Can You Train for an Ironman During Perimenopause? My experience

After the race at Ironman Austria

I’m doing the inaugural Leeds Ironman in July 25. I've trained for four Ironman races before, and as a female triathlon coach working with women I’ve supported loads of athletes training for triathlon through menopause.

But this was my first time undertaking this volume of training myself whilst in perimenopause* – and wow, it makes a big difference.

Here’s how menopause affected my Ironman training, what I learnt, and how I adapted along the way.

I'm not writing this for sympathy, and I know many others are faaaar more affected, but to help raise awareness about the many ways it can affect us, show there are things you can do and so you know you're not alone if you experience any of these issues.

Why I Decided to Train for an Ironman During Menopause

At Challenge Roth

After my last Ironman-distance race (Challenge Roth in 2022) I promised myself never again! It was incredible, but the training load is huge, and I’d had enough!

But when Ironman announced the new Leeds Ironman race – practically on my doorstep and on a course that suits me (I prefer hilly routes) I couldn't resist.

I'd already had a glimpse of how much harder training during perimenopause would be. The Manchester Marathon during early perimenopause was the hardest I’ve ever done.

But as a triathlon coach working with peri- and post-menopausal women, I wanted the firsthand experience. Plus, FOMO is real!

The Hardest Thing About Training for Ironman in Perimenopause

For me, the hardest part by far was not knowing what my body could take.

What had worked for me before no longer applied. It felt like working with a brand new client – trying to figure out what training load I could or couldn’t manage from week to week.

And to be honest, I still haven’t cracked it. As with many of my perimenopausal clients, it's not a linear relationship. One day, I can nail a session; another day the same effort leaves me absolutely floored.

📅" March 25: Had to give up on the race during cross country today. My HR just wouldn’t go over 100 bpm. I went from racing to grinding to a halt and just had to jog-walk it back in"

📅"April 25: Well that was unexpected! First road race of the season. Went in feeling fairly average but felt super-charged as soon as I started racing. Really struggled to keep it easy, felt amazing!. Wish every session felt like that!"

Sometimes I can connect the bad days to where I am in my cycle (I have a coil, so no period, but I track other signs), but other days it's completely out of the blue.

Which makes it particularly hard to plan for things like big training sessions or race day! I have no idea which version of me is going to turn up.

I recommend heart rate variability (a way to measuring readiness to train) to my clients, but my own menopausal irregular heart rate means those apps don’t work for me. Another gift of menopause!

How I Adapted My Training for Menopause

So the approach that I’ve settled on is to follow a fairly standard training build but include plenty of contingency in case I need to miss a session and more rest. And then be really strict at listening to my body to know whether I am ready to train or not.

If my body says no, I listen.

There’s plenty of sessions where I’ve stopped after just 10 minutes because my body just isn’t playing ball and I know that it needs to rest instead.

And whilst training is hard, having the confidence to trust yourself and give up on a session and deal with the internal monologue - “am I just being lazy”, “should I push a bit harder” is often harder.

I've also cut any all-out efforts. If I do local races or time trials then I treat them as interval training sessions or just take it easy. I just cant recover from a longer efforts anymore.

The Importance of Rest When Training Through Menopause

Regular rest days and recovery weeks are non-negotiable in all the training plans I write. But menopause demands more than that. I have to build in deliberate down time and really prioritise sleep.

Sleep is much harder these days. I wake most mornings around 4am, so I focus on getting quality sleep before that. That means no phone after 9pm, no food after 8, no alcohol, and trying to manage stress with breathing techniques.

.... in theory. I certainly don’t manage it everyday but when I do, it really helps.

And I’ve learnt to rest rather than toss and turn when I wake up, and sometime even manage to go back to sleep.

I know that, left to my own devices, I’m not good at prioritising downtime so I book in regular classes to force myself to slow down. Yoga and nature writing classes have been lifesavers, especially in the weeks when my body is saying no to training and my mental health takes a nose dive.

📅"March 25: Thanking myself for booking the yoga sessions and for making myself go today. Cant train so would easily not have left the house today otherwise. But as always, feel so much better after going"

Injuries during menopause

Menopause increases injury risk through joint pain, muscle loss and reduced bone density. So strength training is essential.

Aside from an ongoing dodgy shoulder, I’ve stayed injury-free (touch massive forests of wood!). My future quality of life is just as important to me as performance and so I protect my muscles and bones with regular strength and conditioning and getting enough protein.

Over winter, I focused on heavy lifting. Now, I’ve shifted to lighter weights, plus mobility and stability to support my body in the peak training phase.

