The Lane 9 Podcast

"We are not done [as athletes], by a certain age. And we should be able to push for what we want," shares athlete, advocate, and clinician, Meghan Vogt.  Meghan is part of the Lane 9 Clinician Membership and Directory, and posted to the Lane 9 Project Substack a few months ago, as she began to collect data for her dissertation project. She's studying "The Overlooked Connection Between Perimenopause, Disordered Eating, and REDs", as both a clinician, and someone with lived experience as an athlete navigating perimenopause, through a system that wasn't, and still isn't fully, designed to support her.  Listen to hear Meghan's story, why she's passionate about researching this growing percentage of people navigating perimenopause and athletics, and where we are seeing gaps in care for this season of life.  Connect with Meghan Vogt via her Lane 9 Directory profile, at lane9project.org/directory, or by going to athletealigned.com.  Follow Lane 9 on Instagram @Lane9Project, and subscribe to our Lane 9 newsletter for weekly updates.  Lane9Project.org  

"Injury is part of the athletic experience. Burnout, setbacks, losses...all of these things are part of being an athlete. There's nothing you can do to eliminate ALL risk of that," shares licensed therapist and sport psychology consultant, Olivia Papakyrikos. She is part of our Lane 9 Membership and Directory. Olivia was a collegiate athlete, and now supports athletes navigating things like injuries, body image struggles, and life transitions. We talk about the stages of grief an athlete may experience when navigating an injury, why it's actually so disruptive to our sense of identity, and what to do about that.  Connect with Olivia Papakyrikos through Lane 9's Directory, or visit her site here. Follow Lane 9 on Instagram @Lane9Project, and subscribe to our Lane 9 newsletter for weekly updates.  Lane9Project.org  

"Over the years, clients have shown me that recovery begins in spaces where they feel safe enough to tell the truth." It's Eating Disorder Awareness Week and this year's theme is "Every Body Belongs". We wrote a little something about that on our newsletter, and shared here as well. We appreciated how eating disorder dietitian Marci Evans wrote the quote above in her newsletter this week, and have seen the same play out, here in Lane 9. We shared our stories, and it opened the door for other athletes to see what they could do the same, whether that's with us, or with someone they feel safe talking to. We hope to continue to nurture this space where your stories, and any and every body, are welcomed and held.  We're also here to help you take the next step toward eating disorder care, if you want/need it, with our Directory of Women's Health & Sport Clinicians. These are are clinicians vetted by Lane 9's team, and uniquely trained to support athletes with eating disorders and disordered eating. Go to Lane9project.org/directory to find a care team, or contact us.  Follow Lane 9 on Instagram @Lane9Project, and go to Lane9Project.org for more resources.

"The first time [younger female athletes] work with a barbell or trap bar or something, you can see it. They're like, 'this is bada**, this is awesome," shares physical therapist and ultra-endurance athlete, Hannah DePaul, on this episode about building bone density and weight lifting for female athletes (from highschool and up!).  Hannah DePaul is a former D1 Swimmer, who held multiple records at the University of Michigan, and has gone on to run ultra-marathons. She's currently training for The Huron 100, a point-to-point independent event based outside of Ann Arbor, MI. We have a few scholarship spots to give to Lane 9 athltes, for The Huron 50 or 100 mile distances! If this is something you're interested in, please reach out to us via Lane9Project @ gmail dot com.  Tune into this episode to hear Hannah bust some myths about strength training for high school female athletes, share how she addresses the WHOLE athlete not just the injury, how she screens for REDs and underfueling as a physical therapist (DPT), and how to actually incorporate strength training into your weekly routine even if your preferred form of movement is running, cycling, or swimming.  Hannah DePaul DPT is part of the Lane 9 Directory. You can find her and her clinic via Lane9project.org/directory or going to hannahdepaulpt.com If you're looking for sports nutriton, mental health, or injury support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org  

