Introducing our NEW Training Partner, Total Tri Training
We are so excited to tell you all about our new training partner, Total Tri Training! We are not just about the finish line - we want to support you through the whole journey.
We are lucky to be working with three awesome coaches and have designed the ultimate Squad. Kirsty Walker, Louella O’Herlihy and Grant Sheldon are fantastic coaches, I can personally vouch for that! Read about them below.
They will guide you through a 8 week training program designed for your chosen Challenging Events race. You will receive a Training Peaks account where your sessions will be delivered by youir coach. However, not only will you get a training plan you will access to the awesome TTT community. This includes group Zwift rides, community FB/Whatsapp group and access to online educational webinars and so much more.
Join us now and get yourself to the that finish line in the best possible position! Invest in you and join us. If you want more information please email kelly@challenging.events and she can put you in touch with one of the coaches to chat about your goals and see if it's the right package for you!
Happy Training!
As an age group athlete, Louella is one of the most successful and well-known females in the UK having raced at all distances but more recently specialising at half and full IM. She has won her age group at most of the larger UK races and around the word as well as being a highly successful member of the GBR age group team with a host of wins and podium medals to her name. Utilising her level of experience and knowledge, she has over the years mentored and coached people both in triathlon, rugby and at work enabling people to benefit from her unique experience and insight into training methodology to achieve their goals whatever they may be. She has a real way with people in terms of understanding what drives and motivates them and helps install some of her own training and mindset mantras which have proven to be so successful. Only working with a smaller number of athletes so that she can really build relationships and apply real focus, Louella has limited slots available for athletes wanting to work with her to achieve their goals.
Meet Louella
In 2019 I experienced a shocking breakdown in my marriage one month before the ITU Long Course World Championships. Keeping focus on the race at hand was incredibly difficult but I used various strategies to get through it, I took Gold and became World Champion F50-54. I then went on to win my AG at Ironman Bolton by 35 minutes and realised my dream of going to IM WC Kona. On the way there I competed at the IM 70.3 WC in Nice, coming 7th. Unfortunately, 4 days before the race in Kona I came off my bike on Hawii and was unable to walk easily or cycle for more than 20 minutes before cramping. Self-treatment with acupuncture and an unwavering mindset got me an 11th place finish and IM PB to that date! I truly believe that if you’re willing to do the physical work to get to the start line then it’s what is happening in your mind that will give you your result. It’s not how you’re feeling, but what you do when you’ve got those feelings!
I live in Poole, Dorset and was a Specialist Respiratory Physiotherapist when I started triathlon in 2012, coming from a Women’s Rugby background. In 2014 I qualified for Team GB AG and subsequently started 15 times, podiumed 7 times, with Gold at ITU LC Pontevedra 2019 and ETU Standard Duathlon Alcobendas 2015, with a further 5 races placing 4th or 5th. In 2014 I went back to university for 3.5 years to study Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture and run my own acupuncture clinic. Dorset is a fabulous place to live and train … and race! love training and racing and am excited to be able to help you reach your goals too. Race day can present many hurdles, let alone the hurdles in getting to the start line. Keeping a consistent approach to training is key, but your mindset will make a good race great. Let’s figure out together what it is going to take to realise your potential. Are you wanting to race with fire in your heart? Then I’d love to join you on your journey to the next level!
Grant has been a professional triathlete for over a decade, often training and racing with the best in the world. This experience is unique and difficult to replicate. It has been through an endless quest of self-improvement, countless mistakes and an open mind willing to learn that he has built a bank of knowledge to pass on to his athletes. On top of this he has been coached by some of the most successful coaches in the world and picked their brains for their coaching philosophies.
He has lived and breathed triathlon and endurance sport since being a small child and has a passion for improving in this aspect of fitness that will inspire you to get going. In his own words, “As a Scottish boy that moved all the way down south to Bournemouth to chase the sun I have easy access to southern based athletes as well as a knowledge of the whole UK race scene. I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world as a pro athlete and gained a huge amount of knowledge about training and racing internationally at the highest level which is part of what I can pass on to those that I work with”
Grant has proven himself coaching all levels to improve by a person first approach and has a specific interest in those really wanting to see where they can get to!!
Coaching ethos
Communication, communication, communication.
The best way to get coached is to build a two-way relationship that allows for understanding and adaptability. It is easy to write a plan but the challenge is getting to know an athlete and finding out about their busy lives and what makes them tick. Once this is achieved it allows us to adapt that plan to achieve a consistent training output that balances ALL the stressors, not just the training load. This is always my first port of call.
Second to this, it is understanding your personal physiology and working on what YOU need to work on to achieve YOUR goals. This approach has been used by the worlds best athletes.
These two points are simple to say but take experience and refinement to execute well.
Based in Taunton near the M5, Kirsty works alongside her partner Kit Walker (TTT coach) in their coaching business where together they are able to offer a full range of squad sessions as well as other triathlon specific services such as bike fitting and swim video analysis in their endless pool at their Performance Centre at South Petherton. As well as racing herself at middle and full distance, Kirsty has worked with a number of athletes from complete novices looking to do their first ever triathlon through to experienced age groupers achieving team GB slots. She has a keen interest in race fuelling and nutrition as well as the need for tailoring coaching and training for the specific requirements of the female physiology.
Meet Kirsty
I started my journey into Triathlon from a running background. Having focused on my career as a teacher and raising two mini people, sport was non existent until I reached nearly 30. Overweight and under active, I represent a large proportion of athletes that flick a switch one day and say ‘something has to change’. Couch to 5k came and went, as did ticking off the distances through local races, each time increasing the distance to prove to myself ‘I can’. After several marathons I turned to ultra trail running, a particular highlight being the Endurance Life CTS Dorset event along the South West Coast Path. In between structured training I am currently undertaking the 630 mile SWCP route from Poole, Dorset to Minehead in Somerset.
Until running wasn’t enough. Could I front crawl ?….No! Could I ride a bike ?….. barely! So why not take up triathlon ? I was determined to master three disciplines instead of one and took to open water swimming and long distance cycling sportives before putting the three together.
I tell this story because I now stand in the position post Outlaw full 2021 and several 70.3 triathlons desperate to inspire anyone that they can achieve that finish line no matter their starting point. 2022 brings my first opportunity to race European Championships as a GB Age Grouper and I have no intention on things stopping there! Through coached experience and extensive investment in developing coaching skills and data analysis, I am finally seeing results in my own performance. My coaching philosophy will always remain that I will coach in the way that I would expect to be coached myself. To remain in love with what we do when times get tough, to juggle work, family and commitments yet still see results and to have an honest and open coaching relationships that builds a platform for success.
