Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[MrAcid]

Following this topic with all of the new ideas and requests is a joy and make me look forward to what is still to come for the app.

However, I did a 30k run this morning in an area completely new to me and it made me realize how fantastic this app already is. Having a full-color map, GPX route, 6 customizable metrics and fantastic reliability made it a blast. Coming from a “breadcrumb” Garmin Fenix 5S this is just so much better.

I know everyone is asking and waiting for new features for the Ultra (me too) but I’m already in love with the app! Thanks @cfc!

 

[cfc]

it's all on, I have power running but not cycle power

and cycle cadence I don't have it either

Open the HealthFit apps with cycling there is no power nor cadence

The lack of power for cycling workouts is a limitation of Apple's Health system, which only has "running power" and not "cycling power". WorkOutDoors is a bit naughty and saves the power when cycling as "running power" in the Health system, but HealthFit quite rightly does not read it for cycling because it is running power.

The situation is similar for cadence, where Apple's Health system is not designed to store it for cycling.

 

[Mauki]

The situation is similar for cadence, where Apple's Health system is not designed to store it for cycling.

Did this mean that the cadence I get from my cadence sensor will show in Workoutdoors but not in Apple Health 😳

When this is true, then I‘m disappointed and this sucks really 😡

 

[cfc]

Did this mean that the cadence I get from my cadence sensor will show in Workoutdoors but not in Apple Health 😳

When this is true, then I‘m disappointed and this sucks really 😡

Yes. WOD saves "steps" samples to Apple's Health system when cycling with a cadence sensor, but again it is being a bit naughty because a cycling activity shouldn't really have steps.

The problem is that the native Apple Workout app only supports HR sensors. It does not support external power, cadence, speed/distance etc sensors, so Apple don't feel the need to support the data generated by them in their Health system. Hopefully they will add them in the future, but my guess is that won't be until they support those sensors in their app (which could be very soon or years away!)

The workaround if you need cycling cadence or power to be exported is to bypass Apple's Health system by exporting directly from WOD via FIT files.

 

[Mauki]

The workaround if you need cycling cadence or power to be exported is to bypass Apple's Health system by exporting directly from WOD via FIT files.

Ok, that is cool that you save the cadence in the fit File. Manual Export is better than nothing but not good.

 

[mikeyhd]

I have been exporting FIT file to the repository (doing manually) or you can sync with strava and use rungap to export to directory

Would be much cooler that WOD can export to a directory just like it export strava, no need for third party apps

I have been using rubitrack for my FIT file (locally on PC) and strava as online. Those data is feed up into Apple Health/Fitness

 

[mikeyhd]

For cycling cadence you need an cadence sensor in your bike. Did you have this?

i have a cadence and power meter

 

[MitzEclipse]

Hello
Still getting used to the AW8 and WOD app but so far the customization ability and UI blows my Garmin Fenix 5s away. A few follow on questions:

- When running and I'm not looking directly at the watch a "screen saver" comes on with just the time, covering the data fields. Went through all the setting options a few times...Where do I turn this off?

- Did my normal 10.5k loop today (this route is flat and no tree cover along a river, been recording for years this same route on the Garmin Fenix 5s and WOD records it as 13.77k . Strong GPS signal the whole time. Is there some calibration required?

- When you click start workout, is there a way to make the watch vibrate? (similar to Garmin) just used to it!

- Where are the workouts stored as the golden source? on WOD servers? or locally? or in Apple Health? Just wondering what happens if I were to delete the app and have to reinstall?

 

[cfc]

Hello
Still getting used to the AW8 and WOD app but so far the customization ability and UI blows my Garmin Fenix 5s away. A few follow on questions:

- When running and I'm not looking directly at the watch a "screen saver" comes on with just the time, covering the data fields. Went through all the setting options a few times...Where do I turn this off?

- Did my normal 10.5k loop today (this route is flat and no tree cover along a river, been recording for years this same route on the Garmin Fenix 5s and WOD records it as 13.77k . Strong GPS signal the whole time. Is there some calibration required?

- When you click start workout, is there a way to make the watch vibrate? (similar to Garmin) just used to it!

