I had a nightmare last night.

my left knee – the mcl or acl. it was hurting so bad I was hobbled, hopping around… in my dream. doing something talking to somehow, moving around, realizing this was not good, not normal. my mind flashed either in the dream or after.

but i wake up – thankful it was just a dream. but then realize, it actually does hurt. i’m getting a little concerned. my mind flashes to the runs i’ve been doing. did i overtrain? am i putting on too much stress. i flash to the run yesterday morning, it was pretty jarring, i had lead boots on for the first km super rigid running putting a lot of impact, visualizes it compressing again and again… and then thought of all the running i’ve been doing past few weeks… how could this happen? i thought i was pretty in tune, all it takes is one bad kilometer?

my alarm goes off at 4:30am. i’ve already been awake, wondering how bad the knee was.

i get up to turn off the alarm and it doesn’t bother me, i somehow forgot? i got to the bathroom first this time, i put my watch there, the second alarm to force me up. works pretty much every time. i go to my office, i lay down on the mat and turn the heater on, i heat my left left, it feels soothing. i think the run today, definitely not going to be doing the same kind of jarring, i’m thinking i might just walk the first bit to make sure i don’t jar my knee… i’m curious if it’ll hurt, how much it’ll hurt. etc.

i stretch for about 30 minutes… thatcher needs help fixing his covers… then a few minutes later he needs to go pee… i assist with both. back to bed he goes. i then toss my sneakers on. i head to the toboggan hill.

i’m not feeling too bad actually, capable of jogging to the hill no problem. and then i drop in. and then after some navigating… working on slow fast speed downhill, control… footwork, downhill uphill.. uphills felt strong! like super strong. surprisingly strong. i like to tackle the hills around the lake but there’s not too many and they’re not that big, but this experience was sweet.

the fun idea, maybe from watching that nfl guy’s training video of him doing hills, he definitely did some backwards stuff… so the thought pops into my head then, lets flip around and do reverse hills… backwards… back pedalling down and up and down and up.

took this to exhaustion, i’m not going to do a lot of backwards runnning, distance wise… so fitting it in here is amazing. i first started doing backwards running in the water at the lake after my runs out there. nice resistance, high quality reps, means you don’t have to do a lot of them to get massive benefit.

i did it a the lake to max exertion, blasts the lactic after the run, not sure if that’s a real thing or not. but it feels right. feels good.

could be similar to my pushup ab roller routine. doing the hardest version of the pushup imaginable. i can do a few, but stronger i get, more i can do, still don’t know if if even ever done more than 10 tho. so it’s tough. it blasts you. then you make it easier one level. do as many as you can, you’ll do fewer because you already blasted the hardest setting. it forms a triangle.

you make easier by another level and you can do more than previous 2 levels, but fewer because you’ve gone through the progression. this ultimately reduces the number of reps overall, ultimately makes your workout more effective, more efficient.

something similar it happening with running, how i want to integrate backwards running. as the pushup type concept. whats the hardest version of backwards running. in the water. second hardest… up hills? those could be equally as hard… either way… doing the backwards at the hill made a lot of sense. filling out the full muscle profile for my legs.

then back, helped thatcher with a belly ache.. then shower and stretch…

then comfortable clothes… with a hapenstance stretch session… wanted to move the workout bench.. one of these weights, a three foot metal bar, i picked it up to get it out of the way… and all of the sudden i started moving it around, started working out and stretching with it… and then 30 some minutes later, i had progressed into a right hip opener… massive progress there. almost feels like its close to final. i’ve been working a long time at my mobility… i had so many parts that just seized right up.

so much so, i was told i shouldn’t run. i was told i would need a hip replacement.

i got xrays to fuel that advice… this is crazy.

i went to osteo, i tried out a free workout… the guy blasted my hips. i got sick after with all the whatever that got released. like breaking off barnacles.

and so from there, it’s been more about stretching them out. and for years i’ve been, stretching them out. points in time i’ve had more breakthroughs. but it’s been in progress for years and years. my habit tracker this year features deep squat. another way for me to sit with the tension, release the tension.

and this routine i did, flow, was wonderful… all thanks to starting early…

getting the backwards hills in! so good. i did less than i could… i have to realize this worked out different parts, so no worries to do less, because it’s technically a lot. and then more time to deep stretch it out.

i also noticed strava struggles with this. just seeing my pace unaware of the elevation changes, which is a little strange… and then putting in hard exertion almost made it worse? it thought this slow pace was a lot of exertion? like, nah, cancel that wrong idea. useful for tracking long normal runs… maybe heartrate might help.

would be interesting what my heartrate would be. especially knowing i can meditate and drop my heartrate in a matter of seconds… i feel like that might be a good idea sporadically. i’m curious how much exertion i’ll put forth. it’s a long race. i’m not going to be going all out, i’m just going to put my cruise on and go.

then i get served a vidoe on youtube, “do you have runners knee?”

