In this episode of the Athletes Compass Podcast, the hosts explore Athletica’s new AI Coach, a tool designed to provide personalized training feedback and answer athlete questions based on the science of high-intensity interval training. Built using a retrieval-augmented AI system trained on the HIIT Science textbook and Athletica’s internal knowledge base, the coach analyzes workout data, recovery metrics, and athlete comments to generate contextual advice. The conversation highlights real-world examples of how athletes use the tool to improve pacing strategies, adjust training plans, monitor recovery, and avoid injury. The hosts also discuss how consistent logging of RPE and workout notes strengthens the system over time and share a vision for the future where AI could automatically adjust training plans in real time.

Key Episode Takeaways

1. Athletica’s AI Coach is powered by RAG AI (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), pulling from the HIIT Science textbook, blogs, and platform knowledge to answer training questions.
2. The system combines scientific knowledge with an athlete’s personal data including power profiles, training load, and recovery metrics.
3. Athletes can ask questions about: recovery status, training intensity distribution, pacing strategies, nutrition for key workouts, strengths and weaknesses in their data.
4. The AI can reference historical training data, even comments written months earlier, to give contextual advice. Example use cases include: deciding workout order (threshold vs endurance), planning pacing strategies for races, adjusting training after illness or injury.
5. Consistency in training and logging feedback (RPE, notes, comments) improves the AI’s ability to give useful recommendations.
6. The current system cannot automatically modify your training calendar, but future versions may include that capability.
7. A strong aerobic base remains essential—relying only on high-intensity sessions can lead to plateaued fitness and reduced recovery capacity.

• Athletica's Architecture
• Paul Warloski - Simple Endurance Coaching
• Marjaana Rakai | Nordic Performance Lab

it retrieves the information that's in the Hit Science textbook, plus all of the other material that we have on Athletica, right? Like all the blogs, all the customer support, it grabs all of that information

from our interpretation of the science back there in a package and now available for you to access if you have any questions.

Hello and welcome to the athletes compass podcast, where we navigate training, fitness and health for everyday athletes. Have you ever just wanted to ask a coach a question about your training? The AI coach on Athletica is a groundbreaking feature that offers personalized coach like feedback after each workout. Think of it as your virtual mentor offering constructive and educational insights to help you grasp the big picture of your training.

Athletica users are able to ask the AI coach just such questions. The AI coach is an AI platform that is trained on the science and application of the high intensity interval training textbook written by and edited by Paul. He's holding it up. Mine's right here. you know, for but for many of us, we're not even sure what we can ask the AI coach. So before we get into the questions,

Paul and Marjaana can you tell us more about the AI Coach, its evolution and its current status?

Sure, I'll make a start. So this is, and again, really we should have Andrea here. And we did too, right? Like I think there is a podcast in the past that Andrea came on and he explained how he was designing this. It's been long in the making. The big, well, the abbreviated acronym is RAG AI, which stands for, ⁓

Mm-hmm.

retrieval, augmentation, generation, I believe, RAG ultimately, it retrieves the information that's in the Hit Science textbook, plus all of the other material that we have on Athletica, right? Like all the blogs, all the customer support, and it grabs all of that information in bits of words.

And then the model, just like ChatGPT like you would use, it's almost like it comes out to answer your questions, but it's ring-fenced in all of that information. So that, you know, when you use ChatGPT, say for example, it's scraped the whole internet, the entire internet. And as you will know, the internet isn't necessarily perfect.

and there is some information that maybe you wouldn't want on there. But hopefully there's a level of trust with the fact that the science and application of high intensity interval training, and as we like to say, built on the shoulders of giants, that that information from our interpretation of the science is back there in a package and now available for you to access if you have any questions.

around your training data, around how anything around that training data might interrelate, that's all ring-fenced in there. And that's the purpose of the AI coach. we just published a substack on this, in the coaching prof substack, and we talked about how the whole infrastructure is built. And we talked about things about how the data is parsed from your wearable.

and then it comes into your database, all your information, your personal information, and then how that funneled into what we call the lab, the laboratory, which comes out from your power profile, your recovery profile, and then the cool thing is that the AI coach has access to all of that. So not just the stuff I was talking about with the HIIT Science RAG,

but also all of you, all of your information that's in there. It's pretty cool. And then it can be just so powerful. So hopefully that gives a grounding for what we wanna talk about in the podcast. MJ.

