MY 100 ULTRAS CHALLENGE - 2025 PROGRAMME

Link to my fundraising for this challenge: Just Giving - in favour of Viva!, which is such a wonderful charity, working as it does for the animals!

Check out the documentary made about me by Damian Scibberas, More Like Paul, available from 7th August 2025, on Vimeo for a small fee, with half of any profits going to Hakuna Matata animal sanctuary.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.👍

I meet and talk to lots of different people on my adventures (training, really). If we only met recently, please check out this link for Early Childhood Development and, for plant-based nutrition for dogs and cats, put 'plant-based nutrition for dogs' in the search box.

I've done all my actual ultras - as opposed to my virtual ones - through https://www.actionchallenge.com

They are a wonderful company who cannot do too much for you. Highly recommended. 

This year - 2025, I've entered 3 events again - the Bath50, London Summer Walk (again a 50k) and the 2nd half of the Thames Path challenge.

Last year I did 3 events with them:

The London Winter Walk at the end of January (accompanied by my two granddaughters and one of their boyfriends!); Easter50 Challenge; and the Thames Path100 Challenge  (continuous). Read further down to see why I feel the need to do the 2nd half of this challenge again! 🙂

Not an ultra, but during the month of July I set myself the goal of delivering 31 chocolate cakes to 31 departments of Musgrove Park Hospital in 31 days in July. As of today, the 28th July, I've completed the task. I'm doing this for several reasons - firstly, I'm fundraising for Viva! again; secondly, I love the NHS and wish to show my support for the staff: and thirdly, I need to keep up my training for my next event - The Summer Walk round London.

Here I'd like to show my appreciation to 2 NHS workers, Shazzie and Emma, who selected the wards (grouped in 3s, since I could get 3 cakes in my rucksack at a time), and guided me round what is admittedly, a maze! It was a complicated job, and they did it to perfection.

Here I try and detail all my ultra adventures - don't always succeed, as I'm not the most disciplined bloke in the world - both for my own amusement, and for anyone who is interested. I do ultra marathons for two reasons - one because they're bloody good fun, and, more importantly, they are also a means of fundraising for charities which are dear to my heart, and benefit the animals. 

I appreciate that times are hard - but these are also difficult times for charities, as I'm sure you'll appreciate. Through my ultras, I'm fundraising for Viva! who have been very active rescuing animals from Ukraine - and have an animal sanctuary in Poland. They also do sterling work exposing the horrors of animal abuse in farms and slaughterhouses. Here's a link for anyone who is in a position to donate, Wonderful * (whose services are completely free). Many, many thanks for the awesome support my efforts are receiving! And the animals thank you, also.

*If you have any trouble with this link, please email me at paulwyoud(at)gmail.com.

I have several people to whom I look for inspiration - and I found most of these on Rich Roll's podcast. Rich Roll himself, of course, is one of my heroes, being a vegan ultra runner and ironman extraordinaire. Through his podcasts I've been introduced to a whole range of endurance athletes and positive thinkers. David Goggins and Fiona Oakes, stand out - two of the most inspirational athletes around today.

MY 31 x 31 x 31 CHALLENGE. FUNDRAISING FOR VIVA!

July 2025

Once again I'm delivering 31 chocolate cakes throughout July - this time to 31 departments of Musgrove Park Hospital- my local hospital. I'm doing this to fundraise for Viva! again, and to help with my training for my next ultra. I chose the hospital because of my huge respect for the NHS and its workers. 

The ingredients once again are being sponsored by Lesser Litter - soo the cakes,  as well as being vegan, will be organic!

As of today, the 28th July, I've completed the task. And I'm feeling regretful that it's all over!

Here I'd like to show my appreciation to 2 NHS workers, Shazzie and Emma, who selected the wards (grouped in 3s, since I could get 3 cakes in my rucksack at a time), and guided me round what is admittedly, a maze! It was a complicated job, and they did it to perfection.

PLANT-BASED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Plant-based Health Professionals

OUR MISSION

We advance health through whole food plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, empowering healthcare professionals and communities to prevent, manage and treat chronic disease alongside promoting planetary health.

