#161: Operation Ironwoman with Emily Bond - from leg surgery to tackling every UK Ironman race in one season

Do you want to run further, faster or stronger?

Do you want to enjoy your running more and generally be a better version of yourself?

You're in the right place.

I'm your host Alan Lann, a running coach and nutritionist.

My aim is to help you improve your running from five-case to outros by providing you with

the knowledge and tools you need on training, nutrition and mindset, as well as giving you

the inspiration to dream bigger, achieve more in your running and to make it fun at the

same time.

Welcome to the Running Rules Podcast and get started.

Hello and welcome to episode 161 of the Running Rules Podcast and today I've got a brilliant

guest on to give you lots of inspiration, Emily Bond, also known as Operation Iron Woman.

Emily is taking on a challenge that once felt impossible, completing every UK Iron

Man race in a single season, so we'll go into exactly what that entails in a minute.

But after major leg surgery in 2018 and years unable to run, Emily has worked her way back

from her first five-case to now pursuing the ultimate endurance test, so I'm really

excited to hear about the challenge and about you.

Welcome to the show, Emily.

Thank you, Alan, for having me.

Well, it'd be great to start off and give our listeners a little bit of an introduction

to who you are, what you do day to day, and then we can sort of roll into your sort of background

in endurance sports and how you came to be doing this challenge, but it gives us a little

bit about yourself and your background first.

Okay, so yeah, I'm Emily Bond, so I am also doing Operation Iron Woman, so endurance athlete,

I'm also a PhD researcher at Queens, so I look at fire safety of materials, especially under

battery fires, and then I do high performance mindset coaching to help people be in the right

mindset for the ambitions and goals that they want to achieve.

So that sounds quite varied, a lot of things to do, and how do you kind of split your time,

because we're going to go into the challenges that you've set yourself this year in terms of endurance,

so I'm sure we'll talk a lot about that, but doing a PhD as well, and mindset coaching is quite

a lot there, and quite varied as well, it sounds quite exciting.

Yeah, it's quite like a package, and I get it's always that saying, in fact, variety is the

spice of life, I would say, is the motto that underpins what I do, but a lot of it's tied to,

I guess, my values of curiosity and ambition, and just kind of those opportunities for growth,

and in terms of like balancing stuff, I suppose I try not to think about it, because if I think too

much, that's when I get overwhelmed by it all, and also flexibility, so just being able to like

move things around, I have like a general structure in my week where earlier in the week tends to be

PhD work, and later in the week tends to be more like coaching work, and the sport is just

a consistent throughout. Yeah, I think when you've got a lot on, you kind of, you have to have that

plan, and I suppose for me, you know, when I've high training periods, and you know, that training

has to get sort of moved around what else I've got on, but you also, I think you have to have that

drive for each area of what you're doing as well, and really want to do it, because otherwise,

I find that one, something will fall somewhere if you don't have that drive for every area,

so it sounds like you're quite passionate about the things that you do. What, what does the PhD

entail, we sort of talked offline just beforehand, you set fire to things, it sounds quite interesting,

quite exciting, so tell us a little bit about that. Especially every young boys dream, I think,

it's just set fire to stuff, but obviously legally, so I basically get existing materials and

like protective coatings that you'd find in either like cars or buildings, and then I look at how

they respond to like a battery fire, because you don't fully understand the impact that there is,

obviously batteries have been brought out with, you know, electric vehicles and even in our phones

and stuff, and then storage of them, so it's in trying to understand, yeah, when they go on fire,

what happens to our structures, so I do both experimental and then modeling on the computer to try

and like predict them a little bit quicker, and use kind of less resources as well.

It's something that I kind of don't want to think about too much, because so much of the

everything that we use, obviously, uses batteries, I was just telling you, you have an electric car,

use my mobile all the time, I have a CGM monitor that I have to use for my diabetes and all that

kit that goes, so so many batteries just on me all the time as well, so a little bit worrying,

but hopefully that's where your research comes in making all of these things safer in the future.

Yeah, definitely, you'll be like the whole chip fire issue where like the chip pan,

where that was like a big issue, you know, a good few decades ago, and I'm always worried about it,

and then research came out, and then now we're able to kind of cope with it, so I think it will be

like that. Yeah, I have to forgot about those chip pan fires, but yeah, can you also just tell us

a little bit about the mindset coach, and that also really intrigues me, is that endurance

athletes, or is it more to do with professionals? What kind of mindset coaching do you do?

Sort of all of the above, because it's very translatable in terms of a mindset,

especially in more of a professional world too, there's a lot of crossover between endurance in a

physical sense and endurance in a working sense, and just kind of life, it is kind of an endurance

feat if you like, you know, if you try and sprint through life, you know, that's when you

can get burnout and exhausted, whereas it's more of an endurance approach, and then looking at

kind of longevity. So it's coming from like the aspect of that sort of self leadership,

and like ownership of what you're doing, and how you approach failure as well, because a lot of people

especially a found in like women, and this is something I struggled with as well, is when you can

be really ambitious, and kind of intellectual as well, is almost paired with perfectionism,

and getting more stuck, and being in like those cycles, and being scared to kind of take that

step, even though you know logically those steps will get you to the goals you want to achieve.

