I’m proud to have once again written the opening article for the legendary Smithsonian Magazine. You’ll find it in the Prologue section of the July/August 2025 issue.
This time, the American icon is the world-famous Peanuts comic strip, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2025.
That’s right, good ol’ Charlie Brown and Snoopy are turning 75 this year!
Peanuts is a real classic and a household name. As a kid, I used to read the strips and always enjoyed the animated specials – particularly the uber-festive A Charlie Brown Christmas from 1965 (Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack is genius).
I love writing for Smithsonian Magazine. It’s such a prestigious publication. Completing an article always feels like an event, because it often takes me several weeks and multiple drafts to perfect it.
Even though I’m the writer, with so much input from the editors, each article feels like true teamwork.
Where can you read the article?
Personally, I feel the best way to enjoy this article is by grabbing a copy of Smithsonian Magazine, which is sold in good magazine stores worldwide. This way, you can also enjoy the rest of the publication.
So far, 2025 has been an excellent year of articles for me. I’ve enjoyed seeing my name in print (and on screens of various sizes) for a selection of excellent publications – with more to come!
Perhaps the most notable is my debut article in Men’s Health magazine, published in the May edition.
In this article, I explore the weird and potentially disastrous world of AI dating, and ask why thousands of men are turning to artificial partners. You can find this in print and available to read via the Men’s Health website.
Around the same time, I was published in Men’s Fitness magazine. This was an article diving into how professional footballers recover in between games. Naturally, the club I focused on was Swansea City, with Head of Sport Science at Swansea, Patrick Orme, sharing his insight.
Earlier in the spring, I had two articles published in Business Insider. One of these was a reflection on a road trip that I took with my mum across Florida. You can read more about what I liked about that journey – and what wasn’t so great – over on the article.
Coming up in July this year, my second article for the world-famous Smithsonian Magazine. This is a tribute piece to an iconic American series celebrating a big anniversary this year – I can’t wait to see it in print and on the Smithsonian website.
Over Christmas, I was discussing my website with a fellow writer. Smugly, I told them that I manage to update it quite regularly.
That’s when I looked to discover it had actually been over six months since the last update.
Awkward…
So, welcome to the next installment of ‘What’s happening with Chris’.
Last year flew by, with lots keeping me busy, both personally and professionally. Some highlights included plenty of travel (Milan, Florence and Stockholm among others), new commercial clients, and articles published in Men’s Fitness, Smithsonian Magazine, Metro and a few others.
You can read these on my new ‘Articles’ tab (which will be added to this site at some point in January).
Elsewhere in 2024, I also updated my third Swansea City book, Match of My Life, for a new paperback edition, which was really cool. I’d love to see one of my other books enjoy a reprint and new material, although that’s up for the publishers to decide.
What’s happening in 2025?
Onto this year and there’s a lot coming up!
Early in the year I will have my third article published in Men’s Fitness magazine. This is an interesting one that looks at recovery, fitness and football. Keep an eye out for the March edition.
Around the same time, I will have an article out in Men’s Health magazine. This will be focused on dating and relationships, with a twist. It’s my debut for this renowned magazine, and something I’m really looking forward to to seeing in print.
Meanwhile, I am also writing debut articles for ITALY Magazine and Business Insider, with these coming up in the next month or so. I’ll link to them all when they are published.
Looking further ahead, in October, I have another article scheduled for the legendary Smithsonian Magazine. This article will be about another American icon, but I can’t say what yet. It’s been such a fun article to work on, I love writing for such a prestigious magazine.
Anything else?
Elsewhere, while no books are in the pipeline this year, I am always working on ideas and may have something to share later in the year.
Finally, back in October, I created a test video to see if my editing skills were still up to previous standards (spoiler: they were). I filmed a short video on the Dylan Thomas locations around Swansea, which you can view now on YouTube. I am likely to produce a few more in 2025, so feel free to subscribe to my channel while you are there.
Anyway, that’s about all from me at the moment. If you’re reading this, I hope your 2025 is healthy and happy. Catch you soon!
