Benefits Of Training With An Apple Watch
By pairing your Runna plan with your Apple Watch, you’ll get live coaching as you run, so you won't have to remember distances, paces, or rest periods anymore!
Your watch will guide you through each step, showing how far you have left, your current pace, and how that compares to your target. It’ll prompt you to speed up or slow down, and count down your recovery so you know exactly when to start running again.
Once you’ve finished, you can review your workout in your Runna plan and Pace Analysis will compare your performance against the targets we set for you!
Pairing Your Apple Watch With Your Runna Plan
To pair your Apple Watch with your Runna plan:
Go to your Runna Profile (top-left hand corner)
Tap Connected Apps & Devices → Connect Watch → Apple Watch. You’ll be prompted to accept permissions, and your workouts will then sync automatically to the Runna app on your Apple Watch.
Workouts on your Apple Watch will display in the same units (miles or kilometres) as set in your Runna plan.
Workout Syncing
If you switch plans or edit your current plan, your workouts will update automatically. When you mark a workout as complete, it will also be removed from your watch.
Free trial users: only the first week of workouts will sync to your Apple Watch.
Runna Premium users: the next two weeks of workouts will sync automatically.
Audio Cues
Our Apple Watch app also supports audio prompts so you can get live coaching as you run. To enable them, swipe right on the home screen to open the settings menu, then toggle Audio Cues on. You can also adjust the cue volume there.
Where Audio Cues play depends on how you’re connected:
No headphones connected (watch + phone): cues play from the Apple Watch speaker
Watch connected to headphones: cues play through your headphones (music will dip briefly)
Phone connected to headphones: cues play through your phone, then to your headphones
Recommended Settings for the Runna Apple Watch App
Once you start a run in the Runna Apple Watch app, you’ll be guided through your workout live as you run - complete with audio cues, vibrations, and on-screen prompts. You can also enable features like Auto Pause, which automatically pauses your workout when you stop moving.
Free Run
If you select Free Run when opening the Apple Watch app, you can choose to record either an Outdoor or Treadmill workout.
During a Free Run, double tap the watch screen to create a new lap. This will be used for lap metrics (like lap pace) and shown in your activity summary.
Pausing and Auto Pause
You can enable Auto Pause in the settings menu, or choose to manually pause/resume your workout in two different ways:
Swipe right to open the control menu, then tap Pause/Resume
Press both the Digital Crown and Side Button together
Double Tap to End Lap
If you enable Double Tap to End Lap in settings, you can end a workout step early (such as warm-ups, rests, or intervals) and move straight to the next section.
This can be useful if you:
Reach a track and want to start the next step immediately
Want to end a rest early
Can’t complete an interval and need recovery to start sooner
Apple Watch Ultra: Action Button
Runna supports the Action Button on Apple Watch Ultra. Once enabled, the Action Button will perform the following:
First pressed: Opens the Runna app
Pressed during a structured workout: ends the current lap early (if End Current Lap Early is enabled in Runna settings)
Pressed during a Free Run: creates a new lap
To set up the Action Button:
Open Settings on your Apple Watch
Tap Action Button
Select Workout
Tap Back, then choose App
Select Runna
Pausing a Workout
When the Action Button is enabled, you can pause an active workout by pressing the Side Button + either the Digital Crown or the Action Button at the same time.
Calibrating Your Apple Watch
If you’re seeing issues with the distance, pace, or GPS your Apple Watch is reporting, calibrating it can help improve accuracy. Calibration also helps your watch learn your fitness level and stride length, which can improve tracking when GPS is limited or unavailable.
Step 1: Reset your calibration data
On your iPhone, open the Watch app
Tap My Watch → Privacy
Tap Reset Fitness Calibration Data
Step 2: Check your settings
On your iPhone, open the Settings app
Tap Privacy & Security → Location Services
Make sure Location Services is turned on
Scroll down and tap System Services
Make sure Motion Calibration & Distance is turned on
Step 3: Calibrate your Apple Watch
Put on your Apple Watch and go to a flat, open outdoor area with clear skies (good GPS reception)
Open the Workout app
Select Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run
Walk or run at your normal pace for around 20 minutes
Tracking Your Progress
After you complete your run, your workout will be saved in the Runna app, your Apple Health profile, and (if enabled) automatically synced to Strava.
You can review your post-workout stats in the app! Pace Insight analysis will also run in the background to analyse your performance against the targets in your plan and provide any recommendations to ensure training remains optimal for you!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about using your Apple Watch with your Runna plan, please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you’re experiencing technical issues with your watch, we’ll do our best to help, but in some cases you may need to contact Apple directly for further support.