I love your podcast and TrainerRoad. I am a triathlete and have been training with a power meter on the bike for the past 3 seasons and have seen great gains. TrainerRoad really helps with having focused sessions. My question is there is now power meters for running but I see a lot of mixed reviews would there be as much of benefit in running as there is cycling or is there to many variables in running. Would love to hear your thoughts. I know this is not a cycling specific question Thank you so much
I have a Stryd pod. It’s great in one respect but pretty useless in most where I live.
If you have hilly terrain, power data while running can be a huge asset. You can get an additional metric to gauge how hard you’re really going and compare this to heart rate so you don’t cook yourself. I live in South Florida. We don’t do hills.
The newer pods do account for wind so again, an additional metric that can help you pace accordingly. While we do have lots of wind here, if it’s so bad I need the power data to make adjustments, I’m probably not in a position to stare at my watch enough to make the adjustments. 
Where does it excel? RPE. Those runs where you feel like crap, the power data can confirm or refute your RPE…just like on the bike.
For me, buying the pod was much more about being able to zwift on a treadmill than it was for true power data.
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Thank you @tropicalcycling I live in an area that is rolling nothing flat. Have you ever used the stryd to do workouts like you would do workouts on the bike
I haven’t, but not because I don’t think it’s possible just because the data isn’t as useful for me. If I did hill repeats…if I had a hill to do hill repeats on…then I’d probably spend some time analyzing the data more. Right now, for me, it’s just a more accurate measure of distance and it’s SUPER helpful on a brick run to remind myself that the first mile FEELS bad, but the numbers don’t agree.
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Do you have a running FTP set? I’d be curious to see how it would compare to what you can do on the bike.
I’ve never used a running PM but it could be interesting for the ~2 months a year when I get in some running.
I do. It’s kinda close to cycling FTP, but not exact. I also don’t run enough for it to be much better than it is. Before Covid, I would do a 5k almost every month. That gave a good baseline test for the app to update FTP. Now, when I do run it’s just base miles so the app doesn’t get a good reading of potential.
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Think the other thing to bear in mind is that even assuming a running PM is accurate then there are quite a few other differences between running and cycling that would impact the way you use it. E.g. cycling being a non-impact sport means you can to a certain degree substitute intensity for volume i.e. a Sweetspot plan instead of a Traditional Base plan. I know from personal experience that if I tried a running equivalent of a Sweetspot plan I would break myself pretty quickly!
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One of the things I find the stryd pod helpful for is in shorter interval runs. I usually do my run training by heart rate, but since that takes a while to catch up, I can use the power numbers to go right back to where I left off. I find that the power for a given heart rate varies a lot between different workouts, but it works well for a starting point as well as inside the workout itself.
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