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Sarah True: “The biggest tool I have is resilience”

June 9, 2021 by badassery No Comments

© 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. 

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fitness

Ellen Noble: Living and riding with Hashimoto’s

August 19, 2020 by badassery No Comments

© Chris Milliman/Red Bull

If you’re a mountain bike or cyclocross fan, you’ll know Ellen Noble. The talented American CX pro is known not only for her technical skills, such as being able to ‘bunny-hop’ cyclocross barriers (lifting the front and then back wheel to allow you to ‘hop’ over obstacles), but for being an equality advocate and supporter of aspiring young riders. However, behind the scenes, Ellen, whose career has seen a staggering 21 UCI podiums and multiple national titles, has spent the last two years battling an invisible illness behind the scenes.

As the 24-year-old revealed in an Instagram post earlier this year, in 2018, after she’d enjoyed a successful start to the race season, ‘the lights went out’ on her health and she spent the next two years searching for answers. Eventually, Ellen was diagnosed as having Hashimoto’s, an incurable autoimmune disease related to thyroid function, which has turned her life and racing career on its head. Very kindly, Ellen agreed to chat about her experience in this Q&A, along with her future plans for her coveted Quest cyclocross camp for young women, and what’s making her smile right now (spoiler: it’s dogs).

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Interview

Perrine Fages: Ultracycling Lake Baikal and the Himalayas

August 11, 2020 by badassery No Comments

Regular readers will remember I last interviewed French lawyer Perrine Fages back in 2018 when we chatted about her incredible Arch to Arc world record, which involved running 87 miles from London’s Marble Arch to Dover, swimming the English Channel and then cycling 181 miles to Paris (I know!). Since then, Perrine hasn’t stopped – she took the crown of the BikingMan Ultra 2018 women’s champion, ran the Oman by UTMB ultra, gravel biked the Annapurna route self-supported and last week completed a relay swim of the English Channel in a swimsuit.

In March this year, Perrine joined fellow ultracyclist Steven Le Hyaric in attempting a crossing of Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal by bike. Their 635km ride, which took place in -30°C temperatures, was cut short due to the unusually snowy conditions (it’s usually ice, not snow) which delayed their journey and risked Perrine missing her flight home for work. To find out more about this and Perrine’s Himalayan cycle adventure, I put some questions to her via email.

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Interview

Markella Mildenberger: “I had to push to see how far I could go”

March 11, 2020 by badassery No Comments

Markella Mildenberger was fit and active before a routine surgery went wrong in 2011, affecting her ability to walk and leaving her with chronic pain. Life, as she knew it, changed forever and for the next five years, she watched her world unravel. The turning point came in 2016 when Markella learned that her pain was permanent, and she made the decision to start ‘living life again’.

Three years later, whilst looking for a new challenge, and with no mountain bike experience (but a huge amount of pain just sitting on the saddle), Markella, a mountain bike newbie, signed up for one of the world’s most gruelling multi-day MTB events, the BC Bike Race in British Columbia – 7 days, 300km and 10,000m of elevation along some of the sport’s most technical trails – and made a film of her experience: “It’s Just Like Riding A Bike”.

Ahead of the UK premiere on Monday 16 March, which kicks off a week of adventure, wildlife and environmental films at the annual Four Seasons Film Festival, I caught up Markella via email to hear more about her experience.

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Interview

Lou Gibson: ‘Why shouldn’t women have the same opportunities as men?’

January 29, 2020 by badassery No Comments

© Joe O’Connell-Danes

Given Lou Gibson’s lengthy list of cycling achievements (which include riding the entire Tour de France one day ahead of the pros with the InternationElles, and representing Great Britain at Grand Fondo racing) you’d be forgiven for assuming that she’d been attached to a bike from a very early age. But in actual fact, the events manager got to the age of 31 without having owned one.

Here, Lou tells me how a running injury and the breakdown of her marriage inadvertently kicked off her cycling journey, plus she shares the highs and lows of riding 3460km during last year’s InternationElle’s Tour de France ride for equality.

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Interview

Laura Siddall: “It’s a privilege to race the best in the world”

November 20, 2019 by badassery No Comments

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.

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fitness

Meet Maria Leijerstam: Polar cyclist and Adventure Racer

July 10, 2019 by badassery No Comments

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.

