REDs - Working the Process

Here are some more details about REDs and where things are at with me. It's been a long couple of months working through all the health things, getting everyone ready for school (teaching at ISU), moving Abby, the start of club soccer for Joshua. I am still feeling overwhelmed and frustrated at how my body continues to spite me, but more on that at the end. 

Below are a couple of great articles talking about REDs signs and symptoms and steps moving toward recovery.  IF you are feeling any of this with your training please stop and take a look at your nutrition, volume and recovery. Trust me you don’t want to get to a place where it is hard to get back.  Right now I don’t know if I will ever run more than a 5k again. I don’t know if I will ever feel good enough to try for an Ironman or if it would even be safe to do so.  REDs and Perimenopause have really thrown me for a loop.

Dr Stacy Simms has a great article linked below on how underperforming can be one of the signs we aren't nourishing our bodies well enough. For me the early signs were super flat runs and then swims. But unfortunately, it went on for ten months and I didn't listen because I didn't know under fueling and inaccurate fueling was causing it. I am wondering now if it also triggered the significant uptick in problems with my hormones (don't get me wrong perimenopause was coming for me but was taking its time until around when my runs went south.)

https://www.drstacysims.com/newsletters/articles/posts/underperforming-research-shows-you-re-likely-undernourished 

This is a great video that talks about all the things that impact our ability to heal and manage our weight, sleep, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmiPKftFogM

Recap from her video, but she has a lot more details in the video - 5 Signs You Aren't Eating Enough and things need to change (hormones can play into this so make sure you have someone helping you keep track of your hormone levels):

• Fatigue and low energy
• Irritability and anxiety
• Bloating, constipation and digestive issues (food sensitivities)
• Poor sleep and weak recovery
• Stalled fat loss (eating less, exercising more but still gaining weight)

 

What to do about it?

• Track food - so you know what you eat, how many calories, etc for a baseline. most of us who are active but not necessarily training need 1800 - 2300 calories of protein, carbs, fats and fiber a day. There are a handful of good apps that will help with this.
• Slowly increase calories (the fewer calories your body has the more it goes into reactive mode which causes more weight gain especially for people over 40)
• Hit your protein targets - 120 g to 150 g a day - and need calories between 1900 and 2400 a day just doing daily activities

·         Be patient because it takes months to get the body out of fighting mode (almost three months in and I am losing it... I am not good at being patient so trying to find distractions like kayaking, easy cycling, and pickleball but hard to find people to go with me.)

 

https://www.naturalathleteclinic.com/blogs/natural-athlete-solutions/how-to-recover-from-red-s-without-losing-fitness?

Above is a similar article with these key points.

1.      Balance the nutrients - The target energy availability for recovery is above 45 kilocalories per kilogram of lean body mass per day

2.      Carbohydrates, in this context, are a hormonal intervention - that means 2.3 to 3.2 grams per pound of body weight on moderate training days.

3.      Protein, protein, protein - helps repair the damage, build muscle, kick start metabolism

4.      Pull back on all cardio activities to allow for recovery that will eventually improve performance. I’m keeping any cardio low intensity and under an hour for cycling, kayaking, etc. and ½ hour for swimming.  No running now for three months.

5.      Carb loading pre and post workouts, and during for me even for short swims just to not be weak and wobbly afterwards.

6.      Practical targets during active recovery - 8 to 9 hours of sleep opportunity per night ...

Timelines for mine, which is moderate to severe, are 6-12 months.  All of this is going on while also trying to wrangle my hormones, so my perimenopause symptoms go away again as my estrogen tanked in late July. I am focusing heavily on nutrition, strength training and hormone balance right now.

With the reduction in cardio and the hormone roller coaster I have gained 8 lbs. in the last six weeks (my body hording fat to store estrogen unfortunately) and 25 lbs. since December. I am dealing with body issues, mental health spiraling, inability to focus and general apathy to most things, with REDs and Perimenopause duking it out to see which can be most annoying, and a complete and utter disruption of my goals and schedules. But I am doing okay, trying to focus on the positive and what I can do, but allowing more space for rest and recovery. Leaving some things undone. Giving myself grace.

The goal of this post was less for sympathy, I am in a rut and it sucks and I just need to keep working the plan, but my hope for anyone who finds hears my call to listen to your body. If performance is a problem, or strange injuries keep presenting themselves, it might be time for you to listen, reset your program, factor in more rest and more calories AND if you are a woman over 40 get a comprehensive hormone panel with someone recommended by the menopause society.

