Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[MJ22]

I am a total technological idiot and I apologize if these questions have been asked.

1) if I log a run with this app will it write to my Activity app?
2) is the GPS lock (for a running workout) the blue bars in the upper left?
3) I customized the overview running screen how I wanted it in the phone app but it has not translated to the watch app. I restarted both my phone and the watch and it’s still not how I customized it. How can I fix this?

thanks!

 

[cfc]

Yes checked history on my watch and on the app and just part 2 of my run shows, not the first 6.4 ish.

It could be that the app crashed when you accidentally ended the first workout. It is rare but can happen. Did you see the summary screen with the "Done" button when you ended it?
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I am a total technological idiot and I apologize if these questions have been asked.

1) if I log a run with this app will it write to my Activity app?
2) is the GPS lock (for a running workout) the blue bars in the upper left?
3) I customized the overview running screen how I wanted it in the phone app but it has not translated to the watch app. I restarted both my phone and the watch and it’s still not how I customized it. How can I fix this?

thanks!

No need to apologise for asking questions! To answer them:

1) Yes, the app writes to Apple's Health system and so workouts will appear in both the Health and Activity apps.
2) Yes, that is the GPS signal strength: 1 or 2 red bars means bad; 3 great bars means poor; and 4 or 5 blue bars means good.
3) If your screens are not transferring then try going to the Settings tab on the iPhone app and tapping "File Management" and then "Send Screens & Profiles to Watch". If that does not work then there was probably an issue with the installation of the watch app so please uninstall the watch app (not the iPhone app); reboot both the watch and the iPhone; and then reinstall the watch app. Then try sending the screens again.

I hope that helps. Thanks for buying the app!

 

[MJ22]

^^thanks so much! The screen issue is working now.

 

[madmads]

I don’t remember seeing it tbh. I was faffing!

 

[cfc]

I don’t remember seeing it tbh. I was faffing!

Hopefully whatever the problem was it was a one-off. Sorry about that.

 

[madmads]

Hopefully whatever the problem was it was a one-off. Sorry about that.

hope so! Thanks for your help anyway

 

[MJ22]

I ran for the first time today with this app. Boy, was it not good. I have an AW4 with LTE and the pacing was ALL over and not at all accurate. So frustrating. I was not in a city or in an area with tree cover - most of my run was on a paved path on top of a levee with wide open sky above. My miles were all between. 8:51 and 9:11 yet the current pace was most often giving me readings of over 10:00, sometimes 18:00! As well as a heart rate stuck at showing 97. Not very happy.

 

[cfc]

I ran for the first time today with this app. Boy, was it not good. I have an AW4 with LTE and the pacing was ALL over and not at all accurate. So frustrating. I was not in a city or in an area with tree cover - most of my run was on a paved path on top of a levee with wide open sky above. My miles were all between. 8:51 and 9:11 yet the current pace was most often giving me readings of over 10:00, sometimes 18:00! As well as a heart rate stuck at showing 97. Not very happy.

Sorry that the instantaneous pace was erratic. It comes from Apple's GPS or Pedometer systems and neither are great. If you press the watch screen hard and tap Settings and then Pace then you will find various ways to improve it. Tap Current Pace to choose between GPS or Pedometer, and there is also an option to smooth the values (which I added because of the erratic instantaneous pace).

Alternatively you could use a rolling pace instead. There are 3 rolling pace metrics, so you can display 3 different time or distance windows at once whilst deciding which window works for you. The longer the window then the more accurate the pace but the less responsive it is, and vice-versa.

In the next version I have added an option to determine the pace from Apple's distance estimates, which seems less erratic.

In terms of the heart rate not varying often, this is an issue with the watch sensor which affects some people during colder weather when the blood vessels are further from the surface of the skin, although it can happen at any time. There is nothing the app can do about it.

It varies from person to person and some people use external monitors during the colder months. Apple have advice on it here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207941#heartrate

 

[rgyiv]

Been following this thread for a while and just purchased the app. Excited to start using it!!

 

[cfc]

Been following this thread for a while and just purchased the app. Excited to start using it!!

