A race review and testimonial by Avril Leonard, 21.10.25

Before working with Vicky I believed working with a coach was only for professionals therefore not for me. I became a fan of long-distance endurance events while living in New Zealand. The Kiwi’s love an endurance event and while living there I took full advantage of this; I had been a fan of long, hard challenges and this only grew. During this time, I got by on residual fitness from a physical job and active lifestyle. In 2019, I returned to the UK and in a bid to hold on to this part of my life, set my myself the goal of completing Celtman. But injury, the huge life shift, COVID pandemic, and a career change saw me getting further away from this goal and wondering if it was realistic.

Over the past 6 years I have taken on different events but my unstructured approach to training was not cutting it and the idea of trying to train on top of life often left me feeling overwhelmed; taking me away from the joy I once found in endurance events. I decided to make my goal more realistic by entering Celtman Solo Point Five and considered working with a coach for support. I needed to find someone. A friend had worked with Vicky Begg. They raved about her!! I got in touch and am very glad I did.

Much more than getting fitter

I didn’t really know what to expect from a coach; something along the lines of being given a plan and doing what was set. Little did I know how much tailored support Vicky would provide and how truly transformative this would be. In hindsight, any other approach would not have worked for me. Being AuDHD (both Autism Spectrum Condition and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) I struggle with instruction and become overwhelmed when there isn’t flexibility in my plans while simultaneously needing routine. With each week’s training based on feedback from the week before and careful consideration given to what was happening for me, Vicky’s approach felt super supportive of my needs. Vicky made great efforts to understand my cognitive rigidity, taking extra care to let me know everything on my plan was flexible.

I realised that providing better feedback on how each session went, the more Vicky would be able to adjust or question what was happening for me. I began to see that previous training and racing experience was connected with bad habits, misconceptions, self-sabotaging behaviours, and rules I had created for myself coupled with a propensity for critical self-talk. Week by week it felt like I was starting to unpick this. With what felt like infinite understanding for the difficulties I might encounter in different contexts, Vicky enabled me to be kinder to myself during training and, more importantly, when I was unable to train. When I was stuck in an immediate problem, she held a broader view helping me keep perspective on my goal. For example, when a knee injury flared up, with Vicky’s help I was able to adjust my expectations and activities while not loosing sight of the possibilities.

I started to call the way I was training compassion focused endurance training. Supported by Vicky I developed kindness for myself and asked, “How could I achieve my goal without beating myself up to get there? How could I better listen to my body? And how could I take care of myself both mentally and physically?” These lessons have been invaluable and brought even more joy to the challenges I set myself.

Focusing on what’s important

In setting goals for Celtman Solo, I found myself dancing between the quantitative: timings, speed, pace and qualitative: wanting to have a good time, to find joy in the landscape and embracing the adventure while not getting injured. It became apparent that what felt more important was how I completed the event not how fast I could do it. In working with Vicky I have learnt setting a quantitative goal is a slippery slope to a bad time (for me) and doesn’t fulfil my desire to love what I am doing. 

Celtman Solo Point Five

We were blessed with incredible weather on race day, making having a good time in a beautiful place much easier. Watching the sun rise over the Torridon mountains during the swim was incredible; even the ridiculous number of jellyfish was pretty cool. The bike was a dark time; I had to let go of arbitrary time goals I had set. Then the run; this was when the work with Vicky came into its own. I got off the bike and feeling able to move freely, set off for a wonderful time between beautiful hills.

I stuck to my plan to run/walk; taking care of my knees and with each step realised I was closer to achieving my goal of completing Celtman Solo. I finished feeling content, knowing in preparing I had done what I was able to, in the time I had, within the circumstances I had been handed. I couldn’t ask for much more.

Having Vicky supporting my training enabled me to maintain a consistent approach by holding me accountable to my goals while supporting me to see what was realistic. In finishing Celtman Solo I didn’t feel ready to give up working with Vicky. So, I set myself a couple of smaller challenges to keep me ticking over: Aviemore Triathlon and Glasgow Half Marathon. Vicky continued to help me see when my goal-setting wasn’t inline with what was best for me, simply by asking what was driving it.

I have learnt more over the past year than I could have imagined; much more than training for an event. I very much hope to work with Vicky again and with the full Celtman still on my bucket list, I’m sure I will.

With thanks to Avril for this super post!