Hit Play Not Pause Stop Spinning Your Wheels: Fueling for Real Midlife Gains with Meghann Featherstun, MS, RD, CSSD (Episode 263)
Feb 25, 2026
Meghann Featherstun, MS, RD, CSSD — a board-certified sports dietitian and endurance runner who helps runners and triathletes optimize performance. She talks about iron and ferritin testing, energy availability and recovery, practical carb strategies for training and races, hydration and sweat sodium, GI troubleshooting, and emerging concerns around GLP-1 medications for athletes.
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Ferritin Above 50 Improves Endurance Performance
- Female endurance athletes need higher ferritin than general lab ranges to perform well.
- Studies link ferritin >50 ng/mL with better time-to-exhaustion and improved VO2max, so low ferritin can make training gains stall.
Prioritize Consistent Iron Supplementation
- Take iron consistently rather than obsessing over perfect timing around workouts.
- Hepcidin peaks ~3 hours after hard runs, studies differ on every-other-day dosing, so individualize dose and monitor labs while ensuring regular intake.
Test A Full Iron Panel Not Just Hemoglobin
- Order a CBC plus a full iron panel including ferritin, TIBC, and percent transferrin saturation to get the full iron picture.
- Use Quest Direct or concierge labs if clinicians only check hemoglobin, and test at least annually or quarterly during heavy training.