The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

As someone that ran two marathons while screwing around with lots of drinking and peaking 60kmpw at the age of 40 and getting 3:35 on a hilly course I cannot fathom how bad you have to be to run this badly.

Thanks for sharing your achievements yet again. Honestly, a 4:20 with that kind of training is rock bottom, but you really don’t need to constantly bring up your “accomplishments”—yes, we all know you ran a 3:35 on bad habits and poor training. Do you want a LR medal for it?

I know of 2 guys who are National Record holders for countries in Asia, but the times still aren't quick. Doesn't matter if you're the tallest midget, elite is an international comparison of ability, not just if you can dunk on the people where you're from but still run slow

Just a really bad case of overtraining or something else I wonder?

Picking a hilly, championship race run in summer, where the winner broke the Olympic Record, running close to 3 minutes slower than his PB certainly is a choice. Oh and the winner wasn't even initially selected because of the depth of 'elite' runners in Ethiopia.

As a 3:35 marathoner (it was a hilly course!) that is smashing beers everyday and peaking at 60kmpw, give us the one true definition of 'elite'. Where do we move from 'elite' to 'sub-elite'? 3:36?

Ben Parks, around a month out from a “grade 3 calf tear” and a cancelled trip to Sydney, is back out there getting it done and ready to begin speed work again “very soon”

I don’t even know how you’d get a meaningful sense of finish time from a guy who’s barely run slogging through a bunch of mileage with trashed legs and some arbitrary ‘marathon pace’ workouts with no concept of how they’re supposed to feel. Like, best case I think someone with a fair bit of experience could narrow it down to a ~15 minute range and adjust on the day, but that would be almost entirely based on prior history and a practical understanding of the distance. Most coaches would likely just tell them to freshen up and run a 10k-half at the very least, excluding obvious “wtf dude” discussion, but I guess now all the influencers have an app that throws out some dumb*ss prediction based on the price of tea in India or whatever.

That aside, you’re running a marathon basically off the couch. Just finishing is an entirely acceptable goal and a pretty significant accomplishment in itself, anything more is just a bunch of unrealistic expectations and strava hype that’s far more likely to detract from your performance on the day.

Just look at his (Sean Casey) last long run here

3.30 elapsed time and obviously cooked by the end of mile 18, just pushed 19-21 for the sake of having miles on strava.

In the marathon the bonk really started at mile 18 again, and his heart rate was 180 by mile 2, I know he's a young man but still it wasn't going to be sustainable for the full 26.2

strava.app.link

Berlin Marathon ❤️ | Strava

Not the time I wanted but the legs just went completely and I had nothing left to give. Proud of myself for making it over the finish line because at a few stages I genuinely thought I wouldn’t. There is no such thing as fail...

Open link

Parks is a great example of what happens when you try to overcook yourself to please the internet.

Wow, that mustache is so cringeworthy. It makes him look like an out-of-work prn star. I used to be a big fan of SJD before it all went sideways. I can't even watch anymore. Is the kid total still at 6....?

I don’t enjoy the self-aggrandizement of running influencers, but I have to admit I find the petty policing of totally subjective terms like “elite” to be equally tiresome and cringy.

99% sure he said 30 hours a week and that was the osteo stuff, not including the coaching and travel.

Funny how things change, last time I checked this thread everyone was worshiping him, and a few months later (today) I read a couple of pages and he's getting shredded.

Fabulous new video by Griff Duncan. One of the best up and coming, new running tubers.

Finding his training series to get a Boston qualifier time very informative and inspiring.

Check it out and subscribe if you haven’t already

So Floberg was out today for 4 x 2k @ 5.25 per mile average followed by 4 x 1k @ 5:15 per mile average. He was absolutely buzzing he didnt walk! The man should be able to handle these workouts on his mileage.

Apparently he "goes long" on Sunday with a big workout. Flobergs Bullsh1t Bingo card has the following:

He runs his reps too hard

He throws up

He poops

He runs on the shore/lake path or whatever and has tail wind for most of it

He says "core memory, "blessed", "privileged", "so fit right now" or "I love this community"

He goes bare chested

Not a single rep on his workout is over 2k long

Will we get the full house?

I'm gonna agree that elite is about being one of the very best at an international level. I think meeting the olympic standard in your discipline is a pretty good guideline.

This is, imo, the wrong way of considering it. The point here is that context is important - being 15th in an Olympic field is a different kettle of fish to an annual UK women's marathon ranking - considering the lack of competitive depth in UK female marathon running.

To continue your argument to it's most extreme - if being top 15 in the Olympic marathon therefore means that being top 15 in another results listing makes one an elite athlete is the person running 21 minutes at my local parkrun elite - and if not, why not? (I assume that the why not will be because the context of the list is important).

I'd also go to the wider point that 'elite' is slightly subjective - which you've not included, and I think covers some of the sentiment you're making. You're taking elite, I feel, to mean at the pointier end of competition; which is absolutely fine nobody will argue that's not a valid use - but I'd argue you still need to have an idea of the level of competition that you're applying it to (as highlighted by the parkrun point). And therefore we're both doing the same thing - you've just drawn the line in a different place, but have defined it poorly with the Olympic example so would probably have to be specific about where you draw the line of 'elite' competition.

He made a foolish decision to do Berlin after London, presumably because of financial incentives from adidas and pressure to produce content for an audience which blew up overnight after his 2:16, and overcooked himself. Silly thing to do and but people really need to calm down and get some perspective, overtraining and running a bad marathon isn’t some kind of moral failure. I’m sure most of us have done similar.
Hopefully he realises the mistake he made, takes a few weeks off and a month of jogging and then builds back safely. He’s so much talent it, and seems like a good guy, would be a real shame if he dug himself into a hole.

Enjoying Donato’s videos currently

Here's the crazy thing. He probably wasn't even paid anything by Start Fitness or Adidas. Just free kit. He's got 18.5k subscribers on YouTube. He's not that big of a deal (although he probably thinks otherwise) He also hasn't exactly been throwing the YouTube content out there. His Berlin "series" was 3 videos?

The lad needs more than a free weeks off. He has a serious illness, one that you probably shouldn't be running if you have. He needs to take a deep breath. Stop and have a look at how he got in this mess