Apps Workout: Cycling Auto Pause Oddness

[Buadhai]

Apple finally introduce auto pause to cycling workouts. I am forever stopping during a cycling workout to take some photos and forever forgetting to resume when I'm done with the photos, so I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

Unfortunately, it's not so great. It seems that manual pause doesn't communicate with auto pause.

This morning I stopped to photograph some interesting flood action. Auto pause kicked in, as it should. The photo session took a while. Presently, the watch asked me if I wanted to end the workout or pause. This was puzzling as it was already paused. I chose "pause".

Then I started pedaling again, expecting the watch to auto resume. A few kilometers later I glanced at the watch to check my speed and noticed that it was still paused. Apparently, auto resume is unable to override a manual pause. As a result, my workout has an ugly 3K gap.

So, cycling auto pause is no panacea for the dimwitted and/or forgetful.
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Mind the gap.
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BTW, this is what I stopped to photograph. A wonderful urban waterfall as the municipal reservoir in Kham Talay Soi, Nakhornratchasima, Thailand, overflows onto the highway.

 

[matrix07]

Resuming will not resume right away. If it's the same as auto detection on walking it will take some time for a resume to kick in (in case of walking - ~10 mins) but once it kick in it will grab data from the time you actually resume biking.

 

[Panther61]

Have you tried Strava? Their auto pause works.

 

[Buadhai]

Resuming will not resume right away. If it's the same as auto detection on walking it will take some time for a resume to kick in (in case of walking - ~10 mins) but once it kick in it will grab data from the time you actually resume biking.

What I've actually noticed is that auto pause/resume in cycling is rather quick. It pauses within a few seconds of when I stop and resumes after I've gone a few meters or five or six seconds. The point I'm making is that auto resume doesn't work after a manual pause.

Have you tried Strava? Their auto pause works.

I used Strava for a number of years but abandoned it when I realized what a battery hog it was and when they went so heavily commercial. I actually had the watch battery run out while using Strava on a couple of 100K+ rides. That doesn't happen with the Apple Workout app.

 

[matrix07]

The point I'm making is that auto resume doesn't work after a manual pause.

Right. I guess auto pause/resume designed to handle something like you stuck in traffic red light rather than stop and doing things you might pause for it too long (that's why the watch think you have ended your biking and asked if you did so). In this case just continue and the watch will start your new biking workout (that would take some time, longer than 3 minutes you looking though). you'll end up having 2 biking workouts instead of one but the data will be the same since the watch will grab all the data you started to bike after you have paused.
The best scenario is if you hit pause and continue to bike afterward the watch should know that and start unpause immediately. This could be another bug of watchOS 8 so you should send your feedback to Apple as well.

 

[rainafterthesun]

I just want to say thank you for sharing the photo! I cannot wait to go back to Thailand.

 

[Buadhai]

The best scenario is if you hit pause and continue to bike afterward the watch should know that and start unpause immediately. This could be another bug of watchOS 8 so you should send your feedback to Apple as well.

Right. That's the behavior I expected.

Another example: It used to be my habit to start a cycling workout on the watch and immediately pause it with the side buttons and then lock the screen. When I actually started pedaling I would resume with the side buttons. I did this because my UV jacket gets really sweaty in the humidity here and would hit the watch screen inadvertently pressing buttons. Locking the screen after starting the workout prevents this.

But that routine really confuses Apple's auto pause, so I had to give it up. I had hoped that I could just start pedaling and the watch would unpause. Of course, it doesn't because auto resume won't overlay a manual pause.

 

[Buadhai]

I just want to say thank you for sharing the photo! I cannot wait to go back to Thailand.

It's pretty miserable here now after many days of rain and lots of water with nowhere to go. According to the government, it's not a flood (น้ำท่วม - Nam Tuem), but "water waiting to drain" (น้ำรอระบาย - Nam Ro Rabai).

This is the scene I encountered cycling yesterday about 3K from home.
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Fortunately, no flooding in my neighborhood.