 Sign up here

PLANT-BASED NUTRITION FOR DOGS - AND CATS

 As I'm fond of saying in my outreach spiel, when Lewis Hamilton went vegan, he put his dog, Roscoe, on a plant-based diet - and cured him of arthritis! [Which is exactly what happened to me when I gave up all animal products.] Roscoe is now a healthy, 11yr-old bulldog - which is a bit of a rarity!

But anecdotal evidence is meaningless - what's needed is science backed evidence. 

"From my published research in 2022, dogs fed a plant-based diet could live up to 18 months longer than those fed a meat-based diet."

"Evidence based published papers supporting dogs going plant-based."

And my good friend, Dr Arielle Griffiths, who is a plant-based vet, provides it:

Not just dogs - cats also benefit from plant-based nutrition

There are many recommendations on Dr Griffith's Facebook page:

Chocolate and banana delight - a guilt-free treat

Depending how thick it turns out, it may take longer than an hour in your fridge to firm up. 

Chopped into pieces and frozen, it lasts longer. But every bite is a guilt-free treat!

Ingredients:

200g good dark chocolate - 70% or more, and;

300g ripe bananas 

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water (don't let the bowl come in contact with the hot water

Break up the bananas, and add  to the melted chocolate, then blitz with a stick blender. 

Once blended, pour into a flat dish, lined with parchment, and place in the fridge for an hour or so.

And that's it! It solidifies to a sort of fudge-like mousse, which you can chop into pieces you can offer around. 

I’ve found it best to divide it into bite-size pieces and freeze. 

Couple of variations - but really you can play around with this recipe!

I'm a great fan of chilli chocolate, so I added a pinch of cayenne pepper to my last batch.

My granddaughter likes to pour the mix over a loaf of raspberries

PRESS UP CHALLENGES: 1 MILLION IN 10 YEARS.

April 2025

One more milestone reached, today - I've now completed 800,000 press ups - in just under seven and a half years! Just 200,000 to go - and I've two and a half years in which to get them. Averaging about 8-9000 a month at the moment, so I'll get there a bit early, I fancy.

I LOVE MEETING PEOPLE WHILE I'M OUT DOING MY TRAINING!

When I'm out training for my next ultra, or just getting the miles in - and I'm doing about 40-50k a week ATM - I often strike up a conversation with people I meet. 

This morning, 13th February 2024, returning home after a 10k walk, I met Garrett (sp?) and his lovely family. He asked initially about how much weight I carried in my backpack - about 3kg it was today. I told him I aimed to carry as much weight around as I would carry on one of my ultras. From there we went on to my health since going vegan - and from there into the whole speil. He wasn't able to take a copy of my leaflet, so I told him to search for 'No bread is an island'. I hope he sees this!

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE - How easy (and cheap!) is this?

[Posted originally in August 2011] There's a doubled-up recipe, plus cupcakes and Swiss roll - pics at the foot of this post. This is my up to date recipe - adapted from the original.

 Vegan Chocolate Cake (20cm or 8") (w. variations)

Ingredients:

200g sugar

200g self raising flour (or plain, plus 3 teaspoons baking powder)

25-30g cocoa powder (or 25-40g ground ginger, or 2 tsps vanilla extract)

Optional - good half a teaspoon baking powder, for a bit of extra lift

300g water
25g vegetable oil (I use olive oil)

Method:

Measure the dry ingredients* and mix, then add the water and oil. Stir, initially with a dessertspoon, and then with a whisk, and pour through a sieve*, into an oiled 20cm (8") silicon cake former.

*I now don't worry about sieving the dry ingredients, instead I sieve the batter as I'm pouring it into the cake former. This catches any lumps and you're good!

 

Place in the microwave (800w) for 8 minutes. In my experience, not only do you get a quicker cake, but the cake rises about 25% higher in the microwave.

No microwave?
Bake in the oven at 175C for 30-35 minutes.

No oven?

