Cole Gibbins confirms Ben Connor & Lily Partridge will coach him - I have no idea who they are but I am also not British. I assume it will be a good move for him and hopefully fewer 200km+ weeks.
Very few comments about "It's On Andy" Andy Maguire on here. He is a decent channel. Nice guy, just enjoying his running and his life. He ran a sub 90 HM on Sunday and seems to improve with every race he runs
Check out donata aka poetwithpace's new video of the Manchester half. It's a humdinger, oh yes, with one of the zaniest characters in the running YouTuber sphere, and I believe one of the original running youtubers going back nearly a decade, and has over 10k subs which speaks for itself
I lost all respect for him when he dropped a video on the London Marathon the day after the marathon not pointing out it was for the previous year. When someone pointed it out in the comments he got all sarcastic.
Felt sorry for him in the past when he had injuries and lost an accommodation booking in Boston one year but now hes shown his true colours.
Very few comments about "It's On Andy" Andy Maguire on here. He is a decent channel. Nice guy, just enjoying his running and his life. He ran a sub 90 HM on Sunday and seems to improve with every race he runs
His podcast with Brett is pretty good. normally about 2 hours+ long so good for a long run. Running the Red Line.
To be fair (ish) to Bester on this one I don't think it's unreasonable that he mostly does his own running at these camps. Like, he is way way better than the runners in his team/club/cult - I don't think it would make much sense for him to be doing the same sessions, or doing them with these people. Just take a look at some of the pictures from his recent France retreat, clearly he's got very different performance goals from everyone else there. Although having seen him around races and reading around other comments and his general vibe I can absolutely believe he'd be a terrible person to be stuck living with for a week.
I would caveat the defence with why are you bothering to encourage some of these people on training camps? For someone who's absolutely maxing performance vs their work/life limitations it makes sense to want to go and be distraction free for a week or so. Skimming 10-15% off the booking fee from Joe Bloggs who's trying to run a sub 4 marathon off of 25-30mpw isn't this. At this point maybe you do have to ask if it's just a convoluted way of failing to beat the Battersea park swingers association rumours.
While we're talking Bester it's quite funny that despite being the founder of and having total control of his 'club' he hasn't bothered to sort out entry to any UK XC leagues - something that's quite a big part of the club culture for heaps of clubs up and down the country... So he's got to join some other club to be able to enter into a league, but for some reason he doesn't join one of the TWO decent competitive clubs in Winchester and enter into his home league, where he can race top level athletes from Bournemouth and Aldershot. I've race with/against Ellis Cross, Jack Rowe and Abdinassir Mohamoud Elmi (although there are rumours about him in local running whatsapps that suggest he might need to ask Matt Fox for tips on staying fit inside). Does he just hate spending time with his family? Come on man, just join your local club and do some local races if you need a second claim.
I might be wrong, but I read the original post as meaning they paid for a training camp organised by Bester. In which case that would be completely unacceptable behaviour.
I read it the same but think if you look at it from the perspective of two athletes with different goals being at the same camp they might do runs at the same time but they probably won't do the same sessions, or distances.
The problem comes if you think you're going to a camp with a serious coach who'll be monitoring and interacting with you during sessions. Anyone who thinks Bester views himself in that role rather than a copy paste coach (other than for a single, usually female, athlete who commands an inordinate amount of his attention and efforts) is frankly kidding themselves.
He's obviously taking himself on these training camps as an athlete, creaming off his travel fees from the followers, rather than going to coach them. Yeah I agree the practice overall is really scummy and taking advantage of people (who ultimately have no place going on camps, but if they want to spend their money on them that's their prerogative and I don't have that much sympathy). But once you see why he's their and what he's doing it makes sense for him not to really interact with you around the running much - I mean he's already 'created' the cookie cutter plans so what more does he need to do? Can people really be surprised or disappointed that he acts exactly like anyone on this forum could guess he'd act on a camp with people hours plus slower over the marathon than him?
I might be wrong, but I read the original post as meaning they paid for a training camp organised by Bester. In which case that would be completely unacceptable behaviour.
I read it the same but think if you look at it from the perspective of two athletes with different goals being at the same camp they might do runs at the same time but they probably won't do the same sessions, or distances.
The problem comes if you think you're going to a camp with a serious coach who'll be monitoring and interacting with you during sessions. Anyone who thinks Bester views himself in that role rather than a copy paste coach (other than for a single, usually female, athlete who commands an inordinate amount of his attention and efforts) is frankly kidding themselves.
He's obviously taking himself on these training camps as an athlete, creaming off his travel fees from the followers, rather than going to coach them. Yeah I agree the practice overall is really scummy and taking advantage of people (who ultimately have no place going on camps, but if they want to spend their money on them that's their prerogative and I don't have that much sympathy). But once you see why he's their and what he's doing it makes sense for him not to really interact with you around the running much - I mean he's already 'created' the cookie cutter plans so what more does he need to do? Can people really be surprised or disappointed that he acts exactly like anyone on this forum could guess he'd act on a camp with people hours plus slower over the marathon than him?
