Slightly odd Strava update from ol' Seth. He's posted what appears to be an AI video of an eagle eating a weirdly generated garble of beaks/talons that vaguely resembles a four headed goose. Also the eagle's wings magically pass through a branch so I'm 99% sure this isn't something he has filmed on the trail.
What an enigma that man is.
Poncho Walk 2 -The Return of the King -Coming Soon
RTJ's dad posting an update on him in a comment on Strava:
"Man's not well. Time for rest, blood tests, and then return stronger and harder"
awww
But maybe return stronger and slightly less hard???? The (almost entire) absence of physical injury does not mean that he's not doing a real number on his hormonal health and adrenal system. Think of Ryan Hall's essentially forced retirement as an example. The body cannot just hammer huge mileage combined with frequent high intensity with basically no rest. Jake explicitly said on his livestream post-Valenica that Suguru Osako is such an outlier setting the Japanese NR because most Japanese runners retire at age 25... yet there he goes copying Japanese training plans from decades ago.
He then mentioned that he continues to pummel himself into the ground because he is convinced that this "run through a brick wall" approach is the only way he has been able to run even under 2:20... as a blanket response to criticism about his training. But how does he definitively know a change to a more sustainable methodology will be unsuccessful (especially when layered on top of a huge aerobic base)? Obviously the iron (and/or additional still undiagnosed) health problem(s) are/is an additional issue but that's a symptom of the crazy mileage rather than the sole cause for the in-race blackout.
He absolutely buried himself on Sunday in a way few of us will ever experience and which will take a sizable amount of time from which to recover yet he wants to race at least three more hard efforts this year. That is objectively insane (yet nevertheless applauded by his viewers because his channel is fun and engaging). But, think if this was a woman influencer/ runner. EVERYONE would be up in arms about "exercise addiction" and "unhealthy compulsion," and "likely eating problems" (for good measure). I'm not saying Jake exhibits any of these issues necessarily but it's an interesting thought experiment.
And, yes, I love the channel and have watched each video from the early days.
I'm with you.
It's one thing to do crazy mileage, but I don't think the combination with frequent racing and hard workouts is good in the long term.
Let's not forget the combination of all of that high mileage and continuous hard racing with getting medical advice from ChatGPT and being super blasé about anything related to his health. I think it also shows the dangers of being an influencer who has turned doing crazy/extreme running mileage into his brand.
I love Jake - he's super entertaining and a genuinely nice guy - but I really hope he takes on some real advice from running and medical experts here. His family seem super nice and I can imagine this was a shock to them as well - I hope they can talk some sense into the kid.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
But maybe return stronger and slightly less hard???? The (almost entire) absence of physical injury does not mean that he's not doing a real number on his hormonal health and adrenal system. Think of Ryan Hall's essentially forced retirement as an example. The body cannot just hammer huge mileage combined with frequent high intensity with basically no rest. Jake explicitly said on his livestream post-Valenica that Suguru Osako is such an outlier setting the Japanese NR because most Japanese runners retire at age 25... yet there he goes copying Japanese training plans from decades ago.
He then mentioned that he continues to pummel himself into the ground because he is convinced that this "run through a brick wall" approach is the only way he has been able to run even under 2:20... as a blanket response to criticism about his training. But how does he definitively know a change to a more sustainable methodology will be unsuccessful (especially when layered on top of a huge aerobic base)? Obviously the iron (and/or additional still undiagnosed) health problem(s) are/is an additional issue but that's a symptom of the crazy mileage rather than the sole cause for the in-race blackout.
He absolutely buried himself on Sunday in a way few of us will ever experience and which will take a sizable amount of time from which to recover yet he wants to race at least three more hard efforts this year. That is objectively insane (yet nevertheless applauded by his viewers because his channel is fun and engaging). But, think if this was a woman influencer/ runner. EVERYONE would be up in arms about "exercise addiction" and "unhealthy compulsion," and "likely eating problems" (for good measure). I'm not saying Jake exhibits any of these issues necessarily but it's an interesting thought experiment.
And, yes, I love the channel and have watched each video from the early days.
I'm with you.
It's one thing to do crazy mileage, but I don't think the combination with frequent racing and hard workouts is good in the long term.
*Euro Cross Country. And there is some Youtube interst with the Makou boys taking part. Efrem on a firm course, rather the an muddy Irish trials race, should go really well. Rory Leonard came 9th last year and is definetly capable of another top 10 finish. Scott looked great at the trials and I think could challange for a medal on his best day. Elson is also racing in the mixed relays.
