Massive thank you Jane for sharing this great adventure. I am relatively new to running but not that new to endurance sport, racing and challenges. I predominantly come from a cycling background until I developed an itch to scratch in...
This was it, the big one. Well, the big one before the ‘real’ big one! For some, crossing Greenland is a once in a lifetime opportunity. For me, it was necessary training, a big tick on my Polar training...
My running story is a relatively short one really, I started in 2021 after slipping on a patch of ice and breaking my elbow, not the best thing for a rock and ice climber! Whilst sitting on the sofa one...
I’m a ball player. Not an athlete. And certainly not an endurance athlete. So, at 45 years old and well into middle-age, how did I find myself riding Kenya’s Migration Gravel Race? A confluence of things.  During Covid, we found...
I did not set out to be the first. If I'm completely honest, I only realised several months after the second race that I was indeed the first to complete both. But when I look back, there's a lot...
Introduction I first heard about the Tour Aotearoa (TA) http://www.touraotearoa.nz/p/home.html on an Adventure Syndicate training camp in January 2020 from a lady called Vanessa. Vanessa was using the trip as training for her New  Zealand adventure starting in March that year....
And just like that it was over. I could not wrap my head around the fact that I was done, that was it, it was over. I sat down in Braeburn Lodge and had a coffee and a HUGE...
An unremarkable human, 1250km of unsupported adventure, a misplaced helmet, a grin and a sore bum. After a much longer than wanted and possibly permanent hiatus in riding and racing it was time for me to train properly and see...
It was great to have the opportunity to work on Anna's training for this round, given her amazing confidence in the mountains, we were able to focus in on the specific fitness elements needed to get this round done...
It's been great working with Sally on her come back into some racing, E3coach have worked with Sally for many years, with different focuses across MTB and bike packing events. We hope you enjoy a little insight into her...
This article is about busting the myth around social media and how we actually get to achieve these amazing feats we see every day on our social media channels and it's something that's of particular importance to me. Social media...
This is my simple approach to early mornings, when I really don’t feel like getting on it, as always, I am using what I do to hopefully help and direct a few people to enable some positive direction in...
Welcome to the golden age of endurance in adventure. Massive physical feats of over vast wild spaces and huge amounts of time has always been a pillar of adventure and exploration – think ski crossings of Antarctica for example,...

Drive Vs Motivation

I hope by writing this to clear up some confusion between drive and motivation and how we can start to be better at managing the drive within us. Let’s start with motivation, something that can spark us into action. It...
I worry sometimes that the F word is getting lost. And whilst it’s not good for our sports, it’s not good for our lives in general either. Combined with personal experience and being able to see friends, clients and the...
LOVE BIKE PACKING? HOW ABOUT TAKING ON A TWO WEEK, 2500 KM ADVENTURE ACROSS THE UK? Having spent much of lockdown run-training for events that didn’t happen, I impulsively signed up to a self-support ultra-endurance cycling event. Mostly off-road, the...
I want to discuss a common occurrence that happens when training for endurance events or adventure challenges. When I mention a bad session in this context, I am not meaning our heart rate was off, or we had some muscular...
Follow the link below to listen to my interview and check out the over 40's community of adventurous people. https://legendlifeafter40.com/stories/jon-fearne/ I was not 100% sure when I was first asked to be interviewed by Legend Life After 40, but after some...
At 44 years old and 12 months out from a brain haemorrhage and subsequent surgery to remove a tumour, I thought I had my return to fitness all figured out. So, I decided to enter an ultra marathon and...
We have all heard the phrase “whatever you do don’t look down” this is often used when we are traveling upwards, be it on a climb, or even a long ladder. The reason behind this phrase is simple, by...
Last week I did a podcast on endurance, adventure and working as a coach in this industry. I was not sure what to expect but really enjoyed the process and I hope you can enjoy the outcome. Episode - 130...
This article shares a training method I use with road and XC cyclists to add specific strength/muscular endurance to their training. These sessions are also designed to help when time is a limiting factor, as whenever dealing with ultra-distance...
Working with and training with dangerous environment athletes has shown me how important the psychology training we do is. Not only must I get my clients into the best shape ever, I must make sure they can complete their...
A little read into 2020 as a professional endurance and adventure coach, what a crazy year. Go check out https://www.theforgeblog.co.uk/together-series plus the many other amazing blogs.

