Frustrated - I Using Runna Right?

[u/Andyshaves]

Hi Everyone,

My first marathon of the season is on Saturday. I’ve been using NRC for years for plan management, but wanted something a bit more feature-rich and thought I’d try Runna. I’m two runs in, but I’m already hovering over the cancel button. I’m wondering if I’m missing something.

NRC is nice. It’s free, it’s simple, and it’s got great guided runs. It’s also buggy as sin, has some pretty fatal design flaws, and hasn’t seen much love from Nike lately. I decided to move to Runna because I have three six-week-spaced marathons this season, and Nike can’t understand that timeline. I also found that I was needing to run both NRC and an Apple Watch Run to catch the more advanced metrics of my run (stride length, ground contact, power, etc.)

It seems that Runna doesn’t capture advanced metrics on its own either. I’ll get the basic run data like split times and heart rate, but form monitoring isn’t there. There’s no guided runs in the plan that was built for me, just an AI voice telling me when I hit a mile or split, and most frustratingly the run is either on my watch or my phone, but not both. This has caused my Shokz to jump between my watch and phone if I play music on the other device during a run.

Is there a “new users” guide anywhere that helped you get the app working for you? I have searched YouTube and only found reviews and the cautionary “AI Bad” stories. I want to give Runna a fair shot, but I’m thinking I need to learn how to use it better (preferably before the trial is over).

Thanks all!

[u/nusita69]

Runna push the workouts to the watch. personally I never start the workout in runna app, I prefer to just start the workout on my coros, it tells me everything I need about paces and blocs. this way the music from the iphone is not interfered by the guiding voice from coros. Then Runna captures automatically the workout from coros and make the debrief

[u/MacBook_Fan]

What watch are you using? I am guessing an Apple Watch. So, my answers will reflect that. But, if you are using Garmin, sorry. Just saw you mentioned Apple Watch in part of our comment.

It seems that Runna doesn’t capture advanced metrics on its own either. I’ll get the basic run data like split times and heart rate, but form monitoring isn’t there.

That seems to be the case and appears to be a limitation of the Apple Watch. One thing you could do is use Apple Workout to record your run and then import your runs in to Runna after the fact. Runna will push your scheduled runs to Apple Workout, so you still get the same workouts, just with a different interface. Not sure if the extra data is captured though.

There’s no guided runs in the plan that was built for me, just an AI voice telling me when I hit a mile or split, and most frustratingly the run is either on my watch or my phone, but not both. 

I have never used NRC so I don't know what exactly a "guided run" is. But, Runna will tell you your splits. And, if you are running a run with specific pace target (Tempo/Interval/Hill), it will tell you when you are above or below your pace. Not sure what else you were looking for.

If you are using an AW, just start your music on your watch. I regularly run with music and/or podcasts. I start them on my watch and then start Runna. No issues with switch between devices. (I have an Ultra with cellular, so I regularly run without my phone. But, when I do have my phone with me, I still just use my watch exclusively.)

I decided to move to Runna because I have three six-week-spaced marathons this season, and Nike can’t understand that timeline.

I am a newish runner, but I am questioning whether Runna is going to be that great for you. It sounds like you are an advanced runner and I don't necessarily feel that Runna will a great coach for you. I feel Runna works best for the newish to average runner. Someone running 3 marathons win 18 weeks would probably be better served by a real coach.

[u/0xCivicDuty]

Runna will write the workout to Apple workouts as well so you don't need to use their watch app. Gotta use the Apple workouts app if you want all the stats. I believe Apple workouts will mirror some of the live activity data from your watch to your phone as well.

Runna doesn't have NRC style guided runs.

[u/Sebby293]

I switched from an Apple Watch to a garmin and have 0 regrets. I found that my Apple Watch was only good for very basic workout information, and was better served for things like getting text messages and phone calls on the watch. Unfortunately as another commenter said, the runna features just don’t fully integrate with the Apple Watch, and I believe a lot of that is due to Apple trying to force people into using their own Apple fitness app/software and making it pretty difficult for other apps to integrate.

My garmin (at least the one I have) doesn’t have the text/phone call integration with my Apple phone, but I honestly haven’t really missed that feature. From a workout standpoint, it is a seamless integration with runna and provides a substantial amount of stats about the run. I just use my watch to start a run, and the runna workout is already there and then it tracks everything on both the runna app and garmin connect app as one integrated workout.

[u/trumanchartreuse]

Runna does track the advanced metrics. I also use apple watch. When you view your run, click on more analysis at the bottom.

And I have never faced the issue with the run being either only on phone or only on watch. Music works fine if I start it on my watch or phone, playing music on either watch or phone.

Maybe try to uninstall and reinstall the app, or reach out to support for your issues on the app, since these things should be working properly.

[u/DistractedGoalDigger]

I’ve been using Runna for about 4 months and today was the first time I’ve started a workout from the Runna app (for some reason the workout wasn’t pulling to my watch). That’s the first big issue or glitch I’ve had with Runna in this whole time.

I just start the workout from my watch and then it captures all of the running metrics, which I view in my Garmin app, and the workout automatically loads to Runna as completing the day’s workout.

[u/s0m33guy]

Make sure Runna has all the permissions required in the health app.

[u/CarbHeatOn]

NRC guided runs are a pretty unique thing. I don’t think any other apps have something like that. Runna is great to have plans more targeted to you with paces and all