The Running Thread --2025

[SarahDisney]

A little known secret, that I am even experimenting around with right now for triathlon training, is ChatGPT. You can feed all your time goals, training goals, time constraints, etc to ChatGPT and it will give you a detailed training plan. It is actually pretty cool. You can get as simple as you want or as detailed as you want. May be worth giving it a shot and see what training plan it gives you.

I will add the caveat here that what you get from ChatGPT could include bad advice.
ChatGPT (and other GenAI) are essentially collecting information, assessing patterns, and making those patterns sound human-friendly. There's definitely some bad running advice available on the internet and the LLMs/GenAI are training on/using that bad advice.

On the whole I do think there is value for using ChatGPT, etc for stuff like this but always trust your own common sense over the AI.
(I use AI pretty heavily at work and I have learned the hard way that if there's a conflict between my instincts and the AI, my instincts are usually right).

Also, never say please or thank you to ChatGPT, that destroys the environment (most GenAI is spectacularly bad for the environment but politeness essentially causes it to use massive energy for no payoff)

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

My industry is also going ga-ga over AI, and what is manifesting more and more is AI "hallucinating" and telling you what it thinks you want to hear. Really interesting has been hearing about lawyers (NOT my industry) using AI to create a case and the AI is citing cases and case law that doesn't exist. IMHO, AI has its uses for analyzing large quantities of data, but it is still a looooooong way from anything I want to rely upon for anything meaningful.

 

[Psymonds]

An interesting and possibly cautionary story about using ChatGPT for training plans.

https://www.wsj.com/sports/nyc-mara...1?st=itSZei&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The results I get from Google's AI summary are often just wrong. They'll put two things which appear near each other often together, even if they don't go together, and when you go to the link it says the exact opposite of the google summary.

Your mileage may vary, but it's good for rewriting something you've written and know well, not great for new knowledge aquisition.

 

[Baloo in MI]

Congrats to the Chicago lottery winners today. I really thought it was going to be my year. I even got a random Instagram message yesterday saying “if this should up on your algorithm you will get selected for Chicago”. Figured it was a sign. But instead for the sixth time I will need to wait until next year. Heck, I’m not getting any younger!!

 

[Dopey 2020]

@Dopey 2020 surprised that you have not time qualified for Chicago? I know they made it stricter but it had an easier time than Boston or NYC.

Close, just need seven more minutes. IF they stop cutting times and IF I can still run 26.2 in another five years then I’ll get Chicago, Boston, and NYC. For now I’ll just keep trying.

 

[PrincessV]

I despise AI. It essentially steals all sorts of information to do all of it's "learning" and it uses so.much.water. to function.

As a photographer and writer, this.

As a writer, editor, and content creator, I concur. I’ve been told to to use it at work and the results are… laughably bad. Literally only did it once, showed it to the Powers That Be, and we went back to me using my talent and also taking half the time to produce quality artwork. Ironically, the one thing AI might be really helpful for in my workplace - note-taking and summarizations - they don’t want to try it. So yeah - still taking notes by hand on a legal pad. Yay, technology?!

But as to running plans… I’m admittedly Gen X and super skeptical of anything AI (Shall we play a game Dr. Falken?), but also there are SO many expert humans out there providing customized training plans - why not support them vs. our computer overlords?

 

[KCO5988]

@Dopey 2020 surprised that you have not time qualified for Chicago? I know they made it stricter but it had an easier time than Boston or NYC.

Chicago is now actually 5 minutes faster than Boston. So, with Boston cutoff this year they were almost exactly the same. It's crazy how fast these qualifying times are becoming.

 

[marty3d]

. Ironically, the one thing AI might be really helpful for in my workplace - note-taking and summarizations - they don’t want to try it.

I find it hilarious now - notetaker AIs sometimes outnumber humans on a teams call. I know people who don’t bother attending a call as they rely on their notetaker. And no, I don’t think that’s ok.

I find it useful for notetaking HOWEVER verification is required. The number of times I’ve seen action items that were never discussed is a little disturbing. I always proof read, edit, correct before sending out.

would I trust it to build a running plan? No. I’d rather something built by a human for many reasons. Reworking paces/ distances where I’m only relying it to do some basic math that I can verify - yes, that I’m fine with (minus the huge environmental impacts it has over using excel on my Mac)

 

[The Expert]

the one thing AI might be really helpful for in my workplace - note-taking and summarizations - they don’t want to try it. So yeah - still taking notes by hand on a legal pad. Yay, technology?!

I find it useful for notetaking HOWEVER verification is required.

EXACTLY! I will use it to summarize a report, interview transcript or press release but I always confirm any numbers, details and quotes. It saves time when dealing with large amounts of info that I don't want to read through, but I'd never trust the output without checking.

 

[cburnett11]

@Dopey 2020 surprised that you have not time qualified for Chicago? I know they made it stricter but it had an easier time than Boston or NYC.

I think a number of the men’s QTs are now faster in Chicago vs Boston. For 2026, my Chicago buffer was only about 30 seconds, but it was about 10:30 for Boston.

 

[accm]

My company is also really pushing AI, and I’m just not sold. Beyond the environmental impact, every time I’ve tried to get it to do something, it’s taken more time and I end up getting frustrated that it doesn’t get it and do it myself. I have a PM at work that loves it for meeting minutes, but I’ve found the minutes it produces to be so bad, you again spend more time fixing it than if you had just done it yourself.