She was once a runner

sounds like she dealt with some similar issues

I'm depressed and this story is making me more depressed and making me wonder if I have an eating disorder. My health insurance covers mental health and I called a psychologist twice five days apart. I can't get a shrink to call me back. How depressing.

I guess I'm slow on the uptake. How does drinking a Diet Coke make the doc a hypocrite? (5/22 entry)

letslift.com? wrote:

Another clue from the 5/22 entry about who the author may be (although people seem to mostly agree the college is BC and the writer is Mary Cicero)

Mary is not the writer.

letslift.com? wrote:

(although people seem to mostly agree the college is BC and the writer is Mary Cicero)

FALSE! If the analysis is correct, Cicero would have been a freshman during the author's junior year (and there is a fast freshman character in the blog stories).

The writer's IP address is in Westbury, New York. Danielle Jelley went to Westbury High School. Can we stop debating the identity of the writer and discuss the fictional story?

So he drinks a zero-calorie drink after telling her to increase her calorie intake. Would he be a hypocrit if he drank water instead of diet coke? It sounds like she is finally getting the help she needs but there are hints in the writing that her reality is so distorted that she will not take full advantage of the help.

missed clue wrote:

but there are hints in the writing that her reality is so distorted that she will not take full advantage of the help.

That's what I was noting. She can't understand the difference in caloric needs between a middle aged man who doesn't do a sport, and a young woman competing in an intense program of training.

4runner wrote:

When an adult actress agrees to lose weight for a role, she enters into that contact with an understanding of what that means. When a teenage girl gets recruited by a coach who promises to be her "coach" or her "mentor," the situation is very different.

College runners are 17 or 18 when they sign for a scholarship and almost all of them are 18 by the time they start freshman year or within a month or two. They are adults. Maybe not that experienced as adults but they are adults. They get to make their own decisions in life.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

College runners are 17 or 18 when they sign for a scholarship and almost all of them are 18 by the time they start freshman year or within a month or two. They are adults. Maybe not that experienced as adults but they are adults. They get to make their own decisions in life.

I agree. The coach is a jackass.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

College runners are 17 or 18 when they sign for a scholarship and almost all of them are 18 by the time they start freshman year or within a month or two. They are adults. Maybe not that experienced as adults but they are adults. They get to make their own decisions in life.

1) Most states think that 18 is the year of capacity to enter into a contract. Much of the recruiting process is generally done while runners are juveniles.

2) How upfront are coaches about the weight loss requirements?

Has any coach in the history of the world ever said:

--"___% of my runners have eating disorders?"

--"If you want to run for me, I consider myself entitled to badger you about your weight."

--"I'll keep running a girl even after she has an eating disorder if it helps me win."

If the coaches are not upfront and honest about such requirements, it is no different than selling a used car with a known defect to your own 17 year old nephew.

They are not called "employers." They are called "coaches."

There\'s a new entry in her blog.

I was a little disappointed with the most recent entry... I find her blog interesting; however, if she is only going to write so little I wish the updates were more often.

WOW! Aren't you awesome?

DocB wrote:

I guess I'm slow on the uptake. How does drinking a Diet Coke make the doc a hypocrite? (5/22 entry)

Because he's trying to give her nutrition advice, and he has no clue about proper nutrition.

“I saw Sandra buy $28 worth of Diet Cokes at the dining hall.”

It looks like he also put Sandra on his personal nutrition plan.

Well written and thought out posts don't belong on Letsrun.

Honestly, are the women posting on this thread saying coaches should never tell female runners to lose weight?

I had a college freshman last year who was more than a full minute slower than her high school PR.

She also gained 10-12 pounds -- her estimate -- from her weight when she ran her PR.

So, I am a horrible person for telling her that the weight gain is probably one of the factors? (She studies a ton for her excellent grades so sleep deprivation is clearly an issue, too.)

This is an intelligent young woman with a 4.0 GPA who wants to improve.

So while 6 of my top 7 women and 8 of the top 10 had new PRs in the fall, she didn't. The freshmen -- not counting her -- had an average PR improvement in the fall of more than 60 seconds.

I wouldn't have minded if she'd gained 5 pounds of muscle. But her butt is bigger and so are her thighs. It's not muscle, and yes, I'm a pervert for looking...

Too many people on this thread seem to believe if you tell a young woman she has gained weight that the next thing she'll do is stick her finger down her throat.

I don't think every female needs to be treated like a porcelain princess. That being said, I'm horribly imperfect, so tell me what to do with this young lady besides having frank talks with her, scheduling an appointment with our nutritionist, and workign with her in the weight room.

An athlete who noticeably puts on 10-12 lbs, and is slower than the year before is a different story than one who is very thin to begin with and probably doesn't need to lose weight. From what I gather from SWOAR blog, this young lady does not sound like she actually needed to lose weight.

Many coaches seem to think thinner=faster, no matter what. And they are inappropriate and unproductive in their approach to the subject. To have a frank, helpful discussion with an athlete about their weight and to direct them to health professionals is the right way to go about it.

In other words, for an adult male (or less often female) coach to make snarky comments to young women about being overweight, too heavy, etc, is silly. It's somewhat cruel and counterproductive. You're supposed to be an adult (and possibly a mentor to your athletes), not a schoolyard bully.

What you have stated, in my opinion, sounds like you handled it properly.

As stated before let a nutritionist handle it.

It sounds like this runner has identified weight as an issue and something she wants to work on.

Here are some of my experiences of scenarios in which runners gain weight.

1) runner gets to college & becomes careless about eating, eats pizza late at night, drinks too much, etc.

2) Runner really had NOT hit puberty in highschool & now she has, so it really is hard for her to lose weight. Some of the weight gain is natural, and she needs to deal & adapt. Maybe some of it is excess that she could benefit from losing.

3) Runner was anorexic or had some form of disordered eating in highschool - was well below her natural height/weight - and is now healthier. Don't screw it up & give her a complex.

So, clearly, each scenario is different. As others have stated: Leave the weight loss & diet to the nutritionists. Do not make snarky comments or put undo pressure on the runner. If anything ask "How are things going with the nutritionist?...Has it been helpful?...Are you still going?" THAT should be the full extent of your discussions on weight. Your conversations should be about training and lifestyle factors (like sleep) that impact training.

Where does this ridiculous coach-employer analogy come in? An employer can exert stronger pressures than a coach because their employee is responsible for the profit of the company or the well-being of others. Unless I've missed something, college track & field/cross-country has nothing to do with profit or the well-being of others. So, then, what's the coach's job, and more broadly, the point of college athletics?

As silly as the sounds when considering bigtime college hoops and football, the vast majority of college sports should still serve as part of the education. The track team isn't all that visible (in 99% of cases) and certainly doesn't turn a significant profit (in 99.99% of cases), so the purpose of the team has to be to further the education of the students on it. If anything, the runners employ the coach- even on fully funded teams, I would guess that on the balance, the athletes spend more in tuition than the amount of scholarship money spent on the team. But that last point isn't really that important. The thrust of this post is that non-revenue college sports- while no less serious- should not have the same pressures as football or basketball or indeed any job. The purpose of college track is to improve the educational experience by pursuing excellence. That sentence might seem extremely naive, but I can't think of any other possible justification for the existence of college track & field teams. In that light, the coach portrayed in this blog is despicable; he is doing nothing to enhance the education of his athletes. He is delusional; he somehow thinks that the scholarship money spent on his runners is an investment intended to return a tangible profit.