Fenix 5 and foot pod

Former Member
Former Member
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?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Actually I'm seeing a slight difference between different shoes as well. I think this mostly comes from different mounting position on the laces so one could try to counteract this moving the pod slightly. Currently though my main rotating pairs are close enough so I don't really need to alter the calibration much.

    Anyway much easier to handle if it changes by shoe than if it changes by pace.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    If I were to get the Garmin footpod for my Fenix 5, will the footpod be used to calculate both *pace* AND *lap pace* or just pace?

    The lap pace readings I'm getting are pretty good, but my pace readings are wacky. I use both pace and lap pace depending on what sort of workout I'm doing.
  • The “Pace” data field is determined by whatever source is set for pace/speed. So if you go in to the foot pod sensor settings on the Fenix 5 and set Speed to Always, then your instant “Pace” will always come from the foot pod. “Lap Pace” is different, as that uses the source for distance and divides by the time to cover that distance. So when running outside with GPS on, if your foot pod Distance is set to Off or Indoors then “Lap Pace” will be derived from GPS distance, but if your foot pod Distance is set to Always then the “Lap Pace” will be derived from foot pod distance.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Thank you Crispin,

    So let's say I'm going for a run and I have both "pace" and "lap pace" displayed on my Fenix 5 screen.

    * I want "pace" to be derived from the foot pod.
    * I want "lap pace" to be derived from GPS.

    Is this possible?
  • Absolutely. Just go in to the sensor and accessory settings on the Fenix 5, scroll down to the paired foot pod, enter the settings for that foot pod and set “Speed” to “Always” and “Distance” to “Off” or “Indoor”. That will give you instant pace from the foot pod and Lap Pace from GPS.

    The only thing you cannot do is have Lap Pace from GPS and total distance from foot pod. The source for distance and Lap Pace are always the same.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Got it! You've been most helpful.

    I must confess, the apparent inaccuracy of the "pace" reading my Fenix 5 really bothers me. The other day I was running at a hard effort, and the "pace" on my watch said something like 12:30/mile. I didn't have this issue with my previous (much less expensive) watch, the Forerunner 220.

    I wish that there was some way to resolve this without having the use a footpod.

    Thanks again for the tips.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    I just spoke to Chris from Garmin about the crazy pace readings I'm getting on my Fenix 5.
    He suggested that I make the following change:

    Settings > System > Data Recording > and change it from "Smart" to "Every Second"

    I changed this and will try it out tonight at the track.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Now I see this page from Garmin's site, which seems to completely contradict what Chris told me earlier today.
    https://support.garmin.com/faqSearch/en-CA/faq/content/s4w6kZmbmK0P6l20SgpW28
  • If I have speed or distance set to "always" will the GPS auto-calibrate?
  • Thanks very much Crispin...

    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:

    https://support.garmin.com/faqSearch/en-GB/faq/content/IldN9X76LJ0N9MCG0CivpA

    and got 87.3873.

    This seems very low, is it common for such a low calibration factor to be required?