From College Runners to Perimenopause: Training, Fueling & Performance Across Every Stage | Sonja Friend-Uhl

In this episode of the Maximum Mileage Running Podcast, I’m joined by world-class athlete and coach Sonja Friend-Uhl, Assistant Coach for the men’s and women’s cross country and track teams at Florida Atlantic University and a lifelong competitor who continues to perform at a high level as a Masters athlete.

We dive into what it really looks like to pursue high performance across every stage of a female runner’s life, from the pressures collegiate athletes face today to the realities of training through perimenopause.

Sonja shares her journey from the corporate world into coaching, how she’s balanced an incredibly full schedule while continuing to train and compete, and what she’s learned working with athletes at every level.

We also get into some of the most important and often overlooked topics in women’s running right now, including body image, underfueling, RED-S, and the role of strength training and proper nutrition as hormones begin to shift.

If you’re a busy runner trying to perform at a high level, whether you’re in college, post-college, or navigating hormonal changes, this episode will give you practical insight and a much-needed perspective shift.

In this episode, we cover:

• The growing pressure around body image and fueling in collegiate female runners
• Red flags for underfueling and how coaches can better support athletes
• Sonja’s transition from corporate life to elite coaching
• Training through perimenopause and why more mileage isn’t the answer
• How strength training supports performance, health, and longevity
• Why individualized training matters more than ever

If you’re interested in working with Sonja or learning more about her coaching, you can connect with her on Instagram at @coachsonjaruns, just send her a direct message to get started.

Right, that's us done. If that was useful… share it. Stick it in your club WhatsApp, send it to that mate who's always getting injured three weeks before race day. You know the one ;)

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See you on the next one.

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Nick's YT - youtube.com/channel/UCgdIPeN3bF7I7-tcspyFbVg/

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Hannah's IG - https://www.instagram.com/coach_hannah_witt/

Matt's IG - https://www.instagram.com/ultracoachmatt/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Maximum Mileage Running Podcast, where we help busy runners train smarter, stay consistent, and keep moving toward their goals even when life is full. Because let's be real, most of you listening aren't professional athletes. You're balancing careers, families, travel, stress, and somehow still showing up to train. And our mission here is to give you the tools, the perspective, and the confidence to make that work for you, not against you. And today's episode is such a powerful example of what that can look like. We're joined by Sonia Fran Yule, who is not only a world-class master's athlete, but also the assistant coach for the men's and women's cross-country and track teams at Florida Atlantic University, while managing a full coaching roster of personal training clients in life as a mom. In this conversation, we dive into her journey from the corporate world into coaching, what it really looks like to balance high performance with a packed schedule and some incredibly important topics like body image and feeling challenges in collegiate female athletes and how coaches can better support them. We also talk about training as you age, especially for women, and why strength training, not just more mileage, becomes the key to performance and longevity. This one is honest, practical, and really empowering, especially if you're someone trying to pursue big goals in a very full life. Let's get into it. Welcome everyone back to the Maximum Mileage Running Podcast. Today we have an amazing guest for you, and I'm going to introduce you. Today's guest is Sonia Fran Yule, a world-class athlete coach and leader in the fitness industry. Sonia is a USATF certified running coach with more than two decades of experience coaching runners at the high school, collegiate, and private levels. She is currently serving as the assistant coach for the men's and women's cross-country and track teams at Florida Atlantic University. As an athlete, Sonia has competed at the highest levels of the sport. She qualified for the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials in the 1500 meters and has represented the United States on six world teams. She continues to compete as a master's athlete and holds multiple American records along with the national and world championship titles. She's also a nationally recognized speaker, published writer, and master trainer in the fitness industry. Sonia, welcome so much to the show. We're so fortunate to have you today. Thank you. So, just a little background for our listeners. Sonia and I met very briefly at the Delray Beach Running Company, where you have probably figured out that I've met a lot of the people that we we speak with on this podcast. But yeah, a lot of really amazing athletes and professionals in the fitness industry pass through those doors. And Sonia, do you so you're coaching at Florida Atlantic University? So where exactly is that in Florida?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

It's in Boca Ratone. We are about three and a half to four miles from the beach and about four uh 35 to 40 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Perfect. Great. So have you, you know, just to kind of get your origin story a little bit, are you originally from Florida?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

No, we've lived in Florida since 1998. For six of those years, though we we were we were living in Nashville for that time. My husband was transferred for about six years. We've come back to Florida, but I grew up in Delaware, actually. I grew up in down at the shore in Delaware, a little town called Lewis Beach.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Shout out to Lewis Beach, Delaware. Great. So have you always been involved in running sports since you were young, or when did you really take off with running? Since you've obviously you have quite the running resume.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I I have. I have been involved with running pretty much my entire life. When I was very young, so I want to say probably third or fourth grade, at least fourth grade. My father was an engineer during his career days. He worked as an engineer for the Atlantic Richfield Company, which is on the West Coast, they're known better. It's Arco. And they had something that's very similar to what we see now with AAU competitions for youth. So it was called the Arco Jesse Owens Games. And I participated in my first competition. It was, as I said, the third or fourth grade, I ran in the 50-meter dash. And I did well. And then I continued to compete in the games even up into my high late middle school and early high school years. And then I was running the 400 meters and I went all the way to the national championships for them or through that entity. And when I was in, I believe it was the sixth or seventh grade, I when I went to nationals in the 400, part of the trip, it was in the LA uh Los Angeles Coliseum. And part of the trip was that we we also got to go to Disneyland. So I was really excited about that. And that pretty much sealed the deal for me and running the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So I love that. You have such a wholesome experience with running growing up. It sounds like you truly love the sport. And while you were encouraged along the way, did you ever feel like you were forced into it, or did it feel like a natural kind of extension of your interests?

