Tempo Releases so far this year (2024)

It's been quite a first half of the year with Tempo updates, so I wanted to take a few minutes and share some highlights.

Aside from all the minor improvements and bug fixes, here are the key features that were released,

1. Readiness

2. Training Planner

3. Power and Cadence Alerts for Custom Workouts

Readiness

Earlier this year, Tempo introduced a new tab focused on training readiness. Tempo processes daily Resting Heart Rate (RHR) and HRV (Heart Rate Variability) to analyze and evaluate physiological readiness and adaptation to training. This data is then summarized into one of the following categories,

• Strong Adaptation: The ideal state during training when fitness grows and you are perfectly adapting to the training load.

• Stable State: Most common state when training and recovery are well balanced.

• Suboptimal State: The beginning of an unideal scenario that might suggest borderline stress due to training or other life factors.

• Impaired State: A warning to recommend lowering training intensity and resting well to recover.

• Fatigued State: Usually means a hard reset—break from training—is needed to recover. This is usually post a hard race or could also be around illness.

You can learn all about Readiness in Tempo here. 

Training Planner

Most recently (just yesterday, July 16, 2024), Tempo introduced Training Planner, another new tab that enables importing a custom training plan parsed into a simple and beautiful calendar layout in Tempo. Having your entire training plan in the same app as your training history, with all the stats, is a game-changer!

Quick backstory

Around December 2019 / early 2020, I was building an app called Epic, a training planner app that would support any fitness training—all workout types, not just running. Unfortunately, it never shipped due to the crazy events of the year 2020. Fast-forward to the present times, and I am super excited to bring Epic's core—mostly rebuilt with modern tech and focused on running plans—to Tempo.

It's a little crazy, and I never thought it would take me this long to ship Epic when I started, let alone ship it inside Tempo. The shelved copy of Epic constantly taunted me because I wanted it for my training and felt the need for it during every training cycle over the past four years. I hope you find it helpful in your next training cycle. I've been following Pfitzinger's 24-55 plan for the Chicago marathon this fall, and it looks beautiful in Tempo. :)

You can learn all about Training Planner in Tempo here.

Power and Cadence Alerts

Last but not least, Tempo was the first app last fall to incorporate WorkoutKit, enabling the creation of custom workouts for runners that could be synched to the Apple Watch Workout app. It was launched with pace and heart rate alerts, and more recently, Tempo got an update to also support Power and Cadence Alerts. If you haven't tried custom workouts in Tempo, you should check it out. It integrates directly with the Workout app (built by Apple) on your Apple Watch—no third-party workout tracker, 100% private, stable, and can't beat Apple design.

I hope you are enjoying these updates and finding the features helpful.

Enjoy & Stay Active!

Try Tempo for Free!

Celebrating 8 Years of Tempo – From 0 to 8 to ∞

Eight years ago, Tempo started as a small idea to help runners track their progress, improve their performance, and achieve their fitness goals. Today, we’re proud to celebrate Tempo’s 8th birthday with our amazing community of runners who have helped us grow and evolve over the years.

A Glimpse into Tempo’s Origin

As a runner and software developer, our founder Rahul Matta found existing running log apps on desktops and mobile devices lacking. They either focused too much on social aspects or failed to meet the privacy and practical needs of serious runners. With the release of the Apple Watch, which seamlessly syncs workouts with the Health app on iPhone, he saw an opportunity. Leveraging the HealthKit API, he created a single-screen app to list our runs. What started as a side project evolved into a comprehensive tool over a year of development, testing, and personal use.

Celebration Offers and Events

To mark this special occasion, we’re excited to announce a series of celebratory events and offers:

$8 Off Tempo’s Annual Subscription

For a limited time, get $8 off Tempo’s annual subscription, reducing the price from $30 to just $22 for the first year. This offer is available to all new subscribers. If you’re a past subscriber with a new price, reach out to us for a special $22 annual promo code.

8 Free Promo Codes Giveaway

We’re giving away 8 free annual subscriptions to Tempo! Enter for a chance to win by following us on X (formerly Twitter) @TempoLog and reposting our announcement post.

