The MOST INSANE ENDURANCE Challenge In History | Sean Conway X Rich Roll Podcast

Endurance athlete Sean Conway joins Rich to share lessons learned after crushing an unbelievable feat of voluntary human performance: 105 ironmans in 105 days. To read more about Sean and peruse the full show notes, go here👉🏾https://bit.ly/richroll796
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FILMED AND EDITED BY BLAKE CURTIS & DAN DRAKE
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00:00:00 Intro
00:08:37 The Drive for Record-Breaking Challenges
00:12:17 The Struggle of Recovery
00:17:45 The Importance of Sleep
00:18:43 Adjusting Physiotherapy Routine
00:20:16 Sleep over Physio
00:21:53 The Potential Risks and Injuries
00:23:07 Sean’s Experience and Confidence
00:27:48 Nutrition and Weight Management
00:28:35 Sponsor
00:29:41 The Importance of Endurance Base and Preparation
00:34:39 Sean’s Decision to Continue Despite Setbacks
00:36:43 Comparing Sean and James’ Challenges
00:38:24 Sean’s Approach and British Attitude
00:43:43 The Decision to Attempt the 100
00:45:41 Considering Going Beyond the Record
00:48:25 Letting Chance Decide
00:50:35 The Sense of Specialness and Community
00:51:49 The Camaraderie and Support from Others
00:53:39 Considering the Possibility of Doing More Challenges
00:58:41 Endurance Muscle Management
00:59:54 Mindset Techniques and Tools
01:00:55 Sean’s Backstory and Early Years
01:05:00 Building a Photography Business
01:06:35 Leaving the Business and Symbolic Gesture
01:09:42 Getting Funding for Cycling Around the World
01:11:30 Being a Total Novice, Yet Determined
01:12:18 Training and Ramping Up
01:13:01 Car Accident and Setback
01:19:36 Living a Simple Life
01:20:37 Meeting Caroline
01:22:52 Desire for Adventure and Exploration
01:25:53 The Importance of Having a Physical Goal
01:26:56 The Benefits of Challenging Oneself Physically
01:30:03 The Mindset of Not Having a Plan B
01:34:04 The Importance of Youth Sport
01:35:49 The Impact of Ryan Reynolds on Wrexham
01:37:29 Refusing to Celebrate Small Wins
01:39:48 Motivating the Crew
01:42:17 Room for Improvement: Showing Appreciation for the Crew
01:47:32 The Drive for Social Acceptance
01:48:14 The Role of Ego in Motivation
01:48:53 The Importance of External Validation
01:53:15 The Desire to Start and Finish
01:56:04 Encouraging the Breaking of Records
01:59:42 The Challenges of the Swimming the Length of Great Britain
02:02:36 Swimming Technique and Challenges
02:04:18 Courage and Sense of Adventure
02:09:43 The Challenges of Previous Events
02:10:18 Reflecting on Past Failures
02:12:00 Changes After Failure
02:17:50 Setting Goals and Motivation
02:20:41 Fun, Non-Physical Endurance Challenges
02:24:05 Let’s Work on Eating Vegetables
02:24:54 Vegan Diet Challenge
02:25:37 Sean’s Nutrition Strategy
02:32:20 Credits

* * * * *

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Hi I’m Rich Roll. I’m a vegan ultra-endurance athlete, author, podcaster, public speaker & wellness evangelist. But mainly I’m a dad of four. If you want to know more, visit my website or check out these two the NY Times articles:
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You’re a guy who from the outside looking in positions himself as the Everyman the non-athlete the ordinary dude but that’s really not entirely accurate I’m quite proud now to actually have gone from this unhappy School portrait photographer 2 Shan Conway an iron distance Triathlon every day for5

Days people have asked me what do you think is the reason you do these things and I sort of don’t want to know it’s an unpopular opinion now everyone sort of says oh it’s all about the journey and I’m like s That I’m extremely proud to introduce you to our newest brand partner on check out their lineup of super comfortable sleek and durable pieces for yourself at on.com Sean so nice to meet you thank you for doing this thank you for having me although it may look a little bit

Like my home studio we are in London recording and you made the trip down you’re wearing your kit so I thought did you just did you run here did you ride your bike here I was going to cycle I was going to cycle yesterday and doing

All day it was 220 mile which normally for me I would just do on the spur but I thought right let me could I do it could I do it and then yesterday I just got a bit busy and then the the sort of the terer and me CU I’m two characters in

Life I’m a monkey and a terrier and I got to feed both animals uh the terer me saying do something do something cuz it’s been weeks now and even though everyone’s telling me to do nothing and just sit on the sofa and Netflix uh I can’t I just can’t so tomorrow it’s not

In your na it’s not I just I even so I came down on the train with my mate Chris and um you know like and he’s like mate stop fidgeting what are you doing likeing out the window thinking about why so anyway tomorrow so car fist on

Friday so tomorrow got the day off so I thought well 60 mile 100K to car fist could I run it and it’s it’s quite an easy train line there’s probably a train station every 10 miles so I’ll just bail if I can’t do it so yeah I I just got to

Do something that’s cool so so 60 mil so you would leave what at like 4 in the morning yeah probably 500 a.m. uh it probably take me 14 hours 15 hours I think maybe uh as I said I I really should not do this I’m still nursing the

Hip thing but I thought let me crack out the 105 kit one more time and before it lands up on a frame in my in my garage actually um and then yeah so that’s why I’m in this got my running kit well I’m getting a ride to

Carfest so if I’m driving by I’ll either wave or or pull over yeah give be a banana you can just throw it out the window are you um that’s interesting the terrier and what is the other animal the monkey is that sort of an alter ego type

Of situation like you you try to channel that energy and transcend yourself in the way that the iron cowboy has the iron Cowboy it’s a different personality or David Goin has Goin like these are ways to get out of your own mental Loop and and do extraordinary things by being

Somebody else alog together yeah I mean there’s definitely there’s a part of me that now looks back at everything else I’ve done and goes is that like that’s not you like there the impostor syndrome part of me and the person the little kid who was never picked at school for sport and you

Know I was in the seventh team rugby at my school I think there was only one other in the of South Africa that had seven team so we only had one match a year and um you know I was terrible at sport growing up I’m quite short now and

I only grew after school so I was Tiny at school in South Africa which is very Macho and you know if you’re not good at rugby or Cricket you’re a nobody type thing um so really my my belief which is so ingrained in me now that I’m I

Shouldn’t be able to do these things it’s I think it’s still there somewhere so the person who then goes off and does 100 full IR even now I’m sitting there going like is that like was that like that can’t be me like I’m not that guy you know um so the

The monkey Terrier thing is is more I’ve I’ve noticed over the years I’ve got to feed both those animals in certain ways to make me like my for my mental health mainly just for my well-being and the monkey is what I am mostly and I love being a monkey I’m inquisitive I break

Things I fix things I have to do things with my hands whether it’s gardening fixing things I’m into woodwork knife making yeah you fix all cars too all cars yeah I’ve got all cars that I’m sort of messing around with I’ve always got one on the go and then just about to

Sell the one I’ve just finished now and find another one and um yeah so that’s the the monkey but then the monkey gets frustrated if if if the terrier doesn’t get fed and every now and then the terrier just needs to chase something it’s one task simple Chase it and then

What I’ve worked out is and that can be little things so it can be you know fixing these projects or learning something new or the latest thing I’m chasing is Yoga I’ve always poo pooed yoga but this last week I’ve got what I did my first yoga thing on YouTube and I

Was like man I am rubbish at this and I was all of a sudden right I hate being rubbish at something and I it doesn’t dissuade me from trying to do it more so now I’m all in for yoga so every morning I’m up at 5:29 I do half an hour of yoga

Before the kids wake up and it’s changed my world honestly because I’ve I’ve done everything I’ve got ice bar at home a SAA tried all the different herbal things for sleep like um theanine and magnesium um and there’s the human yeah I’ve done all of that you know I do the

Salt in my glass of water in the morning um but certainly the getting up at 5:30 and doing half an hour of of of yoga or Pilates I haven’t done Pilates yet but it’s definitely I feel has the biggest impact in my life but the anyway the

Terrier for me to satisfy the terrier for the longest period afterwards I try and do these long really long difficult challenges and I find I’m I’m a better husband a better father a better mate I’m more satisfied in life I’m healthier fitter eat better so yeah once I worked

Out those I then stopped feeling guilty for being a monkey CU you know monkeys are annoying right you know and and I was annoying and you know cuz I was always I remember as a kid my parents going just stick to something you know CU I’d have a hobby every 5 minutes and

I started sort of feeling like there was something wrong with me like for having all these different interests every five minutes and and it even extends to you know when I’m doing one of the cars for example I’ll do half a job and then run out of screws and then most normal

People go to the shop buy more screws come back and fix that I’m like no I’m going to go on a move the wheel now and then do half the wheel and then you know so we’re doing when we bought our house we uh it we bought it off a 90-year-old

Guy and it just needed some tarting up but Caroline was so frustrated because I’d do half the living room and then half the bedroom and none of it was finished until all of a sudden it was all finished and uh that kind of works for me guess that’s so interesting

Because the terrier would not allow something to go uncompleted exactly right the terrier latches onto something and doesn’t let go but the complimentary nature of these two Essences of who you are are very cool and to be able to identify that understand it and and know

What needs to get fed and how they kind of interlace with each other is is a really kind of beautiful model the monkey being the guy who’s tinkering with the puzzle pieces especially with these huge projects right there’s so many variables there’s so many things to think about pieces moving all over the

Place how do they all fit together uh that’s the problem solving part of your mind and then the terrier is the tenaciousness and the single mod to attack something and complete it all together yeah absolutely and then the terrier is is once the terrier is engaged it’s Red Mist blinkers on know

Honestly like and and it infuriates Caroline because every now and then the terrier Creeps in in normal life for example you know there’ll be something I’ll remember in the veggie plot like halfway through dinner like oh I’ve not done that thing for the for the pumpkins

For Halloween and if I don’t water them now I’ll forget and I’ll literally get up halfway through them I’m like I have to do it now you don’t understand like I’m like the opposite of a procrastinator it’s just if I I can’t not wait it’s just I have to do it so

For doing these long challenges I found it’s just for me that destination is all that matters it’s an unpopular opinion now everyone sort of says oh it’s all about the journey not about the destination I’m like s that no I I appreciate your your cander and honesty

Around that like no I’m going for the record I’m going for yeah like we can drape it in a charity and all but you know that thing where you get the email and your friend is going to be running the 10K or the marathon it’s like they’re raising money and it’s like okay

That’s great and that’s important and there’s certainly you know something to be honored and all of that but let’s be honest about what we’re really doing here right like you want to go run this thing and accomplish that why are we embarrassed to say that exactly you know and and for me

It’s I just have to do it I can’t not go for the record I just get No Sa what’s what’s behind that though like part of me thinks when you have to get up from the dinner table and go fix that thing there’s some like dysfunction around Control operating there maybe

Growing up in all these different places or feeling like your life was out of control yeah I went to boarding school quite Young when I was seven um would come home on the weekends from 7 till 9:00 then 9 hour proper boarding school people have asked me what do you think

Is the reason you do these things and I sort of don’t want to know like it’s working like I don’t want to be fixed actually like there’s obviously maybe something wrong and maybe there was a childhood trauma that I’m trying and I’m trying to every High achiever says this

They feel like if they really delve into that that they’re going to lose their superpower absolutely you know I speak it’s a lie though you know that right like that’s an illusion you’ll actually be probably more fit to do the things that that you’re trying to do okay well

I’m glad you said that actually cuz it’s it’s sort of being at the back of my mind the whole time like should I find out you know but what if I find out and it’s a horrible story which I don’t remember and then I

Find out and then I’m like oh no I found this out and you know a now I’ve got to deal with that I mean you will you’ll have to Grapple with that you’re GNA have to you know reckon with it but I think ultimately on the other side of

That there’s always greater Freedom happiness and and and and sort of Liberation for yourself if there is something there that’s being repressed out of some defense mechanism there’s a survival uh you know kind of dynamic operating there but at some point in your life it will likely surface or

Perhaps it’s already manifesting in unhealthy ways that you’re unaware of yeah I never hear about people who undergo that process and come out the other side and feel like it wasn’t worth it or they’re not better for having done it yeah understand what you’re saying you’re say well I might look into it

Actually I might look into it um no it’s true it’s true because there’s certain things in real life I like I don’t sleep well I’ve never slept well ever although since I’m doing the yoga thing you have you have to go out and and do an Iron Man every day so you

Canle I did sleep at the beginning the first month was horrendous I hot sweats and my average heart rate in the first week sleeping heart rate was 89 that was my average for sleeping time I had a I wore a whoop for the first week and then

Threw it away I was like I don’t want to know my is 1% I know you’re starting out at 1% every single day yeah yeah well you had to go through I mean James said the same thing there’s that adaptation phase until your body kind of settles into

What it’s doing and understands it um so let’s get into that I mean first of all like how long has it it’s been like two months now four weeks last Sunday com only four weeks four and a half weeks wow so how are you feeling how is the

Body doing the first couple coup days after I felt amazing and I was like damn it I knew I shouldn’t have stopped um and then and then the third day oh I just crashed and then but it wasn’t a bad crash I was just like obviously my

Body had gone right well we’re not doing this again mhm you can just relax um and then I thought that was the bottom I thought it would be a sharp drop off I’m at the bottom and I’m going to slowly get better over however long a month two

Months 6 months a year but actually I then got worse the next week and then the third week was really bad like just I was sleeping a lot but I had zero I was like a permanent bunk like walking up the stairs at home I was like this is

Tough even though I went on a few bike rides and my Figures were okay um The power was okay and the heart rate was okay but I just felt awful I just couldn’t and the motivation was there that’s the other good thing that I’ve been surprised by been motivated to keep

The fitness but I just had nothing in the tank no matter food wouldn’t do it sleep didn’t do it uh stretching doing the yoga um and this week that shouldn’t come as a surprise though no I know but the Terry and the monkey They throwing

Thoughts in my head and like you know I have this amazing Bas squander it I’ve done 90 hours I’ve done 90 hours a week of Zone one and two training for three and a half months I’m like that’s got to be worth something I don’t want to lose that like I’m never

Going to do that again so yeah I’m yeah I’m want to keep the fitness so which is why I’m now going to try and do a run tomorrow and but I’m good enough at micro analyzing everything yeah there’s and we can go over this there’s 10 pillars of endurance that I and every

Day on everything I do that’s a multi-day you got to tick every single box so it’s planning uh experience Fitness Health Nutrition hydration sleep muscle management mindset or motivation and community so if you nail all 10 of those every single day you’re going to be able to nail multi-day endurance

Challenges and and you know it’s I did that every single day doing the 105 um and I sort of want to get back to a place where I’m now you know if I did that now surely I’m just going to get you know get over this fatigue but I

