Brooke
When Brooke first started working with me, the goal was pretty straightforward:
Lose some weight and tone up for a holiday.
And she did exactly that.
But what started as a fairly typical fitness goal quickly became something much bigger.
Because somewhere along the way, Brooke stopped worrying so much about what her body looked like and started asking a much more interesting question:
“What can my body actually do?”
The starting point
Brooke came to me with a running background but cycling was a very different challenge.
When we started working together, she hadn’t ridden more than 30 miles on a bike for around five years.
Fast forward two years and things looked very different.
The focus had shifted from simply looking better to becoming stronger, fitter and capable of taking on challenges that once would have seemed completely out of reach.
And there was one particular challenge that would test all of that.
Taking on the Dragon
Brooke had crewed the infamous Dragon Ride for her brother the year before.
Watching him take it on had clearly planted a seed.
“So I crewed this ride for my brother last year and I’ve decided I’m going to sign up and give it a go myself!”
The Dragon Ride is no ordinary sportive.
Set in the Welsh countryside, it combines stunning scenery with some of the toughest climbs you can find on British roads.
Brooke opted for the Medio Fondo.
98 miles.
Around 8,000 feet of climbing.
And more than eight hours in the saddle.
When she told me she was doing it, the programming started almost immediately.
The preparation
We needed to build more than cycling fitness.
The plan had to:
👉 Prepare Brooke for the intensity of the event
👉 Build strength and resilience for the toughest climbs
👉 Give us enough flexibility to adapt when work and life inevitably got in the way
👉 And, importantly, allow enough time for recovery
From November onwards, Brooke worked through a four-week training rotation.
Three weeks of progressively increasing intensity, followed by a big-distance ride and then a recovery week.
It was demanding.
And Brooke's commitment was exceptional.
There were plenty of occasions when she would finish a 12-hour working day and still find herself in the gym at 8:30pm to get her training done.
Most people would have quite reasonably decided they had done enough for one day.
Brooke turned up anyway.
That consistency became one of the biggest reasons I was so confident she would complete the Dragon when the day finally arrived.
Conquering the Dragon
There were nerves.
There was plenty of hard work.
And there were some seriously tough climbs.
But Brooke didn't just complete it.
She bloody smashed it.
🚴♀️ 98 miles
⛰️ 8,000ft of climbing
⏱️ 8+ hours in the saddle
A huge endurance achievement and one that required months of preparation, commitment and resilience.
And perhaps the most amusing part?
When I asked Brooke to write about her achievements that year, she initially didn't even mention the Dragon Ride.
I had to point out that she had just successfully completed one of the toughest sportives in the country before she rewrote it. 😂
That is Brooke.
She has a habit of downplaying what she achieves and immediately looking at what she could have done better.
It's an admirable quality.
But sometimes you need someone to step back and say:
“Hang on a minute. Look at what you just did.”
What started with a holiday goal ended with 98 miles, 8,000 feet of climbing and more than eight hours on a bike in the Welsh mountains.
And that's what I love about coaching.
The goal isn't always about losing weight.
Sometimes it's about giving someone the confidence, strength and belief to discover what they're actually capable of.