Buzz
Running apps offer a variety of features, but Runna stands out by tracking your runs, guiding you through interval training, and providing a structured plan to help you achieve your race goals. It also motivates you to incorporate mobility and strength exercises into your routine, with the added benefit of checking off each completed workout. Let’s explore this app’s features and see if the $17.99/month subscription is worth it.
What is Runna?
The Runna app is compatible with both iOS and Android, designed to offer a tailored running training plan. Runna can sync with devices like Garmin, Coros, Suunto, or Apple Watch, but you can also use it without a watch by simply carrying your phone in your pocket or belt to record your run.
The app is free to download, but to access Runna’s core features, you’ll need a subscription. It costs $17.99 per month, with a one-week free trial. (Pro tip: if you ever use a free trial, cancel immediately after signing up; you’ll still have access for the full week, and then you can decide if you want to continue.)
Runna offers a training plan tailored to your specific goal, whether it's for a 5K or preparing for a marathon. There are also plans designed for non-race objectives, such as the Get Fit Plan and the Post-Injury Plan, which are ideal for those returning after a break. Each plan includes optional strength, mobility, and Pilates sessions, all personalized to match your fitness level, available time, and preferences.
What Runna excels at
Well-structured programming that adapts as you improve.
Personalized plans that cater to your needs.
The app integrates smoothly with other services and devices like Strava and fitness trackers.
Plans include optional warmups, cooldowns, strength training, and mobility exercises.
It’s rewarding to check off completed runs, and you can easily adjust or catch up on missed sessions.
Where it has room for improvement
You’ll need a recent race time to set your starting paces.
You should be comfortable with minute-per-mile (or km) paces in order to follow the workouts effectively.
Some beginner runners report that the workouts can be too challenging.
You can’t browse through plans and choose one at random; you can only adjust them through the personalization options.
Setup
After installing the Runna app, the first step is to choose a training plan. Since I didn’t have a race planned, I was glad to see options for improving fitness without a race goal. The app suggested the Get Fit Plan for me, but I opted for the Functional Fitness plan (which seems to be aimed at Crossfit-style athletes seeking to improve their cardio endurance).
Runna requires a race time to determine your paces
I entered how often I wanted to run (five days), which days I had available (Monday through Friday), and which day I wanted to reserve for long runs (Wednesday). Everything was going smoothly, until it asked for a recent race time. I’ve been jogging regularly for about two months, and while I’ve run races in the past, I had no idea what my current 5K time might be. (I haven’t even been running with a watch lately.)
To be safe, I entered a 35-minute 5K time. I figured that was likely slower than I was actually capable of, and a few days later, the app pointed out that I’d run five kilometers (roughly three miles) in 32 minutes during one of my training runs. Would I like to update my Personal Best to reflect this new time? Absolutely!
The planned runs use minutes-per-mile paces to guide your speed. These are based on the Personal Best you input into the app, meaning that someone who runs a 32-minute 5K will have different target paces than someone who runs a 25-minute 5K. This works well if you’re familiar with minute-per-mile paces, but might be a bit confusing if you’re not.
If you’re unsure about how to fill out this section during setup, here’s my tip: enter a time that’s slower than you think you can actually run. It’s easy to update once the app realizes you’re capable of running faster.
Using the app
Once your plan is set up, you'll be directed to the app's main screens. The first screen, Train, displays your plan for the week. This is where you’ll find the checkboxes. Each workout has its own card, color-coded by type. For example, I had an interval workout (yellow) on Monday for 2.4 miles, followed by a 2.5-mile easy run (blue) on Tuesday, and so on. If you’ve added strength and mobility sessions, they’ll appear here too. After completing a workout, you check it off, and you’ll see both your planned and actual stats—like my 2.5-mile easy run that ended up being 3.2 miles, with both distances shown on the same card.
At the bottom of the screen, there’s a button to record a run. Typically, you’d start a run by tapping the card for the workout you want to do, but you can also use the button below if you want to log an extra run that isn’t part of your plan, or if your subscription has expired but you still want to track runs with Runna. (The 'record run' feature doesn’t require a subscription.)
Lastly, there is a Support tab that not only offers troubleshooting tips for the app, but also houses a library of helpful articles. You can learn about topics like how much protein you should consume, ways to manage Achilles tendinitis, or how to enhance your running technique.
The training screen features ‘comments’ from ‘coaches,’ though they don’t appear to be personalized—unless I missed something. These comments simply explain the workouts you’ll be doing or provide running tips. Often, a short video appears at the top of the screen, with a British-accented voiceover delivering the same information that’s displayed below. Personally, I found this feature unnecessary, and would quickly mute and skip through it, but it could add a friendly vibe to the app for some users.
My experience running with the app
I used the app for a week, completing all the workouts, except for a strength session that didn’t fit into my schedule. I did take a look at it, and it seemed well-structured.
I did one of the runs using an Apple Watch, and found the display very helpful for navigating the day’s somewhat complex plan. I had to complete a series of distance-based intervals at different distances and paces, and incorporate two minutes of walking rest in between. Manually tracking everything would have been a hassle, but the app made it effortless.