9:53. Little rest stop, break thinking to myself. I’m half just waiting for gpt5. I’ve heard it’s close but also heard nothing specific. And then google news says, x says. Open ai posted. Live5tream with 5 instead of the s. 10am pt. Which is 11 my time.

Let’s go get some food. Do some more work. And tuneee in. I feel like it’s waiting for release of the next iPhone 5 or something. Maybe more even the 3gs. We’re so early in the game. Years wise. Using gpt since 3 I think and that was just Feb 2023. Not long ago at all. But it’s been absolutely massive for me with my job working in excel. Automated so much of the work. To build out my sheets my tracking. To get on top of it and have answers at the ready. To use to plan and forecast. It’s been critical to my enjoyment of my job. Need a formula to do this, just drag it down and get that stat, boom. Done. Specific formulas it’s been insanely good at. Easy stuff too considering. But super difficult for someone not educated in it. And then don’t even get me started on how you can transform like a hundred actions into a single button, just pumps out the exact code, bunches of lines of code. for you specifically. Copy paste, rock and roll.

And so with gpt5 my mind is back on how to take all the code. The excel doc I created to track my habits. I want to make that into an app super effortlessly. Iterate to my taste the look and feel. I know the functionality. I want this next. Even if I just need to code it again but visual coding and creating an app. I have 7 months straight of data collection with my excel doc. I know what’s worked and what I’d like to add. Would be legendary to upload my excel doc tho and see if it can just figure it out.

And just here now seeing an add for base44.com

Clearly this is a space that’s got some builders working on this exact problem. The ad struck a chord

I literally saw it say habit tracker.

12:59pm – i just finished watching the gpt5 announcement.

i found this existing app, base44 served an add… based on the gpt5 i think they might be able to pull off what i’m looking for using canvas or something but i’m going to try this base44 first to see what happens…

i want to build a visual habit tracker. imagine each day is made up of three squares centered on themselves big medium and small. the space between the big and the middle sized square leaves a border, within this border are the blocks, 16 of them spaced equally around the border like a path. when you complete one of these blocks its a habit completed, you click on it and it fills in. throughout the day you click on the different blocks which are each assigned to a different habit. on the reverse of this visual, if you flip it there’s a legend which shows you what each habit is and where its assigned on your path. as you complete a day in this manner only seeing hte one block (of three blocks), it tracks each habit completed, i want to keep stats for each habit that is completed in a seperate page, i want to be able to filter the habits and visually see them in a calendar where each habit completed fills in the day of the month, switching between your habits you can see visually which days you completed which habits, i want this also on a different page to show me stats like how many times i completed, a leaderboard for my habits,

ok – it hit a 404 error or something.. but it got the ball rolling for me. i got a glimpse of the visual, it’s still thinking… but it also just helped me to articulate the app i’m going to try and build here from scratch, vibe coding…

Plan

Key Features:

1. Daily Habit Tracker – A unique visual with three nested squares where habits are arranged in 16 blocks around the border between the large and medium squares
2. Interactive Habit Completion – Click blocks to mark habits as complete with smooth visual feedback
3. Legend System – Flip view to see which habit corresponds to each block position
4. Habit Management – Create, edit, and assign habits to specific positions
5. Statistics Dashboard – Track completion rates, streaks, and performance metrics
6. Calendar View – Visual monthly calendar showing completion status for each habit
7. Habit Filtering – Switch between different habits to see their individual completion patterns
8. Leaderboard – Ranking of habits by completion frequency and streaks

Design Language:

• Ultra-minimal aesthetic with sophisticated spatial relationships
• Monochromatic palette with subtle accent colors (soft blues and greens for completion states)
• Geometric precision – perfectly centered squares with mathematical spacing
• Smooth micro-interactions and buttery hover states
• Luxurious white space with breathing room around all elements
• Premium typography using clean, modern fonts

App Organization:

• Today Page – Main daily tracker with the three-square visual
• Legend Component – Flippable overlay showing habit assignments
• Statistics Page – Comprehensive analytics and metrics
• Calendar Page – Monthly view with habit-specific filtering
• Settings Page – Habit management and customization
• Navigation Layout – Clean sidebar or top navigation

The app will feel like a premium mindfulness tool – think of it as the intersection between a meditation app’s serenity and a productivity tool’s functionality.

