Floberg, as it seems you read this thread I'll offer you some advice.
People aren't turned off by passion for running and fancy film-making, in fact Clayton Young's videos are almost universally praised for their quality.
The difference is while you're both driven and passionate, he's humble, self-reflective and experienced. (He also has a good coach who's sessions he actually follows).
Running every session too hard, over-estimating your fitness, blaming disappointing results on bad weather (15 C is not hot and not worth a 4 minute positive split), that's what comes across as narcissistic.
I asked AI to write a sitcom based on the life of a ShoeTuber. The result is too funny not to share.
AI wrote:
Sole Mate: Episode 1 - The 5000 Mile Itch Opening Scene:
INT. GRUNT'S GARAGE - NIGHT
The garage is a chaotic monument to running. Shoes of every imaginable color and brand hang from the rafters, overflow shelves, and form precarious towers. Empty energy gel packets litter the floor like fallen confetti. GARY "GRUNT" GRUNTOWSKI (40s, a slightly overweight man with a receding hairline and perpetually clad in athletic wear that’s seen better days) sits on a worn-out folding chair, staring intently at his phone. He’s meticulously polishing a pristine, limited-edition running shoe with a microfiber cloth.
His wife, DEBBIE GRUNTOWSKI (40s, a flamboyant woman with brightly colored leggings and an enthusiasm that borders on manic), bursts into the garage, holding a large, brightly lit ring light on a tripod.
DEBBIE: Gary! Gary! The live stream is about to start! Are you ready to unleash your wisdom upon the masses? The #SoleSquad is waiting with bated breath for your pronouncements on the new Nimbus 37!
Gary sighs dramatically, not looking up from the shoe.
GARY: Debbie, must you call them the #SoleSquad? It sounds like a support group for fish. And this isn’t the Nimbus 37, it’s the Ascend UltraBoost Carbon X Pro Max Limited Edition. There’s a difference. A significant difference!
The inspiration for the question was Kofuzi's Italy video/Diadora-sponsored trip, which made me long for a simpler time and a shoe salesman like Al Bundy.
Lol flobergs camera man just quit (see recent insta post from broberg).
Could this be the end of the vids? Hopefully.
"I'm not taking myself to serious" says the man with his crew following him around as he attempts to run 2:30.
If random golfer was on YouTube spending hours getting the hair, mustache and lighting just right for a talk to camera piece about shooting 90, making excuses about the heat or the wind because without these factors it would have been an 89 they'd be laughed at but somehow with running there are thousands of people tuning in and lapping it up
He turned the live tracking off!!! Oh well. Motivation for me to turn the door knob and go on my long run. Hope the results are up by the time I get back.
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He turned the live tracking off!!! Oh well. Motivation for me to turn the door knob and go on my long run. Hope the results are up by the time I get back.
Looks like a 71 min result for Demoor. What will it take for Seth to complete a bog-standard race plan and stop with the mad scientist stuff...
He turned the live tracking off!!! Oh well. Motivation for me to turn the door knob and go on my long run. Hope the results are up by the time I get back.
Looks like a 71 min result for Demoor. What will it take for Seth to complete a bog-standard race plan and stop with the mad scientist stuff...
He turned the live tracking off!!! Oh well. Motivation for me to turn the door knob and go on my long run. Hope the results are up by the time I get back.
Looks like a 71 min result for Demoor. What will it take for Seth to complete a bog-standard race plan and stop with the mad scientist stuff...
Good thing he followed the Serious Runner's advice to start planting excuses in the week leading up to the race!
The videos, or “films” as Gilberg calls them, again not taking himself too seriously, will never end. It’s the lifecycle of influencers. Create a channel, and be just interesting and likeable enough so people follow you. Then decide, I’ve got to create better quality content so you dive into production value and that brings more eyeballs and now some sponsors. Hey, I could make some decent money at this. Next thing you know you’re playing patty cake with obvious drug users and your audience starts turning on you and it’s their fault not yours. You’re just taking it seriously and you’ve got to be you. But you’ve forgotten what made you popular in the first place. The heart of the channel and original intent are nowhere to be seen. People don’t relate to you anymore.
He turned the live tracking off!!! Oh well. Motivation for me to turn the door knob and go on my long run. Hope the results are up by the time I get back.
Looks like a 71 min result for Demoor. What will it take for Seth to complete a bog-standard race plan and stop with the mad scientist stuff...
Absolutely brutal result for the eggman. Good thing he went all the way across the country for that.
Floberg, as it seems you read this thread I'll offer you some advice.
People aren't turned off by passion for running and fancy film-making, in fact Clayton Young's videos are almost universally praised for their quality.
The difference is while you're both driven and passionate, he's humble, self-reflective and experienced. (He also has a good coach who's sessions he actually follows).
Running every session too hard, over-estimating your fitness, blaming disappointing results on bad weather (15 C is not hot and not worth a 4 minute positive split), that's what comes across as narcissistic.
Just admit you messed up the pacing.
