Hey Reader!

Today's edition is inspired by a subscriber's question!

As I mentioned most weeks, if you have a topic of interest and would like me to cover it, then please reply to this with what you would be interested in hearing about.

We all face challenges, whether it’s fitting running into our busy lives, dealing with aging, striving for better performance, or dealing with repetitive injuries. However, there’s much to learn, and often a lot of overlap in these experiences. It doesn't matter if you're male, female, or non-binary; understanding peri-menopause and the considerations that come with aging will likely enhance your training in some way—most probably your strength training!

So, as a reminder: get in touch if you have a question! If we have already discussed it, I will send you that edition, and if not, then I’ll add it to the list.

Have a great Friday!

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Training through Peri-Menopause

Today, we’re diving deep into a crucial topic for female runners: perimenopause. This natural transition, typically occurring between ages 40 and 50, brings significant hormonal changes that impact training, recovery, and overall performance. Understanding these changes helps us adjust our training to stay healthy, injury-free, and perform at our best.

As a note, much of the information here is also relevant for those experiencing irregularities or loss of their regular cycle. Though there are many causes, the research consistently highlights the importance of ensuring sufficient energy availability and the risk of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-s) – and yes, chaps, this one covers you too!

There is a reason we no longer call it the Female Athlete Triad. Speaking as someone who has been in a RED-s state for several years and is still battling with the lasting effects, it can happen to anyone who is chronically under-fueled.

Bones and brains need carbs; muscles need protein. Fuel the work you are doing to adapt and improve.

First Things First: What Exactly is Peri-Menopause?

Peri-menopause is the stage leading up to menopause, characterised by fluctuations in hormones, especially estrogen. These fluctuations can last from a few months to several years. Lower estrogen levels don’t just affect mood—they significantly influence how your body responds to training, recovers from workouts, and even how susceptible you are to injuries.

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What’s Happening in Your Body?

Muscle and Strength

Estrogen helps maintain muscle mass. When estrogen declines, you might notice a loss of strength and endurance, which can affect running performance and increase the likelihood of injuries and loss of balance.

Bone Health

Lower estrogen levels can lead to reduced bone density, increasing the risk of osteoporosis and stress fractures. This is especially common in the lower leg.

Injury Risks

Connective tissues—like tendons and ligaments—can become stiffer and less elastic, making you more prone to injuries. Joint and tissue resilience can also be reduced, though it is hard to be sure about this.

Recovery and Sleep

Hormonal shifts often disturb sleep patterns, making recovery from intense training sessions more challenging.

Training Response

The body may take longer to adapt to training, which means you might need more recovery time or adjustments to training intensity and volume.

Evidence-based solutions for runners

Research strongly supports certain types of training to help manage these changes:

• Strength Training: Studies consistently show that heavy resistance training is essential for maintaining muscle mass, improving muscle quality, and protecting bone health. Approaches like slow and controlled lifting (SuperSlow® method) are particularly effective.
• Endurance Training: Incorporating interval training sessions—short bursts of high-intensity running followed by easy recovery—boosts aerobic capacity. A mix of 80% easy running and 20% hard interval workouts works well for peri-menopausal athletes.
• Enjoyment & Confidence: Enjoying your training sessions and believing in your ability (self-efficacy) significantly boosts long-term adherence. Positive experiences and confidence-building workouts can make a substantial difference.

What to do with all of this?

Strength Sessions

Strength sessions help maintain crucial muscle mass and protect your bones, ensuring your running stays strong and resilient.

Aim for 2–3 strength sessions per week, focusing on exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and step-ups. Use heavy weights that you can lift 4-8 reps per set. Remember, when it comes to strength, form is first. If you are unsure, please seek out a qualified strength coach.

Plyometrics

Include moderate plyometrics twice weekly to enhance bone density and tendon strength. Plyometrics are one of the best ways to build bone density and prevent loss.

Options include:

• Pogo's - multi-directional and weighted
• Single leg hops - multi-directional and weighted
• Bounding
• Skipping
• Drop Jumps
• Box Jumps

Training

As long as you are doing your strength and plyometrics, please don't feel the need to avoid running – yes, your week may look different than in your 30s, but your running can still be excelling!

Key considerations:

• Easy running is essential – Recovery and tissue resilience are lessened, meaning recovery and adaptation take longer.
• Use cross-training – Replace easy runs with the bike, elliptical, stair climber, or swimming. By reducing the load impact, you are still maintaining and improving your cardiovascular and metabolic fitness, whilst mitigating injury risk
• Keep high-intensity work—This may seem contradictory given what I have just said. However, as we age and as women go through peri-menopause and menopause, our Vo2max reduces. Therefore, we need to keep training to prevent the scale from decreasing and allow our base-level fitness to shine instead of getting squashed. How?
  1. Use hills – Hills will reduce the load, allowing you to stress and challenge your anaerobic systems.
  2. Short Reps – Rather than the typical 4 x 4 mins, do short 30-60 second efforts with short recovery.
  3. Static Rest — If you're doing flat intervals, use static rest over active. This allows the anaerobic systems to recover and seems to reduce the mechanical breakdown (your muscles = posture) that often leads to injury.
• Increase the amount of rest time – Studies have shown no fitness improvements when trying to back up sessions faster for perimenopausal women, likely because the body hasn't had a chance to recover and adapt. Use rest days and be flexible with your plan. Missing or delaying any run is okay.

Daily Mobility

Integrate simple daily mobility exercises targeting the hips, ankles, and spine to maintain flexibility and reduce the risk of injuries. It is vital that our main movement pathways remain maintained and smooth. This means squatting, hinging properly, and rotating through the trunk. Maintaining single-leg stability and proprioception is also essential.

Recovery Strategies

Consistent sleep routines should be prioritised, and cooling methods, like ice packs or cooling towels, should be considered after training to improve recovery and manage body temperature fluctuations.

It is common for electrolyte loss to change, and for sweat volume to increase during this stage of life. Ensuring you are meeting your hydration requirements - replacing ~80% of fluid loss intra-exercise – will be critical to recovery and day-to-day health.

Nutrition

There is a lack of conclusive evidence in the research. However, some consistent considerations are a high-protein diet and high calcium and Vitamin D supplementation (likely). I have included one of the sources I found if you are interested, though I am not a registered dietitian, and this is not an area I have deep knowledge in. (The Importance of Nutrition in Menopause and Perimenopause—A Review)

Before considering any diet changes, please consult a registered dietician, ideally one with a specialty in Endurance Sports and Women's Health.

Knowledge is empowering, yet scary...

The reality is that your body is experiencing a very significant shift, and you can't bury your head in the sand.

Feeling uncertain or overwhelmed is completely normal during perimenopause. The good news is that by making informed adjustments to your training and lifestyle, you can maintain your performance and health through this transitional phase.

If you have not yet reached the peri-menopause phase of life, be proactive with strength training, plyometrics, and fuelling your body. When researching this edition, the research kept suggesting that creating a resilient body and mind early is one of the best measures one can take.

Remember, you're not alone in navigating these changes – it's a journey many runners face. Support and knowledge are key, and if you are unsure about the running and/or strength, please get in touch. If you have questions regarding nutrition and hydration, connect with a registered dietitian.

You don't have to do this alone.

Past Newsletter Editions

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Closing Thoughts

I loved researching this topic today. It's an area I thought I understood pretty well, yet discovered so much more today! I hope you enjoyed this, and we'll catch up next week.

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