Know it doesn’t work like that yeah it doesn’t and the past you realize of course intellectually that uh that you can’t persist in hitting it hard like that every single day that you have to give yourself this break and the sense that I’m getting from you is it’s

Actually easier for you to get up and do an Iron Man every day than it is for you to sit down and be with yourself and and allow yourself to heal yeah I mean just thank goodness I have kids and an amazing wife and that has kept me busy I

Think yeah in the old days all the other things I’ve done other than the Europe record where I was with Caroline um I’ve been single really and that’s then my yeah I don’t know I I struggled a little bit because I didn’t had my mind to

Focus on them and yeah there’s a part of me you say well why do you do this I have I have this sort of picture in my head of my kids as teenagers trying to learn the guitar and moaning about having sore fingers I was like you don’t

Know pain boys yeah you don’t want to be that guy yeah the 105 is actually the the third longest thing I’ve done it’s not even the longest and the other one so I cyle around the world 150 something days my length of Britain swim was 135 days and then my longest continuous

Triathlon which is 3,500 mile that was 85 days so I’ve hovered around this long stuff for a while um but definitely this one’s been way harder to recover from but I think you’re doing pretty good yeah all I can do is compare and contrast your experience with that of

James’s and I know that James in the Wake there’s a lot of differences in the way that you guys kind of approach this and and how it went for you guys but James you know famously had a very difficult time and then in the aftermath his healing process was very protracted

And it included not just fatigue and depression but cognitive issues like he went and had to do like brain exercises like he couldn’t think straight I know you’ve said um a few things around memory but that was like during the Iron Man’s but mentally you seem very clear

You seem present and your energy feels pretty solid whereas James was really kind of having a hard time and it took him a very long time to kind of crawl out of that hole Yeah so I I’ve thought about this a lot because I knew people

Would be comparing the two of us and I think there’s a couple of things that I did different that suited me better one is well I didn’t get injured I didn’t get a severe injury like he did so you know knowing that he had to do that

Marathon with the brace with the poles fast walk like walking a marathon is way harder than running it with a good technique um you know his probably quartis all levels were really high because he knew that that was at the end of the day MH he was I think about 2

Hours slower than me each day which meant he was getting less way less rest and um and also I I read and I don’t know how much of this is accurate on a daily basis but he said he was doing 3 hours of physio a day which was just

Taking away from sleep and for me of those 10 Pistons sleep sleep is one of them and it’s almost number one priority for me like I knew I had to get fast enough to do a full distance on in zone one or two for one CU I

Couldn’t be I needed to be at 110 heart rate all day and if that made me fast enough to then still get 8 hours sleep that was the goal and that was and that happened at around day 30 something and that came as a result of experimenting

With Physio and sleep to find that ratio that would work and I think you’re correct I think James had a massive team and he had people who were working on his body and he needed that but it did eat into his sleep and you discovered that you were better off if you

Prioritized the sleep and then worked in the physio when you had a little buffer of time exactly that so the first month I think I can’t remember the exact day I stopped doing daily physio but it was around day 30 let’s say mhm I was doing about 20 minutes of physio between the

Bike and the run and then I was doing half an hour physio in the evening but there’s a bit of faf time around each side of that so I was losing an hour a day of potential sleep and I was slower so for example on day two I nearly

Missed the 17 hour cut off I did 16 hours 55 I think day three 16 hours 45 uh CU I picked up a knee niggle U on the bike from day one um completely my own fault I so the new bike I had built I chose shorter cranks um and I totally

Forgot so when I I’d done my my bike fit on the old bike which had longer cranks and I put the short cranks on and just totally forgot so I just measured messed up measured from bottom bracket up to seat post I like well that’s millimeter

Perfect I’ll be good and then forgot I was like 10 mil off or something crazy and then in the in the chaos of day one you just never I just didn’t pick it up right so I was super slow then I was having the physio so I was only getting

You know six five hours sleep maybe 6 hour sleep and then this it sort of hovered around you know 7 hours up until 30 and then I I remember once the knee thing was manageable cuz I was taping it and wearing the patella bands and then

The ankle the right sort of ankle Shin that had sort of calmed down a little bit and uh I thought right I wonder if I could let’s try going for sleep over physio let’s just see cuz I can always just call him if I need the Physio and

It’s not working and I did that and it was a game changer if you look at all my splits on my website like as soon as that happened I was you know I was a a little bit quicker but B my mood was better I felt like I could push it a

Little bit harder and I could sustain a faster pace which would then result in me being able to do you know have more sleep again and then you you’re on the front of the wound you up on the compounding that interest exactly whereas James would have a had the

Injury to deal with so the cortisol levels and the pain and all that stress uh the and he was a bit slower and then he was having to do the physio so of course he came out of that feeling like completely ruined um because I knew I knew it was doable without a

Major injury you know I’ve I’ve done my Marathon a day for 44 days the longest time I’ve done a a marathon a day for pretty much you know I’ve done when I was cycling around the world going for that record was what 200 miles a day 180

To 200 miles a day every day when I swam the length of Britain I was do four and 4 and 1/ half hours on 7 hours off 4 and 1/ half hours on 7 hours off with the tide so and that again was day after day

So at least in my head I was naive naive enough to go well actually I think this is doable without getting a serious injury and and the run really is the one that will dnf you absolutely right unless you have some kind of devastating crash exactly because and that’s the

Other thing I look at all what will dnf me getting run over on the bike getting a serious injury which is most likely going to happen on the run as in a repetitive strain injury like a compression fracture or tendon tear or things like that um getting really ill

Co or something worse uh and the last one was you didn’t want to think about but a family member um tragedy type thing so I had those awkward conversations with my parents and my sister cuz I was like where’s the line right what what would what would have to

Happen for you to pull the plug where the terrier would have to heal yeah think well I did have to pull the plug didn’t I on the previous attempt sure and yeah I’d love to talk about that disaster yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean let’s just uh we’re well into it but and

I’m sure I’ll say this in in the introduction but for clarity purposes uh Sean completed 105 iron distance triathlons in 105 consecutive days uh at the outset the goal was to Eclipse James’s record of doing 101 by doing 102 um and there’s so many kind of interesting um similarities points of

Overlap with James’s experience but also many departures right on the one hand you’re a guy who from the outside looking in sort of positions himself as the every man the non-athlete guy the the kind of ordinary dude who’s going to go out and do something extraordinary but that’s really not entirely accurate

We can go into the backstory and how you got into this stuff I think there’s some super interesting stuff there but the other perspective is that you actually had a lot more experience than James did with these extended multi-day Adventures that gave you not only a level of confidence going into such an

Audacious goal but also uh you know sort of a library a copious amount of experience to rely upon knowing that you could get through difficulties and how to kind of navigate the training leading up to the experience but also the day in day out kind of grind and and and

Determining you know in the monkey part of you what’s important what’s not and how those puzzle pieces fit together yeah exactly and and and you’re right I sort of I am I was the every man because I just came I was a school portrait photographer until I was 30 yeah we’re

Going to get into all that cuz that’s nutty some crazy stuff yeah so but you’re right you know there’s there’s two parts of me as well that go one you know so you’re you’re the every man one how could you be doing who’s this guy not going to break

James’s record like this guy he’s got a little punch belly he’s got a beard he lives in the countryside he thinks he’s just going to go out and like beat the iron Cowboys record exactly and then part of me is going like have you even looked to my website like honestly I

Can’t do this look I didn’t know you know when I first started paying attention to you I I mean I kind of knew who you were and I knew you had done some other stuff but I didn’t know the extent of your resume when it came to Adventure endurance no exactly and then

So part of me is like honestly guys I can do it please believe me look this is this is what I’ve done you know um and and and you’re right you know I’m quite proud now to actually have gone from this unhappy School portrait photographer to you know someone who’s

Got quite a long CV of doing multi-day stuff and and you know if it’s under two if it’s under seven days I sort of don’t even count it as an event now I’ve probably forgotten about it on my webs other than the cheese rolling which was

23 seconds or whatever but um yeah and and and yeah you’re right it’s it’s is that JX position but I don’t want to stop people thinking I’m the every man because I am and I’ve been tested I went to a human performance lab you know the

One that the brownley brothers go to and everything and I remember secretly going there thinking yeah there’s something about me right I got some crazy yeah they’re going to write papers on me forever and they I did all the tests I did the same test at Jenson Button does

With all the cognition and the and your reaction speed all the tests and the heat lab sweat power V2 like everything threshold lactate threshold and it was a couple of weeks later and I go back and then a different person who did the test looked at the

Papers and there was you know they printed it all out there’s about 20 pages and we sit down he’s all excited he’s going through and I could just see his expression dropping right he’s like he you’re actually pretty average and in fact you’ve got a disadvantage cuz I

Lose 3.4 G of salt per liter of sweat which is almost twice as much as most people so I really have salt deficiencies I have to really work on that as well in the hydration pie chart of this so uh yeah no one’s writing papers on me for a while yeah but

Actually it makes it more aspirational I hope so to know that you’re not some kind of physiological outlier yeah yeah well exactly and I think so too because you’re right I mean you’ve talked about out outliers in the past a lot of people will look at you and if they presume

You’re an outlier they think oh well I can’t do that because he’s this he’s got lots of money he’s a millionaire there which I’m not or’s got biological Advantage which I don’t um and that’s why I put on my website the hiccup bit cuz I you have a whole section of all

Your failures all things I’ve messed up I almost failed the first time I do everything because I actually I have no I really don’t care about failing I don’t I don’t feel guilty I don’t feel like I’ve let people down I’m just like oh that didn’t work I’ll try again you

Know and that’s in just in my nature I don’t know why I’ve not had to train myself to do it I guess um maybe that’s your greatest gift maybe yeah outlier is true like you can’t succeed if you’re not pushing the envelope of your capability which means you’re going to

Fail yeah that’s the only way that you grow yeah exactly I also have a very short-term memory it’s brilliant you know like all those miserable days and all this when it didn’t didn’t work the last time I’m like yeah whatever um to the point of actually there was some

Things that I sort of did on the irons now where I’m like I I worked this out 10 years ago why have I forgotten it you know like little food hacks like drinking the cream for example and to keep the weight on cuz I only lost 3 kgs

Over the whole time and I lost that CG a month um which I was pretty happy I was expecting to lose more hoping to lose less started at 70 which I didn’t want to put on weight uh because I didn’t want to run heavy I

Wanted to run at a at a good weight to start with um and I thought let me just nail my nutrition and calories at the start um so yeah it’s sort of trying to get on top of all of that um which again comes with the 12 years

Of experience and and all the different things I’ve Done every athlete I know is going to tell you that having the right gear is key to Performance if what you’re wearing is poorly crafted it’s just going to put distance between you and those goals you’ve set you owe it to yourself to invest in the best and the

Best is on I’m obsessed with the cloud Ultra great on the trails and I just got the new nextg Cloud Stratus 3 for the road I’m loving those but an also has this incredible line of lightweight high performance apparel that it’s just beyond anything I’ve previously dawned

It’s like this second to none Second Skin I love to rock the sweat wicking Ultra te and the ultra shorts which have this pocket right at the base of the spine that perfectly anchors your phone no jiggle I’m just so proud to partner with an and I love their vision for the

Future where their gear is engineered for circularity so check out their amazing lineup of super comfortable sleek and durable pieces for yourself at on.com yeah I think that that one could form the mistaken belief that you just sort of barrel into these things and figure it out as you go and what I’ve

Learned and discovered about you is that there’s a much greater uh granular attention to detail preparation and the daily schedule than one might imagine because if you go to your Instagram like you have that before and after photo yeah and the before photo it looks like

Well you were out of shape and you just trained your way into this thing yeah um but that’s not the truth and I and I heard you talk about um the endurance the endurance science aspect of this in a very intelligent way which is this notion that people have mistakenly that

Look there’s only so much training you can do so you’re going to have to kind of go into this fresh and and get fit as you go and I think that was in part some of James’s mindset going into what he was doing and your point which I agree

With entirely is that’s a huge mistake because then you’re creating that downward spiral right if you’re not fit enough where you can you’re not able to go out and do an Iron Man an iron distance Triathlon in zone one and finish in time to get anate enough

Of sleep then you’re going to dig into your ability to rec and you’re going to just precipitously decline every day if you’re able to do that zone one and do it in an adequate time period Then you can recover and you can get more fit

From that but you’ve got to be able to do that every single day without your heart rate exceeding like 110 yeah exactly and there aren’t very many people that can do that right so you have to have the endurance base the restraint the efficiency the mitochondrial density all of that going

Into it such that you’re putting yourself in a position to succeed from the gate yeah no absolutely and James says you got to be it’s 100% mental and 100% physical right um and I went in probably 75% physical I the the so I started in April I was plagued with

Illness all of January I had off cuz I had three or four different chest infections had a good couple of weeks in February then the end of February we went on holiday and I did a bit of training on holiday but not not enough and then beginning of March I did a bit

And then it was taper so I really dropped because what I should have done uh is I did three sessions of everything a week um and bearing in mind I’d failed last June yeah you started in June and you only got like what six in seven so

Seven so I got well yeah let’s talk about the failure there so on day well firstly my route was terrible I was doing an Open Water Swim which forget the cold because was a bit cold I was losing 45 minutes in admin because we’ have to get to the gate unlock the gate

Drive on this bumpy track through a Ford through a river you know do the swim and then halfway through the St I needed the L I’d have to come out wet suit P to L cold wet suit back on and it was just it was a terrible decision uh and actually

I had moved to a pool by day five anyway so I would have I made that CH that transition and then the same with the bike and the run the the bike was too hilly the Run was too hilly um and then on day five I was cycling a bit up a

Real steep uh gradual gradient and I was like oh I have some food now cuz I’m going slow I put my left hand in my jersey back pocket and I my front wheel went on a long thin pothole and then I was holding on the the elbow pad for

Your elbows go on the tri bars and then in that sort of I tried to overcorrect and I just steered left right into the bush went over the handlebars hoods bent completely in was a proper stack uh but the biggest issue is my left leg stayed

Clipped in uh and I got up and I shook it off and I actually thought my left knee was was done in and I was like oh that’s a bit but I’ll be fine and actually the rest of the bike was okay the run I felt it so it was the tendon

That goes from the top of your that your shin down to the top of your foot the one that used to lift your foot up and the Run was like M okay this is dodgy but let’s see so day six I woke up and I actually felt okay swim was okay bike

Was okay run disaster I mean I think I did an 8 run that day I like oh this is not looking good I’d already I’d already gone over the 17 hour cut off which is an unofficial one by the way the the it’s midnight to midnight that you

Actually have but the internet wants it and I think it’s I think 17 hours should be the goal anyway so I’ve gone over that um uh then day seven came and I nearly missed the midnight cut off I got in at 11:52 or something and then I just I