To me it comes down to the sport being mischaracterized in an unhealthy / suboptimal way. It's similar to businesses chasing performance metrics to the detriment of real results. Does ideal/optimal/perfect marathon training involve grinding and hard days? Yes. Though personally I think that's a lot less true for non-elites and rather more of a characteristic of optimal training once you've maxed out training load and recovery in a way that only a full-time pro runner can do. But I'd also wonder how sub-optimal it could possibly be to strictly stick to "train, don't strain" for elites because I'd imagine it can't be much worse. Look at Matt Richtman (admittedly not a 2:01-2:03 guy (yet!) but look at the training he did to instantly get on the Clayton and Conner level in the marathon from a low 28:00 10k fitness).
Floberg (and a LOT of other semi-serious runners chasing PR's) make sure to train hard enough (run workouts fast enough and push their mileage) that it feels hard and grindy and challenging. That's the metric they're chasing, that training should be hard. And that's to the detriment of their training quality, life quality, and ultimately a detriment to their race performances. I'm dying for someone to put out "train, don't strain" content and have big success. I'd kill for a series on Richtman's next build.
That said, we all love Jake Barraclough here. But first of all, Jake is still improving while Floberg has plateaued (yes he just PR'd and maybe technically hasn't fully plateaued, maybe semi-plateaued, and at least isn't going backwards, but he's not making huge leaps in fitness like he had been even though he has another leap to sub 2:25 in him imo). So there's no reason to criticize Jake's training at this time. If he were significantly overtraining, he wouldn't be getting fitter.
Second, the tone in Jake's videos is so upbeat that, even though he's obviously a grinder and working hard, it doesn't feel so onerous and strained like Floberg. And though Jake likes to joke about "train harder, not smarter" he's clearly got a lot of thought behind his training and is reflective about it. He's also clearly chasing real results, not performance metrics. Meanwhile Floberg just gets a training plan from his coach and trains as hard as possible with it.
If you are going to be a grinder, I think it's important to be nonchalant about it. If you're constantly focusing on it and amplifying it like Floberg -- well, there's just no research or evidence or experienced individual who'd ever say that's a good idea.
So I hate how wrong I think this mindset is for chasing PR's. If he weren't so focused on PR'ing, I wouldn't care as much. He can do what he wants with the sport. If it's a medium for masochism, so be it. But if he really cares about PR'ing, he must change the nature of his training, his mindset toward his training, and the nature of his videos would follow.
Floberg, if you're reading this, I'd highly recommend you read the Steve Magness books. Honestly just all of them: Win the Inside Game, Do Hard Things, Peak Performance, The Passion Paradox, and you may as well read The Science of Running too and consider self-coaching. Jeff Cunningham may be the right coach for some people and has done a lot of good things for you but I don't think he's getting your training load right which is the most important thing of all for you right now. Grats on the PR. I say again: that last 10k must have been absolutely brutal and everyone respects how you hung on for a PR.
“OK, now! Now…Jersey City didn’t go as well as I wanted. OK? But! But! That’s not a problem because it was my C race, alright? Plus I had some cupcakes from that famous TV bakery and they use oils and sugars in them. It’s a long flight and…and my kids were all little germ factories last week. Love them! But they are infectious. Soooooo…it’s time to pivot. As you all know, the snow is melting and that means trail season. Ayoooo! So…so…it’s time to pivot for my A race. My A race is Pikes, OK? Time to get the vert for Pikes. A race is Pikes! You can see that on the poster board. Pikes! A race is Pikes! Not a setback! Pikes. Pivoting to Pikes!!! Don’t forget to subscribe, hit like, and buy something at the Demoor store.”
Seth was toying with the idea of running a PR, so this definitely wasn't the result he was aiming for. I mean, yeah, his training methods are bizarre, and he seems to occasionally run great races in spite of his training, but he seems to really enjoy the style of training he does, and he doesn't advocate that others copying his training style. He's also not out there selling overpriced coaching services or training plans.
I don't fault the guy for his training philosophy. The goal of running is enjoyment, and he seems to enjoy what he's doing. There's no point in doing this sport at that age if one doesn't enjoy it.
Perhaps he'd enjoy the sport equally and race more consistently if he trained using conventional methodology, but he's certainly not a conventional guy.
I lost a ton of respect for floberg when he started offering coaching services, charging people over $100 a month. It’s so scummy. He can justify it however he wants in his mind and hey more power to you for taking in some substantial profit from a group of people. But the fact he pays for coaching from Jeff Cunningham himself and is then just regurgitating similar stuff to whoever he’s gotten to signup, when those people could be just as fine using Daniel’s or pfitz books, it’s really lame. It’s all about money for all these influencers at the end of the day and I don’t knock the hustle but it’s pretty wack to be a basic runner yourself and feel like you are “genuinely” being fair by suckering strangers into paying you over a grand per year for generic training advice. Floberg probably justifies it by “building a COMMUNITY omg so much support bla bla bla” but yea dude you’re just making a nice 20-30k off your name since goobers gobble up your YouTube videos. Good for you Flo but I think you recognize it’s kinda lame to be taking money from people like this. I guess no harm no foul though since end of the day the people who sign up are grown adults making their own choice. Just wild to me a guy who is an ok runner who has his own coach thinks it’s right to charge money to coach others. Quite comical but capitalism is a helluva drug
