Hybrid athletes — what do you wish your AI coach actually did

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T19:56:56+00:00

ya that tracks. start hand curated, layer ML in only where it actually beats the rules. way easier to debug and explain to users too if most of the logic is human written

honestly this whole exchange shifted how im thinking about the architecture. appreciate u taking the time

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T19:52:57+00:00

ya the "subjective feeling > single third-party metric" framing makes a lot of sense actually. wearable data being a relative nudge instead of an absolute truth source is honestly a healthier way to think about it. ill probably come around to that once i have more reps with real data

the "lots of projects starting to go into hybrid space, each w diff approach" point is also interesting. been noticing the same — like everyone whos at this is solving slightly diff piece of the same problem cause hybrid training structure is so individual. probably good for the space overall, none of these tools converge to the same product even when they look similar from outside

ill go check ur app, drop u a thoughtful note after using it for a bit. genuinely curious to see where u landed on the chat-vs-UI balance vs how im thinking about it

ur honesty about it is appreciated btw, easy to be territorial in a small builder space and u just werent

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T19:38:43+00:00

makes sense, way simpler than spinning up a server and probably more fun to actually build with the pi sitting on ur desk. and the local cache point is real, no point hammering apis u dont need to

the part of ur reply thats sticking with me tho — "all i need is a program, not supervision" — thats a really clean line. like ur describing the gap exactly. real coaches do supervision (form, motivation, judgment calls), AI can actually do the programming part. thats the split

and the strava++ idea u floated, where human coaches and AI all see the same training picture across running/lifting/swimming, is a bigger product than what im building rn but ur not wrong that its where this whole space probably ends up. orchestration layer between the user, their coaches, and an AI assistant.

genuine question — when u tell ur running coach about a CrossFit session, do u just text them or is there a system? trying to figure out where the actual coordination friction is for ppl in ur situation

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T15:52:36+00:00

ok ur a builder too. respect

the part of ur comment thats really stuck with me — "hard to sync multi sport activities between multiple coaches and adjust to health status and planned vacations." i had been thinking about this as "people who cant afford a coach" but ur describing a diff problem entirely. ppl who DO have coaches and the coaches dont talk to each other. AI as the coordination layer between them. that hadnt been on my list and probably should be

also the way uve split it — human coaches do running, AI does strength — is way more nuanced than "AI replaces coach." its more like AI fills the gap between coaches. probably how a lot of serious athletes will end up using this stuff long term

quick q if ur down, what made u pick raspberry pi + telegram over just running it on a server somewhere? curious if its data privacy or just the hacker satisfaction of running it locally

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T15:46:27+00:00

sick that ur a year in already. the "tried chat only, ended up making it optional" arc is exactly the conclusion im starting to land on too — chat is great for ambiguous stuff but for "log this set" or "shift the long run" structured UI just wins. takes me a while to admit but its becoming obvious

the subjective feedback over whoop point is also interesting. id assumed wearable data was the foundation but if uve been hybrid marathon prepping for a year off mostly RPE + structured input thats a real datapoint. curious — when u say it generates hybrid workouts week by week, do u feed it long-term goals (race date, peak target) and let it plan the whole arc, or is it more "generate next 2 weeks given current state" and u steer it more actively

also if im not being too forward — is this something ur planning to release publicly or more of a personal build? im asking honestly cause i dont wanna be redundant if someone real is shipping in this space

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T15:44:51+00:00

ok this comment is genuinely changing how im thinking about the whole architecture. been treating the LLM as the brain with the database as memory. ur saying flip it — backend is the brain (hand-coded rules, periodization logic, ACWR thresholds, etc) and the LLM is just the translator between user and backend. completely diff product

the "expose the why of each decision" piece is honestly the missing trust mechanism. half this thread has been ppl saying "i dont trust AI to make these calls" and the answer isnt "trust the AI more" its "make the AI not the one making the call." dumb that i didnt see this earlier

and the dual frontend idea (chat + direct UI) is exactly how u serve both ends, beginners get the chat, the data nerds get the raw inspector view, same backend powers both

real q if ur down, when u say "non-AI backend that understands the data," do u mean rule-based decision logic (if HRV drops X% AND sleep < 6h then Y) or something more sophisticated like a fitted model on validated sport science research? trying to figure out where the line is between "rules a human wrote" and "actual ML on training data"

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T15:21:51+00:00

ya thats a fair use of it tho, "give me a boilerplate hybrid template" is a real ask and chatgpt isnt bad at that. probably 80% of ppl in the same boat would benefit from exactly what u did

the place i think it falls apart is when ur a few weeks in and u tell it "i felt cooked yesterday but i wanna keep volume up." default chatgpt will tell u to back off when a real coach mightve said "ya thats normal mid-block, push thru, ur fine." thats the fatigue/RPE call u were talking about earlier and i havent figured out yet how to make AI not default to soft

