Photo Credit: James Mitchell

48-year-old sports marketing director Jane Hansom went from smoking and drinking party girl to Ironman triathlon Age Group World Champion in under seven years, and recently took AG wins at this year’s Challenge Roth, Challenge Finland and Ironman Dublin (such a badass!) Here, Jane talks training, racing and post-marathon margaritas. Just don’t ask her about swimming drills…

The Fireflies Tour is a beast of a charity cycling event, taking its riders up and down momentous Cols and legendary Tour de France climbs during the nine-day journey from the Swiss Alps to Cannes in France. It covers a crazy 1,000km distance and a leg-busting 26,000 metres of vertical climbing. All in all, it’s pretty epic and takes a serious level of badassery, grit and fitness to complete.

Right now, the biggest women’s rugby event of the sporting calendar, the Rugby World Cup, is taking place in Ireland. And if you’ve found you’ve been inspired by watching England’s mighty Red Roses storm to victory over both Spain and Italy, but haven’t known where to start with rugby, you’re in luck – England Rugby’s Warrior Camp taster sessions are BACK.

Photo Credit: Sarah Gmeiner

Walking mid-air on a highline requires not just incredible balance, but serious focus and a cool head – attributes that have seen 24-year-old highliner Sarah Rixham achieve a world first. Not long ago, she held the world record for the furthest distance ever walked by a woman on a highline – at the time an impressive 122m highline walk. Here, the Sheffield-born highliner gives us an insight into her training, 2017 goals and what it feels like to be balanced on an inch-wide piece of fabric hundreds of feet in the air.

This April, despite barely training, Latvian runner Natalia Andreyeva took on her first ultra, the 32^nd edition of the mighty Moroccan footrace, the Marathon des Sables. Five days and 229.3 kilometres later, she finished – coming 27^th woman.

I fired 20 questions over to Natalia to find out more about her Marathon des Sables experience.

Wishing England’s Red Roses lots of luck for their Women’s Rugby World Cup kick-off match today in Ireland. England, the current World Cup holders – see photo from their win in 2014! – start the defence of their Champions title with a game against Spain.

Let’s hope the media coverage is better than when they WON the International Women’s Rugby Series in New Zealand earlier this year – an achievement you may not have even heard about.

19-year-old Georgie Timson has been surfing competitively since her teens, displaying an early talent that saw her take the win at the 2015 Night Surf competition while still at school. After finishing her A-levels last year, the talented British surfer was finally able to turn her energy to surfing fulltime.

Mixing her time between her home in Cornwall and her surfing home-from-home in France, the Animal ambassador chats about wipeout scares, must-have kit and her surfing tips for beginners.

Before committing to her goal to swim the English Channel (a not insignificant 34km), the furthest 42-year-old Karlie Price had swum in open water was 2.5km. With no real distance swimming background, she trained for two years, working up to swimming 10-15km before first negotiating the English Channel crossing.

Here, Karlie shares the highs and agonising lows of her mission to tick ‘Swim the English Channel’ off her bucket list, all the while demonstrating how incredibly focused and determined she is.

Bonjour from the Dordogne!

Just a quick note to let you that you can now follow me on Facebook where I have my own page (get me) @lessonsinbadassery. I share all my blog posts here, as well as lots of other stories that I’ve found about amazing ladies doing incredible things in sport and adventure.

Check it out at www.facebook.com/lessonsinbadassery

Thanks!

After the incredible success of becoming a double Commonwealth Games triathlon champion and two-time gold medallist in 2014, and later ITU World Cup Champion in 2016, it’s been a frustrating 12 months for elite GB triathlete, Jodie Stimpson, whose racing has been stop-start due to injury.

The end of last year saw big changes in Jodie’s training and life, seeing her part ways with her long-term coach and move back to the UK from Australia. Last month, Jodie took time out from training and injury rehab to talk triathlon training, power on the bike and her hopes for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.