A good place to start is with your relative strength. Basically, how strong are you compared to how much you weigh? As humans go through puberty we typically grow and weigh more, so we need to keep our strength in proportion to that growth. Preferably, you would outpace your natural weight gain by growing even stronger and then developing that strength into power.
Yes. I call it senior strength. Just keep up the consistent training. Also if you haven't read it yet, Lauren Fleshmans memoir is good, and has this as a theme.
ETA: I can imagine how hard it is to train more and run slower. But you sound like you are framing it well. đź‘Ťđź‘ŤIt sucks, but is a fairly universal experience for girls.
Sleep, nutrition, stress, training. Those are the aspects that make people run faster if attended to, whether they're a teenage boy, teenage girl, adult woman, or adult man.
So just focus on those things, keep a positive attitude about your training and competitions, etc. Don't expect every race or season to be PRs, just do your best in them. This sport is hard enough without beating yourself up if you feel like you're regressing, even though I understand how frustrating it can be.
Strength training is going to be your friend, no need to do lots if its not your thing(it isn't mine) but it will definitely help you and any athlete for that matter.
Make sure you are getting the nutrition/food and sleep that you need, going through puberty requires more sleep(recovery) and nutrition than you do before or after, being an athlete on top means this is doubly important and will require even more food. I would also look into common nutrient deficiencies among girls(especially when going through puberty, and even more so in those who are athletes or very active).
Also, you may need to adapt training, as you go on and get older, you may want to reduce or add or just change up your training as you find new problems/issues or your goals change. For example, many times over the years I have increased the volume of my training as my body was able to handle an increase in volume, another big step up for me when I was younger was adding in weight training.
However, there has also been times when I reduced my training as certain issues(be it an achilles issue in the past or just flat out fatigue) and this reduced load actually helped me to run closer to my PBs. Big difference for me atm is not running a ton of events on one day like I used to for clubs/teams etc lol.
Anyway, this is some tips, sorry It is rather late for me so not sure how coherent this is but I hope its at least of some help, even if its just one small piece lol although I would say the key points are keep consistent, stay healthy and always prioritise recovery. You'll get there dw and you will get faster in the future, sometimes you just got to get through plateaus and bad patches, everyone gets them at some point!
Stay positive. You're incredibly fit and capable. High school running is just one outlet, and really the beginning step for your physical journey with your body.
My cousin, who was a state champ in the 100 and 200, had a similar problem. She didn’t progress much from sophomore to senior year. In college, it was a really slow progression too. She kept getting stronger, fitter and had more repeatable times, but her linear progression stopped her sophomore year in high school. Some girls just peak very early. Like others have posted, Getting stronger and more fit is always good for you in the long run though. You have no idea what your ceiling is, keep working
A good place to start is with your relative strength. Basically, how strong are you compared to how much you weigh? As humans go through puberty we typically grow and weigh more, so we need to keep our strength in proportion to that growth. Preferably, you would outpace your natural weight gain by growing even stronger and then developing that strength into power.
I second this. My first suspicion was strength. How is your protein intake? strength training during off season?
Yes. I call it senior strength. Just keep up the consistent training. Also if you haven't read it yet, Lauren Fleshmans memoir is good, and has this as a theme. ETA: I can imagine how hard it is to train more and run slower. But you sound like you are framing it well. đź‘Ťđź‘ŤIt sucks, but is a fairly universal experience for girls.
Shoutout Lauren! What an awesome woman
Sleep, nutrition, stress, training. Those are the aspects that make people run faster if attended to, whether they're a teenage boy, teenage girl, adult woman, or adult man. So just focus on those things, keep a positive attitude about your training and competitions, etc. Don't expect every race or season to be PRs, just do your best in them. This sport is hard enough without beating yourself up if you feel like you're regressing, even though I understand how frustrating it can be.
Progression isn’t a straight line, ups and downs happen. Take care of your body. Fuel it properly and have fun
Strength training is going to be your friend, no need to do lots if its not your thing(it isn't mine) but it will definitely help you and any athlete for that matter. Make sure you are getting the nutrition/food and sleep that you need, going through puberty requires more sleep(recovery) and nutrition than you do before or after, being an athlete on top means this is doubly important and will require even more food. I would also look into common nutrient deficiencies among girls(especially when going through puberty, and even more so in those who are athletes or very active). Also, you may need to adapt training, as you go on and get older, you may want to reduce or add or just change up your training as you find new problems/issues or your goals change. For example, many times over the years I have increased the volume of my training as my body was able to handle an increase in volume, another big step up for me when I was younger was adding in weight training. However, there has also been times when I reduced my training as certain issues(be it an achilles issue in the past or just flat out fatigue) and this reduced load actually helped me to run closer to my PBs. Big difference for me atm is not running a ton of events on one day like I used to for clubs/teams etc lol. Anyway, this is some tips, sorry It is rather late for me so not sure how coherent this is but I hope its at least of some help, even if its just one small piece lol although I would say the key points are keep consistent, stay healthy and always prioritise recovery. You'll get there dw and you will get faster in the future, sometimes you just got to get through plateaus and bad patches, everyone gets them at some point!
Stay positive. You're incredibly fit and capable. High school running is just one outlet, and really the beginning step for your physical journey with your body.
My cousin, who was a state champ in the 100 and 200, had a similar problem. She didn’t progress much from sophomore to senior year. In college, it was a really slow progression too. She kept getting stronger, fitter and had more repeatable times, but her linear progression stopped her sophomore year in high school. Some girls just peak very early. Like others have posted, Getting stronger and more fit is always good for you in the long run though. You have no idea what your ceiling is, keep working
Run faster (I suck ass at this sport)