Photo Credit: Liv cycling

Three-time triathlon World Champion and coach, Lesley Paterson, isn’t just a force to be reckoned on the race course, she’s also a badass when it comes to mental strength strategies that work. Not just for elite athletes, but for us endurance amateurs too. And if standard sport psychology makes you zone out or fall asleep on your turbo, you’re in luck – this is the women who, together with her leading sport psychologist husband, recently penned the tome The Brave Athlete – How to calm the f*ck down and rise to the occasion. So you get the gist.

Photo Credit: Chris Scadden

Kickboxing, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu… when it comes to MMA fighting (mixed martial arts), the breadth of disciplines is intense. And that’s on top of the killer fitness required. 30-year-old Polly Beauchamp, amateur MMA fighter and professional K1 fighter, talks about what it takes to be a cage fighter.

Photo Credit: Larry Maurer

A four-time Ironman World Champion, Chrissie Wellington did the unimaginable in 2007 when she won the Ironman World Championship in her rookie professional year. Unbeaten in every one of her 13 Ironman races (!), she took triathlon by storm and broke her own course records numerous times before retiring from professional triathlon in 2012.

Photo Credit: Mark Hoey

26-year-old Australian, Stephanie Langridge (aka Polar Steph) upped sticks from sunny Australia and moved her life to Iceland to be a Glacier Guide. Despite never having been to the country before the move, she’s never looked back. Here, she explains what a typical day in her life looks like.

29-year-old Emma Clayton won a team gold in the Mountain Running World Championships in 2015 and took bronze in the individual event. From mountain running tips to a typical week’s training, the Leeds-based runner chats about she went from hating the fells to winning on them.

Ever wondered what a typical training day for an elite triathlete looks like? 37-year-old Lucy Gossage, pro triathlete, 6-time Ironman triathlon winner, part-time oncologist and Wattbike ambassador, gives us a glimpse into a typical non-working day. Spoiler: it’s busy.

After making it her goal to inspire more diversity in professional cycling, Ayesha McGowan, aka A Quick Brown Fox, is on the brink of achieving her mission to become the first African-American professional female cyclist. Here, the talented American rider talks representation, conquering fears and being a badass on a bike.

Photo Credit: Magnus Egger
One of the biggest names in obstacle course racing, Karin Karlsson is a multiple Toughest Race winner, third in the world at last year’s OCR World Championship 15km course and second in the 3km event. The Swedish osteopath is one of the first athletes I saw compete in OCR and is known for her skill and strength on technical obstacles (I remember watching a Toughest Mini Tour final on my laptop and seeing her breeze through every obstacle. It was amazing.)

Here, Karin talks training, grip strength and goals for 2017.

At 13.1 kilometres long, 1803 metres high, and with an average gradient of 8.19% (max gradient 12%), Alpe d’Huez is one of France’s most iconic cycle climbs. Here, 54-year-old Lori Hoechlin recounts her experience of cycling up it an incredible EIGHT times in one day to achieve the feted ‘Everest’ – a continuous hill climb repeated until the height equivalent of Everest has been reached (a crazy 29,029 ft.)

Photo Credit: Quino Al

Want to improve your endurance sport performance and put an end to delicate race day stomachs into the bargain? It could be as simple as avoiding some basic nutritional mistakes, says sports nutritionist, Kasra Ghaharian. Here’s what you need to know…