Q&A: Overall health, with irregular or absent periods & What if I recover from REDs...and get slower?
Release Date: 10/30/2025
Pep Talk: You're NOT the Exception to Adequate Fuel, Periods, and Rest
Lane 9 Podcast
You're about the toe the line for your spring goal race, or you're mid-season for your sport and it's getting intense. Let's have a pep talk! We're sharing this one because we are fully in the swing of the Spring sport season, and that might mean that you're bumping up against some internal resistance to do the things that you know would be helpful, but would also require changing some old habits. You could be fueling more carb loading, or just eating enough in general. You could be focusing on getting your period back. You could be tapering or taking more consistent rest days. But if...
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Pro Runner Gabi Rooker on Fibroids, Fertility Treatments, and Training for Boston 2026
Lane 9 Podcast
" I've had a lot of colleagues who have navigated infertility and have been really open about it, which has helped me." Professional runner Gabi Rooker joins the Lane 9 Podcast to talk about discovering she had a grapefruit-sized fibroid outside of her uterus, getting it removed, and navigating fertility treatments while still training for marathons like Chicago in 2025, and Boston 2026. She's been open about this process and how it's going for her, to help the next person navigate through own experiences and feel less alone along the way! Follow and cheer for Gabi via her Instagram...
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Carbohydrates: What athletes need to know, with dietitian Brooke Czarnecki
Lane 9 Podcast
"The athletic person is going to need more calories overall, and a lot of those calories should be coming from carbohydrates," shares Lane 9 clinician, . We are talking ALL about carbs on this episode! We talk about why athletes need to skirt the general nutrition advice and focus more on their unique needs, especially when it comes to carbs. We talk specifics, we talk tracking, we talk Low Carbohydrate Availability, and much more. If you've noticed that your hemoglobin A1c numbers are high, or are wondering how low energy/carbohydrate availability may impact these biomarker, here's a great...
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A Connection Between Perimenopause, Disordered Eating, and REDs with researcher and clinician Meghan Vogt
Lane 9 Podcast
"We are not done [as athletes], by a certain age. And we should be able to push for what we want," shares athlete, advocate, and clinician, Meghan Vogt. Meghan is part of the Lane 9 Clinician Membership and Directory, and posted to the Lane 9 Project Substack a few months ago, as she began to collect data for her dissertation project. She's studying "The Overlooked Connection Between Perimenopause, Disordered Eating, and REDs", as both a clinician, and someone with lived experience as an athlete navigating perimenopause, through a system that wasn't, and still isn't fully, designed to...
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You're injured (as an athlete). Now what?, with mental performance coach Olivia Papakyrikos
Lane 9 Podcast
"Injury is part of the athletic experience. Burnout, setbacks, losses...all of these things are part of being an athlete. There's nothing you can do to eliminate ALL risk of that," shares licensed therapist and sport psychology consultant, Olivia Papakyrikos. She is part of our . Olivia was a collegiate athlete, and now supports athletes navigating things like injuries, body image struggles, and life transitions. We talk about the stages of grief an athlete may experience when navigating an injury, why it's actually so disruptive to our sense of identity, and what to do about that. ...
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How eating disorder recovery begins, for every body (Eating Disorders Awareness Week)
Lane 9 Podcast
“Over the years, clients have shown me that recovery begins in spaces where they feel safe enough to tell the truth.” It's Eating Disorder Awareness Week and this year's theme is "Every Body Belongs". We wrote a little something about that on our newsletter, and shared here as well. We appreciated how eating disorder dietitian Marci Evans wrote the quote above in her newsletter this week, and have seen the same play out, here in Lane 9. We shared our stories, and it opened the door for other athletes to see what they could do the same, whether that's with us, or with someone they feel safe...
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Building Bone Density, and Weight Lifting for Female Athletes, with DPT and Ultra-marathoner Hannah DePaul
Lane 9 Podcast
"The first time [younger female athletes] work with a barbell or trap bar or something, you can see it. They're like, 'this is bada**, this is awesome," shares physical therapist and ultra-endurance athlete, Hannah DePaul, on this episode about building bone density and weight lifting for female athletes (from highschool and up!). Hannah DePaul is a former D1 Swimmer, who held multiple records at the University of Michigan, and has gone on to run ultra-marathons. She's currently training for The Huron 100, a point-to-point independent event based outside of Ann Arbor, MI. We have a few...
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Creating Team Culture to Talk About Periods and Eating Enough, with Coach Gracen Key from Fort Lewis College
Lane 9 Podcast
"I had girls come up to me and say, 'I haven't had my period in X amount of time, how do I get it back?'" Gracen Key, head coach for the Women's Distance program at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango CO joins us to talk about creating a team culture where athletes feel comfortable asking questions like that. Key joined FLC about two years ago, and is working hard to create a team cuture that celebrates fueling, regular periods, and self expression. After struggling with injuries, and eventually having surgery for a severe hip labrum tear, her personal athletic career seemed over but she...
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From struggling with injuries to a marathon debut OTQ at CIM with Melissa Berry
Lane 9 Podcast
"That really was the biggest thing during my marathon build is like, wow. Reminding myself to get back into those [fueling] habits, but also remembering I shouldn't need to train for a marathon to have these healthy habits," shares Melissa Berry, a former D1 Cross Country and Track runner for the University of Oregon. Berry ran her debut marathon at CIM 2025, in 2:35:57, getting her first OTQ in the marathon. Berry grew up in Eugene OR and was excited to find herself at her hometown university as a collegiate athlete. She fueled well in highschool and saw big improvements, but struggled...
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What to do when Body Image (in sports) feels tough
Lane 9 Podcast
"There are a lot of outside influences that challenge the way we experience our body, which accumulates to our own personal body image," shares Dr. Krissy Ladner, a sports dietitian in the Lane 9 Women's Sport & Health Directory. Dr. Ladner joins us to talk about how body image dissatisfaction may impact our fueling and nutrition, our mental health, and our performance in sport. It's a very common thing for people socialized as women to struggle with, and of course athletes and people of all genders may struggle with body image concerns. She speaks to the importance of coaches (and...
info_outline"You might think, 'On the other side of this, if I'm not even guaranteed better performance, Why would I do it?' That comes down to our values," shares Lane 9 co-founder, and dietitian, Heather Caplan.
This Q&A episode tackles two questions:
- Is it possible to be 'healthy' even with extremely irregular periods or absent periods, if everything else is going well?
- Will I recover from REDs and get faster? What if I get slower, or get injured?
Have your own question to submit to Lane 9 for a future episode or resource? We'd love to hear them! Go to Lane9project.org and contact us. Or follow us on Instagram @Lane9Project and come on into our DMs.
Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!