I'm basically a new runner and watch some of his videos (running content focused parts). IMHO, he has no real idea how to train and is mileage focused instead of training focused. There's been so many times that I've thought, "Get a coach! You have good talent and could do so much better if you had a coach." I'm not elite nor sub-elite,
With no high-school offers, he coached himself to walk-on at Colorado U.
He was coached in college by arguably one of the best and notable coaches in the USA (Wetmore).
After taking time off after college, starting a family, etc., he came back and recently trained himself to be an elite mountain climber, winning the Pikes Peak Marathon the last two years.
He should sign up for Sage Canaday's coaching service if he's going to continue doing road marathons. He could easily be a 2:16-2:18 guy.
Given his massive aerobic base and insane mileage, it seems like he could be a promising ultrarunner in the 100 mile and longer events. Sure it'd take 1-2 years to get the kinks worked out but aside from a handful of guys like Walmsley, there is definitely room for another few big names in that space.
He is Cooked with a capital C. Not being able to sleep isn't a function of "too much goodness" in your body. It's a fairly common symptom of overtraining. Much too late to salvage at this point but nothing he's done training-wise looks like the right thing to do (still doing hard long runs a week out).
I had to find where he talked about this. It was even more ridiculous than I expected:
Seth: "I didn't sleep last night. You know why I didn't sleep last night? Because I was trying to recover so much in the past, uh, thirty six hours since the threshold that I just pounded supplements and like, um, micronutrients and, um...what's in here? [pointing to container of low-calorie recovery drink tablets]
TL: "Electrolytes."
Seth: "Electrolytes! I pounded it yesterday. Pounded it! And I think it was like so much goodness that I put into the body, my body was just wired."
TL: whoaaa...
Seth: And I couldn't fall asleep last night. So...
TL: Whooooooaaaaaa!
Seth: Anyway.
TL: Too much of a good thing!
Seth: Too much of a good thing.
TL: WOW!
Good to have her along as an audience surrogate, her reactions sound exactly like what his stans would say. "You da man seth! You couldn't fall asleep because you drank too much beet root juice and vitamin C, that makes absolute sense!"
I'm basically a new runner and watch some of his videos (running content focused parts). IMHO, he has no real idea how to train and is mileage focused instead of training focused. There's been so many times that I've thought, "Get a coach! You have good talent and could do so much better if you had a coach." I'm not elite nor sub-elite,
With no high-school offers, he coached himself to walk-on at Colorado U.
He was coached in college by arguably one of the best and notable coaches in the USA (Wetmore).
Yup, Seth wasn't recruited and then tried and failed to walk on by running a fast enough time at CU's yearly time trial. Sophomore year, a down year for CU, he managed to make the cut and become a training partner for the CU athletes that Wetmore was actually coaching. He was their 7th man at nationals one year, so there's something.
I get a kick out of all the LRC prefacing their bashing by saying they don't watch the videos.. then claiming they scanned just this one time. Or they follow on Strava...
They do this because they are pathetic... They feel the need to bash but the obvious answer is to just ignore something that you don't like. By claiming they do not watch and then bashing they hope to resolve that obvious conflict. But it doesn't work.
It’s tragedy and comedy, weaving a runner’s story through a daily vlog of sometimes real life, and arguably the best one out there doing it.
The comedy consists of seth wearing a headlamp indoors and making goofy facial expressions and voices. The tragedy consists of people paying him money because they feel some personal relationship from him when he reads their messages aloud in a livestream. Is he the best one out there? He's in first place in a one-man competition for producing this type of content.
Ok, "His Catholicism and toxic positivity was too grating in the end." Too positive ? Wow if you want to be trashed as an underperforming runner, I can help you. You are absolutely ridiculous as a runner ! Can't event break 2 on the marathon ! You are a very bad runner, low performing, my mother walks faster than you run. Do you feel better now ? Seth is what he is, just helps others run and feel better. Obviously this positivity is a bad thing. You are a lower performing sh**. Your performances are ridiculous. You run so slowly... maybe you are just walking (slowly at that). Don't talk to runners you slow walker ! Done
"Toxic positivity."
Not encouragement; blind approval regardless of reality. The argument is that he doesn't help others run and feel better; he's actually hurting them by sharing bad training advice, and his clique of minions just agree wirth everything he says. That doesn't help anyone.
I get a kick out of all the LRC prefacing their bashing by saying they don't watch the videos.. then claiming they scanned just this one time. Or they follow on Strava...