"I had girls come up to me and say, 'I haven't had my period in X amount of time, how do I get it back?'" Gracen Key, head coach for the Women's Distance program at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango CO joins us to talk about creating a team culture where athletes feel comfortable asking questions like that.  Key joined FLC about two years ago, and is working hard to create a team cuture that celebrates fueling, regular periods, and self expression. After struggling with injuries, and eventually having surgery for a severe hip labrum tear, her personal athletic career seemed over but she was drawn to coaching by mentors in the sport. She's been at three programs so far, and feels strongly about her athletes having regular periods, eating enough, and performing in a way that feels best for them.  We got to bring a Lane 9 workshop to her team last year, and wanted to reconnect with Key to learn more about her coaching philosophies and approach. We hope it's helpful for you, too!  If you're looking for sports nutriton and marathon fueling support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org

"That really was the biggest thing during my marathon build is like, wow. Reminding myself to get back into those [fueling] habits, but also remembering I shouldn't need to train for a marathon to have these healthy habits," shares Melissa Berry, a former D1 Cross Country and Track runner for the University of Oregon. Berry ran her debut marathon at CIM 2025, in 2:35:57, getting her first OTQ in the marathon. Berry grew up in Eugene OR and was excited to find herself at her hometown university as a collegiate athlete. She fueled well in highschool and saw big improvements, but struggled through injuries, inadequate fueling, and comparison to other athletes in college. It wasn't until Coach Shalane Flanagan joined the program, in Berry's penultimate season, that things started to turn around.  Berry shares her story with Lane 9, including how she joined the Tracksmith Stamata team to go for a marathon OTQ, thinking it would take a few years. But actually, it just took one try! Stay for the race recap and fueling lessons learned.  If you're looking for sports nutriton and marathon fueling support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org

"There are a lot of outside influences that challenge the way we experience our body, which accumulates to our own personal body image," shares Dr. Krissy Ladner, a sports dietitian in the Lane 9 Women's Sport & Health Directory.  Dr. Ladner joins us to talk about how body image dissatisfaction may impact our fueling and nutrition, our mental health, and our performance in sport. It's a very common thing for people socialized as women to struggle with, and of course athletes and people of all genders may struggle with body image concerns. She speaks to the importance of coaches (and athletic staff that frequently interact with athletes at various levels) being able to recognize behaviors and changes in an athlete's demeanor, or fueling habits, and how it may be tied to body image dissatisfaction. We also cover some ways to balance body image dissatisfaction with building positive body experiences.  We share some resources for learning more about this topic, including books, podcasts, and social media accounts (or general tips for shifting your algorithm!), and also acknowledge that we come to this conversation with our own body and societal privileges. So, maybe this is a place to start, but there are many more resources out there to continue learning! Connect with Dr. Krissy Ladner via Lane9project.org/directory.   If you're looking for sports nutriton and marathon fueling support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org

We are coming up on Lane 9's 9th birthday!! This episode gives you a big update on a new thing in Lane 9, for our athletes. Listen first, then go to Lane9project.org to join us!  If you're looking for sports nutriton and marathon fueling support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org

" It's interesting looking back because I normalized being hungry, normalized being super tired... and when you don't know that that's not normal, you're also not necessarily open to hearing otherwise because it sounds like somebody wants to hold you back from your performance." Justine Fédronic immigrated to the US from Europe in elementary school. Before she learned English, she found a way to connect with her classmates at recess—through running. She showed talent on the run early, and a coach suggested she try for an athletic scholarship to college. She competed at Stanford, but not without some highs and lows.  Fédronic signed a professional running contract before graduating college, but her running career before and after this point was riddled with chronic bone stress and soft tissue injuries. She struggled with underfueling, irregular periods, and constantly having to take time off.  " A lot of college and high school, I really struggled with my mental health. And there was definitely a correlation between my stress injuries and my depression," she shares.  In this conversation with Lane 9, she shares how her running story didn't go as planned, and how she's found her way back to the sport without the pressures of performance and outcomes. She has worked with some of the brands you know and love, and is now working with the nonprofit For All Mothers+.  Connect with her on Instagram @jfedronic.  If you're looking for sports nutriton and marathon fueling support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org  

