Good story ... Mary Albl is an excellent writer.
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allie o fan wrote:
Dyestat has a great article on how Allie Ostrander went from being terrible in September to a US team just a few months later. It talks about her coach whom I'd never heard us.
Anyone know who else David and his wife Megan coach? They look like they are really smart.
She graduated with honors from Duke University with a degree in Neuroscience and received her M.D. from Stanford Medical School. He graduated with honors from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Science and received a master's degree and law degree with honors from Duke University.
Is their team a pro team? I'd never heard of their team - “Some Work, All-Play” (SWAP).
Here is the team website:
SWAP is very popular among a certain segment of the trail and ultra community. David had some success as a runner; Megan has also been decent. I think Allie's success has far more to do with being on a regular and not insane training program, generally, rather than being with SWAP, specifically.
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afox19 wrote:
David has been coaching me for 7+ years, and I'm nothing special running-wise.
What I will say is that the attitude and positivity that you see coming through in the article quotes is absolutely genuine and relentless. Obviously it works for some people, maybe not for everyone, but I really appreciate the fact that he never stops pushing me forward and trying to see what I can accomplish. Additionally, the SWAP team camaraderie is really cool - and that all comes from David/Megan.
I've thought about signing up with them, but honestly the relentless positivity (I've often thought of it as the Lake Wobegon of coaching where EVERYONE IS ABOVE AVERAGE AND SUPER FANTASTIC AMAZING) would drive me absolutely insane.
Most of their articles are objectively terrible, but their training plans are valuable at least because doing something regularly is far better for most runners than doing almost anything else, and improvements are bound to result from the regularity and accountability.
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We can get Jason Koop for over 1k a month for “science”.
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David r wrote:
Does he take only elite runners now? It seems he’s not taking casual runners anymore.
I think they are still taking folks of all stripes - no harm in asking.20 -
Runnerrrrr wrote:
what is an MD/PhD in epidemiology doing "wasting" her time coaching? Seems like a waste of a very expensive education (MD from Stanford can't be cheap!) to turn to coaching.
One can easily make well above $100k/year doing online ultra coaching (especially if they have as many athletes as the Roaches have). Obviously not what a medical doctor can make, but it's not bad.
I also don't think the Roaches have to worry about money any way though....
My guess is initially they probably (and might still) coach fast/elite/talented runners for free or for a big discount because they figured out the social proof and additional following/advertising and positive vibes was a higher value anyway.
In any case good luck to Allie!400 -
Nobody cares about World XC anymore. That's sad, this was the place to be.
Now it's two races yearly, and the world best need pancake road courses. I'd love to see a Diamond League 5k field in a cross country race.
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It's Roche not Roach
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I don't care
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S. Canaday wrote:
Runnerrrrr wrote:
what is an MD/PhD in epidemiology doing "wasting" her time coaching? Seems like a waste of a very expensive education (MD from Stanford can't be cheap!) to turn to coaching.
One can easily make well above $100k/year doing online ultra coaching (especially if they have as many athletes as the Roaches have). Obviously not what a medical doctor can make, but it's not bad.
I also don't think the Roaches have to worry about money any way though....
My guess is initially they probably (and might still) coach fast/elite/talented runners for free or for a big discount because they figured out the social proof and additional following/advertising and positive vibes was a higher value anyway.
In any case good luck to Allie!I was wondering how some of these elite runners pay for coaching like Jason Koop or Ian Sharman. So they get it free? Would you coach an elite runner for a discount or free?
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Makes Paper wrote:
allie o fan wrote:
Dyestat has a great article on how Allie Ostrander went from being terrible in September to a US team just a few months later. It talks about her coach whom I'd never heard us.
Anyone know who else David and his wife Megan coach? They look like they are really smart.
She graduated with honors from Duke University with a degree in Neuroscience and received her M.D. from Stanford Medical School. He graduated with honors from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Science and received a master's degree and law degree with honors from Duke University.
Is their team a pro team? I'd never heard of their team - “Some Work, All-Play” (SWAP).
Here is the team website:
SWAP is very popular among a certain segment of the trail and ultra community. David had some success as a runner; Megan has also been decent. I think Allie's success has far more to do with being on a regular and not insane training program, generally, rather than being with SWAP, specifically.
Agree that her success is being on a regular training program and avoiding injury. Also more of a focus on trail running.
Once she figures it out, she should do very well in trail and mtn races. She has excellent road and track speed compared to many other athletes in those events, and has a history of doing well in XC and things like Mt. Marathon. The nature of those events and trail running in general may help her avoid injury. (less chance of overuse injuries.)
She likely has a very high VO2 max, given her great power to weight ratio (please do not edit or comment because of the reference to weight: VO2 max considers weight as it typically measures millimeters of oxygen consumed in a minute per kilogram of body weight).
Has her VO2 max ever been measured?
She may be like Matt Carpenter, top level trail and mtn runner with a super high VO2 max but was not able to achieve the same success on the roads.
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They have a podcast and are extremely known in the trail running world.
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She made a video about over reaching - I would be careful being too enthusiastic about current results because she could be overtraining. Also stated she lost her period again last year so who knows how this new training is working for her given she's been flat/tired for months
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So, you need a coach to tell you to to do a lot of easy running and one interval session a week?
PT Barnum was right.
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allie o fan wrote:
Dyestat has a great article on how Allie Ostrander went from being terrible in September to a US team just a few months later. It talks about her coach whom I'd never heard us.
Anyone know who else David and his wife Megan coach? They look like they are really smart.
She graduated with honors from Duke University with a degree in Neuroscience and received her M.D. from Stanford Medical School. He graduated with honors from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Science and received a master's degree and law degree with honors from Duke University.
Is their team a pro team? I'd never heard of their team - “Some Work, All-Play” (SWAP).
Here is the team website:
Spam somewhere else
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Trail runner dude wrote:
I said it on the other thread when it happened, but she really didn’t do that bad at Pikes Peak for her first time. Everyone underestimated how hard the last 3 miles above A-frame are, especially if you haven’t been training above 10,000ft. Lots of people blow up WAY worse than she did. And then she came back the next weekend and ran pretty well against basically the same field in Mammoth, which shows she was fit, but just unprepared for the higher altitude at Pikes.
I'd take Allie O. over a certain shoetuber with a blue-and-green D on the side!
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S. Canaday wrote:
Runnerrrrr wrote:
what is an MD/PhD in epidemiology doing "wasting" her time coaching? Seems like a waste of a very expensive education (MD from Stanford can't be cheap!) to turn to coaching.
One can easily make well above $100k/year doing online ultra coaching (especially if they have as many athletes as the Roaches have). Obviously not what a medical doctor can make, but it's not bad.
I also don't think the Roaches have to worry about money any way though....
My guess is initially they probably (and might still) coach fast/elite/talented runners for free or for a big discount because they figured out the social proof and additional following/advertising and positive vibes was a higher value anyway.
In any case good luck to Allie!good point but I see where runnerrrr is coming from. I wouldn't waste a great degree on coaching, but just do it on the side.
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She's not injured. The post was referring to the times this has happened for her before, and telling other athletes to keep going when that happens. She even addresses it in the comments. She's healthy, training, and going to Worlds.
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fghrunner wrote:
she posted something on her instagram a few days ago about getting injured right before a big race so I'm assuming she won't be lining up at world cross. shame I was/am definitely rooting for a comeback, especially as Coburn/frerichs stranglehold on the steeple is fading
I don’t think she is actually injured, I think she was just posting that because the is nervous after having injuries in the past
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Once a doper, always a doper.
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