An AI running coach that plans your week and puts it on your watch

What the coach asks before it plans

• Your goal: a 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon or custom race with its date and an optional target time, or general fitness.
• Your week: 2 to 12 sessions, up to three days off, and the longest run you can fit on a weekday and a weekend day. No run in the plan is longer.
• Your current fitness in your own words: “10K in 49 minutes in September”, “half in 1:52”. The coach reads a threshold pace from it; new runners pick “Don’t know / beginner”.
• Strength yes or no, then the AI consent and your Garmin Connect or Apple Health connection.

The coach builds your first two weeks and shows you the next 7 days; start your 14-day free trial and the runs are on your watch. Without a known threshold pace, week one includes a 30-minute threshold test (beginners get none in their first 4 weeks), and key runs go by heart rate or effort until you report the result.

How the coach builds a running week

A deterministic validator checks these rules in code; nothing reaches your calendar until a week passes.

Rule	What it means for your running
80/20	About 80% of your running time is easy; about 20% is threshold, intervals or tempo.
Hard days	At most 2 a week (3 if you train more than 8 sessions), never on back-to-back days. Key runs, the long run and threshold tests all count.
Long run	On Saturday or Sunday, the longest run of the week, and mostly easy: at most a quarter of it (or 10 minutes, if that is more) above easy pace.
Progression	Weekly volume grows by no more than 10%.
Recovery week	Every 4th week, with volume down 30 to 40% after three build weeks.
Phases	Base, build, peak and taper toward your race. Taper: 1 week for 5K or 10K, 2 weeks for a half or full marathon.
Strength	1 to 2 sessions a week, on an easy day or after the key run of a hard day; never on the long-run day or the day before a key or long run.
Doubles	At most 2 sessions a day: easy with easy or strength, or a key run followed by strength.

The full rule set, including the tests for cycling and swimming: how the coach builds and adapts a week.

Example: a half marathon build week with 4 runs

An illustration for one runner: half marathon in 10 weeks, 1:50 target, 4 runs a week, Monday off, up to 60 minutes on weekdays and 2 hours at the weekend, “10K in 49 minutes” (threshold pace about 5:00 per km).

Day	Workout	Steps and targets
Mon	Day off	No training.
Tue	Threshold run · 55 min · hard	15 min easy @ 6:06–6:40 /km, 3 × (8 min @ 4:54–5:09 /km + 2 min jog), 10 min easy
Wed	Nothing planned	Rest.
Thu	Easy run · 45 min	45 min @ 6:06–6:40 /km
Fri	Nothing planned	Rest.
Sat	Easy run · 40 min	40 min @ 6:06–6:40 /km
Sun	Long run · 1 h 45 min · hard	95 min @ 6:06–6:40 /km, last 10 min steady @ 5:41–5:57 /km

• Two hard days, apart: Tuesday and Sunday, with Monday off in between.
• Mostly easy: about 4 hours of running, 24 minutes of it at threshold and 10 minutes steady.
• With strength switched on, a 20 to 45 minute session goes after Tuesday’s threshold run or after Thursday’s easy run. Saturday is out because the long run follows.

The sessions themselves: interval training for a half marathon, for a marathon and for a 10K. Full schedules built on the same rules: the 12-week half marathon training plan and the 16-week marathon training plan.

Paces in your numbers, on your Garmin or Apple Watch

Pace targets are narrow bands of your threshold speed. At a 5:00 per km threshold:

Run type	Band (% of threshold speed)	At 5:00 /km threshold
Recovery	70–76%	6:35–7:09 /km
Easy and long	75–82%	6:06–6:40 /km
Steady (a long run’s finish)	84–88%	5:41–5:57 /km
Tempo	89–94%	5:19–5:37 /km
Threshold	97–102%	4:54–5:09 /km
Intervals	104–110%	4:33–4:48 /km

The next 7 days go to your Garmin Connect calendar or the Apple Watch Workout app automatically, with a pace range on each step, and follow when your threshold changes. Details: TextFit with Garmin, TextFit with Apple Watch and running training paces.

Talking to the coach

One coach chat remembers your goals, injuries and standing instructions. Each change shows up with Undo.

You write	What the coach does
“Plan next week”	Plans the whole week under the rules and shows a week card with its reasoning.
“Working late Tuesday, move my threshold run to Wednesday”	Moves the run, keeps the hard days apart, and updates the watch.
“From now on I can only run 3 times a week”	Updates your profile; weeks it plans from then on follow it.
“My threshold test came out at 4:52 per km”	Saves the new threshold pace, so the targets of upcoming runs follow.
“My knee hurts on the stairs”	Tells you to see a doctor or physiotherapist and offers “Ease the coming days” as a one-tap action.

Assessments: what the coach reads back

Completed runs and recovery data come back from Garmin or Apple Health; the numbers are computed in code.

The run you just did

Planned versus actual, training load, and time in target: the share of your key intervals within ±2% of the pace target, like “2/3 · 67%”. Then the coach asks how hard it felt, 1 to 10.

Your form

Fitness is your long-term training load, Fatigue the last 7 days, and Form the difference. “How’s my form?” adds completed versus planned workouts for 4 weeks and a race prediction from your threshold pace: 1:49:07 against a 1:50:00 target for the runner above.

Recovery today

“Am I recovered?” compares last night’s HRV, resting heart rate and sleep with your own normal range: the average and usual spread of the previous 28 nights. HRV within your usual spread, resting heart rate no more than 4 bpm above average and sleep at 85% of your usual or more is 🟢; a bigger drop gives 🟡 or 🔴. On 🟡, Ease today turns today’s hard run into one short easy run; on 🔴 it removes today’s workout. Both are undoable.

AI coach, human coach or a static plan?

	TextFit’s AI coach	Human coach	Static plan (PDF, book)
Cost	14 days free, then $14.99/month or $99.99/year	A monthly fee, often $100 to $300	Free or a one-off price
Fits your days	Built from your days off and time limits	Yes	You fit your life to it
When the week changes	One message; the coach moves or eases runs under the same rules	As fast as your coach replies	You decide what to drop
Workouts on the watch	Next 7 days pushed automatically	Depends on the coach’s platform	You build each one
Based on	Fixed training rules and your watch data	Your history, injuries and race tactics	A template

If you also swim or ride, the same coach plans all three sports in one week: see the AI triathlon coach.

Questions about the AI running coach

What does an AI running coach do?

It plans your runs week by week from your goal, available days and current fitness, sets each pace from your own threshold, and adjusts the plan when your week changes. TextFit’s coach also puts the next 7 days on your Garmin or Apple Watch and assesses your runs and recovery.

How much does TextFit’s AI running coach cost?

The first 14 days are free. After that it’s $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year (US App Store prices), and you can cancel anytime in your App Store settings.

Can it coach me for a half marathon or a marathon?

Yes. Pick a 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon or custom distance, the race date and an optional target time. The coach plans base, build, peak and taper phases (a 2-week taper for a half or full marathon), and compresses them if the race is less than 6 weeks away.

I’m a beginner. Will it still work?

Yes. Choose “Don’t know / beginner”: the first 2 to 3 weeks are almost all easy, and there is no threshold test in your first 4 weeks, so harder runs go by heart rate or effort.

Do I need a Garmin or an Apple Watch?

It works best with one: workouts go to the watch and completed runs come back automatically. Without one you follow the plan in the app.

Will the coach change my plan without asking?

No. The plan changes when you ask or a new week is planned, every change has an Undo button, and the coach won’t re-apply a change you undid.

Which languages does the coach speak?

The coach replies in the language you write to it in.

Trial, data and account questions are answered in the FAQ.