Pick a distance. Pulsar builds the plan from where you are today, and every run in it says how far, how fast and why.
On a computer? Scan it with your iPhone camera.
Four distances, each built for a first-timer or for a time to beat. The bars are one real plan for each, week by week, as the app built it.
Never run before?
Start with the 5K plan and tell Pulsar you can’t run nonstop yet. It begins with run/walk and takes you to 30 minutes of running in nine weeks.
No race in mind? Pick Start running in the app and choose how many weeks you want. Pulsar builds the plan the same way.
Most people who start running without a plan make one of two mistakes. They run every run at the same medium-hard pace, or they add miles faster than their legs can adapt. Both feel like progress for a few weeks. Then the runs stop getting easier, or something starts to ache.
A plan fixes both. It keeps the easy runs easy, spaces out the hard ones, adds a little at a time and puts a lighter week in every fourth. Sudden jumps in training are one of the clearest injury risks we know of, and a plan is how you avoid them.
A plan built for you starts from your running today, not from a template written for someone else. Pulsar asks how long you can run without stopping, how many days you can train and what your last race was. Then it works out every week to your goal, and every run tells you why it’s there.
I trained for three marathons alone. Pulsar is the coach I wish I’d had.
Whatever the distance, four things come with it, shown the way they look in the app.
How long can you run without stopping?
An honest answer sets the right starting point — there’s no wrong one.
Pulsar asks how long you can run without stopping, which days you can train and your latest race time, if you have one. Week 1 is built from those answers.
Aerobic Easy
Week 7 · Tuesday Upcoming
4.1 mi · ~45 min
Coach’s insightTap to ask
Keep your heart rate in Zone 1-2. You should be able to hold a conversation easily. If you’re breathing hard, slow down.
Target heart rate
Z1 RecoveryZ2 Aerobic123–148 bpm
Structure
Easymax 10:50 /mi
4.1 miRepeat ×4
Strides7:55 /mi
100 mWalk recovery
1 min Each run carries its distance, the pace to hold, the heart-rate zone to stay in and what it’s for, in plain words.
PULSAR Coach
Why is my easy pace so slow?
Because easy runs do a different job. They build your engine — heart, lungs, legs — without leaving you tired for Thursday’s 400s. If you can talk in full sentences, you’re right where you should be.
AI-generated guidance, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor about health concerns.
After every run, a short note on what it meant, with your numbers. Between runs, ask about pace, fueling or a missed week.
The voice coach, in your earbuds: “Slow down, 20 seconds fast.”
Voice cues in your earbuds when a tempo or interval drifts off pace, and the whole workout on Apple Watch, with or without your phone.
Four steps from here to the start line.
It’s free to download on iPhone. Your plan lives on the phone, and on Apple Watch if you wear one.
A race and its date, a distance, a time to beat, or running without stopping. Then how you run today.
Open today’s run and start it. Pulsar gives you the pace and the zone, and talks you through every segment.
The plan builds week by week, then eases off before race day so you arrive fresh, not tired.
A plan mixes a few kinds of run, each with its own job. Every example below is a real workout from a plan the app built, laid out the way the app shows it.
Easy run
Aerobic Easy
Week 7 · Tuesday
4.4 mi · 51–57 min
Structure
Easymax 10:50 /mi
4.1 miRepeat ×4
Strides7:55 /mi
100 mWalk recovery
1 minEasy enough to talk in full sentences, and most of every week. It builds your heart, lungs and legs. Some end with strides: short, relaxed pickups that keep you quick.
Easy run
Recovery Easy
Week 5 · Saturday
2.1 mi · 23–26 min
Structure
Easy runmax 11:00 /mi
2.1 miShort and very easy, next to a hard day. It keeps you moving without adding load.
Long run
Fast-Finish Long Run
Week 8 · Sunday
7.5 mi · 79–87 min
Structure
Easymax 10:50 /mi
6.2 miFast finish — steady9:15 /mi
1.2 miThe longest run of the week, at easy pace, growing a little each week. Some finish with a short steady stretch.
Tempo
Progression Run
Week 2 · Tuesday
2.9 mi · 30–33 min
Structure
Easymax 11:00 /mi
1.8 mi10K pace9:05 /mi
1.1 miStarts easy and finishes faster. A gentle first taste of pace in the base weeks.
Tempo
Classic Tempo
Week 8 · Thursday
4.7 mi · 46–51 min
Structure
Warm upmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miThreshold8:45 /mi
2.2 miCool downmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miComfortably hard: short phrases, not full sentences. It raises the pace you can hold for a long time.
Tempo
Cruise Intervals
Week 6 · Thursday
4.9 mi · 50–56 min
Structure
Warm upmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miRepeat ×4
Threshold8:45 /mi
900 mWalk recovery
1 minCool downmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miA tempo run split into pieces with a short walk between, so you can hold more of it.
Intervals
Cut-down 400s
Week 7 · Thursday
3.9 mi · 42–47 min
Structure
Warm upmax 11:15 /mi
1.2 miRep 18:25 /mi
400 mWalk recovery
2 min 5 secRep 28:20 /mi
400 mWalk recovery
2 min 5 secRep 38:10 /mi
400 mWalk recovery
2 minRep 48:10 /mi
400 mCool downmax 11:15 /mi
1.2 miShort, hard repeats at about 5K effort with a walk between. They raise your ceiling and make race pace feel easier.