SPEAKER_01 5:47

You would say 90% of the time it was a natural extension. Like I think for the most part, we all tend to gravitate, even when we're very young, we gravitate towards what we seem to be good at, you know. And I, while I played softball when I was young and I did some gymnastics and things like that, I was definitely there, it was obvious that I had a talent for running, I had speed, and so I gravitated towards that. There were times, like any other young person, I'm sure, like young child, when it came time for the meet, I got really nervous or I didn't want to race. And my parents were very good about, you know, if you start something, you finish it. So they never let me back out. And I think that's good. But most of the time, it seemed like something that I I wanted to do and that I was being led to do, you know, subconsciously.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Right. Well, I think that's a really good balance, though, of having discipline for yourself, but also having people encourage you and you know help you when you were struggling a little bit with motivation. But you know, sometimes it takes outside forces to give us the motivation and help that we need because they know that we're capable, even if we have self-doubt. So, you know, that I think really lends itself into your coaching now. Do you you have another business? You're an entrepreneur, right? You have your own business.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yes, I use that term somewhat loosely for myself, only because I'm not incorporated or anything like that. But, you know, I realized I spent about five years in the corporate world when I first graduated out of college. I I took a position with a company that was champion paper. And so I was a sales rep for them. And I think it may even only have been three years that I lasted with that, because what I realized was what I really enjoyed and what really made me, what inspired me to learn more and to work harder to help others was the fitness, you know, the world of fitness, running as well, but also general fitness for people. And so while I still had that corporate job, I did earn my certification for personal training through a company called AFA. At the time I was, I had just been married and we were living in Pittsburgh, and I started just training people on the weekends in my free time and helping them, and I just loved it so much. And then alongside of that, this was in 1996 at the time, we were living in Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon had a wonderful coach there named Darnett Dario Donatelli, and I was still training on my own and competing and things like that, unattached in meets and races. And I I had a goal to qualify for the Olympic trials that year. And so I had reached out to coach Donatelli and said, you know, if I would you be willing to coach me? And he said, Yeah, if you're willing to help out and come volunteer at Carnegie Mellon as an assistant coach. And I said, Okay. So that was really my first big segue into running coaching was volunteer coaching at Carnegie Mellon under Dark Dario Donatelli. I learned so much from him. He was a very scientific-based coach. And then from there, I decided, okay, I'm done with the corporate world. I want to venture out on my own and see what I can do to help people from a fitness and a running standpoint. And that's how that all kind of really came to be.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

That I mean, that's very impressive because you had like three different jobs and you were to go to be in the Olympics. Yeah. And, you know, I think that sprinters, because I would classify you as a sprinter if you're doing, you know, 400 meters, but oh, but I wasn't then.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Sorry, I just want to make sure it's clear I am not a sprinter. I my 400 focus ended in high school because it became apparent that I was never going to be fast enough in the 400 to really focus on that in college. So I my focus really was the 800 and 1500. And what I did qualify for eventually in 2000 for the Olympic trials was the 1500 meters. So I am definitely, I would say I'm more of a miler.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Okay, miler. Yeah. So would you group that in kind of middle distance?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

That's absolutely middle distance, yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Okay, perfect. Well, that still, you know, you have to you have to be so incredibly self-disciplined in order to have all those jobs and continue to train at that level. And because you mentioned personal training clients, obviously a big component of that is strength training. And when I think about middle distance runners, there is a lot of strength training and just building power, you know, within yourself that goes into training for that. What would your kind of typical week look like at that time? Balancing, you know, working and training, coaching, personal training on the weekends. Were you just always go, go, go? Or was it just an incredibly hectic time of your life? It sounds like you're somebody who likes to constantly be going.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Yeah, sometimes I am my own worst enemy enemy with that, I will admit. But at that time, it was before, you know, we did not have children yet. So that was that made it a lot easier in some aspects. I had more of my own time to myself. The corporate job was nice in that, you know, we kind of made our own hours. Um, we had office hours, but we also had sales call hours. So I could get a workout in early in the morning and then get on the road and see a few customers and things like that, or vice versa in the evening. The weekends, you know, I might have, I really just when I first started out with a personal training, I just stuck to my neighborhood, to be honest. Like there were I lived in a large neighborhood in the suburb of Pittsburgh called Hunting Ridge. And I put up a little, this was before the days that internet was the thing. And so I put up a little poster in the community center and said, I'm available for this. And I think I had maybe three or four clients on the weekends doing that. And then the with Carnegie Mellon, you know, they have set practice times. So I would go out on the bigger workout days. So it necessarily wasn't every day, but three days a week I would go and then I would travel with them to meets. So I made it work, but it was definitely something you just have to be organized with your time. And even now I I find myself doing the same kind of thing. I have my my hand in a lot of fires, so to speak. But the main thing is to stay organized, prioritize, you know, and always remember to take care of yourself. Because if you're if you don't have enough the right nutrition, if you're not, if you don't have enough sleep, you know, you're not going to be good for anybody else in any of those positions. So I also find that if I just focus on one thing, sometimes that can turn out to be almost counterproductive because then if I put all my eggs in one basket and that doesn't work out as well, you know, then there's disappointment and things like that. But if I if I have my interests and my focus spread out a little bit, oftentimes the different areas end up strengthening the others, if that makes sense. So I think it's um, like I said, it can be a double-edged sword. You do have to be careful, but mostly it's worked out well for me having a variety in both my career and my sport. It's helped me stay fresh with things and stay interested. And I hope my clients and my athletes feel the same way. I I would hope they would say that's true.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

