Midlife in (E)Motion: Pacing Myself

This is a very personal blog—on a very public platform.

I’ve spent my life in motion. As a triathlete, runner, life coach, and massage therapist working with everyone from elite athletes to everyday movers, I’ve always found strength in activity. I’ve trained hard, raced harder, recovered (eventually), and gottenback out there—again and again. For years, movement has been my identity, my grounding, my joy.

Several years ago, something started shifting. It wasn’t all at once, but I felt it. Sleep changed. My recovery took longer. My body was different—at first it wasn’t how it looked or performed, but in how it felt. My emotions felt closer to the surface. My focus drifted. Later my relationship with food, effort, and even rest became more layered. My knee had more to say. So did my gut. So did my inner critic.

At first, I thought I could push through it. Train harder. Be tougher. Stick to the plan. But it turns out, perimenopause and menopause don’t work like that. They’re not a detour or a breakdown. They’re a transition—a deeply personal, physical, emotional, hormonal transformation that rewrites everything we thought we knew about our bodies. I thought I was better prepared.

This column, (really more of a personal blog to an extent that I am sharing in a very public way) Midlife in (E)Motion, is where I’m going to talk about what it’s really like to keep training (sometimes), living, and evolving through it all. It’s about navigating the changing landscape of midlife as an athlete and as a human. It’s not always pretty and far from graceful. It is often gritty and real (with maybe a little sarcasm to deal).

It’s about continuing to move—even when the movement looks different. Continuing to find myself, over and over. My identity, my journey, my peace (in pieces).

Each week, I’ll share stories from my own journey, tools and resources I’m using (and learning about), research that matters, and insights from other midlife athletes and experts. You’ll read about training plans that shift with energy levels, fueling strategies for a changing metabolism, strength work that feels empowering instead of punishing, and mindset tools for riding the emotional waves. Sometimes even just the me being me.

Some weeks will be raw. Some will be practical. Some may even be funny. All of them will be honest. Maybe a little sad or heavy. And always letting others know they are not alone.

Because the truth is, this phase isn’t just about hot flashes or hormone. It’s about reclaiming our strength, reframing our goals, and refusing to disappear just because the world hasn’t made room for what this really looks like.

We’re rewriting what it means to age, to train, to evolve—and to keep showing up for ourselves, mile by mile, step by step, moment by moment. So if you’re in motion, in E-motion, in transition—this space is for you. I’m not here with all the answers. I’m here in it, just like you.

Let’s pace ourselves. Let’s keep moving. Let’s make midlife powerful.

Let’s GO!