About tmr coaching
Meet our team of dedicated coaches and professional experts who will power you to your best endurance results
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Doug Stewart
FOUNDER & HEAD COACH
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George Blackwell
COACH
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Meg Smith
CYCLING COACH
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Dr Josephine Perry
SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST
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Helen Firth
PHYSIO & PILATES
Doug Stewart
“Working with Doug was a huge change: I could share both successes and struggles while we worked together for the same vision. He adapts and understands my journey and has coached me to a very successful year in my career. I find myself fitter, more motivated, and more prepared than ever for the next chapter. ”
– Robert Hajnal, Professional Ultra-Runner, 2022 Winner of Istria 100 by UTMB, Top 10 at Lavaredo Ultra Trail and UTMB Mont Blanc 2022
Doug is an experienced endurance athlete and coach, working with a mix of professional and non-professional athletes. He has coached runners to wins and multiple podiums in the UTMB World Series, including at the UTMB Mont Blanc, and to representing their countries in trail running world championships and Skyrunning World Championships. He’s also helped triathletes qualify for the Xtri World Series Championship (Norseman) and Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
He’s applied the same successful coaching approach to non-elite athletes, leading to 100% finish rate of runners achieving their goals at the UTMB Mont Blanc, Marathon des Sables and other major races worldwide.
Doug has completed a series of coaching qualifications, including: UESCA Certification in Ultrarunning Coaching, IRONMAN U Certified Coach, accreditations with TrainingPeaks Level 2, English Athletics and British Triathlon. He also holds the TrainingPeaks Power Certification qualification and makes use of the latest analytic software for athletes using power data, such as WKO5 and BestBikeSplit.
More recently, Doug received his MSc. in Performance Coaching from the University of Stirling. As of October 2022, Doug is a PhD candidate at Loughborough University in the UK, studying endurance performance and the athlete-coach relationship in a remote setting. He is also the Founder and Performance Coach for the Elite Trail Team.
Doug’s coaching advice has been featured in UK and US running magazines and on TrainingPeaks’ blog. His article on UTMB featured in the 2019 Athletes’ Choice Awards.
Outside coaching, Doug has completed some of the toughest mountain running and trail running races, ultramarathons and triathlons on the planet, including the UTMB, the Spine Race, Celtman Xtreme Triathlon, Swissman Xtreme Triathlon and Swedeman Xtreme Triathlon. He also enjoys competing in Skyrunning races and short and technical mountain challenges.
george blackwell
George is a Paralympic Centre Assistant Coach within British Paratriathlon's Elite Training Hub at Loughborough University, where he is also a Sports Science student and coaches within the university's triathlon and athletics programmes. He works with a range of abilities, with some athletes simply looking to complete their first competitive race, while others looking to win national medals at British Universities Competitions and earn international representation for GB at Junior and U23 Levels.
George’s approach with athletes is person centred, orientated around what they want from the sport, their coach and their training. He combines these factors to find a tailored, sustainable routine that leaves athletes happy day to day and satisfied with their progression.
He also takes pride in his knowledge of exercise physiology and sees reviewing training data as a pivotal part of informing the training he sets for any individual, using heart rate, power and any other metrics available to make each programme as specific as possible to each athlete.
George holds multiple coaching certifications, including British Triathlon Level 1 and Level 2, England Athletics Coaching, TrainingPeaks Level 2, and NFCE Level 2 Counselling Skills.
As for his own training, George has a keen interest in all distances and styles of racing within triathlon and distance running, but especially trail and ultra distance races. He’s a proud Manxman, growing up running on the Manx Hills which is fundamental to his passion for trail running. He competes in long distance races and his current main goal is setting a Fastest Known Time attempt at the Raad Ny Follian, the 98 mile coastal footpath of the Isle of Man.
Fun fact: George’s first sporting passion was actually rugby, where he represented Scotland at both U16 and U19 levels.
MEG SMITH
Meg is in the final year of her Sports and Exercise Science Degree at Loughborough University. She also works for the Female Elite Development Cycling Team, Hutchinson-Brother UK as a Sports Director and Performance Support.
When she took a step back from racing at national level herself, Meg decided to follow her passion and pursue a career in cycling coaching and as a performance practitioner.
