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Getting started

Get coached to your race. Free.

PB-Runner doesn’t sell you another AI coach. You connect an AI to your running data and it becomes one: it reads your training, sets your goal with you, builds your plan and puts every session on your phone or your wrist.

If you’ve never used an AI assistant, this page takes you from nothing to a training plan built for your race. It costs nothing and takes about ten minutes.

What you need
PB-Runner on your phone
A Mac or Windows computer
About ten minutes

Don’t have the app yet? Get PB-Runner on the App Store, free.

The setup

Five steps to your first plan

01

Create a free Claude account

Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic. The free plan is all you need.

  1. Go to claude.ai
  2. Sign up with your email, or your Google or Apple account.

No card details, no trial that runs out.

The claude.ai sign-up page
02

Download the Claude desktop app

The connector is added in the desktop app, so do this part on your computer.

  1. Go to claude.com/download
  2. Install the app and sign in with the account from step 1.
03

Connect PB-Runner

  1. In the Claude desktop app, open Settings, then Connectors.
    The Claude menu on a Mac with Settings highlighted
    Finding Settings on a Mac. On Windows it lives in the app menu.
  2. Click “Add custom connector”.
    The Connectors screen with Add custom connector in the Add menu
  3. Paste this link:
    https://mcp.pb-runner.com/mcp
    The Add custom connector dialog with the PB-Runner link pasted
  4. Click Add. A browser window opens: sign in with the same Apple or Google account you use in the PB-Runner app, then approve.

Free Claude accounts include one custom connector. PB-Runner is the one. If Claude says the connector already exists, remove it from the same place you added it (Settings, then Connectors) and add it again.

04

Tell it your race and your goal

Start a new chat. If Claude asks which tools to use, make sure PB-Runner is switched on (the plus button in the chat box, under Connectors). Then tell it what you’re training for, in plain words:

“I’m running a 10K on 22 August. My best recent 10K effort is 52:30 and I want to finish under 50 minutes. Set that as my goal.”

Claude reads your recent training through PB-Runner, sanity-checks the goal against your current fitness and proposes it back to you. Nothing is saved until you confirm. Once you do, the goal appears in the app’s Training Hub. If you already set a goal on a race page in the app, just ask Claude to look at it instead.

05

Ask for a plan to race day

“Build me a training schedule from today to race day that gets me there. Three runs a week, long run on Sundays.”

Claude proposes the plan week by week and you confirm it. The sessions land in your Schedule in the app, and each one plays as a guided run with live cues on your Apple Watch or phone.

When plans change

Life happens. Move things.

The plan is yours, not a contract. Tell Claude what changed and it rewrites what’s ahead:

“I can’t run Thursday. Move it to Friday.”
“This week got away from me. Rebuild the next two weeks a little easier.”

Anything you’ve already run stays on your record exactly as you ran it. Only the future moves.

Staying on track

The points keep you honest

Every planned session is scored out of three when you run it: one point for showing up, one for hitting the distance, one for holding the pace.

+1Showing up
+1Hit the distance
+1Hold the pace
The Schedule in PB-Runner's Training Hub with a week of sessions ticked off and points earned

Your week fills in on the Training Hub as you go, and you can ask Claude at any time:

“How am I tracking against my goal?”

It answers with your adherence over recent weeks and what your current fitness predicts for race day.

Bring your own AI

Already paying for an AI?

Everything above works on paid Claude plans too, with higher usage limits. It also works with ChatGPT on Plus and above (not the Free or Go plans): turn on Developer mode in ChatGPT's settings on the web, then add the connector there using the same link. Some ChatGPT plans limit connectors to reading your data, so the full write-to-your-watch loop works best with Claude.

On a Garmin watch

Run your AI's session on a Garmin

Your AI writes the session. On Apple Watch it plays natively. On a Garmin it is a two minute copy into Garmin Connect: ask Claude to format the workout for Garmin Connect's builder, click it in, and it syncs to your watch like any Connect workout.

“Format my next session for Garmin Connect's workout builder: list each step as warmup, run, recover or cooldown with its duration or distance and target pace, in order.”
  1. Open Garmin Connect, then Training, then Workouts, then Create a Workout.
  2. Click in the steps Claude listed.
  3. Send it to your device.

Any run from any app that syncs to Apple Health on iOS lands in PB-Runner, so the run itself still counts toward your history.

Good to know

Common questions

Is it really free?

The Claude free plan has usage limits that reset every few hours. A coaching session (setting a goal, building a plan, checking in after a run) fits comfortably within them. On the PB-Runner side, connecting your own AI is free for now and may become a paid option later.

Do I need the computer every time?

No. You add the connector once on the desktop app. After that, your goal, plan and guided runs all live in the PB-Runner app on your phone and watch. Come back to Claude on the desktop whenever you want to talk to your coach.

What can it see?

Your runs, your training history and the profile you build together. Every change it wants to make is proposed first; you confirm before anything is saved. See our privacy policy for the full picture.

Something not working?

Email support@pb-runner.com or see the FAQ on the support page.