Then pour a little of the batter into an oiled frying pan, on a medium to hot heat, as if you were making pancakes. For a bit of fun, baking with your youngster, cut out circles of the (pan)cake, and sandwich them with - I don't know: jam, homemade fruit puree, homemade chocolate spread (recipe below). Or, why not invent your own fillings?

(It's also possible to make an excellent gluten-free version of this cake.)

Cost:
I'm amazed at how little this cake costs (these prices are from Lidl products):
Sugar 22p
S/raising flour 15p
Cocoa powder 15p
Veg oil 10p
Total 62p

Who says that it's expensive to be vegan? :)

The story:
Anybody who's taken a look at some of the bread conversations I've had on this blog will know I'm not a cake maker - bread's my thing.

Whenever anyone asks me if I make cakes I always tell them there isn't time - there's always another bread I haven't made yet!

However, it was the birthday of both my daughter and my son-in-law this week, and there are bound to be plenty of cakes when we meet up tomorrow. And none of them will be vegan.

Apart, that is, from the one I've just made!

I followed this recipe here:

And tweaked it slightly.

It was a bit of a faff, since each step is on a separate page - unless you sign up, which I didn't want to do. And it's in cups, which I've weighed off into gms for the next time I make it - which I will.

166g s/raising flour
30g cocoa powder
198g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
80g sunolive oil
250g water
2 tsps vanilla extract

Stir the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, mix together and pour into 2 18cm (7") lined cake tins. (I placed 354g of batter in each tin.)

Bake at 175C for 20 minutes.

I shall sandwich the cake with the vegan chocolate spread I made yesterday:

And probably spread a bit on top - just to finish it off!

Update, Sunday 31st July:

As I said I would, I 'iced' the cake with a little chocolate spread.

And it went down very well, I must say - much better than I thought it would. My mother-in-law said loudly, "But it's actually very nice!". Everyone at the party who had a taste thought it was lovely and moist - and I had to answer several queries as to the recipe and how it was made.

This was undoubtedly a success - and it's now firmly in my repertoire. This from a guy who'd only ever made one cake in the last 20 years prior to this!  

I'm beginning to wonder if we've been conned all these years into thinking that cakes naturally have to contain eggs and butter (or marge)? Clearly, they don't!

I have asked all my friends on Wildfood for  their opinion. There's a variety of opinions on there with some agreeing with me.

I decided to forgo the salt and the vanilla:  I never use salt in my sweet bread recipes, and I see no place for it here; I couldn't detect any vanilla flavour, but others may.

3 days later. I ate the last remnants of the cake - and it was as moist and lush as when it had just been made. I did think of seeing if it would keep into a 4th day - but who keeps chocolate cake for four days?

(Well, my mother might - she used to extol the virtues of her madeira cake - "It'll keep for a fortnight!" she used to announce to all and sundry. And every time we went home and we were served cake, she felt she had to make good her claim. The damn cake was always well over a week old! In every other respect she was a decent cook. Well, I suppose we all have a chink in our armour!)

3rd November.
After telling my colleagues at my Thursday care home about my cake-making, I was prevailed upon to make one for the residents.

Since we needed a large cake, I doubled up the recipe:
330g s/raising flour

60g cocoa powder

400g sugar

160g sunflower oil

500g water

I left out the salt - decided it wasn't necessary - and the vanilla extract  - didn't have any, and didn't miss either of them! The cake, took about 35 minutes to cook.

I have to admit I was pretty bowled over by the size and appearance of the cake when it came out of the oven:

If you're going to make a cake - may as well make a big one!

That's Melissa's hand applying the chocolate icing

10th November.

The cake tin for last week's cake was borrowed from the care home next door - but this time it was decided we should make fairy cakes:

The doubled up recipe actually made 2 dozen of these. Thought at first we hadn't put enough batter in each one 

But when they came out of their cases and were iced - the size was just right! OK, the icing's not very neat - but that didn't affect the taste one iota!

