WatchApp: Virtual training pal

Former Member over 8 years ago

I like to introduce my new app for vivoactive: the virtual training pal
You can download it from store: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/cdb8f50c-ea00-46fe-bd3a-3bf074a326db

Like some other Garmin Watches, my good old Garmin 305 got an option to setup a virtual training partner which you can race against. It was quite simple but it was a nice feature if you want to see how much you improve.

Inspired from this, i created a virtual training partner for the vivoactive. You can setup up to two pages (if you want) with up to 6 different datafields available. The app also provides a small graph were you can see a chart of the span to your partner during race.

The app can be configured for running and cycling and saves the session as configured. From session-side there is nothing special and on garmin connect it will look like a normal run or bike session. The difference is only during race were you can see the span to your virtual partner as a pace-maker.

Please take a look and feel free to post commands or issue reports! Thank you!

Former Member over 8 years ago

Cool! I haven't tried it yet, but I like the idea. A good way to spruce up workouts.
Will let you know when I've tried it :)

Former Member over 8 years ago

First try

Tried it for a short 3,2 km run.

Here's my thoughts:
I really like the megaman-style graphics on the start screen like you also have in smartTri :cool:
The set up is easy and I like the option to have 1 or 2-page view.
While running I enjoyed glancing att "Span to virtual pal" to see how many meters I was ahead or behind. After a bit of running a swiped to look at the graph. Very useful and fun to look at. I went for an ever increasing line upwards :o The meters showing at the top right in the graph view was kind of hard to see while running. Maybe bold text would make it easier.

I was a little unsure if my run was saved because there wasn't any dialog after I pushed the stop button (A look in history revealed that it was saved). Would be nice if the run was saved with laps also.

One question, what happens if I set target distance to for example 3,2 km but decides to run 5km?

Thanks for a great app!

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hi Latency,
thank you for you review!

If you stop the training session, everything will be svaed (every time) i might implement a small "save" dialog, that might be an improvement for the app.

If you enter for example 3,2km but you run 10km its no problem at all.
Mostly the distance/time is used to calculate speed/pace for your trainingpartner. The distance chart will also be adapted on your desired distance/time.
If your total training time will be below 18 minutes, the interval for taking new points to the graph will be 6s - this interval will increase up to one point per minute if training will exceed 3 hours.
The chart also have a "shift" function for the case that you decide to run longer than desired but then you will not see the whole run on the chart.