Why AI Can't Replace a Coach in Endurance Sports Ep 88

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. Hey y'all, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your host, Coach Christina Fiumara Newport. Excited that you are here as always. Thank you. Thank you. Today is a hot topic to say the least. AI training plans versus human coaching. So there are so many different AI-based platforms out there that are popping onto the market, promising to optimize your training with data. So do you really need a coach? And the short, biased answer is yes, and we're going to explore why. So AI plans offer structure and data, assuming that your data is correct, and we'll get in more into that here in a moment. Or what you're feeding it is correct, but they lack more real-time adaptability, emotional intelligence, and personalized strategy. All things that you can get from a coach and all certainly critical for endurance athletes. So first of all, I get the appeal of AI training plans. Isn't it nice that you would pay a company really kind of not that much money and say, here, connect to my device and generate me a plan. Let's say it's, uh, for a sprint triathlon or an Ironman or a marathon or whatever. So some of the experiences that we've had with folks doing AI-generated plans is that they may hit all their numbers, but they may get really burned out. Or exhausted or even mentally drained. It just doesn't— there's a lack of connection when the computer is just telling you, hey, do this. There's nobody on the other side to say, you know what, my kids are sick from school and I just don't know if I can do that. So stress levels are hard to account for, lack of sleep, various job demands, family demands. Things like that, or waxing and waning levels of motivation, that's certainly a coach can have some feedback on. That's where we really step in and understand you as a human, not just a data set. So the true power of personalized coaching really is how a coach can adapt to your real-life situation, to, again, whether your kids get sick, whether you've got a work deadline, whether you just wake up just feeling kind of funky or off. Or let's say you're going on vacation or it's your birthday and you don't wanna do any training or you wanna do a ton of training. So there are also those, the social aspect of training that comes into account. Certainly from my perspective, I feel like so many people like to turn into, well, not necessarily that they like it, but they'll oftentimes turn into robots. Like I will do exactly what my training plan says and then I will get the result. But at the end of the day, Was it fulfilling? And that's hopefully where the option of having a coach can share in that fulfillment by giving you a pep talk, by having a conversation after a tough session or after a really great session. So helping you to reframe setbacks, to help you build confidence, and certainly to help keep you motivated. But AI doesn't really deliver that, and certainly a coach can. So that personalized coachability, again, really that true adaptability to real life, to understanding you as a human. So I'll give you an example. I have an athlete who has a large propensity for injury, incredibly talented, who if they were doing a AI training plan, they would probably be very, very broken. So it's taken that level of getting to know each other, creating that relationship, creating that rapport, getting to know your athlete, and then being able to throw in the right things at the right times just to know when to push your athlete and when to set it and when to sort of turn it off. That's the true beauty of having a human coach, not just Saying, oh well, I was given this particular workout based on a computer. This also goes into the limits of AI in training. So interpreting the data beyond just the numbers. So in other words, AI just sees your heart rate or your pace or your power, but doesn't really know subjective things and when you need to turn on or off. One of the interesting things I'll be curious to see if it gets incorporated into AI more so, but we look a lot at genetics. So are you somebody who genetically needs more recovery, maybe more moderate recovery or low recovery needs? Are you somebody who can adapt to your training? Are you someone who has a higher propensity for power or endurance? How are all of these things played into when it comes to your training? So that's really important to sort of know how you can push an athlete. But AI only sees the numbers on your devices. It doesn't really have that context. And this is also assuming that the numbers on the devices are actually correct. One of my biggest pet peeves in coaching is because we rely so heavily on heart rate training since we do metabolic testing and we look at your lactate and we look at your substrate use, and we look at your rating of perceived exertion. All of those things go into us helping you create the proper training zones because AI is often going to say, okay, these are your assumed training zones. They may or may not be right. And that also assumes that those devices are tracking your numbers accurately. So the optical readers on the back of your watch often are not as accurate as an actual heart rate monitor on your chest that's getting that direct signal and sending it to your watch. Now, that being said, a battery might die or batteries might die. You might forget your heart rate monitor, you might forget your watch. So things like that that you can tell your coach and say, hey, my heart rate data is not going to be accurate. So on our end as coaches, so we use TrainingPeaks. I also love personally looking at Garmin data, but TrainingPeaks is what we have. And if you have someone, have an athlete who would otherwise be like, let's say it's a zone 