How to tell future improvement/college chances

Okay, what is your best 200m?

Obviously I don't know enough about you to say why you might be injury prone, but it is often the case that this can pass as your body matures, if you let that happen and don't damage yourself permanently now by overtraining or bad training, undereating, etc.

If you really love to run, don't limit yourself to d1 schools. Academics at d3 schools span the same range as those of d1 schools.

Predicting future improvements is no more than a guess. Your current PRs are pretty good, just not great. But keep in mind that a lot of girls your age with faster times may not ever get faster; everyone matures differently. You might not get much faster. You might also become the next Dakotah Lindwurm. Look her up.

If you want to share some of what you're doing in training, then I or someone else might be able to offer some more specific suggestions.

Improvement curve says a lot, as the other poster said your basic speed says a lot too. Your sprint speed doesn’t really seem to matter as a distance runner in highschool, but in college when you are lining up for a 1500m and 5 people in your race have faster 400m PRs than your HS school record it starts to matter a lot.

My HS 5k and 800m improvement curves went as follows and I improved a TON in college, while people that tend to keep about the same PBs year to year didnt as much, even if faster than me at the time.

30:3x-19:2x-17:1x-16:0x

2:49-2:26-2:06-1:57

Look @ d3/ naia schools with good academics. If you have good grades get a scholarship for academics and pursue running at a lower level.
With the injuries- often it’s overtraining, under recovering, or mechanics or a combination. Work on getting stronger, sometimes less is more. If you do well with volume cross train doubles to increase aerobic capacity.
small things make a big difference.

if you find the right fit a lot of mediocre hs runners become great in college. I have had several women come in and drop 4-5 minutes off of their hs 5k times in aa couple years. Be patient with yourself and if you really want to run at the next level there are coaches that want people like you that want to put the work in of the times aren’t quite there.

Talk to your HS coach about your running history, projections for improvement in the next two years of HS and running in college. Talk to your HS academic counselor about the college search process.

I’ve never done an all out 200m before, but in speed workouts I can typically run it in 35-40 seconds. My main problem is I can’t seem to find a good training schedule that has a good balance of intensity; I always push too hard too fast for too long and wind up injured. Thank you for the advice!

note: I’m the original creator of this thread, I didn’t know how to make this post appear under the same as the name on the original, sorry I don’t know how this site works yet.

You can’t and there’s no point in trying. Give it your all and don’t be limited by what others tell you

first off, you're at least a year away from worrying about college in the recruitment sense. focus on your health, HS grades, test scores, training, and meets. you need to be healthy to run. good grades and scores will help your options. and while i generally believe in abstaining on this "how good could i be" nonsense -- you have to earn it, and we shall see, and no one knows the answer -- what you want to do is just enjoy running and bring your times down what you can, and that's then your calling card for college. it's more worth it to put in the work and see what happens then ask us what we think.

second, have you tried some different events? sprints, hurdles, field events? if you're getting recurring repetitive action injuries, maybe what you need is less pounding, shorter distances. maybe if you stay healthier you can train and compete more consistently and the times drop further. that being said, some HS TF teams are more full than others. some teams not many people are competing so you can move around. some teams you're kind of stuck because they have people in every event. but if long distance running is taking a toll, and your team has some room and flexibility, maybe you're a sprinter, or mid distance, or a hurdler, or a thrower, or a jumper. some of those events use a degree of endurance without being all about it and requiring miles of work that beats up some runners.

third, how can i put this. i would work as hard as i can to be as good as i can in HS. the chips will fall where they may. right now you're not D1 material. but that can change, just keep working at it. and if all else fails, there are a fair amount of D3 schools with good academics and small student bodies where the track team is almost open entry. the school might have 1000-1500 kids. the track team needs people. you show up, you're on the team, both XC and TF. you might not get to choose what event, the school might have 6 people running in your event, you might not get to run conference, and you might finish last, but all else fails there is that. for that, when you do your college research, check out the schools on TFRRS. you will be able to tell if their runners are better than you or if someone your speed fits.

re pushing too hard, over time as i grew up i became a "gamer." practice is about preparing for games. or meets. you want to work hard enough in the week you are getting fitter and better. but you don't want to leave your best work on the practice track. you want to back off a little as the meet approaches so you have your legs. if you are having repetitive stress injuries, limit/eliminate supplemental at-home workouts. and like i said, consider something shorter if this is just happening over and over.

i mean, i was a sprinter/hurdler. i had some endurance ability, could run with our 800/milers, got talked into XC. i did 2 years then got anemic and quit. i was a solid XC runner but it took a toll. i played both soccer and TF in D3 college. as a kid i was a good goalie. but i wanted to be on the field and i didn't like diving at feet. i did play some emergency keeper in select, but i made sure i was a field player in general. sometimes something kind of works but you're not a perfect fit.

i don't know you so i can't tell if you are doing what you are supposed to, or could benefit from dabbling in some other events, or need less mileage for health reasons. but maybe see if your coach will let you try some stuff.

One of the most important things a coach should do is to tell you when you've done enough. If you have a coach who is trying to tell you this, then listen. If not, then you will have to figure it out for yourself.

Hi there. I had very similar PRs to you my sophomore year in HS (12:14, 5:46, 21:03). I kept at it, and later, in college, ran 17:40 and 36:40 for 10k at an NAIA school. I wasn’t elite, but loved the experience. Everyone’s different, of course, but here’s some advice, for what it’s worth.

First of all, do everything you can right now to get strong and healthy. Strength train, cross train, eat well, work on your speed and power. I say all this because there’s plenty of time to log tons of miles later in life, but limited time to build bone density and speed. If you’re up for it, try the 800 and the 4 by 4. There’s often less flexibility to jump around in events in college.

Secondly, it might sound cliche, but have fun with it. Log summer miles with your teammates, jump in the pool/nearby after, go for occasional night runs or trail runs, eat a stack of pancakes after a long run. Do whatever you can to keep running fun, even when you’re going after your goals.

Lastly- you mentioned being new to Letsrun. this board can be fun, but also full of trolls. Don’t pay attention to the latter.

hope that helps and good luck!