Hit Play Not Pause

Artist, author, and gravel racer Lisa Congdon is back for the first time in more than three years, and a lot has happened. She had both knees replaced seven weeks apart, raced the Unbound 50 five months later, and got her power numbers back. Then she decided to stop chasing them. Lisa talks about her 2026 goals, "chase adventure instead of power numbers" and "stop hating your body," and about the five-day, 270-mile Tour of the Giants bikepacking trip that put both goals to the test. Lisa opens up about the years she spent restricting carbs to stay small, gaining weight once she started fueling properly, and the secret fight with her body that followed. She also shares what it's like to manage hot flashes without hormone therapy after estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer, why cycling pulls her out of hormonal low points, and why saying your shame out loud is the first step to letting it go. Finally, we dive into the menopause industrial complex, GLP-1 pressure, and the joy of having a body that can do more at 58 than it ever has.
Lisa Congdon is an internationally known, award-winning fine artist, illustrator, and writer based in Portland, Oregon. She is self-taught, started making art in her thirties, and has written ten books, including Art, Inc. and Find Your Artistic Voice. Her clients include the Library of Congress, the U.S. Postal Service, MoMA, REI Co-op, Brooks Running, and Velocio Cycling Apparel. She found cycling in her fifties and now races gravel as a masters athlete, rides centuries, and bikepacks, and much of her art work is in the cycling industry. A breast cancer survivor, Lisa writes candidly on her Substack about being a menopausal endurance athlete, fueling, and making peace with her body.
Resources:
What if my body isn’t something I need to fix? Lisa Congdon’s Substack
https://livefeisty.com/training/
Courses and Coaching: https://livefeisty.com/courses/
Sign up for our FREE Feisty 40+ newsletter: https://livefeisty.com/newsletters/feisty-40/

Follow Us on Instagram:
Feisty Menopause: @feistymenopause
Hit Play Not Pause Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807943973376099
Support our Partners:
Cozy Earth: Use Code HITPLAY at https://cozyearth.com/ for up to 35% off
Previnex: Get 15% off your order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/
Wahoo: Use the code FEISTY2026 to get a free Headwind Smart Fan (value $300) with the purchase of a Wahoo KICKR RUN at https://shorturl.at/WVhdr

In this special Hit Play Not Pause bonus episode, Selene introduces some of the expert educators behind Feisty Winter Training, a 16-week program designed to help women build fitness, strength, and knowledge through the winter months.
Through highlights from Feisty's Hit Play Not Pause, The Women's Performance Podcast, and Another Mother Runner, you'll hear conversations about athletic burnout, perfectionism, menopause, injury prevention, fueling, and why more training isn't always better.
Meet the featured experts:
Dr. Erin Ayala – Licensed psychologist, certified mental performance consultant, and host of The Women's Performance Podcast, specializing in athlete mental health, motivation, performance, and burnout.
Dr. Carla DiGirolamo – Double board-certified OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist specializing in the health and performance of active women across the lifespan, including perimenopause and menopause.
Dr. Kim Hollingdale – Licensed psychotherapist and certified mental performance consultant who helps athletes navigate performance anxiety, injury recovery, and the mental challenges of training and competition.
Dr. Kate Mihevic Edwards – Physical therapist and board-certified orthopedic specialist specializing in running medicine, injury prevention, rehabilitation, and the unique needs of female runners.

The big takeaway? A great training plan isn't just about checking boxes. It's about understanding when to push, when to recover, how to fuel, and how to adapt your training to your body and your life.
Feisty Winter Training kicks off November 16, with four 16-week programs: Running, Cycling, Strength, and Hybrid. Each includes progressive training, expert coaching, live educational sessions, and a supportive community of women.
$349 for coach written plans, live training sessions, a robust community of like-minded women, and access to expert-led education sessions.
Don't just follow a plan this winter. Learn how to OWN your training.
Register for Feisty Winter Training: https://livefeisty.com/training/feisty-winter-training/