I'm sure it sounds like you give so much of yourself to others and try to help them. And I think that's great for coaching in particular. I think about how if you've been coaching since late 90s, right? Yes. Okay, so you have seen the progression of you know, I'll just go ahead and say females in college sports, especially distance running, middle distance, and you know, any kind of sport that I guess there's more emphasis on body type and you know things like that. Women, and I ran in college, you know, we have so much pressure to you know be a certain size. And sometimes, unfortunately, coaches inflict that pressure on female athletes. I mean, and men too, you know, that's I think coming more to the surface as well. That both men and women have, I would say, been mistreated by college coaches and making them feel like they're not good enough unless they're a certain weight, certain size, and they're in these tiny little singlets that they have to race in. So everybody sees everything, and it's mortifying if you feel like you don't measure up. Do you feel like with the coaching that you've been doing, you've seen the progression from how it was kind of hush-hush, I guess more so in the late 90s to you know, the coaches becoming more exposed through the years and how it's a really hot topic now about how so many female runners have developed eating disorders because of the treatment they received in college. Like, what's your take on that?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

I actually have a little bit of a different perspective now. I think it's I actually think it's it's morphed again. I I recognize, yeah, they I feel like that was an issue when the when the world was smaller. And what I mean by that, when the internet wasn't as prominent and people were more isolated, I feel like those obviously in closest proximity and having the most influence over the athletes were the ones that were a part of the problem. And while that definitely still exists, I've been lucky in my immediate circles. I have been blessed and lucky as an athlete that I haven't had any particularly negative experiences that I can point to. I do see coaches out there at the D1 level. It's what I can speak to the most of. That's the circles I travel in. I do see those coaches out there that still have either a lot to learn or or they need to have a wake-up call as far as how they're communicating with their athletes. But in my immediate circles where I am, that is not the issue. What I see is a bigger issue, honestly, is that now that though there's so much information out there available and that the internet there we are so visible to each other and our performances are so visible immediately, like as in real time, you can check results, live results links and things like that. I see the athletes, especially the female athletes, putting so much pressure on themselves and comparing themselves to other athletes or to perhaps you know, a standard that really isn't possible for most people. And then they're able to get more information on how to alter their bodies and how to unfortunately restrict or manipulate calories and things like that because there's just so much more information out there. So I think comparison and information overload is a big part of the problem now as well, that perhaps wasn't there before because it was just a smaller world. So now I guess I guess what I'm saying is I think the issue goes beyond coaches now. I think it's um we have to really focus, and we try to do that at FAU. We have to really be more proactive about providing our athletes with the the right, the true and realistic nutrition information from the get-go, like as they come in as freshmen every before every season when we sit down for meetings, we have to talk about these things, do presentations, bring in dietitians to talk to them about it. You know, what's the reality if you restrict? We have we talked to them about Reds now, and we have that in the first conversation when we sit down for a for our pre-season cross-country meetings with them. Also having mental health specialists available for our athletes, readily available. We now have that, for example, at FAU. We have sports psychologists that can will deal with them not just with sport, but with any kind of you know, body image or eating issues that might come up. So I think it's really now that we have so much more, again, information on our fingertips, that can be a good and a bad thing. And what we have to do as leaders and coaches in the industry is make sure that we are on the right side of that and we are providing our athletes with all of the good information and warning them of the bad that's out there.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

I appreciate that it's almost a shift in that that whole, we'll call it a condition, the red-s, the restricted eating, etc. How you know before it was more, oh, coaches are making athletes weigh in and track their food, etc. When now it's almost like the athletes themselves are they're seeing, like you said, they're comparing themselves to other athletes, and maybe there's just some level of success for athletes who look a certain way. And so it's almost self-inflicted in terms of developing disordered eating or other unhealthy behaviors in regard to food and restrictive eating in general. But yeah, that that shift on onto the self instead of it being an external.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah, I mean, I guess it's still external pressure, right? But it's like if they're seeing things out there, and I mean, I can't tell you the number of like times I've talked to a coach who's even said, like, I don't know what to do with this person. Like, I need how I, you know, do you have resources that I can help talk to them? Because it's obvious there's some restricting going on, or it's obvious there's an issue and they won't listen, or they're they, you know, they're being secretive about what they're doing. So I can't help. I don't know how to help. So I think there's a lot of that going on. And when you look at how competitive the times have become now in the NCAA, and it is just insane how fast people are running and how talented people are coming in from a very young age. So you can see how the drive and the desire and the pressure, the internal pressure even to be better has just skyrocketed. And so I think that preempts all these ways that we can, as individuals, put too much pressure on ourselves and go to extreme lengths to try to be the best and and to be comparably better perhaps than somebody else. So we earn a spot, or we we do, we, you know, we have a season that we think will lead us to a a championship birth or something like that. So I'm not saying that there aren't coaches out there that are that do need to do a better job with that. I'm just saying that what I have seen is a shift where it definitely is more athlete-centric with that issue.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

