The Truth About Fitness, Alcohol and Having a Social Life | Alex Hendy (Schooner Scorer) | Ep 74

0:00Alex Hendy, welcome to the podcast. Thanks Jake, happy to be here. A.K.A. Schooner Scorer here. That's right. The man that's got it all. Good looking, can drink pints and can run and is about to do a high rocks. Yes, yeah, well, can't run as quick as you or do a high rocks quite as quick, but we'll give it a go. And you could definitely beat me in drinking beers. Well, we've not tested that actually. We need to have some beers together. Obviously, I've seen you neck pints. What is the actual fastest recorded time of you necking a pint? Recently, I had a Porsche 911 GTS and that does 0 to 60 and 2.9.

0:38And I thought on the day, let's see if I can beat it. So we recorded that and it was 2.72. However, I rewatched the video and the cameraman didn't press stop when he should have pressed stop. So it's 2.41. And I don't know if I could do it quicker, but that's probably the quickest I've done it on record. That's pretty impressive. Is there a certain type of pint that goes down quicker? Yeah, that was a nice, you know, like the cask ales that you get, the ones that you pull. They're not as carbonated and they just go down the hole like a homesick mile. They slip right down. I'm going to nod like I know what you're on about.

1:10Basically, any like really gassy lager is slower. Yeah. You know, like a lovely Stella, one of my favorite pints, right? Comes in that glass and it's just perfectly engineered to keep the gas in. That would go down a little bit slower than something that's just like flat ambient temperature. London Pride, if you know, just ales. Yeah, I love it. You are talking to a beer virgin here. I don't know why. I've just never been into beer. Fair enough. If I would drink, I'd probably just have like tequila, something like that. Yeah, what, tequila Red Bull? Tequila Red Bull. That's exactly what I'd have.

1:43That's a recipe for an 11 AMer. That is. But for some reason, I don't know. Tequila, I don't seem to get a hangover. Yeah, fair enough. It is clean. It's also a bit of an upper as a spirit. so you get like a happy happy drunk or a happier vibe after drinking it rather than some like depressing spirits so that's tequila what are the depressing ones gin there's an old painting of London and it's Beer Street versus Gin Street and on Gin Street everybody's like mad depressed sat down holding their gins and like looks awful then Beer Street everyone's happy cheering and it just shows like even then there's always that sort of uppers and downers with alcohol so I avoid gin yeah and gin drinking people and gin drinking people yeah don't want to sit next to a downer you know yeah a bit of a red flag yeah um where did everything start I want to start actually with your your fitness journey because I know you're an avid runner you're actually people don't know this but you was actually a runner phenomenal runner back in the day yeah right yeah well I wouldn't say phenomenal but yeah I did run a bit back in the day yeah um I think that was probably the dream growing up I remember my dad bought me a pair of trainers to wear around the house when I was four years old and then I I ran to the train track and back which was about six kilometers as a four-year-old and dad was like we wanted to you know push you to get to the Olympics um but then yeah I mean it was just it was just a bit of fun growing up I was I think good at football or good at rugby because I was quick and I sort of started to see that and then put a bit more into running and I remember when I was about 10 or 11 years old went to an athletic track for the first time and I remember like feeling that sort of sponge under my feet and just thinking this is amazing it's like riding a bike for the first time and I was kind of hooked from there what was your what was your distance of choice it was 400 and 800 oh so you had some speed in the legs had some speed in the legs yeah I think 800 was probably my most competitive do you remember any times you're actually I thought you were going to ask that I think it was you You could check on the power of 10.

3:49I think it was like 209 or maybe just below when I was 15 years old. And then injuries sort of prevented me from going anymore and then go to uni. I love that. I love that. So 800 meter back in high school, obviously doing a lot of sport, like football, rugby and stuff like that. And then did it just like all stop? It's funny because I think obviously as a kid, you're a kid, right? So you run and I sort of ran for football and rugby. But running when I was growing up and you wasn't actually that cool. Or certainly not where I was from. So I did run, but I wasn't massively passionate about it. And I probably cared a bit too much about what was cool.

4:34So I'd probably put more into the football and the rugby, which then created some injuries, really. And then... What position did you play? In centre-back in football. in football um and then outside center or winger and rugby oh interesting um yeah so i've always been quite like lean but quick i guess um but hard but hard yeah as i was saying before i used to have a skinhead so yeah up until 18 i was bald pretty much it was an awful haircut though i don't hope don't go digging but was there a choice behind that is was it to make you look harder i think I think so. I think, you know, why was I wearing skinny jeans?

5:12You know, it was just like, it was a cooler thing to do back then, I guess. I like to think it was the fashion, you know. In Hull, everyone had a skinhead, so boom. I actually podcasted with Sam Rascals a couple weeks ago and I was actually asking him, like, what's the, in hairstyles at the moment, he was like, long hair's in. Is it? Apparently, long hair's in. Yeah, some people are shaving those. I think you see the skinhead or long hair. I feel like London is ahead of the time, though, as well. I feel like people have had long hair in London for a couple of years now. Yeah. Well, the mullet's back, isn't it?