At the start of 2021, Meg was selected as 1 of 18 scholars nationwide for the British Cycling Total Computers Coaching Scholarship, a 2-year coach development programme. This opened the door to coaching education and qualifications, as well as to important networking opportunities. Some highlights include:
Launching the Eliud Kipchoge Cycling Development Centre in Kenya with the Ineos Grenadiers
Supporting Commonwealth Games and Nation Cup preparations with the GB Track Squads
Support and delivery of National Schools of Racing in the East Midlands
Opportunities to shadow and support delivery of coaching sessions to elite athletes in different high performance sporting environments
Meg’s year in industry experience was done working for Loughborough Sport as a Performance Physiologist. She supported the external physiology service, providing testing and feedback to athletes preparing for a range of events, including the Marathon Des Sables, Ironman triathlons, the Marmotte Cycling Challenge, Everest Trail Race and the Western States Endurance Run.
In April 2023, Meg joined the Hutchinson-Brother UK Female Cycling Team as Sports Director and Performance Support. She leads on logistics around race days, cooks for the riders and support staff, advises on nutrition strategies, performs glorified soigneur duties, and is team Mom and race day support!
Meg’s coaching philosophy and belief system is centred around developing cyclists both as high-performance athletes, and more importantly, as people. Whether the athletes win or lose comes secondary to her primary aim: to ensure that they are better people for having worked with her. There's more to life than bikes and a power meter - there's a person behind all of that who needs care, support and development, a journey that Meg is committed to being as invested in as the rider / athlete she works with.
Meg has coached a range of cyclists, from athletes looking to improve their fitness, to age group cyclists aspiring to be competitive at the Marmotte and E’Tape Sportives and student athletes competing at National and British University Competition Level.
Meg has completed a series of coaching qualifications, including: British Cycling Level 1, British Cycling Level 2 General, British Cycling Level 2 Road and Time Trial, British Cycling Level 2 Track, British Cycling Level 2 Cyclocross, British Cycling Level 3 Road.
Dr Josephine Perry
Dr Josephine Perry is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist who supports those in sport, on stage and in their professions to maximise their success. She joins team TMR Coaching to help athletes with their mental training, as a complement to coaching from either Doug or George.
Josephine focuses on ultra-endurance athletes and those who are VIPs (Very Intelligence Perfectionists), helping them to overcome performance anxiety and become braver in their challenges. She writes extensively in the media and has published five books: Performing under Pressure: Strategies for Sporting Success, The Psychology of Exercise, I Can: The Teenage Athlete’s Guide to Mental Fitness, Power Down to Power Up and The 10 Pillars of Success.
Helen Firth
Helen is a Physiotherapist with over 20 years of clinical experience and a certified Pilates Instructor with the Australian Pilates Physiotherapy Institute. She provides dedicated physiotherapy support to the coaching team and helps TMR athletes stay injury free and work on their key areas of development to improve their performance through Pilates.
Helen is a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and The Health and Care Professionals Council with an NHS role specialising in Pain Management at one of the UK’s leading Pain Centres.
She created our Pilates for Runners programme and also offers face to face Pilates classes at Altrincham Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic, as well as online classes from her studio in Timperley.
Helen is a keen runner having recently completed the Manchester half marathon, enjoying the benefit of Pilates first hand! She also has good insight into the preparation and recovery of ultramarathons from having been the key support for her husband’s many adventures.
Our services
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Reach your performance goals with highly detailed training plans optimised for the TrainingPeaks platform. Bespoke to the type of event and challenge ahead
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Personalised performance coaching for professional and amateur endurance athletes
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First-hand race information, bespoke race day prep materials, and a wealth of knowledge in your inbox via our newsletter, blog, and speciality articles
Our favourite adventures
The montane spine race
A winter endurance adventure like no other on the British Pennine Way. Find out the lessons Doug learnt by completing the gruelling 268-mile run in January 2022.
doug’s first utmb
Racing the UTMB Mont Blanc in 2019 was a lifelong dream… but one that could have ended very early on without proper mental prep! Find out how Doug trained for the race and read about his unique in-race challenge.