Yeah, and I think like part of the evolution is that we noticed that AI coach was initially analyzing every session, taking into account your comments, your RPE, your feel, and then giving you instant feedback. So that was the first step when we started working. And then we realized people are actually commenting and asking questions.

from the AI coach, but it never answered. So we figured out, okay, so there's the next level that people are actually expecting. So that's why we wanted to bring life to this AI coach you can chat with. The other touch point was on the old website, we had bot press where you could actually ask questions. Then we noticed...

going through the questions that people had asked, we realized quickly that people are actually asking training questions. So that was the second point of reference that we realized, OK, we need to step up here and give people what they need. And yeah, here comes AI Coach

So last week, I had a question about my training. So I asked it a question. And so this is what I asked it on Wednesday, you have me scheduled for a threshold workout and an endurance workout, which should I do first? Or should I split up the endurance before and after? And here's its answer. Based on your training prescription and Athletica science based methodology, science back methodology.

It's generally recommended to do the higher intensity workout your threshold session first this allows you to attack the interval with fresh legs maximizing quality and adaptation, especially since threshold threshold work asks you to sustain efforts near your upper aerobic limits. After completing the threshold session, you can follow with the endurance ride. This approach works well for brick days and it is a proven way to stimulate both the aerobic system and the threshold improvement.

without compromising the effectiveness of the key intensity session. Splitting your endurance before and after is an option, but only if you need a mental or nutritional break. However, starting with threshold and then transforming to the endurance keeps your quality high and aligns with best practices to minimize fatigue during threshold intervals. So that was a great answer and exactly what I needed from the AI coach.

Yeah, I love it. I love it, but it's everything that we started with there, right? we have training questions, have, with HIIT Science, our general motto is that there's always context before content. But we wanna know a little bit of both, and you can ask it any certain contextual question, and then it,

Awesome.

it comes with the power of that textbook behind it in terms of forming its response. And there's a great example you just gave, Paul, where it reached inside its knowledge and it recognized that that would be the best way ⁓ to skin the cat, we like to say, ⁓ with respect to forming your training. And it gave you actually a couple different contexts you could kind of do.

Yeah, recently, one of my other athletes who just completed a 50k trail run in New Zealand, we used it to ask about pacing strategies for the race. And we use that information to craft successful pacing strategy that ended up getting him a negative split and, you know, crushing the 50k. So it was a, and again, it's a remarkable tool. Paul, what's a, what's a question that you have asked and discussed with your AI coach?

Yeah, so one of the cool ones, I'm stealing this insight from our last ambassador meeting and it was with Kim, who was one of our ambassadors and she was telling us, she's just a in-depth user of the AI coach and she just loves it. But one of the cool things that, I'm paraphrasing, but I believe she told the story where she was talking about adding a little bit of extra training intensity.

to her training now that she was sort of feeling better. And she asked the AI coach its opinion on doing that now that she had sort of progressed back and it remembered of her adductor strain and it warned her in the application of that new intensity that she really had to be mindful of that adductor strain. And she had mentioned that in her comments three months ago.

So the fact that it could draw back on three months of data back to the database that I ⁓ sort of started off with mentioning was, you know, it's remarkable. Like that's hard for us coaches team, you know, here on this call to go and do and consider. Sure, a good coach will do that, but maybe not all of them. But this, AI coach was able to do that ⁓ for Kim. I thought that was just.

just incredible and that's, so it's anything that's in your training history, you can draw back and the coach will be mindful of that and ⁓ can draw on that when it's taking that contextual advice and giving it to you ⁓ before forming the content in the moment.

