The World is Changing... Learn It Through Fitness.

Last week I said the world of apps is crumbling before our eyes, and offered a glimpse into what that world actually looks like. One login, and multiple connections to different platforms. It’s exactly what Claude and ChatGPT are doing with their “connectors” features, but those are still very general and aren’t geared specifically towards fitness or your life (literally 400+ options to connect into).

Prediction: In the next year, everyone is going to have the opportunity to have their own Operating System (or OS). You will be able to text it, ask it questions about your life, business and training. It will have the full context and picture of everything happening so when it responds, it’s grounded in your actual life. It will be able to recall things from years back with ultimate specificity and draw connections across your entire life in seconds.

How do I know this? Because many people (myself included) have already built this. It’s far from perfect and has definitely taken a bit of technical know-how, but it does everything I just described, today.

The Lead: Use Fitness As Your Sandbox to Learn

This technical know-how I mentioned above is becoming less and less of a requirement, as demonstrated by over 700 people who are brand new to software development and have built this exact thing inside our Athlete AI Community.

This week we completed our free course by giving our Athlete OS a voice and connecting it to Telegram, which created a two way text channel between us and our OS’. So whenever we want, wherever we want, we can text our OS’ questions about our training and it will have all of the context of our training, health, and goals to give us an accurate response.

Here is exactly how it works:

1. Set-up your Athlete OS: This is the most involved part and I have an entire free course that walks you through this. Highly recommend anyone reading this to give it a try.

2. Make the Telegram Bot: download Telegram, message an account called “BotFather”, send /newbot, and pick a name. It hands you back a token, save it down securely in your Athlete OS.

3. Text your bot once: You have to wake it up.

4. Create a Claude Skill “Coach-reply”: this will be how your coach responds when you text it.

5. Create a cloud Claude Routine: In Claude’s Desktop app create a cloud based routine titled something like “Coach-reply” and point the instructions at the new coach reply skill you made.

6. Connect everything: Connect Telegram and Claude to your hosting provider (I use Vercel, it’s free and strong)

6 steps. If you can copy and paste instructions, you can go build your own Athlete operating system. And more importantly, you can learn a skill that will become invaluable in this new age we are entering. There are a couple months left of summer break before all our lives get crazy again. Go spend the couple hours learning, and I guarantee you’ll come out of it infinitely smarter (or your money back lol).

What’s Hot Around the Industry?

1. Is Google Making a Play Against Strava?

   1. High-level: Yesterday, Google Maps got agentic and you can now have a full blown conversation with Maps to create running, cycling, hiking and walking routes that have context of your schedule, plans and location. Strava has their custom routes featured gated behind a paywall, so maybe this is one less thing they can make users pay for.

   2. KR take: The new feature is actually really cool and it allows you to turn Google Maps into your own personal playground. Strava’s premium custom routes feature seems like something Google could absolutely destroy Strava on if they wanted. I’m waiting for the Google acquisition of Strava, but that might be a longer term play (wouldn’t totally shock me as they continue to double down on wellness with their Fitbit & Google Watch series).

      1. How I am using it:

         1. Exploring hidden gems. Prompt: “Find me a 5 mile running route that hits really cool hidden gems around my house”

         2. Scenic sunset run. Prompt: “I want to plan a run around my house to see a beautiful sunset. Find me a route that has beautiful views of the sunset”

         3. Cycling coffee break. Prompt: “I’m going on a 30 mile bike ride. I want to hit a local coffee shop for pastries half way through find me a route that hits the best coffee shop in town”

         4. New city exploration. Prompt: “I just landed in Chicago for work. Find me a 7 mile run that hits some of the top scenic views in the city”

2. NYRR Just Went Lottery

   1. High-Level: This isn’t entirely a technology piece, but I believe it needs to be mentioned as this is massive industry news. Historically, one of the only guaranteed ways to gain access to the New York City Marathon was to run 9 other NYRR races and then volunteer at another one. This would guarantee entry into next year’s race. Now only 15,000 names, picked from a lottery, will be able to try the 9+1. The first affected race is 2028, with 2027 requirements.

