diff --git a/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc b/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc
index 23619ecbb8b..e9ec07cd0f9 100644
--- a/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc
+++ b/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc
@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@ set -ex
 
 # cocoapods
 export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
-time pod repo update  # needed by python
+# pre-fetch cocoapods master repo's most recent commit only
+mkdir -p ~/.cocoapods/repos
+time git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git ~/.cocoapods/repos/master
 
 # python
 time pip install virtualenv --user python
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index 2556e777730..986e7cd58c2 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -1126,7 +1126,7 @@ class ObjCLanguage(object):
                 }),
             self.config.job_spec(
                 ['test/core/iomgr/ios/CFStreamTests/run_tests.sh'],
-                timeout_seconds=10 * 60,
+                timeout_seconds=20 * 60,
                 shortname='cfstream-tests',
                 cpu_cost=1e6,
                 environ=_FORCE_ENVIRON_FOR_WRAPPERS),