OozmaKappa wrote:
Fake news.
What happened to physiology being a social construct? What happened to women being the same as women?
You have literally nothing valuable to add to any thread. I think of the dumbest, most knee-jerk thing a conservative 7th grader/boomer hybrid would say, and that's what you write.
want to help wrote:
It is in many situations that a female can improve up to 20 seconds a mile by losing 10 pounds but a Coach is not allowed to share this information with the athlete. WHY?
Please don’t cry about disordered eating. The facts are the facts and if a coach can’t tell you then who can?
Weight matters
So 30 pounds less you can improve 1 minute a mile
90 pounds less you can improve 3 minutes a mile.
Sounds like you found the magic formula.
Rick Spielman wrote:
OozmaKappa wrote:
Fake news.
What happened to physiology being a social construct? What happened to women being the same as women?
You have literally nothing valuable to add to any thread. I think of the dumbest, most knee-jerk thing a conservative 7th grader/boomer hybrid would say, and that's what you write.
Sir, i assure you, my contributions are most valuable.
Because running isnt everything. Most girls who are running don't carry on once they reach adulthood. So for girls in high school, getting them to lose weight for performance isn't really worth it.Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psych illness, plus the amount of people who die from them is more than for childhood cancers for girls of that age. It trashes peoples lives and causes damage, that's not worth running 30 seconds faster. Like someone else said, losing weight as a teenage girl is a high risk activity - you never know who is genetically predisposed to these conditions and what might be set off by losing weight (a lot of the time eating disorders are preceded by an illness and weight loss)
Some of you will post about womens weight and then also wonder why you can’t get laid. This place is amazing.
want to help wrote:
It is in many situations that a female can improve up to 20 seconds a mile by losing 10 pounds but a Coach is not allowed to share this information with the athlete. WHY?
Please don’t cry about disordered eating. The facts are the facts and if a coach can’t tell you then who can?
Weight matters
Because Women are fragile...
We can't treat them the same way we treat Men....
All of the drumbeating about "we are women, we are strong, is hogwash.
runnerboy70 wrote:
want to help wrote:
It is in many situations that a female can improve up to 20 seconds a mile by losing 10 pounds but a Coach is not allowed to share this information with the athlete. WHY?
Please don’t cry about disordered eating. The facts are the facts and if a coach can’t tell you then who can?
Weight matters
Because Women are fragile...
We can't treat them the same way we treat Men....
All of the drumbeating about "we are women, we are strong, is hogwash.
My sexism threads
Because many of them are very sensitive
sbeefyk2 wrote:
You’re right, facts are facts. It is also facts that discussing weight with a teenage girl causes eating disorders.
Anyways, at my college there was one girl who put on extra weight and they had the sports psychologists in the program (who was also a female) discuss dieting tips with her to eat a balanced and healthy diet. I suspect a sports psychologist can handle that type of situation way better than anyone else. Especially random male coaches.
It does seem characteristically “woman” to take good advice to an extreme where it then becomes bad advice and suddenly it’s the fault of the person who have it to you.
_ wrote:
Because running isnt everything. Most girls who are running don't carry on once they reach adulthood. So for girls in high school, getting them to lose weight for performance isn't really worth it.Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psych illness, plus the amount of people who die from them is more than for childhood cancers for girls of that age. It trashes peoples lives and causes damage, that's not worth running 30 seconds faster. Like someone else said, losing weight as a teenage girl is a high risk activity - you never know who is genetically predisposed to these conditions and what might be set off by losing weight (a lot of the time eating disorders are preceded by an illness and weight loss)
^^^
Running at the highest level is not healthy. Unless you're professional (and nearly all of you are not), attaining an optimal weight for speed is a terrible goal, and will likely result in lifelong health issues in young athletes.
Just doing the math here wrote:
want to help wrote:
It is in many situations that a female can improve up to 20 seconds a mile by losing 10 pounds but a Coach is not allowed to share this information with the athlete. WHY?
Please don’t cry about disordered eating. The facts are the facts and if a coach can’t tell you then who can?
Weight matters
So 30 pounds less you can improve 1 minute a mile
90 pounds less you can improve 3 minutes a mile.
Sounds like you found the magic formula.
