The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Ben's video yesterday really crystallised for me the huge contrast between a pro and an influencer. I'm finally catching up on Clayton Young's documented builds for Paris, Boston, NYC and now Tokyo. The humility and general sense of quietly grinding is so striking when you hold it up alongside the Bowdens, Bens, and Besters of the running world.

Taking a random "easy" run from last week, Ben did "18K Easy" at 4:35/km, while Clayton was "Shuffling" at 4:25/km. Why on earth is a 2:25 guy running a pace so close to the 2:07 guy? Also, 90 minutes on the treadmill at 4:00/km the day after a half marathon race? Recovering from injury? Beyond parody.

Tbf I'm in the kind of shape that he wants to be in - and in a build sometimes I'll do a 26ish mile long run in that sort of time.

Obviously not flying to the other side of the world to do it - just leaving the house and running 26 miles like most normal runners do; can definitely see the travel there and back negating a lot of the training gains from the time there.

I don't think it's a silly run. I think Runna flew him over there and he seemed to be running near fellow Runna athlete Mary Mac (imagine the carbon footprint).

I found his Strava update of "ran in easy day shoes" and insta gram post (with picture of said update) saying something along the lines of "easy conversational pace" very Flobergish. Of courses, he got some "I can't even do that that pace for a K man" comments. I feel like this sort of behaviour is ego driven and will just turn many silent followers away! Flowberg is a prime case of this.

must be an ego thing. to be fair its a common problem among influencers and non influencer runners. but he has all the time in the world, it's not like he needs to rush to get the k's done... just run 5:00/k every so often and maybe he wouldn't be so ruined all the time..

Fair play to Cole. Looking seriously knackered in his latest video but still grinding out the daily high mileage training

Compared to the likes of Philly and Ben's 1 and 2 he gets up and does a full day's work and knocks out big mileage alongside it. Not easy at all.

Even getting from east Kent to King's Hill everyday is a ball ache. I do it most days.

Hope he nails Berlin, deserves it.

I doubt he is working full time - he trains more than many pros and with all the video editing can't have much time for work.

Probably cuts back his massage appointments significantly in his thon blocks. Why not, he lives at home and gets to test himself and see how far he can go.

based on the fact that 10 of the 15min Stockholm video was an over-indulgent intro about his 'roots in running' etc, I think it's pretty clear he expected a much bigger result from yesterday otherwise why would you do all that backstory just for a mid result. The quick post-race pivot to "that's just where my fitness is at" shows he hadn't anticipated it, when he went out at PB pace (~5:00/M). I also find it hard to believe that a man who talks so much about having lived in Sweden, could possibly be surprised by how "hilly" the course was

All in all I'm just glad he didnt try and sweep this under the rug as intentionally running a HM at Marathon pace, because in reality, and as others have mentioned, it's not looking good. I guess that's what you get for binning your track season to jump to a previous unplanned marathon because another brand came knocking. Looking forward to seeing how long it is until he bins his coach.

Yeah, I have a colleague who has no choice but to get her miles in before work because she has kids, so she's almost always running close to marathon pace and sometimes much quicker just to get it done. Result is often forced down weeks, burnout, niggles, and inevitably injuries. But you can't fault her because she's trying to build fitness in the tiny sliver of time she's been able to carve out. As someone with no kids and few responsibilities, I can run in the morning but, if I don't feel like it, I always have time after work. I wouldn't dream of going full r/rcj on her by telling her to slow down as that would extend a 5am 12-miler from 1h35 to 2h or more.

However, I have no sympathy whatsoever if running, and Knowing About Running, is your literal job. You train and race, make content about training and racing, but most importantly, you recover. Yet you're still constantly underperforming and getting injured from going too hard on easy days, bragging about Seeing God on quality days, "running through" persistent niggles, jumping into doubles because it's trendy (and Coach Said To Do It™) before coming close to maximising potential on singles... It's pure ego at that stage, no excuses.

The elevation gain of the Stockholm Half Marathon was 155 meters according to my watch, and 138 meters according to the organizers. Not exactly flat, but you can’t really say it was very hilly either. I think he ran at 100% effort, and he has trained himself into overtraining.

Clayton is several leagues more professional. But I think Clayton has overdone a lot of workouts keeping up with Connor over the years. And even once it was clear that Connor could handle more training than Clayton, Clayton still has the tendency to make the gap as small as possible.

