Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[cfc]

Hi thank you for your detailed answer.
i understand and I think that in consequence you must implement the swimming using less metrics than other workout types. The goal is to have a reliable app. If Apple does not deliver some metrics data or deliver them late then you cannot use them reliably.
I think that if we can already have the base metrics that are displayed by the Apple standard exercise app it will be a good start.
makes sense no ?

thanks again,
Fred.
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I completely agree with you !

The current plan for swimming is to limit the metrics to the same as the native app and then improve things in the future. As you say, it is best to start simple.

In terms of multi-activity workouts such as triathlons, it would be relatively easy to add a command to start a new separate workout of a configurable type. However I would prefer to associate the separate activities together in the iPhone app as one workout with different sections for each activity. That would be a lot more work, so I will probably start with the separate workouts approach and then extend it afterwards.

However this is just off the top of my head - I don't plan to implement multi-activity workouts until swimming has been in the app for a while.

 

[MethosNL]

I am working on swimming at the moment. Open Water is not too hard but the Pool activity is a bit more complicated. The auto-lap notifications from watchOS come a long time after the lap is finished (sometimes half a minute!), which makes a lot of the lap metrics hard to calculate.

It is hard to tell users the metrics for the current lap when watchOS does not supply them until much later. Even the metrics for the previous lap are not really possible, so a lot of the data that the app supplies for other workout types won't be possible for pool swimming.

Triathlons will be added at some time in the future, but not until after the swimming activities have been added and are working well.

Glad you like the app!

Nice to hear Swimming is on the list, thats the only sport I can't yet do in WoD (And multiple sport modes (brick, etc). I really don't need much metrics in pool swimming indoors (at the start the apple ones are probably enough for most? And work from there).

 

[Toonartist]

Anyone know the best way to stop Apple Watch using the iPhones GPS when out running. I'm carrying as I listen to music on Deezer so want to carry it just not use the gps. Last couple fo runs the gps tracks have been horrendous with the phone but ok with the watch only. Cheers

 

[rbart]

Maybe you can put your watch in airplane mode.
Take care to disable bluetooth

 

[Toonartist]

Maybe you can put your watch in airplane mode.
Take care to disable bluetooth

Forgot to say, I run with a Stryd power footpod. The watch communicates with that by bluetooth so I need that on the watch.

Would putting the iPhone in Airplane mode work? I can listen to music still but not sure if that would kill the gps feed to the watch?!?

 

[NME42]

Sorry - there is an issue with instant pace at the moment, which I am looking into. There are several possible workarounds though: use GPS, increase smoothing or use a rolling pace (as described in the previous post).

Just to understand: rolling pace is affected too? Did an interval workout today with pace alert set to rolling pace of 10s and that should be sufficient as I did a steady run. Got quite a lot of pace alerts during the run although I was running quite constantly.
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Would putting the iPhone in Airplane mode work? I can listen to music still but not sure if that would kill the gps feed to the watch?!?

No, airplane mode keeps the connection between watch and phone. You have to disable BT in settings, not control center.

 

[Significant1]

Forgot to say, I run with a Stryd power footpod. The watch communicates with that by bluetooth so I need that on the watch.

Would putting the iPhone in Airplane mode work? I can listen to music still but not sure if that would kill the gps feed to the watch?!?

You will also have to disable bluetooth in settings on the phone. So you cannot use a BT headset.

 

[Toonartist]

Dam... Looks like I'll have to download some tracks to the watch then... using AirPods so need the BT connection to the phone for them.

Would switching of location services be an option? You would think there would just be an option to use Watch GPS over the phone... especially as the IPX gps is pants

 

[rbart]

No, if you switch off the localization services, it won't work on your watch
I think you don't have any solution, except leaving you phone at home

 

[Significant1]

Dam... Looks like I'll have to download some tracks to the watch then... using AirPods so need the BT connection to the phone for them.

Would switching of location services be an option? You would think there would just be an option to use Watch GPS over the phone... especially as the IPX gps is pants

Bring a phone, that is not paired with the watch or have two Apple Watch paired to your phone and manually decide which is the active one. Last option is a guess, since I haven't tested it and currently don't have more than one watch.

 

[Toonartist]

Bring a phone, that is not paired with the watch or have two Apple Watch paired to your phone and manually decide which is the active one. Last option is a guess, since I haven't tested it and currently don't have more than one watch.

