They are stupid expensive. That being said, I got one as a gift and LOVE it (mostly for the real-time pace...the power is a "nice to have"). Never would have bought it on my own at $200 though (guess that what gifts are for).

If they could get the price in the $129-$149 range I bet they'd sell a lot more of them.

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Damn you! You’re supposed to make me BUY one!!! Lol.

They don't usually have any deals. I've only seen a black Friday discount.

I only ever saw a deal when they introduced the latest version.

That said, I love mine and would buy it again if my dog ate it. Like above, the real-time pace is fantastic. And, the power is very good at understanding real-time effort and effort between intervals and runs-- a million times better than HR or RPE.

If you're bad at pacing and live in a hilly area, it's probably valuable.

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How are they stupid expensive? Thats less than any bike powermeter out there and they have no competition.

love mine, worth every penny.

coupon for 20 off around black Friday. once a year only if I recall.

It’s probably one of the best investments I’ve made for running. We’ve lived at our house now for 5 years and I have never felt I could run consistently here. It’s super hilly at 6200ft. It took one run to realize how much I push the hills especially the small ones. That I was basically doing intervals every time I ran. It’s made a huge difference in how I run now outside.

Something that I've never understood about these...

Why does there seem to be no mention of it being one-sided....as opposed to all the discussion about one-sided bike powermeters.

It's just a series of accelerometers and algorithms, not strain gauges, so unlikely to be much real discrepancy between left and right running.

Had one, lost it in undergrowth, wouldn't buy another one. Only real pro I found was it taught me how significantly slower I needed to go up hill to not spike the power, but certainly didn't revolutionise my training like bike power.

I may be completely wrong with this but i believe its because of what stryd is doing. When you look at a one sided powermeter for cycling the problem is that it only has the strain gauge on one side so it is literally taking the power on that side and doubling it to get the number it gives you as your power.

Stryd is giving you a calculated number based on a whole bunch of factors. So its giving you a made up calculated number from measurements it pulled, not a strain guage measured number. Now that number is remarkably consistent. I can run on the treadmill and you can see the avg power increase at each .1 mph speed increase so I trust the data within itself but its still a made up number. Essentially that is one of the main reasons I took a long time to get one.

My guess is if they used a dual pod solution it would be more accurate, but at what cost? Runners maybe more so now with shoe prices aren’t cyclists spending 4 or 5 hundred dollars for a dual footpod solution is probably not going to get very far. Realistically that is why run scribe moved away from the consumer market because they needed to charge more to be profitable.

I may try runscribe out too. Ive had two knee surgeries and it’d be interesting to see the data between legs. However, at the end of the day Stryd is consistent enough to be useful with only one pod.

Also, its still very early in the power game for running. For those of us who were around 15-20 years ago when power for cycling was just starting to get popular. It was first a mess because systems couldn’t recalibrate themselves easy. If you changed chainrings you basically had to do a full recalibration with weights hanging off your pedal and an excel spreadsheet to give you the calculation to input into the SRM. It was also insanely expensively a new DA SRM was over $3k. But that market has matured and its remarkable what you can get now for less than a 1/3 the price 15 years ago. I’m sure in 15 years the market for this will be mature with better more accurate data.

If memory serves, they are using accelerometer data to computer the run power. You're right it's fed through an algorithm (so is your bike power from your strain gauge based PM by the way with any platform you use, which is why your power numbers for the same activity might differ between Strava and Garmin Connect), but it's consistent and seems to make sense. Just like with a bike PM, what's less important is that it's right, what's more important is that it's consistent, so that you can use the data to improve your training (or for pacing races).

Because the numbers are motion driven, rather than torque driven, I'm not sure that going dual sided would give you any better data, which is why they've likely strayed from that approach (although if sales dwindle, an easy way to snooker people into shelling out for something new would be to market a dual sided running PM...).


Many years ago, Stryd used to do a 2 for 1 deal around Black Friday, but more recently those tend to be smaller percent discounts. If you like metrics, and you want something that will give you a more consistent sense of how hard you're working across different terrains and elevation, it's worth it, even at full price. Mines several years old, and still works well (They did replace it for me once, because my very first one broke after a few months where the clip fits into the unit itself (I do mIx up a shoe rotation, so am constantly moving it between shoes), but the replacement unit has been problem free for a number of years now, I'm also more careful about how I put it on...). Just stay on top of the firmware updates and remember to charge it one in a while.

