Doing Less to Go Further: Perimenopause, Recovery & Redefining Fitness
I did my first bikepacking trip a couple of weeks ago. Solo, milk crate strapped to my rack, definitely not the "ideal" setup. But I did it, and that trip ended up being the perfect entry point into this conversation with Marissa, a cycling coach who's spent the last several years focused on women 40 and up.
From Elite Racing to Central Nervous System Fatigue
Marissa's coached cyclists since 2008, but her focus shifted about six years ago after her own body forced the issue. She was a high-level road racer, coming off a concussion, and started feeling an exhaustion she'd never experienced before, not soreness, something deeper. Labs came back fine. Then she picked up Roar by Dr. Stacy Sims and Selene Yeager and found the term for what she was feeling: central nervous system fatigue, an early perimenopause symptom. That same week, three friends in the same age range described the exact same thing.
Why We're All Kind of Guessing
Most menopause research has historically focused on sedentary populations, so there's not much data on active women aging past 40, 50, 60, and beyond. A lot of us are left guessing whether what we're feeling is perimenopause or something else entirely, without much to go on besides forums and Google.
Recovery Isn't a Reward, It's the Job
The biggest thread running through this whole episode was recovery. Not something you earn after working hard enough, but a required part of the training itself. Marissa talked about coaching women out of what they think is a "recovery ride" that's actually a hard 55-mile ride with friends, and reminding them that real recovery is 30 percent of the work, not optional. I related to this hard, especially the guilt around resting and convincing myself a "light" hike up a steep hill counts as a rest day. It doesn't.
Letting Go of the Competitive Identity
We also got into what happens when your relationship to competition changes. Marissa's shifted away from racing toward track cycling purely because it brings her joy now, and she was honest about how uncomfortable that identity shift can be. Her take: it's genuinely okay to walk away from something you used to define yourself by, and it doesn't mean you failed.
The Glow
Toward the end, Marissa brought up something she'd noticed watching me talk about my bikepacking trip, gear mishaps and all: that glow you get from doing a hard thing anyway, regardless of whether your setup or your body was fully ready for it. That feeling is a big part of why we keep showing up in the first place.
If you're in any stage of figuring out what your body's doing right now, whether that's perimenopause, aging as an athlete, or just wondering why last week felt easy and this week doesn't, I think you'll find a lot to hold onto here.
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