Rebelling Against the Algorithm

Today I staged a small rebellion against the A.I. overlords.

I’m not sure if Garmin was punishing me for walking on my rest day yesterday, or if I unknowingly hiccupped in my sleep, but this morning it served up a baffling recommendation: a 42-minute base run at 9:36 pace.

For context, Garmin Coach has been fairly consistent up to now. When I first started using it back in July, my base pace was set around 9:20 ± 30 seconds. That held steady all the way through the Old Settlers Day race. After the race, I reset the plan and my base pace dropped to 8:55—totally logical, since my race outperformed expectations and my VO₂ max was climbing.

It stayed at 8:55 for a while, then one day nudged to 9:05. Again, fine. But 9:36? That’s not even in the same zip code as my actual easy pace. For me, 8:50 is still a comfortable base run, while 9:36 is firmly in recovery territory.

So instead of skipping the workout (or hopping or galloping it), I decided to run the workout by feel. To mix things up, I ran my usual 5-mile loop in reverse for the first time—meaning the hills would hit at mile 4 instead of mile 2.

The first few minutes were in the low 9s, but as soon as I got an alert telling me 8:50 was “too fast,” all bets were off. Mile splits:

• Mile 1: 8:50

• Miles 2 & 3: 8:28 each

• Mile 4: 8:02 (despite a brief knee ache that vanished after a 10-second stretch)

• Mile 5: 7:34

I finished 5.09 miles in 42 minutes at an 8:15 average pace. Easy effort overall, with a little push at the end. Running zeitgeist may preach the 80/20 rule, but this Garmin plan feels closer to 90/10—or maybe even 95/5— very little intensity baked in.

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Takeaways

• If something hurts, stop. A quick pause and stretch often solves it. Old me would have stubbornly pushed through, thinking even a brief stop made the run “not count.” Turns out, listening to my body works better.

• Running without headphones is underrated. I still use them occasionally for long runs, but lately I’ve been enjoying the quiet—just me, my breathing, and a wandering mind.

• Cadence matters. Since July 12, I’ve been focusing on upping my steps per minute. My average cadence jumped from 171 SPM (January–July) to 174 in August, and now 175 for September. A small increase, but enough to make my hip pain vanish. Whether it’s better form or simply more efficient mechanics, I’ll take it.

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We’ll see what my defiance earns me in Garmin’s weekend recommendations. If I had to guess, some sort of passive-aggressive recovery run is on the horizon.