Those Good Junk Miles

There is a time and a place that the aforementioned Junk miles become a whole lot more thank Junk. We know the science behind the negative aspect of Junk Miles, (super quick explanation, our body learns from patterns and when we...
“How do I get through an endurance event mentally?” is a question that regularly comes up in conversations or on forum chats, with the most common of responses being keep your mind strong, stay focused, push through etc, etc....
Some riders swear by them, others aren’t so convinced. Oval chainrings can be a bit marmite, but are certainly here to stay, with Rotor fully dedicated to the cause for over 15 years, having developed their Q ring. As...
I have always enjoyed trail running. Over the years I have ran further and faster than I once thought possible, and I love every minute of it. The adventure, the progression and the feeling of pushing my limits make...
It is such an important part of anyone’s event or race yet is so overlooked and gets lost behind all those miles of training. What am I meaning by your mental racing state? That frame of mind you are in when...
As a coach, I spend so much time debunking crazily complicated training models and ideas that athletes bring to me. Our social media and standard media world love to pitch and sell to you that if it looks super...
More so than ever working as a coach is not about goals, results or events, it’s about caring for your athletes in a time when many are getting lost and feeling pressure from lack of focus. Coaches have a responsibility...
I wanted to address this topic again, as in the current climate many athletes are losing sight of training outlines, these outlines are normally focused around goals/events/challenges. Many of these goals have been lost in current Covid climate and so...
1.       Different surfaces mean very different things to a tyre: It’s difficult to describe the joy gained from seeing the newly tarmacked road you’ve been hauling on give way to loose gravel – finally, a lower friction surface to...
Purpose, belonging, teamwork, camaraderie – this is what the British Army gave me.  I spent over a decade of service as an officer in the Royal Engineers and was fortunate to deploy on operations to Afghanistan, as well as...
In February 2018, a few months of feeling unwell, my life was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with a large, low grade but life threatening brain tumour. It was causing brainstem compression that caused all sorts of...
As cyclists, a good bike position for comfort and performance is essential, adapting it to our riding preferences, whether we’re racing short events, multi day, long distance or ultra bikepacking events. Focus is on the contact points of hand...
High Power is a way of thinking with higher expectations and achieving richness in body and mind. A quest for knowledge and wisdom of the body, mind and spirit. Stripping all the unnecessary noise and allowing a clear and...
We start each day with a mountain to climb and for many of us, the start of a mountain is the hardest part. Why? The summit is so far off that the difficulties we face on these lower slopes seem...
I read somewhere once that, “success is firstly finding your happy place and secondly, getting paid to go there...” I don’t think there’s a better quote to sum up my life as a professional beach lifeguard. As a former elite triathlete...
The only race I did last year was the Pembrokeshire Ultra 34 miler.  Jon coached me for it as I was massively under prepared from spending most of the previous six months plodding around the hills of the UK...
These words are banded around a lot in the mountain culture and have made their way into all the various sports that I regularly pursue. From trail running and alpinism, where they make sense, drifting into skiing and even...
So how was it that a complete none runner ended up here, 3 days into a 5 day ultra, vomiting, drinking warm electrolyte mix, and baking in 40-degree heat. Lets take it back a few years. I was lucky enough...

Running Mt Toubkal

I’m sure I can’t be alone on this one? You and your partner are looking for a short break or holiday and you just have to find a way to link in a great challenge or adventure. So that’s what Morocco...
We had the option to delay when we saw the forecast mid-week. It was looking decidedly sub-optimal (and that’s the optimist in me speaking) and each of us took a long, hard think about it. Ultimately, attempting to ride...
Mountain guiding is unsurprisingly a strenuous profession, however as with anything it seems to get’s easier over time.  Being quite new to the game I found some of the psychological pressures and stresses to be the most draining part...
Failing in the outdoors is an important and necessary process in order to develop yourself. The modern ‘mountain athlete’ must be able to take the perceived failure and turn it into a positive. Sitting around spiralling due to backing off...
I have learnt a few things from long distance bikepack riding, namely about bike set up and products which help to avoid physical issues out on the ride. Having ridden bikes for the  best part of 25 years, my...
Skiing solo to the South Pole was physically hard. It was without doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve run some marathons, done a few ultras, run through the South Shropshire Hills. I’ve done a bit of wild...
Training during isolation We have been thrown into a crazy time with many people only allowed to leave their homes for a short walk or a trip to the supermarket. How, as athletes with training goals, do we cope and...

The Little Things

The Little Things I have found that as an athlete and coach, focusing on the little things can sometimes have the biggest impact. What do I mean? Ok, example 1. While running across the alps in 2017 I had 7 days...
In a world where we see on a daily (even minute to minute) the bodies of amazing athletes and models, we see people hitting the most amazing training sessions some people even advertising you too can get Abs in...
Nowadays it’s hard not to notice all the tech surrounding the endurance and adventure sports world, every day in social media an advert will pop us telling us the latest gadget we need to get our best run, best...
There is sometimes confusion on whether we should be using strength work in our training and what type of strength training we should use- when and how is best to apply it. Below I hope in simple terms to...
I am going to start this article with, its meant to be FUN.   Working with endurance and adventure athletes has shown me many patterns, some good and some not so.  Most of us are aware of the negative sides of...
This is topic is really important to riders of all levels as it can affect anyone. As a coach I have worked with many athletes and most at some point in their training have caught a cold, had flu etc....
Great friend and former E3C rider Sam Pantling was tasked with bike packing around Faroe and making a great film and blog which was used by the Tourist board of the Island.  Take a read, it's a beautifully crafted...

Take it to the max

Traveling to events around the world and listening to athletes talk about their training, keeps showing me a recurring theme, what methods they are using to measure performance, it is becoming clear still that athletes are not fully understanding...
WEMBO European 24hr MTB Championships – Penafiel, Portugal September 2019 Flying to Portugal for European 24hr Championships brought many new experiences including flying with a bike in tow and racing abroad. Limited time off from work meant I flew in...
Over the last five years I have been working with Jon with the primary aim of not making a fool of myself when aiming to compete rather than just attending the World 24-Hour Mountainbike Championships. I would consider myself quite...
This all began last winter with my goal of climbing 100,000m on skis. With a dry start to the winter this proved hard to get off the ground. I found myself skinning up pistes then walking back down them,...
October 4th Start of HOT training - These sessions are generic and can be adapted if needs be to make harder or easier. For those that are happy with their fitness training, you can grab some of the specific parts...