16/12/2025
2025 - No big records this year — but a year I took control of my fitness again.
Left photo is May- probably the lowest point - Right photo is the morning of Melbourne HYROX.
At the start of the year, my knee was in a bad way. I was struggling mentally — with age, pain, and the feeling that my body was starting to give up. I wasn’t the capable, elite athlete I once was, and that hit hard.
I tried to train to take back the 1km row record I’d lost earlier in the year— but I couldn’t get myself training properly The noise didn’t help. Messages asking when I’d “hit back,” haters enjoying the fall. What I achieved on the rower will never be taken away — more than most will ever accomplish. I still hold British and age-group records on the rower, and the SkiErg records are there if anyone wants them.
The knee situation spiralled. One surgeon flat-out refused to help, telling me my only option was a knee replacement — then told me to wait ten years. Arrogant, dismissive, useless. I could have trained around it, but constant pain crushed my headspace. I barely trained and drank far too much.
It came to a head in May when my 10-year-old daughter Darcie jumped on me and said, “Wow dad… your belly’s got big.”
That was the circuit breaker.
I stopped drinking — now over six months sober — and sought a third opinion from a top knee surgeon. In early June he went in, removed significant damage, and cleaned the knee up. That was the real start of the comeback.
I signed up for HYROX with my gym, , with one simple goal: Melbourne, top off. As a coach, the pressure to look “Instagram-ready” is real. Right before the start line, the head noise won — I threw on a vest. Halfway through the race I ditched it. I wasn’t in perfect shape — but no one actually cares. And that’s a standard I want to stand for as a coach. Fitness is a process.
Over the last few months, I’ve also restarted online coaching — and I’m genuinely enjoying it again. After a rough period, helping others work through obstacles, rebuild confidence, and find a way forward with their fitness has mattered more than chasing records.
Thanks to my support crew
And co x