- Where are the workouts stored as the golden source? on WOD servers? or locally? or in Apple Health? Just wondering what happens if I were to delete the app and have to reinstall?

The "screensaver" is because the app does not yet support the Always on Display. Sorry about that. Updating the screen when inactive requires Apple's latest coding language (known as SwiftUI). This appeared long after WorkOutDoors was first released, so the app does not use it.

However it is top of my list of features to add so I plan to rewrite the app to use SwiftUI. It will take many months though, probably as a background task whilst working on other features.

The strange distance probably means that you need to recalibrate the watch as described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516.

If the recalibration doesn't work (Apple's pedometer just doesn't work for some people) then switch to GPS distances. To do this touch the watch screen for a second and tap Settings then Pace. Then tap GPS. Note that this makes it susceptible to poor GPS signals, such as when you go through tunnels etc.

When the distances are as massively wrong as you are seeing then it usually means that you have done something strange to confuse watchOS. Have you maybe done a different activity (in any app) and told the watch that it was a running activity? I have heard of people doing skateboarding or cross country skiing but have told the watch they were running. This has then made the watch think they have the wrong running stride length, which has affected the distance estimates.

There is currently no way to make the watch vibrate when you start a workout.

WOD does not have any servers. All workouts are saved to Apple's Health system and also to the WorkOutDoors app on the iPhone and the watch. If you delete the app then you would still have the workouts in Apple's Health system but they would disappear from WOD. To back them up in WOD use Apple's File Sharing mechanism to copy files from the phone to a computer and then back to the phone if you need them:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201301 (Windows)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210598 (MacOS)

 

[MitzEclipse]

Thank you for the detailed response. The more I use your app, the better it gets. And kudos to you for being so engaged with your community - you have a ton of positive feedback here (including me!)

Thanks for the info no vibrate when you start. Odd, as when I resume a workout I get the vibrate so thought I could do this for the start of the workout.

Re calibration - just followed the reset info on that apple support link, seems to have fixed it thank you

Thanks for the info re "screen saver". Looking forward to the update with SwiftUI. In the interim, is it possible to just turn off the screen to save battery and enable raise to wake, only when in a running workout in WOD?

 

[cfc]

Thank you for the detailed response. The more I use your app, the better it gets. And kudos to you for being so engaged with your community - you have a ton of positive feedback here (including me!)

Thanks for the info no vibrate when you start. Odd, as when I resume a workout I get the vibrate so thought I could do this for the start of the workout.

Re calibration - just followed the reset info on that apple support link, seems to have fixed it thank you

Thanks for the info re "screen saver". Looking forward to the update with SwiftUI. In the interim, is it possible to just turn off the screen to save battery and enable raise to wake, only when in a running workout in WOD?

I could easily add a haptic at the beginning of a workout but it's just that no-one has asked for it. I will add it to my list.

The app cannot control the wake to raise settings but you may be able to do it via Shortcuts.

Glad that recalibrating worked and that you are enjoying the app!

 

[blackNBUK]

Thanks for the info re "screen saver". Looking forward to the update with SwiftUI. In the interim, is it possible to just turn off the screen to save battery and enable raise to wake, only when in a running workout in WOD?

As a workaround, you could try using the Fitness Focus in the iPhone settings and adding a filter to it that turns on Low Power mode. That may transfer over to the Watch and would do the job if you’re happy for all workouts to be in lower power mode.

 

[Mauki]

As a workaround, you could try using the Fitness Focus in the iPhone settings and adding a filter to it that turns on Low Power mode. That may transfer over to the Watch and would do the job if you’re happy for all workouts to be in lower power mode.

Sounds nice.

How does I switch this on?

 

[blackNBUK]

Sounds nice.

How does I switch this on?

In the iPhone Settings app find the Focus section and then open the Fitness focus. It was already there for me. Scroll down to the bottom and add a “Focus Filter”. Choose the “Low Power Mode” system filter, make sure it’s set to turn on and add it.

Then if you’ve got focuses mirrored to your Apple Watch it should automatically transfer over.

