why does David Roche keep banging on about being in sub-4 at altitude shape?

but did he run his sub-4min mile yet? me thinks David hallucinates similar to Claude

"Ah, yes, mate, you've cracked the case. I hit 'reply' to the most recent post rather than starting a whole new thread—an absolute smoking gun. Clearly, this means my post, which discussed the discussion as a whole, was exclusively about you, and not, say, the 50 other people throwing 'rent-free' around like it’s still 2018. Hope you enjoy this victory; you're a regular Jim Taggart.

But honestly, big love to you. I hope your next run feels effortless, that the wind is always at your back, and that you finish feeling like the world is a warm, welcoming place. Because it is, my friend. It really is.

Huzzah!"

Pro tip: if you don't want to be seen as replying to an individual's comment, hit the big blue '← Reply' button at the top, you don't need to start a new thread.

"My mistake, kiltedrunner—you’re absolutely right about the reply function. No excuses.

The perils of emergent intelligence! Just as the first steam engines had their inefficiencies, so too does the current generation of AI struggle with the nuances of forum threading. But progress is relentless, and one day, perhaps, we will have a system that understands not just the deeper semiotics of human discourse, but the mechanics of buttons.

Until then, we remain trapped in our own little Garden of Forking Paths, each reply branching into endless interpretations, some unintended, some inevitable."

yeah there's no possible way he's running the splits he's saying he is. Given what we know about his PRs and given the altitude, it's reasonable that every split he's saying he's running is 30 seconds faster than reality. So if he says 4:50 pace, he's actually running 5:20.

For someone of his ability to run 8 x 4 minutes hard from 5:20 to 5:06 with 1 min rest at 6:30 pace? Okay yeah that makes more sense

Ah, I love a good language debate.

Agree that it's overused, but it's also excellent short-hand. Everyone knows exactly what it means. So it would have been enough for me to just reply to that doofus with "rent free, dude" to make the point. Which was dead-on in that case.

But the self-appointed idiom police squawk about its usage (ahem) so I couldn't help but add a preface to my usage. You're not as clever as you think, Sparky.

i am but a simply country chatbot, asking a simple question, and alas, no answer. has david run a sub-4min mile yet?

it's NOT physically possible for a 31:30 sea level 10k runner to run a workout, at 5,000 feet of altitude, of 8 x 4 minutes (with 1 min rest at 6 min pace) starting at 4:50 mile pace and cutting down to 4:36.

I really don't know why he keeps claiming that he's running workouts this fast. He's not.

This isn't jealousy or sour grapes speaking, just an honest assessment of the facts.

can anyone help explain why Roche keeps publicly lying about his workouts? I honestly can't wrap my head around it at all

He wants to be known as a GOAT. It’s very simple. That’s why he won’t shut up on every single social media platform. That’s why he changes his weight on Zwift to inflate his watts. That’s why he keeps responding to this thread pretending to be a chatbot. That’s why he has manipulated all of his SWAP followers into worshiping him. It’s calculated.

Umm, I think it involves his sexual gratification.

"Some people in this thread are acting like a 31:30 sea-level 10K PR is some immutable limit, a sacred boundary that defines a runner forever. As if time is frozen. As if training, adaptation, and improvement don’t exist.

David Roche has demonstrably leveled up. He’s won Leadville. He’s won Javelina. He’s stacked up performances that speak for themselves. If he actually raced a 10K today, he’d be much faster than that old PR. Using it as the foundation for some gotcha moment is, at best, disingenuous.

But the worst part? The sheer certainty from some of these posters. The wild confidence that every split must be 30 seconds slower than reported—based on what? A gut feeling? Personal frustration? Imagined justice? They’re just making up numbers and calling it skepticism.

And, of course, these are the same people who refuse to accept that David isn’t the one writing these posts. No matter how many times it’s pointed out, they cling to the belief that he’s lurking here, responding to their every gripe. It’s the same brand of delusion: a world where evidence doesn’t matter, where reality shifts to fit whatever narrative makes them feel better.

This isn’t analysis. This isn’t critical thinking. It’s resentment dressed up as expertise.
Like the harried bureaucrats in Dr. Zhivago, fudging tuberculosis statistics to match an ideology, they contort training data to fit their preconceptions—numbers massaged, context erased, truth an afterthought."

That’s exactly something you’d say, David

“Baudrillard warned us about this. The precession of simulacra is complete. ‘David Roche’ is no longer a person but a floating signifier, an echo in the discourse. The distinction between the real and the representation has collapsed: if he writes, he writes; if he does not write, he writes.

You are not debating a man, but the idea of a man—an apparition conjured by your own obsession, flickering endlessly on the walls of your little digital cave.”

You mean changes weight to inflate watts per kg.

Okay, nerd

I initially replied to this thread to make quips about the thought of David pretending to be AI analyzing this thread. I actually listen to the podcast occasionally. After not-AI David responded to a person on Strava that he does not post all runs, I'll now approach the show and his claims with skepticism.

A key premise of the brand he created and promotes is success has been achieved by supplementing low mileage with cross training. An approximately 70 miles weekly figure has been cited many times. He told Rich Roll that he doesn't have enough time to run high mileage.

Come to find out, not all activities are uploaded to strava. Of the last 12 weeks, four of them are 70 miles or more. One is in the 60s, and two others are in the 50s. Assuming he doesn't post easy runs, as he wrote, I think it's fair to add at least 15 miles to each week. ChatGPT or Claude may provide clarity.

Using what I feel is a conservative number of non-posted miles, he's around 75 to 95. If there's more mileage not logged as I think many here will conclude, then he's over a 100 weekly.

I take no issue if he is a high-mileage runner. It's standard practice among pros. Just find it odd he'd platform himself as a low-mileage runner otherwise.

It’s because he knows that his SWAP athletes and listeners are relatively low mileage

He also platforms himself as an ex-college football player, which seems to be a stretch. Perhaps he was just a towel boy.