Could I suggest that on the Elevation tab for a run it would be nice to have more details on the gradient at particular points when pressing on the Profile? And would it be possible to vertically fill the Profile with the gradient colour at each point to make it clearer, rather than just colouring the line?
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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
- Thread starter cfc
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No-one has ever asked for either of those things before, but I will bear them in mind the next time I am looking at that area of the app.
The current "target pace" function uses a constant speed entered by the user.
However the next major version of the app will have a "target workout" function where you will be able to choose a previous workout and the app will show how you are performing against that. In terms of coding it is similar to the route following functionality so I am adding it as part of the new navigation features.
I don't like to set myself deadlines because sometimes you can hit an unexpected problem that takes weeks to work around. This can happen during the coding or the testing.
However at the moment things are going well and I am adding more features than I initially planned to add. I am deep into the coding phase and will be coding for a few more months. I am hoping to release a beta sometime in the late Spring but, as I say, that could change.
I thought of this while on my next run. Hahaha.
On another note, I did my first race (5mi) on my new Ultra 2 and it hit every single mile marker either dead on or within 2 steps. That's the closest I've ever had a watch get to the official mile markers. It was so nice to be able to use the action button at the starting line... so much better than messing with a touch screen in a crowded start.
There are two possible reasons for that message. The first is if you run another workout app at the same time as WorkOutDoors. WatchOS only allows one workout session to be running at any one time, so if you start a session in another app then the workout session in WorkOutDoors will be killed off and you will get that message from watchOS when you end the workout.
If that doesn’t explain it then please check that you have given the app permission to read and write all the health data. To check this go to the Settings app on the iPhone and select Privacy / Health / WorkOutDoors. Make sure that every health setting is enabled (you may need to scroll down to turn them all on). Note that if you have installed on a new iPhone then you may need to give permission again.
If they are all enabled then you may be experiencing a rare bug with iOS/watchOS where the watch seems to lose the permission. To fix this switch all of the health permissions off, then reboot both the iPhone and the watch, and then switch them all on again. This procedure nudges iOS into sending the permissions to the watch again.
Recently the second reason has been more common than in the past so I think the lost permission bug has got worse since iOS 17 / watchOS 10.
This sounds promising and exciting, I'm keeping my fingers crossed so that this summer in the Alps one can see how many km of distance and how many meters of elevation to the summit
Last weekend I participated in a race. I activated Running about 2-3 mins before passing the actual starting line (it took longer than I had anticipated). In WOD, I then land on the 'external sensor screen' and got the green buttons to indicate correct connections with my external HR and Stryd sensors. However, despite these green statuses, when I pressed the big START button on passing the start line, I immediately noticed that I had lost both external sensors: WOD only showed dashes instead of values. So I immediately had to stop the run on WOD, kill WOD by swiping it away, restarting WOD and then start the workout again, all while racing. As a result, my recording missed the first 200-300m which annoys me. And it happened to me last year as well.
I know that WatchOS can kill of these external devices as long as the workout has not started, Ian has explained that before, and there is nothing he can do about it -- this one should somehow be fixed by Apple, so that 3rd party support for external sensors becomes more robust. The work-around is to limit the amount of time between opening the 'all sensors green' screen and pressing the START button. Even though knowing this, I sometimes still
But apart from waiting longer to open that sensor screen: what other tips & tricks are there to make sure the workout starts exactly at the right moment so your metrics make sense during the race? Do you already start the workout so the external sensor connections are locked, and then immediately pause the workout until the actual start? Or do you just start the workout early and initiate a new interval (I have the Ultra, so I could use the Action button for that) when you pass the start line? In that case, I have to revisit all metrics and make them interval-dependent. Or any other approach that is less error-prone than my current approach?
Anyway, curious how others are ensuring external sensors are connected at the start of their race!
I know that WatchOS can kill of these external devices as long as the workout has not started, Ian has explained that before, and there is nothing he can do about it -- this one should somehow be fixed by Apple, so that 3rd party support for external sensors becomes more robust. The work-around is to limit the amount of time between opening the 'all sensors green' screen and pressing the START button. Even though knowing this, I sometimes still
But apart from waiting longer to open that sensor screen: what other tips & tricks are there to make sure the workout starts exactly at the right moment so your metrics make sense during the race? Do you already start the workout so the external sensor connections are locked, and then immediately pause the workout until the actual start? Or do you just start the workout early and initiate a new interval (I have the Ultra, so I could use the Action button for that) when you pass the start line? In that case, I have to revisit all metrics and make them interval-dependent. Or any other approach that is less error-prone than my current approach?
