Hey Reader!

Last weekend, Shivonne and I headed to the Blue Mountains for Ultra Trail Australia, the Southern Hemisphere's largest trail running event.

Having planned to go before but never made it for various reasons, we were intrigued to see what the show looked like. To quote many people, "Congested."

It's a beautiful spot that I will return to and explore. However, my impression is that the event has significantly exceeded the capacity of the trail network and the town’s facilities, particularly parking. With so many events on the calendar now, I find it intriguing to see what UTA and The Ironman Group are aiming for here.

It also raises a larger discussion on trail stewardship and maintenance: if we want to keep using the trails, we need to be respectful of the land and ensure we are using it responsibly. The trails in the Blue Mountains don't seem to want to sustain this traffic level. But as I said, this is just my experience.

However, the competitive aspect of the event was at a level I've never encountered in Australia, and from that perspective, the event felt like a significant turning point for elite trail running in Australia. This recap video of the 100km, their marquee event, definitely makes you want to go!

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How your cycle affects training

Women are not small men. Dr. Stacy Sims is famous for this line, which encapsulates her core message about the need for female-specific training protocols.

How, then, should you think about training depending on your cycle, or how could a coach think about this for their athlete? Better yet, should we even discuss it?

Today, I'll break down the current research and recommendations as closely as possible, focusing on running.

Training Recommendations by Cycle Phase

Dr. Sims is known for recommending cycle-specific training. I'll discuss later if this is the suggested approach more broadly, but her reasoning can be broken down as this:

• Follicular Phase (Days 1–12): With lower levels of estrogen and progesterone, the body becomes more resilient to stress. Dr. Sims recommends prioritising high-intensity workouts, strength training, and performance-oriented sessions during this phase.
• Ovulatory Phase (Around Day 13): The surge in estrogen can enhance performance. Dr. Sims suggests leveraging this window for peak intensity efforts.
• Luteal Phase (Days 14–28): As progesterone rises, the body may experience increased fatigue and reduced recovery capacity. Sims advises shifting to steady-state aerobic work and moderate resistance training, emphasising the importance of listening to one's body.

However, as with any protocol, we don't apply one-size-fits-all recommendations like the ones above. In my experience, although the late luteal phase is often a time when women feel more lethargic, adapt less well, have a longer recovery period, and experience more fluctuation in motivation, I do coach other women who feel at their strongest during this time.

This is where Dr. Emily Kraus and Dr. Megan Roche and her work with the FASTR program, and more recently Dr. Roche's creation of The Huzzah Hub, have become more guiding for how I view training around one's cycle.

Emphasising Individual Variability

Dr. Emily Kraus and Dr. Megan Roche both advocate for personalised training strategies that consider the impact of the menstrual cycle on female athletes, and caution against a one-size-fits-all approach.

Looking into their research, three key messages appear:

Individual Variability Matters

Menstrual cycles vary significantly among athletes, affecting each runner differently. Training plans must, therefore, be flexible and tailored individually, rather than relying on standardised recommendations for all women.

Nutrition and Energy Availability are Crucial

Kraus and Roche highlight that menstrual irregularities often stem from inadequate energy intake (Low Energy Availability and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport). They advocate prioritising nutritional strategies tailored to individual energy demands and cycle phases.

Adapt Training to Symptoms, Not Just Cycle Phases

Both caution against overly rigid, cycle-phase-based training protocols. Instead, they recommend athletes adjust training loads based on their actual experienced symptoms and recovery signals rather than strictly predefined hormonal phases.

Actionable steps

Understanding that symptoms may not lead to a decrease in performance is one thing, but applying this to yourself and figuring out how this may or may not be relevant is key. We do this by:

1. Track your cycle

There are plenty of apps out there to track your cycle, or you can journal or even leave notes in Training Peaks (this one is for my athletes). Once you have a baseline for how long your cycle is and if it varies, you can start to consider if you need to alter your training depending on your phase.

