Apple Watch has a feature called Race Route. Once you have run the same route at least twice, you can race your last or your best time on it, live, from your wrist. What Apple does not offer is a way to look back at all your runs on a route side by side. For that you need an app.
How do I use Race Route?
- Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
- Tap the Goals button next to Outdoor Run or Outdoor Cycle.
- Tap Race Route, then choose Last or Personal Best.
During the workout the watch shows how far ahead or behind you are and the distance remaining. If you leave the route, it asks you to return to it.
Routes are created automatically. A route becomes available after you have completed it at least twice with little or no deviation, and it is suggested when you are near its starting point. Race Route works for Outdoor Run and Outdoor Cycle workouts.
What can’t Race Route do?
- It compares you with one past run, your last or your best, not with all of them.
- It works during the run. Afterwards, the Fitness app lists workouts one by one and does not group them by route.
- It is about time. It does not show whether the same pace now costs you a lower heart rate.
Why is the same route the fairest comparison?
Average pace across different runs tells you little, because hills, surface and distance all change the number. On the same route those things stay the same, so what is left is you. If this month’s loop took the same time at a lower heart rate, you got fitter, and you can see it.
Three habits make the comparison fair:
- Compare easy runs with easy runs, not an easy run with a race effort.
- Look at pace and heart rate together. Faster at the same heart rate, or the same pace at a lower heart rate, both mean progress.
- Expect heat, wind and tired legs to move single runs. Look at the trend across several.
How do I see every run on a route?
Kiiro recognizes when a new workout follows a route you have done before and adds it to that route’s history. There is nothing to set up and no segments to create. For each route you see every attempt with pace, heart rate and effort side by side, your personal bests, and the trend over weeks and months. In the app this is called Route progress. See route comparison in Kiiro.
Related questions
- What does Training Load mean on Apple Watch?: Apple Watch Training Load compares your last 7 days of workouts with the previous 28 and labels the result from Well Below to Well Above. Here is how to read it and what to do about it.
- Why is my VO2 max not updating on Apple Watch?: Apple Watch only estimates VO2 max during outdoor walks, runs and hikes on fairly flat ground, with good GPS and heart-rate signal and enough effort. Here is what to check.