That makes a lot of sense. And I'm so glad that collegiate running females, in particular, men too, of course, have you as a strong female role model. You've had a lot of success. You're obviously you've got to that point doing things right. You've had longevity in the sport because you you haven't fallen into that trap of not taking care of yourself. Properly, so it's really really amazing that you have the role that you do and you are able to educate and you know mentor athletes who are experiencing feelings like that. And you know, just for people in general, coaches maybe who are listening, what are typical behaviors that you would perhaps look for in athletes that you suspect may be having issues? Um, you you mentioned secrecy, that can definitely be a big one.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Yeah, the things I think that would be red flags to look out for. Obviously, there's an there's usually an aesthetic change, and it's more something that you would recognize if you've already known this athlete for a while, and then suddenly they come back, for example, from break or from a summer break or a a holly, you know, a winter break, and they clearly are, you know, 10 pounds lighter, let's say, just as around, or they just look a lot leaner and almost almost to the point of being a concern. That's the obvious one, but that's not always what you see or you realize first. Sometimes what'll happen is they'll start to eat alone. Like they'll go to the, you know, the dining hall with the other athletes, but they'll say, Oh, I'm just not hungry now, I'm gonna eat later. But then they don't really eat. Or a roommate will say, Well, they're eating, but it's like they're just snacking on dry cereal or just vegetables or something like that. So, you know, athletes skipping meals or avoiding eating around others, that's a big red flag. Another is where obviously like the performance, like they just they just look tired in workouts, and there's really no other explanation for what's going on. Whereas, you know, several weeks ago the same workout would be fine for them. They're really struggling to get through uh this, you know, they'll talk about heavy legs or just feeling exhausted. Sleep patterns usually get disrupted, you know, because the body's cortisol is spiking because they're not fueling enough. So little things like that is usually daily habits that you start to notice. They'll start to kind of isolate from the other team members, perhaps, you know, because they they want control. I think a big part of this is control. Like they they feel like they they want to have and they need to have control over their body. And you know, that's not always going to be possible when you're eating in a group, or you know, we're going, okay, which where are we going to go to eat before the meat? And it's there are two or three choices. And if you're trying to restrict, you're you're not gonna be able to do that in front of a group as well, right? So different things like that just to look forward. I think the best thing to do is just ask open-ended questions, you know, offer support and just keep an eye on overall health parameters. Like obviously, it's always good to get blood levels checked for things like iron, ferritin, even the stress hormones like cortisol and things like that. So we encourage our athletes to do that at least once a year, if not twice. Um, twice a year, I think is better. But I'll oftentimes, you know, those numbers can reveal what's going on inside the body before there's a bad problem, like stress fractures and things like that. But I think just lines of communication, keeping lines of communication open and being aware, you know, being aware of what's going on with your athletes and their habits is is really important.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Have you personally ever felt that pressure? You've competed at a very high level to get that last you know, percentage point out of yourself to fall into the trap of restricted eating.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Not not terribly so. There was one point in college when because I, you know, coming into college, freshman year, I was legitimately like you wouldn't look at me and say, Oh yeah, she's a runner. Like I legitimately had a few extra pounds on me because I have never been one that throughout high school or anything like that to restrict food. It never even dawned on me to do that. And it was more about bad habits, more than what it was, I wasn't overeating, I was choosing the wrong things like fried foods and ice cream. You know, we didn't have the amount of information and education out there when I was in high school, there was no internet, you know. So anything you had to learn, you learn from a fellow runner, a coach, or a book that you learned of, you know. So once once I once I learned better eating habits to fuel my workouts instead of thinking of it's something entirely separate, that kind of took care of itself. But I did, I remember I tried to go on this lower calorie diet and I got it from a book. I mean, it was something insane, like 800 to a thousand calories a day. Being totally honest with you, I only lasted about 48 hours on that because I just enjoy food too much. Like it wasn't, it just was not working. And I was like, this is silly, like this isn't gonna work. So that's the only time I can honestly say I tried to manipulate a calorie deficit in myself. As a master's athlete, interestingly enough, as a female, it's gonna, it kind of reared its ugly head again because I'm in perimenopause right now, and perimenopausal and menopausal women have some real issues out there as far as challenges with our bodies changing again. It's like going through puberty backwards, you know, and it's really wreaks havoc on your body. You, you know, you gain extra weight, it's a hormonal weight gain, and you gain it in the hips, usually the hips, the belly, and it's really stubborn weight, usually. It's fat-based, and it's nothing that we've done, but most of us haven't changed eating habits or exercise. It's all hormonal. And so you have to learn how to balance your hormones again as naturally as possible. And then the other issue is that um, you know, your joints take a beating from that hormonal shift as well. So a lot of times you're you're stiffer, you're more sore, you have no idea why your right knee hurts and your left shoulder hurts today, but it does. And therefore, you're not as motivated to go out and do as much work because you're also a little sore. So, you know, women kind of take the brunt of it both during puberty and and menopause with this weight issue surrounding our sports and our competitive, competitive, you know, goals. And so I think the more that we can support each other, the more information that's out there, which now there's almost too much information, right? You can get confused. But having resources out there that we go to, like and one really good resource I've relied on is Dr. Stacey Sims. She has a PhD in sports physiology and nutrition. And she wrote a book called Roar, R-O-A-R. And that was super helpful to me as a perimenopausal female navigating aging as an athlete, you know, and specifically to deal with changes in my body, how to how to get the most out of my body and treat it, treat it well while still trying to perform as an athlete. And also sometimes just to know that other people out there are dealing with the same thing. So there's a level of acceptance that you have to have as far as my body's not going to look the same as it did 20 years ago, but it can still perform for me just as well in many areas if I treat it the right way. So I think, you know, number one is sharing information, no, having resources to go to that you trust, and then monitoring your own body. So by that I mean getting blood work done, you know, checking in with the sports therapist when things don't feel right, and doing our best to manage our bodies as we age, especially as a female, is very important.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

