went through so much effort and celebration doesn't necessarily mean like, woo parade, like everything's so great. Like, no, like you should still feel nervous. It's still a big deal. You still have to show up and actually do the event.

41:11Jake Dearden: But what I've found that really helps me to, I guess, more so relax and lean more on that excited side of things is, do you know what the word sonder means? Have you ever heard that before?

41:22Luke Hopkins: No.

41:22Jake Dearden: So it's the idea and recognizing that every single person is living their own life. So when you're standing at a race, and it's something that I try so hard to do, I take a deep breath and I look around and I look at all these people around me. And while in one way you could just be like, oh, there are people in my way that I'm going to have to run around or share stations with. Another thing could be like, that's a human being that is about to do this race and they trained so hard to get here. That's a human being who is about to do their first Ironman. No matter what, you begin to recognize that it's not just your individual experience, but the collective whole.

42:00Jake Dearden: And that's what makes this the experience. And that's what makes life so meaningful is who you choose to spend it with and how you choose to interact with other people. I'm actually reading a book right now written by the Dalai Lama, and it's called The Book of Joy. And what he goes to talk about is that happiness is often self-centered, and it's something that you create. but joy comes from like the recognition of everyone around you and other people and that's why before race you're just like at least this is what i try and do is i'm patting people on the back and i'm saying hey good luck today every single person that i pass in transition good luck every single volunteer thank you so much for being here because it's in recognizing that you are not the only person living life you are living your own life but like everyone else is living their own life as well and just trying to bring as many people into the like your perception of the event as possible not for the sake of trying to distract yourself but for the sake of realizing that like you said no matter what it's already written and you can make the day whatever you want it to be based on how you choose to make other people feel because no matter what like you'll do the race you'll get an end result people react to it on instagram they'll make a comment about it 48 hours a week later, they forget about it.

43:16Jake Dearden: They move on to the next thing. That's the nature of social media. But if you have an interaction with someone in person, they are more than likely to remember that for the rest of their lives and be like, dude, I met Jake at a high rocks and he took the time to take a photo with me and ask about how my day was going. That meant so much to me. That means way more to other people than how you perform at the race. And in my opinion, And I think it means way more to yourself in the long term because it might not be now. It might not be in a few years. It could be way down the line when you're a father and you're talking to your kid about the events that you did.

43:51Jake Dearden: But if you could think back to those events and be like on that day, I was someone who cared for other people while still giving my best effort. That's the most fulfilling thing you could ask for.

44:04Luke Hopkins: Do you have to remind yourself to do that? because I think endurance sports has this toxic trait that comes with it where because you're spending so much time in your own head, you're thinking about yourself a lot. Yeah. And you're thinking less about other people and you're thinking about what I'm going to eat that evening, what training I've got on, am I optimizing my sleep? And it's all really self-centered. And it's what is explained as main character syndrome. And how do you stop that from coming on? Because I feel like, especially in endurance sports, Ironman, stuff like that, that main character syndrome becomes more and more apparent.

44:56Luke Hopkins: How do you stop yourself from being like that? Because everyone knows the person that talks about themselves all the time isn't the nicest person to be around. how do you stop yourself from being that person and do you need to do that or is it just not in

45:11Jake Dearden: your personality no like it's definitely something that i actually practice and it's something that i've been practicing for a while um and the way that i like to think about it i'm a huge visualizer like that's what i like to like do is like develop a picture of something so what i think it was like if i'm standing right here like this this fist is me and when i take that deep breath like to like give myself a moment to center, I'm pulling back a little bit. And you go from like this first person perspective where it's like, you and I are talking right now and I'm trying to think about the next thing to say.

45:41Jake Dearden: It's like this third person perspective, almost like an external narrator. And it's just two guys sitting down having a conversation and you remove all that additional thought and emotion and anxiety or excitement that comes with the race and all of these, you know, tricks that you're playing with yourself, trying to calm yourself down, trying to not think about all the stuff that you have to do that day and it's just like you're a being and then you look in you're like wait like it's it's not just me it's these other people too we're all beings in this moment that's what i try and do and that's what i like i i've just always believed that i like we make life so much more complicated in our head than it is in real life it's a blessing and a curse to have cognition as human beings because we are the only creatures that have that and with that comes so much power and innovation in you know emotionality but it also comes like so much stress with just like similar stress or anxiety or nervousness so you have to remind yourself at times that sometimes it's just about thinking less about your thoughts just allowing them to be thoughts and not tying emotions to them and just continuing to live your life that's really cool and i think especially like you say looking at the bigger picture when you're

