Heppy belated birthday to the true OG, the one and only Seth James Demoor.
The big 40. He could be in the running for some Masters titles. The Master's division at big races is often won in the 2:25 range -- at least when an older East African elite does not show up.
I've been very critical of Floberg but we can acknowledge that some marathon courses and conditions are faster or slower than others. It's one thing to claim to have achieved something you haven't. It's another thing to conduct an objective analysis on your past training and races to try to understand what happened. In this latest video when he talked about his Chicago + Indy "double", I think he was clearly doing the latter and I have no criticism of it.
His whole point was that the conditions in Indianapolis were better for him and yet he ran slower. So he didn't actually succeed in running two marathons only three weeks apart.
What really made me roll my eyes is the way he thinks of marathon training as just the ~3 months of training before the race. He emphasized he's going to do everything he possibly can to prepare for Chicago but then also emphasized that he's just messing around right now, not attempting to do optimal training. The serious training starts in July. And he thinks the secret ingredient will be bumping the mileage. If he had spent all of 2025 steadily building fitness on no more than 75-80 mpw, he'd be on track to crush sub 2:30 in Chicago.
If he didn't think of training as such an emotional activity that requires a ton of willpower and discipline, he wouldn't feel any need to take a break.
I don't believe him that he's really happy about his running right now. He's trying to make peace with the fact that he plateaued and that currently he's actually in worse shape than the plateau. So he's gotta get back to where he was and then train effectively for long enough to break the plateau. He's trying to be optimistic about it but the odds are against him for Chicago.
If he does actually read this thread, I think we've cursed him. He's too proud to take the actual good training advice some of us have offered - doesn't want us to have the satisfaction, wants to do it his own way. Though didn't I recommend to him that he makes videos for a while about the joy of running, etc, rather than some overly serious build? Which is exactly what this video was. But the training is still supposed to be effective... Looking at his Strava, I guess he's tapering for Grandma's even though he's not running it all-out? If he'd just hit high mileage, even if it's all easy pace, and then cautiously add a few moderate workouts between all these races he's running, he'd have been so prepared for his Chicago training block. Oh well.
I think you miss the point. I know he’s not claiming a PR, but it’s part of the mental issue he has the affects his whole training scheme. I think he sincerely believes he was in 2:31 shape, and that everyone who achieves sub 2:30 or whatever is having the greatest day ever. The reality is, everyone on the marathon course is fighting some degree of adversity that holds them back from a perfect day. Temps, wind, injury, stress, recent parenthood and bad sleep, whatever it is, you name it - but that’s part of the game. You need buffer to achieve your PR because things will never be perfect. No doubt there are two or three male marathoners out there right now in sub 2:00 shape on the perfect day/course, but you don’t have it until you do it.
That leads him to setting unrealistic goals before he’s actually achieved the prior stepping stone - his friends running sub 2:30 aren’t just a couple minutes faster than him, they’re actually 5 mins faster than him, because they also have some buffer, etc.
And so then he takes this belief that he’s in shape, he just needs perfect course conditions, and it drives him to do something like McKirdy, which is predicated on giving you the optimal experience with zero friction, and obsesses (I mean, obSESSES) over the meaningless crap that he thinks is going to tip him from 2:34 into 2:29:XX instead of focusing on getting fast enough that having personalized bottles and a flat loop course doesn’t matter.
It is not just Floberg who suffers from meaningless crap obsession. Lots of runners seem to focus on whatever fad is out there such as buying a lactate meter or heat training when if they actually took time out and looked at their training, diet, weight, race pacing they'd find what is wrong. It's normally quite simple.
Runners love their Coros and Garmin, Floberg did a long (paid for) video about the excellent Coros UI. But who actually looks at it? How many study it and use the data meaningfully? I can't think of many YouTubers certainly
I've been very critical of Floberg but we can acknowledge that some marathon courses and conditions are faster or slower than others. It's one thing to claim to have achieved something you haven't. It's another thing to conduct an objective analysis on your past training and races to try to understand what happened. In this latest video when he talked about his Chicago + Indy "double", I think he was clearly doing the latter and I have no criticism of it.
His whole point was that the conditions in Indianapolis were better for him and yet he ran slower. So he didn't actually succeed in running two marathons only three weeks apart.
