Apps Best running app...Strava or Activities or?

[ozonep]

When I decided to run marathon I tried so many AW apps (with training plans)... That's awful... Each app had it's own flaws.
Some apps do not allow to track exercises on treadmill, some apps do allow it, but they don't use AW, they force you to hold iPhone in your hands... Some apps allow treadmill, but they don't allow to run outside without iPhone (Nike app)... So in the end decided to stick with basic Activity app & use RunGap to transfer these runs to any app

 

[BlankStar]

they don't allow to run outside without iPhone (Nike app)...

Huh? I run with Nike Running Club and leave my iPhone at home. Just the Apple Watch (WiFi only) + AirPods.


Are there people who have experience with both Workoutdoors & iSmoothRun? What are the biggest differences?

 

[ftaok]

Huh? I run with Nike Running Club and leave my iPhone at home. Just the Apple Watch (WiFi only) + AirPods.

He's probably talking about the NRC app with respect to the training plans. I think, that the NRC training plans are only available on the iPhone app, so that's why he'd have to carry his phone with him.

Are there people who have experience with both Workoutdoors & iSmoothRun? What are the biggest differences?

I don't use Workoutdoors, but I do use iSR exclusively now.

The main advantages of iSR over NRC is:

1. Less buggy. NRC doesn't seem to work well with older equipment. I'm on an S2 Nike and back when I used NRC, it would take ages for the run to start. I never had the crashing issue that others experienced (my runs are typically 3 miles long), but the app was very buggy.

2. Better integration between the iPhone and AW. With iSR, I set up the run as AW+iPhone. It uses the iPhone's GPS, thus saving battery on the AW. With Nike, I would never know which GPS was being used (although it has come to my attention that if the iPhone is present and linked via BT, it's always the iPhone's GPS).

3. Better data export. With Nike, good luck getting your data to another platform. You'll have to use 3rd party apps (like RunGap or HealthFit). With iSR, there's dozens of platforms that you can share directly to.

4. Better support for 3rd party accessories such as the Stryd power meter. I don't use these things, but for some it would be essential for an app to support.

ft

 

[diba]

Fitiv - this is how the internal app should be. Configurable workouts and voice feedback, configurable es well. 9 out of 10 workouts I use Fitiv.

 

[lasniko]

Hi there,

Will I be able to run a 5 hour marathon with AW4 considering the battery?

 

[Akrapovic]

Hi there,

Will I be able to run a 5 hour marathon with AW4 considering the battery?

I read that 6+ hours can be done on a workout. But I have no data to confirm that.

 

[lasniko]

Maybe someone who has this experience could inform us.

 

[ftaok]

Maybe someone who has this experience could inform us.

I can't confirm since I have never (nor do I intend) run a marathon. I do, however, read lots of reviews on tech gear. DCRainmaker has a great site where he reviews tech gear.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/10/apple-watch-series-4-in-depth-review.html

In this one, he has the S4 having a 6 hour run-time with GPS. That might be info provided by Apple, so YMMV.

I would imagine that you could get better battery life if you do the following.

1. Carry your iPhone with you so that the iPhone's GPS is used.
2. Turn off the HRM or use a BT HRM so that the AW's sensor isn't killing the battery.

With both of these, you could probably get through a marathon pretty easily as the AW isn't doing to much at that point. But then it kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Maybe someone who has this experience could inform us.

I keep meaning to test this scientifically as I have a 41 mile race in a couple of weeks!

I’ve done loads of 2hr runs and a few 3hrs runs where I THINK battery drain is typically around 20 to 30% when running standalone with watch only starting from 100%...sometimes I click the watch into airplane mode before starting (just a habit from another watch, I think there is slightly less drain if it’s not trying to find a phone all the time).

This week did a 3.5hr hilly run but with phone carried as well (since I’ll be doing that on the 41miler) and I think battery was showing 80% at the end (having started at about 98%) (+ about 5% drain on the phone, which is a XR)....so should EASILY be able to run even a very slow marathon.

I use the Workoutdoors app, and looked at the map reasonably regularly on the way out, plus get alerts every 1km and probably glanced a handful of times in between too...(was pretty careful on maintaining close to a target pace for first hour as was running to meet up with a group who were setting off from a given location at a specific time so I could run with them for the middle hour).

Also received about 6 or 7 messages, and replied to two using my voice into the watch and one by pressing a canned response...don’t recall any other notifications.

And, erm, used watch to pay for a little coffee at McDonalds midrun! ‍♂️

No music. And I think brightness is turned down to minimum. Don’t think I’ve done anything else specific to extend battery life. I leave HRM turned on and intend doing so.


