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Your Runs2 min read

How to Run a Session on Your Apple Watch

Send a session to the Workout app on your watch, run it without your phone, and let it count toward your plan.

How It Works

Just5K doesn't have its own watch app. Instead, it sends a session to the Workout app that's already on your Apple Watch. You run it there, with just the watch, and the run counts toward your plan through Apple Health.

You'll need an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone. To have the run count, connect Apple Health too.

Send a Session

  1. On Home, tap today's session to open it.
  2. Tap Add to Apple Watch.
  3. The first time, iOS asks whether Just5K may schedule workouts. Allow it.
  4. You'll see: "Scheduled — it will appear in the Workout app on your watch."

You can also send a session that's still ahead: open that day in History and tap Add to Apple Watch.

Run It on the Watch

Open the Workout app on your watch. The session is there for that day, under its Just5K name.

It has the same steps as in the app: a warm-up walk, the run and walk intervals, and a cool-down walk. Runs are the work intervals and walks are the recovery intervals. Everything goes by time, with no pace or heart rate targets. Gentle Start's walking sessions are sent as walks; everything else is sent as a run.

Try a short session first, so you know what the switch between steps feels like on your wrist.

Make It Count

The watch saves your run to Apple Health. The next time you open Just5K, it finds the run and ticks off that day's session, as long as it was a training day and the run lasted at least 60% of the planned time.

If Something's Off

  • "Allow scheduling in Settings to send workouts to the watch." You said no when iOS asked. You can allow it again in the Settings app.
  • No Add to Apple Watch button. It only appears for sessions with timed steps, and in History only for days that are still ahead.
  • The run didn't tick off the session. Check that Apple Health is connected, that it was a training day, and that the run was at least 60% of the planned time. You can always tap Mark as done on the session instead.

Tip: No watch? You don't need one. The run player on your iPhone gives you the same steps with voice cues in your headphones.