Knew it was over but are you thinking well this is kind of what happened to James cuz he was about six in or so when he had his was he yeah and he figured it out so I just have to stay in it or or uh or I’m you know wimping out in

Comparison there was a little bit that Renning space in your mind sort of the way I saw it was it was two analogies in my head is one you know I’m in I’m on the ship and I’ve not even left Harbor and we’ve got a hole in the ship like do

You cross the Atlantic when you’re still in the harbor or you’ve just left the harbor or do you go back and fix the hole um and so in my head I was like I know I can do this and not get injured I know it I just believe it inherently

That I can own this and I felt like I was doing myself a disservice limping it and and I because I just knew I could do it and like thrive on it not Thrive because you’re never going to thrive because it’s miserable um and also I was

Just so slow that I probably couldn’t have I’d already gone over the 17 hour cut off anyway so that was gone it was definitely it got worse like I I couldn’t walk I was in a brace for a while but the the main thing is I I have

This I had this oil painting version of how Iron 102 was going to look and you know on day five someone cut a hole in the canvas and I’m like oh let me just go home get a new canvas and start again and work out what I did wrong and as I

Said I have I really don’t care for failure and I I really wanted to do it the way I had it pictured in my mind which was going to be difficult yes it was going to be a slog getting up at 4:29 every morning um going all day like

All that stuff I was prepared for I I didn’t want to just limp through and just scrape by because I felt like I was doing myself a disservice um that said though had it happened on day like 80 I probably would have sucked it sucked it

Up and just done with it but so early on I was like you know what it just wasn’t in the car and there was a couple other issues with with crew I I sort of had crew Rebellion really early on as well which I haven’t really talked about um

You know Caroline caught one of the crew guys looking for a job on day four like on his phone like at home on the laptop like what are you doing oh I’m looking for jobs so like they didn’t believe in me you know so yeah that’s a problem it

Was a problem whereas James has his really good buddies that those guys were never going to leave his side absolutely um I’ve said many times and I still believe this to be true that that what James accomplished with his 50 in 50 states and 50 days and then the 10 10

One I think those are two of the most extraordinary uh examples of voluntary human endurance and I feel like they still to this day have not gotten enough attention or credit for what he achieved and then I see you go out and do it and

Listen I was you know with James on the 50th day of the 50 and I showed up at the 100th day I mean I saw the whole thing and like I was right there when he started to fall apart like literally less than I don’t know maybe a mile or a

Mile and a half from finishing that 100th day and the strain that it had put on his body and what he was kind of enduring and I was mesmerized and and and just really um impressed with how he completed all of that and then I’m watching this unfold with you yeah and I

Couldn’t help but think think this guy’s making it look easy and I’m not saying that it was easy or that that was your experience but there was a a difference in tone in the way that you were holding all of this like it seemed not effortless but um there was a

Sense of ease around it um whereas with James and what he was doing there was a i i the word I would use I guess would be intensity yeah yeah I think I wonder if it’s a British thing like there’s definitely the keep calm and carryon attitude in in Britain where we don’t

Sort of we just you’ve chosen to do this mate like crack on what don’t moan right yeah I guess well I’m thinking of Ross Edgley like always cracking jokes no matter what banter and there’s a there’s a lightness to the whole yeah and then there’s also that this tall poppy

Syndrome is quite big in Britain where if you get a bit above yourself and you know come come back down to mate and uh you know all the people that came and joined me who were just randomers you know I didn’t have have anyone as part

Of my crew who who came and paced me on the bike or joined me on the run I was just relying on people who showed up calling on SE every day at the pool and it all was was quite contained I mean with James it just became metastasized

And like every day there was more people until you get to the final day or two and there’s there’s thousands of people there and you’re ending up in a High School stadium and there’s like Pomp and Circumstance and um part of that’s fantastic because it was all these

People who came from all over the place to celebrate and to also share how much that had impacted them like I was running alongside people who were sharing their story of how they were so inspired and lost this weight and started you know like that’s an amazing um aspect of the social media

World in which we live whereas with you it was just like a rag tag group of a couple people every single day and it kind of felt like it stayed in that consistent Zone was that by Design or was that just the way that it unfolded

So it sort of unfolded that way but I I was also very aware that we couldn’t have too many people join me especially on the bike you had a very narrow Lane in which you were riding it was super busy public roads British you know roads

Um we had 89 Junctions on the course 75 of which I could have stopped to zero like so it was a lot of stop start you know on the days where I was maybe 10 back I think the most ever had excluding the the 102 day was maybe 20 Riders and

Even that was too many cars were getting annoyed um there was a couple of close calls with people passing trucks big trucks when they would take one of the corners would you know automatically cut the corner and then you’re trying to look over the hedge to see if anyone’s

Coming and we were very nervous that if it got too big something was going to happen and we had three Crashers and one of them a guy went under a car in the wet but luckily the car had stopped in time uh and the other two were in front

Of me just overlapped Wheels you know people that weren’t fit enough to actually do the the course quickly cuz we were doing a good Pace you know we were doing a six six and a half hours really which you know unless you’ve a good Rider I mean that’s that’s a decent pace and

Some people would take their chance go yeah I could do that and then they would just head down not looking where they’re going hit a potle overlap a wheel and then I’d be behind them and I’d have to Swerve around two of the crashes and luckily you know I was unscathed but

There was certainly an element of nervousness to let it get too big so actually I think even in the ’90s I took down all the information of how you could join um and figured that actually if people wanted to join it means they would they were super keen and they were

Would go and look at my stra they’re sort of passing a test just to get there and I think at one point didn’t you you rode like a five something and it scared off a bunch of people joined I remember this actually this is so I remember

James saying yeah the first 10 days are going to be horrible but day 10 it’s all going to get better and on day nine a couple of riders came um Adam and Ben and we blitzed it and I was hanging on for dear life and uh yeah we did like a

558 ride time and um I remember going yeah took me nine days James you know it took you 10 yes I’m one day up and then for the next week I was ruined but yeah I had to sort of say to people like please come you know come and join me on

The bike because that’s not our normal pace and um in the whole 12,000 Mi whatever I rode I think I only did about 200 on my own you know the longest time I did on my own was day two I did 120k 80 about 80 miles of it on my own

And then someone joined and then had a few other sections where I did about 30 or 40 miles on my own before someone would just turn up on their lunch break and do a stint and that was the benefit of doing a lapped course so it was sort

Of 10 mile down a couple of 30 mile loops and then 10 Mile backage roughly uh which meant people could do just the morning bit before work or one lap or two laps or come at the end and it sort of encouraged whereas if I did a long

Out and back you sort of committed to the whole ride really so yeah yeah what was your communication with James like while this was unfolding oh was great so the first attempt he was like oh where are you I want to come and join you and

It was amazing you know like cuz he inspired me so that there mhm is what would James do wwjd yeah like CU what would he do man you know like he’s super six when you you know when you had your thing he he would have kept going well exactly I

Didn’t have this printed on that kit um so cu the backstory about me attempting the 100 is I when he did the 50 I was just blown away I was like whoa this is amazing I wonder if I could do 100 because it seemed the next step in

My my CV of of triathlon so I’m the only person still today who have who swam cycled and run land ENT on GRS which is the length of Britain I also then had the record for the world’s longest Triathlon 4,200 miles which is sort of like a quad DEA continuous but the bike

Leg was shorter uh and so this was sort of the next thing and also of the four types of World Records you can do which is world’s first furthest or longest fastest and the most of it’s the one I didn’t have a record in yeah you didn’t

Have a most of I didn’t have a most of I had a record in the others but I didn’t have a most of so in 2018 I thought actually I’m going to have a crack at 100 and I thought of a route so I was living in the Lake District I was going

To swim in coniston where I lived uh and then I worked out a bike leg down to sort of barow and furnace and Alston and that um and then you could run up the quieter side of the lake twice and it was exactly a marathon and in highight

It was all would have been terrible all of it but I thought of it anyway and then I got married and Kids and Co and so I just parked the idea and then when um James did the 101 I was like oh yeah it is doable right let me revisit that

Um and then that’s when I Revisited it last year and then obviously it went T up but yeah yeah yeah but you’re doing it you’re making it look easy at least to an outsider looking in um and you’re creeping up on the record you meet the record you surpass the record

And you decide to keep going James sneakily snuck in the 101 and didn’t tell anyone which was great uh which meant you had to do 102 and then after that feeling good you’re like well do I keep going yeah yeah so I part of my process is to go into it

Believing wholeheartedly it’s a done deal like if I just turn up I’m going to do the 102 like that’s it and I have to believe that the terrier yeah and and I do things in I put things in place to to make myself believer so for example I

Printed numbers up to 123 so I printed caps and and race numbers up to 123 because in my head I was manifesting this concept that not only am I going to beat it I’m going to go way past it and it’s just part of my process to go well

It’s a done deal I just have to turn up and do it um and so I knew I was always going to go longer I knew I was always going to do 103 cuz I wanted to see what it was like doing it not having to do it

Like I just wanted to see would my body just go whoa what are you doing I’m giving up and I don’t make the cut off or would I thrive would I be like oh the pressure’s off am I going to enjoy this uh I had spoken to Caroline a week

Before and I was like I feel like I can go on like I genuinely I really do it’s horrible and it’s hard but like I feel like if I just turn up I could I could roll this out I really think I could and just I remember the look in her face

Like the words that came out of her mouth were very supportive but the look in her face was like don’t do this to me man like I’m solo parenting here like yeah yeah they told me this was the guy that I was getting married to yeah

Exactly and and we sort of had a conversation she’s like right well if you need to go more you you’re never going to have another shot of this just go more so and for context your wife is self-employed she self-employed and you have like a four-year-old and like a

Under twoyear old twoyear old yeah just under two so was hard she was amazing yeah she was amazing and she was coming running a marathon every Sunday with me as well first time she’d run a marathon since having kids so yeah she’s I won the wife Lottery definitely and uh so then I’m

Thinking right well I can carry on but then there’s other things to consider like I’d be moving Christmas day you know and like the crew the Riders who join me everyone’s like so focused on 102 and that’s what I’ve told everyone and if all of a sudden you go oh

Actually no that’s not the end the end’s like two weeks later every everyone’s like so invested in this day it’d be like moving Christmas Day and I was like well I can’t do that but I tell you what I don’t want to quit either the Terry

And me doesn’t want to be the one that gives up so I definitely will do 103 and then I’m going to let the internet decide 104 so I did 103 and actually it was such a good day I felt really good the pressure was off um my times were a

Bit slower but I sort of didn’t didn’t mind um and then I thought right let the internet so I went on Instagram and did a poll and then obviously 71% of the of Instagram hates me yeah and they said carry on of course and cuz I thought of

Maybe just got getting the internet to decide but then after it was 71% well there always going to tell keep going exactly I sort of didn’t really think about that and I thought right well from now on I’m just going to flip a coin because then if the coin says stop it’s

Not me telling myself to stop it’s me just the coin say stop so that’s good so for to do day 105 I flipped a coin and the coin said carry on uh and then on 105 I flipped it again and I would have done 106 but the coin said stop and um

Yeah that was emotional actually yeah I remember flipping that coin was it harder to not do it that day harder yeah hard the way I can think about it is imagine having a job that no one else in the world has and no one else gets to

Have and I have it and it’s bleming hard and it’s difficult but it’s so rewarding like I’m getting Goosebumps actually Goosebumps thinking about it it’s so rewarding and the Community that’s being created around it is sorry that’s got me there um yeah I just would you give it up yeah

Wow yeah I just didn’t want to give it up MH cuz everyone that came and joined me like I think that’s the thing you know all these people that took time off work and everythingoo just didn’t think this would happen um you know it was so

Amazing and uh yeah I just I didn’t want to let go of it yeah so um and that’s why yeah just I knew as soon as I gived up gave up I just would be getting you know I wouldn’t be doing something that no one else in the world

Is is doing right now or gets to do and yeah that was um yeah that was uh that was hard but also it was time to give up because I remember Monty my eldest going daddy daddy is your challenge finished can you play with me now and oh that just cut to

Me you know so um oh excuse me no it’s great I mean I think there’s there’s two two competing things here one is this sense of specialness and this honor of carrying this mantle forward like you were very present and aware of the fact that this is a special set of

Circumstances and for whatever reason you’re in this position position you’ve been chosen or you chose yourself to to do this thing and there’s there’s a responsibility to show up for that but I think if I had to guess what provoked you emotionally is the fact that it was

Meaningful for other people ab and that it cultivated community and in that I I hear and see somebody who understands the power of of what these challenges can represent in terms of it being about more than yourself right and that’s the true like vein of energy to tap into

Like if you want to keep going right that’s the energy fuel the source that will always give more and more and more because it’s of benefit to something that’s so much broader than you and your goal and like the terrier yeah no absolutely and it took me ages to work

Out why these guys were w W up at like 5: in the morning and coming and riding with me and but then slowly you’re right I heard about each one had their own little challenge one guy wants to cycle 12,500 miles this year you know Clive

Wanted to get white shoes and you only get to get white shoes if you do 100 miles averaging 20 mph then you can buy your white cycling shoes and he did that with me and and and everyone some you know one guy lost two Stone which is

What was that in 40 you know coming to cycle with me every day James we called him cuz he came almost every single day either on the bike or the Run cuz he he did shift that allowed it at work and uh yeah it was just it blew me away that

That camaraderie and we still have a WhatsApp group now of everyone and one of the regulars actually did a 24-hour bike ride on my course just this last weekend so I went and I did a shift from 1:30 in the morning till 8:00 a.m. um as he finished that and everyone’s got

Another one of the guys did 300 miles on Swift as well so it it was uh yeah it was really really amazing and and and I just didn’t want to give that up because I was feeling okay don’t get me wrong I it was tiring getting up every day doing

Those 14 hours a day not seeing my kids coming home and Caroline even though she was super supportive it’s hard solo parenting you know shout out to all solo parents there in the world it’s really tough and um but I knew I could just turn up

And and do it cuz like this is what I’m good at and I I like being good at it and I I like the reward from it and the money coming in for charity was great and like just everything about this unique experience that no one else in

The world could ever do I just it was hard to to let that go really I’m sure you get asked a lot how many do you think you could have done and I did hear you say yeah on another podcast that you felt like you could do

200 yeah yeah yeah yeah I could have in on the route I had in this country 200 is probably probably doable with the weather I think once you start so I started in April and that was the earliest I could start it was snowing like two weeks before and the weather

Was terrible in April it just the wind was horrible like it was the mud the conditions you know youve you’ve going across loads of farmers tracks with like mck and cow [ __ ] everywhere why didn’t you just go to like AA or something like that where the weather’s great

