We'll be right back. to not another running podcast
i'm your host line six today we're talking about
how runners actually get coached by themselves
by code or by an online coach because right now
everyone's got a plan your watch has opinions
your app has alerts and your coach has check
-ins and some of you you're just winging it and
hoping grit carries you through so the question
is simple but uncomfortable who's actually making
you better is it discipline and self -trust Is
it an algorithm crunching in your data? Or is
it a human on the other side of the screen? We're
cutting through the noise, the sales pitches,
and the egos today. Talking about what works,
what doesn't, and what the powers that be don't
want to admit. Before we break this down, I want
you to hear from someone who's done the work.
No theories, no hype, just miles. This is Megan
Kahn's story. May 2023, I ran my first full marathon.
The Cincinnati Flying Pig. After running two
half marathons in fall 2022 and coming in first
overall female both. I accidentally BQ'd the
Flying Pig with no feel whatsoever. No real plan,
no clue what I was doing. Let's go back 14 months
prior, early March 2022. I was in deep, beyond
deep, into heavy alcoholism. It had been building
for about 20 years. By this point in March 2022,
my days were spent waking up with the shakes.
So I'd pound about six shots of vodka first thing
in the morning. Repeat vodka shots throughout
the day until I passed out. This was my life
for a few years. Mind you, I was still functional.
I held my job and appeared normal because I hid
my alcoholism well. But I was slowly killing
myself. My doctors told me so. I've been sober
since March 25th, 2022. Getting there is a long
story for another day. But thereafter, in a nutshell,
I got bored as heck, so I took up running. I
ran in one of those halves mentioned above and
BQ'd in my first full. From there, I learned
about the six stars. I set out to conquer all
six. After Boston 2024, I hit a major setback.
I broke my hip. I was on crutches all summer
and couldn't run for over 100 days. Would I relapse
into alcoholism? Some likely feared that. I would.
But I did the opposite. I did what I could to
build my strength. Bike, water jog, and lift.
I ran the Chicago Marathon. after only a few
weeks of training with a pr pr of 307 .53 after
that after that my new goal was to hit sub 3.
i hit that in january 2025 with a 257 .48 i hit
a sub 3 again in london for my fourth star on
deck for my fifth star was berlin in september
2025 on september 3rd while doing speed work
Outside, I stepped over a rock and broke my foot.
I had to wear a walking boot for four weeks,
including when the Berlin Marathon fell. Instead
of pouting or relapsing, I flew to Berlin and
ended up walking the entire marathon in my boot.
It took me just over six hours and I earned my
fifth star. I am set to get my sixth star medal
in Tokyo on March 1st. Knock on wood. This was
longer than I intended, but all of this is to
say running changed my life. It quite literally
saved my life. I hope others who are struggling
can see that running can be the turning point,
their lifeline. I got to say, huge thanks to
Megan Kahn for trusting this community with her
story. That takes guts, real guts. I see you,
High Stepper. Get it, sis? And if you're listening
and thinking, yeah, I've got a story too, You
do. And if you're in the middle of it, climbing
out of it, or just trying to survive the miles,
send it in. No perfect ending needed. Just real
people and real miles. All right, so this brings
us to the first lane, self -coaching. The good,
the bad, and why so many runners live here. First
off, it's free. You can't beat free 99. No one
cares about your success more than you do. At
least they shouldn't. You know your body better
than anyone else. Your success starts and stops
with you, and you gain the knowledge of learning.
This is how I started out. I started out by coaching
myself, creating a plan on the fly from reading
books, going on forums, surfing on YouTube. Today
is the easiest time to be an athlete of any sport,
literally. Growing up, I played basketball. And
I'm sitting here and I'm watching all these videos
on YouTube of all these cool training drills
and stuff that I never in my life thought about.
And I'm thinking, man, if only when I was a kid
I had YouTube, I could have been so much better
of a basketball player. I mean, everything that
these kids can see pros doing on the court, they
can sit there and learn and master it themselves.
