Leanne Wrightson - Founder of Blooming Wild Adventures and EBR Scholar

In the first episode of EBR Women, Clare Pearson speaks with Leanne Wrightson, owner of Blooming Wild Adventures and one of the 2026 EBR Women scholars.

Leanne’s journey into endurance cycling began after a period of burnout in her late twenties, when reconnecting with the outdoors became an important part of rebuilding her life. What started as a way to regain balance gradually grew into a passion for bikepacking and ultra-distance cycling.

In this conversation, Clare and Leanne explore how endurance sport can support mental wellbeing, the challenges of confidence and imposter syndrome in ultra events, and the realities of balancing training with work and life commitments.

They also discuss Leanne’s work helping other women discover bikepacking through Blooming Wild Adventures, creating supportive spaces for people to begin their own journeys in cycling and the outdoors.

EBR Women is a podcast from Endurance Bike & Run exploring the relationship between endurance sport, wellbeing and the wider journey of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Shall we just start with you just saying a little bit about yourself, how you got into bikepacking and um yeah, what it means to you?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Okay, um my name's Leanne, I APA Bloomy Wild Adventures, and uh when I was about 28 I first got into bike packing a very rustic way with a massive rucksack and a very cheap hardware, and I took myself up to the Isle of Aden for an overnight, and that was the start of my love for bikepacking. But I got there because I was basically burning out, I was doing too much for other people and not enough for myself, so yeah, that's where the connection with the landscape and the environment has started, and just trying to slow down a little bit and yeah, inject a little bit of fun back into my life.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Good, yeah. Um, fun is very important. Uh we kind of forget that, I think, sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, definitely. Because it's so serious when you get a bit older, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, it gets more and more serious, I think. So um you had um an adventure on Aaron, always a good place to start an adventure anywhere in Scottish Isles. Um, and you were bitten by the bug by the sounds of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yeah, definitely. Um that was the start as well of me changing my career. So I was uh a creator beforehand, and I specialized in dual sensory impairments. Um which I really loved. I loved the job, but the job was very tired and um yeah, it I just burnt out quite quickly after 10 years in the industry. And I went to a specialized outdoor center in the Lake District with my sister's school just to to help out. My sister has special needs, um, and that's when I was first introduced to people with additional support needs and access in the outdoors, and I was blown away just that I need to do this, I need to like start working with the people that I love working with and doing it in an outside environment. So it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Okay, great. And now, um, I mean your job is still around helping people access the environment, isn't it? That's still very much part of you and who you are. Um, but when you're not when you're not doing it, you're living it.

unknown 2:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Working play is good. Yeah, for me, it's important to just get outside as much as I can. I'm a big fan of micro adventures and just loading up the bike for a few days, and it doesn't work from traveling, you know, 50 miles or 200 miles as long as I'm just kind of getting out, and it's a human-powered journey. I can slow down if I want to, I can speed up if I want to, I can count whenever I drop, or you know, just choose somewhere that's really scenic and beautiful and slow down, just take a book with me, read, have a coffee, whatever I want to do. Yeah, the microadventures I think are actually the most important thing that I've learned over the years that's instructing and in my personal life as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Then you applied for the scholarship, um, the EBR scholarship. So, what was it that drew you to that?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Well, first of all, I thought it was a long shot. I had absolutely no chance of being successful. Um, but the fact that it was uh a scholarship for women, you know, I was like, oh, this is brilliant, what a great opportunity for women. Um, and I've dabbled in ultra endurance races, but I have struggled with my mindset on both of them. I knew physically that I was capable, but for some reason I couldn't get past the first couple of days without the rumination and the self-chatter that was so negative, and it would just stop, it would stop everything, and I couldn't get past it. So I was very aware that I needed some sort of like cognitive reframing coaching or something along those lines where I could speak to people who had lots of knowledge and experience. Um, and I knew that you'd worked with a couple of other women that I follow on Instagram who are um also neurodivergent like myself, so that you would have that experience to draw from, and and hopefully be able to like help me just pinpoint what the problem is and and give me some strategies to overcome them. And so far it's it's already working, and it's funny because I thought when I'd started that it would be like mental coaching and maybe some physical coaching as well, but I hadn't I hadn't realized how much central nervous system coaching that I needed, and I think that's where we're at just now. We're really focusing on like the rest and the recovery, and it's something that I knew I was terrible at, but I didn't I don't think I've really locked into it and just faced it head on, maybe. Perhaps I've been a little done. I'm not sure what the word is, but maybe I've just been trying to avoid it and thinking if I'm physically resting one day, that's enough, but it's not.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, it's it's not always, it depends how much we put ourselves through, doesn't it? Um, as well as to to how much rest we need. But um, yeah, it's a tricky balance, I think. Um, and it's easy to put quite a lot of demands on yourself and assume, oh well, I've I've I've rested for a day, so that must be all right then, I must be ready. Um and it's quite hard to uh listen to your body, um, which might be saying something else. Um and I think especially for neurodivergent people um who have some kind of ADHD or traits of ADHD, um, there's often um a deep desire to move because moving so moving soothes. Yeah. Um so it's really hard to get the balance right between feeling mentally calm and soothed, but also allowing your body some time to recover. Your brain is like a racing car, and you have a racing car brain like everybody else, but it doesn't have any brakes.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yeah, confirm. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Um, and I quite liked that analogy. I thought, oh yeah, that's that's quite a good analogy.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, that's good. That's very good.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

