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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
- Thread starter cfc
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No, Apple do not make the zones available to third party apps.
A potential bug report; a feature request; and an observation.
I installed OS 10 yesterday morning (and never installed the beta). A walk later that morning was perfectly normal. That afternoon, during another walk, my Move ring closed. After the spinning wheel animation finished … the walk had apparently been stopped at the moment of the notification. I clicked WoD’s “done” button and started a new walk. (Personally, this would be a low priority … but I could easily imagine it being a show-stopper for, for example, somebody in the middle of a marathon.) This was just for a single walk … but on release day. At least, I figured you’d want to hear about it as soon as possible — though I also wouldn’t be shocked if it turns out to be a non-issue in general.
For a new feature, I’ve had at the back of my head for some time that it’d be nice to replay recent walks in reverse, or some variation on that theme. The motivation is basically the same as Apple’s built-in “backtrack” feature. Both in day-to-day walks and actual hiking, the basic idea is to go somewhere, stay there for some period of inactivity, then go back where I started … that might be from a parking lot to a classroom, or from a parking lot to a lunch spot in the middle of the forest. And, while I generally know my way around wherever … well, for example, I don’t necessarily remember exactly where in the parking lot I parked that day. So, something like being able to pick a previous (especially very recently previous) walk, having the route overlaid as breadcrumbs, and a compass-pointer-ish thing pointing to the previous starting point would be nice. Ideally, this wouldn’t just be the most recent walk; imagine recording a walk in the morning from the parking lot to one building, going on a walk during lunch, not recording short walks from one building to another, and then wanting to walk straight back to the parking lot from a different building. (Bonus points for original elevation such that I could remember which floor of the parking structure to go to!)
And … you might remember that I mentioned earlier how it’d be nice for the always-on map to update every several seconds or so, to give the illusion of live tracking. Well … I used Apple’s own updated Maps app to drive home yesterday, in map view. Guess what? It only updates the map on wrist raise. So, while I still think it’s a great idea … apparently, Apple hasn’t seen fit to do it, themselves.
(And, of course, thanks as always!)
b&
I installed OS 10 yesterday morning (and never installed the beta). A walk later that morning was perfectly normal. That afternoon, during another walk, my Move ring closed. After the spinning wheel animation finished … the walk had apparently been stopped at the moment of the notification. I clicked WoD’s “done” button and started a new walk. (Personally, this would be a low priority … but I could easily imagine it being a show-stopper for, for example, somebody in the middle of a marathon.) This was just for a single walk … but on release day. At least, I figured you’d want to hear about it as soon as possible — though I also wouldn’t be shocked if it turns out to be a non-issue in general.
For a new feature, I’ve had at the back of my head for some time that it’d be nice to replay recent walks in reverse, or some variation on that theme. The motivation is basically the same as Apple’s built-in “backtrack” feature. Both in day-to-day walks and actual hiking, the basic idea is to go somewhere, stay there for some period of inactivity, then go back where I started … that might be from a parking lot to a classroom, or from a parking lot to a lunch spot in the middle of the forest. And, while I generally know my way around wherever … well, for example, I don’t necessarily remember exactly where in the parking lot I parked that day. So, something like being able to pick a previous (especially very recently previous) walk, having the route overlaid as breadcrumbs, and a compass-pointer-ish thing pointing to the previous starting point would be nice. Ideally, this wouldn’t just be the most recent walk; imagine recording a walk in the morning from the parking lot to one building, going on a walk during lunch, not recording short walks from one building to another, and then wanting to walk straight back to the parking lot from a different building. (Bonus points for original elevation such that I could remember which floor of the parking structure to go to!)
And … you might remember that I mentioned earlier how it’d be nice for the always-on map to update every several seconds or so, to give the illusion of live tracking. Well … I used Apple’s own updated Maps app to drive home yesterday, in map view. Guess what? It only updates the map on wrist raise. So, while I still think it’s a great idea … apparently, Apple hasn’t seen fit to do it, themselves.
(And, of course, thanks as always!)
b&
Sorry the app disappeared when a notification happened. That sounds like watchOS killing it off. Were you maybe paused when that happened? WatchOS can kill an app if it needs resources for something else like a notification. Usually WOD is protected because it is running a workout, but that protection can disappear if you are paused.
It is also possible when not paused if the app was using a lot of memory, or if watchOS is particularly stressed (which may be the case soon after a major update).
