Like any sporting activity, running is complicated. Not all of us are professional athletes and spend every minute improving and maintaining our physical performance. We have small children and dogs and sometimes we don’t get enough sleep. We have work schedules and sometimes we drink alcohol and make time for a run before lunch. All of it can interfere with our training plans.
Even at an extremely granular level, heart rate training can go very wrong. High temperatures, stress at work, or even the wrong song on my playlist can cause my heart rate to spike. Training through heart rate tracking (also called “zone training” (which refers to different heart rate zones) is universally popular, but it’s also tricky. As Baker noted, even the stress of being in the wrong heart rate zone can cause you to fall out of the right one.
I asked Baker if the Pixel Watch 3 had picked up on indicators that I’d been overtraining and that’s why it had recommended I run at an extremely slow pace. “It’s possible,” she said doubtfully. “If you’re not hungry, you’re lethargic, or you haven’t gotten your period — those are all signs of overtraining. But recreational runners don’t really overtrain unless something is really wrong.”
That was two weeks of training wasted. I’d been running my quick runs at a mere 14-minute jog pace when I should have been running my tempo intervals at an 8-minute pace — something I probably would have done if Fitbit hadn’t told me otherwise. I can create custom runs in the app, but I wish it were easier to plug my desired pace into Fitbit’s suggested workouts rather than creating runs from scratch. After all, the point is that the AI coach makes running easier, not harder.
At this point, as with most things AI-related, the AI trainer is more of a fun toy than anything else. It gave me structure and motivation, but it’s all too easy to get led astray. “It’s another tool people have in their toolbox, and that’s great!” Baker says. “But now you’ve been playing with a computer and you’re confused. It’s a good starting point, but maybe you should also consult a professional.” Good news for all of us: AI won’t replace human trainers just yet. You still need another human to point out that maybe all you needed was a nap and a snack.