RitmoTime Help
Our goal when creating this app was to minimize input required from the user before, during and after the workout. The auto piece timer is the only part that is a bit confusing at first, but once understood it is very easy to use.
You must use waterproof protection for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Failure to do so can permanently damage the device. Waterproofing options and mounting ideas can be found on our Mounting & Cases Page.
Contents
Quick Start
RitmoTime will provide stroke rate, speed and distance (GPS enabled devices only) and timing upon launch of the application without the need to adjust any settings. Make sure you have waterproofed your device and mounted it in a stable location (Velcro, masking tape, etc.) before launching the app. Once launched you will see your stroke rate and two clocks. By default the Auto Piece Timer is turned on and set to time pieces at or above 25 strokes per minute. If you row at 25+ spm for three consecutive strokes you will see the lower workout clock disappear leaving only the upper piece clock visible signaling the start of a piece. If GPS is enabled then the average speed/pace will also become visible. The Auto Piece Timer can be turned off if desired, showing only the workout clock. Read the Auto Piece Timer section to see how the settings for the Auto Piece Timer can be changed to automatically time piece and rest intervals based on your stroke rate. Also by default all stroke rate, speed, distance, timing data, stroke count, heart rate, and location is recorded for each and every stroke and is available for later review any time you want. See the History section for details
The stroke rate algorithm uses all three accelerometers so it has no preference to orientation relative to the boat. However, the algorithm will get confused if the iPhone is not kept still relative to the boat. For best results, mount or place iPhone in a stable location first and then launch the app. Alternately, press Recalibrate on the Settings view to restart the stroke rate algorithm while maintaining the timers and stroke counts. If the iPhone is moved or reoriented suddenly when the app is running the stroke rate may be unresponsive for up to 30 seconds while the algorithm calibrates itself.
RitmoTime uses two clocks arranged one above the other on the display. The lower clock is for the entire workout and the upper one is for pieces and rest (Auto Piece Timer). RitmoTime currently has three modes for this dual timing system: Steady, Piece, and Rest. Steady refers to rowing before the first piece has begun, and once begun the upper clock will always either be in piece mode or rest mode. The Auto Piece Timer uses the stroke rate to determine when pieces start and when rest begins which means it will work for any workout where the stroke rate during the pieces is generally higher than the stroke rate during rest.
From the main view press the 'i' which automatically brings you to the Settings view (the tabs at the bottom allow you to select Timers, History, and Help views - more on those later). On the Settings view you will see four rows, Boating, Display, Recording, Piece Cueing. Select Piece Cueing, (again - more on the others later) and then on the Pieces view make sure Piece Cueing is set to ON. When Piece Cueing is turned on you will see the Start Threshold and Stop Threshold selections each with their own Rate and Count settings. Touching anywhere on the rate or count bars will bring up a picker wheel - here you can set the start and stop threshold stroke rate and count settings.
For the Start Threshold rate/count, rowing at or above the Start Threshold stroke rate will start the piece timer, but you must continue to row at or above the Start Threshold rate until the piece stroke count is equal to or greater than the Start Threshold Count for the app to fully switch into piece mode. After it has fully switched to piece mode it will look for the Stop Threshold logic to be satisfied for it to completely exit the piece and go into rest mode. To clarify, for both Piece and Rest mode the piece clock starts and stops at the beginning of the first stroke that meets the Start/Stop Threshold criteria.
As an example, if you want to do 5x5 minute pieces at 26-28-30-32-30 spm, and you know that during the rest between the pieces you will not be rowing higher than 21spm, Set the Start Threshold rate to 25 and the Stop threshold rate to 22. Set the start threshold count to 4 and the stop threshold count to 4. When your stroke rate goes 25+ you will see the bar above the piece timer flash and the stroke count to the right of the piece timer counting each stroke you have completed at 25+. If you take one stroke below 25 within the first 4 strokes, the bar over the piece timer will stop flashing and the mode will switch back to rest or steady. If you had previously been in steady mode you will see it go back to steady mode as though the piece had never started. If you were previously in rest mode it will go back to rest mode with the accumulated rest time and rest strokes the same as if those strokes were less than 25 spm. If 4 strokes have been completed at 25+ you have fully entered piece mode and you will see the bar stop flashing. You will also see the workout clock and stroke count (the lower ones) disappear. The only way to get out of piece mode and into rest mode is to either stop rowing for 10 seconds or take 4 strokes below 22 spm. And as you would expect, when the Auto Piece Timer fully switches to rest mode, 10 seconds or the time the 4 strokes below a 22 spm took will already be on the rest clock.
If you are doing pieces from a racing start, it will work the same way but it is best to wait for the stroke rate to go to 0 which always happens after 10 seconds of inactivity. Otherwise it may miss the first stroke and start late - usually by about 2 seconds or so depending on your initial stroke rate.
