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estesbubba

macrumors member
Nov 23, 2020
96
42
Here is what the developer of HealthFit said, and when I dug into my Health data, it appears he is correct. Now maybe WOD is different, but my results once removing the speed sensor have the same accuracy as when it was paired. That's comparing to my Wahoo ROAM2.

Outdoor cycling workouts don’t use speed sensor with the native Apple Workout app. Speed sensor is only used for indoor cycling workouts.

You can check it on your own with Apple Health app


Drill down into the outdoor cycling workouts recorded with a speed sensor and the native Apple Workout app, you won’t see any cycling speed.
 

edgardiez7

macrumors newbie
Nov 18, 2022
18
11
Here is what the developer of HealthFit said, and when I dug into my Health data, it appears he is correct. Now maybe WOD is different, but my results once removing the speed sensor have the same accuracy as when it was paired. That's comparing to my Wahoo ROAM2.

Outdoor cycling workouts don’t use speed sensor with the native Apple Workout app. Speed sensor is only used for indoor cycling workouts.

You can check it on your own with Apple Health app


Drill down into the outdoor cycling workouts recorded with a speed sensor and the native Apple Workout app, you won’t see any cycling speed.
This is only in the native app, WOD uses the speed sensor as the default speed input when connected as explained by cfc a couple msgs ago
 

cfc

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 27, 2011
2,972
2,492
Here is what the developer of HealthFit said, and when I dug into my Health data, it appears he is correct. Now maybe WOD is different, but my results once removing the speed sensor have the same accuracy as when it was paired. That's comparing to my Wahoo ROAM2.

Outdoor cycling workouts don’t use speed sensor with the native Apple Workout app. Speed sensor is only used for indoor cycling workouts.

You can check it on your own with Apple Health app


Drill down into the outdoor cycling workouts recorded with a speed sensor and the native Apple Workout app, you won’t see any cycling speed.
I wonder why they have that limitation. WOD doesn't care if you are cycling indoors or outdoors. It just calculates the distance by multiplying the number of rotations reported by the sensor by the circumference calculated from the diameter entered by the user. And the speed is calculated from the distance. So it works anywhere.

I am sure there is a reason that Apple don't use speed sensors when outdoors but I can't think what it is.
 

longdizzle

macrumors newbie
Jul 15, 2010
22
9
I got the double tap working by using a hidden button. It works quite well despite the wrist raised limitation.

So it will be in the next version, although I am not sure if that will be the major navigation version or a minor version before that.
Very excited to try this. I know you’ve mentioned that the default will be to switch screens, but will the hidden button be customizable? I would love for it to advance an interval as an option. Unclear how well it’ll work but seems like a more convenient motion to wake screen and double tap (action) than to wake screen and double tap (on screen).
 
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cfc

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 27, 2011
2,972
2,492
Very excited to try this. I know you’ve mentioned that the default will be to switch screens, but will the hidden button be customizable? I would love for it to advance an interval as an option. Unclear how well it’ll work but seems like a more convenient motion to wake screen and double tap (action) than to wake screen and double tap (on screen).
Yes, it will be configurable to do whatever operation you want, just as with other shortcut gestures.

It's good that you don't mind the need to wake the screen first but I am expecting complaints about that and the fact that it won't work when using low power mode.

Hopefully people will understand that these limitations are due to watchOS, and that they make sense because of the power required to check every motion of the watch in case it is a double tap.
 

jimmyjoy

macrumors member
Sep 20, 2012
87
79
Hi cfc,

Not sure if you'll be able to offer any advice but I have a persistant issue with Strava showing less moving time than duration - even when I don't stop at all. I've read many threads and suggestions on this but I am at a bit of a loss.

Yesterday for example, I ran a half marathon with a friend. He has Ulta 2, I have Ultra 1. We both used WoD and both uploaded to Strava using the same settings. Strava workout is set to 'race' which gives the correct overall pace but it shows my moving time as almost 2 minutes less than the duration - his is 5 seconds difference.

WoD doesn't appear to show the drop in pace, which Strava seems to show as non-moving time. We are both using the Pedometer setting in WoD too.

