Why Human Coaching Still Beats AI Training Plans
When AI Isn’t Enough: Why Work With a Human Coach at Trail Addiction Instead of Letting ChatGPT Train You
Scroll social media for five minutes and you’ll see it:
“Ask ChatGPT for a marathon plan!”
“AI will build your perfect ultra program in seconds!”
As coaches, we’re not anti-AI, but we are very clear on this: AI can be a useful tool. It is not a complete coaching relationship.
At Trail Addiction Coaching, we’re science-based, we use lactate testing, and we invest real time in getting to know you as a human being. This human connection is the bit AI simply can’t replicate – and that’s where performance, health, and long-term consistency are actually won.
Below is a breakdown of what’s been found in studies and real-world experiments with AI training plans, plus why athletes still choose a human coach like Trail Addiction.
What AI Running Plans Actually Do Well
Let’s give AI its due. Across multiple articles and studies, the same strengths keep showing up:
Fast & cheap – You can get a complete plan in seconds, often for free or at very low cost. (None to Run)
Decent structure – ChatGPT and similar tools tend to follow standard training principles (progressive overload, long runs, easy days, taper, etc.). (LinkedIn)
Good starting point for total beginners – If someone has no idea what to do on day one, an AI plan is better than “just wing it”. (None to Run)
Data crunching – AI systems can process big streams of data from wearables faster than a human. (ScienceDirect)
So if AI has all that going for it… why bother with a human coach?
Because when people actually put AI plans side-by-side with expert coaching, serious gaps show up – especially for anyone who cares about long-term performance, staying uninjured, and enjoying the process.
What Research Says About AI-Generated Training Plans
A 2024 study looked specifically at ChatGPT-generated running plans and asked highly qualified coaches to rate them. The verdict?
ChatGPT plans were “not rated optimal” by coaching experts, even though they improved when more detailed input was provided.
The authors explicitly recommended expert review and feedback on any AI-generated plan. (PMC)
Other research and reviews of AI in sport flag recurring issues:
Psychological side-effects – Pressure to follow AI outputs, reduced trust in human support teams, and potential harm to athlete well-being if AI becomes the “authority” rather than a tool. (Frontiers)
Data bias & blind spots – Many AI systems are trained on data that under-represent women and certain populations, which can make their “personalised” recommendations less safe or accurate for those athletes. (The Australian)
Over-reliance on perfect data – AI coaching software often assumes every run is recorded correctly. Coaches have pointed out that when data is missing, messy, or mis-read, the plan adjustments can quickly become inappropriate. (Full Circle Endurance)
So yes, AI can output a training plan. The question is whether it’s the right plan for you – and whether it will change appropriately as your life, body, and motivation change.
That’s where Trail Addiction comes in.
What a Human Coach at Trail Addiction Does That AI Can’t
1. We Coach Humans, Not Just Data
AI can see that your pace slowed, your HR spiked, or your sleep score dipped. What it can’t see is why:
You’ve just had a brutal week at work.
Your kid was up sick all night.
You’re quietly terrified of failing at this race after a tough few years.
Research and coach surveys are very consistent on this: AI lacks emotional intelligence and true social connection, while human coaches provide motivation, accountability, and psychological support that tech can’t match. (TrueCoach)
At Trail Addiction, those casual WhatsApp chats, post-run debriefs, and “how’s life actually going?” messages are not extra — they’re core business. They’re how we:
Catch burnout before it shows up in your data
Adjust training because your boss just dropped a massive deadline
Help you re-frame a “bad” session so it doesn’t derail your confidence
AI can tell you what should have happened. A coach can work with what actually happened.
2. We Use Real Physiology: Lactate Testing & Science-Based Zones
Most AI tools build zones from rough rules of thumb: age-based formulas, a guessed threshold, or whatever your watch thinks is happening.
At Trail Addiction, we go deeper:
On-treadmill lactate testing to identify your actual LT1, LT2 and aerobic thresholds
Heart-rate, pace and RPE zones built from your data – not a generic table
Sessions designed specifically to target the right side of those thresholds (e.g. fatigue-resistance work at ~2.5 mmol/L, not just “tempo-ish”)
Studies on AI training highlight that while plans are often reasonable, they’re not tailored to an individual’s lab-measured physiology unless a human expert steps in. (PMC)
You’re not a “typical” runner in a dataset. Your thresholds, history, and response to training are unique. We design for that.
