I updated the V800 firmware last night (details here) with some excitement (yes I am a very sad person 😉 or, at least, easily pleased). Finally a proper run with the V800 and STRYD!!!!! TA DA !! The definition of a ‘proper’ run means that POWER data is shown properly as POWER in WATTS in a running profile on the V800.
Summary:
Generally it seems VERY GOOD.
Here’s What I Expected
- V800 would be 100%,
- FLOW would be fine as would Golden Cheetah BUT
- I expected to have problems importing the data into SportTracks 3.1.
Here’s What I ACTUALLY Found
- Flow seems to allow proper selection of multiple power-based metrics for RUNNING profiles. YAY!!
- Power Zones & Zone lock functionality is NOT available for RUNNING
- But Zone Lock functionality would be GREAT to have for power (ie it beeps+vibrates when you go above/below a zone that you set mid-run/ride). This would be similar/better than STRYD’s new Garmin CIQ app – PowerRace
- Only HR and pace/speed are seen as zones on the V800
- PACE DATA DOES NOT APPEAR WHEN BEST GPS is set as source of pace for me on the V800 (see image below YET comments further below suggest this might just be my problem??). Presumably the same issue would be found for lower quality GPS too. (Yet PACE DATA appeared later in Sporttracks but not in FLOW…very strange) Edit: 3rd run and this time no data with STRYD for pace…hmmm.
- PACE *DOES* appear on the V800 if STRYD is set as the source for pace
- Display of a single POWER metric seemed slightly laggy in updating itself compared to Garmin/Sunnto – I could be imagining this. I’m just talking of a 3-5 second delay, that kind of ballpark.
- I did not look for stride length data – the metrics can be selected and displayed.
- Bizarrely SportTracks 3.1 imports the pace data correctly and the power data correctly. ST3.1 doesn’t import power for Garmin sourced power data from a FIT file directly from a Garmin device when a stryd data field is used. sigh!!
- Golden Cheetah was of course fine with the power data for running (nice CP curve – not shown)
What this actually means
With all the previous workarounds, where various channels were taken over by STRYD to display, I only really used those devices a few times. The impracticality of how power was THEN displayed and subsequently handled meant it was just more bother and time that I was prepared to commit. So I used a Suunto or Garmin instead. NOW that’s all different with Polar. POWER is NOW usable SUPER-EASILY USED on the V800.
Sadness: Power does not appear as a selectable option for the M600 or M200. The M200 is unlikely but there is some limited hope for the M600. I’ll tell you about the M430 next week when I get one to play with properly. I would REALLY HOPE AND EXPECT it to support POWER. *IF* it does then that is properly bringing power to a mass market running device…that starts to get REAL exciting REAL quick – IF it happens.
CHARTS
Here is the missing PACE data clearly shown (well, NOT shown) in FLOW.
clickable
And then here is the same data miraculously in sportTracks 3.1 (It was fine in golden Cheetah too). The power zones are probably wrong in my ST3.1 – ignore those.
clickable
Here are the bits that show FLOW setting can be modified to add power
clickable
All this makes me just super excited for the V800 replacement now. Let’s just hope Polar gets with the times and makes its successor more in line with other high-end sport watches. Less sporty looking, but be a beast under the hood. I love the Polar ecosystem (hey, you’re someone that is more of a training athlete, not someone that climbs mountains which cross-country skis and paddles their way to exercise everyday? No, you usually do crossfit/functional strength training with a Run and cycle their way through the week AND you want metric data for those things!!)
Seriously, the correlating information from the activity in Polar activities is good, better than trying to correlate Training Status to Training Load and Training Effect and Vo2max with your Lactate Threshold and being clear that what you did and what the watch is telling you makes sense (HI GARMIN!!)And the thing is: Polar legitimately seems like they know what they are doing here, not just throwing things at the wall and hope they stick (HI GARMIN!!!)
If that means a watch I use for YEARS with constant support and updates to every facet of the watch AND working in outside sensors…sign me up. I really don’t want to keep buying tech that might be more accurate than the prior every year. Hell, i’d pay a subscription for all-year-to-year updates if that means I don’t have to buy an entire new watch for 3-5years!
yep (tho not sure about the subscription comments)
I only say that here because Polar seems more concerned about fine-tuning their technology, rather than shoveling out 10+devices a year and furthering piecemealing the spread with all these devices that do some of this and some of that. They basically have (3) categories they make watches for and take a long time between releasing them. That’s a very big choice for a company to make because you’re basically leaving money on the table.
If they want to really compete with the big companies (GARMIN) they need revenue, and if that isn’t coming from giant assortment of hardware sales, it could come from software support/new software and options/3rd party integration for the life of the device.