Anyway, curious how others are ensuring external sensors are connected at the start of their race!
Generally if you are using 2 sensors and having problems then the best fix is to connect the heart rate sensor via watchOS instead of via the app. This is because watchOS only allows a maximum of 2 Bluetooth connections across all third party apps, so by connecting via watchOS you will avoid any situations where it is exceeding the limit of 2 sensors.
This is compounded by the fact that watchOS sometimes seems to take a long time to disconnect from sensors, so if you tested it out before the race and then ended that test and then started another workout then watchOS can complain that the limit is exceeded because it hasn't fully disconnected after the previous workout.
Make sure to unpair the heart sensor from WorkOutDoors as well as pairing via watchOS. The app will not be aware that heart rates are coming from the sensor instead of the watch, but if the sensor is paired with the watch then that is what will happen.
Hopefully Apple will increase the sensor connection limit in the future, and make it faster to disconnect.
I had a chance to test WOD more thoroughly on my last runs and I'm really loving it. Super reliable so far. I'm even warming up to the UI. It's clear and I like the careful color-coding of various metric types. I'm getting fast at navigating the UI but it is still... a lot...
I think the "primitives" here are almost perfect for doing anything but hope for better saving/copy/duplicate of them so I can more fluidly configure workouts and races. I appreciate the level of customization available but don't want to climb through it all when I'm mostly configuring slight variations of the same stuff.
Screens - I use these depending on the type of run. If I'm doing an endurance vs speed workout vs a lactate threshold run or an actual race, I will have a different screen with the most important data for that. If we could simply configure a screen, name it, save it, attach it to workout types and allow copy/"fork"/"save as" of existing screens that would be awesome. BIG props for making the screens adjustable DURING a workout.
Intervals - Basically, this is how I configure my workouts. For example a speed workout has 4 miles, 8x 100m strides, and another 4 miles. I like that I can configure different screens for these, but it would be great if I could just select one of the named screens I had already made. I'm also going to use intervals to program in a race pacing strategy (e.g. negative splits) where I break a marathon into x mile intervals and set the pace target differently for each. In this case it would be great to copy/paste/duplicate intervals, or have named intervals with copy/"fork"/"save as" (like the screens) rather than the fast/slow/steady/recovery ones.
Another wishlist item is race pacing features. Garmin Pace Pro https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/use-pacepro-garmin is a great example of how this could work. I can kind of configure my pacing strategy now with intervals using different pace targets as mentioned above.
SUPER GEEKY requests:
I think the "primitives" here are almost perfect for doing anything but hope for better saving/copy/duplicate of them so I can more fluidly configure workouts and races. I appreciate the level of customization available but don't want to climb through it all when I'm mostly configuring slight variations of the same stuff.
Screens - I use these depending on the type of run. If I'm doing an endurance vs speed workout vs a lactate threshold run or an actual race, I will have a different screen with the most important data for that. If we could simply configure a screen, name it, save it, attach it to workout types and allow copy/"fork"/"save as" of existing screens that would be awesome. BIG props for making the screens adjustable DURING a workout.
Intervals - Basically, this is how I configure my workouts. For example a speed workout has 4 miles, 8x 100m strides, and another 4 miles. I like that I can configure different screens for these, but it would be great if I could just select one of the named screens I had already made. I'm also going to use intervals to program in a race pacing strategy (e.g. negative splits) where I break a marathon into x mile intervals and set the pace target differently for each. In this case it would be great to copy/paste/duplicate intervals, or have named intervals with copy/"fork"/"save as" (like the screens) rather than the fast/slow/steady/recovery ones.
Another wishlist item is race pacing features. Garmin Pace Pro https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/use-pacepro-garmin is a great example of how this could work. I can kind of configure my pacing strategy now with intervals using different pace targets as mentioned above.
SUPER GEEKY requests:
- custom screen tiles where I can template in my own metrics and calculations, for example, adaptive ahead/behind target pace using a formula.
- Some sort of importable screen and interval config language (i.e. json/yaml) so I can generate my whole workout schedule and preferred screens and load them in.
Thanks for the feedback. Some of what you mention is already on my to-do list but unfortunately nothing is particularly high on the list.
