As the defending champion, a win he scored on only his first year as a coach, Donncha O'Callaghan came to the new season of Ireland's Fittest Families armed with determination, concentration and grapes and red lemonade, as it turned out.
With fierce competition from his fellow coaches, all current and/or former professional athletes, O'Callaghan knew he couldn't trade off the same strategies as his first year.
"It was so much harder this year, last year I was the newbie and everyone was nice to me because they didn't think I was a threat", he recalls. "This year was totally different. I had a bull's eye on my back and the coaches were much harsher! They were competitive and tactical from the start, whereas last year they were helping me."
With this in mind, he shifted his own tactics, plucking for a "Hunger Games-style" survival strategy and saying that "it was about keeping my head above water, picking families that I believed in and concentrating on them".
With long filming days and factoring in grueling tasks and emotional challenges, finding ways to unwind was vital. Donncha's choice? Hopskotch and tag, as well as spending quality time with fellow coach Derval O'Rourke, who he calls a "great motivator, when we're not up against each other!"
"We passed our time coming up with tactics to get rid of the other two! Really though, I use the time to get to know my families better."
O'Callaghan no doubt spent much of his time watching the other coaches for tips, as he says that despite his long tenure in professional sports, his greatest challenge was learning how to coach.
"People think because you've been a professional athlete that you naturally know how to coach", he says. "For me, the coaching is really all about the relationships, and the communication. That's what I can bring to it. I pick the families based on who you I know I'll get on best with, and that makes coaching much easier."
Viewers still see the open-hearted Donncha they know and love, despite the challenges, and it shines though in his coaching. Hearts were warmed earlier this week as O'Callaghan decamped to the Lally family home to ply one of its team members with red lemonade and grapes when he came down with a bout of "man flu". O'Callaghan said this was par for the course with his teams, saying that "it's non stop communication with the families".
"As I said I always pick the people I really like and then it's great being able to keep in touch in between events and get to know each other and what works and doesn't work in terms of motivation and training."
When it comes to motivating the public, however, O'Callaghan does so in about the same measure as he plays out our own emotions: in the first episode of this season, his operatic facial expressions set the internet ablaze, making O'Callaghan the mascot for all the stages of watching Ireland's Fittest Family.
"My reactions are always like that", he says. "When I'm home on the couch watching Blue Planet or Dynasty or anything like that my heart is in my mouth shouting at the penguins to watch out."
"I'm out of my chair and my wife is telling me to sit down. This was the same. Watching those people up that high- I wouldn't have been able to do it myself. I constantly thought they were going to fall. I was terrified!"
One of my favourite things about #IrelandsFittestFamily is @docallaghan4’s facial expressions. 😂 he is GAS! pic.twitter.com/ENadEsN2dZ
— Kathleen Maher (@SquidgeMundo) October 28, 2018
But he's certain about the value of such a show, particularly for younger viewers. "It's a brilliant message: you don't need the best equipment, the best runners, you just need your family", he says. A keen advocate for children's wellbeing, he brings the action home for his four children, ensuring the message is carried across from early on.
"My family set up little obstacles courses at home during the show and I've heard that anecdotally all over the country. During the break we have press up and sit up challenges and compete with my brother's families. That's what it's all about. Keeping active together and enjoying it."
With the days getting shorter and shorter and the nights and mornings growing colder, many people will be struggling to either maintain their fitness routines or take up new ones ahead of the New Year. O'Callaghan's advice is typically straightforward and determined: "Don't make excuses, put on the coat and get out no matter what. As my mother Marie says, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear!"
For prospective families thinking about applying for the next round of Ireland's Fittest Family, he suggests that they start training and practicing now, especially the more challenging and dark horse tasks like Hanging Tough, which he says can be " game changer".
"And realise it's much harder than you think when you're sitting at home shouting at the telly and thinking you can do it. They shouldn't arrive thinking it's easy. It's really not!"
As for his biggest learning point, O'Callaghan is evasive, but with good reason. What he does say is this: "Never be complacent, anything can happen. Something happened I was totally unprepared for. You have to tune in the final to see!"
