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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
- Thread starter cfc
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Is it possible to modify the “blank field” to become a text “Label” field? (Empty label would be just like the current blank) ??
Fiddling about with screens as doing a bit of track work at the moment, and I have a screen which is full of “current lap” data that I glance at whilst running, and a very similar looking screen full of “previous lap” data that I might want to refer to whilst on a recovery/rest interval...
...I know it should be obvious that the field displaying “previous lap duration” is static, but when I’m tired it isn’t...I’d really like to just glance and see a label that says “LAST LAP” or “CURRENT LAP” in big text!
As a secondary ask, it would be really good if it were somehow possible to create different sets of screens for an individual workout type rather than the current 1 to 1 mapping...I kind of want a different set of screens for a road race, a trail or fell race, for regular group training, and for track or interval work etc, even though they’re all ultimately a “running” activity.
I guess another way of building this would be to have the single profile as per today, but allowing to disable/enable individual screens on the phone app without ‘losing’ them...then I could just build one big running profile with all my various screen types, and just enable the screens I want.
Can we have more “Custom” profiles too?! As per above, if I have a screen using the “Pace” profile, I have to use “Other” or “Steps” or something if I want to create a second screen that’s presenting Pace type data, if I want different fields to the “Pace” screen I’ve already got. There’s plenty of profiles to choose from as I’ll never need an “activity” or “steps” screen etc in my running screens, but it would be nice if the profile label matched the content.
Fiddling about with screens as doing a bit of track work at the moment, and I have a screen which is full of “current lap” data that I glance at whilst running, and a very similar looking screen full of “previous lap” data that I might want to refer to whilst on a recovery/rest interval...
...I know it should be obvious that the field displaying “previous lap duration” is static, but when I’m tired it isn’t...I’d really like to just glance and see a label that says “LAST LAP” or “CURRENT LAP” in big text!
As a secondary ask, it would be really good if it were somehow possible to create different sets of screens for an individual workout type rather than the current 1 to 1 mapping...I kind of want a different set of screens for a road race, a trail or fell race, for regular group training, and for track or interval work etc, even though they’re all ultimately a “running” activity.
I guess another way of building this would be to have the single profile as per today, but allowing to disable/enable individual screens on the phone app without ‘losing’ them...then I could just build one big running profile with all my various screen types, and just enable the screens I want.
Can we have more “Custom” profiles too?! As per above, if I have a screen using the “Pace” profile, I have to use “Other” or “Steps” or something if I want to create a second screen that’s presenting Pace type data, if I want different fields to the “Pace” screen I’ve already got. There’s plenty of profiles to choose from as I’ll never need an “activity” or “steps” screen etc in my running screens, but it would be nice if the profile label matched the content.
So you want the ability to configure a label that shows text defined by you? No-one has ever asked for that before but it sounds useful so I will add it to my list. It is actually more work than it sounds so I probably won't add it for a while.
A few people have asked for more custom profiles. I intend to add the ability to create and name your own profiles in the future but again not for a while. In the meantime I have been considering adding "Custom 2" and "Custom 3" profiles because that would be relatively simple.
The ability to have multiple sets of screens is interesting. This has also been asked for before, especially in terms of different activities (for example different sets of screens for mountain biking and road biking). I can see the benefits but again it would be a lot of work and could further complicate already quite complex configuration possibilities. It also involves two slightly different concepts: the type of activity (e.g. "road running" vs "trail running") and the type of individual workout (e.g. "training" and "race"). So I need to think about how to include it without over-complicating things.
Sorry to sound so negative. They are all good ideas and most are already on my list of features to add, but probably not in the short term.
Not negative at all, appreciate the response as always
On the “different profiles for the same activity type” (and ideally I guess Apple come along in the meantime and introduce more Workout types which I guess is the REAL solution!?)...is there a possibility of updating the app on the Phone to define screens, in the screen that has “< All Running Screen Restore” at the top, where you get the vertical list of the screens you’ve defined for an activity type, maybe having a tick box associated with each screen that indicates it should be visible or not?
