Showing posts with label foot pod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foot pod. Show all posts

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Bad Garmin, bad judgment

How far & how fast? Garmin's not talking
Today's run (street): 4.4 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles

My stopwatch would have been a better choice than my FR 60 on today's run, but I didn't realize that until I was about three miles in. That's when I experienced another Garmin meltdown. I naively thought that the Garmin was back to its old self because the timer seemed to be working again. I wasn't able to pair it with my foot pod, but I didn't really care. In fact, even if I could, the data would have been flawed because I hadn't calibrated the foot pod in six years.

It's finally fall and that means the weather is much more run friendly in the morning. Yesterday I ran my usual Friday circuit a little faster than usual and I was happy about that. I don't know if I've turned a corner in terms of pacing, but I'm generally running 45 seconds to a minute per mile faster than just a few weeks ago. I suspect cooler conditions contributed, but some of it must be due to improved fitness.

This morning I completely ignored what was happening outside and only noted the 59° temperature posted by the local news station. When I stepped outside, I felt a light but steady rain falling. I went back inside to change my running shoes because I didn't want the Zantes to get soaked. I went into the guest room to get new shoes from my gear cabinet and my wife was running on the treadmill. I told her it was raining and she said, "I told you that twice this morning." Actually she had mentioned it, but I'd decided the rain would stop before I went out.

A few minutes later I was out the door with different shoes and my ASICS rain jacket. Despite the extra layer, I stayed comfortable because of a steady breeze coming from the north. I wore the hood for the first mile. Although the conditions were cool, the humidity fogged my glasses. Things got better when I removed the hood when the rain lightened to a mist.

At least Gmaps still works
I enjoyed the cool breeze and the cloud-covered sky and I started to wonder how much time had passed since I'd started. I glanced at the Garmin which showed I'd been running about 30 minutes. I calculated in my head that, based on the rest of my planned route, I'd end up running about four and a quarter miles. About a minute after I'd checked the time, I heard the same sound that I heard at the end of last Sunday's run on the Bethpage trail. Once again, the Garmin's display said "Scanning" and I knew that I'd lost both the timer and my elapsed time.

I finished the rest of my run without knowing how long or far I'd gone. I hadn't taken note of the time when I left, so I couldn't calculate my pace based on post-run mapping and duration. I can estimate it roughly, but the margin of error is wide. I located my stopwatch when I got home and will take that along tomorrow. I'll get a GPS watch eventually, but for now I'll track my metrics like they did in the olden days. By that I mean in 2005 when Google launched Gmaps.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Late start on a rainy day run

Back in business
Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

Our guests were leaving mid-morning, so I delayed my run until after they'd left. The intermittent rain made it an easy decision. I got out around 11:00 when the rain slowed to a mist. I only planned to run for about half an hour and thought that short period of time would help me avoid the next downpour.

The sciatic pain has eased considerably and didn't restrict me much on the run. I'd forgotten that today was Tuesday and not the weekend. I was surprised to see so much activity on the road. When I came to the top of the first street, I encountered a gaggle of town trucks blocking my way. This caused me to change direction and follow a road that I rarely take. It was a nice change from my usual route.

The run was fine, but it seemed to take a lot longer than 32 minutes to complete. I put a little more into the second half and was pleased to see that I was maintaining about 80% max HR. If I wasn't so concerned about re-aggravating my sciatica, I would have pushed even harder. The rain didn't stop, but it never got any worse.

Later in the day I finally got around to replacing the battery in my foot pod. I haven't used the pod in a number of weeks so I'm happy to get it back working. Next time I go out I'm going to be able to capture another important performance metric - cadence - and use that, along with heart rate, to help me amp up my speed.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

A chilly, windy, wonderful run

Circuitous route
Today's run (street): 5.6 miles

Yesterday's steamy treadmill workout reminded me that we're not quite done with humid days. All I hoped for this morning was clear skies so I could get outside for my run. What I didn't expect to see were temperatures in the mid 40's -- cold even for early October. Goodbye humidity and hello dry air. I was thrilled.

45° is chilly enough to wear long sleeves, yet warm enough for shorts. Since I'm more concerned about comfort than fashion, that's the combination that I went with. The stiff wind from the west made things occasionally unpleasant. Changing direction along today's circuitous route helped to keep things manageable.