2 workout and they, and their heart rate monitor is not working or they forgot it or whatever. Okay. So whatever the computer is going to assume that that training stress score was, I can either delete it or I can adjust it to what previous training numbers have been so that it doesn't sort of mess up, if you will, some of the data that we have to determine what is the appropriate load for you and your body. We have some athletes who can take training stress scores, and if you— this of course is the interesting part of some of the training. This is not necessarily in a, an exercise physiology term. It's some of these terms that are created by companies like Garmin or TrainingPeaks. That is a way of quantifying how much your training is going to break you down, because that's what fitness is. Fitness is an overload process. You need to overload the body so that when you start the workout, you're fitter than at the end of the workout. So again, saying that the other opposite way is at the end of the workout, you're less fit than when you started based on that overload, and thereby we recover. And we rest and we sleep and we get good nutrition and we get good social interactions and all of those wonderful things that go into appropriate recovery. So hopefully, let's say the next week or the next day or the next several days later, whatever, you are fitter going into that same workout that you had already completed than you were the time before. That's the whole concept of training, right? So these concepts of training stress, training stress score, for example, is quantifying that load based on the time that you are spending overall in the workout, and then the time that you spend in those theoretical training zones. So the higher the, the zone you're in, the larger the training stress score you're going to get. So quantified over the course of a week, we have some athletes who are able to take a training stress score in the 600s or 700s, and we have some athletes that need to max out at say like 200, 250, and that's okay. That makes you, you. And that's the beauty of where a coach comes in to say, AI is not gonna do well with you. It's just gonna continue to beat you up. And also, if your zones are wrong, that's not gonna help anything. And also, if your devices are not properly reading your workout, then AI doesn't care. It's just gonna try to take that number and, you know, spit out what you should be doing next or how you should adjust your training zones, and a coach can look at that and have that discerning eye to say, okay, do we care about that or do we not care about that? Right? So that's where the limits of AI certainly in training can happen. Secondly, technique and race strategy. So a coach is really, or should hopefully be really good at giving advice on technique and race strategy. I really love this from the perspective of seeing athletes in person. Doesn't mean you absolutely have to, but there's so much more telling stories from actually seeing an athlete in person and seeing their form, seeing their flow state in the moment, and being able to say, oh wow, okay, like this athlete really has some potential here, or hey, we need to tweak this form here. Giving you that real-time feedback. And AI obviously doesn't do that. And then also talking you through a race strategy of, given your strengths and points to improve on, how can we approach a race in a way that's gonna be smart for you to really get the most out of it? And I feel like that is— I shouldn't even say I feel, we've seen the actual data on athletes who stay with the sport or don't stay with the sport. When an athlete is getting beat down, when they don't feel like they're getting the feedback that they need, that's in a sense positive, they're probably going to quit. So, and I, I certainly love multi-sport. I think it's such a great opportunity to bring things into a, a lifetime of movement. And you're part of your longevity strategy. That's really what I'm thinking about as an athlete. How can we keep you going and finding the fun things that you like to do for a lifetime, whether it be swim, bike, run, all three together, or strength training, mobility, like learning the tools that are gonna last you a lifetime rather than just like, oh man, I'm really disappointed in that Ironman finish because a computer told me how to train and you know, you probably just walk or walk away going, oh, that was kind of a disappointment. So having some of that technique and race strategy and motivation and accountability. So an algorithm won't check in on when you're, when you start skipping workouts, but a coach will notice those trends and help keep you on track, especially noticing some language that you might have. If you're doing any comments in your workouts, that's where certainly, I mean, I'm, you know, tooting my own horn here with our coaching group. When we meet on a weekly basis and we can verbalize some of these things that are going on with a particular athlete or one of our athletes and have the input from the group to say, hey, my athlete said this and this and this, what do you guys think about that. And having that input from others is absolute gold to really help people push them forward in a way that certainly AI won't do. So that leads me to who benefits the most from a coach, because I'll be honest, I don't have a coach for my particular training. But that being said, I do have a coach for mountain biking. So if you guys haven't heard it yet, I did a podcast back, I believe it was in November and December. I'll, I'll try to link it below, but That was my big challenge for the year, is to train for XTERRA Nationals, which is down in Alabama. I know that I have very limited time. There's only so much I can do. It would probably be a waste of time to