It gives me great pleasure to announce that my most recent Swansea City book, Match of My Life, is receiving a brand-new edition for 2024!
After the original printing of Swansea City Match of My Life sold out last year, the book is set to be released as a paperback in August 2024.
It will once again be published by the excellent Pitch Publishing.
Let’s take a look at the story of my favourite Swansea City book so far…
Match of My Life: the Story So Far
In 2017, with two books to my name, I began writing the most ambitious Swansea City book of my trilogy. The following year, it was published.
Match of My Life featured 16 chapters, each focusing on one Swansea City icon telling the story of their favourite game in a Swans shirt.
For example, Alan Curtis talked about Swansea’s iconic battering of Leeds United in 1981. Roger Freestone gave the story behind the FA Cup victory over West Ham in 1999. Leon Britton discussed the 3-0 victory over Cardiff in the Premier League in 2014.
In addition to these legends, you’ll find chapters from Mel Nurse, Wyndham Evans, Alan Tate, Vic Gomersall, John Toshack, Matthew Bound, James Thomas, Dai Gwyther, Michael Howard, Lee Trundle, John Cornforth, and Nathan Dyer. It also features the words of the late Leighton James, who passed away in April this year.
It offers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the club’s most important games from the players who made them happen. You can feel the emotion behind the friendships, the fights, the goals and the glory.
At the time of publication, I wrote an inside look at the book, which will give you more insight.
A New Chapter for the 2024 Edition
To celebrate the second edition, I have written a brand-new chapter in collaboration with current Swansea City defender Ben Cabango.
I met Ben earlier this year and his interview made for an entertaining chapter. In it, he discusses a historic match against Cardiff City in which he played a crucial part. It’s a great addition from a developing club stalwart.
While some other things have changed inside, the most notable change is that the book is being released in paperback format. Yep, I’m now officially a paperback writer.
When and Where Will the New Edition be Available?
The updated book will be available on 16 August, 2024. You will be able to buy it at the club shop, as well as all good book retailers, including Waterstones, HMV, WHSmiths, and independent bookshops.
Naturally, you will also be able to purchase it in online stores like Amazon. On that note, you can still grab a copy of the hardback version while a few copies remain.
There will also be a range of signed copies at the time of release, and if you want one personally signed, feel free to get in touch to arrange.
I will release an update closer to the time of this new Swansea City book. For now, thanks for reading!
I’m pleased to announce that I have once again been published in Men’s Fitness magazine, as the lead article in the May 2024 edition.
Earlier in the year, I put myself through an eight-week experiment. I tested whether I could save time by working out like legendary bodybuilder Mike Mentzer. For the uninitiated, Mentzer is one of the most iconic bodybuilders to have ever lived.
In addition to his perfect body, he made waves with an unconventional training style, which was famously low in volume. Training each muscle group with just one set per week.
In short, it meant reducing my training time by around 75% by following Mentzer’s high-intensity, low-frequency training style.
If that sounds easy, I can assure you it wasn’t!
I won’t go into the results much here, as I wrote an article on the Mike Mentzer split over on my other website.
However, training in this way proved to be interesting. I certainly put on muscle, which was incredible considering I was training less than an hour a week.
It’s an entertaining read and I love the illustrations (which were certainly not done by me, but an illustrator called Kevin February). You can buy the May edition of Men’s Fitness here.
This was my second article for the famous British fitness magazine, after I wrote about becoming a firefighter last year.
I will return very soon with an announcement about an update to one of my older books, which is really cool. Until then, thanks for reading!
Although oddly, someone actually wished me a merry Christmas a few days ago and, midway through January, that felt a little strange. Festive, but strange.
Anyway, after a quieter end to last year, I am back working on some new projects, which I’ll outline briefly below.
Smithsonian Magazine
Firstly, coming up in spring his year, you’ll be able to read my debut article in Smithsonian Magazine, which is sold across the US and wider world.