Please could you send me the wkt file for that workout and I will take a look. To do this tap the Export button 3 times quickly and email info@workoutdoors.net.
Also please could you send me any log files beginning with "WatchMap" or "Jetsam". To do this go to Apple's "Watch" app on the iPhone and tap General and then Diagnostic Logs. If they appear as “null” when you try to send them then please try again in an hour or so as they sometimes seem to take a while to be available. However they also disappear very soon so it may be too late by now.
In terms of your new feature, it is possible in the iPhone app to create a route from a previous workout and then to follow that. This will probably get more sophisticated in the future when I improve the navigation features.
It's reassuring to hear that Apple have the same approach to map updates!
Hello,
First of all, congratulate and thank you for the development work of the application, which is fantastic.
I'm trying to see how I can use WOD doing mountaineering, in bad weather days in which the touch screen is not really valid.
I have thought of using the combination of shortcuts configured in WOD, with assistive touch, so that I can use the app with the screen locked in rain mode, and only operating the app with finger gestures.
After all, along with the battery, not being able to control the mountain apps without touching the screen, is one of the big limitations of the apple watch compared to Garmin and Coros.
However, I see that when I enter the application, some functions (pause, stop ...) do work as valid elements for assistive touch, but not other screens, where I get stuck, because the metrics do not respond to gestures.
Perhaps it could be interesting to add controls that allow to switch between screens and/or control the map based on gestures, for these situations in which the application becomes particularly complicated to manage.
It would really be the basics, because in these complicated situations, only need info to survive. Swipe between screens and move the map (the zoom is done with the button) would be the only thing necessary.
Thank you very much
First of all, congratulate and thank you for the development work of the application, which is fantastic.
I'm trying to see how I can use WOD doing mountaineering, in bad weather days in which the touch screen is not really valid.
I have thought of using the combination of shortcuts configured in WOD, with assistive touch, so that I can use the app with the screen locked in rain mode, and only operating the app with finger gestures.
After all, along with the battery, not being able to control the mountain apps without touching the screen, is one of the big limitations of the apple watch compared to Garmin and Coros.
However, I see that when I enter the application, some functions (pause, stop ...) do work as valid elements for assistive touch, but not other screens, where I get stuck, because the metrics do not respond to gestures.
Perhaps it could be interesting to add controls that allow to switch between screens and/or control the map based on gestures, for these situations in which the application becomes particularly complicated to manage.
It would really be the basics, because in these complicated situations, only need info to survive. Swipe between screens and move the map (the zoom is done with the button) would be the only thing necessary.
Thank you very much
No-one has ever mentioned using assistive touch before so I have never really investigated it. However I know that the latest version does not work with VoiceOver, which is a shame, so maybe the assistive touch is similar.
I may investigate one day but to be honest there are higher priorities at the moment (turn-by-turn, custom activities). Sorry about that.
Hi,
regarding using the app without a touch screen, I found a working solution for me via shortcuts within the app.
With that configuration you can still zoom in and zoom out into the map, when the app is locked via screen lock and you can still swipe between the configurated screens via the action button.
Perhaps it will work for you, too.
Attachments
If Apple make it available to third party apps then I will incorporate it.
Can anyone provide a recommendation on how to best configure a negative split run? For example, I'd like my target pace to increase gradually throughout my run. e.g. start at 10:30 per mile (call that 0%), and ramp to 8:30 per mile (100%) by the end. I could create segments but it seems like a lot more work as my distance target changes daily so I was hoping to use a ramping % or something like that.
I can't think of any easy way to do that without multiple intervals but maybe someone else can help.
I will bear it in mind for the future though. I may possibly allow target pace to be specified as two values, but only when using a fixed length workout.
Double tap is what I was talking about as an assistive touch function, and it is a generic function of use. In fact, for example today it already works without doing anything to pause or end WOD workouts by using hand gestures, if you are on the screen.
It is very useful if you are wearing gloves or it is raining.
What happens is that it does not recognize the metrics as buttons, and therefore does not allow you to act on them, so you are blocked when a screen only has metrics and maps.
Yes, that is what I suspected. In the past metrics were individual labels, but since the rewrite they are parts of images, so watchOS cannot differentiate them. I can't see an easy way around it without rewriting the app again, which I really don't want to do!