Rory has had 10 DNFs in the last 4years and has been poor all year other than a one-off 10km in early Jan. his run last year was strong and its a weak field this year but dnt rate him highly
Gidey will do well to make the Irish team (top 3), they have some much faster 5km lads. his run at the trial was around his level, as hes only a 13:25 5km man.
i dont get the excitement with this squad, there training sessions are odd. the girls are often running a 6 minute mile to open there session, whats the point of this?! everything seems far to slow compared to other elites, i know these guys are not top level but theyre not far off if they get a lucky break. need some horrible people with pace in there to shake them up, cant stand anymore of Rory crying about doing 400m reps
Well he wasn't poor at the trials race, so from a GB supporter's perspective, let's hope he goes well on Sunday. But I'm concerned about all the DNFs, it's a bad racing habit to get into and you always wonder whether he's going to finish any race, especially when his fitness level is hyped up as it has been in their recent videos.
Very happy to hear RTJ's parents are getting everything checked out medically while he's back in the UK. Seeing the video Bester took of Jake was really quite worrying. Hopefully he gets ECGs and stress tests done too. It would be a nightmare if he went back to Japan and had a major medical issue on the opposite side of the world to his support network.
I really hope he just joins an actual Japanese team with a coach. I think the content would be great and it would provide him much more structure and guidance than chatgpt and whatever BS app he uses.
Obviously we don't know what's going on inside his head, but. It is ... worrying to some degree that he's even able to bury himself this much more than once. The body has a lot of signals screaming at you well before this point, and the lack of self-preservation needed to ignore those when a 'success' is already far gone is not a greeeat sign for someone's mental health I'd say.
I'm not from Winchester, nor a virgin. I'm a 6 figure salary man who would give a lot of that up, like I'm sure we all would to be like nick for a day.
The hate is pathetic. It's quite right the thread IS all about him, when he is more important than all the other YouTubers combined.
Sad, really sad the amount of hate he gets in the form of childish, playground jealousy.
feed the scousers, do they know its christmas time??
cute than you feel the need to state you are on 6 digits, we all know this means you are a universal credit scrounger living in a council flat on the wirral
cheer up
Erm soft lad,people on the Wirral aren't scousers.
Obviously we don't know what's going on inside his head, but. It is ... worrying to some degree that he's even able to bury himself this much more than once. The body has a lot of signals screaming at you well before this point, and the lack of self-preservation needed to ignore those when a 'success' is already far gone is not a greeeat sign for someone's mental health I'd say.
The worrying thing for RTJ is he must have known he wasn't 100% a long time before Valencia but still went out at his normal pace. His training is causing him more harm than good. That footage of him from the Bester video was shocking
Maybe the change of diet being back in UK meant RTJ ate lots of gluten/wheat that that he wouldn't normally, his autoimmune system reacted leading to spike in various antibodies, so he maybe felt a little off before race day, but figured that's not unexpected.
Then when he tried to hit marathon pace it was really hard due to inflammation in his body from immune system overreacting, which got worse as he pushed on.
If he is coeliac/gluten intolerant that would also tie in with him not absorbing iron too well.
Lots of people suggesting he should now rethink his training, but it's his diet that was probably the big change before that particular race, he'd been trucking along for months racing pretty well before that.
Whilst I think RTJ is one of the best on YT I still find it odd seeing people in his Strava comments referring to him as their hero. Will see where he goes from here as he jokingly referred to the run (that his dad commented on) as a group run.
I think if anything, from RTJ's recent block, if he wants to train like Mizuki Noguchi, that's fine, but I don't think he can race like Yuki Kawauchi while doing it. He probably needs to at least dial the mileage down or the race frequency down.
I hope Jake realizes that the "train harder" thing is not the main appeal of his channel. The frequent racing does help for content, but running fewer miles in training would not really change most of his videos.
"Recall the words of former world-record holder Buddy Edelen, who believed that he could probably 'bash out' a world-class marathon every month or so. Recall also that athletes who have tried to adopt that approach have all had short, albeit spectacular, marathon careers."
He's the best at running by people he knows in serious trouble.
Happy to let people know he's really worried about RTJ, just not enough to get him help.
Says alot.
What did you expect him to do and what would you have done? Genuinely curious. As he was still ambulatory (albeit apparently insensible), I'd have deferred any intervention to marshals/medical personnel on the side-lines. I think it's a legitimate criticism that he filmed and then published Jake in that state (unless he obtained consent) because people's dignity should be preserved in situations like that, but I'm not sure what else you think Bester could have done.
I expect he should have stopped and stayed with him to get him help. He knows him, even if it's just via interview.
I know plenty of people that have done just that in marathons but don't need / want social kudos for doing it, they are just generally decent ppl who understand it's just running.
He clearly wasn't alone , so it's not unique to Nick. He did however publish it so is directly open to the critique. He can't say he didn't see him.
It was generally sad to see so many just going by him, Valencia obviously a place where times matter more then human decency.
"Recall the words of former world-record holder Buddy Edelen, who believed that he could probably 'bash out' a world-class marathon every month or so. Recall also that athletes who have tried to adopt that approach have all had short, albeit spectacular, marathon careers."
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