5:44Yeah, the mullet's back. Grow it. You know, we're sort of taking that over from Australia. Mustache, mullet, shave the sides. Would we see you with like a proper moustache and a mullet? Or is it not you? I don't think it'd suit me too well, no. I don't think I'm bogan enough. I'll give it a go, though. I think you're too classy with your clients. There you go. You said it. I don't think, yeah. But no, so you go to university, enjoy yourself. yeah university and then yeah i guess you kind of forget it at the time as well i had like a little small business i was running plus i was at university plus it was the first time that i was really in a city i was up in newcastle um it was just like a different world different life so i think fitness kind of took a bit of a back seat um you know i was doing like the old sports on wednesdays but it wasn't you know like i forgot about the kind of the running and everything else what was the little business would you be able to uh i actually ran a small spice business spice business yeah so where i'm from there was basically a some i've always been into like running businesses and stuff when you say spice like the northern spice no yeah so chips so when you go to nando's i'm a man of nando's yeah that's not the same spice i'm about i'm talking about you put on your chips you have those little so not the not the street drug no the flavor okay okay flavored salts i thought you were just like openly admitting that you was a good dealer um so i mean listen since i was like 11 i was always doing like little enterprises and trying to make money on the side and then when i was 15 um i set up a business that basically is flavored chip salt food and drink salt yeah and and then it got it got some investment and we started building the business and then i had that throughout a levels and university but my point is it was like there was so much going on or I felt like that was a that was very important at the time that it kind of sacrificed fitness but then when I sort of went into corporate world when I was 20 I've always sort of prioritized health and fun as well as work how did you fit that in because I know like the London like uh like I say nine to five it's definitely not nine to five yeah it's definitely for the sake of argument yeah uh definitely longer hours but like it's hard to fit it in like how did you manage like fitness yeah with one the work but then two the socializing because again london's such a social city but the the beauty of work and routine is you have routine um and i feel like once you get into that routine it's much easier to do it and keep that balance with it so um yeah i mean like in the mornings at lunches or in the evenings uh but primarily and i still try and do this is i do all my fitness in in the morning or at lunch so you can enjoy the social evenings yeah yeah and and was did you like have any goals in this time like was you kind of like building fitness was it getting back into running that was like the main thing so i didn't really run from i'd say 17 years old to 22 years old 22 23 years old did you gym I was gymming a lot yeah so I think that the the priority shifted because I started to see that as what you know when I was growing up also at university I was in sort of nightclub promotion scene it was all like about sort of looking good you know and so it was just would go with social would go to the gym blah blah so I did gym a lot back then I was never in like amazing shape I was a lot heavier back then um but looking back it wasn't it wasn't like it wasn't my body shape if that makes sense what we're talking so how much do you weigh now and how much do you weigh i think i'm probably 80 i'm six foot three i'm 81 82 kilograms now um so that's pretty i mean i'm pretty lean and i'd say i was at my heaviest i think i was about 95 94 95 when i was about 20 jacked big heavy strong i was strong strong but i was strong but i look back and i just i don't know like my face was fat yeah you know what i mean it didn't suit that weight doesn't suit me but i thought it it was good and i thought it's cool so i was probably i was also like massively over like upper body as opposed to legs uh i started looking like the alien off the uh was it family guy no what's that what's that uh alien kid paul yeah paul yeah and then like no no what i can't remember uh futurama is that it i don't know there's some cartoon where it's just like so top heavy insert that um and then basically i got back into running because of covid covid closed the gyms um i'm there's a mate in uni uh mate down in london and he was like have you seen these park runs that happen every saturday and i was like i actually had no idea about them so i went to one and i really enjoyed it and it started getting me back into running and then simultaneously that was the year that sort of covid happened gyms closed and then we were all running um a lot of the people in the uk were supporting the nhs because they were the heroes during covid still are but heroes during covid and they were doing run 5k nominate five people and donate some money to the nhs um so i did that and i ran a fairly decent time it wasn't that decent maybe like a 20 minute 5k and i loved it and a lot of people were like that's quick and i was like okay remembered that i used to run remembered why i loved running and i just started running again from there but like i've never like massively picked it up and really heavily trained it's just been part of my lifestyle yeah no um i love it how you can like use running as well as one like an escape but two yeah uh with the social side like it makes you feel good it makes you it's a great girl for a hangover yeah and stuff like that how how does like fast forward into kind of like now yeah obviously your social life is probably better than anyone's i'd probably say like it's probably up there it's busy i assume in a good way yeah in a good way but how do you incorporate running to kind of like balance it out to stay in shape because obviously yeah you're in shape that's good of you yeah it's good to say i'm in shape um oh i mean i so i try and run every day i try and work out every day um i think primarily first and foremost i would do it because I get a lot of head noise because I do drink, you know.

12:07My big rule is I don't drink Mondays. Right, okay. So that is my rule. So you'd never see you in the pub on a Monday? You wouldn't see me in a pub on a Monday. What about a bank holiday? Unless it was a job, no, don't drink Mondays. Because the weekends don't really exist for me. Right, okay. So I don't really see a Monday bank holiday. So it's like every day's work, but it's different and it's a good balanced life. Is that rule just so you miss it, so Tuesday you can go in? yeah but i wouldn't i wouldn't drink six times a week unless it's like so in an ideal world i wouldn't drink monday tuesday wednesday and i wouldn't have much on a sunday okay so i would dial into all the business side of it all the fitness side of it um the relationship side the business you know like the the future planning side i'm just thinking about how to actually grow the channel or make cooler videos cooler content blah blah blah then thursday friday Saturday would be the days where I'd enjoy let my hair down have fun that's an ideal world that's how I used to do it when I you know worked in the nine to five and it's a good balance um whereas now it's it's just like try and run every day because I know I'm you know having to earn those beers or pay for the night before or whatever so it's kind of a non-negotiable but I do it mainly for my mental because obviously I wake up my mental health because I wake up maybe I feel a bit guilty but like if I go for a run it really clears the head and it makes me feel well you know i'm fit and healthy on paper you know my aura ring or whoop or whatever says that i'm fairly healthy so as long as that's fine then i can enjoy myself guilt-free and that's sort of why i do it so it's not really if i was bothered about keeping in shape i would be back in the gym lifting weights and pumping my my arms but you know i train with tom we're doing the high rocks coming up it's like saying to zola my pt i was like i'm just i don't care about like looking good i just want to run a run quick and be fit and that's it as long as i'm healthy fit i don't really care about aesthetics yeah i love that because then aesthetics is like a byproduct because i feel like people can get so obsessed with like how they look but how it's always a sliding scale like you always change like you could be in the best shape you've ever been in but you're like oh i just wish i was like a little bit leaner or i wish i had bigger muscles or whatever you're always going to want more right you're always going to chase some kind of different perfection so and it's always like opinion it's always just your opinion yeah and and that can change or usually blokes opinions yeah yeah is that is that what yeah i suppose yeah well think i know that obviously because all i guess women have different types but i always thought like when i see massive people in the gym obviously a lot of women will find that attractive but it's mainly blokes that will going and compliment them yeah it is to be fair i don't actually think women find massive men attractive like when i say massive i mean like proper like really really muscular men yes it might be some people's like type but yeah i feel like men getting big for women because they want to impress the women like i don't think it's actually that important ideology perhaps isn't that yeah but I think what is important is that you have good crack and you have good banter and you have good social skills and I think that's one thing that you're an advocate of yeah I've well I've always said enjoy like enjoy my life and like I can keep my kind of I can keep my head strong I can have a good mental health if I know that if someone goes do you want to run this marathon in four weeks I'll run a sub three I don't need to be chasing two 30s and amazingly impressed by people that do it but for me it's not about going super quick than having an off season I'm just going to be consistently at a sub three marathon level or whatever that is to people it's like if you find that kind of balance just maintain that level and I know that's my kind of happy spot I would love to like dial in and go quicker and get a good time because I have now just ran five marathons last two years all of which have been a similar time you know 251 to 257 so I'd like to go I'd like to think oh if I did train if I did push it probably I could but at the same time you know I'm traveling a lot I'm having a lot of fun with friends a lot of fun trying to grow the channel I'm trying to score every beer on the planet it's just not conducive to to really going much quicker and also is that going to make me much happier not really quite yeah just happy with that balance you know yeah no i think balance is important like i feel like it's quite refreshing you saying that because i think in today's day and age it's all about locking in like you you've got to make all the sacrifices to get as far as you can and that is great if you want to do that yeah but i know only a certain amount of people want to do that and a lot of people actually just want to be happy and have a good life and when i say a good life not that people that lock in don't have a good life, but they might not be prepared to make all the sacrifices and the sacrifices that you're making, like you say, it might be not going out or whatever it is.