Officially published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., this longstanding and highly respected magazine is perhaps the most prestigious publication in which I’ve featured.
So, to be opening the March issue with my take on an iconic American landmark fills me with pride. Stay tuned for more!
Men’s Fitness
Around the same time, I will have another article published in Men’s Fitness (UK).
Over the last few months, I have been learning about an iconic Golden Era bodybuilder and his unique and controversial training style.
So intriguing was this training style that I decided to try working out that way for eight weeks, and charted my journey for Men’s Fitness.
Featuring insight from a respected author and friend of the bodybuilder, this will be another very interesting article that I can’t wait for people to read.
Comedy Scripts
This year, I’m working on revamping some older and unfinished comedy scripts that I discovered over Christmas. Some of the content was great if I say so myself (which I unashamedly do), but it needed a little updating.
Meanwhile, I have a few ideas for a new script, which I plan to start writing over the next month or so.
Truth be told, I’m not sure exactly where I am taking these scripts when they are complete, but I’m enjoying the writing process, so it doesn’t bother me too much at this stage.
Books
Finally, we come to books. While I’m not currently working on anything, I have a few ideas bouncing around.
Within the next few months, I am hoping to have more to say!
UPDATE: Within 12 hours of publishing this blog post, one of my publishers told me that one of my books is getting a 2024 reprint! Stay tuned for more!
Website Revamp
At the bottom of my list is a revamp of this website. It does its job, but I feel it’s a little clunky and I’m not the biggest fan of the design. I may therefore develop something more streamlined, with a fresher appearance.
However, due to the time and financial investment involved, this is not a priority at this stage.
Anyway, if you reached this far, thanks for reading. If you ever have any feedback on my work, my website, or ideas for me to explore (particularly articles that could appeal to larger magazines), then please get in touch.
How do you become a firefighter? Strangely, for a writer such as myself, I can actually give you a very good insight…
In 2021, I decided to apply to become a wholetime firefighter with my local fire and rescue service (wholetime basically means full-time, or not a volunteer).
I wrote an article about my experience for the July 2023 issue of the famous Men’s Fitness magazine and I highly recommend you buy a copy to read my experiences. For that reason, I won’t share them here.
However, I will give you a bit of background for those wondering what the hell I was doing…
Why Did You Apply to Become a Firefighter?!
I know, it’s a bit crazy. I am a freelance writer. Why was I randomly climbing ladders and crawling through tunnels?
I remember the day that I first decided to go for this opportunity.
I was standing with some friends just after a group workout and they were all talking about whether or not they were applying for the fire service again.
Overhearing this conversation, I was bemused. These guys already had goods jobs. Why were they talking about becoming firefighters?
It turns out that there are a lot of perks of being a firefighter: good shifts, great pay, handsome pension, lots of downtime, being paid to work out and keep fit…
Oh, and the inherent coolness of potentially saving someone’s life.
It appeared that many of my friends – both male and female – had applied to join the service multiple times. And now I could see why.
So, with a new recruitment window opening with my local fire service, I decided to try it myself. Let’s put it down to a mid-life crisis…
What Happened Next?
As I mention, the article I wrote for Men’s Fitness gives you everything you need to know.
However to briefly summarize, I had to follow a long and arduous Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue recruitment process that took place over several months.
Fail one stage and you were out. You’d have to wait for around six months before another recruitment window opened.
I started with a registration, then came a behavioural questionnaire and situational judgement test. A few weeks later I was tasked with some tricky online assessments which comprised verbal, numerical, and mechanical reasoning (essentially English, maths and physics).
After this was a multi-stage fitness test, which is more commonly known as a bleep test – it involves a lot of running between two markers, with your speed having to increase over time.
A few weeks later came a practical assessment day, which was long and tough. This involved around seven tests, including a ladder climb, dummy drag, equipment assembly test, and intense claustrophobia test (the worst of the lot – it involved dark tunnels and limited vision).
If you successfully complete that tricky day, then you are invited for a formal interview a few weeks later.