The flattest most temperate climate like I don’t know Phoenix or like you know Dubai or something no there was thought of doing it in America so I’ve cycled as part of my round the world bike ride I did Miami up to to Missouri down to Arkansas Texas up Kansas down

Oklahoma um where did I finish then then New Mexico Arizona to Phoenix and then stopped at Phoenix I was I I got run over in in arkans so I I was a bit delay on my flights and then I’ve also done I did the Route 66 bike race in

2016 um and I love cycling in America and and I think if you were going to do longer in America and you also wanted to play the Tailwind game you could find a town just had a spiderweb of Roads do the swim in there do the Tailwind game

Run at the end go back each night and I think that would be sustainable to do this more and more and and actually because there’s two things that people will do now someone will possibly do 106 solo with no out Riders um or or they’ll go longer much longer so 200 or

Maybe a year because in America you if you wanted to do a year you’d have to get very lucky with a lot of things like injury and illness and and that sort of thing but you could do two locations so one in the south in the winter one in

The North in the summer um oh that’s interesting it’s doable it’s and in fact a part of me is like damn this this is the monkey I’m the guy to do it like I’m definitely the guy to do it but it’s just the wrong time in my life it just

Wouldn’t be fair um but if no one’s done it like in 10 years time I re revisit it but um no I think I think you could I think once you get to a stage and you know if you look at all the people who do Deckers and double deckers you know

The real the really good people are doing 10 hours you know so if you look at so I’ve done 105 James done 101 there’s a lan guy he’s done 60 and he was doing 10 hours 11 hours and I know why he stopped at 60 like if you go

Online you can see all those data then there’s a french guy who’s done 41 there’s a bunch of Italians who’ve done 30 and then all the double decker crowd um yeah yeah I think that’s an interesting um thing to explore from a scientific perspective because it it it sort of

Puts to the LIE the idea that the people who are good at this are just the real slow Force Gumpy plotters you know the the 145 uh you know minute mile guys but if you’re really fast and you’re incredibly fit and efficient you’re actually in a better position because you’re you’re

Going to get like hour hours extra every single day and the compounding interest of that is abely I remember when you when you did your five around Hawaii remember the SEC the before the last one you said you had 11 hour sleep or something right you felt amazing we got

A little day off and then I mean I felt better on that day than I did on the first day on the other things with the flights and the we were I mean we didn’t know it was like we were getting I got like no sleep at all so you it felt like

We were just pulling all nighters and doing exactly and so that’s my point when you don’t have the sleep and you don’t have the recovery you you’re having a rough time as you get if you say as you faster you get more sleep and Recovery you’re on the front of the wave

Um let’s say slower people choose a continuous Decker or double decker because the cut offs are a bit more lenient and you can sleep whenever you want M whereas if you’re really slow and you try a Deca you know You’ got to be at the swim at 6 a.m. you might you you

Know you might only get in at 3:00 a.m. right once you start and then you’ve only got three hours sleep and then eventually you may just not even make the swim so you’re right that you want to get to a point where you can do a for

Me with cuz I had 40 minutes in a car every day I had 10 minutes to the pool and 30 minutes back home from the run I oh there’s lots of room for improvement there yeah yeah except I live in the Hills so I had to go down to the flat

Bits um but if you if you if you lived right near the pool and you finish your run near the pool I think 15 hours is your bare minimum mhm each day day for me it was 14 hours 14 and a half but

Call it 14 so as long as I could do 14 hours in zone one then it was it was sustainable and I didn’t crash on the bike and and didn’t do anything stupid and I managed all the little niggles so you know of those 10 10 pillars of

Endurance muscle management is one of them and and I’m very good at that you know this the smallest thing that’s happening you know I got grain of sand in between my toes I take my shoe off straight away immediately oh it’ll be fine abely and I’m really good at that

And and if I feel like a little thing in my hip I’m like right go back into my memory has this happened before yes right what did I do that time right tennis ball here stretch this do that tape that if it’s not happened before

Right physio what’s going on and I had a couple of new ones where I was like what’s going on here so we we did some stretching in Physio and that sort of fixed it but I get on it super early I don’t let it get to a point anywhere

Near tendonitis anywhere near stress fracture you know I try and nip it in the bud um I’m always looking at my technique in my head like where am I landing on the Run how’s am I stomping on the pedals on the bike what am I doing with my shoulders on the bike you

Know on the hoods try and Vary between the hoods the drops and the tri bars but more important than any of that is what’s going on in between your ears right and you have some pretty interesting um mindset techniques and and tools as you mention mentioned earlier

James famously says it’s 100% mental and 100% physical uh on the mental side of things this notion of disabusing yourself of any Plan B I think is really powerful so talk a little bit about that so when I go into something a I mentioned earlier I go in wholeheartedly

Believing and I really do believe it’s a done deal I just have to turn up um and then it puts me in a mindset of like right well I know I can do it I’m know I’m going to do it where does that certainty come from

I’ve just always been like that to the point of and that’s why I fail like my first attempt at running the length of Britain got injured failed my first attempt at my across Europe cycle record got injured failed first attempt at this um got injured as well um and

That’s yeah and it’s probably because I have this sort of ignorant side to me I go in probably a little unprepared you go in completely half cocked from the GetGo I mean you’re a guy I want to get into your back let’s just take a little diversion to talk about your backstory a

Little bit you are born and spend your early years in Zimbabwe yeah you then moved to South Africa your dad is a a big game conservationist Rhino elephant conservationist yeah so you grew up as a little kid with like elephants running around and stuff yeah yeah yeah I mean

We my mom used to get annoyed because every day she’d wake up and the Elephant had drunk all the water out my paddling pool in the garden that’s W for for like weeks she thought it had she like where’s this blim and hole and they got

Up early and there was an elephant so I mean that’s a pretty unique childhood that connected you with the natural world in a in a way that that that I imagine um is probably more meaningful than even you consciously yeah no um then South Africa then you end up in the

UK and I get this sense that you’re a bit of a rolling stone you don’t really know what you want to do or who you want to be but you seem kind of content to just roll with whatever with you know less than a dollar in your pocket and

Just figure it out as you go no absolutely I mean even coming to the UK I remember the reason I came I’d done a year at photography college and then they asked me to be an assistant lecturer for the following year just helping out in the dark room and various

Things helping out that the because only a one year course and then I finished that year and all my South African mates were coming back after their 2-year Visa ran out going oh Britain was amazing I loved it we got to travel here here here

And here and I’m at the bottom of going well that sounds cool I can’t do any of that from here uh I got an Irish passport it’s just like a free train ticket um let’s just go I didn’t need a Visa or anything and I think three weeks

Later I landed I pretty much sold everything I managed to scr around and get1 uh back in 2002 which wouldn’t have lasted long even back then I’d found out about a job in a salad making factory in Cambridge which is the ones when you buy salads in

A bag you know which you shouldn’t do but you know it was that factory where you cut Lett and put them in the conveyor Bel and it all gets fixed and then I started working in a photo lab I did that for six years cut those days

Down as the photography grew and in the early days the photography was great I photographed Prince William a lot of the sports stars had jobs in India and Morocco I worked on the Harry Potter films in The Stills Department helping out the main Stills photographer Mari

Close um so it was all going well and cuz the dream was to use the camera as a passport to travel the world so I was going to work for National Geographic it was the adventure was calling it wasn’t the Art of Photography not that that wasn’t important but the real motivator

Was you had this drive and desire to see the world absolutely and the camera was going to be that unlocking key for all that I remember as a kid taking all the pages out the National Geographic magazine and putting them all around my bedroom and and then I got to London and

Then the reality of paying rent and buying food and I ended up living in a room not much bigger than this with seven of us there was a bunk bed and I was on the bottom bunk a double bed in this corner and then three people on the

Floor it was so small the one guy’s legs were out the corridor like it was Tiny we were just like it was almost squatting but the landlord knew we were there and we were paying him rent and he was like well I can’t kick him out to I

Charge him like 30 quid a week or whatever it was and um but I just did it I lived out of a suitcase for a couple of years just couch I I moved 12 times my first year in London you know just trying get more photography jobs and

Then I remember there was a point where I was going to go down from so I was working 5 days a week and then just thought well I might as well work six days a week earn a bit of extra cash and then I can buy more kits I was trying to

Save up for more cameras I just got to the point where I got some new kit and was cutting my days down I think from yeah back to five and then my flat in London got broken into and everything got stolen absolutely everything and I was like a so went back

To my boss at the photo I was like hey Simon can I go back to six days a week please and then it took me another year of working to buy more kit and you know so I I was working in that lab for six years cutting my days down but then on

The side of that you know I was getting some creative jobs but they really were terribly paid um but they were creative but the 22y old of me was like well I need to earn more of course cuz you I was chasing the money and I found out that photographing um School Portraits

At Nursery School level just paid quite well you you know you sell the pictures to the parents and they all buy the pictures and and I did that I did one school and I was like wow that was quite a good earner and then I was like well

Let’s do this and I I had a business partner James and him and I just were like right let’s go all into this thinking if we earned enough money from the schools and we got photographers and to shoot them and people in the office we would have more time but actually we

Had less time no then you’re just building the business and so then we EV had an office we had seven staff we had like four photographers two people doing Photoshop um and one salesperson getting us and we were we we did nurseries up in the Midlands around Birmingham all

Around London and the Channel Islands where James was from and uh yeah got to the point we’re photographing 10,000 kids a year and that was the goal more just a number like it’s 10,000 this year it needs to be 12,000 next year and it just was we knew each kid was worth x

Amount of money per child photographed and yeah eventually turn this is a far cry from the National Geographic well exactly yeah and then you know there’s the part of that goes and it’s just like just suck it up just deal with it it’s rubbish but you’re putting food on the

Table mate you know Well Done um get on with it and then I turned 30 and I was just miserable so I went to James I said mate I’m out like I’m out like can you buy my shares like I walk I walk away and then he was like yeah sure and going

Through looking doing 10 years of accounts and I’m thinking kaching yeah you know a little bit here not a lot but enough to sort me out a year or something and he said I’ll give you a quid mate that’s take it all I was like

So you built this I mean that’s a pretty robust stable big business and you’re a partner with one other guy yeah and you walk away with a dollar yeah and then I bought I spent three quid on a frame so four quid on the frame to frame the

Pound so he gave me a jersey pound note it’s the only part of the UK they sled pound notes um I’ve got in my office at home now so I’ve spent four quid on the frame for this one pound that I gave so was minus three from day one but you

Know for me it was but to reclaim your life and it was you know what it was it was me going right this is my symbolic gesture of a keeping my friendship because James and I are best mates he was best man in my wedding years later

Even so it didn’t ruin that and I’d known him for 20 years such a good friend though he couldn’t he could Equitable I mean is this your guy is he a good friend I don’t know well I mean part of it he he sort of thought I was

Dropping him in it a little bit because I was mostly the photographer the creative and he was the business guy and if I left he would all was like well what about I don’t know how to do this um so there was a part and we had some

Loans that needed repaying and he also sort of didn’t like it either so he was going to shut the thing down anyway um but then the other part was me going like I’m not doing anything purely for my financial gain ever again like and it was symbolic like I’ll take this pound

And this is it I’m going to moan about it and talk talk about on podcast forever um but then so then I had this this sort of like what am I going to do I wanted to go traveling but didn’t have any money to go traveling and also like the traveling

Wouldn’t have scratched the the terrier which I hadn’t quite worked out this concept yet but I thought I just needed to do something and then I thought what if I break some sort of record that has an element of travel to it maybe I’ll get a sponsor and they’ll pay for it

Because that’s right this idea of seeing other people who were traveling the world on someone else’s dime and and and that being draped with this world record attempt and you’re like well why don’t I go after a world record people get somebody else to pay for it Ro the

Atlantic climbing Everest they all had like logos of companies like just like you do you have a lot of logos on right now and that because all sport relies on sponsorship from every level right but you nothing you were in no position to ask anybody for money or or to back you in

Any kind of feat I hady given a resume that had zero experience on it yeah no I no I got I uh like nothing nothing no but I got lucky I um I found a company that supported a charity and I went in with this sort of idea that well what if

You support my so the thing I thought of was the round the world record right riding your bike all the way around the world was that like a lwh hanging fruit record in terms of time sort of um it was still you had to do aund

67 miles a day so it’s still hard but the current guy who’s got the record to 240 miles a day fully supported Mark Bowmont um so Alan bate had the record uh and Vin Cox so Vin Cox had the record but only for a few days because him and

Alan Bay were actually going together and then Alan bate took his record but Vin Cox thought of this concept of like well whoever wants to go for the next record why don’t you all start at the same time and he made it a race called the global bike race started on the uh

12th February 201 12 and the idea was start at Greenwich come back in time for the Olympics in London it was a awesome idea so I was like right I’m going to enter that so I entered that then went to this company who I knew supported a charity

In Africa I said well if you support me I’ll raise money for you for that charity and who knows I might raise more um for the charity and and yeah they would they just liked it uh they like the idea the O the CEO loved cycling mhm

And that’s how I got funny I was I couldn’t believe I mean it’s it was so rare for just a novice to sort of get a funding for such a big trip and I I’m eternally grateful but you did did you even have a bike no I had a bike cuz I

Had cycled L Jonah groz oh right you did it in like 25 days yeah like a very casual it was I remember if I did 60k or something or you know 30 or 40 miles I was like w I did a big day today so I

Had no I had The Adventurous Spirits I guess but I had no phys iCal ability you know I remember my first bike ride so once I’d sort of got an email from the company saying right I think we’re in um I thought right well I’m going to get my

Bike out the shed which a I then suddenly realized I done lanen joh GRS on a 62 frame and I’m a 52 so I was I was like massive massive bike um I I tried to cycle London to Brighton which is 60 miles and I got to Crawley got a

Puncture and didn’t know how to fix it had to get the train back home and um yeah so I was really at a base but I had the fire I had the fire I was something for me to Chase and all of a sudden I knew that if I just put in the

Hours I could get to a level because I looked at Mark Bowmont and Vin Cox and Ellen bate and James borp and Julian Sarah all these other people who done the round the world thing and I’m like they were just normal people with jobs and things um none of them were

Professional athletes I thought well if they can do it I’m surely I can and I’m just going to have a crack and then train 40 hours a week for six months yeah how did you ramp up to 40 without getting injured so 20 of that was on

Saturday I’d get up at 4 4:00 a.m. 5 a.m. cycle through to midnight um and yeah just slow base base Zone one zone two cranking out I was 30 yeah 2012 yeah 30 so I I was still young enough to not pick up all the niggles I’m picking up

Now and yeah just worked really hard and then eventually got to a point we doing something like 200 miles daily as long as not too hilly wasn’t really sort of Unthinkable so you set about this attempt to cycle all around the world uh and Misfortune visits you yeah in the

United States yeah I was uh I was doing really well i’ done so from l so the rules are you got to do 18,000 miles and you got to pass two antipodes and because there’s so much ocean in the southern hemisphere you’ve got Wellington and Madrid or a place in