17:04Like they're actually healthy for you as well. Like there's so many people that I see and being like socially aware and confident and things like that, you've got to practice them skills as well. And the way that you practice them is actually just going out and speaking to people. Exactly. Again, good for your head. like if you're struggling at home, going out for a beer, speaking to your mates or whatever, having a deep chat might actually help you. Yeah, and you get inspired by people around you as well. So it's super important. So even if you're not out necessarily drinking, just going out to the pub or an event or wherever and just meeting new people, I think is like the best thing because you'll meet people that will eventually inspire you and push you and make you want to be the best person of yourself so that you can, I don't know, train with them, run with them, party with them, whatever it is.

17:58Yeah. And you've set up kind of like a group of your own, right? Yeah. So Schooner Social. Yeah. Yeah. So we're a drinking club with a fitness problem. So we started very much as do just drinking events, meeting up at breweries a couple of years ago. Did well, went around the universities, did a bit of a tour, got people out got people back into the clubs i was speaking to a lot of promoters and people were like because of dating apps and stuff like that less and less p and there's other reasons right the cost of the price of a pint dating apps the rise in fitness and what people see online behavioral habits within students have shifted um so i was on a mission to try and get people back to the pubs back to going out back to you know to people meeting people uh face to face rather than getting somebody around to their halls because they're now on a dating app, right?

18:49So that did really well. And I was like, okay, but people are into fitness. I can't ignore that trend. So I then started doing, right, if people are into fitness and into drinking but are worried about all the stuff they see online around locking in, not drinking, and therefore they're not going to pubs, I'll try and do this mission where I'm attempting to run a sub-16-minute 5K as someone that drinks most days to showcase that you can do both and you can be fit and you know enjoy your life as well um so it's been great so far uh number five this morning what did i run 17 47 so we're two minutes off yet let's be honest uh which might take me about nine months could take me a year you know it might get my train well and i don't know if some reason i bash it out in four months i won't but like the point is every week i'm doing it i'm trying to get people together trying to get people out and get them into running and then the idea is it's not a like a social run where you turn up and you chat while you're running you turn up you run hard you chase your own pb whether that be 40 minutes 35 30 or a sub 14 it doesn't matter turn up run hard and then we socialize after whether that's a coffee this because we're in the morning this morning or earn your beers for the weekend then i'll do a social at the weekend with a pop-up pub or whatever a pop-up of an earth pub So that is incredible.

20:11What's your opinion on people that go to the pub and don't drink alcohol? Fair play to them if that's the way they want to live their life. I mean, no real opinion on it. Everyone's different. I don't want to sound like I'm really promoting alcohol. I love a beer. I've always loved a beer since the moment I was, I'll say 18, but from the moment I was drinking beers, I've always loved it. like you know there will never not be a better feeling than like just sitting somewhere after a good day at work or a good session or whatever that may be sitting there and having like that first beer it's amazing and it's like that that feeling is is not going to be for me replicated or shadowed by like other highs i get from other things so you know i i don't mind like it doesn't bother me when people don't drink but for me and a lot of my friends like we love beers yeah no I love it and I like you say the the message behind it is to kind of like get out socializing and that's the main point whether it's a beer that does that or whether like you say you're just going to the pub everyone else might be drinking around you but you're you're joining in you you're actually still going and you might not be drinking yourself but like yeah and there are times where I'm driving you know and I'm in the pub and I'm not drinking so I still I still go i still meet people you know you don't have to be drinking to be in the pub it's just a great space to meet people yeah no i love it um let's move on to i want to touch on your marathons actually because i know you glossed over them then but uh you've done some pretty impressive achievements which marathons have you run you've done five now right i've done yeah five marathons so um paris twice london chicago and audence oh and lisbon so six marathons yeah and your pb 51 251 yeah something 50 probably yeah was that in Chicago that was Chicago yeah yeah it was perfect conditions really it was just bright blue skies it's pretty flat the city is like amazing it's very electric the course is good I thought that was you know world record was there it's just a perfect spot isn't it yeah how do you how do you go training for something obviously you've got a busy life yeah doing a lot of stuff like how do you like to box training off in the morning like how how would you go about your day um if it depends like if i was in london or at home i would yeah train in the morning i think sometimes it depends because if you're traveling and you're jet lagged whatever i kind of have to move things around but generally speaking um follow a bit of a plan but i'll do like a try and do a quick session a week a couple of easy runs and then a long session amazing yeah and as long as i get those done i don't actually like have a high mileage i think a lot of people train like mega high mileage but um i just have never really put enough i guess miles in the tank i probably do about 30 to 50 kilometers a week um so i'm aware that my mileage is quite low um and i would probably advise to do more mileage but it's just what's you know as long as i do a long run and a fast run and a couple of easy five, six Ks, I find it okay.

