Founded in 2024, Out And Back is about sustainable training in outdoor & adventure sports and learning how to develop and improve skills to get the most out of the sports you enjoy over your lifetime.
I specialise in swimming and running – from beginners just starting out on road & trail or their first open water swimming event, to experienced athletes looking for performance development towards specific goals.
I host fun, social, group workshops to develop advanced running skills and performance (road and off-road); improve swimming skills and strokes in the pool and in open water, and I provide professional mountain guiding for groups, individuals and women’s only events.
Click below to find out about our upcoming workshops.
I grew up in North Lancashire and the South Lakes and have been fortunate to spend nearly 30 years outdoors competing in and taking part in many different sports, activities and hiking & camping expeditions.
In my youth, I started off horse riding and playing hockey before competing in athletics, cycling, weightlifting and power lifting; racing for GBR age-group in triathlon in half ironmans and eventually to more individual adventure-based challenges like fell running, multi-day expeditions, and open water swimming, including long-distance end-to-end lake swims.
I have always been curious about trying new activities and giving things a go - unafraid of failing or being rubbish at them! At times, I have trained and competed seriously in cycling, triathlon and weightlifting. This means I have gone through all the stages of progression from total innocent newbie to veteran, so I have learned all the mistakes, tips, tricks and what works and what doesn’t.
I have coached people from their first road half-marathon to a double Paddy Buckley – taking a sustainable approach to sport and training doesn’t mean taking it easy. It means looking at how activities and training fit into your lifestyle and dial it up and down accordingly over the year so you can achieve personal bests and hit goals while staying healthy, injury-free and still be climbing mountains and swimming lakes in 10 to 20 years’ time.
Most of us are amateur athletes doing outdoor and adventure-based sports for fun, to maintain a healthy lifestyle, or combine it with travelling and seeing the world. ‘Outdoor sports’ covers a large umbrella, from lower intensity leisure activities like wild swimming or walking, to the moderate and extreme: fell & ultra running, long-distance swimming and multi-day expeditions. All of these activities can be achieved with a sustainable, long-term mindset.
Put simply, rushing from newbie to multiple ultra-marathons leads to burnout, injury and missing all the benefits outdoor exercise & training provides.
Outside of coaching, I worked in the professional sports industry for almost 15 years as a senior journalist and editor.
I primarily covered Formula 1, motor racing, cycling, and triathlon for national and global news organisations, including the BBC, ESPN, Eurosport, The Times and other specialist sports websites & magazines such as Outdoor Swimmer & 220 Triathlon.
Around 2023, I decided to upskill and undertake some new professional qualifications, and while doing that took the opportunity to gain my coaching qualifications too. It was at this point that it became clear that my past, present and future revolve around sports!