Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[Starrtech2000]

Also, about the discussion of subscriptions/price increases: obviously very few people will tell you they WANT to pay more. They will also say they will ditch the app because they want a very cheap app that does everything they need.

It’s like raising taxes. Very few vote for it, yet most would end up being happy if a perfect government used higher taxes to give people great free services that end reducing their overall costs.

Just consider the fact that so many of the top apps on the App Store use subscription models for an app purchases or add on one time fees. If the business model didn’t work, no one would do it. If you can’t get the features you want another app, you bite the bullet and pay.

 

[mikeyhd]

I always buy apple watch in pairs so I can use 1 while the other is charging, at the current price WOD is more than a bargain, the only thing I don't like is after a workout, it takes a long time to upload. I guess it uses Bluetooth to upload data to the iPhone. I don't like the subscription model that is expensive (less than $20/year is perfectly reasonable) but I rather buy the feature upright.

As a comparison with Cyclemeter or Navigr8 which is a subscription model (and I have both subscriptions), WOD is a super real bargain.

The AOD does not bring much as the data on display is not updated unless you turn the wrist or touch the screen (in that case it updates up to 70 secs, set in the Watch system setting)

 

[muellered]

Thinking myself as a business owner, I would switch WOD to $5 / month subscriptions - only bringing new features to the subscription version and renaming+unlisting the current version. As a user who already paid once (years ago), I would not like the switch, but I would keep paying until Apple offers offline maps and catches up with other features where I find WOD superior.

good point to make if you want to see WOD lose users because of the subscription model

 

[noel18]

I'm sure Apple will have offline maps, but Apple Maps level of detail is not good enough for hiking and trail running. There is room for apps which have more than just a road layout.

Their current maps do not have the detail but with all the crowed sourced data from people hiking combined with an almost endless budget, I'm sure they could wipe everyone off the map if they wanted to. They have the resources to make a special backpack with LiDAR and cameras which they could send on hikes along crowd sourced routes. Then you could even get a Google Street View like system for planning routes.

 

[jwehman1]

Quick question on "Starting" a workout (run/hike, etc, whatever): I saw a video where the user was using his Apple Watch Ultra to demonstrate WOD as a replacement for Apple Workout (which I agree is a must).

He appeared to be able to set up WOD so that when he selected a workout, the app presented a "start" option, rather than starting the activity right away...in other words, he was able to get the workout ready to go, and then hit his "start" button in the app to actually begin.

Is this something that's only available in the AW Ultra? Or can WOD be configured to work that way in the non-Ultra watches, like my Series 8?

Thanks!

 

[MrAcid]

Quick question on "Starting" a workout (run/hike, etc, whatever): I saw a video where the user was using his Apple Watch Ultra to demonstrate WOD as a replacement for Apple Workout (which I agree is a must).

He appeared to be able to set up WOD so that when he selected a workout, the app presented a "start" option, rather than starting the activity right away...in other words, he was able to get the workout ready to go, and then hit his "start" button in the app to actually begin.

Is this something that's only available in the AW Ultra? Or can WOD be configured to work that way in the non-Ultra watches, like my Series 8?

Thanks!

Hit the three periods (…) next to the activity then “Open Workout”.

 

[noel18]

Quick question on "Starting" a workout (run/hike, etc, whatever): I saw a video where the user was using his Apple Watch Ultra to demonstrate WOD as a replacement for Apple Workout (which I agree is a must).

He appeared to be able to set up WOD so that when he selected a workout, the app presented a "start" option, rather than starting the activity right away...in other words, he was able to get the workout ready to go, and then hit his "start" button in the app to actually begin.

Is this something that's only available in the AW Ultra? Or can WOD be configured to work that way in the non-Ultra watches, like my Series 8?

Thanks!

Something else that is cool about this big green button is it doesn't start the run until you "release" the button. What I do when starting races is place my finger on this green but and then make my way to the starting line and as I cross, I simply lift my finger off the screen. Because your finger is actively touching the screen it prevents the watch from sleeping when you lower your wrist. It also allows you to start the run without looking at the screen. It's more awkward than a physical button but at least you can align the start perfectly at a race without waking the watch and having to look at the screen while trying not to get run over or run over someone else.

 

[Dealmans]

Yes, it has a surfing activity.

what does it tell you when and after surfing?

 

[cfc]

what does it tell you when and after surfing?

There are hundreds of metrics available for surfing so please let me know what you want to see and I will let you know if the app can display it.

 

[cfc]

Something else that is cool about this big green button is it doesn't start the run until you "release" the button. What I do when starting races is place my finger on this green but and then make my way to the starting line and as I cross, I simply lift my finger off the screen. Because your finger is actively touching the screen it prevents the watch from sleeping when you lower your wrist. It also allows you to start the run without looking at the screen. It's more awkward than a physical button but at least you can align the start perfectly at a race without waking the watch and having to look at the screen while trying not to get run over or run over someone else.

That is a great tip. I hadn't actually realised that was how it worked, let alone how it could be used to prevent it sleeping!

 

[Dealmans]

There are hundreds of metrics available for surfing so please let me know what you want to see and I will let you know if the app can display it.

wave count, speed, distance on wave, heart rate, paddling distance, time surfed.

 

[cfc]

wave count, speed, distance on wave, heart rate, paddling distance, time surfed.

Sorry, it doesn’t do anything specialised like that. No-one has ever asked for those metrics. You probably need a dedicated surfing app.

 

[Dealmans]

Sorry, it doesn’t do anything specialised like that. No-one has ever asked for those metrics. You probably need a dedicated surfing app.

no worries, thanks

 

[dj1891]

So any ideas this issue here. Same run uploaded from WOD to Strava different results, add to the Apple health says something different again.

