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VOOM Performance Podcast

VOOM Performance Podcast

Written by: VOOM Performance
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Welcome to VOOM Performance – the podcast exploring the people, stories, and ideas shaping endurance sport and outdoor adventure.


From nutrition, health, and performance to diversity on the trails, race director insights, and inspiring athlete journeys, we speak to experts, athletes, and industry leaders to uncover what it takes to perform at your best.


Whether you're training for your next event, seeking new challenges, or simply passionate about the outdoors, VOOM Performance delivers practical advice, fresh perspectives, and inspiring conversations to fuel your next adventure.

© 2026 VOOM Performance Podcast Hygiene & Healthy Living Running & Jogging
Episodes
  • You’ll Never Know If You Don’t Give It a Go: Lindsey Cole on a Life of Adventure

    You’ll Never Know If You Don’t Give It a Go: Lindsey Cole on a Life of Adventure
    Oct 15 2026
    Share with us your thoughtsWhat happens when you stop asking "where should I live?" and start asking "who wants to go for a swim?"A drowning cow in the River Thames. A thousand miles on foot along a fence in the Australian outback. Roller skating to Bude in a nude suit, because it rhymed. And a two-week cycle to Scotland that somehow turned into six months of swimming with strangers, from the most northern beach in Shetland to the Isles of Scilly.In this episode of the VOOM Performance Podcast, adventurer, author and "urban mermaid" Lindsey Cole joins Mel Berry to talk through a life of curious, purpose-driven adventures, and the new book that came out of the most unexpected one of all: Swimming with Strangers.This is a warm, funny and deeply honest conversation about what drives someone to keep saying yes. Lindsey talks openly about losing her dad while backpacking in Australia, and how a triathlon became her way of finding a path through grief. She shares the story of retracing the 1931 journey of Molly, Daisy and Gracie along the Rabbit-Proof Fence, meeting Daisy at 96, and being welcomed in by Molly's family at Jigalong. She explains how a sting from a piece of plastic while freediving in Bali led to swimming around 120 miles of the Thames in a mermaid tail in November, living on ginger nut biscuits, and how one viral newspaper headline about a rescued cow opened the door to a whole community of wild swimmers across Britain and Ireland. Along the way she covers her four Ironman-distance races, how she coaches nervous swimmers back to basics, why she's "the worst person to ask about nutrition", and an impulsive trip to Miami for the 2026 World Cup in the middle of IVF.Lindsey is an adventurer, author, cold-water swimmer and environmental campaigner based near Bristol. She has cycled to the World Cup in South Africa, walked the Rabbit-Proof Fence, circumnavigated Australia with truck drivers and swum the length of the Thames as a mermaid to highlight plastic pollution. She is the author and illustrator of the children's books The Mermaid and the Cow and The Mermaid, the Otter and the Big Poo, and Swimming with Strangers is her first book for adults.Whether you're dreaming up your first adventure, nervous about getting into open water, or just looking for a reminder of how much kindness there is out there, this episode has something for you.In this episode you'll learnHow Lindsey went from TV sports broadcasting to full-time adventurer, and why her first triathlon became a turning point after losing her dadWhy every adventure needs a purpose, from investigating hamburgers on roller skates to raising money for the British Heart FoundationThe story behind walking 1,000 miles of the Rabbit-Proof Fence in 2016, and what it meant to meet Daisy and Molly's family at JigalongHow a piece of plastic in the Indian Ocean led to swimming the Thames in a mermaid tail in six-degree water, and why monofin swimming is so tough on the bodyHow rescuing a drowning cow outside Oxford went viral and turned into six months of cycling and swimming with strangers across Britain and IrelandWhat "home" means when you've spent years on the move, and the communities that made cold water feel like belongingLindsey's back-to-basics approach to coaching nervous swimmers: push off like a rocket and learn to love being streamlinedHonest fuelling lessons from Ironman Nice, multi-day swims and why ginger nut biscuits (and passion fruit cheesecake) earn their placeWhy you should listenIt's easy to look at Lindsey's list of adventures and assume she's fearless, organised and endlessly confident. She's the first to say she isn't. What comes through in this conversation is someone who feels everything deeply, who says yes before she's worked out how, and who keeps finding that ordinary people are kinder than we give them credit for. Her mantra, that you'll never know if you don't give it a go, is a nudge for anyone sitting on an idea they've been too nervous to start.If you're interested in wild swimming, adventure, cold water communities, grief and resilience, or just want an hour of brilliant storytelling, this is an episode you won't want to miss.If you enjoy this episode of the VOOM Performance Podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review and share it with someone who would love Lindsey's story.Resources & LinksLearn More About VOOM NutritionVOOM Nutrition creates science-backed sports nutrition products designed for endurance athletes, helping support energy, hydration, recovery, and performance across training and racing.Explore the full range of products at: https://www.voomnutrition.co.uk/Whether you're training for your next ultra, marathon, sportive or open water swim, Voom Nutrition helps you fuel smarter so you can perform at your best.About Lindsey Cole https://www.instagram.com/stompycole/Lindsey Cole is an adventurer, author, cold-water swimmer and environmental campaigner. Her journeys include cycling to the FIFA World ...
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    58 mins
  • Mastering Ultra Running: Insights from Paul Tierney

