It feels like everyone is running, and that’s because – they are. Marathons are selling out in record times across Australia and an estimated 4.2 million Aussies have picked running up post-pandemic, according to government data.
Only the other week, Sydney and Melbourne were named the third and fifth best cities in the world to go for a run, and later this year, the Sydney Marathon will take place as a World Major for the first time after it was bestowed the title late last year.
Strava’s 2024 year in sport confirmed a 59 per cent increase in run club participation globally, and that bubble doesn’t look like it’s bursting anytime soon with running becoming embedded in many young peoples’ lives.
Gen Z respondents said they are four times more likely to want to meet someone through exercise over going to a bar, and given so many people are feeling those post-run endorphins, it makes sense.
The same report from Strava found that women were 20 per cent more likely than men to snag a crown on the app in 2024. This is an award gained in Strava by having the fastest time on a segment’s overall leaderboard. It’s an incredible achievement undertaken by female runners all over the world who have been out there smashing leaderboard times, but despite the in-app crowns and more women running than ever before, many still face challenges when it comes to running in 2025.
The ASICS Gender Report found that all women surveyed experienced barriers to exercise throughout their lifetime. 44 per cent of women said intimidating environments were a barrier, while 42 per cent of respondents said ‘not feeling sporty enough’ was a major obstacle for them.
I’ve experienced this feeling in running spaces, where a masculine culture pervades the environment and creates a belittling feeling of not ‘sporty’ or ‘fast’ enough. It can be hard to enter spaces where your confidence comes into question, but the emergence of women’s running spaces like run group Femmi, and women’s only races such as the Nike Run After Dark event taking place in Sydney next month, create environments for female athletes to feel comfortable and thrive.
Historically these spaces for female runners have been either non-existent or relatively small and it’s something Nike Run Coach Lydia O’Donnell says is important for the community.
“We just haven’t had enough of those spaces in the past and I think it’s so exciting that we now have this moment to bring women together to empower each other and really support each other throughout the distance to celebrate the women’s running community,” she said.
“It’s really cool to have the Nike After Dark tour to celebrate women and celebrate women runners, and also bring new woman runners into the space as well.”
These spaces become a hub for learning about how to run as a woman and share information that is often overlooked, such as how to train around your cycle.
Whenever I’ve been looking at training plans for running races I’ve struggled to find a plan that takes my menstrual cycle into account. This is pretty astounding given that if you work against your cycle it can actually do more harm than good to your progress and make it harder to reach your goals.
O’Donnell has been training around her cycles for years and noticed a significant difference when she acknowledged it as part of her training regime.
“I actually broke all of my PBs, from my 5k to the marathon once I started taking this approach,” she said.
On top of going faster, she also felt more confident in her body and empowered in knowing that she could hit the paces she wanted depending on where she was at in her cycle. “I just want to feel good in myself and good in my body,” said O’Donnell. “It all comes down to education, knowledge and doing what’s right for you.”
How To Start Running And Training Around Your Menstrual Cycle
If you want to start training around your cycle, O’Donnell says the first and most important step is tracking your cycle so you can understand how you’re impacted at different points throughout the month. If you regulate your cycle with a contraceptive pill this will be a little easier to know where you’re at.
If you have a natural cycle and your body differs from cycle to cycle, start to take notes and soon you’ll be able to see similarities and patterns at different phases of your cycle. By doing this you’ll be creating a personalised training program that’s responding to your body and what it’s capable of.
“Our hormones, no matter what sex you are, control everything in our body. So understanding our hormones is essentially understanding our body, and to understand our body allows us to actually adapt our training and make sure that we’re doing things correctly,” O’Donnell said.
“It’s really taking that personalisation into account when we are trying to build a training program that’s really right for us.”
According to O’Donnell the best time for training is when your feeling your strongest in your follicular phase. For someone on a 28 day cycle, this is the first half of your menstrual cycle from day one to around day 14. This is when you should undertake training that challenges you, elevates your heart rate and makes you feel like you’re pushing.
In this phase you recover faster and will feel energised, so seize this hormonal confidence and go hard. Your follicular phase is the time to lock in and push yourself.
Next you’ll enter your ovulation phase, this will take place around days 12-15 of your cycle. This is when your oestrogen levels will peak, you’ll also have a peak of testosterone too and an egg will be released. This is a great time to focus on building muscle and continue capitalising on feeling strong.
Then after day 15 you’ll arrive at your luteal phase and this is when your body is flooded with progesterone, which can make exercising feel challenging. It’s also when your premenstrual symptoms will begin to creep in and when you need to adjust the intensity of your training.
Progesterone is catabolic, which means it breaks down muscle instead of building it up. O’Donnell suggests jumping into lower intensity exercise and focusing on recovery sessions during this phase. She recommends the Nike Training Club app that has running stretches and pilates sessions that are great to tap into when things get a bit harder in your luteal phase.
Trying to do higher intensity training during this phase will likely feel challenging and if you push too hard here it’ll probably take you longer to recover, so prioritising recovery during this phase will help your training in the long term.
O’Donnell says you’ll start seeing results once you incorporate cycle mapping into your training, but remember every body is different and you’ll most likely need to adjust the days depending on your body.
“Even between one woman to another their cycles may differ and then on top of that within one person their cycle might differ between cycle to cycle.”
“The more you get to know yourself, your body and how you’re impacted, then the better you can adapt your training and make sure it’s right for you.”
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