Long run
Race Practice Long Run
Week 13 · Sunday
18.3 mi · 202–223 min
Structure
Easymax 11:25 /mi
5.9 miTarget marathon pace9:45 /mi
1.9 miEasy floatmax 11:25 /mi
4.3 miTarget marathon pace9:45 /mi
1.9 miEasymax 11:25 /mi
4.3 miStretches of marathon pace inside a long run, late in a marathon plan, so race pace feels familiar on tired legs.
Time trial
1-Mile Time Trial
Week 15 · Wednesday
2.6 mi · 26–29 min
Structure
Warm upmax 11:25 /mi
0.9 miRep pace7:55 /mi
1.0 miCool downmax 11:25 /mi
0.6 miOne mile at your best steady effort, every few weeks in a longer plan. The result shows how your fitness has moved.
Run / Walk
Run/Walk
Week 1 · Tuesday
2.0 mi · 29–32 min
Structure
Warm-up walkBrisk walk
5 minRepeat ×8
Runmax 13:00 /mi
1 minWalkRecovery walk
1 min 30 secCool-down walkBrisk walk
5 minShort runs with walk breaks, for when you can’t run nonstop yet. Nine weeks takes you to 30 minutes of running.
The rules every plan keeps, at every distance. They’re the same rules the coach explains when you ask why.
Mostly easy
About four-fifths of your running is easy enough to talk through, and Pulsar leans more careful than that on purpose. Easy running builds the engine; the hard sessions only work on top of it.
Every fourth week lighter
Three weeks of building, then a lighter week at about 80 percent so your legs catch up. The week after picks up where the build left off, not beyond it.
A little more each week
Weekly mileage grows by about 7.5 percent for newer runners and 10 percent for trained ones, with a cap on any single jump. Hard days never land back to back.
Paces from today’s fitness
Your paces are worked out from your recent race or how you run now, never from your goal, and they move week by week as the plan goes on.
Long runs have a time limit
The long run is capped by time as well as distance: 1:15 in a 5K plan, 1:30 for 10K, 2:30 for a half and 3:30 for a marathon. Past that, a long run costs more recovery than it builds.
Easier at the end
Before race day the plan cuts the miles and keeps the pace, so you start fresh: one week for a 5K, two for a 10K or a half, three for a marathon.
What matters around the runs. Each distance page goes deeper, with race-day pacing for that distance.
Your training is only as good as the food behind it. Eat enough carbohydrate for the running you do, some protein at every meal for recovery, and plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Race morning is not the time to experiment: eat what you’ve practiced before your long runs. For anything to do with losing weight, a registered dietitian is the right person to ask.
One or two short strength sessions a week (squats, lunges, calf raises, hip bridges, planks) help many runners hold their form when they’re tired. The research on strength work and injuries is mixed, so treat it as a useful extra, not a requirement.
Cycling, swimming or the elliptical add fitness without the impact of running. They’re a good way to stay active on a rest day, but they don’t replace the long run or the faster sessions.
Most runners, new and experienced, start races too fast. The same mistake happens in training: easy runs drift into medium runs, and then the hard days aren’t hard.
Every run in Pulsar gives you the pace and the heart-rate zone, and on tempo runs and intervals the voice coach tells you when you drift.
Good form is mostly relaxed form. Run tall and look ahead, keep your shoulders and hands loose, take short quick steps that land under your body, and swing your arms forward and back rather than across. Pick one cue per run; don’t try to fix everything at once.
Fitness is built between runs. Sleep seven to nine hours, keep the easy days easy, take the rest days and lighter weeks the plan gives you, and eat after your hard sessions.
Pain that is sharp, gets worse as you run or changes how you run is a reason to stop and see a doctor or a physical therapist. Pulsar’s coach isn’t a doctor, and it won’t pretend to be one.
Shoes that fit, chosen for fit rather than brand (a running store can help), clothes that wick sweat, and your iPhone or Apple Watch. Pulsar tracks the miles on each pair of shoes. On race day, wear only what you’ve trained in.
Pick the distance you want to run next. If you can’t run for ten minutes without stopping yet, start with the 5K plan: Pulsar begins with run/walk. If a race is on the calendar, choose its distance and date, and a goal time if you have one.
With a race, the plan runs from your start date to race day. Pulsar recommends at least 6 weeks for a newer runner’s 5K, 8 for a 10K, 12 for a half marathon and 16 for a marathon, less if you already train. Without a race, you choose the number of weeks.
Anything from 2 to 7. You choose the days and your long-run day. Most people start well on three or four.
Yes. Enter the distance, the date and a goal time if you have one. Pulsar checks the goal against your current fitness, tells you whether it’s realistic, ambitious or out of reach for that date, and suggests a time you can reach.
Move the run to another day in the calendar, or change your run days in the plan settings. One missed run doesn’t undo your training, and the plan won’t ask you to make it up.
Your paces move through the plan as your fitness is expected to grow. After each tempo or interval session, Pace Check shows how you tracked against your paces, and when there’s a clear pattern it suggests new ones. Nothing changes until you accept.
No. Pulsar tracks the run with your iPhone’s GPS and talks you through it. With Apple Watch you can run with both, or with the watch alone.
Every run has a heart-rate zone. Pulsar sets your zones from your maximum and resting heart rate, you can adjust them, and each zone is explained in plain words. It reads heart rate from Apple Watch.
No. Pulsar is built for iPhone and Apple Watch.