Runner VS. Perimenopause
In the past couple years I’ve wondered if most women my age (or a few years older) are navigating the same symptoms of perimenopause as I am. And if so, how is it going? Because from my perspective this has been pretty disruptive to my training and life. By observation alone I’ve guessed that either:
a) I’ve got it worse than most runners my age… or
b) I’m simply weaker than most and less able to handle adversity.
Symptoms and HRT
There are a lot of symptoms of perimenopause and I’ve experienced many of them.
After a few months of noticing my symptoms and connecting the dots, I practically ran to the doctor and started HRT (hormone replacement therapy). At the time I was 37 years old.
Almost immediately, HRT completely resolved most of my symptoms, while others have been reduced significantly. The symptoms that affected my running and training the most were:
Sleep disturbances
Fatigue
Muscle Pain
Side note: I don’t get testosterone. I find it funny when women talk about how much better they feel in the gym, while working out, and overall feeling much better on testosterone. That’s why it’s a banned substance for athletes! It is crazy effective for enhancing performance! Even though I’ve long since retired from pro running I feel like I’d be cheating HARDCORE if I got testosterone HRT. To be clear, it’s not banned unless you’re competing in sports.
Training Consequences
Sleep Disturbances
I used to be a great sleeper but started struggling to fall asleep at night and would consistently wake up in the middle of the night feeling wide awake. I would also sometimes have nights of insomnia and be wide awake until 2 or 3am. For reference I usually sleep at 10pm. Poor sleep (consistently) was affecting my recovery from training.
HRT resolved my sleep issues immediately for about a year. Once I started having trouble sleeping again, I got my dosage adjusted and this isn’t an issue currently.
Fatigue
The fatigue I experienced wasn’t totally connected to my generally poor sleep because it wasn’t consistent. It came in waves. Some days the fatigue felt crushing. I had planned to run or lift, but carrying it out was unthinkable. I would just take the day off. These waves lasted usually 3-4 days and I didn’t do much while waiting for it to pass. This made it difficult to train consistently.
HRT definitely cleared this up (mostly). I still occasionally have this sense of crushing fatigue but it is really rare and short lived as opposed to several days.
Muscle Pain
This has been the toughest symptom for me, even now over a year on HRT. Sometimes I will do a strength training session and be absolutely crippled with soreness for days afterward. I used to be baffled as to the reason for my soreness, reviewing my training log and wondering what could have caused it. It would be like I did a 100 lunges after having done no lunges in a year. Except I’d done lunges last week, and I only did 2 sets of 10.
My usual lifting and running habits had to be adjusted significantly and I am still trying to figure this out. I’ve become so much more conservative with how I train and still often make “mistakes” which force me to take an extra few days off to recover from.
Consistently Inconsistent
My experience is that what I can expect from my body is wildly inconsistent. I need to avoid any kind of intensity in running or heavy lifting during the last week of my cycle (unless I want to be wreaked with soreness for days, or tweak my hamstring for the hundredth time). This might not seem bad except that the cycle isn’t predictable anymore.
My body is not currently reliable or dependable. I’m always guessing how to train appropriately, never knowing what my body will allow on a given day. I definitely miss being able to make a plan and for the most part, follow it. It’s been tricky! I look forward sometime several years from now when my hormones plateau.
Resources
Here’s a blog with that may be helpful for anyone who wants to read more on this topic: Perimenopause and Running: A Comprehensive Guide for Female Runners
Nicole Sifuentes is a full-time Running Coach for adults of all ages and abilities. She is a former professional runner and 2-time Olympian, and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Read more about her services, and schedule your free coaching consultation.
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