8 Exclusive Zoom Sessions

Founder and solo developer Rahul Matta is also opening up 8 exclusive 15-minute Zoom slots for Tempo runners. This is your chance to chat directly with the person behind the app, ask questions, share your feedback, and learn more about the future of Tempo. Interested? Sign up here today!

Thank You!

We couldn’t have reached this milestone without the support of our dedicated users. Your feedback, enthusiasm, and commitment to your fitness journeys have been the driving force behind Tempo’s success. Here’s to many more years of running, improving, and reaching new heights together.

Thank you for being a part of the Tempo community. From 0 to 8 to ∞ – the journey continues!

Stay tuned for more updates and announcements by following us on X (formerly Twitter) @TempoLog. Tempo is available on the App Store.

Four Reasons to Start Using Tempo Today

Whether you’re thinking about getting started with Tempo or just not sure what the app can do for you, we’ve got four reasons to take Tempo for a spin today.

Tempo Doesn’t Just Analyze New Runs

One of the best things about Tempo is that it can analyze your run workouts that have already been captured with your Apple Watch.

Simply launch Tempo, give the app permission to read workout data from the Health app, and boom! Tempo is ready to analyze the data from any run workout that logs in the Health app.

This is especially helpful for hitting the ground running with Tempo using your own data! New to running with Apple Watch? No problem! Just log your first running workout on Apple Watch to get started.

Remember: Tempo analyzes your data from any HealthKit-compatible run tracking app. For best results, use Apple’s Workout app, which happens to be designed for runners of all levels. You can still view your run data in the Fitness app, and Tempo takes analysis to the next level so you can do more with your performance data.

Tempo Always Respects Your Privacy

Tempo is created by runners, for runners. Our goal is to create the best possible runner’s log, and hopefully earn your support to fund ongoing development.

As runners, we’re keenly aware of how many popular run tracking apps make money. The ugly truth is that data brokers are willing to fork over a lot of money for location data. That’s simply not our business with Tempo.

We treat your data like we expect our data to be treated. For that reason, privacy is at the foundation of Tempo. It always has been, and it always will be.

Compete Against Yourself

As runners, we’re inherently competitive. We don’t have to be in the middle of a race to tap in to our competitive nature. The real competition is with ourselves.

Tempo gets that. That’s why Tempo is much more than a runner’s log. It’s also the best way to keep track of your milestones. Tempo can help you beat your fastest mile, track your quickest 5K, or simply keep up with how many miles you’ve logged over a set duration.

Motivational widgets let you easily keep track of your activity without actually having to launch the app. Whether you’re training for your first marathon or just curious about your quantifiable self, these features makes Tempo the ultimate runner’s companion.

Walkers and Hikers Are Welcome Too

Want in on a little secret? Tempo isn’t just for runners. You can also track walking and hiking workouts with Apple Watch, and Tempo will provide you with the same informational and motivational data to keep going.

Using Tempo to stay on top of your walking or hiking routine is a great way to move more and stay active. Milestones and total mileage logs aren’t just for runners. Tempo celebrates walkers, hikers, and runners!

Of course, if you want to separate your walk workouts from your runs, Tempo provides separate controls for including or excluding walks, faster walks, and hikes.

You can also exclude walking and hiking data from your pace calculations. This lets you include your cardio workouts in distance and duration totals without affecting your running pace cumulative graph and trending averages.

Hit the Ground (or Treadmill) Running (or Walking) Today!

Want to know more about Tempo? Stay tuned to our blog as we continue to explore why Tempo is the best runner’s companion.

You can also keep-in-touch on X, formerly Twitter, by following @TempoLog.

Already love Tempo? Consider leaving a rating and review in the App Store, or tell a friend who may benefit from Tempo, just like you!

Thanks for reading, and happy running!

Introducing Fitness Stats 2

I am super excited to be releasing Fitness Stats 2 today! It's more powerful, with more insights, and still simple, beautiful, and fun.

I built Fitness Stats at the beginning of the pandemic as a quick one-week project out of curiosity. It was originally called Activity Stats (when Apple's Fitness app was called Activity) and only showed lifetime totals for the activity and workout data in the Health app. The launch was received exceptionally well, and many found the app valuable.