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Interview

Jenny Graham: Fastest woman to cycle round the world

March 26, 2019 by badassery No Comments

It took Jenny Graham just 124 days to cycle solo and unsupported round the world last year, riding an average of 156 miles a day to cover the 18,000 mile distance. It was a remarkable feat that smashed the existing record by almost three weeks and saw 37-year-old Jenny encounter bears, kangaroos and the kindness of strangers as she navigated her way through 16 countries.

Jenny fills me in on her epic journey around the world by bike below, along with her must-have kit and upcoming plans with The Adventure Syndicate. But if you want to hear more, please go and see her Kendal Mountain Festival Tour talk on 5 April in Penrith.

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Jasmijn Muller: Endurance Cyclist (part 2)

August 31, 2018 by badassery No Comments
Photo: Le Col

Photo: Le Col

As 39-year-old distance cyclist Jasmijn Muller prepares to set off tomorrow on her second attempt at the fastest ever cycle from Lands End to John o’ Groats – current record: 52hrs and 45 minutes for the 841-mile ride – here’s part two of our extended Q&A. (You can read part one here). Jasmijn originally planned her second attempt for July, but poor weather meant she had to postpone her start date until now. All being well, she’ll be off tomorrow!

Good luck Jasmijn, we’re all rooting for you! You can follow Jasmijn’s tracker here.

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fitness, Interview

Dr Josephine Perry: 6 Mental Hacks to Ace Your Next Race

August 10, 2018 by badassery No Comments

Photo: SportsCam

On the blog today, we’re going all sport psychology with Dr Josephine Perry of Performance in Mind, an age group Ironman triathlete turned sport psychologist who works with everyone from endurance athletes to tennis players in order to give them the mental tools for a winning performance.

Dr Perry chats through some of her own techniques for improving performance during races and training, and reveals how a start line comment during an Ironman triathlon led her to pursue a new career as a sport psychologist.

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About My Blog

Mountain View

I'm a sports/adventure journalist and copywriter, and I LOVE reading about badass women in sport, fitness and adventure. So I’m on a mission to find them, share their stories, and quiz them about their training, their motivation, and insider tips (totally hoping some badass magic will rub off on me along the way!). Plus I’ll bring you how-tos, must-have kit and tales of epic from some of the coolest and toughest events on the planet.

Email Me: katie@lessonsinbadassery.com

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Recent Posts

Posting update and festive wishes

Posting update and festive wishes

December 14, 2022
‘Riding to prove that we can’ – meet the mountain bikers challenging MS stereotypes

‘Riding to prove that we can’ – meet the mountain bikers challenging MS stereotypes

November 16, 2022
Adelaide Goodeve: Performance psychologist and Ironman athlete

Adelaide Goodeve: Performance psychologist and Ironman athlete

November 2, 2022
Amy Robitaille: Outright winner of Ultraman Canada

Amy Robitaille: Outright winner of Ultraman Canada

October 19, 2022
Dr Dina Altayeb: Trailblazing Ironman triathlete

Dr Dina Altayeb: Trailblazing Ironman triathlete

October 5, 2022

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  • Posting update and festive wishes
  • ‘Riding to prove that we can’ – meet the mountain bikers challenging MS stereotypes
  • Adelaide Goodeve: Performance psychologist and Ironman athlete
  • Amy Robitaille: Outright winner of Ultraman Canada
  • Dr Dina Altayeb: Trailblazing Ironman triathlete

lessonsinbadassery

Hello! Christmas is almost upon us, so I thought I Hello! Christmas is almost upon us, so I thought I’d combine my usual Crimbo message with a posting update. Regular readers might have spotted that a new interview is overdue (sorry, peeps!). Unfortunately, five of my athlete interviews agreed before summer haven’t materialised, so I’ve been left with a gap in posting.

I usually like to work around 6 weeks in advance, so I know I’m nice and organised with my interviews (as they often involve going back and forth for weeks and require images etc.), which I do around my day job and family. However, the reality of running a non-monetised blog is that sometimes interviews are agreed upon and questions sent, only to fall through up to a year later.

Thankfully, I have two new athlete interviews in the pipeline now with two incredible women, so I hope to be back up and running in February if you can bear with me that long 😉.

