© Romilly Locklyer

When GB triathlete and 2 x ITU world champion, Helen Jenkins, lined up for the London 2012 Olympic Games, she was a favourite for a podium. Yet, unbeknownst to most people, she’d been unable to train for weeks – or even walk the day before the race – due to excruciating knee pain derived from an on-going back issue. Incredibly, Helen raced her way to 5th place in London, which is astonishing given the pain she was in.

Since then the three-time Olympian has had spinal surgery and become a mum to Mali (almost 2) and, more recently, Max, who was born in May. Here, Helen talks about the emotional cost of being injured at the peak of your career, her goals for the future, and the challenges (and joys!) of balancing family and training.

© Susie Chan

The Marathon des Sables, Badwater 135, the Western States 100, Spartan Death Race – Amy Palmiero-Winters’ list of race finishes reads like an A-Z of some of the toughest endurance events on the planet – which would be impressive enough before you add the fact she’s a below-the-knee amputee into the mix.

After injuries from a motorcycle accident required her left leg to be amputated, Amy thought her running days were over – until she ran a half-marathon on a walking prosthetic and won her division. Since then, she hasn’t looked back. Amy holds the world record for fastest marathon by a female below-knee amputee (3:04:16 at the Chicago Marathon) has won a 24-hour ultra outright, completed multiple Spartan Death Races (setting a record for the longest barbed wire crawl at 7.5 miles) and was the first and only amputee to be named in an otherwise able-bodied USA National Team for the 2010 24-hour Running World Championships in France.

Throw in her 135-mile Badwater finish, 140-mile Marathon des Sables race and 100-mile Western States achievement and we’re only just scratching the surface of Amy’s lengthy list of endurance feats. Here, I’m thrilled that she shares an insight into her training and unbelievably resilient mindset.

© BikingMan/David Styv/Magali Paulin

When Danish endurance athlete Helle Bachofen von Echt signed up for her first ever ultra-distance bike race, she had no idea what her limits were. But it turns out the 40-year-old is well suited to grinding out relentless miles for 47 hours without sleep! Helle was the second woman to finish the non-stop, 1000km, BikingMan Oman event, despite being unable to shift gears for much of the race due to a Di2 failure. Eight weeks later she took the win at BikingMan Corsica, a 700km race with 13,000m of climbing.

From troll and dinosaur hallucinations to suffering horrendous saddle sores, Helle, who lives in Dubai and works as a spinning instructor, shared the highs and lows of her ultra experience with me.

© Jon Griffith

When she’s not big wall climbing or scaling some of the world’s most notorious routes, British climber Hazel Findlay can be found helping fellow climbers up their mental game via her work as a mind coach. Fascinated by the mental side of climbing, Hazel works with experienced elite climbers as well as newbies wanting tools and strategies to overcome mental barriers.

Hazel has been climbing since she was eight, initially competitively (she was a six-time British Junior champ) until she switched to rock climbing at the age of 16. She has since free climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan multiple times and was the first British woman to climb a trad route at E9.

In 2007, Maria Leijerstam reached the South Pole by bike, becoming the first person ever to cycle there. Since then, Maria has finished countless expedition adventure races, written a book about her South Pole cycle, run ultras, founded the Burn Series adventure race series and become a mum to two girls who are now two and four.

In two days, after five years out of the circuit, she’s lining up for her first expedition adventure race since having children: an epic 6-day, 700km race across Sweden to the fjords of Norway. I caught up with Maria on the phone a few weeks ago to chat about this, her training, and her incredible Antarctic cycle.

© Philipp Reiter

For American skyrunner Megan Kimmel, the mountains aren’t just home (she lives in Colorado) but a training ground and escape. Super-comfortable covering big climbs at altitude, Megan holds the course record for the Pikes Peak marathon (14,115ft of ascent!) and recently won the Broken Arrow Skyrace. A big name within skyrunning, the 39-year-old is currently ranked 3rd overall in the Migu Run Skyrunner World Series (the official circuit for skyrunning) with a win at China’s Yading skyrace, a second at Japan’s Mount Awa Skyrace and third at Transvulcania.

In between a seriously hectic schedule of transatlantic flights, travel and racing, Megan squeezed in time to answer my questions on her running background, mental strategies, training and season so far.

Multi-sport athlete and adventure racer, Katherine Ross, was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis a year ago. It could have sidelined her racing plans. It didn’t.

Here the 32-year-old Kiwi shares a candid account of what her diagnosis meant and how she’s planning even more epic racing, regardless. Big thank you, Kat, for your inspiration and positivity!

Last week Dutch triathlete Els Visser shared a first-hand account of what happened when the small boat she was travelling in during a trip to Indonesia sank in the middle of the night and how, after she survived, her ‘life’s too short’ philosophy led her to take up triathlon.

In today’s Q&A, I put some questions to the HOKA ONE ONE athlete (who has just qualified for Kona after coming 5^th at IRONMAN Cairns!) about her training, the after-effects of her shipwreck experience and her goals for the future.

Els Visser was 24-years-old and backpacking solo around Indonesia after finishing a medical internship in Bali when the small boat she was travelling on sank in the middle of the night with no signal, GPS or means to raise the alarm. After an eight-hour swim to the closest island Els and another passenger were eventually rescued.

The experience changed Els’ life and ultimately led her to take up triathlon. Below, the Dutch HOKA ONE ONE athlete shares a first-hand account of her shipwreck experience and reveals how her new-found resilience and approach to life helped her become an Ironman champion with a win in Maastricht last year.

© SayYesMore

Mountaineer Jo Bradshaw has scaled five of the world’s Seven Summits, including Everest and Aconcagua, and has her sights on summiting the remaining two before the year is out. But she wasn’t always so gung-ho. In fact, rewind several years and Jo was a self-confessed ‘no-sayer’ who lived well within her comfort zone.

Here Jo writes about how, through experience, choices and failure, she was able to build a resilient mindset and go on to conquer her fears as well as the world’s most iconic mountains.