   2. KR Take: While it is still estimated that 75-80% of those who enter the 9+1 will still get access, it points to a much larger trend… our sport is exploding and it is so cool! I got into this world almost 10 years ago and it’s allowed me to find myself again and opened up a world that I never knew I needed. It’s incredible to see how many other people are choosing this crazy life.

What Did We Find In the Science?

1. Sleep is worth about 6% on your race time

   1. High-level: Spencer Roberts from Deakin University (one of the premier sports science universities in the world) conducted an experiment with 9 endurance cyclists and their 60 min time trial times. His study found that when sleep was restricted to 5hrs vs a full 8.5hrs, there was a 6% swing in finish times.

   2. KR Take: The study is from 2019, but the concept is timely as sleep is one of the leading topics in today’s wellness scene. Everyone knows that sleep is important, but I find it incredibly interesting when you can actually quantify its impact. If the same math held across a marathon, it could mean 12 min off your marathon time just by sleeping better. Kind of crazy that sleep could be the difference between a BQ and not. Everyone’s schedule is different, so I put together a little Claude prompt that is backed by some of the leading science in sleep performance. It is crafted to ask you questions before creating your checklist and plan. Check it out here.

Gear News

1. Garmin cleared its whole next flagship line: FCC documentation shows LTE and satellite as feature upgrades and new lines in Enduro 4, Fenix E2 and Fenix 9 potentially launching early this fall.

2. Suunto’s firmware update fail: Suunto pushed a firmware update last week that basically broke everyone’s watches mid run. The company has acknowledged the problem, but has not solidified a fix yet.

3. Google Pixel Watch 5 leaked: Looks like it will release on 8/20 and they doubled storage, used a faster chip, and added a Gemini button. Nothing mentioned specifically about sports, which is very interesting given tailwinds in the industry.

4. Coros August updates: They rebuilt their sleep score. In the vein of a hyper-focus on sleep these days, Coros reconfigured theirs and now feeds naps, bedtime consistency, and sleep stress into it. They also launched their version of Live Tracking, which lets you send a share link before you go run.

5. Wahoo August updates: Added breathing as a training zone. ACE, BOLT 3, and ROAM 3 get ventilation zones, breathing rate and tidal volume, written into your ride file. You do need a Tymewear chest strap, but it’s a very cool feature nonetheless.

Let’s Get Technical

1. Meta Gets Into the Coding Agent Arena with Muse Code

   1. In a long anticipated release Alexandr Wang and Zuck made a big splash into the hottest space in AI right now, agentic coding. They created Muse with a strong focus on running large complex tasks that are best broken out into smaller sub agents. So the work is done without overlap and in a cost effective manner, while all feeding a single goal. The tool itself is similar to Claude Code and Codex, but it’s Meta’s first play into the arena, which, for us developers, is exciting. Competition breeds innovation and cost reductions. Two things I am a heavy advocate for.

2. ChatGPT launches unlimited text chats for free users

   1. At ChatGPT’s basic tier you can now have an unlimited number of text conversations with ChatGPT. Files, images and voice are still restricted, but what this highlights is how cheap these models are becoming to run. As these models get cheaper and cheaper to run, the features once considered “premium” will soon be mainstream. Let’s see how long it takes for the next wave of premium features to become free.

Let’s Wrap It Up

We are living in an incredible time where two of the hottest trends are merging together, Athletics and Technology. Every week, every day, companies are pushing the boundaries of innovation between sport and tech. On top of that, it’s never been easier for the average consumer to learn and start building. If you take nothing else from this release, please take this:

The world is changing, and you, for perhaps the first time since the .com bubble, have the opportunity to learn an incredibly powerful new skill set that could unlock something powerful inside you. So use this time to read, learn and experiment. Let your curiosity blossom and see what you can build.

For those interested, come check out our Athlete AI Community. The free introductory course is a great way to learn and we have closer to a thousand people learning, developing and building.

I can’t wait to see what you build.

Kevin