In the five years since she turned pro, British Ironman triathlete, Laura Siddall’s impressive successes include becoming ETU European long course champion and winning Ironman Australia three times in a row. However, if you follow Laura on social media you’ll know that she’s just as honest about the challenging times she’s faced as she is about celebrating the successes she works hard to enjoy.

Describing 2019 as a ‘mixed year’ (she broke her collarbone in May), the 39-year-old Parcours athlete chats about her training, how she overcomes tough moments out on the course, and why she’ll always feel privileged to do what she does for a living.

© BikingMan / David Styv

Despite experiencing horrendous sickness during the 1680km BikingMan Inca Divide ultracycling event in Peru, and not being able to eat for most of the non-stop and unsupported race, Brazilian cyclist Victoria de Sá, was the only female finisher and came across the finish line with husband, Bruno, as the first pair.

Victoria chatted to me about her experience and how she endured temperatures that ranged from below freezing to 30+°c, a lost tracker and an unimaginable 30,000m of climbing, on barely any training.

If you love open water swimming, you’ve probably heard of Lindsey Cole, whose joyous Instagram feed has been filled with photos documenting her six-month #dippingbritain journey of cycling to wild swimming spots around Britain. It’s a journey which started out as a two-week adventure to reach the Scottish Cold Water Swimming Championships, but morphed into a six-month wild swimming extravaganza – something she’ll be speaking about at the Dryrobe Outdoor Swimming Session at the Kendal Mountain Festival on Sunday 17 November (tickets here).

Prior to #dippingbritain, Lindsey swam the length of the Thames with a mermaid tale to highlight the plastic pandemic. However, her adventures have spanned more than watery pursuits, and include a 3-month walk along Western Australia’s 1000-mile Rabbit-Proof Fence, tracing the journey three young aborigine children made alone in the 1930s in an attempt to be reunited with the parents they were separated from. All in all, Lindsey is (to coin her own phrase) a ‘She-Ra’ of magnificent proportions.

© Kristian Pletten

Author and endurance cyclist, Emily Chappell, spent six years working as a cycle courier in London before realising she had a talent for riding a very long way. Her bike adventures have taken her all of the world with wins in races such as the infamous Transcontinental (3500 miles, non-stop and self-supported from Belgium to Istanbul) and the Strathpuffer 24-hour mountain bike race. She also leads the annual amateur Tour de France ride, Le Loop, each summer too.

Next month Emily launches her new book Where There’s a Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent, which chronicles her long-distance bike racing journey and what inspired it. She’ll be speaking about this and more at the Kendal Mountain Literature Festival on 16 November (get your tickets here). In the meantime, Emily shares her love of riding, the secrets to cycling in -40°c temperatures, and the memorable moments from her worldwide bike adventures, with me here.

© Alexis Berg

Lining up for the 42km BUFF Epic Trail skyrace in July, 24-year-old Swede, Johanna Åström, was a total newcomer. Despite having no skyrunning experience, she pulled off an incredible second-place finish, which she topped a month later by crushing the course record at Tromsø skyrace – arguably the most technical skyrace of the 2019 Migu Run Skyrunner World Series Calendar.

Johanna, who is also part of the Swedish Ski Mountaineering team and has won winter races such as the Romsdal Rando, climbed her way up to 3rd place in the Skyrunner World Series rankings and was in contention for the Series title in Limone last weekend until a hip injury she picked up whilst roller skiing forced her to pull out. In this interview, Johanna chats about her background, her newfound love of skyrunning and what her typical race season training looked like.

© Skyline Scotland

Today’s guest is Keri Wallace, climber, mountain guide and sky/fell runner, who came first V40 female at this year’s Glencoe Skyline. Keri’s love of the mountains has taken her on extreme running challenges (such as running for 10 days non-stop in an attempt to tick off the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay rounds in one single go) and has led her to co-found Girls on Hills, a women-only guided trail running and navigation company based in Glencoe, Scotland.

As a mum to two toddlers, Keri has to be innovative and flexible with her training. Here she shares how she does it, her love of technical running and her tips for confident descending.

© James Appleton/Rat Race Adventure Sports

Regular readers will remember I interviewed the brilliant ultrarunner and adventure race test pilot, Allie Bailey about her world-first running exploits earlier in the year. Now, she’s back with a new challenge and she’s taking an all-woman team to do it with her.

In what’s believed to be the first ultrarun of its kind, Allie and a team of intrepid, kickass women will traverse Scotland’s Outer Hebrides – all 185 miles of it – on foot, covering up to 37 miles a day for 5 days. And it’s all kicking off on the Monday 14 October. Naturally, I had to quiz her all about it…

© Zwift Triathlon Academy

Earlier this year, Ironman triathlete Ruth Purbrook earned a place in the prestigious Specialized Zwift Triathlon Academy. The goal: Repeat success of last year’s Ironman World Championship AG (25-29) win with a view to achieving the overall age group World Champion title – this time under the support and tutelage of Zwift Tri Academy mentors, Sarah True and Tim Don. However, 10 weeks ago, life threw a spanner in the works when Ruth was knocked off her bike, breaking her collarbone. Incredibly, she was back racing six weeks after surgery and managed a brilliant 7th AG place at last month’s 70.3 Ironman World Championship!

Ahead of this weekend’s Ironman World Championship in Kona, Ruth took time out to share how she juggles intensive Ironman training with 60-hour weeks working for the Lloyds Banking Group.

Today’s interviewee doesn’t shy away from adventure or endurance sport challenges. Beth Lahr York is a cyclist, competitive skydiver and former world record holder, CVR cycling athlete (virtual cycling platform) and commentator, triathlete and marathon swimmer in her spare time. Phew.

On top of that, the 48-year-old American is a successful, two-time Emmy winning producer and a mum of two. Earlier this year, she completed the 12.5 mile Swim Around Key West race, which is no mean feat considering she only learned to swim four years ago! We dive into this, the 4am starts it took to train, and more, in today’s Q&A.

© Scott Robarts

I’m very excited to have British ultrarunner and coach, Ellie Greenwood, as today’s interviewee! Ellie holds course records on some of the world’s toughest ultra-distance races, including the Western States 100 miler, which she’s won twice. The British athlete, who now lives in Vancouver, Canada has also won the Comrades ultramarathon (89km), the CCC by UTMB (101km, 6100m+), and is a two-time 100K world champion.

Whether she’s racing competitively or escaping to the trails in training, forty-year-old Ellie runs for the love of the sport above everything else. Here, she shares with me (amongst other things) an insight to what got her started in running, what’s helped her stay sane throughout injury, and how she digs deep during racing and training.