So it's working on essentially reframing that of how do you step through failure and just kind of

use it as an iterative process to learn, and not that you let the failure define you and get to your

kind of head and heart, where it then gets you stuck and kind of stops you sort of stepping into

what you want to do. So it's all about reframing that of like, okay, how can we learn, how can we

approach staff, have like grace with yourself as well, and you know, because it's like you're

navigating life for the first time, you know, and like working through these things, and almost

befriending yourself, rather than being like a massive critic to yourself, so that you can kind

of then go on to achieve, you know, the endurance feat you're working towards, whether it's

inner career sense, whether it's an athletic sense, whether it's just going out and experiencing

life. Yeah, yeah, so important, the mind I find obviously, as you say, everything's interconnected,

life is like an endurance event in its own right, but I find that the mind is so important for

endurance events as athletes, because once the mind starts telling you you can't do something

really difficult to sometimes find the tools or the mechanisms to either not what I've heard

recently is not to try and shut those voices out, but maybe to accept or expect that those

voices are going to come in and let them sit there, and know that you've put yourself in that

position where you're going to be doing something hard, and that's where you should be.

The fact that you're questioning yourself is, or you're having these thoughts, isn't necessarily

a bad thing, but it's working a way to get through that without letting it spiral down. I find

that in marathon, you know, if you start having a difficult point and thinking that's the beginning

at the end, then it will be because it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm interested to know

then we'll get into exactly what the challenge is in a minute, but you set yourself such a huge

goal with this challenge, and you're talking about, you know, reframing failure, but does it ever

occur to you that you might not get through all of these races and or is the failure what you do

before the races in terms of the training and failing and training. How do you reconcile

that the failure could be in the races itself that is the big goal that you've set yourself?

That's a really good question. I think a bit of both. Obviously, there's a very logical approach

in that anything you ever set out to do, there is no guarantee that it will happen,

but the way I see it is you can do certain things where the odds are so high that it's unlikely

that it won't happen. And for me, one of the biggest things is even when I'm having weeks where

my volume's really low or, you know, I've got a bit of a negative of an injury, things like that,

or I'm feeling like behind, I just have this core belief that I know that I can do it,

and it's kind of that general concept of, you know, it may not be this year. Obviously, I'm going

in with the mindset of like, I'm going for it this year, but deep down I know that as a concept

of the project and all the races and what it is, that I can do it, like there's no kind of doubt in

that. And I think it's then almost an element of detachment too, where it's like, I'm doing something

that no one or no female has done before. And it's like, well, where is the failure in that,

because even though, like I said, logically, I could, you know, something could happen, life could

happen, and I not do the actual races, but for me, it's the fact that I've put myself in a position

to try. And like, there is so much I've learned, even in, you know, the past year,

past 15 weeks of my training so far, that whatever happens over the summer, whatever happens

now in September, I think it would be a disservice to myself to class it with a failure blanket.

Yeah. You know, it's almost like, there'll be moments where it's like, it's a bit like rubbish

that that didn't go right or didn't go how I maybe wanted it to, but there's so many things that

I got to experience and got to learn about myself that I never probably would have learned

unless I put myself in that position. Yeah. Yeah. What I'm hearing you say there is that

almost the process and the journey is as important as the end goal, because it's like anything.

If you don't enjoy the work that takes you to that or you don't learn anything in that work

that takes you to that end goal, then that's the most chunk of time that you are using for the

for the goal itself. Yes, there's five races there, but there's so many more days that you've got

to put yourself through training and learning to get to that point. I love what you said there

about not having any doubt about the fact that you can do it, whether it's this year or the next

year. I think that's also really important is when people have a goal is not necessarily thinking

that if it doesn't happen this time, then I can never do this. It's always, yes, you want to

put a certain amount of pressure on, yeah, I want to do it this this year. This is really what I want

to do, but also knowing that there might be and there hopefully will be another time. There might

not be, you know, we never know what's going to happen, but there is always other opportunities

and whatever happens this time round is learning for the next time round as well.

Before we go right into the challenge, I want you to tell us a little bit about

growing up, what fitness looked like for you growing up? Were you sporting when you were younger?

Did you run? Did you bike? Did you swim? What did you do?

I suppose when I was younger, like as a family, we weren't necessarily massively

like send entry, but no one was really into kind of competitive sports, you know, we'd sort of eat

well, move a bit. That was kind of it and through school, I did like the odd sports here and there,

I was more kind of just, I would do PE, you know, partake in that. I used to do badminton in primary

school and I really enjoyed that because I used to do it with my best friend. But aside from that,

not really and never kind of competed to anything, I was never really in any clubs.

I always kind of had an interest in hockey, but I was never kind of in with the popular girls,

so sort of struggled to stay in that. Obviously I started running, which we'll go into in a minute

for a career aspiration I had, and then it wasn't until I sort of got to uni that I tried a few more

different sports. So it's kind of one and off of me is the only thing that was maybe consistent

with swimming, just because I used it as a way to kind of just almost ground myself in a way,

like there's just something about the water that just calms me, and I think it's the thing that

kind of keeps me most connected to my mum because she used to be a lifeguard and a swim teacher,

so she taught me just when I was a baby. So swimming's kind of been the only constant,

but like I said, never done it sort of competitively or anything.