    Mastering Ultra Running: Insights from Paul Tierney
    Sep 10 2026
    Share with us your thoughtsWhy does injury so rarely arrive the way you expect it to?Ankle sprains that quietly change how you move years later. Knee pain in elite athletes that isn't really about "bad form." A right way to run that, on closer inspection, doesn't really exist.In this episode of the VOOM Performance Podcast, running rehab specialist and coach Paul Tierney joins Mel Berry to unpack one of the trickiest problems in endurance sport: why injuries happen, why they're rarely as simple as "you're moving wrong," and what to actually do about it.This is a deep, practical conversation about treating running as a movement skill that's continually refined rather than something fixed with a cookie-cutter drill. Paul talks through the polarised (80/20) training debate and where it breaks down for time-poor athletes, whether back-to-back long training days are worth the injury risk, why so many elite runners seem to pick up knee injuries around the same time, and the role of "movement degeneracies" - the subtle variations in how your foot hits the ground that keep you robust over decades of running. He also answers a series of listener questions from Matt, a 58-year-old masters athlete, on cycling as cross-training, isometric versus traditional strength work, and ageing as a runner.Paul is a coach and running rehab specialist with over 20 years of experience, a former Wainwrights record holder and Lakeland 100 winner, and a former inter-county hurler with Cork in his native Ireland. He runs Missing Link Coaching in Ambleside, Cumbria, alongside his partner and fellow international mountain runner Sarah McCormack, and also works out of a physio clinic in the Lake District one or two days a week, specialising in the technical and physiological development of trail and road runners.Whether you're managing a current niggle, trying to figure out how much of your training week should be easy versus hard, or just want a more useful mental model for injury than "fix your form," this episode has something for you.In this episode you'll learnWhy running is better treated as a movement skill to keep refining than a "correct" technique to installWhat the 80/20 polarised training debate actually means for someone with limited hours in the weekWhether back-to-back long training days help or hurt when you're training for a 50k-plus ultraHow cycling can be used to build engine and manage injury risk as a masters athleteIsometric versus traditional strength training, and why "run-specific ISOs" can be a powerful (if divisive) toolWhy so many elite athletes seem to pick up knee injuries around the same time, and what "movement degeneracies" have to do with itHow differential learning, varying technique deliberately instead of drilling one "correct" way, can be used to teach pole technique and running formHow to build a simple traffic-light system for deciding whether to train through a niggleWhy you should listenIt's easy to go looking for the one drill, the one cue, or the one biomechanical fix that will keep you injury-free. Paul's argument is that no such thing exists, and that chasing it can do more harm than good. Instead, this conversation gives you a genuinely useful way of thinking about coordination, robustness, and why your body's ability to subtly change how it moves is a strength, not a flaw to be corrected. Paul's straight-talking, no-BS approach to coaching, backed by two decades of working with athletes of every level, makes this essential listening for anyone managing a niggle, building a strength routine, or just trying to train smarter for longer.If you enjoy this episode of the VOOM Performance Podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review and share it with someone who would benefit from Paul's insights.Resources & LinksLearn More About VOOM NutritionVOOM Nutrition creates science-backed sports nutrition products designed for endurance athletes, helping support energy, hydration, recovery, and performance across training and racing.Explore the full range of products at: https://www.voomnutrition.co.uk/Whether you're training for your next ultra, marathon, sportive or open water swim, Voom Nutrition helps you fuel smarter so you can perform at your best.About Paul Tierney https://www.instagram.com/paulmissinglink/Paul Tierney is a running rehab specialist and coach with over 20 years of experience, a former inter-county hurler with Cork, and the Wainwrights record holder and a Lakeland 100 winner. He runs Missing Link Coaching with his partner Sarah McCormack, working with athletes of all levels on technical and physiological development for trail and road running, alongside rehab work out of a physio clinic in the Lake District.Missing Link Coaching https://www.missinglinkcoaching.co.uk/If you're getting into, or already established in, trail and ultra running and want coaching or rehab support, this is where to find Paul, Sarah and the Missing Link team.Research mentioned in this episodeKiely, J. (...
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    58 mins
  • The Fastest Human Ever Across the Alps: Sophie Grant on 28 Days, No Sleep, and Beating Both Records