23:32And then with kind of like maybe the late nights or you're going out, how do you manage getting up in the morning and going for the run? Is there any kind of like tactics that you do? Because I know a lot of people that they'll go out, they'll intend to run in the morning or work out in the morning and then they get to the morning, their head's a little bit sore, they're a little bit tired all over the place, maybe a little bit drunk from the night before still. Yeah. How do you get yourself there? um i mean i do believe like just get up and train like regardless of how you're feeling and as soon as you've put those shoes on you're out the door do a few k if you're really struggling just you know keep it there run back and at least you've moved the body for for six seven k but you know generally speaking i'd just take it a bit easier um but yeah i think just getting out and moving the body is is great for the mental health anyway and you're going to physically obviously it's going to help train him for the marathon so i think just getting up and getting getting it done i mean people do it because they have the choice but if someone said this is like work you would still turn up to the office you would still turn up to where you needed to be and i think it's the same with running it's like if you've committed to do something whether that's a marathon or a race or meet your friends in the park go and do it you know just it doesn't matter how you feel just turn up and get it done you'll be fine yeah and then with an actual hangover yeah is there anything that you do maybe you're necking a pint of water before you go to bed i try and i try and i like i do try and consume water all the time um obviously it's easier said than done especially if it gets very late you're in clubs whatever but generally speaking if we're out on the beers whatever i will try and have water because really it's you know if you're feeling crap and hung over it's because you're essentially dehydrated amongst other things if you've consumed the water you'll still feel tired because i bet you've probably not slept as well but you'll be fine like yeah so i do drink water i wake up generally and i'll have like electrolytes and a coffee and i'm good at necking water so i just get get it down me um if i'm really bad i have a hot shower then a super cold shower um go for a run and yeah i think it's uh it's obviously a bit of a mental battle as well um you know like if you were super excited and i don't know maybe it's day one of a holiday that you've been looking forward to a while and you send it a little too hard and you wake up i can guarantee you're still you might be feeling a bit dusty but you're probably still ready for that next day because you're on holiday you've just arrived somewhere you'll have drank maybe the same in london on a wednesday a couple of weeks before and on that thursday you'll be claiming that you're way more hungover i think the body's the same but it's that mental state is i'm here this exciting let's let's live today and i think if you just have that mentality which is like just get up get it done doesn't matter what it is i think you'll generally you know get over that hangover or whatever you call it i'm drinking too much the kind of work hard play hard mentality yeah i think like just i get i get the what hits me is when i don't get the sleep so if it's like sub less than five hours of sleep that's that's when it sort of will impact me um but anything that i think it can be controlled just by making sure you're taking on lots of water and then just looking after the body outside of the alcohol.

26:48Five hours. Five hours, man. How much do you say? I sleep all – if on my whoop, if it's not saying eight hours, then I'm struggling. How much are you training a day, though? Three to four hours. Three to four hours a day? Yeah, normally. On average. Probably like 20 to 25 hours a week, probably, training. Yeah, I see. so my Strava will be like I'm happy if it's four to six hours a week yeah wow but I mean do you know people that train more than you yeah yeah there's a there's a lot of people that train kind of like more and and that's I know everything that's kind of like the gym sessions it's not just running yeah obviously running uh hyrox movements and then like in the actual gym strength training and stuff like that so um that that's how how long but uh yeah I think someone's I think it with johnny brownley actually do you know the triathlete yeah yeah um he told me a fact that for every hour of exercise you should try and get an extra hour of sleep so say for example you're exercising for an hour a day try and aim for for eight plus one so nine hours but like who's got time for that like but who actually sleeps eight hours a night though it is true i think i think i think if you benchmark maybe seven six six six and a half so if i was training two hours maybe I'd try and do eight and a half that day yeah yeah okay that makes sense that makes sense because I think like the week I've always said the week of marathon week because I will up it like the six weeks before the week of marathon week I always feel ill but I just think it's because your body is like so tired from the block that you're then like okay I'm my body's tired I'm shutting down but if I'm ill the week of marathon week I know my body's ready and I'll do well you want to be ill i don't know if that's true you want to be ill i wouldn't take science advice i would not be taking science advice from it but my body is worn down and that's when i know boom i'm ready to send it let's go come on yeah i felt too good today and that's why i did crap because my body's not tired because i've done sod all exercise so it's more than you you attended a 5k but that's because i've not put enough work in to get that quicker time and me turning up and racing once a week is you know not probably well it's not scientifically the way to improve once 5k time is it let's be honest it sounds great probably race what once every three weeks once every four weeks a 5k yeah probably once every four weeks i'd probably say and then and then you have a block in between where you're looking to improve gradually getting better doing intervals a little bit faster than your race pace yeah rather than just sending it every week don't get me wrong i think if you're a beginner yeah not that you're a beginner you're nowhere near a beginner but you probably saw like at the start yeah you see smashing pb yeah pb after pb that's why everyone gets used to it to running isn't it because it's so great at the start you just keep hitting pbs every part when i was turning up pb pb but then you get to this point and you just plateau yeah and uh but but yeah breaking through that it's gonna be tough with your resin every week uh but uh i believe in you but how how long do you think it'll take me to run sub 16 i'm on 1748 this morning and my other times have been pretty much between 1810 and 1750 so i've kind of landed there i've started at just my normal fitness and i kind of i will try and get fitter as one does but i can't guarantee i'll change my lifestyle so when do you think i'll get sub 16 are you are you wearing what you're wearing on your feet a puma r3s which i think are the fastest yeah definitely say for the uh the 5k definitely yeah are you doing a warm-up a line bites there okay so if we do a proper sometimes so no no i went for they were all taking the piss i was doing a warm-up i did about 600 meters 600 meters okay so yeah if we if we did this is if we're taking it proper serious like say and we'll move on to this in a moment like sometimes it's not worth it but yeah for you optimally i'd say do a proper warm-up where we're raising the heart rate you're doing probably about 10-15 minutes worth of running then you're doing drills then you're doing strides you're opening up the body you're talking you know 4k 3 4k and then you're probably doing a little bit of a threshold say like a two minute threshold at the pace that you're going to be running the 5k at okay just like less than 800 meters like two minutes work yeah that yeah and that's just because i think maybe in the first k do you get that breathlessness when you kind of do you know if you don't get that I'll tell you what my issue is go on well finish with your warm up thing yeah so I do do 15 minutes I'd run in the fast R3 I'd have a pacer because yeah the mental energy of you just looking at your watch thinking am I on pace am I on pace like if you just sit behind someone look at the feet it's just so much easier plus actually with the pace that you're running a little bit of wind resistance especially if it is windy just sitting behind someone you're in the drag like a cycling team uh so i'd say that uh i'd probably say maybe a skinhead really no shave your legs i'm joking uh maybe you you could say if you if you dropped a kg or two yeah even though you are quite lean at the moment like if you dropped a kg or two that would probably help a little bit um and then if you're taking anything beforehand so bicarb yeah no meal three hours before so bicarbonate i'm running i'm running at 7 a.m so you know i'm getting out of bed and i'm going for it like what yeah so again you you can't really take them so maybe pushing it a little bit later you're running at 7 a.m the optimal time would probably make sure that you've had a meal beforehand yeah probably on this is the day where you're like this is it when i start to get like around the 16 40 mark i'll be i'd do 10 a.m this podcast and listening to it 10 a.m I'd have people fucking cheering, like whatever it is.