"I was prioritizing the general trend toward a carb load, but it really kind of stressed me out in a way that I was a little bit surprised by. But also, we talk about this in the REDs space all the time—having energy is better than having no energy," shares REDs researcher Melissa (Mel) Lodge, whom you may know from following @FED_Collaborative on Instagram.  Lodge was an elite track and field athlete who competed collegiately, but hasn't tackled longer distances until now. (She's done some 10Ks, but never raced a half-marathon!) Her REDs and female athlete health reserach, along with the coursework she has completed for both her PhD and her dietetics cirruculum, certainly set her up with an immense fueling and health knowledge base going into this experience.  She ran her first marathon at the Wineglass Marathon in October 2025, crossing the finish line in 2:51:45, 3rd female overall and 1st in her age group (25-29).  But it wasn't easy! She shares how she structured her training plan while also finishing her dissertation (which she successfuly defeneded just last week), how she fueled, what worked and didn't work for her, what surprised her about the whole process, and why she's not sure she'll do another one...at least not for a while!  We wrap things up by exploring a few of the 10 things she wishes more people knew about REDs. So, come for a marathon recap, stay for some hot takes! Follow Mel on IG at @FED_Collaborative.  If you're looking for sports nutriton and marathon fueling support for your next training cycle, and/or a coach informed in REDs and women's health, go to our Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory at lane9project.org/directory.  Follow Lane 9 on IG @Lane9Project, and contact us anytime via Lane9project.org

" Consider why you want to do this. What are the motivating factors for completing the marathon right this second? What are your long-term health and movement goals, and does this get you closer to them or further away?" Lane 9 co-founder, and dietitian, Heather Caplan RDN takes on two more listener questions in this episode. 1) How do clinicians navigate what may be REDs, with an athlete who has an IUD and doesn't get periods?  2) If I'm undertrained and experiencing symptoms of REDs (haven't had a period in about a year), but I want to run marathon, what should I do? As always, remember that all of our episodes cover these topics to raise awareness and engage in the converastion around REDs and women's health in sport, but they are NOT intended to (nor do they) provide individualized medical, nutrition, or mental health care. Please check in with your clinicians before you make any changes. If you are looking for a healthcare team to support you as a woman in sport, navigating REDs or not, go to Lane9Project.org/directory to match with a clinician in our Women's Sport and Health Directory.  Connect with Lane 9 Project via Instagram @lane9project, or visit Lane9project.org. Submit a question for our next Q&A episode by sending us a DM, or a message on our site!

"You might think, 'On the other side of this, if I'm not even guaranteed better performance, Why would I do it?' That comes down to our values," shares Lane 9 co-founder, and dietitian, Heather Caplan. This Q&A episode tackles two questions:  Is it possible to be 'healthy' even with extremely irregular periods or absent periods, if everything else is going well? Will I recover from REDs and get faster? What if I get slower, or get injured? Have your own question to submit to Lane 9 for a future episode or resource? We'd love to hear them! Go to Lane9project.org and contact us. Or follow us on Instagram @Lane9Project and come on into our DMs.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!  

"I'd rather suck at running and have my life back," Erin McDonald, who just won the 2025 Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon in 1:16. She objectively does not suck at running, but she does have her life back! Erin McDonald recently opened up about her struggles with restrictive and rigid eating in college as a runner at Michigan State University. She was primed and favored to make nationals her senior year—staying "disiplined" with her food, rest, and training routine—but the race went totally awry. With a job lined up after graduation, she was ready for a long break from running. Four years, in fact. When she came back to the sport, she had gained weight from fueling adequately and listening to her body, as well as taking care of her mental health. She was curious about the marathon, and was about to find out, she was pretty good at it!  But as she shares in this episode, her motivation for recovering from restrictive eating and chronic injuries had nothing to do with fast times. She just wanted her life back, and in this case, the rest came together.   Follow Erin on Instagram to cheer her on as she tackles another marathon this year, @sunkistErin.  Follow @Lane9project on Instgram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!  

