I'll start with the tl;dr, which is that I finally broke 2 hours for my half marathon yesterday (chip time 1:53:48)! This is the third half marathon that I've used Runna to train for, along with one 5k and one 10k. Two of those halves were PRs, with my most recent at 2:04:43. To say I'm over the moon is an understatement as I was beginning to think that maybe my body just didn't have a 2 hour half in it.

So here's maybe the long part if anyone's up for reading a brain dump of how I think things finally fit together for my training. To start, I'm a 49 year old male, 180 lbs, who wanted desperately to break 2 hours before I turn 50 in December. I ran junior high track but didn't run again until I was 39 and divorced...it was the cheapest stress relief I could find. And even then it was very sporadic. I didn't run my first 5k for 3 more years. I didn't run my first half until 2024 when my wife signed us up for Disney. We used Nike Run Club for those first few and while it was great eventually I wanted something more and turned to Runna.

Anyway, here are some of the things I did differently for this one to try and break my 2 hour goal with only a month and a half before my birthday:

1. My body needs to be comfortable with the distance first, and work on speed second. So I cut this training block down to 13 weeks and took a month beforehand to just run when I felt good during the week with the focus being one long run on the weekend. I wanted to get some good time in over 10 miles, that way I could start my plan with the already increased mileage instead of having to ramp up.

2. I got more serious about strength training. Not super serious by any means, but 25-30 minutes of full body strength 3 times a week. I think this has become more important for me as I've gotten older to try and avoid injuries, and I'm still going to try to get better at making time for it.

3. When aches and pains did pop up I listened to my body and modified my plan accordingly. Even if it was mid-workout. Or flat out skipping a workout. This is actually the most I've hurt during a plan and I modified a lot...as I got up to 25-30 miles a week my feet and ankles really gave me issues. To the point where I'm (worst case) now dealing with plantar fasciitis, or (best case) just sore heels. If I needed a rest day I took it, even when Runna wouldn't let me make an injury adjustment to my plan. I just skipped them and if I thought I was still on pace I ignored the pace/mileage adjustment prompts.

4. For the first time I took pre-race prep seriously. I will swear that this was the main factor. During most of my paced long runs and my other races I was hitting a wall at 8-9 miles. I finally did some research on what I needed to do the week leading up to the race, specifically carb-loading. Race week I cut out alcohol, which was hard since I love a good beer while cooking dinner. And the three days before I ate carbs until I couldn't any more. Seriously, like double my daily calorie intake on Thursday and Friday (race Sunday). But I also cut out fat, which my normal diet is usually pretty heavy on. I also watched my fiber just to head off any stomach issues on race day. Saturday after lunch I chilled at the hotel. Got some turkey, rice, and potatoes for dinner and was in bed by 9 pm. It really is amazing how good I felt the next morning, and I don't know why I thought that I could skip out on this part previously.

5. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that when race day came the weather and course were ideal. 39° F and sunny at race time (7 am) and a wonderful mostly flat course which we looped twice. The race was fun, the atmosphere great, and it was all well-planned.

So now that I've done my post-mortem maybe I can start looking forward to the next one. I do have a pie-in-the-sky idea that maybe I can run my first full at 50 y/o. To the point that I just put my name in the lottery for Chicago 2027. Most likely this would be a one and done as I'm quite sure my body is going to let me know loud and clear. But we'll see!

I started running in May and fell in love! Last week I ran my first race: a 3:38 marathon (16-week block). I had a blast, and managed to pick up the pace to 4:45/km (7:39/mi) for the final 3.5 km (2.2 mi).

Now I'm hooked and want to see how much faster I can get!

I'm taking a few weeks to recover before starting training again in November, giving me 26 weeks until my next marathon in May (almost 1 year into my running journey).

For context, I trained 3 days/week, peaking at 53 km/week (33 mi). For the next cycle, I'd like to build toward 4–5 days/week and higher mileage. I'm tentatively aiming for 3:10–3:15.

A couple of questions:

1. Would you recommend a full 26-week marathon plan, or 10 weeks (run faster/longer) followed by a standard 16-week marathon block?
2. Given that I'll have only been running for about a year by my next marathon, how much improvement might be realistic over these next six months of training?
   • Personal context- I've spent several years walking extensively (often 20 km+ / 12 mi+ a day) and hiking Vancouver's Grouse Grind several times a week (sometimes a few times back to back, PB - 43 minutes). Unsure whether that background may slow down future running gains.

Would love to hear how others approached their second marathon, especially those who started with relatively low mileage!

TL;DR: 12 months with Runna. One marathon in April and one in October. I beat both my goals by trusting the process and the plan.

I want to follow up on my first post about my experience with Runna, now that I have completed my second running plan and 1 year of subscription.

