Pendio: Trail Race Prep

Pendio turns the organiser's course file into your race: what the terrain will do to you, how to pace and fuel it, and the part you want to train on, on your watch.

THE COURSE, FROM THE ORGANISER'S OWN FILE
Open a race's course page on pendio.app and tap Add to Pendio. Your phone fetches the organiser's GPX from the organiser's own site, Pendio checks it against the file the page measured, and the course lands in the app with the race's aid stations and cut-offs as a plan. Or import any GPX yourself.

WHAT THE TERRAIN WILL DO TO YOU
Every course is read the way Pendio reads your runs: the hardest climb and the hardest descent, where the climbing sits, the terrain mix in 13 grade bands, and the distance in flat-equivalent kilometres. Then your last 8, 12 or 16 weeks are held against it: volume, longest effort, weekly climbing and how well your training's terrain matches the course's. It is a heuristic and it says so; Pendio never guesses your finish time.

PACE, FUEL, PRINT
Type a target time. Pendio shares it out over the terrain, gives an arrival time and a cut-off margin at every aid station, counts the carbs for the day and the gels for each leg, and prints a one-page pace card for your pocket, your bottle or your crew. The plan is written at pendio.app on a big screen and shows on the phone.

A SECTION FOR YOUR WATCH
Pick a climb, a leg between two aid stations or any kilometre range, reverse it or make it an out-and-back, and share a GPX your watch can navigate, cut from the course's original file with the plan's aid stations marked on it. Import it into Garmin Connect, the COROS app or the Suunto app like any route.

YOUR TRAINING, ON THE SAME GROUND
Workouts come from Strava or from the Apple Health app. Each one gets its grade-adjusted pace, a load score, and a descent load of its own, because quads keep the bill for the downhill that heart rate forgets. The same climb is recognised every time you run it, with no segments to set up. Trends adds it up: fitness, fatigue and form, and whether this week's total, descent and climbing sit in your usual range.

IT EXPLAINS ITSELF, ONCE
The first time a number appears, a card says what it is and how it is worked out. After that it sits behind an ⓘ. Settings → How Pendio works holds the whole method, offline.

YOUR WORKOUTS STAY ON YOUR PHONE
Every calculation runs on the device. Pendio's server keeps your sign-in and your race plan, never a workout, a GPS track or a heart-rate sample. No ads, no analytics in the app, no account needed to analyse a course.

Pendio for iPhone, iOS 17 or later. Works with the Apple Health app. Strava connection optional.