Masters & Female
Training adaptations after 50, female-specific physiology, iron and cycle considerations.
5 articles · sorted by most recent
Female Running Economy After Threshold Sessions: What the 2025 FENDURA Data Actually Shows
A 2025 study found threshold sessions raise oxygen cost by 2.4% in female runners — but energy cost stays flat. Here's what that split means for sequencing your hard days.
Female Durability: Why Trained Women Resist Late-Race Fade
Trained women slow 11.7% in the marathon second half vs 15.6% for men, and the gap keeps widening past 100 miles. Here's the four-mechanism physiology that explains it.
Why Does My VO2max Decrease as I Age? And What You Can Actually Do About It
VO2max falls ~10%/decade if you stop pushing hard, but masters athletes who keep doing intervals drop only ~5%/decade. Here's the science and the fix.
Training by Menstrual Cycle Phases: What the 2026 Research Actually Says (and What It Doesn't)
The 'lift heavy in follicular, deload in luteal' rule isn't evidence-based. When McNulty 2020 filtered to high-quality studies only, the effect size was -0.01 — functionally zero.
Training Past 50: The Physiology Has Changed — Your Plan Should Too
Endurance training alone does not preserve fast-twitch muscle fibers after 50 — Tøien 2023 found masters endurance athletes at 39.3% type II fibers, nearly identical to sedentary older adults at 35.0%.