How much can I improve in HS distance running (freshman)? Currently run a 6:26 indoor mile.. 5:00 mile possible by JR year?

Don’t run every day your hardest, you will end up overtraining. In racing stop worrying so much about doing good and just push without thinking and don’t be too scared to get after it. Maybe at one point in the second half of the race try leading or compete for the win. Recovery days are easy but not jogging while long runs are of moderate intensity. The only hard efforts are during specific workouts like 1k repeats or 400 repeats which come in later in the season. But your hardest efforts should always be left for a race. One of the most important things is to gradually increase weekly mileage, but not so fast you suffer from iron deficiency. 5 more miles a week every month and these miles should be recovery miles and maybe an extra mile on your long run. Hope this helps you :)

-sub 16 minute 3 miler

You don't have to be sub 5 as a girl to be a "successful" runner, even to be a division 1 athlete. Honestly I'm not that good even in college and I was worse in hs (high 18s 5k for a guy) but yet I'm still running at a D3 school right now. A girl I know from my former high school PR'd at 5:07 in the mile and is taking a full scholarship to a D1 school for XC.

As much as I'd like to say you can achieve a sub 5:00 mile by putting in work, I don't want you to be disappointed if that doesn't work out. That's an incredible time for a female, a time that some guys on high school teams can't even make during their career there.

Regardless, talk to your coaches, they are there for you not for themselves, and coach the sport because they love it (Trust me they probably aren't getting much money). They'll be willing to help you train more seriously and help you find running camps and/or more experienced trainers/coaches if they feel that will help more than themselves. Another thing that may help, especially for track events is lifting, for hips, legs and doing abdominal workouts.

Whether or not you'll ever run sub 5 idk, some people have genetics that are amazing while others are less fortunate, but hard work and determination wil surprise you even if you weren't born super fast

Good Luck, and I hope to see you on NBC some day running the 1500.

There are too many variables to say definitively how fast you can go. (Maybe you are at your peak now if you haven't hit puberty yet.) 5:00 for a mile seems aggressive given your level now but who knows? My daughter ran 6:3x as a freshman off of soccer training, didn't do cross country until her junior year and just broke 6:00 indoors this winter. She's trained very hard and will probably run 5:30 to 5:45 in the spring. You have a little more speed than her (her 400 was about 73 in 8th grade) so ....who knows. You seem to have a great attitude and that's more important than latent talent. Just keep working, listen to your coaches and tell yourself you will work every day to improve, even on the days you don't run (do some core, situps, pushups, etc.) Running is the one sport that continued hard work (almost) always leads to significant improvement. Keep us posted!

Focus on sub-6:00 before you start thinking of a pipe dream sub-5:00.

You can break 5:00 next season honestly. Just train hard, get sleep, and eat decently. Trust the process, do what your coach tells you. A lot of people who are fast now won't be fast later and some will turn out nicely.

Definitely possible. It's harder for girls because of puberty. Do some more strength training to counter react with the effect of puberty on your body.

Live a healthy lifestyle will help too.

Not to be offensive, but every human being should be able to run a sub-6 EASILY. Unless they are injured or something.

But not every single human being runs a sub-6, I doubt that 70% of the population even runs sub-6. But thousands of years ago, it was pretty easy. You just have to live a healthy lifestyle, don't sit around too much, don't eat junk food. But definitely eat, get whatever nutrient you need to get yourself going.

Training consistently matters more than training intensely. And worrying much about diet is just about the most pointless thing you can do. Don't be strict, don't "eat clean". Just eat plenty and stay healthy. Don't drink soda.

You can learn to push yourself. You can do it in training, but I think it's better to learn to do it in races. Sometimes you should just go with the faster girls with the goal of seeing how long you can hang on. You just never know until you try. You might just surprise yourself with how tough you can really be. And If you find that having to let go bothers you, you'll try to go a little longer next time.

Ask your coach to let you run the 400 as much as possible this year. 70 is not so slow, and racing 400 will help you get stronger. When you can go hard enough to experience butt-lock, you'll know you are starting to get a little meaner. At this point, you'll want to work on pacing for a bit :)

You might want to read this thread. Some of the best HS coaches are on it. It does not take to much effort to find out what they are doing. I'd say it is your best bet.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8633226