Hi, I’m Dan, a keen runner, personal trainer, wannabe cyclist, occasional swimmer and unintentional hobbit. Thanks for visiting my blog site! I started this website as I was nearing the end of my 20’s and just about getting my life back on track. I had unwittingly fallen into a life of apathy, laziness and self-pity from my many years with an expensive degree and no job prospects; plus a strong ambition with no direction. Contempt and jealously for many of those around me seemed to build up as the years went on. That is, until I started this running around for fun business…

My Background

I was always a reasonable swimmer as a child. Never brilliant, but definitely reasonable, most people would agree. I also have a background playing squash in the North West leagues. Again, I was never amazing at it, but the vestigial fitness from all the swimming in my younger years allowed me to get away with a degree of laziness and lack of technical skill.

I first started running in 2010 and knew immediately it was something I wanted to pursue. Even if it turned out I wasn’t that good at it (and I wasn’t for a long time); it gave me a stronger mental clarity, a sense of adventure and a welcome return of enjoyment from life again in spite of other aspects not being quite right yet, and that was a powerful thing to reclaim!

When things don’t go to plan, most of us start to panic. I remember in my early 20’s, I assumed that by the time I was in my 30’s, things would just be easier. Things like having some money in the bank, a house, a car, a career, that sort of thing. You know, all those things you see other people getting.

But since when did anything go to plan?

I think when you embrace the adventure lifestyle, you embrace the struggle that life throws at you along with it.

When I ran Lands End to John O’Groats; the first of many of my own little adventures. It finally gave me the confidence I needed to break out of a four year dead-end job, to forge a new and scary career path in fitness training.

It takes a long time to build a new career when you have no money to lift it off the ground and a damaged self-esteem. I knew it would be a struggle, but now I was ready for the fight!