So, what do you think is most helpful for you about coaching so far?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Well, I think I've shared with you like my fitness program, and that's seems to be okay, and I can continue doing that. And to me, that feels good because it it felt good whilst I was doing it, so it's nice to get that reassurance. Um, all the dental training is really new to me. I had like a turbo and I'd never really used it. So the fact that I've got that set up now permanently and I'm using it. And even if it's just you know 30 minutes easy spin, like it's still it's still movement and it's still you know is on two training, and all of the zones are definitely new to me. I think I'm I do everything in at zone five, so it's quite nice to do things, yeah. Definitely a tempo girl, so it's nice to slow down and then actually see the difference. I I couldn't believe that run that I just did last week because it felt so easy, and I could have done it over and over and over again. Um yeah, so that's really good that the baseline the insurance baseline is is increasing and getting better. Uh yeah. I think, yeah, I think I was surprised. I just expected it to be more physical stuff, and it's been less. It's been, you know, maybe like you've asked me to do less gem sessions, which I totally agree with. I think I was doing far too much, and trying to incorporate, you know, some running and or shuttling, yeah, kind of some walks if I can't um do very much that day, and just really listening to my body and intuition and uh respecting those rest days as being actual rest days and not trying to say, oh right, so I'm not physically doing it. So mentally, what can I get my head busy around? You know, what can I work on? Any self-improvement or development? It's just like having an actual rest day. Uh so that's been monumental, I think, for me.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Well, I mean, I'm excited to see to see how it all all pans out as well over the year. It's it's a pleasure to work with you for sure. And I um I think um you are somebody who is very, very personally insightful. You kind of you're very good at self-reflection, you you know yourself really, really well. Um, so that makes it a really interesting journey. Um, and even more interesting because you're willing to be open about it, which I think is um often a side of coaching that people can find difficult. You know, they think just just tell me what to do and I'll do it. But I'm yeah, I'm not gonna share anything else with you. Um, but you've kind of come in at 100% and really emotionally invested, and I think that makes a big difference to how the coaching relationship develops and how we can then work together better because of it, because I understand more about you um and where you're coming from. Yeah. Um, and I do think training's a holistic you you you kind of coach in the whole person, it's not just it's not just the events, is it?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Absolutely, and I think it's so important to be transparent with you, you know. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing myself or yourself or the scholarship of service, it would just be just along for the ride and being a bit of a passenger. So I really wanted to be really honest and just give it everything that I could in something that does mean than sharing things that are uncomfortable to share, or having difficult conversations, or maybe admitting that actually I'm exhausted, or work was more tiring than I thought it was going to be. So, all of these things I think are important for training. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yeah, absolutely, so relevant. And then in terms of nutrition um and sort of feeding yourself on your bike pracking trips and stuff, how important, how easy is that, first of all, to not easy for me at all.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

I I struggle with it. I know quite a few people that struggle with feeling on the back. You can think, I like the good, why is this a big problem? But I just can't seem to consume enough. And then I get to a point where I'm just so nauseous that the thought of it is just so overwhelming, I can't even deal with it, which then puts you in an even bigger bowl. Um, but I have been I've been working on it, I've been trying to like drink carbs, um, use gels and bars, whatever, um keeping it like um light and frequent seems to work with me quite a lot. And yeah, just have a look at a big variety of stuff. There's no point of and I've done this so many times, patch my bag and be like, right, I've got these bars, and then you're on your you're on your journey and you look at them, and you're just like, I can't even look at them. I can't even look at them, never mind eat them. So I've definitely learned over the years about nutrition and just just trying to stay fueled. So I've definitely I've set up a little reminder on my Wahoo, and there was definitely points where I was just like Christ and dismiss. Right, okay. Yeah, like yeah, yeah, yeah. Dismiss, dismiss. And then two hours have gone by, and you're like, oh, I've just missed four four occasions, but I'm gonna be eating. Um yeah, definitely getting a bit better. And we have discovered that I probably I ate quite good and I have a high amount of protein and nutrients from like salad and fruit and vegetables, but not enough carbs. So I've definitely felt a difference. I don't know if it's because I've also had a week of really trying to like reset and recover, or if it's um because of the carbs as well. So I think it's probably a bit of both, but yeah, definitely increasing the carbs has been really good for me this week. Notice a difference.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, yeah, it's a big difference. It's not um, you know, because you I mean your diet is super healthy. Um, you know, most people look at your diet and go, Oh, yeah, that's super, super healthy. I think it's quite just when you when especially ultra endurance, it's just it's really hard to get the calories in, and you're often looking at food which somebody who's maybe not very active would be avoiding. You know, you're looking at really simple cards, you're looking at really sort of dense foods as well, you know. Whereas most people might be like, oh no, I'm not I'm not gonna have that because that's loads of cards, but then it's not very much, it's not a big portion, whereas you're looking for that because you think, right, that's really good because not bulking myself up, but I'm getting some, I'm getting the energy in that I need. It's it's a tricky one. Um but I'm pleased you've seen a difference. Um I think normally you would definitely see a difference both in your performance and your mood, because if you're low in carbs, then that it's not supporting you hormone health either, and that will see a a drop in your mood and your motivation as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And um, you know, obviously it was you that had noticed your your central nervous system was in in a bit of distress and your HRV was going down, your rate was going up. So um, I think that showed some really good teamwork, didn't it? Because you were looking at at those figures and you sort of shared them with me and went, hang on a minute, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah, um I think that's where it's important to be honest with, you know, it's as soon as I'm finding something out or I'm thinking about something, I think it's important for me to share that with me, and you know, like we could bring some ideas against each other or share knowledge or whatever it is, it's definitely helped. There's no point in me hiding it from you and think when you know everything's decreasing and my heart rate's rising, and the stress is like up here, and then you don't know this, and you're something on the same training program. So, like it makes no sense to to hide that, right? It's a lot of it being transparent.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

No, well you just dig yourself a hole as well, because you can very easily get really overtrained just because you're too stressed and um you know, and the training that you do do is a bit of a waste of time because you can't, you know, you don't respond to it in the same way.