Yeah, that's nice connection. My mum got me into running, and that's

one of the big connections for me as well, but it sounds like swimming for you is kind of the

running for me in terms of just getting out, and it's that time way you can just sort of reset and

and you know, sometimes it's different things, it's training for something, but sometimes it's

just resetting, sometimes it's time for me, sometimes it's time with other people as well,

so it's it's great having that. You said about getting into running for career aspirations,

so how did the running take off and and where did that lead you to? Did you start doing any

any races, any any competitive stuff back when you started running?

Yeah, it was about when I was 16 it started, so for me when I was growing up,

home life was very kind of turbulent and being ambitious and very curious, I just kind of had

this sense that there was more to life than the life that I had growing up, so I set my sights

on joining the military because obviously the way you know it is sold as the chance to kind of

get out, have your career, that community, but also travel the world, and that was all the things

I wanted was to do a job that I kind of thought I'd love, so go into engineering, use my kind of

like curious mind, but also have the chance for kind of development and that community and to see

the world, so I sort of set my aspirations on that, so there was initially a sick form college that

I applied to go to and I missed the kind of age cutoff for that, so I was going for a scholarship,

but basically they fund you, give you kind of a funding through sick form and then help you through

university, and as part of that you had to go obviously through the application process and part

of it was the fitness test, so there was the initial one which was just on the treadmill, a local

gym and then you had to meet at a certain time, they'd sign it off and then you'd go through

the rest of the process, so psychometric tests, all that kind of thing, so I made it to the final

assessment board which was in Portsmouth at the time, so I was going for the Royal Navy to go in as an

engineer, and obviously as part of that I got myself a I guess personal trainer sort of fitness

coach at the time to help me because there was like there wasn't really anyone in my family who

knew that process, knew what I was aiming for kind of how to coach that, so got someone external

and just through that process obviously I was being challenged in a way that I hadn't been before

in a fitness sense, but various niggles kind of started to creep up that I was like some things not

right here, so anyway I got to the assessment board, didn't pass the run the first time,

but they gave me a second chance to do just the run element again because I did so well in all the

other aspects, so the leadership and their interview things like that, so I went back up a few months

later and there was still a part of me where I think I knew that I wasn't ready and that there was

something kind of deeper going on which was this injury, and I did the run again anyway because I was

like not many people get a second chance to just do this element, normally you have to restart the whole

process again, and I missed the qualifying time by nine seconds, so it was nine seconds between

me in a totally different life that I would have had, and yeah it was devastating at the time

because it was like I was so close to what felt like freedom, and it was sort of gone, then after that

started really pursuing what was going on with my injury, because I knew that mentally I gave

everything, and that it was kind of a physical limitation rather than a mental one,

yes, they just kind of kept going without because I was like I can't stop, like this can't

be the end, like like I said, there was this underlying feeling that there was more to the life

that I was going to lead than what I currently had, nine seconds is really, really tough to take,

what kind of, what distance was that over, so like two or three K?

Yeah, so it's one and a half miles to about 2.4 K.

Yeah, it's tough to take when you're just doing it in races, when it doesn't mean anything really,

it's just like PVs, you know, I've missed times that I've wanted by a few seconds, and it feels

pretty disappointing, but obviously when a whole career is riding on it, that's so much bigger,

than just a personal goal, which you can go and redo anytime, so it must have been really hard to

take, what was the outcome then of looking further into the injury, was this where you realised

that something was really wrong, is this how you ended up with your surgery on the leg? Tell us

a little bit about that. So I said once I kind of didn't hit the time, and I think even leading up

to that, I kind of had a sense that there was something going on, and I remember saying to

my sort of personal trainer that when I would be out and certain runs like my legs were really

sore, like more than just kind of a little bit of lactic, you know, like you're just working,

it was almost just like, okay, this is a little more uncomfortable than it should be,

yellow very frequently dismissed, which definitely didn't help the case of where it ended up going,

and because he very much just had his sights on what I was going for rather than the fact that

my whole life was still ahead of me, and so I kind of went to the GP, got what felt like being

shrugged off a good few times with just sort of shin splints, things like that, and that had obviously

dealt with like most runners do, which tends to go away with resting and, you know, things like

that, and I was like no, definitely something more to this. Eventually I got referred to a consultant,

an orthopedic consultant who was, it was a previous military medic, so he understood what I was

going for, and it kind of got to a point even with him where he was like, oh, it's probably just like

calf tightness, things like that, and I was like, I'm really not convinced, you know, because it's

the way it's, the symptoms were presenting, you know, it's like something, it just doesn't feel

right that that was, it was just simply that, and he offered, anyway, to do a compartment pressure

test, which is the diagnosis tool that you use for compartments syndrome, so he offered to do that

anyway, because I said like that this is what I'm aiming for, and like, I need to get something

sorted, and obviously if the test result came back, you know, fine, then it's like, okay, we read

just do a different programmer for recovery, but I said, you know, I'd want to know, so yeah,

