Episode 135: Energy Availability, Training with Constraints, and Avoiding Burnout
In this episode, we explore what it means to train within the constraints of real life. Drawing from Katie’s postpartum return to sport, we discuss how recovery, energy availability, sleep, work, parenting, and life stress can become limiting factors just as much as fitness itself. We unpack the difference between training volume and overall life load, how expectations quietly shift over time, and why more training is not always the answer when performance starts to feel harder. We also dive into identifying your biggest constraints, focusing on the highest-return workouts, embracing the minimum effective dose, and finding ways to stay connected to joy and purpose in training. Whether you're balancing a demanding career, family responsibilities, injury recovery, or simply a busy season of life, this episode offers practical strategies for adapting your goals, managing expectations, and continuing to make meaningful progress without burning out. Check it out!
Episode 135
Insights:
Katie:
Some context - I have been on the struggle bus a little bit! Training felt amazing for the initial few months of return-to-sport postpartum, but recently I’ve been feeling pretty run down, less motivated, and not in it mentally as much as I was before. Rule of thirds creeping into “many workouts feeling bad, some feeling fine, few feeling great.”
Interestingly enough, my training volume (hours/TSS) is the lowest it has been in any other recent training season of my life.
Ultimately I think this is mainly driven by an energy availability issue, though it is a lot more nuanced and complex than how I’ve previously thought about energy availability (mainly in terms of food intake) -- and it also brought me back to your episode on REDs + our recent deep dive on troubleshooting fatigue.
Currently my energy is being poured into:
Research as a postdoc
Coaching a bunch of athletes in peak race season
Planning/recording/editing/producing a podcast episode every week
Training
Keeping the household running
Being a mom to an awesome 4.5 month old who is completely dependent on me for all things and exclusively breastfeeding (which amounts to 8-10 times in every 24 hour period)
Meanwhile, I still haven’t gotten a full/uninterrupted night of sleep since January. And I have part-time childcare and a supportive husband/family, but I’m pretty sure I am still managing the biggest energy load I ever have. And the particularly tricky part about the new mom element is that the mom load is really hard to quantify in terms of a to-do list, but it is the single largest consumer of my attention, emotional bandwidth, executive function, and physical energy.
Every single day is “kept baby alive, fed, comforted, monitored, soothed, entertained, transported, and loved for 24 hours today,” and there are 0 breaks.
New moms will relate that even when you are sleeping there are 0 breaks; your brain is constantly scanning the room and waking up at the slightest noise from baby
Lesson: Stress is stress is stress! It’s possible to be in the red for energy availability even if you’re fueling well. (And honestly, hard to tell how well I am fueling other than the consistent effort to nail 3 meals and 3 snacks every day because breastfeeding feels a little bit like everything you eat is going into a funnel that just gets leeched out of you, and it honestly is!)
And a caveat: The weird thing about it is I wouldn’t change anything about new mom life, and I actually love all of this time with Luke more than anything I’ve ever done before. But it feels like my body is struggling to keep up with output of all of that mom-ing on top of all of the other things it is used to doing, even if I *want* to be doing all of those things.
Training with constraints / Building a plan around your limiters
This has led me to re-think some elements of my training approach. Partly inspired by a recent Steve Magness post and podcast episode on training with constraints.
Different people have different constraints at different times in their lives; some people need to build their aerobic base, others lack top end speed, others are injury prone or are working through a specific niggle, others lack strength and power, others are bad at fueling, etc.
Big breakthroughs can come in training when you build a plan that addresses your constraints rather than does a whole lot more of what you are already good at (which is often in your comfort zone)
My current constraint = limited energy to spare and compromised ability to recover. In my current life phase, I have limited energy to spare because I am pouring energy into so many different things, and I don’t have the time to recoup that energy and effectively recover.
Continuing to layer on volume will probably only sink me deeper into a recovery hole.
Therefore, the best approach for me right now is to really lean hard into minimum effective dose training, “trim the fat” from my training plan, keep only the essential things to be in alignment with my goals, and try to free up time that would have been used for training to just feel more caught up on life (or ideally get some recovery in)
Shout out to Coach Jay for talking me through this and helping me tweak my plan! Practically, it involved shortening and removing a few workouts from the week but keeping in the really important stuff. I was nervous at first that shooting for big goals in this period of life was no longer feasible, but now feeling more confident about trying to improve balance (another reason why coaches are great!)
But relatedly…
Expectations matter!
Difference between expectations at 2 months vs. 4 months PP
2 months: everything felt amazing, not because fitness was amazing, but because expectations were low. “I’m a freaking badass for doing a 40 min run/walk because I wasn’t sure I would be able to run at all”
Then, had a ton of success, which led to bigger goals/bigger confidence/bigger expectations, as well as an “I’m kind of invincible” mindset. Set some BIG goals for upcoming races and felt extremely confident in my ability to achieve them
The issue was that as each subsequent week passed, I increased my expectations AND increased the amount of stuff on my plate (work, responsibilities, etc.), AND Connor went back to work. That completely changed the equation, but my expectations of myself didn’t change at all -- even in the context of sleep regressions and less support.
I think we are all susceptible to this, but my first thought as I started to feel worse in workouts was “what am I doing wrong?” rather than “the environment has changed a lot and none of this is linear!”
Mindset goal for now that I am working on -- trying harder to update my expectations to match my actual constraints (and give myself more credit for everything I am doing).
Additional insights (Elena):
Training with friends who challenge you
Pushing yourself doesn’t always have to feel like a battle. Social workouts can take some of the stress out
Alyssa Godesky’s post on getting back into training:
Don’t skip workouts because they seem small and meaningless
Don’t think it’s all sunshine and rainbows
Don’t forget the value of having a positive attitude
Challenge of the week:
Katie: Think about (or journal on) your main limiter/constraints right now!
Elena: Be clear on what your primary goal is right now
Gear/Resource pick of the Week
Katie: Supergoop sunscreen