The Lane 9 Podcast

"I had lost my period for a year. I was definitely not eating nearly enough, eating healthy to an extreme point...it was a very unhealthy relationship with my body," shares Natalie Tyner, who was a North Carolina State Champion in high school and went on to compete collegiately for University of NortH Carolina (UNC). Natalie is now focusing her work on supporting high school athletes who are preparing to compete at a higher level, navigating mental health, performance nutrition, and balancing their training with adequate rest. She's doing this work because she knows how hard it is to compete at the D1 level, and wants future athletes to be more prepared than she was.

In this episode we talk about:

• the knee injury Natalie has been navigating for a few years
• feeling wholly unprepared for the college athlete experience, and running at a higher level, during her freshman year of college
• the disordered eating, and hypothalamic amenorrhea she experienced in high school, and how a cookbook can sometimes feel like a rule book
• the performance anxiety that plagued her running experience for years
• the culture around food, body image, and periods that she experienced during her collegiate experience
• and both why and how she came into the work she does now, supporting high school athletes as they prepare for the collegiate athlete life

Follow Natalie @NatSportPrep on IG to connect with her.

Follow @Lane9project, and visit Lane9Project.org where we house our resources, including our Clinician Directory. If you are also struggling with disordered eating, hypothalamic amenorrhea, and/or performance anxiety (or other mental health issues), our directory of women's health and sport clinicians are here to help. We'll match you with a provider in your area.

"I feel like on every team I've been on, I've been someone who has eaten the most...which is sometimes a little daunting." Annie Rodenfels joins Lane 9 to talk about everything from period health, queerness in running, body dysmorphia, and why she's still coaching herself...longer than she anticipated doing so!

Rodenfels is a professional runner based in Boston MA, coming off of an indoor track season that included two PBs in her events. After leaving the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) high performance team last year, she's been coaching herself while figuring out next steps with a sponsor and/or team. While it's not her preference, she's done it well enough to keep herself in the mix competitively.

We got to talk to Annie about her experiences from high school to D3 collegiate running to both the sub-elite and professional running environments—a conversation about periods, eating enough, body dysmorphia, and queerness in the sport of running (or...what feels like a lack thereof, compared to some other prominent women's sports).

In this conversation:

• an update on her current training
• her take on the 2025 indoor season (and her 2 PBs)
• why she's still coaching herself, and balancing working 20 hours per week with training and competing
• the various team cultures she has experienced when it comes to periods, nutrition, body image, and having access to resources (or having to find them on your own) that high level competitors may want/need during various seasons (e.g. a dietitian, mental health therapist, etc.)
• protective factors (for her) against disordered eating, despite some experiences with body dysmorphia
• Queer culture and representation in women's sports, and how it feels a bit lacking in the running space; why she shared her bisexuality more publicly about two years ago
• the race distance, and big audacious goal she might take on, in the future

Follow Annie on Instagram (@andrearodenfels) and/or Strava.

To connect with a clinician who can help you navigate fueling for performance, treating REDs, body image, mental health, and/or period health, go to Lane9project.org/Directory. For more resources from Lane 9, visit Lane9project.org.

Follow us @Lane9project on IG, and let us know if you liked this episode!

"I think for so many years I was married to like, if I don't get the run in, I don't feel like I got a quality workout in and I just don't feel like that anymore," shares Lindsey Hein, host of I'll Have Another, among other podcasts produced by her media company, Sandy Boy Productions.

Lindsey is a 17-time marathoner, running coach, mom of 4, race announcer, and podcast host! On this episode, she talks candidly with us about all the body things, and she's been through a lot.

Tune in for any/all of these things:

• How running is feeling for her in THIS season of life, 2 years post-hysterectomy
• A case for doing long runs during the week!
• The hardest thing to recover from (mastectomy) physically, and the hardest emotionally (hysterectomy)
• Perimenopause symptoms
• Postpartum symptoms!
• The different experiences she had with each of her four pregnancies and postpartum return to running
• How running has changed for Lindsey since starting her show, I'll have another, in 2016
• Her kids getting into running now,
• and more!

Follow Lindsey on Instagram @LindseyHein626. Find her work and her shows here!

If you relate to any of these things, and are looking for a clinician who can support you through this season and chasing running goals, go to Lane9Project.org/Directory. We have clinicians and coaches who specialize in women's health and sport, across more than 20 states!

For everything else we're working on, check out Lane9project.org, and send us a note if you have any questions!

Follow us on Instagram @Lane9project.

"It's an act of resistance, in taking care ourselves, especially for those of us who have had a disordred relationship with food. Take care of yourself not just because you want to feel good on your runs, but because you want to be a badass in life."

