Running that is going somewhere
Ten goal plans, each with a target, a timeframe, and a working pace that is recalculated every week from where you are and where you are going.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.
What goes wrong without it
Most conditioning in amateur sport is "go for a run". Some of it is "do some sprints". Almost none of it has a target, a pace, or a reason for today’s session being different from last week’s.
The result is a season of medium-effort running, which is the pace at which nothing improves.
What the app actually does
Choose the test your sport is measured on — or the race you want to run — and enter three things: where you are now, where you want to get to, and how long you have.
From that, Train Smart interpolates this week’s working pace and builds the week from it. Not your goal pace: the pace you should be running this week, on the way there. Then it structures the week into three jobs:
- Quality — reps at this week’s working race pace. Grooves the rhythm.
- Threshold — sustained work just under it. Raises the ceiling.
- Endurance — genuinely easy volume. The half that makes the other two possible, and the half everyone cuts.
Every rep in every session has a split on it. It re-tests every four weeks and adjusts the pace off the result and your reported effort after each session.
The parts that matter
- Ten goals, matched to real tests
- 2km time trial, Yo-Yo / beep level, repeat-sprint ability, the rugby Bronco, 5km, 10km, half marathon, marathon, fight-round engine, and bowling speed-endurance.
- Every session picks one of several options
- A quality day is not always the same session. Each slot has four or five different sessions that rotate, so a twelve-week block is not the same fortnight repeated six times.
- Your kit, your surface
- Track, hills, sled, bike, rower, ski erg or swim. A conditioning session is defined by its stimulus, not by having a track.
- Volume that builds and tapers
- Weekly distance climbs toward the goal and tapers into a test week, rather than sitting flat all block.
- Speed is treated as a skill
- Speed sessions specify full recovery and low volume, because speed and speed-endurance are different training effects and confusing them is why most athletes never get faster.
Is this you?
Anyone who has been told to improve a number — a 2km, a Bronco, a beep level — and has no idea what to actually run this week.
Conditioning plans — questions
What if I do not have a target time?
Can I do this on a bike or rower?
How does it know if I am progressing too fast?
Start training properly
Pick your sport, answer a few questions, and your first week is built before you leave the kitchen.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.