I bet this guy has a hemoglobin of 20. Crazy to think of the workouts I could do with that aerobic capacity. Plus the recovery would be so much faster with all those drugs.
I wonder what someone like this could do if he slimmed down to a competitive running weight but gave up the drugs.
I'm willing to bet he could get into the low 2:20s...maybe even break 2:20. He's obviously got endurance talent. Drugs don't make THAT much of a difference.
Part of me is concerned that this guy and Bare are likely on something. The other part of me is amused by the fact that many self-styled “pure” runners are getting beat and feeling threatened by guys with classic masculine physiques. They have to relive their childhood trauma of always losing in love and popularity to the football and weight room meatheads.
A bigger issue to consider is how are these guys training? Even with possible chemical help, are they doing things smarter and more efficiently than the runners that keep clinging to traditional methods? The drugs would only aid recovery and are not some magic substitute for the work. No stack takes a guy from a 55 VO2 to a 65+ without putting in the miles.
Could they be doing NSM and/or reading that thread? If these dudes are running 2:34 --stacked or not, jeans dude is almost as quick as Floberg -- they could simply be unaware of advanced running methodologies.
That said, if you're at a sub-3:00 level you're already seriously into the sport. I'd love to see their MP build.
Great defense. It’s like a man beating a woman in the marathon and saying she has an ego problem?
That looks like Truett or maybe his dad…possibly Nick B or Ken R? Either way, it comes off like a con.
Stop trying to play the role of some false prophet.
If you’re on something, say it. If you’re not, say that too. This whole idea that taking TRT makes someone “strong” is backward…it’s about skipping the actual “grind” and avoiding the natural process. Strength comes from putting in the work, not bypassing it.
It has taken me many years to master running a decent marathon. They have skipped the entire process and honestly achieved levels way above their pay-grade. They somehow justify it thinking they are just smarter or harder working and it’s the complete opposite.
His jeans are just tights with a jean pattern on them. Might as well call it a tights run. He is probably wearing them because he skips legs day and has chicken legs compared to his chest.
Anyone with a body builder tortoise shell belly has spent a small fortune doping. Would love to see him get “randomly” selected for testing. He is fast enough. Triathlon and Cycling are way ahead of running on this because they will test age groupers and masters.
The idea that he “beat” some LetsRun posters or ran by them in jeans and they’re the ones with egos? Come on. This entire grift is built on ego. If I’m taking TRT and I run by you at Boston did I beat you? He takes credit for a performance and masks it as something done “for the kids.” But the whole bro culture thrives on this fake facade. (When he’s on Rogan if he admits it that would be a good start) Running is one of the very few sports where a personal best takes years of consistent, honest effort. That’s why runners care so deeply and times and PR’s matter. It’s not about shortcuts. For these guys, though… It’s all about the clicks and likes. It turns the entire sport into a circus…and yes…Nick/Ken/Truett until proven wrong I think your all clowns.
Can they get popped for running 2:38? I mean, who is going to test these guys? They aren't pros. I was running sub 2:30s and never once got asked to take a drug test during my road racing days (I was tested many times in college).
Anyway, I think most of them are doped up meatheads. But believe it or not, I am not convinced Haines is on the juice. He may just be nuts. I will get massively downvoted for this, but 2:38 just isn't that fast. I know guys with love handles running high 2:30 times. If it is in you and you put in the work, it'll happen. Now, if he continues to drop time without dropping weight, I will change my mind.
The races should be testing them. Instead, we have the Eugene Marathon promoting this doping clown on their social media. (They've since deleted the post).
Their social team probably reads/is aware of LRC! (It's probably taboo in sports marketing/running to acknowledge this site or that reps visit it to get the scoop, even though it's awesome).
Watching and "Topless Jeans Guy Runs" past would be a WTF moment, like the time I saw Paul Martelletti run a 2.29 marathon dressed as spider man; however, it's not in any way entertaining.
For Topless Jeans Guy I get the feeling it's more for the shorts and socials afterwards, it has nothing to do with the crowd or running community.
Shirtless Jeans Guy admitted in one post that the whole schtick is to draw attention by doing something unusual and build his brand. Also there is a toss out to a charity if you buy the jeans. He's at least honest in this respect.
But it was a very WTF moment when he ran by. Don't think the guy has interest in interacting with or contributing to the running community. Share us your training plan, strength workout, nutrition, and recovery, and I'll believe differently.
It'd be wild if JeansBoy (not to be confused with the legendary shirtboy on the NSM thread) chimed in here.
Someone needs to wrangle him to this site. His presence may rustle up some controversy, though.
Calling it “mystery” is your defense mechanism because you’ve never felt what it’s like to become pain. You’re scared of anything that can’t be measured in milligrams, because you’ve never touched that place inside yourself where the pain doesn’t stop — and you don’t want it to.
