24-year-old rookie diver Rhiannan Iffland took the Red Bull Cliff Diving Championship by storm last year, entering her first season as an unknown wildcard before scooping the win to become the Series’ youngest ever winner.

So how does it feel to throw yourself off a cliff at an insane height (up to 90ft high) and plummet at 70km an hour into the water? As the cliff diving season kicks off this month, Aussie diver Rhiannan talks training and mindfulness and how she’ll never lose the fear.

Ultra-runner, surfer, snowboarder, dancer, BBC 2 Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week contestant – Sarah Thomson is a sporting all-rounder, world record holder and former martial arts gold medallist.

Here, Sarah chats Hell Week beastings, ultra-running and how, for her, it all starts in the pain cave.

Photo Credit: Wildman Media

How does it feel to do your first swimrun challenge a year after having a baby? From buggy training to running in a wetsuit, former Team GB age group triathlete, duathlete and aquathlete, Sami Anderson, talks us through her experience of doing the brilliantly challenging Breca Buttermere Swimrun last year.

Tracy Moseley is a legend in mountain biking. Taking downhill MTB racing by storm, she dominated the scene for more than a decade, winning countless titles including World Downhill Champion in 2010, before switching to enduro mountain bike racing. Despite demanding a totally different skillset and fitness, Tracy took an incredible 15 World Enduro wins and three consecutive World Enduro Champion titles.

Having taken her foot off the gas a smidge in semi-retirement, I catch up with her to talk mountain bike training, downhill racing and her experiences in enduro.

Queen of the pull-up (and muscle-up and push-up) with a core of steel, Fanny Ahlfors (aka social media’s Fanny Josephine) makes hanging off gym bars and climbing, arms-only, look like a doddle.

Check out this video of Fanny and you’ll see what I mean.

Photo Credit: Camille Fiducia

I first came across American mountain endurance athlete, Kelly Halpin, when I saw a short film about her taking on the Picnic in the Teton mountain range, a crazy version of a triathlon with a mountain summit smack bang in the middle of it. Described as a natural obstacle course, the Picnic includes a 2.6-mile swim, 42-mile cycle and a 20-mile hike then technical climb up to a 12,000ft high Teton peak, before doing the whole thing in reverse (you can see the video here.) Since then, Kelly’s surpassed the Picnic by doing the Triple Teton Triathlon, a version which included summiting all three Teton peaks, self-supported.

A few years ago, 33-year old Kiko Matthews was seriously ill with Cushing’s disease, suffering with everything from 65% muscle loss to psychosis, diabetes and osteoporosis. Fast forward to today and Kiko’s set herself an epic challenge: to not only complete a solo 3000-mile row across the Atlantic, but to annihilate a world record in the process by doing it all within 45 days (current record 56 days)!

Oh, and I should probably mention that the SUP board instructor has NO ROWING EXPERIENCE.
Kiko’s training journey will kick-off properly in October, but today we cover the basics of what she’s up to and why…

*Olympic gold medallist claxon!* If you were one of the 9 million people in the UK who tuned in to watch the England Women’s hockey team scoop gold against the Netherlands in last year’s Olympics, you’ll be familiar with 31-year-old forward and all-round hockey legend, Alex Danson MBE.

A senior England player since the age of 16 (wow) and a pivotal member of the Olympic team, Alex took time out of her busy schedule to chat training, nutrition and how the team built their winning mindset.

Few people have the talent to compete successfully in multiple endurance sports, but 26-year-old Canadian (and two-time obstacle course racing world champion) Lindsay Webster has podiumed in cross country running, cross country skiing, mountain bike racing and obstacle course racing.

A huge name in OCR and the current women’s OCR World Champ, Lindsay’s been on my ‘wish list’ of interviews since I first dreamt up Lessons In Badassery, so I’m really thrilled to have her up here! *EXCITED FACE*.

In between training, racing and her new job, Lindsay let me delve into her training and goals for 2017.

There’s 24-hour endurance races and then there’s World’s Toughest Mudder; a 24-hour obstacle course race of epic proportions. Think a hot and dusty Nevada desert. Think lap after lap of the 5+ mile, 20-obstacle-heavy course from midday Saturday until midday Sunday. Think crazy obstacles. Think masses of water submersions. And a 30ft cliff jump. WAHHH.

It’s a test for the biggest names in elite obstacle course racing, so how does it feel to take part?
32-year-old paramedic, Tough Mudder lover and ordinary gal, Corinne Luckie, shares her experience.