Running plans to stop you overtraining

You're trying hard. That's the problem. Most amateur runners go medium-hard on everything, never truly recover, never truly push, and wonder why they don't improve. Zonna prescribes the zone for each session and holds you to it.

Download on the App Store

Two weeks, full access. After that, keep the plan you built on the free tier, or stay on all of it for £7.99/month or £59.99/year. I won't email you to come back.

Yesterday · 8 km easy · Zone 2Ceiling 145 bpm145 bpm
14minutes above your ceiling
0minutes above your ceiling
Ceiling 145 bpm
0 km4 km8 km
Kit · your coachBit keen. 14 minutes above your ceiling. Ease it back Thursday.
Kit · your coachHeld Zone 2 the whole way. That’s the win.

Works best with an Apple Watch or a heart-rate strap that syncs to Apple Health.

6:12
Zonna
Base · Week 6
10 weeks out
Good morning
8km,
easy.
KKitYour coach
Yesterday held Zone 2 the whole way. That’s the win. Keep today just as dull.
Week 6 of 16
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Hold the zone · under 145 bpm today
Today's sessionZone 2
Easy run
Zone 2 · < 145 bpm · 6:30–7:30 /km
8km
Log this session
Mostly easy runningEvery session zonedNine plans, free to readOne daily nudge
The problem

Every run ends up in
the same grey zone.

Easy days
Run a bit too hard. Recover a bit too little.
Hard days
Already tired. Effort gets diluted.
The result
Months of training. No real adaptation.
The same week, twice

One week, run two ways.
The app can tell.

These four sessions are week 5 of my free 12-week half marathon plan, exactly as the engine builds them. Same prescription in both columns. The only difference is how hard the easy days get run.

What the plan asks for
  • MonEasy run + strides — Zone 211km · Zone 2 · < 143 bpm
  • WedMile repeats7km · Zone 3 · 143–155 bpm
  • FriEasy run — Zone 211km · Zone 2 · < 143 bpm
  • SunLong run — Zone 214km · Zone 2 · < 143 bpm
Run on feel
Every run a bit hard, because they all felt fine at the time.
  • Mon55% above the ceiling
  • Wed40% above the ceiling
  • Fri62% above the ceiling
  • Sun30% above the ceiling

None of this week’s 4 runs stayed in the zone. The next easy one is the one to hold.

Run to the ceiling
Easy days kept genuinely easy, so the hard day has somewhere to go.
  • Monheld the ceiling
  • Wedheld the ceiling
  • Friheld the ceiling
  • Sunheld the ceiling

All four held the zone.

Wondering whether your easy runs are supposed to feel this slow? That is the whole question, and it has an answer →

Download on the App Store

The sessions and their ceilings come from the plan itself. The two sets of heart-rate readings are an illustration of two ways to run the week, not a measurement of anyone.

Personalised, not generic

Your plan starts from your answers.

Your race, your history, your week, your legs. Pace bands and HR zones are derived from what you actually tell it, not lifted from a template.

Your answers
How far?Half marathon
GoalSub-2:00
Weekly volume32 km
Longest run18 km
Training history2–5 years
Recent hard workHere and there
Days you runTue Thu Sat Sun
Age38

Plus injury history, terrain, your weekday time cap and a recent race result if you have one.

→ Generates
Easy run
Zone 2 · < 145 bpm · 6:30–7:30 /km
8km

A plan that fits you

Rule-engine generated from your race, your training history, your week and what you have actually been running, not a one-size template. Pace bands and HR zones derived from your inputs, not guessed.

Your week, on Plan
Easy run
Zone 2 · < 145 bpm · 6:30–7:30 /km
8km
Tempo run
Zone 3–4 · 5:20–5:35 /km
10km
Long run
Zone 2 the whole way. Yes, all of it.
16km

In-the-moment coaching

Each session knows what it's for and tells you exactly that. Bit keen on an easy day? You'll see it in the post-run line, not buried in a chart.

