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The 2026 TCS London Marathon is on April 27, and if you have a place, your training is well underway. Whether you are 18 weeks out with a structured plan or still figuring out how to fit long runs around everything else in your life, the app you use can make a real difference to how prepared you feel on race day.
But here is the thing most London Marathon training guides will not tell you: the best app for your marathon depends entirely on what kind of runner you are. Someone who just wants to finish their first 26.2 miles needs a completely different tool from someone chasing a sub-3:30 while maintaining their strength training. And yet most app comparisons treat all marathon runners the same.
We tested the most popular training apps through the lens of London Marathon preparation specifically. That means evaluating plan quality for the 26.2 distance, how well each app handles the 16 to 20 week build that a spring marathon demands, watch integration for tracking long runs across London's varied terrain, and whether the app understands that many modern marathon runners are also lifting weights two to three times per week.
What to Look for in a Marathon Training App
A good marathon training app needs to do more than count your miles. At minimum, it should give you a structured plan that progresses sensibly from your current fitness to race-ready over 12 to 20 weeks. It should include variety in your sessions: easy runs, tempo efforts, intervals, and long runs with purpose. It should sync with your watch so your data is captured automatically. And ideally, it should adapt when life gets in the way and you miss a session or two.
For London Marathon specifically, there are a few extra considerations. The course is relatively flat but includes some camber changes and a few undulations, particularly around the Canary Wharf loop between miles 14 and 20. Apps that allow you to set pace targets for different sections of your long runs are particularly useful for practising your race day strategy. And if you are training through a British winter and early spring, the app needs to work just as well on a treadmill as it does outdoors.
The Best Apps for London Marathon Training, Ranked
8. Couch to 5K: Only If You Are Starting from Scratch
If you have never run before and somehow secured a London Marathon place for April, Couch to 5K is your starting point, but it is not a marathon training app. It will take you from zero to running 5K over nine weeks using a walk-run method. After completing it, you would need to transition to a dedicated marathon training app with at least 16 weeks of build time remaining.
Realistically, if you are starting from zero now for an April marathon, the timeline is extremely tight. Couch to 5K followed by a marathon plan is possible but requires careful progression to avoid injury. Consider targeting a later marathon and using the London event as a training run at a very comfortable pace.
Price: Free (NHS Couch to 5K app). Best for absolute beginners who need a structured path to running before starting marathon-specific training.
7. Nike Run Club: Best Free Option for First-Time Marathoners
Nike Run Club offers a completely free marathon training plan, which makes it an attractive option if you do not want to pay for a training app. The guided runs are excellent, with Nike coaches providing audio cues on pacing, effort, and motivation through your headphones during long runs. For a first-time London Marathon runner who finds the idea of a solo 20-miler daunting, having a coach in your ear can make a genuine difference.
The marathon plan covers 18 weeks and includes easy runs, speed work, tempo efforts, and progressive long runs. It is well structured for a free product. The limitation is adaptability. If you miss a week due to illness or travel, the plan does not adjust. You have to manually figure out where to pick back up, which can be stressful when you are already anxious about marathon preparation. There is also no strength training component, which is a significant gap for a 26.2-mile event where muscular endurance matters enormously.
Price: Free. Best for first-time marathoners on a budget who respond well to guided audio coaching.
6. MapMyRun: Best for Route Planning Around London
MapMyRun is not the best marathon training app, but it has one feature that is genuinely useful for London Marathon preparation: route creation. You can plan your long runs to simulate sections of the actual marathon course, mapping out routes that take you through Greenwich, along the Thames, past Canary Wharf, and over Tower Bridge. For runners who want to familiarise themselves with the course terrain before race day, this is valuable.
The app also tracks shoe mileage, which matters when you are putting in serious marathon training volume. Knowing when your trainers are due for replacement can prevent the kind of niggles that derail a training block in its final weeks.
The training plans are basic compared to dedicated marathon coaching apps. Use MapMyRun as a companion tool for route planning alongside a more sophisticated app for your actual programme.
Price: Free with basic features. MVP premium is around £4.99 per month or £29.99 per year. Best as a supplementary tool for route planning and gear tracking.
5. Strava: Best for Accountability and Community
Strava will not write your marathon training plan, but it will keep you honest about following one. The social features are unmatched: seeing your running club mates log their long runs on a Sunday morning is powerful motivation to get out the door yourself. The kudos system, segment leaderboards, and group challenges create accountability that solo training often lacks.
For London Marathon training specifically, Strava is useful for analysing your long runs in detail. You can review splits, heart rate data, elevation profiles, and pace consistency across different sections. The route heatmap feature helps you find popular running routes if you are looking for new long run options. And posting your marathon on Strava afterwards is basically mandatory at this point.
But Strava is a tracking and social tool, not a coaching platform. The training plans available are basic and will not give you the structured, progressive marathon build you need. Use it alongside a dedicated training app.
Price: Free with limited features. Premium is £8.99 per month or £54.99 per year. Best for motivation, accountability, and post-run analysis.
4. Garmin Connect: Best for Data-Driven Marathon Runners
If you own a Garmin watch, Garmin Connect provides the deepest analytics available for marathon training. Training load tracking, VO2 max estimates, recovery time recommendations, and race predictor all help you understand whether your fitness is progressing on schedule for April. The Garmin Coach feature offers adaptive marathon plans from coaches like Jeff Galloway and Greg McMillan that sync structured workouts directly to your watch.
For London Marathon preparation, the training load feature is particularly useful. It shows whether you are in the optimal zone or tipping into overtraining, which is critical during the high-volume weeks of a marathon build. The race predictor gives you an estimated finish time based on your recent training, which can help with pacing strategy.
