Training after 40: what changes for women endurance athletes

What the research says about the engine

A 2026 scoping review from the University of Calgary gathered four decades of research on women masters athletes, meaning women aged 40 and over who compete in endurance sport (Vangsgaard et al., 2026). Across 29 studies, aerobic capacity declined a little each year, with reported losses of roughly half a percent to a little over two percent per year. Most of that change was linked to the heart pumping a bit less blood with each minute of work, followed by changes in body composition.

Two findings matter most for how we train. First, training volume predicted aerobic capacity. The women who kept training more held on to more of their fitness. Age changes the starting point, but consistent training still shapes where you land. Second, the picture below the top end looked steadier. Lactate threshold, as a share of aerobic capacity, generally rose with age, and peak lactate stayed stable. In plain terms, the ceiling may come down slowly while the ability to work close to that ceiling holds up well. Economy, or how much energy it costs to move at a given speed, tended to get a little more expensive with age, although the findings there were mixed.

The review was also honest about what we do not know. The effect of menopause on these markers was unclear. The authors called for longer studies that follow the same women over time. So we treat menopause as an important part of each athlete's story, not as a reason to apply a fixed formula.

Recovery and protein

Recovery can shift with age too, though perhaps not in the way many athletes expect. In a small study of well trained cyclists, masters riders recovered their physical performance after hard intervals at a similar rate to younger riders. What lagged was how they felt. Two days later, the masters cyclists still reported more fatigue, more soreness and lower motivation (Borges et al., 2018). The authors suggested that this slower sense of recovery could affect whether people stay with training over the long term.

In masters triathletes, muscle protein synthesis over three days of hard training was lower than in younger triathletes, and cycling performance soon after a muscle damaging run tended to recover more slowly (Doering et al., 2016). Protein is one practical lever here. A large meta-analysis found that protein supplementation increased the strength and muscle gains from resistance training, while also noting that the effect became smaller with age, which points to steady, adequate daily protein rather than a single magic dose (Morton et al., 2018).

These recovery studies were small and not specific to women, so we hold them lightly. They still point in a useful direction: pay attention to how recovery feels, not only to what the numbers say, and support the work with food.

How we coach women after 40 at ANC

We start with what you can realistically fit around your life. A plan that looks perfect on paper but ignores your work, family and sleep will not hold up for long. The research above found that the women who kept training more held on to more of their fitness, and that only happens when training fits your life.

We look at your whole stress bucket. Training load is only one part of it. Work stress, poor sleep, travel, caregiving and the changes of perimenopause and menopause all draw from the same place. We plan total load with all of that in view, and we adjust when life adds weight.

We keep strength two times a week, built around your experience and equipment, because it supports economy, durability and long term health.

We set your training intensities from Critical Power on the bike and Critical Speed on the run, along with pVO2 Max for the bike and sVO2 Max for the run. Because fitness changes as training changes, we retest regularly and update your numbers so the work always matches the athlete you are now.

And we listen. How you feel, how you sleep and why you train are part of the data. Every woman's experience of this stage is different, so there is no single formula. There is a plan built for you.