Malaysia and a place in Ecuador and those are the two I chose uh so I and you can fly in between bits as long as you make up the Mars and don’t go backwards on yourself so I went down flew to Spain so I did a bit in London

But I it really started in Spain went down into Morocco because I wanted to do a bit of all the continents except Antarctica and then flew to Santiago did Santiago to Lima through the atakama again doing 170 180 miles a day flew to Miami and did Miami all the way up into

Missouri and then it started getting a bit cold so I started turning back down and then when I was in Arkansas yeah unfortunately someone just ran me over um they were speeding they admitted speeding and they were on their phone I believe and uh I actually don’t remember

Anything I went to bed the night before and woke up on the side of the road and I remember going how’s my bike and they said yeah it’s pretty total man I was like what just lie to me you know tell me it’s okay because without the bike

You can’t carry on it was actually one of the rules you had to do it on the same bike for some reason um so the record was off and I was going to come home were you in the lead in this adventure are you you’re not racing

Side by side with people no no the guy called Mike Cole um rest in peace he unfortunately got killed sadly got killed in a in a bike race in Australia years later and he was one of the best in the world and it took took the wind

Out of my sale for Ultra cycling for a while actually he was in that race as well and he would have I would have beaten the record but he would have beaten me yeah he was he was amazing like he was just so inspiring again just

A yorman with a belly and but it was just a machine on the bike he he won I don’t know if he slurs the tour divide record but he he won the Tour divide a couple of times he did he won the trans con uh across the Trans Am sorry he set

Up the Transcontinental race now that’s just been um yeah really amaz so he probably would have beaten me even though I think we were neck and neck his route was slightly quicker cuz he went East and I went West um but you get hit by this car yeah and it’s not a small

Thing like you fracture your back like you’re in bad shape yeah it was uh you know I would say to the guy who ran me over like it wasn’t his fault like I was on a road you should never cycle on but I’m just following a line on a map you

Know he’s he he’s a baker I believe he’s done this road every day of his life he’s probably never seen a cyclist at 5:00 a.m. and then there’s this idiot you know and and it was raining and there was some traffic lights ahead so I think my rear red light and the red

Light reflection off the water in the road so yeah no no hard feelings was just one of those unlucky things but yeah I just woke up with a compression fracture on t11 chip tooth concussion um ligaments like knee and right foot cuz they stayed clipped in

Sorry yeah right cuz that’s I must have swerved at the last minute because I landed on the grass um and he hit me in one of your big pickup trucks you know the ones you you don’t get here in Europe uh went straight up hit the wind

Screen my helmet did what a helmet’s meant to do and and compressed and took took the pressure my rear wheel like it just was trash the frame was bent um and it was it was Game Over really for the record even though I thought I could

Carry on the doctors were like nah it’s not happening and it turns out that the doctor on duty Martin KY was Welsh and he’s like right don’t stay in the hospital come to my house and they the the carries Martin and Missy are just oh I owe them everything they just looked

After me you’re in Arkansas yeah and you go to the hospital yeah and it’s a Welshman I know what child yeah so I mean I owe them everything and they took me home and they bought me a new bike they phoned the bike shop here in the UK

And said remember Sean can you send us a new bike please we’ll pay for it yeah they were amazing so I was of course I was this is so before they bought me a bike I was going to come home um and then I remember going through my kits

And I came across this little Olympic torch at some kids at a school near the Olympic Village in Greenwich made me and the idea was are going to take this torch around the world back to London for the Olympics and I’m looking at it going oh man these kids are going to be

So disappointed um that I don’t take their torch around the worlds and then all of a sudden the terer had something to chase again and I was like right I’m carrying on but then I sort of had this not for the record not for the record experience experience get this

Tortured back to the kids I had to convince my parents and I was like like this is going to be a hard sell you know like and then I thought right I’ve got it so I remember phone them and say hey Mom and Dad you know statistically no one gets run over twice

Like I’ve had my turn I’m carrying on see you bye which in my head still makes sense but um it was the only way I could justify carrying on in my head and feeling like right well I’m not going to get run over again and I’ve got this

Torch to get back to the kids so I did slightly less mileage uh I think I was 2,000 miles short of the 18,000 in the end um and a slightly different route in in Australia but yeah I got back to the impix I can’t completed that completed that

Completed that so this is a very circuitous uh route that we’ve taken for me to arrive at the original point that I wanted to make which was twofold on the one hand back to this mindset thing around no plan B the terrier you latch on to something it’s going to happen no

Matter what so much so that you sell your business for a dollar you talk a sponsor into underwriting this Advent Venture uh that you have no experience in whatsoever and despite being hit by a car and fracturing your back you still find a way to complete this thing which

I think is unbelievable but beneath that is this minimalist sensibility like a dollar I’ll sleep in a I’ll sleep in a room with seven people um you’re you’ve designed your life and it seems like even though you’re married and you have kids now you keep your life lean enough

Such that Adventure always remains within your grasp right like it’s all about having a baseline so that you can go and do all of these amazing things like there seems to be a lot of intentionality behind yeah that construction no absolutely I tried to lead as simple a life as possible I

Lived on a boat for three years on a canal um in up near Worcester I bought an Old World War II gunboat that that Harland and wolf made and they also made the Titanic so that was a concern but it was it was it’s beautiful wooden wooden hell

And lovely Arch and it was used um to rescue Spitfires in the war and when I took the front paint work off at sled the round from the RAF round I had the engraving with the the the Raf in the back um of the boat and and the stern I

Should say and uh and I love boat life it was super simple you didn’t buy that bigger Telly cuz you couldn’t you didn’t buy another sofa cuz you didn’t fancy the current one because i’ had have built-in one M and um yeah it was just I

Didn’t have a garage to do my all my my hobbies and that that’s probably the biggest reason I moved off off the boat uh and also actually randomly sort of there’s how I met Caroline was just a whole series of circumstances that if one of them had

Not happened I would never have met the love of my life and one was getting injured on Route 66 I then was going home to the boat and it was really flat I was like damn it I need Hills in my life so I literally the next week moved

To the Lake District just for 6 months to finish writing one of my books and to do some Hill training then a friend of mine was going to come and climb scarel Pike the highest mountain in England uh and she bailed on me like last minute

Which means I had the weekend free so I went to the Kendall Kendall Mountain Festival and met my wife and if any of those hadn’t happened I would have never met met Caroline and then once I’d met Caroline I sort of knew that moving back onto the boat was never going to happen

So then I tried to keep but thought I could maybe get it up to the Lakes but it was it was 60 foot it was long so I eventually sold it which was a shame but yeah going back to your point I do try and live as simple life as possible

Without too much distraction around what I want to do in life and what you know gets me going but it is hard when you have kids and family and responsibilities and all things there there’s compromises because you have competing values ex um but you have on your website in addition to a whole

Section with all your failures um you also have a section on Dreams yeah and one of the dreams that that you have publicly announced is to live on a deserted island basically so you you have this Forest gum sensibility the beard Forest never stops running um but

Here you are like channeling another Tom Hanks character like you also want to be Cast Away like I feel like yeah you have the terrier and you have the monkey but you also have Tom Hanks like a Talisman I actually have a tennis Bowl Cole

Wilson I feel like you need to beat this guy there’s some kind of energy you know exchange here um but this idea of living on a on a deserted island um satisfies that that part in you that that just wants to be connected to the Earth and and free or liberated

Of the trappings of the material world which which I think is is operating as part of this desire for adventure and exploration right it’s like how can I live in a more natural Primal way where I’m experiencing the world in the most tactile way possible yeah no I mean

Caroline and I talk about it all the time you know our oldest is our oldest is just starting school in September and there’s we do you know we conflicting with like should we just take a EUR off and go and find an island and live on it

Or just I could see you on a sailboat with your family sailing around the world and raising your children like wild animals or what’s that vgo Morton movie where he’s got him in a school bus oh yeah that’s great film and um until it’s not until it goes nutty but anyway

Go ahead well no it’s true we’ve talked about the boat thing I I just get terribly seasick um because I I have the L you have a sailing record I have the sailing record for L and JN gr as well but I was sort of the t- boy like my

Mate two of my mates full sharp Alex Ali proper Sailors you know fast boats and everything and um yeah I was just there to help out and but yeah we did an 84 hours I think we still have that record I’m not sure but I was ceasing for 5050

Of it you know um yeah it was terrible I think since swimming Britain I’ve got tenus as well and I I I was getting into paragliding at one point and now I’ve had to bin that off because I just get really bad motion sickness so the boat

Thing is just I know that feeling of being seasick for days and weeks and um but no you’re right I would it’s it’s probably going to be the thing that I regret not having a crack at at one point and Caroline’s the same and but then we’ve got a responsibility parents

Like is it is it a good idea to take a kid out of school and make them leave the life you want to lead you could play that game all day long like you don’t know you have to live your life according to your values and raise your

Children in the manner in which you feel is is is in their best interest um but I think whether or not however that plays out nonetheless you’re this person who who who has been to many places and connected uh you didn’t just you know Drive around in a tour bus and fly to

Places like you’ve been boots on the ground traveling at a very slow speed through amazing swabs of planet Earth and I think one of the one of the Beautiful Things is that you can come back and tell the rest of us what you discovered right so of all the places

You’ve been of all the people that you’ve connected with and the things that you’ve seen like what are we not appreciating or understanding or what what can we learn from from what you’ve experienced um that could maybe shift something in how we perceive our own lives one thing that I whenever I

Travel I’m probably the not a great person to ask this question to because I’m mostly heads down not talking to anyone and living out of service stations but when I do meet people and chat to people or or chat to people afterwards who maybe I cycled across

Russia and they saw me and then you know messaged me on on Facebook is that we’re all pretty much the same all over the world we all just want to get up and do a job and have holidays and all these sort of things but also I’ve realized

That how important it is to have some sort of physical goal in your life like anywhere in the world I think anyone should just have something to work towards that has a physical element to it I think we’re all way better for it

If we do that and I know if I don’t have some physical goal that’s difficult I’m grumpy and and all the people I meet all the way around the world they’re all exactly the same we’re all the same we’re all humans on this planet leaving yeah we have slightly different

Circumstances and and you know some people live in easier countries than others of course um but inherently I think you know we’re all pretty much the same and we should treat each other all the same and we should all have a physical goal right empathy empathy and

Connection but as for the physical goal piece articulate why you think that’s so important explain that to the person who’s working two jobs who’s never done anything physical but they life is hard enough as it is why do they need to build something like this into their

Life because it’s you know for me it’s the same as just breathing oxygen like I think you you have to do it you know you have to just do because I think you’re also just missing out on life because there’s a whole aspect of life that you’re not experiencing by not engaging in

Something that that has a a challenging element to it on a physical side you know like when you changed your diet you you’ve untapped this whole new world right that you just didn’t know existed and I think the same thing is is there for having a physical CH and

It doesn’t have to be going and doing an Iron Man it can be literally just trying to do a 5k my my wife’s mom has been doing couch to 5K all year she’s still doing it um and it’s great you know she’s just got this thing she’s got this

Drive now she gets up and yeah it’s hard um but she’s getting there slowly mhm I would also say is don’t be in a rush for it because I think that’s also and I am I definitely am all the time you know you know have

The goal but you know be prepared to do the steps to get there and don’t get disheartened when you’re not achieving what you think you would achieve cuz you’re just going to burn out or get injured or you know if you push it too

Hard and do stuff for the fun of it you know I’m into mushroom foraging so I I’ll go for a run without my or anything why is that not surprising if I had to like draw a picture of somebody who’s a mushroom forager probably look a lot

Like you yeah and and actually near me there’s pinis like sure pinis are like the gold of mushroom foraging and I know we’re all there near me so you know sometimes I’ll just do it for the for the fun of it and I think that’s also important to not not always realize that

There is a a fun element of of exercise and Sport and challenging yourself I it’s to L those two things and I think Beyond just the idea of embracing doing hard things it’s the Cascade effect that occurs when you put yourself in that position because whether you succeed or fail in the

Pursuit of that goal You’re Building self-esteem you’re raising uh the ceiling on your own sense of personal capacity and that spills over into every area and aspect of your life Beyond just what you’re capable of physically yeah absolutely you know like you’re just pushing that bar higher and higher you

I’ve got a a 22mon old he tripped on the pavement the other day burst out crying thought he was dying you know we don’t cry now and we trip on the pavement because we know I’m you know I’m not going to die if I trip pavement so our

Bars already higher and I think it’s by putting yourself through those difficult scenarios and creating a bit of hardship in the form of physical activity um will as you say lead to all other aspects because the next time something else happens in your life you go well that wasn’t nearly as

Bad as running a marathon I can definitely do this you know so I think that’s definitely an element in that side of things yeah back to the mindset stuff so this whole aspect of the conversation was kicked off by uh talking about this no plan B idea which resonates throughout your life like

You’re someone who can pick up on a dime and go do something else without about like a safety net essentially right and carrying that into these endurance Pursuits talk a little bit about in the context of the 105 how this idea of not having a plan B um became kind of a

Reliable default Mantra yeah it was interesting actually I a couple of close flat family members actually sort of sit me aside and they go Sean like what happens if you can’t do a full a day will you start doing halves a day day like uh no what are you

All about they’re like well instead of just quitting if you get injured again what if you just dropped it down to doing halves a day and did 102 halves instead I was like absolutely not like and then when that gets hard you can go down to olypic distance pick and then

Sprint and then eventually doing a 5K and then it’s just running or something um so no it was I was sort of offended I was like it’s just never going to happen I’d rather fail and go back to the drawing board and start again again trying to do the fools every

Day then reduce my my bar or make my ambitions lower like I don’t get any satisfaction about doing halves a day Zero absolutely zero you know I could do a whole year of halves it would be less satisfying for me personally it wouldn’t feed the terrier because the terrier

Wants the fools right so and on some level the terrier is sort of like a mad alcoholic though who’s developing a very high tolerance yeah and needs to be f even more and more and more and more this is a concern this is the Hungry Ghost on your soul well exact cuz at

Some point I the terer will never be satisfied he’ll have achieved and you you attempting to satisfy it is a is a is a lost Pursuit no I know I know that but I’m like diminishing returns that will slowly drive you mad absolutely and and I’m ex i’ got another 40 Years of

Things to fill I don’t know keep telling yourself that you’re running toward something and and start understanding or appreciating what maybe you’re running away from I’m not accusing you of anything I I I am obviously running towards endway from something I don’t know what it is um

Yeah I I can’t answer it I wish I had an answer I’m at the moment I’m just winging it I’m winging winging it and see what happens I think cuz no plan B no plan B exactly I’ll just at the moment I’m good at something and I’m

