Should I Use Stryd Zones or Stryd Workout App?

The Garmin watch offers the best experience when combined with Stryd. There are various ways to set up your watch:

Stryd Workout App

The Stryd Workout app guides runners through workouts and can be used for regular runs as well. The Stryd Workout app is recommended for anyone that has a newer Garmin watch that supports Connect IQ 3.0 or higher (check our compatibility guide to check whether your Garmin works with the Stryd Workout app). 

1. The Stryd Workout app offer the best experience when doing a structured power-based workout or training plan. You can import workout from Stryd, FinalSurge, and TrainingPeaks. Stryd offers free training plans within its ecosystem. Stryd Members can create their own workouts in the Stryd app. And those with a FinalSurge or TrainingPeaks account can create workouts or purchase plan within those platforms.

2. The Stryd Workout app can replace the "run" mode of your Garmin watch. It offers similar feature and data fields albeit more limited. 

Stryd Zones Data Field

For those that prefer to use the "run" mode on their Garmin watch, or users that have an older Garmin, Stryd developed a data field that can be combined with any other metric on the watch. Your Garmin watch must support Connect IQ (check our compatibility guide). Stryd Zones is the recommended data field

1. Stryd Zones can be combined with other data fields like time, distance, etc. on any data screen of your Garmin watch.

2. You add a data screen with a layout of one data field and add Stryd Zones. In this case, you can get two different power metrics on your watch (for example, real-time power and lap average power). In this mode, you can also get a visual zone bar.

3. Stryd Zones automatically updates your power zones (for most watches). This means that when your fitness improves, you will automatically get updated power zones on your watch. Stryd Zones can show your power zone, which can be helpful to control your intensity when not doing a structured workout with the Stryd Workout app.

Stryd for Pace and Distance

Stryd is often more accurate for pace and distance than your GPS. Our set up procedures have you pair your Stryd as a foot pod and use Stryd for pace/distance. If you prefer to get pace and distance from GPS, you can either not pair Stryd at all (not required to show power on your watch) or only use Stryd indoors for pace and distance.

Data Transfer

The Garmin watch automatically records all Stryd metrics when used with the Stryd Workout app or Stryd Zones. When you sync your watch using Garmin Connect on your phone or Garmin Express on your computer, you can automatically transfer your data to the Stryd ecosystem (which is superior for power-based data analysis) and other platforms like Strava.