In the meantime, a big thank you for your support in 2022 and a huge thanks to the brilliant athletes who have taken time out of their busy schedules to let me pester them with questions this year. You rock!

Muchos love and festive happiness to you ❤️

Katiex

#lessonsinbadassery #womeninsport #womeninadventure #endurancetraining
Can you ride an epic MTB race after a multiple scl Can you ride an epic MTB race after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis? @paddle_kat and @sargar83 (who both have MS) teamed up to ride the 4-day Cape to Cape race in a bid to raise money for MS charity and create a positive narrative around racing in multi-sports after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis💥 They both tell me all about it on Lessons in Badassery today.

⚡️Read via the link in my bio or visit Lessonsinbadassery.com ⚡️ 

📸 @capetocapemtb
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#msdiagnosis #multiplesclerosis #MSathlete #mssociety #livingwithms #cape2cape #mtbracing #womenscycling #multisportracing #womenssport #mtblife #singletrack #multistagerace #endurancewomen #endurancetraining #lessonsinbadassery #msinspiration
We deep dive into the mental side of training and We deep dive into the mental side of training and racing in today’s interview with performance psychologist and Ironman athlete @adelaidegoodeve 💥 

Get the lowdown on how your language affects your performance (and how to use it as a performance enhancer), what NOT to say in your self-talk, why time-based race race goals can derail your performance, and why running on a treadmill opposite a wall isn’t a smart way to build mental resilience. 🤩 Thanks, Adelaide!

⚡️ Read via the link in my bio or visit Lessonsinbadassery.com ⚡️

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#ironman #ironmanathlete #ironmatraining #triathlontraining #swimbikerun #braintraining #mentalstrength #positivemindset #sportspsychology #athlete #adventure #womenscycling #womensrunning #mentalstrengthtraining #goalsetting #trainsmart #womenssport #lessonsinbadassery #endurancetraining #brainendurancetraining #resilience
Instagram didn’t save the web link to my intervi Instagram didn’t save the web link to my interview with the brilliant @honesttriathlete (overall winner of Ultraman Canada this year), but it’s up now! If you haven’t read Amy’s Q&A, head over to it now (link finally in my bio 🙄) or visit Lessonsinbadassery.com 💥 

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#ultraman #ultraathlete #ultrarunner #ultratriathlon #ironman #ironathlete #ultracycling #womenscycling #triathlontraining #swimbikerun #womensrunning #womenstriathlon #ironmantraining #lessonsinbadassery #bricksession #intervals #endurancetraining #endurancesport #endurancewomen #ultramancanada #ultramanworldchampionship
I’m thrilled to have outright winner of Ultraman I’m thrilled to have outright winner of Ultraman Canada, Amy Robitaille (@honesttriathlete), answer my questions on Lessons in Badassery today. We cover Amy’s training, and how it all went down during the three-day event, which included a 10K swim and 145K bike on day one, a further 275K bike on day two, and an 84.4K run on the final day. 😳
Amy is also an Ironman finisher, holds an FKT (fastest known time) and has completed a virtual Everest on Alpe du Zwift. 🙌🙌🙌

Read via the link in my bio of visit Lessonsinbadassery.com 💥 

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#ultraman #ultraathlete #ultrarunner #ultratriathlon #ironman #ironathlete #ultracycling #womenscycling #triathlontraining #swimbikerun #womensrunning #womenstriathlon #ironmantraining #lessonsinbadassery #bricksession #intervals #endurancetraining #endurancesport #endurancewomen #ultramancanada #ultramanworldchampionship
*New Q&A!* Dr @dina.altayeb was the first Saudi to *New Q&A!* Dr @dina.altayeb was the first Saudi to complete a full Ironman triathlon and the first Arab woman to compete at the Ironman World Championships in Kona - where she is right now, about to race for the third time 🎉👊

Read Dina’s Q&A via the link in my bio or visit Lessonsinbadassery.com 🔥

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#ironmanworldchamps #trilife #ironman #ironman2022 #ironathlete #ironmantri #triathletelife #triathlontraining #swimbikerun #roadtokona #womensrunning #womenscycling #womenstriathlon #ironmantraining #lessonsinbadassery #bricksession #intervals #ironmanworldchamps22 #ironmankona22 #kona2022
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