Friday 16th December.
I've been making this cake weekly since I first made it - and today I made a chocolate log with it:

The cake was too thick so I knew it would split. But using the hints I picked up from Eric Lanlard last weekend (cut off the first 2 cm from the edge you're starting to roll from and place it on the edge if the cake and roll up around it) and those I received from Jemma the chef at Longrun (trim the side of the cake - this is where it gets crisp and prevents even rolling), we managed it.

Next time I'll divide the batter between two Swiss roll tins - and then it won't split! To keep it vegan it was spread with jam. I need a vegan filling for next time.

Monday 26th December.
Wanted to make a couple of Yule logs for the family - but I'm far away from my scales, so I did these with the original cup measurements in the link above.

I used a coffee mug to measure with and made enough to fill two Swiss roll tins and make three large cup cakes.

One was filled with sweet chestnut puree (the puree was mixed with some sugar and soya cream) and the other was consumed as it was - everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm planning to cover the cake with melted chocolate. I'll post a pic when I do.

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT - A DISSERTATION

Hi! If you've happened on my blog as a result of meeting me walking around Taunton, welcome. As I probably said, I'm passionate about early education, wanting every child to meet their full potential.

If you find any merit in what you read, well, I'm currently fundraising for Viva!, the leadingUK animal rights charity. If you wish to donate, you'll find my fundraiser here. Thanks.

Sir Kenneth Robinson was, IMO, one of the greatest educators the country has ever produced - His TED talk is the most viewed of all time. Well worth watching!

In the year 2000, at the age of 63, I completed a degree in Education and Training at Plymouth University, gaining a 2:1 - which contrasts with my first brush with education, which resulted in 2 'O' levels!

Early development:

Its effect on human potential

Gender

"Feminists have pointed to the exclusiveness of language, whereby women are effectively excluded from any obvious participation in discourse by being rendered invisible." (Parsons, 1993) 

The overwhelmingly masculine nature of the quotes in this study bears out Susan Parson’s point. In a conscious effort to redress the balance, wherever possible I have substituted a feminine reference. Where ‘man’ can be taken to mean ‘human’ or ‘humanity’ or ‘human beings’, I have also made that change. 

Paul Youd, May 2000

“True science and the true study of humanity is humanity”

(Pierre Charron, 1601)

  

ABSTRACT:

This study concerns itself with the basis of all learning – early development. It examines the way that the brain develops and necessarily revisits the Nurture v. Nature argument.

It argues that all talent, ability – call it what you will – is learned. That there is no such thing as ‘inborn’ talent.

It posits the view that our society seriously underestimates the potential of our young children. It will show that children are born ‘with a rage to learn’. 

It contends that if we are to truly have a lifelong learning society – one of the goals of the present government – our education system needs to do two things:

It needs to take cognisance of the facts concerning early development and act accordingly. And it also needs to cultivate – not discourage – the inbuilt love of learning that is present in all our young children.

It examines the concept of ‘hot-housing’ the young and proposes that those who have suffered environmental deprivation in their formative years should be in receipt of intensive cognitive stimulation to compensate. And it reports on the results of the use of large flash cards as a form of compensation.

MY TALK TO JASON JENKINS 'GOODFELLAS' GROUP

 My name’s Paul, I’ll be 87 in September, I don’t take any medications, and I’m living my best life. I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been.

But it wasn’t always like this. I didn’t have a great start in life - I wet the bed until I was 11, I was dyslexic (although I didn’t realise this until my late 50s) I was expelled from school - because of the dyslexia - and I was sexually abused through my teens .

I was always socially awkward, found it difficult to make friends, and had very few girlfriends. 

Quick bit of history - I was called up to do National Service at 18, I signed on for 4 years to get an overseas posting to HK. I then emigrated to Australia, came back to the UK, joined the CS and took early retirement in 1993, when I was 55.

All through that time there was something I didn’t know about myself. I used to wonder what it was that people knew about me - straight away - that I didn’t know about myself. 

