The Joules Journal
Field notes on coaching context, MCP connectors, and turning a chatbot into structure that actually goes somewhere.
Your ELEMNT rides and KICKR sessions already hold the truth about your training. The honest routes to get that data into Claude or ChatGPT — Strava is usually cleanest — the read-only catch they share, and how to add the coaching half that plans your next week.
Read article →Zone 2 is the base every cyclist's fitness is built on — and the one most riders get wrong by going too hard. How to find your zone by power, heart rate, or feel, how much you need, and how to make it count.
Read article →Gravel punishes the wrong kind of fitness. Why durability and self-sufficiency decide your day, an adaptable base → build → peak shape, fueling for the long haul, and the skills a road plan never teaches you.
Read article →If you already wire MCP tools into Claude, here's the cleanest training stack going: a data connector to read your rides, Joules to plan and grade your weeks, and the assistant you already use as the brain. How the three compose into one coaching loop.
Read article →The Tour de France is the best three weeks of the year to start training — fall events are 16–20 weeks out, exactly one base → build → peak block away. How to turn watching the pros suffer into a plan that actually goes somewhere.
Read article →Most 'AI cycling coach' tools cost money one click down. The genuinely free path in 2026: a free Claude account plus Joules — a real season plan, weekly structure, and grading against your rides for $0, no card. Plus the honest catches.
Read article →Not vibes — periodization. A look under the hood: the periodization models Joules chooses between, polarized intensity distribution, TSS from normalized power, load-to-recovery ratios, tapering, and the honest limits. For skeptical coaches and athletes.
Read article →A field guide to the cycling and endurance MCP servers you can add to Claude or ChatGPT — Cycling Coach AI, AI Endurance, TrainingPeaks, COROS, Strava, and Joules — sorted by the one thing that matters: do they read your past or plan your future?
Read article →Pick your goal event, your weekly hours, and how you train, and see a real structured week the way Joules builds it — instantly in your browser, no account or connector needed. Then make it yours in Claude or ChatGPT.
Read article →You don't need a power meter to train well. How to use perceived effort (RPE) and the talk test to ride the right intensity, structure a week, and track progress — entirely by feel.
Read article →The exact steps to add the Joules cycling coach to ChatGPT or Claude — one tap from the ChatGPT app directory, or one connector URL in Claude. Covers the paid-plan gate and what happens in your first chat.
Read article →The three ways serious cyclists get structure in 2026 — TrainingPeaks for analytics, TrainerRoad for adaptive workouts, and an AI coach in Claude or ChatGPT. What each is best at, and who should pick which.
Read article →The connector routes that actually work in 2026 — a hosted Garmin connector, the Strava bridge, aggregators, or self-hosting — the read-only catch they share, and how to add the coaching half that plans your next week.
Read article →A field guide to the MCP connectors worth adding if you train: which ones read your history (Strava, aggregators), which one plans your future, and how to stack them. Honest, with the trade-offs.
Read article →How far the long ride really needs to go, a 12-week shape, fueling, pacing, and the five mistakes that derail most first-timers — plus how to make the plan adapt to your real weeks.
Read article →No install required. A concrete example of the week Joules builds for a gravel rider, plus how it grades that week against real rides and adjusts the next one.
Read article →An honest comparison of the two assistants as a cycling coach — what each does well, the paid-tier details, and why the coaching context matters more than the model.
Read article →Strava shipped an official MCP connector for Claude. What it unlocks, the read-only limit that stops it short of coaching, and how to add the planning half.
Read article →Why a raw chatbot gives generic advice, what an AI coach actually needs to know, and how to set one up today.
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