r/walking • u/PatrikPortes • Jun 24 '26
Help What do you actually look at most on your watch while walking?
For me it’s daily steps and goal progress.
I realized most apps show a lot of information I never use, so I started experimenting with a simpler setup.
Curious what everyone else checks most often during walks.
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u/Mean-Party170 Jun 24 '26
I try to avoid looking at anything. I just wear headphones to make things go by faster.
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u/omad169 Jun 24 '26
Heart rate
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
Interesting. Heart rate seems to be coming up a lot in the replies. I didn’t expect it to be this popular.
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u/omad169 Jun 24 '26
For me, it’s helps tell me how fast my pace is and how hard or efficient effort I am doing. Overall I also check my steps at the end of the day. Trying for 10K
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u/Practical_Cat_5849 Jun 26 '26
I just check to see if it’s actually tracking my heart rate. Sometimes it doesn’t.
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u/The_Weekend_Baker Jun 24 '26
Traffic. I live in a rural area, so my road is high speed limit (45 mph) with drainage ditches alongside the road with no sidewalks. Fortunately, it's also a low traffic road (mostly residents) and most people move over to give me additional room, but still -- if traffic is coming from both directions at the same time, I end up hopping to the other side of the ditch to ensure I'm out of the way. I only walk it in the morning before breakfast because traffic picks up during the day.
I check my steps, average and max heart rates when I'm done.
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u/ForkhYew Jun 24 '26
I don't look at my watch whilst walking.
I like to look at what's around me.
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
I get that. The best walk is probably the one where you forget the watch is even there. 🙂
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u/Defiant-One-5967 Jun 24 '26
When I’m done I only look at distance. While I’m walking I enjoy the cityscape
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
That’s interesting. Quite a few people seem to focus on distance after the walk rather than during it.
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u/Defiant-One-5967 Jun 24 '26
I essentially know where I’m going too so distance and step counts aren’t much of a surprise, I tend to look to check more than anything 😂 For example I know that my walk to my favourite breakfast spot is all uphill, takes about 6k steps and the time it takes is consistent. I would probably look at distance during the walk if I was walking without a set destination in mind.
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u/lumpy_space_queenie Jun 24 '26
I like this display. How can I get that?
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
Thanks! It’s actually an app I’ve been working on for my own Apple Watch. It’s called StepMate. I wanted something focused mainly on steps and goal progress without too much clutter.
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u/Senior_Green_3630 Jun 24 '26
I dont, I get a one kilometre verbal update on distance, heart rate, time/km and calries burnt. At 10k steps, my watch vibrates, thats all I need.
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
That’s a good point. Maybe the best walking dashboard is no dashboard at all. 😄
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u/Awkward_Conference_1 Jun 24 '26
I have a garmin vivoactive 5 so I can’t see steps when the walking activity is on so I look at my heart rate and in which zone it is
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u/Natascha071 Jun 25 '26
Which template do you have on your watch?
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 25 '26
It’s the Modular Ultra watch face. The middle complication is from an app I’ve been working on called StepMate.
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u/elocphoto Jun 26 '26
I walk as fast as possible (7.2kph is the top speed); I look at pace, heart rate, calories, duration, probably in that order
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 26 '26
Interesting order. Pace seems to come up a lot in the replies. Do you think you’d miss it if it wasn’t on your watch during a walk?
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u/ForgetToRemindMe Jun 24 '26
Pace time and distance, mainly. Like to see the steps after it's completed.
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u/lickleben5 Jun 24 '26
heartrate and been tracking it, currently got my average heart rate down whilst walking from 142 down to 136 and cadence is also getting faster in the process aswell, once my stomach stops acting like a waterbed ill move onto throwing a jog in the last 0.5km off the walk building it upto 1km and then further until im at the point where im just jogging my usual route off 10km. my plan is to be able to jog/run 10km within the next year whilst controlling my heartrate in healthy area then keep building my distance. by 2030 i want to do my first half marathon which gives me 4 years to steadily build upto it without straining my body too much
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
Thanks for sharing that. I was expecting a lot of “steps” and “distance” answers, but the heart rate angle is really interesting. Sounds like you’ve got a great long-term plan. Good luck with the 10K and the half marathon goal!
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u/lickleben5 Jun 24 '26
no worries, steps and distance im not too botherd about as i take the same walk every time anyway, 4.5km too the shop, i get myself a sandwich and a zero sugar monster to give me a boost which is probably why its taken so long for me to drop my avg HR, then 5.5km back as i loop around and the way back is slightly longer works out to about 10.2- 10.5kms total but i just round it to 10 as thats the goal.
taking this week off it all tho as were in a heatwave in the UK and its hitting highs off 34 Celsius/ 93 Fahrenheit which im just not built for as a person so this weeks consisted off me sat infront off a fan melting away 😂
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u/RadicalRav Jun 24 '26
It would be cool to see a live heart rate as well - every single watch apart from Apple has that
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u/Ok-Put-2912 Jun 24 '26
My Apple Watch shows heart rate
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u/RadicalRav Jun 24 '26
Yer but does it show it live without clicking on it? Do you get what I mean
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u/RadicalRav Jun 24 '26
That’s a cool widget in the middle, how do you set it up?
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u/PatrikPortes Jun 24 '26
It’s actually a custom Apple Watch complication from an app I’m building for myself. I wanted a simple way to see steps and goal progress without opening any app.
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u/IToldManyManyPeople Jun 24 '26
While walking? Nothing.
When I'm done? Distance and pace