Former GB cyclist-turned-adventurer and solo ocean rower Annasley Park has built her life on the value of fortitude. In this episode of the Optimising Human Performance Podcast, she shares her journey, including her experiences with injury and burnout. She introduces the ‘fortitude mindset’, built on feral intelligence, visualisation, and emotion, and shares practical routines that anchored her through fear, fatigue and uncertainty.
Guest, Cast & Crew
Annasley Parks speaks from lived experience about leadership under pressure, performing in uncertainty, managing fear, and sustaining high performance without burnout.
At just twenty-nine years of age, she is the ninth solo, unsupported and independent woman in history to row three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean. A former professional cyclist, white-water raft instructor, Alpine chalet manager and superyacht deckhand. Annasley has spent over a decade working in demanding and unpredictable environments where resilience, adaptability, decision-making under pressure and self-leadership were essential skills.
Growing up on the military estates of Herefordshire, Annasley found her freedom in the mountains through sports, ultimately building a professional cycling career with the Great Britain Cycling Team, competing on the road and track, and signing for a UCI World Tour-level road team. However, injuries cut this chapter short, teaching her early lessons in rebuilding and resilience when identity and purpose is lost.
She went on to explore unconventional career paths that took her from source to sea. From Alpine chalet management to white-water rafting on the American rivers, and four years serving as a deckhand on superyachts, travelling all over the world with high-profile clients. Annasley gained unique insights into navigating diverse environments and thriving outside the conventional structures.
Despite her physical, mental and emotional fortitude, Annasley experienced severe burnout in 2023. That period led her to question what truly sustains people when pressure rises, plans fail, fear sets in, and motivation runs out. Her Ocean Survivoar Challenge became the ultimate test of all the knowledge, skills, resources and networks she had developed. In less than a year, she brought the project to the starting line, assembling a world-class team of experts in ocean rowing, communications, medical and equipment support, and more, ensuring the expedition's success.
Her Atlantic row was more than a test of endurance. It was a journey into the critical 20% zone. An unpredictable space she calls the messy middle, a threshold of transition where you are no longer who you once were, but not yet who you are becoming. This is a space where human capacity outlasts the plan. The lessons she learned in that zone form the foundation of The Fortitude System, built on the disciplines of solitude, magnitude and attitude of any given challenge or faced adversity, helping audiences convert chaos into clarity, overwhelm into sustainable performance and fear into action.
Hosted by Martin Jones & Jonpaul Nevin https://www.ophp.co.uk
Produced & edited by Bess Manley
Resources
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Chapters
01:23 Podcast Setup and Welcome
02:26 From Running to GB Cycling
04:06 Inside British Cycling Culture
08:03 Injuries Identity and Retirement
09:48 Where the Drive Comes From
10:49 Post Cycling Adventures and Burnout
18:25 Ocean Rowing Begins
21:17 Chaos at Sea
22:22 Fortitude Mindset Tools
24:46 Lows and Liminal Space
27:06 Scraping Barnacles
29:17 Bird Companion and Team
30:39 Flow State Ocean Signs
33:04 Purpose and Charity Mission
35:25 Advice for Young People
39:24 Enjoy the Middle Space
40:49 Where to Follow Next
41:27 Final Podcast Wrap
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