    The Fastest Human Ever Across the Alps: Sophie Grant on 28 Days, No Sleep, and Beating Both Records
    Aug 24 2026
    Share with us your thoughtsWhat happens when you stop putting a limit on yourself?Four hours' sleep a night, 40 degree heat, wildfires closing the trail in front of her. And somewhere in the middle of it all, the fastest human being, man or woman, ever to cross the Alps on foot.In this episode of the VOOM Performance Podcast, record-breaking ultrarunner and coach Sophie Grant joins Mel Berry to talk through her extraordinary Via Alpina Fastest Known Time: 2,000km, eight countries, and the equivalent of climbing Everest from sea level twelve times, completed in 28 days 17 hours, smashing both the women's and men's previous records.This is a raw, honest conversation about what it actually takes to hold together body and mind over 28 days of near-permanent movement: fuelling on 6-7,000 calories a day, running on three to four hours' sleep, navigating storms, wildfires and a genuinely terrifying lightning strike above the treeline. Sophie talks openly about how she fell back in love with her body after IVF and the grief of infertility, why consistency (not any single big session) is what actually makes an athlete, and why she doesn't want women's achievements measured only against men's.Sophie is a UK Athletics Coach with Centurion Coaching, a GB international trail and mountain runner, and a former hairdresser turned two-decade veteran of ultra running, with results across everything from 5km to the 330km Tor des Géants and the Winter Spine Race. She also stars alongside fellow ultrarunner Stephanie Case in the documentary Off Course, which follows their parallel journeys through infertility and elite sport.Whether you're training for your first ultramarathon, thinking about fuelling and foot care for long days in the mountains, or just want to hear what it really takes to break a record most people wouldn't attempt, this episode has something for you.In this episode you'll learnHow Sophie went from a reluctant PE-dodging schoolkid and hairdresser to the fastest person ever across the Alps. Why consistency, not any single big session, is what actually builds a stronger runner. How she and her husband George planned and crewed a 2,000km, 28-day self-supported FKT. The realities of fuelling 6-7,000 calories a day and managing feet, sleep and decision-making on almost no rest. How going through IVF and infertility changed her relationship with her body. Why she resists the narrative that women's performances should be measured against men's records.Why you should listenIt's easy to focus on the headline number, fastest ever across the Alps, and miss everything underneath it: the years of consistency, the planning with her husband and crew, the fuelling strategy built through a decade of trial and error, and the very human moments of fear, grief and doubt along the way. Sophie's honesty about IVF, about needing her parents to only say "good things," about nearly being struck by lightning, makes this a conversation about far more than running.If you're interested in ultra running, fastest known times, women in endurance sport, fuelling and foot care for multi-day efforts, or building a training approach that actually lasts, this is an episode you won't want to miss.If you enjoy this episode of the VOOM Performance Podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review and share it with someone who would benefit from hearing Sophie's insights.Resources & LinksLearn More About VOOM NutritionVOOM Nutrition creates science-backed sports nutrition products designed for endurance athletes, helping support energy, hydration, recovery, and performance across training and racing.Explore the full range of products at: https://www.voomnutrition.co.uk/Whether you're training for your next ultra, marathon, sportive or open water swim, Voom Nutrition helps you fuel smarter so you can perform at your best.About Sophie Grant https://www.instagram.com/sophieamygrant/Sophie Grant is a New Zealand-born, GB international ultra and mountain runner who set the fastest known time, men's or women's, for the 2,000km Via Alpina route across eight countries, completing it in 28 days 17 hours from Trieste to Monaco. She is a UK Athletics Coach with Centurion Coaching, working with athletes of all abilities, and has raced everything from 5km to the 330km Tor des Géants and the Winter Spine Race, with top-ten finishes at UTMB.A former hairdresser who took up running after moving from New Zealand to London, Sophie has since built a career around endurance, coaching and advocacy for women in the sport, drawing on her own experience of infertility and IVF to push for better support for female athletes.Watch Off Course https://kendalmountainplayer.com/programs/off-courseSophie's documentary with fellow ultrarunner Stephanie Case, following their parallel journeys through infertility, loss and elite ultra running.Coaching with Sophie https://centurioncoaching.co.uk/coaches/sophie-grant/If you're getting into, or already established in, ultra running ...
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    57 mins
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