Runna Post-Run Stats Explained: What Every Metric Means (And Which Ones I Actually Look At)
- 3 days ago
- 21 min read
Published September 2026
Article includes affiliate codes that support this blog and my cancer charity work.
You finish your run, stop the watch, and Runna asks how it went. Thumbs up if the workout worked, thumbs down if it didn't. A few seconds later you get your AI feedback, a compliment where it went well and some hard advice where it didn't. Then the overview: distance, time, average pace, elevation gain, average heart rate, cadence and calories burnt. Scroll on and there's your Best Efforts for the run, then a wall of graphs.
Laps. Splits. Pace. Elevation. Heart Rate. Heart Rate Zones. And behind a button marked More Analysis, five more you may never have heard of.
Runna, like most running apps, gives you a myriad of numbers to mull over. The question is which ones are useful, which you should look at after every run, and which you can scroll past. That isn't a one-line answer, so in this article I'll take each metric in turn, explain what it's telling you in plain English, and say who it's useful for. I'll also be completely honest about which ones I look at, and why the rest get a "that's nice" and a swipe.
I've trained with Runna through rebuilding after cancer and again after emergency surgery earlier this year. I run with an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the Runna app on an iPhone, so the screenshots are how it displays for me. Garmin and COROS users get the same graphs, with a couple of differences I'll flag as we go.
This isn't a review of the app as a whole. If you want my full take on training plans, pace coaching and whether Runna's worth the money, I've written that separately. This is just the post-run screen, metric by metric, diving into all of the Runna post-run stats.
Contents
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What Runna shows you after a run
Runna's post-run screen has three layers: a quick overview, your Best Efforts, and a set of graphs that break the run down metric by metric.
The overview is the headline stats. Distance, time, average pace, elevation gain, average heart rate, cadence and calories. (Cookies earned, in my book. Runna, if you're reading, that's a metric I'd pay extra for.) Best Efforts is your quickest 1K, 1 mile, 5K and so on within that run, and it's where the odd surprise personal record turns up.
Then comes the deep dive. On my iPhone it's presented in this order: Laps, Splits, Pace, Elevation, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Zones. Tap More Analysis and you get Cadence, Ground Contact, Power, Stride Length and Oscillation.
That split is a clue. The first six are useful to most runners. The five behind the button are more specialist, and for most people most of the time they can stay behind it.
A word about data before we start
Too much data can be a bad thing. It pulls your focus onto the wrong parts of your running, it encourages you to over-analyse, and if you don't understand what a graph is trying to tell you, it confuses. I've watched runners spend longer worrying about a number than they spent on the run that produced it.
So I focus on a handful of Runna's metrics and I scroll past the rest saying "that's nice". I'd encourage you to do the same. The rest of this article is here so that when you do stop on one of the other graphs, you know what you're looking at.
The short version: which metrics matter
If you only read one bit, read this.
Metric | What it tells you | Most useful for | Do I look at it? |
Laps | How you did on each section of a session against target | Anyone doing intervals, tempos or progressions | Every session |
Splits | Your average pace for each mile or km | Everyone | Every run |
Pace | Pace across the whole run as a line | Not much, once you have Splits | Rarely |
Elevation | The climbing profile of your route | Anyone who runs hills | When it was hilly |
Heart rate | How hard your heart worked, over time | Experienced runners | Every easy run |
Heart rate zones | Time spent in each effort band | Experienced runners | Every easy run |
Cadence | Steps per minute | Most runners, once the basics are in place | Every run |
Ground contact | How long each foot is on the ground | Form nerds and coaches | No |
Power | Work rate in watts | Hilly racers and data lovers | No |
Stride length | Distance per step | Form nerds and coaches | No |
Oscillation | How much you bounce | Form nerds and coaches | No |
Laps in Runna: how you did on each part of the session
Laps shows every section of a structured session, the warm-up, each rep or block, each recovery and the cool-down, with your average pace for that section and a dark marker showing the target pace Runna set. If your bar reaches into the dark area at the top, you were in the target range.