Likely the reason why Stryd's business isn't moving is that the device serves the run power purpose, and maybe doubles as a footpod for those who want to Zwift, but other manufacturers have started to offer power based on watch-based accelerometers (Polar), or chest strap HRMs that also serve other purchases, so it's less of an investment for a singular purpose... And other than the carbon shoe arms race, the running world tends to shift slowly, so it will take some time for the concept of running with power to reach cycling levels of fanaticism.

I've had mine for 3.5 years. I don't consider that to be very early.

I ended up getting a used one for like $60 when the wind one came out so maybe try eBay? Not sure if I’m missing much without the wind sensor but really do like it. Now need to actually follow a plan and see how it goes rather than my random “run when I can and go fast when I can plan”!

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SRM has been around since 1988. So yes compared to the development time that bike powermeters have had to improve and become refined, this is remarkably early in a product lifecycle.

If it weren't now, you could get discounts at bigger racing expos.

Good luck :D

I respectfully disagree with the idea that it's remarkably early. That indicates it came out very recently and 3.5 years is not very recent.

Mine is second generation and there's a version after mine already. The first generation was 2015, so about 6 years ago.

However, I would say the the development has not had much progress in the last 3 to 6 years and there is a lot to be done.

I think this is actually a counterpoint. In cycling the kinematics are fixed so we know that no matter what happens, pedals are exactly 180 degrees away from left to right.

In running, one could have stride length differences, and other kinematic asymmetries at hips, knee, and ankle joints. If the leg with a Stryd sensor is left “dead” and one hops with the other leg, what would it report? There’s assumed symmetry and the errors are likely to be more severe than single-sided cycling power meter measurements since there are more degrees of freedom to go wrong.

Garmin’s running power is based on torso measurements, which may be considered a single degree of freedom if it only has a single ~vertical accelerometer, and it would have to make assumptions about what the legs are doing based on this measurement.

A single-footpod accelerometer gives some data to reduce the assumptions but the other leg must still be modeled, and I assume Stryd must still require some form of accelerometer on the torso by communicating with wrist accelerometer and more assumptions, or completely models torso movement as well.

I hadn’t looked into Runscribe until today, but it’s impressive, and represents the minimal amount of sensing required to avoid assumptions between hips and feet if using their two footpods + hip sensor.

That said, I find even Garmin’s data useful and have improved my running form based on its output, and I’m sure Stryd’s is similar or better. I think I would skip Stryd and stay with essentially free Garmin running power unless I’m willing to pay for runscribe’s 3-pc kit at $600, which is not bad compared to cycling power meters.

Wait ........ how are you getting power (running) with Garmin?

What equip. do you need?

Stryd's early version was a torso-mounted device. When they shifted to the foot pod version, I do not think they reported material degradation in data quality (IIRC). IIRC, I think they saw way better data quality in other areas that outweighed the asymmetry of the collection. But, all of this is theoretical. It is like if the first bike PM was single-sided, would the world have immediately complained about dual-sided? Probably not. Now that there are some competing products entering the space, maybe Stryd will offer a 2-shoe version someday.

You just need an HRM-run or HRM-tri chest strap (that is often bundled with Fenix and Forerunner watches), and install Garmin Running Power app from the Garmin ConnectIQ app. Just make sure to add it to your running fields to actually capture running power data or it won’t record it.

I’m on a Fenix 5x, but I think it should be available for similar generation or newer Forerunner watches as well.

This makes sense. Sense the motion where it is most extreme and assume more about the more stable parts. Still, you have another leg potentially going haywire... or not.

What I really like about Runscribe is their ability to measure hip angle, and their footprint output is pretty cool... need it

Thank you!!

To be sure-
This IQ App:

https://apps.garmin.com/...e2-86b5-14bd47e29391

And it won’t work with the newer Wahoo TickrX?

Only the newer Garmin HRM-Run

Many thanks!

I hope they do it. I have a janky knee that acts up now and then. When it is acting up, I know that I adjust my stride to favor it. I would really like to see an analytical view of what I am doing and how much it impacts me. For example, on my bike, I can clearly see my power power balance shift and other pedal dynamics change when my knee is acting up. That is my red flag to back off so I do not do real damage. And on the other side, when my knee feels fine, I still tend to still favor it on the bike out of habit. So, when I see this, I consciously focus on a more even power balance to try to reinforce that habit when things are feeling good.

I wish I had that for the the run too.

Yeah that’s it. I think it requires their HRM straps or the foot pod, per the info listed there:

I also just found out about this https://runscribe.com/red/

I think that's a great deal, and I'm buying in!

