Adapt. Persevere. Deliver. 💪

Turning setbacks into strategy, and effort into outcomes

The Disclaimers 🏷️

Working in tech can be strange at times - we’re encouraged to bring our “full self” to work, yet some parts of us just aren’t welcome. One part of me that drifts between worlds is that I’m an amateur athlete. Historically, whether or not I share that depended entirely on the culture of the company I worked for. Some environments are welcoming, others… not so much.

Let me share my first on-the-job encounter with an “athlete-unwelcoming” perspective:

Person A: Did you get up to anything this weekend?

Me: I went swimming and broke my PB for a 50m sprint!

Person B: I’m amazed you can swim at all with such massive balls dragging along the pool floor.

Legit. That’s what was said. It stuck with me - partly because, in retrospect, it was absurdly funny - but also because it marked a turning point. Person A did step in with a defusing “dude…”, but from that moment I never mentioned sport around that team again. Since then, and in other teams, I’ve been called a “meat head”, dismissed as not being “enough” of an engineer (because of the athleticism), and told that if I have time to train, I’m clearly not prioritising work.

So here’s my disclaimer: this post isn’t about tech or software engineering. It’s about my sporting journey - especially recent setbacks, and the process of rebuilding my fitness through careful and constant adaptation.

And another: nothing here is world-class. I’m not the fastest, strongest, or most dedicated. I train to be healthy, not to win medals. So if this ends up reposted on a forum somewhere, please know - yes, I’m aware it’s “not that fast” or “not that far”. That’s not the point.

The Story So Far 🏃

My fitness journey started by accident. I wanted to buy computer games - and games cost money. So I got a job as a paperboy at 13. My route? A 10km loop with a subscription paper - meaning fewer stops, more cycling.

At some point around age 16, I picked up some weights and started working out “in secret” because I was scrawny and didn’t like that. Eventually, without really noticing, I became healthy.

That habit stuck. I never aimed to be “hench” or to compete - I just kept training. Years later, at an “athlete-tolerating” company, someone asked if anyone wanted to join them on a Wolf Run. I’d never run 10k, and hadn’t run in years - so naturally, I signed up. I was so worried I’d let the team down by being slow, that I trained really hard and ended up as one of the fastest in our group.

Since then: the Alpha Wolf (now Trilogy), the Spartan Trifecta, multiple half marathons, multiple sprint and Olympic triathlons - and plenty of injuries, one of which left me unable to walk for two months and unable to run for six - during lockdown, no less. Rehabilitation became DIY because the NHS had no capacity, fair, but difficult to deal with.

The Rest of the Story So Far ⛈️

In 2023, something changed. In hindsight, I think it started when I got a coach. My original goal - to be healthy - slowly shifted toward his: to chase a podium. This resulted in me being fitter, but less healthy - think like an overfit neural network, as soon as I tried to do anything which wasn’t exactly what I was training for I’d struggle or get an injury. We went separate ways.

That, combined with an increase in “life stuff” meant training started slipping. Sometimes it was late nights of recovering from the day that made early sessions impossible. Other times, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to push hard enough for training to be effective.

After the London Triathlon that year, I took a month off. Then another. And then another. What had been two decades of 5-days-a-week training turned into a year of near-inactivity*.

*Asterisk? Yeah. I still trained sometimes - maybe once a week, sometimes more - but it was nowhere near my norm. For me, it felt like I had become sedentary.

In January 2025, after a year without events, I signed up for some. It was a spark - something to look forward to. Training crept back to daily, but only ~30minutes. Not my former 3-hour before-work regime, but with multiple side projects, job hunting, and trying to nail this elusive “work-life balance”, it was all I could give.

The Other Back Foot 👣

By late January, things were improving. I was still 5kg over my goal weight, but training was ramping up. I had a holiday booked in February, and planned to start proper training after. Best laid plans…

I got seriously ill on that trip. So ill, I probably should have gone to hospital - but I wasn’t well enough to realise it. Dehydrated, undernourished, barely mobile, I stayed in bed for days. After having to extend my stay in the first-stop hotel, reception offered to call an ambulance. I felt I was on the mend though so declined, and a few days later was able to, delicately, enjoy some of my holiday.

I lost 10kg, and then caught something else on the flight home 🤒. As an asthmatic, and now with a chest infection, I was 45s/km slower than before. But more importantly, my stamina was gone. 5k felt like 15.

I did a Boditrax scan. Compared to four months earlier (the most recent scan I had), and found I’d lost 4.9kg of muscle.

But after twenty years of regular exercise, I’m used to setbacks…

The Next Step 🪜

“The most important step a man can take. It’s not the first one, is it? It’s the next one. Always the next step.” - Brandon Sanderson

My first race this year is the Blenheim Palace Sprint Triathlon. Four years ago it was also my first ever triathlon. Back then, I beat my best-case-scenario expectations by over four minutes - despite hitting problems on race day.

Back then, I had nine months of training after being unable to run for six. This time, I had less time to recover, but a different setback. Wouldn’t it be great to achieve something close to 2021 again?

“It is better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit.” - Les Brown

I’m used to setting myself tough goals, but reality matters too. I was jetlagged, sleep-deprived, still holding a chest infection, juggling three full-time projects, job searching, and my diet was far from suitable for training on.

Jumping into 3-hour training blocks 5 days a week would guarantee injury.

Always the Next Step 📈

One thing I have learned the more experienced I became across interests, is that planning is more natural, and survives reality better, when kept brief. In training, and in my personal work, I focus on three levels of goals, the immediate “I need to build feature X using method Y”, the up-next “Then I need to build system Z somehow”, and the end goal “so that I can build the thing!”.

