Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[kbalak]

Thanks for buying the app. I am glad that you like it. To answer your questions:

You can control the number, format, font and metrics shown on each screen. To do this go to the Screens tab on the iPhone app or the Screens settings on the watch app (press the watch screen hard and tap Settings then Screens).

The next version will have intervals.

i plan to add training plans in the future after intervals have been added.

I hope that helps?

Thanks, can’t wait for intervals to arrive.

 

[john991]

Anyone know if workoutdoors works with watchOS 6 beta 2 and iOS 13 beta 2?

 

[Otto Pilot]

Anyone know if workoutdoors works with watchOS 6 beta 2 and iOS 13 beta 2?

My experience so far, and I have been running betas since they were initially released, is that workoutdoors works fine and workouts record to the activities app just fine, but I have been having problems with the workouts syncing back to the phone app for WorkOutDoors itself. They show up in activities, and they show up in HealthFit syncing app, so I can still get them to Strava, but they do not show up in the workoutdoors phone app for some reason.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

My experience so far, and I have been running betas since they were initially released, is that workoutdoors works fine and workouts record to the activities app just fine, but I have been having problems with the workouts syncing back to the phone app for WorkOutDoors itself. They show up in activities, and they show up in HealthFit syncing app, so I can still get them to Strava, but they do not show up in the workoutdoors phone app for some reason.

I’m not on the beta and I get this occasionally, especially if I have ran with the watch in airplane mode.

I reopen WOD on the watch after the watch and phone are reconnected and everything seems to sync. Does that help?

 

[cfc]

I’m not on the beta and I get this occasionally, especially if I have ran with the watch in airplane mode.

I reopen WOD on the watch after the watch and phone are reconnected and everything seems to sync. Does that help?

If that doesn't help then try rebooting both the watch and the iPhone. And if that doesn't work then uninstall the watch app (not the iPhone app), reboot both devices, and reinstall the watch app. It seems that occasionally watchOS and iOS conspire to install an app such that it cannot send data between the watch and iPhone apps.

I was hoping that Apple had fixed it in iOS13 / watchOS 6 but maybe not. Hopefully a simple reboot will do the trick though and you do not need to reinstall the app.

The next version of the app preserves workouts on the watch. This is mainly for analysis without the iPhone, but it also allows you to re-send a workout to the iPhone app, which will hopefully act as a workaround for this issue.

 

[Toonartist]

Anyone know if workoutdoors works with watchOS 6 beta 2 and iOS 13 beta 2?

The only issue I’ve come across is I can’t import gpx files into WorkoutDoors. Before I would go to view ranger for instance and share gpx with workoutdoors but in ios13, workoutdoors is not available as an app to share the gpx file with.

Other than than, seems to work as normal.

 

[ecstaticax]

Is there swim on workoutdoors?

 

[cfc]

Is there swim on workoutdoors?

Not yet but there will be at some time in the future. Probably when I add multi-sport activities like triathlons.

 

[philipp_chris]

Have you already figured out if there will be an API in watchOS 6 for running power meters like Stryd? I just preordered the new Stryd and hope to see it being supported by your app someday.

Btw, any news on the release schedule for the next update?

 

[cfc]

Have you already figured out if there will be an API in watchOS 6 for running power meters like Stryd? I just preordered the new Stryd and hope to see it being supported by your app someday.

Btw, any news on the release schedule for the next update?

The new version will hopefully be released next month.

Unfortunately Apple made no workout improvements in watchOS 6 at all from what I could tell from WWDC. This seems very strange given how important workouts are to the Apple Watch, so I think there is an outside chance that there will be software changes in September but they can't reveal them yet because they would give away hardware details about the watch.

As a result I am holding fire on supporting Stryd in case they do add support for it in a couple of months. For example if they extended sensor support to handle new types of sensors then that may be tied in to the addition of Ant+ to the hardware, which they probably wouldn't want to give away yet.

It's a very long shot and they probably won't change anything at all, but I have decided to wait until after the final release of watchOS 6 before adding Stryd support just in case. Sorry about that.

 

[philipp_chris]

It's a very long shot and they probably won't change anything at all, but I have decided to wait until after the final release of watchOS 6 before adding Stryd support just in case. Sorry about that.