Unlike last Sunday's long run, I didn't encounter too many oddities along the way. I did notice that the Justice Monkey sign was replaced by a small kick board that someone had hung in its place. Once again, puzzling and strange. I also followed a skateboarder down one of the longer roads. I tried to stay with him, but was never able to catch up. How fast do skateboards go?

I would have liked to do a full six miles this morning, but I needed to get back in time to meet our day's schedule. Even so, it was great to be outside and running in the crisp fall air. A review of the run data shows that, despite replacing the battery in the foot pod, it didn't record my cadence. That was disappointing because I tried to work on that and would have liked to see the results. I'll probably have to re-link the foot pod to my Garmin 210 to make it work again.

Hoka Clifton (top), Saucony Kinvara 5 (bottom)
Today's run was a nice antidote to yesterday's treadmill slog and I hope this cooler weather sticks around until next weekend. I'm starting to think about replacing my Virratas and I'm on the fence on whether to stay with a minimal platform (i.e., Kinvara 5) or join the new wave of cushioned running shoes that Hoka started. After running in Hattoris, Kinvaras, Pure Drifts and Virratas over the past four years, I'm open to a change.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Lies, damn lies and Garmins

Look how fast I didn't run!
Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

I was in meetings all day on Tuesday and didn't get a chance to do a run. I did cover a lot of ground on foot, so that should count for something. Along the way I noticed many marathon tourists (after all these years I can easily spot them) enjoying the sights prior to running the race on Sunday. A couple of my meetings were held near Time Square, where sports demonstrations publicizing the Sochi Olympics were going on. It was a mob scene, but fun to watch.

I had no city meetings today, so I resumed my run schedule this morning. I've been running with my foot pod so that I can capture my cadence, but I still use the Garmin's GPS to measure my mileage. Due to that, I haven't bothered to calibrate the foot pod for distance. When I fire up the Garmin, it detects the foot pod and asks whether I'm running indoors. If I say yes, it will turn off the GPS radio and use the foot pod for measurement instead.

Today I went through the routine and when it looked like the signal had locked in, I was on my way. I hadn't gone half a mile before the Garmin chirped saying I'd reached my first mile. I figured that the GPS signal must not have actually acquired before I started and the watch was working off the (uncalibrated) foot pod. I didn't care much, because I always Gmap my run to get exact distance.

The watch did switch to GPS mode shortly after that, and my remaining splits were in line with my normal pacing. While I would have liked to meet the performance that the Garmin recorded for today's run, I must admit to a far less impressive pace in the mid-9:00 range. So the Garmin lied, but I'll forgive it. If I could run five minute first miles for real, I might actually break an 8:00 pace on my training runs.

Friday, May 11, 2012

The key to capturing cadence

Cadence catcher
Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

I finally got outside this morning, for the first time since Sunday's race. The treadmill runs I did yesterday and Wednesday were fine, but I think I run differently on the machine, compared to the road. I wonder if it has something to do with stride length. Outdoors, I never think of how far I extend my legs when I come down, although I do focus on landing on my mid-foot. On the treadmill, a too-long stride is usually announced by the sound of the kick plate at the front of the tread. That feedback surely influences the way I run.

The shorter stride on the treadmill is not necessarily a bad thing, because it probably forces me to increase my cadence to keep up with the tread belt. Mid-foot running supposedly optimizes stride length, and cadence is used like a gas pedal to regulate speed.

This morning I pushed a little harder than I had during the past two workouts because I've recovered from my 13.1 mile run last weekend. I tried to use arm movement to maintain a brisk cadence, but in the end, my overall pace turned out to be just about average. I do wish my Garmin FR210 captured cadence so I could compare it to my speed over a run. Unfortunately, the GPS watch lacks that capability. I suppose I could always count steps. That, or go back to my FR60 that uses a foot pod to capture that metric.

Friday, January 27, 2012

In treadmill I trust. Or do I?

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

This is the key
A rainy morning kept me inside today so I did yet another treadmill run. I'm curious to know how close the readout on the treadmill's display matches my actual progress and performance. I replaced the treadmill's console a few months ago but wasn't able to run the calibration sequence when I installed it. Every time I run on the machine I question the accuracy of its recorded distance and speed.

