How to use your Her Trails program across every life stage
Trail Notes | Her Trails Programming
How to use your Her Trails program across every life stage
Shape the Weekend
Then Run It
The right weekend structure for a 25-year-old and a 48-year-old does not have to look identical.
Both women can arrive strong, prepared and capable at the same 50 to 65 kilometre start line. What shifts is not the goal. What shifts is how the same training lands in a different body, a different hormonal season and a different life.
Inside Her Trails, the program gives you the structure. Your weekly read helps you apply it. That is the difference between following a plan blindly and learning how to train with your body, your hormones, your recovery and your real life.
This is not about rewriting the plan every weekend. It is about learning how to make small, intelligent adjustments so the purpose of the session stays intact. That is the Her Trails way: structure, support and self-trust built together.
The plan is coach-built. The weekly read is where you learn to make it yours.
You keep the purpose of the session. You adjust the dose when needed. You learn how to stay in the build without forcing your body to absorb a weekend it is not ready for.
Trail Note · 01
The Her Trails way of using a program
Her Trails programs are built with the fundamentals of endurance training: aerobic development, long-run progression, strength, mobility, fuelling, recovery and race-specific preparation.
But we do not expect every woman to arrive at the same weekend with the same sleep, cycle symptoms, responsibilities, confidence, training history or recovery. That is why the coaching layer matters.
Inside Her Trails, you learn how to read the plan through your body and your life: when to hold steady, when to slide to the lower end, when to change terrain, when to prioritise recovery and when to ask for support.
Her Trails coaching principle
A program gives you structure. Coaching teaches you how to use it.
Trail Note · 02
The four levers you can adjust
Across a 20-week ultra build, you do not need endless options. You need a simple way to adjust the weekend without losing the purpose of the training.
The four dials
Duration. The first thing to soften when life is heavy. Slide to the lower end of the prescribed range rather than cancelling the run completely.
Intensity. Keep the run, but remove surges, climbs, tempo sections or pace targets. Time on feet still counts toward your ultra adaptation.
Terrain. Swap technical, high-elevation routes for gentle trail or runnable bush when fatigue, niggles or sleep disruption have stacked up.
Recovery day. Sunday is part of the weekend. A hike, walk, yoga session or jog-walk can keep the rhythm without compounding cost.
You are not redesigning the plan. You are nudging the dials so the week fits the body and life you actually have.
Trail Note · 03
Use life-stage lenses, not rigid age rules
The age ranges below are not rules. They are life-stage lenses. Some women will relate more to the recovery pattern of one decade than another. Some will be postpartum, perimenopausal, highly trained, returning from injury, navigating high stress, or building their first ultra base.
Use the section that reflects your current reality, not just your birth year. The goal is not to label yourself. The goal is to make the plan work with more precision.
Trail Note · 04
20 to 30: build the foundation you will use for decades
In your 20s, you may recover quickly and feel almost invincible. The goal in this decade is not to do the most. It is to build durable habits, durable tissue and a fuelling baseline that protects the next 20 years of running.
Example 50 to 65 km weekend, peak block
Saturday. 3 to 3.5 hour long run on race-like terrain, fully fuelled.
Sunday. 60 to 75 minute base run or hike, very easy, on gentle trail.
Ceiling. Occasionally, for slow or technical courses with strong recovery, Saturday may extend toward 4 hours. Not as a default.
How to read the weekend
If you are thriving: sleeping well, fuelling consistently, cycles regular, easy days feel easy and niggles are quiet, you can sit near the top of the prescribed range.
If fatigue, cycle changes or niggles appear: hold Saturday at the lower end, or trim by 15 to 30 minutes, and keep Sunday gentle. The aim is consistency, not proving you can absorb the biggest possible weekend.
Trail Note · 05
31 to 37: strong, busy and learning your dials
Physiologically, many women are still in a strong window for ultra adaptation. Life is often where the constraint sits. Work, parenting, caregiving, travel and shifting sleep can make recovery the variable to manage.
Example 50 to 65 km weekend, peak block
Saturday. 3 to 3.5 hour long run on race-like terrain.
