What is Runna?
Runna builds a running plan around a date and a distance, then pushes the individual sessions to your watch so you're not squinting at your phone trying to remember whether it was 6x800m or 5x1000m. Race plans cover 5K up to 50km and align themselves to your race date. If you don't have a race entered there are distance plans, improvement plans for a 5K or parkrun PB, and four general ones: Run Faster, Run Further, Run to Maintain, Train Your Way. Beginners get New to Running, Return to Running and Path to parkrun, which are effort-based and carry no pace targets at all.
The Strava relationship is two separate things that get conflated constantly. Strava the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Runna on 17 April 2025, and in July 2025 the two launched a combined subscription. The data integration is older and unrelated: it's a normal Strava API connection, the same kind any third-party app has, and it's been there since well before the deal. You authorize Runna to view your activity data and upload activities, and it runs in both directions. Runs recorded in the Runna phone app, the Runna Apple Watch app or Apple Workouts upload to Strava automatically, and activities from Strava can flow back into Runna to cover GPS devices Runna doesn't support directly.
Two honest caveats. Runna deliberately won't train you to a goal time (you can't type one in) because pace targets are derived from your current estimated race time and tighten as you improve. And if you record on a Garmin or COROS, Runna can't relay that run onward to Strava; their own advice is to connect the watch's companion app straight to Strava instead.
Key Features
Plans built around the days you can actually run
Setup asks for your available running days, how many runs a week you want (minimum two), and your preferred long run day, then arranges the week around them. Changing any of those in Manage Plan applies across the whole plan; for shifting a single session you drag and drop it in the calendar instead.
Pace targets from your current fitness, not your ambition
You give Runna a recent or estimated finish time for 5K, 10K or half marathon, and every pace target in the plan is calculated from it. As you improve it recalibrates, and you can nudge it manually. They suggest 15–30 second adjustments rather than big jumps. Adding time makes paces easier, cutting time makes them harder. The three beginner plans have no pace targets to adjust.
Two weeks of workouts on your watch, refreshed every Monday
Paid subscribers get their next two full weeks of sessions pushed to the watch's companion app each Monday; free trial users only get the sessions inside the trial week. Change your plan and the queued workouts update; mark one complete and it disappears from the watch calendar. Only Run-type activities sync to watches (strength and yoga stay in the app).
Strength, and the rest of the non-running work
Strength is 1 to 4 sessions a week at 30, 45 or 60 minutes, on either a Running Focus track (legs and core, minimal upper body) or All-Round Strength, with a beginner/intermediate/advanced ability setting and an equipment list the sessions adapt to. Alongside it sit Yoga, Pilates, and Stretch & Stability: 26 progressive guided mobility sessions aimed at hips, hamstrings, glutes, spine and ankles.
Control over what Strava actually shows
Since June 2025 synced runs get a "with Runna ✅" title and a workout description, and there's no in-app way to turn that off. The plan-progress graphs and highlight images are optional (Connected Apps & Devices → Strava → Sync Plan Progress). Strength sessions recorded on the phone sync to Strava automatically too, with a per-session toggle on the completion screen if you'd rather keep one private.
AI feedback after each workout
Runna's marketing pages don't use the word AI, but its help center does. On a Premium plan, Workout Insights gives AI-generated feedback after each planned workout: how the run compared with the plan, what went well and what to change, with weather and elevation factored in. Runna says it's built with third-party providers, asks for your consent once, and anonymises the data it shares. It isn't available on New to Running, Returning to Running, Post-injury or path to parkrun plans, or on free runs, and it doesn't change your plan. The help pages also point to "Runna AI" for reviewing your pace adjustments over time.
Watch support that goes past Apple and Garmin
Apple Watch on watchOS 10.0 or later (per the App Store listing), either through Runna's own watch app or through Apple Workouts via WorkoutKit. Garmin works as a relay: Runna → Garmin Connect → watch, and completed activities back the same way. COROS support covers PACE, PACE 2, 3, 4 and PACE Pro, NOMAD, APEX 2, APEX 2 Pro, APEX 4, VERTIX 2, VERTIX 2S and DURA. Suunto and Amazfit have their own setup guides, and Fitbit activities can sync into Runna.
Who It's For
- Runners with a race in the calendar who want the plan to work backwards from that date rather than start from week one of a generic block
- People who record on a watch and want the session on their wrist with pace prompts and rest countdowns, not a screenshot of a spreadsheet
- Strava users who already pay for Strava and can get the two together for less than buying both separately
- Returning and first-time runners, who get effort-based plans with no pace targets, including a walk-run New to Running plan
Does Runna sync with Strava, and which way?
Both ways, but not symmetrically. Runs recorded in the Runna phone app, the Runna Apple Watch app or Apple Workouts upload to Strava automatically, and there's a Sync Run button on the workout summary if one doesn't. Activities can also come the other way, from Strava into Runna, which is how you log runs from a device Runna doesn't support. Edits you make in Strava don't sync back to Runna, so fix things in Runna first.
Is Runna free, and do I have to pay for Strava separately?
Runna has a 7-day free trial and no permanent free tier: US pricing on their page today is $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year, billed as $9.99 a month. Since July 2025 there's also a combined Strava + Runna subscription at $149.99 a year, annual billing only, sold through the Strava app and website, not by Runna.
Strava bought Runna, so is it the same app now?
No. Strava announced the acquisition on 17 April 2025 and both companies said the apps stay separate for the foreseeable future. Runna's founders told users they wouldn't notice much difference apart from new integrations, and Runna is still its own app with its own subscription. Runna's race database has since started showing up in Strava's own race discovery.
Why didn't my Garmin run reach Strava with the Runna title?
Two different things. Runna can't pass a watch-recorded run onward to Strava at all. Connect Garmin Connect (or your COROS/Suunto app) directly to Strava instead, under Settings → Connected Apps → Strava. And when the run arrives that way it won't carry the "with Runna ✅" title or description, because the Garmin workout file doesn't have room for them. Some Garmin users actually use this as the workaround for getting rid of the Runna branding.
Can I tell Runna the finish time I'm chasing?
No, and that's deliberate. Runna doesn't train you to a goal time and there's no field to enter one. You give it your current estimated race time, it sets pace targets from that, and the targets get faster as you do.
