Swimming with watchos4

[GEEFORCE]

Hi all,
Used my series 2 watch running watchos4 in the pool yesterday and noticed some very odd things.
When I swim I've always been able to check my average pace/100m when I push off the wall as the screen turns on after a push.
I was doing a 1000m swim, and noticed that after the first 100m, 1:20 had elapsed, which is my normal pace. However, the average /100m time was showing 2:07. On the previous OS, this would display correctly and show the 1:20 as the average, since that was my first 100m, and that's how much time had elapsed. At 200m, my pace was consistent and 2:40 had elapsed, yet the watch was still showing an average much higher, this time at 1:50.
Just as odd, when this 1000m synced with my phone, it was showing my splits as being in the region of 1:10s, something which I wouldn't be able to sustain over 1000m.
It does count lengths correctly even though 1050m is indicated as I always do an extra 50m so that the splits up to 1000m are consistent because otherwise it takes into account the time it takes to unlock and end workout into the final 100m.
I've also had it freeze on me 3/4 times since updating, something which never happened on previous OS.
I only really have my watch to monitor my swimming so pretty disappointed with the update.
Anyone able to make sense of this where I am not? Or had any similar problems?

 

[Bob190]

Have you tried the Swim.com app? It gives much more detailed data than the built in app and I find it to be fairly accurate. Plus you can now upload the .fit file to Garmin Connect/Strava. It also writes to Apple Health and shows in the Activity app.

I must say .. you are pretty damn quick over 1000m!

Wish I could swim that fast.

 

[GEEFORCE]

I haven't considered any third party apps to be honest.
Just downloaded swim.com though and it looks very good, I'll give it a go tonight. Thanks for that

 

[wvayens]

Here's another plug for the swim.com app. With the update to os4, I gave the native swim activity a try and after my first 500 yards and checking to see what it was telling me, I fired up the swim.com app.

Here's what I like about the swim.com app:

It has the ability to identify the 4 various strokes: fly, back, breast, free. Granted it isn't always perfect (it must really hate the way I swim back), but after a workout you can go into the app on the phone or on the web and edit things like stroke. You can also combine two lengths into one (every now and then it will interpret something in the middle of a length as a turn) or can split a really long length (it did not recognize a turn) into 2 lengths.

During a workout you can set it to drill mode, tell it how the distance you want to drill and then restart normal mode when you're done.

Both the phone app and the web site provide very detailed information about all of the segments about your workout. As I mentioned above, it's easy to edit or add workout information (for those times when you realize 500 yards into your workout you forgot to start the app on your watch.)

I've been using the app for over a year and it really helps keep me swimming and motivated!

 

[GEEFORCE]

Tried swim.com last night. Much prefer the way it captures what I do. I did some identical swims using both the apple app and swim.com to compare and swim.com was just objectively better.

It uploaded to the health app but I can’t find a way to upload it to strava. Apparently exporting .fit files is a bit glitchy atm?

 

[Bob190]

Tried swim.com last night. Much prefer the way it captures what I do. I did some identical swims using both the apple app and swim.com to compare and swim.com was just objectively better.

It uploaded to the health app but I can’t find a way to upload it to strava. Apparently exporting .fit files is a bit glitchy atm?

It is a bit difficult from your phone, but you can just download the .FIT file to a PC and then upload it to Strava from there using the manual upload link on Strava.

To do the same from your phone you have to go to the desktop version of Swim.com on Safari, click the link to get the .FIT file, and choose to open to the Files app on iOS 11 or alternatively you can save it DropBox too. From there you need to go to the desktop version of Strava in Safari and again use the manual upload link which should give you an option to import from the Files app or DropBox. A bit of a hassle yes. I have asked the Swim.com developer for a direct upload to Strava, but it's not there yet unfortunately.

 

[GEEFORCE]

It is a bit difficult from your phone, but you can just download the .FIT file to a PC and then upload it to Strava from there using the manual upload link on Strava.

To do the same from your phone you have to go to the desktop version of Swim.com on Safari, click the link to get the .FIT file, and choose to open to the Files app on iOS 11 or alternatively you can save it DropBox too. From there you need to go to the desktop version of Strava in Safari and again use the manual upload link which should give you an option to import from the Files app or DropBox. A bit of a hassle yes. I have asked the Swim.com developer for a direct upload to Strava, but it's not there yet unfortunately.

Have tried saving the .fit file in safari on the ipad and iphone, and it wants to save it as a .txt file. When I try to open the file there are a lot of unrecognised characters so I think something is wrong there. Have tried to export different swims but they are all the same
I might try it on the PC tonight to see if I get something different but it'd be much more preferable to be able to do this on a mobile device.
Thanks for the help.

 

[profets]

1:20/100m !!! Wow. I tend to average 2:20 LOL! That is fast.

I've used the Series 2 for the past year with the built in Workouts app. Been meaning to try swim.com but never really got around to it. Also haven't had a chance to try it since updating to OS4 - that sounds weird what is happening.