Ithara

A running coach for iPhone

A coach for one race.

Ithara tells you how you would run a marathon today, said honestly. Then what your goal takes, and where you stand against your own line, every week until race day.

See how it works On TestFlight soon
Ithara's Today screen: race day in 171 days, the projected marathon time if the weeks go as planned, and today's session on a clay card: easy, 4 km, about 33 minutes, at 6:21 to 6:59 per km, with the week beneath it.
Screens from the app, with invented runners.

A plan built from your goal asks for paces you cannot run yet. Ithara starts from the running you have today, and climbs toward your goal only as your running proves it.

How it works

From today to race day

  1. Where you are

    Your marathon today

    If you raced a marathon this week, with the running you have now. Ithara reads your efforts from Apple Health, or the ones you type, and gives you a range with its reasons: what your speed says, and what your weeks of running say.

    The screen “Your marathon today”: a range from 4:05 to 4:31, a band with what the runner's weeks say and what their speed says, and the reasons in two lines.
  2. Your goal

    Your goal, honestly

    Comfortable, ambitious, stretch, or not this time. Ithara draws the road from today to race day for a runner like you and says where your goal sits on it. If it does not fit, you see the goal that would, and the race date on which yours would. The curve is a coaching rule of thumb, and the app says so, until your own checkpoints replace it.

    The screen “Your goal, honestly”: a goal of 4:00:00 marked Comfortable, a curve from today to race day with fast, likely and slow ends, and the goal's dashed line beneath it.
  3. The conditions

    What it takes

    Your goal, written out as conditions: runs a week, distances, long runs, and checkpoints with a time and a date. When one slips, the plan adjusts and tells you why.

    The screen “What it takes”: a thread of conditions, such as four runs a week, a 5 km checkpoint in 25:06 or faster on 17 November, and a 21 km long run by 3 January.
  4. Every week

    Your own line

    You are judged against your line for this week, not against race day: ahead, on your line, or behind. Every six weeks or so, a checkpoint, a time trial in a lighter week, is the proof. It resets your paces, faster or slower.

    The screen “Your line”: On your line for week 5, with You now, Line now and Goal side by side, and the season chart with the expected band, the line and the checkpoints.
  5. Only on proof

    The goal moves with your yes

    One bad week changes nothing. Behind your line at two checkpoints in a row, Ithara offers a slower goal or a later race; well ahead at two, a faster one. It shows what the line asked and what you ran. Nothing changes until you hold to take it.

    A goal offer from 3:45 to 4:00: the two checkpoints, what the line asked and what the runner ran, the reason in plain words, and two buttons, Hold to take 4:00 and Keep 3:45.
  6. After every run

    Every run, part by part

    Runs arrive from Apple Health by themselves. A session is judged rep by rep against its own targets, never by a whole-run average. A rep that was only slow is marked slow, not failed.

    A run page for Repetitions, 7 × 400 m: a dark judging panel with seven numbered reps, six on pace and the last one slow, and the segments listed below with their plan.

Apple Watch

Run it from your wrist

Send any planned session to your Apple Watch. It runs in the Watch's own Workout app, with a pace alert for each part that has a target pace. When you finish, the run comes back through Apple Health and is judged part by part.

Sample session · Tuesday

Repetitions · 7 × 400 m

8.6 km · about 54 min · pace alerts

  1. Warm up2 km · 6:22–7:00 /km
  2. Fast 400 m × 74:36–4:41 /km
  3. Jog between2:30
  4. Cool down6:22–7:00 /km

How the button feels in the app. Here, nothing is sent.

Also in Ithara

A coach, a friend, and your data kept yours

The coach

Ask it about your plan. It comments on every run and writes a weekly review. It explains and suggests; the rules set your paces, and a change it suggests applies only when you tap.

One friend

Invite one friend to run alongside you: a duel each week, and a journey you cover together. They see your runs, never your notes or what you say to the coach.

Your data

Health data only after your yes. No ads, nothing sold, no tracking. Download or delete everything from inside the app. How Ithara handles your data

On TestFlight soon. Then the App Store.

Ithara is tested by invitation first. When it is in the App Store, the link goes here.

On TestFlight soon App Store linkPlaceholder · added at launch