The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

One is hot and the other is the fashionjogger.

Lol, excellent.

I get the hesitancy about NSA’s lack of hard long runs (though the special block has a few big boys, there’s no huge continuous MP).

But how many people have done easier training and then absolutely smashed their first big training session?

And how many have smashed a big MP session and then felt worse in the race despite tapering, faster shoes, etc?

We all know how easy it is to go too hard in a training session and then come up short on race day. So if you think of NSA as advanced base training that’s setting you up to smash your first hard session but you run a race instead of smashing a session, then you understand it. The marathon special block is somewhere in the middle. It’s not keeping you super fresh but it doesn’t have a truly killer session. There’s a higher chance of messing up the training though.

Re: Floberg. Can’t believe how accurate my prediction turned out. I still think he could have run 2:31:30 or so. He needs to adjust what he thinks MP feels like now that his newb gains have ground to a halt. Someone just posted his PR progression. With the huge newb gains he made over and over, he never learned how to pace a marathon. He’s actually quite close to well paced races in McKirdy and yesterday. He has slight fades, not huge blowups.

To his credit, he thought he got a lot fitter and still went for the 2:30:00, not a 2:28 or whatever. So in a way he was smarter about pacing. He was just wrong about being fitter. I also still think he got fitter in a way, just not a helpful way for making a big leap on race day. Also he deserves some respect for consistency while others regress, really blow up, etc.

I'm curious what the Floberg obsession is all about. He doesn't really get that many views on his videos relative to some of the other youtubers, and he has < 40k followers on instagram. I haven't watched his stuff, is he just THAT annoying?

A big part of the hate here is that he thinks he is some sort of filmmaking auteur, creating some drama that didnt exist and, probably most importantly, he is selling his coaching to tens of people for $100 a month. He is basically stealing a living off of people who dont know better. He is a modern day snake oil salesman

makes sense, with the numbers I posted above though.. how does this guy do this full-time? I don't understand the economics of these bozos

It is kind of wild how Floberg doesn't even get mentioned over on r/blogsnark... He is not half the villain among females that Caitlyn Miller is, for instance. You'll see much cattier commentary over there on more popular influencers that don't even get a mention here

he's made videos of his annual income and networth on youtube in the past. not sure if they're still up but you can search. before his running channel 'took off', dude was apparently making ~$250k through wedding photography and selling online photography/videomaking courses. so he's not hurting for money and does pretty well for himself for self employment tbh. i dont know how much he makes from running but i imagine its at least 100k, since he's ripping people off with his 'coaching' and making somewhere between 25-45k alone with that (which is insane and he should be ashamed of himself that he's charging people $100+/monthly for bs coaching). on top of that, he makes youtube ad money + probably has sponsorships and brand deals. and i think he still sells the non-running related videography classes so presumably he still pockets thousands from that which is basically passive income since he doesn't have to do any work for it now.

blowberg definitely reports his 'online running persona' on his taxes as a business, so he's for sure writing off tax deductions for his race kits, shoes, flights to races, filming equipment for his running videos, etc. so basically all of that is 'free' for him and offsetting the income he says he makes from this whole running thing. honestly good for you floberg for monetizing the whole thing, but the way you do it and how you portray yourself is very off putting. but i hope you're happy with all the bot followers or mindless hobby joggers that continue to only give you positive comments.

i think caitlin is so pathetic that most of us just completely avoid and truly do not watch the content lol. at least with floberg is easy to hate watch the guy and get pissed off at his coach scamming and overdramatic stupid videos. there's a reason to follow the journey and criticize how embarassing he is to the running community. caitlin just strikes me as a weirdo and self centered main character tik tok girl. i dont even know exactly what her whole gig is but i used to see ig reels pop up until i blocked her. it probably helps she doesnt do youtube either so we dont have any long form videos to bit*ch about from her. but she is absolutely insufferable, ill easily say that lol

