Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[Otto Pilot]

Noticed what must be a beta (iOS, not WOD) bug this morning. I went for a run using WOD and after the run was done, I synced it to Strava. While the workout did take some time, it eventually showed up in the WOD iPhone app, but I noticed when I was looking at stats that the elevation tab was showing zero, even though it synced to Strava with the correct elevation (this is a route I've done many times). When I click on the elevation tab to see if it captured anything, the app on the phone crashes. Anyway, dangers of playing with beta OS's and all that, but just thought you might want to know.

Also, the podcast featuring Ian Blackburn (the Apple Watch Triathlete) goes live tomorrow, and I do talk a bit about WOD, as one of my favorite workout apps.

 

[cfc]

Noticed what must be a beta (iOS, not WOD) bug this morning. I went for a run using WOD and after the run was done, I synced it to Strava. While the workout did take some time, it eventually showed up in the WOD iPhone app, but I noticed when I was looking at stats that the elevation tab was showing zero, even though it synced to Strava with the correct elevation (this is a route I've done many times). When I click on the elevation tab to see if it captured anything, the app on the phone crashes. Anyway, dangers of playing with beta OS's and all that, but just thought you might want to know.

Also, the podcast featuring Ian Blackburn (the Apple Watch Triathlete) goes live tomorrow, and I do talk a bit about WOD, as one of my favorite workout apps.

Yes that is an iOS 13 bug. Or more accurately it is a WorkOutDoors bug that iOS 13 is less tolerant of than previous versions were. The next version of the app fixes it and will definitely be released before iOS 13 is released. Sorry about that.

Many thanks for spreading the word about the app. I am looking forward to listening to the podcast!

 

[philipp_chris]

Have you ever tried how wod handles it when the watch is running out of battery?
It never happened to me, but I have heard that the work out is lost when using the native app.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Have you ever tried how wod handles it when the watch is running out of battery?
It never happened to me, but I have heard that the work out is lost when using the native app.

The workout is retained in terms of you get a distance and time to the point when the battery dies, plus all the split information is saved and heart rate, BUT you lose the GPS track.

Have a look here, I did a 10hr activity...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...or-activities-or.2147756/page-3#post-27149188

 

[cfc]

The workout is retained in terms of you get a distance and time to the point when the battery dies, plus all the split information is saved and heart rate, BUT you lose the GPS track.

Have a look here, I did a 10hr activity...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...or-activities-or.2147756/page-3#post-27149188

This is correct. WatchOS preserves the workout details in case of a crash or battery loss, but does not save the GPS track. I assume this is partly because saving a potentially long track takes more time and battery power than just saving the overall details.

I thought about periodically preserving the track in stages in WorkOutDoors, but this would use more cpu and battery and ironically mean a higher likelihood of the battery running out. I may add it as an option in the future though.

 

[oeagleo]

@cfc check out the review..

 

[worker73]

Thank you for posting that video ^^^

 

[cfc]

@cfc check out the review..

That is great - thanks for posting that. It's good to see that he likes the app so much!

I will definitely add topo maps with the contours and/or hill shading that he would like to see in a future version. I was planning to add them to the next version but changed course after doing an AMA on reddit where intervals were the most popular feature to be added. The current plan is that the major version after next will be focussed on maps and navigation (but also contain some workout improvements).

 

[maurycyorlik]

Hi there! Been using Your app for some time now and it’s great! Beats everything in AppStore.

Question/request:
As a cyclist, I would love to see the same data that is displayed on my Apple Watch to be shown on my iPhone, which is mounted on my bike. Is that possible?

Riding at high speeds and trying to check your hr, distance, speed is not ideal and safe. It would be great to change my iPhone to a cycling computer with WorkOutDoors

 

[cfc]

Hi there! Been using Your app for some time now and it’s great! Beats everything in AppStore.

Question/request:
As a cyclist, I would love to see the same data that is displayed on my Apple Watch to be shown on my iPhone, which is mounted on my bike. Is that possible?

