© Hillary Biscay

She’s an American pro triathlete and ultra-runner – and as of July last year, the FKT record holder for the Vermont Long Trail – yes, Alyssa Godesky is in the house! Last year, Alyssa successfully completed her fastest known time (FKT) attempt, negotiating the gnarly 273-mile stretch and 67,500ft of elevation in a record-breaking 5 days, 2 hours and 37 minutes, only sleeping 17-18 hours in the process.

During her career, Alyssa has chalked up an incredible 45+ ultra-marathon finishes and more than 30 iron-distance triathlons. When she’s not competing, Alyssa is a triathlon coach and also co-hosts the super-cool IronWomen podcast, which is dedicated to female triathletes, so I’m thrilled to have her on the blog.

N.B I recently interviewed Alyssa solely about her FKT attempt for Red Bull. The feature includes lots of juicy details which we don’t cover here – head to the link at the end of this interview to have a read.

© Channel 4

In January, 40-year-old Vicki Anstey hit our TV screens as one of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins recruits. We saw the Barreworks founder undertake a version of the SAS’s gruelling selection process: eleven days of physical and mental stress, that included enduring physical beastings, ice hole submersions, facing her fear of water and heights and, finally, the mental and physical pressures of interrogation and stress positions.

The selection process took place in the freezing Chilean Andes, where temperatures regularly dropped below zero. Now back in sunny London, Vicki took time out of her schedule to share her SAS experience with me.

How do you prepare for a desert ultra? With the Marathon des Sables fast approaching next month, I quiz Marina Ranger, runner of multiple desert ultra marathons (including the Marathon des Sables, the Wadi Rum Desert Ultra and the Kalahari Desert ultra), on her own training and planning strategies.

From heat training to the importance of gaiters and fuelling, we cover it all here.

© Zoya Lynch

Australian freeride and big mountain skier Nat Segal spent six years competing (and bagging podiums) on the Freeride World Tour and Freeskiing World Tour circuit. A lover of backcountry skiing, Nat’s expeditions have led her through Greenland, Iceland, NZ, Canada and France, and when she’s not carving out her mountain skills, she’s passionate about producing female-driven content.

Together with her X-Games slopestyle skier sister, Anna Segal, and adventure film-maker Bjarne Salén, Nat recently produced Finding the Line, a documentary that explores fear and the sisters’ different experiences and approaches to it. Casual observers could assume both Anna and Nat to be ‘fearless’ based on their choice of career, so it’s an intriguing theme which we explore a bit further in our interview.

The UK premiere of Finding the Line debuts at the Four Seasons Film Festival in London on Friday 22 March.

For ultra-runner turned OCR athlete, Rea Kolbl, the longer the event, the better. Unbeaten in all of her 8-hr+ obstacle course races, the former Slovenian gymnast has a strong work ethic carved out after spending four hours a day training for the national team as a child.

A two-time World’s Toughest Mudder winner, Rea has excelled in 24-hour obstacle races and her success spreads across OCR to ultra-trail skyrace podiums (she came second in the Broken Arrow Skyrace). The Dryrobe ambassador trains every day, but took a break from her training in Boulder, Colorado, where she lives, to answer chat mountain running, 90-mile weeks, and her propensity for suffering.

Rea gave me such wonderfully detailed answers I decided to make this a two-part interview. Check back on Friday for part two!

Scottish ultrarunner Debbie Martin-Consani last joined me on Lessons in Badassery in 2018 to chat about her Tor des Geants experience. Since then, she packed a lot of bucket list races into her schedule, completing Transgrancanaria, the Bob Graham Round (66 miles, 27,000 ft elevation), Tor des Geants (205 miles), and the renowned Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB, 100 miles) within a mere 12 months. Phew.

With the UTMB ticked off her bucket list, Debbie gives me the lowdown on her experience, as I also quiz her on the details of her crazy 12 months of running. Thanks, Debbie!

© Bartek Wolinski

Last year, American cross country mountain biker Kate Courtney took her first elite world title, overtaking Annika Langvad on the rooty closing stages of the women’s elite cross country race to win gold at the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. It was her debut season as an elite athlete and her win (by 47 seconds!) marked America’s first gold medal in the event for 17 years.

I’m massively excited to have Kate (who is also the US national champion) on Lessons in Badassery today. She may have only stepped up from U23 racing last year, but with 9 wins in 2017 alone she’s already the consummate pro – helpful, humble and a dream guest. Enjoy the read.

© @lukaszwarzecha

British ski instructor, Rachel Kerr, has been tearing up the French slopes for the last fifteen years, teaching everyone from beginners to serious off-piste skiers, and even ski-touring the north face of Mont Blanc. Outside of work she indulges her love of mountain sports, competing in some of winter’s most renowned skimo races, including the legendary Patrouille des Glaciers.

Inspired to encourage more women to get together and hone their mountain skills in Chamonix, Rachel founded the Women’s Mountain Club three years ago, a group dedicated to developing women’s mountain confidence via skill workshops, mini adventures and fortnightly meet-ups, which she now runs with fellow British ski instructor Fay Mackman and creative head, Naoimh O Hagan. Here, in between teaching and training, Rachel gives us an insight into her life in Chamonix on and off the slopes.

© WITSUP.com

Swiss triathlete Caroline Steffen, 40, returned to racing last year after the birth of her son, Xander, now 11 months, and took a course record in her first full Ironman distance triathlon since Kona in 2015 – Ironman Western Australia. Impressive enough without considering she was still breastfeeding at the time.

So how does the On ambassador do it? Caroline very kindly took time out of her hectic schedule to chat Kona qualification, her journey back to fitness, and how she’s loving her newest and most important role yet – as mum to her ‘little mate’.

© Aaron Rolph

Adventure-loving Emily Scott has an impressively diverse endurance CV, which includes everything from swimming 14km in open water to completing a six day adventure race, scaling Mont Blanc, finishing 7 Ironman triathlons and running the 155km West Highland Way in less than 3 days. No stranger to dreaming up her own adventure challenge, last year Emily embarked on a four-month continuous Munro bagging round, scaling all 282 of Scotland’s munros (mountains above 3000ft) in a self-propelled expedition which covered 2600km by bike, 2200km on foot and three kayaking stints with a total elevation gain of 150,000m – all self-supported.

Emily, who is based in Morzine where she works as a ski instructor, is part of the British Adventure Collective, a collaboration of UK athletes and photographers looking to explore and share their adventures to inspire others. In this Q&A she chats about her love of endurance sport and her experience bagging 282 Munros.