Why real humans still matter in a world full of adaptive plans, algorithms, and running-app situationships that fizzle out the moment things get real.
We’re living in a wild time. Apps are coaching runners now. AI tools promise custom plans in seconds. Platforms swear they “learn your body” through your pacing history, as if your aerobic system is a tidy spreadsheet that updates itself based on vibes and VO2 data alone.
And sure, there’s convenience in having a plan handed to you without thinking. But if we’re being honest, convenience is not the same thing as understanding. And that becomes painfully obvious once life gets messy, motivation gets shaky, or your physiology stops behaving like the “average user” these apps were built for.
Nowhere is the gap wider than with runners navigating peri/menopause. And trust me, I have a front-row story for this one.
The Part the Apps Will Never Say Out Loud: They Aren’t Built for Peri/Menopausal Athletes
Most adaptive plans—Runna included—are built on averages and male-centric data models. They’re designed around predictable recovery curves, consistent sleep patterns, straightforward hormonal systems, and stress loads that reset each week like clockwork. That’s great if you’re a controlled science experiment. Not so great if you’re a human being with a hormonal landscape that looks like a weather radar in tornado season.
I watched one of my athletes walk straight into this mismatch. She entered peri/menopause super young and still managed to train for and complete five marathons and a relay race in a single year. Did I advise that? Absolutely not. Did I get her through it intact anyway? Yes, because I adjusted the plan constantly, doubled down on strength work, protected her nervous system, gave her speed limits, and refused to treat her body like it was a machine built for endless output.
She didn’t have a PR year in terms of pace, but she had a monumental year in terms of durability, resilience, and the sheer number of finish lines she crossed. And she did it without falling apart, because the training respected the season she was in.
Then Runna entered the picture.
And everything unraveled with the kind of speed only an algorithm can create.
She left my roster, plugged her numbers into the app, and immediately doubled her mileage after one of the most aggressive years of her life. An app doesn’t know when your stress bucket is full. It doesn’t know when your body is quietly waving a white flag. It doesn’t know that young peri/menopause is essentially a full-time job your endocrine system never asked for. And it doesn't know you're running a business that simply does not slow down with any given season as you navigate training and being a human with obligations outside of those things.
So she kept following the plan until her symptoms flared, her health took a hit, and her training started sliding downhill. By the time she reached her next World Major, she wasn’t in a training cycle… she was in survival mode. The race didn’t go the way she’d hoped, and without a human on the other side to help her process it, she stopped running altogether. The “situationship with Runna” turned into a hard, painful ghosting.
Not because she wasn’t capable.
But because she was being "coached" by a system that never understood her to begin with.
What a Human Coach Actually Sees That AI Never Will
AI is extremely good at metrics. It can read your splits, map your trends, and spit out very official-looking mileage targets. What it can’t do is make sense of the emotional, physiological, or contextual undercurrents that shape your performance far more than your last 800-meter repeat ever could.
A coach sees the story behind the numbers.
The cumulative stress.
The hormonal shifts.
The sleep deficits.
The identity wobble an athlete goes through after a hard race.
The way your body handles load in July versus how it reacts in October.
The invisible stuff that makes the visible stuff make sense.
AI will never ask why your pace suddenly dropped after a week of trying to hold life together with two hair ties and a granola bar. It won’t notice the patterns that show up in your notes. It won’t connect your work schedule to your Achilles flare or your mental fatigue to the way you ran every workout too hard. It definitely won’t adjust your plan based on the realities of peri/menopause because it doesn’t know those realities exist.
A coach doesn’t just hold you accountable. A coach holds the big picture when you don’t have the energy to zoom out.
Why Life Context Matters More Than the Perfect Plan
You can give two runners the exact same training plan and get two completely different outcomes. Because the plan is only half the story. The other half is the life surrounding it.
Maybe you’re a nurse on rotating shifts. Maybe your sleep is shot. Maybe you’re caring for aging parents or toddlers or both. Maybe your hormones are serving chaos for breakfast. Maybe your job is draining you in ways you can’t measure with a Garmin.
When a coach knows all of that, the plan becomes a living document instead of a prescription. It changes shape. It adapts the right way. It moves with you, not at you.
When an app doesn’t know any of that, it just keeps stacking mileage like you’re a robot in a controlled lab experiment.
And that’s how good athletes burn out doing “the right plan” for the wrong season.
The Reframing Piece: The Part Apps Cannot Touch
A human coach doesn’t just analyze training. They interpret the experience. They help athletes understand why something happened, what it means, and how to carry the lesson forward without spiraling into self-blame.
Apps can count miles.
Coaches can reframe meaning.
And meaning is what keeps runners coming back after disappointment.
If your only feedback loop is an algorithm, everything starts to feel like failure. But when a coach helps you see progress in durability, consistency, mental resilience, decision-making, nutrition habits, pacing discipline, or any of the quiet wins that never upload to Strava… that’s when an athlete starts to believe in themselves again.
That’s what my peri/menopausal athlete never got from the app she turned to. Not because she failed. But because AI isn’t built to understand what she needed to hear, process, or learn.
That’s human work.
If You Want Coaching Support That Actually Respects the Season You’re In
AI can hand you a plan. A human coach can hand you a path. And if you’re in a place where you want structure that pairs smart training with real-life context, I’ve built a few options that fit beautifully depending on what you need right now.
Strong Anywhere
A strength-first approach for runners who need durability more than mileage. Perfect if you’re in a rebuild season, dealing with peri/menopause shifts, coming back from a hard training block, or trying to stay consistent while life is throwing plot twists. No equipment required, and it travels well.
Fast Finish
A focused running plan built to help you finish strong, not just survive the distance. Great for athletes who want strategic intensity, smart progression, and the confidence that comes from feeling powerful at the end of a race. It delivers the kind of finish-line energy adaptive apps can’t teach you to generate.
Project: Breakthrough
The option for runners craving a real shift. Whether you’re stuck, plateaued, coming off a tough race, or trying to rebuild trust in your body, this plan blends structure, strategy, and mindset work so you actually move forward instead of running the same cycle again and again.
Each one is built with the stuff apps overlook: stress load, recovery, season of life, physiology, and the emotional side of training. Choose the one that matches your current chapter, and we’ll build from there.