Amanda Katz is a personal trainer, running coach, Equinox trainer and programmer for indoor cycling, onset trainer with the New York Times, and co-host of the podcast, "Between Two Coaches". We connected with Amanda for our "In Lane 9 with" series on our Substack (see her feature here), and wanted to extend that conversation to the podcast.

Connect with a clinician or coach from the Lane 9 Directory by going to Lane9Project.org/Directory. We match you with a right-fit provider for performance nutrition, physical therapy and/or pelvic health, mental health, and/or menstrual health.

We talk about:

• her year on the run in 2024, with many PRs in fueling! Getting up to 80g carbs per hour with a lot of practice and consistency
• how (and why) she became both a group fitness instructor and running coach, and what her days look like when she's also training for her own movement goals (like a marathon!)
• why she doesn't participate in strava, or share any of her paces on Instagram
• her experience with two eating disorder "rock bottoms", and how she found a way to participate in group therapy for free when she couldn't afford private pay treatment options, and what actually worked for her
• her take on carbon-plated shoes
• and her two favorite soapboxes/hot takes!

Tune in for Amanda's humor, smack talk and 'Great NYC energy, No BS', and stay for the best bagel recommendation from a lifelong New Yorker (but don't tell anyone else! she doesn't want a line!).

Find Amanda via Instagram @Amanda_Katzz and via AmandaSKatz.com

For more from Lane 9 Project visit Lane9Project.org. Or email us Lane9project @ gmail.com

Follow @Lane9Project on Instagram and blue.sky.

"It was pressure I put on myself. Because I saw other athletes and I wanted to be part of that, okay, look, I want to prove that they did the right thing supporting me during my pregnancy, and now I'm going to come back for them."

Neely Spence Gracey ran professionally for eight years after a lot of success as a collegiate runner in the D2 program at Shippensburg University. She has two kids, has coached hundreds of athletes through her business, Get Running, and ran FOUR marathons in 2024 alone. In this episode, we caught up with Neely toward the beginning of 2025 and talked about all the things:

• Her transition from high school success to collegiate running at Shippensburg University, a D2 program in Pennsylvania

• Why she started her run coaching business while still running professionally

• Her two different experiences with pregnancy and running

• How she approached getting back to running postpartum with her second kid to try to avoid some of those injuries

• How long it took her to feel "normal" again on the run, and running and racing postpartum after her professional contracts ended

• Training between her qualifying race (CIM 2022) and the Olympic Trials in 2024

• What she realized while training for the 2024 Olympic Trials marathon

• Her year of 4 marathons in 2024!

• A race recap from her 2:33 at CIM 2024

• Her 2025 goals

For more from Lane 9, where we talk about REDs, period health, nutrition, and mental health, go to Lane9project.org. To connect with a Lane 9 clinician or coach, click on "Driectory", and to get in touch, click on "Contact". We'd love to hear from you!

Follow Neely @neelysgracey on IG.

@Lane9Project on IG and Blue.Sky

"I absolutely know, had I not made that decision to go back into treatment, I would be still spinning my wheels in like a very, very harmful place. So, it was a risk worth taking."

Amelia Boone, as many of you know, is an Obstacle Racing World Champion turned Ultrarunner, attorney by day, and eating disorder awareness advocate and writer. She had a weird year in 2024, with no start or finish lines for the first time in a LONG time. She navigated a difficult injury, and continues to navigate some of the long-term impacts of an eating disorder.

We talk about:

• What she would tell her younger self if they went to get coffee together
• How she's feeling on the run, at the time of our chat (Feb. 2025)
• What life looks like on the other side of elite level racing and competing
• Why we need more not-so-epic comeback stories
• Her hesitations in sharing this part of ED recovery, that's not as sensationalized, not as exciting, but maybe the most accurate in terms of what most people experience
• Why she wishes she had gone back to ED treatment much earlier (than mid-30s)
• And why going back to treatment was "110% the right choice"
• Some ways she's exploring her creativity and non-sport performance side now!

For more from Lane 9, go to lane9project.org.

To find a clinician to work with, and build your ED and/or REDs care team, go to Lane9Project.org/Directory. We have clinicians across the country who are ED and REDs informed and ready to support you in your sport(s)!

@Lane9Project on Instagram.

Eight years ago, on the eve of Eating Disorder Awareness Week in 2017, we decided to go live with our personal stories—our lived experiences with disordered eating, hypothalamic amenorrhea, running, injuries, all of it—and see what happened. We had BIG Ideas for Lane 9 Project, but the only way we knew how to start, was to write. Alexis wrote her essay first, and we're revisiting her story in conversation form for this episode.

