Will it link by itself?
It comes down to how the recording started. Finishing a run on the right day isn’t enough; Runna’s smart watch article says the usual reason for a missed link is a run recorded as a Free Run instead of the workout sent to the watch.
| How the run was recorded | Links itself? | Used by Pace Insights? |
|---|---|---|
| Planned Runna workout on your phone or Apple Watch | Apple Watch: yes. Runna says a run from its watch app links to your scheduled session, and one from Apple Workouts or Apple Fitness should. Phone: implied only. It’s the route Runna tells you to use, but no article states the link | Yes, for sessions with pace targets |
| Runna workout on a Garmin, COROS or Suunto | Yes, once it syncs back. On Suunto it still links if you run it on a different day. On COROS, Runna also says to keep Pace Targets on, Auto Lap and Auto Pause off, and units matching | Yes, for sessions with pace targets |
| Free Run, on a watch or in the app | No on a watch. For a Free Run in the app, Runna’s steps are to link it afterward. Use Link Activity | No, even after you link it |
| Reaches Runna only through Strava | No. Runna says so for Garmin runs, which it treats as external recordings, and describes no exception for other devices | No. It’s listed as an incompatible workout |
| Manual activity you typed in | No. Link it yourself | No |
Amazfit and Fitbit work a little differently. On Amazfit, Runna says completed runs link to planned ones, but only the T-Rex 3 Pro and Balance 2 get structured workouts; on other models it suggests recording pace sessions on your phone and linking easy runs afterward. On Fitbit, Runna goes by the day the activity was recorded, so a wrong date on the device can stop it lining up, and Link Activity is the fix.
Beyond that Fitbit line, Runna doesn’t describe any rule for matching an outside run to that day’s workout by distance or time. So read the Noes in the table as what its help pages document. We can’t say a match never happens.
How to link a run to a planned workout
- Check that the run is in your Progress tab. If it isn’t, skip to when it still fails.
- Go to the Plan tab.
- Open the planned workout the run should count against.
- Tap Link Activity.
- Choose the activity from your Progress tab.
A run your watch already synced can still be linked, as can an extra run you want to stand in for a planned session. If one run was saved as two recordings, you may be able to link both to one workout, depending on how they were recorded. Runna’s Apple Watch troubleshooting guide uses this for a partial recording plus a manual activity covering the rest.
To redo a session instead: open the completed activity, tap the check mark to mark it incomplete, go back to the planned workout, unlink the activity if needed, and drag the workout to a new date (the limits are under Missed runs, below).
Why a Free Run or Strava run doesn’t move your paces
Pace Insights compares your paces with the targets in intervals, tempo runs, time trials and some long runs. Anything it can’t use lands in an Incompatible Workouts section inside Pace Insights, with a reason. Two of the reasons on Runna’s list are the ones people hit here: a Free Run linked by hand, and an activity recorded elsewhere and uploaded from Strava. Manual uploads can’t be used either. For all three, the fix is to start the planned workout next time. Runna gives no fix for a run you’ve already done.
Plenty of other things can knock a session out: pace targets switched off (Profile, Workouts, Pace Targets), auto-lap left on with a Garmin or COROS, unfinished reps, or a distance far from the plan. Pace Insights needs precise lap and pace data. Walk-runs aren’t eligible, and changing your estimated race time resets your Pace Status, so it takes more speed sessions before you see an update.
What changes your plan, and who decides
| Feature | What it changes | Your say | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pace Insights | Pace targets across the plan, when it sees a clear trend in your sessions with pace targets | Apply it or ignore it. You can undo it under Manage Plan, Current Race Times | Not on New to Running, Return to Running or Path to parkrun |
| Mileage Insights | Weekly mileage, long run mileage and runs per week, based on all your runs, Free Runs and Instant Workouts included | Accept or dismiss. There’s no automatic undo; set Weekly Mileage back by hand | Race plans only |
| Plan Realignment | After missed workouts: have Runna drop or rearrange them, or for longer gaps extend, rebuild or continue the plan | You pick an option | Can’t be undone |
| Not Feeling 100% | Eases or pauses training for 3 to 14 days, then adjusts what follows so you return gradually | You add it under Manage Plan | Not on older-style plans |
| Holiday Mode | Adapts mileage progression, deload weeks and workout types around a trip | You add it under Manage Plan | Trips of 3 to 21 days; not on older-style plans |
| Adapt for Heat | Suggests slower targets on a hot day, or a conversational long run in place of a structured one | Tap it, review, then accept or keep the session as planned | Rolling out gradually; not on Hyrox, Functional Fitness, Post-Natal, Post-Injury, Post-Race Recovery or the beginner plans |
Older-style plans are Runna’s original format. Its Holiday Mode article names Hyrox, Functional Fitness, Post-Natal, Post-Injury and Post-Race Recovery among them, and in-app support can check which you’re on.
