The App Store is packed with top apps for runners — and not just for tracking miles. The best Apple Watch apps for runners will now track recovery, readiness and more.
The Apple Watch is now a seriously good running partner. Out of all the smartwatches with run-tracking abilities, it stands out for the right reasons.
If you’re tracking your runs with the watch, you’ll likely turn to Apple’s Workout app first. This is no bad place to start – over time, it’s become a powerful running app packed with features.
Yet, loads of Apple Watch running apps lurk on the App Store with different benefits. We’ve tested most of them, and these are our favorites.
Check out our other Apple Watch app guides:
- Best Apple Watch apps overall
- Apple Watch golf apps
- Apple Watch cycling apps
- Apple Watch workout apps
Apple Workout
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: Comes pre-installed
Workout has improved as the Apple Watch has become more focused on fitness — and it’s now the pick of running apps available on the company’s lineup of smartwatches.
You can start a host of workouts from this pre-installed app, separate modes are available for indoor and outdoor running, and plenty of data is displayed on the watch.
Those data screens can also be edited in the Apple Watch companion app, with options to view distance, current pace, heart rate, duration, average pace, active calories, total calories, and even running power. You can dictate the order in which they’re displayed, and also select between single and multiple metric views.
- Our guide to the five essential running features Apple Watch users should know
In recent watchOS updates, Apple has added features like automatic exercise detection, cadence tracking, and metrics like rolling pace, which offers an analysis of your speed in the last km/mile (in addition to average pace).
You’re given one screen showcasing your stats, one to the left that makes it easy to switch tunes up, and another to the right from which you can pause or end proceedings.
The post-run stats screen is fairly comprehensive, too, with distance, time, active calories, overall calories, average pace, and average heart rate.
The Apple Watch Workout app will also work with third-party apps like Strava, and watchOS 9 (released in 2022) introduced new features such as running track detection and a mode where you can race your best times on common routes.
Runna
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: $99.99/£99.99 per year | App Store
Runna offers guided training plans for a variety of goals. There are guided plans for everything from marathon training to rehabbing an injury, with structured sessions that can be followed from the Apple Watch.
It’s more geared towards experienced runners with specific goals, than Nike Run Coach (below) which offers more general training plans. Even simple runs are spiced up with a mixture of pace and intensity, and it can throw all of your sessions into a paired calendar to help you stay on track.
I think, overall, it’s the best running app I’ve used. However, if I wasn’t undertaking structured training blocks with proper goals in mind, I wouldn’t bother paying the big price tag.
Training Today
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: $2.99£2.99 per month or $39.99/£39.99 lifetime | App Store
For years I’ve been looking for an Apple Watch app that can emulate Whoop — and this does a great job in assessing your readiness for training.
It uses your HRV data from the Apple Watch – or other wearables connected to Apple Health – and tells you how ready you are to train. It then scores that out of 10 — and unlike wearables such as Whoop and Oura — does that throughout the day. That means that if you wake up with a low recovery, you can time your intense interval session for later in the day, when your HRV spikes. That should mean better quality sessions and better fitness gains.
Nike Run Club
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: Free | Download Nike Run Club
Nike Run Club is a compelling alternative to the Apple Workout app, thanks to training plans and guided workout sessions from coaches and athletes.
It’s quick to load, easy to navigate and runs are simple to get started with.
You can add a Nike+ Run Club complication to your Apple Watch face that launches straight into the app. Once you’re in, choose from ‘Quick Start’, ‘Match Your Last Run’, or a choice of distance, duration, and speed runs (although that last one requires your phone’s presence).
Things have improved when using the app and the big, bold screen metrics are easy to read – and you can swap between data screens by scrolling the Digital Crown. You also get heart rate, duration, and distance.
It’ll also track indoor runs and offer settings like enabling/disabling auto pause and deciding the frequency of performance updates. A twilight mode will also change the display to more neon colors if the ambient light sensor detects dim lighting conditions.
There’s an indoor mode for tracking treadmill runs, too. However, you have to manually switch between indoor and outdoor settings.
Strava: Run & Ride Training
- Works without phone: yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: Free (subscription plans available) | Download Strava
If you’re a runner, there’s a strong chance you’ve heard of Strava. If you haven’t, you probably know a few people who won’t track a long Sunday run without soaking up the kudos (likes) on the popular app.
The dedicated Strava Apple Watch app offers a simple way to track and upload runs to the platform. This ensures in-depth data on performance, fitness, and all the social aspects of running that Strava offers.
