The nutrition science got me to the finish line.

I'd committed to something big: 1,600km of unsupported cycling across 16 days. I recognised that half the battle would be ensuring I could do the day on day, km by km mental challenge, but what I genuinely didn't know was whether my body would hold up day after day on the bike. The real threat of under feeding, under hydration all cumulating into potential "bonking out" was a concern, and could have cost me any enjoyment of the ride.

Hence, the engagement of Deepak, who built a nutrition plan around how I actually cycle: my body weight, my pace, what I could realistically carry and eat on the road. Real food, not supplements. Daily carbohydrate targets for each stage. Recovery protocols I could execute even when I was exhausted.

The result was that I completed every kilometre with no bonking out, no massive exhaustion, and no last minute reliance on gels to get me to the end of the day. That in itself was a great achievement, but the thing that stayed with me wasn't the finish. It was a conversation early on where Deepak told me something I hadn't seen in myself. He said the commitment I'd built around cycling, the discipline, the person I'd become outside of a demanding career, that was already exceptional. I just hadn't given myself credit for it.

He was right. And hearing it from someone who understood both the physical side and the leadership side made it land in a way it hadn't before.