Trail running is a sport of freedom, you choose your challenge, explore your limits, and keep progressing in the mountains. But for a long time, training, sports nutrition and injury prevention have been approached in a one-size-fits-all way.
Yet the female body has its own specific needs and evolves through the major stages of life: adolescence, menstrual cycles, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause. These phases influence recovery, energy availability, bone health and performance.
The 2025 Running Barometer by RunMotion Coach shows that:
- 76% of female runners would like to take on a marathon or a long trail race one day
- But 75% face barriers that hold them back from taking part
This gap between the desire to go for it and the obstacles along the way highlights how important it is to better inform and support women in endurance sports.
That is why we launched Trail au Féminin, a project led by RunMotion Coach in collaboration with the UTMB® World Series.
The UTMB® World Series circuit is committed to boosting women’s participation in trail running through a range of initiatives.
As the official online coach of the UTMB® World Series, RunMotion Coach wanted to offer structured, accessible and expert content, for female runners and for the wider trail community as well: coaches, clubs, healthcare professionals and race organizers.
Contents
The experts behind this project
To talk about these topics, who better than our guests.
Three champions. Three experts. Three complementary perspectives.
These three guests are not just academic experts. They live elite sport, training load, physiological constraints and the realities on the trails. That double expertise, scientific and athletic, is what makes this project so valuable.
Marion Delespierre
Marion Delespierre is a sports medicine doctor and the 2023 Long Trail World Champion, both individually and as part of the team.
She brings the medical lens: injury prevention, hormonal health, RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), anemia, bone health and returning to sport after pregnancy.
Manon Bohard
Manon Bohard is a registered dietitian nutritionist and the winner of TransMartinique 2025, Diagonale des Fous 2024 and the TDS 2021.
She shares her expertise on women’s sports nutrition: energy management, preventing low energy availability, ultra nutrition strategy and adapting intake to the menstrual cycle.
Sabine Ehrström
Sabine Ehrström holds a PhD in Human Movement Sciences (trail physiology and biomechanics) and won the Ultra-Trail du Vercors 100 km in 2024.
She sheds light on biomechanics, injury risk, how to adapt training programming and how recovery works for women.
The Roundtable, 1 hour to understand Women’s Trail Running
“Trail running, the female body & ultra-endurance, training for a lifetime”
In this in-depth discussion, we walk through the key stages in an endurance athlete’s life:
- Adolescence
- The menstruating years
- Pregnancy and postpartum
- Perimenopause and menopause
We tackle practical and sometimes sensitive topics:
- How cycles affect training
- Injury risks
- Long-term performance
- RED-S
- Anemia in women
- Bone health and osteoporosis
With one central message: lasting performance starts with understanding and respecting the female body.
The Themed Mini Episodes (4 to 6 minutes)
Then, to go even further, we turned that big conversation into short themed mini episodes that are educational, practical and immediately actionable.
To complement the roundtable, we created 12 mini episodes of 4 to 6 minutes, in a Q&A format with a host.
The goal: get straight to the point, answer real questions from trail runners, and share clear, science-based guidance you can apply right away in training and racing.
Each mini episode is powered by the specific expertise of:
- Manon Bohard , Nutrition & performance
- Marion Delespierre , Sports medicine & women’s health
- Sabine Ehrström , Physiology, biomechanics & training programming
🥗 Nutrition before race day
With Manon Bohard
An essential mini episode to understand the basics of daily fueling for women in endurance sports:
- The key nutrition needs to consider for female athletes
- Are trail runners eating enough for their training volume?
- How to spot low energy availability
- What a balanced day of eating looks like with 4 to 6 workouts per week
- The ideal breakfast before an early morning session
- Snacks, essential or optional?
- Recommended iron and magnesium intake
- Warning signs before a race (fatigue, digestive issues, injuries)
- The most common nutrition mistakes among female trail runners
- The number one daily takeaway
🦴 Cartilage and impact in ultras
With Marion Delespierre
Does ultra running really “wear out” your joints?
- What does the science say about cartilage wear?
- Are there female-specific factors?
- Risk factors, training volume, terrain, hormonal cycles, low energy availability
- The role of estrogen and perimenopause
- Warning signs before joint issues become chronic
- Practical strategies to protect your joints without giving up on ultras
🏋️♀️ Osteoporosis and muscle loss
With Sabine Ehrström
Does running always protect your bones?
- Why some very active runners lose bone density or muscle mass
- The link between training load and fragility
- Is strength training essential for ultra trail?
- How often, and what format works best?
- Warning signs
- The most protective exercises for long-term health and performance
🍝 Nutrition during the race, Ultra focus
With Manon Bohard
A seriously practical mini episode:
- Are standard recommendations suited to women?
- How to adjust nutrition 7 to 10 days before an ultra
- Do you need true carb loading as a woman?
- Recommended grams of carbs per hour
- Protein intake during the race
- Female-specific digestive considerations
- How to evolve your fueling from the start to the middle and the final hours
- RED-S and deficiencies, how common are they really?
- The most powerful nutrition lever to keep progressing
🩸 Anemia and chronic fatigue
With Marion Delespierre
A core topic, and far too common:
- Why is anemia so common in female ultra trail runners?
- How to tell normal training fatigue from deficiency-related fatigue
- Which blood tests should you do regularly?
- The impact of periods, inflammation and dietary intake
- When to supplement, and how to avoid self-medicating
- Can you perform for the long haul with low iron?
📊 Training programming and recovery for women
With Sabine Ehrström
Should training be programmed differently?
- Building the menstrual cycle into planning
- Do women recover differently?
- The role of strength work, mobility and rest
- Adjusting training load during fatigue, stress or perimenopause
- Common traps in preparing for ultra trail races
😴 Sleep and energy drinks
With Manon Bohard
- The role of sleep compared with training and nutrition
- How to prepare your sleep before an ultra
- Managing nights outdoors without putting your health at risk
- The difference between isotonic drinks, energy drinks and stimulant drinks
- Caffeine, sweeteners, taurine, helpful or risky?
- How to choose your drink based on race duration, heat and intensity
- The most common mistake to avoid
⚠️ RED-S syndrome
With Marion Delespierre
A major endurance performance issue:
- What RED-S is
- Why women are especially at risk
- Early signs, disrupted cycle, injuries, mental fatigue
- The link between short-term performance and long-term health
- How to prevent RED-S while still aiming for performance
- The medical message every female trail runner should hear sooner
🏃♀️ Injury risks for women
With Sabine Ehrström
- Do we see injuries that are specific to women?
- The impact of anatomy and hormones
- The most common injuries in trail running
- The role of fatigue and mental load
- Prevention through technique and strength training
- Knowing when to back off at the right time
🎙️ Their experience as ultra trail runners
Here, Marion Delespierre, Manon Bohard and Sabine Ehrström share their journeys, their experiences and inspire us.
All content is also available in podcast format, on our BPM by RunMotion channel, in this Trail au Féminin playlist.
What now?
🎥 Watch the roundtable
📲 Share a mini episode that speaks to you
👯♀️ Send it to a friend
🏔️ Dare to sign up for your next trail race
At RunMotion Coach, we are convinced of one thing: understanding women’s bodies better raises the level of trail running as a whole.
That is the ambition of this Trail au Féminin project: understand, inspire and pass it on.