Misfit Mountain Athletics

The before + after you might be surprised to see: weight gain edition

In a world filled with SkinnyTok, What I Eat in a Day videos and menopause weight loss “hacks,” I made a conscious choice to gain physical weight (and lose a bunch of toxic mental weight!) over the past year.

At age 45, I’m prioritizing my bone density, muscle mass and mental health in order to be a healthier and happier midlife athlete.

Over the past 12 months I have:

•Ended toxic relationships and took charge of my mental health (goodbye toxic weight!)

•Strengthened my relationship with food (no more skipping dessert!)

•Gained 15 lbs of muscle mass and fat (and I feel strong AF!)

I was nervous that the change would ruin all the metabolic improvements I had made over the past 5 years. But guess what? Recent testing revealed, it didn’t!!

I was nervous that my performance would take a hit. Instead, I’m stronger than ever!

Bonus: I can tolerate the cold better on my mountaineering and backpacking trips and say yes to extra tacos afterwards.

If you’re afraid that gaining weight will ruin your progress, it probably won’t.

Your skinniest self probably isn’t your happiest self, nor is it your best performing self.

For a long time, I felt that as an athlete and coach, I needed to look shredded. But I somehow always felt frail, not strong.

Maintaining that kind of physique long-term wasn’t fun, mentally or physically. Now I’m happy, healthy and still performing well without restriction.

I ditched the scale and all the other things holding me back. And I have zero regrets.

Bodies change over time. And I can finally say that now, for the first time ever, I’m truly happy in my own skin.

I’m building a durable Lauren who’s in the endurance game for life ❤️ So this is your reminder—not all weight gain is bad. Shredded isn’t that fun. Your ideal body probably weighs more than you think.

If you are eyeing a 100 or 200 mile race in the future, backpacking can be an excellent tool in your training routine!

In fact, my 200 mile training plans often include backpacking/fast-packing weekends.

If this is a strategy that you have used as well, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Local to Nashville and curious about trail running with poles?

Join me for a quick session tomorrow morning. DM for details!

The dreaded sprained ankle. For a lot of trail runners, this is an injury that is both common and frustrating.

As a teenager I suffered from chronic sprained ankles while I was a gymnast and cheerleader. Truth is—I never healed these sprains properly and pushed through injuries constantly. Pair that with a lack of strength training and well…it was a recipe for disaster.

When you know better, you do better. But undoing years of wear and tear has been really difficult for me. All the strength training in the world hasn’t undone the damage.

So if you find yourself recovering from a sprained ankle, how do you know when it is safe to return to training?

I’ve recently had to overcome a pretty moderate sprain, so let me break it down:

While mild sprains may keep you down for only one to two weeks, severe sprains can take you out for months.

But how do you know you’re actually ready to return running again safely?

1. Make sure that overall pain and swelling is gone, and that you can walk briskly without limping.

2. Make sure you’ve regained most of the stability and mobility in that ankle. Do you feel like your ankle is going to give out when performing basic exercises? Is it really stiff and hard to move? Then you’re probably not ready.

3. Make sure you can hop on the ankle and perform calf raises with very minimal pain or stiffness.

My protocol remains the same anytime I sustain an ankle sprain: let it rest during the acute phase (1-3 days) then get to work on mobility. Once the pain and swelling is greatly reduced, it’s time for strength exercises. Ease back into training with run/walk intervals, reducing your normal volume as you assess how your ankle feels.

Any other chronic ankle rollers out there?! I feel your pain!!

Today we continue our discussion on strength training and muscle by dispelling some myths that you’ll often see online:

1. The evidence is clear that we can use heavy, moderate or light loads to build muscle. This is where the programming becomes important to reach muscle synthesis. The good news – all work if we do it correctly!

2. Free weights are not necessarily superior to machines. Both can be utilized in a strength training program to build muscle. In fact, there are distinct pros and cons to each one.

3. You do not need to cycle sync your strength workouts. The evidence shows that muscle synthesis is not impaired during different phases of the menstrual cycle.

4. You do not need to spend your life trying to pack in as much protein as humanly possible. There is a “sweet spot” of intake that leads to an increase in muscle synthesis. Anything over this amount does not increase the rate of muscle synthesis.

5. Getting bulky while lifting weights is actually a very time-consuming and difficult process. For the average ultra runner or mountain athlete who hits the weights 1 to 3 times per week, getting bulky will likely not happen.