I am grateful that he did offer that to still do it, because you know, he didn't have to, and

even then there was a few appointments that there was either scheduling issues or equipment issues,

so it ended up going on a little bit longer, and the whole sort I had to go to was like 45 minute

drive from home, but I was like adamant to like find out what was happening, and anyway, it went

down, so the way they do the pressure test is they basically get you to go for like a run for 15 minutes

to activate the kind of symptoms, and then they just stick an edel into your muscle compartment

and read the pressure level, and then they compare it to what it should be, so I went down, did

that, obviously symptoms came on, and hobbles back into like the kind of clinic assessment room,

and they put it in, and there was a nurse, while they were doing it, she was like, you know,

I've been a nurse for like 16 years, and I've never seen this been done, and I was like, oh,

that's really reassuring, like thank you, and so anyway, they did the test, and the pressure

in my like calf muscle compartments was between two and three times what it should have been,

so he only tested one leg, because he was like, well, normally it comes on bilaterally anyway,

so he was like, we don't need to test the other one, he was like, yeah, you've got

like chronic exertional compartments in during its cold, and so yeah, that was it, and then

he was like, well, because of what I was aiming for, I got scheduled in for surgery, only

a few months later actually, so I had my surgery just before Christmas in 2018, so they did a bilateral

fasciotomy, so they would normally have done it in four separate surgeries, but I was like,

I don't have time for this, so we put it all into one, which obviously increased the risk,

and did make the recovery a little bit more intense, but it was kind of a case of,

I've got my A levels to do, and I want to leave home, so we did it all in one,

yeah, and then I ended up being in hostile for like five days, because I had like a nerve blocker

in my knees, so I couldn't stand up or like feel my feet or anything for at least the first

kind of two days, I remember like the physios would come in, and they'd be like, right, let's get

you going, I'm like, okay, and they're like, can you move your ankles? And I would just stare

at my ankles and they wouldn't move, and they're like, okay, what about your toes? And I was like,

they're not moving either, like the connection was obviously just kind of gone for a minute,

and eventually it got to a point where they were like, okay, to go home, you need to be able to do

a set of stairs, because we had a few stairs to get into our house, and my mum definitely could not

fully support my weight, so I needed to have an element of independence for it, so yeah, I ended up

getting discharged on new and I don't know what you used to say, Christmas Eve, and then yeah,

just spent all of my Christmas in bed, and then the recovery afterwards.

I must have been really, really scary not to be able to move your legs, I mean,

going into the surgery, what did they tell you was the prognosis in terms of, you know, how long

you would be out of action for when you could expect to start returning to training and building up

this goal of trying to meet the time again? I sort of said, you know, there was a lot of risk,

especially with having the four in one, essentially, there was an increased chance of infection,

there was a chance that because of where they do the incisions, there's a lot of nerves there,

they said, you know, you could lose feeling and you feel entirely, you know, for those kind of

things, I was like, right, okay, this is fun. In terms of then prognosis, it was like, it's relatively

routine-ish, not necessarily common, but it's a surgery that's done before, and yeah, I can't

really remember specifically what time line you put on it, but it was hopeful that it would work,

but obviously there was like the risks that it might not, but I think for me at that point,

that it got to a point where even if I walked up like a slight incline or even like a set of stairs,

it would like activate it and I'd have to like sit down for a minute and just let it calm down

before I could then carry on. So I think I was at a point where I was like, I physically just cannot

do really anything anyway, and I'm only 18, like of my whole life, so I think the risks

kind of didn't really even cross my mind, and I remember saying to my mum, see when he said there

was an increased risk of infection, I said, we'll deal with that if it happens because there's no

guarantee that it will, you know, so yes, the risk is increased, but there's no guarantee it's gonna

happen, and you know, if it does then we deal with it then. It's a really tough thing, I imagine,

to go through especially at a young age, because on the one hand I suppose I think when you're younger,

you kind of don't necessarily think about the future as much, maybe, but also on the other hand,

you have so much longer in your future, you know, so I talked quite a lot of runners, you know,

who are later on in life, and they might be thinking about knee surgery or hip surgeries, which,

you know, it sounds like there wasn't really a choice for you because this was affecting you day

and day out, and as you say, you had so much of your life and ahead of you, so whilst it sounds

to me like a really difficult decision, it probably wasn't really, it was like, you need to get

this done, be able to move on with your life, and maybe just being in that, that bit younger,

or maybe actually makes you a little bit more fearless in terms of, right, let's go and do it,

I think if I now was told and needed, you know, leg surgery, I don't know, I'd probably be

sort of happy with what I've done up to now and go, maybe I'm not too keen on that idea,

but yeah, it's an interesting one isn't it, but obviously everyone's situation is very different

as well, and it sounds like for you, it was just a no, you had to have it done, it was a no brainer,

I think maybe the way you had it done was maybe the more pressing concern, did you have it

sort of in stages, or as you say, all in one go, but it sounds like you just wanted to get it done

and move on, how long did it then take you to be able to sort of build up to walking, running,

whatever you did in the next sort of months and years after that?