 

[rainafterthesun]

It's pretty miserable here now after many days of rain and lots of water with nowhere to go. According to the government, it's not a flood (น้ำท่วม - Nam Tuem), but "water waiting to drain" (น้ำรอระบาย - Nam Ro Rabai).

This is the scene I encountered cycling yesterday about 3K from home.
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View attachment 1869053

Fortunately, no flooding in my neighborhood.

It’s kind of surreal to see from halfway around the world. The power of technology/ability to connect. I’m glad there’s no flooding in your neighborhood and hopefully things get better for your neighbors.

 

[Espe]

So I tested this out today pretty throughly.

firstly i didnt know you had to manually turn on auto pause in the settings. I went for a ride on Monday and was wondering why it was never pausing, so there you go.

i found the auto pause to be quite excellent actually, probably even better than strava which I’m used to. Always paused within seconds of stopping.
I then stopped at the shops and went for a walk, after a couple of mins it asked me if I wanted to end my workout or pause. I selected pause then kept wandering round. Went back on my bike and it auto resumed again instantly. Was pretty impressed all round, really liked the slight haptic feedback when it does pause so you know for sure without looking at the watch

 

[matrix07]

I then stopped at the shops and went for a walk, after a couple of mins it asked me if I wanted to end my workout or pause. I selected pause then kept wandering round. Went back on my bike and it auto resumed again instantly. Was pretty impressed all round, really liked the slight haptic feedback when it does pause so you know for sure without looking at the watch

Interesting. This is different experience than the OP.

 

[kawalerzysta]

So I tested this out today pretty throughly.

firstly i didnt know you had to manually turn on auto pause in the settings. I went for a ride on Monday and was wondering why it was never pausing, so there you go.

i found the auto pause to be quite excellent actually, probably even better than strava which I’m used to. Always paused within seconds of stopping.
I then stopped at the shops and went for a walk, after a couple of mins it asked me if I wanted to end my workout or pause. I selected pause then kept wandering round. Went back on my bike and it auto resumed again instantly. Was pretty impressed all round, really liked the slight haptic feedback when it does pause so you know for sure without looking at the watch

I fount it pretty good as well. I also use Garmin Edge 130 Plus and both AW6 and Garmin are basically in sync when it comes to auto stop and start.

 

[Buadhai]

Yesterday my wife showed me that you can dismiss the dialog asking if you want to end your workout or pause. You have to scroll down to see "dismiss" (?). When I did that, the watch auto-resumed when I started up again.

Oddly, and for the rest of the ride, the watch face showed "paused" even though it was obviously recording the ride.

And then this happened.

 

[Night Spring]

Yesterday my wife showed me that you can dismiss the dialog asking if you want to end your workout or pause. You have to scroll down to see "dismiss" (?). When I did that, the watch auto-resumed when I started up again.

Oddly, and for the rest of the ride, the watch face showed "paused" even though it was obviously recording the ride.

And then this happened.

View attachment 1872937 View attachment 1872936

Oh, no! I hope you weren't hurt.

As for dismissing the "pause workout" dialogue, I believe pressing the crown button should dismiss it.

 

[Buadhai]

I'm fine. I didn't crash. The bike was upside down so I could change the inner tube which had a hole the size of a pencil.

This morning we rode out for breakfast. The watch auto paused as it should. And, the crown dismissed the dialog. Thanks for that.

While dining, the watch suddenly resumed, ran for about 20 seconds and paused again. No idea what I did to cause it to resume. Perhaps too much coffee.

Aside: Both my wife and I have noticed that the new Workout app is much more generous when recoding Move calories and Exercise minutes. With the previous version I had to reduce my Move goal to 550 per day. I get so many active calories under the new version that I'm going to move it back up to 600. I think the details of this change are worth a different thread.

 

[Night Spring]

It used to be my habit to start a cycling workout on the watch and immediately pause it with the side buttons and then lock the screen.