I’d be more inclined for free everything, but Polar itself might not ever dig itself out of the place it is, which might be what they want. For me though, paying for these things and those things bring tons of options and precision to the watch I own for years while bolstering the company to bigger and better heights down the line is ok in my eyes. Same costs in the long run for the user, but it’s not a eye watering price up front with really bad software for nearly a year after the watch is out (and I say again HI GARMIN!!)
yeah. I suppose a continual revenue stream also makes the vendor work for the money with continual improvements
is there a market for that?…don’t know.
also that strategy might necessarily involve introducing lower functionality models at first…would people then buy them?
also surely a better route is to have apps? all the obscure functionality gets developed by someone eventually. and you still charge a premium because you have an app ecosystem as a differentiator. but of course creating an app environment is non-trivial. (Suunto, fitbit)
I agree 100% with everything you said re: Garmin vs. Polar
I have to say though, that the display on the V800 seems absolutely prehistoric after using a 935 for a month.
Hopefully the V800 replacement will be awesome, but the key will be to try to figure out how to balance a much better display with all-day OHR and still maintain battery life.
As things stand now, Polar needs to update the Flow website to allow the creation of phased workouts using Power Zones as targets.
Using Zone lock as mentioned above would also work, but as of now the zones in play for power are those set for the cycling profile. There are no zones able to be set specifically for running.
yep the v800 display is prehistoric. look at my m600 review tho. it shows the SAME display but SUPER PRETTIED up on a colour screen.
that is what would be on the v810. battery eating colour (ohr) and all that jazz.
so its just the hardware that doesn’t look quite so good.
yep too about FLOW. it needs a good workout builder. Polar would counter that with their adaptive plans which ARE better than garmin by a long way.
so in terms of the relevant substance they are VERY similar overall. but the polar is not so pretty
fair summary?
Problem with using the M600 display is it will destroy battery life, plus is not always-on if I’m not mistaken.
I think you need a minimum of 7 full days of battery, and I would want an always-on display. Garmin cracked this nut, so Polar needs to follow suit with the V810.
Based on the M430, it seems like what we may actually get is a V800 with OHR and Sleep-plus, but with the same display. This would be a bit disappointing in my eyes.
I suspect you may be disappointed! you’d get some new innards as well eg new sirfstart gps chip, new screen, new battery. ant+ ?…nah!
I think part of the issue with the M600 is the consumption of AW2. polar has by far the best aw2 sports offering and I seem to remember that aw2’s battery consumption was better than aw1
I think Polar just need a few more tech guys, as fixes take ages, damn good job I have more than one watch, M430 should be here Monday as it’s now showing at oldbury. Fellrnr has tested stryd with it (M430) and it’s only connecting as a standard foot pod, hopefully a future update will put that right
nice job. thanks Rob
I am really happy that Polar got the V800 working with Stryd. However, we all seem to be having different experiences. You say PACE *DOES* appear on the V800 if STRYD is set as the source for pace.
My experience today was different. I went to the track and selected the Track and Field profile, set the watch to take pace from the Stride sensor and had GPS turned on (High accuracy).
However, when running there was no pace / distance displayed on the watch or recorded. It also would not display stride length on the watch. So for me it seems that Stryd is not sending pace / distance data to V800. Just Power and cadence.
When uploaded to Polar Flow it doesn’t show any pace / distance data. It does have Power and cadence data though.
This is a real shame, as I’d like to be able to use Stryd to give me accurate distance / pace when running on a track. GPS is woeful on a track. If that could be addressed that would be incredible.
I’d also say that it feels like there is a 10 second delay when running and looking at Power on the watch. If you are going up a hill you can count to about 10 seconds before you start to see the Power value increase.
When I selected to take pace from GPS, the V800 displays power when running and everything appears to record correctly. I’m able to export the TCX file from Polar Flow to merge with the Stryd data in PowerCenter. One time I got stride length data. The 2nd time I didn’t. Very strange.
ty for your input.
I did say that
my experiences have changed.
you are right the PACE does not always appear in your scenario either. But it definitely did once!! sigh – I ahev raised a bug report with polar
MAYBE IT IS LINKED TO WORKING FOR THE SECOND RUN…either of the session or after a reboot???
I agree with your comment about delay. not sure of exact timing. I ahev not raised a bug report about this (yet!)
I did another run today with it but was so exhausted after 150km cycling before I didn’t look too closely!. yes the stride MAY not work on mine too. I need to sort the screens out. Cadence seems to work tho (could be internal?)
I noticed that if I selected stride sensor for speed and set GPS to High Accuracy then I don’t get pace / distance on the watch. However if I change that to Medium Accuracy and still have stride sensor selected for speed then it does appear to record pace / distance. I wonder if that is because it is using the built in accelerometer of the watch and not Stryd. It still records power.
Everything works fine for me if I set GPS to high and select GPS as the sensor to provide speed. I get power, pace and distance. I just would like to use Stryd to provide pace / distance on a track as GPS is not good in that scenario.
Try running without your heart rate monitor, pace and distance will then work 🙁 here’s hoping for a quick fix
last week I had one session where it started working half way through…bizarre.
thanks for the helpful advice Robert 😉