I appreciate you being so honest with what you're dealing with right now, and I think that's gonna resonate a lot with our listeners because you know, there's a lot of women who are in perimenopause right now, and they're wondering why fat is collecting around their hips and stomachs, and they're, you know, thinking, what do I do? Do I do more cardio? You know, should I do all the strength training that they're telling me to do? And I think about how maybe a knee-jerk reaction in that case would be, well, I'm just gonna run more, I'm gonna do more mileage, and you know, explain if it's within your scope. I'm sure, I'm sure you understand you've done the research, and obviously that's what it sounds like, but for for menopause women who are experienced than the weight gain, and they go on this adventure to just run more and you know, just dig themselves into the into a hole, is that a good idea?

SPEAKER_01 30:51

No, no, and we're short and very, very strong, confident no. So the answer is I mean, literally, if the answer is strength training. The answer is strength training and not strength training where it's you know, oh I'm gonna do one set of 20 or three sets of 15 and just kind of go through the motions. Like honestly, the older we get, the more we need heavier, heavier weights, appropriately so, you know, being safe if with the spotter if needed. But um, you know, five sets of five, three sets of eight, where by the sixth or seventh rep, if it's three sets of eight, you're you're having to, you're really being challenged to finish those last two reps. That's the kind of weight we need to be lifting. It doesn't need to be a lot of exercises. It could be, you know, when you think of strength training, you think of your joints and your hinge motion. So you think push, pull, squat, hinge. Those four main joint movements represent like a chest press, you know, a lap pull down or a row for your back. A squat could just be a goblet squat. You don't have to do spine-loaded squats. And then a hinge would be something like a, you know, either a glute, you know, a glute raise. It could be a deadlift if you know how to do one safely, or it could simply be a hyperextension for your back on an apparatus. But those four movements are very important and the basis for all strength training that's really going to make an impact for you. And doing heavier weight surrounding those movements, you know, four to six exercises could be enough. Doing that two to three times a week, really, it could only take you only need 30 minutes or so to get a decent workout in doing that. That has to take priority. Like if I only have five days a week to run, I'm sorry, if I only have five days a week to work out, at least two of those days need to be strength based. And then the other three days could be running. If I have seven days a week to work out, I would say four, four days running and then three days strength training. And the ironic thing about strength training is if you do it as more of a hit workout, you know, high intensity interval, like with kettlebells, for example, that actually will improve your cardio. It will improve, you know, your running overall. And the other thing I would say is that unless you're a marathoner, you're an accomplished marathoner or you're you're someone who wants to run a marathon for the first time, the focus should not be on long distance. It should be on, you know, improving your body athletically, where you're doing intervals where you're being efficient, and maybe you're trying to run intervals at like more of a 5K pace, maybe a little faster. And then you have one day a week that you focus on strictly endurance. But I believe that the more athletic you are, especially as we age, the healthier your bone structure is going to be and your bone density, the healthier your joints are going to be, because you're not just pounding on them, you know, endlessly for miles at a time each week. And your central nervous system also is going to respond better, which is going to keep your whole metabolic profile younger. Honestly, that's kind of the fountain of youth, so to speak. And that surrounds, or I'm sorry, that that originates in really the principles of strength training, you know. So, strength training, focus on shorter intervals, speed work, if you want to call it that. But I don't want to scare anybody away. It doesn't have to be sprinting, it could just be whatever faster means to you. And there's plenty of resources out there that people can go to to learn more about how to do that appropriately so they don't get hurt. But especially as we age, that's what's most important.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

That's kind of turning everything on its head, right? I think about how mileage has always kind of been king, but the shift for carry menopausal and menopausal women, maybe for younger women too, to do more strength training and limit the mileage to some capacity. I mean, would you tell your collegiate athletes, females? I guess more so men too. I I feel like men can just run and run and run and run and they're fine. And then females, they break down so much faster. But do you have a similar philosophy for collegiate or you know, maybe women in their 20s, early 30s, in terms of that strength and cardio, I'm sorry, running balance that you described?

