My Mum was an orphan. She built a family - raised three of us, held us together, made something from almost nothing. My Dad came from a very modest background in a northern town.

In this episode, Ben and Fletch discuss recent VO2 and lactate testing results, fueling during high-intensity sessions, and upcoming adventures including skiing.

Tuesday was lactate and VO2 testing, it’s a fairly short but punchy session on the treadmill. A chance to check in and also meet up with Fletch in real life. The test was “ok”, a slight uptick in VO2 which is good to see, also no drop off in other zones where the focus hasn’t been.

This was the first proper week of getting back into it after a lighter spell, but with a lactate and VO2 test booked for Tuesday I did keep the back end of the week a touch gentler.

In this conversation, Ben and Fletch discuss their personal updates as they kick off 2026, focusing on training strategies for endurance sports, particularly in preparation for the Badwater 135 Ultra Marathon.

This week felt like proper training. The big one was the 30 km session on Saturday, that went 10 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 - each split getting faster. You do not blag 135 miles in a desert. You build it, one session at a time.

Half term always makes the week feel like a jigsaw. Good fun (I think?), but every run has to slot in around kids and general chaos. The upside is it forces a bit of discipline.

Badwater is now official. The place is confirmed and it feels very different seeing “I am in” written down rather than just nudging an application form around. The timing lined up with a solid training week too, which helps. It is one thing to dream about Death Valley, quite another to hit “submit” and then have to go out and run.

The dust has settled on the news I received on Sunday 8th February - I’ve been invited to race in Badwater 135.

Racing Badwater 135 has been a dream for many years. It has been the overarching goal that all other athletic pursuits have fed into. It has defined so much of what I do and who I am - and now, after all those steps, I have been invited.

In this conversation, Ben and Fletch discuss their personal updates as they kick off 2026, focusing on training strategies for endurance sports, particularly in preparation for the Badwater 135 Ultra Marathon.

The headline is easy this week. I got a place in Badwater 135. I found out just 15 mins ago. It is exciting and slightly terrifying in the best possible way. Suddenly all the day to day training has a very real, very hot, and very long target pinned to it.

The week started in that classic “train like normal, live like you’ve got three jobs” sort of way. A couple of nights away for work meant I was grabbing windows wherever I could.

I wasn’t sure if waking up at 0100 to watch Netflix was a good idea, but it was Alex Honnold free solo climbing a skyscraper—this was not your normal binge. And my two younger kids wanted to watch as well. (I was a little unsure about that… if there’d been one slip.)

Photograph credit: Chong Kok-yew/Netflix

This was the week the Badwater 135 application finally went in. After all the waiting, I sat down, answered everything as honestly as I could and hit submit.

This website has been something of a journal;  an account of why I want to race the monster that is Badwater 135.  I’ve shared insights into my training. I’ve talked about the races I’ve done – as both a means to prepare, and also as qualifiers.   And now, the application is submitted.   I will find out my fate in February.   I will either race Badwater 135 in July, or I will apply again in 2027.

This week was about finally putting the cough behind me and not rushing the comeback. I gave myself a few extra days off, which always feels like a gamble when there is a big goal on the horizon, but it turns out patience is a decent training tool.

In this conversation, Ben and Fletch discuss their personal updates as they kick off 2026, focusing on training strategies for endurance sports, particularly in preparation for the Badwater 135 Ultra Marathon.

I spent Monday and Tuesday in bed feeling rough, then edged back into things, not the start of the year and working week I needed. I managed a 5km just to see if I was “ready” on Saturday, decided that I would run again on Monday. It was frustrating, missing 2 days of work has put me on the back foot there, not a great start to 2026!

Tail end of the recovery block this week, and it actually felt like recovery rather than just “less running but still knackered”. The standout was the long run where Basil quietly put in 30 km. He is only 13 and still cruised it. Short of carrying the Tailwind and making sure he didn’t get lost, it was fairly easy. He was tired at the end, but so he should be!

This was very much a recovery week. Daytona is still in my legs and, if I am honest, in my head too. I felt that sort of tired where you are fine on paper, but the body quietly says, “Absolutely not thank you,” every time you move.