On an interval or tempo run this graph appears before Splits, and it's the one to read first. Splits average out a whole mile, and on a session a single mile might contain a fast block and a recovery. Laps breaks that down. If the session was 800 m repeats, you see each 800 m and how you performed on it.
Take the Progression Run in the screenshot. The laps are my 1.5 mile warm-up, then 2 miles at 8:50, 1.5 miles at 8:30, 1 mile at 8:10, 1 mile at 8:00, and a 1 mile cool-down. Runna gives me the average pace for each lap and whether I landed in the target zone. What I'm reading is the story across the laps. Did I burn out early and find the last blocks harder to hold? Or, as you can see here, did I keep a little back in laps 2 and 3 so I could really lay down some pace in 4 and 5? That was a well controlled run, and Laps is the graph that tells me so.
It's also the data Runna's Pace Insights feature works from. Runna compares the paces you hit in speed sessions with the ones it set and, if there's a clear trend, suggests adjusting your training paces. So those bars matter beyond the single run. If you run with headphones, Runna also nags you live in your ear as each lap unfolds, telling you to speed up or slow down against that same target. I've covered how that live coaching actually feels in a full session if you're curious before you commit.
Laps is the exam result. Splits and Pace are the story of the run.
Splits in Runna: your pace for every mile (or kilometre)
Splits shows your average pace for each mile, or each kilometre if that's how you've set the app up (mine is in miles), with a plus or minus column showing how much faster or slower you were than the mile before. Green plus means faster than the previous mile, red minus means slower. That column trips people up: it's the change from the last mile, not the gap to your target.
This is the one I check after every run, and an easy run is the best example of why.
Last night I ran 8 flat miles on the rail trail with one goal: keep it in Zone 2. My first two miles were 9:26 and 9:35, a little quick. I'm still in a recovery phase after my emergency surgery earlier this year, I've dialled this training block back considerably, and my Zone 2 pace is a long way from what it usually would be. From mile 3 you can see me bringing the pace back to where it should have been. Mile 5 is an oddity, I filmed a short video while running and the pace shows it. Overall a good run, but mile 1 was the outlier and I went out too quick.
That's what Splits tells you. Did you go out too fast? Because if you did, you'll usually pay for it in the later miles as you struggle to hold the pace. Look for the pattern, not the single number. One slow split is a gate, a road crossing or a dog. Three progressively slower splits at the end of a run is information.
One thing to know while we're here. Runna calculates personal records on total elapsed time, including any rest breaks, so a quick 1K inside a session includes any standing around at the start of it.
Pace in Runna: the graph I skip
Pace shows your pace across the whole run as a continuous line, with your average pace and max pace underneath. Faster is higher on the chart, the opposite of most graphs, so a fast rep is a peak and a stop is a spike falling off the bottom.
I skip over this one most of the time. Splits and Laps give me everything I need, and there isn't much Pace can add. Apart from perhaps a wry smile if the max pace looks impressive. It won't be. Max pace is usually measured over a very, very short distance, a few seconds down a slope or a burst across a road, so it's nothing to shout about.
Where it does earn its keep is alongside Elevation, which brings me to the next one.
Elevation in Runna: elevation gain and the profile of your run
Elevation shows how much climbing you did as a profile across the run, with your total elevation gain and maximum elevation underneath. The overview at the top of the screen already told you the total. This graph tells you where the hills were.
That's why I'll sometimes go back to Pace after looking at Elevation. Line the two up and you can see how you performed on the climbs compared with the flat. It quickly tells you whether you need to ease off on the flat to keep something for the hills, or whether the hills are where you should be working on pace. I'd love Runna to overlay the two on one chart. It misses a trick by not doing so, and I'll come back to that.
Two things newer runners ask about elevation. First, why the number differs between apps. Watches with a barometric altimeter (the Apple Watch Ultra, most Garmin and COROS running watches) measure air pressure to track the ups and downs. Strava then applies its own correction from map data, and it only trusts the watch's figure from certain devices, so the same run can show different gain on Runna, Strava and your watch. All of them are estimates. Don't lose sleep over it.
Second, the chart scales itself to your data. Run a pancake-flat route with a dip at the start and the profile can look like the Alps. Read the numbers on the axis before you panic about the shape.