hire a coach in my situation, but heck yeah, am I having a mountain bike coach who is somebody that can push me out of my comfort zone when I have a look of terror on my face, but also someone who knows my skill set and has seen my skill set and knows when to push me and when to step back. In fact, I had just this past weekend say, you know what, Chris, I know that you can do this particular line. I know that you can, but not today. And you know what? True respect. And that was also an opportunity for me to take a sigh and be like, oh, thank goodness. I'm so glad you're not making me do that. So it really is important who would benefit from a coach. So certainly newer athletes or somebody who's just gotten into the sport. I do like for people— we tend to like, from a coaching perspective, like to see the athletes who have tried a little bit on their own. Maybe they have used AI and they start to fall in love with the sport, and then they need a little bit more guidance on adjusting and having the right proper— having the correct training load. And when I started in this sport, you know, the only things that we had were books. And I very distinctly remember following a training plan to the letter and getting in fact too lean to the point where I had a lot of my family members saying, saying like, hey, uh, I think we might need to increase our caloric intake or perhaps back off on the, on the training. So had I had a coach, to be able to see my performance and see some of those other— and actually talk to me and see pictures or maybe even see me in person. That would've been a great opportunity for a coach to say, hey, we need to adjust your training load. And certainly once I had kids and needed the appropriate training load, and this goes for anyone, not just me necessarily, but people who have a lot going on in their lives, I feel like benefit the most from a coach. Somebody who just doesn't generally want to take the time to write their own training plan and they literally can say, hey, I'm gonna be, um, traveling on this day and this day. I might have the access to a pool and you know, I'm taking my kids to school on this day and this day so I can only work out once a day in the afternoon or whatever the case may be. The more complicated, strangely, the more we enjoy it. That person would definitely benefit from a coach. Somebody who needs some additional skills. In terms of their swim form, that certainly is somebody who needs a coach for sure. Other people who might want to get a coach, certainly an experienced, more experienced triathlete who really wants to push the envelope to like take themselves to the next level and really do something incredible. So let's say you've done a couple of 70.3s. And you want to break a certain time, uh, or you want to go on to do Ironman, or you wanna train for nationals, anything like that where you're really trying to push the envelope a little bit, but you also don't wanna break yourself or do something dumb. I've had people literally tell me that. They're like, I need you so that I don't do something stupid. And we see that a lot. And that's not a, uh, dig on your intelligence. I know all of you listening are incredibly intelligent. And incredibly powerful and incredibly smart and just want to do amazing things. And I totally respect that. But sometimes we get little voices in our head that say, oh, you know, you haven't ran in so long, you've been nursing that injury. But, you know, I felt really good today. May as well just go out for that X activity, that 10-mile run or that. And then at the end you're like, oh, that was a bad idea. Now I'm reinjured. Right? So things like that, they're like, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Your coach will absolutely be like, so how about we start with 10-minute run, 1-minute walk, or 3-minute run, uh, 5-minute walk, or whatever the case may be. That's going to be fine-tuned to your needs. Similarly, uh, someone who would benefit a lot from a coach is anybody struggling with injury. Struggling with motivation, struggling through breaking through plateaus, or again, like I mentioned, having big scary goals or just needing somebody to help you move forward. Especially for those athletes who are really frustrated with like, you know what, I've tried the AI training plans, I've worked with some other coaches and I just don't know what's going on. Those are the people who would benefit most from the coach. So in summary, AI, I believe, is a great tool, but it lacks the true adaptability that a coach can have, the emotional intelligence and race day strategy, and certainly the know-how about you. That is what coaching is all about. It is a human-to-human connection, someone with whom you can really get to know and who can get to know you. And can make those adjustments and be able to know when to push you, when to hold back, how we adjust your training plan. If you have those little niggles or an injury or something that just comes up in life, we've got that adaptability versus AI. And then understanding if something breaks in your technology, we get it. We can see the bigger picture and we can also see You, and that's really where a coach comes in. So if you are thinking about hiring a coach, we have a special offer that goes through the end of March 2025. So head on over to theenduranceedge.com/triathloncoaching, and from there you can come to one of our open houses. They are daily, 8:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 5:00 PM, where you can learn about our special offer and how our team can help you do incredibly amazing things this year and beyond. So again, that's theenduranceedge.com/triathloncoaching. Thank you all for listening, and I will catch you next time. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.