A love letter to every woman coach who’s ever been corrected by a man who didn’t actually read the post.
There are a few things in the endurance world that are guaranteed:
Garmin will lose satellite just as you start your workout.
Someone on Threads will say hormones are “unnatural.”
And a man will absolutely jump into a conversation he didn’t understand, repeating “it depends” like it’s the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It’s a tale as old as time.
Let me paint the scene.
A runner asks for help.
A woman coach responds with grounded, thoughtful, athlete-centered advice.
Context considered.
Injury risk weighed.
Recovery needs named.
Nuance intact.
Enter The Bro.
He shows up with the attention span of a goldfish chewing tinfoil, skims the first sentence, and immediately declares:
“Lol it depends.”
Yes, sir.
It always depends.
But depends on what is the part you somehow never seem to get to.
Instead, the sequence goes like this:
Woman coach: Here’s specific advice for this specific athlete in this specific situation.
Bro: In my peak years I used to run 75–100 miles a week and blah blah blah…
Woman coach: Right, but that’s not what we’re talking about and not who asked.
Bro: It DePeNdS.
Woman coach: Correct — and here’s the context you’re ignoring.
Bro: I dIdN’t ReAd ThE pOsT bUt BeSt LuCk.
And suddenly we’ve gone from athlete support to a man reenacting his glory days like the Boston Marathon is a personality trait.
The storyline predates Garmin.
Predates Boston.
Predates chip timing.
It’s ancestral at this point.
Women in coaching know this man.
We’ve met him at group runs, on Reddit, on Instagram, in gyms, in DMs, and yes — even in race corrals.
He is the “I Ran Once At A High Level So All Advice Must Pass Through Me” archetype.
He’s the Keeper of Mileage Past, the Sage of ‘Back In My Good Years,’ the Philosopher of Depends, the High Priest of Unsolicited Contextless Commentary.
He genuinely believes that:
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his previous mileage is relevant to everyone
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his personal recovery timeline is universal
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his old training cycles override your coaching education
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his opinion is nuance
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and his inability to read the OP is somehow your fault
This is why women coaches develop the sixth sense of knowing when a man is about to explain the exact thing you just said… incorrectly.
Let’s be honest:
These interactions aren’t dangerous — unless you’re an athlete who actually follows the bad advice.
But they are exhausting.
And they’re a window into a bigger problem in running culture:
Men assume authority even when they lack context.
Women are expected to justify authority even when they have expertise.
When a woman coach gives precise, context-aware feedback, she isn’t being “rigid.”
She’s being responsible.
Because coaching is about the athlete in front of you — not yourself at age 32 on your peak training block.
The reflexive “it depends” without reading the situation?
That’s not nuance.
That’s ego with a Strava account.
The truth is, most bros who comment like this haven’t coached a day in their lives.
They’ve simply been running long enough to believe their anecdotes are universal laws.
They’re not trying to be helpful — they’re trying to be right.
And this is why so many endurance athletes end up injured:
The loudest advice online is often coming from people who can’t see beyond their own training history.
Here’s the part women coaches understand that these men never seem to grasp:
Good coaching is not about how YOU used to train.
Good coaching is about what THIS athlete needs right now.
So yes — it does depend.
But not on the bro’s mileage from 2014.
Not on his marathon glory days.
Not on the one time he recovered faster than expected and now thinks he’s built different.
It depends on…
context.
History.
Injury status.
Goals.
Life load.
Hormones.
Age.
Stress.
Recovery.
Training age.
Physiology.
Everything he didn’t bother to read.
And that’s why this story keeps repeating itself.
Because every time a woman coach shows up with clarity, a man shows up with nostalgia and thinks they’re the same thing.
Next month, when the bros are collectively on their periods and apparently out of manpons, I’ll probably revisit this.
For now, I’ll leave you with this:
If your coaching philosophy relies solely on your own training stories, you’re not coaching — you’re reminiscing.
And if your contribution to a thoughtful conversation is “it depends” followed by zero actual insight, bless your heart.
May your crops grow tall.