COLORADO SPRINGS — So how much can you fit into a day? Katie Rainsberger squeezes everything she can into every 24 hours.

The 5-foot-10, 128-pound, 17-year-old distance runner is up by 6:30 a.m. She eats oatmeal, prepares for school, showers and is out the door in 20 minutes. She attends classes at Air Academy in Colorado Springs from 7:45-11 a.m. A free school block allows her “a 3- to 5-mile shake-out run,” followed by lunch and a couple of more classes.

Since it’s spring season, track practice requires an after-school run or two. She does 40 minutes of swimming twice per week, plus she adds in time to work on her core strength and also does yoga. She then eats dinner, does homework — she has a 4.5 grade-point average — and calls it a day around 8 p.m.

“Every now and then, she’ll fit in a movie with a friend,” said her mother, Lisa.

Is it a regimented approach? You bet. With a purpose? Obviously. And does she enjoy it? She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“From an outside perspective, it could seem monotonous and boring,” Rainsberger said. “But it’s why I like it and it allows me to compete and work at such a high level. It isn’t boring. I love to run. And I think it’s all part of a process and consistency, and I’m not doing anything radically different to achieve long-term goals.”

Rainsberger running with the leaders

Take a jog through Colorado’s considerable female distance-running annals. Rainsberger’s credentials run side by side or ahead of all of them, including the likes of Estes Park’s Wendy Koenig in the 1970s and Boulder’s Melody Fairchild in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and more recently Smoky Hill’s Megan and Katelyn Kaltenbach, Cherry Creek’s Jordyn Colter and Niwot’s Elise Cranny.

After consecutive Class 4A runner-up finishes at the cross country state meet (finishing behind Cranny, now at Stanford), Rainsberger won the next two, earning the best times in both seasons. Last season, Rainsberger was champion at the Nike National meet. She was Colorado and U.S. female cross country runner of the year.

In track, she was the 2015 4A champion in the 800, 1,600 and led her Kadets to the 3,200 relay title. In March, she ran a speedy 4-minute, 36-second mile on hallowed running ground, at The Armory in New York, the best-ever time for a Colorado schoolgirl and a national class record. And recently she ran 4:44.31 in the 1,600, another in-state all-time best. Late next month, she’ll run in the prestigious Prefontaine Meet. In the fall, she will be running for the University of Oregon.

“She’s special, a once-in-a-career athlete,” 33-year Air Academy coach Steve Rischling said. “Colorado has a very rich history of female distance runners. … Probably no one is better than she is.”

Thirty-one-year Mullen track coach John Hancock, practically a walking encyclopedia of state track, had a similar opinion of Rainsberger.

“Obviously with her mile time, that in itself says she is (among the state’s elite),” Hancock said. “And the fact that she has such range — she could probably go down to the 400 if she was trained. Yeah, she’s special.”

Groomed for the track

And she’s being built to last. Her mom, Lisa, has her own impressive running résumé as the last American woman to win the Boston Marathon, in 1985. She knows what her daughter needs to do to succeed.

“Her coaches work her hard to keep her from being great in high school, then topping out,” Lisa said. “We all understand it happens and people get hurt. But Katie’s pretty sturdy. Some people are lucky; some are cursed.”

Katie Rainsberger has three 1,500 races on her schedule, and a shot at the Olympic Trials isn’t out of the question. She and her family witnessed the 2012 Games in London. And it left an impression on her.

“It’s in the back of your head, but it’s not something you really shoot for,” Katie said. “Down the road, it piques my interest.”

First, however, is ending her prep career in style. Winning individual races is nice, she said, but not nearly as fulfilling as helping a relay or her team to a title.

“She’s a gem, all about team and still humble,” Rischling said. “As much as she has accomplished, she has more concern about how her team does.”

The final weeks of prep running, she said. “have aspects to definitely reminisce about, but also at this point I’m ready for the next step and next part. I’ve had a great time, but I’m also ready for whatever the next step may be.”

And she hopes to leave her mark, as others left theirs on her. She credits Fairchild, Colter and Cranny — “One of the nicest people I’ve ever met. …

“I also want to give back to the younger generation. If I can inspire one freshman or sophomore, that’s the end goal. I want to leave my mark in Colorado because it has treated me so well.”

Neil H. Devlin: [email protected] or @neildevlin