Replace your
race spreadsheet

1 Start your plan

Every plan starts from your route. Tap the + button on the Races screen and pick one of three ways in:

• Import GPX & Create Plan: choose a .gpx file from Files (most race organisers publish one; you can also export from Strava, Komoot, or any mapping tool). UltraPlanRun reads the route, builds your elevation profile, and pre-fills your race distance.
• Find a Race: search the built-in race database for your event and start your plan straight from its listing, no GPX hunting required.
• Create empty race (no route yet): start now and add the GPX later from the planner.

2 Set up checkpoints

Checkpoints are the backbone of your plan. Each one represents an aid station, crew point, or key landmark along the route.

• If your GPX had waypoints, your checkpoints are already created. Review them in the Checkpoints list and adjust names, cutoff times, or support crew flags as needed.
• To add checkpoints manually, tap Add Checkpoint and place it on the route map, or enter the distance from the start. UltraPlanRun calculates the segment distance and elevation gain between each pair.
• For each checkpoint you can set: cutoff time (the race organiser's time limit), support crew present flag, checkpoint stop time (how long you plan to spend there), and sleep duration for longer ultras.

Once your checkpoints are in place, UltraPlanRun gives you a segment-by-segment breakdown of distance, elevation, and estimated time based on your pace settings.

3 Nutrition planning

Open a checkpoint and tap the Nutrition section to plan what you will eat and drink on each segment.

• Set your per-hour targets for carbs (g/hr), sodium (mg/hr), and water (ml/hr). Use the typical-range chips to pick common values for your effort level.
• Tap Quick Add to browse the built-in library of 60+ products (gels, drink mixes, electrolytes, bars, real food). Search by name or filter by category.
• Use Smart Fill (Pro) to auto-pick a product mix that lands within your carb, sodium, and water goals in one tap.
• Flag any item as a drop bag pickup with one tap. The orange pill marks it visually, and UltraPlanRun auto-builds your drop bag packing checklist and includes it in the race-day PDF.

4 Pacing profiles (Pro)

A pacing profile captures how your pace changes with gradient, so UltraPlanRun can predict segment times based on real terrain, not a flat-ground average. There are two ways to create one: a watch-recorded FIT file from a long run is the most accurate, with a phone calibration run as the no-watch fallback.

Option A: Import a FIT file (recommended)

• Export a FIT file from a previous ultra or a long run on terrain similar to your race, from your GPS watch, Garmin Connect, or Strava.
• On the race dashboard, open Auto-Pace → Import FIT file, name it, and save it as a pacing profile.
• A FIT captures how you actually run (how much you slow on climbs, recover on descents, and fade over hours), and watches record barometric elevation, far more reliable than phone GPS. That makes it the gold standard.

Option B: Record a calibration run

• No watch? Open Auto-Pace → Record a calibration run, give it a name and terrain type (trail, road, mountain, etc.), then tap Start.
• Run a 30–45 minute effort on terrain similar to your race (varied gradient is ideal). Your phone GPS records the route.
• Expect more variation than a watch FIT: without a phone barometer the climbs are estimated from GPS elevation alone, and a short run captures less of your long-distance fade. A good starting point, not the gold standard.
• Review the summary (route map, confidence rating, grade bands) and tap Save Profile.

Applying a profile to your race:

• Open your race plan, go to the Pacing section, and tap Select Profile.
• Choose a saved profile. UltraPlanRun recalculates every segment time using the profile's grade-adjusted pace model and the actual elevation of your race route.
• The fatigue curve preview shows how your pace will degrade across the race. Your finish time prediction is now grounded in how you actually run on hills.

5 Weather

UltraPlanRun uses Apple WeatherKit to fetch forecasts at your planned arrival time for each checkpoint along the route.