 

[Mauki]

In the iPhone Settings app find the Focus section and then open the Fitness focus. It was already there for me. Scroll down to the bottom and add a “Focus Filter”. Choose the “Low Power Mode” system filter, make sure it’s set to turn on and add it.

Then if you’ve got focuses mirrored to your Apple Watch it should automatically transfer over.

I see no low power mode 🤔🤪

 

[blackNBUK]

I see no low power mode 🤔🤪

Have you upgraded to iOS 16 yet? Focus filters were only added in that update.

 

[Mauki]

Ah ok, iOS 15 at the moment.

thanks

 

[Ordinary Runner]

Is it possible to template default run name to something like yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm ?

I need to export my runs primary to iCloud for local backup. It is slightly annoying to rename from 'Sunday Afternoon Run' to uniq filename

I used RunGap because it is able to generate filenames with date and hash. Unfortunately RunGap unable to handle all data from my Stryd pod. For example Air Power is cutted out, but it exists in WorkOutDoors export

 

[cfc]

Is it possible to template default run name to something like yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm ?

I need to export my runs primary to iCloud for local backup. It is slightly annoying to rename from 'Sunday Afternoon Run' to uniq filename

I used RunGap because it is able to generate filenames with date and hash. Unfortunately RunGap unable to handle all data from my Stryd pod. For example Air Power is cutted out, but it exists in WorkOutDoors export

The ability to use templates for exported file names isn't possible at the moment, but it is on my list for the future.

Behind the scenes the names of the files that the app uses internally to store workouts do start with a "yymmddhhmmss" format, but unfortunately that doesn't help you.

 

[johnl1275]

Thanks for that. I do have the app icon on my main watch face, so that’s my current shortcut. I’ll try this and see if it’s any easier.

This is a great solution to use. The other advantage to this method is that you can add other actions to the shortcut other than just opening the app. Typically I use the shortcut to also turn off the Always on display and disable wifi. Works great!

 

[Francis_le_varois]

Hello cfc,

How to deal with crash of the app twice during the same training (fortunately recovered) ?

Thanks

 

[Ordinary Runner]

The ability to use templates for exported file names isn't possible at the moment, but it is on my list for the future.

It would be good enough to just have timestamp in filename



Feature request about structured workouts import
Here is my +1 for this feature. In my case I can easily export workout from TrainingPeaks, but i cant import it to WorkOutDoors. I am ready to sync planned and completed runs manually



Another feature request about zones
I am going with 80/20 endurance plan from training peaks. This plan has 7 zones for pace, power and heart rate. Also I know my correct heart rate zone from medical test. I can share link to zone calculator which I follow: https://www.8020endurance.com/8020-zone-calculator/

I need to setup Zone 0 and Zone 6, but it is autocalculated
I want to match zone titles, but their are not editable

 

[Bobnz]

I am working on the action button at the moment. Unfortunately Apple have still not published official documentation on how to do it so I am working from unofficial blogs and tweets.

I have got it so that the user can start a workout with the action button and then can configure what happens when the action button is pressed during a workout. However I haven't yet got it working when the user starts a workout manually via the screens and then uses the action button for something else during a workout. I am slowly making progress though.

Thanks so much for working on this. A recent AWUltra purchaser and looking forward to this functionality

 

[MitzEclipse]

Hello, I am trying to follow the tips here regarding starting WOD via Shortcuts - what I would like to do is:

Step 1) Launch WOD
Step 2) Save power (turn off as much as I can such as Bluetooth, Wifi - or is this needed for better GPS accuracy? I often run in covered areas with trees/mountains)
Step 3) Turn off Always On Display (I do not see an option in Shortcuts other than "low power mode" - is this OK or will this affect GPS results?)
Step 4) Turn on Location Services (I want to have this off by default)
Then when completing the workout, follow steps 2-4.

I do not see an option to shortcut on Location Services either?

I saw another tip above about launching a Fitness Focus (instead of Shortcut?) which is a better way to approach it or does it matter?

Thank you in advance

 

[MaxSto]

Why don´t you use the new "Low Power Mode"-Option, which is within the Workout-Menu in the Apple Watch App on your phone.
With this enabled, the watch goes into "Low Power Mode", when you start a Workout, no matter which app.