That way we could define all our screens, and then just untick the ones we didn’t want/need ahead of a particular activity.
Again...just minor though!! It doesn’t generally take me too long to whip up an extra screen to do what I want (and I just store copies of all the configs I like in an activity profile that I don’t use, so I can refer to them).
Sounds relatively easy to implement. It's probably too late for the next version but I will bear it in mind for the one after.
Small wish. Have clock as a custom metric. Yes, I know it is always shown at top of the screen, but it is so tiny and hard to read at a glance.
The next version will have a couple of new clock metrics: one with seconds (for wide fields) and one without.
Here’s an idea, for any lap fields, how about if you tap them it starts a new lap. You can add a toggle in the settings to turn that feature off and on for those who don’t want that.
BTW, I run almost daily and use your app frequently and also often use a Garmin Fenix 5 plus at the same time. I’m pretty confident the Apple Watch distances are a little long - usually about 2% longer. When I look at the GPS tracks, the garmin looks sharper. I get that the garmin is a specific use watch for the most part and that the Apple Watch is a generalist that does fitness quite well but isn’t made solely for that. I do wonder if the intelligent distances is the culprit so I’ve just turned it off. I run with a GPS/Cellular AW4, and without my phone. I also stream my music as I run to my headphones, but I don’t think that would have an impact
Thanks for a very cool app!
BTW, I run almost daily and use your app frequently and also often use a Garmin Fenix 5 plus at the same time. I’m pretty confident the Apple Watch distances are a little long - usually about 2% longer. When I look at the GPS tracks, the garmin looks sharper. I get that the garmin is a specific use watch for the most part and that the Apple Watch is a generalist that does fitness quite well but isn’t made solely for that. I do wonder if the intelligent distances is the culprit so I’ve just turned it off. I run with a GPS/Cellular AW4, and without my phone. I also stream my music as I run to my headphones, but I don’t think that would have an impact
Thanks for a very cool app!
The Intelligent Distances option means using Apple's estimates, which some people do find can be slightly out. In that situation it is worth calibrating the watch (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516) but some users find even that doesn't help (maybe their stride length varies a lot?).
This is why the app has the option to switch to just determining distances from the GPS. However that will obviously be more susceptible to a poor GPS signal, which is why the app defaults to using Apple's distance estimates.
Glad you like the app!
Just out of interest, is it possible to use the app and have it still record whilst charging on-the-go? I am planning a big bike ride Manchester->London UK so would need to top up while riding and would like to use this app.
To be honest I have never tried recharging whilst literally on the move. With older watches I have recharged at lunch time on a long day without problems, but that was before I added hundreds of metrics so I don't know if watchOS would keep tracking all those metrics whilst the watch is not connected to your wrist. I would guess that it would but I don't know for sure so I will investigate.
It may be worth splitting the workout into smaller workouts purely because the app has never been tested for workouts longer than the battery life of the watch, so you may hit some sort of resource limits (e.g. running out of memory to store a very long route), especially on an older watch. In theory it should be ok but I wouldn't want you to lost the workout, which is why it may be worth splitting it.
Logic would dictate that if you're charging your watch during an activity, that would negate any heart rate information you should be receiving, and the subsequent disruption of the data that you're receiving.
Two requests to improve visibility for the next release:
When the map is in the background have the clock use black font so it is readable. It is very hard to read against the map background.
For the heart rate in red it is hard to read outside in bright light. Can you make it bold/brighter? The apple workout app can do something like this where you can highlight one of the data fields and it shows brighter.
When the map is in the background have the clock use black font so it is readable. It is very hard to read against the map background.
For the heart rate in red it is hard to read outside in bright light. Can you make it bold/brighter? The apple workout app can do something like this where you can highlight one of the data fields and it shows brighter.
Unfortunately apps cannot control the appearance of the time, which is why I have a black background behind it to make it clearer. This can be toggled on and off by double-tapping the time, so maybe you have it toggled off?
You can make a field clearer by touching it for a second or two, which will invert the colours. I will probably offer theming in a future version to give more control over the colours. In the meantime I will make the red brighter in the next version.
