Does any of this work?
I'm a 225 lb dad in Denver trying a $750 watch, a season without alcohol, 225 g of protein a day and four AI bots for the 44 weeks before the Ogopogo Extreme Triathlon. I publish the numbers, good or bad. Whatever doesn't work gets left on the hill.
Week 1 of 44. 225 lb today, 190 lb by race day.
The goals, said plainly
Five honest reasons to train, in the order they get protected when the week gets tight. The flagship is a hybrid finish: Ogopogo on Sep 5, 2027, healthy and lean, with strength, Sunday soccer and room for life still intact. Strong is the point. Room for life is the rule.
- JoyPlay team sport most weeks. Sunday pickup soccer is protected, football fills in when it runs. Measured by weeks with a team session. Target: 40 of the next 52 weeks.
- HealthUse the season as the carrot for sleep, limited drinking and a shrinking waist. Measured by alcohol days, sleep averages and the tape measure.
- PerformanceCarry heavy things, play with the kids, and still move well late in a long day. Measured by the deadlift, carries, pull-ups and the mile.
- AestheticsLean and muscular, closer to a Hyrox build than a climber build. Measured by the monthly photo, the waist, and strength holding up while fat comes off.
- PrideFinish the Ogopogo Extreme Triathlon inside the 19 hour clock, healthy enough to enjoy the week after.
Built around what is already in the house and already paid for: a stationary bike, a road bike, a basic treadmill, a rower, adjustable dumbbells to 85 lb each and a bench, Orange Theory once a week, and a community lap pool and gym. No Hyrox kit, so the rower, thrusters, carries and lunges stand in. This is a personal log, not medical advice.
This week
The week on one screen. Weeks 1 to 44 are the run to race day on the hill above. Weeks 45 to 52 are the recovery and rebuild after it. Tweaks save in this browser until Grok or the API writes them into the plan data.
Loading the live plan. The outline below stands either way.
Week 1 of 52. Baseline and rebuild.
| Day | Session | Length | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Strength baseline A: bench top set and max strict pull-ups | 60 min | Community gym or home |
| Tue | Stationary bike, easy aerobic | 45 min | Home |
| Wed | Lap pool swim, then strength baseline B: deadlift, carry, hang | 90 min | Community center |
| Thu | Stationary bike or rower, easy only | 40 min | Home |
| Fri | Mile baseline | 40 min | Track or flat loop |
| Sat | Long road bike | 90 min | Road or home |
| Sun | Pickup soccer | 75 min | Pickup field |
- Sunday log: weight trend, hours, team sport yes or no, alcohol days, one honest line.
Export this week
Garmin is a handoff, not a live connection. Grok takes the workout JSON, builds it in Garmin, and writes results back here through the API. Nothing on this page talks to Garmin by itself, and no result appears here until it was actually done.
Scorecard
Ten numbers worth caring about. Nothing is measured until baseline weeks 1 and 2, so every row starts untested.
| Measure | Now | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Body weightMorning weigh-ins, weekly. The weekly number lives at the top of this page. | 225 lb | 190 lb by race day |
| Waist | Not tested yet | Down 4 in from baseline |
| Mile run | Not tested yet | Set after baseline, then chase 30 sec off it |
| Bench press, top set | Not tested yet | Bodyweight for 5 clean reps |
| Trap bar deadlift, top set | Not tested yet | 1.75 x bodyweight for 5 reps |
| Strict pull-ups | Not tested yet | 10 strict reps |
| Farmer carry | Not tested yet | Bodyweight total for 60 sec |
| Dead hang | Not tested yet | 120 sec |
| Swim, 1500 m | Not tested yet | Set after baseline, then chase 5 percent |
| Bike, 20 min average power | Not tested yet | Set after baseline, then chase 10 percent |
Why these ten: weight, waist and the photo cover health and the mirror. The mile, swim and bike cover the engine. Bench, deadlift, pull-ups, carry and hang cover useful strength. The full protocol for each row is in training-data.json. Retests land on checkpoint weeks 12, 26 and 39.
Season todos
- Baseline weeks 1 and 2, every scorecard rowSpace them out. Log real numbers only.
