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

If he pulls out of WS, then he needs to do something big like UTMB. I don't know if Badwater is competitive, but he would probably win that. After all this talk, it would be disappointing if he doesn't play in the big leagues.

Badwater is not competitive, and he'd probably win pretty easily

He probably wasn't really that "injured". It was probably like his "ankle sprain" after that 50km he DNFed in. Adding drama....trying to gain sympathy likes....and playing the victim. It's their MO:

The Roches are about SEEKING ATTENTION! But they'll say it's all about LOVE and/or HOPE.

At this point it wouldn’t shock me if David was over exaggerating his knee injury to sell whatever brace he’s wearing. He and Megan have commented more than once on how quickly a product sells out once they endorse it. This could easily be another Feed/AG1/SIS Beta Fuel/Nix Hydration/Core Sensor/(fill in the blank with whatever company is clamoring for attention and clicks) scenario. Abusing their platform of hope, love & inclusion to sell a few more products would be completely on brand.

Ken Rideout pulled some super obvious stunt like that recently. He complains on social media of plantar fascia pain and two days later he's shilling for some insole company in official advertising. Didn't even bother to reduce his mileage.

The guy is willing to whore himself out for just about anything as long as it gives him attention and money. His YouTube videos are basically one big advertisement for The Feed. It’s insane how many people are blinded by the “love and positivity” schtick. But don’t take it from me, I’m just a “hater”…

David is officially injured, and it's not hard to see why. Weekly running mileage starting March 3rd: 71, 74, 45, 27, 70, 92, 70, 76, 120(!).

As if logging almost 200 miles in those two weeks wasn't enough, he did it with two races (a 50 miler and a 50k) and over 40,000 feet of climbing. That's over a 20% increase from the previous two weeks (197/162), which was itself a more than 60% increase over the two weeks before that (162/97).

And then, when he started to experience symptoms, he kept running on it. Now he's taking injections and doing 8,000 foot climbs on the treadmill.

This person is a coach?

Look, there’s an entire cottage industry of coaches who market themselves by just being fast, and to keep that marketing engine running you have to keep posting flashy results.

The target client says: “he runs fast, he must know the secrets, maybe if i give him $400 a month i’ll absorb some of his speed through email osmosis.” never mind that you'll not be directly speaking to the man and you'll be doing workouts from a copy of a generic training plan.

Same way SJD marketing worked, a singular charismatic figure who ultimately can't keep the performance going.

Yep it’s no surprise he injured himself. Combine that volume with all of his flashy track workouts and what do you expect? So now he has an excuse to DNF, and if he “recovers” and is ready to race then he is a genius. The dude is so calculated with his narrative it also makes me wonder how real any of it is.

Jim's a DNS for WS.

I don't think it was ever very real. Is there anything that is real about this dude? Remember he doesn't even post all his running mileage and workouts on Strava to start with. So who knows what he really did or does? Treadmill paces and splits are also "uncalibrated" and "don't matter"...except when it's for a FEED vid. Then the 4:30 mile splits are real, calibrated, and do matter 100%. As well as all the Strava FKTs and paces recorded on an iPhone.

It seems like his knee is fine now. Which leads me to believe he was never really that "hurt" to begin with. He probably still has time to play up his bike accident recovery again, find a heart shaped rock to post about, and shill out some more AG1 though. But HOPE and LOVE is all you really need (and SWAP "coaching")!!! Also #BELIEVE !!!

Yeah.. Dan Green is in from the waitlist instead. Bummer. Waiting for an Instagram statement from Jim or something. Man that sucks.

I'm happy for Dan Green, seems like a nice "young" guy, hope he can recover well after Cocodona.

Hayden Hawks is also OUT (kinda old news). I know y'all like bagging on Roche for training like sheeet and getting injured but uh: his "competition" are actually dropping out because of injuries. It's just kinda weird y'all give Roche that special hater touch for something you think is happening because of (checks notes) results being reported on Strava -- and we know Strava reports activities with the utmost accuracy anyways lol. All y'all girlies are worse than a sewing circle.

So anyways, instead of top 25, my prediction is top 23 for Roche. 17:30

It seems last time Jim was hurt it took (maybe months?) for him to comment on it

Here's a question: will Dan Green beat David? If you watched Cocodona, that boy has grit -- he won that race that broke Courtney Dewaulter and did it looking like a well-prepared machine. If he can recover by next month he's going to go hard. And, for bonus points, if Green beats David, how will David reconcile his self-image as the smartest coach and greatest athlete in all of distance running with being beaten by a "sub-elite 200-er from W.VA?" I suspect Megan will have to divorce him to hide their shame.

Unbreakable 2 is dead per Dylan Bowman yesterday, not sure if related to Jim dropping or not.

I appreciate the Boulder Boys for subtly clowning on this guy all the time. I had never listened to them until someone on this thread clued me into their Roche rolling.

Besides exaggerating praise of Cade Michaels for being the Gold Hill FKT record holder, which was great.. In a recent episode Seth Ruhling and co. referenced some guy running around Wonderland Lake in a full heat suit (per Strava, had to be David). Seth said he abstains from doing that because he's not an animal.

Then Matt Daniels recently wrote a blog post about "meekness" and what it means in running. The post was clearly a critique of David and his whole shtick. Not every workout needs to be a statement.

With Jim Walmsley out of Western States and David apparently recovered from another fake injury, the chances of Roche emerging victorious have risen. I will go home devastated if he wins. Devastated.