Non-OTQ Guy (Bromka) Calls Out OTQ Guys for... Bad Training?

Nice subtweet. Track and road racing need more controversy. He should have called people out directly!

I thought Bromka was running Houston?

SaturdayLongRun? wrote:

Nice subtweet. Track and road racing need more controversy. He should have called people out directly!

I thought Bromka was running Houston?

Thanks man, I’m just getting the hang of it!

And I believe he is. So maybe he’ll silence the haters (me) there!

ILikePeteBBut wrote:

Seriously, where does this guy get off? Maybe run the standard, then bash?

https://twitter.com/bromka/status/1214239223345139712?s=21

he gets off in portland

So he's saying people are running too high mileage? How high is too high? I personally haven't seen anyone really running over 120, and I wouldn't even consider that too high for a good marathoner. Really I'm seeing people only in the 90-110 range, certainly not too high. And you're not over-trained because you're running too high mileage, the intensity of that mileage is a way bigger factor.

On a side note, I don't even know who this guy is... So he's not very good and doesn't know what he's talking about.

It's not a good look. Reminds me of a time in 2015 when I met a solid sub-elite female runner who hadn't qualified for the OT (and still hasn't). She freely criticized OT marathon qualifiers who were running GoFundMe campaigns to allow family, friends, former teammates, coworkers to help defray their trip to LA as only A-standard qualifiers got funding from the OC. She got quickly shut down with the response: "so go get on their level." Nobody asked her about it and nobody cares if she had a problem with it, because it clearly wasn't any concern of hers, had nothing to do with her, she chose to make it her agenda to come up with an opinion and push it on others. Bromka doesn't have to have qualified to know what he's talking about. And in a sense, he's right. It would just help his credibility if he had already qualified before offering unsolicited criticism. Nobody wants to hear that from someone who in most objective respects ranks below those who are being critiqued. But then that's the chief drawback of a platform like Twitter that rewards quick, edgy response. It turns people I'd ordinarily like and respect into reactionary hot take artists. It merely serves to spread attitude, not enlightenment.

I think there's still a good message in there for some of us. Don't bite off more than you can chew training-wise just to hit an arbitrary mpw. Run hard, recover, repeat, with an emphasis on recover.

That said, the OTQ guys, to whom the tweet was directed, don't need to hear this, so why would he beef with people who are faster than him? Get off of social media and run.

If you’re upset about Bromka, you’re gonna sh*t your pants when you find out about Jonathan Marcus.

It is somewhat ironic that someone who couldn't qualify for the OT despite running their PB on the ultra fast and (IAAF illegal) downhill CIM course with the aid of the Next% would feel the need to publicly criticize the training of others who have. However, he's has gotten a lot of publicity for getting close but NOT qualifying (much more than most runners who actually did qualify and are way better) and has subsequently made a small writing/talking career on that matter. So maybe this post is just serving to keep him relevant and in the spotlight since the OT cycle is closing and his profile (read: 15 minutes of fame) may be fading?

do you even research, brah? wrote:

If you’re upset about Bromka, you’re gonna sh*t your pants when you find out about Jonathan Marcus.

Jonathan Marcus- the guy with the perfect training, yet no fast runners.

Brooks has run the last two CIM marathons in the Alphafly.

His response:

https://twitter.com/Bromka/status/1214593145771479040

Not really sure I can see how you wouldn't see it at least as needling/sub-tweeting?

Anyone can critique guys for running too much, but these are sub-elites running for glory at the Trials. It's not a PR course, and ultimately would they rather train harder/risk more for a once-in-a-lifetime race, or do their regular buildup and question what might have been had they tried to get more out of themselves?

shootpost wrote:

do you even research, brah? wrote:

If you’re upset about Bromka, you’re gonna sh*t your pants when you find out about Jonathan Marcus.

Jonathan Marcus- the guy with the perfect training, yet no fast runners.

I can't stand Jonathan Marcus. Dude loves hot takes on Twitter.

No so Fast wrote:

Brooks has run the last two CIM marathons in the Alphafly.

Incorrect. Alpha last year, NEXT% this year. Go look at the photos before talking out of your ass.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

His response:

https://twitter.com/Bromka/status/1214593145771479040

Not really sure I can see how you wouldn't see it at least as needling/sub-tweeting?

Anyone can critique guys for running too much, but these are sub-elites running for glory at the Trials. It's not a PR course, and ultimately would they rather train harder/risk more for a once-in-a-lifetime race, or do their regular buildup and question what might have been had they tried to get more out of themselves?

100% agree. and lol @ his tweet, talking about restraint. the best twitter accounts practice some restraint too. maybe he should try that. this guy has a ways to go, both in running and in media

and "everyone is either over trained or under trained" is such a weird thing to say anyway. plenty of people are training intelligently. they get a bigger stimulus than their last training cycle, get run down a bit, then recover from it during their taper and run a great race. it's not that rare

the actual best athletes have faith that what they're doing is correct (even if it isn't). the kind of attitude that even entertains a thought like "i'm always undertrained or overtrained" is the basis of the over-thinking and under-achieving runner. maybe this guy would've got his OTQ if he would stop reflecting and instead have total faith in himself and his training. the off-season is the time to reflect. yet here he is casting doubt in the middle of the trials training cycle

I think this was sort of a lame tweet, and a nonsense follow-up.

I don't mean to say that runners cannot criticize anyone faster than them - obviously they can, and at times should - but this is just a weird one. It seems to me (and I don't know Mr. Bromka) that he's upset about runners "bragging" (in running big miles) prior to the lead up to the OT. This would be a lame criticism even he had run 2 seconds faster, but just comes off shallow now. The follow-up, as another user mentioned, didn't really help.

do you even research, brah? wrote:

No so Fast wrote:

Brooks has run the last two CIM marathons in the Alphafly.

Incorrect. Alpha last year, NEXT% this year. Go look at the photos before talking out of your ass.

+1

Typical for letsrun. I love to see people get called out for making $hit up. With the new board settings, they can't come back and comment with a new name change on the thread. Great stuff.

AT THESWOOSH wrote:

Mental health is a big problem in our society and sport. Bromka was let go for a reason.

This post also displays a big problem in society: being an a** on the Internet.

I don't believe it's a fine line between overtraining and undertraining. Some may be close to the edge of overtraining but I wouldn't say they're undertrained.

And you cannot make an assessment of someone's training status by looking at just their mileage. Some of my hardest weeks weren't anywhere near my highest volume weeks of training.

Maybe he wanted to sound like Jonathan Marcus light? If so, that's not a good thing to shoot for!

cmon...this isn't too bad. he's not wrong