I surprised myself and passed every single stage, including the final interview. However, I didn’t score highly enough to reach the final 12 people who were hired.
Now, that was a bit of a kick in the balls, but that’s the nature of it! I wasn’t too cut up considering I already have a good career as a freelance writer, but I did feel a little disappointed after all the work I had put in.
How I Found the Process
In brief, the process was tough. It has to be – the role of a firefighter is demanding on a physical, mental and emotional level, so each fire service has to ensure they are recruiting the best people.
Of all the tests, none of them were particularly easy. However, I always felt more confident with the fitness and physical tests compared to the online exams or the interview (for me, the interview was the worst part of the entire process).
After all, I already had a love of gyms and fitness, so doing some running or lifting wasn’t that intimidating. I didn’t have a natural love of maths or physics or being scrutinized during a two-on-one interview, so these aspects of the process were more of a challenge.
So… How Do You Become a Firefighter?
If you want to become a firefighter, you have to have a few qualities including intelligence and physical fitness (which includes agility, flexibility, strength, and so on).
However, for me, the most important quality you must possess is resilience. Chances are you won’t pass recruitment on the first attempt – you may have to do it again and again… and again.
It’s a long process and could take you a few years. This is why you need some determination and the ability to bounce back when rejected.
But if I could almost get there, you can too.
Aside from that, I would also say the best way to become a firefighter is to invest in a few resources, such as mock tests for the online exams and books to help you pass the interview. These stages can be passed with relative ease, providing you put in the preparation.
‘Fail to prepare…’ and all that…
The fitness side of things is up to you. You need to be able to run, lift, carry, crawl, climb and perform a myriad of other tasks to pass the physical ability days. If you struggle with this kind of thing, then make it a priority to start improving yourself!
If you want to become a firefighter, then I say go for it. Just sign up for the next recruitment window at your nearest service (a Google search will give you that), grab some resources, and throw yourself into it.
If you want some advice, feel free to get in touch.
Best of luck!
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Enjoy this post? You may also enjoy my recent article on The Dad Bod – and How to Lose It!, written for my other website, Planet Health!
At the end of May this year, I decided to travel to Bordeaux, for one main reason: WINE! 🍷
Well, actually I was there for a stag trip to celebrate the upcoming marriage of my good friend Steve. So, if you want to get technical, I was there for Steve and wine.
Now, I know that Bordeaux is not the typical ‘stag do’ destination. Yet, for a bunch of wine-loving guys pushing 40, a trip to this wonderful area of France made complete sense.
More sense than Benidorm anway.
In this article, I give you some of my rough thoughts on Bordeaux and my experiences. Think of it as a mini Bordeaux travel guide. Although one that only just scratches the surface of what there is to see and do in the city.
(Want to know whether it’s worth drinking red wine for your health? Check out my recent article over on Planet Health, exploring whether red wine is healthy!)
Day 1: Bordeaux City Centre
On both the first and second days, I spent a little time exploring the city centre of Bordeaux, known as La Belle Endormie.
We began by having lunch and a beer in a café overlooking the famous Saint-André Cathedral. You can find this at the Hotel de Ville stop on tramline A or B.
This magnificent building is the largest religious structure in Bordeaux, originally constructed in the 11th century. However, what we see today was mostly rebuilt between the 12th and 16th centuries. That was historic enough for me! I took a little walk through the cathedral, admiring the scale of the building, before emerging into the sunlight to grab some strawberries in a nearby market.
We then took a short tram ride to the Quinconces stop. Here, it was a short walk past Le Grand-Théâtre to get to Sainte-Catherine Street. This is currently the longest pedestrianized shopping street in Europe, at more than a kilometre! I actually didn’t do any shopping as such, but it was a pleasant area to wander and browse.
Next, I took a long walk along the waterfront – overlooking the Garonne river – as the sun began to set. Interestingly, the water of the river is always brown, but this is supposedly due to mud not pollution. Still, not worth a swim…
It was here that I saw both the grand Place de la Bourse and the distinctive water mirror of Bordeaux. I completely forgot to take a photo of either (although Pixabay was kind enough to supply the one you see above). It was a lovely area, with kids and parents playing in the shallow water on a blisteringly hot day.
