So hoping this post may be useful to some people, but wanting to give some info on…*drum roll please*…..

Periods and running (woo…)

First things first it is good for you to run whilst on your period as it helps to ease cramps, release endorphins and helps you feel like more of a bad ass awesome runner!

But I understand that people have problems when it comes to running whilst on, or around mother nature time.

So here are the top tips that I can find for to help you through all the aches, pains and troubles:

• Stay hydrated

Your body is losing extra fluids during the days of your period so it is important to try and drink a bit more water than you normally would and maybe keep some water on you. This can also help stop the feelings of sluggishness.

• Stretch before hand

I know we should do this anyway, but it can really help to ease cramp pains. Stretching helps to warm up the body and stretch out muscles, all things that helps cramps to go away. I personally find a few abdominal stretches (belly stretches) or a few stomach exercises, such as sit ups, helps massively at times.

Can’t manage a warm up stretch or exercise beforehand? That’s fine, even just walking for a while as a warm up can help, and if the pain is real bad try using a heat pad or hot water bottle to warm it up for you. Just try to get out and run as it will generally help to make you feel better.

• Eat well

Lots of fruit and veg is recommended, this also helps to keep you hydrated. Iron rich foods can be good for you (let’s remember that you are losing blood) and can help to stop female runners from getting temporary anaemia.

Also for bloating apparently reducing salt intake can reduce bloating.

However, do be careful with this as salt is still needed for running, especially around the summer when it is hot and you are sweating a lot out as you need to keep your body topped up with electrolytes, especially if drinking more. You could always try getting your salt/ electrolyte top up through salt tablets rather than salty sodium rich foods, salt tablets are good for having all the range of salts (Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium) so not just Sodium.

I think an important thing for avoiding bloating is to avoid eating junk foods, which is tough. I find avoiding greasy foods helps me personally, and for chocolate cravings I try to reach for 60% dark chocolate which has Magnesium, as I can’t quite do super dark chocolate yet.

• Don’t be afraid to reassess things
  

Sometimes you will just need to accept that you may need to change your running or race plans today, which sucks I know. This may just be cutting down on miles, effort levels (maybe a gentle run instead of a hard one), doing few reps on a training session. Just be flexible with your training and for races it’s okay if today that target is not going to happen, it happens, life happens, and that’s perfectly okay.

• Dress appropriately

Dark bottoms is normally recommended in case of leakage.

More supportive bras for when breasts are feeling at their most tender.

Tummy hugging bottoms (ones with high waistbands) for helping with cramps.

Non tummy hugging bottoms (Waistband sits under the stomach, or is not too tight a fit) for when having tummy toilet needing troubles.

• Keep track through apps

There are many apps that can help you to keep track of your period and help you to track the symptoms, tell you what is best for you to eat and do when. These apps are great and a good way to predict when you are due and at what stage of menstruation you are/ will be at.

Please note that this is a thing that will take time to work at its most effective for you as the apps will need to learn your data over a couple of months.

Also if you are a Garmin user I believe Garmin has a new feature that can help women to track their periods and to suggest to them whenever they should eat less salt etc.

You can find a link to a list of period tracker apps in the links section.

• Sanitary stuff

Before running:

Always change to a new fresh sanitary towel, tampon, or maybe a pair of period pants. And cup users always empty that cup beforehand.

Be prepared:

Always keep some form of emergency sanitary product on you if you can, especially for races, just have it permanently in a race bag. Running can sometimes encourage mother nature to hit a bit earlier, or to find something more to empty out after you think you are finished. Tampons are easy to hide, as are panty liners and can hide in running belts/ pockets, though I recommend you put them in a little zip lock bag still to keep the a bit safer from damage and sweat and is also good for putting bloody sanitary into if had to do an emergency change in a hedge. For cup users you can get collapsible cups, and with period pants they just look like pants.

After running:

Always try and change to a fresh towel/ tampon and change those sweaty pants if you can. This will help to keep your vagina’s pH level stable and stop the risks of discomfort, odour and thrush. Also maybe have a wipe with a baby wipe or specialist vaginal wipe.

Find what suits you for running:

There are many sanitary options out there and it can take some experimentation but here is some info that may help if you are having problems.

If you suffer from thrush or irritation when using a tampon or towel for running then maybe try using:

Reusable cotton sanitary towels which are less likely to cause irritability when sweating.

A menstrual cup which inserts like a tampon, and is made of silicone so has no fibre to get sweaty and cause irritability.

Period pants can be less irritable for some people than the meshy fibres of tampons and towels, and you can get active wear versions that are even better at wicking away sweat than other versions.

If you have a weak bladder or have had children:

Sanitary towels are essentially made of the same stuff as nappies so don’t be afraid of leaking into them a little, just make sure that you can change it at the end.

Period pants are super absorbent and can be a great safe bet, some are even designed with post pregnancy in mind, and you can normally get active wear versions for extra sweat wicking.

 If you are a heavy bleeder:

Then I recommend doubling up on products being used for example, a tampon and a towel, a cup and a towel, a cup and period pants, a tampon and period pants.

Summary

Well done for making it this far!

I hope that someone maybe finds this useful, I will try to update it if there is any new info or tips that comes my way (feel free to suggest and share tips).

Below is a list of links and products that may be useful for the things I have discussed above, as well as a quick bit of info onto how and why you can be affected whilst running on your period.

