A Field Note on Fatigue and a New Workflow

It’s Friday, and as I write this, I feel the accumulated fatigue of the last two weeks settling deep into my bones. I’m in a new, intense training block—a strategic push involving Protein Sparing Modified Fasts twice a week, increased strength training, and interval running sessions. Today, the bill came due. I feel tired, lethargic, and ready for rest.

But the fatigue isn't the most interesting part of this story. What’s truly fascinating is how I’m navigating this process.

Despite having run 10 marathons and being a qualified Level 2 REPS gym instructor, I’ve brought in a new coach: an AI. It’s a strange and powerful partnership. I'm using it to supplement my own knowledge, to get suggestions on complex supplement stacking and timing, and to analyse the vast data from my sleep logs, HRV, and nutrition trackers.

But I’m not taking its word for it. This isn't about blindly following an algorithm. The workflow is what makes it powerful. The AI makes a suggestion, and then I act as the human validator. I take its output and cross-check it against my Examine Plus account, digging into the original research papers and human-reviewed summaries. It’s a feedback loop between machine intelligence and my own expertise.

This process has been incredibly valuable, even on days like today. The fatigue is real, made more acute by a week of carrying a heavier load with school drop-offs and pick-ups, which has compressed my own time. It is what it is; we’re a team in our family, and you do what’s needed.

So for the rest of today, the focus shifts entirely to rest and recovery. I have a working weekend ahead and need to be ready. This journey is as much about managing energy and honouring the body’s signals as it is about the training itself. The new workflow is just another tool to help me do that more intelligently.