47:04Luke Hopkins: about to set off in an ironman and you can see that everyone around you is has probably had the the same pain that they've gone through the same pain that you have during training there to get to the same point as you i feel like it's almost easier because you know everyone's in the same boat here and if you're all in the same boat and you might as well laugh and smile and like you say pat each other on the back it's it's pretty cool that you do that and uh i think i'm going to take that away i think that's something that i'm going to take away but so obviously you was moving back to the bodybuilding era how did you move to ironman like what was the was there something in the middle was it just like a switch in your head were you like i instead of being judged and going being in a sport where it's heavily based off opinion to go into a sport where it's very black and white and it's performance focused was that the relief that you needed and the step that you needed or was there something what kind of like spikes that yeah

48:14Jake Dearden: absolutely uh as an individual to be quite honest i don't i don't like to be bad at things like i like to be like good i like to be competitive in every single thing i do that's just like who i am that doesn't mean like i'm trying to be better than anyone else it's just like i know like i can push myself pretty hard is it is there something that you're really good at that people

48:31Luke Hopkins: wouldn't expect i can juggle fairly well i wouldn't say really good i can juggle fairly well

48:37Jake Dearden: um with what we're talking here like three balls i'm talking three objects that weigh the same i can juggle okay well if i give you three bananas i can juggle three bananas okay i mean it's just something i learned in code um but that's like as a human being like i just have the ambition to be great and yeah honestly it's it's something that i've hard to pinpoint exactly when in my life that like it started but every single thing i do i tried extremely hard in school like i had a perfect gpa because i wanted to be just like very very good i didn't want to have a perfect gpa to say i'm better than anyone else it was just like that's what i knew i was capable of doing i chose a perfectionist yeah exactly um so i had actually run two marathons prior to doing bodybuilding just in like college the first one i did my old buddy from high school ran one and he was like okay if he can do i can do it i ran it didn't do that i ran him three hours and 42 minutes impressive first one first marathon first one how much were you weighing at the time

49:42Luke Hopkins: 185 pounds maybe okay okay didn't know anything about endurance training every saturday i would

49:47Jake Dearden: go out and try and run as far as i could and that was it i didn't know what gels were i didn't know what electrolytes were this is 2022 were you listening to like any podcasts or anything when

49:54Luke Hopkins: you start running was there anything motivating you i don't listen to anything when i run and i haven't for a while oh i've heard this i've actually heard this i think i was tony talking to tony from bpm yeah and i was asking i was actually asking do any of the guys do anything weird and he was like yeah well you're not allowed music in your ironmans so you don't train with

50:14Jake Dearden: music at all yeah is that correct i mean every now and then i've heard like a really hard bike session i'll throw around but anytime i run nothing if i'm biking outside nothing obviously when you're swimming nothing interesting and then naturally when i lift i don't have headphones in like i just like i don't know i like to focus on my breathing like once again like just recentering myself i think that's just something i found so powerful but getting back to it the i crossed the finish line in 2020 march of 2022 first marathon first thought is i can do better so a whole year later i think it was april of 2023 did another marathon 317 once again like self-coached i'm like all right like i'm starting to figure this out and i was going to do another one like i felt like that was good but someone had approached me and they're like have you ever thought about doing in bodybuilding.

