Midlife and menopause can be the perfect time to try something new (like as we talk about this week, mountain biking!...but also surfing, skiing, you name it). It frees you from the endless self comparison that can come after years (even decades) in the same sport and infuses you with the confidence that comes with tackling new challenges. And it’s never too late and you are never too old. With skills training, you can learn from the ground up at whatever pace is comfortable for you. You also do...
Jul 24, 2024•54 min•Ep. 188
The conversation around hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms is pretty clear. Hormone therapy is the gold standard for treating hot flashes and night sweats and can help with many other common symptoms that come with the menopause transition. It’s very effective and broadly safe. But recently, the conversation has evolved past symptom management and into preventative health with many experts suggesting that hormone therapy may play a larger role in extending a woman’s healthspan, if not lifes...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 187
Boy, oh boy, we women can really struggle to find good medical care–especially when we hit the menopause transition. And this week’s guest Erin Ferguson has experienced that firsthand. Erin went through multiple gynecological complications, surgeries, and hormonally-driven symptoms, including panic attacks, anxiety, weight gain, painful periods, severely disrupted sleep, hot flashes, night sweats, and complete lack of mojo for months (and for some symptoms, years) before finally finding a doctor...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 186
Nearly every one of us will go through some mourning with the changes that come with menopause. Even if we go on hormone therapy, which can help a ton, there is some loss that comes at this time. A loss of our reproductive selves. A loss of speed in our sport. A loss of our ability to quickly bounce back after hard workouts. A loss of some aspect of our health, wellness, or appearance. Some are big. Some are small. But they’re there and they’re real. And that means going through some stages of g...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 185
Gynecological surgeries are extremely common. More 600,000 women get a hysterectomy each year in the US alone, and more than one-third of women will have had one by age 60. And often a woman is told that she’s “good to go” after a few weeks, when in reality, when it comes to her sport, she’s anything but, and she can struggle for months–or longer–because no one properly helped her rehab to return to powerlifting, doing double-unders, running 13 miles, or many of the activities we take for grante...
Jun 26, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 184
Supplements get a bad rap. And to be fair, there is a lot of trash out there. But there are some treasures, too, especially for midlife and menopausal women who often can use some extra help building bone, recovering from injuries, and hitting it hard during training and events. This week we break down the best ergogenic aids for active women in and beyond the menopause transition with Kristen Arnold of Sports Nutrition for Women. Kristen Arnold MS, RDN, CSSD is a board-certified sports dietitia...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 183
Menopause and age raise our cardiovascular disease risk. Athletes and highly active people also tend to have a higher prevalence of coronary artery calcium and atherosclerotic plaque (though it tends to be the benign kind). But what does that all mean? How can we know what’s really going on in those coronary arteries of ours? To find out, host Selene Yeager had a Cleerly-enabled coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), which uses AI-enabled software to help characterize coronary plaque c...
Jun 12, 2024•50 min•Ep. 182
This week we bring you a special live show from UNBOUND Gravel in Emporia, KS, where we sat down with two legends in the sport of gravel cycling, UNBOUND Gravel co-founder Kristi Mohn and seven time world champion Rebecca Rusch to have an open, honest conversation about midlife and menopause, how we view things today, and what we want for the future. Spoiler alert: We’re not hanging it up anytime soon. Kristi Mohn is one of the founders of UNBOUND Gravel and is an integral member of the Life Tim...
Jun 05, 2024•48 min•Ep. 181
As active menopausal women, we get outright bombarded with ads for nutritional supplements. But what do we really need? This week, we take it down to brass tacks and hit the basics with registered dietitian nutritionist Katie Linville. We break it down on what we should know about calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, iron, and the other vitamins and minerals we’re often told to take as a matter of course. While we’re at it, we also venture into cholesterol, blood sugar, and CGMs. You may be surprised ...
May 29, 2024•58 min•Ep. 180
We talk a lot about the importance of lifting heavy for our muscle, bone, brain, and heart health. But that’s just the beginning! Being stronger makes us feel more capable and opens the door to all kinds of new adventures that we might not otherwise try because we have more confidence in what our bodies can do. Nobody knows that better than this week’s guest, BASE jumper and all-around active badass Shawn Brokemond, who not only lives her own adventurous life, but also trains other midlife women...
