What is a B-race?
A B-race is a secondary race you include during your main training program. It’s a great opportunity to test your fitness, practise race conditions, and shake off nerves before your main event.
Runna intelligently adapts your training plan around your B race by automatically adjusting your workouts, taper, and recovery - ensuring you stay on track towards your main goal.
How to Access the B-race Feature
To add a B-race, make sure:
You’re on app version 7.19.0 or later. You can check this in your app store.
You’re following one of the following plans:
Race Plan (e.g. marathon, half marathon, 10k)
Distance Goal Plan (e.g. 5k Improvement Plan, 10k Improvement Plan, parkrun Improvement Plan)
Triathlon Plan
Your training plan is version v10 or later.
Check this by going to the Plan tab then Manage Plan.
Plans created before January 2025 might need updating: tap Manage Plan to see if an update is available for you.
How to Add a B-race to Your Plan
You can add a B-race to your plan directly from within Plan tab, or via Manage Plan.
Our coaches strongly recommend choosing a distance shorter than your A-Race. This helps ensure your training remains optimal and avoids compromising your main goal.
Once you've selected to add a B-Race, we will suggest a period of time within which we think it would be most beneficial for you to complete this based on your plan. If you click “Find my race”, you’ll be taken to Race Discovery, where you can search for races that match the coach-recommended dates.
If you’d like to complete a B-Race outside this recommended period, you can clear the filters to broaden your search. If you still can’t find the race you’re looking for, you can add your own by clicking “Don’t see your race?”.
You can then select how you'd like to approach your B-Race from the following options:
Run for fun – comfortable, conversational pace
Strong and steady – solid effort, without maximum intensity, similar to a structured long run with pace targets
Going all out – aiming for a new personal best
These options help us decide how much to adjust your training to ensure you have enough preparation and recovery around your B-Race. You can update this later if you change your mind closer to race day.
Finally, you’ll be taken to the B-Race Adjustment Hub, where Runna calculates a personalised adjustment and shows you exactly how your B-Race will impact your training for your goal race.
This is shown as your Training Impact, which can be low, medium, or high, depending on:
the length of your A-Race and B-Race
your running ability
where the race falls within your plan
your chosen approach to your B-Race
This means two people adding the same B-Race to their plan may see slightly different adaptations to their training.
How Does the Training Impact of My B-Race Affect My Plan?
Depending on the Training Impact of your B-Race, we may adjust your plan in the following ways:
The week before your B-Race
We may begin to taper your training by moving your deload week forward or slightly reducing the volume of your workouts.
The week of your B-Race:
During race week, we may reduce the number of runs or align your deload week to further support tapering. We may also replace certain workouts (for example, your long run or a speed session) with the race itself, and swap your speed session for taper intervals.
The week after your B-Race
You may see extra rest days after your race to support your all-important recovery, and we may also make some adjustments so that your first workout post-race is an easy run. For higher-impact races, you may be given a recovery week with lighter volume and intensity as you gradually ramp back up.
If you choose to accept the impact of your B-Race, this will be added to your plan and you'll be ready to go! Your workout and coaching comments will also be updated to reflect this.
You can edit, or remove an upcoming B-Race by returning to Manage Plan, viewing the adjustment hub and selecting 'Discard B race'. Your plan will then update accordingly to ensure your training remains optimal for your goal race.
FAQs
How many B-Races can I add?
There’s no strict cap, but we recommend one or two per training cycle. Adding too many races could negatively impact your primary goal, and the app will notify you if your race schedule becomes too crowded.
Can I add a B-Race at any time?
Not quite - Runna will prevent you from adding a B-Race under the following circumstances:
Your intended B-Race is too close to your main race (within your taper period)
Your intended B-Race is too early in your training plan (if your training hasn’t yet prepared you for the race distance)
Your intended B-Race is scheduled in a way that prevents you from completing the minimum distance required for your A race. The app may suggest that you change your B-Race approach to minimise any subsequent disruption.
Is it okay to do B-Races often?
B-Races are a fantastic way to test your progress, but not every race should be at a maximum effort. Listen to your body and use these races strategically to test out race-day fuelling and new kit, rather than racing too frequently.
Further questions?
If you need more support, please get in touch with our customer experience team via the in-app support tab and we'll do our best to help!