Plod: Calm Run Coach

A voice coach for your runs

Free · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.

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.

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LAPS Plod now has a Laps session, for the runs that go round and round. Start it wherever your circuit starts. Plod measures the loop the first time round, then calls each lap after that — the lap number, the lap time, and whether you were quicker or slower than your first one. There is nothing to set up and nothing to tap mid-run. Your laps are listed in the run summary afterwards, next to your splits. Because Plod works out the loop from where you actually started, a 1.2 km park circuit reads as one lap, not one lap and a bit. ALSO IN THIS VERSION Your watch no longer stops measuring when you look at something else. If you left Plod to check a message or change a song, the distance you covered while you were away used to be lost. It is now counted. Music comes back to full volume after the coach speaks. Plod turns your music down to speak over it and then turns it back up — but sometimes it did not, and the rest of the run played quietly. Plod now checks that the volume really did come back, and keeps trying until it has.

The developer, Manuel Rinaldi, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

  • Data Not Collected

    The developer does not collect any data from this app.

    Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

    The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More

    Seller
    • Manuel Rinaldi
    Size
    • 5.2 MB
    Category
    • Health & Fitness
    Compatibility
    Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
    • iPhone
      Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
    • Mac
      Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
    • Apple Vision
      Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
    • Apple Watch
      Requires watchOS 10.0 or later.
    Location
    • This app may use your location even when it isn’t open, which can decrease device battery life.
    Age Rating
    9+
    Copyright
    • © 2026 Manuel Rinaldi