State got me thinking...

Id say theres no reason to keep expected HUGE improvemnet. Just stay confident, and train smart. Thats the most important things.

Take a deep breath.......now stop thinking so much. Just go run.

You're a sophomore in her second season of running. Please bump this thread (or start a new one) after your season of spring track, and people will probably be able to give you a better estimate of your potential.

Two brief points, and then I'll wait for that June post:

1) You're *already* at a level at which Ivy League schools would help your admission. Most Ivy students get terrific financial-aid packages, provided they have the grades to be accepted.

Go do your homework.

2) The *naturally* skinny ("been skinny all her life") body generally has an advantage. The *manufactured* skinny body ("I lost some weight and got faster, so I lost a *lot* of weight and look how fast I am now!") is typically successful for just about one year--occasionally for two--never, in my experience, for longer than that.

Just train hard and believe in yourself and you will do fine..

Coaches will look at both. 17:53 on that course isn't bad at all and 11:23 for 3200m is solid.

Stay focused on being healthy and training wisely and consistently and you'll do fine.

It's not worth being fast if you wreck yourself in the process.

Do NOT worry about body size. I have seen many BIG girls run fast. As well as super skinny girls run very slow. Live and be HEALTHY, don't determine your health by looking in the mirror and comparing yourself to others. Go to the doctor and make sure you are eating properly and everything.

As far as training and everything else goes. As long as you work hard and care about what you are doing, everything is going to work out. Winning State or finishing 3rd or 4th isn't going to make a radical difference in the quality of schools you get offered. You may get slightly less scholarship money your first year, but who cares... work hard and college and earn more your remaining college years.

ok so how do you find out your body fat percentage?

if you would like to help me out, i'm 5'2 and weigh about 95. is that good, or bad, or healthy? basically, what should i weigh? just to let you all know, if you say that i should weigh 80 lbs, im not going to just go off and be anorexic...im not stupid. im just curious. what would an ideal body weight be for a 15 yr. old runner?

92 is perfectly fine

dont worry about it...different people perform better at different weights

stop thinking so much, and just go train your ass off

Your Body Mass Index is 17.4, and anything under 18.5 is considered underweight. Since you are still young and are very active I wouldn't worry about trying consciously gain weight to get into the normal range but it just shows that you're weight right now is fine and you could even afford to gain some pounds in the future. Muscle weighs more than fat so as you start to train more and get stronger you may gain some weight but it will help you in the long run (no pun intended). So don't worry about weight (definitely don't worry about body fat %, as long as you run it won't be very high), just worry about fitness and measure that only by how fast you are running and the workouts you are doing.

As for your first concern, don't worry about 3A since you cannot control what class you are in. All you can do is dominate the class you are in (2A) and compare based off time. Most colleges would take a girl who won the 2A meet by a minute over the, say, 2nd place girl in 3A, even though the 2A girl would've been 5th in 3A. It just shows that you have a lot of unrealized potential. So prove to the world how good you are by training hard and destroying the field. Break some records. Good luck.

If us females put as much effort into running hard as we did thinking about our body weight we would all be so much faster.

I totally agree with 'cool name here.'

Also, please understand that losing weight can have a terrible downside. Consider the situation of somebody who is a few pounds too heavy; they will lose a few seconds over 5k. Now consider the person who is a few pounds too light; this person is at an increased risk of injury/illness and may miss a season.

The problem is, we don't know when we've gone too low until we're injured. Therefore, it's far better to play it safe.

Right now you seem like you have a lot of potential. Focus your energy on training, not weight.

how can you run a 17:53 for 5k cross country and an 11:23 3200 on the track?

that doesnt make much sense to me.

I ran 11:11/19:32 in high school. and 3200 and 5k arent that different.

most people would run faster for xc if they run 11:11 (im not a hill runner)... but still. you definitely have a lot of room for improvement on the track at least.

as far as weight goes.... look at washington. schaaf is the only skeletal one. the rest of them have healthy body weights and they still run around 20:00 or under for 6k. so no.

more importantly is eating properly for good muscle nourishment and training hard. eat healthy and whatever you weight is your "true" healthy body weight. restricting calories will only lead to injury.

What state has 35 girls under 17:54 for 5k? None that I know of.

I'm assuming 3 miles for XC, which would put her 3200 and cross times in alignment.

you will win state next year cause Yunk knows what he is doing and you are a incredible runner with a ton of untaped potential.

Kele wrote:

I'm assuming 3 miles for XC, which would put her 3200 and cross times in alignment.

Who is still running 3 miles 30 years after we implemented the 5k in Michigan?

I think Illinois still runs 3 miles and all classes run the same course at Detweiler Park.

Ya IL still does and they just split track into 3 classes this year so that how you know she is from IL and she is from my area so i have have heard about her through the local paper

First of all, IL Class 3A has about 35 girls under 17:54. Trust me, I wouldn't make that up.

Yes, IL still runs 3 miles. I've only run in 2 5k races, and neither of them were in IL. So my time does make sense. You can check ihsa.org for girls track and field and girls cross country if you don't believe me in any of those facts.

And yes, Yunk is probably one of the best coaches in IL, but I don't have him as a coach. He only coaches the boys team, so...I don't know.

Another question though, does running with boys really help? Do you think I would just get injured? Our boys team is pretty fast...even next year without this year's seniors, the team will still be pretty fast. So should I risk getting injured, or wait until senior year to risk it all?