They just got to have the tenacity and the will
to do it. And that's the same thing with running.
You can go on YouTube and YouTube VO2 Max sessions,
and they're going to tell you exactly what you
should be doing and how you should be doing it.
But the issue is so many people are lazy. They
don't want to read between the lines. Just because
dude man is sitting there doing his 400 meter
repeat to the 450 mile pace, that's not saying
you should be doing your 400 meter repeat to
the 450 mile pace. You need to figure out what
your training zones is and know you do not need
a coach to tell you what pace you should be running
at for those. They have all types of calculators
online. But like I said, everybody wants everything
handed to them. The thing is, having stuff handed
to you comes at a cost. And you know just as
well as I know, things has gotten expensive.
Like when I was a kid, my mom could give me $5
and I could go to the store and I could walk
out with a bag full of candy. If I go to the
store now with $5, I'm getting one king size
Reese's cup and maybe a couple of lollipops.
That ain't even enough to... Crush my sweet tooth.
So if you can save money, you need to save money.
Now, I'm sure somebody listening will say, well,
if you really care about your running, what do
you mean you should save money and not hire a
running coach? Well, first off, if this is your
first time running or you're just starting out,
your body's going to make adaptations anyway.
If you've never walked a mile and you start walking
a mile every single day, pretty soon walking
a mile is going to be easy. That's how the body
works. So to go straight out the gate and hire
a coach, that's just crazy. I mean, that's like
you getting your first job as a 16 -year -old
kid and you going to a car dealership and buying
a Porsche. Like, come on, dude, you need to crawl,
walk, run, get you a little beater, get proficient
driving that beater, wait till your insurance
premium. It's going to be less. And then upgrade
your car to the next level and then the next
level after that. But just to jump right out
the gate and say, oh, I'm just going to start
marathoning. Let me hire a coach. I mean, hey,
it's all fine and dandy if that's what you want
to do. I'm not pocket watching anybody. You spend
your money how you want to spend. I'm just simply
saying that there's better ways in the beginning
stages of running. to spend your money now i'm
not sitting here saying self -coaching is the
end -all be -all because self -coaching it does
come with its cons and potential hazards first
off trial and error it costs time and fitness
you only know what what you've experienced so
there's a learning curve then you have the risk
of overtraining you could have a type a personality
where you think no matter what you do it's not
enough and You're going to do more than you should.
I've definitely ran down that rabbit hole plenty
of times. Or you could be a person that don't
ever want to step out their comfort zone, aren't
going to do the things that you're not good at.
Say you're a person that's really fast and you
can run fast, but you can't run for a long time.
You're going to want to tend to stay in doing
speed workouts and stuff, and you're not going
to want to go do that weekend long run at a slow
pace. Also, if you're self -coaching and stuff,
that's energy that you're spending having to
think about your training instead of just going
out and training. That's energy that you have
to spend writing it out, figuring out a way to
put it to your watch. And that energy is energy
that you could better use just to focus predominantly
on your training. So let's move to the next lane,
AI coaching, what it does well and where it falls
short. Man created AI, so man is smarter than
AI. Just like man created the calculator, in
fact, the guy's name was Blaise Pascal, so you
would think that he would be able to solve an
equation faster than the calculator. But I guarantee
you this, you bring Blaise Pascal back to life,
and you give me a calculator, and you ask us
both a multiplication question or any type of
mathematical question, will solve it faster than
he would that's just the way it is so with ai
training it's just training based on real -time
data sleep quality heart rate hrv accumulated
fatigue versus recovery it adapts to you day
by day for example i wear a device called a whoop
recently i had a workout that had 18 400 meter
repeats 2 .25 mile warm up 2 .25 mile cool down
anyhow my whoop gave me a notification saying
your recovery wasn't what it should be we're
gonna adjust your workout so instead of it having
me do the 18 400 meter repeats it cut those repeats
down to 10 but the key difference was instead
of going straight into a one minute rest it had
me do a 200 meter float jog in between those
400 meter repeats and then a 30 second rest still
the same warm up and same cool down it provides
weekly mileage progressions workout balance easy
hard long runs it's always available no scheduling
a phone call or waiting for reply with ai you
get immediate feedback it's cost effective you
can It can range anywhere from $60 to $360 a
year. I'm talking the Hal Higdon app, the Run
app, the higher end of things would be buying
a Whoop. It's scalable as your goals grow. So,
for instance, you may start at running a 20 -minute
5K, and then eventually you get that 5K down
to 18 minutes. It's going to grow with you. It's
easily accessible. It's data -driven feedback
isn't going to tell you what you want to hear.