Note that you can effectively copy an interval screen by tapping "Make Default". The settings for that interval (including the screen) then become the default for when you next create an interval of that type for that activity type.
The trouble with sharing screens across activity types is that different metrics are available for different activities. However I may allow it one day where unavailable metrics appear blank where necessary.
I have added formula-based metrics for past apps so I have considered them for WOD, but they are a lot of work for something that has been requested maybe only once before.
Thanks again for the feedback.
@cfc i am using WOD as my main workout app for a long time. But my gripe is that the apple watch is always off in calculating distance when running on a treadmill. Even if i calibrate outside. It would be awesome in a could correct teh distance at the end of the run just before saving the workout. Like garmin does. After each workout i use Rungap to correct the distance and upload to Strava. But it would be nice if i could do the correction in WOD. Thank you.
Apple's health system doesn't allow workouts to be edited afterwards. It may be possible to create a new workout and delete the old one, but that would be a lot of work because the app doesn't currently create workouts. It uses Apple's workout system, which creates the workout automatically as you go.
I may add it in the future, but not any time soon. Sorry.
It is, which is why they don't allow it in their workout app. However it could possibly be worked around by deleting the uneditable workout and creating a new workout that is a copy but with the adjusted distance. This would be a lot of work but is theoretically possible.
There may be knock-effects though, such as duplicated workouts if for example you have an app that monitors Apple's Health system and sends any workouts created in it on to other systems such as Strava.
Basically it is a can of worms which I don't want to open! It is more likely that in the future I may allow the workout to be edited only in WOD. It would be inconsistent with Apple's Health system, but that may not be a problem for some people. It would still be a fair bit of work though so is not in my immediate plans.
I should have reported this at the time, but I didn't, and I'm not sure if this is what actually happened but...
I don't know if this happened to you, but I was in a starting corral before a race when I started WOD and my PolarHRM and Stryd connected on the external sensor screen. Minutes later the race began and WOW my POWER was through the roof!!! Unfortunately, it was going up and down independent of what I was doing and way more POWERFULLY than I have run in years! Until it disappeared.
I can't say for sure, but the behavior suggested that I had connected to someone else's Stryd in the corral. I didn't think that was possible, but your post made me recall that episode so I decided to share my anecdote.
I'm an experienced runner so I laughed it off, but my race plan had been based on the Stryd (I was kind of testing out how accurate it was in this not-very-important race). It was pretty hilarious to me. I, like you, ended the workout in WOD, started a new workout in WOD connected to my own Stryd, and continued on my merry way. I did pretty well that day anyway; thanks for asking.
WOD is the best app. I'm such a power-user now. It's like having a coach (and his secretary) on my wrist. The customizability is incomparable in the world of apps.
So I tip Ian after every training cycle. Hey tip jar... see you again in April.
Many thanks for tipping regularly. I really appreciate that!
It is possible for the app to connect to the wrong Stryd under some circumstances, because Stryd do not include a unique identifier in the device name. However you can guarantee that this won't happen by pairing with the Stryd before the race and not rebooting after that.
The watchOS Bluetooth system maintains a unique identifier when you pair with a device, but if you reboot the watch then that unique identifier sometimes gets lost and the app then needs to search for the device by name. This is fine for most sensors because they have a unique identifier in the name (presumably for this reason), but for some reason Stryd do not use a unique identifier.
Not sure if people can help me with this but I am trying to get some sort of navigation routing in combination with structured workouts. I use a garmin at the moment but have had apple watches in the past.
Whenever I am running I like to follow a new unknown path and I load that course on my watch. I also follow a structured workout synced with another app. So when I am running I follow my map, and run the pace or laps I am told to do.
I believe you can’t do map navigation with the normal apple watch workout app. But can you do structured workouts with the Workoutdoors app? This fragmentation of workouts in dozens of apps that kinda do the same but have different features is really confusing.
Whenever I am running I like to follow a new unknown path and I load that course on my watch. I also follow a structured workout synced with another app. So when I am running I follow my map, and run the pace or laps I am told to do.
I believe you can’t do map navigation with the normal apple watch workout app. But can you do structured workouts with the Workoutdoors app? This fragmentation of workouts in dozens of apps that kinda do the same but have different features is really confusing.
WorkOutDoors allows you to see a GPX route on a map whilst also using an interval schedule. It doesn't give turn by turn directions yet, but will warn you if you deviate from the route.
At the moment interval schedules need to be created in the app, but in the future I plan to allow them to be imported from other systems.