Plod: Calm Run Coach

Plod is a running app that stays out of the way.

No account. No login. No subscription. No feed, no followers, no streak guilt. You open it, you run, it tells you how it went.

RUN WITH A VOICE IN YOUR EAR

Plod speaks at the start and finish, at every completed kilometre, and when your pace drifts away from what the session asked for. Every number it says — your split, your elapsed time, your pace — is worked out on your phone or watch. It is correct, and it works with no signal and no account.

Speech ducks your music instead of stopping it, and keeps going with the screen locked.

SESSIONS THAT FIT YOUR PACES

Tell Plod what you're training for and what you can run it in today. It works out your easy, long, tempo, interval and recovery paces from there, then builds named sessions around them — controlled pick-ups, steady tempo blocks, run/walk, long easy finishes. The coach walks you through each block, counts you into the end of one, and tells you when you're pushing an easy day too hard.

APPLE WATCH THAT DOESN'T NEED YOUR PHONE

Start a run on the watch and leave the phone at home. Route, distance, pace, heart rate and calories are recorded on your wrist, and the same voice coach speaks through it — including full interval and tempo sessions. Runs save to the watch first and transfer to your iPhone whenever the two are next near each other. Nothing is lost if you run out of range.

THE DETAIL AFTERWARDS

Kilometre splits with a relative-speed bar, elevation per split, your route on a map, moving time, cadence, steps, and average and maximum heart rate. Each figure appears only when it genuinely exists — Plod leaves a number out rather than inventing one. Runs save to Apple Health when you allow it, and export as JSON whenever you want them elsewhere.

OPTIONAL: BRING YOUR OWN AI

If you have an OpenAI API key, Plod can add one short line of encouragement to what the coach already says, and answer training questions in plain language. The key is yours, stored in your device Keychain, and never leaves it except to talk to OpenAI. Everything above works fully without it.

Plod gives general fitness guidance, not medical advice. It is not a substitute for a doctor or a qualified coach. Stop and seek medical care if you feel unwell.