Using the Watch to track hikes?

[Lennyvalentin]

The Watch isn't out yet in my region (I will hopefully be able to buy mine this friday), so I've no way to check this myself, but hopefully someone will know some answers... Anyway, here goes:

I'm not built for heavy exercise, but I like to walk, sometimes quite long walks of an hour and a half or more. From what I've read, exercise tracking seems to drain the battery fairly heavily, how would it fare over such a long walk? Is there even a hiking exercise program built in? Can you just start a walk and then have it run an arbitrary time/distance, or must you set a time duration prior to starting? I might not know how far I want to walk before setting out...

Also, is there a feature in the Watch that can track your route, distance walked, and show it on a map afterwards perhaps?

Thanks for any input!

 

[exxxviii]

No problem at all. I routinely do 45 minute to 75 minute runs with mine. The watch will drop about 15% worst case in a long run. So, if you do a 90 minute hike, I would expect no more than a 20% battery drop, but 10% is more likely.

The workout app has two choices for a hike: "Outdoor Run" and "Outdoor Walk." Outdoor Walk is ideal for a hike. When you start it, you can tell the app whether you want it to track you to a calorie goal, (you enter the calories), a time goal, a distance goal, or just open until you hit stop at the end. That part would work perfectly for you.

There is no Apple app that will track your route so that you can map it. For that, you can use one of the many apps out there like Runtastic, RunKeeper, Nike+, MapMyRun... These all have Apple Watch companion apps that will start and stop the app on the phone. You will need your phone with you for these to work.

 

[PilotC150]

Outdoor Walk is what I use, but I suspect it massively underestimates the calories burned due to hiking being more strenuous that a normal "walk". At least it differentiates them from my Runs.

 

[Dukecitydawg]

Gaia app is great for this. Records your track, speed, elevation gain, etc.

 

[exxxviii]

Outdoor Walk is what I use, but I suspect it massively underestimates the calories burned due to hiking being more strenuous that a normal "walk".

I wonder if it uses HR to adjust calorie burn for a strenuous hike?

 

[BlueMoon63]

No problem at all. I routinely do 45 minute to 75 minute runs with mine. The watch will drop about 15% worst case in a long run. So, if you do a 90 minute hike, I would expect no more than a 20% battery drop, but 10% is more likely.

The workout app has two choices for a hike: "Outdoor Run" and "Outdoor Walk." Outdoor Walk is ideal for a hike. When you start it, you can tell the app whether you want it to track you to a calorie goal, (you enter the calories), a time goal, a distance goal, or just open until you hit stop at the end. That part would work perfectly for you.

There is no Apple app that will track your route so that you can map it. For that, you can use one of the many apps out there like Runtastic, RunKeeper, Nike+, MapMyRun... These all have Apple Watch companion apps that will start and stop the app on the phone. You will need your phone with you for these to work.

Agree with all of this post and especially the battery drain. I use Workout Other for my golf since it is a lot of walking and carrying clubs and swinging. In 2 hours, the battery drains about 20% or right around that amount.

 

[AbeFrohman]

I walk an hour to hour & a half every morning and use my AW's activity to track them. Maybe drains the battery 10-15%, but I put it on the charger while I shower and it's back up to 100% before I leave for the day. Even if I don't charge it, the morning's activity doesn't push the battery so much that it's drained by the end of the day.

If you don't care about monitoring your heart rate, you can use the "Power Saving Mode" in the Workout part of the watch app to disable the heart rate sensor during workouts.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

So, if you do a 90 minute hike, I would expect no more than a 20% battery drop, but 10% is more likely.

Oh, that sounds quite manageable! I'm not planning on fiddling tons with my watch, I don't tweeter a lot, I don't facebonk a lot; I'm not going to play music off of it, and I don't get tons of notifications and email and such. Mostly I just want it as a regular watch, checking the time, so it's great to know battery isn't going to be an issue. With my planned use profile, I might be able to get two full days out of this thing...!

or just open until you hit stop at the end. That part would work perfectly for you.

Excellent. Thanks a ton!

There is no Apple app that will track your route so that you can map it. For that, you can use one of the many apps out there like Runtastic, RunKeeper, Nike+, MapMyRun...

I looked at Nike+ once, and it seemed heavily geared towards avid runners, wanting to chase me into breaking personal records and so on... If I tried that, I would promptly get a heart attack (hell, I get winded just running - jogging slowly really - 50 meters to catch the bus...) Which of these apps would be most suitable for an out-of-shape guy who likes to walk, would you say?

Thanks a lot to those who replied btw!

 

[Night Spring]

I looked at Nike+ once, and it seemed heavily geared towards avid runners, wanting to chase me into breaking personal records and so on... If I tried that, I would promptly get a heart attack (hell, I get winded just running - jogging slowly really - 50 meters to catch the bus...) Which of these apps would be most suitable for an out-of-shape guy who likes to walk, would you say?

I think I'm kind of like you there -- my jogging speed is probably a fast walk for most people. Runkeeper works for me. I just set it up to map my walks, and ignore all of the other stuff, including the motivational stuff. I haven't tried any other running apps, but I would guess most apps have similar settings, and you can just ignore or turn off all the motivational setups they come with.

 

[jjk454ss]

I hope they add a hiking activity, I was disappointed it wast there already.

 

[Night Spring]

I hope they add a hiking activity, I was disappointed it wast there already.

What would be the difference between hiking and outdoor walk?

 

[jjk454ss]

What would be the difference between hiking and outdoor walk?

It's hiking and not the same as walking. Like someone else mentioned, it's more work than walking. Plus I just like to keep activities seperated. But I agree, not a huge difference.

 

[Jschultz]

Aside from keeping activities separated, there would be no difference. The heart rate monitor will pick up the increased effort through elevated heart rate and convert these to calories accordingly. If it were a steep hike, I assume the accelerometer would probably be utilized.