Something Slightly Different In 2026

In this episode, we explore some slightly different episodes I will be bringing to the podcast this year (and why I have finally decided to speak about certain topics). 

​Episode Transcript:

[0:01] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, I'm going to be talking through something slightly different I'm going to be

[0:09] doing for some episodes this year in 2026. Now, over the last 400 plus episodes, I've covered a crazy amount of different topics when it comes down to the world of training for hiking.

[0:22] But in all honesty, there have been some topics which I know a lot of people talk about online. I know a lot of hikers are interested in, a lot of coaches talk about, a lot of things people promote, but which I very intentionally avoided talking about. Some things I talk about privately when clients ask me, but nothing really publicly.

[0:42] For some of these particular topics, I haven't talked about them because I don't really consider myself a particular expert in these areas. I feel like I know some and enough, but not really an expert. And I don't really feel like I should be the one talking about these publicly and diving into them or whatever it may be. For other topics, there've been things that I feel like I do know a lot about, but the topics themselves, they just drive me a bit mental because the way that they're used in the fitness industry or talked about or applied, it's just a whole thing. And every time I try to talk about them and I guess just apply some different context or nuance or whatever it may be, I just get a little bit emotionally charged or I get a little bit negative when I'm trying to talk about this stuff, whether I'm on the podcast or on a video or writing. And it's just not really the vibe I want to have talking about stuff. And for other topics, they've just been things I've just not interested in. And I know hikers are kind of keen on them, but they just don't excite me to talk about for one reason or another. And that's been fine. Until now, I've been pretty happy just talking about what I enjoy, what I consider myself an expert in, what's fun to me, what's interesting and engaging for me.

[1:56] However, the world has obviously changed a little bit in recent times, and specifically how it relates to this episode and what we're going to be doing, it's changed a bit in the use of AI.

[2:09] Because a lot of hikers, and more and more hikers, are getting their information from AI. Whether they type in a question into Google and they get that AI summary at the top, or Or they'll go into ChatBeat GPT and ask it questions or use it as a search engine or whatever it may be. It's getting more and more popular, which we all know. And the way this typically works is AI obviously can't think for itself. What it does when it's getting answers to these questions or whatever may be, it will crawl through all the available information online. And then it'll take all that information and just basically give you the average answer to that. So what the average consensus is or what the most popular answer is or whatever may be. And this is where the problem comes in. Because there are a lot of topics in the world of training for hiking where there are a lot of people talking about them online. And typically in the fitness industry, the way new topics arise and new training methods arise or whatever it may be, there is sort of one big original source of information who makes statements about a particular thing. They say, this is amazing to do, or this is a great training protocol, or this amazing new tool will do this, or whatever it may be.

[3:22] Maybe it's someone who, a coach who runs a certification and they like say, hey, teaching people in the certification all the benefits of this. Maybe it's a big influencer. So maybe it's just even a celebrity and they're talking about this or whatever. And there's kind of one original source of information in the public eye, which a lot of people get. And coaches, trainers, or whatever may be, will be like, hey, I'm learning this information. I'm doing a certification. I'm watching these videos or whatever may be. And they'll take this information. They'll be like, cool, this is awesome. This is exactly what I wanted. And I want to tell people about this. So they'll take the statements made and just kind of regurgitate it around the internet. And they'll do this on videos and blogs and podcasts, pretty much just citing the same talking points over and over. Take any new and exciting thing you see in the world of training. And if you actually look at it, you'll see hundreds of people just saying the same thing, the same sentences, literally just reproducing it in their own content. In the world of training for hiking, this is obviously smaller because there's not so many people working with it. But you see in articles, you've seen videos, or everyone just saying the same thing. Okay.

[4:27] Which is all well and good when the information is nuanced, when the information gives good context, when the information is correct. But all too often in the fitness industry, this just isn't true. And the information that everyone's talking about, that original information is flawed. Either it's missing important context or people are just misleading or misunderstanding things, or it's just outright wrong. And then what happens? Well, these days, AI will take all of that information of all this stuff, all these dozens of people talking about the same thing. And they'll assume because everyone's saying this, because it's the average answer, the most popular answer, whatever it may be, it'll just assume this is correct.

[5:10] And the well-meaning hiker who has no idea about any of this will just go to Google or chat GPT, ask a question and get an answer which sounds right, but might not quite line up in reality. It is a bit scary the way things are going.

[5:24] So moving forward, I'm intentionally going to be just doing a few episodes to, I guess, kind of combat this a little bit. I'm going to be talking about episodes on topics that I don't really particularly love talking about or want to talk about for one reason or another, but purely just to kind to provide a bit of a counter-argument to just provide on the internet as a whole, just a little bit more context on some of these topics, which is just the same stuff regurgitated over and over, or just a little bit extra nuance. Or maybe for some things that are just outright plain wrong, that everyone's saying it does this, but it doesn't do that.

[5:58] Maybe just a bit of a counter-argument. So the information is out there. So ultimately, hopefully this isn't just going to be a one source of information. And everyone's saying the same thing, but when the AI machine, the scary AI machine is trawling through that information, hopefully it'll take this context and maybe give a little bit more of a nuanced answer. It's not something I'm particularly looking forward to, and you may have to, over the next year, deal with a few episodes where I do get a little bit fired up, or maybe I'm not just my best self or whatever it may be, but I think it has to be done. There's been stuff I've been sitting on for a while, which I think I just need to talk about just to have this counter argument there. Now, it's not going to be every episode because that just will not be fun. It'll drain me too much, but it'll be here and there, maybe every three or four or five episodes or something this year. We'll see how we go. So with that being said, just look out for those in the year ahead. I just want to pre-warn you just in case you notice my tone shifts a little bit in some of the episodes, but that's kind of the reasoning what I'm doing.

[6:57] So wish me luck, buckle in, and yeah, let's see how it all plays out as the year goes ahead.

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