50:58Jake Dearden: I was like, ah, like maybe, I don't know. Right now I kind of like pull marathon thing. And he was like, you'd probably be pretty good at it. And for some reason it was just like a switch in my head and I'm like, all right, I'm going to do bodybuilding. I'm going to be really good at it. And then I had a 15 week prep, did my first show, first in my class, did it, you know, another four months in prep, natural pro show, won my pro card. Because like someone said like, you'd be good at it. And that was like the trigger that I needed. And I'm like, no, I'm going to be great at this and then similar with power lifting you know i always loved dead lifting i always loved back squatting someone's like oh have you ever thought about competing back power lifting i was like yeah one day and they're like well there's a meet august of 2023 between your two bodybuilding shows you should do that you probably do pretty good i'm like no i'm gonna do great and then i went out and i won the 82 and a half kg class okay what with what numbers i can give you in pounds yeah okay 537 back squat wow 309 bench and then 600 deadlift yeah so how much do you weigh i was 180 pounds 82 and a 82.5 kg yeah i think i weighed like 81 kg for that class but like it was just another thing where someone was like you should do this like you'd be good at and then in my mind it's just like okay if i'm gonna do something i'm not gonna do it just to do it like i'm not a completionist i'm a competitor so i'm like i'm gonna do this and i'm gonna compete in it and then came around like ironman and endurance training again and i trained for another marathon in college um and i went three hours and two minutes and i was like i could break three like like i can't believe i didn't break three like that that was my thought when when you finished that line it was kind of like it was like i could do better than that and then someone was like have you ever thought about ironman and i went out and i did the ironman and i was fully expecting to win my age group in my first 70.3 like that was my mindset i'm like yeah like i did two bodybuilding shows and a powerlifting me and i won those like i could definitely and i got fifth fifth is still pretty good you know but i crossed the line i'm like dude i'm so humbled i'm like i'm so new to this sport i don't know anything i have so much room for improvement and that's what's made me the most passionate about endurance training and especially iron man is that i recognize how new I am to it and how much room for growth there is because bodybuilding and powerlifting in the moment it was fulfilling it was cool to win but like at the end of the day I was like there's no challenge here like this is almost like what I was like built to do I'd rather do something that like to my core almost forces me to change and have this internal reflection and be like hey like you have to progress you have to admit to being a beginner again in order to get better at this.

53:45Jake Dearden: And that's why I've loved endurance training. And I've loved Ironman training because like, it's brought me back to being a beginner. I showed up to bodybuilding having lifted for eight, nine years already. Like, of course I had a pretty defined physique. You know, I'd been deadlifting for six years before my first powerlifting meet. Like, of course it was going to be like a pretty good thing, but like with swimming and biking and running, like all put together, that was something so new to me, like all of them together that I was like, this is really challenging and I like it a lot. And there's so many things that you can go at.

54:18Luke Hopkins: Yeah. So many things you can improve. That's one of the reasons I love High Rocks. But my next question would be then, how far do you think that you're going to take the Ironman?

54:31Jake Dearden: However far I'm meant to on my timeline. I know that, like I said, I still have so much room to go. Are you in it for the foreseeable? Yeah. I mean, I'd like to say so. But what I've realized too, is that like, if at any point in my life, something happens and like, I'm forced to change or that, that desire to want to do something different arises, why not? But for the foreseeable future, absolutely. Because I recognize like, how much room I have to go. And I feel like if I were to step away now, like I'd be leaving so much on the table. That's the thing. Like with bodybuilding, I got my natural pro card and they're like, all right, like if you want to go up, start taking steroids.

55:11Jake Dearden: And I'm like, yep, you know what? That's the end of my time in the sport, you know, not, not time to try to find something else. And with Ironman, it's like, okay, like nine hours, 17 minutes, that's a good time. You could go faster. You know, your bike fit is good. You could adjust it more. Your swim pace is good. You can get faster. So it's these little things, like you said, there's so many different things in Ironman that you can get better at. And that's what draws me in so much. But once it gets to the point where I look and I'm like hey I've given the sport my all like I'm no longer fulfilled by it I'm gonna find something else that's gonna light a fire under my ass and I'm gonna work my damn hardest at it and I'm gonna try and be great at it do you think that'll be the point

55:50Luke Hopkins: where you get a certain position in your age group in the world or are you literally doing it as long as you love it as long as you see progression and then when you stop seeing progression that's your

56:04Jake Dearden: it's time done is that what you're saying yeah i i think and that that's going back to talk to you about my approach to 2026 it's not trying to force anything i feel like a lot of times with life we have like really tight grip on everything because we don't want to let go we don't want to not have control but like learning to like open up your hands a little bit and just like be willing to you know hold something different than what you were clenching on to i feel like can provide you with so much satisfaction with who you are outside of sports. Because if I just sit here and I'm like, this is the only thing I want to do, I'm going to be so focused on this.

56:39Jake Dearden: Like we've talked about, you burn out. You lose track of who you truly are. So in recognizing that like this sport, although it's my current passion, it's not my entire identity, that's the truth of it.

56:53Luke Hopkins: Yeah, interesting. And my question for you is like, do you want to do higher acts for the rest of your life? I think the answer to that question is I want to do high rocks. Yes. Yes. The answer that for the rest of my life as a professional athlete. Yes. I want to, I want to do that. And the reason is because I feel like I've got a talent that I need to pursue. and I feel like people are killed to be in my position. They literally die to be in my position of being on the brink of the Elite 15. And I just think I need to do the people around me proud. And that's the reason I do it. Yes, I enjoy it.