May 22, 2024•57 min•Ep. 179
Sally “Sal” Edwards, now 76, is a pioneer in women’s sports. She qualified for the first women's marathon Olympic Trials in 1983 and is one of the original founders of USA Triathlon. She also brought heart rate and zone training to the mainstream. For 22 years, Sal served as the national spokeswoman for the Danskin Women's Triathlon Series volunteering to finish last as a professional triathlete so that no other woman would have to. This week Sal reflects back on her past and shares her insights...
May 15, 2024•54 min•Ep. 178
Be smaller. Be lighter. For our entire lives those messages have been drilled into us from every angle, including very often from those in our sports. We hear we need to be at “race weight.” We’re shown “idealized” images of what female athletes “should” look like. It’s all incredibly damaging, especially as we hit menopause and midlife and our bodies start to change. It’s also based on BS. Women with cellulite and extra body fat win races. Women who are well-fueled outperform those who are not....
May 08, 2024•59 min•Ep. 177
If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s pelvic floor health is a whole lot more than doing Kegel exercises. In fact, sometimes Kegels are the last thing you need. This week we look at pelvic floor health through the lens of Postural Restoration with pelvic floor physical therapist and Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) practitioner Hayley Kava, who talks us through anatomical and structural issues that can contribute to leaking, aches and pains, and even propensity to injuries that become more...
May 01, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 176
At 49, this week’s guest Sarah Max is the oldest rider in the Life Time Grand Prix, the biggest, hardest gravel and mountain bike race series on the planet. That was something Sarah didn’t always want to talk about. She didn’t want to be defined by her age and didn’t always love the attention it attracted. But she’s realized that while her age isn’t her “brand,” it is part of her story–and an important part that inspires others and helps them see their own potential. And it most certainly doesn’...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 175
Women’s brains are finally getting the research attention they deserve! While we sort out the role hormones play in our current and future cognitive health, it’s important to remember that estrogen is just one player in a lifelong host of factors impacting your brain, including education, intellectual engagement, diet and nutrition, exercise and fitness, hearing loss, head injuries, sleep, stress levels, community, purpose, and much more! Hormones are part of the picture, but don’t outweigh ever...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 174
Cultural messages glorify youth as the best time of our lives. But that’s not what this week’s guest, Caroline Paul found while researching her wonderful book Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking―How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age . Instead, she found active, adventurous women praising their postmenopausal lives and the enjoyment they found in the now. For this project, Caroline spoke with women around the country about their aging journeys and the activities that ha...
Apr 10, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 173
Women’s ultrarunning is on fire right now with powerhouses like recent Barkley Marathons finisher Jasmin Paris, 40, and Lululemon FURTHER 6-day record smasher Camille Herron, 42, showing the world what midlife women can do. This week, we sat down with ultrarunning legend Pam Reed, who broke ground for women in the sport decades ago, winning races like Badwater 135 outright in 2002 and 2003, and talking about menopause at a time when athletes rarely uttered the word. Now 63, Pam is still blazing ...
Apr 03, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 172
Your metabolism is broken. You need to stop eating carbs. All weight gain is bad! If you’re a woman in menopause, you’ve been on the receiving end of a steady stream of overwhelmingly negative messages about your midlife body. Many of them are simply not true. That’s why we wanted to have a more nuanced conversation about the body composition changes many of us experience during this time of life. And this week’s guest, midlife health and nutrition specialist Val Schonberg was just the woman to ...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 171
Wear and tear on our active joints is inevitable, and the menopause transition can make them more vulnerable. But there are some simple, and often overlooked, ways to support our joint health that include proper nutrition, recovery, strength and mobility practices, footwear and more, which can help us stay active and pain free through and beyond menopause. This week we break it all down with sports medicine physician Dr. Ashley Austin. Ashley V. Austin, MD, is Assistant Attending Physician at th...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 170
Women’s sexuality, especially older women’s, is often overlooked or dismissed by the medical system. When men get procedures that may impact their erections, they’re informed. When women get treatments that may affect their ability to have an orgasm? Crickets. Too few women’s doctors talk about women’s sexual satisfaction, including how well their clitoris is responding or if they’re having orgasms. That’s got to change. It’s normal to want to be sexual and experience sexual pleasure throughout ...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 169
From being burned as witches to being barred from attending medical school, from being dismissed as hysterical to well, just being dismissed, from being shamed to being sexualized, the medical system has a long, sordid history in how it treats women and women’s health. And those toxic roots still poison the waters we have to navigate to this day. If you’ve ever wondered why we’re so far off the back with regards to our understanding of women’s health and wellness and treatment, this week’s guest...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 168
We wrap up heart health awareness month with one topic that comes up a whole lot in our community–cholesterol. We hear from scores of athletic, active women who have had perfectly fine lipid levels their whole lives only to see them shoot up, often dramatically, at menopause. If you’re one, you’re not alone. This week we take a deep dive into all things lipids, including what they are, what influences them, and what to do about them, with cardiologist and lipid and women’s health specialist Dr. ...
