Apps The worst running experience!

[WordSands]

So i was positively looking Forward to running with the watchOS 2 Version of Runtastic Pro... Boy was i up for a dissapointment. Both Versions of the app have, until last night that is, been an utter dissapointment!
I could look past the incredibly laggy Display (even though it might be useful to see my current pace and not the pace from 20 minutes ago) and the fact that the app keeps running a couple of minutes when you stop your run. So last night i tried a run without interfering with the app at all, because pausing a run will just **** everything up whatsoever. Halfway through my 10k i glanced at the watch to see the Display update to about 1.5k - 'fine' i thought... as Long as all my HR data and everything else will be stored in the end i won't get mad. Unfortunately a couple of minutes later the watch displayed my watchface when i glanced at it again! WTF? I didn't push anything at all during the run and just glanced at the Progress (it tries miserably to Keep up with your distance etc. once you look at your watch). Restarted the app, the workout was still running. But once i finished my run and stopped the workout from my watch app i saw that my HR data was only recorded for about 3/4 of the run. I honestly can't believe that runtastic is still not able to make a halfway working app! Not to mention other workouts that are longer than one hour that just simply refuse to let you quit the workout from the watch app so you have to do it over the iPhone and loose the HR Monitoring!
So either Runtastic gets its **** together and finally produces a passable running app or PLEASE some other Company (looking at you Nike) take Advantage of the watchOS2 Features in a way thats not completely ****.
Sincerely,
everyone

 

[Bob190]

Yea, same experience here. I think WatchOS 2 is an utter disappointment as far as workout/running apps are concerned. I am patiently waiting on iSmoothrun, but the developer there says that WatchOS 2 basically doesn't deliver on its promise so I am not very hopeful.

It's a shame that Apple appears to have made it so difficult for 3rd party developers to make usable running apps. It seems that they still have to just use the watch as a display for the phone app, instead of having an app on the watch that does all of the heavy lifting (pace/speed calculation, HR, cadence, etc.). The way it should work IMO is that the watch should use the phone as a peripheral to pass to it raw GPS data via bluetooth, then the watch does all of the calculations, produces a data file after the run, then syncs back to the phone .. thus no laggy display. Sadly it doesn't seem that 3rd party developers have that option, or if they do, aren't utilizing it when developing their apps.

Oddly, it seems that the native Workout app functions like this since there is no update lag on the watch screen, so not sure why 3rd party apps don't function this way also.

I have pretty much given up on the AW for running, and have pre-ordered a TomTom Spark which does optical HR, GPS, and music playback. The AW held a lot of promise, but unfortunately, Apple being Apple seems to have basically crippled it.

 

[WordSands]

Didn't know apps still were restricted... is that really the case or are the apps simply not updated 'enough' to make use of watchOS2?
update on my running experience:
This Weekend i tried the runtastic pro app on another run. This time the workout didn't start. At ALL! Pushed the green 'start' button which faded a Little (to indicate being pushed) and then just stayed that way. Tried restarting it after 2k, which didn't work either. In the end i just let it be and ran with the apple workout app. Had a horrible run along the way having to mess with watch/phone in the beginning so much...
Wish they could just mend it somehow! Would be fine with runtastic just being able to Import a run from the apple watch workout app (which SHOULD be possible with all HR and GPS data as it is stored in the health app). Or apple expanding the workout apps functionality. Or just give me a good Nike+ running app, i don't care anymore. Just want to have all my runs stored with GPS and HR data. Pretty please..?

 

[menace3]

Runstastic Pro is a disappointment. I had to remove it from my phone as it was draining my battery trying to work. I downloaded STrava but havent played around. It does work, which is more than I can say for Runtastic Pro

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Halfway through my 10k i glanced at the watch to see the Display update to about 1.5k - 'fine' i thought... as Long as all my HR data and everything else will be stored in the end i won't get mad. Unfortunately a couple of minutes later the watch displayed my watchface when i glanced at it again! WTF? I didn't push anything at all during the run and just glanced at the Progress

Outside of Apple's work out app, AW defaults to clock face showing on wrist raises unless you change one of the settings.
To do this, on AW go to Settings => General => Wake Screen, scroll down to 'Resume to' and select 'previous activity'.

However, I share your frustration about the running apps.

On the plus side, since upgrading to OS 2, the Apple Workout app's distance and pace estimates have been much better.

I use iSmoothRun on my iPhone, and Apple's Workout app on the watch (mainly for immediate distance / pace data). This combination works for me.