57:50Luke Hopkins: Yes, I love competing at the highest level. But I also like making the people around me proud. and that means a lot to me. I feel like a lot of people have talent and they don't go all in and they're not committed like 100%. Their commitment is probably lacking and that's okay because I think that's, you're not going to find happiness with commitment. If you're all in on something, happiness isn't at the end of that tunnel. But I think I'm okay with that. I'm okay with not being happy. I want to become a champion within my sport and I want to become the best and I'm willing to do whatever that takes through kind of like highs and lows.

58:49Luke Hopkins: So yeah, I think that's just where I'm at at the moment. And I think you always change your mindset and in five years time i might say you know what i was wrong and luke was right and luke's mindset is slightly different you want to perfect your sport until you feel like there's no more improvement and then you move on and then find a different sport and and perfect that and that's definitely the most efficient or productive way of enjoying life you're always working to something um but uh yeah i don't know i feel like i'm just obsessed with it yeah i mean that's like such a

59:34Jake Dearden: powerful thing because here's the thing it's like my opinion isn't right your opinion isn't right they're just opinions you know it's just our perceptions on things and what you were saying about happiness through what you're doing is like very committed it goes back to what you're saying like happiness is often time to like being self-centered but like you said like the biggest reason why you do high rocks is because of those around you and that's the fulfilling factor of joy like you have a joyous life because you are constantly looking out for those around you and realizing like people are supporting you because they realize like jake is so talented and it's like amazing how much he pushes himself and it's awesome how dedicated he is to high rocks and you recognize that and that's what provides your life with joy whereas like that happiness It fleets at times, especially during some of these hard workouts or when races don't go exactly how you want.

1:00:25Jake Dearden: But the life that you live, the overwhelming amount of joy that you are provided with for being in the position that you are, that's what you need to take a step back from. That's what we all need to take a step back from and always acknowledge. Because like you said, you're not always going to be happy, especially when you're super committed to something and you're weighing out all your food and you're waking up at 5 a.m. every day and you're doing all these little things. like you're not always going to be stoked about everything but in taking that step back and realizing like this chapter of your life that you're in and you know pursuing being a high rocks world champion like what joy that provides you with because it's your life that you get to live and that this is the opportunity that it's brought you to no i love that and that i love

1:01:09Luke Hopkins: your mentality as well because i don't know what i'd do if hyrax was taken away from me I genuinely, yes, I'd live. I'd be absolutely fine. But you see a lot in professional sports, when people retire, they become depressed. They have a void in their life, an empty void in their life. And I can just tell by how you go about things. You've almost got this safety mechanism where if Iman got taken away from you tomorrow, you'd be still happy. You'd be still grateful. You'd have other things in your life and you've set up your life that way, which I think is incredible because then you're kind of like a bulletproof person.

1:01:55Luke Hopkins: Like you, am I right in saying that? Do you feel like?

1:01:59Jake Dearden: I appreciate you for saying that. I definitely don't think I'm bulletproof. Like things affect me and I think that would affect me, but it gets back to like the point that we've been trying to hit on, which is that in learning to separate your identity from athletics, that's when you'll be truly fulfilled with the life that you're presented with. You could have something be like the overwhelming focus or the majority focus of your life, but in realizing that it isn't the only focus in your life. That's the important thing. Hyrox is a massive outlet for you to put your time, your dedication your hard work everything to pour it into but what are the outlets outside of that that keep jake dearden jake dearden okay counter question i know i'm just being devil's advocate

1:02:48Luke Hopkins: but you've got someone who has a balanced focus say you know they've got focuses not just on the athlete but who they are outside have been an athlete and the balance in their energy focus how how does that person perform better and outperform the same person but the same person having like same ability same like their clone but has their focus all on being the athlete who gets the better results in the sport that they are doing i mean it's variable because

1:03:27Jake Dearden: Because like you kind of said, it's already written once you get to race day. I've seen individuals cut out every single distraction they've ever had in their life and still show up to race day and have it not go the way they want it to. I've seen that as well. Exactly. And I've seen people that you almost question if they've even trained for the event, and they go out and they crush it. So I don't think that perspective is directly correlational to an exact outcome of a race. what I do know is what it reflects is like your life as a whole because my question is like Jake when the race ends does your life end or when the race ends do you go home and do you talk to your girlfriend and do you like sit on the couch and watch you know like there is life outside of that arena there is life outside of race day and that's where I think having that balance like perception of the world of your life that's when that has a greater effect than being no distractions all in this is your only focus because you're going to bed at night and you're thinking i gave my best effort regardless the outcome i'm satisfied with that and the other person is going to bed and they're like i could have done this better i could have done this better like this is like you know that's me that's that's me it's all of us at different times in our life though you know like i'm not preaching saying that i've i'm better no you're

