Business of Endurance

After graduating in 2000, Meredith Kessler used her graduation money to purchase her first triathlon bike and entered in a full Ironman two weeks later. From that moment on, she caught the spirit of Ironman competition and has not looked back.   Since that first Ironman in 2000, Meredith has completed 70 full Ironman races all over the United States and the rest of the world and she is an 11-time...

Dan Bullock was an accomplished swimmer and triathlete - as 2008 National Masters Openwater Champion and Former British AG Record Holder for 800m, he now spends his time running Swim for Tri , the swim improvement specialists. Dan knows triathlon inside out, and particularly how to improve the swim leg. I got the chance to chat to him about how we can improve our technique, how we can swim better...

Sophie Grant is an ultrarunner who has finished in the top 10 at UTMB, Lavaredo, TransGranCanaria, La Diagonale les Fous and the MDS, to name just a few. What is interesting about Sophie is that she only started running in her 30s to lose some weight, and now is one of the top runners on the circuit and when she began to struggle to deal with the stress of holding down a job whilst training for ra...

Eilish McColgan is a Scottish middle-distance athlete who has represented Team GB in the last 3 Olympic games - initially in the 3000 metres steeplechase, then the 5000 metres and in Tokyo in both 5,000 and 10,000 meters. She is now targeting a 4th Olympics in Paris, but this time in the marathon. Eilish comes from amazing running pedigree (she is the daughter of Olympic silver medal runner Liz Mc...

Tracy  Moseley is a British professional racing cyclist, specialising in downhill mountain bike racing. From growing up on a farm with a BMX, to following her brother into a mountain competition, she went on to become World Downhill Champion, 3 x World Enduro Champion and 2 x World Cup DH Overall Champion...to name just a few of her successes. Being the first mountainbiker on the podcast I wanted...

Robbie Britton has some incredible achievements under his belt, with highlights such as a 2:29 marathon and a 261km 24hr best, which earned a World & European bronze medal. However, it is his adventures in search of fastest known times (FKTs) that intrigue me the most. Whether it's crossing Iceland, completing the Kom-Emine in Bulgaria, setting an FKT on the 650km Jordan Trail (all on foo...

Born in 1972, Ian Rose contracted eye cancer as a baby and subsequently lost his left eye and most of the sight in his right. Going on to compete at five Paralympic Games in Judo, winning 2 medals, as well as medals in the World and European Championships, Ian was on course to represent ParalympicsGB at his sixth Games in London when he sustained an injury during training and decided to call it a...

Allan Hovda is a 3 time winner of the infamous Norseman Extreme Triathlon, as well as winner of The Swissman and multiple others. Having mastered racing in the cold, he's also worked on mastering racing in the heat too, so Andy Blow and I got the opportunity to chat to him about adapting to extreme temperatures, his fascination around aerodynamics and his love of the X-Tri races. This episode...

Sarah Davis and Tara Lal are two ladies who are doing extraordinary things; they recently cycled across Australia together, raising money for suicide awareness - a subject that Tara wrote about in her successful book ' Standing on my Brother's Shoulders: Making Peace with Grief and Suicide '. Sarah, on the other hand, came to it from paddling the 6853km length of the Nile and also t...

After competing for Great Britain in the pool for nearly 10 years; a career that  saw him rise to being Double Commonwealth Champion, British Record holder, Commonwealth Record holder, World Medallist, European Medallist and Olympic Finalist, Chris Cook hung up the trunks and retired from international swimming and now works with businesses, performance teams, schools and organisations to assist t...

Phoebe Liebling is a Harley Street nutritional therapist, runs the business 'Natural Nourishment' and is a self confessed data geek when it comes to anything to do with health. In this interview you’ll hear how to improve your performance and health through diet, which are the right supplements and which ones are a waste of your time and money. naturalnourishment.me Natural Nourishment I...

Aly Dixon is a marathon runner from Sunderland that has done good; from humble beginnings in the local running club to running for Team GB in the Rio Olympics! Aly has been British and English marathon champion twice, broken the women’s 50km world record on her first attempt and held the world record for the fastest 1/2 marathon dressed as a superhero, but she still holds winning the local Blaydon...

