Benefits of training with an Apple Watch
By pairing your Runna plan with your Apple Watch, you’ll be coached through your workouts live as you run. For example if you’re doing an intervals session, you no longer need to remember and track the specific distances, paces and rests.
Instead, your watch will automatically tell you how much further is left to run, what your current pace is and how that compares to your target. It’ll notify you when you need to speed up/slow down and even count down your rests so you know when to start running again. Once you've completed your session, you can then compare your runs against what your Runna plan set you!
Pairing your Apple Watch with your Runna plan
To pair your Apple Watch with your Runna plan, head to your Runna Profile. The next step is to click Connected Apps, then Connect Watch, and select Apple Watch. You’ll be prompted to accept some permissions and the workouts will be synced automatically to the Runna app on your Apple Watch.
When you switch plan or edit your current plan, we’ll automatically update your workouts for you. And when you mark a workout as complete, we’ll remove it from your watch too. Please note that your Apple Watch workout will appear in the same unit of measurement as your Runna plan.
Our Apple Watch integration will automatically sync any future unlocked weeks to your Apple Watch app. For users on a free week, you'll get access to workouts from that week only. For Runna Premium users, we'll automatically sync the next two weeks of workouts to your Apple Watch app.
Audio cues
Our Apple Watch app also supports audio prompts so that you can get coaching live as you run! To enable these, swipe right on the home screen to access the settings menu and turn on Audio Cues. You can adjust the volume of these cues too.
The Audio Cues will play out of different places depending on how your Watch is connected:
Watch and phone are not connected to headphones - Audio Cues will play out of the Apple Watch speaker
Watch is connected to headphones - Audio Cues will play through the headphones, dimming the music
Phone is connected to headphones - Audio Cues will play through the phone and then onwards through the headphones
Following workouts
Once you start your run on the Apple Watch app, you'll be guided through your workout live as you run, complete with Audio Cues, vibrations etc. There are also settings for Auto Pause (which will automatically pause your workout when you stop moving) and more.
Free run
If you press Free Run when opening the Apple Watch app, you'll have the option to record an Outdoor or Treadmill workout. During the Free run, if you double tap the watch screen, it'll automatically create a new lap for you which will be used for lap metrics (such as lap pace) and shown in the activity summary page.
Pausing and Auto-pausing
During the workout you can pause/resume the workout by either swiping right to access the control menu and press pause/resume, enabling auto-pause from the settings menu, or pressing both of the buttons of the Apple Watch (the digital crown and side button).
Double tap to end lap
If you enable double tap to end lap from inside the settings menu, this will allow you end workout steps (such as warm-ups, rests or sprints) early if you'd like and move you straight to the next section. This could be great if you're running to a track and have already arrived, want to end your rest early, or can't reach the end of that interval and want the rest to start now!
Apple Watch Ultra - Action button
We also have enabled support for the Apple Watch Ultra action button - to set this up follow the below steps:
Head to Settings > Action Button and select Workout
Press Back and select App as Runna
The Action Button will then perform the following functionality:
First press -> Runna app will open
During structured workout -> End current lap early provided 'end current lap early' is enabled in Runna settings
During free run -> Create new lap
When the Action Button is enabled, you can pause the active workout by pressing both the Side Button and either the Digital Crown or the Action Button at the same time.
Calibrating your device
If you are finding issues with the distance, pace or GPS that your Apple Watch is reporting, you can calibrate your Apple Watch to improve the accuracy of it. Calibrating your watch can also help it learn your fitness level and stride, which improves accuracy when GPS is limited or unavailable.
Step 1: Reset your calibration data
On your iPhone, open the Watch app.
Tap the My Watch tab, then tap Privacy > Reset Fitness Calibration Data.
Step 2: Check your settings
On your iPhone, open the Settings app.
Tap Privacy & Security > Location Services.
Make sure that Location Services is turned on.
Scroll down, then tap System Services.
Make sure that Motion Calibration & Distance is turned on.
Continue with the steps below.
Step 3: Calibrate your Apple Watch
While wearing your Apple Watch, go to a flat, open outdoor area that offers good GPS reception and clear skies.
Open the Workout app, then tap Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run.
Walk or run at your normal pace for about 20 minutes.
Tracking your progress
After you’ve completed your run, your completed workout will then be stored in your Runna app, Apple Health profile and optionally synced to Strava if you have enabled the connection. You can then analyse your post-workout stats and compare them to the pace targets that you were set. If you’re consistently beating, or not making, your pace targets then we suggest editing them to make your targets challenging yet achievable.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about using your Apple Watch with your Runna plan then please don’t hesitate to contact us. If it’s a problem using your watch, including technical issues, we’ll try and help as much as we can, but you may be required to contact Apple directly to get support.