2. Look for changes

It's not uncommon for any athlete, male or female, to experience Low Energy Availability (LEA) for a brief period. This can occur due to insufficient fueling during training, which is typical when increasing the training load. LEA can lead to irregularities in your cycle; therefore, tracking is essential for quickly identifying this. Additionally, stress can also cause irregularities.

Adjusting training in the short term while energy availability increases and/or life stress decreases is beneficial in both instances.

3. Learn how you feel

Once you are tracking, journaling how you felt each run will help you quickly identify if you are experiencing adverse training adaptations at certain times of your cycle. We commonly see this via increased resting and exercising heart rate, reduced overnight heart rate variability, and increasing perceived effort (RPE) at specific intensities. You may also just feel like poop.

While how you feel and how you perform can be mutually exclusive, often they are not. Considering you normally experience a cycle roughly every 28 days, knowing you will have to "force" through training during this time can be mentally draining. In this case, I find it beneficial to reduce intensity, specifically higher intensities, and choose either shorter rep intervals or easy runs for this 1-5 day period.

Fitness is about consistency. Check out this video by the FASTR Program to learn more:

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4. Experiment

Ultimately, getting fitter in the long term and enjoying training comes down to experimenting and finding what works for you. If you feel that syncing workouts to your cycle could be beneficial for you, try different styles of runs at various times in your cycle. You may find that at different stages of your cycle, you feel stronger or weaker, but more importantly, a workout may have a larger recovery cost. This means that it takes you longer to feel good and adapt to the stress of that session.

If this is the case, consider:

1. Reducing the volume of the workout
2. Altering the intensity and therefore goals and style of the session
3. Use shorter intervals with static recovery
4. Opting for easy runs at this time if the above still feels like too big of a breakdown stress.

Contraceptive considerations

Hormonal contraceptives can significantly influence your cycle, training response, and perceived performance. Here’s what you need to know if you’re using—or considering—contraceptives:

Impact on hormonal fluctuations

Hormonal contraceptives typically flatten the natural peaks and valleys of estrogen and progesterone throughout your cycle. This means the clear physiological markers described earlier by Dr. Sims (like leveraging higher intensity in the follicular phase) may no longer apply, as hormonal variation is significantly reduced or absent.

Variability in individual response

Responses to hormonal contraceptives differ considerably among individuals. Some athletes report increased consistency in performance and recovery, while others experience reduced energy levels, altered mood, or slower recovery times. Tracking your response becomes even more crucial in these circumstances.

Considerations for training

If you’re on hormonal contraceptives:

• Monitor closely: Pay attention to patterns in energy, performance, recovery, and mood. Since hormonal contraceptives alter natural cues, regular monitoring helps identify how your body responds explicitly.
• Prioritise nutrition and recovery: Because hormonal contraceptives can influence appetite, metabolism, and energy availability, it’s essential to ensure you’re adequately fueling and allowing sufficient recovery.
• Communication and support: Openly discuss your experiences with your coach or healthcare professional. Based on your unique response, adjustments in your training program may be necessary.

Ultimately, choosing and managing contraception is highly personal, and its impact on training should be navigated with care, flexibility, and informed support.

Past Newsletter Editions

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Closing thoughts

As you'll hopefully see, it's all about your own experience. The science doesn't support cycle-specific syncing of your training; however, if you find that it works for you, then great!

In my experience, we don't often target or avoid specific sessions at the same time each month. However, we do adapt the plan and stay flexible if the athlete isn't feeling good. This is assessed on a cycle-by-cycle basis, unless we find a consistent pattern.

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Content of the week

A new section that I am adding after talking to a reader is the content of the week piece. I read, listen, watch, and generally consume a lot of content that specifically relates to running and that doesn't. Their thought was that it may be interesting – this was after someone asked me for a podcast recommendation; I gave them 20...

Kicking off, and relevant to today's discussion, is a podcast episode by Trail Society. The hosts of this show have educated me immensely on the female perspective in sport, and as a male coach, I feel it is my responsibility to learn as much as possible to foster an open and informed environment when discussing female athlete health.

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​Listen here on Spotify | Listen here on Apple Podcasts​

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