- Eight straight Sunday posts with the five numbers
The next 52 weeks
Five phases. Open a phase to land on its first week, then step week by week above. Every fourth week backs off. Orange Theory is the one hard conditioning day, Sunday soccer is protected until the taper, and a football tournament replaces the long session instead of stacking on top of it.
| Phase | Weeks | Dates | Hours a week | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline and rebuild | Weeks 1 to 9 | Nov to Dec 2026 | 6 to 8 hrs | Measure the scorecard, train easy, lift three times a week, play once a week. |
| Build strength and base | Weeks 10 to 26 | Jan to Apr 2027 | 7 to 9 hrs | Get leaner and stronger while the easy engine grows. |
| Get specific | Weeks 27 to 39 | May to Jul 2027 | 8 to 12 hrs | Climbing bike, trail run, open water and race fuel practice. |
| Peak and taper | Weeks 40 to 44 | Aug to Sep 5, 2027 | 8 to 12 hrs | Two big weeks, then freshen up for race day. |
| Recover, then Hyrox and team sport | Weeks 45 to 52 | Sep to Oct 2027 | 1 to 6 hrs | Rest first. Then find out if Hyrox and team sport are the next flagship. |
All 52 weeks, session by session, are in training-data.json. The same file feeds this page, the API and the bots.
The $750 watch that needs a $170 strap
Garmin's Forerunner 970, first look. Its two headline metrics stay locked until you add the HRM 600 chest strap, so the real price is $919.98. Will it still be alive at hour 16 above Penticton?
- Back to Origin. The 44-week road to OgopogoThe whole plan: four phases to Sep 5, 2027, the weight math, the no-alcohol rule, the bots and the five checkpoints. The second half is a Garmin Forerunner 970 first look.
- Next: baseline week, the ugly numbersPost 002. The first checkpoints, no rounding up.
How Grok runs this with me
This page is a view of one data file, training-data.json. Grok keeps it current through that file, the local API at /api/training, or the bundled MCP server. Agents can start at llms.txt. Garmin is a handoff through Grok, not a live sync this site claims to have.
What I'm trying
Five underway, eight queued, one paused. For each one I want to know: would I tell a friend my age to do this? For gear, would I race Ogopogo with it? So far the answer is not yet. How this works.
Advice
- Out for all 44 weeks, with sleep, weight and mood logged. Underway. Post 005 will report month one.
- Losing weight slowly keeps more muscle.Garthe et al., 2011, on young elite athletes225 to 190 is 35 lb across about 44 weeks, with long sessions fully fueled. Underway. Post 002 will have the first weigh-in.
- A busy calendar leaves enough time to train.Chris Carmichael, The Time-Crunched CyclistFive to six slots a week, graded on sessions done, family dinners kept and work delivered. Underway. Post 002 will cover baseline week.
- Four hard 4-minute efforts raise VO2 max more than steady training.Helgerud et al., 2007, on moderately trained menThe study ran it 3 days a week for 8 weeks. Talk to a doctor before you copy this one. Queued.
- A fit man in his 40s can dead-hang 2 minutes and carry his body weight for 1.Peter Attia, on the carry and, secondhand, the hangTimed at 225 lb, and again as the weight falls. Queued.
- 1 g of protein per pound of body weight is the right target.Peter AttiaAt 225 lb that is 225 g a day, while losing weight. Queued.
Tech
- I bought one. Thirty days of logs against a 19 hour race clock. First look out. Post 004 will have the logs.
- Training Readiness shows how ready you are to train each day.Garmin's manualThirty days of logging the score against how sessions actually go. Queued.
- AI can run the logistics of training and life.AI companies' pitchFour bots plan the week, brief the morning, do the fuel math and draft the notes, with my veto on every workout and no medical calls. Underway. Post 003 will show the actual prompts.
- For $169.99 more. Queued for the run checkpoint.
Gear
- For a dark, cold swim in Skaha Lake. Queued, no date yet.
- For 43 km and 1,675 m on tired legs. Queued, no date yet.
- For 3,100 m of climbing at 225 lb. Queued, no date yet.
Fuel
- Sorghum works as race fuel.Origin Endurance, which I ownLab notes, never rankings against rivals. Paused, no relaunch date.
Race day
The Ogopogo Extreme Triathlon runs for the first time in Penticton, BC, on Sep 5, 2027. That is 305 days from today. A 3.8 km swim in Skaha Lake that starts at 5 am in the dark, 183.4 km on the bike with 3,100 m of climbing, then 43 km of trail with 1,675 m more. The clock gives you 19 hours.
Course facts from ogopogoextremetri.com, checked Oct 2026. Courses can change.
The Sunday field note
One email a week. What I tried and what the numbers did. First word when Origin gels come back, since I own that company.
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