So, to be fair, that strikes me as completely reasonable. Probably drop more then 3 min by going from 230 to 140.
want to help wrote:
It is in many situations that a female can improve up to 20 seconds a mile by losing 10 pounds but a Coach is not allowed to share this information with the athlete. WHY?
Please don’t cry about disordered eating. The facts are the facts and if a coach can’t tell you then who can?
Weight matters
When running mid distance in college many years ago, we runners never paid any attention to our weight.
I wonder how much influence a coach has vs the constant societal broadcasting about beauty.
I am only 25, but this is maybe one of my "oldest" opinions, social media is toxic for young people, especially young girls. Girls shouldn't be getting on there and mindlessly scrolling through hundreds of "perfect" photos of "perfect" girls. I think that really reprograms your expectations and sense of normal. As a parent, my kids will not have social media. As a coach, I would strongly advise my team to avoid social media, and letsrun, and too many processed carbs haha.
I agree with this. It is sad to see many people fight tooth and nail against their natural body type. I dont think that "obese" is anyone's natural healthy body type, but I know that very few people naturally trend toward the Klosterhafen body type.
The same goes for men. How many pros do you know in real life? I have personally know a few high level NCAA/Pro guys, and i am always shocked how small they are, and that is coming from guy with a 20 BMI
hs girls coach wrote:
Losing weight is a high risk activity for a highly active teenage girl. Teenage girls don’t have the same hormonal and metabolic profiles as women in their 20s and the mid teen years are the peak of bone density development for most girls. Messing with diets and weight loss in that window of development can have huge long term consequences for bone health and fertility, even if the teen has a healthy relationship with food.
High school coaches are rarely experts in nutrition and most teens don’t have full control over their diets anyways as they are still heavily reliant on their parents. Most high school girls are so undertrained that there are many ways they can improve without taking such a risk to their help. It’s important to remember that most professionals that are trying to reach an ideal competition weight do not maintain that weight year round, have nutritionists helping make sure they are getting all the fuel they need, and get regular blood work done to check for deficiencies before things spiral. These are not resources that most HS’ers have.
I’m constantly amazed about the stories I hear from alumni running collegiately about how they’ve been treated in college or what their college teammates were exposed to in HS. This sport has a long way to go in coaching girls.
Great post. Thank you.
Its not taboo. But focussing on weight as being the solution to solve all running issues can be very harmful.
When I was a young athlete (under 16), several coaches made it clear to me that I didn't meet their physical ideal, which was tall, thin, pale and blond. They would compare to athletes who were naturally tall and blond and be quite disparaging about my build, which was lean and athletic. They made it clear that however hard I tried, I would never be the "ideal athlete" (in their minds). I dropped out of athletics discouraged and became a successful competitive swimmer instead (with a mixture of male and female coaches), and then in my forties took up running again and pretty quickly ran sub 40 minutes for 10k and 1.28 for a half on about 30 miles per week training.
I hope that doesn't happen now so much, but I'm pretty sure it still does amongst some coaches and it seemed pretty obvious to me that some of these coaches were talking about their own sexual preferences in women, rather than trying to optimise training and running performance.
This should be a discussion but it should be an in depth discussion with short and long term outlooks
1) Yes, you will run faster if you are lighter. How long will this trajectory last though? How are you becoming lighter? Is it sustainable? Will it increase your risk of injuries? Are you interested in running fast for a season or 2 or do you have goals outside of a couple years?
2) How are you fueling your body? Eating nutrient dense foods or only focusing on calories? What does your bloodwork show? What can we focus on for your nutrition to improve your overall health? This will aid in reducing the risk of injury and creating more long term success.
3) Understanding your body composition. A number on a scale isn't everything. What is your body fat % (not to be confused with BMI)? Have you begun menstruation? Do you have a regular cycle? Maintaining muscle mass or even building muscle mass is important to build strength and maintain a healthy body composition.
reader of noakes wrote:
I wonder how much influence a coach has vs the constant societal broadcasting about beauty.
I am only 25, but this is maybe one of my "oldest" opinions, social media is toxic for young people, especially young girls. Girls shouldn't be getting on there and mindlessly scrolling through hundreds of "perfect" photos of "perfect" girls. I think that really reprograms your expectations and sense of normal. As a parent, my kids will not have social media. As a coach, I would strongly advise my team to avoid social media, and letsrun, and too many processed carbs haha.
