Stryd Duo (and Stryd Footpath)
TL;DR – A second Next Generation Stryd pod gives dual-sided power and new, dual-sided metrics.
More: Stryd
This is a very welcome and long-overdue addition to the Stryd ecosystem. The product pretty much offers what you would expect from a dual-sided running footpod but there are some loose ends I’ll tie up further below including what happens if you already have a Stryd pod and how two pods should increase both accuracy and stability.
This is only a ‘first thoughts’ post on Stryd Duo and a review will follow in November.
Stryd Duo: A Dual-Sided Power Meter
The new Stryd Duo allows two existing Next Gen Stryd power meters to work together to give high-resolution, bilateral running metrics. You can either buy two new pods or add one new pod to your existing Next Gen pod.
The key benefits as I see them are a more accurate overall power measurement for those with an asymetric gait and a more stable and responsive overall power measurement which is effectively now updated twice as frequently. Each of the components of overall running power is boosted by dual power meters but Form Power and Air Power remain as totals, which makes sense if you think about it.
Historically, I’ve found little benefit in Garmin’s dual-sided gait metrics like Ground Contact Time (bal) and Vertical Oscillation (bal). However, we now have those and more with Stryd…
- Ground Contact Time Balance
- Vertical Oscillation Balance
- Leg Spring Stiffness Balance
- Impact Loading Rate Balance
- Vertical Ratio
Note: these metrics are free.
Stryd Footpath: Visualizing Your Run in 3D
There’s more…
Stryd Footpath visualisations are a further set of totally new features and I can’t recall seeing anything similar in consumer-grade running tools. These visualisations are additional to the free ones mentioned in the last section.
You are presented with three 2D visualisations of the tracks of each of your feet throughout each stride. The views are created as if a 3rd person is assessing your stride from the side, top and back. To me, this sounds incredibly interesting but how actionable it is and if it can make us faster remains to be seen!
If you have the time and inclination to experiment you could see the impact of orthotics on your stride or the impact of different shoes. Perhaps you could spot gait anomalies that might be the cause of an injury.
3D? The raw data must be 3D but the representation is 2D, perhaps a 3D simulation could be built as a viewer?
Q: Is Stryd Membership Required?
A: No.
Stryd Membership is only needed to view the Footpath 3D Visualisation. Every metric is recorded whether you have a membership or not. So if/when you decide to activate your membership you will have your historical FOOTPATH Visualisations data immediately available.
MUQs – More Unusual Questions
Q: I already have a membership, what if I buy a new membership bundle?
A: You are switched to the monthly payment and your membership is extended by any unused months of membership you’ve already paid for
Q: Can I buy Duo and unpair them to use on two pairs of shoes
A: Yes but you won’t get the footpath data when the two pods are unpaired
Q: Does a greater leg spring stiffness on one side mean that side is stronger
A: Yes, probably
Q: What periods does Footpath show?
A: You can make a selection of any period vs any other period
Q: I have Stryd Wind can I buy a single Stryd Next Gen to get Footpath?
A: No. You need two of the latest pods. It doesn’t matter how you get the two latest pods.
Accuracy & Metrics – My Take
I am genuinely interested in having a dual-sided power breakdown. There are asymmetries in my gait and I would like to understand if and how they impact power balance.
If you have an asymmetry I would have thought it highly likely that the overall total power calculation will be different with Stryd Duo. Hence your rFTP/rCP will change and it might even change by a few percentage points if cycling power meters are anything to compare to. However, I have some doubts here and maybe the rFTP won’t change as Stryd has historically claimed to represent power by its metabolic cost…which should be unchanged regardless of the measurement method.
Stryd claims that there will be more stability to the power reading and that instinctively feels true as there will be more data points. In itself, that shouldn’t affect the total power reading but would it make a shorter duration moving average a more accurate and actionable metric? I currently use a 3-second power as that seems to balance responsiveness to change with smoothing out the physical power of the propulsive part(s) of the running stride. Will it make sense to use a 1- or 2-second average? That said, I’m not especially interested in more responsive air power or form power.
I would have a passing interest in some quick peeks at how my asymmetries (non-power) compare to those I’ve seen on other tools. But I suspect my interest in those would wane rather quickly.
Then we come to Footpath which I was surprised to see added. It looks like an interesting addition if you have orthotics and it looks like gait labs or even running shops could get some use from the product to either recommend shoe types or orthotics.
Pricing
Pricing is unchanged. Members with a Next Gen pod will get a discount.
Wider Reaching Thoughts
Wow! This is the most excited I’ve been for years about a new product. Although I’ll be the first to accept that my excitement won’t be shared by everyone else.
It’s been a bit of a no-brainer prediction that, at some point, Stryd would introduce dual-sided metrics. So my prediction, and everyone else’s, has finally come true. Albeit I think I predicted this about 3 years ago and instead we got Stryd Lite (which didn’t seem to go down too well) and a massive expansion of the Stryd ecosystem to encompass just about every aspect of single-sided gait and power metrics!!
