© Philipp Reiter

If you follow the international trail running scene you’ll no doubt recognise Italian athlete Martina Valmassoi’s smiley face. A true all-seasons mountain athlete, Martina is a ski mountaineer foremost but has enjoyed many high profile ultra-trail running podiums alongside her skimo accolades, which have seen her represent the Italian national team and win team races such as the legendary Sellaronda Ski Marathon.

In March this year, with a bounty of snow on her doorstep in the Dolomites, Martina set a new women’s world record for the most vertical elevation accumulated on skis in 24 hours. After organising the entire attempt herself, she clocked an incredible 17,645m (57,890 feet!) on a slope in Auronzo di Cadore, Italy, eclipsing Rea Kolbl’s world record set a week prior.

At the time of our phone chat, Martina was preparing for the 80km Lavaredo Ultra Trail race, which she went on to win – congratulations, Martina!

© Paul Cooper

British-Malawian rifle shooter Ruth Mwandumba discovered she had a talent for shooting whilst in the Army Cadets at the age of 13, but it wasn’t until she joined a shooting club during university in London that she began to take it seriously. At the age of 22 she started competing and within the year was crowned 2018 English Champion. Now, Ruth is part of the GB rifle Talent Academy, competing in Air Rifle and 0.22.

Ruth’s is completely self-funded (hop to it, sponsors!), and when she’s not training, the 25-year-old from Liverpool is studying for a PhD in epidemiology. Below she talks through the basics of shooting, how she trained at home during lockdown, and the mental side of her performance.

© Zwift

American triathlete Sarah True is a two-time Olympian and an ITU Triathlon World Champs silver and bronze medallist. In 2018, Sarah switched to long-distance triathlon, taking fourth place at her IRONMAN World Champs debut in Kona the same year. All in all, she’s pretty well qualified to be a mentor to the Zwift Academy Tri team, alongside fellow triathlon legend Tim Don.

Right now, Sarah is taking time out from racing as she prepares to welcome her first child next month. I caught up with her via email to ask about her own triathlon training, mental strategies, and her role as Zwift Academy Tri team mentor. 

Earlier this week, 35-year-old support worker, Vicky Hogg, set off to run the length of Great Britain from John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End in Cornwall, a 900-mile journey that will see her run 30 miles a day for 30 days! Vicky is no stranger to endurance challenges, having run coast to coast last July (137 miles in 5 days) and completed a mountain bike John O’Groats to Land’s End ride (1200 miles) in 2018.

Vicky tackles her many endurance challenges for charity and will be raising money for Dementia UK with her JOGLE run, inspired by the many people with dementia she works with on a daily basis. Before she set off on her challenge, I quizzed the 361° ambassador on the ins and outs of her 900-mile challenge.

Ultrarunner, Elaine Acosta, ran her first ultra in 2010 and to date has completed 16 100-mile events. A UTMB finisher, Elaine has run everything from Comrades (56 miles) to Western States (100 miles). A big part of the running community, she frequently crews and paces for other ultrarunners (including former blog guest, Pam Reed) during 24-hour and 48+-hour events, such as Big’s Backyard Ultra and Cocodona 250.

In 2019, Elaine’s husband, Tom, who shared her passion for running, was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He passed away in 2020. In this Q&A, Elaine chats about the love of running she shared with Tom, how running has been a constant throughout the grief, and how she enjoys giving back to the running community by crewing events.

Swedish ultra-trail athlete, Mimmi Kotka, quickly made a name for herself on the trail running circuit in 2016 when she won the CCC by UTMB (101K, 6100M elevation) by almost half an hour – only a year after entering her first ultra-trail race. Since then, Mimmi has won many of Europe’s most gruelling races, including the TDS by UTMB (121K, 7250M elevation) where she smashed the course record by 46 minutes.

A self-described ‘wild outdoor kid’, Mimmi developed a deep love of the outdoors and wilderness from a young age and hails from a family of foodies and foragers. A qualified nutritionist, she’s also a co-founder of Moonvalley, an organic sports nutrition brand which she founded with fellow trail running legends, Emilie Forsberg and Ida Nilsson.

In this Q&A, Mimmi, who is a Polar ambassador, chats about Moonvalley, ultra-trail nutrition, and her diagnosis of RED-s (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) last year.

Long-course triathlete, Nikki Bartlett, was a medal-winning GB University rower before an injury led her to join a friend in a half-IRONMAN triathlon. Despite having little to no swimming, cycling or running experience, she caught the bug and switched from rowing to age group triathlon in 2012. Within three years, Nikki had turned pro and in 2019 she won her first full distance pro title at the notoriously hard IRONMAN Lanzarote, winning by a four-minute margin. Although most of the 2020 race reason was cancelled, in a small window of opportunity last year, the Helvellyn Triathlon was able to go ahead and Nikki added the win to the long list of podium spots she has amassed.

Alongside competing as a professional triathlete, Nikki is also a guide for visually impaired GB para-triathlete, Alison Peasgood, and is looking to compete in this year’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo. 

In this Q&A, Nikki chats through a typical training week, the challenges of being a professional athlete in the pandemic, and the mental side of her training, amongst other things.  

Record holder Katie Spotz is an endurance sport junkie who ran her first marathon at the age of 18. Since then she’s taken on a long list of monumental physical challenges, including swimming the 325-mile Allegheny River in 2008, becoming the youngest person at the time (2010) to row the Atlantic, and the first person to run the length of Maine (137-miles) in 2020. And when she broke her pelvis in a bike crash just a week before a world record attempt at the Race Across America (RAAM) in 2011, she switched up her plan and completed it on a hand bike instead!

Katie, who is 33, does all of her endurance challenges to raise money for charities dedicated to providing clean water solutions to hard-hit areas across the world. Find out more in our Q&A below.

Counting down the days until you can travel safely again? Me too. When the time comes, I’ll be booking a summer escape to Morzine in the French Alps, after falling in love with the area during a summer stay at luxury chalet, Chilly Powder. Here’s why you should make it your European go-to for everything cycling, hiking, running, MTB and adventure…

Like many of you, I’ve been wistfully daydreaming of simpler times when the world was easily accessible and the only masks required on holiday came with a snorkel, so I’m introducing a new series to Lessons in Badassery alongside my usual interviews – adventure travel! After months of homeschooling, I’m longing for the clean air and grounding peace of the mountains, so a write-up is a nice way for me to relive our Morzine experience whilst sharing our new favourite adventure destination with you.

© bulk

I’m thrilled to have current Heptathlon world champion and European indoor pentathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson as today’s interview! As a heptathlete, Katarina competes across seven different events – 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m sprint, long jump, javelin and 800m track – and is currently gearing up for this summer’s rescheduled Olympic Games in Tokyo.

In this quick-fire Q&A, 28-year-old KJT, who is a bulk ambassador, fields my questions on the emotional rollercoaster that is preparing for an on-off-on Olympics, the challenges of training across seven events during lockdown, and the importance of goal-setting.