It's Here => Garmin Running Power

Garmin's in-house team at GarminLabs have 5 new Running Power CIQ apps for your high-end Garmin Watches: 935, Fenix 5; and Chronos. What's New? Garmin Running Power apps have just hit the slightly re-vamped ConnectIQ Store at Garmin.com. As you can see there are 5 running power apps, each covering a slightly different angle on Running Power metric display, like this: Running Power: account for wind; write to FIT; power zone gauge; zone boundary settings; high/low alert settings Last Lap Running Power: account for wind and write to FIT options Average Running Power: account for wind and write to FIT options Combo Running Power: account for wind and write to FIT options (Current) Lap Running Power: account for wind and write to FIT options The 'Combo Running Power' should be used on a one-datafield screen. It will then show 4 bits of data in that one full-screen data field. ie It will show the first 4 of the above running power metrics. Compatibility Compatibility is just the latest Fenix. Which means Fenix 5; Fenix 5S, Fenix 5X; Forerunner 935; and Chronos. In addition, you will need either an RD-POD, HRM-RUN or HRM-TRI. Support for the Vivoactive 3 and Vivoactive HR may come in the future via ANT+ RD. ie mechanisms apparently exist for the Vivoactives to be supported if Garmin choose to implement them but I don't think they will. That's it folks. Time to upgrade your watch for the 'freebie' app? App Selection & Configuration After you have selected your app from the app store you sync to your watch as normal. You can access the app options by selecting on the "3 dots" shown against each app in Garmin Express ie it is NOT possible to configure the settings on your watch. The settings, fairly predictably, look like this: You will have to duplicate your efforts at making the app setting both for each app and for each watch you intend to use them on. I did set my Zone boundaries using automatically produced data from (free) Golden Cheetah which already supports Running Power and Cycling Power separately. However much of my historical running power data is based on STRYD so it won't be so useful as the two sets of power data are not interchangeable. But after a few hard runs with Garmin's Running Power (or an FTP test) you should get meaningful zones soon enough. Note these zones are NOT accessed in the same way as HR/pace and other zones on your watch. These power zones can only be configured/accessed through the app configuration in Garmin Express. App Display & Activation Garmin Express synchronizes your apps and their settings to your watch. On your watch, all you need to do to activate the entire Running Power 'ecosystem' is to simply use one of the apps somewhere on your current run profile. Really, in Garmin's terminology, they are NOT apps but rather 'data fields'. So when you add a data field (app) to a particular view on your watch, the whole of Running Power is good to go. You should already know how to change a data field. If not, look at the following example where I change PACE to RUNNING power on my main running screen [gallery size="medium" link="none" ids="23221,23222,23223,23224,23225"] Running Off you go! Run With Power and be happy. Being serious for a minute, the apps/data fields are nicely responsive and perfectly usable as if they were any other Garmin metric on a round-faced watch. On v1 of the app I couldn't see the Power one gauge nor did I get the alerts. I'd not specifically tried to get those to work. So I will have to re-visit that for myself but to help you, please note: to use zones & alerts for running power, the running power data field must be the only data field on the data screen (1 field layout). Treadmill - due to a lack of air resistance you should find power is 3-4% different indoors compared to the same given speed outdoors. Post - Run Here are the results from a 30 minute run showing how the power metric appears in Garmin Connect from a Garmin 935 and HRM-TRI. Accuracy Already, really ;-) I doubt meaningful comparisons between the various running power options will ever be possible as they each calculate power in their own way rather than measuring* it. I shall remain open-minded and hopeful and then spend several weeks precisely, yet forlornly, trying to compare power data from these three sources! Come back soon. Well, in a few weeks. Perhaps even later than that as RunScribe's power figures are in beta ! ;-) I suspect 'accuracy' will fall back to some measure of consistency or perhaps to some perceived correlation with RPE. Maybe even that the various power algorithms broadly track each other. The former two of those are feasible the latter of the three perhaps a fanciful hope. OK. OK. I know you want to see a comparison. First Impression: Below is a relatively constant 20 minute effort with no hills with true pace varying by, say, +/- 10secs/km at most. I did speed up over the last minute. In terms of 'RPE', STRYD seems broadly correct. RunScribe I would argue trends correctly but with too much variation. Garmin Running Power is clearly wrong at the start (uneven, soft ground) and end (didn't speed up) but other than that it seems broadly correct. Garmin Running Power - Is It Any Good?" width="1244" height="694" /> How Is Garmin Running Power Different? Here is an overview of the 3 main running power 'systems': Garmin Running Power compared to RunScribe and STRYD [caption id="attachment_23253" align="aligncenter" width="467"] Garmin Running Power - Is It Any Good?" width="467" height="750" /> , V1.09[/caption] Can I use it on my Watch? You've seen the compatible watches for Garmin Running Power...or lack of them. Maybe there are other options for you that are cheaper than upgrading your watch and buying a strap/pod... [caption id="attachment_23254" align="aligncenter" width="1018"] v1.07[/caption] Thoughts I was not surprised by Garmin's entry into the Running Power market. I was surprised that they are entering the market via an app rather than via hardware. The Garmin Running Power apps look really good interms of what they show and how they work. The configuration options in the 'Running Power' app look great. Zones, zone-based alerts and accounting for wind look like potentially great functionality. Just what we need. These apps look at least as good as the competition. That's NOT to say that the data is good..... I am a little concerned that Garmin: Are using a model that seems to use GPS pace as an input to the power calculation, itself further stabilised based on a wrist-based accelrometer; Seem to use offline wind speed - presumably from the periodically-updated weather widget via a smartphone; and Are using the RD-POD as an optional input source with the inherent flaw if located on the belt. Some more in-depth details about Garmin Running Power (RunPow) and RunScribe and STRYD are at this link: https://the5krunner.com/2017/12/01/runpow-runscribe-stryd-review-comparison-features/