©Mattia Rizzi

If you’re a skyrunning fan you’ll know that this week the world’s best mountain athletes are hitting Scotland for the Skyrunning World Championships. Amongst them is Hillary Gerardi, the 31-year-old American skyrunner who has taken wins on some of the calendar’s most technical races this year. I’m talking the Tromsø Skyrace, Trofeo Kima and the Monte Rose SkyMarathon, to name a few!

Hillary is on the blog today, where in our Q&A the formidable skyrunner talks about her training week, conquering crazy elevation and her love of technical terrain.

When it comes to raising the profile of women’s sport, Danielle Sellwood has more experience than most. Ten years ago, she launched Sportsister.com, a trailblazing sports lifestyle website for women which shone a light on female athletes and women’s sport when coverage was even scarcer than it is today. Now, when she’s not growing Find it Film, a media company she co-founded with the aim to use film and events to showcase female sporting role models, she’s working to improve the way we photograph sportswomen through her work as Visual Campaigns Director for the Women’s Sport Trust.

A former athlete herself, Danielle was an elite level canoeist for more than ten years, competing for Great Britain in both sprint and marathon disciplines, and she was a three-time record holder of the annual Devizes to Westminster 125-mile canoe race (racing hard for 17+ hours!).

Photo Rachel Link

Whilst struggling with severe depression six years ago, American Alison Mariella Désir discovered running. It saved her life and she ran her first marathon in 2012. The following year, in a bid to share her love of running and its benefits within her own community, in Harlem, NYC, Alison founded Harlem Run, a running movement with a vision to empower urban communities to get fit. Using the power of running as a vehicle for activism and social change, she went on to found Run 4 All Women to campaign for women’s issues such as reproductive rights.

I love what Alison is doing and I’m excited to have her on Lessons in Badassery via this short Q&A.

Photo: ZIXO

Skyrunner and GB trail runner, Holly Page, has notched up a slew of wins on the Migu Run Skyrunner World Series circuit this year, and fresh from coming 9th at the Trail Running World Championships in May, will don her GB vest once more next month as she joins the Brits competing at the Skyrunning World Championships in Scotland.

Here, Holly chats about fell running as a child, hitch-hiking to races, and recovering from a near-death experience on Mont Blanc.

Since she began cycling at the age of nine, America’s Coryn Rivera has won 72 national championships spanning road, track, cyclocross and MTB. A pro rider since 2014, Coryn rides for Team Sunweb and has notched up an impressive list of wins on the European circuit, including the 2017 Tour of Flanders, 2017 Prudential Ride London, and, more recently, this year’s OVO Energy Women’s Tour and the Team Time Trial title at the Tour of Norway.

Whilst in the UK for this year’s Prudential Ride London event, the almost-26-year-old (it’s her birthday at the end of the month) kindly answered my Q&A thanks to Sunweb team sponsor, Liv Cycling. Great to have you on, Coryn!

Photo: James Appleton

Last month, 30-year-old Cal Major paddled her way into the record books as she completed her challenge to SUP (stand-up paddleboard) 1000 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats, unsupported, in a bid to highlight the breadth of plastic pollution in Britain.

Combining her love of the ocean adventure with her mission to raise awareness of plastic consumption, Cal founded Paddle Against Plastic in 2016, and since then has circumnavigated the Isle of Skye (400 miles) and paddled the length of the Cornish coast (260 miles). In other words, she’s one awesome lady! Here, the Dryrobe ambassador fills me in on her most recent record-breaking adventure.

Photo: SportsCam

On the blog today, we’re going all sport psychology with Dr Josephine Perry of Performance in Mind, an age group Ironman triathlete turned sport psychologist who works with everyone from endurance athletes to tennis players in order to give them the mental tools for a winning performance.

Dr Perry chats through some of her own techniques for improving performance during races and training, and reveals how a start line comment during an Ironman triathlon led her to pursue a new career as a sport psychologist.

On Tuesday I shared the first part of my Q&A with record-breaking ultra-runner, Mimi Anderson. Here’s part two, where Mimi talks more about her TransCon record attempt, including her disappointment of having to abandon it, plus we hear how she’s getting on training for her first triathlon.

Photo: Martin Paldan

Mimi Anderson is an ultra-running phenomenon. Her collection of ultra achievements is too long to list, but includes winning outright the notorious 6633 Arctic Ultra and setting a course record that still stands; setting a world record for running John O’Groats to Lands End (838 miles), and completing the Double Badwater – an epic 292-mile run in Death Valley. Wow.

What makes it all the more incredible is that Mimi only began running at the age of 36. Now 55, the grandmother is a 3x record holder and last year ran 2,217.2 miles across America in 40 days before injury forced her to retire short of her 2850 mile target.

In the first of a two-part Q&A, Mimi chats about her running journey and her attempt to run across America. Check back on Friday for part two!

Photo: Jack Snyder

When Hollywood cast trainer Mark Twight needed a UK-based personal trainer for the Justice League Amazons, he turned to PT and former elite triathlete, Helen Mayhew, to whip the female cast members into Amazon warrior shape.

I quizzed the former competitive swimmer on the workouts and training it took to create the strong, kick-ass Amazons you see in the Justice League film.