Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[76er]

Same here as @NME42 said: App store on watch doesn't show the update, but when I search the app in the store the update button in available.
Finally this brought 4.8.8 on the watch and the acton button can be assigned as supposed. Thanks!!

 

[firewire9000]

I suspect that the watch app will need to be updated separately. I still haven't worked out why this is sometimes necessary and sometimes not necessary. It will be interesting to see if the auto-updates also update the watch app.

I always have the same problem, the iPhone updates but the Watch one, not.

 

[trentryan]

So I am having an issue with my ultra HR getting a cadence lock for the first few minutes of every run.

@cfc does the app attempt to lock heart rate prior to starting as it does with GPS? If so, is there any way I can see that?

 

[unis_89]

Unfortunately Apple do not make that low power mode available to third party apps. Hopefully they will allow it in the future.

Oh! Sad to hear it. I hope in the future you can include this. Thanks for the reply and keep it up with this Amazon app!

 

[unis_89]

This mode is very useless in my opinion. The only reason maybe

For what I've seen in YouTube is not very accuracy, but the main point is to get the longest battery to do a very long race such as, UTMB for example. I will not use it normally, but will be good to know that in the future I can access to this mode.

 

[cfc]

So I am having an issue with my ultra HR getting a cadence lock for the first few minutes of every run.

@cfc does the app attempt to lock heart rate prior to starting as it does with GPS? If so, is there any way I can see that?

Until a couple of days ago I didn't think it was possible for a third party app to get an HR lock when it is not running a workout. However I asked Apple about this in a virtual Q&A that they hosted on Monday and they explained how it can be done, so I plan to try that at some time. If it works then I will include it in a future version.

 

[76er]

That would be great. I love the way WOD shows the heart rate sensor lock if paired within WOD before starting the workout. But due to several other apps I occasionally use I prefer to have the chest belt paired with the watch directly via the bluetooth settings.

 

[trentryan]

That would be fantastic, I don't really want to pull out a chest strap, as once it's locked it's pretty spot on.

 

[kylew1212]

Question regarding swimming.

I am trying to restart my fitness journey and am considering incorporating some swimming exercises occasionally. A few years ago before I knew about WOD I used the default apple workout for swimming and heart rate with my AW2 was very poor.

These days I have a polar H10 hr monitor which seems to work well with my AWU and WOD.

So here’s the question, how does using an external hr monitor in the pool work? My understanding is that Bluetooth doesn’t transmit well under water.. I think the polar h10 can cache results. If I swim a lap and the signal can’t transmit are those reads lost or synced upon next signal reception?

Thanks

 

[cfc]

Question regarding swimming.

I am trying to restart my fitness journey and am considering incorporating some swimming exercises occasionally. A few years ago before I knew about WOD I used the default apple workout for swimming and heart rate with my AW2 was very poor.

These days I have a polar H10 hr monitor which seems to work well with my AWU and WOD.

So here’s the question, how does using an external hr monitor in the pool work? My understanding is that Bluetooth doesn’t transmit well under water.. I think the polar h10 can cache results. If I swim a lap and the signal can’t transmit are those reads lost or synced upon next signal reception?

Thanks

To be honest I have no idea as I have never swam with a chest monitor. Anyone know?

 

[kevroc]

To be honest I have no idea as I have never swam with a chest monitor. Anyone know?

Those straps log on the strap and transfer after the workout is done. No chest strap I know of can transfer through water for swim tracking.

 

[kevroc]

I'm giving the AWU a go after using Garmin Fenix's and now Epix Gen 2 for years. It's an uphill battle to be sure. I tried this app a bit and honestly just gave up, but after coming across it again here, with an active developer has me thinking I should give it another shot. Really just interesting in hiking specific features. Loved the Garmin on device routing and breadcrumb trails. Would like to find something as similar as possible.

 

[kylew1212]

Those straps log on the strap and transfer after the workout is done. No chest strap I know of can transfer through water for swim tracking.

That is what I’ve heard.. I’m just wondering if it works with Apple Watches.. do you have any idea?

 

[oric1sg]

@cfc

On many occasions, I noticed that during my walk, when I reached 1km, Siri will announce it and I get haptic feedback too but after that, every 1km onward, I only get SIRI announcement but no haptic feedback.

Is there anything that I need to set to get the haptic feedback every 1km?

 

[cfc]

@cfc

On many occasions, I noticed that during my walk, when I reached 1km, Siri will announce it and I get haptic feedback too but after that, every 1km onward, I only get SIRI announcement but no haptic feedback.

Is there anything that I need to set to get the haptic feedback every 1km?

I haven't heard of that before. I have heard of the voice feedback disappearing after the first alert if watchOS gets confused, but I haven't heard of the haptic feedback disappearing. Sometimes it can be difficult to notice, especially with voice feedback at the same time.

You may find that the new "Long Vibration Haptics" option in the latest version helps. It is in the More screen of the settings in the watch app.

 

[oric1sg]

I haven't heard of that before. I have heard of the voice feedback disappearing after the first alert if watchOS gets confused, but I haven't heard of the haptic feedback disappearing. Sometimes it can be difficult to notice, especially with voice feedback at the same time.

You may find that the new "Long Vibration Haptics" option in the latest version helps. It is in the More screen of the settings in the watch app.

