This week we chat about the exercise and performance load, what it is, how to measure it, and why it matters especially for girls and women in sport. Of course, first up we have our sports highlights of the week.
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Don’t forget to sign up for Shred Girls Weekend, May 31 at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre, which is Shred Girls Book 4 Launch at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Both Sasha & Molly will be there, alongside other Strong Girl Publishing authors. Additionally, we’ve partnered with For All Mothers for a Mom Forward Event as part of this event.
🏃♀️🚴♀️⚽️Alright, here’s a quick sports wrap up:
Sasha was travelling so was not up to her usually sports watching - and when you spend 23 hours on a flight from YYZ to SYD, you’re sports watching really is limited.
World Athletics hosted the World Relay Championships in Guangzhou, China. 🇨🇦 All five Canadian teams qualified for the World Championships at the World Athletics Relays, with a historic highlight: Canada won the first-ever mixed 4x100m relay—a big moment for speed and for equity in the sport. Spain, not typically known for their relay prowess, also rose to the occasion. With these shorter relays usually dominated by the US and Jamaica, it was great to see different teams in the mix.
Also in the world of Athletics, Canada named the first athletes to the World Championships team in the marathon, the 10,000m and race walk. Evan Dunfee just made his 41st World’s Team! What caught our eye is that everyone one of these coaches is a male coach.
Demi Vollering dominated La Vuelta Femenina—winning the overall title, climber’s jersey, final stage, and using her platform to speak on mental health. Marianne Vos took the points jersey, Anna van der Breggen earned the super-combative award, and Team SD Worx–Protime won the team classification.
FIFA announced Friday, The Women's World Cup will be expanded from 32 to 48 teams, like the men's competition, starting with the 2031 edition. Additionally with this landmark decision, FIFA has approved the creation of an Afghanistan women’s refugee soccer team, comprising Afghan female players who have obtained refugee status abroad. While it’s a one year pilot the women of the team worry it’s both not sustainable and that it does not help the women and girls currently living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which drastically limits what girls and women can do in Afghanistan.
More people are watching women’s sport. Sasha and Molly talk about the rise in viewership in the US, which really does demonstrate what’s happening globally.
Canada Games Council just released the first bit about their safe sport program in advance of the Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland, Good Vibes Only, promoting respect, inclusion, and positive culture both on and off the field at the Games and beyond. Allison Forsyth, founder of Gen Safe, is prominently featured in the Good Vibes Only video. It’s a rallying call for safer sport in Canada, and something we’ll cover on Strong Girl Talk in the coming weeks.
Now let’s get into this week’s topic of training load!
This week we chat about exercise and performance load—what it is, how to measure it, and why it matters especially for girls and women in sport. We explore how training stress is impacted by biological factors, life load, and the social pressures young athletes often carry—because optimizing performance isn’t just about doing more, it’s about doing what’s right for you.
We break down:
🌀 The difference between training hard and training smart
📊 How to think about frequency × intensity
💬 Why understanding load is key for injury prevention, progress, and long-term participation
⚖️ And how to balance stress, recovery, and life outside of sport
We mention various technologies and wearables. Many people use Strava to track their training, but Molly points out the benefits of creating a free Training Peaks account, especially if you’ve got an activity tracker on you or your kid. We did not mention many of the activity trackers, we spoke about Garmin, but there is also COROS. We also mentioned the OURA ring, especially for cycle tracking with body temperature, and WHOOP. Remember we highlight that none of these capture neural muscular fatigue and typically underestimate strength training and circuit workouts.
We said we’d leave some prompts to help you reflect and help you help your kids reflect on how they are feeling. Eventually we want to get to how are you feeling, and by thinking about sleep, nutrition, stress (life, workout, really anything), workouts, that you start to be able to understand your body and exercise response. Let’s do this by Sasha’s 5 Pillars for living a high-performance life:
Sleep Soundly:
About 30 minutes after you get up, assess how you feel - you could also ask your kids while they are eating breakfast, “how did you sleep last night?”
Need more probing questions (and to keep your kids off devices) - “Can you remember any of your dreams?” “Did you feel like you woke up during the night?” “When your alarm went off, or when I came to wake you up, did it startle you? Were you still dreaming?
Feed The Machine:
Another plug for breakfast, and putting on author, Stevie Smith’s hat, please have some protein with breakfast!
“What was your favourite thing you ate today?” “When was the last snack or meal you had today?” “What did you eat before practice/the game/the race?”
Get Moving:
If your kids are not much for moving - “did you walk to/from [insert specific place]?” “What did you get up to during recess?”
If your kids are active - “tell me how you felt white you were playing [insert their sport]?” You can ask them questions about “Were you hungry?” “Did you feel like you had enough energy?” “Who did you have fun playing with?”
Be Intentional:
“What did you notice about your friends at practice, the game today?” You should look around and find something ordinary that brings you joy or is beautiful and ask “Did you notice [insert moment of joy and beauty]?”
Engineer Your Own Excellence:
“When did you feel your best today?” “What did you felt went well at practice, the game, today?” “You did that really well. Take me through your steps to get there so we can help you repeat it.”
What are other questions that help you reflect and critically think about what you’ve done? What are some of the best questions you ask your kids to help them reflect? “Wonder” is great word to use here as you ask questions and help them go deeper.
Remember you can follow Molly and Sasha on Social Media including:
Molly - @mollyjhurford @stronggirlpublishing
Sasha - @SGollishRuns @Yellow_Running_Shoes
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