People quite often ask how it’s possible to perform at a high level in so many different sports. I’ve always thought if you train your body to every component of fitness; speed, power, flexibility, strength, endurance and agility; then your base level of fitness will be very high.
From there, you pick up new sports very fast and it’s just about training specific skills, that’s the hard bit!
But it seems to work for me. In 2013, I won a gold medal in the European Martial Arts Open Championships, in 2014 two podium finishes in ultra-marathons and ranked 9th on Woman’s UK Pro Surf Tour in the 2014-2015 season.
I’m only one of very few who has studied a degree in Surf Science and Technology! It’s only offered in a couple of places in Australia and England. The course covers everything about the surf industry from event management to ecology to shaping our own surfboards.
Studying the ocean in depth helped me build knowledge about surviving in coastal environments. But I’m more grateful for my family’s choice to live near Dartmoor that’s gotten me into a position to work for Bear Grylls.
Working for Bear Grylls (I’m one of his outdoor experts helping teams with their challenges on ITV) is great. He’s an extremely generous and humble man who fully supports his team. I have learnt so much from everyone, they are all so inspiring and knowledgeable.
When I was six years old I ran my first race, a local 3-mile event. I loved the simplicity of no equipment and not having to think about too much. You just run!
I think my biggest sporting achievement is being the youngest ever runner and first woman, including setting a new female course record, at the Snowdonia ultra-marathon in 2014 when I was 21. It was a self-navigated, 60mile ultra-marathon across a harsh mountain range in Wales and my first event past 30miles.
It was such an achievement for me because it’s the first time I ever really felt pain to that extreme.
I have ran longer distance events since and competed at a much higher level in other sports, but that was the first time I really had to drown out the voice telling me to quit. I pretty much collapsed over the finish line in tears. It was so tough and I was so surprised I managed to finish the event in such a good time.
I always loved running. The great beauty of it is you can do it anywhere and it costs nothing but your time.
I began dancing having done gymnastics when I was very young. I moved on to martial arts because it was very similar, just uniformed dancing. Then surfing became dancing on water and snowboarding dancing on snow!
The success of doing well in each sport comes purely from your mind. It comes down to your desire to achieve, the drive to push yourself and your ability to never quit and keep your visions strong.
It’s quite difficult for me to not enjoy sports. I really love everything I have tried! The sports I find the hardest are ones that require hand-eye coordination or patience, table tennis is definitely not my expertise!
I have always put training first. Even when I was 11 I used to get up and early and run before school. When people began to hit the party scene in their teenage years, I was in the gym and getting an early night ready for an early start training.
My fresher’s week entailed evening runs and 5am rises to hit the ocean. I’ve always put training before academic study too. It just comes down to priority, always wanting to be on top of my game physically.
I find it so difficult to train for multiple sports at the same time. So I change my focus depending on my location. When I’m by the ocean, it’s all about surfing, swimming and running. When I was on tour with Jasmin Vardimon’s apprentice dance company JV2 in 2015, I only had time to dance. In the mountains it’s all about snowboarding and endurance work in the gym!
Especially with dance, it’s mentally draining to focus on one thing. There becomes very little room to give much attention to other sports, so one at a time is what works best for me.
On average, I train for around 6-7 hours a day. When I’m near a gym, I will do a lot of strength training with free weights. I run on average 5 days a week, either sprint sessions or endurance.
When I’m by the ocean I surf for 4-6 hours a day, in the mountains surfing is replaced by snowboarding. During dance rehearsals, training lasts for about 7 hours and I would either swim or gym for 2 hours before or after.
I don’t eat much meat, just chicken to aid muscle repair. I eat a lot of protein from pulses such as lentils and chickpeas, and I also love eggs!
I eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and also lots of rice for carbohydrate. I think people need different diets and it’s best to trial and error with your diet until your find what works well for your body.
I use these as guidelines but it’s all about what works well for the individual. An average day for me in the UK would look like this:
6am – 6 mile run
7.15am – Breakfast:
2 x scrambled eggs on 1 piece of sourdough toast
½ Avocado
Handful of Spinach
8am – Surf for 2 hours
10am – 4pm – Work (surf coaching)
Lunch: Chicken Salad with mixed greens, carrot and lentils with a fruit salad.
4.30pm – Snack:
Handful of nuts
Banana
5pm – 7pm – Gym training (Weights and spinning)
7.15pm – Dinner
Rice dish with mixed vegetables and some form of protein.
Natural yoghurt with honey.
