The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

FOD Runner wrote:

Thanks for watching it! I think 2 things came out of the test for me:

1) confirmation of what I roughly new… which is reassuring because it’s all well and good “assuming” but to see it in black and white and get confirmed by an external source is reassuring

2) running on a treadmill is far easier (despite my coordination issues) than outside… I held 4:50 pace at the end and it didn’t feel anywhere near as hard as if someone asked me to do that on the roads. So you do have to have that “effort conversion” in the back of your mind after the test for when you take it back outside.

We also discussed going back for a further test with small increments… let’s say 17/17.4/17.8/18.2/18.6 etc so that we could get a clearer picture around that LT2 area. There will always be anomalies and that 18kph (or 17) looked to be one. But a smaller ramped test should sort that 👍

We also didn’t see any huge ramp up in lactate up to 20kph so that’s really positive in the fact that there’s plenty of scope to push things up

Whiny.Kelati wrote:

DammyFlick wrote:

It would be a lot better if Sagasu Running just stuck to talking about shoes, because his training is an absolute mess. A year ago, he was seriously saying he might maybe aim for a 1:20 half marathon… thankfully, 1:30 now sounds a lot more realistic. He even had a chart on YouTube where he claimed his marathon pace was 4:14/km and his easy pace 4:49/km. Supposedly, his interval pace is 3:26/km. Then you look at his Strava, and even holding 4:00/km for a single kilometer looks like pure agony. His so-called “easy pace” is faster than what many elite runners use for recovery runs. And his marathon PR? 3:53. What the hell? It doesn’t help that he’s unbearably arrogant, bragging about running in Nike Victory spikes like he’s Ingebrigtsen.

Watching Sagasu running video on best shoes of 2025. He claims to have tried 30 shoes in the past year, but per his Strava he has only logged 1600 miles. That's like 50 miles per shoe.

He ranks shoes based on his enjoyment of running in them (presumably a few times each), but such an important part of shoe choice is in their longevity/how they hold up over time.

He needs to run more in general. And now he's injured which he blames on, you guessed it, his shoes. Imagine having access to 30 pairs of the best running shoes and blaming the shoes when you get injured.

Man__Moth wrote:

LT Test wrote:

I thought FOD Runner's LT test video was interesting because it confirmed a few of my suspicions about the testing. First, experienced runners have a very good idea of their paces and LT zones. Second, the testing itself is inaccurate enough that I don't think anyone that really understands their body going into the test is going to make significant changes based on the results. They used a best fit line to try and give him his LT1 and LT2, but it was hardly the most quantitative analysis. I think doing the tests multiple times on a calibrated TM with MANY more tests around the LT curve (his had just a few) might yield better and more useful results. But it just doesn't seem like it's worth the expense and time for most of us.

What's with the 3 minute reps as well?

Surely these guys know that that isn't enough time to get a clear picture of the metabolic stress at each given pace. Lactate takes a while to reach a steady state. It's why we're able to do short intervals at a faster pace than what we would consider LT2 pace (because we can keep lactate at lower levels than it would reach for a longer rep).

I can see why so many run into trouble after doing these tests. They'll take the pace and HR they've been given as LT2 (based on one 3 minute rep) and then go outside and do 3 x 10 minutes at that pace (or maybe even a continuous 30 minutes). And as a result, they'll likely be above LT2 within 5 minutes.

Old running fool wrote:

Man__Moth wrote:

What's with the 3 minute reps as well?

Surely these guys know that that isn't enough time to get a clear picture of the metabolic stress at each given pace. Lactate takes a while to reach a steady state. It's why we're able to do short intervals at a faster pace than what we would consider LT2 pace (because we can keep lactate at lower levels than it would reach for a longer rep).

I can see why so many run into trouble after doing these tests. They'll take the pace and HR they've been given as LT2 (based on one 3 minute rep) and then go outside and do 3 x 10 minutes at that pace (or maybe even a continuous 30 minutes). And as a result, they'll likely be above LT2 within 5 minutes.

Perfectly reasonable time to get Lactate turn points with 3 min increasing paced reps , it's standard protocol and works well.

My only issue is the warm up . Clearly wasn't enough, albeit it was controlled but still it showed.

SethJamesNoMore wrote:

Whiny.Kelati wrote:

Watching Sagasu running video on best shoes of 2025. He claims to have tried 30 shoes in the past year, but per his Strava he has only logged 1600 miles. That's like 50 miles per shoe.

He ranks shoes based on his enjoyment of running in them (presumably a few times each), but such an important part of shoe choice is in their longevity/how they hold up over time.

He needs to run more in general. And now he's injured which he blames on, you guessed it, his shoes. Imagine having access to 30 pairs of the best running shoes and blaming the shoes when you get injured.

He was being a bit of a d*ck to people in the comments who disagreed with him, too. His hate for Adidas and the EVO SL—and concurrent worship for Nike—are almost comical at this point.

I also love how he constantly brags about wearing spikes and being from a “pre-super shoe era of running.” Okay, dude, that doesn’t make you fast.

SethJamesNoMore wrote:

Whiny.Kelati wrote:

Watching Sagasu running video on best shoes of 2025. He claims to have tried 30 shoes in the past year, but per his Strava he has only logged 1600 miles. That's like 50 miles per shoe.

He ranks shoes based on his enjoyment of running in them (presumably a few times each), but such an important part of shoe choice is in their longevity/how they hold up over time.

He needs to run more in general. And now he's injured which he blames on, you guessed it, his shoes. Imagine having access to 30 pairs of the best running shoes and blaming the shoes when you get injured.

He was being a bit of a d*ck to people in the comments who disagreed with him, too. His hate for Adidas and the EVO SL—and concurrent worship for Nike—are almost comical at this point.

I also love how he constantly brags about wearing spikes and being from a “pre-super shoe era of running.” Okay, dude, that doesn’t make you fast.