My shoulder has been painful for the last few years, way before the Ironman build (there's no structural issue, just messed up chemical reactions). Since starting HRT it no longer wakes me up at night but I can feel it constantly when swimming and cycling (and taking a sweaty bra off is near impossible!). It's coped better than I'd imagined with the increase in swimming but really doesn't like long days on the bike. Regular massages are definitely helping.  

📅" July 25 - Managed first 800m of my swim pain free today! First time in ages! Massages definitely helping!"

Endurance Training and Brain Fog

Something I didn’t expect and I’ve not heard much about elsewhere is that training sometimes seems to trigger my brain fog.

Creatine had been really helping with brain fog since I started taking it over a year ago, but recently I’ve found some hard sessions, and possibly sauna sessions (for heat adaptation) have left me a complete space cadet the next day.

📅"May 25: Thought I'd taken it fairly steady at Grafman (Half Ironman prep race). Felt fine afterwards, but completely wiped out today. It's like fairies came down in the night and stole all my brain cells and just left me with an empty cavity"

I've upped my Omega 3s and hydration, but still waiting to see an improvement here.

Of course this might be unrelated to training and just another joy of menopause. If it doesn’t get better after the race then I’ll look into adaptogens again.

What to Wear for an Ironman Race During Menopause (yes, it’s even affected that!)

I don’t remember ever really worrying about what to wear for an Ironman before.

Skin sensitivity, the extreme heat this summer, and I imagine the impact of weight gain, have led to far more chafing than I’ve ever experienced before.

I haven’t found a tri top that doesn’t rub under my arm pits on the swim. I’ll definitely need bike shorts instead of tri shorts on the ride (vaginal oestrogen can help with increased soreness down there too), and most of my shorts and bras chafe on the run.

So I’m planning three separate outfits – for the swim, bike and run, and plenty of lube during all three. But with my shoulder, changing anything tight and sweaty mid-race is its own challenge. And Ironman’s 10-minute transition cut-off isn’t helping!

Gut Issues and Menopause

My stomach is far more sensitive than it ever was before. Winter runs were often interrupted by emergency toilet stops, and I was constantly bloated.

Recently, I’ve switched to big, varied salads at lunch to try and help boost my gut microbiome, and I don’t know if that’s what’s made the difference but things have improved - touch wood!

I’m still on the lower side of where I would like to be for carbs during the race (averaging about 60g/ hour in training) but I’ll take that compared with where I was.

Other time demands

As I always tell anyone thinking of signing up for a long distance race, you're not just signing up to the race, but the training as well. And Ironman training takes a lot of time.

Whilst I am self employed and therefore never really 'finish work' I don't have kids and my parents are doing fairly well, so unlike a lot of menopausal women I'm really lucky that I am quite independent in planning my time. If you are thinking of doing an Ironman do carefully consider how much free time you'll have for training.

The positives of training through menopause

It's really easy to get wrapped up in all the bad stuff, but I try to also find the positives. And most of them are related to the negatives.

Yes, I have to spend more time and effort focussing on diet, on S&C and on recovery. But these are all important for my quality of life anyway.

If my body wasn't telling me (or bellowing at me!) that there's an issue it would be quite easy to neglect these areas. And I'm in no doubt that I would pay the consequences later. So I try to see it as a positive that I've got an early warning system reminding me to look after myself.

Would I do it again?

Finishing Grafman Half Ironman 25

Whatever happens on race day, I’ll be proud of what I achieve. Rather than worrying about times my mantra is always just do the best you can on the day.

There’s no point in comparing yourself to other people, you have no idea what their training or life is like.

My original plan was to have a go at qualifying for the Ironman World Championships with this being a warm up year before properly going for it next year.

But a combination of where my body is at and the changes in Ironman qualifying policy (I think the latest policy is progress but had given up on the idea after they scrapped the previous, more equitable policy) means I am more than ready to call it quits after this race.

Postscript - Qualified for Kona!

Well that was tempting fate! Having just said above that I was ready to never race another Ironman after this race, I only went and hit my 10 year goal of qualifying for the World Championships by coming second in my age group at Leeds!!

Although my first thought was I don't think I can do that again (followed swiftly by how the hell will I afford it!) racing is actually the relatively easy bit (provided my body plays ball on the day).

It's the training that's the hard bit, and given that Kona (where the World Championships take place) is in just 2 months, between the recovery from Leeds and the taper for Kona there's only really time for a few more long training sessions, so I'm going for it! Eeeeeeekk!

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I'd love to know your perimenopausal experiences whilst training, please do share below.

Or book in a call if you want to discuss your training and how I can help: www.feelfitwithlucy.co.uk/how-i-can-help

 * Perimenopause refers to the years before menopause when hormone levels start fluctuating. Menopause itself is defined as one year since your last period, and post-menopause is everything after that. But for simplicity, I use 'menopause' throughout to refer to all three.