32:45Yeah, gassing you up. Like all that matters, like smiling on the way around, music, headphones in, whatever you want, like your best tunes. I think we can do it. These are the dark days now because I'm way off and I'm slowly improving, but it's just, and it's winter's coming. Yeah, winter's coming. So anyway, go on then. What's the date that I'll run the sub 16 5K? I think if you if you really focus obviously like you say you can still keep up your lifestyle but I reckon six months time I think you can have it six months so 22nd of September now what are we looking at there I'll tell you what we'll come patient December, Jan, Feb so you're looking March also this is this might be important for you first week of March I'm running Tokyo Marathon and I do want to PB there right if you want to PB I probably do it a couple of weeks before that so we're thinking mid-feb yeah because i think with just the increased mileage and stuff like that like i don't know how many people like you just feel so much fitter when you're in a marathon block yeah and the aerobic but you never really test your 5 and 10k when you're doing a marathon block people are bothered about yeah but i think you will have some great fitness there okay mid-feb then yeah i'll be in australia so uh you know nice and warm schooner down under nice and warm maybe a track maybe do it on a track or is that cheating uh you i think you've got a technically official race i'd probably say okay yeah yeah it has to be an official yeah so even like a park run i know they have park runs down under so yeah yeah they do they start at 7 a.m though they're doing the gold coast i know it's early there 7 a.m yeah i know it's different over there i did the gold coast one uh it was uh yeah it's mad in it like you you wake up and you think oh you're even jet lagged and you wake up at 5 a.m and you look out your window and everyone's in the sea everyone is crazy people having lunch yeah it's mad it's mad do you prefer the way of life over there or do you prefer the the british culture i've only been there in summer i do love australia um it's an it's an amazing way of life yeah so uh the thing is i i'm always in a bit of a honeymoon phase when i go i go for you know six seven weeks and have the best time and it's always summer so of course i love it but i've never like lived and had a routine there and you know built whatever there so um i don't know it's a tough one i think the the key for me is to be between the two so i'm going back again for two months over winter here so i'll keep keep living between the two is the best way i think yeah no i'd love to do a long stint out there i think the way of life is incredible and it's perfectly teed up for for an athlete as well is there some big high rock stuff out there oh yeah there's quite a few great uh high rocks athletes out there and like the fitness scene especially apparently like the gold coast sunshine coast area like it's great i know I've been to Sydney as well, to be fair, and Melbourne.

35:35They've got great high-experts. I think everyone's just after it there. You've always got someone to run with. I remember turning up to one of the tracks in Sydney, and it was heaving. I think there must have been 200 people on the track. I've never seen a track like it. The really fast people were getting pissed off because there was that many people on the track. It's crazy. Whereas you go a track up north in Bolton, and you're the only person there. Class. Which it is class, but yeah. I don't know which one you prefer. I think having a bit of both is great. A bit of both, yeah. Right, so my issue here is every time I run a 5K, only happens in 5Ks, the last 500 meters, I'm retching, dry retching.

36:21Can't stop it. I don't know if it's a mental thing because I see I've got 500 meters left and I just start gagging. Do you know this? and why does it happen? Why am I sick at the end of it? But like my PE teacher at school, you always say, well, if you're not, I know you're running fast because, or you're pushing yourself to the max because if you're not sick at the end of it, you're not trying hard enough. So, you know, I think you should be at a point where you're like at the end, gas, whatever. But my legs are never tired after these and I know I have more. I just can't keep, I'm gagging, you know?

36:54So how do I stop the gagging? So what if mentally you said that you're going to run, like a 6k all out would it happen at five and a half k it would because i remember the jp morgan corporate challenge is like 5.6k and it would like i would always get my 5k pb there because i'd sprint through it and then it'd be that last 600 where i'd be like maybe it's just like a mental thing they're not like so if i google it it says lactic acid build up and i need to do more high-rex training is great for lactic acid yeah feel too much like yeah four minutes on a Traditional method, four minutes on, four minutes off, max effort intervals.

37:29That'll help with my 5K, surely. Yeah, definitely. High rocks training. Yeah, high rocks training. Yes, it will. More than a strength session or not? No, I think a running-specific strength session. Just squats and stuff. And then running will help you. Half squats, like your isometric holds, your plyometrics, stuff like that. Yeah. When you actually see a runner's strength session, The aim isn't to feel tired coming out of that gym. Okay. You feel like you've not really done that much. It's almost like yoga. It's activating the muscles, building kind of like strength without the... Reformer kind of.

38:05Yeah, but building strength. It's still lifting heavy weights, but you're building strength, low rep range, building strength without the kind of fatigue because you want to perform. The main aim is to run fast. You can't run fast if you're battering yourself in the gym, which I think if you're doing kind of like a high-rocks class, you're leaving that fucked like you're leaving that pretty tight yeah yeah yeah i mean i sweat more doing that yeah but for the average person it's it's great for fitness aerobic fitness it's great yeah but for like specific stuff i'd probably say if you're all in on this 5k then obviously you can't do this because we'll move on to it in a minute you are competing in a couple of hyroxies but i'd definitely say uh just being really specific two gym sessions a week that are running specific, working your core, and then working the muscles that you're going to be doing running.