I eventually had a stunning evening meal at a place called Monkey Mood, which overlooked the extravagant Basilique Saint-Michel. It was a 100% vegan Indonesian restaurant on Rue Camille Sauvageau and the food (and wine!) was incredible. Fresh, tasty and much needed after a long day and a lot of walking.
Day 2: Saint Emilion Day Trip from Bordeaux
The main event. On the second day, we caught a tram to Bordeaux centre (again, Quinconces), before a 9-seater car and a friendly tour guide picked us up from the tourist information centre.
We were off to the commune of Saint-Émilion, which is bursting with world-famous chateaus. After around an hour of driving, we were clearly in wine country as vines and chateaus began to dominate the countryside.
Vineyard #1: Château Rol Valentin
We eventually arrived at Château Rol Valentin, with 7 hectares of vines (mainly Merlot with some Cabernet Franc and Malbec).
Here, we were taken on a quick tour of the facility by an employee who was a little nervous, but friendly and informative.
It was cool to see the vines up close, as well as the production equipment and the storage casks. However, I’ll admit that the only fact I really recall from the short tour is that they plant chickpeas next to the vines to allow the vine roots to breathe.
Back inside, we enjoyed tasting three reds and then had the opportunity to buy a bottle to take home – something I happily did.
After this, we were taken to the medieval village of Saint-Émilion – a UNESCO world heritage site. Here we were told the tale of 8th-century monk Emilion from Brittany. He moved to the town and lived as a hermit, supposedly performing a few miracles involving conception.
We then had a few minutes ‘free time’ to wander to the top of a very steep cobblestoned street and explore the 11th-century Monolithic church (built to venerate Emilion), which was beautiful and very relaxing.
After a quick group photo at the top, we were taken to our second wine producer of the day…
Vineyard #2: Château Fleur de Lisse
At Château Fleur de Lisse (around 5km away from the historical village), we didn’t get to see any of the facility, but we did watch a video about the history of the vineyard presented by the head honcho (whose name I instantly forgot).
Here, we tasted three wines, including two tasty reds and a slightly boring rosé. The second red was enjoyed outside by the vines, along with a small snack. This was mainly meat and cheese, as well as some nice veg pâté, olive oil and bread.
All in all, a great day of wine, sun and laughter that left everybody completely wiped out and ready for sleep.
Day 3: Dune du Pilat
On day three of my Bordeaux travel experience, we took a trip to the famous Dune du Pilat.
For the uninitiated, this is the largest sand dune in Europe. Honestly, before we went, it wasn’t my first choice of activities. I would have been happy sitting in a bar drinking more wine.
However, in the end, it was hell of a day and enhanced my Bordeaux travel experience considerably.
We had to get a 45-minute train to the seaside resort of Arcachon, before another 45 minutes on a bus to reach the green pine forest that gives way to this epic dune.
The dune is almost 3 kilometres long, half a kilometer wide, and rises to just over 100 metres, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and a dense forest on the other.
As a group, many of us decided to race to the top (I won… obviously!). We then had some photos and wandered around, before stopping for a spontaneous game of football using the world’s smallest (and hardest) ball. Great fun!
Suddenly, the weather took a turn and the heavens opened. We began hurrying back towards the forest to shelter and get the bus back to Arcachon. Running down the side of this steep dune towards a pine forest as the rain hammered down was a truly surreal experience and one I won’t forget in a hurry.
Back in Arcachon, we all enjoyed a light bite to eat and a few glasses of excellent local wine at a very pricey waterfront restaurant. We then hurried back to the bus station for the return trip to Bordeaux and a few final glasses of wine before an early flight home the next morning.
Bordeaux Travel: Where We Stayed
For the record, we were not staying in the centre of Bordeaux. We rented a place in the commune of Pessac. This is the second-largest suburb of Bordeaux, located just southwest of the city (the end of line B on the tram).
