What happens when a footpod disconnects in the middle of a run?

Hopefully these screen shots from my Fenix 5 will help show how you ID an ANT+ pairing vs BLE pairing

I've found it now. Thanks very much. My Stryd is paired via ANT+

How does one go about choosing to connect the Stryd over BT? The reason I ask is because if I continue to have drop out problems I might try that connection method instead of ANT+. When I initially paired the device I waited around on the pairing screen thinking perhaps the device would show up twice, once for ANT+ and once for BT. That never happened though.

When I initially paired the device I waited around on the pairing screen thinking perhaps the device would show up twice, once for ANT+ and once for BT.

That’s what should happen with dual ANT+ and BLE sensors; it’s certainly how my Scosche Rhythm+ appears, as two sensors in the list, one ANT+ and the other BLE. One thing I have found with the Fenix 5 is that sometimes (infrequently - often after a software update) it gets in to a state where it won’t connect to BLE sensors, even previously paired ones. Happily a power off then on seems to clear this issue. The other thing to check is that the BLE sensor you are trying to connect to is not already connected to something else (like your phone); unlike ANT+ where multiple devices can link to one sensor, BLE is a one to one connection and the sensor isn’t even visible to other devices until it’s “freed” from any existing connection. It’s a pain of BLE that I’m frequently reminded of with the RunScribe pods, as I have to wait until the Fenix 5 has dropped its pairing with the pod at the end of a run, before my phone can connect to the pod and download the detailed data for the run from the pod.

In Response to Crispin_Ellisdon's comment (how did you do that?):

I tried today with the following scenario and I have no idea, what happened.

1) Changed cf to 150 as advised. Stryd setting: distance/pace ALWAYS
2) Went for a walk to local shopping store with GPS enabled.
3) Went back home with GPS disabled.

2) Current Pace and Lap Pace were almost even at about 12min/km. Distance was 480m which I measured with gpsies afterwards and it is ok
3) Current Pace and Lap Pace went off, where Current Pace was at about 10min/km and Lap Pace was at about 14min/km. BUT: at the start of the activity, I saw several drops of the current pace (display went to --:--) and Lap pace dropped. Distance was 400m.

I have no explanation for this except for that the Stryd is not good for walking. The calibration factor was NEVER used in my opinion, at least I can not see where.

Do you have an idea?

That would clearly indicate that the foot pod data is not being used; which is not as it is supposed to be. With a cf of 150 you should expect to see far longer distances and much faster pace than reality. Are you using the Run app or the Walk/Hike apps? If the latter, it could be that the Walk/Hike apps won’t use foot pod data. Another possible explanation is that the Stryd pod signal is continually being lost by the watch, at which point the watch will revert to GPS or WDR if there’s no GPS (wrist dead reckoning (WDR) is the Garmin term for pace and distance based on the watch’s internal accelerometers). A quick check Run activity with GPS off and foot pod set to cf of 150 will identify if the watch is ever actually using the Stryd data or if it’s using WDR.

Are you using the Run app or the Walk/Hike apps?

I was using the Run app.

On my previous runs with the Stryd where I determined the calibration factor on a track and also on a measured road, the determined distance was almost spot on which should mean, that the Stryd is being picked up correctly. But I am not sure if the Stryd was connected through BLE or Ant+ before, now it is Ant+.

Guess you are right with WDR. I will give it a shot in the next days and try to pair the Stryd again via BLE.

Edit: it is a Stryd Live if this makes a difference.
Just tried to pair it and can only pair it as Ant+ sensor. Immediately after pairing is successful, I see a screen saying something about Bluetooth sensors but this screen disappears instantly. Strange.

I was using the Run app.

On my previous runs with the Stryd where I determined the calibration factor on a track and also on a measured road, the determined distance was almost spot on which should mean, that the Stryd is being picked up correctly. But I am not sure if the Stryd was connected through BLE or Ant+ before, now it is Ant+.

Guess you are right with WDR. I will give it a shot in the next days and try to pair the Stryd again via BLE.

Edit: it is a Stryd Live if this makes a difference.
Just tried to pair it and can only pair it as Ant+ sensor. Immediately after pairing is successful, I see a screen saying something about Bluetooth sensors but this screen disappears instantly. Strange.

I have a Stryd Live and the bluetooth sensor screen coming up and immediately disappearing also happened to me as well. I didn't try to reboot the watch as Crispin indicated earlier though. From Crispin's testing though it appears that the BT connection would be inferior if for no other reason then you can't get distance data to come from the footpod via bluetooth.