What. The problem of your society is overweight and obesity. A few healthy people in social media arent even able to counteract the constant impressions by nearly everyone around being overweight. Its fine as far as making people believe the normal weight people on instagram are actually the unhealthy ones compared to the average American
otter wrote:
Go away rainy day wrote:
I assume that discussing proper diet and exercise and weight with a teenage girl would help her to be healthier. Acting like it is taboo is what causes eating disorders.
This is so very wrong.
Females at that age are already too weight conscious especially athletes. The don’t need their adult coaches pointing it out to them.
Discussing the dietary needs of the sport is important and useful. At least once a year we partner with a local university and have a nutritional expert do a presentation for the team geared toward the demands of distance running and specifically for women.
Despite being a male coach of young female athletes sometimes I feel that it might be for the greater good that men are not coaching female athletes at the high school level.
We have the kids bring donuts to practice, have ice cream in the summer, popsicle runs, etc. and we still occasionally have athletes with eating disorders. Their friends feel comfortable enough to let us know and I can get in front of it with the parents before it is a big issue. They would not feel comfortable telling me if we were not supportive.
Even having the kids write down what they are eating each day sends a negative message out.
If it is only winning you are worried about this is not the way either. Our team seldom loses.
If you're a newer coach struggling with how to establish a healthy culture around food, these are some very easy and practical ways to start!
We take a very similar approach to talking about weight, food, etc. with our girls. We approach food/fueling from the mindset that you can enjoy anything in moderation and eat what makes your body feel good. Eating ice cream and nachos before a workout or having an entire bag of Oreos probably won't make you feel good. Trying to do a long run on an empty stomach or limited calories also won't feel good. Eating healthy snacks before practice and having a cupcake at your friend's birthday party are going to make you feel good, so go for it! As coaches, we're very aware of our language and eating habits and try to model good choices for them. Desserts are served at at our pasta parties and we've definitely gone out for donuts as a team after weekend runs. Most of our kids do have really healthy and sustainable eating habits, but they've arrived at that on their own through some trial and error.
We openly talk about periods and eating disorders on our team. In addition to water, spikes, and safety pins, our race day supplies include extra shorts, tampons, and pads that are accessible for any girl that needs them. Our girls know that having a regular period is an expectation and have felt comfortable talking to us if they have issues with it or have concerns about a teammate.
We also talk frequently and openly about the risks of rapid weight loss and/or poor fueling. I'm very grateful for professionals and collegiate that have shared their struggles with eating issues and injury cycles. Our girls follow most of the pros, so this has given us opportunities to talk about eating disorders, hormonal balances, bone density, etc. without the conversation feeling forced and uncomfortable.
The biggest struggle I have is how to handle other coaches making remarks that I'm not comfortable with. It's shocking how many coaches blame poor performances on puberty, weight gain, etc. without any self-reflection and while modeling terrible self-care practices.
sayyestonepotism wrote:
reader of noakes wrote:
I wonder how much influence a coach has vs the constant societal broadcasting about beauty.
I am only 25, but this is maybe one of my "oldest" opinions, social media is toxic for young people, especially young girls. Girls shouldn't be getting on there and mindlessly scrolling through hundreds of "perfect" photos of "perfect" girls. I think that really reprograms your expectations and sense of normal. As a parent, my kids will not have social media. As a coach, I would strongly advise my team to avoid social media, and letsrun, and too many processed carbs haha.
What. The problem of your society is overweight and obesity. A few healthy people in social media arent even able to counteract the constant impressions by nearly everyone around being overweight. Its fine as far as making people believe the normal weight people on Instagram are actually the unhealthy ones compared to the average American
Yes, people have plenty of fat people around them, but does anyone really think that is desirable? Does anyone really think that fat = beautiful? Let's be honest here. I don't care how much "fat acceptance" goes on, no teenage girl is going to tell you "I want to be fat". They might look at their own mom with disgust and gravitate towards whatever bubble-headed gorgeous "influencer" is getting millions of likes that week. Likes = appreciation, likes = a social consensus on value. If you get on insta and see a beautiful model with a million likes, then you take that as a high appraisal of a certain set of values.