Is an AI running coach as good as a human one?

It is there for more of the job: every run read soon after it syncs, the week changed the same day, and an answer whenever you ask. It cannot watch your form or run beside you, so for technique a club coach or a filmed gait check still earns its place.

Can it coach me for a marathon?

Yes. A marathon block gets a long run that grows in steps with marathon-pace segments inside it, threshold work as the backbone, and a taper of up to three weeks with the volume cut to about half. Race fuelling is rehearsed in the long runs, as plain pointers rather than gram targets.

I am training for a 10K or a half. Is the plan different?

The race sets the shape. A half leans on a strong aerobic long run and threshold work, every block adds VO2max intervals in the build, and race-pace work comes in as the day gets close. Tell your coach the race and the date and the block is built back from there.

Do I have to run by heart rate?

Easy days are judged by heart rate against your own zones in intervals.icu, because easy pace moves with heat, hills and sleep. Quality sessions get paces or efforts. If your runs suggest your zones are wrong, your coach tells you rather than trusting them over you.

Yes, and it gets programmed: two short sessions a week of heavy compound lifts and plyometrics, after an easy run or on a day of their own, and never before a key run.

What if I get injured?

Tell your coach what hurts. Running is capped or paused while it settles, the bike, rower or ski erg carries the engine work, and running comes back in steps. Anything sharp or getting worse is a physio's call, and you will be told so rather than diagnosed.

Is it a running app I have to install?

No. Your coach lives in Telegram, so there is nothing to download and nothing to remember to open. It messages you when there is something worth saying: a brief when your sleep syncs, a read when a run lands, a wrap in the evening.

Does it plan every run until race day?

No, on purpose. The season carries the long view in phases, and the runs themselves are written a week or two ahead, because a run planned four months out cannot know how your training went. The plan renews itself, so it never runs dry.

Kracey · Running

A running coach thatbends when your week does.

Tell most running apps a run was too hard and the plan ramps up anyway. Your coach in Telegram listens, and rewrites the week for your 10K, half or marathon.

Get your coach See a running block

14 free days, no card
10K, half and marathon blocks
Privacy-first, EU hosted

The plan was fine. Then week five happened.

Mileage outrunning your legs, a cold, a holiday. That is where a fixed plan breaks, and a personal running coach earns its keep.

synced 07:41

The first three 800s sped up as your heart rate rose, then the fourth slowed to 3:40. You started too hot, so open the next set three seconds slower.

Intervals that fall apart

Reps are counted from your lap splits and the effort read from your heart rate, so a set you started too hot gets a slower opening next time.

Easy run felt fine at 4:50. Ok?

You sat in zone 3 for most of it. Fine once, but easy for you is zone 2, even when that is 5:20.

An easy day that is not easy

Easy is judged by heart rate against your own zones, so pace can drift with heat, hills or a bad night without the run turning into a grey-zone effort.

Thu 06:30

You slept 7h40 and HRV is back up. Tempo is on: 3 x 10 minutes at threshold, 2 minutes jog between.

Running hard on a bad night

When your sleep syncs, a short brief on today arrives. When the run lands, the analysis follows. There is nothing to open.

Late meeting Tuesday, no intervals.

Intervals move to Wednesday and Tuesday becomes a short easy run. Sunday's long run stays as it is.

A week that will not go to plan

Tell your coach what changed and the days after today are rewritten around it, with the sessions that matter most protected.

Shin is sore after the long run.

Runs are capped at 30 minutes easy until it settles, and the bike takes Thursday's hard session. If it turns sharp, see a physio before you run again.

A sore shin in week six

Running is capped or paused while an injury settles, the bike or rower carries the engine work, and anything sharp is sent to a physio. It does not diagnose.

SEASON

Half marathon, sub 1:25

Base · 6 weeks, done
Build · 4 weeks, now
Peak · 3 weeks
Taper · 2 weeks

Peaking for the wrong weekend

Phases with a stated purpose, counted back from your race day. The runs themselves are written a week or two ahead, so they fit how training is going.

The running coach app you already have.

There is no running app to download. Your coach works inside Telegram: the session in the morning, the read once the run syncs, and an answer whenever you ask.

Kracey

@KraceyBot · Coach mode

Slept 7h50, resting heart rate 46, HRV steady.

Today's session

Long run · 18km

First 14km easy, zone 2
Last 4km at half-marathon effort
Flat route if you can find one

1h35Long run

It is going to be 26 degrees. Still do the pace bit?

Yes, by effort and not by the watch. In that heat the same heart rate buys a slower pace, and that is fine. Take water at 10km.

