Couch5k
Couch to 5K for iPhone and Apple Watch

From the couch to 30 minutes of running, in nine weeks.

Couch5k runs the standard nine-week Couch to 5K plan. It speaks each change over your music and saves each run to Apple Health with its route. It has no account and no telemetry, and it is about 1.5 MB.

Get Couch5k Outside the UK?

Free and open source (MIT). Not from the NHS or the BBC.

0

No telemetry

The app has no network code. No analytics, no crash reports, no account, no ads.

1.5 MB

Tiny

The download, with the watch app and the Live Activity. 5.7 MB on the phone.

♥

Apple Health

Each run is a running workout with its distance and the GPS route.

9 × 3

The standard plan

27 runs, the same intervals as the NHS Couch to 5K plan.

For runners outside the UK

The NHS plan, where the NHS app is not.

The NHS Couch to 5K app is in the UK App Store only. In the US, Canada, Australia, and Germany it is not listed. Couch5k uses the same nine weeks and the same intervals. If you started with the NHS app, mark the runs that you already did as done and continue from there.

Couch5k

  • The standard 9-week plan, 3 runs each week
  • Install it in any country (build it from the source)
  • Each run saved to Apple Health with the route
  • A full Apple Watch app that runs without the phone
  • Live Activity on the lock screen
  • Distance, pace, and route map for each run
  • No network access at all
  • About 1.5 MB

What is different

  • The voice is an iPhone system voice, not a recorded coach
  • No community and no sharing
  • iPhone and Apple Watch only. No Android
  • Not in the App Store yet. You build it with Xcode

The NHS app listing in the UK App Store is 58.5 MB. Couch5k is not connected with the NHS or the BBC. “Couch to 5K” is the name of the plan.

The plan

27 runs. Each one is a little longer.

Three runs each week, with a rest day between them. Each run starts with a 5 minute brisk walk and ends with a 5 minute walk. In week 9 you run for 30 minutes without a stop.

Run Walk Warmup and cooldown walk
During the run

Put the phone in your pocket. Listen.

You do not have to look at the screen. Couch5k tells you when to run and when to walk, over your music or podcast.

🔊

Cues over your music

A chime and a short spoken cue: “Run for 3 minutes.” Your music becomes quieter for the cue and comes back at once.

⏱

Halfway and minute counts

“Halfway” in long runs. A minute count every 5 minutes in runs of 20 minutes or more. A soft tick 10 seconds before each change.

🎧

Headphone buttons

Pause and resume with the button on your headphones. The app says “Paused” and “Resuming.”

🔒

Lock screen

A Live Activity shows the interval and the countdown on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island.

⌚

Apple Watch

Run with only the watch. It taps your wrist at each change, shows your heart rate, and sends the run to the phone later.

🛟

Crash safe

If the app stops during a run, it asks to resume at the same second, with the same cues.

🦵

Warmup drills

An optional 3.5 minute warmup: A-skips, B-skips, high knees, jumps, butt kicks. Each one is spoken.

🗺

History

A map of each run, with the distance, the pace, the run pace and the walk pace, and the elevation gain.

📈

Progress

Charts of your longest run, your pace, and your distance from run to run. Kilometres or miles.

Privacy and size

It does one thing. It tells no one.

Couch5k uses only Apple frameworks. It has no third-party libraries and no network code, so it cannot send your runs anywhere. Your runs stay on your phone and in Apple Health.

Couch5k
1.5 MB
NHS app (UK)
58.5 MB

Couch5k: the compressed release build with the watch app. NHS app: the size on the UK App Store listing in October 2026.

Location, during a run onlyCouch5k tracks your route, distance and pace during a run.
Health, write only on the phoneCouch5k reads nothing from Health. It saves each run as a workout with its route.
Heart rate, on the watchThe watch reads your heart rate only to show it during a run.
NetworkNone. There is no server.
Get it

Build it, or have your agent build your own.

Couch5k is not in the App Store. The source is on GitHub under the MIT license.

Build from the source

You need a Mac with Xcode 26, xcodegen, and an iPhone with iOS 26 or later.

  1. Clone the repository.
  2. In project.yml, set your Apple team id and your bundle prefix.
  3. Run xcodegen generate.
  4. Open the project, choose your iPhone, and press Run.
git clone https://github.com/cameronblandford/couch5k
cd couch5k && xcodegen generate
open Couch5k.xcodeproj

Point your agent at the spec

spec.md describes the full app: the plan table, the engine rules, the audio, the Health workout, the screens, the watch app, and the tests. Give it to a coding agent and build your own version.

Build the app in https://couch5k.cam.fyi/spec.md
for my iPhone and Apple Watch.

The spec is also in the repository as docs/spec.md.

Questions

Questions

Is this the NHS app?

No. Couch5k is a separate app. It follows the same nine-week plan, which the NHS publishes. It is not connected with the NHS or the BBC.

I started with the NHS app. Can I continue in Couch5k?

Yes. Open the run that you are at in the plan grid and mark it as done. You can mark only that run, or that run and all earlier runs.

Does it need the watch?

No. The phone app is complete. The watch app is optional, and it can do a full run without the phone.

Does it need GPS?

No. The timer and the cues do not use location. Without location, the app shows no distance or pace, and the workout has no route.

Can I repeat a week?

Yes. You can start any of the 27 runs from the plan grid. The next run on the home screen is the one after the furthest run that you completed.

Why is it so small?

It uses only Apple frameworks: SwiftUI, SwiftData, HealthKit, CoreLocation, and the system speech voices. The sounds are three short chimes. There are no recorded voices, no images except the icon, and no libraries.