Thanks very much for reading and have a nice day

Maybe useful products, apps and links:

Salt tablets:

Saltstick caps- I have personally used before and find great

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saltstick-Electrolytes-CAPS01-0030-Caps-100-Capsules/dp/B002IY96B0/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=salt+tablets&qid=1560410659&s=gateway&sr=8-7

GoNutrion five essentials- I have never used before but are more afforddable

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GoNutrition-Five-Essential-Electrolyte-Tablets/dp/B01GPSO7CW/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=salt+tablets&qid=1560410659&s=gateway&sr=8-12

Period pants:

Some info and brands, I know a few people who use Modibodi

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/g26411652/period-panties/?slide=7

Period apps:

A list of period tracker apps

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320758.php

Garmin menstrual tracking – info and how to

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/fitness/menstrual-cycle-tracking-in-garmin-connect/

Menstrual cups:

Some info and brands – I personally use these and find them great for stopping irritability, but did take a bit of learning how to use.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a22064115/best-menstrual-cups/

For a collapsible cup there is the lily cup one by Intimina

https://www.intimina.com/lily-cup-one

More info:

How is my body affected?!

Your body is affected because your iron levels will have dropped in your body affecting your haemoglobin cells (blood cells that carry oxygen), this in turn makes it harder for your cells to carry oxygen around the body.

This means it can be harder to regulate breathing when running since it is harder to breathe and for oxygen to get around. Also since oxygen can’t get about so easily you can find it harder to move.

You may also experience a raise in body temperature as your brain and body gets it’s signals crossed and mess up what temperature you should be at. So be aware that it may be extra hard to run when it is hot, and depending what bit of your menstrual cycle you are on you may also sweat more or less than normal.

Your body will also go through stages where it has less glycogen, so less energy, which is great when you are going to run.

During something called the follicular phase (between 7-22 days into your cycle, occurs from the time you stop bleeding to ovulation) oestrogen levels rise causing your metabolism to use fat rather carbs to burn for energy. This may make sprinting harder but can mean running longer distances is easier. You may have seen that when it comes to insanely long distance ultra races women winning is not unknown. Women are generally better than men at metabolising fat which is why we can see women win when it comes to ultra running. So that’s pretty cool!

So a little guide to the hill training we do!  (you may have seen a similar facebook post – there’s a few extra bits but essentially it’s the same).

Firstly what ever your ability don’t be scared. If you can run 5 miles and don’t mind the odd bit of sprinting in your running then what ever speed that’s at is good enough. It really is a mixed ability type of a session and that’s how we like it. Some of my friends of speedy, some aren’t and I like to run with them all. It’s not just for serious runners (whatever they are) just for people who want to improve or who like a bit of social run.  There really is plenty of time to chat on these days.

The aims are to help with both your flat running speed and going up hills and also having a fun and social session. In my club weekly calendar we have Tuesday and Friday night speed sessions (Friday’s at the local track, only £1 for non members, really recommend it but I’m not in charge of this session).  They’re of varying types.  Tuesdays maybe a bit more of a speed endurance session and Friday may more concentrate on improving your top speed.  So we do a hill session that won’t hurt anyone doing one or both the others. Although 3 hard sessions a week is possibly a bit much. I tend to do all three but maybe not 100% on all of them.

A typical hill session would be a pyramid. After a warm up we’d start with 3 15 second efforts. Then 3 30 second efforts followed by 3 60 second efforts. There’s walking recovery inbetween so for every second run you probably get 4 to recover. We’d normally do a short little jog to clear the legs before repeating the 30 and 15 second intervals. We aim for people to feel relatively fresh so they can try hard on each interval, it’s not meant to be a session to grind you down. This session is 7min 30 of effort running, so not too scary for anyone! And even if you struggle to keep running for 60s up a hill, try and keep walking. The ideas to try. Everything’s at your own pace, you just do what you can for the time of that interval.

We vary the hills as different gradients work your legs slightly differently and you don’t want to get locked into one gradient.  It’s also good to mix trail with tarmac as off road running can be great for stability and ankle strength.  I also try and vary the session so it’s not always exactly the same.  Sometimes steeper hills.  Sometimes flatter.  We do a session on a really evil hill that goes 3 * 15s, 60s, 90s, 60s, 3 * 10s, (recovery jog) 60s, 90s, 60s, 3 * 15s.  If you’re by yourself putting 6 – 30 second hill efforts into a moderate paced run can work wonders if you do regularly (once a week).    Steps can be great for the shorter intervals.

The science bit (this is probably why I get called a dork at times). The shorter very sprinty stuff is effectively a strength workout for runners. If you’ve ever used a leg press in the gym you can imagine picking your legs up to get up a steep hill as being a similar action with your body as the weight. This can strengthen muscles which may barely get used on the flat but can definitely Sprinting also helps your running efficiency – it’s much harder to have bad form when running quickly. It’s great for VO2 max to on the longer intervals, when you’re breathing deeply thats great for lung capacity and your bodies ability to get oxygen around the body and then process it in your legs.

I hope that explains a bit about some of the sessions people are welcome to join us on and if you’re nowhere near Yeovil on Weds or Thurs something to consider trying yourself especially with friends.  Please feel free to ask any questions, I’ll do my best to help!

Sometimes it’s good to end in a pub.