Jake Barraclough is pretty similar to Ben Felton in a lot of ways, but he is doing much better without all of the altitude training camps, lactate testing, or coaching
Are runners like Welsh runner and BF getting any benefit from lactate testing? Or, is it just so they have another data point to talk about?
Doing the testing is less important than the actual application of the numbers. How do you interpret that number the lactate pro is telling you? What are you inferring from it to change what you're doing within a session and within a training block? The "science" isn't taking an often dodgy reading and chucking it on insta to look smart, its actually applying the number - none of these influencers do that.
Its the same with any of these goobers spaffing money up the wall for various inane reasons. They have no idea what works or doesn't work, they just see what gets engagement and go with that. "Lactate" sessions are in at the moment, in 12 months it'll be something else.
Ben Felton has had a coach for 6+ months, what are you guys on about?
Jake Barraclough is pretty similar to Ben Felton in a lot of ways, but he is doing much better without all of the altitude training camps, lactate testing, or coaching. He is just putting in the work. Ben is still young and has plenty of room to grow with or without trips to Kenya.
Completely forgot about that, probably due to the fact his coach is by correspondence overseas and has only been coaching what 2 years off the back of his own results? Hardly a great resource.
New Floberg just dropped. I just tuned into this 133 page thread for the first time. My last memory of Floberg was that his content was unwatchably self-indulgent.
Think mods just deleted my comment about disliking Floberg’s videos. All I said was his videos were unwatchable, then some other poster said they think Floberg’s a doper
While I don’t like the guy’s videos, that is WHACK. I mean yeah, he is associated with BPN, so I’ll concede that, but his actual progression is extremely average. He’s simply upped the mileage year to year to year while doing speed and getting less skinny fat. If you really can’t comprehend a guy like that hitting 2:34 than idk what to say. Consistent high mileage will get most 16:xx guys there or better
New Floberg vid and it's contextualised by an early start, high mileage week, slushy roads, and cold conditions.
So of course the first rep and float are faster than the prescribed pace range, leading to the paces blowing way out on the floats and a realistically pretty mild marathon session dipping into the well and resulting in some puking.
10*4 min mara pace/2 min float should not be this hard.
Ok, I watched a bunch of running youtube this morning, including a few I had never watched before (as an unbiased viewer)
- Floberg’s Long Run workout video:
7.2 / 10
While I have historically disliked Floberg’s channel (note - not him, his channel), I found his most recent LR workout to be a pretty good video. If his indoor treadmill workout was peak cringe narcissist, this was much milder. For reference, I would have probably rated his treadmill video < 3.5 / 10. I think the thing he does that makes my skin crawl is when he plays the really slow melodramatic music over some kind of b-roll that is lame or a close up of his sweat-furrowed brow. When it’s not a close up and the music doesn’t make me want to die, it’s solid content. Also, while he did push the workout harder than probably needed, one must respect a 21 miler with pace early in the morning in rough conditions. Say what you will, but that is a grind. I don’t care for his post-workout monologue, but it at least is not totally misinformed, and to a newer runner may have decent insights. Ok video, I will watch his next most likely.
- Phily Bowden recent and old video:
8.3 / 10
I had never watched a Phily Bowden video, but have heard her name on these boards a lot. It seems like some people find her annoying, or maybe just think her haircut looks funny, but I found her videos to be fairly watchable. I have trouble relating to her gen-z vibe as well, but her running chops and training negate this fact. She is on the serious grind of 100mpw (if Floberg upped to triple digits, I’d be more inclined to watch his stuff). I watched one of her old videos and then the Mesa half video. She is a little woke for my taste, but I still found her videos interesting, also cool editing. Anytime a woman runs faster than me in any distance (marathon), I find the content of their training interesting.
It's faster than his PR MP / recent race MP (5:52) and it's faster than his goal MP (5:43). I don't know how slippery it was out there but he might have gotten a little overcooked with this training load. This workout still makes him look more like a 5:52 MP guy than a 5:43 MP guy. 4min reps are really short for going slower than HMP. Or he is actually fitter but he's not getting recovered enough between workouts.
I'd personally take a down week to prepare for the last stretch of training before tapering. But I'm guessing he won't. I don't think he's gonna blow up but I do think he's overreaching and thus not maximizing his fitness gains.