Feb 28, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 167
For years, hot flashes and night sweats (aka vasomotor symptoms) were considered just a “bothersome” part of being a menopausal woman: we were to wear layers, buy a fan, and soldier on. Then researchers started making some troubling connections between vasomotor symptoms and chronic disease. This week’s guest, Dr. Rebecca Thurston, is one of those investigators whose work shows that women with severe and/or persistent vasomotor symptoms have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and chang...
Feb 21, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 166
Whether you run, lift, or ride (and especially if you ride), an otherwise great workout can be wrecked by a painful vulva. And lots of issues can crop up during and beyond the menopause transition that can cause pain, discomfort, and even damage to your vulva and vaginal tissues. We address them all this week with Rochelle Bernstein, MD, of Purely Menopause, who focuses her OB/GYN practice on women’s sexual health and menopausal medicine. Dr. Rochelle Bernstein is an expert in menopausal medicin...
Feb 14, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 165
Mirna Valerio, aka the Mirnavator, has never shied away from adversity. As a Black woman in a larger body who is also an ultrarunner, she’s endured her share of harassment and ridicule, both online and in real life. But despite some people trying to put her down, she’s devoted her life to lifting others up, showing those like herself what’s possible, which, for her, includes 11 marathons, 15 50K+ ultras, and a best-selling memoir, A Beautiful Work in Progress. Now, Mirna is facing another challe...
Feb 07, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 164
As women who’ve grown up steeped in diet culture, we often give away our agency to books, apps, and strict food rules rather than trusting ourselves to know what to eat and what our bodies need. During menopause, when our bodies are changing, we can doubledown on those rules, making life harder. This week we talk about ditching diets and restrictive rules and using our knowledge and intuition to find food freedom and a whole lot more joy with Intuitive Eating Coach Pam Moore. Pam Moore is a jour...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 163
As active, athletic women, we know ourselves better than anyone. We know our pace, our power, and our mindset for training and competing. Perimenopause can make all of that change out of the blue. It can rob us of our confidence and knock us off our game, just when we feel like we’re really hitting our stride. Elite cyclist and coach Jill Patterson, 42, lived that reality for months, wondering if she had just “aged out” of her sport before discovering that the muscle and power loss, low motivati...
Jan 24, 2024•53 min•Ep. 162
The New York Times recently called Ozempic a “new match for menopausal weight gain”. But is it? These drugs can be a godsend for those who need them. But there's a lot we need to understand. How do they work? How well do they work? Who benefits from them? What are their risks? What impact do they have on muscle, bone, and performance? How do they affect training and racing? We dig into all of that and more this week with endocrinologist and Ironman triathlete Dr. Jody Dushay who has been researc...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 161
Most women don’t expect menopause symptoms to start until age 50. Neither do many of their healthcare providers. That’s a problem because, as this week’s guest Nina Coslov’s research shows, women can actually start experiencing symptoms associated with menopause during their late reproductive years before their periods become noticeably irregular and they’re officially in perimenopause. Yet when they seek care, they’re often told they’re “too young for menopause” because they still have regular ...
Jan 10, 2024•50 min•Ep. 160
As we roll into a brand new year filled with goals and aspirations, this week’s guest, fan-favorite Peloton Cycling instructor Christine D’Ercole would like to remind us that we are bigger than a smaller pair of pants, and the most powerful thing anyone can say to us is what we say to ourselves, and we have agency in that conversation. Now 52, Christine has started using her enormous platform to share her experiences with the menopause transition and to defy and rewrite the story that we’ve been...
Jan 03, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 159
