How Runapt's Plan Builder Builds Your Training Plan

The last PDF plan I followed was right for about four days. Then a meeting ate Tuesday, the long run moved, and I spent the rest of the week inventing. Most runners do not need another file. They need a plan that has seen the race date, the kilometres they actually run, and the days that are already taken.

Runapt's plan builder is that conversation, in the app. Goal, then who you are as a runner, then the week, then a live preview that updates while you still have time to change your mind. When it looks like a week you would do, you build it. After that it does not freeze. Readiness, a missed run, paces that drift: the week gets rewritten.

If you want the pace logic underneath, start with what VDOT is and the VDOT pace calculator. The builder uses the same method once the plan is live.

What it has to know

A useful plan is a deal between three things. The race: distance, date, and whether you are trying to finish well or chase a time. Your fitness now: recent weekly volume, longest recent run, and a race or hard effort if you have one. Your life: how many days you can run, which day owns the long run, and which days are simply gone.

Skip one of those and you get a plan that is too hungry, too vague, or quietly impossible. The builder collects them in that order and shows the shape of the week before you commit. The details go to a VDOT engine, not to one template for an average runner who does not exist.

Web and app use the same steps. Goal, you, schedule, preview. The preview sits there so you are not designing in the dark.

The goal, including the race that is not a round number

Pick a block. A 5K defaults to around 8 weeks, mostly speed and a bit of race sharpness. A 10K sits around 10 weeks, where speed has to meet a longer effort. Half marathon around 14. Marathon around 18. Those are starting points, not a law. Plan length can run from 4 to 32 weeks, and a race date can set it so the block ends on the weekend you actually have.

You can also type a custom distance. A local 7.5 km, a 10-mile classic, an odd charity loop. The builder maps that onto the nearest plan shape so the build still makes sense, instead of forcing a 10K template onto a race that is not 10K.

If you only know the distance, you can still generate a sensible default and refine later. Goal pace or finish time is optional, for when you are chasing a number rather than just getting round. Training focus matters more than people think. For half and marathon it is closer to "finish strong" versus "get faster or a PB," because that choice changes how the long run grows and how much race-pace work shows up. Race, run faster, run further, or maintain: pick the one you would say out loud, not the one that looks ambitious on the screen.

You, without the flattering version

This is where brochure plans fail. The builder asks for a fitness level, and the honest one is better than the one you would put on a form. Current weekly kilometres and the longest recent run, so week one starts from the week you have, not from week one of a poster. Conversational pace if you know it. Training age, in years of consistent running, when you want the engine to treat you as someone who has done this before.

A recent race, distance plus time, is the cleanest way to anchor VDOT. You do not need every field. A result plus a rough weekly volume is often enough for a first draft. Missing data means more conservative defaults, which is the correct direction to be wrong in.

Be honest about the volume. Starting a marathon plan at 60 km a week when you are really at 25 is how people get hurt. The builder can progress you. It cannot invent a base you have not run. A 10K from last month anchors the paces better than a marathon goal you have never approached.

The week you actually live

Days per week. Long-run day, which for a lot of people is Saturday or Sunday and should stay that way. Unavailable days, so the quality session does not land on the evening you always cancel, or on the train. Max duration if time is the real limit, not distance.

There are finer controls if you want them, and they are polish, not the first decision. Intensity style: balanced, polarized (mostly easy, plus hard quality — the shape Seiler describes, with about 80% of sessions below lactate threshold), or pyramid, which leans more on threshold. Terrain: flat, rolling, or hilly, so the sessions respect the roads you have, including the open polder stretch that never feels as easy as the map. Conservative progression if you are coming back or you have been burned before. A deload week in a longer block. Strength, if you want it in the structure rather than as a good intention. (Seiler & Tønnessen, 2009, Sportscience)

Protect the long-run day. The rest can flex. A long run is hard to replace mid-week without wrecking the recovery around it.

Preview, then the part after you build

The preview regenerates while you fill the steps. You see the shape, and warnings if the goal and the schedule are arguing. Fix those before you build. Two minutes there beats a plan you ignore by week three. Name it if you want. Then build.

What you get is not a dump of pages. You get a block with paces on the sessions. Once you are training, readiness can suggest recovery, holding steady, or a reduced intensity before a bad week becomes the week you stop. Missed runs reshape what is left instead of stacking a guilty double. Notes after the run, and on Pro an AI coach chat, say why something moved. Routes can be generated so the easy day and the long run have a path, not only a number. See features and the running route planner.

Sessions show distance and pace ranges from the VDOT method. If the goal is a specific distance, the landing pages are the race-shaped version: 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon.

Sample plans are still useful if you want to see the shape of a block without committing. An 8-week 5K plan, a 10K plan for busy runners, a first half marathon plan. Use those to understand the skeleton. Use the builder when you want that skeleton on your calendar.

A static sample is fixed weeks and generic paces, the same template for everyone, no preview of your week, and a missed week you have to invent. The builder takes your inputs, shows the week first, then keeps adapting after it is live.

The practical bits people ask before they open it

You can try it on the free tier and build plans for 5K and 10K, with the limits on pricing. Half marathon and marathon, unlimited plans, and the full adaptive coaching sit on Pro. The site also has a light preview of the kind of week Runapt builds, before you register.

You do not need a recent race. Fitness level, weekly volume, and conversational pace still produce a plan. With a result, the paces are better anchored from day one. You can refine later when real runs come in.

A non-standard distance works. Type the kilometres, comma or dot. The archetype follows that distance, so a 7.5 km or a 10-miler is not forced into a pure 5K or 10K template.

A chat can draft a paragraph. The builder is wired to the same engine the app uses for previews, saving the plan, paced workouts, adaptation, and routes. You get something you can run, not text you have to retype into a calendar.

If the life around the plan changes, adaptation handles a bad night, a missed session, a pace that keeps drifting. For a bigger change, build again from the new inputs. The builder is meant to be used more than once.

You open it in the web app under plans, and in the mobile app's plan flow. Or start free and do it with your real numbers. Check pricing if you already know you want the half or the marathon and the full set of adjustments.

Sources

Seiler, S., & Tønnessen, E. (2009). Intervals, thresholds, and long slow distance: the role of intensity and duration in endurance training. Sportscience, 13, 32–53. https://www.sportsci.org/2009/ss.htm