Like I said, I was in hospital for about five days and I remember it took me quite a while

to really get walking and moving again, some of the physios were quite relentless

and obviously they would rotate round and I remember like one time I had a set of physios in and

they had this thing called a return device where basically you sit on the edge of the bed stand

up and then they use it to like turn you so you can then like sit on the chair again and then move

from there, but it was a bit dodgy because like the break kept engaging so it would jar and send

this like massive pain like up my legs and I got to point where I had to beg them to just stop

and just like let me rest as like obviously their goal was to get me moving and I was like but I

can't from in this much pain and you know with like it was gone past the point of pain killers

like they weren't even battling this pain and I just remember absolutely just sobbing and just

because I was in so much agony and like ended up falling asleep because it just drained me so much

and I remember like my mum came down to see me and obviously like I texted to say what had happened

and there was but there was one set of physios and it was two guys and they were absolutely grey

and my mum basically came and she was like we only want these physios you know basically demanded

them and to like kind of get me moving and I remember it just kind of we ended up stripping it

back a bit because it was almost trying to do too much in one go and you know they wanted me to

just kind of get up and basically just walk and I was like I can't do that you know I can't even stand

up straight let alone just start walking and the first sort of step I remember I was like by the

window in the corner and I remember every time I like moved my legs over the bed as well like

that all it's just gusting feeling of like all the whatever like blood and everything going back

into my legs was just yeah turned my tummy and I remember like just standing there with my mum and

she just held me up and we just stood there and like yeah it just really felt like

vulnerable but also just like her kind of little girl again and it was like at that point just

having that element of comfort was just like I can do this we just need to break it down a bit more

so anyway we've got these two physios and like you were having hostels like the flooring where

you have like the almost lines kind of like tiles in a way but obviously they're a bit of tiles

and they're about I think maybe a meter or something apart and they were like right your first

step is literally just a walk to this first line and that was it and then I got there and then

they were like right to the next line and we just kept doing that and did that over the sort of

four days for yeah about four and a half days that I was there and then worked on doing the stairs

and obviously once I could do the stairs I could go home there was a lot of lying down at home

with just my legs elevated because they were so like bruised and there was a lot of obviously

inflammation and stuff still you know I had like six different scars that were like all healing at

the same time and like I said every time I like swung my legs over or were the kind of like

fluid rush down and I had to have helped stand up all the time and then I was on crutches for

a good few weeks and remember the one time actually when I first stood up but by myself and walked

like two meters by myself and the way our house was like my bedroom was opposite the kitchen and the

doors were open and my mum was stood in the kitchen and I just like stood in my doorway and like we

just looked at each other and I was just like mum you know I've like walked on my own and we both

just started like sobbing you know and it was really weird to have that at 18 because you know

that's what you do when you're like six months a year old you know um is like your mum being proud

of you for walking um yeah eventually I managed to have enough kind of energy to go back to sick

form um but even at that point because our school campus was very very long so our sick form was

right at one end and then the science department was right at the other end um and I was doing

sciences for eight level I had like a desk that was just placed at the top of the sick form

and all my work was brought to me for a good few weeks so I could just sit there and do it and not

have to kind of trek all the way across um campus it took me a while to get back to driving as well

because the way A I didn't have full feeling in my like feet for quite a while so every time I press

the pedal I just I didn't like trust that it was there um I remember like a drove like me a couple

of miles and I was like mum you're gonna have to take over like I can't keep going um so that took

a while to get back to driving and I think that was one of the hardest parts was losing my independence

in that sense because where I live there is one bus that goes through and you're lucky if the bus

shows up on time if like at all so like independence was kind of gone and I'd you know needed that

almost um I sort of remember slowly trying to build stuff up you know like sitting on the bike

I got back to swimming as soon as I occurred really because like I said that was kind of my therapy

almost um and I was a low impact so I knew it kind of wasn't necessarily going to aggravate anything

I think I tried small bits of running here in there but not really anything significant it would

maybe be like 50 meters or something like that but for a long time with running it was definitely

moved from a physical to a mental game um and I think that's why it was more like two and a half

years before I really ran again because it was just every time I took a step it was like

is this going to happen again um so even though I was cleared by like the consultant every physical

sense was fine it was definitely that relearning to kind of trust that element you know because it's

then taken step and being like okay is this the symptoms coming again or is this just my muscles

working because I'm running um so yeah it wasn't until the end of 2024 when I came across

the centre of 5k run that's done in all my park and normally it's done in the October but they

had shifted it to the April of 2025 because I think weather and I saw it and I was like I just had

this feeling and I was like I'm just going to sign up for this you know I'm like 5k I've never

run really 5k in my life um at least not like consistently um and I was like I'll just sign up for it

you know I might get to the weekend and not do it or walk half of it or whatever but I'm just

going to sign up for it and then obviously the April came round and I did it and I think I ran

pretty much all of it and I just absolutely sobbed at the end like I was so proud of doing it and

I phoned my mum and then we always obviously started like crying having a cry together because

she knew like the journey I'd been on to even contemplate doing that like I'd done bits of running

in the years before because I played hockey for a couple of seasons but obviously that's very kind

of stop star rather than consistent running but yeah doing the 5 centre of 5k in April last year

was the start of kind of then the whole summer and that I built up my running and then doing track

one now that's an incredible and inspiring story to think that you know that visualization of

you know you and your mum and in the house and you taking those those steps when you were 18

and then only running your first 5k last year you know to what we're about to to go on now to

talk about and the the challenge that you have this year but it shows I think that sometimes the

challenge it doesn't matter how big it is to anybody else it's it's such a personal challenge that

challenge of walking you know two metres was possibly as big as the 5k the 5k is probably bigger

than what we're going to talk about now but it's all couched in the context and everyone has these

different challenges going on so but it also shows you know what you can do when you are able to

sort of control your mind and and get past that those mind blocks that you obviously had with

with running to be able to now get to this point you know where you're going to be taken on this

challenge tell us about the challenge we've sort of teased and teased and teased but what are you

going to be doing this summer so this summer between June and September I am going to do every UK