Don't worry, I have an IT background and I can totally understand your decision. Would be a lot of wasted time if they add something that could have been invested in other things.
Still, love your app. Tracked 43 runs (490km) and a few bike rides since it started to use it in April. It's the only app I'm aware of where you can make sure that you have GPS lock before you start your activity. Unfortunately, it shows that the GPS in my aWatch S3 sucks

 

[cfc]

Don't worry, I have an IT background and I can totally understand your decision. Would be a lot of wasted time if they add something that could have been invested in other things.
Still, love your app. Tracked 43 runs (490km) and a few bike rides since it started to use it in April. It's the only app I'm aware of where you can make sure that you have GPS lock before you start your activity. Unfortunately, it shows that the GPS in my aWatch S3 sucks

Glad you like the app. Running almost 500km since April is pretty impressive!

A few people have found that the watch GPS is much better if you wear the watch upside down, so that may be worth trying.

 

[philipp_chris]

A few people have found that the watch GPS is much better if you wear the watch upside down, so that may be worth trying.

I'm already doing this, although the intention was another, it doesn't seem to help in my case. Anyway, I will probably get an S5 in October, which will hopefully make a difference.

 

[seashell81]

I have been looking at this app for some time... if there was a swim/tri setting I would love to buy it. Will this feature come soon?

Thanks

Not yet but there will be at some time in the future. Probably when I add multi-sport activities like triathlons.

 

[cfc]

I have been looking at this app for some time... if there was a swim/tri setting I would love to buy it. Will this feature come soon?

Thanks

The next version will add indoor workouts but will not include swimming. Sorry about that. I am starting with the simple indoor workouts and swimming is more complex to do properly because of stroke detection, lap detection etc. I will definitely add it in a future version, probably along with multi-sport capabilities for triathlons and the like.

In the meantime the next version will have "Other Indoor" and "Other Outdoor" activities for sports that are not specifically included. These should be able to handle swimming workouts but just not as well as when I implement it properly.

 

[PatrickNSF]

The next version will add indoor workouts but will not include swimming.

Will this provide for treadmill calibration?

 

[cfc]

Will this provide for treadmill calibration?

Not at first. My plan is to start simple and then see what improvements are most requested. I often find that they are not what I expect. I will take your post as a vote for calibration though.

 

[PatrickNSF]

Not at first. My plan is to start simple and then see what improvements are most requested. I often find that they are not what I expect. I will take your post as a vote for calibration though.

Thanks. What I'd really like is an app for treadmill/elliptical running that allows you to manually enter the distance at the end of the workout and then have the splits determined based on that input.

For example, my Garmin allows you to manually enter a distance for calibration at the end a run, but the splits remain as the watch originally recorded.

 

[cfc]

Thanks. What I'd really like is an app for treadmill/elliptical running that allows you to manually enter the distance at the end of the workout and then have the splits determined based on that input.

For example, my Garmin allows you to manually enter a distance for calibration at the end a run, but the splits remain as the watch originally recorded.

That makes sense. One slight issue is that the app currently automatically saves the workout when it is ended because otherwise people tend to forget to press a Save button. However I could make it an option to ask for a distance at the end of treadmill workouts.

So for example if the watch estimated 4 miles with identical 10 minute splits (for the sake of argument) and the treadmill says that you actually covered 5 miles, then you would enter that 5 mile value at the end of the workout and the splits would each be revised to be 8 minutes before the workout is saved.

 

[Significant1]

Thanks. What I'd really like is an app for treadmill/elliptical running that allows you to manually enter the distance at the end of the workout and then have the splits determined based on that input.

For example, my Garmin allows you to manually enter a distance for calibration at the end a run, but the splits remain as the watch originally recorded.

I

That makes sense. One slight issue is that the app currently automatically saves the workout when it is ended because otherwise people tend to forget to press a Save button. However I could make it an option to ask for a distance at the end of treadmill workouts.

So for example if the watch estimated 4 miles with identical 10 minute splits (for the sake of argument) and the treadmill says that you actually covered 5 miles, then you would enter that 5 mile value at the end of the workout and the splits would each be revised to be 8 minutes before the workout is saved.

