Stryd is not all it's cut out to be...maybe

This morning I ran twice with one watch hooked up to a Stryd and set to Always use for Pace and Distance and another just on GPS. In both cases the Stryd came up with a longer distance. First up was a trail run that we've been running for years so we know it is close to 9km. Stryd returned 9.31 where my GPS Trail Run gave 8.99 and my wife's 945 8.97km. Next up was parkrun. For those who don't know, parkrun is always 5km. Our parkrun has been accurately measured using a calibrated wheel so we know it's 5.04km from the wheel. And every GPS run we've done has been 5km +/-20m or so. This morning Stryd gave 5.24km while the GPS watches gave 5.02 and 5.01 respectively.

This wasn't the first time out with the Stryd. Several runs on a 400m track and a couple of other trails runs should have seen it calibrated by now. I haven't looked over earlier runs as I did want to make sure I had a number of different runs with the Stryd.

Let's see how things progress. I have done a couple of runs on a 400m track but not sure if I had the Stryd set up properly so can't comment on that except to say the watches gave the same distance. However, I now have the Stryd where I want it so can. and will, do some more comparison runs to see how this plays out.

  • I do not use the Stryd at all on trail any more. I don’t find it useful for that. The distance and power is laughable when scrambling boulders and climbing extremely steep technical gradients. Granted my trail terrain in Zimbabwe is much more rugged and technical than most other places.

    Also the new Stryd Wind is not supposed to get immersed in water. 

  • There is a problem comparing Stryd distance to GPS, which is itself inaccurate to varying degrees on a given day, and may measure short or long of true distance. When comparing to GPS, you have the problem of never really knowing which one is correct. 

    If it is off relative to a known distance, you may want to calibrate properly and adjust the factor. 

    I have found that shoes of differing stack height make some difference, as mentioned, but it is minimal in my experience. 

  • So, apart from instant pace (which I believe to be a dubious metric for trail running anyway, why should buy a Stryd? What can I really gain from a $400 spend?

    If you find the Stryd does nothing for you, don't use it.  This is what you've said numerous times on these threads about WHR, PulseOx, OWS, etc.  It works well for some and for others it doesn't.  Pick which side of the fence you want to be on.  :) 

  • If you find the Stryd does nothing for you, don't use it.  This is what you've said numerous times on these threads about WHR, PulseOx, OWS, etc.  It works well for some and for others it doesn't.  Pick which side of the fence you want to be on.  :) 

    Absolutely agree with this although I suspect I’ve never recommended people don’t use WHR, Pulse Ox, or swim in the open water, more likely to caution or advise people about the limitations. However, happy to be proved wrong of course, and if I have said don’t use WHR, Pulse OX, or swim in the open water then clearly I misspoke or have been misinterpreted. Paying NZ$400 for an add-on that appears to offer little improvement is somewhat different to not understanding the limitations of the technology of the in-built sensors of the watch.

    The thing is, we use incredibly complex computers on our wrists packed with technology yet some expect pinpoint precision without understanding the limitations. I’ve not had a pony in the show with regards to foot pods, Stryd or otherwise until recently. Having read the posts in this forum about how good Stryd was I expected more. 

    It is early days yet, I’ve only done a handful of runs so perhaps I will see better outcomes. 

  • I ve been using stryd for over 3 yrs and here's what I noticed after extensive testing. 

    I had to calibrate it on the track and my calibration factor was 101 but that was at 6:40 min/mile pace.

    If I run slower e.g. 8 min/mile, stryd underestimates distance and pace by 1% or so.

    If I run faster e.g. 6 min/mile, it tends to overestimate pace/distance by 1%

    So for 5k/10k I leave calibration factor at 101 

    For half marathon I set it at 101.5 and for full (around 7:30 pace) I set it at 102 and it's been extremely accurate that way.

    You'll notice same behavior on treadmill. At slower paces, it underestimates. At faster ones it overestimates but the difference is not huge.

    Different shoes do not make a sig difference with the exception of the alphaflys where distance is a little underestimated and I usually add a point to calibration factor.

    Cheers

  • had to calibrate it on the track and my calibration factor was 101 but that was at 6:40 min/mile pace.

    If I run slower e.g. 8 min/mile, stryd underestimates distance and pace by 1% or so.

    If I run faster e.g. 6 min/mile, it tends to overestimate pace/distance by 1%

    I've seen differences depending on pace as well but I am always short (with caliberation at 100.00) not long. My cadence tends to stay the same, my pace is changed by increasing / decreasing stride length, I wonder if that is a factor. The Wind version comes up shorter than the non-Wind for me, for instant when non-Wind reports 1 mile, the Wind will be at 0.97 for the same place.

    I actually can accept calibration (even though the back of the box says it's caliberation-less regardless of shoes, pace with more precision than GPS etc...), what I can't accept is the 'gaslighting' that goes on when you can clearly see it's not accurate compared to a measured course or a good known GPS track.

  • The Stryd company is a very arrogant one. There are so many issues with pace and distance out there. My marathon was shortened by 1.9k! Because I was so stupid to believe that Stryd is accurate out of the box. It’s not. I was pointed to calibrate Stryd. My calibration factor was 3.7.

    Ok fine. Then I changed my shoes and I was confused again. It doesn’t fit at all again. Support: the position on the shoe is not the best. Changed it: no change.

    finally I gave up on pace and distance using Stryd. 

    if you want to train by power then ok. But nothing more.

    They even are closing threads and banning people in those discussions.

    The only thing I am using at the moment is post analysis (Power). That’s all

    The Point is: yes. Gps is inaccurate in bad locations. But. I’ve never seen so many issues with distance like this. And even more bad when changing shoes.

  • I definitely agree about the company's attitude - Anyone doubing it's performance on their forum gets shouted down.  I have my watch set for instant pace, distance from GPS. The pace works ok for me.

  • How did you configure your watch to use the GPS for Pace? Or do you mean the default algorithm built-in in the watch? The one using GPS, footpod and accelerometer.