Performance coaching · Running · Triathlon · Swim-run
Coaching built on what your body actually shows.
Team Kairos is the performance coaching practice of Gemma Carter and Steven Southern. We test, we read the numbers, and we turn them into a programme you follow week by week, for months and years, whether your goal is health and wellbeing or your fastest race yet. It’s a plan that changes when your life does, and a coach you see every week.
Combined coaching experience across running, triathlon and swim-run
Athletes coached, from first 5k to 100 miles
National representation, and still racing
Testing and analysis, plus consultancy to brands, sports dietitians and physiologists
Who we are
Two coaches, one methodology.
Between us, 27 years of coaching and more than 300 athletes, from first-time runners to international age-groupers. Everything we know has been learned applying it: in testing, in coaching, and in our own racing.
Steven Southern
Co-founder · Head of Performance · Endurance coach
Steven is an endurance coach and performance physiologist with 8 years of coaching experience, and founder of THRSHLD Performance, which offers physiological testing services and analysis. He works with CPET, VO₂max and lactate threshold data, and builds every Kairos programme from what the numbers show: training zones, strength priorities and when to push.
Performance nutrition is a particular specialism: fuelling, hydration and how intake supports training and recovery. His coaching draws on the Lydiard and Canova traditions of aerobic development. He has provided consultancy to running brands internationally, as well as to sports dietitians and physiologists, and has coached athletes at Olympic trials level in Jamaica. He is still a trail and mountain runner himself.
Gemma Carter
Co-founder · BSc Psychology · Endurance coach
Gemma has coached full-time for 19 years across running, triathlon and swim-run, working with everyone from first-time marathoners to ultra runners and age-group triathletes racing internationally. She has competed since the age of eight, representing her country over 100km, and still races today. That gives her a first-hand understanding of what consistent training asks of a body and a life.
A qualified personal trainer and run coach with a degree in psychology, she specialises in the side of performance most plans ignore: motivation, adherence, goal-setting and race preparation. Her clients stay consistent long after the initial enthusiasm fades, and they come back from setbacks with a plan rather than guesswork. Many have followed her from their first race to their longest.
Every client gets both of us.
01
We analyse the data
Every set of results is interpreted and turned into the programme’s structure: zones, load, strength and fuelling.
02
You choose a lead coach
Gemma or Steven runs the week-to-week relationship: your check-ins, adjustments and the plan itself.
03
The other coach supports
A second expert on every programme, so nothing depends on one person’s view.
What we do
Your data, working every week.
A CPET result or a lactate profile is one of the most useful things you can know about yourself as an athlete. What it rarely comes with is someone to act on it. Without that, the numbers sit in a PDF and the training carries on as it was.
We start by knowing you: testing at a lab in our trusted network, plus a full profile of your training history, goals, injuries and week.
From there your lead coach builds an individual programme in TrainingPeaks and reviews it with you every week, adjusting as fitness and life change.
When something needs a physio’s eye, you see Dan, our physiotherapist, rather than working it out alone. Retesting through the year shows whether it’s working, in numbers rather than impressions.
Why our coaching
Not another generic online plan.
Generic online coaching
A plan generated from an app or template, with little adjustment for the individual
No physiological testing behind the numbers: guesswork dressed up as science
Contact limited to messages you have to chase, often with no one on the other end who knows your week
Built around short-term goals, with little thought for injury, adherence or longevity
Team Kairos
A programme built from your own lactate and VO₂max results, retested through the year
A lead coach you choose, with a second coach behind them
A 30-minute video call with your coach every week, and physio with Dan when you need it
Built for long-term health, injury prevention and longevity as much as for race results
Who it’s for
You’ll recognise yourself here.
The first big goal
Your first marathon, ultra or triathlon, and you want to arrive at the start line fit, healthy and confident.
The age-grouper chasing a number
A qualifier, a PB or a podium, and you know generic plans have taken you as far as they can.
The ultra and mountain runner
Long days, big climbs and fuelling that has to work at hour ten as well as hour one.
The health-led professional
Time is short and you care about longevity as much as race times. You want your health data acted on, not filed.
The service
What you actually get.
Weekly video check-ins
30 minutes on Google Meet with your lead coach every week, reviewing your training, planning the weeks ahead, and building your understanding of why.
TrainingPeaks Premium
A Premium account provided as part of coaching. Your plan, sessions synced to your watch, and every file you upload visible to your coach.
Personalised programming
Plans for high-level performance, general fitness or health and wellbeing, updated as your fitness and life change.
Lab testing, included
Two lactate tests and one VO₂max test a year at a lab in our trusted network, read straight into your zones and plan.
Physiotherapy with Dan
Up to three appointments a year with Dan Anderton, HCPC-registered physiotherapist, in person or online.
Strength and conditioning
Strength work targeted at your own weaknesses and injury history, built into the same plan as your running.
Nutrition and recovery guidance
Ongoing input on fuelling, hydration, sleep, HRV and stress management, led by Steven.
Performance mindset
Motivation, adherence, goal-setting and race preparation, led by Gemma.
Investment
One fee. Everything included.
No add-ons for testing, physio or software. Coaching is a 12-month commitment, because lasting physiological change is built over seasons, not weeks.
Founding athletes · first 8 places
Our founding rate for the first eight Kairos athletes.
Standard rate
Once the founding places are filled.
Included:
A lead coach of your choice, plus a second coach in support
Weekly 30-minute video check-ins on Google Meet
TrainingPeaks Premium account
Two lactate tests and one VO₂max test a year
Up to three physiotherapy appointments a year with Dan
Strength, nutrition, recovery and mindset support
12-month minimum commitment.
How it starts
From first email to first session.
1
Email and intro call
Send us an enquiry, then we’ll arrange a conversation about your goals, history and the time you actually have.
2
Testing and profiling
Lactate and VO₂max testing at a lab in our network, plus a full profile of your training and injuries.
3
Set-up
You choose your lead coach, and we set up your TrainingPeaks Premium account and zones.
4
Coaching begins
Your programme goes live, built from your results, with your first weekly check-in booked.
Testimonials
In clients’ own words.
“Gemma created a personalised running and strength plan … Steven has been fantastic on the health and nutrition side, giving me practical, evidence-based advice.”
Laura M
Running goals, gluteal tendinopathy
“I’ve set three new half marathon PBs in the last 12 months, taking more than 8 minutes off my time … None of this would have been possible with an AI tool or a downloaded training template … he makes sure I’m fuelling correctly before, during and after sessions.”
Chris J
Half marathon and marathon, alongside a full-time job
“From feeling that a 26 minute 5k and a half marathon was my absolute limit, to hitting a 17:30 parkrun … and now training for my first 160k/100 mile race.”
Daniel D
Ultra racing
“I started training with Ste shortly after having knee surgery, and was supported through my rehab and return to running. Fast forward 10 months … my running has vastly improved and I have achieved PBs in all distances (from 1k to marathon!)”
Nora P
Return to running after knee surgery
“She took me from zero marathons to 6 marathons in 18 months, PB every time … keeping my injury free with specific strength work tailored to my biomechanics and key areas of weakness.”
Chris D
Marathon, hamstring tendinopathy
“I feel the benefits of adhering to her strength program, not just in relation to my hip injury but in my performance across other training.”
Mel F
GB age-group triathlon
Next step
Start with an email.
Tell us your goal and we’ll arrange an intro call.
Gemma Carter & Steven Southern, Team Kairos