What is it that makes Parker Valby so injury prone?

Elise Cranny never looks to me like she’s have an ED but has several bouts of RED-S.

I’m 5’7” and if I drop below 130 lbs., my period stops. That’s not skinny, but it’s underfueling for me.

There may be other reasons for Valby’s injury issues, but you can’t rule out diet based on looks alone.

Exactly. We do not know her eating behaviors and caloric intake. Valby is quite thin but definitely does not look emaciated. The only RED-S symptom we know for certain she has are the stress fractures. This could likely be from underfueling but we do not know for certain this is 100% the case.

Because you can go harder and longer, you can burn a lot more calories X training then running. I train in a way that somewhat similar to Valby with lower mileage and lots of X training. I eat A LOT (~3500 calories/day when I lasted checked). Some individuals like myself, can eat by their body’s natural hunger patterns, getting sufficient calories to aviod RED-S. Other people struggle to eat enough to match their body's energy needs, without any disordered eating behaviours. This may be what is happening with Valby.

My idea is maybe Valby could meet with a dietitian to check for caloric/nutrient insufficiencies. I think she may benefit from doing a lean bulk by continuing to train hard X training, running and resistance training but with a small caloric surplus.

It isn't intriguing. There is no indication it has helped any distance runner except her. That's why it is hard to believe.

All of those athletes train in a way that is focused on their events. Distance runners will put in mileage if they hope to succeed. This has been known for decades. There is only one way a distance runner can substantially improve without putting in the miles.

S.O.P. for slightly to moderately injured college XC and 5000m runners to train like P Valby. Instead of returning to 60 miles plus per week running she is continuing to spend 10 plus hours per week on endurance gym equipment. Again, try it for six months.

I can think of two other W athletes who have had success - tho not quite to Valby's level. Natalie Cook (who apparently has some other issues now?) and the hs sophomore Elizabeth Leachman. Leachman somewhat models her training off of Valby.

runnerspace.com

Nike Elite - The Official home of the Nike Elite Program - News - Elizabeth Leachman - Get To Know - Nike Elite 2023

Elizabeth LeachmanSamuel V. Champion HS, San Antonio, TX, c/o 2026AthleticNET BioElizabeth Leachman’s 9:57.65 two mile for third place at the Nike Outdoor Nationals left everyone scrambling to find out just who this runner wa...

Link:www.runnerspace.com/gprofile.php?mgrou...

Valby is almost 1 minute behind the best runners in the world. If Jakob followed her training plan, he would not be 1 minute behind.

At this juncture it is more fair to compare her to her peers. She is an NCAA runner, and is leaving the best NCAA runners in the dust. It's not even close. So I don't know that we should dismiss her successful regimen because she hasn't beat every ethiopian an kenyan in the world yet. It works. Nobody thought she could Tuohy, nobody thought she could break 15. I am probably forgetting a dozen things we said she couldn't do.

She is 16 sec better than Monson at this age!

Funny, between age 15 and 40, I've weighed between 130 and 200 lbs and I still have never had a period.

Comparing her to other super thin runners like Klosterhalfen, who don't seem to have any of these injury issues related to their body type, gets deleted by the mods. So that means there can only be one take on this issue, which is her injury issues go hand in hand with her body type - even if other similar runners don't have those problems. The mods have decreed this.

The conclusion we are being asked to draw is that the less running she does the better she gets. I wonder why that doesn't work for most distance runners?

Are they running only 2 days a week (with the rest of their training on a treadmill)? Are they making huge jumps in their performance levels? Are they dominating their peers as a result?

Her freshman year of high school, Leachman began to have injuries.....
She began to experiment with her training schedule with the help of her club coach, Kenny Dirkson, they decided that running twice per week and cross training on her easy days allowed her body to heal and she could run without pain in her hip......
eachman chose to exercise 90 minutes on the Arc or Elliptical trainer arbitrarily. It works best for her as it was the right amount of intensity and duration to help her fitness. She has stuck to that time frame since. She monitors her heart rate with her Whoop to make sure the effort is high enough. When a pool is available, she does some pool work.....
She lowered her 1600m best of 5:23 to 4:52.46 at the Texas Relays to finish fourth....
She entered the state meet as a dark horse to say the least given the circumstances of her qualifying and her freshman status. College Station senior Maddie Jones was the top returnee and Layleigh Littlefiled had won the 800m in impressive fashion. But in the final, Leachman blasted out to a 71 first lap and a 72 second lap(2:23) to get a seven second advantage over the field. She increased that lead by the finish by running a personal best of 4:47.28 as Jones finished second in 4:56.95. Littlefield finished a distance ninth in 5:17.07.....Elizabeth Leachman’s 9:57.65 two mile for third place at the Nike Outdoor Nationals left everyone scrambling to find out just who this runner was. Where did she come from? The freshman went from being a very good freshman runner to one of the best ever for her freshman class and for her age in US high school history in just one race. Her list of accomplishments following the race:
She ran the fastest two mile time by a freshman in US High School history eclipsing the 10:04.73 run by London Culbreath, North(McKinney, TX) in 2017. Her two mile time converts to 9:54.18 3200m which is second only to the 9:50.69 3200m time run by Sadie Englehardt, Ventura, CA in 2022 when she was a freshman.
Her 3,000m enroute time of 9:19.41 broke the US freshman best of 9:26.32 run by Jordan Hasay(Mission Prep, San Luis Obispo, CA) in 2006.
At age 15 years 5 months and 14 days, she just missed the age 15 record of 9:19.09 run by Kelsey Chmiel (Saratoga Springs, NY) in 2017.
She is now a sophomore and one of the 2 favorites to win the FootLocker XC championship Saturday.

Wowzers! Leachman is a bonafide testament to The Valby Training Protocol!👍

aren’t the best usually lean / skinny year round ..- it’s the game we play

Only if you are lean/skinny as a result of training, not caloric resistition.

No. For example, Emma confirm has said that she’s naturally thinner during peak training but that she naturally gains a bit during base building/off season