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah, I would say, and I actually I am the lead coach for our men's cross-country team. And I will tell you, they do break down, especially at that age, because at the college level, you know, our men are jumping from a 5K distance in cross country to an 8K distance in college. And we expect them to do that over a six-month period from, or really even less, a three-month period from May, their senior year of high school, to late August, their freshman year of college. So, you know, I think no matter whether you're male or female, whether you're 20 or 50 years old, it's number one for coaches and for the athletes themselves, it's got to be customized, right? Like there's no one answer for everybody. There's certain scientific principles that make sense for everybody, but there's not like I can't say to somebody, you need to, or to my entire team, you all need to be running 70 miles a week, you know, by your sophomore year. Because to give you a quick example, I have one young man who was our, he finished third on our team as an average. He was our third best out of a 10-man roster, he was our third best runner on the team. And for a number of different reasons, the way his physiology works for him, he his weak spot for mileage was 45 miles a week. Now he's very unique in that. And he did cross-training. But if I took him over 45 miles a week, we would just keep having issues with injuries, small injuries here and there that would start to add up. On the other hand, I have another young man, he was our top guy, who did 100 mile weeks over the summer and then 70 miles a week during season. And for him, because of his body profile and he was just so efficient, that worked out well for him, you know, and that's how he ran best. So, and the same thing happens with women. We've got some women that we had a runner from Germany several years ago, because she was so injury prone, her mileage, running mileage really never got much over 35 miles a week, but she ran 1620 for 5K, you know, and and she did it, she was a tri-athlete, so she did a lot of cycling and a lot of swimming, but her running mileage was quite low for a college athlete. And, you know, on the other hand, we've got we've got another athlete who loves to do 65 miles a week, and that's where she feels her sweet spot is. So, number one is everybody's an individual. Our physiology is all unique. Again, I come back to science. So, testing, whether it's blood work getting done. We work with a physiologist, her name's Shannon Grady, and she does lactate threshold testing of our athletes. Usually it ends up being about two or three times a year. That's a tool for us to use as data. We also look at how they respond to workouts. You know, as you get to know your athletes better, you can tell within six weeks how somebody's responding to a stimulus. Do we back them off? Do we increase? Listen, call it coaching at this level and coaching, especially and even high school coaches, it's it is not an easy job. You are dealing with a lot of different people with different personalities and certainly different physiology. And being a being an impactful and mindful coach is something that takes diligence. And uh you you have to be relentless, you know, in your search of the research, in your being aware of your athletes, knowing them as people and individuals first, and then and then, you know, developing their athleticism as an as basically a growth of that. Like it's it's not an easy job. And I think it's really, I think that is often undervalued. And people think, oh, we just go and call splits and we're gonna make up these awesome workouts and everybody's gonna respond. I have learned through trial and error and being been very humbled that it is so much more than that. Everybody brings with them as an athlete, you know, their life experience up to that point, their their trials and their triumphs. And so you have to you have to coach the whole person, but you also have to coach them each as individuals within a group, which honestly can sometimes be really challenging. But, you know, I think that again, I've been very blessed to have wonderful examples that I've learned from and mentors that I've learned from. And so it's just one day at a time, one week at a time, we, you know, I try to stay educated. I take continuing education throughout the year, and then I try to apply that as best I can one day at a time, one week at a time, and plan ahead as best I can, you know, and that's all we can do. And we're not always gonna make the right decisions. You we're gonna learn from our mistakes. But at the end of the day, if you keep the athlete as your focus and their individual, you know, overall wellness as the priority, I think everything else falls in line. You know, it just it's never the perfect answer, but there is usually a solution to every problem if you're willing to look hard enough.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

I I honestly hope that there are a lot of coaches like you at the collegiate level. I've had experience that coaches will just give a workout and have everybody do it, and like like you said, they call slips and last man standing gets to race, that kind of thing. Yeah, and I I appreciate so much your your drive to continue to educate yourself and educate yourself on each individual athlete's needs and how to keep them healthy and how individualized it is for every single athlete. And just just so our listeners and for me too, we know how many athletes are you looking after on your roster.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Well, for the men, I have 10 men that I'm directly in charge of because we don't have men's track at FAU. We do we compete in track as a club, but we are primarily sponsored as a men's cross-country program. So I have 10, we are limited to 10 on the roster. So I have 10 men directly that I'm in charge of. And then we have probably about 15 to 18 women on our cross-country team that I assist with. And then we have another additional, and so those women also compete for us with track, but more in the middle distance and distance events. And then we have another probably 12 to 15 women on the track side, just you know, sprinters and jumpers and so forth. So I assist with the women, and then I'm and then I directly am in charge of the men. And then I have about right now, probably eight to 10 individual private clients I work with that are, you know, adults, recreational adults or masters athletes that are competing. So probably right now, somewhere around all sudden done, you know, 45 to 50 athletes, but I'm not directly in charge of all of those, you know. But I I touch, I touch on that many athletes probably within a season.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

That is a lot of people to be as invested like for what they're what they need, their physiology, understanding what they're going through emotionally, constantly checking in on them. And the the funny thing is that you are still very competitive yourself. How do you have anything left over in the tank?

