The Runna App Is a Great Way to Stick to a Structured Running Program

A running app can do a lot, but Runna excels: it tracks your runs, tells you about interval training, and gives you a plan to follow to reach your race goal. It even encourages you to do mobility and strength exercises along the way, all accompanied by a handy checkbox you can fill out after completing each workout. Let’s dive in and see what’s inside this app and whether it’s worth the $17.99 per month subscription fee.

What is Runa?

The Runna app is available for iOS and Android , and its main function is to provide you with a personalized running training plan. Runna can sync with your Garmin, Coros, Suunto or Apple Watch, or you can use it without a watch and simply “record” your run while carrying your phone in your pocket or on your belt .

The app is free to download, but a subscription is required to use all of Runna’s core features. It costs $17.99 per month with a one-week free trial. (Do yourself a favor every time you use a free trial and cancel your free trial immediately after signing up ; it will run for the entire week, and then you can decide if you want to extend it.)

Runna will provide you with a training plan to achieve your chosen goal, from 5K to marathon training. There are also plans for non-race purposes, such as a training plan and a post-injury plan for those returning to work after a break. All plans include additional strength, mobility and Pilates workouts, and are all customized to suit your fitness level, time commitment and preferences.

What is Runna good at?

• Structured programming that updates as you get faster.

• Plans are personalized.

• The app easily syncs with other apps and devices such as Strava and fitness watches.

• Plans include warm-up, cool-down, strength training, and mobility training—all optional.

• It’s nice to mark the runs you’ve completed, and it’s also easy to rearrange or catch up on missed sessions.

Where does it fail

• You need to know the last race time to set your starting pace.

• To track your training, you need to know your pace in minutes per mile (or km).

• Some new runners say that training can be too hard.

• You can’t select plans by viewing them, only by customizing your personalization options.

Tune

The first thing you’ll be asked to do after installing the Runna app is create a workout plan. I don’t have any races on my calendar, so I appreciate that there are options to improve my fitness without having to focus on a race. The app recommended the “Get Fit” plan to me, but I ended up choosing the “Functional Fitness” plan (which I assume is for CrossFit athletes looking to improve their cardio endurance).

Runna needs time to race to get up to speed

I told him how often I wanted to run (five days), what days I had (Monday to Friday) and what day I wanted to set aside for long runs (Wednesday). Everything was fine until he asked me about the time of the last race. I’ve been jogging regularly for about two months now and have competed in races in the past, but have no idea what my current 5K time might be. ( I haven’t even been running with a watch lately .)

I erred on the side of caution by allowing a 35 minute time for the 5K. I knew this was probably slower than I was capable of, and sure enough, a few days later the app indicated that I had run five kilometers (about three miles) in 32 minutes on one of my training runs. Do I want to update my personal best so my plan can use this new data? I would definitely do that.

Programmed runs use minutes per mile pace to tell you how fast to run. These are based on the personal best you give the app, so someone who runs a 5K in 32 minutes won’t be given the same target pace as someone who runs a 5K in 25 minutes. It’s accurate and useful if you’re used to running at a minute-per-mile pace, and perhaps a little confusing if you’re not.

My advice: if you don’t know how to fill out this setting section: do what I did and set the time slower than you probably can do. It’s easy enough to upgrade when the app determines you can run faster.

Using the application

When you’re done setting up your plan, you’ll see the app’s main screens. The first one, Train , shows your plan for this week. Here you will see checkboxes. Each workout has a small card, color coded by type. On Monday I did an interval workout (yellow) for 2.4 miles. Then on Tuesday, an easy 2.5 mile run (blue) and so on. If you include strength and mobility workouts, you’ll also see them on your schedule here. Once you complete a workout, it will be checked off and you will also see your actual stats for that run on the map – for example, my easy 2.5 mile run ended up being 3.2 miles and I can see both programmed and and actual values. distances on the same map.

There is also a run recording button at the bottom of the screen. Typically, you start a run by clicking on the card for the desired workout and starting there. But you can also start runs using that button at the bottom if you want to do an additional run that’s not part of the program, or if your subscription has ended but you still want to use Runna to track your runs. (The “record run” feature does not require a subscription.)

The Activities screen shows your past workouts, including ones you’ve done on another device or app. The Community tab is a Facebook-like feed where people share their runs, and mine is already filled with strangers. (I didn’t post anything to the feed.) The only benefit I got from this feature was seeing tiles of the data people were sharing. This suggested to me that there was a place elsewhere in the app (in the Share section) where these nifty readings could be generated.

Finally, there’s a Support tab that contains not only tips for troubleshooting the app, but also a library of information and articles. You can read about how much protein you should eat, how to treat Achilles tendinitis, or how to improve your running form.

The workout screen is littered with “comments” from “trainers” that don’t seem to be personalized at all, unless I’m missing something. They simply explain the workouts you’ll be doing or give running tips. Often a small video will appear at the top of the page and a talking head with a British accent will begin telling you the same information as on the screen below. I found this unnecessary and quickly muted the sound and scrolled further, but you may find that it gives the app a friendly feel.

My experience with the application

I used the app for a week and completed all the workouts except for the strength workout, which didn’t fit into my schedule, but I reviewed it and it seemed pretty solid.

I did one run on the Apple Watch and found the display useful for getting through a fairly complex day’s planning. I had to do a series of interval workouts at different distances and paces, with a two-minute walking rest in between. Keeping track of everything manually would be difficult, but the app made it easy.