3. We See the Whole Picture – Not Just the Plan
AI is brilliant at generating tidy 12-week schedules. But as multiple coaches have pointed out, it doesn’t understand:
Your injury history in detail
How you move (technique, gait, posture)
Your race calendar and lifecycle over years, not just weeks
The difference between “tired but fine” and “right on the edge of a stress fracture” (Running Lifestyle)
At Trail Addiction, we look at:
Your past training (what’s worked, what hasn’t)
Strengths and limiters (climbing, descending, heat, technical terrain)
Work, family and travel patterns
Your big picture: not just Kepler this year, but where you want to be in 2–3 seasons
Your plan isn’t something we spit out once and ignore. It’s a living thing that we tweak, nudge, and sometimes completely rewrite when life demands it.
4. Safety First: “Do No Harm” in the Real World
One of the big themes from coaches reviewing AI is the risk of over- or under-cooking athletes who don’t fit the assumptions baked into the model. Good coaches talk about a “do no harm” principle: always err on the safe side when you don’t know the athlete well yet. (VO2max Coaching)
AI tools:
Don’t know what your surgeon actually said after your last injury
Can’t feel that odd niggle you’re downplaying
Can’t hear the catch in your voice when you say “I’m fine”
We can.
At Trail Addiction we:
Progress volume and intensity conservatively after layoffs
Build in strength, mobility and technique work to keep you durable
Adjust quickly if red flags pop up – even if your watch still says “Productive”
AI might be able to predict injury risk from data in a lab. In real life, prevention usually happens in a conversation.
5. Women, Hormones and Under-Represented Athletes
One very real problem with AI and many sports algorithms: they’re mostly trained on male data.
Recent reporting and research have highlighted that only a tiny fraction of sport science studies focus exclusively on women, which means AI systems often ignore menstrual cycle phases, hormonal variation, and female-specific injury risks. (The Australian)
That’s not a small detail – it affects:
How hard you should train at different times of the month
Fueling needs
Recovery and injury risk
At Trail Addiction, we don’t pretend a one-size-fits-all plan works for everyone. We talk about:
Your cycle (if relevant)
Your lived experience, not just your VO2max
Cultural, age-related, and lifestyle factors that AI doesn’t see
Your body is not a generic model. It deserves better than a generic plan.
6. Accountability, Confidence & The “Someone In Your Corner” Factor
Articles comparing AI to human coaching consistently circle back to the same idea: AI can be a powerful tool, but it does not replace the feeling of being supported by a real person. (Running Lifestyle)
With Trail Addiction you get:
A coach who actually cares whether you show up for that long run
Someone to celebrate the small wins and contextualise the bad days
Honest feedback when your goals, timeline or expectations don’t match reality
Reassurance when impostor syndrome, life stress or bad weather show up on the same week 🙃
That human connection is often what keeps athletes from quietly quitting when the novelty wears off. No AI prompt can replicate the feeling of “my coach believes I can actually do this”.
7. How We Use Tech (Including AI) With You – Not Instead of You
The irony: the future isn’t AI vs human coaches. It’s AI + human coaches used well.
Even many coaches who are skeptical of fully automated plans use AI tools to help with:
Crunching training data
Generating ideas for sessions
Spotting long-term trends or anomalies (The Runner Journal)
At Trail Addiction, we’re not anti-tech. We’re anti-outsourcing-your-entire-journey.
We’ll happily:
Look at your watch data and training apps
Use smart tools to analyse trends
Build science-based plans rooted in lactate testing and real metrics
But the final decisions are made by a human coach who knows your story, your stress, your ambitions – and who is emotionally invested in getting you to that start line healthy and to that finish line proud.
So… Should You Use AI at All?
If you’re:
Brand new to running
On a tight budget
Just experimenting with structure
…then an AI-generated plan can be a decent introduction. (None to Run)
But if you:
Want to perform at your best in ultras, multisport or trail events
Have a history of injury or burnout
Need training to fit around a complex life
Value an honest, ongoing relationship with a coach
…then you deserve more than “what the algorithm thinks an average person like you should do”.
You deserve a real person, a real conversation, and a plan built on your physiology and your life.
That’s what we do at Trail Addiction Coaching.
If you’d like to talk about how this could look for you – from lab-based lactate testing to a fully personalised plan – reach out via trailaddictioncoaching.com and let’s chat like humans.
Because ordinary isn’t in your nature. And neither is cookie-cutter coaching.