It almost certainly would have been more relaxing to stay in the centre of Bordeaux. If you have the option, I would recommend doing that. Otherwise you have a 45-60 minute trip to make at the start and end of each day.
However, Pessac certainly had its charm (and a good wine shop!), so it is worth considering if you are forced to stay further out of the city to save a little money.
As for the Airbnb house we rented… talk about peculiar!
It had everything from a pool, sauna and hammam to a hot tub and a gym (not quite as big as Gold’s Gym of course…). It was also peppered with an array of weird and wonderful decorations and paintings. Some pretty sinister.
While it promised a lot, it wasn’t the nicest of places in terms of cleanliness and facilities. Still, it gave us some laughs and was comfortable enough. I don’t have the space to describe this unusual house in this article, but if you want more details (in case you want to try it or avoid it!) feel free to get in touch.
My Final Thoughts on Travel to Bordeaux
In terms of European travel, Bordeaux had never been on my list of places I wanted to visit. Ultimately, when given the chance to go to Europe, I almost exclusively choose Italy.
However, I am very glad I had the opportunity to spend time in this excellent city and would happily revisit a few years from now (staying in a luxury hotel in the centre, of course!).
I know that I barely scraped the surface of what was actually in the city, but after reading this article back, I feel we made more than enough of our three days in Bordeaux. Wine, culture, food, wine, sand dunes and wine. 👌
After enjoying producing the Planet Health podcast for more than six months, I have finally created a dedicated Planet Health website.
It’s the new home for all things Planet Health, including podcast updates, articles, reviews and information on my nutrition coaching.
Planet Health is my way of exploring the world in search of different nutrition and wellbeing traditions to see what we can learn about healthy living.
What’s on the new Planet Health site?
Of course, the site is still pretty new at the moment. However, I am publishing a few new articles each week.
Of course, I was fooling nobody. Six months later, following my adventures at Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club at Turf Games Summer Festival, I was off to Farnborough for the Winter Festival in February 2023.
Yep, a glutton for punishment.
Once again, I’ve decided to share a few of my thoughts about the event. Whether you were there, are planning to do a future Turf Games, or would never ever consider it in your wildest nightmares and just want to enjoy my pain… welcome!
Taking my 30kg ball for a little walk
The Build Up
For last year’s games, I had a grand total of three days’ notice. I was the last-minute call-up for a local five-man team, to replace a late drop out. Because of this, I had no training – I had to rely on my general strength and conditioning to get me through.
This time around, I had several months’ notice. However, apart from the final week, I didn’t particularly change the way I trained in the build up. I continued to do three strength sessions per week – working on the fundamentals like deadlifts, squats, overhead press… and some bicep curls for good measure. 💪
I also continued to attend my usual strength and conditioning class – Titan Conditioning, based in Swansea University – twice a week.
That was pretty much it.
However, when the official workouts were released around two weeks before, one workout in particular filled me with dread. It appeared that the ‘Lift Off’ workout would require a three-rep max front squat (bad) from the floor (double bad).
I am not very familiar with cleaning a barbell off the floor, especially with heavy weight, so I practiced this a few times in the gym over the two weeks leading up to the event.
Elsewhere, as a team (mixed male and female this time round, and called ‘The Titanics’), we had two training sessions with ‘the worm’ – a 100kg tube of canvas that requires co-ordination, communication, strength and a good dose of grit.
In a nutshell, that was my training.
Myself and Nat synchronizing overhead presses, while the rest of the team looked on
Turf Games Winter Festival: The Big Day
After a much-longer-than-it-should’ve-been drive the night before (thanks to traffic and roadworks) followed by a good night of sleep at a nearby hotel, I was feeling fresh and ready to head to Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre, the home of the Winter Festival.
As I arrived, I met up with my team, attached the armband to my wrist, then set up camp upstairs. While this huge conference centre didn’t have the glorious sunshine and fresh air of the Summer Games, it did have much better facilities – mainly loads of toilets, which were handy considering the amount of nervous pees I had through the day.
