In 2007, Maria Leijerstam reached the South Pole by bike, becoming the first person ever to cycle there. Since then, Maria has finished countless expedition adventure races, written a book about her South Pole cycle, run ultras, founded the Burn Series adventure race series and become a mum to two girls who are now two and four.

In two days, after five years out of the circuit, she’s lining up for her first expedition adventure race since having children: an epic 6-day, 700km race across Sweden to the fjords of Norway. I caught up with Maria on the phone a few weeks ago to chat about this, her training, and her incredible Antarctic cycle.

© Philipp Reiter

For American skyrunner Megan Kimmel, the mountains aren’t just home (she lives in Colorado) but a training ground and escape. Super-comfortable covering big climbs at altitude, Megan holds the course record for the Pikes Peak marathon (14,115ft of ascent!) and recently won the Broken Arrow Skyrace. A big name within skyrunning, the 39-year-old is currently ranked 3rd overall in the Migu Run Skyrunner World Series (the official circuit for skyrunning) with a win at China’s Yading skyrace, a second at Japan’s Mount Awa Skyrace and third at Transvulcania.

In between a seriously hectic schedule of transatlantic flights, travel and racing, Megan squeezed in time to answer my questions on her running background, mental strategies, training and season so far.

Multi-sport athlete and adventure racer, Katherine Ross, was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis a year ago. It could have sidelined her racing plans. It didn’t.

Here the 32-year-old Kiwi shares a candid account of what her diagnosis meant and how she’s planning even more epic racing, regardless. Big thank you, Kat, for your inspiration and positivity!

Last week Dutch triathlete Els Visser shared a first-hand account of what happened when the small boat she was travelling in during a trip to Indonesia sank in the middle of the night and how, after she survived, her ‘life’s too short’ philosophy led her to take up triathlon.

In today’s Q&A, I put some questions to the HOKA ONE ONE athlete (who has just qualified for Kona after coming 5^th at IRONMAN Cairns!) about her training, the after-effects of her shipwreck experience and her goals for the future.

Els Visser was 24-years-old and backpacking solo around Indonesia after finishing a medical internship in Bali when the small boat she was travelling on sank in the middle of the night with no signal, GPS or means to raise the alarm. After an eight-hour swim to the closest island Els and another passenger were eventually rescued.

The experience changed Els’ life and ultimately led her to take up triathlon. Below, the Dutch HOKA ONE ONE athlete shares a first-hand account of her shipwreck experience and reveals how her new-found resilience and approach to life helped her become an Ironman champion with a win in Maastricht last year.

© SayYesMore

Mountaineer Jo Bradshaw has scaled five of the world’s Seven Summits, including Everest and Aconcagua, and has her sights on summiting the remaining two before the year is out. But she wasn’t always so gung-ho. In fact, rewind several years and Jo was a self-confessed ‘no-sayer’ who lived well within her comfort zone.

Here Jo writes about how, through experience, choices and failure, she was able to build a resilient mindset and go on to conquer her fears as well as the world’s most iconic mountains.

© Robert Bösch

Regularly described as one of the world’s best all-round climbers, Barbara ‘Babsi’ Zangerl is known for her boundary-pushing versatility across trad climbing, big wall climbing, alpine routes, sport climbs and bouldering.

The 31-year-old Austrian was the first woman to climb an 8b grade bouldering route, the first woman to free climb El Capitan’s Magic Mushroom route (as part of only the second ever free ascent with partner Jacopo Larcher) and the first woman to nail the Alpine Trilogy of 5.14a sport routes.

When I got in touch with Babsi she was in Yosemite waiting for bad weather to clear up so she could climb The Nose on El Cap. During her downtime she was able to answer my questions on fear, free climbing and sending what at first seems impossible. Enjoy!

Hey guys,

Just a little heads-up that I’ll be tweaking my posting days and how often I post over the next couple of months, and will probably be alternating between one post and two a week for a while. Don’t panic, I’ll still be bringing you interviews with incredible women regularly, it’s just I need a bit of time to work on some other exciting Lessons in Badassery projects and also earn some money via my day job (always helpful!).

This week will be a ‘one interview’ week (starting tomorrow with the incredible climber Babsi Zangerl) and the following week I’ll post on Tuesday and Friday again.

© CBS/Million Dollar Mile

Today’s interviewee is all-round badass Orla Walsh: obstacle course racer, Broken Skull Ranch winner and, more recently, ‘defender’ on the US game show, Million Dollar Mile. Orla lives in Vermont where she works as a flight nurse, squeezing workouts and races into a busy schedule that includes tough nursing night shifts, yet she still managed to bag the title of Spartan Race Stadium Series winner.

I caught up with Orla over the phone to chat OCR, CrossFit and, diving a little deeper, overcoming adversity and how fitness and sport helped her through anxiety and depression following the death of her mother and best friend.

© Remy Whiting/220 Triathlon

When she’s not indulging her passion for open water swimming or running trails, today’s guest, Helen Webster, can be found interviewing the world’s top triathletes and testing the latest, greatest gear through her job as editor of 220 Triathlon, the UK’s biggest triathlon magazine.

With plenty of impressive open water swimming events under her belt (not to mention marathons, triathlons and some of the world’s toughest swimruns) you’d be forgiven for thinking that Helen’s enjoyed a life-long passion for endurance sport, but this couldn’t be further from the truth as she reveals in our Q&A. Plus, find out which kit she rates and what’s on her event bucket list.