Celtman, Coffee, Cake and a Collie

I've been feeling really rubbish lately.  Headaches, fatigue, not sleeping well... all symptoms that could be attributed to many different things: a bug (it's that time of year), menopause, fatigue from training.   I've been waking in the night, unable to get back to sleep.  My HRV has been low, and my resting heart rate high. I've felt tired during the day, and felt like I've been underperforming in training.  My heart rate has seemed higher than normal, and I've felt as though my lungs (and the rest of me) just haven't been quite right.   Then last week, I sort of fell off a cliff.  Felt as though I couldn't function.  Felt the need to sleep during the day.  I took time off work, assuming I had the beginnings of the flu.  We've been to plenty of patients with flu and various other respiratory bugs recently, so it wouldn't be surprising.  But flu symptoms never materialised. What the heck is going on?   I decided to go to the doc a...

  I got my first tattoo today.  Those of you who are familiar with Celtman will know that the symbol I chose is a version of the Celtman 'swirl' logo; it's also an ancient symbol, a Triskelion, with various meanings attributed to it including, appropriately, motion, interconnectedness, and 'past, present, future'.  For me though, it has become a little shape that symbolises my reasons why... And not just the short-to-medium-term 'Celtman why', but the long term why.  Why I'm taking weight loss jabs to deal with my weight, to try and help reduce the impact of osteoarthritis, to improve my long term health and wellbeing, to increase my Healthspan.  Why I'm training, why I'm trying to eat well.  Why I get up at 0430 before a 12 hour shift to go out running or lift heavy weights.  A couple of weeks ago I was reading Mark Cavendish's book 'Believe', where he documents his journey through the last couple of seasons of his bike racing career...

This post is the second in a series documenting my journey with Wegovy as an athlete who has been classed as Obese for my whole adult life.  It follows on from this post . I suggest you read that first or you might find this quite dull!  Weight on day of 5th jab (increased dose to 0.5mg): 85.25kg (ish - unable to weigh myself on the actual day); muscle mass 48.8kg (57.2%) Week 5: First day on the new dose, and I think I'm feeling a bit more full today than I did on the initial smaller dose.  Perhaps a smaller appetite?  Day two though, and my appetite has definitely shrunk.  I'm feeling quite bloated today. Strangely, I'm starting to realise that I've never actually felt this before.  I've heard people talk about feeling full or bloated, and never really properly experienced it.  It's as though my body & brain have finally made up and started talking to one another after a 50-year feud.   I felt cumbersome and slow for my training sessions tod...

Fatty Disgusting The Fat Kid Overweight Obese Chunky Podgy Big Weight Watchers Slimming World Scottish Slimmers Low Carb MyFitnessPal Eating Skills Emotional Eating Counselling A.N.Other Diet Weigh Yourself Don't Weigh Yourself ZOE Avoid Ultra Processed Food... At the age of 50, I've spent all of my adult life and much of my childhood being heavier than the weight that society tells me I 'should' be.  The words above might be a bit shocking, but they're just a small selection of the things I've been called over the years.  Sometimes to my face, sometimes without my knowledge at the time, and from a very young age.  Below that, are just some of the ways I've tried to make myself be the weight I'm 'supposed' to be.  And yet, in all of the 34 years of my adult life, I have only dipped below what the NHS calls 'Obese' twice, and then not for very long.  And in the eyes of the NHS I have never been a 'healthy' weight.  September 2025 a...

“I’m too slow to need a fancy bike like that...” (Insert kayak/ wetsuit/ SUP/ other piece of adventure sports equipment as appropriate).  How many times have you heard that, or even thought it yourself?  I know I have many times in different contexts over the years.   This post is going to be a little bit different to my normal writing on here: I'm going to try and contrast some of my experience as a sea kayak coach with my more recent experience as a multisport athlete, and talk about ways that I am trying to use my own experience to develop.   So the thing is 'I'm too slow/novice for that bike/boat/whatever' is mostly nonsense.  That might be a controversial perspective, but from experience, and from reading around, it's true.  For several years before I started coaching, I paddled a sea kayak that I thought was the right boat for me at the time.  Then gradually I learned that it wasn't.  I tried a different boat - a Sea Kayaking UK Explore...