Ironman race and hopefully be the first female athlete to do it as well that's incredible

so tell me if I've got this wrong because I've written everything down here but we're talking

about five races and three half Ironmans and two full Ironman Ironman or Ironman starting in June

the 7th in Bolton with a half July the 12th in Swansea with a half August 16th in Leeds my hometown

for a full Ironman September the 13th in Wales for a full Ironman and then just a week later you're

going to be doing a half Ironman in Wales so what gave you the idea for this how was it did it start

with you knew it hadn't been done before or was that an afterthought or where where did the idea

for this come from so the not being done before was an afterthought I didn't really have any

confirmation whether that was the case or not and but I remember sort of midway through last year

so I'd done my 5k in April and 5k after that and on that one I think it was who down at the lakes

then built up to 10k by June and sort of through that process I also then got a bike in like

may time I think which was second hand off of girl I used to play hockey with I don't know I just

decided I'd get a bike again I hadn't had one for a few years I think it was kind of where I was

living as well I could go down the towpath to get to work and I was like do you know what I want

a cycle again and I was still swimming and I said there's always been pretty much a constant

is the swimming and I just kind of was like oh maybe I should do triathlon you know I like all

three sports you know sort of put them together and I was out for a cycle with an acquaintance

and we were talking about it because he had signed up for a full one and I was like I think I want

to try that and some always want to see people that like like new challenges and opportunities

things like that and he was like oh it takes like years to like properly train for one and everything

and I was like no I think I can do it so I went home and I was like I typed in Iron Man

and then I was like right I'll go for a half because like that's enough of a challenge you know

and I looked through a calendar I was like do one local rather than traveling so I found

Weymouth which was the last one well get the last half in the UK last year so it was September

14th and I was like right that's enough time to get to this point because I think there was

Swansea bars like that's too soon you know I think it was maybe a month or two I was like well go

for Weymouth because it's there and also I can do it before my 25th birthday so have my

triathlon done before my 25th and so I signed up for it I remember telling my friend and I was like

I've just done something she's like what and I was like I signed up for my first iron

half iron man she was like oh my god and like it was just I was like I have to do it and then

yeah I sort of just came up with a bit of a training plan and just broke it down as best I could

had a couple swim analysis done to help me with just efficiency with the swimming

and then we just get out cycling as much as I could I did a few

and there's a one of the charities I'm actually fundraising for they do kind of cycling days

throughout the year all across the island of Ireland and they had one in Belfast so I did that one

did their shorter distance then they did a longer one in Dublin so I did that one just a few

months before Weymouth has kind of like my checkpoint and do the distance type thing

and then running I just built up over the summer so I went from like I said April was first 5k

June was first 10k and then I did Antrim Coast which was my first half marathon in August

and then did a few other 5k 10k's between then and then yeah got Weymouth and didn't know

anyone there just travelled there on my own but I would just talk to people so I just

charge people and I was talking to a few people in the merch tent and stuff and I just I

suppose I'm having a bit of a curious pondering mind I was like I wonder if anyone has done all

of the UK Ironman events or like what if I did all of them and yeah that was it was what if I did

all of them it wasn't even necessarily a direct thought of if anyone had done them and so I kind

of just had this thought pondering in my head as I was going around Weymouth and I was like well

see how this one goes because I could be absolute shocking could hate it never done a triathlon

before but I did it and absolutely loved it I was just oh so so proud of myself and just really

enjoyed it and I then messaged the coach I tried to help me with my swim analysis because he's also

triathlon coach and I messaged him and I was like I have an idea and he was like right okay when

you come back from Weymouth we'll have a chat we'll have a bit of a debrief so came back from Weymouth

and then we met up to talk about it and he goes right what's the idea and I was like I want to do

every UK Ironman race and he was like oh my god like and then he was like when do we get started

and I was like okay this is this is the plan yeah this is a good idea and having him on board

I was like right I've got to do it now and it just kind of went from there and then as the races

were released I just booked them all and I was like right I'm registered for all of them so

got to get training now so I talked into people at Weymouth actually I met it was a mechanic

for Navanna who support the Ironman races the kind of more premium packages and we sort of

connected and he linked me in with Ironman UK and essentially they confirmed that I will be the

first female athlete to do it so that was definitely the afterthought and I was like okay

and it was more just doing it because I was like why not may as well just do all of the UK ones

and see yeah that was kind of how the project was born I guess yeah for someone who's done

a couple of crazy things but nothing as crazy as what you're about to do I always find that once

you have that thought it's difficult to shake it so once that seed is sewn it only gets bigger and

unless as you say you sort of found the absolutely hated Weymouth but once you got through that and

realise yeah like this I can do this that seed just then it just takes off and it sounds like

that's that's where you've got to so thinking about the challenge as a whole you've obviously done

the Half Ironman sofa which for anyone who's listening because it's predominantly a running

podcast so we have talked about triathlons on here before but it's a 1.2 mile swimmer 1.9K

and then 56 miles on 90K on the bike and then a half marathon I think and obviously doubling that

up for the full so you've done the half before have you run longer than a half yet have you done