Don’t know how feasible but another suggestion to make things more flexible is to give the option of displaying current data (as a number) on the graph fields.
I quite like the graphs but they’re difficult to make total use of mid activity if you don’t know the current absolute value.
Have a look at the screens shown in the App Store for the AW version of the “Trails” app if this doesn’t make sense!
I quite like the graphs but they’re difficult to make total use of mid activity if you don’t know the current absolute value.
Have a look at the screens shown in the App Store for the AW version of the “Trails” app if this doesn’t make sense!
I see what you mean - they look good. I plan to improve the graph metrics in the future with different time/distance periods (e.g. last 10 minutes) so I will look into it then. Thanks for the suggestion!
Is there any chance that you could look to include current speed, maximum speed and average speed instead of pace?
The reason I ask is that I am a rugby referee and have no use for pace/cadence, etc. due to the erratic nature of my movement over the pitch. It is however speed that interests me (to see how fast I was going when keeping up with play).
One if the reasons I sold my previous Apple watch is because I could not find an app with this feature, so bought a Polar V800 instead as this does.
Thanks.
The reason I ask is that I am a rugby referee and have no use for pace/cadence, etc. due to the erratic nature of my movement over the pitch. It is however speed that interests me (to see how fast I was going when keeping up with play).
One if the reasons I sold my previous Apple watch is because I could not find an app with this feature, so bought a Polar V800 instead as this does.
Thanks.
You can configure the metrics shown on the watch screen to be whatever you want from a pool of over 160 metrics including current speed, maximum speed and average speed. So you should be able to tailor a screen to show exactly the data that you want to see.
If you mean the analytics on the iPhone app then just tap "Show Speed" to show speed metrics instead of pace metrics. You can then swipe along the profile at the bottom to see your speed at any point.
The speed shown is that reported by Apple but be aware that it may struggle for accuracy if you are weaving around a lot. Instantaneous running speed is notoriously difficult to calculate using GPS because of the inherent inaccuracy. When it is only a few metres out then the actual route can be estimated when you are running in generally straight lines but it is much harder when you are randomly changing direction. And using the pedometer will not be great because I am guessing that your stride length is quite variable with all the stopping and starting during a match. So my guess is that no watch is going to be great at estimating speed in those conditions.
I started using your app a few months ago cause I was annoyed by the way the native workout app messes around with the GPS track. Most of the time I run with the watch (Series 3) only and keep my phone at home. GPS accuracy is usually just 4 bars. I think it's as precise as it can get on an Apple Watch
But I still noticed that my stats are off compared to my fellow runners. So I started to play around with the settings. Disabled "Intelligent Distances" and "Pace From Pedometer". The stats seem to be more in line now with other recordings for distance and pace.
What I see now is that the pace/distance listed in the app is higher than what is later reported to Apples Activities app. I don't have many data points yet, but it's like up to 100m for every 10k. This might not sound much, but I would consider myself as a dedicated running and so this is rather important for my training.
My assumption is that the stats shown in your app are still with "Intelligent Distances" on. The stats reported to the Activities app are the ones that are comparable with others.
Looking forward to future updates to your app and I hope GPS accuracy gets better with a Series 5 later this year. Otherwise, I may need to buy a dedicated running watch...
Again, your App is great and I think the flaws are on Apple's site. THANKS!
But I still noticed that my stats are off compared to my fellow runners. So I started to play around with the settings. Disabled "Intelligent Distances" and "Pace From Pedometer". The stats seem to be more in line now with other recordings for distance and pace.
What I see now is that the pace/distance listed in the app is higher than what is later reported to Apples Activities app. I don't have many data points yet, but it's like up to 100m for every 10k. This might not sound much, but I would consider myself as a dedicated running and so this is rather important for my training.
My assumption is that the stats shown in your app are still with "Intelligent Distances" on. The stats reported to the Activities app are the ones that are comparable with others.
Looking forward to future updates to your app and I hope GPS accuracy gets better with a Series 5 later this year. Otherwise, I may need to buy a dedicated running watch...
Again, your App is great and I think the flaws are on Apple's site. THANKS!