I've often felt that running on this treadmill (a Sole F63) and our prior Pro-Form unit felt harder at a given speed than when running on the road. A 9:00 pace on the Sole feels like about 8:50 on pavement. It may be that the treadmill forces a shorter stride and higher cadence that feels more challenging. I would think that the treadmill would feel easier and street running because there's no wind resistance. Plus, you don't experience hills unless you select an incline.

I still have my foot pod that links to my Garmin and I could probably answer my accuracy questions by comparing the Garmin performance with the Sole's on the same run. Before I do that, I need to replace the foot pod battery and do some calibration runs outside in order to establish an accurate baseline. The other issue is that the foot pod won't attach easily to my Hattori's so I'll need to run in a different shoe. I guess I can make excuses why it will be hard to test or I can just go ahead and try it.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The FR 210 and foot pod: challenges and results

Today's run (treadmill): 2.5 miles

Foot pod, meet FR 210
I planned for rain this morning and set up my gear for an indoor run. It would be my first time back on the treadmill in almost a month and a return to using the Garmin FR60 watch for tracking performance. I attached the foot pod to my Mirages (I'm already spoiled by the pod-free FR 210) and reached into the drawer for my FR60. It then occurred to me that the 210 also syncs with the foot pod so I chose that watch instead. After a couple of cycles through the menu, the 210 was paired with the sensor.

I started my run at a moderate pace, which is my method of choice for tolerating the treadmill. Start it easy and end it hard. I had a scare at the beginning that my knee would act up but after a moment of pain it was fine and three hours later it's still fine.

I hit start on the 210 and glanced down after a minute to verify that it was capturing my pace. It wasn't until I'd reached the six minute mark that I looked again at the watch to see that, while it was displaying pace, it wasn't recording time. I don't know why that happened but I hit start again and this time noted that the stopwatch was running.

I used the time display on treadmill and the average pace captured by the Garmin to calculate my actual distance (the treadmill does not do that accurately). It was a pretty good workout and I didn't find the treadmill as tedious as I usually do. Perhaps all that biking this weekend helped my running. If that's the case I'm thrilled to find a cross-training workout that's both fun and beneficial.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Goodbye foot pod, hello Garmin 210

Not sure what I want more, the watch or the displayed performance
Today's workout (elliptical): 20 minutes

I'm thinking again about buying a GPS watch. My frustrations with using a foot pod are rising due to accuracy issues and, except for treadmill runs, a GPS solution may be preferable. I started using the Nike sensor back in 2008 to track my performance. It worked fairly well once I got the hang of calibrating it but this technology was only accurate when paired with Nike shoes (that have a well to secure the chip). I don't like Nike shoes and, besides that, the wristband that captured the feed via RFID link was poorly made. After replacing it twice I asked for a refund and bought a Garmin FR50.

The FR50, and later, the FR60 are a great design. I truly love the watches and their easy synchronization with Garmin Connect. My key issue is with the foot pod that uses an accelerometer and needs to be tuned for every shoe. Since I'm a bit of a shoe freak and often switch between pairs it usually creates issues with calibration. I manage these issues through ad hoc adjustments that never quite coincide with my true distance. I've done my share of runs using GPS apps on the iPhone and the results are universally bad, although they offer some good features other than tracking.

With all that I'm reading good things about the Garmin 210, a less complex version of their 400 (and now 600) series GPS watches. The 210 lacks some of the features that the higher end watches have but the 210 does support a foot pod sync (for indoors) and wireless connectivity to a heart rate monitor. I'm going to start pricing out this watch. Father's day is coming!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Garmin foot pod calibration - one of life's mysteries

Today's run (street): 5 miles

The action of calibrating my Garmin's foot pod is hit or miss. The best way to do it is when you run an exact distance and it calibrates automatically. Another method is to adjust the foot pod based upon a known factor, such as the percentage between what was recorded and what you actually ran. The third way is the worst way and of course it's the one I usually follow because it's also the the easiest. In this case, when I'm consistently over or under recording my distance (compared with Gmaps) I manually compensate by arbitrarily increasing the the index until I get close. Sometimes this works great and the foot pod will report accurately for many runs. Since I often switch the foot pod between pairs of shoes it's usually off by some factor anyway and that's why I Gmap my runs.

