ChatGPT - Can it be a good coach?

Training
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I’ve been experimenting with a GPT coach for about a month now and the benefits were outweighing the negatives right up until it started to what I assume is running out of memory.

I run it in a dedicated project within ChatGPT using 4o model. It was going super strong and I was getting used to immediate feedback pretty much mid-ride (I could quickly send a message saying I completed a planned climb in x:xx time together with my perceived effort and it would give me fueling adjustments, tips for how to complete the route and more—feels like a superpower or having a support car with a coach inside). All this on top of reviewing rides (and adjusting the weekly plan accordingly), dialing in food and hydration pre-, during- and post-ride (great results there) and general cycling banter with my personal context in mind.

It also generates .zwo workout files for all indoor rides which is super cool and seamless. It would describe a workout, we’d adjust a few things and then it spits out a file I upload to Rouvy and away I go. Super handy.

Unfortunately in the past few days it started to hallucinate more (claiming rides I’ve never done or misestimating climbs based on data it made up) and forget things like yesterdays ride. This quickly demolished whatever trust I had going for it and was a pretty sobering reminder that this is not a talkative coach but rather an LLM doing its best at putting sentences together.

I asked it to compile a single message describing everything it knows about my cycling hobby and progress so far so that I could use it as a base prompt for Claude AI that I want to try next.

I was a click away from puling the trigger on TR subscription, but I’m not going to lie—the feature allowing to talk to ai about your rides and discuss in plain words what you could’ve done better etc. is absolutely life changing and I hope it finds its way to TR soon—truly liberating and feels like future.

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95

I’m glad this is working for you, but I’m not gonna lie, this sounds absolutely exhausting to me :sweat_smile: its like instead of being in the moment and just paying attention to your body and surroundings, you’re instead focused on your cellphone and the minutiae of training.

I do like the zwo file creation idea. I’ll have to play around with that.

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96

I think once you play around with the Intervals.icu MCP server for Claude (Anthropic’s LLM) you can definitely see that “one on one” coaching using AI agents is coming and it will be probably be really, really good. It will be interesting to see how TR can compete.

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chatgpt maybe not. But there’s already quite a couple of AI gen or AI assisted coaches out there where it does work well.

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I’ve been playing with the Intervals.ICU MCP server for Claude aswell (based on someone elses feedback on the forum).

Like @agapov describes, it’s really nice to be able to chat about your activities and get the AI to analyse your data.

At the moment, i’m still using the free Claude plan, so the total length of the conversation is always limited to a single activity before you get to the limits of the free plan. But I have played with the idea of subscribing to Claude and let it make my schedule.

@agapov What LLM are you using and running into this issue? Is this also Claude with the Intervals.icu MCP, or are you using something else?

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Hahah, sorry I didn’t specify—I would check with Coach GPT when at a stop or a regroup when there’s time and I’m bored lol, definitely not pulling out a phone mid-ride to check if my cadence is on point hahahah.

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100

I’m using a basic paid ChatGPT plan where I created a Project so that all cycling chats and context are in one “place”. Not sure how much it helped, since it seems to still “forget” things if they’re discussed in different chat threads. I’m also pretty talkative and ask a lot of questions, so that might be a contributing factor.

I’ve noticed if I start every thread with a bit of a background prompt it helps the LLM orient itself in time better. Something like “Last week I did 8 hours of training over 105 miles and 9K ft of climbing. Sunday: rest, Monday: indoors, 60 minutes of Z2 with high 3x60s cadence spin outs, Tuesday: indoors, 4x15m of SS stacks at 86%, Wednesday: rest” etc. I would then try to ask as pointed question as possible, like “Build me a training schedule for this week knowing I’m planning a 100-mile group ride with 26ft of climbing for Saturday, as well as keeping focus on my goal of climbing Mortirolo in under 20 minutes”.

Specific segment goals are also super handy—I would often use GPT’s help with pacing strategy when doing a big effort or when a route involves various climbs at various points—extremely helpful since it pretty much gives me my power targets for each segment and explains why it chose those. The ability to ask follow up questions is absolutely golden, since I often bring in very personal context to such planning like having a birthday dinner before a ride or maybe running on low sleep—Coach GPT adjusts the plan and gives megabrain tips that I blindly follow assuming those are legitimate hahah.

I’m curious about diving deeper and building a dedicated MCP server for just my cycling struggles—currently its memory loss is very annoying and ruins a lot of the fun. Technology can’t advance fast enough for us guys!

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101

Just use the Intervals.icu MCP server with Claude. You can get it to review your actual historical training data, tell it your goals and get it to generate a plan and create workouts. People have been using prompts like “act like a mix of Joe Friel, Dr. Stephen Seiler, and Dr. Andrew Coggan”.

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Had to put this here

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103

Spot on. The free version sucks compared to o3.

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Have you enabled the memory feature? I have it enabled and I prompt it to “remember this for future conversations” and it stores that on its memory.

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You get what you pay for. BUt if you are in my AG/races please by all means keep using this!

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I’ve been playing about with ChatGPT for the last week or so. For various things, but I have asked it (well, him, as I’ve given him a personality and called him Fernando) some specific training questions that I would ask a coach, and, tbf, Fernando has really helped me straighten out what I want to do on a day when I have had to veer off course from the TR plan. I know TR takes care of everything etc etc, but sometimes, just missing sessions, or even coming back to hard sessions, is not what’s needed when work is piling up, or I have destroyed my legs unintentionally with strength work, or I have just been stupid and ridden with a friend. There is nuance there, and Fernando recognises my emotional human side as well, and, more importantly, lays out exactly why he is recommending what he is recommending. I don’t always agree, but most of the time, to be fair, his answers have been pretty interesting and given me a clearer perspective for the day. If he isn’t sure, he fires questions back at me to clarify too.