What really made me roll my eyes is the way he thinks of marathon training as just the ~3 months of training before the race. He emphasized he's going to do everything he possibly can to prepare for Chicago but then also emphasized that he's just messing around right now, not attempting to do optimal training. The serious training starts in July. And he thinks the secret ingredient will be bumping the mileage. If he had spent all of 2025 steadily building fitness on no more than 75-80 mpw, he'd be on track to crush sub 2:30 in Chicago.
If he didn't think of training as such an emotional activity that requires a ton of willpower and discipline, he wouldn't feel any need to take a break.
I don't believe him that he's really happy about his running right now. He's trying to make peace with the fact that he plateaued and that currently he's actually in worse shape than the plateau. So he's gotta get back to where he was and then train effectively for long enough to break the plateau. He's trying to be optimistic about it but the odds are against him for Chicago.
If he does actually read this thread, I think we've cursed him. He's too proud to take the actual good training advice some of us have offered - doesn't want us to have the satisfaction, wants to do it his own way. Though didn't I recommend to him that he makes videos for a while about the joy of running, etc, rather than some overly serious build? Which is exactly what this video was. But the training is still supposed to be effective... Looking at his Strava, I guess he's tapering for Grandma's even though he's not running it all-out? If he'd just hit high mileage, even if it's all easy pace, and then cautiously add a few moderate workouts between all these races he's running, he'd have been so prepared for his Chicago training block. Oh well.
I think you miss the point. I know he’s not claiming a PR, but it’s part of the mental issue he has the affects his whole training scheme. I think he sincerely believes he was in 2:31 shape, and that everyone who achieves sub 2:30 or whatever is having the greatest day ever. The reality is, everyone on the marathon course is fighting some degree of adversity that holds them back from a perfect day. Temps, wind, injury, stress, recent parenthood and bad sleep, whatever it is, you name it - but that’s part of the game. You need buffer to achieve your PR because things will never be perfect. No doubt there are two or three male marathoners out there right now in sub 2:00 shape on the perfect day/course, but you don’t have it until you do it.
That leads him to setting unrealistic goals before he’s actually achieved the prior stepping stone - his friends running sub 2:30 aren’t just a couple minutes faster than him, they’re actually 5 mins faster than him, because they also have some buffer, etc.
And so then he takes this belief that he’s in shape, he just needs perfect course conditions, and it drives him to do something like McKirdy, which is predicated on giving you the optimal experience with zero friction, and obsesses (I mean, obSESSES) over the meaningless crap that he thinks is going to tip him from 2:34 into 2:29:XX instead of focusing on getting fast enough that having personalized bottles and a flat loop course doesn’t matter.
Oh yeah I agree with you there. I understand what you're saying now. In one of my posts a while ago I said he needs to train until he feels like he's in 2:25 shape in order to nab a sub 2:30. He thinks he's been in range of sub 2:30 and needed to just start taking a lot of shots at it. But he actually needs to keep his head down and train consistently for a while.
His treadmill workouts certainly don't help his perception of his fitness. He seems to know they're misleading, but he doesn't realize how far off they actually are.
Elite is quite a stretch. Let's say elite is top 200 in the world; currently that stands at 2:09. Bester is at 2:27 which puts him at around 1700 in the world.
He has a lot of work to do.
To be fair to to the guy it should be pointed out he ran 2:19:45 at Berlin only 9 months ago.
Nick you absolute legend! 1700th in the world despite only picking running up later in life having worked in the corporate world before. All whilst juggling a family and kids too
Floberg said he would OTQ in a couple years. It's ok if he said he was in 2:31 shape.
I keep telling myself for my Chicago and Boston build this year that if Eric Floberg can break 2:30 while smelling his own farts through the camera, so can I.
Floberg said he would OTQ in a couple years. It's ok if he said he was in 2:31 shape.
I keep telling myself for my Chicago and Boston build this year that if Eric Floberg can break 2:30 while smelling his own farts through the camera, so can I.