Easier said than done
This morning I adjusted the foot pod thinking that a .05% decrease would compensate for over recording would get me to the 1/100ths of a mile accuracy that I often observe. When I went out this morning on the freshly plowed streets I was moving well. Except for on the spots that were still covered with packed snow my pace was fast and my stride was good. I often follow the same exact route for the first mile to gauge whether the Garmin is ahead or behind my real distance. I must have been confused today because I came through the first mile thinking that the foot pod was under recording, when in fact it was probably off by 3% the other way. I'm still fuzzy about when it chirped and where I was when that happened but when I finished my run the recorded distance was .23 miles greater than what I mapped using Gmaps.

I find it hard to believe my calibration was that far off and I have a different theory. Much of the roads were covered with a combination of slush and snow and my form differed greatly when I ran on those sections versus the open pavement.  It's possible that this difference in stride, cadence and lift may have thrown off the foot pod. I won't ever really know but I'm planning to reset the foot pod to 100% index value and start again. If I thought that a GPS watch would be more accurate I'd probably buy the Garmin 210. Most of the time I'd be better off just running with a stop watch and calculating pace later, after I'd Gmapped the route. The only problem with that is when I run the trails or on the treadmill and the foot pod also provides excellent data that I value, including split times and cadence. I guess I'll just keep calibrating and hoping for the best.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Running off the grid

Yesterday's run (street): 4.6 miles

It was a surprisingly busy weekend, especially on Sunday. I didn't have time to post but I was able to work in a morning run. After Saturday's unusually tough four miles I'd hoped Sunday's would be better. It's been cold since the turn of the year and yesterday morning the temperatures were in the mid 20's with wind chills making it feel like the teens. I've learned that until the temperature approaches 10 degrees that smart layering will hold off the cold long enough to to keep things tolerable until my body warms up from the run.

I thought yesterday's run would be a repeat of Saturday's. My legs felt a bit stiff over the first mile and I anticipated that things would go from bad to worse. With nothing to lose, I decided to pick up the pace to see if it would make a difference. That actually helped a lot and my stride began to feel more natural. I took a different route than normal so after running a while without hearing the chirp of my Garmin I looked at the watch to see that I'd never turned on the foot pod. I fortunately remembered my start time and paid attention to my finish time and after Gmapping the route I figured out my approximate pace. In the past I would have been upset to have run without capturing the metrics on the Garmin but once I realized I was untethered I actually felt very free during the run.

Neither run this weekend was very long but at least yesterday's turned out satisfying. With more snow on the way I'm thinking that I'll probably be constrained to the treadmill and elliptical this week.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Running hot and cold

Yesterday's run (street): 2.4 miles
Today's run (street): 2.7 miles

Both my morning runs this week reminded me that winter isn't too far off. I've gone from wearing short sleeves and running shorts to compression pants, layers and gloves. It's still fairly mild compared to late December conditions but the chilly dry mornings are back. I experienced some throat burn yesterday, the effect of breathing hard through my mouth. This weather tends to exacerbate sinus congestion and I'm dealing with the end of a cold, so nose breathing isn't too easy right now.

Yesterday I ran with my Skecher's Resistance Runners. As I ran it occurred to me why I like them. The instability of the shoe mimics the feel of a bumpy trail surface and the suspension bridge between the mid-sole and out-sole absorbs and dissipates shock as if running on dirt. I'm not saying that the SRRs replace the trail experience in any other way. I'm not even sure I'd consider them legitimate running shoes at this point. However, I have been positively surprised with my running experience so far.

Today I set out with temperatures near the freezing mark but stayed warm throughout the run due to the way I'd dressed. If I ran another 15 minutes I would have got very hot. During yesterday's run my Garmin foot pod's battery quit so I replaced it last night. The calibration was slightly off so after mapping today's route on Gmaps I was happy to see that my pace was better than what the Garmin showed.

I saw this article in the NY Times this morning about barefoot running. Most of these articles say the same thing and this one does too. The most interesting point was the question -- if you run barefoot in a race, where do you put the timing chip?
 

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