 IF we take care of our bodies it will eventually take care of us.  As always thanks for reading.

Fitness Purgatory - Saying Goodbye to Ironman 2026

So what is going on?  I mentioned my Ironman journey for 2026 came to a halt in June. Bare with me as this is a longer post.

After the half Ironman race in Boulder in June, I had to face the facts that something was not right, something was very wrong with me. My recovery from that race was not great, trying workout after the race with a short run, bike or swim left me heavily fatigued (not MS fatigue) and ready to nap. Something was wrong but I had no idea what, and then the week after the race I recieved an email from Feisty Media about this thing called REDs. The list in the email and research that followed was exactly what I was experiencing. I had read about REDs the year before in a book about endurance athletes but never in a million years did I think it would impact me.

"You push through fatigue, brain fog, poor sleep, low energy, or nagging injuries — and you still get the workout done. So you must be OK, right? For a while, you can get away it. But the problem is that getting the workout done and actually fueling enough to recover and optimize your performance and health are not the same thing.

Left unaddressed, chronic underfueling can negatively impact both physical and mental health, increase the risk of illness and injury, stagnate performance, and lead to low mood and a loss of joy in the process." From Feisty Media email

So what is REDs? "Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is a condition where the body lacks sufficient energy to support both daily functions and training, leading to a systemic breakdown.

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport is a condition that occurs when an athlete‘s nutritional fueling is insufficient to meet the demands of their training and daily activities. Essentially, the “energy in” is less than the “energy out.” This energy imbalance can impact multiple areas of the body, including the endocrine, metabolic, hematologic, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and immune systems. It also affects psychological health, leading to a cascade of well-being issues.

Athletes who have increased their training load but have not adjusted their caloric intake to meet their heightened nutritional needs. These athletes are unintentionally underfueling.

https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/women-health/understanding-relative-energy-deficiency-in-sport-red-s-risks-of-eating-disorders-in-athletes/"

How did I get here? As athletes and younger women we are encouraged to fast before short early morning workouts as a fat burning activity, however body chemsitry has different ideas when one is going through Perimeopause. So the short answer is I was chronically underfueling for my training the last 16 months by only fueling before, during longer workouts (over 40 minutes) but not for the shorter efforts. I was ALSO unintentionally chronically under fueling for meals. AND I was dealing with all the issues related to perimenopause which overlap in symptoms with REDs. Unfortunately, recovery isn’t instant — it often takes 6–12 months, but full recovery is possible with the right support. 

So what am I doing? I have met with a dietitian who said I need to be eating 2300+ calories a day not training and over 2800 - 3500 calories in a training state (which I am currently not allowed to be in). I need to focus on quality carbs, proteins, fiber/fat in every meal. I am meeting with a functional health specialist who has run A LOT of tests to see if there are some other underlying things causing or being effected by this. We have had a few smaller red flags with my thyroid, my iron levels, and we are doing one more test to see if my GI tract is pulling nutrients correctly or if I have a leaky gut. 

For fitness, I am doing more gentle things like walking longer with the dogs, doing a really easy swim (mostly for my sanity) once a week, an easy bike once a week, and lots and lots of strength work. NO RUNNING. Targeting three times a week lifting weights or doing body weight/band work (20-45 minutes each session). I am gaining perimenopause weight through this but also gaining muscle (regular inbody checks at the gym) so hopefully in a couple of months the strength work will spike my metabolism and things should start going the other way again. I am checking recovery with the occasional medium intensity cardio activity but so far doing that is not great and causes heavy fatigue. In the meantime, I am doing some low key kayaking adventures, learning pickel ball but with lots of rest, and hope to do some hiking. I am trying to give myself grace and time to work the plan and hopefully recover enough to some day train and race again.

To all my friends out there please please please eat to support the activities you are doing. Don't try to use cardio to lose weight as it can stress your body more (I wasn't doing that but there is a lot of research out there to support this). Make sure you add strength related activities to your reroutine as this is supper important especially once we are over 40, 50, 60...

I'll do another more technical blog on this with research links as well, but for now that is what is going on. Rest (so many naps), strength work, finding new/old things to spend my time doing (kayaking, hiking, pickel ball) and eating like it's my job is the name of the game.

As always thanks for reading.