The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Has Cole ditched his coach? Does he mention this? Cba going through his videos so can someone link to where he talks about this?

I love how he’s posting his 2:25 marathon prediction when he hasn’t even broken 16 in the 5k. Beyond clueless

Genuinely more boring than Fenton. His content is unwatchable

well he is completely uncoachable. i dont see what he would get from paying someone to coach him then running 50-60miles per week more than they would ever have prescribed. he knows best of course, until someone waves a free pair of shoes in his face and he commits to more marathons he isnt mentally in the right place for, ie berlin & valencia

his lack of intelligence is really shining through now hes a bit more in the spotlight. completely cluesless to suggest this drop off, you lose nothing over 400m reps from an easier week, you actually freshen up and get faster

where hes lost his head in his long runs, or lack of... he said on a podcast he hasnt ran over 30km since November which is ridiculous when he clocks some 160 mile weeks. hes lost sight of what made him good and we all now see its going to result in dissapointment in london (if actually makes the start/finish line)

I think it's most likely mental. I do believe he does feel himself to have "lost" fitness over that time, but I too struggle to believe it's physical.

When your while ethos is smashing huge weeks though, I do think a relatively quiet week can do a number on your psyche.

No, he hasn't ditched his coach. Ben Connor is prescribing Cole 160 mile weeks and medium long runs of 24 miles plus....

Of course, Ben Connor or Ellis Cross are not coaching him. Even they don't run this ridiculous amount.

On the other hand, has Cole found the Japanese running bible?

It’s just a crazy story arc from when he thought he might have REDS to making a sensible choice of getting a coach and a nutritionist to now whatever this is where he’s decided to cane the mileage and believes that will get him to the next level.

Yep, exactly what i thought, it seems to be a mental thing rather than his actual fitness. I do think that the not running over 30k thing is also a big issue for London. Everyone (myself included) was saying he should focus on speed and that would help him but not at the detriment of doing any long runs. I also just think if you aren't physically capable of doing those long runs anymore then there's an underlying issue that should've been ironed out before the training block not halfway through it

RTJ is becoming more delusional and full of himself, constantly over estimating his fitness and ability.
Always claiming to be in best shape of his life but has repeatedly run his best runs in training and failed miserably on actual race day.
Claims he could beat the 100km WR and be the first person to break 6 hours - Dude you can’t even finish a goal marathon.
I wonder how long he can continue to make these claims but not even come close to backing it up.

I’ll still watch his videos though as he is one of the few that I find entertaining without being irritating.

I'm surprised RTJ hasn't got rid of his tiny apartment yet, he seems to be living rent free in every Lets Run user's head

This really highlights the side of content creation that most viewers never see. Balancing consistent uploads, training, filming, editing, and still keeping the passion for running alive must be incredibly challenging. It definitely gives a new level of appreciation for running creators who manage to stay authentic while sharing their journey with the community.

He's gone from very light training for a couple of weeks while his knee was busted to a very solid hard effort on Sunday, easy 10k Monday afternoon, then back onto his double days which he hasn't been able to do for 3 weeks.

Slower 400m reps are more likely just fatigue from the volume suddenly being reintroduced, and maybe still recovering from Sunday a bit. No big deal, he can just keep soaking up the volume and the 400m reps will return to previous level.

Don't think he's lost fitness, it's just a temporary inability to absorb volume. If he needed to do those 400m reps 3sec/lap quicker next week, he could do that but he'd need to prioritise recovery over volume in between. And that doesn't fit the plan to be ready for London, no point sacrificing long term gains to make your 400m reps look better next week.

TL;DR fitness is still there, body needs time to catch up to high training load again

one of the biggest running youtubers is talked about on a running youtuber thread😲

Jake is well respected on here from what I read but he does need to have a good performance in London otherwise some questions will form around his ability to perform in A races

These shoetubers continue to put their entitlement on full display. From Cole Shillens strava comment section:

Adoring fan: “Are you running Cambridge half this Sunday?”

Cole Gibbens: “HA. No unfortunately not. I emailed them a few times over the last 4 months or so and they couldn’t/wouldn’t give me a place. Apparently “no more elite places” (when we all know elites drop out all the time). So I’m doing paddock wood this year, and will likely boycot Cambridge for the foreseeable because I’m petty af”

Demand for Cambridge Half has got silly in the last couple of years, filled up within minutes of them opening priority entries this time. It's fairly expensive too, although US runners pay barking mad prices for big races so they'd think it was a bargain.

I've had free elite places in races in recent years, even though I'm a full age group older than sirpoc. The required times have moved slightly too far out of my reach now everyone's snorting Tilda rice so I'm back to paying my way, but when racing for free is available you do give priority to races that give you a place.

Bath Half used to be astonishingly generous, male v40 with 1:15 half could race for free, £100 time bonus for sub 70 and £100 prize for age group winner. But that all stopped after 2024, last year they announced elite places with about 6 weeks to the race and you needed to be around 66 mins to get in.

Thought kingcole was doing Bath Half.. Is he not

Two weeks post-Austin marathon and Truett is doing 120mpw with a track workout, followed by a hard long run the following day. He ends this video in a doctor's office, getting a scan of his ankle to see if he has a stress fracture and it is implied that he does. A predictable outcome of having a brand based on fragile masculinity disguised as toughness (It's just pain! Die trying!), needing to shill an array of products, hats, and supplements to cover up your TRT / peptide usage (buy the gels YouTube comment guys, that's the only thing stopping you from being a downhill king like Truett!), having a room temperature IQ and no understanding of training, and a calorie deficit that would make Matt Fox blush. Keep Yammering, Truett and Cam, hope that coordinated media / bot campaign works out for you.