Runna describes this as you staying in control, and these features all work that way on paper: each one waits for you to press something. Whether pace targets can also move without you is less clear (next section).
Some things leave the plan alone, or mostly do. Cycling, swimming and other cross-training can be logged but won’t count toward adherence or drive any adaptation, and strength, yoga and Pilates sit outside the adaptive running plan. Instant Workouts don’t affect your main plan, though Mileage Insights does track them. Manual activities don’t usually change it either. Workout Insights feedback won’t change it. The thumbs up or down is used by Runna’s teams for now, and Runna says it plans a more direct role later.
Do pace targets change on their own?
Check first. The status card in the Plan tab tells you whether a pace change is waiting (Ahead of the Pack and Let’s Review Your Pace both offer View update), and Manage Plan, Current Race Times is where to change your paces yourself, in small steps of 15 to 30 seconds at a time. Runna also notes that changing your benchmark race distance can shift your estimated race time, and that entering a new personal best may adjust your estimated race times and training paces, or trigger a plan update if it’s much faster than your benchmark. If your targets moved and you can’t see why, ask in-app support.
On the question itself, Runna’s help pages don’t agree, and we can’t settle it from outside. The Pace Insights article says “Pace Insights never automatically change your training paces without your input”, the plan-building article says you can choose whether to accept suggested pace changes, and the Amazfit article says a plan stays fixed unless you change it by hand, with Pace Insights suggesting changes you choose whether to accept. Against that, the article on estimated race times says your pace targets adjust automatically as you follow your plan and improve, and the personal records article says estimated race times update automatically as you go through a plan. None of these explains how it fits with the others.
One more line sits oddly with the rest. Answering “Does my plan adapt automatically?”, the Pace Insights article says the only way is through Pace Insights, which leaves out Mileage Insights, a suggestion of the same kind.
Missed runs: skip them or leave them unticked?
The choice decides whether you get Plan Realignment.
- You’ll still do the run. Drag it in the Training Calendar. It can move within the week, or one week forward or back, onto a day with no other Plan run.
- You won’t do it, and the rest of the week stands. Open the workout, tap the three dots, then Skip workout. Unless it’s a key long run, leave the plan alone. Runna’s skipping article adds that it will adjust around your remaining sessions, without saying how, and on race plans Mileage Insights may adjust upcoming workouts if you skip a long run.
- You’ve missed a lot, or know you will. Don’t mark them as skipped. Leave them unticked. The Realignment pop-up appears at the bottom of the Today or Plan tab, usually on a Monday, once you’ve missed about three workouts or a week of training.
No pop-up? Check the missed workouts are unticked and un-skipped, and whether you have an actionable Mileage Insight waiting. You can unskip from the workout itself (Plan tab, the week, the workout, Unskip Workout). After more than four weeks away, the pop-up changes to include starting a new plan or restarting the current one, which is what Runna recommends after a month off. Read the options before you tap, since the choice is final.
When it still fails
The run never reached Runna (Garmin, COROS or Fitbit). Confirm it’s on the device first. Runs started before you connected the device won’t sync, and Runna can’t pull one in by hand. If the run is on Strava and Strava is connected to Runna, Runna suggests editing its title in Strava to send it across again. That’s for a run that never arrived, not for correcting one that did. On Fitbit, open Google Health, because Fitbit syncs only when that app is opened.
Your Garmin goes through Strava. Runna says that chain isn’t reliably supported and can lose or garble data. Connect Garmin straight to Runna under Profile, Connected Apps & Devices. If Garmin, Runna and Strava have all been linked for a while, disconnect Garmin and Strava from Runna and reconnect them. Runna recommends connecting Garmin Connect directly to Strava as well, since it can’t be relied on to pass Garmin runs along.
An Apple Watch run is missing. Look for a Sync X Pending Workouts prompt in the Runna watch app. If the run shows in Apple Fitness or Apple Health, import it: Profile, Connected Apps & Devices, Apple Health, Sync Completed Activities, Import. Don’t delete or reinstall Runna while you sort this out, because that can erase unsynced workouts. For Strava, connect only Runna, with the watch and Apple Health not linked to Strava.