IMHO if you’re there in a coaching capacity your athletes 100% come first. I do not care how fast you think you are or how you choose to market yourself, your value in that role is determined by the support and attention you provide to them. If that doesn’t align with your own training, you adjust your scheduling or priorities accordingly like every other person with a job and responsibilities. Jesus man, they’re paying out the ass for a camp just so they can get a few days of in-person contact while making it fiscally possible for you be entirely self-absorbed the other 51 weeks of the year, just use it as an easy double or something.
i can understand why online coaching has value to adult amateurs runners given lifestyle constraints, but I am really not a fan of the standard social media sets for coaching in general. Fair game if people want to pay for it i guess, but there are countless community running groups run by vastly more experienced, qualified and invested people for a fraction of the cost that provide way more value on an individual and community level, and I think it sucks when that gets overlooked in favour of this sh*t. At least don’t slap a $40 branded hat on it and call it ‘community.’
My take is that Bester is only doing XC for content creation, hence why doing it in London for a larger field vs a smaller local race. We all know he is all about road running and chasing PBs. I'm sure XC is just a distraction for him in his training but it's a way of creating a click-bait youtube video
I heard he did try to get his company into the Surrey League but they were turned down as the league wasn't convinced that a for profit organisation would put enough care, effort and money into hosting their races when their turn came. Not that they'd be anywhere near div 1.
My take is that Bester is only doing XC for content creation, hence why doing it in London for a larger field vs a smaller local race. We all know he is all about road running and chasing PBs. I'm sure XC is just a distraction for him in his training but it's a way of creating a click-bait youtube video
Everything Bester does is a work. This is not the real man. He wants attention and clicks. His entire gimmick is similar to a WWE wrestler. Behind the curtain he's a different man.
I read it the same but think if you look at it from the perspective of two athletes with different goals being at the same camp they might do runs at the same time but they probably won't do the same sessions, or distances.
The problem comes if you think you're going to a camp with a serious coach who'll be monitoring and interacting with you during sessions. Anyone who thinks Bester views himself in that role rather than a copy paste coach (other than for a single, usually female, athlete who commands an inordinate amount of his attention and efforts) is frankly kidding themselves.
He's obviously taking himself on these training camps as an athlete, creaming off his travel fees from the followers, rather than going to coach them. Yeah I agree the practice overall is really scummy and taking advantage of people (who ultimately have no place going on camps, but if they want to spend their money on them that's their prerogative and I don't have that much sympathy). But once you see why he's their and what he's doing it makes sense for him not to really interact with you around the running much - I mean he's already 'created' the cookie cutter plans so what more does he need to do? Can people really be surprised or disappointed that he acts exactly like anyone on this forum could guess he'd act on a camp with people hours plus slower over the marathon than him?
IMHO if you’re there in a coaching capacity your athletes 100% come first. I do not care how fast you think you are or how you choose to market yourself, your value in that role is determined by the support and attention you provide to them. If that doesn’t align with your own training, you adjust your scheduling or priorities accordingly like every other person with a job and responsibilities. Jesus man, they’re paying out the ass for a camp just so they can get a few days of in-person contact while making it fiscally possible for you be entirely self-absorbed the other 51 weeks of the year, just use it as an easy double or something.
i can understand why online coaching has value to adult amateurs runners given lifestyle constraints, but I am really not a fan of the standard social media sets for coaching in general. Fair game if people want to pay for it i guess, but there are countless community running groups run by vastly more experienced, qualified and invested people for a fraction of the cost that provide way more value on an individual and community level, and I think it sucks when that gets overlooked in favour of this sh*t. At least don’t slap a $40 branded hat on it and call it ‘community.’
Agree on everything here really - esp the idea that for a coach on a training camp the athletes experience should come first - but I just think that anyone who expects that to be their experience when they pay to go to a Best athletics camp is a bit of a rube. I don't think you can see everything he puts out and think that'll be the case.
I've been on camps with coaches who are also trying to run and follow the programmes and it's always been like you say - hold the stopwatch and the whistle during the session, give feedback in real time then when people are cooling down, getting changed, whatever do your session. I just don't see why anyone who has seen what he does and how he does it expects that Bester will do that for them, even if it is only for a week (long weekend for some of his French ones too rather than any useful amount of time isn't it?)
Im not sure it is a work, I think what you see is what you get with him and he's no different in front of the camera as he is behind it! Must be exhausting though for all around him.
On the topic of his cult camps, I would be very annoyed if i'd signed up for a camp expecting to get in-person and in-the-moment feedback e.g. running form and for him not to take any notice and just go off and do his own thing, and then to come back at the end for a photo so it looks like it was a group session
I heard he did try to get his company into the Surrey League but they were turned down as the league wasn't convinced that a for profit organisation would put enough care, effort and money into hosting their races when their turn came. Not that they'd be anywhere near div 1.
I dunno, British Airways have a team in the league so I'm doubtful the for profit org is a stopper. I can see why the league wouldn't want to be associated with them though
The BA team will be part of the social club and not the airline. We have a couple of 'works' teams here, where the original company has long ceased to exist.
I haven't watched it yet, but it couldn't have been worse conditions than at Vitality, surely?
Definitely wasn't as warm, although most people were in vests so not exactly ideal conditions. The main thing looked to be the conditions underfoot - no idea how he managed to get round in one piece.
I've criticised Cole in this thread before but good on him being humble and honest about his struggles in his latest video. I hope things start going well for him with these changes