At the beginning of each interval, Runna would tell me the pace I needed to hit, and if I fell behind or went too fast, it would prompt me to adjust. It would then display my current pace, so I knew exactly how far off I was. Once I got back on track, the app would briefly notify me with an 'on pace' message, and then I could continue until the next pace adjustment.
The app also provided verbal split times at the completion of each mile, whether I was doing intervals or just a straightforward 'easy run.'
I found the prompts for all the runs easy to follow, and I appreciated the variety in the workouts. My week included one interval session, a tempo workout (where I alternated between slightly different paces—close to a true tempo run, though not exactly), a 'long' run that began slow and gradually encouraged me to pick up the pace, and two regular easy runs.
Mobility and strength
Most running apps either don’t include mobility or strength exercises or treat them as an afterthought. With Runna, however, these workouts are optional, and once enabled in the settings, they’ll show up on your weekly plan with a checkbox to mark once completed.
The mobility session I tried was a 30-minute yoga video. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was fine. It began with seated breathing and back stretches, followed by cat/cow poses, and moved into a sequence of forward folds and downward dogs, resembling a simplified sun salutation. The stretch for the soles of the feet was particularly great, but I would have liked to see more stretches for the quads, hamstrings, and hips. I added a few of my own while the instructor led the corpse pose at the end.
Although I didn’t get around to doing the strength workout, it appeared to be a solid routine. Estimated at 25 to 35 minutes, I was disappointed that I couldn’t preview the workout before starting. After a warm-up of pushups and tiptoe walking (among other exercises), the main session included unweighted lunges, single-arm dumbbell bench presses, and a core exercise paired with dumbbell snatches. As a trainer, I would have preferred to see runners performing heavier lifts and more volume, but for those who are new to strength training, this is a great starting point.
Pilates routines are also available and seem structured similarly to the yoga workout I tried: a 30-minute follow-along video with moves familiar to anyone who’s attended a Pilates class before.
Social features and privacy
The main social feature in the Runna app is the Community feed, where you can browse through different “spaces,” although the options are limited. There are spaces dedicated to a few well-known marathons, which seems like a neat idea, but many of them had very few posts or none at all. It doesn’t appear there’s an option to follow friends (unless I missed something), and when community members ask questions, they often go unanswered.
There are no detailed privacy settings either: you can choose to share your run or keep it private. The data tile shows a map of your route, often with street names marked. If you prefer to keep your location hidden, there’s no simple way to do that when sharing the data tile.
What you can do with and without a subscription
A subscription is necessary to access your programmed workouts from Week 2 onward. The free trial lasts for one week and unlocks everything for Week 1, allowing you to continue with those workouts even after the trial expires, for instance, if you didn’t manage to complete all of Week 1’s activities. You can also transfer Week 1’s workouts to your Garmin device, but once you subscribe, you’ll be able to sync two weeks’ worth of workouts at once.
Once the trial is over, you can view your completed runs and workouts, finish any unlocked but unfinished activities, and even add new workouts to your plan. For example, I added a Pilates workout after the trial expired, and the app automatically placed it on Friday of Week 1 and allowed me to access it.
You can also explore other available plans, and even request a fresh Week 1 program, but you won’t be able to move forward to Week 2 unless you upgrade to the Premium subscription. (So, if you’re short on cash and looking for something to do, you could always try Week 1 of different plans.)
Naturally, you can record an unprogrammed run at any time. For instance, when I did a run with my Garmin watch—without using the app—it automatically synced to my Activities tab.
What this app does well
The structured, customized plans are the highlight here, and Runna truly delivers. I found the plan to be perfectly suited to both my fitness level and schedule, and I appreciated the variety of workouts it offered.
The addition of strength and mobility workouts is a great bonus as well. The plans also include suggested warm-up and cool-down exercises for each run, which really makes the Runna plans feel comprehensive.
The app also offers flexibility with scheduling: I completed the workouts in a different order, and it didn’t cause any issues. You can also rearrange the days to suit your needs.
Downsides and drawbacks
I don’t have any major concerns with the app itself, so whether or not it’s worth the cost ultimately depends on how you feel about the running plans it provides.
Some runners on forums like r/Runna have mentioned that they were hoping for more easy runs and fewer interval or tempo sessions. Runna’s long runs aren’t always traditional long slow distance runs; they often involve a progression where you gradually pick up speed as you go. This could make the program feel challenging or intimidating for beginners, or for those who prefer a more relaxed training regimen.
Experienced runners also have their issues with the app. The scheduling feature only allows you to schedule one run per day, meaning there’s no way to plan two runs for the same day. Doing doubles is pretty standard for high-mileage runners—heck, even I’ll sometimes do both a morning and evening run, and I’m far from elite.
Another limitation is that you don’t have the option to choose from different plans at the same level. While there are various types of plans, once you pick one—let’s say a marathon training plan—the app will create a single plan it believes is best for you. You can adjust the personalization settings, but you can’t choose between plans that follow different training philosophies. For example, some marathon plans distribute their mileage more evenly throughout the week than others. You simply have to accept what Runna gives you.
The bottom line
In the end, if you’re a fan of the programs, the app will serve you well. While Runna is among the most comprehensive apps available for planning your training, it’s certainly not the only one that can map out a plan for you. If it resonates with you, $17.99/month is a fair price to pay for a program that guides you through the process and helps you stay on track.