Matt Pritchard is a Welsh professional skateboarder, stunt performer, endurance athlete and celebrity chef. First heading into notoriety on MTV with his show Dirty Sanchez, and more recently featuring in the BBC's Dirty Vegan TV show, he has struggled with alcohol and drugs and used endurance sport as his path to a better life, completing 30 half Iron Mans in 30 days and a decker (10 x Iron M...

Emma Pallant-Browne already has a hugely impressive sporting CV,  being European U23 cross-country champion, a world-class middle-distance runner, world titles in aquathlon and duathlon, runner-up at the 70.3 World Championship in 2017 and a stack of 70.3 wins; all pretty impressive for someone whose running career was ended by a recurring knee injury. In this interview, Sid and I wanted to chat t...

Stacey Copeland has represented her country in both football and boxing and in 2018 she made history when she became the first ever British woman to win the Commonwealth title. As a footballer she represented England U18s, played in an FA cup final and has also played abroad in America and Sweden. As an amateur boxer Stacey won a European silver medal and National Championship and, as a profession...

Kat Matthews is serving in the British Army as a Physiotherapist Officer whilst she's supported to pursue performance as an Elite Long Distance Triathlete. Having only started triathlon in 2015, it wasn't long before she was winning races, including Ironman Florida in 2020, only her second attempt at full distance. Clearly there is a lot to come from Kat, so I wanted to chat to her about...

Andy Blow is a Sports Scientist and founder of Precision Hydration, the electrolyte specialists. An expert in sweat, dehydration and cramping, Andy previously worked as the Team Sports Scientist for the Benetton and Renault Formula 1 teams and remains an adviser to the Porsche Human Performance Centre.   An elite level triathlete in his younger days, Andy has finished in the top 10 of Ironman and...

Claire Cashmore MBE has competed at 4 Paralympic games as a swimmer, her first being at age 16, and after switching sports was ITU Triathlon World and British Champion 2019, with Tokyo '21 to look forward to. Now the author of the book Splash, Claire has achieved a huge amount in her time in sport, so Sid and I wanted to explore with her how perceptions towards the Paralympics have changed ov...

John McAvoy is currently a professional Ironman and Nike sponsored athlete, however in his former life he was a high-profile armed robber who found redemption through the power of sport. Having broken both British and World records whilst in prison, John is now forging a new life as an endurance athlete and speaker who is committed to using his story of rehabilitation to help and inspire others to...

Crista Cullen won Gold and Bronze medals in three Olympic appearances, with a total of 197 international caps and 3 as a World All-Star. Having grown up in rural Kenya, Crista spent her teenage years boarding at Oakham School and over the next decade she progressed through the ranks of elite hockey, which included the incredible London 2012 Olympics and scoring the crucial goal in the final of Rio...

Beth Potter is a British long-distance runner and triathlete; she competed for Great Britain in athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but sadly that didn't go according to plan. However, in 2019 she won the gold medal at the European Triathlon Championships, cementing her position as a top triathlete. In this conversation, I wanted to learn more about how she dealt with the...

Claire Fudge works with athletes to optimise their nutrition for performance and is a competitive Ironman athlete herself; she describes nutrition as the '4th Discipline' and works with a wide range of athletes including pro's, age groupers, dancers, triathletes, ultra-runners and cyclists, as well as helping athletes with eating disorders. I wanted to chat to Claire to understand h...

Having achieved the goal of first Age Grouper overall in the Ironman World Championships in Kona Hawaii 2019, Ruth Astle is now starting to embark on a new journey; having juggled triathlon alongside a very intense job in the city, she is now pursuing the sport professionally while working 2 days a week. As someone who trains for Ironman whilst running my own business, I wanted to know how she man...

In a world where a normal Ironman isn't tough enough, Flora Colledge excels; she regularly wins or podiums in the X-tri races, which include iconic events in spectacular parts of the world like The Norseman, The Swissman and Patagonman - but what does it take to do that? I wanted to know how the logistics of these epic point to point races work, how she deals with the cold and what it takes t...

After earning short-course kudos as a 3x Olympian, 4x ITU World Champion and countless ITU World Cup victories, Tim Don turned his attention to the half Ironman distance where he picked up a collection of titles, as well as setting the current Ironman World Record of 7:40:23 in Brazil. Two days before the 2017 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Tim Don was hit by a car whilst riding along the Qu...