Doing a 20mile run on Saturday but planned to take longer or close to my marathon time (roughly 4hrs)...will charge to 100% beforehand and will either be tethered to phone or will run standalone so gets worst case battery scenario, haven’t decided yet.

41miler will be tethered to phone.

Doing a 48hr race (but only planning running during daylight) in a couple of months but will likely take phone and will be moving 4 to 6hrs max at a time before being able to recharge....should get confidence this is doable or not from the 41 miler...plan is to record each session separately and then glue them all together in Strava.

Edit: AW4, non cellular.

 

[lasniko]

Thank you @FunkyMagicUK !

Your info is much appreciated.

Hopefully, you will come back to inform us after the marathon.

 

[Akrapovic]

I keep meaning to test this scientifically as I have a 41 mile race in a couple of weeks!

I’ve done loads of 2hr runs and a few 3hrs runs where I THINK battery drain is typically around 20 to 30% when running standalone with watch only starting from 100%...sometimes I click the watch into airplane mode before starting (just a habit from another watch, I think there is slightly less drain if it’s not trying to find a phone all the time).

This week did a 3.5hr hilly run but with phone carried as well (since I’ll be doing that on the 41miler) and I think battery was showing 80% at the end (having started at about 98%) (+ about 5% drain on the phone, which is a XR)....so should EASILY be able to run even a very slow marathon.

I use the Workoutdoors app, and looked at the map reasonably regularly on the way out, plus get alerts every 1km and probably glanced a handful of times in between too...(was pretty careful on maintaining close to a target pace for first hour as was running to meet up with a group who were setting off from a given location at a specific time so I could run with them for the middle hour).

Also received about 6 or 7 messages, and replied to two using my voice into the watch and one by pressing a canned response...don’t recall any other notifications.

And, erm, used watch to pay for a little coffee at McDonalds midrun! ‍♂️

No music. And I think brightness is turned down to minimum. Don’t think I’ve done anything else specific to extend battery life. I leave HRM turned on and intend doing so.


Doing a 20mile run on Saturday but planned to take longer or close to my marathon time (roughly 4hrs)...will charge to 100% beforehand and will either be tethered to phone or will run standalone so gets worst case battery scenario, haven’t decided yet.

41miler will be tethered to phone.

Doing a 48hr race (but only planning running during daylight) in a couple of months but will likely take phone and will be moving 4 to 6hrs max at a time before being able to recharge....should get confidence this is doable or not from the 41 miler...plan is to record each session separately and then glue them all together in Strava.

Edit: AW4, non cellular.

You are insane. In an impressive way!

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

You are insane. In an impressive way!

Well I’ve not actually done any of it yet!!

I’ve only actually ran one marathon (just last September, and it was difficult with a real likelihood of having to quit or walk back, and I’m not particularly fast...4hrs and a few minutes at Loch Ness), and I think tomorrow’s 20 mile will be the furthest I’ve covered since, despite having a 41 mile race scheduled for next weekend!!!

Hmm, maybe I am insane

I do intend preparing a bit more comprehensively for the 48hr race (no course, no support crew, no bed, just me a buddy and a tent on our backs, race starts midday on a Friday and you’ve got to get as far away as possible by midday Sunday on your feet...water/sea travel is allowed but will be subtracted from your distance...special prizes for furthest north, highest elevation etc!)...you’ve got to try these things and push yourself and see what you can do!

 

[Akrapovic]

Well I’ve not actually done any of it yet!!

I’ve only actually ran one marathon (just last September, and it was difficult with a real likelihood of having to quit or walk back, and I’m not particularly fast...4hrs and a few minutes at Loch Ness), and I think tomorrow’s 20 mile will be the furthest I’ve covered since, despite having a 41 mile race scheduled for next weekend!!!

Hmm, maybe I am insane

I do intend preparing a bit more comprehensively for the 48hr race (no course, no support crew, no bed, just me a buddy and a tent on our backs, race starts midday on a Friday and you’ve got to get as far away as possible by midday Sunday on your feet...water/sea travel is allowed but will be subtracted from your distance...special prizes for furthest north, highest elevation etc!)...you’ve got to try these things and push yourself and see what you can do!

"only ran one marathon", ha. Most I've done is 11k. So don't give me this "only" nonsense.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

I

"only ran one marathon", ha. Most I've done is 11k. So don't give me this "only" nonsense.

It’s all relative...I see some folk at the back of a 5k parkrun who are having to dig some much greater inner depths than I do at a half or 10k or whatever, and similarly when I’ve done some multi lap multi distance trail events where I’ve been doing 3x5miles, I’ve been lapped by speedy folk doing 25 or 35 miles who are seemingly crusing round like it’s a stroll down the road!!