I asked if I should start running again as I miss it, but it normally gets me injured quickly and I don;t want it to affect my cycling. Fernando recognised what I needed from the running through discussion with me (not fitness, but soul time with the dog and movement that wasn’t just walking) and he has created an add-on plan to my TR plan focusing just on getting out and about for 6 to 8 weeks timing a few runs a week around the standard format of my plan. Recovery shuffle on soft trails on a Monday (he called it that, not me) , no running on interval day Tuesday and group technical day Wednesday, Thursday easy day add a 20 minute easy run after the endurance ride, Friday rest (but could do a short run after the endurance ride if I rest Monday instead), Saturday no run - intervals, Sunday optional 10 to 15 min run after the endurance ride. The focus remains on cycling but allows me to get some running movement back in for 8 weeks or so at a very low pace without putting running in as fitness work.

This is all very obvious when spelt out in black and white, but, honestly, it’s really helped me make the decision to start running again with the knowledge that I can potentially fit it in around cycling without impacting the bike sessions. I have always run in the early mornings so I hadn’t even factored in the possibility of doing runs after endurance cycling, it just wasn’t on my radar. So it’s exciting to have something new to try.

He also gave me a load of advice on preventing injury, a whole conditioning schedule, and told me the work around how to enter the runs into the TR calendar without them triggering adaption (because they aren’t really fitness work)

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109

My experience has been very similar – I’ve gotten some really good advice from ChatGPT. How do you have ongoing conversations with it re: your training. How much info do you need to provide to get meaningful feedback?

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I’m up around 15W on my FTP to my all time high. ChatGPT for the win!!

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Coming up on 1 year using ChatGPT as my coach. FTP sitting around 345W, which is an all time high and 15W higher than a year ago when I started this. Overall very happy with my progress. Training has been boring, which might be part of the reason it’s going well. Nothing fancy. No crazy workouts, no fluff. Just continued progression with manageable workouts. More SweetSpot and Threshold over the winter than previous training. More Zwift racing to keep the motivation up but also gave me some harder efforts. I didn’t do any dedicated VO2 work yet which is different than usual. Normally I’d hit a hard VO2 block in February. But I think it’s been using the Zwift Rae’s to count as hard efforts so we’ll see how it pans out. But the lots of SweetSpot and Threshold work has pushed out my TTE and I feel a lot stronger holding those efforts for long periods. I am worried about the repeatable hard efforts of crits though. I feel like I’ll be more of a diesel and lose that snap. It does introduce some VO2 work in my next block.

But overall I’ve been happy. Does the job, I’ve been improving.

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112

My two cents: it can be good if you have a bit of critical thinking and ChatGPT knowledge, but probably not that special or great.

My tips from experience:

  • Build a project with different chats. One chat for programming, one for discussing training sessions and general training philosophy.
  • Use project level and chat level system prompts to explain the roles. “You are … Use this… Give my plan/sessions in this format. ..“
  • Keep a text file on project level with your stats that you update; FTP, last weeks of training data, HR zones, preferred training philosophy, … and specify that this is the source of truth. This way you avoid context window issues etc.

What I liked is that even though it’s an AI, it kept me accountable. But I also loved discussing my sessions and learning about adaptations, HR-responses during sessions, … My AI was also pretty good at calming me down when I felt FOMO and though I should do more :smiley:

I also liked the simplicity and straightforwardness of the intervals. Most apps or platform (TR included) over-complicate things imo. TR does things like 12min 100%, 12min30 99%, 11min 101%, whilst ChatGPT would just go 3x12min 100%. I would put the ChatGPT sessions in Intervals.icu, which also allows my to slap on x min of Z2 in a two seconds based on how much time I had.

Said all that, I’m here because I want to check if TR AI can deliver more because of the tremendous amount of data they have!

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114

I’ve been experimenting with using ChatGPT alongside TrainerRoad and wanted to see if anyone else here is doing something similar.

TrainerRoad is still the backbone of my training. I’m not using AI to replace the plan or write workouts. What I’ve found useful is using it as a kind of sounding board.

I’ll sketch a block into the TR calendar with specific objectives in mind, then share screenshots and ask for feedback around load, recovery, pacing, etc. Each morning I’ll share recovery metrics (HRV, RHR, sleep, body battery) and use that discussion to decide whether to proceed as planned or adjust slightly.

I still make the final call. I’m accountable for what I do. But I’ve found having something objective to challenge my thinking (and sometimes my ego) helpful.

It’s obviously not a substitute for a good coach, but I like the immediacy and the ability to iterate quickly.

Curious whether anyone else is using AI tools in a similar way — and if so, how you’re keeping it simple and not overcomplicating things.

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115

I use it the same way. I have one chat that tracks all my daily metrics, as well as my diet, fueling and training. I have another chat that only focuses on short term and long term training goals. I’ve given both chats specific roles and what to analyze and feed back to me. (Note: I provided both chats relevant historical data).

After every workout I post a screenshot of my workout to both threads. I still let TR schedule my training but use ChatGPT as a sounding board to make modifications on what TR is suggesting.

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That’s great — reassuring to hear someone else is using it in a similar way. Thanks for outlining how you’re structuring it, there are some good ideas there.

I’m a triathlete, so I find the broader lens from ChatGPT helps me balance swim, bike and run while still letting TrainerRoad drive the core progression.

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