Garmin Rolls out XC Ski Power
FINALLY Garmin has announced and rolled out XC ski power.
What you need is a Fenix 6/945 or better and, the key thing, a new Garmin HRM-PRO chest strap.
That’s it. You install a data field or two and off you go. Here I have the data field on my 945 but no snow to go with it. No XC skis either, I’ve never tried XC skiing (too hard, too flat) although I do have my own boards and skis somewhere, gathering unhappy dust.
Wait a minute. Doesn’t this sound familiar?
Yes. I reported it a year ago, here. However, for some reason, the actual launch of the HRM-PRO and ski-power have been delayed to the season that’s just starting.
And?
Polar has done this sort of thing for a while in conjunction with Racefox. Indeed not many people know that Racefox, when used with a Polar H10, also provides Polar users with running dynamics. Perhaps the reason you’ve not heard of it too much is that it’s not free 😉 – see some content last year on RaceFox.
Below, Ray, reports that the Garmin Ski Power metrics have been developed by the same team who did the Garmin running power app a while back. Also that it occupies the same ‘field’ as cycling power, hence I would have thought that your power data might get mixed up if you cycle and XC ski with power unless, that is, the sport profile is taken into account when the likes Final Surge/Today’s Plan come to sticking your power data in their power bucket.
Regular readers know that my usual posts require a leap of faith at some point. I won’t disappoint you 😉 Here goes.
I’m taking this quiet release as a further snippet of evidence that supports yesterday’s detailed post on the imminence of Garmin’s NATIVE RUNNING POWER. Garmin is clearly working on developing the concept and usage of ‘power’ in sport. In future years, perhaps we shall see more power additions to other sports such as the many forms of skating.
Sources: dcrainmaker and me from a year ago 😉