What is wrong with you people? Roche was totally transparent about his training strategy. He said there were better athletes than him running and that his edge needed to be training differently. It worked for a CR at Leadville. He tried anorher approach for Western States and it didn’t work out. Good for him trying. The level of resentment and vitriol expressed in these threads says a lot more about the commenters’ insecurities and need to claim some kind of expertise than about Roche. Better to have dared and failed than sit at home and never tried.
What's wrong with us? Nothing. Some of us might just know how ultrarunning works. The Leadville record could have been broken in the last 15 years. Anton could have done it. It just didn't happen since Leadville has such a stupid system to select their runners. They didn't choose Jim Walmsley in one year because they didn't know who he was.
Roche made a big show of his pretentious training. Obviously it didn't work. And then a quiet aging Spaniard shows up and finishes third just 9 minutes behind the winner. Funny how that all works.
In one of his Strava posts recently he has a photo of Michael Jordan. Wasn’t sure what’s his point, but Michael Jordan didn’t talk, and he was fueled from those who questioned him
In one of his Strava posts recently he has a photo of Michael Jordan. Wasn’t sure what’s his point, but Michael Jordan didn’t talk, and he was fueled from those who questioned him
Except that:
—MJ is MJ. Roche isn’t. He’s not a top ultra runner of all time and it’s not even close.
What is wrong with you people? Roche was totally transparent about his training strategy. He said there were better athletes than him running and that his edge needed to be training differently. It worked for a CR at Leadville. He tried anorher approach for Western States and it didn’t work out. Good for him trying. The level of resentment and vitriol expressed in these threads says a lot more about the commenters’ insecurities and need to claim some kind of expertise than about Roche. Better to have dared and failed than sit at home and never tried.
Why would he change his approach? WS and Leadville are pretty similar: hilly but mostly runnable, hot, etc...
He was totally open about trying something very different that might blow up. The “savant” title is totally on you. Doing marginal gains is fine, and safe, but it doesn’t push the envelope. He shared his training approach in case it did work so others could benefit.
He was totally open about trying something very different that might blow up. The “savant” title is totally on you. Doing marginal gains is fine, and safe, but it doesn’t push the envelope. He shared his training approach in case it did work so others could benefit.
Real men finish their races. David had plenty left in the tank. He DNF’d simply bc he didn’t want to finish outside of contention
I am not a big fan of David and I can definitely understand why he annoys a lot of people. That being said, there are no doubts that he is a very solid ultrarunner. Moreover, the fact that two of his athletes were in TOP 10 and one of them had a really outstanding performance, shows that he must have some decent understanding of how to prepare well for Western States. The problem is of course with applying it objectively to himself, as this knowledge clearly has to compete with some kind of desperate craving for attention. I personally believe that it is no accidental that best athletes in this sport rarely much fuss about themselves, perhaps even to the point of exaggeration in the other direction.