What's your experience of being 'really fit'

It's also very one dimensional. Not many distance runners would last the distance on a professional rugby pitch, or deal well with a 20k yomp carrying 30kg pack.

My experience of being really fit, and I don't think it's been mentioned yet is managing fatigue and tiredness, there is a fine line between feeling fit and strong at a high level and tipping over the edge.

Yeah, maybe. For me it's only in hindsight a couple of periods in my life I was properly fit. I never trained, I just went and did a lot climbing or trekking. 3 months in Yosemite doing big walls and 4 months in South America doing a series of treks at up to 5,750m.

There's no way of measuring that, but there were a couple of times that are memorable and make me realise I must have been.

The first was on the third day of a hike in the Grand Canyon and we were having a late start, last to leave the campsite in the bottom and first at the youth hostel at the top. Four or five hours up hill with packs and it wasn't hard.

On the second trip we'd had to turn back on the Torres del Paine circuit as the pass was snowbound. It was day 5 or 6 and our kit had finally dried out after days of rain but as we got to the campsite it started to rain again so we decided to push on another 12 miles or so to the bus stop and get out. So we cracked on and did maybe 25 miles of rough paths, bog, river crossings. Plus I was carrying most of the camping gear etc because my wife had tweaked her knee, so 20kg+.

I don't know how fit that is but they were big days and although not effortless not hard. These days, at 53 and making time to exercise with kids, job etc it's a lot harder to feel that capable.

That's my point, good at the running, not so hot at the breakdown.

I think that's true. No one would dispute that Alex Honnold is one of the fittest men on the planet and what he does goes beyond metrics as does the activity of many adventure seekers. My areas of activity probably bridge the divide between your outdoor adventures and OKGOs competetive cycling. I got into mountain biking in my 20s as something to do when the rock was wet. Turns out I liked it and was reasonably good at it but far too late to be seriously competetive. As I got into my 30s and far beyond I needed to do more training to get the most out of limited time in big mountains. Running and cycling really helps prepare for that. Interestingly my mates who were naturally gifted athletes, county runners, national champions in cycling, have rather taken historical fitness for granted and expected to come into form quickly soon before or whilst on a trip - often to their regret.

The big change that's happened since my 20s is the ability to record, track and publish my stats; dive into physiological data and plan training.

Most of my friends who are into climbing, skiing are posting their activity on Strava and for most of us (apart from the professional guides who spend extended periods in the mountains) the regular meat and potatoes training is runs, rides, walks and a bit of strength training.

Another way I see fitness is that it's synonymous with 'ready' 'prepared'. I like to think that by keeping up with training up to 20k off road running 80k mountain bike 100+k hilly road ride then if a mate calls me and says 'Do you fancy.......How about it?' I'm only one training cycle away from adjusting the specificity of my activity to meet that objective.

He's obviously very fit, but one of the fittest on the planet?

I've always given that accolade to tour cyclists. Certainly not a rock climber.

my experience of feeling 'really fit' is the feeling you get when descending from a very high altitude climb - coming down from 8000m every metre you descend you feel stronger a more powerful and the hike out from basecamps around the 5/6000m level down to 2000m you are positively superhuman.

All returns to normal after a could weeks though sadly.

When I was very fit, circa 15m 5k, 12s 100m fit, I still kept my hand in at hockey, I was completely unplayable, no one got near me all game. If they did I just jogged somewhere else, at a speed they could keep up with for 10mins, let alone all game. I would just mark my man out of the game for the first half then do whatever I wanted in the second half, just kept moving until I was left alone, scored loads of goals by arriving in the box unmarked.

I would have got halfed playing rugby for sure, but I would have scored loads as a winger too.

What I learned was it's so much less about top speed and much more about where you start sprinting from, if you have the endurance to move 20 yards more than your opponent before the sprint starts, then someone with 10 yards of pace more still won't catch you. I was quick for a distance runner, but no one running similar 5/10k times to me would be anything you would consider slow, they would dust 90% of pro rugby players, let alone amateurs. I think you're underestimating how easy moving at normal team sports speeds it is when your legs are used to knocking out solid pace for far longer than a match lasts.

Doesn’t matter about drug taking, clean or doped they’re still amongst the fittest people in the world.

I did a Murph challenge competition a few years back and have never really done anything that quite matches that for all round fitness, and that’s someone who bicycle raced in France for many years