Good at being miserable cold wet hungry and tired and I’m good at doing multi-day stuff and I’m good at nailing those 10 pillars of endurance and I’m going to keep doing that until I can’t anymore and then when that does happen then I think of another plan a that’s

Something else and maybe it’s being a PE teacher at school you know I I really I’m I’m youth sport is high in my agenda now um since I’ve had kids I’ve just noticed how hard it is to to try and get facilities especially in North Wales where I’m from

And uh so now that’s my focus I even got a letter from Prince William oh you did I did yeah on day 60 something he wrote we got a letter through the post with the Kensington Palace stamp on and we’re like what is this and it was like Dear

Mr com am I being kned yeah exactly is this the OB what’s happening so it’s like Deus Conway congratulations on your 102 and then he wrote a lovely paragraph and uh on the importance of youth sport and now because he’s the the Prince of Wales of course and then said good luck

With the rest of your challenge and then just a signature and it doesn’t look like anything so we were like first we were like who wrote this we’re like it must be the janitor just got a letter ahead and then we googled his signature and it come up and his signature is just

Willie it just says Willy and um but this is what true Venture Foundation does right they they all all at the moment it’s north ba North Wales based where where’re they have through the money we raised are going to have a grant system for clubs youth clubs and for athletes in individually youth

Athletes that they can just apply for so all the money I raise is in a pot at the minute and soon we’ll they’ll be putting it out and I’m working I’m volunteering with them basically indefinitely Ryan lives near me who who set it up and we

Go I went to a youth Triathlon event just this last weekend and did the prize giving it was the final event of the year and we just trying to get more kids cuz in North Wales only 39% of kids do sport outside of school wow 66,000 fewer kids in Wales alone do

Sport outside of school since Co um and then we hope to expand a uh into the rest of the UK spit first Wales then the UK and then also expand the types of sports we’ll support mhm but at the moment it’s it’s Triathlon swim cycle run and and a couple of smaller ones

Like there was a club who couldn’t put a youth volleyball earth water polo in together because they didn’t have the small balls for the for the kids uh because no one give you know so isn’t uh is Garen Thomas from Wales he’s from South wal South wal there’s a

Bit of a divide between North and South cuz South has Cardiff and you they got 50 M Pool there’s no 50 M Pool in North Wales for example and the all the other pools are sort of council pools so you have to there’s a slot and and things

Like that and yeah so a lot of the North Wales kids having to drive all the way down to Cara for a Gala that’s pretty far isn’t it it’s 4 hours plus hotels and everything and there was never never anything up and nor you live pretty close to rexam right they’re pretty

Close to Rex so Americans know reom for one reason and one reason only yeah Ryan Reynolds so talk to me about the Ryan Reynolds effect on that town like where you live that’s amazing so I’m I’m probably half an hour 40 minutes from rexam but yeah since him and and Rob

Bought the bought the football club bought the football club and they’ve invested good money in it and they’re very emotionally invested in absolutely and it’s been amazing for rexam uh and I’ve fully I I don’t really watch soccer football um but I have jumped on the Rex and bandwagon absolutely cuz they’re

They’re local to me and a lot of the Riders created like just a Resurgence of of interest in the football club or kind of local stuff or are they Interlopers from the outside no they’ve they they’re amazing because they they’re putting money into the town and and now the

Stadiums are full and they’re selling all tickets and it’s good for the community and they’ve gone up a league as well I think they got four more if they want to get to the Premiership but that’s a long way off but still uh yeah it’s been amazing so anyway because I

Cycled down quite close to rexam on my website I was uh trying to get uh Rob or or or Ryan to tattoo the rexam football club on my ass for uh for 25,000 to the charity they never that sounds like something they would do though I know

But I don’t think mean he’s a marketing genius I thought that would have been great so anyway that never happened it’s slop so Rob will we’ll see we’ll see we’ll see if this makes any impact on on whether we can make that a possibility um no plan B you’re all in you’re

Committed just like they on the bum cheek right now already uh the other interesting mindset Tool uh that I want to hear a little bit more about is this counterintuitive notion of refusing to celebrate small wins you would think in the pursuit of goal a larger goal you have these

Stepping Stones along the way and emotional engagement and and staying fresh with it um involves allowing yourself to have those little wins to celebrate along the way yeah you feel differently no very differently for me if I celebrate too many small wins in my pursuit of the the full

Cake at some point it there could be a situation where it’s going badly mhm but I go oh well I’m not doing so well but I got XYZ from it so for example once I got to 21 I had the British record um I could have gone yeah I’m the

British record winner yeah brilliant yeah make it a big fuss out of that then once I’d got to which I thought was 42 but it turns out it was 61 I would have got the European record for the most number of continuous uh sorry day day byday uh fulls I could have celebrated

That I could have celebrated um oh there’s a couple other things that sort of I did and then yeah I don’t even remember them because I didn’t celebrate them but the worry is that let’s say done all those little mini mini micro celebrations let’s say on day 80 something bad happened the

Worry for me was oh well I’m already the British the the European record and the British record holder oh I’m happy qu oh yeah well I can be happy with what I’ve done um and that was not good for my head space I needed to be again it’s all

Or nothing no plan B I’m doing the 102 or and if I don’t it’s the whole thing’s a failure like I’m not ever going to go and start doing the talk circuit going well I’m actually the British record holder no it’ses sh yeah yeah for me

Absolutely yeah a bit the same as like oh why why you do the most number of halves CU I think the record for halves is less than the fools anyway um I believe I could be wrong on that but um uh I think it’s in there could be you

Could create a record for anything yeah it’s like how meaningful are these records it depends upon you know how how um incredible the challenge is I suppose um how does that square with being leader of a team when you have a crew of people and you’re Reliant upon the

Support that you need to accomplish the goal right like you may feel like it’s not in my best interest to celebrate these stepping stone goals but I have all these people and I have to keep them excited about what we’re doing and I can’t expect them to adopt my mindset

And and have them show up fresh and smiling every single day yeah I think I failed on that if I if honest I think I didn’t quite cuz I’ve never really done anything with crew before so I had a crew when I swam the length of

Britain and you know we were stuck on a boat so they sort of couldn’t leave uh and also that really was sort of something you know doing a world’s first where no one’s even attempted swimming up the West Coast that was enough to sort of keep them

Excited but and and also I had days off on that one it took 135 days but I had good 40 days of bad weather where I couldn’t swim yeah so we got to go to the pub and you know relax and have days off and things like that so I think that

Kept them sort of interested but again I failed there I think just motivating them I’m I’m not very good at compliments receiving or giving I feel like I’m very selfmotivated and I sort of half expect other people to be motivated enough if you’ve chosen to do

It just be motivated and do it and I think I and you know apologize to the crew now I’ll openly say that I’m sorry for not potentially coming across visually and verbally as appreciative as I was cuz I was every day I’d wake up i’ be like these guys are amazing like so

Because that’s the other thing I did slightly differently to James I think is I think his crew were doing all day with him I can’t quite work that out cuz saw pictures of both of them at the end of each day they would come in and out um

You know I mean they had you know they had different roles their job on the bike was to protect James and cuz there were a lot of people riding especially at the end and it was very dangerous so their job was to insulate him and I think they would they were taking turns

With that similarly on the run but those guys I mean they were indefatigable like they could just you know in incredible athletes super committed to James but I think James to his credit really understood leadership and team building in a way that maybe to your own admission maybe you

Know there’s some room for like growing and learning yeah I’m just not I’m I’m not very good at like going to someone and going mate you’re amazing you’re doing an awesome job I love you like I’m just like I’m I’m bad at that and and I

Should be better and I apologize to them because because what I did differently I guess is I had a morning crew and an afternoon crew you can’t being Cast Away and Forest gum and also be a CEO yeah well I should have been you know and I

Wish i’ now I wish I’d given them more attention and and shown them more appreciation um cuz the morning crew would do the swim and the and the bike and then come one :00 which is when my bike ended usually roughly mhm that’s them done for the day they go home they

Can do whatever they want had zero to do with it outside of going doing a bit of shopping as well and setting up for the following swim which of course took time and then the so there was the two Chris’s they did five days on 5 days off

And then Phil did everything and he would do all of the run and then he would do the bike maintenance so I had some bike swapped out so that I I just had a fresh bike each day uh and nutrition and things like that and then

Again so he would he had his morning sort of of course he had stuff to do before he arrived and and the the bike maintenance and all that um and but you’re right I if you’re doing something like this your crew will feed off you 100%

And if you’re like oh I hate this this is miserable while we doing it that energy is going to trans you have to you have to take responsibility for setting the tone you’ve got to be in a good mood and and tell them that and it’s hard

When things are in pain because there’s there is pain every day all day with with doing a backtack irons you know your shoulders are sore on the swim and your back a little bit on the bike it can be neck or wrists um uh knees a

Little bit on the bike for me and then the run everything hurts you know all legs and everything so it’s hard to then be like hey guys good going well done I love you guys thank you so much um and I definitely failed on that and I think if

I did it again again or someone else is doing it like you just need to really show your crew how much you appreciate them because you know I they were so good I genuinely didn’t have to think about anything like the food was there I got I got my nutrition dialed in I

Nailed it I would do it different oh cuz I I and you’ll hate me but I had almost no vegetables on the whole time you’re like eating yeah so F Meats milks nuts fruits and Grains um and half of I think I’d get 3,000 calories a day I was doing about 8,000

Calories a day 3,000 of that was in the full fat cream as like insurance insurance calories just in case which kept me at a okay weight I went from 60 I went from 70 at the start down to 67 um 68 is a good weight for me the 67 I

Felt like was a bit too light I lost a bit of muscle there and and put my pce went down a bit and that sort of thing but um the crew knew everything you know once we’ had it died in I just had to turn up and everything was ready and

Laid out and they were they were incredible absolutely just the best you know was there a dark moment of the soul in this adventure like what was the hardest piece so it was around day 30 I wrote a piece about it on social media where there’s a series of things that

Happened um so one of them was I got the total that we for charity and I think it was less than 1,000 but on day 30 and I’m like what why is it so low like like obviously no one cares like obviously I’ve I’ve missed the ball here no one

Cares we’re never going to raise what we wanted to raise which was 102,000 and then Caroline was having a rough time as well you know that just that particular day the kids were kicking off and they were ill and they just were like not wanting to go to bed

And not wanting to eat and just doing being kids basically and then so you know I’m coming home and she’s having a rough time I’m like well what why am I doing this if like we’re not raising any money for charity at this point Caroline’s having a tough time

Um you know and you it’s hard not to look at social media and see how many likes you get and all this because in my head that would hopefully transcend to raising money for charity that that wasn’t as as high as we thought by this point and I thought well have I missed

The ball on like socially you know what people do now and like does anyone care about you know just this guy who you know can just go off and you know he’s he’s leading such an easy life he has to create this hardship for himself just to feel fulfill

Yeah and there’s also a sort of point at which oh another guy’s going off and doing something crazy like there’s always somebody who’s going further longer farther you know and you kind of begin to yeah have this immune response to it yeah so and of course it was a

Personal challenge that I wanted to test myself to see if I could do it but at the expense of a my family and B like what are you actually wagering here and what is what is the why yeah exactly yeah yeah you want to achieve this goal

Yes you want to raise money that’s not really the why like what is the deeper why well I have to feed the terrier it’s like I have to feed the Teran right but let’s go beneath that oh gosh yeah I have no idea I like what is that drive

All about I don’t know maybe it’s social maybe it’s trying to like I wasn’t very good at sport at school maybe I was bullied uh you know I maybe I’ve just got this inherent need for social acceptance you know I was a bit of a ler and and I thought I was

Happy being a loner but actually you know doing something and beating my chest cuz all mammals need to beat their chest right maybe I need that more than I thought I needed it um yeah it must be that it must be an element of me trying to go look at me

I’m good at this stuff man I the best I’m the only human on the planet to have ever done XY z um it’s got to be there’s got to be a little ego there that’s fueling this fire which I think is fine I think I’m happy that it’s there maybe

You know maybe it’s something just trying to be cool for my kids you know be a cool dad although I’ve reliably being told that that never happens but yeah it doesn’t it doesn’t happen I also think that’s [ __ ] that’s sort of like oh I’m raising money it’s it’s I’m

Doing this for my kids I want to show my kids it’s like no it’s probably not that kids don’t care no they don’t care your kids are too young first of all and by the time they’re old enough to appreciate it it’ll just be that weird

Thing dad did yeah and the W was 500 now that yeah so I but in that on that day 30 though and you’re you’re sort of confronted with that why yeah cuz you know I wasn’t getting maybe the social recognition I wasn’t getting the people going in their pockets and giving money

To the charity you know Caroline was having a tough day that day um yeah so there’s probably a lot of those little things that well it was played on my mind and then I’m just like what’s the Blooming Point you know what is the point I’m just it’s just SP

All I’m doing is trying to do a few more full irons than one other guy did you know and yeah it hit me that day is it worth cratering your marriage and threatening your relationship with your family all these things and then failing at a potential other goal which is all part

Of the jigs one I know the charity thing wasn’t as you say the be all and end all cuz I needed to chase the record but it’s certainly something well something you cared about and also another layer of accountability exactly yeah it’s dangling all the carrots you know like

What are the carrots you’ve dangled in front of yourself to keep you going forward and and certainly the charity is one of them and and you know the ego side is having a cool Pub story and you know coming on a podcast you know all these being able to write the book you

Know I love I’ve written seven yeah you’ve written a lot of books there’s one we don’t talk about so why is that where crap well these these 10 rules of endurance are clearly your next book I think so so I’m going to weave in the

Sort of my experience in IR 105 plus all the other stuff I’ve done into this sort of experience book of of of the 10 pillars I think so um and that’s part of it I love writing and I love all my books are in the downstairs toilet so

Whenever I go for a pee they’re there and they’re reminding me and I just love having them there um it’s ego thing as well I guess um although you do keep your the copyright to your written word for like 70 years after you die so I

Love the fact that like my great great grandkids are going to get like two quid one month from Dad’s book sale great granddad’s Book Sales go to the PB books even exist at that point but back to this Dark Knight of the soul the Reckoning with the why trying to figure

Out or or find a you know a place to plant your flag and and continue forward how did you get to the other side of that what did you do mentally what did you rely upon to um to transcend that setback um I don’t think I did anything

Like practically I just was like well okay this is how I feel I feel that this is potentially a waste of my time and no one cares but I’ve committed to doing it so I’m going to get up tomorrow and do it and then I got up the next day and I

Felt a little bit better and then I got the next day I got a little bit better and then within a week we’ had a little bit more money the kids were a bit better Caroline was having a good time she came and joined me and ran a

Marathon cuz I think it was around then she started doing a marathon a day with me uh sorry a marathon a week every Sunday um and then and a couple more new riders came cuz around day 30 all of a sudden more more Riders sort of joining