 

[RobinWilhelmus]

Hi, does anyone know a way to disable my standard distance alerts during an interval training?
During a normal run I have an alert every 1km, but during an interval training I only want alerts at the end of every interval. Time or distance, depending on how my training is.

 

[cfc]

View attachment 2093869View attachment 2093870So any ideas this issue here. Same run uploaded from WOD to Strava different results, add to the Apple health says something different again.

Strava often does its own thing. For example by default it usually shows Moving Time where it tries to guess where you paused, which explains why it is 12 seconds shorter than WOD. This annoys many users and developers but they keep doing it. To force Strava to use the elapsed time change their "Run Type" setting for the workout to "Race". However if you have actually paused then this will also include the paused time.

The difference in distance is probably because they recalculate that from the GPS track, whereas WOD uses Apple distances from the pedometer by default. So either the GPS was poor or you need to recalibrate the watch as described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516.

In the past this was a common complaint, but I rarely hear of since the app switched to sending FIT files to Strava by default. Have you maybe changed the file type in the WOD Strava settings to TCX or GPX? If so then try switching back to FIT (although these problems can still occasionally happen with FIT files).

 

[cfc]

Hi, does anyone know a way to disable my standard distance alerts during an interval training?
During a normal run I have an alert every 1km, but during an interval training I only want alerts at the end of every interval. Time or distance, depending on how my training is.

There is an "Enable Regular Notifications" option at the bottom of each interval. If you disable this then you will not hear the regular notifications during that interval.

This can also be over-ridden by the "Regular Notifications" setting on the main Interval Schedules settings screen. By default this is Auto (which means use the settings for each interval) but you can change it to "Yes" or "No" (which is what you want).

 

[kave]

That mountain symbol is on the Map configuration page. It is one of several symbols at the top of that screen that just describe different locations. The idea is that when you configure your map settings you can see how they look in the city, the countryside, the mountains, a ski resort, a river and by the coast/sea.

So changing the location does not affect any of the settings, it just shows you how those settings look in that type of location.

For example in the screenshots below I have changed the colours of the contours above and below your current location. This wouldn't have much affect in most of the other locations but in the mountains you can see that the different colours help to judge the terrain and more easily show that you are on a ridge between a higher peak and a peak that is not as high.


View attachment 2092659 View attachment 2092658

Wow, this is better than most dedicated maps apps on the iPhone. To my knowledge none offers the possibility to adjust line width, which makes it hard to view the maps on arm lenghts distance when riding a motorbike for example.

 

[kave]

Yes, it has a surfing activity.

For walking the main advantage is a map on the watch as you walk, with a GPX route shown on top of the map if you upload one. However there are lots of other advantages like customisable screens, alerts etc.

If you don't need any of that (and many people don't) then you may as well stick with Apple's app.

One of the best features over the built in app is alerts, I use them for MAF training, ie to train in a structured way you most likely need to train within a HR zone which WO can alert you to.

 

[mikeyhd]

My strava distance never math the apple health one, it reset based on it's database

 

[Akrapovic]

Strava does all sorts of fancy algorithms with the uploaded data. For my first half marathon my watch recorded a distance of 21.0 km (0.1km short). Uploaded to Strava and it also said 21.0km. After a few hours (when it had number crunched all the runners uploads) it changed my distance to 21.2km. I think it took the average of everyone who ran it at the same time and used the average distance of everybody.

Basically, Strava is doing some amazing maths on the backend to work out how much you ran, as GPS itself is not accurate enough to take the raw data from.

 

[RobinWilhelmus]

There is an "Enable Regular Notifications" option at the bottom of each interval. If you disable this then you will not hear the regular notifications during that interval.

This can also be over-ridden by the "Regular Notifications" setting on the main Interval Schedules settings screen. By default this is Auto (which means use the settings for each interval) but you can change it to "Yes" or "No" (which is what you want).

ah, there it is. Thanks!

 

[cfc]

Strava does all sorts of fancy algorithms with the uploaded data. For my first half marathon my watch recorded a distance of 21.0 km (0.1km short). Uploaded to Strava and it also said 21.0km. After a few hours (when it had number crunched all the runners uploads) it changed my distance to 21.2km. I think it took the average of everyone who ran it at the same time and used the average distance of everybody.

Basically, Strava is doing some amazing maths on the backend to work out how much you ran, as GPS itself is not accurate enough to take the raw data from.

That is very interesting. I didn't realise that they recalculated distances based on other people's distances.

It sounds great for users but I just know that it will mean more "why does Strava not match WOD?" questions for me!

 

[dj1891]

Strava often does its own thing. For example by default it usually shows Moving Time where it tries to guess where you paused, which explains why it is 12 seconds shorter than WOD. This annoys many users and developers but they keep doing it. To force Strava to use the elapsed time change their "Run Type" setting for the workout to "Race". However if you have actually paused then this will also include the paused time.

The difference in distance is probably because they recalculate that from the GPS track, whereas WOD uses Apple distances from the pedometer by default. So either the GPS was poor or you need to recalibrate the watch as described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516.

In the past this was a common complaint, but I rarely hear of since the app switched to sending FIT files to Strava by default. Have you maybe changed the file type in the WOD Strava settings to TCX or GPX? If so then try switching back to FIT (although these problems can still occasionally happen with FIT files).

It was sitting at GPX so I changed to FIT

 

[cfc]

It was sitting at GPX so I changed to FIT

That would have explained it, so hopefully changing back to FIT files will help. GPX files do not contain distance information, so Strava are forced to calculate the distances from the locations and the result won't be exactly the same as Apple's pedometer based distances.

FIT files and TCX files do contain distances but it seems that Strava respect the distances in FIT files more than they do TCX files, which is why I haven't had as many questions about differing distances since adding FIT exports.