The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

The punishment for dopers should be to watch Phily Bowden's entire youtube catalog in a locked room while being tied down to a chair.

Good point! Allie's transparency on ED recovery and Spencer's burnout are perfect examples of the immense pressure in the fitness creator space.

Evans has run 63:14 HM and 13:41 for 5k on the roads.

I can see why they do it, but I think that changing what they make to fit the LRC members is not the swiftest business decision. The brojos have cornered that market, I think.

I don’t understand how he fits the running in. 140 mile weeks at times whilst also working/commuting/filming videos. It may not be full time but it’s still a lot. You would never have anywhere enough time to get the right amount of food in. He’s run another 50k today with 2 sessions as well.

I see pro athletes like Clayton Young and Conner Mantz running 110-130 mile weeks with less hard days and slower easy run wonder why these YouTubers need to do more.

"YouTuber Griff Duncan" here. I ran a 3:05 6 weeks later. And no, I never tried to rewrite the rules because it was "boring." Also, "a few weeks of training" was a 16 week build... Keep following along and watching instead of doing things yourself.

Yes, the thought process does confuse me slightly. Cole is doing up to 20 miles more than pros like Mantz and Young with a decent amount more intensity when you include his relatively fast ‘easy’ runs.

Is the idea to use this added volume and intensity to catch up to the pros to eventually secure a pro contract? I imagine that if these full-time professionals (Mantz, Young, etc.) could healthily and consistently handle this intensity then they already would be. People are highly individual of course, but it doesn’t seem likely that a youtuber without a full-time coach, whilst working a full-time job can also handle more intensity than these guys, especially when you consider that Cole has already dealt with a stress fracture and is supposedly handling RED-S related symptoms and low testosterone. It doesn’t seem like a recipe for longevity.

Anyway, I guess Cole might also be thinking that if he doesn’t roll the dice with this thing then he won’t have any chance getting as fast as he needs to be to secure a pro contract. Given his milage and his recent time in London, he's probably willing to.

Christ, you’re like a Poundland Matt Choi

Over 300 pages of messages with every YouTuber in the world having some sort of mention and this is the first time I've ever even heard your name.

The saddest thing of all is that it is you who are mentioning it

It’s called I just found out Let’s Run even existed, looked up my name, and found this and was just as shocked as you that someone with 1.5k subs and a channel with a handful of videos was even on here, so no, it was not me bringing it up if you know how read a thread.

Probably best to not respond. As you've seen, your mention was barely noticed and everyone moved on. Nothing to gain by duking it out in the comments here. Prove them wrong on the roads. Good luck.

Gotta say bud pretty poor form how you repeatedly fail to caveat that your marathon was massively downhill

Of course it doesn't work. He got family money or something and has been living off the investment.

Mantz and Young have Sunday off every week aswell, when was the last time Cole had a full day off?

Finally got round to watching Philly's latest video.

I felt she was unkind to Daniel. His life is essentially supporting and documenting her running. It doesn't seem like he gets to pursue much else at all.

He cheers her on during a training run. She quite aggressively tells him it was too much cheering and negative to her session

Pretty thoughtless and a bit hurtful to put that in. I'm sure he was just trying to do his "job".

Daniel likes it this way.

And reading between the lines, Cole initially went to an NHS doctor for his stomach issues. So he’s relying on GPs, who are very stretched and although are amazing, are not equipped to do anything about this issue in a timely manner. Cole mentioned on Strava that he was disappointed with the outcome of the appointment (I’m paraphrasing), and is now working with a nutritionist from early October, which he will presumably be footing the bill for. Mantz and Young have much better (almost immediate) access to people who know what they’re doing regarding food, physio, etc etc.

I think that lesson is something that ends up as the downfall of a lot of these Shoetubers types, especially those who came to running late. They start that upward trend and uncover that they have some talent to go beyond the usual realm of the beginners. For the guys it's that sweet spot between 2:30 and down to 2:20. So suddenly they start to aspire to something bigger than just running a good race and get a little high on their own supply when they get to share it across social media platforms.

But, again, they're usually a little naive. I'm not sure this applies to Philly specifically because I believe she did run in college and face some challenges there, but I think a lot of other run-fluencers do succumb to this. Instead of having these kinds of frustrations and challenges early on (say in high school not qualifying for state or having to walk on some college team or whatever) they start having them as a fully matured adult with a big audience, usually after they've started to feel like they know what they're doing. What annoys me most though is that they always talk like they know better, even when it's clear they're naive or struggling to get out of their own way. They'll sell training plans, make videos on new training methods, and shill products that will help them ace that next race. Only for it to "just not be their day."

One of the my favorite things about running and what I think makes it such a tough sport is that there is no hiding from it. If you have a bad day, there's not much that can save you and any excuse just feels weak. It happens to everyone but there's a way to respond to it that is most telling. I feel like most runfluencers and Shoetubers would much rather hide from the potential exposure of racing and just post highly controlled training videos to maintain the best facade they can.

Phily’s been running since she was roughly 10 years old, been through the UK club system, then went to uni in the UK, then the NCAA, only then did she start getting into social media upon her return. She’s certainly earned her stripes as a runner, yet as we see too often, once you enter the world of an influencer, you soon can become so caught up in your own bubble you forget what got you there in the first place.

That, and adding in a sprinkle of “I’m an aspiring professional athlete, I must operate at the highest level and scrutinise every element of my running and life”, is a disaster waiting to happen.