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah, it's kind of a bad time to ask me that because I am feeling overwhelmed this spring. I am, I, you know, I probably because it's because I also have personal training clients. So I was just saying to my mom the other day, and my husband and I was like, I feel like there's a lot of people that have access to me right now, and I don't feel like I have enough time for myself. Like I feel like I put myself kind of on the bottom part of the ladder, and it doesn't feel very good. And I do feel tired, so I probably need to do some restructuring as far as my just my time and how I restructure my time. It also just happens to be a very busy time of year, you know. We're in the spring. Um, my own daughter actually competes for high school, and I'm very active in her workouts and in and helping her with her competition. So it's just a busy time of year, and it will slowly. Down over the summer, and I'll get to refocus. But I also recognize when I when I start to get stressed out about that, I also recognize that you know you can change your thinking to where, or I can change my thinking to where it's also such a gift to be asked to work with these wonderful athletes and for people to put their trust in me to help them with their fitness goals or or their or their running goals, whatever it may be. So I recognize that as a privilege as well. And then I have to just restructure that there's a time for my goals to be, and there's a time for me to be there for others. And on the heels of that, you know, I am struggling right now. Like the last three to four years for me has been very challenging as far as the as an aging athlete. I am in the throes of perimenopause. Um, I've had some injury issues that have related probably to that with the inflammation. And so it's funny how the universe works. Like, so when I'm being the most challenged in my athletic ability, so I have to step back a little from competition. I have the most athletes relying on me. And so I think that is not a coincidence. It's probably the way it's worked out because that's the way the universe said it needed to be. And that, you know, God knew these people needed my help. So I'm taking a little bit of a back burner with my own racing. And I think there'll be a time in my life when I get to put myself at the forefront again. And I look forward to that. But for the time being, I just try to balance it as best I can. I think that, you know, again, when I talked about having variety in your life, this is one area where it has been a blessing because I didn't just have myself to focus on. I had so many other people. So even though my racing might not be where I want it right now, because of, you know, whether it's health or injury issues, I have so many other people that I can take pride and joy and effort into their competitive endeavors, and that that does make up the void.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

Well, it sounds like you are truly blessing the lives of many, many people, many athletes, your personal training clients. And I think that they they are in turn blessing your life too during this rough time in your life. You know, from everything that you've described about yourself, I have no doubt that this is a season of life that you will overcome in terms of your own athleticism and that you will you will be stronger than you were before because you have that drive and that intrinsic ability. And thank you, Anna. I hope so. I definitely believe that. And I think also that you put so much good out that it's you know, you're you're gonna, I don't I know I wouldn't say karma, but I would say that you put good out, and I think good things are gonna come your way. And you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but what kind of you mentioned inflammation, what kind of injuries and health issues have you been dealing with? Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

No, I don't mind, I'm sure there's other women my age out there dealing with very similar things. I know some of my master's friends, my master's athlete friendships have have voiced that. So when I was in, I we went to Sweden for a world championship two summers ago, and I went into that championship with a pretty significant high hamstring strain that honestly took about nine months to heal. So I that's kind of what kicked off this injury cycle. So it was two years ago, and the hamstring finally healed. I was I had to compete with a brace on, but that finally healed. And then I had the, it was probably related because I was running differently, but my the opposite leg, I suffered a it was a slow rupture, but I it happened over time. I ruptured the posterior tibial tendon on my right ankle. So that's the inside of your ankle as it comes up into that inside of the calf, you know. So I I didn't realize I had ruptured it. I thought it was just like a bad strain. It was it it started bothering me during cross-country season, and I thought it was just the uneven terrain, and then I kept running on it, but then during indoor, I took a misstep coming down off the bank in a race, and I really and then I I have I had to limp to walk, so I realized something was very wrong, and I got an MRI in it here, it had ruptured. So those are the two main injuries. My low back also gives me a lot of problems, but again, I think what it is is that you know, I was working out as I always have, and I just needed more recovery and I needed to address probably the underlying chronic inflammation that happens when your hormones aren't balanced and things like that. And so I've learned a lot in the last few years, but it's been it's been a challenge, you know, because the first part of masters racing is a challenge, is, you know, and when we're young, we look to always the goal is to get faster, right? To be better than you ever were. And that's kind of the drive, and it's exciting to try to achieve that. And it's what gets you out of bed in the morning for early workouts and gets you to the track and willing to work and push hard. And then that goes away at some point because there just becomes an age where you're not going to be faster than you ever were, right? And so the times start going backwards. So then you adapt to that, you learn how to say, okay, so now I'm gonna see how fast I can be this season, right? And I had learned and I had jested that. And we have things set up for us with masters like age grading and age group records, and all that is awesome. And it the camaraderie of the group of masters athletes all around the world. And so that became my new normal, and I loved it. And I I adjusted to that. And then this injury cycle thing happens as I go through a time of life which women are gonna go through, we're gonna have to adjust when your hormones shift. And that's been a whole nother kind of metamorphos that I'm still adjusting to. So I think it's just one of those things where there is, yes, you have to to a certain level accept it with grace, but also I can accept it while learning about it and learning how to get them or make the most of that, and then help others that come after me when they go through it, you know. So that's kind of where I'm at. And I just I hope that I had I have hope because many of my mentor, my female mentors that are in master's track and field that are in their 60s. So I'm 50, I'm gonna be 55 next weekend. And a lot of my friends are in their 50s and 60s in master's track. And there are some of these women in their 60s that are now, they kind of went through some of the challenges that I'm going through now, and they've come on the other side of it, and they are now breaking records again for age groups, and they feel great and they feel strong. And so I do have hope that I can get back to that once my body settles down and we figure this part out. But either way, you know, listen, I've had a great, a great career, and there's no no regrets. I have nothing to complain about or have self-pity for. I just when you are as competitive as I am, it's hard to, it's hard to see your body react in different ways when you your mind is still willing, but the body is like, eh, I don't really have that for you today. You know, so that is a challenge, I admit that, but I do think that there are better days still that ahead of me. As far as like, I don't mean time-wise perhaps, but as far as the satisfaction, the feeling of fulfillment, you know.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

