Build → running three times a week
Lockin converts your 3x-week running goal into a contract with real consequences. Pick three specific run days at setup, hit each one, and your accountability deposit returns. Skip a scheduled day and the bulk of that day's stake forfeits to a charity you chose at setup.
Suggested starting contract
$10/day against missing your daily target of 3 runs per week.
Install Lockin on iOS or Android and create your account using your email address or Apple Sign-In.
Select 'Running' from the habit library or search for it. The default target is three runs per week, scheduled on three specific days you'll pick later in setup.
Enter the accountability deposit (default ten dollars per week) and choose the charity that receives forfeited stakes from Lockin's vetted list — categories include climate, mental health, animal welfare, and digital literacy.
Grant Lockin read access to your daily step count. This is a one-time step. Lockin reads only your step total — no GPS, no heart rate, no workout details — and uses it to verify each scheduled run day.
Choose the three specific days each week — for example Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday — that the contract will verify against. Each scheduled day is checked independently, so picking the right three at setup matters. You can still run on other days; the contract just verifies the three you committed to.
In the 7-step wizard, tap 'Set deadline' to pick the time of day by which your step target must be reached on each of your three scheduled days. The default is 23:59 local time. For a morning-running habit, choose a custom earlier cutoff such as 9:30am — steps logged after the deadline do not count toward that day, even on a scheduled day. Meeting the step target after the deadline does not retroactively rescue the day. The deadline is set once at contract creation and applies to every scheduled run day for the life of the contract; it cannot be changed mid-contract. A tighter deadline raises the difficulty and unlocks higher Locks and XP rewards.
Confirm your setup and the contract starts. Complete a qualifying run on each of your three scheduled days each week, before the deadline you set, and your deposit returns automatically.
From Lockin's data
Lockin users running on the 3x-week contract report that the third run of the week — the one most likely to be skipped in a free app — becomes the most protected run once a financial stake is attached. Beta users consistently describe Saturday as the run they used to skip and now do not.
"I ran twice a week for two years and always had a reason why the third run did not happen. Six weeks into Lockin, I have not missed a third run once. The money is not the point — it is that missing feels different now."
— Anonymous beta user, running challenge, 7 weeks active
If a scheduled run day passes without a qualifying run logged, the bulk of that day's stake forfeits to the charity you chose at setup. Lockin charges a small platform fee to cover processing and operations, and the remainder goes directly to your selected charity. Each of your three scheduled days is checked independently — a run on Tuesday does not cover for a Monday you skipped. The contract is built on the specific days you committed to, not on hitting three sessions in a rolling weekly count.
The days you commit to are fixed once the contract starts. This is intentional — the contract works because the commitment is specific. Changing the days mid-contract would reintroduce the same scheduling ambiguity that picking three specific days is designed to eliminate. Plan the schedule honestly at setup so it reflects what you can actually maintain.
Forfeited stakes go to a registered charity from Lockin's vetted list. You choose the charity from categories including climate, mental health, animal welfare, and digital literacy when you set up the contract. Lockin charges a small platform fee to cover payment processing and operations. Refer to the transparency page inside the app for charity-by-charity tallies.
Your contract specifies a step target you set at signup — by default, 5,000 steps before that day's deadline. Hitting the target on a scheduled day verifies the run; missing it forfeits the day. Lockin reads the step count from Apple Health or Google Fit and does not distinguish between running and walking at the sensor level. The discipline of the contract comes from the target itself: pick a number high enough that hitting it before your deadline is realistic only by going for the run you intended. Walking breaks within a run — the Couch to 5K and Jeff Galloway run-walk-run methods both use this approach — are fine, because every step still counts toward the total. Cycling does not produce step counts and will not satisfy the contract.
The deadline is the time of day on each scheduled run day by which your step target must be reached. Inside the 7-step wizard you tap 'Set deadline' and pick a time on a 24-hour picker. The default is 23:59 local time; for a morning runner, a custom earlier cutoff like 9:30am forces the run to happen before the work day starts. If your target is 5,000 steps and your deadline is 9:30am, a step total of 4,800 at 9:30am does not count even if you finish the run at 9:35am. The deadline applies to all three of your scheduled run days each week and is locked in once at contract creation — you cannot edit it mid-contract, the same way the run days themselves are fixed. Tighter deadlines unlock higher Locks and XP rewards.
Free to download. You set the target, the stake, and the charity.