Glad to hear you hadn't crashed. And also glad that pushing the crown worked to dismiss pause dialogue.

And this post above had bugged me before, but I couldn't figure out what you were doing different from me. I also lock the screen when working out in long sleeves, and I never had to pause the workout to lock the screen. I just swipe sideways, and get a control panel where there are buttons for pausing workout, ending workout, and locking screen. Until now, I didn't know you could pause the workout by pressing the side button!

Also, I recently discovered that I could make a shortcut to start a workout, and lock the screen. I saved the shortcut to my iPhone home screen, and run it from there, but I'm pretty sure you can save it to the watch and set it as a complication. No more fumbling to lock the screen after starting workout, I now always use the shortcut to start my workout.

 

[matrix07]

Until now, I didn't know you could pause the workout by pressing the side button!

Not the Side button. The Crown and Side button together (just like your making a screen cap).

 

[Buadhai]

I don't know how I got into the habit of starting the workout and then pausing to lock the screen. With auto pause I just start the workout, let it pause, lock the screen and otherwise get ready and start pedaling. The workout promptly resumes with the screen locked.

I can conform that after an auto pause and resume, my watch always says "paused" whether or not it is actually paused.

Aside: I ordred a new tire from Bangkok yesterday afternoon. It arrived here in Cha Am this morning. I was amazed as this is a long holiday weekend and I didn't expect it for several days. New tire mounted and I'm ready to go.

 

[kawalerzysta]

Yesterday my wife showed me that you can dismiss the dialog asking if you want to end your workout or pause. You have to scroll down to see "dismiss" (?). When I did that, the watch auto-resumed when I started up again.

Oddly, and for the rest of the ride, the watch face showed "paused" even though it was obviously recording the ride.

And then this happened.

View attachment 1872937 View attachment 1872936

How the hell that happened. I assume your bike is standard hybrid. I would recommend following tire - Bontrager H2 Hard-Case Ultimate Reflective Hybrid Tire. It is little pricey for for what it is. But it holds up extremely well. I run it on my Trek FX5 and I am happy. And it offers very good sidewall protection. I rode through some glass, sharp rocks, light gravel trails, broken up acorns and walnuts, an don issues so far lol.

Bontrager H2 Hard-Case Ultimate Reflective Hybrid Tire - Trek Bikes

Enhance your cycling experience with Bontrager H2 Hard-Case Lite Ultimate Reflective Hybrid Tire. Shop now!

www.trekbikes.com

 

[Buadhai]

How the hell that happened. I assume your bike is standard hybrid.

I have had extremely bad luck with flats since I moved to Thailand 16 years ago. I have two bikes, a Trek 4300 mountain bike and a Trek 7.2 hybrid. Between them I have had well over a 100 flats in those 15 years. About six months ago I put Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on both bikes. No flats on the 4300 since then, but I've had two on the 7.2. One last month when a six inch awl somehow drove itself into the tire, wedged agains the frame bringing the bike to a sudden halt almost throwing me over the handlebars. And, this month, the one pictured above.

I have since replaced that tire with a new Marathon Plus.

 

[kawalerzysta]

I have had extremely bad luck with flats since I moved to Thailand 16 years ago. I have two bikes, a Trek 4300 mountain bike and a Trek 7.2 hybrid. Between them I have had well over a 100 flats in those 15 years. About six months ago I put Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on both bikes. No flats on the 4300 since then, but I've had two on the 7.2. One last month when a six inch awl somehow drove itself into the tire, wedged agains the frame bringing the bike to a sudden halt almost throwing me over the handlebars. And, this month, the one pictured above.

I have since replaced that tire with a new Marathon Plus.

Hopefully you will have better luck with new tires. Only flat I had was on my Giant Talon 1 that came with cheap OEM Maxxis Icon deep in the woods of Pennsylvania. Thankfully had patch kit with me. Since then I replaced those tires with Continental Race Kings ProTection Black Chili. So far so good.