I think that's yeah, that's really that's great to hear. And I think about you mentioned when you're younger, perhaps you wake up with the vigor of, oh, I'm gonna do great at this track work out, I want to improve, and that's what drives you to get up and do those early mornings, and then when things start to hurt, it becomes less enticing to to do the hard work because you know you're sore. And you know, for women who perhaps that has shifted, perhaps they you know, I'm in my mid-30s and I'm starting to feel that way somewhat, and it's it's a struggle, and I want to get better, my mind wants to get better, but trying to fight my body is tough. And would you say, as a personal trainer and as a running coach, that you need to go get blood work done, see what's going on hormonally? Would you say you need to think about helping your strength training? Would it be a combination of those things? Like, what kind of advice would you give somebody who is feeling that kind of hormonal shift?

SPEAKER_01 52:49

I would say number, yes, I think getting blood work done is an absolute good first step because it's hard to know what to change if you don't know what you're starting with, right? So we always say first know your starting point. So I think anybody, you know, once they're over the age of 30, really, I mean, it's beneficial. And if you're an athlete even sooner, like starting in your 20s to get blood work done at least once a year, because it's kind of a metabolic profile, like it's a snapshot of where you are. Even like cholesterol levels and things like that, just make sure, you know, where is everything? So, and you can compare it then as you age and see how you're doing. But I would say, yeah, I would start with a panel, I would get a full iron panel done just to see where those numbers are. I would get a sex hormone panel done so you know where your progesterone estrogen, of course, fluctuates with your cycle, but testosterone, things like that, where's your cortisol for the stress? So they can do a fasted, if you go in fasted, they can do your cortisol test. And your metabolic profile, as far as again, cholesterol, triglycerides, things like that, just see where everything is. And then maybe you do that, you know, twice a year, every six months or so, just to check. And then I would say first establish what your goals are. Do you want to just do you want to feel better or do you want to actually compete? If you want to compete, then I would say search out a good coach in the area, or at least there's so many wonderful training programs even online now that you could research that would give you a plan because I'm a big believer in having a plan, right? So you work backwards from the goal. And then that plan should include not only workouts and structured training, but it also should include what's your nutrition going to look like. You know, do you need more protein in your daily diet or do you need less refined sugar? You know, what's going to match your goals the best? And then the strength training should go hand in hand with that. And I think everybody should be doing strength training at least twice a week. And again, there's so many resources online. You don't, if you can't afford a private coach, that's okay. If you can afford $15 a month, you can find a fabulous app online that can help you with either the running training, the strength training, or both. And then my fitness pal is free if you have an iPhone. You know, you can just go on my FitnessPal and use the basic plan. It'll help you track how much protein, carbs, and fat you're getting in your diet. It's super easy to use, and it's a good way to kind of create your own regimen, you know, and then go take it a week at a time from there.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Great. Thank you so much for all this advice and thank you for being so honest with what you're dealing with. And like I said before, I think a lot of people are going to appreciate that and not feel alone. And that's a good community and shared experience, it's very important. And I appreciate I appreciate your time and your expertise, obviously. Do you do any kind of online coaching through personal training or anything like that? I do.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

I have I have several clients I do programming for. It just depends on the goal that they have and the the timing of where I am in my season if I'm able to take on new clients. But people are certainly welcome to reach out to me. They can the probably the easiest way would be they can go through Instagram messenger, and my my handle is at Sonia Runs. I'm sorry, it's it's at coach Sonya Runs, and you spell my name with a J. So it's at coach and then S-O-N-J-A runs, R-U-N-S.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

Perfect. I I think you're gonna get a lot of interest from this because this, yeah, this is really great what you've what you've shared. Thank you so much for your time. I thank you, and uh definitely want you to make more time for yourself because you need it and you deserve it. And I think everybody that you've helped would say the same thing. They want you to have the best for yourself too.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

Yes, I'm actually gonna I'm gonna go to make sure I go to bed early tonight and tomorrow morning I'm getting up and doing my own workout before I do anything else. So I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 57:10

I will do it. I hope that my workout goes great for you. Yes, thank you again. And yeah, that is another episode of the Maximum Mileage Running podcast. Thank you, Sonia, so much for your time today.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

Thank you, Anna.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

Take care.