Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[oric1sg]

Ian,

Just wanted to shout-out to you that I love the routing function very much. I send gpx files for my hikes at different locations every week and the on/off route feature is super useful & effective too. I stopped using Garmin 2 years ago because of WOD. Many thanks for this wonderful app!

 

[cfc]

Ian,

Just wanted to shout-out to you that I love the routing function very much. I send gpx files for my hikes at different locations every week and the on/off route feature is super useful & effective too. I stopped using Garmin 2 years ago because of WOD. Many thanks for this wonderful app!

That's great to hear!

 

[Wulm]

Feature request!
In the finished-workout summary, a field showing % of battery life drained in the time span from start to finish of the workout.

 

[cfc]

Feature request!
In the finished-workout summary, a field showing % of battery life drained in the time span from start to finish of the workout.

That won't be visible in the workout summary (which has been almost completely rewritten), but I have added a couple of log messages, which can be viewed in the last tab of a workout in the iPhone app. The first shows the battery level at the start or the workout and the second one shows it at the end of the workout, as well as an indication of the amount used per hour.

In my current tests these log messages are showing about about 4%/hour indoors and 8%/hour outdoors on my Ultra, which seem very slightly better than Apple's figures for their Workout app.

However I usually test when the watch is at 100% and only for an hour or two, and I always feel that it drops slower when at high capacity, so I am guessing the app will get similar figures to Apple for longer workouts. At least I hope so!

 

[MaxSto]

That won't be visible in the workout summary (which has been almost completely rewritten), but I have added a couple of log messages, which can be viewed in the last tab of a workout in the iPhone app. The first shows the battery level at the start or the workout and the second one shows it at the end of the workout, as well as an indication of the amount used per hour.

In my current tests these log messages are showing about about 4%/hour indoors and 8%/hour outdoors on my Ultra, which seem very slightly better than Apple's figures for their Workout app.

However I usually test when the watch is at 100% and only for an hour or two, and I always feel that it drops slower when at high capacity, so I am guessing the app will get similar figures to Apple for longer workouts. At least I hope so!

You probably used the AOD mode enabled in your current tests for the battery usage, aren´t you?
Did you also test the battery drain with AOD mode disabled (or low power mode enabled) for outdoor activities since you have rewritten the app?

 

[cfc]

You probably used the AOD mode enabled in your current tests for the battery usage, aren´t you?
Did you also test the battery drain with AOD mode disabled (or low power mode enabled) for outdoor activities since you have rewritten the app?

Yes, that is with AOD. I haven't tried without yet. In fact I haven't done any thorough battery testing yet because there is no point until I have finished the coding because it may change.

I have just logged the battery usage whilst I test the features of the app. I wanted to check that it is in the right ballpark and then I will look into further optimising battery usage afterwards if necessary. At the moment it looks like that may not be necessary but I will still spend some time looking at it.

Also there are options to control the brightness of the map and the metrics when in AOD mode, so you can make them less visible in order to save battery.

 

[MaxSto]

Yes, that is with AOD. I haven't tried without yet. In fact I haven't done any thorough battery testing yet because there is no point until I have finished the coding because it may change.

I have just logged the battery usage whilst I test the features of the app. I wanted to check that it is in the right ballpark and then I will look into further optimising battery usage afterwards if necessary. At the moment it looks like that may not be necessary but I will still spend some time looking at it.

Also there are options to control the brightness of the map and the metrics when in AOD mode, so you can make them less visible in order to save battery.

Even better battery life is always great to have!
Thank you for your update.

I am looking forward to test the beta.

 

[mgmooij]

As far as I know that isn't available to 3rd party apps. Hopefully they will allow it in the future (and extend it beyond the US).

Any news on this Ian? At the moment it’s available in more countries, I tried it yesterday on my track in the Netherlands and it was very accurate indeed 🙂

 

[cfc]

Any news on this Ian? At the moment it’s available in more countries, I tried it yesterday on my track in the Netherlands and it was very accurate indeed 🙂

I haven't heard anything. Fingers crossed for WWDC in June. 🤞

 

[grantgam]

First off, what an amazing app @cfc. It came recommended as a solution to being unable to get Spotify through my headphones along with Strava/Apple Workout announcements. This solved that really annoying issue entirely and brought so much more to my runs!

A quick question for you guys in the know. I'm a very basic runner, have my target paces for runs and enjoy hearing my km splits. As such I set up intervals for my runs as in the attached photos. Can someone kindly confirm if this is correct? i.e. Each time I complete a km, I want to hear my Avg pace and avg HR for that recently completed km?

I had initially selected 'prv int avg' but seem to recall not getting any metrics spoken. I think...

Thanks in advance!

​

 

[Richo5]

First off, what an amazing app @cfc. It came recommended as a solution to being unable to get Spotify through my headphones along with Strava/Apple Workout announcements. This solved that really annoying issue entirely and brought so much more to my runs!

