Stryd Running Power Meter: First Impressions

 The unit arrived and I have to admit I was pretty excited to check it out. 
The unit comes with a well made plastic box, a charging pad, 2 shoelace clips, the Stryd unit itself, and a micro USB charging cable (not pictured).
The unit's claimed weight is 10 g, but it looks a little lighter than that coming in at 7 g.

 The unit attaches to your shoe laces with the supplied shoelace clip. The unit is charged by induction charging via the supplied pad. Full charge took about an hour with the led light changing from yellow (charging) to not lit (charged) You have to remove the unit from your shoe to charge it. The charge is said to last a month.

The unit is compatible with many sports watches. The watch list can be found at the Stryd website at https://www.stryd.com/support#watch-compatibility. I own the Garmin Vivoactive, and the Garmin 310XT and I confirm both are compatible. The Garmin 310XT requires pairing while in bike mode and it connects similarly as the miscellaneous  power meters do.
The Stryd company also has an app available for Android and Apple IOS that allows viewing of data as well as recording of runs without the need of a watch. I noticed something in the settings portion of the app that lists 'Offline Recording' mode. Does this mean I don't need anything and the unit records the data and uploads it later? Yes it does! Offline mode provides analysis of data after a run, without bringing a fitness watch or bulky phone.

As with all metrics, Stryd is compatible with the Garmin Connect website but to see all the fancy graphs and new metrics requires a new login to the Stryd website.  The good news is Stryd sends data to Garmin, Strava, Training Peaks and all your favourite fitness tracking sites.
I can confirm that my power did show up on Garmin Connect, on Stryd, but not on Strava. I am not sure what happened but I may not have linked my account correctly. I have changed some settings so hopefully I will start to see my wattage bazookas on Strava.

Now on to the run:

I purchased the book 'Run with Power' by Jim Vance to help me understand what I was about to undertake. Power for running is more complicated than power for cycling.  With cycling, power is applied to the pedals. The more you apply, the faster you go. More watts = more speed. Power in running requires 3 dimensional thinking: forward movement, vertical (up and down) movement, and lateral (side to side) movement. Stryd measures all 3 of these and can compute your power based on the movements. Clearly the idea is to move forward and less up and down and side to side.  You can have high power, but it may be inefficient as you are moving up and down too much or side to side. Stryd data is used to help you run more efficiently.  Jim's philosophy is to train WITH power, not train TO power.

The book recommends running for a couple of weeks before starting to play with the data. This is to determine your baseline form and such. Once that is done, it is time for the power test. That will be posted in a future blog.  For now, here is my first run:

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Ok, some new data to learn: power, pace, cadence, ground time, vertical oscillation, leg spring stiffness and form power.  As of the writing of this piece, I am not sure what the data shows. In the next several weeks, I will be doing some more running, and will provide a follow up blog with more impressions.

I do think this will help with my running, and for runners in general. The Stryd unit does NOT need a specialized fitness watch and can be used off line to avoid having to run with a phone. Having your device with you though will provide real time feedback. I do believe the power meter's time has come for running. Could Stryd be the one? I'll let you know as soon as I can!

Keep on training!  Keep on living

Michael

​P.S. Your comments are welcomed