The run is in Runna but not on Strava. Open the workout summary, scroll down and tap Sync Run; that covers runs from the phone app, the Runna Apple Watch app and Apple Workouts. For other watches, contact support. If the sync fails or the button is missing, the run is often on Strava already, since Strava refuses duplicates.
Nothing syncs with Strava. Start by logging out of Runna and back in, the first thing its article suggests. Toggle the connection off and on under Profile, Connected Apps & Devices, and sign in again. Check it’s the right account: signing in with Facebook or Google can create a second Strava account, which Runna gives as the likely cause when a run shows as synced and you can’t find it. On strava.com, Settings, Partner Integrations, Runna should show permission to view activity data and upload activities.
A run from Strava has the wrong numbers. Runna’s articles differ here. One says edits in Strava won’t sync back; another says to fix the activity in Strava, then pull to refresh in the Progress tab or toggle the connection. Try the refresh. If it’s still wrong, delete the activity in Runna and re-import it once it’s corrected in Strava. For runs from other sources, Runna’s fix is a manual activity linked to the plan.
Past that, use the in-app support channel, which is where most of these articles end up. Strava owns Runna, per Runna’s acquisition FAQ, but the same FAQ calls Runna a standalone business, and the two connect only if you switch that on, so Runna’s support is the place to ask.
If you want a plan that changes itself
Runna mostly asks before it changes things. Some apps in the directory describe plans that change as your runs come in, and how much say you get varies; most of the pages below don’t spell it out. The Strava column is what each maker documents about the connection, so check that a Strava run feeds the adapting before you switch. You can give something up for that: on TrainAsONE, for one, a missed workout is removed overnight and the FAQ tells you to follow the new plan rather than make it up. Everything below is each maker’s own description, and we haven’t compared how well any of them does it. For comparison, Runna is $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year in the US, with the first week free.
| App | How it says it adapts | Strava | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| TrainAsONE | Recalculates your whole future plan when you miss a session or set a PB | Activity import on the free plan | Free plan; Premium £9.99 a month or £99 a year; 21-day Premium trial |
| 2PEAK | Analyzes each session and updates future workouts. Triathlon, cycling and running | Connect Strava or Garmin Connect | 14 days free, then a subscription (plans on our listing) |
| running.COACH | Analyzes completed workouts and updates the plan if your fitness changes; says it handles missed runs and weeks off | Listed as supported, with sessions synced automatically | 14 days free, then a subscription (we couldn’t confirm the price) |
| Kaizen | Every completed run recalculates your fitness and the training load ahead. You can move or edit sessions | Connect Strava, Garmin or Apple Health | 7-day trial; US App Store lists $14.99 a month or $89.99 a year |
| Pelaris | Rewrites one program across lifting, running and swimming as sessions, sleep and life come in | Pulls activities in from Strava | Tracking is free; one AI program and a month of adapting to start, then from A$15 a month |
| Flow State Endurance | AI planning and replanning around life, recovery and race goals, with plain-language reasons for changes | Syncs in history from Strava and Garmin | Free plan; replanning is in Coach, $10 a month, 7-day trial |
Our Runna page has the rest of what it does, and the Garmin Connect, COROS, Suunto and Apple Watch pages cover how each one connects to Strava.
Sources
All pages read October 30, 2026.
- Runna, linking and syncing: log, link or manually add an activity, extra runs, parkrun and club runs, Strava syncing issues, connect Strava to Runna, missing runs from Garmin, COROS or Fitbit, missing Apple Watch runs
- Runna, devices: Garmin, Garmin troubleshooting, COROS, Suunto, Amazfit, smart watches, Fitbit, Apple Watch, Apple Watch troubleshooting
- Runna, paces: Pace Insights, why you aren’t receiving Pace Insights, estimated race time and pace targets, how Runna builds your plan, personal records
- Runna, plan changes: Plan Realignment, skipping a run, Training Calendar, Mileage Insights, Not Feeling 100%, Holiday Mode, Adapt for Heat, cross-training, Instant Workouts, Workout Insights, workout reviews
- Runna and Strava: acquisition FAQs, Runna’s Strava page (prices)
- TrainAsONE: home, pricing, missed workout FAQ
- 2PEAK
- running.COACH
- Kaizen: App Store listing
- Pelaris: home, integrations, pricing
- Flow State Endurance: pricing