Kit, on Today
KitYOUR COACH· Sunday
Tuesday drifted 8 bpm above your Zone 2 ceiling and Wednesday looked the same. Two easy days in a row above Z2 is the pattern we are trying to break.Hold the zone on Thursday. Even if it feels too slow.

Nothing you don't need

One job per screen. The plan shows up, you run, the plan adjusts. No noise, no dashboards, nothing competing for the run itself.

Your zones, on Coach
This week in zonesacross 4 runs
Z18%
Z271%
Z39%
Z4-512%
How it goes

Then you run it.
That's the hard part.

No dashboard to read, no score to chase. The week shows up, you run it, and it adjusts around the weeks you actually had.

  1. One session, one screen

    Today shows the run, its zone, its pace band and its heart-rate ceiling. Not your week, not your streak, not a chart. One job.

  2. You run it, or you do not

    Tick it off by hand, or let Apple Health do it. A missed run is information, not a failure, and nothing turns red.

  3. Kit reads what you actually did

    Whether you held the zone or drifted above it, in a sentence. Said on the day it happened, not buried in a monthly summary.

  4. The plan bends to the week you had

    Miss a week and it reshapes around what you ran, rather than stacking it onto the next one. Anything structural asks you first.

The restraint

What's not in the app.

What I left out, on purpose.

No streaks.
No leaderboards.
No "crushing it" notifications.
No motivational quotes.
No 30-day challenges.
No social feed.
No virtual coaches in your DMs.
No paywalled VO₂ score.
No badges.
No fire emojis. Ever.
Honestly

Probably not for you if…

  • You train six days a week and have a sponsor.
  • You genuinely believe sleep is for the weak.
  • You want your phone to applaud you.

Plenty of excellent apps will. This one won't.

Questions

The obvious ones.

Do I need an Apple Watch?

It works best with a heart-rate source: an Apple Watch, or a chest strap that writes to Apple Health. Without one you still get the plan, the paces and the structure. You just don't get heart-rate coaching.

Is it free?

Two weeks of everything, then a free tier that keeps the plan you built. £7.99/month or £59.99/year if you want the coaching and the reshaping. I won't email you to come back.

What distances?

5K, 10K, half and full marathon, and ultra. Every plan is mostly easy running, with each session set to a zone and held there.

Will it make me faster?

If your problem is going medium-hard on everything, yes, by making your easy days genuinely easy, so your hard days can be genuinely hard. It won't turn four hours a week into an elite plan, and it won't pretend to.

What if I miss a week?

Nothing breaks. Missed sessions are a feature of adult life, not a failure, and the plan is built to absorb them. On the paid tier it reshapes around what you actually did; on the free tier the plan stays as generated and you pick it back up. Either way nobody guilt-trips you.

Any streaks, badges or leaderboards?

No. On purpose. The app is built to get out of the way, not to keep you in it.

The free tier

Read the whole plan.
Then decide.

Nine complete plans are on this site right now, 5K to marathon. Every week, every session, every pace band. No signup, no email, no weeks blurred out to make a point.

  • 5K, 10K and half marathon plans
    Built by the same engine, for your race date and the days you can actually run.
  • The whole plan, every week
    Nothing is hidden behind a blur or a teaser. You can read the lot.
  • Rebuild it whenever you like
    Change your race or your week and generate again, as often as you need.
  • Log sessions by hand
    No watch and no Strava needed to tick a run off.
  • An honest read on the ask
    How demanding the plan is for you, said plainly before you start it.
Read the free plans →

Paid adds the coaching that reads your actual runs: £7.99 / month or £59.99 / year. What that gets you

Built by Russ. Runs medium-hard on everything. That's how I know.

The receipt

“You can't outrun your easy days.”

Every week, Kit tells you one true thing about how you actually ran, then shows the numbers behind it. Same effort, lower heart rate. That's the whole game.

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