2:03 – I mean. we’re on the right track here with this. And it 100% looks like this is something I can build now with these existing tools and the fact that gpt 5 just got released which will take these tools and others to a new level.

It was definitely highlighted plenty how it will elevate “vibe coding”. I’ve built my wireframes. I’ve built the connective tissue, I know what I like and what I’d like to fix. But now the challenge. Is taking my excel doc. Which was limited to excel design language. And create it again from scratch knowing I can get closer to the original handheld vision. Creation. Focus daily on your habit block. Or really. Can be your mountain. We can take it further now.

Maybe each habit block around the outer edge is a treasure chest, with one gold coin. You’ve got x number of keys per day or something. Don’t waste your keys.

Or you’ve got a shovel and it’s like Zelda where you go on the path and dig up in the different areas and that gets you a coin or rupee.

Or like Tetris 3d. Building a pyramid shape. Or castle or something each day. You lay a brick in the various spots to construct your day. And then could be like a completed block each day so that when you add them up they make a structure for the month. And if you don’t add enough blocks daily then your month will collapse.

Maybe it’s like building a bridge each month.

Maybe it’s all of those. With the simple foundational layer. With just filling in the ink each day to paint a picture of your day and months year.

The high level idea is to help the user dedicate space for their habits. They occupy real estate. And mental mode it such that you work to not just memorize each spot hence the legend you can flip between. Treasure map Esq. so you feel as you memorize you also build that habit irl. And the feeling of something becoming a habit is rewarding obviously.

The mental model of what you’re building helps you value the choices in the present. So you don’t have a castle that falls apart, or a bridge that collapses at the end of the month.

The ability to see your stats track your streaks and just dig into data and visualize it as a whole or drilling into each. Is the power underneath.

All the data is collected by simply logging a completed habit task. So there’s like one click the user does when they complete one of these healthy habit tasks.

Like hitting go on the Strava app. You just start your run, stop your run. And then dive into the stats after it.

The habit tracker. Log each task, any time of day, in a matter of seconds. Eventually it could just know when you complete things and all you need to do is sit back and look and appreciate and feel your progress report throughout the day and after weeks and months can sit back and look at the results and make adjustments as needed.

Being deliberate with a specific number of habit tasks you wish to accomplish each day. The daily things you know would elevate your future self. Current self. Daily.

Not a million things. In fact. Could reduce the number down. Was where I started. 4 triangles to complete a square. Created a wooden mosaic.

I’ve tested just a single thing. So as you go scale up or down what you wish to track. I like my current 16 plus 3 keystone. but with a ddifferent design and interface maybe I would adjust my habits.

6:42pm. Got a solid after work workout. Mobility with counter weighting. Just putting myself off balance and finding balance gets all these stabilizing muscles firing. Nervous system firing. Or whatever to that effect. Working on my hip still. Various ways. Blasted my calves. Shins a little sore. Did some squats and lunges and toe touches and hip hinges etc. ab rolling. A touch concerned I went too hard. But that’s the beauty of running. I’ll get a run in tomorrow morning to shake it out. And maybe get another at lunch if it’s not raining too hard for some more kilometres.

Today was solid morning legs on the hill. The backwards running up and down hill was great. Interested to see what effect it has and looking forward to following up with more workouts harder and longer.

Might go to the running room tomorrow at lunch to scope out a pair of running shoes. For my half marathon sept 7. Then still in the market for my trail shoes.

I love training. For the first time in my life I’m showing up on this physical activity. I proved it. Experienced it consistency with golf practice the one drill there. Now physically. This will take me to another level. The tiger routine I’m actually starting to piece together. As I work towards becoming the greatest golfer I can possibly imagine. Which I can’t imagine. I can only imagine.

6:48 – the age of gpt 5 is here. And this engine will power another group of apps. And maybe it alone can do what I wish. Test out cursor?! Sounds like I can vibe code my app. Soooo curious how much closer I can get to pulling this habit tracker, this time tracker, my task tracker to do master file.