The Female Triad

I have blogged about this one before - a couple of years ago - but have been asked to mention it again by the parents of one of our young female athletes. It is well known that women of all ages have difficulties associated with endurance running that men don't and Scottish squads used to give out sheets of information on the subject. Anaemia is maybe the most common one - although Under 17 Men right through to veteran are also liable to suffer from this one - but it is much more common with women. The other big problem comes with the female triad - sounds like a Chinese criminal gang but it's not! It is made up of Osteoporosis (low bone density), amenorrhea and eating disorders. Liz McColgan is quite clear that not enough is known about this and has held workshops, sponsored by Scottish Athletics on the subject. In England Kelly Holmes has been very active in spreading information about it. So -
if you are the parent of a young female endurance runner, a woman distance runner of whatever age or a coach of women endurance runners, you need to know about this. I would suggest that you simply google 'female triad' or even 'female athlete triad' and do some reading! If you don't need to know about it now, you may well do in the future.