I'm back on Nathan Honess's Power of Progress podcast to talk about 75 Hard, and he's waited until we're recording to ask the one question I'd rather he didn't. "How long did it take you to decide to do this?"
"You git. Thanks for asking me that," I tell him. Then I own up. "I first became aware of 75hard at least a year before I started doing it."
The last time I was on the show I was fairly early into the challenge. This time I've finished it, all 75 days, and it ends up taking us two episodes to talk it through.
The rules, and the kicker
If you haven't come across it, 75 Hard is a free challenge created by Andy Frisella. For 75 days in a row you do two workouts a day of at least 45 minutes each, and one of them has to be outside whatever the weather. You get through a gallon of water a day (an American gallon, about 3.75 litres). You read ten pages of a non-fiction or self-help book, and it has to be a physical book. You take a progress picture every day. No cheat meals.
Then there's the bit that gives it the name. "You miss any one thing, tomorrow is day one." I told Nath you could be on day seventy-four, do 43 minutes instead of 45, and you're back at the start.
That's why I said it's about commitment more than fitness. "It's about mental discipline." The physical stuff is a side effect.
For the record, my side effect was 22 pounds in 75 days, just over a stone and a half. I was standing there talking to Nath in a pair of jeans I hadn't been able to get on for three or four years. The two or three inches that kept them in the wardrobe had gone.
A year of wanting it
So, the honest answer to Nath's question. I'd watched people I know post their results and thought I wanted to do it. But 75 days felt like a long time and two workouts a day felt like a big commitment. "I want the result, but I'm not sure I want to do the work."
Then one evening I read about it again and that was that. It's a clean show, so I didn't repeat exactly what I said, but the gist was "F this, I'm doing it tomorrow." Andy Frisella says if you've made the decision, you start today. I'd made mine in the evening with no idea how much water I'd had, so today wasn't happening. Tomorrow morning was.
The one bit of advice I gave on the show was to "have that decision that you're doing the whole thing before you even start." The day before day one, I knew I was doing 75 days. I also shared the app's completion page on social media every single day, because if I'd missed one, in my head at least, someone would notice.
It's the same thing that got me round my first ultra, 107 miles off-road, a distance I'd never run in my life. At the start line it was never whether I'd finish. Only when.
So on the nights it got to nine o'clock and I realised I'd only done one workout? "Well, guess what? I did the other one."
Gentle on purpose
People hear two workouts a day and picture me in the gym and then out for a run. No. I'm a qualified fitness instructor and a kettlebells instructor, and I knew pushing my body to the extreme every day for 75 days wasn't going to do me any good.
Most days one workout was just a walk outside, about 45 minutes and three-ish miles. I made it something I looked forward to, with audiobooks or phone calls that needed making.
The other was usually my road bike on a turbo trainer in the conservatory I'd turned into a home gym. About 20 miles, which takes me roughly 45 minutes. If I hit one before the other I kept going, and I deliberately took whichever felt longer. Nath called it eating the frog.
When the weather was horrible I went out anyway. Some days I was "throwing kettlebells around in the rain outside standing on my patio". It's the UK. You don't expect sunshine every day.
All in, it was about two hours a day. "But it's two hours out of twenty-four. It's less than ten percent of your day."
Choose your hard
Near the end of the second part I came back to 75 Hard one more time and said "life is always hard if you want it to be. The question is what hard do you want?"
There's always something you give up. I said a quick fix takes six weeks to get you there and six months to slide you back, and you don't notice the slide until one day you look in the mirror.
"Joining a gym isn't going to make any difference at all to your health. Going to the gym is." By the time we recorded, I hadn't missed my gallon of water once since day 76, and I'd done at least one workout every day. Do something daily for long enough and it stops being a challenge. It's just what you do.
Listen to both parts
Part one is on Apple Podcasts, and so is part two. Both are on the other podcast apps too.
Decide the whole stretch
Pick one thing you've wanted the result of for a while but keep putting off. Decide tonight that you're doing the whole stretch, start tomorrow morning, and tell someone who'll notice if you stop.
First published June 2021 on Nathan Honess's Power of Progress podcast.
