We love to think progress happens in clean, Instagram-ready arcs. One training cycle. One big block. One shiny finish line. In reality, the athletes we admire — Shalane, Des, Kipchoge, the everyday runners quietly stacking miles year after year — are built on seasons of work that no one sees. That’s the part we forget when we’re stuck in our own messy middle.
Progress rarely feels like progress while you’re in it. It looks like ordinary days, slow miles, strength sessions when you’d rather be doing anything else, and workouts that land a little better than last week but still not quite the way you hoped. It’s unglamorous. It’s repetitive. And it’s absolutely where breakthroughs happen.
If you’ve been frustrated with your pace, your cycles, your energy, or your fitness — zoom out. Midlife physiology isn’t working against you. It’s just asking you to build differently. Masters and menopausal athletes don’t make gains by pushing harder. They make gains by training smarter, recovering intentionally, fueling like it matters, and showing up even when the wins feel microscopic.
Those tiny adaptations? They stack.
The plateaus? They’re often where your biggest leap forward is quietly forming.
The consistency? It’s not cliché — it’s physiology.
Your mitochondria don’t care if the week felt ugly. Your tendons don’t care that you didn’t hit the paces. Your nervous system doesn’t measure you by how fast you progress. Your body adapts to what you consistently ask of it. Give it time and direction, and it will surprise you.
Every athlete I’ve coached — every single one — hits a point where it feels like nothing is happening. And every time, if they stay with it, something shifts. The fitness clicks. The confidence returns. The pace settles. The race goes differently than expected. The version of themselves they couldn’t reach a year prior suddenly becomes their baseline.
Shalane wasn’t built in a day.
Neither are you.
But you are being built. Right now. Even on the days it doesn’t look like it.
Keep going. Your next level is already forming.
If you’re training consistently but not seeing the progress you expected, a few tools can help you break through:
Fuel Like You Mean It
If your training feels harder than it should, your fueling is often the missing link — especially for Masters and menopausal athletes.
Thrive³ Strength Plan
Strength work is one of the fastest ways to jump-start progress when running alone stops moving the needle.
Micro-Form Mastery
If your form is fighting you, progress will always feel slower. Clean up your movement patterns and make each mile more efficient.
If you want a plan that matches your physiology, your season of life, and your goals, that’s exactly what we build inside coaching.