⁓ What about you, Marjaana What are some questions that you could or have asked AI coach?

different contexts. so I had, I had a bronchitis in November and I think I jumped on the training wagon, being excited about Norsemen a little too early. And, I started having heart issues after, so palpitations.

And I'm still on that journey. So I'm still not back on, on regular training. So I've been consulting AI coach about ⁓ training and recovery, adding in yoga or breathing, all these kinds of things to speed my, my recovery from the heart issues. ⁓

Yeah, so that's been interesting conversations having with the AI coach about endurance athletes and heart problems.

Hmm?

Yeah.

Yeah,

for sure. But I think that one is, that's a big one though. you know, and that we can all relate to immediately and ask our AI coach, right? And it's, how's my recovery looking today? So you can, any morning you could ask that to the AI coach. So I've just done that while you guys were talking, I just asked my coach, you know, how's my recovery looking today? Paul, your recovery looks solid. Resting heart rate is ⁓ 53.

Mm-hmm.

It just falls right in line with your recent baseline, suggesting that you're well recovered and handling your current training load. No issues, no concerning spikes or trends. Everything remains steady. Proceed with training as outlined. So that's great, but you might have a different response. We all have different challenges, et cetera, that are going on in life. And the AI coach picks up both the comments.

the recovery profiles from HRV, sleep and heart rate, as well as looking also at your fitness and your form numbers. So really giving some good, helpful advice towards progressing on any given day. certainly that is so useful relative to any static plan that is the typical industry standard, right? Like with any static plan, how can you

ever really know what to do next, whether that static plan is ultimately the right thing to do or not. And this is just a new level, I believe.

I also asked the AI coach what kind of questions we could ask it and here are some of the responses and I got 20 questions and I'll just we'll just do a few of them. What are my biggest strengths and weaknesses as shown by my training data? How was my recovery looking this week as Paul just asked? Based on my last threshold, what should I do to improve my FTP or threshold power?

Can I get a breakdown of my training intensity distribution over the past month, which I think would be a really interesting thing to look at. ⁓ How do my recent workouts compare to last year at this time? What should I watch out for nutritionally before and after my key workouts are races? And that's good stuff. Marjaana, do you want to handle Phil's question from the forum?

Yes, ⁓ so this is from a long distance cyclist Phil.

Now I think we had, we had Phil on the podcast too, right? Don't forget to, yeah. So I forget which one, but he was earlier on and Phil is also the builder of the workout reserve Garmin app as well. So yeah, he's, yeah, he's an absolute legend and he does incredible long distance cycle races as MJ is probably to mention here.

He's.

Yes. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so Phil has been using AI coach to discuss his training plan for 1,300 kilometer five day ride. and the AI coach gave him a plan and suggestions. Here's what Phil said in the forum. I asked AI coach more specific questions about its optimizations. I asked it to produce a sample training week based on my current training status. I asked it to swap around some of the days.

I asked it how it would apply progressive overload to the sample week. And I asked it how to get started next week, assuming recovered from my current cold and sore throat. It's really quite solid in the suggested changes it came up with. So solid. I think I am going to make these changes to my plan. Pretty cool.

Yeah.

Nice, nice work, Phil. Nice work.

Yeah, and Jack Buchholz on the on the Athletica Forum as well asked a similar question like Phil, he's been using the AI coach to essentially override or overwrite the plan calendar workouts by giving it a prompt with his current training status. He offers an interesting take on the AI coach. This is is what he said, I feel like this undercuts or at least circumvents the hard work that folks have put into the various training plan templates.

and the computer work that happens during the plan building to get workouts onto the calendar. Realistically, I don't even need workouts on the calendar if I am diligent enough to prompt the AI coach every Sunday afternoon and add them myself. On the other hand, I feel like this is the direction the platform should be going, especially if the AI coach has been trained well on HIIT science, customizing an athlete's week ahead based on the acute training load and other recent or upcoming events.

is what a lot of folks are looking for from an AI based training platform. And I'm curious to know whether this approach should be used sparingly or if the AI coach can create a full training plan one week at a time of similar quality to the plan generator.

