Dr Irene Molina-Gonzalez - Running Beyond Burnout and Finding a New Purpose

Irene is a sports scientist, endurance coach, and ultra-runner originally from Spain, now based in the UK. She moved to the UK in 2013 to pursue a Master's degree, intending to stay only briefly, but quickly fell in love with the country and never left.

Her journey into ultra-running was entirely unplanned. She only started running consistently in 2017 during her PhD in Neuroscience, initially as a way to cope with academic stress. Distances gradually increased, and without even realising ultramarathons existed, she found herself constantly curious about how far she could go. Once she ran beyond 21 km, something clicked—and she never looked back.

Running became both a coping mechanism and, at times, a source of imbalance. A combination of PhD stress, under-fuelling, disordered eating, and overtraining led to injury after her first ultramarathon in 2021. While challenging, that injury marked a turning point. Although her academic career appeared highly successful from the outside, Irene was experiencing severe burnout and quietly drifting away from neuroscience.

In January 2023, she left academia altogether after a period of profound burnout. Ultra-running remained a constant during this time and ultimately helped her rebuild. By then, she had already completed coaching and sports rehabilitation qualifications, and the transition into applied sport felt natural. She founded Train4BodyMind, combining science, performance, and a more holistic approach to endurance sport.

Later that year, Irene began a second MSc in Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine, while simultaneously building her coaching business and working in a physiotherapy clinic. Throughout this journey, she became increasingly aware of a major gap in sports science: the lack of research and evidence-based guidance for women.

While searching for answers about her own body, she realised how little research existed on female endurance athletes—particularly in ultra-running. 

This led her to investigate how the menstrual cycle affects performance in female ultrarunners, an area that had been largely overlooked despite the extreme demands of the sport.

Today, Irene is passionate about supporting women in endurance sports through evidence-based coaching and education. She is particularly focused on countering the widespread misinformation surrounding women's physiology and rigid cycle-based rules, which often create fear rather than empowerment. Her work aims to help women understand their bodies better, train with confidence, and use their physiology as a strength rather than a limitation.

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