Trail running · iPhone and Apple Watch
Run your strongest season.
Trailbuddy is the training app built for trail running. It times every lap of your loop and every climb you repeat, adjusts your pace for the grade and records the ground, the weather and your shoes with every run, so you can see how much stronger you get over the season.
iPhone · English, norsk, svenska, suomi · One launch email, no spam
The problem
Running apps measure distance and pace. Your trail times also depend on the climbs, the ground, the weather and your shoes.
Your watch splits mid-climb
Your watch beeps the kilometer halfway up the climb, so two runs of the same loop never split in the same place.
Pace hides the hill
A 5:00 kilometer up the water tower climb can be the best effort of your week. Your watch files it as your slowest kilometer.
The day goes missing
Mud, wet rock or a 29°C afternoon can put minutes on a loop. Your watch keeps the time and loses the reason.
How a running tracker and Trailbuddy record the same trail run
- Laps
- A running tracker: A split every kilometer, often partway up a climb
- Trailbuddy: A lap every time you pass the point where you started
- Climbs
- A running tracker: One elevation total for the whole run
- Trailbuddy: Every climb and descent found after the run and timed rep by rep
- Pace on hills
- A running tracker: Raw pace, slowest on the steepest ground
- Trailbuddy: Grade-adjusted pace, plus climb rate in meters per hour
- Running and hiking
- A running tracker: One activity for the whole run
- Trailbuddy: Which stretches you ran and which you hiked
- Conditions
- A running tracker: Not recorded
- Trailbuddy: The trail surface, the temperature and the weather on every run
- During the run
- A running tracker: Take the phone out to check a split
- Trailbuddy: Lap and climb times spoken out loud and shown on the Lock Screen and Apple Watch
| On the run | A running tracker | Trailbuddy |
|---|---|---|
| Laps | A split every kilometer, often partway up a climb | A lap every time you pass the point where you started |
| Climbs | One elevation total for the whole run | Every climb and descent found after the run and timed rep by rep |
| Pace on hills | Raw pace, slowest on the steepest ground | Grade-adjusted pace, plus climb rate in meters per hour |
| Running and hiking | One activity for the whole run | Which stretches you ran and which you hiked |
| Conditions | Not recorded | The trail surface, the temperature and the weather on every run |
| During the run | Take the phone out to check a split | Lap and climb times spoken out loud and shown on the Lock Screen and Apple Watch |
What Trailbuddy records
Know why a run was fast or slow.
Every time on a trail comes from four things at once: the trail, how you ran it, the conditions and what was on your feet. Trailbuddy records all four with every run, so you can see which one moved.
Your trails
Trailbuddy laps your loops at the gate, keeps a history for every route and times every climb and descent rep by rep.
Read more →Your running
Trailbuddy reads elevation from the barometer, adjusts your pace for the grade and tells running from hiking.
Read more →The conditions
Trailbuddy records the temperature, the weather and the trail surface with every run and shows them next to every time.
Read more →Your shoes
Trailbuddy puts the pair you ran in on every run, counts its kilometers and reminds you when to retire it.
Read more →
Automatic laps
Get lap times on any loop you run, of any length.
Press Start where your loop begins and Trailbuddy sets the lap gate there. Every time you pass it again in the same direction, Trailbuddy closes the lap, even when you mix the 2.84 and the 4.61 from the same trailhead, and compares each lap only with laps of the same loop. Run the route again next week and Trailbuddy adds the run to that route's history, with your best and your gap to it on every row.
- See each lap against your last lap, your best and your average as it closes
- Hear every lap time out loud without taking out the phone
- Keep a history for every route of a kilometer or more
Climbs and descents
Get every climb and descent timed and compared with your best.
After every run Trailbuddy finds the climbs in your trace: 25 meters of gain or more at an average grade of 4% or steeper. It finds the descents the same way. Run the water tower climb four times and Trailbuddy lines up every rep with its time, its climb rate in meters per hour and your best. Come back next month and Trailbuddy tells you your time at the top.
- See your climb rate and descent rate on every rep
- Hear your time at the top of a climb you have run before
- Mark a checkpoint once and split every later run there
Grade-adjusted pace
See what every hill was worth on flat ground.
Trailbuddy adjusts your pace for the grade with the energy-cost curve from published research on running up and down slopes, so a 5:00 kilometer up 8.4% reads as the 3:15 effort it was. On steep descents, where footwork decides your speed, the live screen shows your descent rate instead.
- See grade-adjusted pace for the run, every lap and every climb
- Read your descent rate live on grades steeper than 10% downhill
- Compare a hilly run with a flat one by effort
Run and hike
See which climbs you ran and which you hiked.
Trailbuddy reads your cadence, the phone's motion and the grade to tell running from hiking, stretch by stretch. After the run you see how much of it you ran and how much you hiked, and on every climb the share you hiked, so you can tell whether hiking the steep middle was the faster choice.
Run and hike →
Trail conditions and weather
Compare every time with the ground and weather it was run in.
When you finish, Trailbuddy records the temperature and the weather at your start from Apple Weather, and you pick the ground: dry, dusty, mud, wet rock, roots and technical, or snow and ice. Trailbuddy shows the surface and the temperature next to every time in the route's history, so you can compare the muddy Tuesday with the muddy Thursday. The time stays as you ran it.
Conditions and weather →
Shoes
Know how far every pair has gone, and when to retire it.
Pick the pair when you start a run and Trailbuddy offers the last pair you ran in first. Trailbuddy adds every run to that pair's kilometers and reminds you when it reaches the retirement distance you set.