Me on a regular basis um it’s sort of a don’t quit before the miracle lesson you stay in it these things sh and also a bad day today definitely doesn’t mean a bad day tomorrow that’s one thing I’ve learned in all the things I’ve done if anything a bad today means it’s more

Likely to be a good day tomorrow I think and the same as the other way around a good day today doesn’t mean a good day tomorrow like you’ve got both ways well yeah because you can I remember when I cycle around the world I you know bits

In America where I’d have a massive Tailwind I’m like this is easy and I’d take my foot off the gas and I’d just Coast because I was pushing less power and the heart rate was down and I was still floating along and then i’ get to a town and I’d

Say oh well I’ve had a good day you know I’ve done 200 miles 2 hours quicker than normal I’ll just rest up I’ve done a good day and then the next day I’d only do 120 miles I’ll be like cuz I had a head I’m like damn it why didn’t I

Capitalize on that good day and just do what I normally do just just do the time and you know on a good day you’ll go further so I’ve definitely learned that as well you know a good day today can mean a bad day tomorrow and vice versa so

So Shan the Everyman ordinary guy with the the numbers in the lab that are super unimpressive we have this person right but on some level there is a talent there is a uniqueness what is that Talent like what is it that makes you distinct or or or

Different or um an outlier if you had to identify your strength I mean is it tenacity is it the terrier I think I think wanting it because I think there’s definitely a more there’s at least three people who joined me who I think could break my

Record you know local local guys there a guy called Deca Dave who had the British record for the most number uh for a double decker and he was doing 11 hours for and he was 57 years old when he did it wow um so he had 20 and no one in

Britain had ever done more than 20 he’s 64 now so even he admits that he’s he can feel his numbers going down a little bit so but you know there’s there are people out there who could physically do it but it’s where you want

To do it for one and whether you are you know I don’t know who said it but someone said be ignor ignorant enough to start and stubborn enough to finish or naive enough to start and stubborn enough to finish and there’s definitely that element of of just wanting it so

Much that you’re just going to sacrifice anything to get there but then there’s obviously all the experience that you need that goes with it and that takes time and energy um so I think I don’t think I’m an outlier I think there are more people out there

Than maybe we think who could do these things MH um they’ve just chosen not to or they don’t want it enough um or they’re not experienced enough to deal with all the little niggles that happen and dealing with the head space and and that and that comes with time there’s no

Way so when I did my world’s longest Triathlon 20 that was the last time I’ve been at my fittest so between 2016 and now I’ve been the almost the unfittest I’ve been because uh did my Europe record in 2018 and that was okay but that was only 25

Days and it was cycling only and I lost all my fitness after that but I still think even though I was really really fit after the the the long Triathlon I still couldn’t have done the 105 then even though I was super fit cuz I didn’t have the experience in all the other

Things that go around around with it so uh I would love for someone to have a crack at the 105 like I have no business in holding this record forever absolutely none what’s the Ally 10% 10 10% of me goes oh yeah oh it’ll get

It’ll get broken but but I like I really like the fact that you’re encouraging it to be broken and you’re holding on to that very Loosely yeah absolutely like send me a message I’ll help you I’ll tell you how to do it I’ll tell you how

To do it and I know you want to set up a woman for the woman’s record what is the what so there’s someone who’s done 25 in 35 days so uh in America um there’s someone in the UK who’s done 20 20 continuous not one a day so I

Can’t I don’t know I don’t know what the woman is but Caroline my lovely wife she’s um she’s interested yeah which would be amazing how cool would that be what husband and wife so I’ve I’ve uh I’ve taken the horse to water with her and she’s she cuz she’s a really good

Swimmer she used to swim competitively as a teenager she can run she was doing a marathon a week with me and and we met cycling so she knows how a cycle she would just need to get a bit quicker on I think the bike and the Run certainly

The bike I mean I needed to get quicker on the bike as well but I’ve got the course we’ve got the crew we’ve got everyone where I live and it’s your turn to be to be a single dayare I know absolutely so I think I think if a

Female did a month 31 days I think that would definitely be be a record I think it’s probably 21 but I think 31 would be a cool number because you’ve done a month of them yeah because if you look at all my data I it definitely doesn’t favor this record doesn’t

Favor uh a male biologically like the power was when you with a group of riders your power is not crazy high the Run doesn’t have to be fast the swim the Swim’s easy but like as you know it’s Triathlon is very skewed away and even if you’re not a great swimmer

It’s still a way to recover from the day before and limber up if Triathlon was the run first multi-day day after days would just be a whole different game because when I woke up in the morning I was like I can’t walk down the stairs I

I cannot do it but I knew once I was in the pool once I was a couple hundred meters in get the blood moving get the blood moving it fixes everything so I knew the swim was my safe space I loved it and even though I wasn’t super fast I

Wasn’t slow either I was an okay I was doing about a I did a 107 swim time as my fastest and then a one 20 I think was my slowest but I was hovering around 120 total time each day um about 1:15 swim Time 5 minutes

Stopping to eat and and that thing easy whereas and on a good day and a bad day you’re losing 10 minutes whereas on a good day and a bad day on the bike it was hour and a half two hours same on the Run back to this notion of what

Distinguishes you um I think yes the the the desire the wanting it is important I think there’s this tenacity this determination the terrier Spirit within you but I also think um there’s something to this propensity to action that you have like you are willing to LEAP before you look

Oh yeah um and and that’s the naive peace like not being intimidated or afraid and not being paralyzed by the unknowns which I think is something that a lot of people get overly caught up with so much so that you decide you’re going to swim the length of Great

Britain yeah and you have like no swim training no you have no idea what you’re getting involved in right like you don’t really have a background in this you’re not trained up you hadn’t swam more than I think I read three miles was your longest swim pool in a pool before that

Yeah yeah so that’s idea as and the world’s longest ultimate Triathlon or whatever you you call it you kind of went into that without really training for it or understanding training yeah no none of that so there’s a there’s a bullheadedness piece to that there’s a stupidity piece but there’s also an

Audacious kind of boldness to it that I think is the tip of the spear that opens up these doors and when you compare that with not being afraid to fail it creates an equation that allows you to do amazing things as long as you stick with

It and stay in the game yeah no absolutely you’ve you’ve nailed it on the head there with the swim especially that one a I didn’t live anywhere near the ocean so I couldn’t do any sea training I had zero money um I got sponsored but there was an

Accounting error so the money that was going to pay for it ended up paying for about half of it and then I crowdfunded the rest of the swim I only got it like s days into the swim so I the closest I had a pool near me but I was so consumed

With all the other aspects of trying to pull that swim off because that one really no one believed was possible you know 900 mil swim up the West Coast I was putting stuff on yachting forums saying oh you know i’ like to know about tides and everyone was just hammering me

Down like dude whatever like sailing it’s difficult and a small boat like it’s not going to happen waves too big tides are too strong there killer whales in Scotland like I got everything so people were very cautious of trying to help because they just thought it a

Waste of their time um and that took all my time and I knew that actually so I could swim I knew how to swim I’d done have you heard of this the the biggest Open Water Swimming event in the world I think is called the midmar mile in South

Africa 15,000 people know about this it’s a mile across a lake 15,000 people do it every year our school did it so when I was I think eight no I couldn’t I was about 10 or 11 I swam this mile I’ve done it twice they do eight eight um uh

Waves of swimmers and one year I did after I swam Britain I did they call the the Eight Mile Club where you do all eight so you swim it they take you on the boat back you swim it back I swam it with ker Anne Payne um and Lex Lexi

Kelly she’s American um they uh yes so I knew how to swim but I just was unfit and my technique was crap so when I did the cheese rolling in GL you must have seen it on YouTube where they roll a cheese down the hill and people chase

The cheese you I don’t know about this it’s a 200y old tradition in Britain where it’s called the GL GLA cheese rolling they and it’s vertical they roll this cheese down you run after it head over tail whoever gets to the bottom first wins the cheese anyway I did that

2009 and just fully ruptured my cap Cup on my left shoulder so when I swim and I get fatigued I drop this shoulder and I push like that and then so I just have a terrible left hand technique and it actually played up a little bit on this

Because also from when I swam Britain because of all the waves I I did and because I didn’t want to get neck chafe you want to get Rhino neck like like Ross Ross yeah I know it was crazy and I and then I just again I’m micro managing

Everything and I’m very good at that like I never let it get anywhere near what he got because I nailed it early I started I wrapped a buff in Vaseline and um lelin so I did a Vaseline and lelin mix in the microwave mixed it all together rubbed it all over this buff

Put it under the wet suit to stop the little chafe and then it was flushing a bit and cold but at least I didn’t get chafe but then I eventually got to this technique where I would just over roll like to breathe I would just be doing

That rather than doing that and it was terrible but also with all the big waves I’m sort of breathing up in the sky and if you look at all the pictures on this swim now in the pool I’m like my head’s up I’m over rolling I’m over rotating my

Legs are out like this but I knew I would get fit on that swim and because it was there was no time element other than trying to finish before winter I knew I would make it like I just I knew I just swam a mile you know

Two miles I could do it as long as I did about 10 miles a day I think in my head I was like right I’ll get into Scotland before winter uh even though I was hoping to do more than that but it landed up being much slower I thought it

Was going to take me two and a half months took me like four and a half or something yeah 13 yeah right this propensity to act like you threw yourself into this thing and figured it out as you went and as a result you’ve accomplished things that you probably

Couldn’t have imagined for yourself yeah so I’m trying to I’m trying to like mine the lesson from that and I think it’s that courage to kind of liberate yourself from this social um this imprint uh this impr printed kind of social expectation or or attitude that we have around Safety and

Security and like always knowing like where each step is going to lead you along the path and and you’re just kind of bouncing around like a ping pingpong ball like I’m sure there’s more conscious intention behind it but I see somebody Who’s acting on Instinct and and really driven by this

Sense of adventure and is is kind of just going from one thing to the next and not spending too much time worrying about what the larger plan is here like trying to be really in the moment with who you who you are yeah no it’s true

And I think once I think of something it’s just like well that’s what I want to do now no I’m just going to do it like I’m not prepared yeah and and that is like a forest gum thing like I’m okay I’m going to run now and then like okay

I’m done no exactly and then obviously where it sort of bites me in the ass a little bit sometimes is there’s there’s weather windows and you know so last year for last year’s attempt I thought of it in December because I had this other idea which I can’t talk about

Which I was going to do which you know about but that just kept getting delayed and delayed delayed well I don’t want someone else to do it right if I someone else like oh I’m gonna have a crack of that they make my life I’m sure somebody else has thought

Of it maybe knowing what it is well no one’s done it since 1994 so now you’re giving Clues oh exactly but um I then in December 2021 I decided right I’m going to go for the 102 and then I looked at the training I was like right maybe six months it’s

Cutting it fine but I can’t really start later than July because then I’m running into October November and weather and all that sort of thing so that was also partly the issue with the previous attempt and also kit like like getting kit with the supply chain issues getting

A bike was possible um you and James both like outdoing it in freezing weather and like what are you guys doing just relocate this whole thing well he had more I think he had more variation on temperature but I just had the rain you know just the rain just made cycling

On the roads with Pooles you know all the water just covered up all the Pooles and you couldn’t see them and luckily you know within a week I knew every potle by name pretty much so uh that wasn’t too bad but it was slippery and taking Corners you have to slow down I

Was on a rainy day I was easily half an hour slower just because it was raining you know cuz your glasses are covered up with all the muck off the road and things like that um so yeah what was the question I’m sure there was one uh being present with who you are

And not getting caught up in the security blanket sort of narrative about around how to live your life like the guiding princip around how you’re living and how you’re making decisions about where to invest your time and your energy as opposed to the 401K or the you know the upwardly

Mobile career path yeah you’re just like well here’s what I’m doing here’s what I think I’m going to do now and that’s kind of it pretty much I know it’s it’s going to is your different oh she’s she’s terrified of the future um no it’s again even sitting here I I can’t even

Genuinely give you a reasonable sensible answer because I don’t know because it’s just not how my brain works but I think the the the bandwidth of your life like the Horizon of your life is obviously quite large right now you’re writing books you’re traveling around you’re giving talks you’re speaking you’re

Doing all these things that would probably really impress the young photographer who had dreams of being a National Geographic fellow right so when you think back to the aspirations of that person and reflect upon your life today yeah what is the message that you tell that that young person with a

Dream just don’t be scared to just wink like have a go you know I and I think that’s what I do I just think of something that I would potentially regret not doing you know that’s quite an important thing and I think that’s quite common but to action it I action

It I’m like I will 100% regret not having a crack at this you know like the 102 when I failed the first time there was sort of talk about yeah well you know James Lawrence is pretty impressive guy like maybe you don’t have it in you

Buddy you know and I saw him on day 100 and yeah I mean he was delirious like he struggled man exactly you know so so who are you well exactly you know I’ve never done a man the event in my life I’ve never done a triathlon in fact I’ve I’ve

Done three I’ve done three one-day events in my life I ran the London Marathon for the scouts uh I did a tough M and I did a 50k Ultra a couple years ago it literally other than training of course I’m doing one day training and things but actual events that’s all I’ve

Ever done I’ve never done any Triathlon not once I’ve not done a a proper running race it’s just it one day events have never excited me um so you’re right you know once when I failed last year it was a huge part of me and people I know

And the internet going like who is this guy likey right not so easy like come on man like you know and um and of course as I said like I plead guilty that by the way well it was I Remember You Mess when I when I announced the attempt I

Remember you saying uh snap shots shots fired shot Fir and and then at 6 and you had that thing I was like maybe not as no not like a sh and Freud way but out of like a respect for just how how difficult absolutely and yeah a huge

Part of Me Maybe didn’t take it seriously enough there was that time window where I sort of knew that 6 months wasn’t enough but I thought I’m just going to have a crack anyway otherwise I’m waiting a whole another year for the for this would have would

Have been this year cuz the sensible part of me would have been like when I thought of it in January I would have started in April the following year which is what I said this year but of course I’m like I don’t want to wait 14

Months I I want it now and I think I can get there and I was wrong I was I was wrong you know I the route wasn’t good enough I was a little bit down on Fitness although even day seven with the injury my all my

Times were a little quicker so my swim was quicker I think i’ had done the fastest bike on that day um my run was slow super slow so I was sort of on the right track but yeah I I wouldn’t have made it because I just didn’t I I I just winged

It a little bit too much this time um and I I don’t regret it because it became fuel for my fire the next time it’s was like right well I’ve I cocked that up what did I do wrong I’m going to do it better uh I’m going to train a bit

More I’m going to work on a bit on my my um my speed because I can go forever but with doing the full a day to get the sleep you got to be fast as well so I had to bring in some speed work into my training so I did that

Worked on a better route um got you know the crew got a different crew uh so yeah everything I just did a bit better that I’d messed up the time before MH um because let’s say I even had got to a physical level I potentially would have