Heart rate in Runna
Heart rate shows how many times a minute your heart was beating throughout the run, as a line, with your average and maximum underneath. Heart Rate Zones, the next card down, shows how much of the run you spent in each of five effort bands. Let's take the two together, because you read them together.
First, a word if you're a beginner. I would not look at these yet. I see too many new runners convinced they have to be in Zone 2 on every easy run because Google or someone on Instagram told them so. That is total tosh. When you're new, your heart and lungs are adapting to a completely new stress, your heart rate is naturally higher and more variable, and the zone data is largely meaningless until your cardio engine has adapted. That can take months. Many, many months. Runna's own beginner guide says much the same. Run to feel, use the talk test, and come back to this section later. I've written a detailed article on Zone 2 running if you want the full argument.
I approach this as an experienced runner. My engine is pretty good, if a little offline at the moment after the operation, so yes, I look at these after every easy run.
Look at the heart rate graph from that same 8 mile easy run. My resting heart rate is about 42. Within minutes of starting it climbed quickly to around 140, then a mile in it settled comfortably into my Zone 2 range of 110 to 135 bpm. And that is where it stayed.
Three things worth knowing about heart rate. It lags. Effort goes up first and heart rate follows a while later, which is why it's a poor guide for short reps and a good one for steady runs. Wrist sensors aren't perfect, so treat the number as a trend rather than gospel. And plenty of things push it up that aren't fitness: heat, humidity, hills, stress, tiredness, caffeine and the early stages of a cold.
Heart rate zones in Runna
The Heart Rate Zones card shows the five zones as bpm ranges, with the time and percentage of the run you spent in each. Runna works your maximum heart rate out as 220 minus your age, then applies the same percentages Strava uses, so the two apps match.
Zone | Runna calls it | % of max heart rate | Mine | Roughly how long you could hold it |
Zone 1 | Recovery | 0 to 65% | 0-109 bpm | 6+ hours |
Zone 2 | Endurance | 65.1 to 81% | 110-135 bpm | 1 to 3 hours |
Zone 3 | Tempo | 81.1 to 89% | 136-149 bpm | 40 to 90 minutes |
Zone 4 | Threshold | 89.1 to 97% | 150-162 bpm | 6 to 40 minutes |
Zone 5 | Anaerobic | 97.1 to 100% | 163+ bpm | Under 5 minutes |
The zones card confirms the story the heart rate graph told, showing how much of that easy run was actually easy. For me, a big block of time in Zone 2 on a Zone 2 run is the measure of success. I have a habit of running easy runs too fast. A lot of us do. You will too. Once you're experienced enough for this data to mean something, the zones chart is what helps you dial the pace back and adjust for the wind, heat and hills that change your pace on easy days.
Two practical points. The 220 minus age formula is a rough guess and Runna knows it, which is why there's an Edit Zones button on the card. If you've seen a higher number in a race or a hard interval session, use that instead. And the same chart means different things on different runs. An interval session should average out in Zones 3 and 4 with some time in 5. An easy run with 40% in Zone 4 is a run that wasn't easy.
Behind the More Analysis button
Tap More Analysis and you get five running form metrics: Cadence, Ground Contact, Power, Stride Length and Oscillation. On Apple Watch these all come from the watch's own sensors on an Outdoor Run, with no chest strap or foot pod needed. Garmin and COROS users may need a compatible strap or pod for some of them, and on a treadmill these cards will be blank whatever you wear.
Of the five, cadence is the one I look at. The other four I don't, and I'll tell you why in each section. You may see it differently, which is why they're all here.
Cadence in Runna: steps per minute
Cadence is the number of steps you take per minute, counting both feet, shown as a line across the run with your average and maximum underneath.
I absolutely look at this. I've written a full article on increasing cadence, including the truth about where the "180" number actually comes from, so I won't repeat all of it here. The short version: a low cadence often means you're overstriding, landing with your foot out in front of you, which means a heavier heel strike and more impact through your shins and knees on every step. A slightly quicker turnover brings the foot down under your body and is kinder on the legs.