"Athletes aren't immune to that messaging of like, 'carbs are bad, you shouldn't have carbs, and they're the worst thing ever.' But we know that carbs are our body's preferred source of fuel, especially when you're doing these intense bouts of exercise like most athletes are doing," shares sports dietitian Lauren (or Lo) Segal.  Segal is a now in private practice, after almost 10 years of working as a collegiate sports dietitian, most recently at the University of Utah. She's part of our Lane 9 Clinicians and Coaches Membership, and listed in the Lane 9 Women's Sport and Health Directory.  We talk about her experiences as a D1 collegiate athlete, playing volleyball for Kent State University, and why that fueled her passion for supporting female athletes. She specializes in sports nutrition and REDs, and shares more information about what she wants collegiate athletes to know about nutrition, and accessing support.  Connect with Lauren Segal RDN via Lane 9 here! Follow @Lane9project on Instgram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!

" You can't ultimately control what happens in a race. And so you convince yourself you can, right? Or you tell yourself, well, if I control these other things, I might be able to control what happens in the race."  Stephanie Reents ran for four years on the Amherst College women's Cross Country team in the early 90s, and is the author of "We Loved to Run" her debut novel. Reents wanted there to be a novel about women's running, stories about the identities athletes hold and how those identities shape and change team dynamics, friendships, and relationships...to themselves, to their sport, and to each other. She didn't shy away from including the full spectrum of a collegiate athlete's experiences—disordered eating, body shaming, navigating trauamtic experiences, and still, continuing to compete.  In this episode, Reents shares her own experiences as both a high school and collegiate athlete, and of course, why she wrote the stories of these young women athletes from the perspective of their Cross Country team, on a quest to make Nationals.  Buy the book: "We Loved to Run" by Stephanie Reents (Lane 9 Bookshop affiliate link) Connect with Reents: @stephanie.reents on Instagram.  Follow @Lane9project on Instgram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!  

"I've never had a very lean body type. I kept showing up to these triathlons with lean-looking people and second-guessing if I deserved to be there...then smoking them on the bike and in the run, and gaining that confidence," shares Jess Cerra, a former professional cyclist, a sports nutrition entrepreneur, and now VP of Product and Community Development at Alete Active Nutrition. Cerra joins us to talk about her unusual path into high level endurance sports, and then professional cycling, while studying aspects of sports nutrition, and eventually founding a sports nutrition company. She created the JoJé bar while competing professionally, and navigating her own highs and lows in sport. She shares her experiences with the stress of professional athletics, body image, disordered eating in cycling sports, and learning how to fuel her body. And, what the story behind her bar being acquired by Alete Active Nutrition. Go to AleteNutrition.com and use code LANE920 for 20% off your order! Connect with Jess Cerra on IG @JessCerra, and the Alete Active products via @SaltStick.  Follow @Lane9project on Instgram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!

"I've found that athletes vastly underestimate their [energy] needs," shares Heather Caplan RDN, co-founder of Lane 9, in this Q&A-style episode.  Listen for this one if you're wondering... How often is it okay to have sweet things/desserts? Is it possible to have REDs without weight loss/changes? Why am I not getting my period back, even though I'm eating a lot more? This one tackles flexibility with food, decades of carb-fearing and how it probably still impacts what most people eat on a daily basis...even in sports, weight stigma in athletics and the variety of REDs symptoms, and what "a lot" might actually mean, when it comes to eating for energy availability.  Have your own question to submit to Lane 9 for a future episode or resource? We'd love to hear them! Go to Lane9project.org and contact us. Or follow us on Instagram @Lane9Project and come on into our DMs.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!

