For coaches

A running app for coaches: your effort, in their ear

Gears is a running app coaches can recommend to their athletes: it calls every run live in four plain efforts (Walk, Easy, Steady and Hard), each set from the athlete's own running. The effort you prescribe gets called in their ear on the days you aren't there.

A running coach talking with a smiling athlete at the edge of a track at golden hour

What does Gears do for a running coach?

It carries your effort prescriptions into your athlete's runs. Gears speaks effort in four words, places each athlete's ranges from their own running, and coaches every run live on Apple Watch or iPhone with pre-recorded lines chosen by rules on the device. It's a tool for your athletes, not a replacement for you: there's no coach account or dashboard, and you keep your own methods.

Because most of the work you prescribe happens where you can't see it.

Easy days run too fast. The athlete knows the rule and breaks it anyway.
Reps paced by feel on the day. The first is too hard and the last falls apart.
Heart rate misread. Chasing a lagging number on short reps, or ignoring drift on a warm long run.
Hills at flat pace. The effort spikes and the session changes shape.

How does Gears fit around your coaching?

Its effort language maps to yours, your sessions build in the app, and gears can be set by hand.

1. Effort language that maps to yours

Easy, Steady and Hard map loosely onto the zone language you already use: Easy below the first threshold, Steady between the thresholds, Hard at and above the second. The talk test is built in, the plain-words version of RPE (rating of perceived exertion): full sentences, short phrases, a few words at most. Most running is Easy, some Steady, a little Hard. More on the running physiology and the gears.

Walk
Recover
Feels
Brisk walking, between efforts or to start.
Talk test
Full conversation.
Builds
Recovery between efforts, and the bridge into running for new runners.
Gear 1
Easy
Feels
Relaxed. Slower than you think.
Talk test
Full sentences.
Builds
The aerobic base: most of your running, most of your gains.
Gear 2
Steady
Feels
Working, but in control.
Talk test
Short phrases.
Builds
Strength that lasts: tempo, long-run finishes, race rhythm.
Gear 3
Hard
Feels
Strong, but controlled.
Talk test
A few words at most.
Builds
Speed and the top of your engine: intervals, hills, sprints.

The four efforts your athlete hears called, each with its own color on the run screen.

2. Your sessions, built in the app

An athlete builds your session in the run editor from Walk, Easy, Steady and Hard blocks, by time or distance, with an optional pace target per block, then sends it to the watch. With Gears Plus they can also describe it in words (“Six by 400”) and check the run card before they start. The phone reads most requests itself; an AI model reads the words only if the athlete allows it. More on Find a run.

3. Gears that can be set

Gears are placed automatically, but an athlete can set them from a race time or by hand, nudge a range five seconds at a time, and lock them. Heart rate guards the pace and can only ever make a gear easier, never harder. More on heart rate.

What does an effort-based session look like?

A sample threshold-style session, as an athlete would build it in the run editor.
Block	Gear	Length
Warm-up	Easy (Gear 1)	10 min
Rep, × 5	Steady (Gear 2)	4 min
Recovery, × 5	Easy (Gear 1)	2 min
Strides, × 4	Hard (Gear 3)	100 m
Recovery, × 4	Walk	1 min
Cool-down	Easy (Gear 1)	5 min

A Steady rep beginsShift up. Gear two, comfortably hard.
Drifting toward HardThat's drifting into gear three. Ease a touch.
Under the Steady rangeYou're under the band. Pick it up into gear two.
Back in rangeIn the band. Good work.

Real lines from the app, as your athlete hears them on the Steady reps.

What does Gears record on each run?

During a run: pace, heart rate (from the watch, a Bluetooth strap or a Garmin's Broadcast Heart Rate), steps per minute and elevation. After it: time in range, splits per kilometer or mile, each block's target against the pace run, and charts for heart rate, pace, cadence and elevation, plus power and running form where the watch records them.

The grade (S+ to D) scores how well the athlete ran the run they set out to run, from Execution, Pacing, Form and Control. Speed has nothing to do with it, and doing more than asked never lowers it. Six skills, from Easy discipline to Strong finish, show where to focus next. More on run analysis.

Through Apple Health. Every run is saved there as a running workout with route, heart rate, distance and cadence, and shows in the Fitness app, so athletes share it the way they already share workouts with you. Gears has no coach view: for the gear-by-gear detail and the grade, ask to see the run's page in the app.

What should athletes know before they start?

Their first coached run is free. After that, recording runs stays free, and coached runs, the plan and Today's gear are part of Gears Plus (pricing).
It needs an iPhone on iOS 26. An Apple Watch is optional, and runs can be coached from the watch alone.
Runs other apps keep in Apple Health, like a Garmin's through Garmin Connect, appear in Runs and count toward the plan and training load.
If your athlete would rather hear less, Quiet keeps the coach to gear changes, countdowns, the build-up to Hard, controls and safety.
The app and the coach are in English today.

What Gears doesn't do

No coach dashboard, team view or athlete roster.
Its plans are its own, built by rules from the athlete's goal and week. An athlete on your program can skip the Gears plan and run your sessions from the editor, or as Open Runs.
It doesn't predict injury or diagnose. Training load is a guide against the athlete's own usual. Read the health disclaimer.

Questions runners ask

Is there a coach account or dashboard?

No. Gears is used by the athlete. Their runs are saved to Apple Health, and they can show you the run's page in the app.

Can my athlete's gears be set to match my zones?

Yes. In Your gears on the iPhone, an athlete can set gears from a race time or by hand, nudge each range five seconds at a time, and lock them so runs don't move them.

Can athletes run my sessions instead of the Gears plan?

Yes. They can build your sessions in the run editor, start an Open Run and shift gear themselves, or pick from Find a run. The plan is optional.

Do runs recorded on a Garmin count?

Yes, when Garmin Connect saves them to Apple Health. They show in Runs and count toward the plan and training load, and a run recorded by both is counted once.

Last updated October 23, 2026