Coach Eyestone gives Clayton leeway which I think Clayton mishandles. Looking at their 12mi PMP, I was cringing when Eyestone was clearly skeptical that Clayton had just done MP. Of course the last few miles were a little hot, but the rest of it wasn’t MP either imo. At least Clayton reported lower RPE on it than he had done in the past. Who knows - maybe it was the right effort for that day. But at the same time it’s an admittance that he has run a lot of workouts too fast in the past.

If you’re catching up on all the Clayton series you should keep track of every time a workout is run faster than prescribed and/or whenever Clayton is given leeway if he does less/slower or more/faster than Eyestone suggests.

Clayton doesn’t strike me as having the best mentality amongst pros. Seems like an overthinker and maybe has confidence issues. He says the right things but it comes across like he knows that’s how he ought to think but has trouble really feeling that way. Still leagues better than typical YouTubers and a universe away from whatever’s going on with Philly.

I like Jakob’s vibe much better. He’s very focused on performing his training exactly right while staying as relaxed and casual as possible and exuding confidence.

We found out with that lactate test right before London that Felton hasn't a clue about his own body, what pace he is capable of or how to hold back for the long term good. The lad hasn't a clue

I heard him on a podcast and he said he originally was going to call the series Two Four Seven (as in 24/7 or 2:47) because he erroneously thought that 2:47 was the difference between his PR and a 2:29:59. However, he later realized although his gun time was 2:32:46, the Chip Time was 2:32:44 and the difference was only 2:45. So he shifted to “No Time”.

I find Clayton's style of video more engaging and am seeing a lot of other pros starting similar documentary style channels recently like Jakob as well as videos from pros that aren't necessarily the best such as Team Makou, John Heymans and Adam Fogg. This makes me wonder if we will see a decline in channels like Ben Felton and Nick Bester who I feel got many views through being some of the fastest people showing and explaining their training for all to see. I certainly am now only watching videos from pros as well as RTJ who I just find entertaining since the style and content of his videos are so different.

floberg is insufferable and continues to be a douchebag. im pretty sure he isnt a trust fund baby as others alluded to a few pages back. think the guy lives in a modest house in the burbs and just made bank of his photo/wedding business in the past few years. now he can live off his running 'coaching' (which i still think he's a con artist for doing this, but more power to him for the suckers who want to pay him over a grand per year for services), youtube adsense/sponsors, and selling online video/phot making classes. he's made videos of how much $ he makes annually in the past and it was like 250k/yr. pretty solid for what's probably passive income at this point and no real work...even though he has a family of 4-5 to support, his wife doesnt work and just watches and teaches their kids full time so they dont have to pay for childcare. i do 100% agree he was the photo kid throughout school but now wants to be the jock and its completely pathetic how enthralled he is with his abs and looking physically good.

ben is running - that stockholm video was laughable. all that production, drama, and doc style filming for a 74 min half. dude really does have main character syndrome and its cringeworthy to see him sell his soul to every brand out there and put so much 'seriousness' into a video like that to be running a mediocre time that 1000s of men are running faster than who dont make their whole life and identify a running spectacle online. now that i say that, this is exactly like floberg's whole series as well lmao

and yet these 2 guys seem to have countless drones of male fans and commenters who kiss their butts on every video. how do people like this exist who actually enjoy their content that much lmao

Add Ryan Thompson to the list. Huge fan of anytime his dad is involved. Imagine it would be impossible to overinflate your ego with that man around. In one video Ryan said something like "Fine, I'll just stop talking then" and with all the subtle heft of an axe behind it, dad just goes, "Good." In another one he started loudly snoring within two seconds of Ryan trying to discuss his lactate thresholds. Brilliant content.

I stopped watching him first time he tried double threshold a few years back. He measured too high lactate and said that something must be wrong with the lactate meter and kept going too fast instead of adjusting.

Bloberg’s latest video is insanely cringe. He advertises some dumb new super food bowl company, so he and his wife can avoid eating cheeseburgers during a lake weekend (dude you’re running 90 mile weeks you can definitely eat a cheeseburger).

Films his wife and kid at 6 in the morning on a random weekday just trying to make and enjoy breakfast.

Asks his wife about his six pack in the most awkward back and forth exchange ever, during which she is clearly uncomfortable.

Excuses some of his training because he has to go clean up a condo he still owns in ‘the city’ because a tenant allegedly trashed it.

I didn’t watch the rest so I’m guessing there’s more. Gonna go puke now.

Is Sam Parsons elite or an influencer? He straddles the line IMO. Him trying to sell Tracksmith's whatever collection by posting a video of him hopping down the front stretch in the German Nationals to German rap is really a sight to behold.