Zwift RunPod

I bought this as it seemed to be the cheapest way to get treadmill runs onto Zwift. It turns out its so much more. The Zwift bit works great with my iPad, really easy to connect. All it needs to transmit is running speed via Bluetooth. What surprised me is the additional metrics. I have run outdoors a few times and when synced to my iPhone post run it gives me Foot Strike details, Cadence, Ground Contact Time, Rate of Impact, Stride Length and Leg Swing along with tips on what is deemed good for these metrics. It combines these to give you a 'Runficiency' (Trademarked) plus bunch of graphs. This is about performance improvements and injury prevention. It also connects to my Garmin Running Watch (Fenix 5) whilst running although I have yet to investigate what it is transmitting. For less than £35, it's an incredible piece of technology. App is slightly buggy but I'm sure they will fix this.

It’s not perfectly accurate but very close. It’s a great item to turn your non Bluetooth treadmill into a fun game worth every penny

You can do a lot worse than this little gizmo if you want to start using Zwift Run - it's small, light and probably the cheapest option available, but there are caveats which I'll describe below. It fixes to your shoe quickly and easily - it comes in 2 parts, the first sits under your laces and then the main top section clips on top. Pairing to Zwift is also straight forward - the pod has a very small green light which will flash when it's been woken up. Long term update (2 years later!) If you find that Zwift connects to the pod, but then your avatar refuses to run whatsoever - its a sign that the battery is dying! I have noticed during use that your on screen avatar will stop and stand every so often even though you're still running - after a bit of experimentation, the pod seems to work best when placed at the front of your laces rather than on the tongue of your shoe. This problem also occurs if your run speed isn't high enough - so you like to run/walk on a treadmill, the walks may result in you "standing still" and the pod won't recognise when you start to run again - unless you unclip / reclip the pod back into place. The trigger point for this seems to be around 8.5km/h - so I'd advise keeping above that speed to make all your running count! (Just remember that it's "Zwift Run" and not "Zwift Walk"!)

Outstanding foot pod at an amazing price point. I use this both out on the road to gather metrics but also to power Zwift for treadmill running. It puts out BT LE that can be picked up by Zwift and other training apps like Strava. It has a great little app that analyses your running metrics and updates the software etc. Cheap enough to put one on per pair of shoes. I get around 600km from a battery which is pretty impressive.

The very first thing you need to do is download the Milestone App, connect to the pod and update firmware; it fixes a BLE issue. I used an iPad for testing. Running Zwift it took just a few seconds for Zwift to find the pod. Next thing to do is click the spanner icon and calibrate it with your treadmill; it's a 3-speed stage calibration. Then you are set to go. I have found the speed runs a bit up and down from the required speed (I use it for workouts). You need t get out of the habit of 'chasing' the speed with the treadmill and if you are close to the required speed and it is fairly steady, then stay at that speed. I ignore matching the speed with the treadmill; just use the up/down speed controls to get to the speed zwift wants. I find the higher speeds 9kph+ much more accurate than the lower ones, where the avatar often stops or walks. Footpods are a great concept and as a side hobby for me (I'm a cyclist) it's good enough. For a all out runner, it will possibly be an irritant; maybe need investment in the expensive stryd or wait until TreadTracker from RunSocial is available in the UK .

When I bought my first MilestonePod, I was interested in seeing the additional metrics it provides to give information about your running style, such as cadence, stride length, and foot strike. Tracking shoe mileage, its original purpose, was not something I felt I needed. However, I was so impressed with how easy it was to use, other than swapping between shoes, I bought a second, so now I just leave it in place. This helps with calibration, as moving between shoes can change the distance calculations (my previous Nike pod was the same), The firmware was recently updated so it can be used as a real-time Bluetooth sensor with a compatible watch. I had been considering a GPS watch for a while, and this was just the push I needed. I bought a Polar M400, which can be configured to take speed and distance from the pod while still tracking location with GPS, and can display cadence and stride length as I am running - I am trying to improve my style to reduce injuries, as I think I overstride. I contacted MilestonePod last week with a query about using the pod with my new watch, and found them amazingly helpful. One of the co-founders, Meir, has the same watch, and discussed the issue with me. He provided a firmware update to fix a minor problem within a few days. You rarely experience that level of service from a huge brand. The price has increased recently, but it is still a bargain compared with the Polar Stride Sensor.