My coaching and athlete journey is a long one, I have always swum and enjoyed competing and I had the opportunity at 14 to complete my ASA Helpers Certificate to help out with the younger swimmers in my swim team (Go Thirsk White Horse!) and that was it, I moved through all my swimming coaching qualifications through my club and worked as a swim teacher and coach for my local pool. This is now 25 years ago! I studied sport and leisure at university while continuing swim teaching and coaching for Leeds Masters, where I also swam and competed for and I began to experiment with triathlons and running.
After university, I worked for Virgin Active as the Swim Manager and kept this up as I trained to be a primary teacher.Teaching has so many cross over skills to coaching; being organised with planning, treating clients with care and respect, individualising sessions to suit the users needs, all these things have made me into the coach I am today.
During this time, I decided to run a marathon and joined Hyde Park Harriers, I loved the warm and welcoming atmosphere and how it felt to be part of a team. I began leading some of the sessions and completed my Leader In Running Fitness qualification. I have subsequently completed my Coach in Running Fitness and enjoy creating creative and engaging running plans which go beyond the generic online plans, that take into account life, injuries and plans.
Talking of life, mine changed when having my first child. Gone were the days when I could just train when I wanted, compete in any race I wanted and I had to reassess what I was to do. This is when I became one of Mark’s athletes. I really appreciated how he got it, understood how precious time is, how you can still train hard and smash goals without a massive impact on family life and under his coaching expertise, I shaved hours off PBs and became Yorkshire Champion in the Leeds StandardTriathlon in 2019! Working with Mark as an athlete gave me a good insight into how to be a great coach and how to be supportive, assertive and a little bit bossy while still caring!
In the last couple of years, and getting closer to 40, I realised I wanted to change the way my life was going. I have always wanted to be a Personal Trainer but until then, I had never been in the position to retrain. I began my training and instantly fell in love. I love planning and researching movements and exercises to build sessions that are balanced and interesting and work for the client. I spend my time researching how to support people in different seasons of life and how I can adapt, grow and change to support their needs. I have been in a fortunate position to have coached a wide range of clients including; juniors, post natal, menopausal, endurance athletes and athletes recovering from injury. I love the unique qualities coaching brings and the satisfaction of clients meeting their goals, whether it is running pain free, getting up off the floor, getting a PB in their 1 rep max or even committing to starting their fitness journey.