In a world of AI training plans, Runna stands out from the crowd. Its plans are developed by real-life coaches, who create algorithms that help runners of all abilities achieve their goals. I’ve used Runna for my past three marathons, and it is, without a doubt, one of the best running apps on the market.
The app has grown exponentially, and since it was bought by Strava in May 2025, it has continued to roll out new features. Today, Runna announces a partnership with Loughborough University — this collaboration will embed the very latest sports science within Runna’s coach-designed training plans. To find out more, I sat down with Runna’s Head Coach and former Olympian, Steph Kessell.
What does this new partnership mean for runners?
At the moment, Runna uses algorithms created by experienced, qualified coaches to work out which plan is best for a user. To do so, when you sign up for the app, you’ll be asked a series of questions based on your running experience and goal. The Loughborough University partnership takes this a step further, explains Kessell, “Research evolves over time, and we want to make sure that we’re keeping up to date with that. It feels like a really good time to set ourselves apart from AI-generated training plans.”
The focus of the partnership seems to be on ensuring that the training plans on the app can achieve their goals, while minimizing their risk of injury. Is injury the biggest risk with AI training plans? I ask Kessell. “Yes,” she says, “Running is so individual and two runners who have the same experience might need to train in different ways. I can use myself as an example. I’m a marathon runner and compared to other Olympic athletes I was running against in Tokyo, my mileage was a lot less.
"They’d all be doing 100+ mile weeks, but my body is not able to do that based on my biomechanics and how I run. As a beginner runner, you don’t know that, but if beginners come to us [rather than use AI plans] we can build them up based on what they have been doing and start them off at a level that is right for them.”
How does Runna know its users are at risk of injury?
Runna estimates a 43% lower self-reported rate of injury per 1000 hours of training when compared to a 2015 Sports Medicine benchmark. This is an impressive stat, so I asked Kessell how the app currently predicts if a user is overtraining. “We can see from a runner’s data if a plan is still suitable for them. If we see that they’re missing their pace targets, we’ll advise them to slow down. The same applies to people who are running more than they’ve committed to — we might advise that they could go up. It’s about finding your baseline, then Runna is here to either get you back on track, or nudge you along a bit.”
I ask Kessell, as a coach, what she thinks the biggest injury risk is for runners. “I think often you see a lot of coaches getting really carried away by progression and building up volume and intensity at the same time,” she tells me.
“By doing both at the same time, you’re only increasing your injury risk. Sure, you’re increasing the chances of getting fitter and faster, but with running there’s always a risk — it’s a high-impact sport. For me, it’s about deciding: are you going to build up your mileage or do you want to build speed? Something we plan carefully at Runna is to get this balance of volume and intensity right, depending on what a runner’s goal is.”
What does Runna’s Head Coach hope to see next?
In an app that’s constantly evolving, what do the coaches want next? I ask Kessell as our chat comes to an end, “We have so many features in our pipeline I won’t give away, but I think there’s so many important things within running that can make our programs even more personalized. Bringing in the importance of female health into our plans, for example. But also if we can educate more runners on different aspects of running, whether that’s building mileage or intensity, fuelling, warming up properly, strength training — the more education we can provide to our users, the more consistency they’ll have in their training.”
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