Sunday. 60 to 75 minute easy run or longer walk, gentle terrain.
High-stress weeks. Hold Saturday closer to the lower end. Keep Sunday easy or swap to walking and mobility.
Across this decade, consistency at the lower end of the range often outperforms heroism at the top end.
Trail Note · 06
38 to 45: perimenopause and shifting recovery
In the late 30s and 40s, perimenopause can begin for some women. This may bring cycle irregularity, heavier or lighter bleeds, joint and tendon niggles, hot flushes, mood changes, sleep disruption or a sense that recovery is no longer as predictable.
None of this means you cannot train for ultras. It means each input may land on a more sensitive foundation, and the plan needs enough margin for symptom weeks.
Example 50 to 65 km weekend, peak block
Saturday. 2.5 to 3.5 hour long run, terrain-specific, fully fuelled.
Sunday. Walk, yoga, mobility or short jog-walk. Gentle by default.
Symptom-heavy weeks. Poor sleep, hot flushes, heavy bleeding or elevated fatigue are signals to pull both days to the lower end, even mid-build.
A gentler Sunday is not a downgrade. It is how the weekend keeps working.
Extra room is not a sign that you are doing less. It is the margin that helps you absorb the work.
Trail Note · 07
45 and beyond: longevity as a performance goal
Post-menopause, oestrogen and progesterone settle lower, and bone, tendon, muscle, sleep and heat regulation can all need more deliberate support. At the same time, many women in their late 40s, 50s and beyond bring deep pacing wisdom, patience and resilience to long events.
The job is to train in a way that lets that wisdom show up on race day.
Example 50 to 65 km weekend, peak block
Saturday. Lower end of the prescribed range, with full fuelling and terrain specificity.
Sunday. Walk, yoga, gentle mobility or very easy jog-walk. Protect sleep above all.
Use the upper end sparingly. With strong recovery, good health support and a clear purpose, an occasional key long run may extend. Truly long simulations should be rare and followed by extra recovery.
Strength that supports ultra longevity
Two to three short strength sessions per week, often 20 to 30 minutes each.
Built around hinge, squat, push, pull, carry, calf strength and single-leg work.
Loaded progressively where appropriate, not treated as light toning. This is the work that supports muscle, bone, tendon and trail durability.
Trail Note · 08
The weekly read for every member
Whatever your age, stage or training history, this weekly read can help you stay connected to the program. Use it on Friday evening or Saturday morning, before the long run lands.
Before the weekend, ask
Sleep this week. Has it been honest sleep or fragmented sleep?
Cycle and hormones. Where am I, and what symptoms am I carrying?
Niggles. What is talking to me, and how loud is it?
Life load. What am I carrying from work, parenting, caregiving, travel or emotional weight?
The dial. Based on this, am I running the weekend as written, sliding to the lower end, changing terrain, or prioritising recovery?
The Her Trails way is not perfect compliance. It is intelligent consistency.
You keep the purpose of the session. You adjust the dose when needed. You learn the difference between resistance, fatigue and wisdom. That is how women stay in the sport for years, not just one race build.
Reflection prompt
Which dial needs adjusting this weekend?
Duration, intensity, terrain or recovery?
The Her Trails Way
Structure, coaching and self-trust built together.
Her Trails programs give you the weekly structure: running, strength, mobility, fuelling, recovery and race-specific preparation.
The coaching layer helps you apply that structure to the body and life you are actually in. Through program notes, hormonal insights, Coaching Corner, community support and ongoing education, you learn how to train with more intelligence and less guesswork.
This is online coaching for women who want structure without rigidity, support without noise, and a plan that helps them build confidence across seasons.
Shape the weekend, then run it
Written by the Her Trails coaching team
Trail Notes are evidence-informed coaching journals written for women who train, race and run on trails.
Keep going with us
General education only. These life-stage lenses are practical coaching guides, not medical categories or rigid rules. Adjust training to your current health, injury history, symptoms, recovery, cycle status, menopause stage and life load. Seek support from your coach, GP, physiotherapist or qualified health professional where needed.