Fitness Stats 2 marks the next chapter in the app's journey. It still maintains the original spirit of delight and simplicity, and the new features have been carefully crafted based on the fantastic feedback from many v1 users.

---

Fitness Stats 2 has an updated design with more stats and configuration options. I want to highlight two standout features in this post.

Fast Dates Picker

When Fitness Stats was launched, one of the most common feature requests was the ability to change start and end dates. Changing dates was originally built in a rudimentary way, and it was not easy and quick to change dates for the stats. Fitness Stats 2 adds a new screen with commonly used date range presets and the ability to use custom start and end dates.

Compare Stats

Why does everyone want to change the dates for the stats? Considering this context led me to identify and build a new feature — the ability to see stats across two different date ranges side by side. The challenge here was to keep the colorful rows in place and also handle details like iconography, text, values, and differences of different data types on the limited screen width. It took a lot of design cycles to get this to be simple and look great.

---

Upgrade Pricing

The original Fitness Stats was free to download because I did not expect much from the app's traction and value besides answering my curiosity and maybe a tiny user base. I had no plans to build the app beyond showing lifetime totals from the Health app. In retrospect, that's obviously not true. I find it super helpful, and so do others.

Last December (2022), I changed the app's pricing model from free to paid, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. This led to the prioritization of releasing Fitness Stats 2 much faster, along with the upgrade pricing.

• Fitness Stats 2 is free for users who have recently paid to get the app from the App Store.

• For everyone else, who originally downloaded the app for free, Fitness Stats 2 will require a one-time purchase to unlock all the advanced features. This pricing is flexible, and users can choose what they want to pay: $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99.

I hope you find the update as valuable with your Health & Fitness goals as the original version.

Introducing Tempo 4

It's launch day for iOS 16 and watchOS 9, and I am excited to share Tempo 4, fully refreshed with great features and support for these OS updates!

New Running Metrics

In addition to the new Apple Watch Ultra model, Apple has significantly updated the Workout and Fitness app for running. Runners can now also track four new running dynamic metrics,

• Vertical Oscillation
• Stride Length
• Ground Contact Time
• Power

All runs recorded with the Workout app on Apple Watch Series 6 or higher models will also capture these new data points, each sampled throughout the workout. The Workout Details screen in Tempo has been updated to show these new metrics summarized as averages for the entire run, individual splits & intervals, and with the interactive workout charts.

Speaking of charts, Tempo's Workout Graph now supports all eight metrics — elevation, pace, heart rate, cadence, vertical oscillation, ground contact time, stride length, and power. It is more interactive and enables easy analysis of the eight metrics at any point during the workout. Charts can also be reordered, and enabled or disabled.

Lock Screen Widgets

A significant new change with iOS 16 is the addition of the new Lock Screen Widgets. We can now set up widgets to add glanceable info right from the lock screen of our iPhones.

Tempo 4 has over a dozen Lock Screen Widgets for the following types across different widget size options,

1. Distance Totals for selected periods
2. Goals
3. Beautiful bar graph to show the last 7-day training segments

Shortcuts & Siri

With iOS 16, Tempo also brings a bunch of new shortcuts to support the following,

1. View distance totals across different periods (including lifetime)
2. View stats for a specific Tag

These shortcuts also back interactions with Siri. For example,

1. Hey Siri, Ask Tempo to show my latest run
2. Hey Siri, Ask Tempo how much did I run this month
3. Hey Siri, Ask Tempo to show "your-favorite-tag-name" summary

My new favorite Siri interaction is: "Hey Siri, Ask Tempo for some pep talk" for Siri to read me an inspiring quote from Tempo's hand-curated Quotes library for runners.

And so much more

There's a lot more to Tempo 4. It's more beautiful than ever. There's a brand new App Icon with many great-looking alternate options to match your Home Screen and training mood. We also have two great new frequently requested features,

1. Compare Workouts to view two workouts side-by-side with all the stats, including individual splits & segments, in a simple and beautiful format detailing positive and negative differences.
2. Tag Alerts with the newly designed Tags Log. We can now set up a distance alert on any tag — great addition for better shoe tracking with tags.

What's next?

As always, we have a lot more in the works!

Try Tempo for Free!