What is it that makes Parker Valby so injury prone?

She overtrains. She runs 2 days too many.

How old is PV? Feel like she’s been in the NCAA for a long time.

Bone density is my guess

Muscle weakness, muscle imbalance, lack of bone density, poor muscle recruitment patterns, weak fascia/connective tissue, and hypermobility could all be causes for a fragile athlete.

Despite what people on here claim, she is not much better than where she was last year before her injury setback. I think she is maxxed out in her training. Her time yesterday is probably around 15:02 on a standard track; BU was firing. Now can she double and increase her mileage to reach the top level?

To put it in perspective, the current AR holder doubles and runs up to 95 miles per week. Henes talked about Tuohy getting tired when they increased her mileage to 70 mpw last spring. The key is being able to stay healthy as the mileage and workload increases to an elite level.

Probably because she is as "injury prone" as the normal, not fast person. In spite of the clowns on here claiming anyone can do high mileage if they build up slowly, most people will end up injured if they try to run 20 miles per week. The ability to run 80-100 miles per week injury free is largely genetic, and those who can benefit from it.

What if she's not abnormally injury prone, but is just one of the few to work around it effectively. You just don't usually hear about the "injury prone" runners because they stay injured, so our sample of successful runners is mostly those that can handle the higher mileage/intensity.

I'm not trying to imply that Valby's training is optimal (although it might be better than intuition would tell us). Instead, I'm saying that it's very possible that many otherwise talented athletes disappear into obscurity by thinking higher impact training is the only option for high level performance. Perhaps we'd see more examples like Valby if well thought out "lower mileage" programs were considered an option for elite runners.

How does a track "fire?"

Did they give it new batteries?

Maybe she overtrains? she's slim and maybe her body doesnt cope well with the workload.

You are correct. I ran 4:15 sophomore year before super shoes on 35 MPW. I was injured junior and senior years. I went to a D3 school and quit after being injured my first two years.

I recently came across some media evidence that possibly suggests Parker Valby has an asymmetric hip/core weakness. If it can be corrected, it would probably result in faster race times, and also reduce injury risk.

The first photo I came across was shot from a year or two ago. Taken from the front, it is a photo of her in the early phase of a cross country race. The photo was snapped when her right foot is in the stance phase, and it appears her right hip is sagging.

Since sagging hips can typically reduce running economy, I wondered whether she has since improved the strength of her hip/core, with the consequent effect of improving her running efficiency, resulting in her faster race times this past fall.

I sought out more recent photo evidence to see if her hip sagging has been reduced, but I wasn’t able to find a similar photo of her in the stance phase. However, I did come across an interesting slow-motion video (on the Florida Gators Facebook page) of her running, shot from the side-front. The video was taken at the end of a race, when she would obviously be fatigued. It appears in the slo-mo that, during the stance phase, the right hip, and mid-section core, collapses more than the left.

Here is that photo, found on the Gators’ Roster page:

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Link:ibb.co/XjKLhgX

Unfortunately it’s probably under-fueling, whether intentional or not. Looking back at her instagram you can see her body composition changed quite a bit between 2020 and 2022 and due to being able to handle higher mileage in high school to suddenly not being able to, I don’t think it is just the “getting older, training more, leaning out” process.

Hopefully she can figure out the fueling and have a long and healthy career, since she is obviously crazy talented!!!

Here is a link to that video:

Notice how her plant foot is splayed outward? She's duck-footed. That can cause some biomechanics issues also.

Kipchoge has also been observed to pronate, sometimes significantly, but he is very strong and efficient through the core/hip complex.

This sounds pretty close. I could not find details on her injuries. A quick search found a reference to "broken foot" and "lower leg injuries," but that's too vague to do more than speculate as to why these injuries occurred.

Take the broken foot, for example. It could be caused by landing wrong on one step or even stepping off the track. (I've done that.) It could be caused by wearing shoes that weren't supportive enough. (I've done that.) It could be caused by continually making left turns on the track. (I've done that.) Every injury has a cause. If you don't ID the cause and correct it, the injury is likely to occur again.

Also, some people just have better genetics for running. About half of participants in those "18 weeks to marathon" get injured. OTOH, some runners have never had a major injury setback. Valby could be more towards the injury side of the bell curve. Often, these injury-prone runners disappear so we don't hear much about them. Parker Valby is an exception so kudus to her for hanging in there!

I'm not a doctor. I'm not a coach. I don't know her situation or her injuries, but as an injury-prone track runner, here is what has worked for me. Consider it as the results of an experiment-of-one!

1) Every injury has a cause. Determine the cause. Then, take steps to prevent it. It could be shoes, left turns, lack of support, muscle imbalance, diet, running form, etc. If you don't address the cause, it could happen again.

2) Avoid running on pavement. Stick to hard packed dirt, short grass, or the track. (If you race on pavement, you'll need to do some running on pavement, but if you watch videos of the African elite marathoners, they do a lot of dirt road running.)

3) Change shoes at the first twinge of an old injury. I carry three pairs of shoes to every track workout. If one of my myriad of foot injuries twinges, I change shoes.

4) Change directions on the track. Running left turns at speed is like having one leg shorter than the other. You need to balance it out.