- Add each pair once, with the kilometers already on it
- See the runs and kilometers on every pair
- Set a retirement distance for each pair
During the run
Keep the phone in your pack. Hear every lap and climb.
Trailbuddy speaks every lap out loud, through your earbuds or the phone's speaker: the time, the gap to your average and your average heart rate. When you finish a climb you have run before, Trailbuddy tells you your time on it against your best. The Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island keep the timer, distance, pace and heart rate in view, and with an Apple Watch paired, your lap, last climb, vertical and heart rate sit on your wrist.
- Hear your laps in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish
- Get spoken reminders to eat and drink every 20 to 60 minutes
- Glance at your last climb and vertical on your Apple Watch
Lap 2 completed in 24 minutes, 18 seconds. 12 seconds faster than average. Average heart rate 152.
Run replay
Replay every meter of every run.
Back at the trailhead, drag through the run and Trailbuddy moves you along the map. It overlays elevation, heart rate and cadence on one chart, colors the route by the metric you choose and lays out your time in five heart-rate zones. Trailbuddy also charts weekly distance and elevation, so you can watch the season build.
Run replay →
Coaches and clubs
Plan your athletes' week and follow every run.
Clubs, running groups and coaches work in the same app as their runners. Coaches plan runs for their athletes and follow the week at a glance, clubs approve their members, and Trailbuddy puts every shared run in the club feed with its laps, climbs and conditions. Trailbuddy notifies each runner of likes and comments in their own language.
The details
Use Trailbuddy with Apple Health, any heart-rate strap and your language.
Apple Health
Trailbuddy saves every run to Apple Health as a running workout with the route, heart rate, distance and elevation gain and loss.
Any heart-rate strap
Trailbuddy pairs with any standard Bluetooth chest strap once and reconnects it at every start.
Four languages
Trailbuddy speaks English, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish in the app, in its spoken announcements and on the Lock Screen.
Kilometers or miles
Trailbuddy shows distance and pace in kilometers or miles, whichever you choose.
Your choice of audience
Trailbuddy shares each run as Private, Connections & Clubs or Public, as you choose. Connections & Clubs means your coaches, the athletes you coach and your clubmates.
Run themes
Trailbuddy files each run under the theme you pick: Trail Run, Hill Repeats, Long Run or Recovery.
GAP calculator
Work out any climb's grade-adjusted pace in your browser.
Enter a distance, the elevation change and your time, and the free calculator gives you the grade, the grade-adjusted pace, the effort against flat ground and the climb rate. It uses the same published research as the app.
- 640 m · 54 m
- 3:12
- 8.4%
- 5:00 /km
- GAP
- 3:15 /km
- m/h
- 1,013
Field notes
Learn to measure progress on the trails you repeat.
Field notes cover the craft behind the numbers: hill repeats, vert, grade-adjusted pace and comparing runs on the same route.
22 Aug 2026
How to compare runs on the same route fairly
A fair method to compare runs on the same route. What to hold constant, which numbers to trust, and where tools like Strava Matched Runs fall short.
22 Aug 2026
Grade-adjusted pace on trails, and where it breaks
What grade-adjusted pace really measures, how the Minetti and Strava models work, and why GAP needs careful reading on technical trail terrain.
22 Aug 2026
Is there a hill repeats app? What exists today
What a hill repeats app should do, what watches and apps actually offer today, and how runners cover the gap with lap buttons and homemade segments.
TestFlight cohort
Test Trailbuddy with your group before the App Store release.
Trailbuddy is opening a TestFlight cohort for coaches, clubs and running groups. Bring the runners and the trail, and help measure the climbs and loops on real ground.
Apply to the cohort- A TestFlight build before the App Store release
- Your club's feed and roster from the first run
- Climbs, laps and conditions on every run from day one
- Direct input on what ships in the launch build
Questions
Questions trail runners ask.
Which phones and sensors does it work with?
Trailbuddy runs on iPhone and reads elevation from the phone's barometer, so you don't need a watch. Pair any standard Bluetooth heart-rate chest strap for heart rate. With an Apple Watch, Trailbuddy also shows the run on your wrist, and it saves every run to Apple Health.
Do I have to set up courses or segments first?
No. Press Start and run. Trailbuddy sets the lap gate where you start, and after the run it finds the climbs and descents and matches the run to your routes. Checkpoints are the one thing you place yourself, once, on a finished run.
Does it work on my trails?
Any trail, anywhere. Trailbuddy needs no trail database: every run of a kilometer or more becomes a route with its own history, and every climb you run gets its own history too.
What about out-and-backs and point-to-point runs?
Trailbuddy laps only loops you run through the start in the same direction, so an out-and-back never laps. It finds the climbs and descents on any run, loop or not. A route run the other way round becomes a route of its own.
Does Trailbuddy adjust my times for heat or mud?
No. Trailbuddy records the temperature, the weather and the trail surface with every run and shows them next to the time, which stays as you ran it. Grade-adjusted pace is the one adjustment, and it covers the grade alone.
Can my club or team join early?
Yes. Trailbuddy is running a TestFlight cohort for coaches, clubs and running groups. Apply on the cohort page.
When does it launch?
Trailbuddy is getting ready for the App Store. Everyone on the waitlist gets an invite before the public release.
What will it cost?
Trailbuddy is free, with no paywall and no ads in the app.
Get Trailbuddy before your next season.
Join the waitlist and get your invite as soon as Trailbuddy opens.