Is there a watch app that can do this - auto detection of running/walking?

[Leafbuds]

I'm looking for an app for my Apple Watch that can detect whether I'm running (vs walking) automatically. I know the watch can somehow do that normally so that it knows if you've started a workout or something, but I don't really know how that works. Maybe there is a separate app I could get?

What I want is to be able to set a timer for, say, 30 min, and then be able to run and walk for a while, and have it count only the running bits until I get to 30 min of running. I have tried fixed interval apps like couch25K, as well as setting my own fixed intervals, but my stamina varies from day to day and sometimes I can do 30s and sometimes 2 minutes. (I don't seem to get much better than that, so it's always an awful lot of intervals to keep track of!). Lately I have been setting the timer app to 30 min and just pausing it every time I stop to walk, which is good as it lets me choose the intervals as I feel able, but so often I hit the wrong button and just stop the whole thing, and then I have to try to remember where I was and set it up again. I was hoping I could find an app that would just detect from my speed/position whether I was running or walking/taking a break! Is this possible?

I've been trying for months to get better than 3 min intervals but just don't seem to be able to manage it, but I'm hoping that as long as I can make myself do the total 30min, it doesn't matter so much whether they are short or long intervals. So this would help me organise myself to do that.

My Apple Watch does it after about 10 mins or so it will ask me if I am doing an exercise. I tend to have the workout icon (green person) on the front of my Apple Watch screen with my most common work outs listed and I just tap it once, tap the workout once then it goes. At the start of any proper walk I will tap it

if you go to the fitness icon
tap on ‘outdoor walk/run’ then the dots
go down to bottom
create workout
custom workout
you can set all the parameters of what you want.

so on mine I can say warm up 5 mins
it will set an alert
then I can set it to add multiple different steps of different times or distances which will buzz/alert at each interval
it will then tell you your speed/distance for each segment

does this make sense?

This might not help if you want it to detect what you are physically doing automatically though

Fitbit would do this as zone mins which you can customise I.e. heart rate above x for running. Then you could set it to buzz you when you hit 30. There must be a way to do it on apple too.

Garmins have an auto pause feature which will pause the timer if your speed drops below a particular pace, and you can set that pace to the speed you want. That may not work if your runs and walks are too close in pace (e.g. if you run very slowly and walk very briskly).

Overall though my tip would be to slow the run pace right down to help you go for longer - if you run at a pace where you can breathe through your nose or could hold a conversation while running, you should find you can go for longer and are able to build up your stamina. It may feel super slow, some people find it's slower than walking at first, but it will make a difference.

yes it's the automatic detection I wanted, rather than setting the intervals in advance, so I'm not sure the apple watch workouts are quite right.

the fitbit and garmin thing sounds like what I need, but just have to work out how to do it on Apple!

thanks

My walks are quite slow too as I'm fairly tired after even the short bit of jogging but so are my runs... It's literally between 30sec and 3 min. I will try going even more slowly and see if that helps, but I am pretty slow at the moment. I just seem to get tired both in my legs and my cardio by 2 min, and it's hard to extend it much. I only do it about twice a week though, occasionally three times, so maybe that is part of the problem too. I never got beyond about week 4 or 5 of couch to 5K as I always got injured by then, but even at the best of times never managed more than the 6 min intervals, and that was ten years ago when I was much less achy!! I really do need to exercise though so I want to persist, much as I dislike it. It's better than other things, and I can't cycle or swim because of shoulder issues, so this seems as good as anything. Walking is better but not so aerobic.

oh I've just been reading about auto-pause on the apple workouts and maybe it is possible. I've been using the timer function rather than the workouts, so I think I need to explore that more and maybe i can set it so that it will do what I need. My run is so slow that I'll have to work out what speed will work, and also how rapidly it can detect changes, given that my intervals are so short - it pretty much need to be instant!! But it talks about pausing it when you cross streets etc, so maybe that is what I need, at least if I can combine it with a countdown timer or something (I need the visual feedback of how much more I have to do!!).

The watch does it automatically.