I'll be a senior in high school next year.. why have I not improved a huge amount?

Go have your serum ferritin tested.

Most likely, your problem is your coach. Most high school coaches do not care about their athletes on an individual level, they only care about the team's results, because that is how they are judged. If the rest of the team is improving and doing well, your coach will not give a rat's *ss if you are not. My suggestion is to hire a private coach to give you suggestions for extra work outs to improve your times. Good luck.

I trust my coach, and he is considered a very good coach. He has worked with me a lot on a day to day basis and has gone beyond just the requirements of a high school coach.

I have also gotten recruitment offers from a lot of schools, but I'd like to have a really good senior season and improve my times even more (especially my 3200).

If you are dedicated and think you are getting good coaching and are healthy, then there is not much else you can do. People have physical limits. You may just not have the ability to get faster, no matter what you do.

Correct me if I'm wrong or way off base here, but aren't you on vacation right now?

Or are you back... and training?

often times girls don't improve as much due to puberty and changing strength to weight ratio, something to think about as well.

And what schools?

Stanford, Oregon, UCLA, Duke, Colorado, etc etc?

I am, naively perhaps, going to assume you're not a troll...

Your story is distressingly common. Many, many women that I've coached at the collegiate level set their PRs in 8th or 9th grade and have been on a downward slope since. I'm hoping I can put this in a way that doesn't cause a mass (or even small) outbreak of eating disorders, but here is the truth: Most women are built more like an ideal distance runner at 13 than they are at 18. Now here is where I try to prevent the eating disorder: Women, like men, will not hit their peak as distance runners for 10 years, if properly trained. This is regardless of body shape and size. If you train well(like lots) and eat well (like lots, too) then you can look like Dolly f-in Parton and run big PRs. In the end what determines distance running success is the number of mitochondria you have. Running lots of moderate-paced miles is what grows those critters. My guess is that you haven't been running as much as you could. You don't give your times, but maybe 50mpw is not enough.

George Young (you probably know who he is, but, if not, look him up) said this. He said 'distance running isn't easy, but it is simple. If you work the hardest you will run the fastest.'

My advice?

Run more. Race faster.

That is all.

Pics?

former cmass coach wrote:

Go have your serum ferritin tested.

I agree with this one. (I hope you're not a vegetarian--vegetarian females typically have real problems in this area.) Many female runners have chronically-low iron levels. It's sort of like they're doing all their running at altitude, when everyone else is at sea level.

Second, if your height hasn't changed much since frosh year, but your weight has increased by more than a couple of pounds (happens--puberty), this can also have an effect.

Third, strength training, definitely including the legs, is particularly important for females, especially anyone who's gained some weight.

Fourth, sleep more. Your training is not just your workouts; it's also your recovery. Go to bed (and wake up) at roughly the same time every day, weekends included.

Fifth, the OP has my TSA (troll-sensing antenna) all aquiver.

shut up jordan

I repeat, go to your Dr. and tell him/her that you are an endurance athlete and you need to have your serum ferritin tested.

Ignore escargo, the nickname says it all.

Your speed has improved but you haven't improved your times at the distances. That you have improved more at the mile than 2 miles is demonstration of this.

Your pace should be able to improve much more at the 5k than the mile.

There is no reason to do a lot of short intense running for the 5k. Running at your 5k pace should be your speed work for cross country.

Some possible reasons:

1. Low iron

2. Overtraining - possible if you keep pushing every day, regardless of mileage

3. Body composition changes - gain/loss of strength, body fat/bulk, etc

4. Diet - eating the right foods? Getting proper nutrients?

5. Proper training - VO2 max (intervals) getting your heartrate to 97% max? Number of reps not as important as actually getting your heartrate high enough. Lactic threshold (tempo) workouts done frequently without overtraining?

Young lady, be patient, very patient, and yes, keep working hard.

Your iron levels might be fine, but there is more to blood chemistry than hemoglobin and iron.

Good things will happen...keep working hard! You are very young.

Jason

This was already said, but just a fun fact is that girls who run from 9-12th grade and do not do strength training lose 18% of their running efficiency- so even though you are training hard, if you don't do the necessary strength training to keep your strength to weight ratio at what it was in your 8th grade year you simply won't be strong enough to carry your body. My advice is to get into the weight room, start doing pushups and crunches/ situps, and maybe some back exercises. Doing that strength training with your running will probably solve your problem.

Good luck

girl looking to be faster wrote:

In cross country though, I haven't really improved at all.

In track, since 8th grade I've improved my mile by less than 20 seconds. The same thing with the 3200, since 9th grade I've improved by less than 15 seconds. .

Well i see a few things here.

5k no improvement

2mile 15 seconds

1 mile 20 seconds.

That tells me two possible things

You have gone through a lot of changes, and you may have improved your endurance, but the changes countered that as you fill out a bit. But filling out didn't effect your mile as much. Which means maybe you'll be ready for some big endurance gains soon.

Or two...maybe you should be an 800 runner or miler. What were your times from freshman to soph year?

Look at the language of the OP. "She" is using words that female runners don't typically use (such as "dropped" a lot of time). "She" is a troll who has gotten you all to seriously respond to "her" query and is, in fact, a man.

9/10

girl looking to be faster wrote:

I have also gotten recruitment offers from a lot of schools, but I'd like to have a really good senior season and improve my times even more (especially my 3200).

You've answered your own question. If you are barely faster than you were as a freshman and yet you have offers from "a lot of schools" then you were blazingly fast as a freshman and have unrealistic goals of improving much more than 20 seconds in the 1600 etc. The other girls on your team that have improved a ton were no where near as good as you were as a freshman. This seems like much ado about nothing. Go to college, do what your coach says, eat healthy and see what happens.