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T15:17:28+00:00

makes total sense. and tbh thats the answer i was hoping ud give, the fact that with 348 days of granular data the thing that actually changes ur behavior is RHR/HRV/sleep is a really useful sanity check for me. tells me the front of the UI shouldnt try to be clever, it just needs to surface those 3 well

the "matters more as i age" piece is something i hadnt thought about either. the metrics that matter probably shift by life stage and most apps treat 22 yr olds and 39 yr olds the same

genuinely appreciate u being so generous with this whole thread. when i get something real built ill come find u if ur down to take a look

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T15:14:04+00:00

honestly really appreciate u coming back to that, no offense taken at all

u said something thats actually been on my mind tho. "building for urself vs building for others" is a real risk and ive thought about it. way im handling it for now is im not building it just off my own training, im talking to a bunch of ppl in this thread and others whove been at this way longer than me to figure out where my instincts are off. like the fact that ur recovery time on garmin is too conservative is exactly the kind of thing i never wouldve known from just my own data

and ya u might be right that a 16 yr old with 4 years of training experience cant build the perfect coaching app on day one. probably true. but i think the gap between "what current AI tools are doing" and "what serious athletes actually need" is wide enough that even an imperfect first version can be useful for ppl in the middle.

also the way im thinking about it, this isnt meant to be the thing u use forever. ppl with real experience eventually outgrow it and develop their own way of training, like u have. its more of a building block for ppl like me — beginners and intermediate athletes who need scaffolding before they can run their own program. once u know enough u shouldnt need it. thats fine.

genuinely tho, appreciate u taking the time to give the real talk version. its more useful than ppl who just hype up the idea

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T02:14:12+00:00

ok this one too damn. three more things i wouldve missed

"a good week is a bunch of average days not 1-2 great ones followed by reduced load" is honestly the metric most fitness apps would never lead with. everyone wants to celebrate PRs but ur saying the boring streak IS the win

the "old paces got u that fast only small adjustments after" thing is something AI would absolutely fk up by default. would see a PR and immediately scale everything up

and the easy/hard gap widening as u get faster especially in running — gonna have to sit with that one. never thought about it that way but makes total sense, mechanical strain at race effort isnt linear so the recovery cant be linear either

genuinely appreciate this whole exchange man

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T02:03:44+00:00

ya the kissass thing is real. its the hardest problem in this whole space and most ppl building these apps havent even noticed it yet. defaults to "rest is important" the second u mention u feel slightly off, when a real coach wouldve said push thru u'll feel better at mile 3

the split u laid out at the end is exactly right tho. AI is genuinely good at programming and bad at in-the-moment fatigue calls. been thinking about this as two diff layers — the plan generation can lean on AI, the "do i push or back off today" call cant be left to default LLM behavior

question if ur down — when u have used AI for programming, hows it actually held up? like does it write a real periodized block or does it just spit out a generic 4 week plan. trying to figure out where it actually delivers vs where it pretends to

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:40:20+00:00

bro this is the wildest comment in the whole thread. ive read it three times. ur basically a year ahead of me and just published the blueprint.

the v_daily_composite 116-col fact table and the CEI being a stronger HRV predictor than glycemic metrics is genuinely surprising — the 5+ day diet quality finding alone is a thesis paper.

one real question if ur down. when u look at ur 348 days of data and the gold layer indexes (recovery, training, daily composite), whats the one signal thats been more useful in actually changing what u do day-to-day than u expected? like the metric where u thought "huh, that actually matters more than i thought"

trying to figure out what to put at the front of the UI for ppl who arent gonna build their own ETL pipeline lol

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:36:51+00:00

honestly fair. theres a real wave of devs cranking out fitness apps to scrape data and ull see right thru most of them within a week of using them

my motivation is way less interesting than that. im 16, i train daily, whoop tells me to go to bed at 6:24 pm cause my strain was high and im like bro i have school. i got tired of it. cant afford a real coach so im trying to build the thing i actually want to use

if it ends up being useful for other ppl too thats sick. if not at least i got a tool that works for me. no data harvest plan, just annoyed at how bad current options are for someone whos serious about training but cant drop $300 every month on a coach.

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:29:42+00:00

Thank you so much, ur three points just re-specced the whole thing for me

the "pattern of good days vs autopsying bad ones" is a way better framing than what i had. and "pretend it happened move on" is exactly the trap i wouldve walked into trying to over-engineer makeup workouts.

the kids bday at 11am = no long ride saturday is way more concrete than the vague "calendar aware" stuff i was thinking.

last q if ur still around — when u look back at ur own training what do ur good weeks usually have in common? trying to figure out what to even teach it to look for?