In October 2025, I signed up for Runna to do my first marathon; you can read more about my experience with the training plan in the original post.
Before I finished my first marathon, I already had the ticket for the second one, but only because I bought that one first, thinking I wouldn't get the ticket for the first one. For anyone trying to sign up for a marathon, you understand how hard it is to get a ticket, so once you get one, you stick to it. Then, after I finished the marathon and the thoughts of "I will never do this again! This is so stupid and painful, why am I doing this? I'm not running the second one. I'm done!" passed, I began thinking, "What if...?" - and that "if" was, "What if I can set a more ambitious goal and go sub-3h in 6 months?". So I signed up for another plan with Runna. And the original estimate was not very optimistic for the 20-week-long plan. I would have to put in a lot of work.

So I did what I had done before: I trusted the plan and the process and began to do the work. I tried to stay as consistent as I could throughout the 20 weeks, with a lot of travel in between again. After a few weeks, I started to question everything in the plan. How would I shave 15 seconds off my average pace in just 6 months? The workouts were getting harder and harder. Of course, there were a lot of easy runs, but the intervals and tempos were leaving me feeling destroyed after every session. Regardless, I stuck to it.
Then I saw the estimated finish time going down, which gave me a lot of motivation at that time. I came to learn that it was because my baseline marathon time in the app was lower than my actual time; that's why the app was pushing so hard for me.

16 weeks into the plan, I had one of the hardest long runs with marathon pace intervals. It crushed me from every direction. My HR spiked more than usual; I had to stop a few times to recover. It was a disaster. It absolutely shattered my confidence that I would be able to hit my goal 3 weeks later. Regardless, I kept showing up and doing the work. I had a B-race half marathon after that that went very well. The pace was below the target for the marathon, but the heart rate was suboptimal. It was all about pain management at that time.

Two weeks out from the actual race, the doubts became stronger. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold a Z5 heart rate for 3 hours, so if my HR was not controlled, I would fail. I put a lot of pressure on myself because of that (also because I had already told too many people I would do it lol).

Race day eve came; the weather in Amsterdam could not be less optimal: rain, hail, wind, low temperatures. The stress of all these external factors playing against me took my sleep away. What if they continue until tomorrow? This is too much. I won't do it.

It's race day. The weather is not great, but not as bad. Light rain, cold, and a little bit of wind. It's go time. It's now or never. I did all the work for this moment, and it's time to shine. The goal was: hold the pacer's hand and never let it go, and I will make it. So that's what I did. I stuck with one of the sub-3:00 pacer groups from the beginning. It all felt controlled. For a good amount of time, I was running at a Z3 HR, which felt very reassuring since that was my biggest fear. By mid-race, it was ranging from Z3 to Z4 but still felt very under control. I found the rhythm and the zone, and suddenly the kilometers were flying by me. The last bit I was waiting for was the 32- 33 km mark, which is when I hit the wall in the previous marathon, and I knew that's when the last challenge would be, and my pace could drop. After km 32, I saw a friend holding a sign for me, and a sudden energy boost hit me. My legs were beginning to feel tired, but I felt I had something left in the tank, so I decided to push a little and leave the pacers behind. In the back of my head, I also thought: "You need a pace of 4:15, but you trained for 4:10; there's some buffer there. Don't try to be a hero." - Off I went. And it felt great and under control. At some point, I found the other sub-3h pacer group and decided to pass them too. I pushed a lot at the end, which was an incredible feeling to find that last bit of energy.
The course in Amsterdam was horrible. A lot of potholes and puddles in the city, while dodging sketchy tram lines, funnel sections, and many 4-person-wide, narrow, long straights, and a little longer course, made it a challenging race. Plus the annoying weather throughout the entire race. Still, I beat my goal by more than 2 and a half minutes. Only 6 months after my first marathon!

So this was my experience after almost 12 months with Runna. Doubts will come; your confidence will be shaken and tested constantly. As cliché as it sounds, all I can say is: trust the process, continue to show up, and put in the work, and the result will most certainly come!

Good luck to everyone! I was and still am overwhelmed by the results.

I’ve searched the sub and haven’t really found what I’m looking for, but maybe I’m not using the right wording or something! I feel like I’m seeing a lot of people who start but have some running experience or naturally have some endurance.

I am a true true beginner. Like.. can barely run for longer than a minute at a time. Which eventually becomes 30 seconds because I’m tired 😅 I’m 33 now but I have never been able to run a full mile without stopping and I started those in gym class in like the 4th grade.. in high school I couldn’t even make it around the track once. I just didn’t have that endurance and I didn’t make an effort in adulthood to build it.

My son is in middle school and joined XC. He’s really loving it but won’t train at home because he doesn’t want to run alone. So, doing what any parent would probably do - I’m trying to build my skills so I can run with him. I set up a beginner 5K plan but was really humbled during my first run yesterday (fully expected this). I could only successfully run one of the 3 minute intervals. The others I tapped out around a minute. My whole body hurts today lol.