1:04:46Luke Hopkins: definitely talking sense and you know i i know that you're talking sense because i sat down with a sports therapist from red bull and she said exactly what you're saying i explained all my problems yeah and she says basically you need to get a life that's what she said she said like you're you're too obsessed you're too focused you're doing too much and you need to take a step back and do more of the stuff that isn't fitness related you need to get a hobby that isn't fitness related and you can work on and this will distract you and make you a better athlete that's what she said it's a very smart woman yeah so um you you're definitely talking

1:05:25Jake Dearden: sense man you're so wise beyond your years i appreciate that funny enough real quick just right there i was studying to become a sports psychologist so that's why i studied neuroscience

1:05:35Luke Hopkins: in university wow well it's obviously done you well and like you say it's enabled you to perform at the highest level that can optimize i think your potential and obviously you've got you've got further to go down the line you know just you improving your power to weight ratio will effectively make you a better airman athlete not that you are looking for that or like that like i genuinely think if you was the same body size and competition as the elite athletes you'd be you'd be beating everyone i genuinely think that like the amount of attention to detail you go to um and it's incredible that you can do all that but then have the wisdom to then shut off and think you know what i if i if i never saw my bike again like yeah you probably would miss it but like i've got other things in my life yeah and i think i think that's really cool that that is

1:06:36Jake Dearden: incredible thank you man i mean at the end of the day like i can't obsess enough we're all just learning you know what we say today could be very true tomorrow and then it could be entirely untrue the next day everything in life is just theorized nothing is law and that's what you have to embrace and that goes back to like the metaphor i've seen of like open hands of like embracing life with this open perspective that no matter what's going to happen i'm gonna stay true to myself, stay true to my core values and continue to be who I'm truly meant to be every single day.

1:07:10Luke Hopkins: That's, that's cool. I want to, I want to finish with a couple of questions, just kind of like quick questions. And the first one, obviously you mentioned, uh, that you like to transition from sports to sport and, uh, not that you like to do it, but you like to conquer a sport

1:07:30Jake Dearden: and then move on is there any sports that you've thought about that oh maybe when i'm 30 i want to

1:07:37Luke Hopkins: do or when i'm older i want to achieve i want to get really good at like iron man like what's what's the next sport if you could bet now what's the next sport if i had to bet it would be high rocks i would need you to retire first though oh i did actually it's just because like i love to do the

1:07:53Jake Dearden: workouts it gets your heart rate up you get sweating like it's intense and it's like oh cool

1:07:57Luke Hopkins: he'd be good at it as well he's got the muscle he's got the muscle and he's got the legs okay next one obviously you mentioned that you was filming uh a day of eating today actually

1:08:11Jake Dearden: if you had could only eat one meal yeah for the rest of your life yeah what would it be actually let's go death row meal so it's it's last meal not one else otherwise it'd get boring I'm going to underwhelm you entirely. Don't say chicken. Chicken tenders and french fries. Chicken tenders. Chicken tenders, french fries, and honey mustard. Dude, I'm such a simple man. I love that. Grew up on that. Every now and then I'll go to a diner and get it. Is it nostalgic? It's nostalgic, for sure. It's simple. I don't need a complex charred steak. Don't get me wrong, that's great. But panko crusted chicken tenders, fries that are crispy the right way, Steak cut And some honey mustard That's all I need

1:08:57Luke Hopkins: And then if you was to make a meal For someone else You personally Okay I'm not making chicken dinner Chef up a meal Yeah yeah yeah What are you doing Shoot If you're trying to impress us

1:09:05Jake Dearden: Yeah Date night Honey glazed salmon Roasted asparagus And then diced sweet potato