9.00pm – Stretch and foam roll.
9.45pm – Bed.
Growing up on Dartmoor in Devon really pushed me towards sports that were ruled by nature. I love running outside on trails and in fields.
Being in nature inspires me a huge amount, more than anything really. I love that you have no control over the conditions. You have to be able to understand the ocean and mountains and hugely respect them. There is so much beauty in being ruled by nature, you don’t decide when or where to go, she does!
One of the great things about sports in nature is you travel to find the best mountains or the best waves, and it’s always so different wherever you go.
Historically, humans were active to hunt food and build shelter. If you were stronger and faster you could provide more. We were built to be active, learned the skills and instincts for life in the wild.
There are still so many small communities across the globe that live in complete simplicity, still hunting for food, building their homes from natural materials and taking part in tribal sports. I feel it’s such a shame most of the world has lost the ability, and the desire, to live like this.
I’ve travelled extensively and began travelling at a relatively young age. Generally speaking, work and sport are at the heart of my travel but the best foreign trip that didn’t revolve around sport was in Ghana at 17 years of age helping build a school.
I stayed with a small group of volunteers in a dense jungle village helping to build a primary school for the children. They hadn’t really seen women building before so we got a big audience! The children were so grateful for our help, so beautiful and happy. I will never forget the smiles I saw on that trip.
I think in some ways, all sports complement each other. It’s so funny when I turn up to ultra marathons because generally speaking, the people who do well are really tall and have nothing to them. I look like an odd ball because by comparison I’m very young, quite short and stocky with lots of upper body muscle. I train my body for explosive sports and my mind for endurance. It seems to work well for me so I’ll stick with that for now!
I’m inspired by what people achieve in the most difficult circumstances. I’m inspired by every Olympic athlete, because to get to their level you have to give every second of your world.
The success of doing well in each sport comes purely from your mind
People who get to 40 and decide to run their first 5k after having never run before, or by people who find happiness and light from awful loss and devastation inspire me. Men and woman who have been to war and return with PTSD or missing limbs and manage to find a way to deal with their trauma.
I’m also inspired by the simple things. I love watching ants carry more than their own body weight up trees, or watching kids move snails off paths so they’re not stepped on! Watching the sun rise above mountains, listening to great music, seeing beautiful art and watching people and animals go out of their way to help others.
I constantly set goals and targets. I can’t imagine life without goals. They keep me going and striving for achievements. I am always open to being flexible for the next thing.
I always make sure I have one thing every month that I’m reaching for. Either compete in a race, learn a new skill, maybe a new snowboarding or surfing trick, or a dance manoeuvre! It could be to set a new personal record for number of press ups or 400m run, or even just re-connect with my nearest and dearest or inspire a stranger!
Right now I’m Indonesia teaching people to surf, so my instant goal is for them to leave happy and inspired to continue surfing!
My personal goals this year are to come in the top 5 overall and first lady in the Fan Dance in June (24km race up and down mountains carrying 35lbs, that’s 16 kilo bags of sugar!) and up my surf training to compete in the Boardmasters Surf festival in August. I’ll also work on my dance technique to get back into auditions in September and have some podium finishes across the ultra-marathon circuit over the summer months.
Whist in Canada the winter just gone, I began training in crossfit, which I fell in love with so I would like to train hard in crossfit over the summer and my long-term goal is to get to completion level in this by the end of 2016.
I’m definitely competitive! But I’m my own biggest competitor!
I love to do well in competitions against other people, but as long as I finish happy with my own result or performance then I will be content. I like to finish things feeling like I have nothing left, if I know I could have done more, regardless of my finishing position, I’ll be disappointed.
I’m driven by 3 things, the desire to see what my body is really capable of if I keep pushing it. I think a lot of ultra-distance runners have this same drive. I think the human body is capable of such incredible things, and I really want to see what I can do with mine!
Secondly I’m driven by the fear of inadequacy. I hate the thought of quitting or not being capable of finishing something. I have felt inadequate before and I never want to feel that again. It’s only ruled by my own mind, but I’m actually very thankful I have this fear to push me.
My final drive comes from the desire to inspire people. Inspiring people in whatever way helps. To inspire to be positive, strive for happiness, take on a challenge, to travel, to dream, anything!
Above all, I have always wanted to make my mum proud. She has invested so much of her time into helping me reach my dreams and goals, if I continue to make her proud then I will forever be happy.
Follow Sarah’s adventures at www.sarahmaythomson.com
