So, because I’m an idiot, I decided to try my first Crossfit session – six weeks before my Nepal trek. Even as we were walking down there, I idly wondered out loud to my friend, "Hmm, I wonder what the injury rate is among first-time Crossfitters…?" Well, 100% it turns out, regarding me. Yeah, I got injured....   (read more)

From 12 November 12 - 04 December of 2016, I will be trekking the Three Passes of the Everest Region of Nepal in the Himalayas (with the estimable Darby Kimball). I'm asking friends and loved ones to chip in a couple of bucks/quid to help provide health care, education, and a safe environment for the children of Nepal - one of the poorest countries in the world, further devastated by last year's earthquake, which left hundreds of thousands homeless....   (read more)

The Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides full college scholarships to every child who has lost a parent serving in the Special Operations Command. Our special operators train like professional athletes, perform like minor Gods, and lay it all on the line every day in defense of freedom and decency. The Spartan Race is for civilians whose lives are too damned cushy and sedentary, and allows maniacs to go out there for a day and crawl through mud and jump over fire and throw spears and get pummelled with pugil sticks. I'm running the Spartan Race South London Super in support of the SOWF....   (read more)

Here's probably as long a list as you need of reputable and effective charities helping people in the Philippines. As usual these days, the U.S. military continues its transition into the world's best and most effective disaster relief service....   (read more)

As you will have read, on Saturday America's community of special operations forces (SOF) suffered its worst single-day loss ever. These people are, in a word, the very best of our best, and their loss is a grievous one....   (read more)

This four-minute TED talk is totally lovely (plus funny and wise). Everyone likes firefighters....   (read more)

Through the USO's At Home In Our Hearts holiday campaign, supporters like you have the chance to give our troops something really special: the opportunity to make a phone call home....   (read more)

In what might perhaps be a semi-regular feature, here's a song so great that I think we should all be singing it for 100 years....   (read more)

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So when we last left our heroes, they were hiding out from the marauding solar death ray beneath the canopy of the 20-mile checkpoint, lapping up Lucozade and choking on trail mix, reaching down deep for the necessary sack to tackle the final 6.2 miles....   (read more)

Right, so at the 17-mile checkpoint, major themes were shade, and foot maintenance. We both topped up with water - going dry out here could be a serious problem...   (read more)

Finally, Tim and I pick ourselves up, gear up, and head out. Me: Well . . . it's not going to suck itself. Tim: I've been waiting for that. Me: I've been letting the tension build....   (read more)

So having topped up water and touched in with the team at the first checkpoint, I've once again taken off at speed to try and catch up the leaders....   (read more)

It's 6AM and I'm woken by my phone alarm - direct from a vivid dream where I'm manning a WWI machine gun emplacement. I don't think that can be a good omen for the day....   (read more)

I'm sitting in the back of a parked Discover Adventures mini-bus. My head is lolling. My back hurts whichever way I array it; but I haven't the energy to keep wriggling around. I'm covered in salt. Plus dust....   (read more)

So after my various long-distance walks around the UK, undertaken for no better purpose than to amuse myself, I'm now doing my first sponsored walk for charity: the Help for Heroes Hero Walk - Avebury to Stonehenge....   (read more)

In a certain way, it's a lovely (albeit tragic and bittersweet) thing to be able to sit on your couch, and read about millions of people in serious trouble a half a world away, and without even getting up be able to contribute to their aid....   (read more)

"You will never know how complete you have made me. You saved me from loneliness and taught me how to think beyond myself. You taught me how to live and to love. You opened my eyes to a world I never dreamed existed." - Army Pfc. Jesse A. Givens, in his last letter home...   (read more)

A few days from now, Fourth of July celebrations will be held in small towns and big cities all across America. At the same time, halfway around the world, 170,000 brave young men and women will demonstrate their patriotism in another way: by putting their lives at risk to defend everything America stands for....   (read more)

It's Christmas Day in the desert. You're on patrol. It seems Santa's been kidnapped by the Air Force....   (read more)

Back home it's morning... your wife and kids must be opening their presents without you. As you return to base you're in a bad mood. Surprise, the USO is handing out pre-paid phone cards so you can call home and for FREE!...   (read more)

On Memorial Day/Remembrance Day 2007 (okay, slightly after), I'd like to take the liberty of introducing you to a couple of guys I think you should probably know at least a little about....   (read more)