I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions. I don’t have anything particularly against them, I’ve just always favoured consistency over focusing on the switch of year as a reason to reset. I understand why people leverage the new year to re-align, establish goals, and map out the next twelve months, however for me, clarity of direction and persistent action hold more importance than the date on the calendar.

When it comes to training, there’s a big difference between just showing up versus turning up to work.

Of course, not every session is going to be maximum intensity. We all have off days, moments of exhaustion, or times where the focus just isn’t there. But when you walk through those gym doors, what’s your intention?

When I opened Strava recently, I noticed they’d added a new feature showing your streak of active weeks. Mine currently sits at 265, which corresponds to five years of uninterrupted training since I first started tracking. And that’s just what’s been measured since I started using Strava.

There’s been more than a few times in my life when people have commented on the consistency of training habits that I perhaps take for granted. During my mid-twenties and early thirties, I used to post runs, gym sessions and progress updates on social media. Over time though as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my social media usage dwindled to the point of not using it at all.

For nearly two decades now, running has been part of my daily routine. When I moved to London in my early twenties, I swapped the commute in a crowded tube for running to the office and pretty much never looked back.

Sometimes you sign up for something before asking the sensible questions, like when, where, and how much training you’ll actually need. That’s exactly how I found myself heading to Farnborough in mid-February for my first Turf Games…with a team I’d barely trained with!

When it comes to fitness and physical challenges, my general approach is simple: it’s me versus me. Of course, there are other participants, however as I'm not a fitness professional, I don't necessarily expect to finish top of the pile against trained athletes. What I do expect is that I’ll push myself to my personal limits and leave it all on the track or in the arena.

I’ve already shared my Hyrox experience in another post and didn’t pull any punches with regards to my performance assessment. This time, I’m focusing on another milestone which was probably overdue when it came round given the volume of miles I have in the bank. In 2022 I finally took part in my first 26.2 marathon in Brighton.

It was a late night discussion somewhere in mid-2020 that prompted me to sign up for my first ultramarathon.

Chatting with a friend, the topic of ultramarathons came up. Within 30 mins of hanging up the call, I’d found an upcoming 75km Ultra from Aldershot to Portsmouth.