It's going to tell you exactly what the data
shows. AI, it adjusts to the runner. The runner
doesn't adjust to AI. Now, like with anything,
there's a whole host of cons to using AI for
coaching. It's driven by data only and not purpose.
It doesn't understand the personal meaning for
your goals. There's no emotional connection.
This app, this AI doesn't believe in you. And
the data, it starts driving your every decision.
And the thing about this is the data isn't always
correct. There's been times where I've slept
rough and my whoop bend and moved up on my arm
too high. And I'm waking up and it's saying my
rest and heart rate was 10 beats per minute.
Like, no way. you're nearly dead at that point.
And then your whoop would say, oh, my goodness,
you have a world -class heart rate that's never
been known to man. We're going to go out there
and you're going to do 400 -meter repeats at
a three -minute pace. I'm like, come on, dude.
I'm not Elliot Kipchoge. But, no, real talk,
though, it does have its cons, and you just need
to be aware. If there's some data that just doesn't
look right, like you know in your heart what
you are. Just because something is telling you
that you're something way more than what you
are or way less than what you are, you got to
use your judgment and think, maybe there's a
reason why this data doesn't look right. If your
HRV is normally 60 milliseconds and all of a
sudden you wake up one day and it's 150 milliseconds,
that should tell you. there's something off so
i wouldn't trust the data for that day because
at the end of the day garbage data is garbage
guidance so take it with a grain of salt don't
become a slave to the data this brings us to
the third lane online running coaches you have
access to experienced coaches from anywhere for
instance you have someone you follow on strava
you see The numbers they're putting up at races
and you like what you see from them and they're
raving about a coach, you too could have that
very same coach. The ability to find a coach
that understands you and your goals. Plans adjusted
to your history, injuries, and life stress. Coaches
understand nuances that data can't. Like I was
saying, if your wearable device gives you false
data, then in turn the AI is going to adjust
your plan according to that data. And if the
data is garbage, then the guidance is going to
be garbage. Encouragement when motivation dips.
I think that's probably the most important thing
that a coach could provide to an athlete is the
motivation and encouragement. When your confidence
dips, I don't think there's an athlete out there
that never has doubts in their mind. I know I
have doubts all the time, and I will sit there
and go in a rabbit hole in my mind for endless
amounts of time. And at the end of the day, all
you can do is what you can do. And wish in one
hand and, you know, just keep putting in the
work. But having somebody in your corner that's
telling you like, hey, hey, dude, what you're
doing is right. I've seen this before. Hey, dude,
you're going to be all right, son. Don't even
trip. All right, so now we're going to move into
the cons of online running coaches. First and
foremost will be the price. I've seen as low
as $75 for the most basic coaching plans, upwards
to over $300 a month. In my opinion, that's way
too much money. I mean, at $150 an hour, I wouldn't
imagine that it would take anybody more than
an hour to create a person, a plan for one month.
And the reason being is I did my research and
most coaches are using this platform called Training
Peaks or VDOT. Training Peaks is $60 a month.
VDOT is $300 a year. for up to 25 athletes, $400
a year for up to 100 athletes, and $4 .99 a year
for over 200 athletes. All right. If you go and
do your research, you'll see that pretty much
with these plans that coaches use to create plans
for the runners, all they're doing essentially
is punching in the times that the runners give
them or that the data shows that the runners
run. And this platform that they're using is
going to create a spreadsheet tailor -made to
that runner. Now, to even take it even further,
to become a running coach through UESCA, it costs
$599, $599 to get that running coach certification.