38:55Yeah, core and legs. Core and legs, a little bit of rotational work because a lot of people think as well, like when you're running, you actually are moving a little bit. Yeah. So you need a little bit of rotational work. Working the glutes because that's what's going to drive you forward. Calf strength work, plyometrics. I don't know if you saw the study. There was a study on plyometrics where they took people and one group did no plyometrics, and another group did six weeks of like simple plyometrics like drop jumps uh incorporate a couple of times a week and they improved their 5k by 11 percent okay compared to the other people what word did you just say plyometrics so that's like people i mean what is that so so it's all about uh reducing your ground contact time okay so jumping jumps yeah but normally like yeah so So jumps, but always thinking about being on the floor the least possible time.

39:50Okay, burpees and stuff like that. No, I'd probably say jumping off a box and then trying to jump as high as you can. That's a drop jump, and that's what they were tested on. So that's what I need to start doing, box jumps. Yeah, so a simple box, maybe from this table here. Imagine you stood on that, you drop down, and you jump as high as you can. Okay. And it's as fast as possible. and you might do a set of five of them just stepping back on and then doing that and then incorporating, you know, doing three to five reps of that. Okay. And then that's going to help because what it's doing is building the elasticity within your calves, which when you're running at the moment, you'll be using a lot of your muscles.

40:33Yeah. Whereas like you see the fluent Kenyans running and it's all like this recoil and rebound. It looks effortless. Yeah, it does. and that is that whereas i'm just yeah yeah trying to run over myself so it's kind of like that tendons difference rather than using your muscles you don't want to use your muscles you actually want to be free flowing so that's one of the things what's your 5k pb 5k pb uh it is i actually ran my 5k pb within a 10k okay i ran a 31 40 10k i ran a faster 10k actually i ran a 31 won 15 but apparently the course was short it was an official race official right but it was still cut it was still short apparently so so yeah 31 40 or something like that is my official but i've never actually done like a five so you're about yeah 15 mark really yeah yeah right uh maybe a 15 30 something like that yeah i'd hope to like break that 15 30 are you going to try and do that this year yeah i'll i'll give that a go i want to improve my 10k as well my lifetime goal with the 10k is try and drop below 30 minutes yeah i think like eventually but like that's lifetime goal okay and that's it that's an attempt i mean what age are you going to be peak at achieving that though because you're not getting any younger here jake i know no 27 now getting getting on well sorry luckily for me endurance peaks like in mid 30s normally okay so that's when you're going to go sub 220 as well yeah well at the moment it's full full steam ahead with high rocks and then let's see how far we can take that.

42:08And then I think like a little passion project, I don't know when it's going to be, but that will be like dedicating like a full entire year to the marathon because at the moment, like obviously I do a lot of mileage within my high rocks training, but for that 222 marathon, I only had four weeks of like specific training. That's mad. But I am running like a hundred K a week within my high rocks training. So really I'm building that base all the time. but then like where I'm really focusing on just the marathon I think I did a hierarchy in Melbourne on the 16th of December and then my race was on the 11th of January yeah so whatever that is three weeks four weeks whatever uh and that was my Christmas in between that you know yeah oh my Christmas it was grim that Christmas yeah Emily Emily's still not forgive me for that one yeah just just so kind of like obsessed I was like no I think on Christmas day and we'll touch on this and like how are you spending Christmas and stuff like that because um but Christmas day I think I I was like right I'm ready for bed and I think I actually went for oh no that was New Year's Christmas day I went home at 8 p.m and I was like I'm going to bed because we've got a session in the morning yeah on New Year's I had a nap before and then got up for did I get up five to midnight yeah it's a sad it's a sad life it is a sad life but it's dedication and that commitment's inspiring because you don't have to do your extreme you're like the best in the world you know so you've got to you've kind of got to yeah and i kind of like it it's just trying to persuade everyone around me that i'm not a boring cunt and you're not you know as i know but it's, it's hard to kind of like do that.

43:52And as well, like you've got to be super selfish and like, although it's nice to be selfish sometimes, it's not nice to be selfish all the time. Like if you've got someone, you want to celebrate with people, like you want to celebrate people around you. If they, if they've, you know, do you know, whatever achievement they've done, you want to go out and celebrate. And sometimes you can't do that. Yeah. And it's just a bit like, that's the thing that I struggle with the most. But with you, like how, what is the best night of the year for you? for for kind of like socializing drinking stuff like that do you know what it's um all these kind of like the halloweens the new year's eves christmas whatever i think because they're over height or they are there are they are a great night don't get me wrong they're always they're always top 15 nights but i always find the best nights are those kind of unplanned unexpected evenings where one beer becomes however many teens and they just end up being like insane nights as long as it's like a well-coordinated kind of evening and event but you weren't necessarily expecting it to be amazing and then it's like you're overwhelmed because in a good way you're positively whelmed because you weren't expecting much from an evening then all of a sudden you've got all your your best mates around you and that just happens to be you know that could be a random afternoon at the pub to be honest because sometimes with halloween all these planned events people have such a big expectation for it to be a great night or um christmas eve's always a great one for me because it's not christmas day but you know christmas eve there's kind of that excitement still there and it's it's always a good one and you've usually got a lot of people you've not seen for a while and everyone's tends to be out what the what the craziest nights out you've been on is there like specific places or people that you've met or like you know you never expected what happened to happen oh god that you can say on air by the way hey because i assume there's a lot that you can't talk about but i think you know yeah i mean talking broadly i think it's it's i think probably the best thing that's happened via starting social media is a place i've been and the people i've met um people i've always kind of looked up to or seen as incredibly impressive individuals, seeing these people up close and have drinks with them and have a good time with these people in some mega venue or private boat or flat or whatever that you'd never expect to be.

46:18I think that's probably one of the best things because it's just so amazing, isn't it? And then there's some cool events like I did the Open or like UFC, you know, Wimbledon. There's all these kind of cool sporting events, which is just naturally an amazing place to go for drinks if you're in the right kind of areas. Did you ever think it would get to this level? It's an interesting question. So I don't think it's at a level where I want it to be yet. So I've never really reflected and given myself any kind of pat on the back. So I always went into the career that I went into, which was, you know, within like the commodity trading space, because I always wanted, I guess, to chase the money.