• Open your race plan and tap the Weather section to see per-checkpoint forecasts: temperature, wind, rain probability, and conditions at your predicted ETA.
• The app flags heat risk, cold risk, and rain automatically so you can adjust kit and hydration targets.
• The Current Conditions tab (Pro) shows today's weather at each checkpoint location, useful for recce days and training runs on the same route.
• The 10-Day Insight view gives a longer-range outlook so you can start planning kit choices earlier in race week.

Weather notifications:

• Set a day-before reminder that fires 24 hours before your race start time, prompting you to refresh the forecast and repack if conditions have changed.
• Weather notifications are time-sensitive and break through Sleep Focus, so you will not miss a last-minute weather shift.

6 Registration & emergency contacts

Capture your race registration details so nothing is forgotten on race week.

• In the race plan, tap Registration to enter your registration date and time window, venue address, and postcode.
• UltraPlanRun shows the registration location on a map with directions.
• Set a registration reminder so you get an alert before the window opens.

Emergency contacts:

• Add your emergency contact name and phone number in the race settings. This appears prominently on the race-day PDF and is accessible from the Emergency SOS button in the plan’s Safety section, and from the one-tap SOS on Trail Track’s guide-me-back screen.
• The Emergency SOS screen shows your current GPS coordinates, grid reference, and a one-tap call to your emergency contact or mountain rescue.

7 Sleep planning

For 100-mile and multi-day ultras, planned sleep stops can make or break your race.

• On any checkpoint, set a sleep duration (e.g. 20 minutes, 2 hours). This is added to your total race time alongside the checkpoint stop time.
• UltraPlanRun factors sleep into your ETA predictions, so your crew knows when to expect you at later checkpoints.
• The Sleep Alarm feature lets you pick a wake-up sound and set a timer. When you lie down at a checkpoint, the alarm fires after your planned sleep window so you do not oversleep.

8 Training & readiness

Between now and race day, UltraPlanRun reads your Apple Health data to show how your training is going and whether you are recovering. Everything here is free for all users; grant Health access when prompted.

Training Log & Health Snapshot:

• Open a race and tap the Training section. Training Log is a Strava-style week-by-week grid of your runs pulled from Apple Health, with colour-coded bubbles sized by distance and a weekly volume chart. Tap any run for full detail.
• Health Snapshot shows resting heart rate, HRV, VO₂ max and last night’s sleep, plus interactive HR trend charts you can scrub to inspect, and a Sleep & Recovery chart. (VO₂ max needs an Apple Watch.)

Readiness:

• Readiness is a plain banded call (Looking good, Take it easy, or Recovery needed), built by comparing your last 7 days of HRV and resting heart rate against your own 28-day baseline. Last night’s sleep is shown alongside but never scored.
• It is deliberately a band, not a 0–100 number: consumer HRV is spot-sampled and swings 15–25% night to night, so a single score would imply precision the data can’t support.
• It is window-aware: it counts down your taper (“Race in 5 days”) and your recovery afterwards (“Recovery · Day 15”).

On your Apple Watch:

• Install the UltraPlanRun watch app from the Watch app on your iPhone (My Watch → Available Apps → Install). Your readiness (the band, the numbers behind it, and a 7-day HRV trend) appears on your wrist.
• Add the readiness Smart Stack complication to see your band and resting heart rate at a glance from the watch face.
• Your iPhone owns the health data and does the maths, then syncs the finished readiness to the watch, so wear your Apple Watch, especially overnight, to keep the numbers fresh.

9 Race day tracker (Pro)

On race morning, open your plan and tap Start Trail Track. A map previews your race route with your current position; tap Start and your phone records your route as you run.

Lock screen Live Activity:

• The lock screen and Dynamic Island show your distance from the start, your live position on the route’s elevation profile, and an elapsed timer, with no unlocking needed.
• It records continuously as you move. There is nothing to tap at each checkpoint. Just run.
• If GPS signal drops, it keeps showing your last known distance and flags the signal as lost, then updates the moment it recovers.

Take a wrong turn?