So you mean to tell me that if you have an athlete,
one athlete, signed up for you for six months,
and you're charging the athlete, we're going
to go on the lower scale. Just $100 a month.
In that six months, that athlete, they done paid
for your coaching certification that you only
got to pay for one time, so you done made your
money back four times over than that. And you
can't tell me, look me in the face and tell me
that somebody's sitting at a computer, Just punching
numbers into a computer, spitting it out on a
spreadsheet and sending it to your watch deserves
$150 an hour. Wait, hold on. I said $100. So
$100 an hour just to do that. I mean, police
officers don't make that much. Teachers don't
make $100 an hour. These are people that are
actually doing things for the betterment of the
youth in the world. And that's the thing. I think.
The world has a weird value on what professions
cost what amount of money. You got professional
athletes making millions of dollars to throw
a ball in a hoop. You got actors making millions
of dollars to stand and act. You got singers
making, and it's because people pay for useless
things all the time. Yeah, I said it. But why
not? pay the person that's teaching your child
something to develop or the person that's protecting
your family and upholding the law those types
of wages. So, no, I don't agree with the price
of online coaches. Alright, next. High monthly
fees with zero race day presence. So, you mean
to tell me that you can justify charging a person
that wants to do better, upwards of $300 a month,
and you're not even coming to their race. If
this person was with you for six months, at that
price, they'd unpaid for your plane ticket and
potentially your hotel for a one -night stay.
You can't sit there and say you're coaching somebody
if you're not really there. And add the fact
that... How can you tell somebody what they need
to work on as far as their running form and you're
not at the track with them? Oh, well, we can
put a phone and have them record their, what
if they're only recording the first half of the
workout before their form breaks down? You're
not physically there to be able to give them
a proper critique. So in that sense, you're no
better than an AI coach. Next. Most of these
online coaches, they have multiple athletes,
which is cool. But how can they really say they
are truly paying attention to your best interest?
And then, to add insult to injury, if you go
on a lot of these websites and stuff with these
online coaches, they sit there and say, it's
additional prices for a 15 -minute call. Like,
come on, man. You can't sit there and charge
a person this premium dollar and then tell them
when they want to have a phone call with you
that it's going to cost extra. I'm not saying
all coaches do that. I'm just simply saying I've
went on some of these popular websites and they're
saying, hey, you're going to need to kick me
a little bit of extra commission for me to sit
on the phone and breathe and tell you something
that you could probably just Google. Just think
about this. If a coach is just reading your data
and telling you what your watcher already knows,
what are you really paying for? Now, I'm not
saying there's no benefits to online running
coaches at all. I'm just pointing out the cons.
And these same online running coaches that have
podcast platforms, they're quick to crap on apps
like Runner and Hal Higdon and all these things.
give you all the cons to using those. So it's
fair game. I'm not saying being self -coached
is the best. I'm not saying AI training is the
best. I'm not saying having an online coach is
the best. What I'm saying is everybody's situation
is different. Too often, the masses are telling
people that's looking for guidance, you need
to have a coach. You need to come join our program.
And I just don't think that's necessary. And
for the people out there that don't have a coach
and just starting out and you want to improve,
just show up when you're supposed to. Be that
guy. Be the hardest worker in the room. And you're
going to progress. You don't need any fancy equipment,
anything. You just got to have the heart and
the will to succeed. And you will succeed. I
promise you. Knowledge is power, folks. Go out.
Don't be afraid to do your own research. Like
they say, you give a man a fish, you feed him
for a day. You teach a man a fish, you feed him
for a lifetime. Same thing. If we always rely
on somebody else or something else to teach us,
we're never going to meet our potential and never
going to go the places we can go. You got to
become self -sufficient, like with anything in
life. Thank you for listening. I'm out.