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

Dr Phil
over 4 years ago

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.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 5135968

    Gaslighting?  I read the article. It was suggested to verify the accuracy and/or if calibration was needed on a certified course.  How is this gaslighting by any definition of the word? 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to 5135968

    bro, this is SOP for Stryd - ran a half myself, watch was within 0.02 miles, most other GPS runners there or near as dammit, did it again year after with Stryd, came up short, felt PO'd as PR'd as well, but short changed by about 1/4 mile. Like the poster who started the thread, these courses are measured. So if watches agree, and official measurements agree, but Stryd is short who is wrong? My bucks are on the course distance being right, especially on official runs. Still PO'd about this a year on!

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I've had some weird issues with Stryd distance when there's elevation involved. I've been using a Stryd for a few years now and never really thought about the distance (always used Stryd distance over GPS) until my most recent half marathon. I ran a half last month and thank goodness I have a PacePro plan going because that works off GPS. Stryd had the total distance of the half marathon at over 14 miles... it was so off it wasn't even funny. It was a USATF certified road course and I was in the lead following the pace car and hugging the cones for the majority of the race. I know it's not going to be perfect but it was almost a mile off at the end. I reached out to Stryd and they, like others have said, sent me the articles on how to calibrate.

    I went to the track and ran 2 miles with both my Fenix 6X and my Instinct. The distances were within 0.01 miles of each other after 2 miles which essentially means no calibration needed. The only difference between the track and the race I ran was elevation. The race had ~900 feet gain and the track had 0.

    I swore by my Stryd in the past but at this point I don't really know what to do with the Stryd but for the time being I'm definitely not using it for distance anymore.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Brian-ADR

    I had the same issue like mentioned with running a marathon. I was the only one with such a short distance i couldn't believe it. the bad thing is really: No apologize from the support. Nothing. Only blaming their customer. closing threads. banning people. That's why i am so angry. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to p50kombi

    So replying to my own comment here, I did a couple of runs now with the stryd mounted on the lowest three crossings of my laces, making it way more rigidly fixed on my shoe, it can't move around now and so far my runs accuracy has been pretty consistent.

    It will need more testing as I only just started using it this way and I'll keep you all posted.

    But if you had inconsistent data on the same route, maybe try if your stryd can move around like mine used to do.

    I'm not talking about calibration here, just consistency on same course same equipment. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    If any of you want a comparison between Stryd Pace/Distance compared to GPS Pace/Distance you can send the .FIT file as a Private Message and I will do the comparison the coming week. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Calibration factor I use on my Stryd is 103.2 although people from Stryd say that Stryd is perfect without calibration. In my case it's not. I use that calibration factor for two years now, I tested it at many races and distance is off maybe for few meters or so (I tested it in 5k to 21k races). But I mostly run on roads and flat surfaces, I've never tested it on some trails with big elevation. And yes, Stryd is definitely not perfect like company likes to say, but this calibration factor works for me... 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to BiljanaK
    BiljanaK said:
     although people from Stryd say that Stryd is perfect without calibration.

    No, they never said that.  This is what their website says:

    "Stryd is very accurate out of the box, and calibration is not required for most runners."

    There's a reason there's a calibration option. Let's try and do our best to post facts and not what we want others to believe.  :) 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I would say the ideal use case for a Stryd is interval workouts. GPS distance can be pretty far off relatively speaking when running 400m or less. In fact, GPS is basically useless at telling you how long it took you to run 100m. Garmin’s track mode is an attempt to address that limitation, but not everyone has access to a certified track.

    Trail runs with uneven loose terrain are going to be challenging for any device based on inertial sensors... this seems like it should be obvious. And marathons will be tricky for any device based on dead reckoning, since errors will accumulate over time. So there are limits on what you should expect from the device (and Stryd should probably do a better job informing their customers).

    What Stryd does really well, it does FAR better than what any GPS device can do. To me, that is measuring distance accurately and precisely (to the meter) over short distances, like 2x5x400m workouts, and reporting accurate current pace at any distance.

    Over longer distances the precision seems very good on hard surfaces, but accuracy increasingly depends on having the right calibration factor.

    So 0–10k on a hard surface seems like the zone where Stryd is likely to be more accurate than GPS straight out of the box.

    More reviewers should really test out and report on the accuracy of Stryd. I think DC Rainmaker has focused mostly on the accuracy of power measurement and was left unsatisfied. I own a Stryd, but really don’t care about running power.