It also seems he's gonna go another training block without learning to stay relaxed when he gets fatigued. I don't know if he's playing it up for the camera but all his pained expressions and the way he tenses up and slugs it out when he gets fatigued are not good practice.
Bare dealing with achilles injury. No needle could mask his pain.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing when he walked us through the timeline of that injury. He just ran through the pain for several days and proceeded to run a workout on it. I'm truly curious if he thinks in retrospect he should've taken a down week or done some crosstraining until the pain went away. Or if he's always gonna run through pain because that's his philosophy.
The workout was a bit baffling to me too - 6 x 30s (1min), 3 x 6min @ HMP?, and 6 x 30s (1min). If the 30s reps are at 3000-5000 pace, sure, totally fine workout to get the legs moving this far out from his race. But I just have to imagine Nick Bare is out there turning those reps into an anaerobic endurance workout. If he did his ankle in by attempting a mid distance workout out of the blue, lol. Regardless, he shouldn't have been doing a workout that day.
I’ll grant that Floberg seems to be relatively prone to both stomach issues and a bit of dramatisation, but surely you’d have to be overpacing to a downright heinous degree to end up puking from that workout? 40 minutes straight is more of a solid aerobic session than any kind of puke-inducing intensity, and not long enough that you can potentially run into nutrition/dehydration issues like a more significant MP session. That work/rest ratio seems like it’s more intended to spice up a regular easy run session a bit, if anything, and I’m pretty lazy.
I’ll grant that Floberg seems to be relatively prone to both stomach issues and a bit of dramatisation, but surely you’d have to be overpacing to a downright heinous degree to end up puking from that workout? 40 minutes straight is more of a solid aerobic session than any kind of puke-inducing intensity, and not long enough that you can potentially run into nutrition/dehydration issues like a more significant MP session. That work/rest ratio seems like it’s more intended to spice up a regular easy run session a bit, if anything, and I’m pretty lazy.
I don't think I've ever felt like puking after a MP specific workout. 400s/800s on the track? Sure, since you're really digging deep and your stomach gets jacked. But marathon effort should never, ever make you so drained you feel like puking. It might just be a stomach bug or lingering of being sick, but that's a huge red flag.
Bare dealing with achilles injury. No needle could mask his pain.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing when he walked us through the timeline of that injury. He just ran through the pain for several days and proceeded to run a workout on it. I'm truly curious if he thinks in retrospect he should've taken a down week or done some crosstraining until the pain went away. Or if he's always gonna run through pain because that's his philosophy.
The workout was a bit baffling to me too - 6 x 30s (1min), 3 x 6min @ HMP?, and 6 x 30s (1min). If the 30s reps are at 3000-5000 pace, sure, totally fine workout to get the legs moving this far out from his race. But I just have to imagine Nick Bare is out there turning those reps into an anaerobic endurance workout. If he did his ankle in by attempting a mid distance workout out of the blue, lol. Regardless, he shouldn't have been doing a workout that day.
I predict that in five to ten years, people doing as their idols on YouTube do and running on stress fractures or with Achilles injuries will cause the running boom to turn into a bust. You might want to invest in companies that make orthotics for seniors and also walkers now because today's 30-something runner dudes and dudettes are tomorrow 60-somethings who can barely walk let along run!
Bare dealing with achilles injury. No needle could mask his pain.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing when he walked us through the timeline of that injury. He just ran through the pain for several days and proceeded to run a workout on it. I'm truly curious if he thinks in retrospect he should've taken a down week or done some crosstraining until the pain went away. Or if he's always gonna run through pain because that's his philosophy.
The workout was a bit baffling to me too - 6 x 30s (1min), 3 x 6min @ HMP?, and 6 x 30s (1min). If the 30s reps are at 3000-5000 pace, sure, totally fine workout to get the legs moving this far out from his race. But I just have to imagine Nick Bare is out there turning those reps into an anaerobic endurance workout. If he did his ankle in by attempting a mid distance workout out of the blue, lol. Regardless, he shouldn't have been doing a workout that day.
People think that working hard equates to this, but what is hard is doing the reasonable thing, and not give in to your ego. Any begynner straight off the couch can run as hard as they can, but cutting your workout short, doing a easy jog instead or even have a full restday when your body calls for it is something shockingly few are able to do. This goes for Floberg and many other youtubers as well.