However, in retirement, I wanted to teach my hobby of breadmaking - so I did a stage one C&G course that took about 10 weeks. Enjoyed it so much that a group of us went on to do St. 2. Then we were invited to join the CertEd at SCAT. When I finished that, my tutor said I may as well go on and do a degree! 3 years later I got a 2:1 in Ed and Trng - to go with the 2 GCSE’s I left school with.

Doing the research for the degree, I discovered that dyslexia was linked to the autonomic system, which also controls the bladder. I’ve talked to many SN teachers, and they all agree that their pupils need to go to the toilet more often. Another effect of dyslexia can be the inability to make small talk, which is a measure of how comfortable you are around people. So suddenly I had an answer - and now everything fell into place, everything was explained, and for the first time in my life, I felt comfortable in my own skin.

My life changed again in the early 2000s, when I gave up meat to avoid mad cow disease (BSE). I started looking into the dairy industry - and the egg industry. And what I saw horrified me! The cruelty, and how we treat animals that are in our care, I found appalling! So I went vegan. Took me two years for all the blinkers to come off.

And you know what? My arthritis just disappeared, and I became pain free. 

I’d tried to run in my 40s, but gave up after 6 weeks, my knees were too painful. But when I went vegan, my osteoarthritis, which was most evident in my fingers which were becoming twisted and gnarled - and very painful - cleared up and I became pain free. Which was a real bonus, since I went vegan for the animals.

But I never thought about trying to run again, until, chasing round the dining room table, after my 6yr-old grandson, I found my knees didn’t hurt. And when lockdown came, 4 years ago, wanting to come out of it with a new skill, I began running. I laid out a 20 yard track in my back garden and started running round it. 3 months later, I felt strong enough to challenge myself to do 10k a day, over 10 days. In the event, instead of getting more tired as the week went on, I became stronger and finished up doing 110k - raising over £4000 for a local animal sanctuary. Then I discovered ultra marathons, and I haven’t looked back.

My biggest achievement has been the 106k round the isle of wight over two days last April. But I’ll never forget my very first ultra - SWC2C - when I was climbing Dunkery Beacon, the highest point in Somerset. My over-riding memory of that day was the weather - it was appalling. It was the height of summer, but there was a freak weather event and the temperature dropped dramatically. The rain was torrential, the wind was whipping across, and there were thunderstorms around. Conditions were brutal - and I heard later that several people had gone down with hyperthermia. Whilst climbing that muddy, stony trail, attempting vainly to control my poncho, I remember saying to my companion, “ You know what, mate? There’s nowhere else I’d rather be!” All my senses were on full alert - I felt so alive! And from that moment, I was hooked!

One of the people who inspires me is a guy called David Goggins, supposed to be the fittest man alive.

He has several mantras, which keep me going, when things are tough: 

'Be uncomfortable'; and more - 'Become comfortable with being uncomfortable'; 'Nothing happens in your comfort zone'; 'We can all do more than we think we can - much more'.

'When you think you’re done, you’ve nothing left - you’ve only used up 40% of your resources!'

And I’ve one of my own - You’re never too old to have adventures!

When I’m out there on the trail, I’m doing it for the animals. And no matter how hard it might be for me, animals have it far worse. So I just get on with it.

I’m always striving to be the best version of me that I can be.

Just this month I’ve challenged myself to visit 31 care homes with 31 choc cakes in 31 days as a fundraiser for Viva!, which is the charity I support. There’s a Viva! Hamper for the donor with the closest guess. And I’m getting so much joy out of presenting these cakes to the homes! I’m not paying for the ingredients, those are sponsored by Taunton’s Zero Waste shop, Lesser Litter.

And a lesson which has been learned again - in spades - is something we’ve all been told since we were kids - ‘It’s better to give than to receive!’ And as long as what you’re giving is yourself, that’s so true.

Everyone needs a purpose in life - something that drives them, and gives them some satisfaction. With me it’s working on behalf of the animals - that drives me, every single day!

My name’s Paul, I’ll be 87 in September, I don’t take any medications, and I’m living my best life. I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been!

[Note: I took along some chocolate cake to share (my ingredients this time!) - find the recipe here.]