This Runna app seems to be gaining quite considerably in popularity but it’s quite the expense at £100 for a year.
Has anyone any feedback on whether the price is worth it?
For reference on the free version you can see the broad outline of a plan with the distance and what type of run. But you can only see detail session outlines with info about pace and targets and specific reps being recommended for the first week.
Spend that 100 on a few good running books and you can write your own training 10x better than whatever that app will give you. These training apps cater to the lowest common denominator -great for getting inactive folks in shape but they’re not optimized for high performance running.
I think it positions itself as cheaper than a coach.
I tried the trial, wasnt really impressed but then I expect a lot.
Abilon app looks better to me but the user interface was poor in the trial.
I tend to find buying a book better for me than any app or bought programmes For example, Jack Daniels/ P&D / Hansons.
I progress with structure based on the books or my readings. I think if I plateaued or felt so needed extra help. I’d probably invest in local 121 coaching forc3-4 months for considerably more cost (I am lucky though, I live in London and with the population density, have access to lots of very good coaches).
I think id learn a lot and the in person coach/ feedback would help me work around some constraints I have.
I didn’t realise it was priced at £100pa. It’s not a lot in the total of what I spend on kit, racing, travel etc for running, but on its own it is quite a bit. Can you adjust the weekly plan to account for upcoming dry-run races/mini races you’ll target for a session instead of running alone/having to change the day depending on lifestyle need?
I’ve bought a couple of pfitz’s books (marathon snd road racing) and what I like about having it all laid out is being able to use the book when I might adjust the plan depending on local club races/certain sessions I do with mates of a similar or slightly faster pace than I would target myself.
To pay £100 for an app to create plans for me, where I might actually prefer something slightly different in the plan is a big risk. I could buy all of the running bibles, a very expensive cookbook and probably a pack of caffeine bullets for less than the price of one app subscription.
How do I change the voice in the app??
Hey whelanbio!
Dom here - I’m one of the founders of Runna! Thanks so much for the comment and totally understand your experience with apps in the past - it’s the reason we founded Runna in the first place. We’re really trying to be that go-to even in the high performance running space.
While we currently support a ton of goals (up to multi-day ultramarathons) and 5k times down to 14 minutes, we are working as hard as we can to improve our offering in the higher performance categories. In particularly, making the plans adapt around existing commitments and sessions. In the meantime, you can easily rearrange sessions from within the app so would encourage you to give it a go.
We’re always open to any feedback too so if you have any please don’t be afraid to shout!
Dom
Absolutely untrue, Runna app is brilliant and I’m already seeing big gains in my 5K PB and not even mid way through the 8 week plan. Don’t write stuff like this without actually looking at it properly.
Hey Oli99uk,
Dom here - founder of Runna. Thanks so much for the feedback - we’re trying to build the best app possible for runners so if you have any thoughts on how we can be improving things please let me know!
Dom
What were you expecting that it lacked?
I really like what it offers which is detailed pacing goals within each session for the targets I have set myself based off my current capabilities. Particularly like how strength exercises can be added in too.
I don’t see what I would gain from something like Jack Daniels’ Book but maybe that’s related to my attitude and desire. I have plateaued which is why I am looking for more structure, and I probably could put in more effort and devise my own plan and sessions based on Jack Daniels and VDOT methods.
Can u reccomend a coach in London (DM if u prefer)
Hey RunningDude90,
Dom here - one of the founders! You can adjust the plan week-by-week for the days you’re available, runs you can fit in as well as rearrange the sessions in the week. Unfortunately we don’t currently support working around existing commitments (e.g., mini races) but will set you these as part of your plan if that’s what your after.
In the future, you’ll be able to put in all of these things (such as run clubs, A/B/C races, social runs) and your plans will adapt automatically. In the meantime, we try to make it easy for you to adapt your plan manually youself.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Dom
Just downloaded your app. From a technical standpoint, it seems like you’ve done a great job! I also recently discovered the V.02 app, and you both have a beautiful UX design compared to many of the other bigger apps.
My primary recommendation would be to introduce more plans of varying philosophies. For example, many people have succeeded with the Hansons Marathon Method (more mileage spread out throughout the week with 16mi max long run), but your app is somewhat limited to a single marathon approach. Since your framework is already built out, maybe it would be easy enough to introduce more plans?
I used up my trail and don’t think I am your niche. I only tried the app very briefly 3 months ago. Happy to give feedback if you want it - send me a DM.
I’m no marketing guru but you can probably sweep up a lot of London Marathoners that want yo do better after Sunday. With reasonable training, 65% age graded should be attainable but there are probably over 30,000 runners on Sunday below that standard. 1% conversion on that is 300 runners. Maybe 10% of those complete a training cycle and succeed with testimonials for the blog.
I just think they (the apps) except maybe abilon are all a bit general cookie cut, heavily leaning on the cautious side.
I thought I the app falls in a safe middle ground and my needs are polarized: either self education or get an expert for a short burst
I understand why this is, it’s best for with least injury risk. In contrast, an in person coach (more €£$) has a better observation and feedback to draw on and can push an athlete harder: closer to their limits to maximize progress but still avoiding injury.
Daniels and Hanson books are very cautious too but I feel they give enough information and structure to build out more demanding plans. I use those as a base but also reference club sessions that are typically more demanding as they can be - they are aimed at club runners of a certain group standard. The books, like the apps have to capture widest possible group.
The books are like £15 each and I enjoy reading them. I dont see value for me in a £100 pa impersonal sub. I dont like spending money but I think I’d get better value from spending maybe £150pm on a local coach for 3-4 months that would be of value well beyond the training block. As I said though, I’m very lucky to have a wealth of accessible coaches from Olympians themselves to people that have coached them, even and probably better, coaches with experience in coaching more “normal ability people”.
The feedback loop is the part I consider worth paying for.
Do you have an estimate of when we will be able to add races etc to the plan? That is the one thing I’d want before switching over to Runna
Hey John - thanks so much for this! We believe (especially for beginner runners but also generally) that having a ton of plans is really confusing to people. There should be a single best way to train for a Marathon (given a number of variables such as someone’s running history, preferences, injury, previous mileage etc). If someone comes in and tells us this, we should adapt their plan accordingly, perhaps automatically capping their long run and following more of a method such as this. However, we’ve found that users find it quite overwhelming when present with a ton of different methods and they don’t know which one to pick and is right for them.
We’re (trying to) build a system in which we uses professional running coaches, qualitative user feedback (e.g., enjoyment, motivation, injuries) and quantitive metrics (e.g., progress) to distil the optimum training plan for any user drawing on all of these methods but meaning that a user is 100% confident the plan is completely optimum for them. Obviously a long journey on this path and we’ll always be improving but just wanted to share the vision for now!
Sure thing - so right now the way that it works is that you can train for a goal or a specific race (e.g., London Marathon) and we’ll build you a fixed-length plan (12 or 16 weeks for Marathon). In the meantime before that, we’d recommend following one of our maintenance plans until you reach that 12/16 week mark and switch onto the Marathon training.
In Q3 you’ll be able to follow any length training plan (e.g., for London Marathon that is 19 weeks out). And beyond that put in multiple races (e.g., your A/B/C races) and the plan will adapt accordingly.
Hope that helps - if you have any questions feel free to drop us a message from the Support tab inside the app or emailing us at [email protected]!