Kracey · just now

Message

A running block shaped by your race.

Tell your coach the race, 10K, half or marathon, and the block is built for it from your current running. Two lifts a week sit after easy runs, never in front of a key session.

BUILD WEEK · 8 WEEKS OUT

Half, sub 1:25

MonRestRest
Tue12km with 3 x 10 min at thresholdQuality
Wed10km easy, then strengthEasy + lift
Thu8km easyEasy
Fri6km easy with strides, then strengthEasy + lift
SatRestRest
Sun18km long, last 4km at half effortLong

Easy 82%Quality 18%

54km over five runs. Your week is built from your own days, kit and recent running.

Easy days that stay easy

Most of your running is easy by heart rate, not by a fixed pace, so the hard days can be properly hard. Always-moderate is the trap your coach keeps you out of.

A long run grown in steps

The risk is one run far past your longest of the last month, not a weekly percentage, so the long run builds from where you are now.

Quality for the distance

Threshold work is the backbone for a half or a marathon, VO2max intervals join in the build, and race-pace work arrives as the race gets close.

A taper, then the start line

About two weeks, up to three for a marathon. Volume falls to roughly half while the intensity and the number of runs stay.

A build week for a half marathon.

Four of the messages from one week, eight weeks out, in the order they arrive.

Monday, 07:05

Rest day, and you earned it. Sunday's long run was even from start to finish and your heart rate never drifted. Tomorrow is the first threshold session of the block.

Tuesday, 20:10

Three even reps, with your heart rate rising five beats across them. That is what threshold should look like, so leave it there this week.

3 x 10 min threshold · avgHR 158 · maxHR 168

rep 12.60km 10:00 3:51/kmHR 162

rep 22.62km 10:00 3:49/kmHR 165

rep 32.58km 10:00 3:53/kmHR 167

HRz Z2 21 / Z3 9 / Z4 27m, judged against your own configured zones.

The jogs between reps are read as recovery, not averaged into the work.

Thursday, 18:20

Calf is tight after today.

Then Friday is an easy 30 minutes or the bike, your pick, and the strides come out. Sunday's long run stays unless the calf is worse in the morning, so tell me either way.

Sunday, 19:45

Week done: 54km over five runs, one quality and one long. 82 percent of it easy. Next week the long run goes to 20km.

Every run also lands in a calendar feed you subscribe to once, so the session that moved to Wednesday is on Wednesday in your phone's calendar.

Things runners send it

Why did my heart rate climb on an easy run?Can the long run be Saturday this week?What pace should I start my half at?Only 30 minutes todayShould I race a 10K in the build?Treadmill or outside in this wind?Is this tightness a reason to stop?How long is my taper?

It knows the runner, not last week's numbers.

What stays true about you is kept for good. The figures that are wrong by next week are never stored, so they cannot steer a later answer.

Kept for good

Half marathon in April, sub 1:25
Real max heart rate: 192
Runs before work, never on Wednesdays
Shins flare when the week gets big
Prefers options to orders

Never stored

Last week's 54km
That this is week eight
Yesterday's fatigue number

My max heart rate is 192, not 186. Saw it in a race.

Saved. Your zones in intervals.icu still assume 186, so they look set too low. Worth updating them there.

Link your runs once.Your coach takes it from there.

Telegram for the conversation, intervals.icu for the runs. Most watches already sync to it.

CONNECTIONS

2/2

intervals.icu

INTERVALS.ICU SYNCS FROM

+

Telegram and intervals.icu

intervals.icu syncs from Garmin, COROS, Polar, Suunto and more, so every run you record reaches your coach with its laps and heart rate.

30 days synced

I have read your last 30 days of runs. What is the race, and when is it?

A half, in April.

Name the race

10K, half or marathon, the date, and the time you have in mind. Your recent running is read before the first question.

MACRO

9 wks out

Half marathon, sub 1:25

Base6 wk

Build · now4 wk

Peak3 wk

Taper2 wk

This week: 54km, 5 runs

The block, by phase

Base to taper, counted back from race day, with the next week or two of runs written out in full.

14 free days that start with your first synced run.

Until your coach can see a run, the trial clock does not move. Connect, let a run come through, and the days begin.

Day one is the first day your coach can read a run, whatever day you signed up.
Starting needs no card.
One subscription covers the lot, whether the race is a 10K or a marathon.
Two clicks to cancel, from the billing portal.

Get your coach Pricing after the free days

Running coaching questions

RUNNING GUIDES FROM THE BLOG

A running coach thatbends when your week does.