ENDURANCE…in ACTION… and THEORY

Welcome to our page about endurance, the subject that lies at the heart of A life of Adventure. Human endurance is extraordinary; it forms the basis of every ironman triathlon, adventure race and every true expedition, and yet it is still not completely understood. Follow us on a journey to explore its physiology and the psychology. Read about endurance in action at our Journal Not Fast but Far… and the science of human endurance at Endurance in Theory…

Welcome to - Nor Fast but Far… a journal of endurance in action. Our writer, back on his steel steed, cycles the world… See more here, or read entries by title below.

Featured
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45 Southwest - Into Day 2 and a Town called Dad  
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And we’re off - Tarifa or Bust

What the (my) brain does occupy itself with, however - again at a pretty low level, I am aware - is songs. I suppose it chooses them to fit the pace at which I am trying to pedal. Unfortunately, on 45-Southwest 2023, my dear old brain chose two songs, both of them really irritating…

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Chammy Cream and Carbs in Krakow

There’s a delicious nervousness before any adventure, that mix of apprehension, excitement and the raw expectancy in the body as it waits to get moving

Well, it’s a Back, Sack and Crack for you then…
Well, it’s a Back, Sack and Crack for you then…

From debilitation to depilation… Putting any fears of propriety to the back of my mind – yes, picture Munch’s Scream, that horrified appeal in the face of an eternal, unknowable, identity-crushing dysphoria – or in my case a fear of showing my bits to a stranger - I girded my loins, so to speak, and strode into Strip, a beauty clinic on Artesian Road in West London.

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45 South-West 2023 Recalled
Anatomy of a Race

So much Zone 2… but it forgets the climbing. 45SW has nine impossibly steep climbs, Tour(-de-France)-level summits; in a total of 53,000 metres of climbing in all.

Back to the Beginning – Bed-borne Anxiety and er… Duvet Dysphoria

There have been countless ‘Oh, just another £300, sir…’ moments. A new pair of cycling shoes to go with my moulded inserts, a bike box for the flight out, a bivvy bag for dossing at the roadside, electronics and all their leads… kit, kit and more kit. And a bike fit, sir…?

Gerontimo!

An old knacker who wants to get out there again, relive his youth… This isn’t endurance in action, it’s gerontology going bonkers. A sort of rallying cry for the superannuated. Could it be… could it really be… (I am sure there’s a joke in here somewhere…) Gerontimo…!?

The Voice in the Night...

So this anxiety, the simple, chilling question -‘What am I for…?’ - has been building for years, stacking up with the pressure of some Alpine dam … well, in my case more like the chaotic accretion of sticks and general detritus in a beaver’s dam…

See the story of 45 South-West, a 4375 kilometre bike-packing event (with 50,000+ metres of elevation) from Krakow in Poland to Tarifa at the southern tip of Spain… Read More…

Not Fast but Far…

The Journal from the Beginning -

1 The Voice in the Night

So this anxiety, the simple, chilling question -‘What am I for…?’ - has been building for years, stacking up with the pressure of some Alpine dam … well, in my case more like the chaotic accretion of sticks and general detritus in a beaver hide… Read on…

James Henderson’s ‘Training Journal’, which revels in exercise but is about anything but training… Read more, or click below

ENDURANCE…

…in Theory

Welcome - Endurance …in Theory is a journal about the relentless pursuit of the science behind human endurance (well, that’s the theory, anyway…), to pin down material for stories of endurance endeavour in newspaper articles and eventually in a book…. Read more…