In our opinion, the Strava app is overly simple and dated — but it does represent the simplest way to track a run and have it uploaded to Strava.
Now that Apple enables you to sync runs from the Apple Workout app straight to Strava, we’d recommend using that instead. That means you can benefit from the excellent mid-run experience of Apple’s Workout app and still receive unbeatable post-run analysis from Strava.
To learn how to join the two, read our guide explaining how to sync Strava with Apple Workout.
Athlytic
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: $29.99/£29.99 per year | App Store
When I originally wrote this list, it comprised of apps that simply tracked runs and workouts. But as wearables have changed, I’ve now incorporated apps that runners can use to focus on recovery and readiness, and Athlytic is one of the best.
If you wear your Apple Watch to bed, Athlytic will track sleep, recovery, readiness, training load, health trends, HRV and allow you to keep a journal of your health habits, all in one place. The design of the app is pretty bang on too, although some of the graphs can get a bit chaotic.
However, if you’re pumping in serious mileage and you want a holistic overview of how well you’re recovering, this is probably the best option for Apple Watch going.
WorkOutDoors
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: $7.99 / £7.99 | Download WorkOutDoors
Over the last few years, WorkOutDoors has emerged as one of the standout Apple Watch apps for runners – particularly if you’re into stats and controlling how those stats are displayed on your Watch.
The combination of the vector maps and the ability to fully customize data screens with up to 300 real-time metrics at your disposal gives it real appeal over other Apple Watch running apps on this list.
That mapping approach makes it much easier to interact with them on the watch screen and makes surveying surrounding running terrain a more pleasurable experience.
You can go full screen with those maps and use real-time breadcrumb trail navigation, letting you use the Watch crown to zoom into areas. The color coding to help you point out hilly and flat parts of your location is also handy, too.
You can create workouts, store maps for offline use, and then head to the iPhone app to dig deeper into your data. Here, you can upload GPX route files to fire over to the Apple Watch.
It also has dedicated modes for other activities including cycling and hiking. If you’re a runner though, this one is well worth paying for.
Watch to 5K
- Works with iPhone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: $4.49 / £4.99 | Download Watch to 5K
The App Store is chock-full of ‘Couch to 5k’ style options. Yet, the one that stands out for the Apple Watch is ‘Watch To 5K, which works independently from your phone.
The concept is to get running beginners up to 5k distance within two months and with three runs a week. This one is optimized well for the Apple Watch, letting you listen to music and dropping the volume to enable audio instructions of what you need to do and how you’re performing.
It’ll track key stats like distance, average pace, calories burned, and heart rate in real-time, and let you view workouts in Apple’s Fitness app. Naturally, it will sync your runs and data with Apple Health, too.
The UI looks great, and it’s generally a really easy app to get started with, which is ideal if you’re delving into running for the first time. If you want a Couch to 5k Apple Watch app, this is the one we think you should be downloading.
RunGo
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: Yes
- Cost: Free (subscription plans available) | Download RunGo
A free Apple Watch app that lets you build your offline routes or select from 400,000 pre-installed ones, RunGo’s specialty is its ability to cater to the visually impaired through voice assistance.
These supported routes include race courses and run tours, and it will chat with you about local landmarks and interesting stories about the area like your very own run tour. It’s now added virtual run support for when you can’t get to those locations, but you can still learn about the history and get a trivia fix running closer to home or on a treadmill.
It can also provide the basics directly from the wrist, such as pace, distance, splits, and elevation. Plus, GPX files for routes can be sent to the Watch so you can follow turn-by-turn directions.
Premium features include live tracking for friends and family to follow along, plus interval training.
SIT (Simple Interval Timer)
- Works without phone: Yes
- Complication to launch from the home screen: No
- Cost: Free (with in-app purchases)| Download
This isn’t the best-looking app you’ll ever download, nor is it a bonanza of run-coaching features.
However, it is a fantastically uncomplicated tool with everything you need to set up interval sessions directly from your Apple Watch. That’s right, SIT gives you the kind of control most of the apps on this list would benefit from.
Simply choose the number of sets, the duration of your efforts, and the time you want to rest. Hit ‘Go’ and you’re presented with a screen that shows which set you’re on out of the total number, a countdown of how long is left to go in this set or this rest period, and your current heart rate.
We would make a few improvements to this app, but this isn’t a bad start. For example, there are no audio cues or vibration alerts to tell you when you’re moving between work and rest. We’d also love to see more interval types, such as distance and heart rate-based efforts.
