10K
Your first 10K
From the sofa to 10K in around 8–12 weeks. Three short runs a week — each one ends with “I could’ve done a bit more.”
Taper — a calm marathon coach for iPhone · Made in London
Run your story,
one mile
at a time.
From your first five minutes to your first finish line — one plain-English sentence a day. No jargon. No guilt. No noise.
Nobody is born a runner. A marathon is a few hundred unremarkable mornings, added up. Taper makes each one simple: one run, one plain sentence, one small win.
— the idea behind Taper
Wherever you're headed
Pick your finish line.
10K, half, or the full marathon — Taper draws a line from today to the big day, one doable run at a time.
21.1K
The half that sneaks up on you
21.1 km sounds enormous — until week nine, when your long run quietly gets there.
42.2K
The full 42.2
A few hundred unremarkable mornings, a plan that bends around your life, and a finish line with your name on it.
Chapter 01
Begin.
Most running apps talk to athletes. Taper talks to you — the person who isn't sure they can do this yet.
- Start from zero. Tell Taper where you are — even if that's “I've never run”. Your plan begins with runs you can actually finish.
- Life happens. Plans adapt. Missed a week? Caught a cold? Taper quietly reshapes your training — no red boxes, no broken streaks.
- One clear thing a day. Open the app, read one sentence, go run. The numbers live behind a tap, never in your face.
New to running?
The basics, in plain words.
Five things worth knowing before your first big miles — no jargon, just what each one is and why it helps.
01
Fuel
Your body only stores about 90 minutes of easy running. On anything longer, you top up as you go — a few sips of drink, a bite of something sweet.
Why it helps: it keeps the dreaded “wall” away, so the last miles can feel like the first.
02
Shoes
The one bit of kit that really matters. A pair that suits your feet cushions every step and stops small aches turning into injuries.
Why it helps: happy feet mean you actually look forward to your next run. Swap them roughly every 500–800 km.
03
Fartlek
Swedish for “speed play” — and that’s just what it is. Jog easy, pick up the pace to a lamppost or a tree, then ease off again. No stopwatch, just feel.
Why it helps: it teaches your legs to change gear and makes faster running feel natural — and a little fun.
04
Intervals
Short, faster efforts with a rest between each: push for a minute or two, jog to recover, repeat. A little more structured than fartlek.
Why it helps: these bursts build your engine, so your everyday easy pace starts to feel easier.
05
Strength
A couple of short sessions a week — squats, lunges, calf raises, a plank. No gym needed, just your own body weight.
Why it helps: stronger legs and hips hold your form together when you’re tired — which is exactly when injuries sneak in.
Taper folds all of this into your plan — you’ll pick it up a run at a time, never all at once.
Chapter 02
The coach who gets it.
Taper watches your training, your sleep and your recovery — then tells you what it means in one calm sentence.
- Morning readinessA gentle “good to go” or “take it easy” each morning, based on how you've actually recovered.
- Monday check-insYour coach reviews the week and quietly sets up the next one. No data digging.
- A journal that listensJot how a run felt. Your coach reads between the lines and adjusts.
- Nudges, not nagsNotifications that arrive when they're useful and stay quiet when they're not.
Chapter 03
Your stride, seen.
Running-shop gait analysis — without the shop. Prop up your iPhone, run past it, and Taper studies your form frame by frame. All on your device; your videos never leave it.
Plain words, not physio-speak. Cadence, stride and symmetry — explained like a friend would.
Spot niggles early. Small changes in your gait often show up before an injury does.
Feeds your readiness. Your form becomes part of one honest signal: is today a day to push, or to rest?
Chapter 04
The wall isn’t fitness. It’s fuelling.
Most first marathons fall apart at mile 18 for one reason: an untrained gut. Taper treats fuelling like a workout — you practise it for months, so race day holds no surprises.
Mile 18
where races are lost — and where Taper runners have a plan they've already rehearsed a dozen times.
- A plan, not a lectureWhat to eat and drink before, during and after each key run — in normal food words, grams-per-hour behind a tap.
- Train your gut like a muscleLong runs double as fuelling rehearsals, gradually building what you can take on board.
Chapter 05
From London,
with miles of love.
Taper is made by a runner in London — tested on Thames-side long runs, rainy commute jogs and one very humbling hill in Greenwich Park. If it can keep you going through a British winter, it can get you anywhere.
The app
Calm by design.
No dashboards shouting at you. No leaderboards. No ads. Just today's run, your coach's note, and how ready you are — in words first, numbers on tap.
Your first start line
is waiting.
Taper is in free TestFlight beta on iPhone. Join now and shape the app before launch.
We'll send a TestFlight link. No spam, no mailing list — promise.