The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

The Welsh Runner is back! After 3 or 4 months of low volume he has decided he is "all in" for London and straight away he's up to 70 mile weeks and 22 mile long runs with quality. What odds he gets injured and disappears back under his rock again?

To be fair I follow him on Strava and it doesn't look like he's said anything like that (even though it is his usual pattern.)

Is it just me or has shoetube been particularly bitchy lately? Couple of months of no big brand races along with the post-holiday adsense lull and they all turn on each other like lord of the flies.

Someone better run a surprise rage PR in Tokyo and reassert the social hierarchy before the realm descends into chaos.

Floberg claims he has 'Never Been This Fast'. After he does 10x500m + 5x1200m - all slower than his half marathon PB pace.

Fox possibly the only person on earth to be continually outclassed by Bester

My takeaways from the first 30 seconds of the video:

- Matt looks like he's begging ISIS for one of his kids to be released in the car - bloke genuinely needs a welfare check, there's nothing behind those glazed over eyes

- This globerunner bloke (mentioned a few pages ago for being a melt) is back - I looked at his socials and he's always doing that absolutely mental pose. It looks like he's trying to jumpscare his grandma into a heart attack to get his inheritance (probably needs it actually to afford food... no who are we kidding, bloke probably has loaded parents that fund everything like every other influencer)

I gave up not long after.

Matt fox saying “I don’t want to turn Ran to Japan’s comments into a hate zone but Nick is really shifty - doesn’t coach anyone properly - outsources to young people on £peanuts. Rips people off at every corner. I used to work with him. People can have a crack at me if they want but I know what I saw” after absolutely starting the thing with Bester is class 😂you already did you clown.

We’re so back

Yes?

And, unlike shoetubegrifters or cringefluencers, no-one* in Cottage actually thinks or pretends they’re a pro or going to be a pro. Anyone who has spent any time with or in the vicinity of cottage would know this. Which is almost even more impressive - it’s elite hobbyism, not hobby elitism.

*so far

Someone give Elson some dip for that chip on his shoulder. Short man syndrome in abundance and thinks he runs the sport. That being said, I enjoyed him belittling Fentonnnnnn back in the day. Remember when he said he could run a 2:10 mara one day? More chance of Prince Andrew telling the truth

Must be stinging that he hasn’t been asked to go on Goddard’s podcast yet. What a spectacle that could be

Elson has medalled at a World Champs, European Champs and gone to World Indoors. He’s finished top 10 in the National Cross, run 13.40 odd and won loads of domestic things. He’s a level above Jake currently and probably always will be.

I think the distinction between the two is that Elson/ Hoka have documented their training through YouTube but it looks like RTJ like other influencers is having his training and racing dictated by his personal and need to create content - otherwise he’d have taken actual recovery time and stop with the clickbait when he should be resting

What's funny is that not only is this on his uncalibrated treadmill, he has proven time and time again that a) he overestimates his fitness and b) he simply has no idea how to pace a race.

Even in a YouTube world of unintelligent runners he is close to the top. His "winter of speed" never happened, he takes too long off between marathon blocks and loses too much fitness and he concentrates on the marathon and aerobic miles/workouts too much without touching speed at all.

The dudes results are screaming out for a 5k block but neither he nor his coach have the understanding to know this.

You speak the truth but RTJ has some crazy fan base that can not see the wood from the trees, they’d follow him off a cliff, influx of downvotes incoming.

I highly recommend going back to the RTJ run comments now, it’s getting funnier and more comment back to Matt Fox

Yep. The thing the RTJ fanboys won’t be able to accept is that if Elson decided to pivot to the marathon for 6 months he’d probably run a quicker time than RTJ ever will

RTJ’s psychology is logical, but flawed. His history makes him believe “this type of training is what took me from 2:45 to 2:15, screw the haters I’ll keep at it” But as others have pointed out, he’s simply pushing up against the max he can do without better speed.

If he simply did 4-6 months of a true 5k block, he’d be able to go back up in distance with room to spare. Right now he essentially wants to run 3:00/km for a marathon while he can only manage about 2:54/km for 5k. If he could get that 5k pace down to 2:48-2:50/km, his job in the marathon would get a lot easier.

The fact that he considers running 10k pace to be improving his “top end” is very telling as to where his head is at. He should be working significantly faster zones as well.

Seeing him come 12th at UK indoors was a nice in-person hate watch for me