They do this because they are pathetic... They feel the need to bash but the obvious answer is to just ignore something that you don't like. By claiming they do not watch and then bashing they hope to resolve that obvious conflict. But it doesn't work.
This is such a copout. "See something fake, scammy, or misleading? Just ignore it!"
Nope. Call out imposters. Silence is how they proper
Someone smarter than me please explain the run he posted today? What is the point of that at this stage other than as previously mentioned, to get his HR stans hard? Is he just addicted to dumb mileage in the same way he’s addicted to daily vlogging even when it serves no real purpose..? If he’s racing this weekend I just don’t get it.
It's getting to be about that time.... to predict our favorite youtubers time at Gasparilla Half Marathon. The guy says he feels good, I'm calling BS on that. I think he mentally is trying to bring himself around but physically exhausted. Gonna go with 1:10:45, burns up in the heat and humidity.
I walk around with a headlamp on most nights. It's dark by the time I get home, and I run most nights, then have a lot of stuff to do in the garage, on the deck, in the back 40, all that - it's just easier to leave it on and try to turn it off when I come inside. And not film myself while doing so.
That said, I ran fast enough my freshman year to get on the CU team.
Serious question: WHY does SJD avoid speedwork? Has he figured out something that every other elite marathon doing intervals is getting wrong? I just don't get it. I really just don't get it. I thought NYC 2021 would've been the wake up call of his career, but he continues to do more of the same for Rotterdam. Maybe with a hint of more "tempo" or "threshold" (and the way he does it is questionable)
I get a kick out of all the LRC prefacing their bashing by saying they don't watch the videos.. then claiming they scanned just this one time. Or they follow on Strava...
They do this because they are pathetic... They feel the need to bash but the obvious answer is to just ignore something that you don't like. By claiming they do not watch and then bashing they hope to resolve that obvious conflict. But it doesn't work.
I state that I don't watch his videos for two reasons:
1. I don't watch his videos. I don't like youtubers in general, so it's nothing personal against him. I find the style of most youtubers pretty grating, and the concept in general (posting daily videos) does not appeal to me. I'd much rather read someone's training log.
2. I want to make it clear that I only know what he's doing based on his very minimal Strava posts. So I don't know what the plan is, or if there is one. I only know what I see. Whatever else people are talking about in these threads in terms of his personality etc I really don't care about and don't have a frame of reference for.
Finally, as I said before-- his training is interesting! I don't think it will work, but I'm always interested in outliers. It would be cool if he was able to show that super low intensity and super high volume did have a beneficial impact at the OT qualifier level, even if just for him. This is supposedly a running message board, and I like to talk about running!
Someone smarter than me please explain the run he posted today? What is the point of that at this stage other than as previously mentioned, to get his HR stans hard? Is he just addicted to dumb mileage in the same way he’s addicted to daily vlogging even when it serves no real purpose..? If he’s racing this weekend I just don’t get it.
The >2 hour run averaging 10:19 per mile?
Look at his weekly mileage graph. It's all about slogging through miles so the graph looks the way he planned from the start. It's the only thing in training he perfectly nails. Volume is the only training variable he thinks about or manipulates, and he fixates on it.
He might be completely overcooked because he is slavishly following his training plan, but rest assured he will get out there and cook himself even more by following it each day. It's his personal brand: consistency and "turning the doorknob", even if it is not ideal for his purported race goals. He's delivering what his fans want even if he turns into dust on the starting line - they just want to watch a string of videos where their super-consistent running buddy inspires them to turn the doorknob. But like, that's his proven forte. He will always show up and log his run and post his video no matter what else is happening in his life. I think he's had to prioritize consistency and following through over everything else - good workouts, flexibility to change his approach, good race performances. It's an interesting experiment in what happens when you only care about weekly mileage and don't apply any training principles or incorporate any feedback from your body.
Serious question: WHY does SJD avoid speedwork? Has he figured out something that every other elite marathon doing intervals is getting wrong? I just don't get it. I really just don't get it. I thought NYC 2021 would've been the wake up call of his career, but he continues to do more of the same for Rotterdam. Maybe with a hint of more "tempo" or "threshold" (and the way he does it is questionable)
Speedwork doesn't film. You can't do speedwork holding a camera, and a drone doesn't capture it. And he's not a good enough filmmaker to accurately convey it on a screen.
He's literally choosing the gloss of the finished product over the work and the process.
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