Helen Russell - World Champion - Duathlete & Triathlete.

Helen is a Triathlete and Duathlete who is enjoying success as an age group athlete representing Great Britain. Since competing in her first triathlon in 2006 Helen has been very successful in multi-sport competitions, securing a number of victories and podium places in both, local, national and international Triathlons and  Duathlons.

Helen takes us back to how she first got into running and cycling and why she decided to take it up again, later on in life. She explains how she became a World Champion in both the Duathlon and Triathlon for her age category.  We discuss a wide variety of topics from coping with self doubt and how to break down large challenges into smaller more manageable chunks.

In the Tough Girl Podcast, we discuss the following:

• What a duathlon is
• Which is harder - duathlons or triathlons
• Why coaching helped to propel her forward 
• Tips for balancing fitness & training with a full time job
• The benefit of having a to do list
• Coping with self doubt & coping with the pressure of having to deliver in a race situation. 
• Mental strength training - positive visualisation, positive words, recognising negative thoughts and how to deal with them, positive self affirmation, and self affirming statements
• The use of music in warm ups & visualisation sessions 
• Tips for the start of an open water swim in a triathlon 
• One day Ahead Challenge - Cycling 2000 miles over 21 days, one day ahead of the professionals during the Tour de France
• Dealing with injury 
• Breaking challenges down into smaller parts
• How to choose the right saddle for you and reduce saddle soreness!
• Why change is good for you!
• Tips for cycling up those massive mountains

As always if you’ve enjoyed this episode please send a tweet to Helen @HelenGoth, I’m also on twitter @_TOUGH_GIRL! Helen also has her own website which you can check out at www.hrussell.co.uk . For the One Day Ahead Challenge, Helen was raising money for Cure Leukaemia. If you want to sponsor Helen for doing this fantastic challenge, you can find her just giving page here.

To celebrate the Tough Girl Podcast exceeding 5,000 downloads, there’s also a competition running until the end of the month to win a Tough Girl Training T-shirt. All you need to do is write a review in iTunes and let me know, either via twitter or email you've done it.

New Tough Girl episodes are published every Tuesday morning at 7am. Next month we have another four amazing women sharing their stories. 

Have a fantastic week, thanks for listening!

Sarah