Yes, that's a long question, but it's very accurate as to the work that is being undertaken. Yeah, you're definitely onto what we're thinking too, Jack. And that technology now exists, and it's one thing to say and another to do, but we have some R &D work that's going on in the back.

right now to work towards that as a future goal.

Good, good, Jose Manuel on the forum said that he asked the AI coach this question. Every morning, just after waking up, I do the stairs test to assess my readiness. It consists of climbing the stairs of my house quickly and feeling the pain in my legs as I go upstairs. Today, there was some pain, RPE six out of 10, but not excessive from yesterday's HIIT session.

If I give you my RPE in every debrief of the STAIRS test, can you use it to assess my fatigue and adapt my workouts accordingly?

How long are his stairs

You

That's what my question was. That's a long way up.

But you know what I like that it's very Martin Buccheit HIIT science based because that's exactly what he does in his team sport conditioning courses is that he does a standardized, you know, a standardized drill or a standardized work. And then he actually looks at the RPE and heart rate response to that standardized.

out of work and it can only be like, it can be exactly like this. It's usually four minutes in the team sport setting with the whole team. But in terms of finding your readiness to perform on any given day or tracking of your fitness, that's exactly what they do to just something super simple, standardized that we can all do. so Jose, if that's working for you, it is a valid, it is a valid assessment.

So I would keep that up. again, remember the power of the AI coach is the historical recollections that it has from that database. So I believe that your method would work. I would rec, I'd love to hear from you in terms of how that's working for you with your, with your stair test. Super insightful, interesting, and in theory with what we built, it should work.

So, but this test is more like a neuromuscular fatigue, right?

you're right, it is neuromuscular, Like it's the neuromuscular system that's probably feeding back to the mind and giving you insight into that, how soreness relates to.

pain and challenge. So you're right, it's probably not cardiovascular per se, but I think that's really what you're getting at anyways, even with a standardized run test. It's still probably the neuromuscular system and something is gonna be the key contributor to anything that's stressful or not. But yeah, it's a valid test of how ready you are to

to perform on the day. Remember we've talked about the pop test before, right? MJ with your running. And if you're not feeling pop, it's sort of similar and it's likely the neuromuscular system that's the key contributor.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Typically it's the neuromuscular fatigue that lingers a long time and climbing up the stairs. you're in a big training block or you've done strength training a little too hard, for example, and do a neuromuscular test like...

stair climb. I don't know how long his stairs are anyways, but you can do, ⁓ if you're a team sport athlete, they often do, if they have like a big lab or they do like a jump test to assess the neuromuscular fatigue. ⁓ you would, you would definitely notice any changes after a HIIT session, or if you're in a big training block and are just carrying the neuromuscular fatigue a little longer.

So maybe that works for Jose Manuel. And if the RPE gets a little out of hand, maybe it's indicated to take it easy that day.

Yeah, and it's a great question for the AI coach, you know, to say, you know, how is my fatigue again? You know, this is my context. And I'd like to hear, you know, I'd like to hear from Jose as well. You know, how did that question play out? You know, what, what did he find out from AI coach? But again, what this episode is all about looking at the possibilities of what we can ask AI coach to help our performance, help our training so that we improve. What else should we know about AI coach?

that currently it's not making those changes to your calendar. You have to manually still do those.

Yeah, so it's still something that we have to make the changes of once AI coach tells us what to make changes. Is that something that's coming down the line? Is that what we're at the long term vision of of Athletica?