No, you’re at pains because someone’s existence invalidates the story you tell yourself to sleep at night — that no one could possibly be that good unless they cheated. You don't even believe in greatness unless it's pre-approved by WADA and wearing Nike singlets. If someone steps outside that frame, you have to reduce them to vials and acronyms to protect your worldview — because God forbid it's just you who’s mid.
What’s impressive is building a monk-like system, running 100-mile weeks, living at altitude, then waking up the next day and doing it again — with bloodied hands and a smile. You strip out context because it's the only way you can pretend you’re still in the conversation.
Lol. You are simping HARD, huh? Here's the thing: Someone who really cared about maximizing their running performance would not actively take steps to make themselves slower. That's obvious, right? But, of course, no jeans and less upper body muscle means the attention/influencer money goes away. And, as has repeatedly been pointed out, that's what this is really about.
You want to get in good aerobic shape and also stay buff? Cool. But if you're gonna pretend that this exercise in vanity is some remarkable athletic achievement, or act like you're natty when you're clearly on gear, or show up to races trying to steal the spotlight from people who are actually good at running with stupid gimmicks, then you're going to catch some flack.
You can chalk this up as all coming from a place of insecurity if you want, but it's pretty wild to come to a website called "Letsrun.com" and assume that nobody has ever run 100 mile weeks at altitude or faster than a 2:34 marathon. Buddy, I've been there and done that. I'm simply unimpressed and irritated by all these "hybrid athlete" Instagram posers. Good on him for breaking an obscure pull-up record held by a different fitness influencer, but there is a difference between actual elite athletes and people who are good at working out. Your homeboy is the latter. "Greatness." Give me a break.
All of the dumb posters here just conveniently ignoring that he ran a marathon at 13 in 3:30hrs shows that it isnt really serious discussion anyway. These are just butthurt losers who're crying cause someone who looks better ran faster than them. This is not rational analysis it's a bunch of emotional babies being melodramatic.
Show me it's possible that you can run fast times and high mileage while carrying that much muscle and still be clean. All of the hybrid bros are looking for revenue stream.
This post was edited 44 seconds after it was posted.
Good post/points. Truett has made reference that when in HS he was mailing it in and not working hard especially during off season.
I tried to tie in Weldon Johnson here (founder, LRC) Weldon was a 31:xx in college and never progressed often injured. Them post college moved to Flagstaff and worked his way up to 100+mpw* The approach at the time was a mix of Maffetone (lowHR@8-9min/miles) with high altitude and only doing sessions on fresh legs which were consistent since the low HR/slow daily miles. All of this led to a consistent training stimulus absorbing training and realizing his talent running 28:10 for a 3+min PR.
We could also parallel this with Brian Sell since Truett's HS PRs are similar. Brian Sell ran 2:10.
The bottom line Truett could have always had this in him as a runner and is now realizing his training can be specific to what he benefits from.
I don't keep up with every influencer but I believe Bare's T results being flatlined pointed to exogenous T and subsequent break.
I think you're focused a little too much on the running aspect of all this. If this was just some running influencer with a mediocre set of high school PBs who ran two sub 2:40 marathons back to back, no one would really care. But when you're doing this as someone who is maintaining a heavy, muscular frame that doesn't slow him down or necessitate extra recovery time (quite the opposite, in fact) it reads as suspicious. Throw in the fact that it is basically his job to peacock on social media and compete for attention amongst the other roid runners, I'd say it doesn't look for him coming out clean. It's been a while since I read Weldon's article and am not too familiar with Brian Sell's progression but I doubt either of them took a detour into hybrid-athlete training, pullup world records, and then threw on a pair of jeans that they had a brand partnership deal with before they made their breakthroughs. Again, if it was just about the running it wouldn't be noteworthy, both for suspicions on here but also for Truett's social media marketing.
Brian Sell made huge progress running high mileage for Hansons (I believe sometimes up to 140 mpw) and weighing about 140 Lbs at 5'10, which is a fairly normal weight (maybe even slightly heavy) for a professional distance runner. He was definitely not doing hybrid training with weights. At most, he did some light strength training for injury avoidance, but not for muscle gain. Truett's marathon pr when he was 22 and weighed 155ish was 2:57, but somehow after gaining over 25 lbs of muscle, he is now running over 20 minutes faster? There is no way. Gaining muscle, (unless you were previously really skinny and weak and gained like 5lbs of muscle) will always make you a slower distance runner. Even when I gained 15 lbs of muscle going from 140ish to 155 made me a much slower distance runner. I know people who were 31 flat 10kers in college, who after taking some time off to focus on lifting and bulking, struggled to crack 1:30 in the half marathon. While I do know some very good distance runners with naturally more muscular builds, none of them were focused on lifting/body building, they just happened to be good runners who were more muscular than most.