Does it feel like your back is always cranky or your hips are chronically tight? Your problem might not be where it hurts…or what it seems. As Dr. Heidi Prather, a sports medicine and hip preservation physiatrist at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), explains this week, back pain can start in the hips, and “tight” hips can be a sign of instability—which stretching can make worse. We also cover estrogen and inflammation in the menopause transition, plus fascia, angry nerves, frozen shoulder, how sleep and anxiety affect pain, and her best advice for staying out of her office.
Dr. Heidi Prather is a Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)/Weill Cornell Medicine and the Founder and Medical Director of the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. The program helps people with musculoskeletal pain reduce pain and function better through behavior change. Before HSS, she spent more than 20 years at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where she founded the Living Well Center, the first standardized musculoskeletal health program of its kind built on lifestyle medicine. She is board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sports Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine. She was the first female president of both the North American Spine Society and the Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports and Occupational Rehabilitation. Her research focuses on hip and spine disorders, sex differences in musculoskeletal injuries, and lifestyle medicine, and she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers.
https://livefeisty.com/training/
Courses and Coaching: https://livefeisty.com/courses/
Sign up for our FREE Feisty 40+ newsletter: https://livefeisty.com/newsletters/feisty-40/

Follow Us on Instagram:
Feisty Menopause: @feistymenopause
Hit Play Not Pause Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807943973376099
Support our Partners:
Cozy Earth: Use Code HITPLAY at https://cozyearth.com/ for up to 35% off
Previnex: Get 15% off your order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/
Wahoo: Use the code FEISTY2026 to get a free Headwind Smart Fan (value $300) with the purchase of a Wahoo KICKR RUN at https://shorturl.at/WVhdr

You run (or bike or swim or hike…), you lift, you've got the training logs to prove nothing has changed. You eat the same as you always have. And you’ve still gained 10 pounds…or more. Obesity medicine physician Dr. Michelle Gordon is here this week to explain why. She covers the metabolic slowdown of perimenopause, the drop in fat burning, why the new fat lands around your middle, and why "calories in, calories out" doesn't cover it. She also talks about her own experience with tirzepatide as a lifelong athlete: losing 30-plus pounds, running out of motivation to run, and figuring out what exercise means to her now.
Michelle E. Gordon, DO, DABOM, DACLM, FACS, FACOS, is board certified in obesity medicine, lifestyle medicine, and general surgery, and is a fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons. She spent 15 years as a surgeon before switching to women's metabolic health, because she kept seeing the downstream complications of disease that had started years earlier. Today she runs a telehealth practice to help high performing midlife women feel like themselves again. Her approach is rooted in physiology and incremental behavior change. She treats obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease that calls for long-term care from a physician. You can learn more about her at drgordon.me and on her Substack.
Resources
Trajectory of weight regain after cessation of GLP-1 receptor agonists: a systematic review and nonlinear meta-regression here
Continued Treatment With Tirzepatide for Maintenance of Weight Reduction in Adults With Obesity: The SURMOUNT-4 Randomized Clinical Trial here
https://livefeisty.com/training/
Courses and Coaching: https://livefeisty.com/courses/
Sign up for our FREE Feisty 40+ newsletter: https://livefeisty.com/newsletters/feisty-40/

Follow Us on Instagram:
Feisty Menopause: @feistymenopause
Hit Play Not Pause Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807943973376099
Support our Partners:
Cozy Earth: Use Code HITPLAY at https://cozyearth.com/ for up to 35% off
Previnex: Get 15% off your order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/
Wahoo: Use the code FEISTY2026 to get a free Headwind Smart Fan (value $300) with the purchase of a Wahoo KICKR RUN at https://shorturl.at/WVhdr

Recorded live at FeistyFest, the week Hit Play Not Pause turned six, this bonus episode hands the mic to you.
Selene starts with how the show began, including her own experiences with 2 a.m. wake-ups and sleepless nights, performance decline, anxiety, the urge to pull back from people, and the changes she didn't see coming. She and longtime producer Carrie walk through their hormone therapy journeys and where they are today. Then they hand the mic to the crowd for a wide-ranging discussion including managing menopause after breast cancer, the cost of HRT, symptoms that don’t seem to stop, getting brushed off by doctors, GLP-1s, and much more.
https://livefeisty.com/training/
Courses and Coaching: https://livefeisty.com/courses/
Sign up for our FREE Feisty 40+ newsletter: https://livefeisty.com/newsletters/feisty-40/

Follow Us on Instagram:
Feisty Menopause: @feistymenopause
Hit Play Not Pause Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807943973376099
Support our Partners:
Cozy Earth: Use Code HITPLAY at https://cozyearth.com/ for up to 35% off
Previnex: Get 15% off your order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/
Wahoo: Use the code FEISTY2026 to get a free Headwind Smart Fan (value $300) with the purchase of a Wahoo KICKR RUN at https://shorturl.at/WVhdr