Dutch athlete Nienke Oostra competed in elite MTB and Xterra triathlon until she was forced to retire from racing in 2017 due to chronic nerve pain. After being devastated by the decision, she shifted her focus to longer adventure challenges whilst still living in pain.

Last year she embarked on a world-first mountain bike traverse of the Himalayan Trail high route in Nepal and became the first person to mountain bike the 1800km journey from west to east, completing it in 8 weeks. When her adventure partner quit early on in the ride, Nienke forged ahead solo, overcoming extreme hike-a-bike conditions, vertical landslides, 12-hour ride/hike-a-bike days and temperatures as low as -20C. In total, she climbed 85,000 vertical metres of ascent during the 8-week journey, which she shares more about in the interview below.

British ultrarunner Anna-Marie Watson has competed across Ironman triathlons and ultras for more than a decade and has a running resume that counts the CCC, UTMB and Marathon des Sables amongst its race highlights. She has a wealth of ultra-distance wins to her name, including Oman by UTMB, and most recently came second woman at the Coastal Ultra Xtreme. (Watch Anna-Marie in action at the CUX via Endurance Sports TV’s documentary The Ultra Mindset.)

Anna-Marie is a professional performance coach and in this interview, she provides insights into the mental side of racing, while revealing which elements of her former military career she carries over into her ultra race strategy and preparation.

Wow, what a year it’s been. Thanks for all the shares and reads of Lessons in Badassery throughout the chaos of 2020. I’ll be bringing you more stories of incredible women in 2021, but for now I’m going to take a couple of weeks off to spend Christmas and New Year with my family.

Normal service will resume on Wednesday 6^th January, and I have some exciting interviews in the pipeline for the New Year and beyond.

Until then I wish you a happy Christmas and a 2021 full of health, happiness and hugs with your loved ones.

Katie x

© Jackie Fiero

When she was just 16, Mahina Maeda made headlines in the surfing community when she tow-surfed Nazare, becoming the youngest woman to do so. Now 22, Mahina, who hails from the North Shore of O’ahu, Hawaii, has accumulated three World Junior Championship titles and competes as a pro surfer representing her parents’ home country of Japan.

Mahina has also just joined the team at the Vitamin Sea Collective, a female members-only online community from the all-women team behind SurfGirl Magazine. The site focuses on the positive benefits of the ocean and covers fitness, surfing, wellbeing and nutrition, with live classes and tutorials where experts such as Mahina share their knowledge and tips. 

Looking ahead to the Olympics next year, I put some quick-fire questions to Mahina on training, Nazare and Japan 2021.

London-based ‘Auntie’ Dora Atim is a Nike + run coach whose running experience spans everything from short distance events to marathons and beyond. In 2017, Dora was part of a team that completed The Speed Project, a non-stop relay 340-miles from LA to Las Vegas. Not put off by the experience, she then returned to do it all again the following year! Dora also knows how to rock a look and we love the big dose of personality and style she injects into our Instagram feed.

Earlier this year, Dora founded Ultra Black Running with the aim of increasing representation within trail running, mountain and ultrarunning, while also creating a community for black women and black non-binary people. 

You can find out more about Ultra Black Running in the interview below where we also dive into Dora’s training, love of style and her experience running The Speed Project.

What does it feel like to swim wetsuit-free in ice-cold water surrounded by glaciers? For Icelandic ice swimmer Birna Hrönn it’s a form of relaxation and escape. Birna swims in zero and sub-zero temperatures in oceans, lakes and rivers, and has loved cold water for as long as she can remember. Last year, she won her age group at the International Ice Swimming Association Arctic Cup World Championship (1000m freestyle), although being competitive is not her motivation for cold water swimming and she doesn’t enjoy it.

Birna kindly let me quiz her about her passion for cold water swimming for the Q&A below, but I’d also encourage you to check out Endurance Sports TV’s beautiful documentary about her love for ice swimming, Birna: The Woman who Swims in Ice, which follows Birna around her native Iceland which is truly stunning. 

Obviously, Birna has years of experience swimming in cold water and has built up her resilience over time, so choose your own water escapades carefully!

Coast Ultra Xtreme winner, Julia Davis, is a former road marathon runner (2:39 PB) who switched to ultra trail distances two years ago. Since then she has set a new women’s course record for the South Downs Way 50 (6:54) – her first 50-mile race! – finished 4th woman at Cape Town’s Ultra Trail World Tour, and claimed a Fastest Known Time on the 39-mile Mid-Sussex Link.

Last month Julia won the 3-day Coast Ultra Xtreme race, her first multi-day event, which included a combined 80-mile distance and 5000m+ of elevation. You can watch the documentary about it, The Ultra Mindset, which features Julia, via Endurance Sports TV if you’re a subscriber. 

In the meantime, read our Q&A where I quiz Julia on her love of hills, her fuelling strategy, and typical training schedule.

In 2018 adventure-loving rower Claire Hughes set a new Atlantic rowing world record in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic challenge, as the only woman in the four-person team, Team Tyne Innovation. Overcoming exhaustion and 40ft waves, the team rowed 2-hours on and 2-hours off for 42 days to break the mixed fours team record by 14 days.

Now, two years later, Claire is preparing for a new row which, if successful, will see her and her expedition teammates claim a world first. Described as ‘the last great first’, the Northwest Passage is a 2000-mile Arctic route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With extreme Arctic conditions, unpredictable ice and polar bears, only three attempts have been made this century to row it, all of which have been unsuccessful.

To find out more about this incredible expedition (due to begin next year) and how she’s preparing for it, I put some questions to Claire about the demands and dangers of attempting the Northwest Passage row.

© Cary Johnson

I am so excited to bring you my interview with American ultrarunning legend Pam Reed! Pam was the first woman to win Badwater 135 outright in 2002 before repeating her outright win a second time the following year. Pam will be 60 in February and is still crushing (and winning) 100-milers – she has finished a mind-blowing 98 100-mile events. Her goal is to have one hundred 100-milers under her belt before her 60^th birthday!

Pam, who lives in Jackson, Wyoming, was the first person on record to run 300 miles without any sleep and has broken American records in 24-hour, 48-hour and six-day running events. She really is incredible. I hope you enjoy our chat in which Pam recalls her Badwater days and shares more about her ultrarunning approach and achievements.

Former Olympic heptathlete, Louise Hazel, was an integral part of Team GB and won Commonwealth gold before retiring in 2013. Louise now lives and works in LA, training Hollywood clients through her female-focused gym, Slay, on Hollywood Boulevard. 

When she’s not training or putting high profile clients through their paces, Louise is also a podcast host, TV presenter, and racial equality advocate. This summer she published an open letter to the fitness industry, signed by 120 professional women of colour who work within it, to address racial inequality and representation within the industry. As part of this, Louise put together The Playbook, featuring guidance and solutions as to how inequality can be addressed in all areas of the industry, from working environment to hiring.