Riding at high speeds and trying to check your hr, distance, speed is not ideal and safe. It would be great to change my iPhone to a cycling computer with WorkOutDoors

Glad you like the app. At the moment I am focussed on improving the watch app as much as possible, but I will add live information on the iPhone screen at some time in the future. It would also be a step towards making the app work on an iPhone without a watch, which would massively increase the potential user base. But, as I say, I don't have any plans to add it in the short term. Sorry about that.

The next version of the app has a lot of improvements in terms of voice feedback, which may help reduce the need to look at the display so often. It includes several new alerts and all alerts will have the ability to configure what is shown on the screen and also up to 5 different spoken metrics from a pool of over 300 metrics. So you could have some metrics reported every minute and others reported every mile.

It will also have "status reports" which allow you to manually request to see and/or hear a configurable set of metrics. So for example you could make it that you double tap the screen to hear the metrics that you need most. You can configure up to 3 different status reports, so you could have different gestures giving you different sets of metrics.

 

[Significant1]

Glad you like the app. At the moment I am focussed on improving the watch app as much as possible, but I will add live information on the iPhone screen at some time in the future. It would also be a step towards making the app work on an iPhone without a watch, which would massively increase the potential user base. But, as I say, I don't have any plans to add it in the short term. Sorry about that.

Just a heads up on Garmin extended display mode:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/06/garmins-triathlon-mode-extended-display.html

 

[user1234]

I noticed yesterday that the Activity app says "Chart Unavailable" under Heart Rate for all workouts done with WorkOutDoors. WorkOutDoors has all permissions in Health. Is this expected behavior?

 

[cfc]

I noticed yesterday that the Activity app says "Chart Unavailable" under Heart Rate for all workouts done with WorkOutDoors. WorkOutDoors has all permissions in Health. Is this expected behavior?

No - the chart should be shown correctly. Can you see heart rates in the WorkOutDoors app?

 

[user1234]

No - the chart should be shown correctly. Can you see heart rates in the WorkOutDoors app?

Yes, I can.

 

[cfc]

That’s odd. Please send me the wkt file for me to analyse. To do this tap the Export button for a workout 3 times quickly (instead of once for a GPX file) and send it to info@workoutdoors.net

My suspicion is that you are not getting enough heart rate results for the Activity app to chart but I should be able to tell this from the file.

 

[user1234]

That’s odd. Please send me the wkt file for me to analyse. To do this tap the Export button for a workout 3 times quickly (instead of once for a GPX file) and send it to info@workoutdoors.net

My suspicion is that you are not getting enough heart rate results for the Activity app to chart but I should be able to tell this from the file.

Actually, I now suspect this is a bigger issue not directly related to WorkOutDoors. This past Monday any workout with WorkOutDoors failed to show a heart rate graph in Activity. As of yesterday workouts recorded with Workout doesn't have heart rate charts either.

When looking at the workout in WorkOutDoors, the heart rate isn't responding as expected. I suspect the same is true for Workout, although I can't see the data there. I'm probably going to try to un-pair and re-pair and see if that changes anything.

This was Sunday night


And this was Monday night


Maps censored for privacy.

 

[Akrapovic]

Found what I think is a bug in elevations.

Can see here I paused by run for a minute at this point to stop. I continued a minute or so later but the elevation graph shows a quite sudden drop in elevation between the stop and start points. They’re only a couple of meters apart really and it’s a flat area.

 

[cfc]

Actually, I now suspect this is a bigger issue not directly related to WorkOutDoors. This past Monday any workout with WorkOutDoors failed to show a heart rate graph in Activity. As of yesterday workouts recorded with Workout doesn't have heart rate charts either.

When looking at the workout in WorkOutDoors, the heart rate isn't responding as expected. I suspect the same is true for Workout, although I can't see the data there. I'm probably going to try to un-pair and re-pair and see if that changes anything.

This was Sunday night
View attachment 853100

And this was Monday night
View attachment 853101

Maps censored for privacy.

A reboot is often a good idea when the watch is doing strange things like that. If it persists then check out this page on Apple's website for hints on getting a good reading:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207941#heartrate
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Found what I think is a bug in elevations.

Can see here I paused by run for a minute at this point to stop. I continued a minute or so later but the elevation graph shows a quite sudden drop in elevation between the stop and start points. They’re only a couple of meters apart really and it’s a flat area.

