Runna picks your race date. Thier picks your recovery day.
Runna writes a 16-week marathon plan based on your goal time and how often you can train. It's a great template. It's also a template that doesn't know your HRV crashed yesterday, your sleep tanked Tuesday, and your bio age has crept up 0.4 years since the plan started.
Thier writes a plan that reads your recovery and adapts. Same race date. Different model.
Eight weeks into a Runna plan, the pattern is identical.
Week 1-3: you're hitting every session. Sleep is good, the plan feels manageable, your splits look like the chart says.
Week 4-6: a couple of late nights, a stressful week at work, an Oura readiness score that's been amber four days running. The plan still says tempo run, 8km. You either skip it (guilty), do it tired (over-train), or modify it manually (no idea what to swap to).
Week 7-8: niggling injury. Plan derailed. App uninstalled.
The fault isn't Runna's. The fault is that no fixed-template plan can read your HRV. Thier can.
Where Runna stops, Thier starts.
| Capability | Runna | Thier |
|---|---|---|
| Generates a training plan | Yes - race-distance specific | Yes - readiness-aware |
| Reads HRV / sleep / readiness | No | Yes - across 7 wearable platforms |
| Adapts session intensity to recovery | Static template | Daily move shifts with recovery state |
| Bio age trend tracking | No | 13-domain physiological-age model |
| Strength + mobility integration | Optional add-on | Built into daily protocol |
| Sleep coaching | No | Sleep is a domain in the engine |
| Nutrition + hydration coaching | No | Daily protocol covers it |
| Lab-value interpretation | No | Built-in lab inference |
| AI Longevity Coach with memory | No | Full conversation memory |
| Open / published math | Closed plan formula | 100+ peer-reviewed coefficients |
| Annual price | £119.99 | £79 - and replaces 4-7 other apps |
| Best for | First marathon, fixed plan | Runners who want longevity, not just race day |
Runna pricing reflects publicly listed UK App Store price as of May 2026. Comparison is structural, not pejorative - Runna is excellent at fixed-plan generation.
Same runner. Same plan. Two different mornings.
A scenario from a real beta tester (Lucy H., marathon runner, Edinburgh). Tuesday is a tempo session in week 6 of marathon prep.
Tempo run · 8km · 4:35/km
Same as last Tuesday. Same as next Tuesday. The plan was written 6 weeks ago and doesn't know that you slept 5h12 last night or that your HRV is 22% below baseline. You either grind through it (over-train) or skip it (guilt and plan-derailment). Most people pick option 1.
Today's move · Z2 only · 30 min
"HRV is 22% below your baseline. You slept 5h12. The plan called for a tempo session - we've moved it to Thursday and replaced today with Z2. Your bio-age trend supports the swap. Tomorrow's deep-sleep is what we're actually optimising for."
The race date is the same. The plan still hits 16 weeks. The difference is what happens on the days where the template is wrong.
"I've used Runna for two builds. Both times I got injured at week 9. Switched to Thier for my third build - coached the same target time, but it actually moved my hard sessions when my HRV was tanking. Hit my goal at London. First injury-free build I've ever had."
Ran London 2026 in 2:58:14
Same race date. Different model.
Install Thier
iPhone, iOS 17+. App Store, two taps.
Connect Strava + Apple Health
Your existing run history flows in. The bio-age engine ingests 12 months of activity in seconds.
Set your race goal
Distance, date, target time. The plan generator scaffolds the macro structure.
Get your bio age
Three minutes of self-report - sleep timing, conditions, recovery patterns. The model fires.
Open it tomorrow at 06:30
"Today's move" is your training session, weighted by yesterday's recovery. Hit the move; the plan stays on track.
For runners switching from a fixed plan.
Does Thier write me a 16-week marathon plan?
Yes - but it's not a static template. The plan respects your race date and weekly mileage targets, but moves hard sessions when recovery is poor and adds intensity when readiness is high. The "macro" is fixed; the "micro" adapts.
Will the plan still get me to the start line?
Yes. Plans we generate hit the same volume targets a Runna plan would. The difference is that hard sessions land on days you can actually execute them, which means fewer skipped sessions and lower injury rate.
Can I import my Runna plan into Thier?
No, by design. The plan logic is fundamentally different - Runna is template, Thier is adaptive. You re-enter your race goal once and Thier writes a new plan from scratch.
What if I'm not training for a marathon?
Thier's protocol works for any goal - half-marathon, 10K, ultra, or "just stay healthy". Set the goal in onboarding; the engine weights training-load coefficients accordingly.
Is there a community / kudos feed?
Yes - clubs, accountability buddies, weekly challenges. But by design, no kudos count, no ego-bait. The Social tab is for keeping you on track, not feed addiction.
A plan that reads your recovery.
£79/year. iPhone-only. 7-day free trial. Hits the same race date as Runna - without the week-9 injury.