I know that navigation is your priority (I am very happy with this) and what I am saying is related to navigation design.
Because unlike a tool that takes metrics, a navigation tool is the one you depend on when you are in difficult terrain, and it is very "naive" to think that it will always be sunny and good weather. When you need a navigation tool the most is precisely when a touch screen is malfunctioning.
But that's my idea, or what I miss when I try to use an apple watch as a navigator.
Anyway, the app you are developing is very good, and I will wait to see how you develop it.
I have changed the shortcuts in WOD, valid for AWU, to enable full interaction with the interface for outdoor workouts and for swimming. In the last version I even perform an automated water lock of the screen, as in the following figure.
Then, in the shortcuts section I mapped the buttons and crown as follows
In this way, if in a given screen there is no map, the crown jumps to te previous or next screen. If there is a map, you may zoom in or out. But you may jump to the next screen using the action button. You cannot set segments or pan the map, but at least you have basic interface navigation fully covered.
I can remember that I saw a training platform that allows this, but can't remember what it was. Most probably Training Peaks, but not sure.
What I do for crescendo type runs is to have programmed several common distances (10, 15, 20km) and more or less programmed stairs with increasing pace range targets. Say: open warmup, then 2km@10:00-10:30, 2km@09:30-10:00, 2km@09:00-09:30... For the longer runs I just increased interval length (3km, 4km).
Was always good enough for me when I also had an eye on the current lap pace.
Very, very interesting.I have changed the shortcuts in WOD, valid for AWU, to enable full interaction with the interface for outdoor workouts and for swimming. In the last version I even perform an automated water lock of the screen, as in the following figure.
Then, in the shortcuts section I mapped the buttons and crown as follows
In this way, if in a given screen there is no map, the crown jumps to te previous or next screen. If there is a map, you may zoom in or out. But you may jump to the next screen using the action button. You cannot set segments or pan the map, but at least you have basic interface navigation fully covered.
I was thinking on doing something like this, but I don't have an ultra, and the buttons are disabled in water mode. Good to know that action button still works in water mode ...
Thanks! I am running a training program from "Faster Road Racing" where my distance is fixed, and my intensity is some % of a goal pace based on a prior race time. In races, a lot of folks want to run negative splits. We have a goal pace in mind, but like to have a way to keep track of how we're progressing towards that goal when the pace may be expected to ramp up throughout. Intervals is actually a good simple way to do this but is there any way to copy and paste them?
My wishlist advanced feature would be user-defined metric functions that return a value based on some measure inputs. So I can write a func that returns a % of target pace, or run a linear regression and predict my avg. pace at finish.
Cheers for the great app!
Not paused, no; mid-stride.
That would make sense; it was only a few hours after I had installed watchOS 10.
Sent (I hope!).
I’m not seeing anything like that. There’s half a dozen “.stacks-date-time.ips,” going back to a year ago with the most recent in June. Then there’s two “Bridge-Pair-Performance-Report-####.txt” files, and a single “ota_patch.txt.”
Ah — didn’t think to look on the phone. (To be honest, I’ve launched the phone app maybe twice once I got my usual workout routine set up — and one of them was just now.) Here’s looking forward to seeing what you come up with for navigation!
b&
Currently GPX routes are simply displayed and you are warned when you deviate from them. There is no concept of following them, so the app cannot show your position on an elevation graph, or the remaining distance or time. Sorry about that. Those metrics are for use when using a fixed length workout or an interval schedule where it is possible to calculate the remaining distance.
I plan to enhance the route and navigation functionality in a future version to allow this. At the moment it is top of my to-do list after I have released a version for watchOS 10.
In the meantime you could start the workout and enter the route length as the fixed distance. If you only follow the route then this will give a rough estimate but not as good as when I have implemented it properly. To enter a fixed distance tap the circle with 3 dots to the right of the activity name. Then tap “Fixed Length” and then “Set Distance”.
Hello, I created route for my run. I want to run it another day in opposite direction. It's possible to tell WOD it somehow? Or I need to create 2 different routes?
Thanks.
Thanks.
You can reverse the route in the settings on the watch app. Go to Settings then Routes. When a route is selected then there are options to show it in reverse and to show it "hollow".
When reverse is enabled then the gradient colours and the arrows are changed accordingly.
When hollow is enabled then the app shows two lines, one either side of the actual route, so that you can see type of trail/road that you are on.