That’s the beauty of running, unless you’re at the very top end, really you’re just competing against yourself, and you can recognise the effort and achievement in others whether they run a 10k in 35mins or 90mins...just wish I’d got into it a bit sooner to be honest...but when you’re regularly playing football and you see people running alone, and not chasing a ball, it’s pretty hard to understand how it could be enjoyable!

 

[Roadracr]

Hi there,

Will I be able to run a 5 hour marathon with AW4 considering the battery?

I ran a marathon last weekend (Fort Lauderdale). I used the basic Workout app. I also carried my phone as I wanted to have it for after the race. I was worried about battery life so I let my phone handle my music (bluetooth headphones) and the watch just did the timing, etc. Finished in 4:12 (was horribly hot and humid!!) and had 73% battery left on the watch at the end. I believe I would have been fine without the phone as my training runs (with the watch handling all the load) went 3 hours plus and I finished with about 50% battery. YMMV, but I was happy with the battery performance.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Ran for 3hrs 50mins...
Phone was on 100% and AW4 on 99% at the start line.
Minimum brightness, heart rate monitoring on, using Workoutdoors.
Didn’t glance at screen much as was just a race up and down a canal...maybe I looked at perhaps 10 of the km autolap notifications, looked at map a couple of time...perhaps 4 message notifications during the run.


When I remembered to check a few mins after, phone (XR) was on 90% and AW4 on 80%.

Reckon it should be easily possible to track a 12 hour activity with watch tethered to phone...ie, long enough for ANY normal persons activity.

After next weekends 41mile stupidness which I’ll run with phone and watch, I’ve got a 10k, a 10mile and a marathon in next weeks so will prob use those to benchmark “watch not connected to phone” battery use.

 

[lasniko]

Ran for 3hrs 50mins...
Phone was on 100% and AW4 on 99% at the start line.
Minimum brightness, heart rate monitoring on, using Workoutdoors.
Didn’t glance at screen much as was just a race up and down a canal...maybe I looked at perhaps 10 of the km autolap notifications, looked at map a couple of time...perhaps 4 message notifications during the run.


When I remembered to check a few mins after, phone (XR) was on 90% and AW4 on 80%.

Reckon it should be easily possible to track a 12 hour activity with watch tethered to phone...ie, long enough for ANY normal persons activity.

After next weekends 41mile stupidness which I’ll run with phone and watch, I’ve got a 10k, a 10mile and a marathon in next weeks so will prob use those to benchmark “watch not connected to phone” battery use.

@FunkyMagicUK don't forget to post here your new findings after your runs!

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Ran for 3hrs 50mins...
Phone was on 100% and AW4 on 99% at the start line.
Minimum brightness, heart rate monitoring on, using Workoutdoors.
Didn’t glance at screen much as was just a race up and down a canal...maybe I looked at perhaps 10 of the km autolap notifications, looked at map a couple of time...perhaps 4 message notifications during the run.


When I remembered to check a few mins after, phone (XR) was on 90% and AW4 on 80%.

Reckon it should be easily possible to track a 12 hour activity with watch tethered to phone...ie, long enough for ANY normal persons activity.

After next weekends 41mile stupidness which I’ll run with phone and watch, I’ve got a 10k, a 10mile and a marathon in next weeks so will prob use those to benchmark “watch not connected to phone” battery use.

A stupidly long run didn’t extrapolate out quite as expected....

I may have been a few % off 100 at start, but it seemed to go down quicker than before, I was at 50% around halfway and knew second half would be considerably slower...so then disabled HRM.

Used map quite a lot for navigating (this was a trail run along Millenium Way from Newport to Burton...lots of folk getting lost but Walkoutdoors was brilliant to just glance at every time came to a potential junction, whilst others watched their paper notes get gradually soggier!).

Eventually got low battery warning but just ignored it...and eventually died frustratingly about 300m from finish with 10hrs21mins gone!!

After recharging looked in Healthfit and all the data is there with all my increasingly slow splits, all the heart rate data until I disabled it etc, but no GPS.

Pretty impressed to be honest...and after running for 10hrs plus I’m less bothered about the lack of GPS data than I thought I might be


(Sore ankles, utterly jiggered, but generally survived...and I ain’t ever running that length of time in a single run again!!! Doing a 48hr thing but won’t really be doing more than 6hrs between stopping and recharging).

So the answer is...AW series 4 using phone for gps can cover ANYONE running a marathon, with ease.

Got a 10k, 10m and a marathon next 3 weeks so will be testing “standalone” endurance.

 

[0388631]

Strava is better for cycling or finding routes on a variety of surfaces. It can handle running, but the company seems to focus on cycling 99% of the time.

