Open Heart to Open Source

I had open-heart surgery at 60. Six weeks later I was in a recliner watching my Garmin. That's where TheNextHill started.

In May 2024 I had chest pains on the rowing machine. First MRI. The surgeon told me the ascending aorta looked like a problem. It could rip open at any time and I would be dead within twenty minutes. Oh shit. Finally, in September 2025, Dr Roselli replaced a section of it with a synthetic graft and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The next morning I woke up with a chest that felt like someone had parked a car on it. The first few weeks were a blur of painkillers, pillows propped at angles, and my wife pretending not to worry. I was sixty years old. I had a titanium zipper down my sternum. I had nowhere to be.

What I did have was a Garmin on my wrist. And the Garmin, it turned out, had opinions. Heart rate variability trending down. Sleep score improving. Body Battery creeping from the low teens toward something resembling a human. I watched the numbers the way you watch a slow sunrise. Obsessively, because it was the only thing moving.

Not a bucket list. A life list.

I started making a list. Marathon this autumn. Ironman 70.3 eventually. A backwoods motorcycle expedition. What I didn't know, and what nobody could actually tell me, was whether I was ready. Not "cleared to exercise" ready. Really ready.

What does my VO2 max say about my chances at altitude? What does my HRV trend say about my training load this week? What's the gap between where I am and where I need to be, for a specific adventure, on a specific date?

Nobody was answering that question. TrainingPeaks is brilliant if you're thirty-five and chasing a Kona slot. Garmin Connect shows you the data. But neither one looks you in the eye and says: here's what you're ready for, here's what you're not, and here's exactly what needs to change.

So I built it

The recliner was just another starting line. The same one that millions of people over fifty are standing at right now, staring at data they can't translate into action.

TheNextHill starts with the adventure, not the training plan. You tell it what you want to do. It reads your real numbers: HRV, VO2 max, recovery trends, sleep quality. It gives you a personalized readiness picture against that specific goal. Not a generic fitness number. A starting point for the conversation with yourself and your doctor.

It connects your daily work to the things that actually give your life texture. Tuesday's run isn't just a run. It's closing the gap on something that matters.

The numbers are improving. The list is still long. That's the point.

Take the Readiness Quiz

Six questions. Three minutes. See where you stand. Take the quiz.

TheNextHill is a fitness readiness tool, not a medical device. Always consult your physician before beginning or changing an exercise program, particularly following illness or surgery.