Use a different phone maybe an option... I have an old android kicking around until I get my hands on y wife's ip7 (when I upgrade she'll take the ipX).

Flaming annoying... kicking it hard this morning and had some great times but... the gps was that poor Strava wouldn't match any of the segments! Gutted.

 

[NME42]

Another option would be switching to Apple Music or waiting until Deezer has offline capability (did not check on this).

 

[Toonartist]

Another option would be switching to Apple Music or waiting until Deezer has offline capability (did not check on this).

Yeah, I like Apple Music app but they are a little lacking in terms of "Deep House" genre... which Deezer is really good for. Deezer has offline but only on the iPhone, not directly on the watch.

Edit - Found quite a few tracks on Apple Music but... just remembered the other problem with Apple Music. They are not one of the streaming services on BlueSounds Node 2 streaming device that I have hooked up to my Naim... they also don't provide lossless. I may have to find a way to listen to the Deezer tracks on the watch! Thanks everyone for your suggestions!!

 

[cfc]

Just to understand: rolling pace is affected too? Did an interval workout today with pace alert set to rolling pace of 10s and that should be sufficient as I did a steady run. Got quite a lot of pace alerts during the run although I was running quite constantly.

Rolling pace is not affected. However if GPS is poor then you will probably need a longer window than just 10 seconds. Did you have your iPhone with you? As people have noted there are issues in watchOS when using the iPhone GPS.

 

[NME42]

Rolling pace is not affected. However if GPS is poor then you will probably need a longer window than just 10 seconds. Did you have your iPhone with you? As people have noted there are issues in watchOS when using the iPhone GPS.

Hmmm. GPS was good (open sky) and never take my phone with me. Pace alerts were in the range of about 45 seconds per km. Had the allowable range set to 10s/km around target pace but alerts were very frequent.
Especially notable when doing corners.

 

[cfc]

Hmmm. GPS was good (open sky) and never take my phone with me. Pace alerts were in the range of about 45 seconds per km. Had the allowable range set to 10s/km around target pace but alerts were very frequent.
Especially notable when doing corners.

It is probably worth using a longer window. 10s is very short and susceptible to GPS inaccuracies.

 

[NME42]

It is probably worth using a longer window. 10s is very short and susceptible to GPS inaccuracies.

Ok, will retry on same Route tomorrow with Rolling Pace set to 100m.

 

[NME42]

Just checked pace setting and it was set to pedometer and no smoothing. Is it better to change to GPS and do smoothing? How much?

 

[cfc]

Just checked pace setting and it was set to pedometer and no smoothing. Is it better to change to GPS and do smoothing? How much?

Those are the current pace settings. If you have the Pace Alerts setting set to using a rolling pace instead of the current pace then the current pace settings will not affect the alerts.

Generally it seems that the pedometer pace is erratic recently so I tend to use the GPS pace, but that can be poor if the GPS is inaccurate so plenty of smoothing is probably best.

The next version will have a third option: pace from the health system's distance estimates, which will hopefully be better than the pedometer or GPS. It will be particularly useful for cycling because Apple provide distance estimates for that activity despite there being no pedometer involved.

 

[raulxininen]

today arrives watchOS 6.1.1. Maybe with pace metrics working again?

thank you

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

You will also have to disable bluetooth in settings on the phone. So you cannot use a BT headset.

No, what you can do on the Watch is toggle to Airplane mode *and* toggle Bluetooth off on the Watch also. Then toggle airplane mode back off again to get back to normal fully connected mode.

From now on, when you switch to Airplane mode on Watch it also disables Bluetooth and therefore GPS comes from Watch.

 

[rbart]

Yes, but he wants to connect the stryd to the AW, so he needs BT ON

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Yes, but he wants to connect the stride to the AW, so he needs BT ON

whoops, missed that...wasn’t aware Stryd works with Workoutdoors.

 

[cfc]

whoops, missed that...wasn’t aware Stryd works with Workoutdoors.

It doesn't yet.

 

[Toonartist]

It doesn't yet.

Correct. I have to run two apps at once at the moment if I need mapping. When I don't, I just use the Stryd app as I use the extra data from the Stryd footpod which also feeds into Strava (uses power for fitness/freshness).