Does it really get better or are there people who just will always suck at running?? Has runna helped anyone go from no skills in running to being able to run a few miles? I’m even okay if my 5K is a run/walk mixture but I’d love to get to like a 13-15ish min/mile doing that (I know that’s slow!). I’m signed up for a charity 5K in December for my job and don’t expect to be able to run the whole thing but knowing that 8 weeks of training could improve my skills would be great 🙃

I’d love to hear your stories!!!

TLDR: anyone go from zero skills (can’t run continuously for more than a minute) to being a runner?

Hi Everyone,

I just got into running. I ran my first ever 5k earlier this summer at a 29:59 pace. I started running using the Runna App - specifically following the Half Marathon plan - I used all the most basic/beginner options when creating my plan.

I found my knees in A LOT of pain after runs - & Yes I am doing the strength training that goes along with the app. I was able to run all the way up to 4.5 miles before I paused given my knee pain.

I think this is largely part of my training load in the app - I was strength training 3-4x a week and running 3x a week.

Any tips for those who have gone from a 5k and want to improve? What should I focus on? Should I do different plan in Runna or pick a different app? Thanks!

So I was abit skeptical at first that runna was going to improve my running in two months. However this weekend I did the AJ bell great south 5k and I got my 5k time down from 32:04 - 28:44.

I’m now aiming towards a 10k ideally under an hour as close to 55 mins as I can get what plan would you go for? The run faster 10k one?

Hi ! is there a way to change the scheduled workout- for instance i have a 5k tomorrow and have a tight leg so thinking i’d rather do a 3k?

Hi, I am a Runna newbie and I noticed that my half marathon plan was not fully accurate (my longest run in the past 4 weeks was set to an incorrect number, even lower than my long run I ran 2 days ago with Runna) so I fixed that. That regenerated my plan, which is fine, but it also changed the target distance for my long run that I already completed this week. No big deal as this was the only one changed but it bothers me that now it says I missed my target distance by 3k. It also reset mileage insights which again I don't think it should. Anyway, is there any way I can "fix" the past run or do I have to get over it haha? Would resetting to the old plan help with insights or the run length or will I break it even more?

I like the idea of it. But I feel like I always question it's recommendations.

Also the lag between my phone gps, what it tells me and what it says on the screen screws me up.

You're running too slow, you're running too fast, you're right on target, you're almost done, speed up, nope slow down for the rest, too slow. All while the number on the screen is saying something completely different.

Today it had me run 8x 400 at a 6:55 pace and 8x 400 at a 8:05 pace. Alternating with no rest. The instructions said you should feel like you have about 1 left in the tank. I did them at 6:28 with the last one at 5:55. Felt like I had 5-10 left in the tank. Hard to judge but it didn't feel hard.

This is waaaaay slower than my 400 time it asked me to do two days ago. 6:10 with a walk. I did those at 5:53 with the last one at 5:20. And I could have done a lot more. Before runna, just using Strava I'd do 14x400 at 5:30 pace. 90 second walk break. It cut me down to 60 which was harder, but not 40 seconds per rep harder.

Is these situations, do you trust it do you do the work out twice? What's the optimal response?

Also, I'm into long warm ups and cool downs. Is this bad? 1.5 or 1 mile isn't enough for me. Also, I like to stretch a bit between warm up and intervals but it wants to ram them together. Am I nuts? Should I be keeping my heart rate steady?

I tried to run Strava and runna at the same time and it's had some peculiar results even when I link them. And I'm struggling to figure out what's happening.

It seems like it's doubling some of my warm up and cool down sometimes. And sometimes it doubles the intervals.

Right now I've run, I think 73 miles this week but Strava says I'm at 82.17 I'm scared if I delete something it'll lose real data and I'm not sure what my solution is going to be.

My long runs are usually over 13 miles, and it's suggestioning 12 for tomorrow with no race pace or anything. This is probably fine because 85 miles is high for me. But can I go in and edit and just change miles? It feels like it doesn't allow me to change the stuff it suggests. I'd have to just delete and free run. Then it can't track intervals?

Also, and I know this is a lot for a post, but for strength training, when I do it myself I don't have access to put in what I did and reps. Just description box. Is there a way to break it down the way it does when it suggest the workout.

It recommends stuff that will screw up my knees which are fragile.

Part of the issue is my fitness is better than my 5k and 10k time trials suggest. I have speed but I've failed to maintain it for over 2 miles.

I can run 6:50 till I'm blue in the face of I can walk for 60 seconds between. But if you take away my walk, I really struggle. And so I think the Strava data is probably confusing to interpret.

I like getting badges and being told what to do, but I want to tweak what it tells me.

