After months of good intentions, I finally made it down to Camberwell in South London to the This Is Progress wrestling school this morning. There, under the watchful eye Jimmy Havoc, I learned a huge amount about the things I am doing well and the things I am doing badly. This is just as wel...
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Wellington. I turned up here on a whim to see Tenacious D and, a week later, I cannot leave. Every day, I wake up in time to check out of my hostel, intent on leaving the city... Every night, I check back into my hostel and vow to leave on the morrow. It is no use. I am smitten. I spend...
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I haven't been here long, but I have come to love exercising and working out in Australia. I find it infinitely more energising than going to the gym in the UK, where even in the summer I have started waddling in stiff and aching from the cold, hunched over and dripping wet, wondering why I even bo...
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Today, I have come to Muscle and Fitenss in Townsville to meet Joel, the mastermind behind Adventurethon. In fact, it was his infectious enthusiasm for the event that got me to upgrade from simply volunteering to help out, to taking part in the Enduro race, being filmed for two TV shows and expan...
Continue reading ...After a day of hiking around Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest, we have returned to Port Douglas. Here, it is imperative that I perform a feat of strength. For tonight it is the Full Moon. Alas, finding feats of strength in a tourist town like this is not easy. Of hats, there are plent...
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In training for Adventurethon 2013, I decided I needed some help. Some advice. Some (dare I say it) training. You see, no matter what I do to train for my Enduro Adventurethon (14km of open sea kayaking, 21km of mountain biking and 12km of off-road running) I will be totally and utterly unprepare...
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Today was my first off-road run of 2013 and my first since a traumatic body-building workout with Robser Le Monster. I decided to try a 10km route my dad showed me before I ran the Wycombe Half Marathon in 2011. So, to the sounds of Apocalyptic Love by Slash, I headed out into the chilly February e...
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When it comes to exercise (and indeed life in general), I believe people can push themselves far harder than they think they can. I believe people - myself included - set their personal expectations too low, rarely try as hard as they think they are trying, and give up too easily. I believe pe...
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What's the first thing that pops to mind when you think "triathlon"? How about when you think "Adventurethon"? How about when you think about the individual sports of kayaking, mountain biking and off-road running? It's probably brute strength, right? Right. That's why, in preparation for my fo...
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Today, I decided that running 6km at a time was going to get me nowhere fast. Or rather, it would get me exactly 6km...and rather slowly. Useless. The only thing within a 3km radius of my house is Tesco Express and, if I want to go there, I'll drive. For one thing, it is a petrol station and, fo...
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1100 metres above sea level, jutting out 700 metres above lake Ringedalsvatnet in Western Norway...is Trolltunga. I want to go there...and caper. Here is why. For one thing, its name means Troll's Tongue in Norwegian. If that isn't enough to make you want to ascend it, you're in the wrong place ...
Continue reading ...My wonderfully talented friend introduced me to this video. It's friggin' amazing...apart from one thing...the music. Don't get me wrong, it's inoffensive... But when a man is performing feats of strength to this level, he really should be performing to some kind of EPIC HEAVY METAL! I hav...
Continue reading ...Today, I went back to my dojo for the first time in months, with one goal in mind - to figure out if my body can still move properly... The good news is that yes, it seems to be functioning just fine after weeks of booze and food and general inactivity. The bad news is that...erm...well, I sup...
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All in all, 2012 was a pretty good year for me. I tried to do at least one kickass thing for every month of the year. Here is what I managed: [gallery type="rectangular" ids="574,1181,932,894,850,1683,2235,1068,2238,1540,1333,981,1131"] Info: this year, I completed Tough Guy Winter 2012, won...
Continue reading ...What better way to start a new year than with a personal best in the gym? How about THREE PERSONAL BESTS IN A ROW? That do anything for ya? That's levitation, Holmes. Nah, only kidding. I didn't fly. What I did, however, was perform my three best sets of squats ever, one after the other. Befor...
Continue reading ...Today's weapons of choice, in the war against...whatever it is I am trying to defeat by spending hours throwing around iron in a gym... ...
Continue reading ...[caption id="attachment_1541" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Squatting in the name of the Lord...[/caption]...
Continue reading ...We are still climbing! We seem to be improving too! Of course, we still screw up a lot: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxGnkFOJzI&w=560&h=315] Spring is coming, however, and we must be ready to face THE ROCK!!...
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Friends, I have done it! "Done what?", you ask? Why, nothing less than the TEN TON CHALLENGE! Sadly, this is simply something I invented myself and it isn't that hard. Still, it was something to work towards. Essentially, the goal is to shift ten tons of iron in one half-hour long squat session, c...
Continue reading ...FACT: Until you've ripped the ass from your cargo trousers mid-set, you have not squatted like a man. And until you have held in your laughter for long enough to finish the set, you have not learn the discipline necessary...to be a DRAGON SLAYER!! At the gym today, I squatted ten tons in half an h...
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