Several threads on polar vs Garmin.
What about Suunto. How accurate are their footpods, priority being distance and pace per mile.
I have the old style (bigger than the current model) and it’s consistency seems to be about 1% i.e run the same course, distance is very close. You have to take care with how you fasten it to your shoe- put the rubber jacket on first, then insert the pod. A sales rep told me this after I struggled for ~6 months with inconsistent distance, now it works great. If it is loose your distance can be out a bit. Also, it does not like when you switch shoes- you need to calibrate it when you move to a new pair.
I do at least half of my mileage on trails, so the POD has been ideal for me. Never have to worry about the signal and it picks up the variance in your stride quite well on uneven trails.
Having to switch with each shoe change is a drag for those of who alternate shoes…That would be recalibrating most runs. I read in an earlier post the idea of having the first mile marked off from where you start, so you can simply recalibrate at the beginning of a run, as opposed to having to go to the track each time. Maybe gps is the way to go.
In general footpods are less accurate than GPS on distance (GPS error is pretty fixed, so it’s lousy for measuring 100’, but great for running distance, while footpods’ errors increase as you run farther). The big advantage of footpods is that they are much better than GPS for current pace. It takes the GPS a while to realize that you have stopped or sped up, so they are not that great for intervals, variable terrain, etc.
I tried calibrating my footpod at the gym on the treadmill, and all that proved was how uncalibrated all the treadmills were. Didn’t work for the GPS either…lol.
I have the newer footpod and usually run with two friends that use the Garmin 305 and 310XT. My distance and pace are always very consistent with theirs over the 9K we do at lunch and in every half marathon I’ve done, my distance says 21.XX kilometers with the first X usually being a 1 or 2. The pace is the best part for me. It’s always very close to real time (I believe Suunto says the readout is about 6 steps behind your instantaneous pace) whereas the Garmins definitely lag a lot more. The T6 is also completely waterproof, looks like a real watch (which I wear every day) and has not shut down on me ever. I have nothing against the Garmins at all and in fact use the Edge 305 on my bike (got it used and cheap).
In regards to different shoes, one thing some people do is to go to a track with your different shoes and calibrate it for each pair taking care to note exactly where you place the pod on each pair of shoes. You can then record the calibration factor on paper or your cellphone notepad, the watch doesn’t have a memory function for this - hey that might be a great idea for Suunto! When you switch shoes, you can just set the correct calibration factor before you go out the door.
Hope this information helps. Have a great day.
-Mike
Chowder is right, you could easily adjust the calibration for different shoes pre-run if you jot down the calibration factor. That would just take <1min to adjust. I’ve heard the new foot pod is better than the old one for this (it is about 1/2 the size).
Here are some stats from a regular route. It’s a dirt trail with a lot of direction changes, roots, mud,etc. so I think this is a tough course to measure. I’ve measured it at 10.55km on my mtb.
10.56
10.41
10.09*
10.21*
10.47
10.56
10.47
10.6
10.7
*new battery- sometimes it needs to be recalibrated once the battery is changed
I’ve tried using it during a race and most likely your splits will be off the course markings. I found that annoying. Who knows what is more accurate, the course or your pod. I suppose that woudl be the same issue with GPS. I don’t race with it, I just like wearing a watch for splits.
I chose the foot pod because is seems like most Garmin or other GPS users are constatntly farting around with the thing, charging, getting satelites, losing signal,etc. The foot pod is simple and reliable. And you get (almost) instant feedback on your pace- I don’t think that GPS can do that. Plus garmins are fugly IMO.
Are you sure it was the treadmills? I find my footpod is way off my treadmill distance. To check which was right I put my bike on the tready (no I wasn’t riding it) and the tready was pretty close to the bike computer.
I think my treadmill stride is quite a bit different than my outdoor stride, thus the diffeence from the foot pod measurement.