About & Methodology

Stride Coach generates personalized running training plans using seven specialized engines that work together: feasibility, mileage progression, long-run progression, pace calculation, workout assignment, and a final safety pass. Your plan is built around your own experience, schedule, and goals, whether that’s a first 5K or a marathon PR.

We’re transparent about where our guidance comes from: it is grounded in established, published exercise-science methodology rather than personal opinion. The sections below name the specific models the engines implement and the research behind them, so you can verify the reasoning yourself. We are a software product, not individual licensed coaches, so we lean on the science and show our work.

Training paces (VDOT). Paces come from Jack Daniels’ VDOT system, which derives your individual easy, marathon, threshold, interval, and repetition paces from a recent race result or goal time, so every run targets a specific physiological purpose instead of an arbitrary number.

Race prediction (Riegel). To translate fitness across distances we use Pete Riegel’s endurance formula, T2 = T1 × (D2/D1)^1.06, the same model behind most reputable race-time predictors. A large 2016 study of recreational runners found it holds up well out to the half marathon and tends to run optimistic at the marathon, so we treat longer predictions as a target rather than a promise.

Progressive overload. Mileage builds gradually (generally no more than about 10% week to week), in line with long-standing guidance on giving tendons, bones, and connective tissue time to adapt and keeping overuse-injury risk down.

Mostly-easy running. The bulk of every plan is easy, conversational mileage, with a smaller dose of quality work. This mirrors the intensity distribution endurance research repeatedly finds among the most durable, highest-performing distance runners.

Every plan is validated by our Safety Framework, which enforces non-negotiable constraints:

• Weekly mileage increases never exceed 10%
• No back-to-back hard days
• Mandatory step-back (recovery) weeks every 2–3 weeks
• Progressive long-run limits based on experience

These rules cannot be overridden. They run as the final check before any plan reaches you. Curious how it all fits together? See Anatomy of a Running Plan.

A plan can’t see your sleep, stress, or how a run actually felt. Treat it as an evidence-based starting framework, not a prescription: adjust around illness, injury, and life, and consult a medical professional for pain or health concerns. See our safety disclaimer for more.

• Daniels, J. Daniels’ Running Formula (3rd ed.): the VDOT system and training-pace zones.
• Riegel, P. "Athletic Records and Human Endurance." American Scientist, 1981 — the endurance time-prediction model (T2 = T1 × (D2/D1)^1.06).
• Vickers, A. J. & Vertosick, E. A. "An empirical study of race times in recreational endurance runners." BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2016 — a 2,303-runner test showing the power-law model holds up well to the half marathon and tends to predict optimistic marathon times.
• American College of Sports Medicine: guidance on gradual training progression and overuse-injury risk.
• Seiler, S. "What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes?" Int. J. Sports Physiol. Perform., 2010 — the case for mostly-easy ("polarized") training.