Six months ago Luke Bland sat in his car, pressed record and spoke from the heart. One of those messages – we’re all going to die, and most of us are sleepwalking through the time we’ve got left, stopped over three million people mid-scroll.

In this episode of the PerformWell Podcast, Nick Finch sits down with Luke (@lukewbland): dad of two, former Royal Marines recruit, scaffolder turned business owner, Ironman, and a man who has run 100 miles in a single go – with a 200-miler and a 215-mile Race Across Scotland still on the calendar. It’s an honest, no-fluff conversation.

Luke talks about the turning point that made him quit drinking and drugs overnight at 32 and pour that same energy into endurance sport. We get into learning to swim just nine months out from an Ironman and coming out of the water nearly last, why “world class basics” – manners, timekeeping and hard graft are the only edge he thinks he needs, and the surprisingly underwhelming truth about crossing the finish line.

Along the way: men’s mental health and brotherhood, being present as a dad, why “no time” doesn’t hold up as an excuse, and what it really takes to not die average. Whether you’re chasing your first Ironman, trying to get off the sofa, or just tired of the highlight reel – this one’s for you.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FOLLOW & CONNECT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🎙️ The PerformWell Podcast → https://www.instagram.com/performwellpodcast/

💪 Nick Finch (host) → https://www.instagram.com/getfitbynick

🏃 Luke Bland (guest) → https://www.instagram.com/lukewbland/

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUPPORT THE CAUSE ❤️ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nick is racing Ironman Leeds to raise money for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), a UK suicide prevention charity. For men under 50, suicide is still the leading cause of death – CALM is working to change that.

Donate to “Stronger than the Silence” → https://www.justgiving.com/page/stronger-than-the-silence

Every share and every pound makes a difference.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

00:00 – Intro

00:55 – Meet Luke Bland & the “don’t die average” message

02:26 – Losing control: quitting drink and drugs at 32

03:43 – Hyrox, Ironman Barcelona & learning to swim in 9 months

06:49 – Falling in love with the bike and the trails

08:09 – Royal Marines, Lympstone & “world class basics”

10:14 – Failing young and the drive to prove yourself

14:46 – Scaffolding and the power of a group of lads

17:31 – Men’s mental health: “therapy without calling it therapy”

18:43 – Advice for busy dads: why “no time” doesn’t hold up

21:04 – Stacking days & the quiet mind of an overthinker

23:54 – What you do when no one is watching

26:53 – The 200-miler, “the tunnel” & signing up for what scares you

31:22 – Would you still do it without social media?

32:48 – Discipline, dawn training & the highlight-reel trap

39:40 – Celebrate the wins — but do what you love

45:27 – What it means to “perform well” & a message to his kids

47:40 – What’s next: 200 miles, Scotland & speaking on mental health

#DontDieAverage #UltraRunning #PerformWellPodcast.