A quick question for you guys in the know. I'm a very basic runner, have my target paces for runs and enjoy hearing my km splits. As such I set up intervals for my runs as in the attached photos. Can someone kindly confirm if this is correct? i.e. Each time I complete a km, I want to hear my Avg pace and avg HR for that recently completed km?

I had initially selected 'prv int avg' but seem to recall not getting any metrics spoken. I think...

Thanks in advance!

View attachment 2194915View attachment 2194916​

I too enjoy hearing my splits even on my easy runs. Rather than set up an interval for my easy runs, I just set up a distance notification under the Alerts -> Running Alerts section and then use Pace (Prev Lap Average), Distance vs Target (which tells me how far behind or ahead of my target pace), and heart rate zone (Prev Lap Average) which I use to keep me in zone for a longer run. I have set this up to tell me every 500m which is a lot but I like to know this more frequently to keep me on track as my mind tends to wander when I'm listening to a podcast. I also set a reminder to drink every 15 minutes because I also forget to drink .

When I'm doing an interval workout I then disable these alerts (Regular Notifications) at the bottom of the interval configuration screen as they get annoying when you are in the middle of a complicated workout.

Also, if you are not hearing any notifications I seem to recall that there was some permission required to allow Siri to speak. You can test that voice is working in the 'Voice' section on the phone or watch.

 

[cfc]

First off, what an amazing app @cfc. It came recommended as a solution to being unable to get Spotify through my headphones along with Strava/Apple Workout announcements. This solved that really annoying issue entirely and brought so much more to my runs!

A quick question for you guys in the know. I'm a very basic runner, have my target paces for runs and enjoy hearing my km splits. As such I set up intervals for my runs as in the attached photos. Can someone kindly confirm if this is correct? i.e. Each time I complete a km, I want to hear my Avg pace and avg HR for that recently completed km?

I had initially selected 'prv int avg' but seem to recall not getting any metrics spoken. I think...

Thanks in advance!

View attachment 2194915View attachment 2194916​

As you can see in @Richo5's screenshots, if you change Pace (Int Avg) to Pace (Prev Lap Avg) and the same for heart rate then it should work.

Each 1km split is a lap, whereas intervals are manually controlled by the user, either before a workout by using an interval schedule, or during a workout by using the New Interval command (the default command for the action button on the Ultra). So you want the lap metrics.

The reason you need the Prev versions of the metrics is because you have just started a new lap when you hear the alert, so you want the metrics for the previous lap. It sounds like you had worked that out but the reason the metrics were empty for you was because you were using the previous interval metrics instead of the previous lap metrics. These would always be empty if you never started a new interval.

Sorry it is complicated but it is pretty powerful when you get the hang of it.

Glad you like the app!

 

[grantgam]

Thank you so much @Richo5 and @cfc. I knew I was missing something important yet simple. Confusion around interval and lap.

Have set up as you kindly described @Richo5, now I just need to run without using any intervals and adjust my pace accordingly.

The perfect answer. Many thanks!

 

[vapilot]

Ian,

Just wanted to shout-out to you that I love the routing function very much. I send gpx files for my hikes at different locations every week and the on/off route feature is super useful & effective too. I stopped using Garmin 2 years ago because of WOD. Many thanks for this wonderful app!

How do you create your GPX files? I have limited experience and have used AllTrails before and just yesterday tried Footpath, which is a 7 day trial. It worked well but I’m not planning to pay for the service since I don’t use it often enough. I’d love to find a free way to create run routes for free and export them as GPX Tracks.

 

[vapilot]

Unrelated: Trying to recreate Peters Race Screen from Garmin world. It has a field called “perfect pace” which is just the pace that would need to be maintained for the remainder of the race to hit goal time. Is there a way to display a field like that in WOD?

That would be handy info to have. Ever figure out if it’s available?

 

[cfc]

That would be handy info to have. Ever figure out if it’s available?

Calculating a pace requires to complete a distance in a certain time isn't possible at the moment because there is no way to specify both a distance and a time. I will probably add it at some time in the future but it is surprisingly rarely requested.

 

[Nelu]

Ian,

Just wanted to shout-out to you that I love the routing function very much. I send gpx files for my hikes at different locations every week and the on/off route feature is super useful & effective too. I stopped using Garmin 2 years ago because of WOD. Many thanks for this wonderful app!

Until the following two questions cannot be answered when using an Apple watch, with WorkOutDoors or not, no way can I replace my Garmin watch with an Apple watch:

1. How much distance is left?
2. How much elevation left to finish?

Without WorkOutDoors the Apple watch is crippled, at least for hiking.
With WorkOutDoors is pretty (there's a map and you can add a gpx track or route), but not quite there yet.