Thanks for buying the app! Please let me know if you have any questions about it.

 

[arnih]

Hi, were you thinking of a "ghost running feature"?
If I am not wrong, there is currently no Apple Watch App which supports this.. Would be another USP for this great app

 

[cfc]

Hi, were you thinking of a "ghost running feature"?
If I am not wrong, there is currently no Apple Watch App which supports this.. Would be another USP for this great app

You can set a target pace and the app will show your time and distance vs that pace. You can also see a yellow dot on the map representing someone moving at that pace so you can see where you are relative to the target, as well as in numbers.

I plan to extend this in the future and add a “Target Workout” feature where it would show your performance relative to a previous workout (probably on the same route) so that you could allow for different gradients etc. However no-one has asked for that in a long time so it has slipped down my list of things to add.

 

[rbart]

I have one request but I don't know if it's feasible ...
As you know AW usually overestimates the distance (by 2% in my case) and it's a bit tricky to manage your pace in a race.
Is it possible to add a button you can push when you reach "round" distances (1km, 5km, 10km ...) during the race so you can estimate the error and display a new field with the corrected distance/pace beside the "normal" one.
It can be a great help for runners who have a specific target.

 

[cfc]

I have one request but I don't know if it's feasible ...
As you know AW usually overestimates the distance (by 2% in my case) and it's a bit tricky to manage your pace in a race.
Is it possible to add a button you can push when you reach "round" distances (1km, 5km, 10km ...) during the race so you can estimate the error and display a new field with the corrected distance/pace beside the "normal" one.
It can be a great help for runners who have a specific target.

A few people have asked for that so it is on my list of features to add. It shouldn’t be too difficult in terms of adjusting the distances displayed in WorkOutDoors (watch app and iPhone app) but it will be interesting to see if it is possible to over-ride the distances that are automatically stored in Apple Health by watchOS.

 

[rbart]

I think it's not required to fix distances in the final export.
It's more a feature to help you during the race to reach you target. 2% is not a lot when you just run for training, but when you have to manage a pace, it's a big difference.
The idea is to have the possibility to add a new field with this "fixed" distance/pace.
I am preparing a marathon, and 2% of distance error is a huge difference after 42.2km !

 

[cfc]

I think it's not required to fix distances in the final export.
It's more a feature to help you during the race to reach you target. 2% is not a lot when you just run for training, but when you have to manage a pace, it's a big difference.
The idea is to have the possibility to add a new field with this "fixed" distance/pace.
I am preparing a marathon, and 2% of distance error is a huge difference after 42.2km !

If it were just for a few new metrics (e.g. adjusted distance, adjusted pace, adjusted speed) displayed during the workout then that would certainly be easier for me.

The problem is that I know that people would then want other adjusted metrics such as Estimated Duration and Estimated End Time. And then maybe adjusted versions of the interval metrics and especially the lap metrics.

This would mean that I would be going down the wrong route, so it would probably be best to do it properly from the start. When I look into it I will do some investigation and see if I can adjust the distances in Apple Health. It used to be that the app had had complete control because it used to store all the distance "samples", so it may be still possible to overwrite the distances that watchOS now stores automatically. I think it probably is but I am not sure.

 

[rbart]

I see that you have great ambitions !
I just need a "race mode" to reach my targets. But if it's possible to do more ...
To be honest, I am planning to try to develop my own small running app to test this race mode. With a very simple app just to fit my needs

 

[NME42]

On Garmin there is an app that can do what rbart wants. It is great and I think I shared the link before, so nevermind...

A Better Way To Pace Races: Race Screen Connect IQ App

One of the primary benefits of apps on any platform is to extend the functionality of a device to do something that the manufacturer didn’t otherwise include. That’s true of phones, computers, and now even watches. Be it Connect IQ

www.dcrainmaker.com

 

[rbart]

Yes, exactly !
I would really be nice !

 

[user1234]

I have received my replacement watch and set up this awesome app again. That was a few tough days without WorkOutDoors. After using it for a few days again, there is still a bit of a delay until values update on app launch, but other than that it works great.