Look at the cadence graph from the easy run. It settles in the mid 160s, a range I'm both happy and comfortable with at easy pace. There's a spike at around mile 4. That's where I turned around at the halfway point, and I find Runna often throws up a spike like this after you stop or slow and then pick up again, before it settles. I don't believe my cadence hit 200, let alone the 218 the max figure claims. That's the app not assessing it correctly, and it's worth knowing so you don't chase a phantom number.
What's normal? Runna's own guidance is that 180 is a general target but cadence varies a lot with height, leg length, pace and terrain, so treat it as a guide and not a rule. Most recreational runners sit between 160 and 180 at easy pace. Taller runners naturally run lower. And cadence rises with speed. On a recent 1K interval session mine was 165 in the warm-up and 178 in the reps. Same runner, same run.
If you want to raise it, do it gradually, about 5% at a time, with a metronome or a playlist for 10 minutes inside an easy run. Don't try to jump to 180 on Tuesday.
Ground contact in Runna: what's a good ground contact time?
Ground contact time is how long each foot spends on the ground per step, measured in milliseconds. Runna shows it as a line with your average and maximum underneath.
Here's the thing newer runners need to hear about this one. It drops as you speed up. Everyone's does. So a longer contact time on an easy run isn't worse form than a shorter one on an interval session, it's just slower running.
You can see it in the screenshot from a recent 1K interval session. Around 250 ms in the warm-up, down to 220 to 230 ms in the reps, back up to 240 and beyond in the cool-down, and an average of 235 ms. Flip the pace graph upside down and you've got the same shape.
For context, most runners sit somewhere between 200 and 300 ms. Garmin publishes percentile bands from its own users, and by those, 220 to 230 ms is the top 30% of runners while 250 ms is the middle. Same runner, same run, two bands. That tells you everything about trying to chase a single number.
Where it might be useful over time is fatigue. If your ground contact creeps up in the last miles of a long run at the same pace, that's your form breaking down. If your easy-run figure drifts down over a training block, your legs are getting springier.
I don't look at it. For me, my running and what I'm trying to achieve, the number is meaningless. I'd rather know how the run felt.
Power in Runna: work rate in watts
Running power is an estimate of how much work you're doing, in watts, the same unit cyclists have used for years. Runna shows it as a line with your average and maximum power underneath.
The idea is that power sits between pace and heart rate. Pace tells you how fast you went but not how hard it was. Heart rate tells you how hard it was but lags and drifts. Power responds instantly like pace, but it accounts for hills, and on some watches wind, so the same watts up a climb at a slower pace is the same effort as more pace on the flat.
Put the power graph from my interval session next to the heart rate graph from the same run and you'll see the difference. Power steps up the moment a rep starts and drops the moment it ends. Heart rate keeps climbing into the rep and takes a while to come down.
The catch, and it's a big one: there is no agreed standard for running power. Apple and Stryd calculate it one way, Garmin and Polar another, and Garmin and Polar read higher for the same effort. My 221 W average on the Apple Watch would show as a bigger number on a Garmin. Only ever compare your power with your own past runs on the same device. Apple also reports zero watts while walking, so walk breaks show up as gaps.
Is it worth a beginner's attention? Not yet. It becomes useful when you race hilly courses and want a pacing number that doesn't lie on the climbs. I race hilly courses and I still don't use it, because I'd rather run those to effort. That's a personal choice, and yours might differ.
Stride length in Runna: distance per step
Stride length is how far you travel with each step, in metres, shown as a line with your average and maximum underneath. Strictly speaking watches measure step length, one footfall to the next, and label it stride, but that's a detail.
There's one relationship worth learning here, and it's the reason stride length is on the screen at all. Speed is cadence multiplied by stride length. That's it. To run faster you take more steps a minute, longer steps, or both.
You can check the maths on my interval session. In the reps my cadence was 178 and my stride 1.20 m. That's 214 metres a minute, which works out at 7:32 per mile. Runna's max pace for the run was 7:29. In the warm-up it was 165 steps at 1.08 m, about 9:02 a mile against an actual 9:09 to 9:15. Getting from 9:10 pace to 7:30 came from a 10 cm longer step and 13 more steps a minute. Not one or the other. Both.