Periodisation on top of that builds in natural phases, stopping points, and opportunities to measure progress. I typically work in two-three month “macro”s, ideally with a holiday at the end so I am forced to engage in total rest, this allows me to maximise effort in any phase as I know there’s time for recovery at the end. “Micro” phases tend to be a week long, and contain more details, such as what I’ll be doing in general each day, and on some days, where there’s actual times which matter, then they get a bit more scheduling, maybe I should call it “nano”.

For training, I started by checking where I was. I ran 5k, cycled 20k, and like a true triathlete, I neglected swimming. My analysis matched past race results: cycling was my weak point, and likely the easiest area to improve performance.

So with a macro phase of three months, the time remaining until race day, I planned my first micro phase of one week;

• HIIT 6x 1:6 Cycle - 30s all-out, 180s to check socials, then repeat the suffering.
• 30 Minute Tempo Cycle - A highly contentious term, but for me it’s about doing the best I can within a time period. Hill climb if I have the energy, speed up on a flat if I can, but if I need to recover, then I am allowed to slow down - and because time is the goal, there’s no “consequence” to overdoing it, I can walk the rest if I need to.

Week two, I added a run;

• Threshold 5k Run - Another contentious term, anaerobic threshold refers to the point where you body starts anaerobic respiration and creating lactic acid as a byproduct, lactate threshold - the one I aim for - is the point where you are producing lactic acid as fast as you’re clearing it. Push as hard as is sustainable for the distance, don’t overdo it at any one point at the sacrifice of the distance as a whole.

And week three I added another;

• HIIT 6x 1:6 Run - Same as the cycle. 30s sprint, 3 min rest.

This persisted, the HIIT sessions increased reps where tempo and threshold sessions naturally regulated themselves, and on weeks where I had extra capacity, I would add in a 10k trail run or 4 hour hike to start working towards the endurance goals. On very infrequent occasions I was even able to add a gym session, more on that later.

Training days follow a pattern to simulate multi-discipline fatigue, whilst alternating disciplines to reduce cumulative load. Monday introduces fatigue in advance of Tuesday’s threshold run, and Thursday introduces fatigue in advance of Friday’s cycle.

And the swim?

“like a true triathlete, I neglected swimming.” - Me. Earlier.

Thankfully I have a solid swim base from my youth, though that was all pool work. Open water swims? That starts three weeks before race day, when I remember that a great way to improve triathlon times is to not drown!

The swim sessions end up being all about form and practice sighting, breathing in choppy water, and dealing with the dizziness that comes from open water.

Injury Prevention 🧘

Each evening in between throwing cat toys, trying to retrieve said toys from the maw of a feral beast, and wondering why tap water needs to be smacked out daily, I do a yoga flow.

I customise the flow based on my injuries, soreness, and performance changes, it’s all based heavily on Yoga for Sports by B.K.S. Iyengar.

I cannot stress how important yoga has been for preventing injury, so much so that it’s the only thing that persisted through the 15 months of near inactivity. I do it almost every evening - and only partially for fear of my toes being bitten in the night by a disgruntled cat 😾.

Aside from this, when soreness began to build up in my soleus and piriformis, I took an additional Thursday and Friday off. That four day recovery paid off and the issues haven’t returned.

In addition, I follow some simple tricks help to keep my body from overfitting, lets call them regularisation to keep in with the neural network terminology;

• Alternate disciplines - prevents build up of cumulative load.
• Vary equipment - shown to reduce injury risk.
• Dynamic warmups - static stretching is thought to reduce power, but not stretching isn’t advisable, dynamic stretching fills the gap.

Gym 🏋️

I wish I’d done more gym work - it helps cycling and running power, builds stability muscles, and prevents injury. But between “life stuff”, very little time, and the additional barrier of having to go somewhere else just to start, I didn’t.

When I did go, I focused on:

• Squats - yes, I love squats. Do more squats. Always.
  • Barbell squats - leg and core strength.
  • Pistol squats - balance and control.
  • Single-leg dumbbell squats - stability and imbalances.
• Deadlifts - posterior chain strength.
• Dumbbell curls - cycle form support.
• Tricep extensions - swim power.
• Lat pull downs - swim power.
• Russian twists - core strength, support for all.
• Seated rows - core strength, support for all.
• Calf raises - ankle strength, running and cycling power.
• Hamstring curls - running and cycling power.
• Leg Extensions - running and cycling power.

Aim High and Miss? 🎯

I’m now tapering. The training is done.

Strength gains take ~4 weeks. Endurance ~2 weeks. There’s nothing I do now can increase performance - only sharpen it.

Has training been perfect? No. But was it the best I could do at any given point in time? Absolutely.

Does it show in the data?

The metrics are looking good - 7.2% body fat, 1.6kg fat loss, 6.6kg muscle gain.

And from a quick look at a more detailed view we can see my left leg no longer shows any sign of the 2021 injury which stopped me walking, infact it’s even returned to a ~2% contralateral overcompensation - the psychological over training of the less dominant side of the body - that matches my arms.

What about the results from training sessions? In isolation, they’re on par for strong results. But I haven’t done much endurance, and I likely can’t hit those speeds after the preceding disciplines.

Whatever happens on race day, I know I’ve done my best. I had a deadline and devised a strategy. I encountered challenges and adapted. I experienced setbacks and persevered. I had off days and stayed disciplined.

In sport, as in life, success rarely comes from sticking to a perfect plan. It comes from responding to the imperfect one with focus, humility, and consistency.

“A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. […] But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fail, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination.” - Brandon Sanderson

One Week Later

Race day was great, I gave it my all, and at just 2m55 slower than 2021, I am very pleased with the result!

---