One thing I noticed however. I have the time set to 24hr in the app, and on my watch. What I haven't noticed before is that it says 20:08PM for my latest walk. That PM is a bit redundant. Is this a bug or is it intended?

 

[cfc]

I have received my replacement watch and set up this awesome app again. That was a few tough days without WorkOutDoors. After using it for a few days again, there is still a bit of a delay until values update on app launch, but other than that it works great.

One thing I noticed however. I have the time set to 24hr in the app, and on my watch. What I haven't noticed before is that it says 20:08PM for my latest walk. That PM is a bit redundant. Is this a bug or is it intended?

You can avoid any launch delays with an app by putting it in the dock, so it is effectively running all the time.

On my watch I see a 12 hour clock with the AM/PM symbol, but I think it is dependent on the watch settings so I have changed it in the code to force a 12 hour clock and AM/PM symbol. Hopefully that will fix it. Thanks for spotting that.

Glad that you can use the app again!

 

[user1234]

You can avoid any launch delays with an app by putting it in the dock, so it is effectively running all the time.

On my watch I see a 12 hour clock with the AM/PM symbol, but I think it is dependent on the watch settings so I have changed it in the code to force a 12 hour clock and AM/PM symbol. Hopefully that will fix it. Thanks for spotting that.

Glad that you can use the app again!

I will add it to the dock 👍

But I think I spoke too soon about it otherwise working great. My screens won't sync from the iPhone app back to the watch. I noticed that today when I wanted to switch to my custom pace screen, and it wasn't there. Then I started looking and all the screens are the defaults on the watch. I know I have had this happen before, but I can't remember the solution. How do I fix it?

Does the mentioned forced 12 hour clock mean that I can't have 24hr time in the app anymore, or that the AM/PM will only be forced for the 12 hr clock?

 

[cfc]

I will add it to the dock 👍

But I think I spoke too soon about it otherwise working great. My screens won't sync from the iPhone app back to the watch. I noticed that today when I wanted to switch to my custom pace screen, and it wasn't there. Then I started looking and all the screens are the defaults on the watch. I know I have had this happen before, but I can't remember the solution. How do I fix it?

Does the mentioned forced 12 hour clock mean that I can't have 24hr time in the app anymore, or that the AM/PM will only be forced for the 12 hr clock?

The first thing to try if the iPhone and watch apps are not communicating is to reboot both the iPhone and the watch. Then try sending the screens again by going to the Settings tab and tapping "File Management" and "Send Screens & Profiles to Watch".

If that doesn't work then uninstall the watch app (not the iPhone app); reboot both the watch and the iPhone; and reinstall the watch app. Sometimes iOS and watchOS just need a reboot or a reinstall of the watch app.

In terms of the clock time, I have played around with it a bit and decided to just let watchOS format it. This means that it should respect the settings that you have configured for the watch.

 

[user1234]

The first thing to try if the iPhone and watch apps are not communicating is to reboot both the iPhone and the watch. Then try sending the screens again by going to the Settings tab and tapping "File Management" and "Send Screens & Profiles to Watch".

If that doesn't work then uninstall the watch app (not the iPhone app); reboot both the watch and the iPhone; and reinstall the watch app. Sometimes iOS and watchOS just need a reboot or a reinstall of the watch app.

In terms of the clock time, I have played around with it a bit and decided to just let watchOS format it. This means that it should respect the settings that you have configured for the watch.

I went to file management and sent the screens and profiles. I didn't even have to reboot anything. I was looking for an option like this the other day but couldn't find it. I guess I didn't look hard enough. Now it works again and I'm happy 😀

Sound good to let watchOS format the time 👍

Thanks again for the most amazing Apple Watch app available!

 

[cfc]

I went to file management and sent the screens and profiles. I didn't even have to reboot anything. I was looking for an option like this the other day but couldn't find it. I guess I didn't look hard enough. Now it works again and I'm happy 😀

Sound good to let watchOS format the time 👍

Thanks again for the most amazing Apple Watch app available!

Thanks! Glad that the option to send the screens worked.