Pretty Strong · Perimenopause & Menopause
Perimenopause is not the end of your racing.
Your sleep is worse, your recovery is slower, the sessions that used to work have stopped working, and your coach has no idea why. This is the stage most women quit the sport. It does not have to be the stage you quit.
not broken. different inputs needed.
If this is you
Four versions of the same gap.
Almost every endurance plan on the internet was built on research done on men in their twenties. It works, right up until it does not, and then nobody can tell you why.
The same work stopped working
Same training, worse results. You have added more and it has made things worse, which is the opposite of what used to happen.
Recovery has changed
One hard session now costs you three days. Sleep is patchy. You are not imagining it and you are not being soft.
You have been written off
Told to accept it, lower your expectations, do yoga. You are not finished, and you want a plan built for where you are now.
You are post-menopause and still going
Years into this and still chasing distance. You want someone who will train you hard and intelligently, not carefully.
The honest version
What changes, and what does not.
What changes
- Strength stops being optional. Heavy, proper, twice a week. For bone, for power, for everything that gets harder from here.
- Recovery gets planned, not hoped for. Fewer hard sessions, better ones, with real space between them.
- Protein and total fuelling go up. This is the change that makes the biggest difference and the one most women resist.
- We train to feel, not just to numbers. On a bad sleep week, the session changes. That is coaching, not excuses.
What does not
- You still get to go fast. Intensity is not the enemy here. Badly placed intensity is.
- You still get big goals. First marathon at 52 is a completely normal thing to be doing.
- You still get a proper plan. Structured, progressive, with a target at the end of it.
- You still get pushed. I am not going to coach you gently because of your age.
How it works
Three steps, then we are coaching.
Application and a conversation
What has changed, what you have tried, how you are sleeping, and what you still want to do. Properly, not in a form field.
A plan built for now
Strength, fuelling and endurance written together, with hard days placed where you can actually absorb them.
We adjust, week by week
Some weeks are good and some are not, and the plan moves. Coaching calls as and when you need them.
Boundaries
What I will not do.
- I will not advise you on HRT or any medication. That is a conversation with your doctor. If you are on it, I coach around it and ask what you have noticed.
- I will not diagnose anything. If something looks like it needs a GP, I will say so and keep saying so.
- I will not sell you a protocol. No supplement stacks, no fasting rules, no magic window. The boring work is the work.
- I will not lower the ceiling for you. If the goal is realistic, we go after it. If it is not, I will tell you that too.
your doctor handles the medicine. i handle the training.
Start before you apply
Free tools and reading.
No email gate on any of these. If they are all you ever take from me, that is a fine outcome.
Questions
The ones I get asked most.
Is it too late to start?
No. I have coached first-time racers well into their fifties. Starting later changes the build, not whether it is possible.
Do I have to give up hard sessions?
No, and giving them up is usually the wrong move. What changes is how many, how they are spaced, and what happens around them.
I am on HRT. Does that change the coaching?
It can change how you feel and recover, so it is useful for me to know. What it does not do is turn into advice from me about your prescription.
Why so much strength work?
Because this is the stage where bone density and muscle mass become the thing that decides what you can do in ten years. It is also the fastest way to feel strong again now.
My sleep is terrible. Can I still train?
Yes, with the plan adjusted to what you actually slept rather than what the spreadsheet says. That adjustment is most of my job.
Will you tell me to lose weight?
No. Under-fuelling is the far more common problem I see at this stage, and chasing weight loss makes everything on this page harder.
Ready when you are
Tell me what you are chasing.
Ten years of coaching women, 200+ athletes, and my longest-standing athlete is eight years in. This stage is not where my athletes stop. Start with the application.