We had expansion of Stryd’s capabilities to support Apple Watch and we had competition from all the sports watch vendors who each now have their own, less accurate flavour of wrist-based running power…Suunto, Coros, Garmin, Apple and Polar. Then we saw power-based training plans, a good member-only set of features and increased responsiveness and granularity in the latest generation hardware.
It seems that when Coros tried to copy the power capabilities on its footpod, the company encountered the wrath of Stryd’s patent lawyers. So, when looking forward we now can see that the unique precision of Stryd’s patented hardware offering will compete with the essentially-free running power metrics that come with the software on wristwatches. There can’t be a direct competitor to Stryd’s footpod but maybe the indirect wrist-based competitors will either add too much of a competitive burden or grow the market and interest for running power. I reckon the latter.
Stryd’s future is thus intertwined with the global growth of running and the percentage of runners who either want greater accuracy and insights from their hardware or a more complete running power ecosystem.
Future innovations from the company could come from offering a lab-type service similar to RunScribe Plus, reporting/broadcasting existing temperature and humidity metrics, more deeply embedding Apple Running Power into a watchOS Stryd app, and even new hardware that measures other aspects of gait from the torso, perhaps incorporating Garmin RD-POD data. I don’t think there is enough money in gait metrics to justify a significant, standalone business proposition but Stryd might as well add it if it represents an easy expansion to the ecosystem.
So, Stryd’s immediate future is clear – its ecosystem is relatively limited in how it can expand its accuracy and commercially attractive features. It just needs new members and new pod buyers.
Q: Will anyone buy the company?
A: I’m not sure. What would a buyer do with the company to get a 10x ROI?
More: Stryd
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I don’t know about everyone else, but I am also very excited by this. Excited enough, that it took me all of 5 seconds before deciding to order the 2nd pod.
I’ve been plagued (in the past, for now) by injuries that kept me off running for 4+ years. And my bike power meter show clear asymmetry between leg power. Getting the same information for running, and especially the footpath stuff? Priceless – for me, at least.
So yeah, can’t wait to get my (2nd) Stryd and see the stats…
Yeah but if you are getting injured due to hitting the ground too hard, then Footpath won’t pick up on this as Stryd does not have any force plates to measure how hard you hit the ground, they also don’t have any sort of gait analysis for foot strike.
Unless of course you could make some sort of correlation here, but I don’t understand how?
Saying that though, Footpath does look interesting, but who knows if it will actually help with injury issues. It just seems quiet expensive for just this feature alone, the balance features are not something I think I will need.
Of course, it won’t show that. But if – for example – my injury is not 100% gone, only 95% gone, I expect to have an asymmetry shown that I don’t realise. Symmetric running means all is good. Asymmetric means something is not entirely right, should be looked at – maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s my old injury.
This won’t be magic, but it will be more data. I could use more data, I think.
@D yeah I broadly share that sentiment
that’s 2 of us then!
I don’t see myself swallowing the membership model which now plagues so many new gadgets. I understand the economics, but do I wish to support it: no.
I thought the article was pretty clear that only FOOTPATH requires membership. All the dual power metrics are ‘free’ with the new pod.
It’s a fair deal
Tho I do share your anti-subscription sentiment.
Interested?
Yes.
Sad that I didn’t upgrade my Stryd with wind to the new version last year, so this wouldn’t be such a big hit?
Yes.
Now I need two new Stryd pods and a new watch as my battery doesn’t last more than 2 days now.
Plus my Polar Verity sense has stopped dual broadcasting Bluetooth.
Geez, running was really inexpensive in the early 00’s…
And then I got a Timex GPS body link device, HRM and the data recorder…
£1k !
How much will Mrs D get spent on her xmas pressie?
As an early-adopter of Stryd, currently with Wind-gen pod but not the Next-Gen, I’m interested. But it’s hard to justify the cost of upgrade (which would be $299 for me it appears), since the only tangible benefit is the Footpath aspect which I need a membership (at $120/year) to view.
Unless I am missing something?
I’m a little mad at the Stryd guys for not enabling Temperature/Humidity to be transmitted along with all the other (mostly unactionable) metrics and now they’re asking for a second pod to take up the real estate on my other shoe that my Garmin Tempe currently uses to measure said temperature! I have seriously asked for Temp/Humidity for years on their support forums to no avail. I know the Stryd transmits it, I can see it on other non-Garmin apps.
And, don’t get me started on all PITA aspects with using Stryd power on a Garmin device.
your assumption is correct.
Temp/humidity – yes I agree. I have just emailed Angus on that.
Garmin. yes i wont get your started as that will also get me started. As you know Stryd has zero control over this. Garmin is playing hard to get for some annoying secret reason
I would sure like to see if SOMEone could get some traction with them on this, like I said I have been asking for years.
FYI – I have been a longtime reader, but just subscribed – you do good work in this area and should be supported.
thank you for the support…it’s a labour of love and I do appreciate those that help out.
I got a response from Stryd and they are not looking at it at the moment but are looking at it further down the line. I vaguely remember asking the same question to a differnet person at stryd when the next gen was released and got the same answer.
