Nick Bester with a 40k marathon specific workout (5:4X avg pace) just a few days after his 3rd (or 4th?) full send race in a few weeks. Already ran double threshold on Tuesday plus a 14 and 17 miler this week as well 😂. My legs hurt just thinking about it.
does he ever actually see his kids?
would love to see a day in his life where he actually shows how he makes some money, smashes out 100 miles 50 weeks of the year and sees his family.
i suspect the family are an after-thought given his gallavanting around to every race in southern England with his groupies and overly keen lady hangers-on. ive also heard reports that the "BEST ATHLETICS TRAINING CAMPS" he regularly attends are rampant swinging affairs
One thing about Bester is that - the positive side of his wretched self absorption, if you like - year by year he has likely learned to fine tune what his body can withstand, how this evolves, and how to train accordingly. Yes, he takes risks and makes mistakes. And as a previous poster showed, he can't articulate the difference between LT1 and LT2. And I doubt that his evident lack of interest in others is optimal for coaching.
I thought he'd not break 2.20 (and dabbled in schadenfreude when he kept missing out) but I don't see anything suspect in what eventually led to his 2.19.
Seth had some great traction the other day in his strava comments on his 2nd threshold run of his training block. Still can't understand why this guy has flat-lined in subscriber count!
----------------------------------------- Ben Anastasoff Looks like Seth is gonna be more prepared for his upcoming road races than ever before. I’m glad to see some adjustments being made to bring himself to the next level. 3 days ago
Seth James DeMoor You’re new around these parts Ben Anastasoff ?!? Welcome! Go back three years on my Strava…. Never judge any runner, even if you think you know their whole story; trust me, you don’t. 3 days ago
Ben Anastasoff Seth James DeMoor, no sir, I’ve been watching your stuff for years. You’ve always worked hard and you have plenty of talent. It is no secret though that you have blown up in previous marathons. For years you did almost all aerobic base work, with few efforts anywhere near threshold until the end of the training block. You have endurance for days, but your training in the past neglected a very important part of the picture. I can see that you are now no longer putting threshold on the back burner. I respect that, just like I respect any person who is willing to be introspective and make changes for the better. That was the meaning of my comment. It was not a snide remark aimed at causing irritation as it seems you have interpreted. 3 days ago
Seth James DeMoor Just know I’ve been doing it for years Ben Anastasoff. Never judge, even if you’re paying attention. 3 days ago
Evan Johnson Interesting comments from Ben who obviously doesn’t know Seth. Hmmm. 3 days ago
Marcus Smith Seth James DeMoor Seth we love you man. But you can't be so sensitive, Ben Anastasoff didn't say anything particularly out of line, and if you post your training online, you should be prepared for people to comment on it. Your hypersensitivity to comments constructive criticism pushed a lot of people away from your channel and overall brand. If someone insults or trolls you (or your family), it's totally reasonable to be fuming. But someone saying that their happy to see you change your training around so you can hit the "next level"? Come on... I've been watching you since pre-COVID, back in the days of the old shoedio, the old Honda CRV, the smaller house and still watch most of your vids. We all want to see you do well - not everyone is out to get you :) Good luck and God bless you and your family
-----------------------------------
Holy crap, that is gold! Someone posts a supportive comment and somehow Seth loses his s#$ at it. Wow.
His explanation is fantastic if it was a shart. He was able to "decern" that he can take that experience with him, and use it as "fuel" for the next training block.
His explanation is fantastic if it was a shart. He was able to "decern" that he can take that experience with him, and use it as "fuel" for the next training block.
I said shart(ing) for gods sake. Dont make me repeat myself.
would love to see a day in his life where he actually shows how he makes some money, smashes out 100 miles 50 weeks of the year and sees his family.
i suspect the family are an after-thought given his gallavanting around to every race in southern England with his groupies and overly keen lady hangers-on. ive also heard reports that the "BEST ATHLETICS TRAINING CAMPS" he regularly attends are rampant swinging affairs
One thing about Bester is that - the positive side of his wretched self absorption, if you like - year by year he has likely learned to fine tune what his body can withstand, how this evolves, and how to train accordingly. Yes, he takes risks and makes mistakes. And as a previous poster showed, he can't articulate the difference between LT1 and LT2. And I doubt that his evident lack of interest in others is optimal for coaching.