Absolutely, yeah, for sure. That is the long-term vision, is that there'll be actions that the AI coach can actually make into your calendar. But yeah, at the moment they're separate from actually taking that action, that next step to actually make adjustments into the calendar. So at this point, and again, we should include in the show notes the link to

the coaching prof sub stack that we put on this because the figure that's part of that really shows the architecture of how the whole system is put in place and how the AI coach has, access to your database and it has access to your power profile, it has access to your training progression, like your training load, it knows how you're tracking.

and it has access to your recovery. So all of those different contexts. And then it can see interrelationships and patterns between those. But it's not down to the other important part is the user interface where you interact. We don't have it yet where ⁓ it's actually making changes and moving. And that would be the next phase to build into the system, which we're currently looking at.

But I thought, okay, what's big rocks? What's important? What's one of the key important principles for us with training per se? And it's often it's consistency. So I asked the AI coach, I'm in the middle of winter right now here in Revelstoke and not always, I'm not even really even recording all my different sessions. Cause a lot of times it's, I'm up skiing on the mountain, et cetera.

But so I'm I haven't read this I'm reading this live. Nothing is staged here and It's gonna be what it's gonna be but I said Hey AI coach, how's my consistency looking at in my training these days? How can I improve and said Paul? Here's a remember consistency number one ⁓ So Paul, here's a summary of your training consistency and actual advice to help you improve Current consistency you're staying active and regular regularly training which shows strong

Mmm.

commitment. However, and I knew this was coming, right? Several schedule workouts, particularly the key bike strength endurance and aerobic development sessions have been missed or swapped for unplanned activities, like sauna and ski outings. So just like I said, some swim sessions have been shortened and delivered less training load than planned. That's true as well. You've HIIT important high intensity bike sessions and even set

you

new benchmarks, but these have sometimes replaced lower intensity endurance work. And of course, MJ, you know this, these are the velocity sessions that I stick to and I attend with both of you every Thursday. But notice how it recognized that, like that's incredible. The fact that it like, in the time I was, you know.

Yeah.

one minute writing this in and it went and looked at all my data and it blurbed that out. It's just incredible. And then, yeah, we already know about the recovery. It just said that again. And then, yeah, it's how you can improve, prioritize completing scheduled sessions, especially the aerobic endurance and the strength endurance rides. yeah, aim for full session duration, you know, and if you need to make swaps.

Yeah.

for ski ride due to the weather, try to match both the intensity and duration, log all details. yeah, anyways, that was pretty much it. But that's pretty remarkable there. Like that was in the one minute that you guys were talking, I wrote that in and got a response.

Thank you.

Okay,

I have a follow-up question. Okay, what happens if I ⁓ keep cutting or if I keep not doing my aerobic sessions? What will happen to my fitness? Will I plateau? Do you know what I mean?

Sure. Let's give it.

If you're only doing hiit sessions and skiing, which is great, but it's pretty like on a big mountain, it's high neuromuscular fatigue. What will happen to your aerobic base and aerobic capacity? Like you can't improve just with the one hiit session a week. That's my theory. Let's see what AI goes.

Well, right. And you, I

mean, I know you listened to the session that I did, the podcast I did recently with Guido Clausen, right? And his groundbreaking work on ⁓ heart size relative to the amount of training volume that you did, right? He really sets up the foundation and he monitored athletes for three months. And it was the zone one, zone two work that was instrumental in

Yeah.

Bye.

increasing the heart size, right? And as Guido said on that podcast, right? Look, it ultimately comes down to time on task in specifically looking at the heart, right? You need repetitions, ultimate repetitions, number of heartbeats over long durations ⁓ to increase the ventricular mass, make your heart stronger, which ultimately leads to aerobic efficiency, et cetera.

⁓ So the AI coach doesn't have that info yet because we've just learned it from that groundbreaking study, but let's see what AI coach says. says, Paul, if you continue to cut or significantly shorten your aerobic sessions, you'll likely see several specific effects on your cycling fitness. Number one, endurance limitations. Aerobic rides are the backbone for building your base fitness and metabolic efficiency, correct. Missing them will gradually erode your ability to sustain longer efforts

making mid and late race performance in events like cyclocross much tougher. on the cyclocross program right now. Plateau and fitness games. Aerobic development enables further adaptation from high intensity sessions without the foundation from regular aerobic work, your overall fitness progress will slow and may even stagnate. Correct, and that's what Guido explained to us. Reduced recovery rates.