At the beginning of each interval, Runna would tell me how fast I should go, and then if I wasn’t keeping pace, he would tell me to speed up or slow down, and then tell me my current pace so I knew how far I could go. I was. Once I adjusted, it would sound briefly to say “on tempo” and then I could ignore it until the next change.

The app also gave me a verbal split time for every mile I ran, regardless of whether I was doing an interval run or a simple “easy run.”

I found the prompts easy to follow for all of my runs and enjoyed the variety of workouts. My week had one set of intervals, one workout labeled as tempo (alternating sections at slightly different paces, it’s not traditionally what you’d call a tempo run but close enough), one “long” run that started out slow and pushed you to running at pace. As you progress, pick up the pace a little and do two good old easy runs.

Mobility and strength

Most running apps don’t program mobility or strength work, and if they do, they treat it as an afterthought. Runna’s mobility and strength work is optional, but once you turn it on in the settings, it will appear in your weekly plan with another box to tick.

The mobility training I did was a 30 minute yoga video. I didn’t like it, but it was okay. It started with seated breathing, back stretches, good old fashioned cat/cow, and continued with a sequence of forward bends and lower dog, which resembled an abbreviated sun salutation. There was a stretch for the soles of the feet that felt great, but I really would have liked more stretches for the quads, hamstrings, and hips. I added a few of my own while the instructor did corpse pose at the end.

I didn’t have a chance to do any strength training, but it seemed reasonable. It was supposed to take 25 to 35 minutes, but I was disappointed to see that I couldn’t preview the workout before starting. After a warm-up with push-ups and tiptoe walking (among other movements), the main work included weightless lunges, one-arm dumbbell presses, and a superset of core exercises with dumbbell snatches. As a coach, I would prefer to see runners doing heavier work, and more, but for runners who otherwise don’t do much strength training, this is a great start.

Pilates workouts are also available, and they seem to be structured similarly to the yoga workout I tried: a 30-minute (for me) video with moves you’ll recognize if you’ve taken a Pilates class before.

Social features and privacy

The main social feature of the Runna app is the community feed. You can explore different channels (“spaces”), but there isn’t much to choose from. There are locations for several popular marathons and it sounds like a cool idea, but most of the ones I clicked on had little or no posting. There also doesn’t seem to be a feature you can use to follow your friends (unless I missed it?), and when people ask questions to the community, they seem to go unanswered.

There are also no detailed privacy settings: you can choose to share your mileage or not. The data tile includes a map of your route, often including street names. If you want to keep your location private, it’s not easy to do so when sharing this data tile.

What you can do with and without a subscription

You will need a subscription to access programmed workouts from week two onwards. The one-week free trial will unlock everything from Week 1, and you’ll be able to continue doing those workouts even after the trial period expires, such as if you didn’t complete all the challenges during Week 1. You can also transfer Week 1 workouts to your Garmin device. but once you become a paying customer, you can sync two weeks’ worth of workouts at once.

Once your trial expires, you’ll be able to see the runs and workouts you’ve already completed, can complete any runs or workouts you’ve unlocked but haven’t completed yet, and can even add workouts to your plan—I added a Pilates workout. after the trial period expired, and the app dutifully added it on Friday of the first week and gave me access to it.

You can also view other available plans and even have a new Week 1 programmed for you, but you won’t be able to move on to Week 2 without a Premium subscription. (So ​​I guess if you’re broke and bored, you might want to try the first week of all the plans available.)

Of course, you can always record unprogrammed mileage at any time. In fact, when I went for a run with my Garmin watch, without using the app, it automatically synced with my Activities tab.

What this app does well

Structured, personalized plans are the flagship offering here, and Runna delivers on its promises. I found that my plan worked great for my fitness level and schedule, and I liked the variety of workout types.

Including strength and mobility training will also be a nice addition. Each workout also includes warm-up and recovery exercises, making Runna’s plans really thoughtful.

The app is also flexible in scheduling: I did the workouts out of order and nothing broke. You can also change the days if you wish.

Pros and cons

I don’t have any major complaints about the app itself, so whether it’s worth the money will depend on your opinion of the performance plans it provides.

Some runners have noted on forums like r/Runna that they’re hoping for easier runs and fewer intervals and tempo runs. Runna long runs are not necessarily long, slow distance runs, but often involve a progression where you get a little faster as you go. All of this can make the program seem difficult or intimidating to beginners or people who prefer more relaxed training programs.

Serious runners have their quibbles, too. The scheduling feature only allows one run each day, so it is not possible to schedule two runs on the same day. Double runs are quite normal for long distance runners. Heck, even I sometimes go for a morning and evening run on the same day, and I’m far from the elite.

You also don’t have the choice of different plans on the same level. While there are different types of plans, once you choose one—say, a marathon training plan—the app will tailor you one plan that they calculate will be best for you. You can customize your personalization options, but you don’t have the ability to choose between plans designed to suit different learning philosophies. For example, some marathon plans spread the mileage more evenly throughout the week than others. You just have to take what Runna gives you.

Bottom line

Ultimately, if you like software , the app is for you. And while Runna is one of the most versatile workout planning apps out there, it’s by no means the only one that can create a plan for you. Ultimately, if you like it, $17.99 per month is a reasonable price for a program that holds your hand and helps you stay on track.

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