Review of Run App

I personally use this app for both running and hiking.

I need to be able to put the distance in km (I have the device in English) and if possible I would be interested in being able to put the altitude instead of "pace".

in this way, depending on the sport, I can modify the display as I need.

The possibility of having the color change on the HR wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Matteo

I think if you install the locale for your country then the distances will display in km for you?

I need to be able to put the distance in kms/h (I have the device in English)

Then you go in settings / run / pace and find "1000m" value. This should do.

The possibility of having the color change on the HR wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Some people in this forum showed interest for Heart rate zones. Actually, I have some .png files here ready for a while. It's the good size, the good colors.
Zone 1 is not relevant for sport, so I removed it. I divided each zone in 2 sub-zones to make it more precise.
HR zones could be setup individually, or follow the usual formula (requires max HR)
zone 2:60-70% of max HR
zone 3:71-80% of max HR
zone 4:81-90% of max HR
zone 2:91-100% of max HR
2nd option, using the Karvonen formula (requires max HR and min HR (HR when you wake up before any effort))
Karvonen formula is HRmax - HRmin= HR reserve (HRR)
Target Heart Rate Training Zone = Resting HR + ( % Intensity x [maximum HR – resting HR]).

Example: Max HR = 186. Min HR = 56. Calculate zone 2 (60-70%)
186-56=130 (HRR)
130x60/100+56=134
130x70/100+56=147
Zone 2 is comprised between 134 and 147 bpm.
Feel free to use these drawings, there's a .zip.txt attached to this post, download it, remove the .txt extension and unzip it to get the 8 .png files.
If anyone is ready to implement this but would prefer an horizontal version or else, I'm happy to make all the changes you want.

3 Attachments

• vertical hr zones.zip.txt
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I just want the km, the language always interests me that it remains in English.

I'll try, thanks @Gordon

Thanks @Fteacher but unfortunately I don't have the necessary js skills ... yet.

is anyone using on bangle.js1?
is it compatible? I assume yes, as it appears on appsloader and the desc doesn't indicate incompatibilities.
With Fw2.12 I am receiving a low memory in UI and a more detailed one in console (i will open a github ticket)

BTW. is Run the offical replacement of BangleRun app?

BTW. is Run the offical replacement of BangleRun app?

That is the plan, yes.

Heart rate zones are a good idea in principle - BUT until the HRM works reliably when moving they wont work.

@HughB Some bangle.js2 owners use an external bluetooth hrm, it works great. For 15 bucks you can get a 2nd hand chest heart rate strap and lab grade data.
Some in this forum expressed interest for the hr zones features (probably those who use this bthrm). For me it would be a great addition because I struggle to read the bpm numbers while running and I use zones for training. These last 3 months I had huge improvements in my running thanks to using these zones. For a 6kms race, I went from 8.4kms/h at 142bpm in December 2021 to 9.9 kms/h at 140bpm on 20th of March 2022. The 2 factors of success were using zone2 running and increasing the mileage.
All this to say that we don't need to wait for the HRM to work fine while exercising (which may not happen any kind of soon) to have people code apps that use hr zones.

Good point. Personally I dont want to wear a chest trap when running, I could get a wrist based bluetooth HRM but then I would have to wear it on the other wrist. At which point I might as well wear my Amizfit Bip that I got off eBay for £28 15 months back.

Or an arm strap hrm. I spoke about it many times already, but I use a polar oh1+ and it pairs well with the bangle.js2.

Hi, today I tried to use and pay attention to the notifications. I used them for distance and basically, it didn't work. What happens is that I go into settings, set up the distance to 1km, then set a pattern for distance. Leave the app, back to the clock. Go back into the settings of the run app and the previous setup has disappeared: there's no pattern for the distance. And therefore, it didn't work during my run. Is it just me ?

I know where to look to fix that. I'll take a look today and get back to you.

@Fteacher I've found three bugs and fixed two of them. I hope to have it all submitted in a PR this evening.

@Fteacher Do you mind loading run and recorder from my fork's app loader and testing it out? I think I've solved the issues you ran into and a couple of others, though my testing was done by adding a 5m notification option to debug and I have not gone on a real distance run yet. I hope to do that later today.

The only problem I ran into was that as the GPS got a fix it jumped quickly past 5m and I got a ton of notifications serially. I don't think this will be an issue with longer notification distances, but if it is I have a plan to remediate it.

I'll try your apps on my next run (in a few days). Can you send me the url of your fork ?

@Fteacher I ended up going for a drive and testing this more thoroughly so I was confident enough to open a PR.

I updated my apps, recorder and run apps were updated.
Such a pleasure to see that it works, every kilometer I felt the buzz. I'll try again with a shorter pattern than --- to see if it's still noticeable.
If you know how to implement the code of hr alarm to use it inside run, that would be great.
Btw, I don't know if the steps notifications will be used by anyone. It's an uncommon measurement as a running metrics.
There was a bug also. At the end of the run, I stopped the run app and... The recorder app was still on "on", stopping the run app didn't trigger "off" in the recorder. I had to go into settings/recorder to actually stop the recorder.

Thanks @Fteacher, I was able to duplicate the issue and have opened a PR.

I am very interested in the HR alarm and think it would be relatively straightforward to turn the hralarm widget (by @halemmerich) on and off much as the recorder widget is today. I do not yet have a external HRM to test with, do y'all have any recommendations or know what to stay away from?

@Gordon you mentioned in the original run notifications PR that you didn't want to add too much to exstats, but I was thinking it would be nice to be able to add calories burned using one of the estimates available. There are a few mentioned in the answers to this stackexchange question and we have access to speed and even grade with a little math, but could also take in the user's weight and combine it with METs or their weight and age and combine it with their HR. Do you have thoughts about that?

I do not yet have a external HRM to test with, do y'all have any recommendations or know what to stay away from?

I can confirm that Polar H10 works like a charm. In addition to HR it also provides PP-Interval which is also stored by recorder (and used by HRV app).
H10 also provides medical grade ECG signal and has an ACC (eg for respiratory movements, steps,...) No bangle app for those yet, but its available via GATT Bluetooth, so should be not too big a problem to include. I do get it in desktop already.
Only disadvantage is price in my opinion, so if its only about HR, there are sure cheaper alternatives.

@Gordon you mentioned in the original run notifications PR that you didn't want to add too much to exstats

I think something like Calories would be great. While it's some extra code I think it's worth it - it's the kind of thing you'd want in many different fitness apps, and you definitely don't want to have to go around entering your age/weight into every app.

I think altitude is also important, once the gps is there it shouldn't be complex. In this way, with an app you can cover both the running and hiking parts.

Altitude from the internal pressure sensor is actually really good - it's just calibrating it each time that's the challenge

Altitude relative to start of run/hike would't need any calibration and still be pretty useful (unless your so high that thin air is a concern I guess thats what is of interest to most hikers anyway, or am I wrong here @uname)

The altitude influences many factors, even for trail running, unfortunately for ALL the smartwatches I have tried, even garmin or suunto, the altitude is never correct, at every possible reference it can be calibrated quickly BUT it always returns stoned to the next calibration.
However, having a reference when you proceed with the workout is still useful.
I was thinking about the GPS because I always see it among the information retrieved by the "recorder" and I think it is more reliable.
(but perhaps it drain more battery than the barometric altitude)