47:04Because when I was 35, I always thought I'm going to quit 35 and I'm going to become an actor. Then I started this at 26, 27, which I guess when I started scoring a beer, it was I always wanted to be an actor, but I kind of didn't do that to sort of become. And then I started doing it and I was filming it privately. You know, I was at dinner parties. It was a bit of a dinner party trick. I'd stand up, I'd score a beer. Sometimes I'd do it at events. People would find it funny. And then enough people found it funny to go, you should just put it out there online. So I started as a private Instagram account and I would get, you know, friends, family, you know, Raya hinge dates, whatever to follow me.

47:49And it was a bit of fun. as soon as I said let's go you know Tom I knew from from work and um we were talking early days like he'd help me and still does but I remember us chatting I had like 100 followers and he was like you will do it like we both just believed and I I remember being and it is it's arrogant arguably with 100 followers to be like this is this is gonna work I just I didn't doubt it for a second I know that sounds arrogant but like when I'm not anywhere near where I want it to be if that makes sense because this now is a platform where you know i want to keep growing and keep getting like better content that connects more people so for me it's a platform where i can score every beer in the world try and find that perfect beer but while i'm doing that connecting loads of people in different countries and also showcasing the best venues around the world um which is amazing i'm very much on that journey but i'm sort of no way barely scratched the surface of where I think I can I can sort of push it no I genuinely think it's insane because I've seen firsthand you score a beer and the amount of thinking that goes behind it obviously it's always done in one take I've seen the people that video you yeah and you give them a script to actually just video like what they need to do when videoing and they're rehearsing that I've seen them do it and they stressed about it for a couple of days i remember i was being in paris after the paris marathon oh yeah because i had to get one of the runner runner girls to do it and she was stressing pressure yeah she was stressing because it's so doing dress rehearsals in the hotel lobby about the movements yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah but it's like so to to script and it is it's incredible like the way that you can do it in one take and no one can really replicate that obviously you could potentially replicate it in like a different field but no one's going to be you which i think that is your niche no one has your aura but then can do it in one take and then or very few people can't do you know the confidence of it and everything to do it in front of 100 people or whatever like it's it's crazy but then i remember when you were saying and i think it was in paris you were saying i'm going on my first tour to the us yeah and i'm go and basically tour around all these uh amazing pubs and bars within the u.s and they want me to do it they want me to showcase their their amazing venues and that that's when i thought wow this is incredible and i did thank you that's very kind by the way and it it is it is fun at the end of the day like i don't there's people always go is this your cameraman i'm like well it depends where I am you know a lot of the time I'm it's also raw and organic and we are shooting a pub and a beer so it has to be in that moment uh you know Tom can vouch he's done quite a few quite a few films and it's like because it's one take it is kind of we have to dial it because we're not going to stop if some bloke you know your girl gets in the way or you know I don't know someone's in the door when you try and run inside because yes it's about the beer and the beer is the hook but for me it's about showcasing everything else the people i'm with the the venue itself a lot of people watch because they want to know where to go not really what i'm drinking but where to go and and who's there so i try and get as much people involved as possible but also that the venues as well um so for me touring is is great it's tiring as hell and like you know you don't always have the setup or you get somewhere and you don't you know you can't really film on streets now in like New York is really hard because you can't drink on the like the pavement like London London pub culture is the best pub culture in the world undisputed so like here and out here I've got my team I've got my routine I live here it is for me the best place to make content it's just brilliant and like the fact that everyone comes here or even comments when I go travel somewhere and then I grow that audience in that specific country and then they watch my London content they're always like how are people just drinking on the streets because to me it's just so normal these you're at a pub and you're drinking outside and but to these different cultures and places it's not yeah i mean i'd love to go to india and china and do it there and see how how that kind of reacts and showcase those venues you mentioned that it's not where you see it being just yet like where do you see the bigger picture like you let you say um what are your visions for the brand I think, yeah, it's a really good question.

52:19And it's kind of like, I do know, or I do have a bit of a map of how I'd like to sort of see the next three to five years. I think at the moment, I've, I've started the channel, I've sort of traveled to the areas where I know people work hard, generally are into their fitness and they drink. So you kind of your London, Sydney's, Hong Kong's, New York's, I've hit the sort of the big cities. um i've got amsterdam this weekend i think it'll be good because i actually have a bit of a netherlands following because i can see it's like one of my splits netherlands is number five and i've never really been there properly as schooner score and done these reviews so the netherlands and the germany's and the belgium's are places where people absolutely love beer so i want to sort of grow that audience and then i want to take the audience a bit further afield and start going to you know the japan's and asia india and these kind of areas i really want to do South America and just once I've then kind of tried as many beers you know I've done over a thousand reviews now you know I want to be hitting like four thousand reviews really and I've also visited hundreds of breweries and like really got to grips with what goes into certain types of beer is I then want to hopefully you know slowly go into brewing my own kind of beer and hosting more and then my own kind of venues where I can get people together.

53:43And yeah, they can be kind of, I don't know, fitness and drinking kind of venues and just combine everything that I love and that connects people. No, I think it is a real positive message because a lot of people, they demonize drinking. Yeah. Why do you think that is? um maybe because they've got a bad relationship with it um and to some people it's not for everybody some people don't have a good relationship with alcohol so they do kind of demonize it or they say it makes them unproductive or whatever but and so i see that if people take the negative from it then it can be a bad thing you know but so can over training or over running or overworking anything anything that you do in excess will create negativity um but if if you you know if alcohol is a you know like for me it's productive i always i'm very creative when i drink i'm very social it makes me mentally happy i meet people or i break you know i get to know people and people open up a lot more because we're we're having a shared drink it makes people a bit more relax like generally you know and it also gives me a motivation to run as well and train because i like that balance if i didn't do if i didn't drink i don't think i'd run as much i don't think i'd train as much because i think mentally i wouldn't i don't feel like i needed to and because i train and i do well i reward myself and drink more so it's that balance for me but people demonize it maybe because they've they've had negative people in their lives that have had bad relationships with alcohol so they probably have a reason to yeah no i like you say i think just having it in moderation is probably the best way have you i'm just intrigued have you ever done the bear mile i have yeah theo baker did um did a youtube on it last year and i turned up like really hung over and did it um who else was it johnny davis was it johnny davis came second and he was giving it the big talk at the at the start um and he probably he probably would beat me on another day but yeah i did did all right my my um what did i get i think six six something six minutes pretty impressive is it is it pints or is it no it's um 330 so it's 335 those are the rules so it has to be if it was honestly actually now it's two liters if they were poured into glasses yeah i would do a lot quicker because it's it's out the bottle it's a different technique it's gassy use like a straw does that technically i don't think you're allowed i think you've just got to drink them yeah um but my my strategy wasn't to go as quick as i could because also we we did it properly where if you're sick you're disqualified so for me i was just like i don't want to be sick so i was doing i was going quite slow at the start and then i think the last last last couple of laps i took over johnny and i just went for it um but it's not a pleasant experience I wouldn't be racing that every week, put it that way.