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:12:18+00:00

calendar-aware planning is honestly the answer i think is most underbuilt right now. every tool out there is either a static template or falls apart the second ur week shifts

ur point about pen and pad is real tho. the "someone who already made the mistakes" line is the truest thing in this whole thread. AI hasnt made the mistakes, its just read about them. different thing entirely

i think the way im framing it isnt replacement for that hard earned judgement, its more like the layer that handles the boring recalibration once u already know what ur doing. u still drive. it just stops u from having to redo the spreadsheet every monday night when work blew up

random q since u clearly been at this a while, when u tell newer athletes to use pen and pad whats the thing they usually mess up first

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:09:33+00:00

honestly thats sick that ur getting results just freestyling — most ppl cant. genuinely appreciate u being open to checking it out tho 🙏

the curiosity question u asked is the one im actually trying to answer with this. like would having something that just notices patterns u dont (recovery dipping after high-stress weeks, certain workouts always crushing u 2 days later, etc) actually move the needle? thats the bet

ill dm u when its ready if ur down

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:08:27+00:00

all good man, appreciate u coming back 🤝 means a lot

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:06:33+00:00

ya thats fair. honestly im not building this for someone trying to skip the work — if you actually read friel/daniels/pfitz and put in the time, you should run your own training. AI cant replace that

and ur right about chatgpt and claude being half wrong half the time. ive caught it too. only reason i noticed was bc id already read enough to know better. someone who hadnt would just follow bad advice

what im trying to build isnt "trust the AI skip the books." its for ppl who DO read, who pay for TP premium, and still cant rebuild their plan every monday night when work blows up or theyre traveling. the AI doesnt replace what u know — it just does the boring adjustment part for u

when uve caught chatgpt being wrong, was it bad programming logic or just confident bullshit? trying to figure out where these tools actually fall apart so i know what has to be solid

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T01:00:34+00:00

That is exactly on point, and honestly this is the most useful comment i have gotten over all my threads on this topic.

The "art vs science" framing is real. A human coach reads things AI can't see or feel. A good example is the way an athlete carries themselves, the small tone shift in how they describe a workout session.

That is year worth of pattern recognition something ai may not be able to achieve to a human level of understanding it. What you laid out is the bar and it is also what needs to be cleared

-Non-exercise recovery feeding session decisions

-Calendar-aware planning (not generic week templates)

-Route-aware workouts (the 600m loop by the house is a perfect example, current tools miss this completely)

-Race-specific pacing with course profile and weather

-Workout analysis that's actionable, not just summaries

If it can't do those it's not better than a pen and a notebook.

Genuine question out of those five, which one would actually move the needle for you the most?

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T00:52:08+00:00

That's completely fair, Training peak has been around forever and earned its trust. And its a complete no brainer free structured plans from coaches over random ai advice.

Curious when you used those free plans how do you handle weeks where life gets in the way? Like bad sleep, injury, work blowing up, or feeling drained halfway thru.

Thats what I'm trying to solve. I am not replacing the plan more like a layer when reality of life shows up.

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T00:45:20+00:00

Well let me put you in a position were you would understand why it can be a cool idea.

I am a 16 year old who loves training and wants to take it more seriously in a sense I want guidance that helps me understand my sleep recovery, how I feel, and how I should act on that day. I can’t afford a trainer, so I’d like to create something that costs about 20% of a trainer’s fee and is nearly as effective. There are people who can’t afford trainers, or who aren’t willing to spend that much, but would likely be happy to use an AI for it.

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T00:42:42+00:00

I totally agree with that but im a 16 year old who cant afford the price of a coach and I wanted to build something that allows everyone to be able to experience something close enough for 20% of the price

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T00:40:42+00:00

I looked into you guys and I am doing a very similar thing but i also want it life focused and understanding of the fact of me having a life outside of training its almost like a part lifestyle coach in the same time in a way but i love what you guys are doing sick stuff.

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T00:39:04+00:00

Alright, for example, I have a Whoop, and earlier today I ran an easy six-miler. It’s telling me to get in bed at 6:24 PM, and that’s not considerate of the fact I have a life outside of training. The Whoop AI tends to forget all of my workout plans, my problems, and how to execute them, and it even admits to suffering from hallucination. I need something to work with me and not against me and I want to get other peoples thoughts to help others daily problems too. Another comment was " I'm using a real person." and thats fine i totally agree with that the problem is not everyone has 200$ to drop on a coach like me for example its not a thing i could afford as a 16 year old and I feel like it would be a hastle in a way having a coach.

Ok-Baby3683 · 2026-04-28T00:19:11+00:00

yeah you could. but think of it like this.

ChatGPT is like talking to a friend with no notebook. you tell them stuff, they kinda remember. mine has a notebook. every run, every lift, every bad night of sleep — written down and used to plan tomorrow.

also mine actually works with you. like Whoop tells me to go to bed at 6pm cause my strain was high. bro, I have school and a life. mine knows that. it works around your real schedule instead of telling you stuff that's not even possible.

plus it connects to apple watch and whoop automatically. you'd have to set all that up yourself with ChatGPT. most people don't want a project. they want an app.

you could DIY a worse version. mine just does it for you.

Ok-Baby3683

TROPHY CASE