For Women Triathletes. Period.- by Sue Aquila

I realized today that I have had my period (menstruation) for almost 30 years of my life.  Roughly every three weeks. A minimum of sixteen per year for three to four days. 480 times in 30 years.  A minimum of 1440 days. I have used tampons for at least three years of my life. When a girl is born she should automatically receive stock in a manufacturer of women's personal hygiene items.

Please note, I am not a medical professional. The info I am sharing is personal experience only with periods, long course racing and training.  

The past six months I have had the luck of three big training weeks occurring the week before my period.  This was totally unplanned. Each week had a minimum of 20 hours of training. All three of these weeks were outstanding training blocks for me culminating in some best ever performances.

I have raced at least two Ironmans with the arrival of my period the day before or the day of the race.  Both races were PR's but both races felt challenging in terms of effort and overcoming fatigue.  

After years of tracking, I have learned that I can go big the week before my period.  With one caveat; I am much more likely to get a cold. Why? I don't sleep well. My sleep is punctuated with frequent interruptions through the night where I am wide awake.  Lack of sleep is the number one reason I succumb to a cold. Insomnia is often accompanied by the additional plagues of mild constipation, water retention (up to 5lbs), occasional night sweats (peri-menopause) and (it kills me to admit this...) sometimes a lack of patience.

So, now that I know I am able to go really big in training the week before my period, what do I do to minimize the side effects?  One, I nap. As needed. Two, I eat very cleanly (with a dose of dark chocolate at night). Three, I try to be kinder to those I love (I think they might give me a FAIL).  Four, I increased my fat consumption on Gordo's advice. Increasing fat consumption seems to decrease night sweats and help me to sleep better.

My advice?  If you are taking birth control, you can experiment with increasing your training at certain times of your cycle.  Take notes. Talk to your coach. Find the sweet spot to do your best training. If you are not taking birth control, still take notes.  Timing is a little bit more challenging but with experience you will better understand your cycle and training. Now if I could just time my races perfectly to fit this model!

Perhaps it is time for Training Peaks to develop a new metric.  For Women Only. Period.