The app is clunky to navigate and the interface feels dated. But if you already own a Garmin, the depth of data is unbeatable. Pair it with Strava for the social element Garmin lacks.
Price: Free (requires a Garmin device, which start from around £200). Best for experienced runners who train by data and already own a Garmin watch.
3. Runna: Best Dedicated Marathon Training Plan
Runna is the strongest pure marathon training app available. It builds a personalised plan based on your goal time, current fitness level, and weekly availability. The plans are well structured with clear session purposes: easy runs at specific paces, tempo efforts at lactate threshold, intervals for speed development, and progressive long runs that build towards 20+ mile efforts in the final weeks before taper.
For London Marathon 2026, Runna has a dedicated guide and plan options at various experience levels. The app adjusts pace targets based on your performance in key sessions, so if your fitness improves faster than expected, the plan responds. It integrates with Garmin, Apple Watch, COROS, Suunto, and Strava, so your data flows without friction.
Runna has also added strength and conditioning content alongside its running plans. The S&C sessions are designed to complement your running, focusing on injury prevention exercises like glute activation, core stability, and single-leg work. This is a welcome addition, though the strength programming is supplementary rather than a core part of the plan. It does not account for how a heavy leg session might affect your next run or manage the interaction between the two.
The limitation is that Runna is a running-first platform. If you have a meaningful strength training practice beyond basic injury prevention exercises, you will need to manage that separately and figure out the scheduling yourself.
Price: £15.99 per month or £99.99 per year (works out to £8.33 per month). First week free. Best for runners who want the highest quality marathon-specific running plan.
2. Edge: Best for Marathon Runners Who Also Strength Train
This is where things get interesting. If you are training for the London Marathon while also maintaining two to three strength sessions per week, Edge is the only app that manages both in a single integrated plan.
This matters more than most people realise. Research consistently shows that strength training improves marathon performance by increasing running economy, delaying muscular fatigue in the later miles, and reducing injury risk during high-volume training blocks. The problem is that most runners either drop their lifting entirely during marathon prep (losing the benefits) or try to maintain it without adjusting their schedule (running quality suffers because they are squatting heavy the day before a tempo run).
Edge solves this by programming your running and strength work as one coordinated plan. Your long run is never placed after a heavy lower body session. Your intervals land on days when your legs are fresh. Your strength sessions during peak marathon training volume are adjusted to maintain muscle without creating excessive fatigue that compromises your running. This kind of intelligent scheduling is the difference between arriving at the London Marathon start line strong and resilient, versus arriving overtrained and nursing a niggle.
The running programming itself is built by qualified running coaches, not bolted on as an afterthought. Plans include the same session variety as Runna: easy runs, tempos, intervals, and progressive long runs. But they are structured within a broader training week that accounts for everything you are doing, not just the running.
Edge integrates with Apple Watch and Garmin, so all your run data syncs automatically. You see your full training week across both running and strength in one view, which means no more flipping between two apps trying to figure out if your schedule makes sense.
The trade-off is that Edge does not have the running-specific depth of analytics that Garmin Connect offers, or the social community of Strava. If you only run and do not strength train at all, Runna will serve you better as a pure marathon training tool. But if your London Marathon training includes lifting, which it should, Edge is the only app that actually handles both.
Price: £19.99 per month with a 7-day free trial. Best for marathon runners who strength train, HYROX athletes, and anyone who wants their running and lifting to work together rather than against each other.
1. TrainingPeaks: Best for Coached Athletes and Advanced Runners
TrainingPeaks is the gold standard for serious endurance athletes who work with a coach or want the most granular control over their training. It is not really an app that tells you what to do. It is a platform where coaches build and deliver plans, and where self-coached athletes can design their own periodised programmes.
For London Marathon training, TrainingPeaks offers a marketplace of coach-designed plans at various levels and durations, including several that specifically integrate strength work. The platform's analytics are the deepest available: CTL (Chronic Training Load), ATL (Acute Training Load), and TSB (Training Stress Balance) let you model exactly where your fitness sits relative to fatigue. If you know what these numbers mean and use them to guide your training, nothing else compares.
The downside is complexity and cost. The free version is limited. Premium is $19.95 per month (billed in USD, roughly £16) or $134.99 per year (roughly £108), and many of the best marathon plans cost an additional $30 to $100 on top of that. The interface is powerful but not intuitive for casual users. If you do not already understand periodisation and training stress concepts, TrainingPeaks will feel overwhelming.
Price: Free basic version. Premium is $19.95 per month or $134.99 per year (billed in USD plus VAT). Best for coached athletes and experienced self-coached runners who want maximum control and analytics.
The Apps You Will Actually Use on Race Day
Training apps get you to the start line. But on race day itself, you need different tools.
The TCS London Marathon Official App is essential for logistics: start wave information, course maps, live tracking for your supporters, and post-race results. Download it regardless of which training app you use.
Your GPS watch (Garmin, Apple Watch, or equivalent) paired with your chosen training app will handle pace tracking during the race. Set your target pace and use audio or haptic alerts to keep you honest, especially through the excitement of the first few miles when the crowds at Greenwich can pull you out too fast.
Strava is where your race will live afterwards. Most runners upload their London Marathon to Strava within minutes of finishing. It is part of the experience at this point.
Which App Should You Choose?
If you want the best pure marathon running plan and running is all you do, go with Runna. If you want deep data and own a Garmin, use Garmin Connect with a Garmin Coach plan. If you need free, Nike Run Club is solid. If you want community and accountability, add Strava to whatever else you are using.
And if you are one of the growing number of runners training for London while also lifting two to three times a week, Edge is the only app that puts your marathon running and strength training into one intelligent programme. You do not have to choose between being marathon-ready and being strong. You just need an app that understands both.
Good luck on April 27. See you at the finish line on The Mall.
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