Just received my foot pod from Amazon. Anyone else use one with a Fenix 5 for outdoor running? If so what settings do you use? Did you perform any manual calibration or just leave it on auto calibrate? Do you notice any difference for instant pace or your final pace graphs?
Might be worth doing some Outdoor runs with Auto Calibrate on, to see what you get and confirm if 87 is way off or not. The Auto Calibrate usually tracks at around 93 for me, so 87 is not outrageously low. Also, most people’s experience is that the factor for treadmill use will be different to outdoors (are you 100% sure the treadmill is accurately calibrated too).
calibration number is change depend of the speed from my experience. Example when i run 6 min per km =97 and when I run 4:30 there is 93. I don't know what is the best solution if you run one day 40 min =10km and next day Marathon 1h .
That you know how your CF varies with pace/terrain for you, is your answer (this is not the same for everyone - my CF variance seems to be less than 2 between fast on road 93 and slow off road with hills 95). You can turn off auto calibrate and manually enter the correct CF you have previously deduced for the type of run you’re about to do (I assume you know what sort of run you plan to do, rather than randomly making it up as you go along).
Alternatively, you could throw (a lot of) money at the problem and buy a Stryd pod with latest generation 9 axis sensors for less variance over the range of pace and terrain (acknowledging there may be connectivity issues between some Fenix 5 units and sensors, like Stryd, that transmit both ANT+ and BLE).
I have another question... I set a manual foot pod calibration factor of 97 and ran three miles on a calibrated treadmill. The watch reported that I ran 3.33 miles. Using the equation found here:
This seems very low, is it common for such a low calibration factor to be required?
The weather was GREAT today so I stole a little time from work and ran 5k outdoors. After I saved the run data I checked the calibration factor and it had changed to 89.6, so I guess my 87.4 was not that far off. I assume it will update that number after each outdoor run, hopefully not by much.
On a side note, the GPS accuracy seems improved after the last upgrade, or at least since last fall. Looking at my run overlaid with google sat images, I could see my track right along the edge of the road, and where I crossed and headed back along the other edge. It wandered just a tinge off in a few spots but wow, it was mostly spot on.
I assume it will update that number after each outdoor run, hopefully not by much.
Yes it will. If you keep an eye on it over a few runs, you can then decide what a reasonable average value is and manually set it to that and turn the Auto Calibrate off.
That's what I did with my stryd which incidentally works fine with my F5 (knock on wood) - ran for a couple weeks on my "usual" tracks and then turned autocalibration off. Manual calibration is too complicated for me, and even though I like to know reasonably precisely what my pace and distance are, I don't need it down to the cm. The stryd already is a massive improvement over the GPS which is simply painful where I run.
That's what I did with my stryd which incidentally works fine with my F5 (knock on wood) - ran for a couple weeks on my "usual" tracks and then turned autocalibration off. Manual calibration is too complicated for me, and even though I like to know reasonably precisely what my pace and distance are, I don't need it down to the cm. The stryd already is a massive improvement over the GPS which is simply painful where I run.
The Stryd footpod seems like a great gadget, but wow it's pricey...
Had a question about lap pace if anyone knows the answer... if I impatiently start my run without waiting for the watch to connect with GPS satellites (i.e. to turn green), and then 4 minutes into the run, the watch connects with the satellites and GPS turns on, will my lap pace which is lap distance/lap time be wildly off? I assume so since lap time will include the extra 4 minutes that the watch recorded while GPS was not enabled. But I just wanted to check. Thanks for your help.