I've been using one of the Stryd units with the wind sensor for a year and a bit.

Short answer: It's fine, I guess?

Long answer:
Setting aside what some other people have brought up (one-leg data only, not a "true power" the same way as a cycling power meter), the biggest reason I bought one was to get consistent footpod data across multiple sets of shoes, and add a source of barometric elevation. My watch at the time, a Suunto Spartan Trainer, didn't have a barometric sensor and could only pair to one footpod at a time, and would have funny data when moving footpods between shoes or switching to a different footpod (both MilestonePod units). The power was just a potential bonus for me. As it worked out, it's meeting my needs just fine. Accuracy and responsiveness are better than the MilestonePod, especially for treadmill. I also get consistent pace/distance when moving between shoes.

The thing is, I've been running moderately seriously since middle school, so I haven't really gotten any benefits out of pacing with power. I can already pretty consistently run even splits or progressions on flat courses, and can hit arbitrary times on the track by effort, so long as I've done speedwork recently. Even for a tempo run on light rolling hills, my negative-split effort just on perceived exertion (no checking the watch at all) already correlates with fairly consistent power without much spiking and 5-10W higher on the second half. Their Running Stress Score metric even tracks pretty much in parallel with the Skiba GOVSS (Gravity-oriented Velocity Stress Score?) metric in GoldenCheetah, which only requires speed and elevation changes. So, I basically already had most of what Stryd could have given me, though I haven't tried to get anything out of the more detailed leg-swing metrics they report.

Now, if you don't have the 15+ years of experience and tons of miles that I have to gain that experience? I can see Stryd as giving a lot of objective feedback that you can use to help calibrate how you feel and develop more as a runner without it taking as long as it took me. For me, it's not much more than a fun toy that makes my inner data nerd happy with having a few more numbers to play with.

Even the dead leg needs to travel the same distance in the same amount of time as the dominant leg. You might have differences in stride height if you're dragging the dead one around, but stride length needs to be equal between each leg.

What doesn't change also is your weight - the two leg system still has to run your body a set distance, over the same hills, against the same wind, etc.

For the same price, buy the Coros Pace 2 instead. It has in-built power that matches Stryd perfectly!

The thing is, it does not travel the same distance. Only in a crude bulk measurement owing to it being stuck to one’s hip is that statement meaningful, but if we consider the thigh and calves to have their own center of mass, and trace the distance of those centers of mass along with rotations and respective velocities, then we see they are not the same.

The (implicit) assumption here is that energy is conserved, but that is not correct. If one takes a leg in state A and move it to state B, one does not know anything about the power or work required to change states because internal work is not conserved, and what we care about is metabolic power. One needs to know, or reasonably estimate the path the leg took to change states, along with the velocities along that path.

Imagine someone running while having to clear an arbitrary set of hurdles or water puddles, only with their un-sensored leg, while the other side with a sensor performs a standard running gait. Surely both legs are still attached at the hip, but now one leg is performing an extra unmodeled movement or exchanging momentum to something that isn’t solid ground.

I have one. It’s “fine.” I was really into it for a few months but at the end of the day I just didn’t really find the real time power that useful. The main benefit is I like the faster response to pace changes when doing interval workouts. I could see it being more useful if you were a single sport runner. When I run on the treadmill the data is garbage.

So did you get to try it out?

The running power portion aside (I'll let others wade into that debate) it's a really fantastic footpod. I use my Stryd as my primary speed/distance device on my watch and let GPS mainly give me a pretty picture for Strava. I had a couple areas that were curvy paths through heavily wooded areas that I would usually avoid running in because I would "slow down" through there and of course my worth is tied to the data displayed on my watch. Now I run that path with confidence because I get accurate data on the distance.

Also, they try to tease out how much power you lose because of your form. I've tried to do a couple km with "super smooth" form and a couple km with "terrible" form and it does notice a pretty significant difference. I can also see from the form power that it correlates to how tired my legs were feeling going into the run. There is something there to be had in running power.

Works great (for me) ......... and never knew I had it!!! How much do I owe you? Lol.

From the front page of their web site:

Yeah I’m aware of their history. What I want is almost the raw hardware and data. I think they had issues with customers finding that their calculated distance wasn’t the same as gps and similar nonsense. I think their marketing to researchers and labs is primarily to scare away the people who aren’t looking a data toy to experiment with, while allowing them to charge more to the limited client base that really wants that level of access.

They have a software development tools for their hardware that I plan to use for cycling as well.