The idea

Pheidi has always been configurable: how many days you run, which hard sessions you want, how far the easy days go relative to the long run. The problem was that all of it sat behind sliders nobody looked at. A coaching style is a name for a sensible combination of those settings, drawn from a training tradition you have probably already read about.

Picking a style writes the settings and nothing else. There is no separate "style mode" — your plan is still built by the same engine, from the same knobs. That means you can pick a style as a starting point and then change any single thing about it.

You can ignore all of this

A new account starts on Classic, the gentlest of the four. In onboarding and in Settings the style is a single line naming what you're on, with a "Change style" button beside it. The four cards only appear if you ask for them.

This happens once, when your profile is brand new. Coming back to build a second plan doesn't reset anything — whatever style you were on carries over.

That's deliberate. Choosing between coaching traditions is a decision most runners have no basis to make before their first plan, and Classic is the one we'd have picked for you anyway. Nothing about your plan is worse for never opening this.

The four styles

  • Classic — in the tradition of Hal Higdon. The default. Moderate volume, so up to five runs a week — how many you actually get depends on the days you mark available. At most one hard session. Tempo and hill work appear once the build phase starts and race-pace work is held back for the peak weeks. It leaves your starting long run at whatever suits your experience level, so a beginner still eases in. The lowest-risk way in. Background: Higdon vs Pfitzinger.
  • Threshold-focused — in the tradition of Pete Pfitzinger. High volume, six to seven runs, and two hard sessions a week: lactate threshold work and VO2 intervals. The midweek medium-long run is lengthened so the week carries two genuine endurance days rather than one. Background: Hansons vs Pfitzinger.
  • Cumulative fatigue — in the tradition of the Hansons brothers. High volume, three hard sessions a week, and a deliberately flatter week: easy days and the medium-long run are longer, which makes the long run a smaller share of a bigger week instead of the one big day it is elsewhere. The long run lands on legs that are already tired, which is the point. Background: the Hansons method explained.
  • Three-day — in the tradition of the FIRST programme. Exactly three runs a week: a long run, a tempo run and a speed session, with no easy mileage and no medium-long run. Every run has a job, which is what makes three days a week work. The trade-off is that there is no easy running to absorb a bad week, so cross-train on the other days. Background: the FIRST 3-runs-a-week method.

These are Pheidi's own interpretations of each tradition, not the coaches' published schedules. None of these coaches is affiliated with Pheidi or endorses it. If you want the actual books, buy the actual books — they are good.

What a style actually sets

Five settings, all of which you can find and change individually in Settings:

  • Volume mode — how many days a week you run. See how volume modes work.
  • Hard days per week — how many tempo, interval, hill or race-pace sessions land in a build or peak week.
  • Quality workout types — which of those sessions Pheidi is allowed to pick from.
  • Starting long run — how far your first long run is as a share of your peak long run.
  • Workout load defaults — how far each type of run goes relative to the long run. See how load distribution works.

Hard days and the medium-long run

Setting hard days explicitly also changes the order in which Pheidi fills your week. Normally it places the long run, then the medium-long run, then whatever quality session fits. With an explicit hard-day count, the hard sessions are reserved first — which is how a three-run week ends up as long / tempo / speed with no medium-long run at all.

If you ask for more hard days than your available days can hold, Pheidi fits what it can rather than crowding out every easy run. Hard days are also spaced apart where the week has room for it, so two of them never land back to back if there is an alternative.

Custom

The style is never stored — it is read back from your settings every time. So the moment you change one of those five settings by hand, your style reads as Custom. Nothing breaks and nothing is lost; it just means your plan no longer matches any of the four named bundles. Picking a style again overwrites all five settings and puts you back on a name.

Runners who were using Pheidi before styles existed keep their settings untouched. Most read as Custom, since Pheidi's old defaults aren't one of the four; if your settings happen to match a style exactly, that's the name you'll see. Only a brand-new profile is set to Classic.

Changing style later

You can pick a style during onboarding or change it any time in Settings. Because a style changes settings your plan was built from, Pheidi will offer to rebuild the remaining weeks — completed workouts are left alone.

Coaching styles live inside the Pheidi app, sign in to pick yours and build a plan.