Female high school runners too skinny?

Your first sentence is a a run-on sentence and isn't a question (no question mark needed).

The HS girls may be prepubescent, or may have an eating disorder. Some may continue to improve, but it won't be because they got skinnier. While that improves a runner to a point, it ultimately is self destructive. Worry about yourself as a runner, and stay healthy. Don't worry about skinnier girls around you.

female triad strikes again. done took at your peers.

Look at the ones running D1. Even the 5k/10k types have muscles and tone and the successful ones are at the right weight to run. Focus on the runners you want to be... no the ones who are your age and equally clueless.

One of the fastest gals on our varsity team smoked and was insanely skinny. She was awesome one season sophomore year - came out of nowhere.... then she missed a whole season hospitalized for anorexia, and the bone density drama led to a ton of injuries when she did come back. No more varsity the next two years.

I got good marks from the guys for best legs, even though I hated the muscle at the time b/c I was afraid I looked fat. Now I'm 36 yrs old and still running, albeit as an age group hobby jogger now.

Train healthy, train smart. Your times over the course of your years in HS and college will back up the wisdom of that choice.

Thank you! I recovered from an ED last year so it helps to reassured I'm doing things right by gaining weight and being healthy!

A concerning enough number of serious female high school runners that end up in the D1 ranks appear to be deliberately skinny. I never observed them to perform better than their chunkier (but the ones that are hard-working, talented and athletic; obviously there will be chunky ones that are just lazy/sucky/untalented) teammates.

Being slender when done right--achieved through sustainable means and not the anorexic/compulsive body image instinct--is certainly an asset for top performance. But that takes a lot of knowledge and parameters and everyone is on their own journey to get to that point.

I say, keep doing what you're doing--don't worry about them. Keep a healthy weight, live a good lifestyle, work hard and stick with a reasonable standard of beauty. No need to envy them at all.

They have the same insecurities/social desires (inc. boys) that you do and they'll end up abandoning their super skinny compulsive pursuits in due time, to 'abandon' themselves to the chase like the rest of society.

That is just speaking about college runners and what I've seen. The majority of high school female runners I've seen and at my former high school were very healthy and wholesome looking, and, as far as I could tell, exceedingly happy with their social and school lives. And the ones who were stars, athletic success came to those who put in the work, not starved themselves.

Edit: I meant to say I observed college D1 females with such deliberate skinniness/probable eating disorders/body image issues. Seeing pictures of said runners from their senior years of high school, it was apparent that their "skinny approach" began back then.

But I've only ever directly observed hsers that were quite healthy (although most of them, save a few, were nowhere near the high D1 calibur)

Her first sentence is not a run-on. There is then/than confusion, and, indeed, there should be a period at the end, not a question mark. It is also a good idea to use a comma before the conjunction, "but."

It should also be "way skinnier than I," not "than me."

To answer the original question: Girls in HS are not all done growing yet and therefore it's quite natural they are skinnier than girls in college. Many people in general put on weight consistently from the time they were in HS and very few ever get back down to that weight.

Many top collegiate runners look terribly unhealthy, both the men and women. That's just the reality of the sport. To be at your very best means you are slightly unhealthy in our culture's collective mind. Unless someone is exceptionally talented, they probably won't be able to look healthy by most people's standards and still be competitive.

Running as a competitive sport is not about health, it's about winning. Hobbyjogging is for health. Thank God I'm a hobbyjogger again, it's a hell of a lot more fun on a day to day basis!

10 years a letsrunner wrote:

Running as a competitive sport is not about health, it's about winning. Hobbyjogging is for health. Thank God I'm a hobbyjogger again, it's a hell of a lot more fun on a day to day basis!

Not true. Sure there are some high level runners who are walking a fine line with unhealthy habits, but most of the top runners I know (college and elite) are very focused on their health..eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, menstruating (for females), etc. Sure they may weight less than the average American but they are also far healthier than the average American.

Ha ha, you actually believe it's a high school girl...

Klo98 wrote:

10 years a letsrunner wrote:

Running as a competitive sport is not about health, it's about winning. Hobbyjogging is for health. Thank God I'm a hobbyjogger again, it's a hell of a lot more fun on a day to day basis!

Not true. Sure there are some high level runners who are walking a fine line with unhealthy habits, but most of the top runners I know (college and elite) are very focused on their health..eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, menstruating (for females), etc. Sure they may weight less than the average American but they are also far healthier than the average American.

I'm sure they are very focused on their health because they think that is what it takes to run their best. Eventually, if they're lucky, they'll find out they have to sacrifice their health slightly when they want to run really fast.

The trick is learning how to be unhealthily fast at the right time and for only a short window.

Apologies to Amber Trotter, but she's a prime example. Arguably the greatest HS XC performer of all-time in the US. That is what I'm talking about sacrificing some of the body's systems to allow for abnormal performance. She was just on the wrong side of the line for too long.

Of course, last year the top 4 girls proved that the Trotter method is grasping at straws at best.

They say the average man gains a pound a year 'til he's about 60. Me? I dropped a pound every year of my sentence.

lsDug)v92847T5*& wrote:

Of course, last year the top 4 girls proved that the Trotter method is grasping at straws at best.

I assume you are talking about HS girls? This is good because they don't need to be flirting with that line yet. Cain and Efraimson will almost certainly get leaner over the next several years. Especially Efraimson. She's too pretty right now to be as fast as she could be. You have to let go of that feminine softness to run really really fast. Again, the trick is doing that for about 3-4 weeks only, then putting the weight back on to get back on the right side of the line.

Runninggirl98 wrote:

I'm a high school runner and I'm by no means very big (5'5 113 pounds) but I look at the majority of other high school runners and they are way skinnier then me but then I look at the majority of college runners and they are bigger than me? Why is it that these high school girls are so skinny? Do they still improve or end up getting hurt before college?

If you know you're eating healthy, I would not worry about it; I think your height and weight is fine for a HS girl. You are probably a little heavier than most of the elite HS girls, but that could just be a matter of where you are with respect to puberty. While you could probably run faster if you attempted to lose weight by restricting your diet, the gains won't necessarily be long term, in addition to the potential physical and psychological issues that come along with that. All athletes should eat healthy, but you should never have to diet, especially a distance runner.

Btw, most of the great H.S. runners who were really skinny, didn't progress much beyond H.S., while most of the top pro runners like Jordan, Denna, Shalane, Molly and Kara, etc., are probably smaller now than they were in H.S.

by college, girls already start letting themselves go physically. Few lbs here and there, getting ready to have kids and get fat after they get married.

Runninggirl98 wrote:

I'm a high school runner and I'm by no means very big (5'5 113 pounds) but I look at the majority of other high school runners and they are way skinnier then me but then I look at the majority of college runners and they are bigger than me? Why is it that these high school girls are so skinny? Do they still improve or end up getting hurt before college?

"Boys develop higher oxygen capacity and gain more lean muscle," Fremont coach Mark Shields said.

"Girls retain higher levels of body fat when they start to turn into women. If they're not on top

of their training, that change can be such an uphill battle. If they're doing the right kind of

training, the body adapts."

The quote above is a very good answer to your question.