I thought he'd not break 2.20 (and dabbled in schadenfreude when he kept missing out) but I don't see anything suspect in what eventually led to his 2.19.
aaaaaand now he's suddenly started double threshold this week, which with the way he's going, will injure him Context: 23rd Feb - Winchester 10K - 31:48 27th Feb - Friday Night Under the Lights 5K - 14:36 2nd Mar - Brighton HM - 68:51 9th Mar - Cambridge HM - 67:15
So we have 4 races in 14 days, none of which were PR's, and then his training since: 9th Mar - Cambridge HM - 27.8K 10th Mar - AM: 23.5K 10th Mar - PM: 12K 11th Mar - AM: 21.5K - 6x2K 11th Mar - PM: 16.8K - 8x1K 12th Mar - 27.5K 13th Mar - 40K - 5M, 4M, 3M, 2M, 1M off 1K float
So coming off the back of 4 races in 2 weeks, he dove headfirst into double-T, did 74K in 2 days off the back of a raceday, and said he wants to chase some 200K weeks now.
Doesn't really sound like someone who is fine tuning what his body can withstand.
One thing about Bester is that - the positive side of his wretched self absorption, if you like - year by year he has likely learned to fine tune what his body can withstand, how this evolves, and how to train accordingly. Yes, he takes risks and makes mistakes. And as a previous poster showed, he can't articulate the difference between LT1 and LT2. And I doubt that his evident lack of interest in others is optimal for coaching.
I thought he'd not break 2.20 (and dabbled in schadenfreude when he kept missing out) but I don't see anything suspect in what eventually led to his 2.19.
aaaaaand now he's suddenly started double threshold this week, which with the way he's going, will injure him Context: 23rd Feb - Winchester 10K - 31:48 27th Feb - Friday Night Under the Lights 5K - 14:36 2nd Mar - Brighton HM - 68:51 9th Mar - Cambridge HM - 67:15
So we have 4 races in 14 days, none of which were PR's, and then his training since: 9th Mar - Cambridge HM - 27.8K 10th Mar - AM: 23.5K 10th Mar - PM: 12K 11th Mar - AM: 21.5K - 6x2K 11th Mar - PM: 16.8K - 8x1K 12th Mar - 27.5K 13th Mar - 40K - 5M, 4M, 3M, 2M, 1M off 1K float
So coming off the back of 4 races in 2 weeks, he dove headfirst into double-T, did 74K in 2 days off the back of a raceday, and said he wants to chase some 200K weeks now.
Doesn't really sound like someone who is fine tuning what his body can withstand.
with the 9 Mar Cambridge half being an 'A goal' race in which he says he blew up in the last 5k - if only you might have been able to predict that going in...
Certainly less fine tuning what he's doing and more bouncing content to content and jumping on the double T and (poor imitation) ran to japan high mileage bandwagons - just without the time to get to proper high miles.
If you had a coach who, partway through your main training bock, randomly changed philosophy pretty significantly there's no way you'd say it was fine tuning, or ever respect their inputs going forward I'd wager.
with the 9 Mar Cambridge half being an 'A goal' race in which he says he blew up in the last 5k - if only you might have been able to predict that going in...
Certainly less fine tuning what he's doing and more bouncing content to content and jumping on the double T and (poor imitation) ran to japan high mileage bandwagons - just without the time to get to proper high miles.
If you had a coach who, partway through your main training bock, randomly changed philosophy pretty significantly there's no way you'd say it was fine tuning, or ever respect their inputs going forward I'd wager.
A very poor man's RTJ. Also, RTJ does a lot of easy milage. Bester's ego does not allow this
I admit I don't follow Bester's training in any detail beyond the headline PBs and what gets posted here, so yes I think he's potentially asking for repeat injuries and/or tailoff in performance.
