your body starts to eat itself because it starts to like to run out of fuel and it starts to eat its own fat you start to be like why am i in the water this is just insane why am i doing this and it just got really really spiraling negatively it's all about that mental kind of side of it so just pushing yourself okay you can go a little bit further keep going keep going everything else is going to be easy because i've done i've swum in freezing cold water you know it doesn't phase me
you know it's going to hurt at some stage yet you're willing to expose yourself to that pain what's really unique about endurance performance is that kind of element of um how do i manage my thoughts there's so much time to think so when those kind of demons might arrive how do you manage those demons some people undertake extreme endurance activities because of something that they have control over they have a very clear reason and it's because they want to do it they enjoy the exercise they enjoy kind of those challenges when we think about managing
pain they just love it some other people they do it because of the community around it there will be highs and there will be lows being able to navigate and manage that is a real psychological strength completing these endurance events we learn psychological techniques that can be used in our lives outside of sport so understanding that we have an end goal but we need to have a journey towards getting towards that end goal and recognizing those small achievements along the way you know when we think about reflecting on reasons why you're doing it having that
kind of intrinsic motivation that comes from within managing those negative thoughts the perseverance the grit to keep going but also yes i might feel uncomfortable i feel tired but i can push through that can be types of things that can be really helpful in other areas of life i'm kevin murphy i'm known as king of the english channel i've swam the channel 34 times and within that 34 there are actually three doubles and 28 singles people want to challenge their human frailties i know i can beat the demons in my head which say you can't
do this i know i can beat those more people have climbed everest and they have swam the channel so it's a huge challenge you could literally get like a kilometer away from france and the current will just change it and you'll be swimming stationary and you've got to be okay with swimming another six hours so when i went to the swim camp everyone's very hardcore i said i wanted to do a full hour and they said yeah okay go for your four hour i was never a great swimmer i i was never very fast um
and i was never especially fit and yet i'm in the swimming hall of fame now how can that be um well it's because i had that willpower that mental toughness to be able to carry on and that's what i try to instill in all the swimmers that i train swimming the channel you actually go way way beyond what you think are your limits it's it's not really a physical thing so much as a mental thing you had to swim for a long time before you got kind of any food i just remember being really miserable
it was about seven eight degrees putting my face in the water it just felt like it was burning i'd be so frozen i couldn't move my hands what you take away from a channel swim is that that mental toughness that self-belief you also take away a physical development of your body i had an artery that ruptured because my heart was so strong and so big a much bigger muscle than normal because of the swimming that's why i'm here i wouldn't have survived otherwise if we know that we've been able to overcome hard times we've been
able to push through some of those difficulties then we know we can do it again what motivates us is very different for each individual person in terms of extreme endurance activities it's an opportunity for individuals to test their limits and to see where their boundaries are my next challenge is probably going to be my business or going on to to do another sort of sports swim and so if you think about life take that kind of mental attitude saying 50 of life is just just saying that you can do it or you will do it
but you just have to believe it [Music] you