Could you offer any advice or suggestions? Is this a Strava issue? Would resetting my calibration data on the watch help? Perhaps wiping and setting the watch up again?

Thanks.
 

cfc

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 27, 2011
2,972
2,492
Hi cfc,

Not sure if you'll be able to offer any advice but I have a persistant issue with Strava showing less moving time than duration - even when I don't stop at all. I've read many threads and suggestions on this but I am at a bit of a loss.

Yesterday for example, I ran a half marathon with a friend. He has Ulta 2, I have Ultra 1. We both used WoD and both uploaded to Strava using the same settings. Strava workout is set to 'race' which gives the correct overall pace but it shows my moving time as almost 2 minutes less than the duration - his is 5 seconds difference.

WoD doesn't appear to show the drop in pace, which Strava seems to show as non-moving time. We are both using the Pedometer setting in WoD too.

Could you offer any advice or suggestions? Is this a Strava issue? Would resetting my calibration data on the watch help? Perhaps wiping and setting the watch up again?

Thanks.
One possible difference is if you are sending different file types to Strava. The best one to send is FIT, which is the default.

However I generally tell people to ignore Strava's estimates of moving time because it often seems to think that you have stopped moving when you haven't.

If you have set the Strava run type to Race then it should be showing elapsed time, so I would use that and ignore the moving time.
 

jimmyjoy

macrumors member
Sep 20, 2012
87
79
One possible difference is if you are sending different file types to Strava. The best one to send is FIT, which is the default.

However I generally tell people to ignore Strava's estimates of moving time because it often seems to think that you have stopped moving when you haven't.

If you have set the Strava run type to Race then it should be showing elapsed time, so I would use that and ignore the moving time.
Thanks for the reply.

We are both sending using the FIT file type. It's not an issue on yesterday's race, because it was a race but we often train together and encounter the same issue, although it often sets my pace much quicker than his due to the time not moving.

I'd love to know what causes Strava to think I have stopped and not him.
 

cfc

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 27, 2011
2,972
2,492
Thanks for the reply.

We are both sending using the FIT file type. It's not an issue on yesterday's race, because it was a race but we often train together and encounter the same issue, although it often sets my pace much quicker than his due to the time not moving.

I'd love to know what causes Strava to think I have stopped and not him.
I'd love to know too because I have never understood Strava's moving time algorithm.
 

r0zina

macrumors newbie
Oct 1, 2024
3
1
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this. I've been using WorkOutDoors for a while now, but with iOS 18 I've decided to try out the native Workout app for one run and I've noticed a couple interesting things.

First thing I've noticed it the GPS accuracy was much better with the native app. From 1.42m avg using the native app to 4.3m using WOD. Running the same route. See the screenshots below. In WOD I have selected Apple as the source of distance & average pace. Is there something else I can do to get the accuracy of the native app with WOD?
IMG_5542.jpg IMG_5540.jpg
IMG_5541.PNG IMG_5539.PNG

The second thing I've noticed, is that the way the native app creates intervals, it gets interpreted by HealthFit in a very nice way, showing all the different stats for each interval. While when doing it with WOD it just gives you pace info for each segment. Is there any plan for WOD to have similar data in Health app to mimic the native app?
IMG_5543.PNG
 

cfc

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 27, 2011
2,972
2,492
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this. I've been using WorkOutDoors for a while now, but with iOS 18 I've decided to try out the native Workout app for one run and I've noticed a couple interesting things.

First thing I've noticed it the GPS accuracy was much better with the native app. From 1.42m avg using the native app to 4.3m using WOD. Running the same route. See the screenshots below. In WOD I have selected Apple as the source of distance & average pace. Is there something else I can do to get the accuracy of the native app with WOD?
View attachment 2431585 View attachment 2431587
View attachment 2431586 View attachment 2431589

The second thing I've noticed, is that the way the native app creates intervals, it gets interpreted by HealthFit in a very nice way, showing all the different stats for each interval. While when doing it with WOD it just gives you pace info for each segment. Is there any plan for WOD to have similar data in Health app to mimic the native app?
View attachment 2431588
The accuracy differences are because Apple smooth the workout route after the workout, whereas WOD and other workout apps show the raw GPS positions as reported by watchOS.

