Bring the exports. Log into nothing.
Every fitness app lets you download your history. Dana already did, years ago, and forgot. The files go into one folder on the laptop, and that’s the whole import.
Me & In use We import our own this way. New pulls from the watch fold in later.
SplatI don’t want your password. I want your old files.
The clean room.
The exports are read where they sit and never changed. What a coach needs comes in. What says where you live stays out.
- Date and start time
- Distance and duration
- Heart rate
- Steps by hour
- Your notes on a workout
- GPS routes
- Home and work locations
- Device serial numbers
- Account email
- Friends lists
Me & In use The same run logged in two apps counts once.
SplatI keep the miles. I throw out the map.
The brag wall.
Before the plan, the hype. Nine years of Dana, pinned up as Polaroids. Every one is something Dana already did.
Me & pages Being built
SplatDana ran 9.3K once. Dana forgot. I didn’t. That’s 93% of a 10K.
Pivot Session. Then the Game Plan.
Dana names the goal and walks the Coach through a normal day. Three habits come back. Each one says why it’s yours, and points to the file it came from.
- Run Tuesday and Thursday, before 8am61% of your weekday runs started before 8 ·
runkeeper-data-export.zip - Long run Sundays, up 1 km a weekYour 2019 build to 9.3 km went up about 1 km a week ·
fitbit-takeout-2022.zip - Walk after dinner, any dayYour steps are lowest 7–9pm, every year since 2021 ·
garmin-forerunner/
A Day In The Life Live · Note to Self Being built Start with the free card at ilookbetterthanyourdad.com.
SplatIf I can’t point to the line, I don’t say it. That’s my whole answer to “AI makes things up.”
The folder goes to the phone.
Laptop and phone keep one folder in step, directly with each other. There’s no cloud copy and no account in the middle. The phone gets the Game Plan. The laptop gets the week back.
Laptop ↔ phone Next We use Syncthing: free, open source, device to device.
SplatSame folder, two places. Nobody else has a copy.
Progress: check it off, write a line.
The Spark on Dana’s phone writes each day into the folder as a note. Dana writes whatever’s true. A long-press on one sentence keeps it as a Note to Self for Saturday.
The Spark Live Free in the App Store and on Google Play. Screens from the app, sample data.
SplatDana writes. I don’t read it. Only the sentence Dana hands me.
Look Back: what you said, next to what you did.
Feelings first, then the numbers, then one thing to change. The Coach sees the week’s numbers and the one marked sentence. The rest of the journal stays blurred, because it was never handed over.
Legs heavy. Work ran long again and the bus was late, so I sat in the car for a minute before going in.
Good one this morning. Cold but clear, and the second half felt easier than the first.
Didn’t go. Got home at 7 and I skip runs when it’s dark out.
Sunday long run, 5 km, slow, did not stop once. Called my sister after.
Both missed runs were Thursdays after 6pm Progress, Oct 22. Your Tuesday 7am runs held. Change one thing: Thursday moves to 7am.
The weekly Look Back Live Free every week in The Spark: send your week on Saturday, the Look Back is there Sunday at 6 AM.
SplatSee? Eyes shut. It’s you against you. I only hold the note you left yourself.
Six weeks, one Look Back each.
Each week is an Evolution: plan Sunday, live it, look back Saturday, change one thing. The long run climbs a kilometer at a time.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs before 8 | 2/4 | 3/4 | 4/4 | 3/4 | 4/4 | 2/2 |
| Long run | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | race |
| Walk after dinner | 4/7 | 5/7 | 5/7 | 6/7 | 6/7 | 4/4 |
Me & pages Being built Week 4: a cold, no long run. The Look Back said so, and week 5 picked it back up.
SplatWeek 4 went sideways. That’s fine. The Look Back is a look, not a grade.
Cookie: the race, then pie.
The Cookie is the date that doesn’t move, and what you give yourself for reaching it. The Spark lays the six weeks out, free. Then Dana hands over the folder and the old exports, and gets one page back: the six weeks against years of running. Where it goes from there is Dana’s call.
Cookie time Live · A Day In The Life, in full Live $30 at ilookbetterthanyourdad.com/full, from a Fitbit, Strava, Runkeeper or Garmin export, or from My Six Weeks in The Spark.
SplatTen. Kilometers. Now the pie.
It was a folder the whole time.
Every step above wrote a plain text file into one folder on Dana’s laptop. Open it in any text editor. Copy it to a thumb drive. Delete it. That’s what yours means.
Note to Self/
Run a 10K/ the goal
Pivot Session - 18 Oct.md
-Exports/ untouched
Week 1 (Oct 19-25)/
Game Plan - 18 Oct.md
Progress/
2026-10-20 - Tuesday.md
2026-10-22 - Thursday.md
Look Back - 24 Oct.md
Week 2 … Week 6/
Cookie - 26 Nov.md
Rainy. Didn't want to go. ### Habits - [x] Walk after dinner - [ ] Run before 8am --- ## 712p Skipped it Got home at 7 and it was already dark. I skip runs when it's dark out. #notetoself
The folder In use Our own six-week runs live in folders exactly like this.
SplatNo magic. Text files, and a coach who only reads what you hand over.