I assume you haven't done the full Ironman distance yet so that will be in leads in August

having already done two of the half Ironman's before that what's the most daunting part of

this this challenge for you and if you had to is it the recovery between the races is it that

first full Ironman that you're going to be doing is it the second one because you'll have done

the first one what what bit if you think about it and probably don't want to think about it too

hard but which bit do you see being sort of the most challenging bit of this I think for me the

first thing that kind of comes to mind is like breathing if that makes sense and just kind of harnessing

and not being overwhelmed by it that's probably the most daunting thing and I think that kind of

comes from when I was younger I was like physically assaulted so I was strangled basically

really kind of to a point of no return shall we say and that fear of like when you start working

hard you know like you're going for that breath it's trying to work on that mindset of like I'm

doing this because I'm working hard and going towards something rather than I'm in a situation of

threat and so I think that's probably the most daunting part and especially with leads and whales

being a very hilly course which obviously demands a bit more aerobic and anaerobic effort

I think harnessing that it's going to be where I'll see the most benefit and we'll kind of help with

the races ever see this you know looking at the summer it is a bit daunting how close they are

together and especially with four they're being four weeks between the two faults so between

leads and whales and yeah I think it's one of those things that there is a lot of unknowns you know

don't know how I'm going to be after the races you know how much recovery I might need whether

I'll be able to get any kind of proper training sessions in or whether it will just be almost

constant taper between them but I think it's just going to have to be doing what I can like I said

increasing the odds and chances of success and so having things loosely planned but also planning

on the plan not going according to plan you know so having kind of in a way backups but yeah I think

breathing is probably the most daunting thing and harnessing that thank you so much for sharing that

and really yeah shocked and sorry to hear about that and yeah I mean it's something that you know

we take for granted one way we're pushing ourselves but to have that you know in your history

is you know something I can only imagine is does it is it affect one of the disciplines more than

the other I imagine I personally would imagine the running being harder from that point of view but

is it is it the bike or the swimming or is it just a constant it sort of varies I think

it does depend on my mind is that during a session as well I think running I've made a lot of

progress with it I think that was part of coming back to running that was a struggle too

was not was partly whether like my symptoms were being activated again from before but also like

when you start challenging yourself you do feel out of breath you do feel a bit more restricted because

you're not used to it you know it is obviously more effort than just walking around so that

I've made a lot of progress with and I think the biggest thing is finding the rhythm of it

in the disciplines you know in each one has its own rhythm rather than trying to translate the

same rhythm across all of them and it's interesting how it's like it's not as simple as just breathing

sometimes you know obviously swimming you can have a two or three breath pattern and sometimes I

find when I swim actually I'll do a five breath pattern so hold my breath for a bit longer

as I find that even though I'm not breathing is then a frequently it helps calm my mind to know

well if I can hold my breath for five strokes like I'm clearly okay and I'm working with it like

that I think like I said it's the cycling bit when it comes to pushing a bit and it's

working on the distinction of like I can move my body fast but it doesn't mean I have to have a fast

mind so it's kind of almost separating the systems um but yeah it's kind of it's just finding the

rhythm for each one and going a bit back and forth and having an awful lot of patience with myself

um you know it's the more I've found in the past if I get to that situation where I start panicking

a bit the more I try and just push through it the worse it gets rather than just going right right

let's ease it for a minute and then increase again ease and increase you know so it's a lot more

kind of variable and interval like um and then it's that cumulative effect of it as well over time

you know every day kind of learning was like I'm still okay I'm still okay I'm not under

threat I can exercise I can you know push my pace up and I'm okay um so I think it's just

using that approach and just kind of then extending it to harder terrain and longer distance

yeah yeah and I think obviously you've gone through a lot and and that's a big thing to focus

on in terms of pulling back and then being able to go again and I think everyone on the sort of

much lighter level can can sort of relate to that you know when you're pushing hard sometimes it

can really be be tough to keep that going and sometimes the best thing is just to sort of come

back and and then go again and as you say find and finding rhythms and it's interesting you say

about sort of disengaging them the mind from the body sometimes because sometimes you can just

get into that flow state doesn't necessarily happen all that often but where your body's just

doing the thing that it needs to do and the mind's almost sort of quietened us or switched off

or disengaged from it and I love it when you can get into that state as I say it doesn't

doesn't always happen that often for me but yeah some some great tips there and for anyone even just

when when we're pushing hard you know it can be difficult to keep that going and and various

ways of getting through that in terms of the logistics and sort of the recovery between I think

you're absolutely right in terms of you're not going to really know how you feel in between those

races until you get there so having a plan is obviously great but it's it's that sort of

being able to adapt with it and maybe not having it too rigid or and making that flexible and

you said that right at the top of the show you know where your training is is quite flexible and

malleable around what you do and I think that will really sort of help you through it in terms of

you know everything else that's going on in that period are you you're studying for PhD so you are

on a break through the summer are you still working through the summer how how does everything

else fit in with with what's happening with the races and so I'll still keep tipping away with

everything as well because it comes back to that cumulative effect really and you know sort of