Thanks! Will set it and try it out.

 

[76er]

Another run with health as current pace source and a high smoothing value… NOPE! That didn‘t do the trick. I’ll switch back to pedometer with smoothing in the middle of the range.

 

[kabzior]

Loved the Garmin on device routing and breadcrumb trails. Would like to find something as similar as possible.

We have it promised in the next update
It will be just as good as in Fenix ... maybe without routing on the watch, but the position on the route, the remaining distance to waypoints and the end of the route and the altitude profile - everything we hikers can dream about

So here’s the question, how does using an external hr monitor in the pool work?

Try HR monitor in AWU first. It's really surprisingly accurate in swimming. In my training, it happened several times that the AWU did not detect one pool length (e.g. 59 instead of 60), but the heart rate measurement was really flawless.

 

[gtjeta]

In my case I use the regular apple workout app for swimming. The HR tends to work ok but at the beginning of the workout, where I often have gaps of 1-2 minutes. As I am warming in this interval it is not too important, but …

Sometimes I perform several consecutive workouts. The problems appear only in the first one. Apparently there is some kind of transient in the measurement process, changing from dry to wet environment or something like that.

I cannot say anything about the accuracy, but at least the continuity and the correlation with my perceived effort seem generally ok.

 

[gtjeta]

And this is both with a series 5 and with a AWU. It improved quite a lot with recent watchOS iterations.

 

[kabzior]

In my case I use the regular apple workout app for swimming. The HR tends to work ok but at the beginning of the workout, where I often have gaps of 1-2 minutes.

Nothing like that has happened to me in about 15-20 swim workouts I've done with AWU.

Here, two days ago, light swimming about 2 min / 100m and the heart rate is continuous and unchanged for the entire ~ 40 min. Small increases coincide with acceleration when I wanted to overtake someone. Of course, I don't have any external device against which I could compare these results, but for me they are highly reliable (in line with what I have been getting for years with previously used activity monitors).

 

[kylew1212]

What in the world are you talking about? Syncing unread emails is exactly how every email app on the planet, including Apple’s Mail app, has worked for 25+ years. Sounds like you are still using POP email instead of IMAP, which means that you’ve configured your emails to function as if it was still the 1980’s or early 1990’s.

Hold up. This was a patent-worthy feature!?

Also, why is it still impossible to view a tracked run on the Apple Watch? Eons ago now, Garmin Forerunner could display the recorded GPS track. Even though this was a static display, it is really helpful to see the image when reviewing workouts on the fly or even when immediately after a run.

There have been times when after a run I’d look at the recorded tracks to determine if I made a wrong turn when running outdoors on trails. Typically I review this not because I’m lost but because I’m wondering why either my pace felt a little different or why the run felt a little longer or shorter than usual. (I don’t have the best directional sense when running on certain trails that kinda look alike).

Apple Watch can certainly do better. What’s really surprising is that none of these improvements I’m talking about are difficult and nor do they seem processor intensive for the Watch (and definitely not the iPhone). Why don’t we already have these common basic features.

We have it promised in the next update
It will be just as good as in Fenix ... maybe without routing on the watch, but the position on the route, the remaining distance to waypoints and the end of the route and the altitude profile - everything we hikers can dream about



Try HR monitor in AWU first. It's really surprisingly accurate in swimming. In my training, it happened several times that the AWU did not detect one pool length (e.g. 59 instead of 60), but the heart rate measurement was really flawless.

In my case I use the regular apple workout app for swimming. The HR tends to work ok but at the beginning of the workout, where I often have gaps of 1-2 minutes. As I am warming in this interval it is not too important, but …

Sometimes I perform several consecutive workouts. The problems appear only in the first one. Apparently there is some kind of transient in the measurement process, changing from dry to wet environment or something like that.

I cannot say anything about the accuracy, but at least the continuity and the correlation with my perceived effort seem generally ok.

And this is both with a series 5 and with a AWU. It improved quite a lot with recent watchOS iterations.

Thanks!
I haven’t swam since ~2019 or so and that was with a series 2 watch. I’ve now joined a gym that has a pool and hope to take advantage.

I appreciate the responses and I will try without a hr strap and use the default workout app.

Thanks again,
-K

 

[gtjeta]

Nothing like that has happened to me in about 15-20 swim workouts I've done with AWU.

Here, two days ago, light swimming about 2 min / 100m and the heart rate is continuous and unchanged for the entire ~ 40 min. Small increases coincide with acceleration when I wanted to overtake someone. Of course, I don't have any external device against which I could compare these results, but for me they are highly reliable (in line with what I have been getting for years with previously used activity monitors).

You can see my usual initial gap for instance in this example workout (lighter and shorter than yours )

 

[kabzior]

You can see my usual initial gap for instance in this example workout

A gap very similar to yours happened to me once in squash when AWU was on the wrist of my racket hand. I changed my wrist and the problem disappeared.
I suspect band was not tight enough and the movement of the watch on the wrist as a result. But because it only happens at the beginning, I think it may also be related to the fact that HR lock is not yet sure and stable.
Try tightening the band and starting the workout earlier before you even get in the pool (use precision start), I think it should help.

 

[gtjeta]

Thanks for the advice, I will do that. And sorry everybody for hijacking the thread