about to pull the trigger on this model, not sure if someone already asked about this model, is the foot pod accurate? a friend told me that it measures stride lenght and footstrikes which then computes the distance and speed covered, just a thought came up and what if you get tired during the last part of your run and your footstrike change, will the reading be wrong already?
I have one. I have never calibrated. The foot pod appears to be accurate to within a couple of percent. Track calibration might improve that.
It does not care about stride length. The computer is not multiplying foot strike by a fixed stride length. There are a bunch of accelerometers in the foot pod that can figure out how far it has traveled.
Good product.
Gordon
thanks G, a friend told me the same thing, around 4% he said if uncalibrated( he`s a numbers guy) so more or less 300-400 meters over 10k,i just thought if your run cadence fluctuates, it goes haywire
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I’ve found it much more accurate than that. I’ve run out and back runs where the first and second legs were within a few feet of each other. It’s important that it doesn’t move around on your shoe. The times I’ve gotten strange readings from it I’ve found that the pod had been pushed way up or down on my shoe.
It might vary a little with stride length, but not much. Walking will throw it off some, but still less than the 4% you referred to, far from “going haywire”.
Thom
I agree.
I’ll do an out and back on a known distance to check it over.
Footpod on shoe needs to be secure for repeatable results.
Walking throws it off for me, so does the track.
Normally when running I’ll be within .01 miles.
Calibration changes for different shoes, even if they are the same model.
jaretj
I have the 400sd and I’ll confirm most of what’s been said.
It’s pretty accurate when calibrated. most of my runs have known miles, and they typicall come up as .99 or 1.00 or 1.01; so pretty accurate.
I’ll second that it is horrible on a track - absolutely horrible.
I got a RS400 last fall.
Did you notice that you can change the calibration during the run when you pause the watch? You have to do it before you exit all the way out. That makes the manual calibration so much easier.
jaretj
great, i dont want the higher models as budget is a concern. used to have the forerunner 205 but i ended up injured because i raced almost all my training runs and the waiting to pick up the satellite took some time when i ran at work(a lot of buildings)so sold it.
can you use it on the treadmill?
I’ve used my RS200 and RS400 on the treadmill. It doesn’t allways match up to what the treadmill says but it is consistant. Don’t know if it’s the watch or the treadmill.
jaretj
My girlfriend really likes hers. She has checked it at the track and it’s good enough for her without calibrating. She mostly uses it to track her pace, and her cadence is usually pretty consistent. I use the Forerunner 305, so we’re a Garmin/Polar family…
chances are its the treadmill, im just asking because i`ll be doing a lot of treadmill runs in the coming weeks and the treadmills i run on at the local gym are not accurate. thanks!
Please do not forget the RS400SD downloads to the same software as the RS800cx,CS400, and CS600x, Polar Protrainer5 software, that is if you have a PC. The Running Index and Ownoptimizer Test are great tools for over training or improvement in training, amongst other features like REPORTS
YOu can change the calibration on the fly mid run actually.
Something odd I’ve noticed recently is that the watch sometimes drops the reception from the footpod. The footpod is still going (pretty sure), but the watch stops displaying speed, and occasionally reports “Check Footpod”
I have replaced the footpod battery a couple times since this started happening, but it hasn’t improved. I intend to replace the watch battery, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.
HR seems to be unaffected.
Any thoughts?