What newer runners get wrong: longer is not better. Reaching your foot out in front of you to lengthen the stride is overstriding, and it puts the brakes on with every landing while loading your shins, knees and hips. The foot should land roughly under your hips. Let stride length develop naturally with fitness and work on cadence instead.
Typical figures at easy pace are somewhere between 1.1 and 1.6 m depending on height and speed. Mine averaged 1.10 m on that run. I don't look at it.
Vertical oscillation in Runna: how much bounce is too much?
Vertical oscillation is how much your body bounces up and down with each step, in centimetres. Runna shows it as a line, and on my screen gives the maximum figure only.
Running is supposed to move you forwards. Energy spent going up is energy not spent going along, so less bounce is generally more efficient, and a lower cadence tends to come with more bounce. But some bounce is necessary. Remove it entirely and you'd be running with deeply bent knees, which costs far more energy than it saves.
Mine sits between 9.2 and 9.7 cm in the reps and 10 to 10.4 cm in the warm-up and cool-down, with a max of 10.6. Most runners fall between 6 and 12 cm and under 10 is fine for a recreational runner. So I bounce a bit. The gaps in the graph are where the watch briefly lost the reading as I slowed at the end of each rep, not something I did wrong.
Like ground contact, bounce drops as pace rises, and the chart zooms into a range of a couple of centimetres so a tiny change looks dramatic. Read the axis. If you want it lower, don't consciously try to bounce less, which makes people run stiffly. Nudge your cadence up and bounce usually comes down on its own.
The number coaches prefer, vertical ratio, which is bounce divided by stride length as a percentage, isn't something Runna shows. I don't look at oscillation.
That's nice. Swipe.
Where Runna falls down (and I say this as a fan)
Those who know me know I'm one of Runna's biggest fans. With that comes a wish for the product to keep improving, so here's what this screen still gets wrong.
No overlay. Elevation and Pace sit on separate cards. Put them on one chart and I'd know at a glance whether I'm losing my run on the climbs or on the flat. Runna definitely misses a trick here.
The help icon disappears exactly where you need it. Heart Rate, Heart Rate Zones and Cadence each have a little "?" next to the heading that explains the metric. Ground Contact, Power, Stride Length and Oscillation don't. Those are the four most runners have never heard of.
No context for the form numbers. Runna shows you 235 ms and 10.6 cm and leaves you there. No "typical for you", no trend across runs, no range. On their own those numbers mean nothing, which is a big part of why I don't look at them.
Cadence spikes. A max cadence of 218 after a turnaround isn't real, and a newer runner would take it at face value.
Oscillation shows max only. Every other card gives you an average. This one doesn't, and max is the least useful number on it.
None of these are deal breakers. All of them are fixable. If you want the wider gripes, the training plan structure, the AI coaching, the pace nagging in your ear, that's all in my full Runna review.
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My summary
First, pick a few and ignore the rest. Too much data will have you focusing on the wrong things. Laps and Splits after every run, Heart Rate Zones on easy runs once you're experienced enough to read them, and Cadence if you're working on form. Everything else can stay behind the More Analysis button.
Second, read the form metrics against the pace. Ground contact, power, stride length and oscillation all move with how fast you're running. A number on its own tells you nothing. The same runner is "average" and "top 30%" on the same run depending on which mile you look at.
Third, if you're new, look at Splits and not much else. Did you go out too fast? That's the question that matters in your first year. Heart rate zones can wait until your engine has caught up.
Lace up, enjoy your miles.
FAQs
What do the post-run stats in Runna mean?
Runna's post-run screen gives an overview (distance, time, average pace, elevation gain, average heart rate, cadence and calories), your Best Efforts for the run, then graphs for Laps, Splits, Pace, Elevation, Heart Rate and Heart Rate Zones. A More Analysis button adds Cadence, Ground Contact, Power, Stride Length and Oscillation. The first six describe how the run went. The last five describe your running form.
What is the difference between Laps and Splits in Runna?
Splits are your average pace for each mile or kilometre. Laps are each section of a structured session, the warm-up, reps, recoveries and cool-down, with your pace against the target Runna set. On an interval or tempo run, Laps tells you whether you hit the session. Splits only averages the mile.