Motivation
I loved "I want to do the highest mileage I've ever done. I don't think peaking at 85 miles a week will get me a sub 2:30. I think I need to be closer to 100, if not more than 100"
Meanwhile, somewhere in Southern England, Sirpoc sits laughing with his sub 2:25
Floberg is such a clown. I honestly think the guy has some form of narcissist personality. I understand he acknowledges in the videos that he’s aware it comes off like this, but I think that’s his playful way to try to silence the haters while not really realizing that he may have a bit of a psychological problem. It’s almost crazy how he has to hint at this in every video he makes. He seems like a decent family guy at the core of it and like another poster said recently I bet he’s fine irl, but the way he has to try to portray so hard on these mini films that he’s loving life, his family is so supportive of his running, and it’s all “worth the fight” is just so eye rolling. It’s like the dude needs to make a cinematic masterpiece to make himself believe what he’s saying. I really don’t think he’s that happy but he’ll convince himself through his editing.
the OTQ bashing on floberg is funny but meh. I don’t think he ever had a chance at 2:18 just considering how he trains and where’s he’s at plus he does have a family even if he is able to focus on running heavily since he doesn’t have a 9-5. I just don’t think he’s dedicated or smart enough to get to that time. Now that it’s 2:16 - no way in hell is he gonna run 5:11s for 26 miles. Maybe he’ll address it or maybe not but I think even he’s not that delusional and would admit he’s not going to run 2:16 where he’s currently at in life as a early 30 something. I do think he can cap out at 2:24ish if he really works for it and gets consistent.
but floberg…please stop with such cringeworthy videos. It’s wild how your followers eat it all up. Stop making everything so painfully dramatic dude. Also I still don’t love your $120/month coaching scam you’re running but get your bag bro!$$$$
Just watched the latest Benisrunning video and he has now got a patreon! Totally signing up for this just take my money already! So excited
and also how lovely to see him collaborating with two of the most talented runners and influencers about right now Philly & Gabriel
Great racing from Ben too. One of his KMs in his 5k was 2:49!!! That’s insanely fast especially as it was boiling hot, really windy and he had to drive 5 hours that day. Dedication but so much talent too
I'm so glad RTJ is so rarely mentioned here. (and when he's mentioned it's all love) Lets reserve this thread only for the trash and cringelords of the runtube scene.
Just watched the latest Benisrunning video and he has now got a patreon! Totally signing up for this just take my money already! So excited
and also how lovely to see him collaborating with two of the most talented runners and influencers about right now Philly & Gabriel
Great racing from Ben too. One of his KMs in his 5k was 2:49!!! That’s insanely fast especially as it was boiling hot, really windy and he had to drive 5 hours that day. Dedication but so much talent too
These trolls get so close to nailing it; however, they always take things too far: "Totally signing up for this just take my money already! So excited". I would like to know what a archetypal Ben is running fan is who would part with good money to join his Patreon. I even saw Phily, at the end of her video has nearly a fair few dozen people donating to her on Patreon.
Ben seems ok, but he's dull with no critical insights and can't seem to articulate why he is doing things. He's like "yea I am wearing these compression shorts as I think they stop your muscles wobbling"; "lactate levels are 3.5mmol/L which is what coach wants".
Just watched the latest Benisrunning video and he has now got a patreon! Totally signing up for this just take my money already! So excited
and also how lovely to see him collaborating with two of the most talented runners and influencers about right now Philly & Gabriel
Great racing from Ben too. One of his KMs in his 5k was 2:49!!! That’s insanely fast especially as it was boiling hot, really windy and he had to drive 5 hours that day. Dedication but so much talent too
I hope you're enjoying the new role, Ben's girlfriend.
Just watched the latest Benisrunning video and he has now got a patreon! Totally signing up for this just take my money already! So excited
and also how lovely to see him collaborating with two of the most talented runners and influencers about right now Philly & Gabriel
Great racing from Ben too. One of his KMs in his 5k was 2:49!!! That’s insanely fast especially as it was boiling hot, really windy and he had to drive 5 hours that day. Dedication but so much talent too
These trolls get so close to nailing it; however, they always take things too far: "Totally signing up for this just take my money already! So excited". I would like to know what a archetypal Ben is running fan is who would part with good money to join his Patreon. I even saw Phily, at the end of her video has nearly a fair few dozen people donating to her on Patreon.
Ben seems ok, but he's dull with no critical insights and can't seem to articulate why he is doing things. He's like "yea I am wearing these compression shorts as I think they stop your muscles wobbling"; "lactate levels are 3.5mmol/L which is what coach wants".
There is an old English phrase "all the gear, with no idea" and that sums up a lot of these YouTubers.
Ben is a strange one. He doesn't seem to have much of a personality, doesn't sound like he really understands what he's doing, his videos are amateur hour in their editing, graphics etc but he's making money out of this somehow?! I hope it continues for a long time because the bump back to the real world will be a hard one for both himself and his missus
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