On the eighth anniversary of launching Lane 9, we explore why we keep coming back to this work (literally...we left, and came back last year!). And we share how we met, why we felt compelled to do something, ANYTHING, about the lack of knowledge that so many athletes (ourselves included) have about their own bodies, fueling, and period health.

More to come, this is part 1!

Ways to work with Lane 9:

• team workshops
• run coaching (with Alexis or Heather)
• share your story
• share our content with a coach, friend, teammate, or mentor!

And connect with our clinicians! Go to lane9project.org/directory to find a clinician that feels like a good fit for you and your REDs recovery.

Lane9project.org. And @Lane9Project on Instagram

"A lot of us were really struggling with our own issues, particularly related to issues with eating disorders, issues with body image that sort of thing, myself included. and I think unknowingly I was kind of passing it on to my teammates," shares Julianne Morse, or Coach Jules as she's known these days!

Morse joined the Wheaton Lyons women's cross country and track team as a walkon athlete her freshman year. She competed through injuries, setbacks related to REDs, and struggles with body image. She found support in both a therapist and a dietitian, connecting with Boston's Female Athlete Clinic, and eventually ran major PRs in her 5K and 10K events. Despite what was considered a career-ending injury during her senior year, she's stuck with the sport and continues to advocate for her care so she can, hopefully, get back out on the run soon. She's now a Graduate Assistant Coach at University of Wisconsn-Platteville, where she's also pursuing her Master's degree in Sports Administration.

We talked about:

• not being the fastest runner in high school, and reaching out to the Wheaton coach asking to be the team photographer...which turned into her own spot on the XC and T&F teams
• struggling with disordered eating, body image, and amenorrhea during her freshman and sophomore years of college
• connecting with both a therapist and dietitian who supported her to come back to the sport and stay injury-free for over 2 years
• the injury that ended her season, and her D1 committ to Niagara University
• her decision to coach as a Graduate Assistant Coach at University of Wisconsin-Plattevile
• her future plans and ambitions as both a coach and an athlete

If you're struggling with REDs, body image, underfueling, digestive issues, or resonate with any of Julianne's story, we have a directory of women's health and sport clinicians ready to support you. Go to Lane9project.org/Directory and find a clinician that feels like the right-fit for you. We're happy to help! If you have questions, contact us via Lane9project at gmail dot com.

For show notes, a full transcript (via email/PDF), and more work that we're doing in Lane 9, head to Lane9project.org.

If you share this episode on social media, tag @lane9project.

"I never once felt like myself while I was running in college," shares Val Rubio Meza on the Lane 9 Podcast. But she certainly found her stride with running groups, and longer distances, after her collegiate running days were over. While she specialized in the 400m in high school and college, and couldn't fathom doing a 6 mile training run, she eventually gravitated toward 13.1 and 26.2 mile races. She found running groups in Denver that she connected with, and felt supported by, which helped her find joy and fun in the sport again.

Val shares how she increased her endurnace to run longer distances, the story of her first marathon in Indianapolis (where she ran a 3:02), and the three world majors that followed. As she shares, she learned "to respect the marathon", and eventually ran a 2:55 at CIM in December 2024.

Follow Val @valrunsdenver on IG.

Mentioned on the show: SELF article by Cindy Kuzma, "Sorry, but running without energy gels isn't the flex you think"

Go to Lane9project.org/directory to find a clinician or coach to work with as you navigate post-collegiate running, REDs, and/or fueling for your sport. Our directory includes RDs, DPTs, MDs, therapists, and more.

Get in touch via Lane9Project.org/contact to bring Lane 9 resources to your team or clients. We'd love to work with you!

Follow @lane9project on IG, and get all show notes at Lane9project.org.

Katie Steele LMFT competed for University of Oregon and Florida State as a collegiate runner, and now incorporates her experiences with mental health struggles, unethical coaching practices, and the pressures of collegiate athletics into her work as a therapist. She co-authored the book, "The Price She Pays: Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crises in Women's Sports, from the Schoolyard to the Stadium"

The title says a lot, and the book lives up to it. Telling the stories of female athletes across the country and across a variety of sports who have struggled with eating disorders, mental health, menstrual health, abuse, and more.

Katie's story is also one for the books. Her own experience as a collegiate athlete touches on most of the above, and we talk about it.

Find Katie and her team at thrivementalhealththerapy.com.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, mental health, menstrual issues, or medical health as a female athlete, head to Lane9Project.org/directory to connect with one of our vetted women's health providers.

Follow @lane9project on IG.

Get in touch if YOU are a clinician and want to add your services to our directory!