 

[cfc]

Until the following two questions cannot be answered when using an Apple watch, with WorkOutDoors or not, no way can I replace my Garmin watch with an Apple watch:

1. How much distance is left?
2. How much elevation left to finish?

Without WorkOutDoors the Apple watch is crippled, at least for hiking.
With WorkOutDoors is pretty (there's a map and you can add a gpx track or route), but not quite there yet.

Sorry that the app is not for you. I am slowly adding features and these are on my radar. They are top of my list after the always on display version. In fact if Apple hadn't made it so difficult for older apps to support the always on display then they would probably have been in the app by now.

Btw: you can see the remaining distance if you set a Fixed Distance at the start of a hike. It's not as useful as it will be when the app follows a route but it can help.

 

[javataco]

Calculating a pace requires to complete a distance in a certain time isn't possible at the moment because there is no way to specify both a distance and a time. I will probably add it at some time in the future but it is surprisingly rarely requested.

I do love the idea of this, though admittedly it is pretty niche.

Are there any blogs or videos out there where people show their race and training screens? WOD is too customisable that it is a bit overwhelming at times to make an ideal screen. I have mine and am happy with them, but would be curious to see others.

How do you create your GPX files? I have limited experience and have used AllTrails before and just yesterday tried Footpath, which is a 7 day trial. It worked well but I’m not planning to pay for the service since I don’t use it often enough. I’d love to find a free way to create run routes for free and export them as GPX Tracks.

I personally love https://onthegomap.com/#/create. AllTrails is fine for popular tracks, but onthego is pretty great in my limited use so far.

 

[jon08]

Question: how come that when you open the app on AW it shows lower battery % than a couple of seconds later when it jumps up by cca. 15 %?

 

[cfc]

Question: how come that when you open the app on AW it shows lower battery % than a couple of seconds later when it jumps up by cca. 15 %?

Maybe the last time you opened the app it had a different battery level. WatchOS often shows a snapshot of the last time you used an app before that app has a chance to start up and update the screen.

 

[Miggui]

I do love the idea of this, though admittedly it is pretty niche.

Are there any blogs or videos out there where people show their race and training screens? WOD is too customisable that it is a bit overwhelming at times to make an ideal screen. I have mine and am happy with them, but would be curious to see others.


I personally love https://onthegomap.com/#/create. AllTrails is fine for popular tracks, but onthego is pretty great in my limited use so far.

Hi, sharing exemples of screens will be great for getting ideas 😉

 

[jon08]

I do love the idea of this, though admittedly it is pretty niche.

Are there any blogs or videos out there where people show their race and training screens? WOD is too customisable that it is a bit overwhelming at times to make an ideal screen. I have mine and am happy with them, but would be curious to see others.


I personally love https://onthegomap.com/#/create. AllTrails is fine for popular tracks, but onthego is pretty great in my limited use so far.

Maybe you can also try Mapy.cz - I always recommend it to people for its easy-to-use and clear UI, plus it's 100% free and offers tons of options for planning.

 

[Nelu]

Sorry that the app is not for you. I am slowly adding features and these are on my radar. They are top of my list after the always on display version. In fact if Apple hadn't made it so difficult for older apps to support the always on display then they would probably have been in the app by now.

Btw: you can see the remaining distance if you set a Fixed Distance at the start of a hike. It's not as useful as it will be when the app follows a route but it can help.

Well, It’s not that the app is not for me but a version that supports navigation will serve me better.
For the folks that anxiously wait for the Always On Display version; beware what you wish for because it might happen
Last Saturday I was on seven hours hike and I used the app with my Ultra watch. I started at 100% battery in the morning and ended up at 22%, with the watch itself being set to use AOD.
That being unacceptable for backcountry use, I since disabled AOD and I’m a much happier camper now.
Even if a new app version will support AOD, I will most certainly disable that “feature” in order to use the Apple Ultra watch in a similar way as my trusted Fenix 6 Pro.

 

[sam3k]

I've had a couple of watch app crashes, I think they have all been on the connecting sensors screen just before starting a workout. I am using a Stryd and a Polar HRM, as well as using my AirPods to listen to a podcast via Overcast on my watch.

I've also had 2 workouts fail to record properly. The most recent was this morning, essentially at a certain point the time elapsed stops getting recorded properly, resulting in an almost infinite pace, at some point later it starts again. The same period of infinite speed has no heart rate and no power data, the elevation and GPS logs are fine.

My guess is that there is an issue getting data from the HRM and the Stryd and the app is getting confused by this especially as I think pace is derived from the Stryd.

When the workout is uploaded to Strava as a FIT file the total time elapsed is short by the amount of infinite speed resulting in some really wonky stats.

Luckily I was able to use HealthFit to export a FIT file based on the Apple Fitness version of the workout which has uploaded with the correct pace data (even if it is missing a section of heart rate and power data).

Would you like me to send you the FIT files? IIRC there is some debug data for the workout I can export too?