• Tap Guide me back. An offline compass arrow points you home along the exact path you walked, not a straight line over unknown ground.
• Stray off your trail and it warns you and points you back to rejoin the line.
• Guidance needs only GPS and your recorded trail, so it works with no signal and no map tiles. A real map shows when you have data; a self-contained breadcrumb drawing takes over when you don’t.
• Need help? A one-tap SOS lives in the corner of the guide-me-back screen.

Battery saving:

• Trail Track records at a relaxed GPS accuracy so it can run for hours, sharpening only while it is actively guiding you back.
• Your trail is saved as you go, so if the app is interrupted (a crash, or iOS reclaiming memory) you can resume the same session with your breadcrumb intact.
• Background location updates are enabled so your phone can stay locked in your vest pocket for the entire race.

After the race:

• Tap Stop to finish. The summary shows your total time, distance, average pace and elevation gained, with a map of the route you ran and its elevation profile.
• You can save the run as a pacing profile so your next race plan benefits from the data you just recorded.

10 Crew Live Link & race day beacon (Pro)

Crew Live Link turns your finished plan into a private live web page for your support crew, and it is deliberately the simplest feature in the app. Two taps, total.

• Share it once (race week): on the race dashboard, open Crew Live Link and tap Share with your crew. The share sheet opens with the link pre-written: send it by WhatsApp, Messages, email, anywhere. Anyone with the link sees your checkpoints, planned arrival times, and their jobs at each stop (your checkpoint notes and crew assignments). They need no app, no account, no password; any browser works. The race needs its start date and time set first, because every ETA on the page is calculated from it.
• Race morning: flip Race day beacon on at the start line and put your phone away. That's it: your position goes to the page every few minutes while you move, checkpoints tick automatically as you arrive (typically 150 to 250 metres out, so your crew gets a moment of warning), and each one shows your actual split, pace, and whether you're up or down on plan. The beacon stops itself at the finish.
• Loops and lap courses just work: there is nothing to set. The beacon reads your checkpoint layout and ticks in race order, so on a lap course the aid station ticks one lap per pass, and on a loop course the finish cannot fire while you are standing on the start line at the gun, even though it shares the same spot. On a point to point course, a checkpoint missed in a signal dead zone never blocks the ones after it.
• Changed the plan? Tap Send crew link again after any edit; the same link updates for everyone. Nobody needs a new one.
• Crew without the app? Anyone on the page can also tap Mark arrived when they see you come in. It is the universal fix: it covers a checkpoint missed in a dead zone, and on a lap course where the finish line is the lap line, it closes out the race if the final tick needs a nudge.

11 Troubleshooting

A couple of things catch people out right after an import. Both are quick fixes.

No ETA or Daylight on my checkpoints

When you import a GPX that already contains waypoints, or load a race from Find a Race, the checkpoints are created with distance and elevation, but the “ETA 7:21 AM · Daylight” row stays hidden. That row is calculated from your race start time, and an imported race does not have one yet.

Does my crew need UltraPlanRun to follow my race?

No. Crew Live Link is a normal web page: your crew open the link you send them in Safari, Chrome, or any browser, on any phone or laptop. No app, no account, no password. Only the runner needs UltraPlanRun (and Pro) to share the race.

Will the race day beacon drain my phone battery?

No. It is built to be a transmitter, not a tracker. It uses coarse, low-power location with big gaps between fixes, so it typically costs a few percent over a full race day, and it runs alongside the watch that is actually recording your race. Your crew can even watch your battery percentage on the live page.

My crew’s page says “This race link has expired”

Crew links stop working 48 hours after the race ends (and all location data is deleted), and tapping Stop sharing expires the link immediately. If the race is still ahead of you, open the race and tap Share with your crew again: everyone gets a fresh link.

Every checkpoint shows the same “Custom” pace

Imported checkpoints start with a placeholder pace of 9:30/mi, labelled Custom, so the plan has something to calculate from before you have tuned it. This is just a starting point, not your real pacing.