On Fitive pulse I currently use for indoor exersize, you can edit the distance afterwards on the iPhone. I do miss a coefficient to adjust it predictions though, because it is way off (elliptical trainer) and the machines has a mind of their own breaking the exersize immaturely. When this happens I currently convert calories to distance based on previous exercise.

Talking about calibration. Is it done on app basis or something Apple's api handles. In other words, will using Workoutdoor for an outdoor run calibrate the distance estimate in other apps e.g. Apple's Training or Fitiv etc.?

I was on threadmill yesterday for first time with Apple Watch, and Fitive underestimated the distance compared to the machine, however I prefer workoutdoors where I can and never used Fitive for my outdoor runs. Så not sure if it could have been better.

But if Workoutdoors get indoor training and live HR streaming to iPhone I don't ever need to worry about calibration across other apps ;-) ;-) ;-)

edit: updated to clarify elliptical trainer in first paragraf

 

[cfc]

I

On Fitive pulse I currently use for indoor exersize, you can edit the distance afterwards on the iPhone. I do miss a coefficient to adjust it predictions though, because it is way off and the machines has a mind of their own breaking the exersize immaturely. When this happens I currently convert calories to distance based on previous exercise.

Talking about calibration. Is it done on app basis or something Apple's api handles. In other words, will using Workoutdoor for an outdoor run calibrate the distance estimate in other apps e.g. Apple's Training or Fitiv etc.?

I was on threadmill yesterday for first time with Apple Watch, and Fitive underestimated the distance compared to the machine, however I prefer workoutdoors where I can and never used Fitive for my outdoor runs. Så not sure if it could have been better.

But if Workoutdoors get indoor training and live HR streaming to iPhone I don't ever need to worry about calibration across other apps ;-) ;-) ;-)

I am not sure if watchOS will calibrate the distance whilst using third party apps like WorkOutDoors. Their calibration page only mentions their native Workout app, but it may calibrate when using any app that uses their workout system.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516

I guess that it may be possible able to check by resetting the calibration and then deliberately running with a strange stride length whilst using WorkOutDoors, but I would probably fall over if I tried that!

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

I am not sure if watchOS will calibrate the distance whilst using third party apps like WorkOutDoors. Their calibration page only mentions their native Workout app, but it may calibrate when using any app that uses their workout system.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516

I guess that it may be possible able to check by resetting the calibration and then deliberately running with a strange stride length whilst using WorkOutDoors, but I would probably fall over if I tried that!

I really wish Apple would publish more info on calibration, as it doesn’t really make sense.

If I look at stride length, it varies hugely with the type of run I’m doing...be that a flat long Canal plod, a 5k blast, a trail of any distance, or track, even for sections of a similar pace across the various types.

How does it know what “type” of running I’m doing in order to provide accurate live pace via gyro ?

it does seem to work though I think, I get what seem to be pretty accurate pace and distance during my run, compared to race markers or covering known distance / comparing to others on a social run.

 

[Significant1]

I am not sure if watchOS will calibrate the distance whilst using third party apps like WorkOutDoors. Their calibration page only mentions their native Workout app, but it may calibrate when using any app that uses their workout system.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516

I guess that it may be possible able to check by resetting the calibration and then deliberately running with a strange stride length whilst using WorkOutDoors, but I would probably fall over if I tried that!

I haven't done any outdoor run with Apple's native app either, so I might give that a shot next time

 

[PatrickNSF]

That makes sense. One slight issue is that the app currently automatically saves the workout when it is ended because otherwise people tend to forget to press a Save button. However I could make it an option to ask for a distance at the end of treadmill workouts.

So for example if the watch estimated 4 miles with identical 10 minute splits (for the sake of argument) and the treadmill says that you actually covered 5 miles, then you would enter that 5 mile value at the end of the workout and the splits would each be revised to be 8 minutes before the workout is saved.

That’s exactly how I would like it to work.

I already purchased the app, but I’d buy it again (and again) for this feature

 

[cfc]

That’s exactly how I would like it to work.

I already purchased the app, but I’d buy it again (and again) for this feature

If only that were possible!

Many thanks for buying the app. Treadmill calibration has now risen up my To Do list for the version after next.