About Us – Bike Life

About Bike Life Coaching

Hello, I'm Emma.

I’m a Brisbane-based cycling coach, mountain bike skills instructor, fitness instructor, and the founder of Bike Life Coaching.

I’ve been riding and racing bikes for over 10 years, after first discovering mountain biking at the age of 41. The fact that I’d barely ridden a bike before this made mountain biking an interesting midlife “hobby” choice, to say the least, but it’s one I wouldn’t change for anything! From those early rides, where I struggled just to stay upright, I developed my love of riding – albeit with a few bruises along the way. As my skills progressed and my fitness increased, I was encouraged to try mountain bike racing, and I’ve enjoyed training for and racing in off-road endurance events ever since. I’ve raced in everything from cross country (XCO and XCC), cyclocross, gravel, cross country marathons, 12-hour and 24-hour mtb solos, and multi-day bike packing events and have even dabbled in enduros – but it’s the endurance events that captivate me most.

I'm an everyday athlete.

I consider myself to be very much an everyday athlete. Even so, I’ve achieved things that my younger self would never have believed possible – thanks to good coaches and a commitment to training – and have podiumed at local, state, national and world championship (WEMBO) level in different endurance events. (Yes, I still pinch myself!) Some of my proudest moments, though, are more about PBs than podiums: finally riding to the top of a particular hill without stopping (and later using this same hill for hill repeats!), riding 100km for the first time, completing my first full BVRT ride (161km), riding 200km for the first time, (finally) cracking 300km in a 24-hour solo mountain bike race and, in 2025, completing my first ABSA Cape Epic.

I'm NICA skills accredited.

Suffice to say that off-road cycling has now taken over my life! In 2018 I qualified as a mountain bike skills instructor and ran an after-school mountain bike club where I worked as a teacher. I subsequently went on to become a skills instructor for beginner to intermediate mountain bikers of all ages (a role I still love!), rode as a pilot for a blind cyclist, and even did some gravel guiding for tour groups in Stanthorpe and on the Sunshine Coast. I work for AusCycling as a course facilitator, running Foundation and Development Instructor Courses around Australia (talk about a dream job!), and in 2025 I became one of the first accredited NICA Skills Instructors in Australia.

In 2020 I completed my AusCycling Development Coach accreditation, to learn more about the physiological and psychological components of training and was quickly approached by several friends and acquaintances looking for coaching. This was the perfect introduction to coaching, with athletes I coached going on to compete in everything from XC to 24-hour races and enduros to multi-day bikepacking events, achieving PBs and podiums at local, state, national and world championship (WEMBO) races. I realised I had discovered my passion: helping other everyday athletes achieve their own fitness and performance goals with custom coaching, personalised training plans and a high level of individual support.

We launched in 2025.

In 2025 I took a leap of faith, stepped back from my long-term career as a teacher and launched Bike Life Coaching with one clear goal: to help everyday athletes achieve their cycling goals. Bike Life Coaching provides science-backed custom coaching and individual training plans that consider each athlete’s goals, fitness, background, commitments and more. All plans incorporate cycling workouts, strength training, mobility, and recovery protocols (as requested) to ensure the development of the complete athlete (and the complete human!). I work with mountain bikers and gravel cyclists of all ages, backgrounds and abilities – regardless of whether they are training to race, complete a cycling event, prepare for a cycling holiday, or simply want to get fitter and ride faster.

If you are training for performance or for health and fitness (or both!), Bike Life Coaching provides the science, the structure and the support to help you achieve your goal.