 

[lasniko]

A stupidly long run didn’t extrapolate out quite as expected....

I may have been a few % off 100 at start, but it seemed to go down quicker than before, I was at 50% around halfway and knew second half would be considerably slower...so then disabled HRM.

Used map quite a lot for navigating (this was a trail run along Millenium Way from Newport to Burton...lots of folk getting lost but Walkoutdoors was brilliant to just glance at every time came to a potential junction, whilst others watched their paper notes get gradually soggier!).

Eventually got low battery warning but just ignored it...and eventually died frustratingly about 300m from finish with 10hrs21mins gone!!

After recharging looked in Healthfit and all the data is there with all my increasingly slow splits, all the heart rate data until I disabled it etc, but no GPS.

Pretty impressed to be honest...and after running for 10hrs plus I’m less bothered about the lack of GPS data than I thought I might be


(Sore ankles, utterly jiggered, but generally survived...and I ain’t ever running that length of time in a single run again!!! Doing a 48hr thing but won’t really be doing more than 6hrs between stopping and recharging).

So the answer is...AW series 4 using phone for gps can cover ANYONE running a marathon, with ease.

Got a 10k, 10m and a marathon next 3 weeks so will be testing “standalone” endurance.

Congrats for your run and for all the info you provided to us. Thank you.

 

[FunkyMagicUK]

Just to follow up...

Today I ran for 4hrs (and 31seconds!), using AW4 with no phone, in airplane mode, starting at about 97%, with minimal brightness, with heartrate, with no music, with WorkOutdoors.

Glanced at screen approximately 40x for a few seconds (three quarters of my km alerts, plus occasionally in between), didn’t use map, just my screen with time/distance, rolling pace, average pace (and delta from ghost pace distance in the small field on the “lower bit of the screen”).

When I finished, battery was 51%.


So...should easily cover a six or even seven hour activity untethered with full tracking of heart rate etc.

For comparison, I got 10hr20ish when tied to phone, but referring to map a LOT, and switching heart rate monitoring off after about 4 hours as I realised battery was going too quick / I was running too slow for the battery ‍♂️

 

[TommyBoy5]

I've only had an Apple Watch (Series 4) for one week. My wife has had a Series One and Three forever. I decided to join the club - finally!

I run around 7 miles a day and have used NRC exclusively since its inception. It just works for me on my iPhones. But what a pain in the neck to carry around the phone on my runs! I live in a very warm year-round location and sweat a ton so holding the phone is just a hindrance.

I bought the Nike edition of the watch. Customized NRC. I don't have cellular so I downloaded my playlists to the watch, synced them (with the watch being on the charger - this was the kicker for me in not getting it to work initially!) and went for a run. Perfection!

My music plays. I control it with my AirPods. I've done the same run for the past 10 years and the mileage was spot-on with my iPhone mileage. I didn't have to carry a phone around. When I got back home it synced seamlessly with my phone and my run was automatically logged.

And running with just the watch was awe-inspiring. I kept thinking I forgot something. I could use both wrists normally when running. One wasn't dragged down with a phone. I've tried pockets, arm bands, compartments on the back of running shorts - you name it. The phone always bothered me unless I held it in my hand.

And oh! The ability to just pop my wrist up and see my elapsed time, distance and pace was INCREDIBLE! My phone would always lock so I'd have to fingerprint-open it and then take a look. This was just instantaneous.

It's only been a week - seven runs - but no crashes, false starts, skipping music, unreliable mileage, etc. I love this thing! And now I have heart rate - and I noticed my calories were a little lower now!

NRC and Apple Watch WiFi Series 4 Nike Edition for the win!

 

[gorinp]

I just got my AW5 and have been testing various running apps, and I almost returned it to swap it for a Garmin until I found this thread and discovered WorkOutDoors. The Strava watch app just sucks, which is really unfortunate because on the phone it's pretty good. I still use Strava for logging my running history and looking at progress on the web but in terms of display data WOD blows all the other apps out of the water. It's kind of surprising that it's the only one that's so detailed.

So just wanted to say thank you for building the app that I immediately wanted but couldn't find off the bat. Keep up the awesome work!

 

[Vally1945]

Use the built-in WorkoutApp. You can import the data pretty nicely.

 

[Dizle]

Built in app: I want to use it but it auto starts too quickly. Say I’m stopped at a light, if I move my watch had too much it starts my run and takes precious seconds to stop. I want to use it but this is what’s killing it for me.

Strava: love it! Auto pause works better, syncs quickly most of the time, and seems pretty accurate.

NRC: can I pay extra to get rid of it on my watch face? I will never use it but one of the sport watch faces is my favorite one!