The reason runners are so passionate(me-included) is because running is one of the few sports where results and times have real significance. Personal records carry almost a biblical weight. In a conversation between two runners say my friend Todd, a sub-30-minute 10K guy/14 flat 5K, and me someone who barely runs 33 minutes for 10K and can barely run 16 for 5K…there’s still a deep mutual respect. It’s actually rooted in a lack of ego. We train together and there is no doubt in my mind he is the better runner. Ask someone what they ran for the mile in high school, and they’ll say 4:30 or 4:59. But no one’s judging the 4:59 guy there’s an understanding between them. Because both have suffered, both have chased something. In the marathon, that depth of meaning runs even deeper. I’m barely a sub 2:30 guy… no faster. It often takes years sometimes a decade to run a “good” marathon. Then another decade trying to reach that PR again. It’s rare to stack breakthrough performances, even with great coaching and disciplined training. You need stellar weather, good health, and a bit of luck on race day. That process…the trials of miles as John Parker describes it…the setbacks…the “progress/process” is what makes the marathon so meaningful and why people on this thread are a bit tweaked. The time that earns you an OTQ or clearly not in my case …or a Boston qualifier…sub 3…2:36 etc… That’s not just a silly number. It means something to some of us.
Lol. You are simping HARD, huh? Here's the thing: Someone who really cared about maximizing their running performance would not actively take steps to make themselves slower. That's obvious, right? But, of course, no jeans and less upper body muscle means the attention/influencer money goes away. And, as has repeatedly been pointed out, that's what this is really about.
You want to get in good aerobic shape and also stay buff? Cool. But if you're gonna pretend that this exercise in vanity is some remarkable athletic achievement, or act like you're natty when you're clearly on gear, or show up to races trying to steal the spotlight from people who are actually good at running with stupid gimmicks, then you're going to catch some flack.
You can chalk this up as all coming from a place of insecurity if you want, but it's pretty wild to come to a website called "Letsrun.com" and assume that nobody has ever run 100 mile weeks at altitude or faster than a 2:34 marathon. Buddy, I've been there and done that. I'm simply unimpressed and irritated by all these "hybrid athlete" Instagram posers. Good on him for breaking an obscure pull-up record held by a different fitness influencer, but there is a difference between actual elite athletes and people who are good at working out. Your homeboy is the latter. "Greatness." Give me a break.
I think this is what really rubs me the wrong way about these social media hybrid athlete guys like Truett, Nick Bare, and the like. If they just wanted to run while lifting and accept that they're going to be slow, that's fine. If they just wanted to run relatively fast marathons and accept that they're going to lose muscle, that's fine. But these guys have to have it both ways. It is not enough for them because they need something to show off. Again, what's the difference between Truett running 2:59 and 2:38 in these marathons? I'm guessing 99.9999% of his followers wouldn't care and it would just be whatever. Same thing if he ran over 3 hours. But there's a weird ego thing where to them it has to be impressive. It has to be sub 2:40. They have to do it super jacked. In jeans too, for the marketing. Social media demands it!
And again, it is NOT INSPIRATIONAL! Even ignoring the doping red flags, any of these fitness influencer "achievements" lose credibility when it becomes their job. I stated it in my earlier post but I don't think it can be said enough how exercise isn't really that hard when it is your main job. They basically become professional "athletes" but with no performance standard. I guess maybe some will have to record a 2 hour podcast, take some promo photos, or hop on a call with their supplement line partners but I'm guessing they get a lot of wiggle room to fit in their workouts.
.... was 6'1 165 lbs. Hanes appears to be roughly the same weight even though he's about 8 inches shorter. For this to be a reasonable comparison, Solinsky would need to be over 200 lbs. Safe to say his body would not have held up under the same workload at that weight, considering it broke down at 165.
Shelby Houlihan, an American middle distance runner, Olympian, and World Record holder in the 4x1500m relay. Shelby competed in the 5000m final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, finishing 11th. She is a 12-time US National...
The reason runners are so passionate(me-included) is because running is one of the few sports where results and times have real significance. Personal records carry almost a biblical weight. In a conversation between two runners say my friend Todd, a sub-30-minute 10K guy/14 flat 5K, and me someone who barely runs 33 minutes for 10K and can barely run 16 for 5K…there’s still a deep mutual respect. It’s actually rooted in a lack of ego. We train together and there is no doubt in my mind he is the better runner. Ask someone what they ran for the mile in high school, and they’ll say 4:30 or 4:59. But no one’s judging the 4:59 guy there’s an understanding between them. Because both have suffered, both have chased something. In the marathon, that depth of meaning runs even deeper. I’m barely a sub 2:30 guy… no faster. It often takes years sometimes a decade to run a “good” marathon. Then another decade trying to reach that PR again. It’s rare to stack breakthrough performances, even with great coaching and disciplined training. You need stellar weather, good health, and a bit of luck on race day. That process…the trials of miles as John Parker describes it…the setbacks…the “progress/process” is what makes the marathon so meaningful and why people on this thread are a bit tweaked. The time that earns you an OTQ or clearly not in my case …or a Boston qualifier…sub 3…2:36 etc… That’s not just a silly number. It means something to some of us.
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