I won’t go through the events in detail because either you weren’t there and it would take me too long to describe each workout in detail, or you were there and you don’t need me to detail the workouts.
But to quickly summarize:
#1 – Noah’s Ark
Our first event required the strength movements I tend to enjoy – heavy ball to shoulder, dumbbell press, kettlebell swings, and ball carries – which were all synchronized in male and female pairs. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I anticipated! I found this workout incredibly tough and was dying from the moment we started.
Our judge was decent and if she had to penalize us (i.e. for not stepping onto the 20″ box correctly) she did so with clarity. Despite how tough I found it, our team did pretty well.
#2 – Notorious Worm
Fucking worm.
I think everybody who participated in the worm event would agree that this was the most disgusting workout of all time. Think of the worst workout you have ever endured. It was that but worse. It involved synchronizing burpees over the worm, then deadlifting, squatting, and pressing the worm overhead. Ad infinitum.
By the end my lower back was in pieces and I had nothing left in the tank. By look of the rest of my team, who were on their hands and knees, neither did they.
On that note, as a team we did surprisingly well in this, even if it seemed far from it at the time. We were ‘no-repped’ a lot in the final round as we all fatigued together and communication broke down. It didn’t help that the judge on this round was the least helpful – she was almost silent and gave us limited insight into why we had been penalized. It was so disheartening.
A side note – I know these judges are volunteers, but when there is such a gap in quality, it makes you wonder what the vetting process is.
Anyway, I literally crawled away from the worm a broken man.
The oh-so notorious worm…
#3 – Chase the Vibe
This was actually quite fun, although it was still a workout that required a lot of digging deep. Very cardio based – row and ski-erg, followed by a 400m run, and some dumbbell deadlifts/lunges in between. We completed more rounds than we anticipated.
Not much else to note about this one, apart from that the judge was very good. Not only was she loud and clear, but she was friendly and even cheered us on, which all contributed to a feel-good factor that left us in high spirits ahead of the final workout.
#4 – Lift Off
I spent the hour before Lift Off very anxious indeed. I didn’t enjoy doing the front squat in the Summer Games and now I had to do it all over again, with the added bonus of starting from the floor.
Just before the event, I went to the warmup area to practice a few cleans. I managed around 80kg and felt very weak. It only just came up. Still, I knew that was the weight to go in with.
After the female portion of our team had their 7.5 minutes of lifting glory (and they all did superbly well), it was me to open the lifting for the lads. My 80kg came up quite nicely and the front squat was fine. Relief washed over me, and I watched as the other guys loaded the bar to 90kg for their lifts. I then decided that I would skip 85kg and go straight for 90kg. I knew I’d failed it several times back in Swansea, but… screw it.
Full of adrenaline and with the crowd shouting their support, I stepped up to the bar and hoisted the weight… but failed the clean and the bar slammed back to the ground. Some people shouted advice from the crowd, but I knew I just needed to compose myself. I tried again and this time, success! Up came 90kg – pretty scrappily I might add – and the three front squats were pretty simple after that.
My first attempt at the relatively straightforward 80kg
After this, my day was done! I had an expensive veggie burger, had some free protein cereal, and watched my friends compete in their final event, then I jumped in the car for a unwelcome four-hour trip home.
Final Thoughts on Turf Games Winter Festival
I reflect on my second Turf Games experience very fondly. I’m proud of both myself and my team, who came 27th out of 151 teams, which was a very strong result!
My physical strength, cardio fitness, and mental fortitude were thoroughly tested that day, while the support from both my team and the wider Titan community was excellent. Having that camaraderie really pushes you on to do things you didn’t think possible (like, life the worm over your head again and again and again).
Will I do another Turf Games?
Throughout the day as I was hunched over, slipping in my own sweat and gasping for breath, I believe I uttered the phrase ‘never again’ many times.
Yet, the fading affect bias is real.
Watch this space…
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