This week was a reminder that consistency is rarely glamorous, but it compounds. Training stayed solid despite everything else competing for attention. I took it off the road and into the close trails of Nidda Park. Trail shoes, mud, standing water, no clean lines anywhere. The kind of terrain where you stop worrying about pace and just move forward. It reminded me of Peppa Pig jumping in muddy puddles with Matthew. Same chaos, same joy, same acceptance that getting dirty is part of the point. Not performance running, but exactly what I needed. A reset rather than a test.
Sleep, however, was the tax. Long hours at work, late finishes, early starts. Not ideal, but also not a crisis. This is where realism matters. Life moves in cycles. There are weeks where recovery is optimised, and weeks where you simply push through. Pretending otherwise is naive. The mistake is not the lack of sleep; it’s the emotional overreaction to it. You acknowledge the dip, manage the load, and keep moving.
Physiologically, the body held up better than expected. Despite less sleep, resting heart rate and HRV stayed within range. I didn’t feel depleted at any point. That matters. It tells me the base is there and the system is resilient. Data doesn’t replace judgement, but it sharpens it. When the signals stay stable under pressure, that’s a sign you’re not overreaching.
Nutrition stayed disciplined. Not perfect, but intentional. Balance rather than restriction. I know what I’m eating and why, which removes friction. With Christmas approaching, I can feel the pull toward a few days of less structure. No tracking, no weighing, just eating like a human. That’s not a lapse; it’s part of the plan. Long-term performance requires controlled release, not constant tension.
Strength work remained non-negotiable. Daily, short, effective. A couple of dumbbells and resistance bands go a long way if you show up consistently. Minimal kit, minimal time, maximum return. It’s the same principle that applies everywhere else: simple tools, applied relentlessly, outperform complex systems that never quite get used.
That idea showed up again this week in a different form. I finally scratched an itch I mentioned recently and built a Mould King V12 engine. Twelve cylinders, pistons moving in sequence, crankshaft turning with mechanical logic. Nothing flashy, just fundamentals working together. It’s a physical reminder that robust systems aren’t complicated, they’re aligned. Training, work, family, recovery. Same architecture. Get the basics right and the engine runs.
Carve Out
This week I listened to High Performance with Andy Wilman, executive producer of Top Gear and The Grand Tour. The key insight was blunt: exceptional performance is not a repeatable format, it’s a fragile system built on people, trust, autonomy, and recovery. Remove those and no amount of process will save you. The same applies to teams, training blocks, and life phases.
