Sarah Gardner (left) and Katherine Ross (right) ride the infamous Cape to Cape MTB race

Last month amateur endurance enthusiasts Katherine Ross and Sarah Gardner teamed up to ride Western Australia’s epic Cape to Cape mountain bike race. In addition to testing their limits and having type 2 fun, their aim was to raise awareness and funds for multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition both women have, where the immune system attacks the brain and nerves.

Racing as the team MSisters, Kat and Sarah took on the four-day, multi-stage mountain bike event, which includes an accumulated distance of 169km and a total elevation gain of 3167m. I grabbed the women (virtually!) for a Q&A about their epic achievements and how the Cape to Cape went down. And if you need further inspiration, check out this piece Kat wrote for me a few years ago about training and competing in multisport after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

Today we’re diving into the mental side of training and racing with performance psychologist Adelaide Goodeve. Not only is Adelaide a successful coach, but she’s an endurance athlete and multiple Ironman triathlon finisher. Rewind to 2009, however, and it was a totally different story. Adelaide was bedridden with debilitating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which doctors told her she would never recover from. Incredibly, after years of searching for a solution, she transformed her health within days using a brain training method, which later inspired her to pursue a career in performance psychology.

These days Adelaide helps amateur and elite athletes achieve their goals (she has coached clients to world champion and world record holder status.) In this Q&A, we dive into the strategies Adelaide uses with her clients, plus the importance of language, including the do’s and don’ts of self-talk and mantras.

FYI, Adelaide offers a complimentary 15-minute performance audit call, so hop on it!

In July this year, 43-year-old Canadian Amy Robitaille took the overall win at Ultraman Canada, finishing in a stunning 24 hours, 47-minutes and 16 seconds. The three-day event included a 10K swim and 145K bike on day one, a further 275K bike on day two, and an 84.4K run on day three. Amy finished an impressive 50 minutes ahead of second-place finisher, former triathlon world champ Leanda Cave. In fact, four of the top 5 finishers were women – high-five!

An experienced marathon runner and an Ironman finisher, Amy is no stranger to sufferfests and last year set a new overall fastest known time (FKT) record running Ontario’s 70K Caledon Trailway. She’s also completed a virtual Everest on Zwift, which saw her ascend Alpe du Zwift repeatedly in a single ride to match the 8849m elevation of Everest.

Dr Dina Altayeb is a periodontist, a mother of three, a retired assistant professor, and, in her ‘spare’ time, an Ironman triathlete. With over 100 triathlons under her belt, Dina has blazed a trail for other Saudi women to take up the sport, and her many sporting achievements include becoming the first Saudi to complete a full-distance Ironman. In 2018, Dina bettered this first with another when she became the first Saudi age-group athlete to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona.

This week Dina is competing in Kona for the third time (go, Dina!), which is all the more impressive given how busy her life is. Luckily for me, she found some time to answer these questions about her journey in triathlon and Ironman racing.

Hi everyone,

Just a little note to let you know that I’m planning to pause the blog over the summer, so I can spend more time with my family. I’ll be back in September with more great interviews, but until then you can stay in the loop via my Instagram: www.instagram.com/lessonsinbadassery.

Wishing you all a great summer.

Katie x

In the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, climber Janja Garnbret had the perfect 2019 competitive season. She won every single bouldering World Cup on the circuit – achieving a world first. It was the ideal lead into an Olympic year for the Slovenian athlete, who is widely considered the greatest competitive climber of all time. But then Covid hit, and the Olympics was postponed.

During this high-stress period, filmmakers followed Janja, along with fellow female Olympic climbing hopefuls Shauna Coxsey, Brooke Raboutou and Miho Nonako, through Olympic qualifiers, lockdown training and covid uncertainty, to the Olympics. The result is the brilliant film, The Wall – Climb for Gold (available to watch on Netflix), which documents their Olympic journey and the incredible pressure they shouldered to get there.

To celebrate the launch of the film, I put some questions to 23-year-old Janja, who is a six-time world champion, 32-time World Cup winner, the first woman to onsight 5.14b and, of course, the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in climbing.

Watch the trailer

I’m thrilled to welcome hybrid athlete and sports dietitian Corinna Coffin to Lessons in Badassery! If it’s fitness, strength or endurance related, Corinna’s likely completed it – from triathlons, CrossFit and Hyrox, to podium spots at Spartan Games, Tough Mudder X and DekaFit, amongst others. Not to mention being the Season 5 female champion of Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge. Phew!

The American multi-sport athlete and nutrition coach recently added the USA’s Tactical Games (intense military fitness challenges combined with shooting) to the list. In this Q&A, Corinna shares her thoughts on this new-to-her competitive event, plus we cover the Spartan Games, nutrition, and how she trains for such a diverse roster of races and competitions. Thank you, Corinna!

Athlete Katie Knight has competed across multiple endurance sports and strength disciplines – from ultramarathons (2nd woman at the 50-mile Bryce Canyon Ultra) and extreme triathlons to CrossFit, Hyrox, and GoRuck (which she won this year). However, she’s best known within the OCR community for notching up 90 miles to win World’s Toughest Mudder 2021 in only her second 24-hour race. Oh, and coming third at the 2021 Spartan Ultra World Championships – her first ever Spartan race!

So how does Katie train as a hybrid athlete? I got the lowdown via this email Q&A.

© INCUS Performance

Former 2019 IRONMAN Age Group world champion, Ruth Astle, has been on fire since she turned pro in 2020, scoring two big wins at IRONMAN Mallorca and IRONMAN South Africa in 2021. However, her best result yet came just a couple of weeks ago, when she came fifth in the world in the pro field at the IRONMAN World Championships, held this year in St. George, Utah.

In this Q&A, Ruth, who is a professional triathlete with INCUS Performance, discusses the brutal St. George course (which includes 7,377ft of climbing on the bike alone), how she manages to train whilst working part-time, and what’s involved in her upcoming pacing duties for fellow Brit Kat Matthew’s Sub8* attempt on the 5-6^th June.

*Kat Matthews will attempt to become the first woman to complete a full iron-distance triathlon in under 8 hours.

© 361°

Today, it’s a quick-fire Q&A with rising short course triathlon star and Belgian Olympian, Valerie Barthelemy. Valerie grew up in the US and brought the fruits of an early swimming specialism to her newfound triathlon career when she turned pro in 2015.

Since then, she’s been a regular fixture in the World Triathlon Series, Triathlon World Cup, Super League Triathlon and Arena Games circuits, with a notable third-place finish in the Arena Games Rotterdam 2020, a fifth place in the Tokyo Olympics Mixed Relay and a 10^th place in the Tokyo Olympics Elite Women’s race.  There’s more to come from the 361° ambassador, so watch this space. In the meantime, have a read of our Q&A.