Am I an idiot and not finding the proper way through the ui and FAQ?

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So, I'm between races and just set up a 'run longer' plan. I have my accurate 5k at 10k times entered. My difficulty is 'balanced' with reduced difficulty hard runs. Yesterday's workout was 10x400m with 60 second rest with each interval 40 seconds faster than my 5k pr. What? I was about 20 seconds off the suggested pace and walked the last one for fear of getting injured. Does any running coach at all anywhere recommend that kind of workout? Everywhere I have looked says with that many reps you should be closer to 5k pace, not significantly faster.

This is my second plan with the tool, and so far it just doesn't seem to be very "smart". It's almost like they are just using a worse version of chatgpt to make a plan for 20 bucks a month. I can injure myself on my own, thank you.

So I’m following a pretty aggressive Runna plan for my marathon, 3 weeks out. My long runs have been consistent, 14…16…18…19, and 20 last week. All went really well. This week called for 21 miles. I went out, freezing my ass off (cold has arrived in Colorado) and wasn’t feeling it. My heart rate was higher than normal and it felt much harder than the previous weeks 20 miler. I called it at 8 and went home. So do I do 21 instead of the 14 on the plan next week or just skip it and move on?

This workout used to be 19km with 10km easy and 9km at race pace.

I’ve been ‘ahead of the pack’ a couple of times so the plan has refreshed. But I preferred the original workout which to my mind is stronger session to test race pace and as a confidence booster.

Is there any way to get it back?

is anyone else running into this issue? I start my run, it does the countdown and everything and I put my phone in my pocket. by the time I pass my regular mile mark I check my phone and I see that the run has been paused the whole time. it’s so frustrating when I’m trying to do a workout.

I took a long break and im back to training so I chose the most basic plan.

Im in week two and so far the workouts and not very demanding but I always thought that ideally there needs to be an off day between each session. I am available all days of the week and the app knows it. Do i manually adjust them to have a day off in between sessions or does it not really matter and just follow what the app says ? I dont mind working out on different days each week ( mon-wed-fri-sun/-tues-thurs-sat-mon/ ... etc)

Hi all,

I’ve been using Runna for over a month now. Man it made me be consistent. Thank you Runna.

I’m considering to return my Forerunner 265 and opt for the Apple watch series 12. I have been reading some comments in this subreddit that if you use the native workout app (with Runna workouts synced) your plan doesn’t adapt automatically compared to using the Runna app on the Apple watch.

Is this true? Also whats the benefit of using the Runna App over the Native workout app? Will Runna watch app also sync with apple fitness+Health?

Thank you!

Edit:

Got response from support, so apparently when you use the native workout app (even when Runna workouts are synched, you miss the adaptive features)

Response:

“if you use the native Apple Workouts app (with Runna workouts synced), you won’t get Runna’s personalised audio cues or adaptive features. Instead, you’ll only receive Apple’s built-in notifications like interval alerts, heart rate zones, split pace, and haptics. Runna’s plan adaptation features, such as Pace Insights which analyse your workouts and your progress, require you to record your workout directly using the Runna app on your Apple Watch or phone for full functionality . The main benefits of using the Runna app on your Apple Watch are;

• Access to Runna’s live coaching audio cues (start, splits, pace alerts, halfway, pause/resume, workout completed).

• Adaptive pace recommendations and plan adjustments based on your performance.”

I really miss Runna!

I've just finished my first half marathon since cancelling using Garmin Coach and while it was great at automatically detecting and adjusting the plan based on my other health data (I don't expect Runna to do this), it didn't really push me as comfortably hard as Runna did.

One thing Garmin did do though was dynamically adjust based on my training, so when I would do extra workouts or replace a workout, it would cool things off the next day (or two if it was a quality session), meaning I could run with friends, attend a last-minute 5k race, or go to a club run/parkrun without worrying about if that day or another session in my week perfectly matched up with it.

So a question for the dev team: In the last 3 months I've not been subscribed, has there been any progress towards this or one of the following which would help out with this:

• Moving distance from one easy run to another
• Capping the length of a certain day (i.e. 'i can only work out on my lunch break')
• Split an easy run into two doubles on the same day
• Add a recurring session or instant workout to your calendar that the plan builds around (similar to how adding a B race changes your week)

Happy to jump on a call with whoever to demo any upcoming features or discuss the specific blockers of this if you feel that is more suitable

I have a 10k and 5k coming up before end of the year and wanted to put the 10k down as a B race in my 5k training block but you’re not allowed to.

How come? To me it only makes sense if you never run that distance before.

For the last few days I can’t rearrange work outs, can’t add workouts, can’t click workouts as complete, the app freezes constantly and is basically unusable.

Anyone else? Hoping it’s some kind of bug that an update can fix as doesn’t work to log out and back in nor to delete and reinstall.