The origin story
It started as a question: what if training could adapt week by week, ride by ride, based on what you actually rode?
Where it all starts
“PRACTICE DOESN'T MAKE PERFECT.
PRACTICE MAKES PERMANENT.”
A coach said this to me early in my athletic life. I've carried it ever since, taught it to my son, built it into the way I train, and eventually built it into this product.
Most training apps chase a destination. They sell you a peak. Built on a different idea, trce treats consistency as the real driver of progress. Consistency beats perfection, and the athletes who show up consistently, not perfectly, tend to feel strong deep into the ride. The process does not just improve fitness. It rewires you. That is what permanent means. It rewires you. That's what permanent means.
Barry Roubaix 2026
In early 2026, I started a coaching conversation with AI. Not because I was trying to build a product. I had a race on the calendar, Barry Roubaix, 36 miles through the scenic roads of Barry County, Michigan, and I wanted to show up prepared instead of just hoping my general fitness would carry me through.
Over the next eight weeks, something clicked.
The plan did not just sit there like a static training PDF. It adjusted when my HRV was low. It backed me off when recovery mattered. It pushed me when I was clearly sandbagging. It reminded me to fuel better. It even helped me see when my aerobic efficiency was moving in the wrong direction.
For the first time, it felt less like I was following a spreadsheet and more like I had a coach paying attention.
Race day was wet, sloppy, and slow. The gravel felt like riding through peanut butter. But I finished strong, felt surprisingly good considering the conditions, and still had something left in the tank.
That was the moment it really clicked. The value was not just the result. It was how prepared I felt.
That conversation eventually became this product. The idea was simple: if adaptive AI coaching could help me train smarter, listen to my body, and show up ready, then it could help other self-coached athletes do the same.
Especially the ones training alone, without a human coach in their corner.
What the coaching focused on
Aerobic efficiency: lowering HR at race pace over 8 weeks
Recovery signals: adjusting load based on HRV and readiness
Fueling rehearsal: practicing race nutrition on every long ride
Terrain specificity: gravel torque work, not just power numbers
The result
His strongest Barry Roubaix finish in four attempts — on a soaking wet day where the gravel felt like riding through peanut butter. Not because he trained harder. Because he trained smarter. A process that felt controlled, informed, and worth repeating.
Why it's different
01
It listens
Strava syncs, screenshots analyzed, stats pasted. The coach reads what you actually did, not what the plan assumed you would do.
02
It adapts
Low HRV day? The plan adjusts. Missed workouts? Accounted for. Great long ride? The next week gets nudged accordingly. That's what coaches do.
03
It makes it stick
Every consistent week is a deposit. The fitness isn't just physical. The process becomes part of how you train. That's the permanent part.
Who built it
I'm a technical product manager, mountain biker, gravel cyclist, 906 Adventure Team coach, and father based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I ride a mix of singletrack, gravel, groomed snow trails in the winter, Zwift, Peloton, and whatever Michigan weather allows. I love events like Barry-Roubaix, Arcadia Grit & Gravel, and Rusty Fish, but I'm not a traditional cyclist chasing numbers for the sake of numbers. I'm more Patagonia MTB shorts than race kit. More cut-through connoisseur than follow-the-route type. An adventurer who happens to ride.
For me, training is not about perfection or podiums. It is about showing up consistently, building something that lasts, and being ready when the good ride shows up. The kind of ride where you're smiling, taking it all in, finding the less-traveled path, and coming home with your cup full.
I built trce because I wanted a coaching experience that matched how I actually train: data-driven but not rigid, adaptive but not chaotic, serious but not joyless. Coaching that understands the numbers, respects how your body feels, and helps the work build toward something real.
trce is built and operated by Third Coast Labs LLC, a Michigan-based software company. Version 0.8 Beta. Still early, getting better every week.
What this product believes in
Consistency over heroics
The athlete who shows up every week beats the one who trains heroically and burns out. Every time.
Adaptation over rigidity
A plan that doesn't respond to your actual life isn't a coach. It's a spreadsheet.
Data in service of feel
The numbers don't make the decision. They inform it. Your coach translates the gap.
Adventure as the goal
Training isn't the point. The point is being ready for whatever comes next. The race, the trail, the spontaneous epic.
How recovery works
Most recovery apps hand you a number from 0 to 100 and leave you to figure out what to do with it. We built trce to work differently, on purpose. A score on its own cannot see that you have a race in nine days, or that yesterday was your third hard ride in a row. Your coach can. So your recovery becomes a set of signals handed to the coach, who weighs them against your plan, your recent rides, and your goal. The judgment lives with the coach, not a gauge.
Three signals come from Apple Health, each judged against your own rolling baseline rather than a population average: overnight HRV, a window into how recovered your nervous system is; resting heart rate, where a few beats high for you is worth noticing; and sleep, how long you actually slept last night.
A resting heart rate that looks textbook normal might be high for you, and that is the signal that matters. Building your baseline takes about two weeks of wearing your watch to sleep. Until that history exists, trce tells you so rather than guessing, and leans on what it can read honestly from day one, like how long you slept.
Your goal is the tiebreaker on what to do with all of it. Pointed at a race that is close, the coach protects the key sessions even through a rough morning, because the taper is doing its job. Training for the joy of it with no start line to peak for, the coach leans the other way and protects your recovery when the hard days stack up. Same data, different call. Most days your session stands as planned. When recovery and load really push against it, the coach either softens the session and tells you why, or flags that it is a judgment call worth talking through in chat.
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