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BetterRunning is an AI-powered running coach for iPhone and Apple Watch. When you set up the app, it reads your Apple Health data — your recent runs, heart rate history, VO₂ max, and sleep — and uses that to generate a personalized multi-week training plan tailored to your goal.

Then, every morning, it reads your latest biometrics and adjusts that day's session based on how your body is actually doing. If you slept poorly and your HRV dropped, your interval session becomes an easy recovery run. If you're primed, it keeps the plan as is.

After each run, it reads your workout from Apple Health automatically and gives you specific, personalized feedback.

An Apple Watch is strongly recommended. BetterRunning's daily readiness adaptation relies on HRV data, which only Apple Watch collects continuously. Without it, your readiness score will show as "Calibrating" and the AI won't be able to adjust sessions dynamically.

You can still use BetterRunning with any third-party device that writes HRV data to Apple Health. The best experience is with Apple Watch Series 4 or later running watchOS 10+. Running Power requires Apple Watch Series 8 or newer.

The readiness score (0–100) is a composite measure of how recovered and primed your body is for training. It's calculated from three signals: HRV (how your heart rate variability compares to your personal baseline), sleep quality (hours plus depth), and training load (how much you've accumulated recently).

After 14 days of data, the thresholds personalize to your baseline — not a population average. The four levels are: 🔥 Optimal, 🏃 Ready, 🚶 Reduced, and ☕ Recovery.

When you see an orange Adjusted badge on today's session, it means the AI modified the plan based on your readiness data. Tap the session card to see the specific reason.

Common reasons: HRV significantly below your baseline, poor sleep, high accumulated training load, or multiple consecutive low-readiness days. This daily adaptation is the core of BetterRunning — it treats your plan as a target, not a rigid schedule.

Nothing is wrong — BetterRunning needs to build a baseline before it can score you accurately. Wear your Apple Watch to bed (for sleep and overnight HRV) and complete at least 7 runs within a 14-day window to move past calibration. During this period, the app will guide you through a gentle baseline-building phase.

You describe your goal in plain text. The AI reads your recent run history, assesses whether the goal is achievable in your timeframe, and proposes a timeline. After you confirm, it generates a complete week-by-week plan with proper periodization: Base → Build → Peak → Taper phases, progressive volume, and a race taper.

Every session has a type, heart rate zone, target pace, and coaching note. Your scheduling preferences are treated as hard rules.

BetterRunning checks Apple Health automatically each time the app opens. If it finds a running workout longer than 5 minutes recorded today — from any app that writes to Apple Health — it marks your session complete and pulls in the actual data. About 30 minutes later you'll receive a notification that your post-run feedback is ready.

Missed sessions are shown at reduced opacity in the Plan tab — the plan doesn't reshuffle automatically. If you miss 2 or more sessions in a row, the coaching AI detects the pattern and suggests a gentle re-entry. It won't lecture you. If you need to rebuild the plan after illness or injury, use the Edit option on your active plan.

Raw health data never leaves your iPhone. Readiness is calculated entirely on-device. The AI only receives aggregated outputs — a score, a sleep total, an HRV reading — never raw records, GPS, or your identity. There is no BetterRunning server. All your data lives on your device. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

All features are fully free during the current beta period. A subscription model is planned for the general release. Beta users will receive advance notice before any pricing goes live.

When resting heart rate is available in Apple Health, BetterRunning uses the Karvonen (Heart Rate Reserve) formula to set personalised zones. Otherwise it falls back to a simple percentage of max HR. Your max HR is auto-detected from workout history or can be set manually in the Profile tab. Tap any session card to see the full 5-zone BPM table for your current plan.