Still messed up because of other things had I not done the seven right and actually so going back to getting to the start line fully fit there’s three things I would do differently if I did it again one is I would still do my three sessions of each thing a week for

Six to eight months I think that’s how long I did it eight months then I would do a weeklong uh bike packing ride about two months out morning till night 200 miles a day just cycle find out anything that’s weak you know because you’ll pick up all the the little weaknesses and

Tendons and muscles by going day after day on the bike I then would have taken a week off and done the same on the run and done a weekl long run with a backpack fast packing a bit like what I’ve got here to to run uh but I’d have

Thrown a tent in there as well done that for a week seeing what niggles I picked up cuz that would have picked up my Weak Knee for example and maybe my weak weak right ankle and maybe this hip thing I’ve got now uh and then I would have

Done five in a row and I would have done a five in a row about six weeks out and that’s controversial because and and the reason I didn’t is because I thought well what if I get injured then it’s ruining my attempt but then if I get injured doing five I’m getting injured

Doing 105 right right you’re just you’re just yeah you’re basically uh you know creating a situation where you can pull out before you begin because you’re you’re just realizing what’s inevitable yeah so let’s say I did the five and I’d picked up this knee thing I’d have gone

Right why did that happen I need to work on that go work with my physio work with everyone so that it doesn’t happen on the 105 and so there’s a couple of things that happened not to say that the love was going to go easy I love that

Your training block is like okay I’m just going to do these 200 mile days on the and I’m G to do this insane run camp and then I’m going to do five Iron Man’s in five days just just in training to get ready I think you’d have to if you

Just your like just the insanity of that like in terms of how we think about difficulty and what’s possible versus impossible like now having done 105 your sense of normal is like so out of whack compared to like the average person yeah that you’re like yeah then you do five

And then you do you know like like so cavalierly so casually yeah I don’t know it does seem normal if I’m honest like I I I’m trying to right now think of someone else looking at this and I I feels normal right and that’s what I want to I want

To we got to end this but I want to bring that back to the person who’s watching or listening who who perhaps is losing the thread right now because they’re just they can’t relate um so let’s get back to ordinary Jo I don’t want to be normal yeah it’s

Like you’re like the average ordinary guy who also did this C crazy thing like what is what exactly is average ordinary or or normal about this nothing right nothing no I like that um but to ground it in in accessible principles as you know the person who’s going to write

This book with the 10 tools of endurance what do you say to that person who is struggling with committing to the hard thing or trying to access a new gear where they put themselves in a position to struggle and fail and challenge themselves physically mentally and emotionally yeah I don’t know if I’m

That sympathetic to people with little self sort of motivation so you know I I really struggle when I meet people and they go like oh I just I just didn’t want to train to I’m training for a marathon but I just couldn’t you I didn’t train this week I just couldn’t be

Honest I really don’t like I just you know I’m I’m not the The goggin Who shout to you and gives you all that motivation like if you don’t want to be motivated man like I just come on I I I sort of I don’t understand it I guess

Cuz I’m so selfmotivated well also if you’re Reliant upon somebody else to provide extrinsic motivation then that’s problematic because you got to find a way to you got to keep getting that yeah you have to be able to instill that in yourself no but like so practically is

Is find out why you want to do it you know if you want to run a marathon or if you want to do an Iron Man let’s say you want to do an Iron Man you’ve never done an Iron Man why are you why are you

Wanting to do it you know and and yeah but you can’t even answer that question for yourself yeah well I want to chase thing I no so genuinely I have zero interest of doing an Iron Man a stand alone event zero although James is uh he wants to do a head-to-head on

His what he’s ask he’s like come be a Day of Reckoning more shots fired right um that could be a pay-per-view his fastest is 10 hours he’s done a 10 hour I think I could do a 10 I think I could do a 10 what’s your fastest Iron Man I’ve never

Done an Iron Man have you never you’ve done all the long stuff as well so you get me yeah I understand I understand but if let’s say you wanted to do one you’ve really got to a want it and and if you don’t want it don’t do it

I think you should do it but I’m not going to be there sort of setting your alarm for for you and waking up in the morning like but if You’ decided you want to do it like really focus and put energy into the reasons why you’re doing

It and write them out you know write them on a poster not stick them next to your bed if you’re a visual type of person or print pictures out I remember when I swam the length of Britain I had a picture of the Jonah gr’s Harbor and I

Printed it out and I had that as my visualiz like that’s where I want to get to nothing else matters I got to swim to that spot and um and you know write them out why are you doing it is it to raise money for charity is it for ego is it

For a cool Pub story um everything’s just as important as as as the other one and try not to forget it and if you you know and take the baby steps and Trust the process and get other get advice from people if if things if you’re getting injured especially with injury

That’s a hard one of course because there are certain times where injury is you know will stop you and should stop you because depending on what you want to do after that it’s being able to differentiate good pain from bad pain yes you know there’s pain that’s just

Pain and you just deal with it and then there’s pain that will potentially lead to something that will a have a lifelong effect on you or be eventually stop you later down the line and it’s about managing that um but for the most part from a mindset point of

You yeah you just got to think why and what’s driving you what’s your motivating fact and for me it’s a record and it’s trying to do a thing at a certain time you know I’m doing 100K Ultra uh at the end of September I know I will never win that

Race like it’s just never going to happen um it’s I’ve not trained for it uh I’ve not done Hills in months MH uh however I really want to see just what I can do how fast I can do it so I’m going to push myself I’m going to look at my

Numberers num which I normally don’t do and and just see so that’s I’m chasing this this philosophy of how well I can do once I’ve set that time then and let’s say that time’s close to the winner of that particular race then maybe the ter will be like oh maybe you

Can win it next year you know I’ve signed up for the 215 mile run across Scotland for next August now that’s something I think the the last year’s winner was 58 hours and I’m sort of going well I wonder if I could do 58 hours as well so that’s

Something that’s MH excites me and that’s all I need that I don’t need any other external motivation other than a for this this 100 coming up is how how quick can I do that uh and then and then that’s all I need I literally need nothing else I’m so motivated do that I

Don’t care about any of that let me tell you what I want to see from you okay I want to see you and James go head-to-head in a Mr Beast type video challenge where you know you each have to do something head to-head that challenges you in a way that has nothing

To do with swimming biking and running so yes James famously won that competition where he wrote around on the ferris wheel for however many days when he was a kid right that’s like his in the superhero origin story of James’s life that would be the opening scene

Right he refuse he rides it I don’t know how many days or whatever and refuses to get off on the kind of mental capacity uh level Beyond normal people so in the way that Mr Beast makes videos like whoever can have their hand on the side of his boat

The longest wins the boat or whatever like I I want to see you guys go head tohe head in something like that um I’d be a I think that would be great that’ be great yeah if anyone has fig that out yeah yeah let’s keep inou I mean like

Just some ridiculous challenge that really is more about your mind I think than anything else that would excite me that would excite me actually yeah yeah we figure that out I want to do I’d like to find interesting ways to push myself that don’t take for three and a half

Months MH so and I think I’ll need to just to not be away from the family and that’s why I’m signing up for a little bit more one-day races which I’ve never done before um but maybe that’s part of it maybe there’s these psychological challenges that uh I could uh sort of

Kind of scratch the terrier you know yeah maybe that would also scratch but maybe instead of scratching the terrier Let’s uh let’s uh you know pet him a little bit try to understand him you know lock eyes with him see if we can get a little communion here a little

Deeper insight into why the terrier is the way the terrier is you are right I’m so terrified that he then decides to there’s nothing to be afraid of uh self-awareness is power my friend no it’s true it’s true and and and every time I listen to One your podcast I sort

Of go right I definitely need to work on that side of me a little bit more maybe my step into yoga is going to be a start of it now I’m doing the breathing thing which I poo pooed for ages and and um but it’s it’s really revolutionized this

Last so I’ve only done it this last week I get up at 529 I do half an ey yoga and it’s the most transformative I’ve felt out of all the other things like the ice bath the saor uh you know diet changes and that thing the simple thing I feel

Has changed me the most I sleep better for it um I feel better in the day um yeah Caroline was like wow you you’re in such a good mood lately um so I’m definitely going to but I’m doing the classic sort of boy thing of like right

I want to get into yoga right is there a three-hour yoga session I can do on YouTube more is better more is better I know it’s Terri which is such a it’s antithetical to the Whole Yoga thing to begin with right like it’s hilarious and I’m so terrible I’m shaking on every

Pose and and I love being terrible competitive in your Asos yeah um well let’s also work on maybe getting a few vegetables in you as well oh so we I I at home we I’m sort of part-time vegetarian part-time vegan as well um don’t have a lot of meat in you’re

Growing some of your food and foraging the mushrooms foraging I’ve got big veggie plot as well uh the growing season a bit bit rubbish so you get all your vegetables in like a month one month window type thing um but yeah Caroline and I we will have a Sunday

Roast on Sundays but mostly our weekday meals are are pretty much vegetarian and I really would like you know reading reading your book really every I’ve read it twice now and I’m like damn it I really need to do this I really I really

Need to just go go all in um but yeah it’s on my list it’s you versus uh James Lawrence who can sustain a vegan diet the longest oh I think I could I no I love it I actually you probably would win that jam has tried we talked about

It I think it’s habit it’s habit more than anything I think if so we do this where they deliver all your the ingredients to a meal every week in a box and so that’s all um I don’t think they do a vegan option but it’s a vegetarian option so we have four meals

A week at home that are mostly vegetarian um and and I love it I I and I feel better for it uh I also do feel better with with game meat than so I do try and only when I have meat it’s either official game um but yeah but on on on the

105 yeah it just it’s just I started stomaching you maximize caloric density basically and and also I wasn’t there to try and do a a sub you know sub 10 I knew I needed the calories and I knew I needed to survive the day and I needed I

Needed to not lose weight um but food very rarely changed my my energy levels on on the one of cuz I was so fatigued I was so tired I was in so much pain if I ate nothing or everything I was I still felt the same um so all it

Was was just minimizing eventually going off the cliff from a Performance Point out cuz eventually at some point I’ll just waste away and have no power left and then I’ll be doing a 7-hour bike and a 7h hour marathon and then I’m back on the wave so and once I had a system

Because I I ate almost the exact same thing every day to the and at the same time so I’d wake up out of porridge and chia in the morning with butter and honey and I’d have that very liquidy in a liter and have that on the way to the

Pool then I’d have a banana and then I’d have some athletic greens and a couple of multiv vits mhm then on the bike I’d have small cheeses and small bits of meat um then at the if I hadn’t finished the porridge by the pool I’d have that

Before I got on the bike and then there was three feed stations I’d have a banana a packet of crisps um every now and then there was some tomatoes and and cucumber just to because I just fancy them um I’d have something like a Welsh

Cake I have a used what is a Welsh cake oh youve not had a Welsh I should have brought you some it’s just like an a flowy like cake with some raisins in it yeah but no it’s more crumbly um like a scone if you flattened a scone scone

Scone um it’s sort of like that and then I have the cream and then have uh some nuts and some fruit lots of fruit right um and I’d have that on each feed station and then during the Run oh and I’d also have uh rice pudding I don’t

Know if you get that but rice pudding I’d have one of those at every feed station then on the Run bananas and um I’d have a pasta meal two pasta meals on the Run uh full meal so walking and eating with a spoon a carbon

Or spag ball and then in my bottles I had carb powders um in the bottle so I’d have about 2,000 calories a day just in the bottles maybe 3,000 in powder form and then yeah that especially with the cream because I’d have two 2,000 a day

In cream which for me was I’d eat eat eat and then literally at the end i’ just down a bit of cream and then go and then that was sort of insurance right like if I messed up all the eating at least I had that as backup right and

Then that that kep me as I said I only lost 3 kgs over the three months I was happy with that I was happy with that cuz people I could have lost 10 kgs I could have gone down I’m only 5 foot I’m under 5 fo8

So I could have been I could have gone on to 60 kgs easily yeah from 70 so I was happy with 67 I think what you’ve done done is extraordinary uh it’s a testament to the human Spirit your tenacity as this terrier and um just inspirational for everybody to know that

You’ve had your blood work done you’ve been in the lab and you’ve been tested and there isn’t anything physically extraordinary about you beyond your sheer determination your force of will your refusal to give up your ability to persevere against obstacles and this proclivity to act I think is really

Powerful and I think for anybody who’s listening or watching who is considering um the upper ceiling of their capabilities My Hope Is that maybe your testimony will encourage people to rethink that um because I think um it’s easy like I was saying before when you start you know this new normal around

Like oh 105 Iron Man’s in 105 days like whatever like oh we could maybe it’s 200 like let’s just do a reality check here and appreciate the extraordinary nature of what you accomplished whether it was 100 101 102 105 this is a feat that I think very few people can appreciate just how

Extraordinary and difficult it is and as I said to James and have said publicly you know I think it’s deserving of much more attention from from the broader kind of you know mainstream media than either of you two guys have have received uh I think you’re deserving of

Of much more attention and appreciation for what you have accomplished because it it it really is something that as somebody who’s dipped their toe in this world I have a hard time understanding or or or even having a taste for what that must have been like yeah thanks

Thanks for saying that I um yeah I haven’t really thought thought about the external ramifications of where this has gone and where it could go and who’s you know benefited from it and who’s inspired by it because I’m still only four four and a half weeks out from it

So I think it’ll take six months to a year for me to probably decompress and work out what actually happened yeah I have no memory of Cu every day is the same like when I C around the world every day was different but this one

Every day is the same so it all sort of went into one big blur your relationship with time shifts and you didn’t know what was going on in the world or abely which is strange yeah it’ll be a while before it uh sinks in and becomes

I think once I’ve written the book and I sit down and I it’ll force you to confront it yeah this happened and you know you don’t have to run to carfest if you don’t want to I think you earned a little break I want to okay good um well

I’ll see you there then I guess right yeah absolutely cool um thank you for coming here and sharing uh you are an inspiration um amazing what you’ve done and I can’t wait to see what you’ve done next not that you need to top it I’m more interested in in how you synthesize

These experiences into actionable wisdom for the rest of us through the book you’re going to write yeah thank you very much yeah very very kind yeah so um if people are Keen to learn more about you they can go to Sean Conway Adventure Sean conway.com or Sean Conway Adventure

Inst Instagram few places yeah that’s it cool man all right thank you cheers that’s it for today thank you for listening I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation to learn more about today’s guest including links and resources related to everything discussed today visit the episode page at Rich roll.com

Where you can find the entire podcast archive as well as podcast merch my books Finding Ultra voicing change and the plant power way as well as the plant power meal planner at meals. ral.com if you’d like to support the podcast the easiest and most impactful thing you can

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And Harry mathys appreciate the love love the support see you back here soon peace plance Namaste He