I suspect that of most recent races the Winchester 10k and the Brighton HM were not done at 100pc effort, though maybe closer to it than he would admit. Possibly in his mind Brighton was marathon effort. Cambridge HM was not a bad run for him so I don't think as of 4 days ago he has fallen off a cliff. I understand that several of the early leaders paid a price for going off a little too fast. Maybe he was one of them.
To be clear, I have no respect for him other than that he seems to have made a good fist of reaching very close to his ceiling as a long distance runner.
I admit I don't follow Bester's training in any detail beyond the headline PBs and what gets posted here, so yes I think he's potentially asking for repeat injuries and/or tailoff in performance.
I suspect that of most recent races the Winchester 10k and the Brighton HM were not done close to 100pc effort
I think at both of these, deffo at Brighton, he went "full send". At Brighton he faded massively after going off too fast - I really don't think he has it in him to hold back
We need to convince Nick Bester and Matt Foxx to sign up for Jersey City Half Marathon so they can race the Greatest of All Time, Still the Original Running YouTuber.
reading these boards is hilarious and enteratining. Lots of slagging off but then when one of the youtubers has a good race, radio silence. Go back to around pages 50ish on this and that braincelll poster was slating Bester every other post saying his training was dumb and he had no chance of getting sub 2:20 at Berlin. Then Bester gets sub 2;20 and braincell just goes silent for ages. Hes now popped up slagging everyone off again.
We have the receipts braincell, you clearly dont know anything about running but you are wonderfully catty. Like a running version of Dan Wootton
it's how they roll, all talk with cheetoh fingers in their mamas basement, and no accountability.....
Yes, its a great read to be fair but when you read back on past comments its pretty embarrassing for some of the so called running experts here... Bet they are dreading Ben Felton getting a sub 2:20 after some of their previous comments on him... I will admit Bester is pretty OTT and Matt Fox comes across as a tad narcissistic though. The likes of FOD, Felton, Cole all seem decent enough though. Some of the criticisms seem very personal and I imagine 95% of posters here can only dream of all 3 of their PB's.
Surprised there hasn't been more comments on the more eccentric youtubers like that Donato tbh. He must be pretty marmite.
Three smaller channels I would recommend as a good watch - ItsOnAndy, CrownMyRun, MARM (middleagedrunningman) - all funny and down to earth/dont take themselves too seriously.
FOD still the GOAT for me though. Tim Gross should bring back his slightly awkward but enjoyable 'youtubers review' though. Seems he had a habit of accidentally pissing off the more highly stung influencers like Aubrey and that Fordy Runs character.
it's how they roll, all talk with cheetoh fingers in their mamas basement, and no accountability.....
Yes, its a great read to be fair but when you read back on past comments its pretty embarrassing for some of the so called running experts here... Bet they are dreading Ben Felton getting a sub 2:20 after some of their previous comments on him... I will admit Bester is pretty OTT and Matt Fox comes across as a tad narcissistic though. The likes of FOD, Felton, Cole all seem decent enough though. Some of the criticisms seem very personal and I imagine 95% of posters here can only dream of all 3 of their PB's.
Surprised there hasn't been more comments on the more eccentric youtubers like that Donato tbh. He must be pretty marmite.
Three smaller channels I would recommend as a good watch - ItsOnAndy, CrownMyRun, MARM (middleagedrunningman) - all funny and down to earth/dont take themselves too seriously.
FOD still the GOAT for me though. Tim Gross should bring back his slightly awkward but enjoyable 'youtubers review' though. Seems he had a habit of accidentally pissing off the more highly stung influencers like Aubrey and that Fordy Runs character.
I’d like to add Ryan Thomson to your list. 2:15 marathoner with only a few k subs. Knowledgable and puts in the hard work. Also get the occasional cameo from Phil Sesemann and his running dogs.
But all the vitriol that is posted in this thread is baffling. If the likes of Nick Bester and Philly Bowden anger you so much that you feel the need to vent about their families and personal lives then just turn it off and watch someone else! At the end of the day they are just posting content that (like any type of media) is not going to be for everyone.
reading these boards is hilarious and enteratining. Lots of slagging off but then when one of the youtubers has a good race, radio silence. Go back to around pages 50ish on this and that braincelll poster was slating Bester every other post saying his training was dumb and he had no chance of getting sub 2:20 at Berlin. Then Bester gets sub 2;20 and braincell just goes silent for ages. Hes now popped up slagging everyone off again.