When Apple do the smoothing they adjust the accuracy figures accordingly. For example if they see that a GPS position is roughly in the middle of a series of positions in a straight line then they can be more sure about its accuracy than they were when they supplied that position live during a workout and they didn't know what was coming afterwards.

This makes no difference to the statistics you see on the watch because of two reasons: firstly it happens after the workout, and secondly by default the app uses Apple's pedometer based distances. However even if you use the GPS distances there is no real difference because WOD and most analysis systems like Strava slightly smooth the data for distance calculation anyway. In fact most external systems are probably expecting raw GPS data rather than smoothed data.

Basically the smoothing makes the trail look nicer, and improves the accuracy confidence but doesn't make much practical difference. And the result is not always more accurate.

In terms of the intervals in Apple Health, unfortunately Apple added their interval functionality long after it was added to WOD so I haven't yet integrated it so that the app saves the interval data to Apple's Health system. I was actually planning to do that last week but discovered that the way that Apple offer to do that requires their latest coding language, whereas that area of WOD is mostly written in an older language.

I will probably implement it in the future but I spent most of last year rewriting the user interface of the app to use a newer language so I am in no hurry to do the same with the rest of it!
 

r0zina

macrumors newbie
Oct 1, 2024
3
1
Good to hear that intervals like that will come in the future.

And thanks for the explanation on the GPS accuracy. It makes sense that smoothing is done after the workout is done, so its fine if data displayed on the watch is a bit different compared to after the workout. But it would be nice to have higher accuracy when the workout is done.

I have also checked the data on Strava to see if it smooths the data as you say, however I cannot confirm that. See screenshot below. They seem to match what HealthFit shows. I use HeathFit to sync to Strava, if that matters. Not sure how much additional distance the raw GPS data adds, but to my naked eye it seems it would not be negligible.

Screenshot 2024-10-02 at 09.53.47.png Screenshot 2024-10-02 at 09.53.18.png
 

cfc

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 27, 2011
2,972
2,492
Good to hear that intervals like that will come in the future.

And thanks for the explanation on the GPS accuracy. It makes sense that smoothing is done after the workout is done, so its fine if data displayed on the watch is a bit different compared to after the workout. But it would be nice to have higher accuracy when the workout is done.

I have also checked the data on Strava to see if it smooths the data as you say, however I cannot confirm that. See screenshot below. They seem to match what HealthFit shows. I use HeathFit to sync to Strava, if that matters. Not sure how much additional distance the raw GPS data adds, but to my naked eye it seems it would not be negligible.

View attachment 2431608 View attachment 2431609
I didn't mean that Strava and other systems smooth the data from a visual point of view but instead from a distance calculation point of view.

If you calculate the distance by using the simple approach of just adding up the distances of all the lines between points then it will definitely over-read because GPS points are not perfectly accurate and the resulting zig-zag trail would be longer than the real-life route taken.

So apps have to allow for that. WOD certainly does when users choose the GPS distance option, and most people find the resulting distances to be very accurate.

This is a different process to smoothing the trail from a visual point of view, which is why Strava still displays the raw positions.
 
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estesbubba

macrumors member
Nov 23, 2020
96
42
@r0zina and @cfc this is why last week I suggested that WOD add an option to operate while using the native Workouts app like Footpath does. There are many benefits to using the native app over WOD (RPE, weather, check in, sensors at OS-level, and more), and having the stats and map using WOD would give the best of both worlds. WOD would behave the same way it does now, but the native Workouts would be recording the activity.
 

WesFromParis

macrumors newbie
Oct 29, 2023
5
2
I don’t use the maps in WOD but even so, the Workout app doesn’t give me the same level of audio notifications (through the watch or through my iPhone while I listen to music), it won’t display all the metrics I want, in the format I want… Not to mention the alerts that I can configure in WOD, such as the change of heart zones for instance. I only miss gps smoothing and double pinch. Oh and distance correction for races would be awesome (this one isn’t in the native Workout app).
 
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