This is probably a GPS error. The barometer only gives relative elevation, so the app uses the GPS elevation to provide a baseline from which to calculate the absolute elevation. If you pause and restart then the app recalibrates the elevation using the current GPS elevation as a base (because you could have moved whilst paused).

If the GPS was poor at that point (or more likely when you started if you did not have a good lock) then there will be a discrepancy between the absolute elevation before and after the pause, which is reflected in the graph.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Do we have an idea if the next release is proving stable in beta and close to final release yet?

I’m due to start incorporating some interval based training into my schedule and if the “WoD with intervals” is less than a month off I’ll maybe delay until that function is available in the app...(but if we’re looking at late Sep / Oct or beyond I’ll just be cracking on with intervals now before bad weather comes and I cut out any stop/start type activity!)

 

[cfc]

Do we have an idea if the next release is proving stable in beta and close to final release yet?

I’m due to start incorporating some interval based training into my schedule and if the “WoD with intervals” is less than a month off I’ll maybe delay until that function is available in the app...(but if we’re looking at late Sep / Oct or beyond I’ll just be cracking on with intervals now before bad weather comes and I cut out any stop/start type activity!)

I am hoping that it will be released in the next 2 to 4 weeks. I have just released another beta and the feedback so far has been good but I will have a better idea after the weekend when more people will have tested it.

I don't like to give release date estimates because I like to wait until a beta is definitely stable, but my intention is to release before iOS 13 / watchOS 6 are released in the middle of next month. I hope that helps.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

I am hoping that it will be released in the next 2 to 4 weeks. I have just released another beta and the feedback so far has been good but I will have a better idea after the weekend when more people will have tested it.

I don't like to give release date estimates because I like to wait until a beta is definitely stable, but my intention is to release before iOS 13 / watchOS 6 are released in the middle of next month. I hope that helps.

That’s a super bit of info thanks

 

[user1234]

A reboot is often a good idea when the watch is doing strange things like that.

The weird thing is that a reboot didn't solve it the first time, but I rebooted again before I went on a walk and now it worked as expected. Hopefully it will keep working.

 

[adrianlondon]

Glad you like the app. At the moment I am focussed on improving the watch app as much as possible, but I will add live information on the iPhone screen at some time in the future. It would also be a step towards making the app work on an iPhone without a watch, which would massively increase the potential user base. But, as I say, I don't have any plans to add it in the short term. Sorry about that.

I'll follow this thread in case such an update comes.

Like maurycyorlik, I (precariously) strap my phone onto my touring bike handlebars on top of a power bank and use Cyclemeter to track my ride. It's very good. However, looking at your screenshots, especially the maps with the speed/HR zones colour coded, plus the nice clear route map, would make for some good competition to that app. I don't own an Apple watch (or any type of watch for that matter!).

 

[Celestial Wolves]

@cfc: looking forward to the next update of WOD, can't wait until HIIT is introduced . Still 2 quick questions on the current version:

1) When I do a run with the WOD app, the app automatically reports the time of each 1km. When the data are exported to Strava, I also see very similar 1km lap times. Sometimes with minor differences, but I guess this may have to do with minor differences in GPS data processing (Strava distances are typically also slightly lower).
However, when I export the same data from WOD to Garmin Connect (.FIT data via the Healthfit app), Garmin Connect does not report any 1km lap times. Is there any way that I would be able to achieve this? This is a very convenient way to monitor the evolution of my pace during my runs.

2) The next major WOD update may have a fix for this when HIIT is introduced, but nevertheless: when I manually start a new lap e.g. after let's say 5.6km, the next lap time will be at 6.0km. Also when I'm running an interval of e.g. 600m. This behavior is different I believe from how my previous Garmin watch handled this: it would report the next lap time at 6.6km (or less if I started a new lap before that distance). Any way to avoid that the automatic 1km lap creation interferes with manual lap times?

 

[rbart]

I think the main issue we have with workoutdoors is the consistency when exporting to other platforms.
You have big differences between Workoutdoors, apple health, Strava, Garmin and it depends on the way you try to export (direct export, tcx, healthfit ...)
I don't have this kind of issue with other applications, it's always consistent. WO has some problems to handle pauses.
That's the only reason I don't always use it