1:09:12Luke Hopkins: Oh Yeah You know I I don't know how to cook Every now and then Interesting No that's That's cool I don't know what mine would be Mine would be something like probably chicken and rice or something i don't know i may oh no i make a good pasta bake do you have pasta bakes around here not a not a clue what that is no not a clue what that is so a pasta bake is basically you make a pasta dish you then put it in a bowl you put cheese on the top and then you put that in the oven yeah big ziti kind of but it'll be with like a few zili pasta or like a penny pasta or something like that am i explaining that right tom yeah yeah yeah i'll give it a try yeah uh obviously you read a lot of books your top book recommendation oh

1:10:04Jake Dearden: that is such a good i was just thinking i was like on my bookcase the other day and i was trying to think um let's go non-fiction and fiction okay chop wood carry water is technically a fiction book but it has a lot of like good non-fiction in it it's this it's a story it's yeah it's two brothers um have you read the book no but uh no no no okay two brothers and one gets super sick and the other like vouchers like or pursue the dream that they had together which would become like an art like the greatest archer and he goes off to archery school and he's constantly getting taught these lessons which are just like greater reflections of life lessons but it's like so cool how it's like taught through archery and these like very minute details of like your draw and how you hold the bow but then it's like your perspective on life and like how you're closing one eye it's it's cool they do a lot of good juxtapositions in that book and then favorite non-fiction book i mean it's coming to me off the top of my head so i'm gonna say it is um don't believe everything you think by i believe it's josh nguyen and i coin or i didn't coin but I mentioned one of his ideas in our talk is that there's a difference between having thoughts and thinking.

1:11:21Jake Dearden: Having a thought is just kind of like the general perception or like awareness that you're where you are. And thinking is when you often tie the emotions to it. And that's when it becomes like overcomplicated in your head. And just learning to like have thoughts without always thinking about them and just being like, okay with that. That's been super powerful for me.

1:11:40Luke Hopkins: nice i'm gonna i'm gonna definitely take them off that after i won't remember them right now but no i'm definitely gonna listen to them i'll read them do you just a quick one obviously this is do you listen to more books or do you read more books i read highlight hard copy so you gotta be an actual book just like that hard copy not uh yeah can't you can't do it on my phone no right okay okay and then you're highlighting things as you go through are you ever looking back at them highlighted things or are you just highlighting it so no but then i'll give the book to other people

1:12:08Jake Dearden: and then like it'll be cool and they're like oh like i like how you highlighted this and i'm like

1:12:14Luke Hopkins: okay cool that's cool that's that's really cool uh next one if you could only either lift weights for the rest of your life or run cycle and swim for the rest of your life what would you do i'm saying like you you're not going into a gym you're not stepping foot in a

1:12:34Jake Dearden: gym yeah oh that's so hard well because like i've been lifting for like 10 years now like i'm 23 you know that's like i think you keep your muscle though i definitely think you keep it well even if you just can i do push-ups and pull-ups no wow that's a tough one i'm gonna start going with swimming cycling and biking just because like you kind of gave me an unfair advantage that's three sports compared to one if you were to say running versus lifting i think i'd probably say lifting which is hard because i love to run but like lifting's cool and then i want to finish on

1:13:06Luke Hopkins: a last one which people have different answers to but do you ever see yourself retiring

1:13:15Jake Dearden: i like to float around the idea that one down own a sandwich shop on like the coast in hawaii and i'm just like a super laid-back dude i'm way too type a for that that'll never happen

1:13:25Luke Hopkins: like uh that's just the truth of it what sandwiches would you sell i would do like

1:13:29Jake Dearden: a chicken salad on like a toasted brioche roll you do a little arugula a little garlic aioli yeah i've thought about this um i would like to think that the word retire isn't something that like it's going to come a time where i just sit on the couch all day but what i would like to look at it as like when it comes time to like have a family and to be a father that i want to be just fully present in my kid's life so if it means not competing as much if at all if it means not posting as much if at all you know like i just know that my biggest priority in this life is to make sure that my kids have a better life than i do so like when that time does come whenever it may be like that will be my my number one priority that's cool and i think that that aligns well with

1:14:19Luke Hopkins: what you mentioned with having other things and having something to move on from after sport But I think that's cool. And having it as something that's not self-centered. Like Ironman's so self-centered. Any sport is really, unless it's a team sport. So being able to put that into a family, I think that's pretty sick. How many kids do you want if you could right now? Well, it's not my choice. Ideal world two, boy and girl. Two, two. Nice. Nice. That's cool. Well, that was really cool.

1:14:53Jake Dearden: I appreciate you so much for having me on, dude.

1:14:55Luke Hopkins: thank you very much honestly it was brilliant um thank you man luke hopkins everyone