I might have mentioned it before - I recently gave myself a 50th birthday present of cycling 196 miles in one night.

Here are 6 things I learned about resilience from one crazy bike ride:

1. You won’t admit you’re in your darkest place until you emerge from it

I found myself cycling on my own for three hours in the middle of the night between one and four in the morning. I was cold, tired and lonely, in the dark in the middle of nowhere, but as you can see from this video clip, I wouldn't admit it because it's actually scary to admit you're in a dark place.

To be honest I'm not sure how much help it would've been for me to admit it because there was no one else around. But if you do find yourself in a dark place at work, for example, I really would recommend talking to someone about it - see point 4.

2. There were a couple of signs I was in that darkest place

I felt extreme misanthropy towards others. I have never felt so ill-disposed to other people. And the irony was that they were fellow cyclists, with whom I could have teamed up to ride together and save energy, but I didn't want to, even though it would've made things easier.

You pass off the darkest moments as something else, even though to outsiders or even yourself in retrospect, you have (or had) every right to be in a dark place. I passed it off as one of those crazy episodes that everyone has to do in their lives – which I still believe, but I used that to mask the darkness of my predicament at the time.

3. Use the power of "glimmers" to pull you through

I have to acknowledge my friend and colleague Asti for this coinage. "Glimmers" or little moments of positivity, which you can grasp onto and use to pull yourself up into a brighter place. For example, my glimmers were the dawn chorus of birds at two in the morning, the purple glow heralding the sunrise, sunrise itself, and the moment the heat of the Sun started to warm us all up.

4. Don’t run away from help - not least because it could be a help to others as well as yourself.

At one point, I hitched up with two young Swedish lads, and we formed a little peloton of three, each taking turns at the front, while the others took advantage of the slipstream. The problem was that I couldn't keep up with the pace, and I got dropped, which meant I was back on my own. But I will never forget the moment when they hung back and said to me "Come on! Stay with us! We're better with you.". My dark misanthropy might have told them to leave me alone, but somehow I knew they were right and I had to go with them, and those two guys got me through to sunrise and the next feeding station, and I will forever be grateful to them.

5. Physical fitness can help mental resilience - so stay strong if you want to work hard

I reckon I would've fared much worse from a psychological point of view if I had been less physically fit. We all know about the physical toll that mental stress can take on your body, particularly your heart. So it stands to reason that you are more likely to be able to withstand high stress if your heart is in a better condition.

6. And…the more you challenge yourself, the stronger you become

Physical fitness comes from putting your body under stress and allowing your body to respond to that stress by becoming stronger. With improved physical strength, you are able to withstand higher physical stress. So it occurs to me that in order to better cope with stress, you have to put yourself in stressful situations, but crucially, you need to understand how to cope in those situations by understanding what is going on inside your head and how to respond to it.

So don't be afraid of going outside your comfort zone. In fact, I'd urge you to embrace it. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, because that, I think, is a an important part of living life rather than simply existing.