"It was just under two months ago when I was presented with the information that West Kent Mind was looking for fundraising opportunities, so they can continue putting on classes and workshops to help support people in the local community. With no major plans in my sights, I thought I could maybe do something to help, so I sat down and thought of what eye-catching challenge I could do to help raise money to keep their doors open and offer support. 

I set my sights on the Maverick Adidas Terrex X-Series Souths Downs 50k and thought I'd add in a 5 rep max weighted pull-up beforehand to keep things interesting. 

With relatively short notice, I signed up for the race, knowing training would need to be intense and proper to ensure I would be ready with only 2 and a bit months of prep. So I sat down to write out a plan to squeeze what should be 4-6 months of preparation into 2.  

Thankfully, being a CrossFitter, I'm ready for pretty much anything at all times, so all I had to do was build on my aerobic base, toughen up my legs to deal with the impact of 30 miles and build enough upper body strength to move some weight on the pull-ups. 

After taking my training out of my "Base" phase and started building volume in my legs in the "Build" phase of the program, I now enter the final stage of preparation, "Peak".

Peak training is usually fun. The volume decreases slightly and intensity and specificity shoot up. However, trying to maintain intensity for 4-6 hours at a time is a challenge, but a challenge I'm willing to put myself through in order to help raise money. 

Some may think that this is a rather bizarre and odd challenge, but it is somewhat corresponding to mental health disorders. When going through phases of low mood and mental battles, many deal with challenges internally, which are often hard to express and are constantly in conflict with balancing work life, social life, emotional stress, anxiety, and much more. Although my fundraising event is not nearly as hard as it is for some balancing mental challenges, I hope my attempt to put myself through a balancing act of my own can help others see that they're not alone and we are all going through similar things just at different levels. 

Thanks so much to everyone who has already donated and shown support for this Fundraising event, it means a lot!

Please continue to share with others and donate”.

Toby