The Science Behind Stryd, the World's First Running Power Meter (Outside Online)
It’s tough to write a story about a device for which even its creators can’t clarify intentions. Joe Lindsay did great work parsing Stryd designers’ explanations of their product—an electronic pod that sits on your waist and tracks posture and how you ‘bounce’ when you run, to determine your efficiency—as well as new-user coaches’ hypotheses about what the data it collects might mean for running. Where most fitness trackers measure how quickly you cover distance, and foot pods measure how your feet move in relation to one another to measure form, Stryd monitors what’s going on with the rest of your body and how it might affect your overall form.Â
However, there are a few things I might have done differently. Outside writers are taught to write conversationally, but to a somewhat-insider audience—their readers don’t need to be taught what a ‘drivetrain’ or ‘cadence’ is mid-story, for instance. While readers are expected to have basic vocabulary when reading about a given topic, they shouldn’t be expected to deal with so much jargon without some kind of visual aid. This story would have benefited greatly from a video or series of gifs showing how Stryd measures things, vs. other ways people have attempted to measure running intensity. Overall, while Lindsay’s explanations were sometimes ambiguous (probably because his interviewees weren't totally sure what they want out of Stryd yet), he did as comprehensible a job as any exercise writer could be expected to with the information he had. Worth thinking about.Â
Also worth reading:Â http://www.outsideonline.com/1928811/tech-will-predict-and-prevent-your-next-running-injury, by Rosie Spinks; I fact checked this for the magazine, and learned SO much about running form and injury prevention.Â
