REDSCUE®

MARATHON SEASON IS RAMPING BACK UP 🏃‍♀️

Valencia → Lisbon → and so many more marathon goals.

Marathons have become so normalised that we sometimes forget just how much of a demand they place on the body.

So, with marathon season ramping back up, let’s talk about something that isn’t discussed enough when it comes to stress fractures:

Are you actually fuelling enough to support your training?

Increasing mileage too quickly, adding more speed work and not allowing enough recovery can contribute to bone stress injuries.

But so can consistently not taking in enough energy to meet the demands of your training.

This can lead to low energy availability (LEA) and, in some cases, REDs (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport).

REDs occurs when the energy you’re taking in isn’t enough to support both your training AND everything else your body needs energy for.

Over time, this can affect bone formation, hormone function, recovery and adaptation to training.

Your bones take repeated load with every step. If you increase that load without enough energy to recover and adapt, your risk of a bone stress injury (BSI) increases.

And REDs doesn’t necessarily mean an eating disorder or deliberate restriction. Sometimes it’s simply training increasing while fuelling doesn’t.

Signs to look out for:

🚩 Persistent fatigue
🚩 Declining performance
🚩 Recurrent injuries/bone stress
🚩 Changes to your menstrual cycle
🚩 Struggling to recover

Don’t just put these down to marathon training or wait until after race day to address them.

Your training load increases.
Your fuel needs to increase with it.

Fuel Without Fear. ❤️

Running a marathon this season? Any fuelling questions? Drop them below!

#REDScue #FuelWithoutFear #REDs #MarathonTraining #BoneHealth StressFracture RunFuelling