Example

A Real Joules Training Week

Joules June 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Most coaching tools tell you what they will do. This one shows you. Below is a real example of the week Joules builds for one rider, and what happens after the week is done. No account, no connector, no plan to start — just read it and see whether this is the coach you want.

Prefer to see one shaped to you? Build your own sample week — pick your goal event and weekly hours and watch the coach assemble it in your browser. Still no install.

The rider

Meet a representative athlete — call her Maya. She is training for a 100-mile gravel event in early September, rides about 7 hours a week, and trains mostly by feel: she logs duration and a perceived-effort number (RPE, 1–10), not power. She is in the second week of a build block. Joules already interviewed her once to learn her goal, her history, and how much time she has, so every week is shaped to her, not pulled off a template.

Here is the week it built for her. It is an illustrative example, not a plan for you to follow — your real week would start from your own history and goals.

Mon

Rest & mobility Off the bike · RPE — Build blocks earn their adaptation in recovery. Monday stays open.

Tue

Threshold intervals 1h15 · 3 × 10 min @ RPE 8, 5 min easy between Raises the effort she can hold on the event's long climbs.

Wed

Easy spin 45 min · RPE 3 Active recovery between the two hard days — legs open, no load.

Thu

Sweet-spot tempo 1h00 · 2 × 15 min @ RPE 6–7 The muscular endurance gravel demands hour after hour.

Fri

Flex day Rest, or 30 min easy · RPE 3 Kept light on purpose so Saturday's long ride is fresh.

Sat

Long endurance ride 2h30 · RPE 4–5, last 30 min at tempo Builds the durability that decides the back half of a 100-miler.

Sun

Terrain endurance 1h45 · RPE 5, sustained climbs Race-specific climbing on tired legs from Saturday.

About 7 hours, one threshold day, one sweet-spot day, and a long ride that progresses into tempo. Nothing exotic — that is the point. A good week is mostly the right structure applied to the time you actually have.

What happens after the week

This is the half a read-only history tool can't do, and the part that makes it coaching: Joules reads your rides back and grades the plan against what really happened — then writes the next week from there. Maya's week didn't go perfectly. They rarely do.

Joules, end of the week

Build week 2 landed at about 85% of planned volume. The Tuesday threshold work went in clean at the right effort — that's the session that mattered most, so the block is on track. Saturday's long ride got cut to 2 hours; life happens. I'm not going to make you cram the missing hour. Next week holds the same intensity and nudges the long ride to 2h45 to recover the durability stimulus. You're progressing — keep going.

That is the loop: plan → ride → grade → adjust, every week, shaped by what actually happened rather than what a template assumed. It ramps on purpose and backs off when it should — the two decisions a static plan can never make for you.

How it reads your rides

Joules grades the week from whatever you've got. If you connect Strava, it reads your rides automatically. If you train device-free, just tell it the duration and how hard it felt — RPE is enough to coach on. No power meter, no heart-rate strap, no spreadsheet required. The coaching is in the structure and the adjustment, not in the gadgets.

Get a week like this, built for you

Joules is an MCP app that gives Claude or ChatGPT a cycling coach's brain — it interviews you, builds your season, plans every week, and grades each week against your real rides. Add it the same way you'd add any connector — free on Claude (which allows one custom connector), or a paid plan (Plus/Pro) on ChatGPT. Free while Joules is in beta — no credit card.

Try Joules free →

Want the bigger picture first? Read Can AI Be Your Cycling Coach? A Practical Guide for 2026, or see how Joules pairs with Strava's MCP connector.