"Once I started to really add fueling into the long runs...I realized how much that was helping the next run," shares Dr. Leah Avery DPT.  Leah Avery DPT was a D1 collegiate swimmer, who qualified for NCAA championships and the Olympic Trials (2008). On paper, her athletic story reads as inspiring and exciting for a young athlete. In reality, it was a pressure-filled struggle to keep up with expectations, training, and results. She was ready to be done. When she graduated and started her DPT program, she couldn't have been happier to stop swimming, and start running.  "It wasn't all rainbows from there, though," she adds.  We talk about Leah's story as an athlete, and clinician, and how she got into coaching runners after becoming a parent. From there, we dive into some training practices for runners to avoid overtraining, and REDs. Easy days, deload weeks, and more! Dr. Leah Avery DPT is part of the Lane 9 Women's Health & Sport Directory. Connect with her here! Or follow her on Instagram, @Leahs.Runs.DPT To build the rest of your women's healthcare and sport team, visit Lane9project.org/directory to connect with our dietitians, mental health providers, and coaches.  Lane 9 on IG: @Lane9Project. 

"I weighed more as a professional runner than I did in college, and I ran faster as a professional runner," shares sports dietitian Maddie Alm MS RDN.  You might know Maddie Alm from her Instagram account and podcat, Fueling Forward. She started her journey to becoming a registered dietitian after meeting with a sports RDN in college, as a collegiate athlete. In college, she was feeling exhausted between workouts and training sessions, but as she shares on this episode, "didn't even realize that fueling was important." That all changed with a pretty simple suggestion from the dietitian: Fuelg between workouts! In this case, with chocolate milk.  We don't hate it!  Alm shares her story as a walk-on collegiate runner at CU Boulder to becoming an All-American in her 5th year of eligibility. As she completed her additional dietetics coursework and then internship, she started training with Team Boss and began racing professionally. Now she works in private pracitce helping fellow runners fuel adequately and avoid REDs, while pursuing her own training goals on the other side of elite racing. Connect with Maddie Alm MS RDN on Instagram @fueling_forward.  Follow @Lane9project on Instgram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!

" When I eventually figured out my food intolerances and a better relationship with fueling, I brought [my marathon PR] down to 2:44 within a little under a year." Jenny Grimshaw, VP of marketing at EQUIP*, and now a 2:36 marathoner, joins us on the Lane 9 podcast. Jenny is also a mom of 2, and navigating prophylactic surgeries to reduce her risk of breast and ovarian cancers (with the BRCA-1 gene). Her postpartum running experiences have been full of PRs, as she has figured out her own fueling needs, how to balance her identity as a runner with all the other things she does, and has worked with a coach to better balance her training volume and find her confidence as a runner.  Jenny shares: her early experiences with food intolerances and GI distress that were assumed by physicians to be anorexia, but would later be more correctly classified as ARFID the anxiety and panic attacks that she dealt with as a young runner, and injuries that plagued her through college, related to fueling, mental health, and wanting to explore life outside of running why she got into longer distances after her collegiate T&F years the gastroenterologist appointment that changed everything for her how she brought her marathon PR from a 3:13 to a 2:36 (not to say "you can, too!" but to give just one example of how fueling and mental health impact our experiences in sport) why she was drawn to EQUIP, and her role there *EQUIP is a virtual eating disorder treatment company that offers care in all 50 states. They're also part of the Lane 9 Directory. Connect with Jenny Grimshaw on Instagram @jenny_gshaw, and follow her training for her next marathon! Follow @Lane9project on Instgram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.  Connect with a clinician near you, and find your full team of women's health and sport providers, by going to Lane9Project.org/directory. If you don't see what you're looking for, fill out our Athlete Match Form, and we'll find someone for you!