Garmin Running Power | New CIQ App For Existing Hardware

Garmin Running Power – New to CIQ

Garmin Running Power is about to kickstart the Fledgling RUNNING WITH POWER market into overdrive.

There has been scepticism in some quarters about the concept of running power despite existing products being generally accepted, most notably STRYD (Reviewed here, link to: the5krunner.com) with two iterations of their product and, to a lesser extent SHFT and the just-released RunScribe PLUS.

Garmin Running Power will validate the market, potentially providing very significant increases in adoption.

So what’s the new Garmin gadget to do all of this? Probably some $/£350 footpod? Nope. All you need is your existing high-end watch and a bit of patience (until it all works) and a bit of belief that their resulting numbers are ‘correct’.

November 2017 will see the release of Garmin Running Power as a free CIQ app. So, first up, your device has to support CIQ (probably v2.4).

Second up, you will need a half-decent Garmin chest strap such as the new HRM-TRI (Reviewed here) and HRM-RUN models. One of those RD pods that fall off will also be fine, apparently – if you haven’t lost yours yet.

Garmin Running Power needs this
Garmin HRM-TRI

Third up, you will need a high-end Garmin watch that ALSO has a barometric altimeter (that data is used in the calculations just like with STRYD). So that’s older Forerunner models like the 735 and 235 OUT of the picture. A Fenix 5/935 should do nicely, no doubt the impending 645 (maybe) will be cool too.

PROBLEMS?: Garmin’s initial functionality will likely be quite limited and maybe unable to handle 3s, 20s, 30s smoothing like Suunto’s existing functionality for STRYD nor able to handle the same such smoothing functionality which can already be set within STRYD itself.

Running-Power-Metrics-STRYD-Suunto-spartan
Running Power

and

stryd-power-settings

As a CIQ data field all the RAW data will find its way into Garmin Connect through the FIT file just as it does with STRYD although, no doubt, new standards in this area might help.

So it’s “free” – providing you’ve invested hundreds of pounds/dollars in highish-end Garmin kit.

🙂

If you currently have no device then it’s probably cheaper to get a Garmin 235+STRYD for £350 (or a Suunto Trainer+STRYD – link to £300 bundle deals on the5krunner.com) than a Fenix 5 + HRM-TRI. But, of course, for many people it will just be a freebie.

So this seems like STRYD’s first chest-strap based product which they (sensibly, IMO) moved away from and towards a footpod. No doubt STRYD, RUNSCRIBE PLUS and GARMIN will all produce different power figures either because of their algorithms or because of the wear-position. I guess that doesn’t really matter if it’s consistent…providing you never intend to change or interchange vendors’ products.

Interesting times. I will have a play, no doubt. But will stick with STRYD, at least for now.

Some more thoughts on what might happen in the overall Running-with-Power market here (link to: the5krunner.com)

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10 thoughts on “Garmin Running Power | New CIQ App For Existing Hardware

  1. I’m surprised and relieved that this doesn’t leave my 935 obsolete already!

    I’m less sure whether I need running power data though. I understand cycling and power. If you can increase your power (without increasing drag) by a combination of fairly obvious strength and endurance exercises then you’ll go a faster and/or further on a bike. Running and power is a less straightforward equation in my mind. I can grasp training on a bike to a power figure but struggle with the same concept for running.

    I guess I need to see it in practice. My local park run will be a good test. 3.5 laps of a hilly course. At the moment I can compare my lap times to see that I generally dip a bit on lap 2 and/or 3; I wonder if the power numbers will simply be a direct correlation of that or if they’ll give some other insight. I guess I’ll know in about 7 weeks time.

  2. Great, I already have thrown down copious amounts of money for all the things needed so just the CIQ app will be downloaded. I have dubious concerns about said results as

    1)It’s coming from a cheststrap
    2)It’s coming from hardware nearly two years old (the HRM-Tri)
    3)It’s Garmin

    I’ll give it a shot, not going to hold my breath. Methinks my Stryd has nothing to worry about.

    1. I see this differently. I’ve got everything I need to use the Garmin power fields already so why would I buy Stryd? At the very least I’m going to try out the Garmin system because it’s effectively free for me. As DC Rainmaker has said there’s currently no effective method for getting a definitive outdoor power figure for running so there’s no way of knowing if Garmin or Stryd is the most accurate. If enough people try out the Garmin system, that uses gear that they already own, then Stryd have plenty to worry about. The Garmin numbers only really need to be good enough for many people to decide not to spend extra on Stryd. They wouldn’t be the first company to go to the wall in the face of much cheaper opposition.

      1. we will have runscribe power figures soon. I suspect they will be similar to STRYD not wildly different like Garmin.
        what if that triangular comparison shows garmin to be the outlier? might that make it wrong
        dcr couldn’t then argue that it didn’t matter as the data was consistent. read his bike power meter reviews. everything has to be accurate…consistency is not what you look for; he says.
        garmin system wont give a balance figure (probably!)
        stryd’s future: there might be lots of other markets than just garmin based users.
        but yes competition will affect any company (eg runscribe entering market)…will sure give innovation and maybe price competition which can only be good for consumer (unless one company is abusing it’s dominant market position)

  3. Interesting news indeed, will look forward to trying it. But the problem with these CIQ data fields is the 2 x per activity limit, even for high end units like the F5. Each time you find a new one you have to lose another…

      1. CIQ fields like this could make the 2 limit a much bigger deal. Say you want to show the power and the average power. Unless they come out with a single field that shows multiple metrics at once, there would be your two right there. For me, the big win with CIQ is having single fields that take up the whole screen, but showing more than 4 metrics. Given that this tech is it’s own CIQ field, there is no way to get access to the power data to incorporate into one of these muli-metric CIQ fields. It’ll be much better once there is a standard and they integrate running power properly like for biking or HR/cadence.

      2. yes. my understanding is that stryd are reaching out to runscribe and others to sort out the ANT+ thing. then moving on to do the same thing with BLE propfiles.
        yes it is possible to have 2 metrics on one field..but which are the right two for everyone?!?
        there is probabyl a clever way around it for stryd with an app. BUT it won’t be worth investing in that only for it all to change in 6 months.
        i’m happy with short-averaged power…but i know you and others want more than that.
        in two years we will be moaning that we can get a meaningful NP:average power ratio field to show

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