Yo no one has mentioned Thomas from BITR as the real winner of all the shoetubers in Chicago. Basically an even split 3:51. A solid nine minutes under the sub 4 pace group he’s promised to lead at nyc in less than a month. Barely broke a sweat. Wore cool baggie pants before the shakeouts. Ate a hotdog with only ketchup after as a big eff you to Chicago. Mad respect

Floberg just posted on Instagram his marathon progression and asked if he continues to struggle. You guys think he read this thread and figure it out?🤷‍♂️

Mo Abdin's marathon is still labelled "Morning Run" on strava 🤣

Its hard to shake the feeling that all of the hate towards Floberg on this forum is rooted jealousy for a man that found a way to earn money off of the hobby that we all share and enjoy. Yes, the videos are dramatic - but the guy is a hobbyist video producer and enjoys the process of trying to create compelling films. Floberg doesn't train perfectly but is clearly putting in effort and attempting to improve, and its probably not fair to judge him harshly given that he got into running seriously as an adult and didn't grow up with a TF/XC background that many of us have. I am rooting for the guy to succeed and hope that he continues to enjoy the process of running and smashes his PBs.

And no, I don't watch the majority of his videos. I'll admit they are long and at times redundant. Just don't get the hate for the man.

What shoes did he wear? Evo Pros? Did he bicarb? Don't leave us hanging!!!

I'm not a Floberg hater. I think his progression is quite fun to watch and he clearly put in the work. Sure his training may rub some of you the wrong way but who amongst us hasn't made training mistake?

I do think his "coaching" business is lame though. Just because he made good progress in the marathon doesn't mean he's qualified as a running coach 🤷‍♂️

Probably true. However, even unsophisticated coaches can provide a valuable accountability requirement to training for a client and prevent them from second guessing themselves.

And we are all running nerds on Letsrun. Lots of people out there have no clue how to train, and he could provide value to them just by helping them do something similar to what Pfitz recommends rather than the runners world beginners plan.

Plugging Ben Felton's stunning 28:30 Vitality 10K time into a race equivalency calculator and adjusting for the sizzling conditions (110F, 100% humidity, 40mph winds) and it spat out 26:23!

Can we expect a world record from the charismatic Brit in the next few months?

Good time by Run The Planet at Manchester half marathon. Definitely getting closer to being in sub 3 mara shape but maybe needs to slice another couple minutes off that half time and so sub 40 in the 10k. Looks like he met up with Donato there too who will be looking for their first sub 3 too.

I just found this site and have become quite entertained. I am sadly one of the suckers that tried out $120 a month coaching and can inform you that everything you say about floberg could not be more accurate. How the floberg coaching goes is he gets a new cohort of athletes 2 x a year. He plans a zoom call and informs you first thing that no one is at his level and probably never will be and that no one should be running the miles that he does and ensures that by not letting anyone run more than 50 miles at peak. He also informs you that he will not give you paces to run, His model is to pick your goal marathon time and then go to vdot, type in your goal marathon time and use those as your training paces. You then get your cookie cutter training plan for the month and he lets you know its okay to switch around days if you need to. I don't think he ever actually looks at your workouts or gives any feedback. He does have a private strava group that if you are really "lucky" get a single emoji comment from him. The only way you can communicate with him is via patron and he would respond in 4-5 days because he is "busy" but the responses are short and vague and not really helpful. He advertises 1-2 coaching meetings a month but if you lucky he would schedule one every 6-8 weeks, The calls would always be without notice "hey the next coaching call will be tomorrow at 6" and sometimes after rescheduling your life to attend he would cancel 1 hour before because his kids have baseball.
I realized very quickly this was a joke and a scam and did my own training after a couple of months but continued the subscription for the friendships. the Strava group is really fun as everyone helps and encourages everyone and on the Patron group, athletes set up links for everyone to track on race day. The breaking point is he did not devote a shake out run or any time for us at Chicago just said come to the BPN shakeout and then did not bother to stick around to watch his athletes finish yesterday. I can confirm 95% did not hit goal time, blew up or DNF. So you would all be correct stating he knows nothing about running and believes he is god.