Tracking Your Cycle

Building Body Literacy

Understanding your menstrual cycle is one of the most powerful performance tools available to female athletes.

Every person’s experience of their cycle is unique, and even within each individual, cycles can shift across different life stages. Training demands, travel, nutrition, sleep, and stress can all influence how you feel at different points in your cycle.

There’s a lot of conversation around syncing your training with your cycle, but without truly understanding your own cycle and how it affects you, it’s impossible to know whether (or how) to adjust your schedule and intensity. The most important thing, and the first step to managing your cycle is understanding it.

Why Track Your Cycle?

Tracking can help you map your cycle, and over time can help you predict symptoms and potential patterns.

Monitoring can help you:

• Predict physical and emotional symptoms

• Plan your training more effectively

• Prepare for lower-energy days

• Maximise high-performance windows

• Reduce anxiety around unexpected changes

For athletes, this is a superpower and can help to improve confidence, mental wellbeing, and reduces feelings of frustration around performance fluctuations.

What Should You Track?

Everyone’s cycle and their experience of it will feel very different, so try to monitor the symptoms and fluctuations that feel important to you as an individual. Useful markers include:

1️⃣ Cycle Basics

• Day 1 of your cycle (the first day of your period)

• Flow (light / medium / heavy)

• Cycle length

2️⃣ Physical Symptoms

• Energy levels

• Digestive symptoms

• Headaches

• Bloating

• Breast soreness

• Cramps or other pain

3️⃣ Emotional & Cognitive Changes

Some people also find it useful to track any emotional changes throughout their cycle. these may include:

• Mood

• Anxiety or irritability

• Focus and concentration

• Confidence levels

4️⃣ Performance & Recovery Indicators

You may also want to monitor any personal areas of interest in your training and recovery for extra context.

• Sleep (quality and duration)

• Training load

• Readiness to train / fatigue

• DOMS or perceived recovery

How to Track

You can track your cycle using:

• A menstrual tracking app

• A training or wellness diary

• A simple notebook and pen

Apps can be super convenient, but just be mindful of how your data is being used and make sure to review the privacy policy before signing up.

Next Steps

Once you have tracked 2-3 cycles or more you should start to get a better understanding and insight into your cycle, how it impacts your training and what you can expect from each phase.

The next stage is learning how to manage any symptoms while continuing to train and perform.

👉 Read Part 2: Menstrual Cycle Management Basics