I am a creature of habit.

For breakfast I have mackerel on Mondays, boiled eggs on Wednesday, and beans on toast on Fridays.

I walk my guide dog, Stumpy, the same route every morning – Poop Lane, across the Jungle, back home via Piggy Lane. In the afternoon we take the slightly longer route doing a full circuit of the Jungle, and swapping Piggy Lane for the Gamsie and the Swamp.

Glassy smooth water in the Higlands

When it comes to my training, I am truly habitual. I swim a mile every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, followed by some underwater lengths and relaxation.

During the week I rarely get a chance to get on the water, so I use my indoor SUP trainer for an hour from eight o’clock every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday morning.

My main outdoor SUP time is at the weekend, where I aim to get at least one paddle in on Loch Tummel. I like to be on the water by 11am, and complete the 20km circuit by 2pm.

I take my first drink one third of the way up the loch, (Camp Island), my second drink two thirds of the way up, (Tarzan’s Lodge), and when I reach the top end of the loch, (Pablo’s Hideaway), I take my third drink along with either two pork pies or four mini sausages, before turning around and repeating my drinking schedule on the way back.

It takes more than wind and rain to stop me paddling

This year I have three big SUP challenges lined up. The first will take place in June. It is weather dependent, and will be a SUP first, so I’m not going to say anything more about that one.  The third will be the 92km non-stop Great Glen Paddle. I did this last year with Allistair Swinsco as my sighted guide, and we completed it in 14 hours and 47 minutes, (which we aim to beat this year).

My second big challenge is the biggest of them all – the Eleven City SUP non-stop, (220km in under 35 hours), with the awesome Joanne Hamilton Vale as my sighted guide.

As I have never taken on anything like this before, I spoke to my friend and endurance athlete Jason Sawyer. He gave me some advice on food and training. Regarding the training he told me I needed to “mix it up”, (words that are truly alien to me). Train when you don’t normally train and train when you really don’t want to.  He also told me that sleep deprivation can be a big problem, so to help with that I should start setting my alarm clock for silly o’clock in the morning, get up do a couple of hours on my indoor trainer, and then go back to bed. (He didn’t mention anything about getting a shower, but I’m guessing I should do that.)

This ‘train when you don’t want to train’ means any time from 6pm onwards to me. I believe that training is something you do during the day, and the evenings are for relaxation and calorie intake, (preferably either a big piece of meat, or something covered in chocolate, or maybe even both!)

Will this old stick in the mud handle this break with routine or am I just too long in the tooth to change? Keep an eye on this page for my updates, and follow me on Facebook …