Which Runna metrics should a beginner look at?
Splits, mainly, to see whether you went out too fast. If you ran a session with pace targets, Laps as well. Heart rate and heart rate zones are largely meaningless until your cardio fitness has adapted, which can take months, and the form metrics behind More Analysis need context Runna doesn't provide.
How does Runna calculate heart rate zones?
Runna estimates your maximum heart rate as 220 minus your age, then sets Zone 1 at 0 to 65% of that, Zone 2 at 65.1 to 81%, Zone 3 at 81.1 to 89%, Zone 4 at 89.1 to 97% and Zone 5 at 97.1 to 100%. It's the same method Strava uses. You can edit the zones in the app if you know your real maximum from a race or hard session.
What is a good cadence in Runna?
There's no single good number. Runna's general guidance is around 180 steps per minute, but most recreational runners sit between 160 and 180 at easy pace, taller runners lower, and cadence rises with speed. If yours is under 160 you're probably overstriding. Increase it gradually, about 5% at a time.
What is ground contact time in Runna?
Ground contact time is how long each foot is on the ground per step, in milliseconds. Most runners are between 200 and 300 ms. It falls as you run faster, so only compare it across runs of the same type and pace, and don't treat a lower number as a target.
Is a high ground contact time bad?
Not on its own. Ground contact time falls as you speed up, so a higher number on an easy run compared with a hard session is normal, not a fault. It's more useful as a trend: if it rises over the last miles of a long run at a steady pace, that's your form tiring. If your easy-run figure drops over a training block, your legs are getting springier. Treat it as feedback on that run rather than a score to chase.
Are the calories burnt shown in Runna accurate?
Take them as a rough guide rather than a precise figure. Calorie estimates from GPS watches and running apps are calculated from your pace, distance, weight and heart rate, and independent testing has found errors of 20 to 30% are common across most wrist-based trackers, Runna included. They're more reliable for comparing one of your runs against another than for working out exactly what to eat afterwards.
What does Power mean in Runna?
Running power is an estimate of your work rate in watts, calculated by your watch. It accounts for hills in a way pace doesn't and responds instantly in a way heart rate doesn't. Each brand calculates it differently, with Apple and Stryd reading lower than Garmin and Polar, so only compare power with your own runs on the same device.
Why does Runna show my max cadence as 200+ when it didn't feel that fast?
This usually happens around a stop, turn or sudden change of direction, a watch turnaround, a gate, waiting at a road. The accelerometer briefly misreads the movement as extra steps and the max cadence figure spikes for a moment before settling. It doesn't affect your average cadence for the run, so it's safe to ignore rather than something to chase or worry about.
Why are ground contact, power, stride length and oscillation blank on my Runna run?
Those metrics come from your watch, not the app. Apple Watch records them on Outdoor Run only, so treadmill runs show nothing. Older Garmin watches need an HRM-Pro, HRM-Fit or Running Dynamics Pod, and COROS watches need the COROS Pod for full running dynamics. If you record with the phone alone, none of them appear.
What is vertical oscillation and should I try to lower it?
Vertical oscillation is how much your torso bounces with each step, in centimetres. Typical values are 6 to 12 cm and under 10 cm is fine for most recreational runners. Some bounce is necessary. If you want it lower, raise your cadence slightly rather than consciously trying to bounce less.
Why does my elevation gain in Runna differ from Strava?
Watches with a barometric altimeter measure elevation from air pressure. Strava applies its own correction from map data and only trusts the watch figure from certain devices, so the same run can show a different gain in each app. All elevation figures are estimates.
About the author
Andy Hood is an ultra runner, cancer survivor and advocate based in Devon. He races in the mountains, on the trails and around the world, has rebuilt his running twice through illness and surgery, and writes about training, gear and racing at runningwestwardho.co.uk.
He is the founder of Check Ya Balls, menswear that saves lives.
With over £27,000 raised to date for cancer charities, Andy is always finding ways to support those diagnosed with cancer.
Andy has trained with Runna throughout his rebuild. New to the app? Use promo code ANDY2 to double your free trial to two full weeks of premium access, or click here to redeem.
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