Stryd reviews (Read 115 times)

Disclaimer: I did not start this thread.

Maybe it's late on a Friday night, but WTF? Am I losing my mind? or is there not a comprehensible word hither and/or thither on this page?

Bonkin, wasn't trying to spam.  I was looking for new training techniques.  When I saw this page, I became curious about how it might be utilized to reach better performance in races like 5K's, 10K's, or 5 miles, and if it would offer any benefits for trail runners.  I didn't look far enough into it to notice that it was still in pre-order.  I apologize for posting the spam.

Hi mate! 

I was also thinking on giving this thing a try. The price tag is US $199 but knowing the policies of the importers it will surely be priced €199 here in the EUrian Empire.

Here is a review of the working: 

• http://www.trailrunmag.com/2016/05/05/gear-review-stryd-run-power-meter/
  
  I assume you have already checked this out. What I am personally interested in is not how this contraption works but on whether is is worth spending the 199 quid, specially when I have already planned on buying a Fenix 3 and I need a new pair of shoes for 2017.
  
  The way it's paired to most of the current devices is to either abuse the bike settings which sucks as it will be shown s such in the logs (OK, you can change it but it still sucks) or use the cadence sensor for it, which is also annoying when you are actually interested in cadence and other metrics like ground contact time gathered by Garmin.
   
  On the other hand I am reading that power should be considered the most important metric in trail running due to the impossibility of using pace. The alternative to power would be the classic PRE, but I am not quite happy with subjective scales (I can be wrong though, I need to give it a try). 
  
  Thus, the reason for asking for other opinions is if it's worth the trade-offs.
  
  Factors to consider would be: 
  
  
• Is power really a better metric as PRE, the Strava "suffer score" or TP's rTSS ? 
• Is the device itself worth the price (accuracy, battery life)  
  
  Note that I don't consider the price to be a factor, it's not too high, but what I am interested in is on whether the device works correctly and accurately or is just a cheap piece of junk.
  
   

Enric - I had not found that trail running review.  Thank you.  I have found out this is the 2nd generation of the product as well.  The company provided me with some reviews of their 1st generation product, but those are hardly unbiased.

I am currently reading Jason Koos' 'Training Essentials for Ultrarunners' and while he  uses PRE he seems to be pretty possitive about the device, hence that my interest increased as I started following his method.

In any case, while not sceptical about Stryd after having read further I think that PRE is still the most important factor as it is the only way to fit psychology into the equation. And at the  end of the day what's going to decide if you finish a 100k or not is how you feel. While the usefulness of power and it's application to trail and ultrarunning is still a work in progress.

I personally will first try to get things right with PRE before adding more variables and surely wait until there is some consistent methodology for adding power metric to ultra-training.

This seems somewhat similar to what I have, the Milestone Pod.  This is a far better review than I can give, but I'll try anyway:  http://fellrnr.com/wiki/MilestonePod

The Milestone Pod provides data on how you run.  In addition to the standard metrics (time, distance, pace, calories), it also tracks cadence, foot strike, ground contact, rate of impact, stride length, leg swing, and something called "runficiency".  I'm not totally clear on what Stryd is supposed to do, but it seems similar.

Pros:

- Very reasonable price ($25 new, but you can get used older models for less)

- Provides a lot of interesting data (IMO)

- Doesn't require you to run with your phone or anything, you just attach the pod and that's it

- Automatically starts/stops-- you don't have to "tell it" when you're running

- Tells you how many miles are on your shoes and the suggested amount of miles before you get new ones (tailored to each individual shoe)

- Has basically every shoe in its database (my shoes are a pretty little known brand and it had mine)

- Doesn't weight much and I don't notice it when I run

(Possible) Cons:

- It automatically tracks any running or walking for 6 minutes or longer, which is convenient for continuous runs but it's not too useful for certain workouts where you're running for short periods of time and stopping (like sprint workouts)

- They're designed to be "paired" with a shoe for the entire life of the shoe.  You can switch it between shoes, but constant switching would be a hassle (you'd need to re-sync and re-calibrate).  Of course, at $25/each, if you like it then it's not unreasonable to have more than one

- You don't get any feedback while you run.  This isn't really an issue for me, but it's important to note the lack of live feedback (I'm guessing this is a major contributor to the low cost)

- Calibrating it has been a little tricky since I tend to walk around in my running shoes for awhile before I run, and it picks up the walking and running.  I would still consider it pretty accurate though.

- If you don't calibrate it then it shouldn't be ridiculously far off but it's almost certainly not going to be quite right-- calibrating is a must

Overall, I'm happy with it and I don't regret buying it.  I'm very glad I found out about it before shelling out the money to buy a Garmin, which is the main reason I'm sharing this.  However, if you already have a functional running watch that you like, you may not be impressed.  For me though, it's a good alternative.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the company in any way