A strong aerobic engine improves your ability to recover between hard efforts, both in workouts and races. Now remember, MJ, that velocity session that I did where I went upstairs after. I couldn't do the last set. Everyone noticed. And I went upstairs, and Allison, my wife, said, you look white as a ghost. And that was my recovery. I had no aerobic foundation. And I put two and two together.

shoot, you're right, I need to be making sure that I've got that aerobic base. And then the last point, it says your injury risk and illness risk is gonna be increasing as well. That was pretty much it. So, know, pretty darn good response.

you

Mm-hmm.

And you're living on the higher end intensity wise, complete without the basement layer at the moment. last velocity session, I noticed that your heart rate ranked up a lot faster than it used to. And I noticed, like I mentioned, like, hey, your heart rate is pretty high. You okay?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally, totally. I wasn't, I have been, because I knew this, I knew that I was short of that. started, I have started increasing my zone one work and just my aerobic session work. Like I'm just doing a lot of boot packing ultimately in skiing, which is when you hike up mountains to go and find powder ultimately, right? So, and these are long walks up the mountain. So I'm doing that now in my snow-ridden Revelstoke.

And that's helping a lot. I'm just adding that time because I know I need that. So yeah, you're spot on. So I was actually the last Velocity Session where you saw that. My heart rate was higher, but I did feel a lot better since adding that. And I think it's just going to continue because I get it. I've learned first hand. So you can see how you can really use the AI Coach.

Hmm.

alongside you in whatever context that you're in, all these examples here, you like just keep asking that question sort of as you go and you're getting these immediate responses and feedback to help you build physically whatever you're trying to build in your life. I think that's the key point.

And that is a great place to end things unless we have other things to add to this discussion of the AI coach.

Keep asking questions.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so I was on a call with the maker of this just before this call, Andrea Zignoli Brilliant. And he said that is the key thing. The database that's forming in you when you're asking these questions, it will continue to get stronger and stronger and better and better. So remember that in the point. If you're not using this, you're kind of leaving one of the tools that you have in the toolbox, and you're not taking it out. So expose it for yourself.

and leverage it as best you can. Have the regular conversation. There is a usage and token issue. don't be excessive. But you should have enough on there to really get a lot out of it. And it resets every month. So every month, that usage and token usage, where we're leveraging the model of GPT. You're not sending the data to ChatGPD, just to be clear. But we're just leveraging the model.

but it's a ring-fenced rag that only Athletica has your database and your information. So just be very clear on that too. And it's worth using that tool in your tool shed to work towards where you want to go.

It's also really important to make sure that you're adding comments and your thoughts into your workouts on a daily basis too, because that helps the model continue to grow.

Correct, correct, Paul. Yes, really good habit to get in there is use your RPE, enter that in, use the feel, how the session felt, and then enter the comment around the session because all of that feeds the historic information that the AI coach will draw on for the future.

That's actually a really good point. I was just looking at the data of people commenting and I was surprised. I'm number one on comments. That's not maybe not surprising, surprising to me was that not a lot of people are leaving comments.

.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we noticed that too. I don't think it's not yet a habit for everyone and they don't recognize just yet the real power of it. I think, it's probably sort of sitting at 50 % of the, all of the Athletica users. So there's a lot more scope for others to get involved and start recognizing the benefits of this. ⁓

So yeah, the more you can be an early adopter in this whole phase, the more likely that will lead to more success for you, the Athletica listener, the Athletica user.

Thank you for listening today to the Athletes Compass podcast. Take a moment now, subscribe, share, and let's keep navigating this endurance adventure together. Improve your training with the science-based training platform, Athletica, and join the conversation at the Athletica Forum. For Marjaana Rakai and Dr. Paul Laursen I'm Paul Warloski and this has been the Athletes Compass podcast. Thank you so much for listening.