These timers allow you to countdown either time, distance or strokes during piece and rest intervals. On the 3-2-1 Timer page set the type of countdown desired (time, distance or strokes) and the starting amounts for pieces and rest. The selected quantity will count down from the beginning of piece and rest intervals. After the timer has reached zero it will start counting up, thus setting the timer to zero means it will always count up at the first stroke. It is important to note that these preset times for counting down do not have any influence on the logic used to switch to/from Piece and Rest modes. When distance or strokes are selected for countdown the time defaults to counting up at the beginning of the piece and rest intervals.
The new Espresso display gives the user two custom readouts which are explained in the Touch Select Displays section. Six of the quantities available work with the 3-2-1 Timers to show the estimated total and remaining time, distance or strokes based on the countdown timer quantity selected.
Touch the History tab and this is fairly straightforward. The first view organizes the data into the current workout, the previous workout and then by year after that. Clicking on the current year will show all of the recorded workouts with their date, time duration, total strokes and total distance. After a workout is selected a summary description is provided at the top of the page. Below the summary (scroll down) either the entire workout or individual pieces can be selected and viewed in tabular format. Tap the Email button from a table view to send all of the data to yourself in CSV text format or just cut and paste the data in the table. CSV format was chosen so that most any spreadsheet or plotting program can be used to analyze and view the data. Select Map to view the full workout on either a street, satellite or hybrid map. The start and end of each piece has a different color marker. By touching the red “x” markers on the map you can display information for each and every stroke (rate, pace, distance, piece time, etc). By sliding your finger along the line of markers you can quickly skim through the workout. The speed and distance units displayed in the history section are chosen from the Speed and Distance settings page under the Settings tab. The units shown can be quickly changed by going back and forth between the two pages.
RitmoTime provides real time speed and distance information with any iPhone or an iPod with a GPS attachment. Under Speed and Distance on the settings page you can change the sensitivity of the GPS based speed/pace calculation. This is helpful when the GPS signal is not as strong, such as when in a dense city environment. Lower numbered settings (1-3) work when GPS reception is good and give a speed value that responds after just a few strokes. Settings of 5 and above give speed values that are smoothed over the past 30 seconds to a few minutes. On this page you can also change the units used to display speed and distance (meters, miles, knots, 500m split, etc).
Note that it can take a few minutes to get a good GPS lock so be sure to start the app and turn on GPS at least a minute or two before you need reliable speed/distance feedback. We’ve noticed that it can sometimes take several minutes (5-10) to get a good GPS signal.
There are two display fields on the new Espresso primary view underneath the stroke rate where you can change what quantity is shown simply by touching that part of the display. The two selectable fields are recognizable by the boxes around them. The quantity displayed changes with every touch and includes the following:
Boat Run
Heart Rate
Stroke Count
Distance
Remaining Strokes
Remaining Time
Remaining Distance
Total Strokes
Total Time
Total Distance
(blank)
The “remaining” and “total” quantities are estimates that work in conjunction with the 3-2-1 countdown timers during piece and rest intervals. In addition, tapping the speed display will turn the GPS receiver on and off to save battery when you need only timing and stroke rate.
RitmoTime will display and record your heart rate in beats per minute when using the Wahoo Fitness Fisica Key and any ANT+ compatible heart rate monitor. Simply attach the Fisica Key to your iPhone or iPod and wear you heart rate monitor per the manufacturer's instructions. After a few seconds your heart rate will appear under the stroke rate in the Classic views. With the new Espresso display you will need to tap one of the two Touch Select Displays until it shows your heart rate. A small white heart symbol will appear on the left hand side of the view.
You can also verify that the heart rate monitor is connected by looking at the settings page. When the Fisica Key is connected the status of the heart rate monitor is displayed in the top entry on the Settings page. You can also force the key to connect with the monitor if needed from the Settings page. If you are still having trouble you can install a free app from Wahoo Fitness to verify that the heart rate monitor is working properly.
Pressing the Reset button will set all clocks, stroke counts and distances to zero and will put the top timer back into Steady mode. If RitmoTime is set to record then all workout data will be permanently saved to the hard drive, assuming it meets the save recording criteria (see Recording Settings).
When the Recording setting is set to ON all time, stroke rate, stroke count, speed, distance and heart rate data for the current workout will be permanently saved to disk when the Reset button is pressed or when RitmoTime automatically resets the workout when being restarted. The settings Shorter Than and Having Less Than set the minimum time and stroke count for workouts to be saved. When the workout is reset all workout data for the current workout will be discarded if either of these two criteria are met. Workout data is never saved when the Recordingoption is set to OFF. A small red dot in the upper right corner of the workout timer view indicates that data recording is on.
When RitmoTime is turned off or put to sleep it will not record strokes. However, on the Settings->Recording page one can set a time duration where if relaunched within that time it will go back to the previous workout with the same stoke counts and clocks running as though they had not been interrupted.
Questions?
Email us at questions@ritmotime.com