small efforts over time and I think like the weekends are such a there's a few days kind of be

the side blocked off and it's like after waiting if it took me about four or five days to sleep

properly again so you know it's just kind of having that patience but I'm very fortunate that

my kind of supervisory team for my PhD is very supportive with the flexibility and it's very

much like as long as you kind of do the work that's all that matters and so I would tend to

take the approach of working shorter but more efficient hours rather than you know working

long hours but having diluted productivity and so a lot of the time in my PhD I'll maybe

only work kind of well definitely less than four time hours but it's more focused and more productive

so then it means I can do my training and do my coaching as well and also have a bit of downtime

and so yeah that'll kind of be the summer is just taking away with everything

but trying to get myself in the position where maybe I'm just doing more writing so it lends

itself self to a bit more kind of recovery and what does the training look like right now

um when when did you start have you started I mean I presume you have started

yeah um it's obviously still what we're recording this in February um it's still three months

till that race how do you make sure that you don't get burnt out with the training or that you're

peaking at the right time what what's it look like day to day to day or on a week how are you

breaking it down um so it sort of varies 2026 so far has not gone according to plan but as I said

before you have to plan on the plan not going according to plan um had a very good start up till

Christmas um because obviously it was coming off of the back of a very good summer um off of

Waymuth so I was at um you know good distance swimming um I could you know cycle for more than

the 90k um and I was at kind of half marathon distance at the moment I'm not doing any running

or like very low volume I'm now back down to maximum about 5k running at the moment um because

navigating some knee challenges um but that's being worked on now that I've kind of integrated

a bit more strength and also focusing more on the bike so I'm sort of swimming about three times

a week and then bike sessions are about three times a week now as well um so yeah slowly building

the volume up again um hoping to get back to running in a few weeks I hope um but I know that

the bike will help build my strength a lot for that um in terms of planning really

it just goes week by week you know sort of trying plan for the next couple of weeks but again

don't really know what's going to happen um I could be feeling really on it and uh but the main

kind of trajectory is that it almost kind of builds up comes down a bit builds comes down

and almost does that so yeah I think in a way it's good that it's starting with Bolton and Swansea's

halves because it's almost lends itself into two good checkpoints to then go to Leeds in August

rather than starting with a full um which I think I would feel a lot more pressure for if we

were starting with a full but it's almost like a little sandwich at the moment and it'll be quite

nice to finish with Weymouth as well because that would be like a full circle from last year

um finishing the weekend before my birthday as well yeah that that will be nice um familiar

territory you've been there before done it so yeah it's always nice to go back to races that

you've had a good time I think what were people's reactions when you said you were gonna do this

obviously you said your coach was on board but yeah about the people close around you

are they used to you doing crazy things or yeah I mean like so my best friend and she was just like

yep that's just you like she was just not in the instance like surprised she was just like

yep don't expect anything less um yeah and then other people are sort of chatting

just like you're insane this is crazy they're like but so many people just kind of have the sense

of awe about it as well like that it's like some challenge um you know you'll always get some people

who are like probably have some doubt but I just try not to listen to those ones um

but yeah most people are just like what on earth are you doing you know

has anyone told you that it can't be done because I have been told in the past that some like

not that it's as I say and I haven't done anything as crazy as this but we did

24 park runs in 24 hours um and I was told it couldn't be done

um that made me more determined to do it yeah but I wonder if you've had any people like

that that said it can't be done not directly no but you do get the sense with some people

that's maybe what they're thinking but like I said I just try and keep myself in environments

where it's more supportive or like you said even when that maybe sense of doubt is there and

other people just use that as a bit of field to be like well you know this isn't really a matter

what you think at the end of the day because you're not on doing it you know I'm doing it and all

the matters is that I believe I can do it yeah definitely this has been amazing uh thank you so

much for sharing um your experiences and telling us about the challenge um if there was one thing

that you wanted people to take away from this um a sort of a message for things that you know

maybe they're doing in their own lives what would you what would your message be to anyone that's

listening to this you only get one life so you may as well make the most of it and also as long as

you view things as being a learning opportunity then you've not really got anything to lose

you know it'll be hard but life is hard in general you just kind of pick what hard you want

fantastic I love it um tell us tell us how people can learn more about this and are there any

ways to get involved you said you were fundraising as well so it gives us a little bit um about

that and I'll link everything in the show notes so share whatever you want here

yeah so most of it I am documenting on Instagram so my handle is at Operation Iron Woman

um it's where most of the story is shared and then yeah I've got a fundraising page as well

so you know we can link that in um so yeah the charities and fundraising for are

external crisis and counseling, child line, saint on ambulance and cycled against suicide

um so for great very impactful charities um and four charities that are also very close to my heart

um yeah and then also just anyone who wants to support can follow the page donate and any

potential sponsors who might be interested in supporting the journey and being involved can email me

as well perfect I will link everything in the show notes so if you're interested to follow along

sponsor uh and support the charities then please do that it's um an amazing thing that you're doing

and attempting and amazing charities that you're supporting as well and I thank you so much

for your time and I'm really going to look forward to following you through the summer and saying

how you got them thank you so much for having me it's been great to chat today

thank you so much for listening to this episode I really appreciate you taking the time and I hope

you've got something to take away an action in your own running if you enjoyed the show please hit

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