56:43You'd keep them separate. Definitely keep drinking and running separate. I keep them separate, yeah. But I'm actually seeing the guy tomorrow who's got the world record in the beer mile. I think it's like 4 minutes 20. It's 4.30. It's absolutely mental. Surely if he just didn't drink the beers, go for the mile world record. But Corey Belmore, yeah, he's Canadian. I think he lives in the US. He's over in Amsterdam this weekend. So I'll ask him for tips on the beer mile. You want to get Corey on this? Amazing. We'll get him on. Highrox. Yeah. Let's talk about Highrox because you've signed up to two.

57:19We've got Boston and we've got London, right? We've got Boston in two weeks and they're both doubles. I'm starting with a couple more doubles before I go into a singles. But yeah, Boston in a couple of weeks, really excited for that. And then, yeah, London in early December. Talk to me. How's training been going? Well, as I say, it's just, it's one of those things where I'm just trying to always keep a level of fitness, which I'm happy with. So I have upped it slightly in terms of I'm doing these ergs. So I did Miami last year. I think I did 101. Zola is an absolute machine on the stations, but running is way off my pace.

58:00So I think like he carried a lot of the stations, like he's like the quickest guy ever, like the sled pull. He's massive, but we're very different and running whereas this year two weeks doing it with tom he's a lot better at the stations but running i'll recover a bit more so we've got a bit of a strategy what is the strategy talk us through it the strategy is uh i start and finish the stations and tom will do like 60 70 percent at the sled pull that's probably it but then i can do the the carry i can do all the carry i'm quite good at the farmer's carry yeah what's that from you reckon robin tesco's robin tesco's is he no i'm only kidding it's just like when i did it last time it was like this video of me with the two um dumbbells just absolutely legged it it was like that looked like my nan rob robbing sainsbury's yeah no i think i think that's great i think that's probably the strategy if so if you're with someone that can um isn't as good at the running but probably better at stations and surely they do the middle bit of the station.

59:06I can recover then lead the run. Tom still runs a 19 minute 5K. So he's still quick. But yeah, I'll probably be able to recover a bit better on the runs. And then Tom's also more experienced. So I'll lean on his experience in it. But I'd be happy with under an hour with 58, 57 minutes. I'd be very, very happy with that. Anything better would be amazing. It's normal weights. Yeah, open weights. Open weights, yeah. I'd say... Yours is 48, but is that proper weights? Yeah, pro weights. Pro weights. What would you get in open then? What would you be looking at? I don't know. To be fair, it depends on the course, because if you can get a slow course, then it might be around the same.

59:47I've never done Boston, no. Okay. I think Boston's a great city. I absolutely love it. How come you've not done Boston? Is it not a quick course? I think there's only ever been one before, I think. Okay. And it was last year, and I think timings just didn't kind of agree. No records there, though, do you know? I've not seen any, no. And I don't know who's racing this, is it next weekend? Two weeks. Two weeks. Twelve. But yeah, I think you'll be absolutely fine. All I'd say is probably, it sounds weird, with the doubles, I think you can almost mentally split it up into two races. The race to the rower and then a race to the finish.

1:00:29because the race to the row is that's the second erg no no the row is the fifth erg fifth erg yeah okay so you've got the ski so push the pull burpees yeah and then the row and say you've got a bit of a break on the row well that that's it you stood still and it's the only part really where like you stand obviously the ski erg but like that's at the start yeah but the the row you stood still so uh you you do get kind of like a full recovery so if you kind of can push there then you can then push on to the end and it's kind of like a mental reset okay we'll see it that's kind of what time should if we're going for like 57 what time should i hit the um 57 um we're talking maybe like that's a tough question yeah that is a tough i don't even to be fair when i race i don't even look on my watch to be fair like i just because normally you're indoors so you're not pacing it at all because like for me my mindset is like i'm running around i'm working off feel if i'm if i look down at my watch and it's saying i'm going too slow if i speed up i'm gonna feel like shit i'm probably yeah fine and then if it's saying that i'm running too fast well if i'm feeling good am i gonna slow down probably not because it's i feel like it's a real race off effort yeah but a lot of people go off feel and they have you know they absolutely crash because they're just yeah they're off they go on the go off feel but pace it like Like you say, you're going to feel like shit running off the sled push and sled pull.

1:01:59That's just, it is what it is. But the ski, you shouldn't feel too bad running off the ski. Should I get my breath back in the ergs or in the runs? On the doubles, you're getting your breath back in the stations. Okay. If I was doing the singles, what would I be trying to get my breath back on the runs? You want your breath back before you start the next station. so the hardest bit of a solo is starting the run that first 400 metres is probably going to be the most painful but by the time I'd say by the time that you're coming into a station you should be like recovering enough where you know what you're doing for the next station and yeah being kind of like switched on that's what I'd say personally okay yeah do you want to predict our time for Boston well you're both looking in pretty good shape I think how many days before you're going out?

1:02:53We go out on the Tuesday race on the Thursday. Ah, be okay. Yeah. Daytime flight. You'll be absolutely fine. I reckon I'm going to go fifth, what did you get last time? 103, I think. 103. It was death by warbles. I'll go. I've been doing those from squats. I'd be impressed if you get under a 58. Okay. Well, we live to impress you, Jake, so we're going to go 57. Yeah, 57. 57 i think um but yeah thank you for today oh mate this has been awesome thank you yeah no we'll have to catch up after after your high rocks maybe at london yeah at london yeah so and then when i go sub 55 we'll do one together sub 55 we'll do one together and let me know when you need pacing yeah we'll come down yeah yeah yeah and we'll pace you well when i'm when i'm around that 16 30 mark i'll start calling in the big dogs perfect perfect but uh yeah thank you for Mate, thank you.

1:03:48It's been unreal. Thank you.