You don’t need your tempe anymore! With the latest version of the ciq datafield you have access to the temperature sensor of the Stryd pod. Very cool!
My race photos show what I know, that my left knee and ankle are “dodgy”
It would have been interesting to measure and track this.
Unfortunately the subscription isn’t a path I’m willing to go down.
In hindsight I think they would have been better to put all the training plans in the subscription model. They are worth paying for.
maybe at somepoint you can try out the membership for a month and then use that to analyse your historic footpath data?
training plans: i’m not sure. I can see why you say that but different epople will be attracted to stryd by different things.
Much Ado about Nothing I would say……
There’s enough other data available.
And when you’re also a cyclist you betta do power measurement on the bike.
Indoors of course. Your own lab.
there not been too much ADO
and it is a bit more than nothing
but i can see where you’re coming from even though I’m excited. I could have made some joke about how many sets of (under)pants I got through yesterday but you all deserve better than that from me
Pay-walling the most interesting metrics has basically ruled this out for me. I’d love to upgrade from the original pod and had been waiting for dual sided to be launched but a monthly subscription is a big NO from me. Shame.
most of the dual sided metrics are free
the visualisations are behind the paywall
Just ordered a second pod with a chunky extra discount courtesy of Stryd- I had just bought a 12 month membership a few days prior.
I think if you’re excited about it, go for it! At the end of the day it’s all about having fun and increasing the perceived quality of your efforts. I like the idea, but the Garmin HRM Pro does this already at a lower price point. Is it as responsive? No. But it’s a lot easier to keep up with since I want quality HR data and value that data as much as power and pace.
thank you
https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=C8eynCstM95kcVf50iAmp6
https://the5krunner.com/2022/06/21/garmin-running-power-explainer/
Yes, but it depends on the level of accuracy you want. Whilst there is no agreed definition of ‘correct’ running power, the sensor inputs used by Garmin from hrm pro in conjunction with the watch aren’t as accurate as stryd in my opinion.
Stryd originally used a chest strap but deemed it lacked accuracy and moved to a footpod based approach.
Yes the hrm-pro gives good HR accuracy. be very careful when repalcing the battery
OP said they want quality HR data, You need a chest strap any way for that, and garmin have changed the battery design because some people were too stupid to handle 4 screws
including me! the plate broke when i tightened one of the screws. Perhaps could have been a toughter material…that’s why the PLUS versio was introduced as the hrm-pro was considered to have a defective design
Hmmm. If I bought a second Stryd with the current rebate (just assuming), I am not quite clear on how much of the new data would be actionable right away, in a very practical sense. This is coupled to the fact that I am torn between upgrading to either the Suunto Race or a Garmin 965.
Could anyone tell me if the Garmin could display anything that would be useful to see DURING a run that the Race cannot rather than mulling over the Stryd Powercenter post-run? Does the new Stryd Stryd Garmin data field 2.0 add something here?
I really like the next-gen Stryd but on my current Polar watch there is little more than GPS-independent pace and Power, again, DURING the run. Super helpful, but going through the rest of the Stryd metrics post-run feels very detached and not always easy to correlate what you changed in terms of running style, posture etc to any meaningful run-related metric.
Confession: I find the Suunto Race much more appealing aesthetically, but it might be wiser to go with a Garmin as a serious runner. Opinions?
let me have a go, i’m not entirely clear on all the implications of some of the issues you raise
1. the second pod will immediately imrpove the responsiveness of all the metrics. you could say they would be more accurate but stryd wouldn’t say that.
2. there are immediately more metrics for free. (Footpath will cost you)
3. I’m not sure on the immediate impact on coros/polar/suunto watches. i would assume they get the same responsiveness benefit providing that the DUO-pair of sensors can be paired as a single entity and not two sensors – for example, Suunto has had issues in that area with dual bike power meters in the past.
4. live display of dual sided L & R metrics. i would expect apple/garmin apps to be first updated and then coros. Suunto and polar will probably lag dvelopment by months.
5. how would you propose to use these ‘advanced’ metrics during a run? usually the best way to improve gct/vo type metrics is by simply running faster. #simply!!!!
6. i would have thought gait analysis is better performed after the workout. the change in many of the metrics will be as trends and linked to your improvement in fitness and form
7. i don’t think there is a great case for next gen DUO as an upgrade from WIND and next gen. as an upgrade from before the Wind version then go for it. ultimately, as you say, 90% of the benefits of stryd during a run come from accurate power and pace. benefits of stryd outside the run and in powercenter include, power curves, training plans and gait-realted metrics
suunto. yes it looks better.
garmin. it will get new stuff from stryd as a priority
polar is a good runners environment.
the post workout metrics might be able to be used to look at significnat changes. eg in this post i tried to look at the imapct of orthotics vs no orthotics but came away none-the-wiser. footpath need soem sort of ideal curve as a comparator for a person of your pace.
https://the5krunner.com/2023/11/08/stryd-footpath-through/