We have the receipts braincell, you clearly dont know anything about running but you are wonderfully catty. Like a running version of Dan Wootton
I think the general annoyance and criticism of the shoetube crowd comes more from their ability to spout advice, hawk products, and promote their coaching services all while not really offering much. I'm not too familiar with Bester's progression but I think from this thread he had been stuck around 2:20 for a while (kind of like his adversary Matt Fox) and then finally cracked it with 2:19 last year. When you have the ability to train essentially full-time, have an untold arsenal of the best shoes and best fueling products (they certainly market the products they hawk as the best), and have a training program that is worth a good chunk of change for everyone else that you're following; you'd think they'd be able to make more than slight improvements.
Obviously these guys running low 2:20s or faster are talented but it seems their Youtuber features (loving the sound of their own voice and thinking they are some running genius worthy of spouting advice) prevent them from actually making the most of that talent. It becomes especially clear when they're on the border of being elite more so than the sub 3 crowd because these guys really start bumping into either their physiological limits or the limits of their naïve training/racing. I think that's why Ran To Japan has gone over so well here. The talent difference between him and some of these other running Youtubers in the 2:20s can't be that great but Jake works his ass off and has broken through to a point where he is chasing elite status.
checking in on FloBergs' channel to find him yapping about Yasso 800's (off equal recoveries??), doing a track session on a crowded track with noise-cancelling headphones in, noticing he positive splits every rep as if that was new information, saying running at "high 160's bpm is my top limit" & "running this pace at the end of a workout on this weekly volume was hard, you could see..... my breathe"
They could never make me take you seriously Floberg. Couldn't finish the video.
A standard Floberg workout is generally running way, way faster than his coach prescribes, stopping midway through for a dump, then throwing up at the end.
He states his max HR is 190 but he struggles to get higher than 165 in a HM. His calculations or his equipment are way, way off
I looked at his last two halfs and last two fulls and the HR's are similar. Was very confused until I realized he didn't run either of the halfs all-out. I think his last two full marathons are a better landmark to judge his training HR's off of. He's generally in the low to mid 160's and then drifts up and ends in the low 170's.
The fact that he can't break 170 in these workouts is a little troubling. It sounds like he's thrilled by it, thinking it means he's really aerobically fit. But struggling to get your HR up during workouts is a sign of overtraining / under-recovering. I don't have a link but Marius Bakken has said that low HR in a workout is a red flag, while high HR with low lactate is a green flag.
I think he's gonna be okay on race day but I think he could've gotten fitter by running some workouts a bit slower or taking an off day here and there.
Also had to laugh when he said the 600's felt like a sprint when he did them barely any faster than the k's and 8's. Considering he kept positive splitting the k's and 800's, his 600's were basically the same pace as the first 600m of his other reps.
And his defensiveness about the treadmill paces and workouts... is he reading this thread? Or is that coming from somewhere else?
edit: Looked at his Strava and he was actually getting to low 170's at the end of the reps. Still I'd expect it to be higher. He could be a bit overtrained going into some of these workouts but still building decent fitness. Looking forward to his race result.
This post was edited 10 minutes after it was posted.
it's how they roll, all talk with cheetoh fingers in their mamas basement, and no accountability....
Three smaller channels I would recommend as a good watch - ItsOnAndy, CrownMyRun, MARM (middleagedrunningman) - all funny and down to earth/dont take themselves too seriously.
Add pksruns to this list. For some reason, he has clickbate thumbnails; however, he's down to earth and shows the honest journey of a middle-aged guy trying to stay in shape and run marathon PBs - while juggling family life. He is also honest about his anxieties and insecurities and the mental stress of just wanting to give up and do anything else but another mid-week, medium long run (I can empathise with this).
This post was edited 7 minutes after it was posted.
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