8,153
edits
Changes
From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
SHFT
,no edit summary
SHFT is a [[Running Sensors| Running Sensor]] system that analyzes your Running Form. SHFT uses two small pods, one attached to your shoe and one attached to a chest strap. These pods contain an accelerometer that measures your movement and transmits the information to a smart phone app for analysis. SHFT provides real-time audio coaching through the smart phone app as well and has more detailed analytics through either the app or their website. The SHFT system is beautifully designed, but a number of the metrics have accuracy issues and I found the audio coaching more irritating than useful.(Note that SHFT have announced the "SHFT IQ" which is a completely new system that uses a single pod and claims to use Artificial Intelligence.)
=The Pods=
The two SHFT sensor pods are lovely, with an elegant Scandinavian design style. Each part is triangular with a spring-loaded clip on the back.
The SHFT system provides a lot of metrics, but I'm concerned that not all of them are as accurate as I'd like. The SHFT system is also missing a few metrics (see below.)
* '''Power'''. There is a lot of hype around power meters for running, as power meters have revolutionized cycling. I think that running power meters are a flawed concept, and so far the implementation seems equally flawed. It's not practical for me to try to test a running power meter in absolute terms, but I did do a number of simplistic tests. Using a treadmill, I either gradually increased my pace, or gradually increase to the incline. In either case I would expect a power meter to show an increasing power output as my effort rises. As you can see below, this really doesn't happen with the SHFT system.
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:SHFT-20170102-One.jpg|none|thumb|250px|This is the first incremental treadmill test, gradually increasing the pace over the course of the run. As you can see there's almost no increase in the power shown.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:SHFT-20170102-Two.jpg|none|thumb|250px|A more dramatic variation in pace results in only a nominal improvement in the measured power.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:SHFT-20170111-Three.jpg|none|thumb|250px|This is a longer test over an even greater range of paces.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:SHFT-20170106-Incline.jpg|none|thumb|250px|In this test the pace is kept constant and the incline gradually increased.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:SHFT-20170109-Incline2.jpg|none|thumb|250px|A second incline test.]]
|}
* '''Running Efficiency'''. SHFT says this is the percentage of energy used to move forward compared with overall energy expenditure. This is a really cool idea, but I have little faith in either the ability of the system to measure total energy expenditure or determine the percentage used for forward motion.
* '''Braking'''. This is a measure of how much you are breaking as you run. It's unclear if this is the deceleration measured at the foot, on the torso, or combination of the two. I wasn't able to verify this metric, even crudely, but SHFT gave me a breaking effect of around 8-18 Watts.
|}
Given the nature of the SHFT system, there are a few things that seem noteworthy by their absence. Most glaring omission is the lack of pace information, some think you get from virtually all Footpod sensors. I also think they could to rather more with impact measurement given that they're detecting it on two different body parts. I'm also concerned with the difficulty in using the SHFT system with a chest strap heart rate monitor.
=Running with One Pod=
SHFT now supports running with just one pod, but it has to be worn on the foot (I could not get any data from it on my chest.) With one pod you get Cadence, Ground Contact Time, Impact, Landing angle, Foot Strike, and Toe off angle.
=Real Time Feedback=
The only real-time feedback you get from the SHFT system is via the smartphone app. The system will provide you specific coaching (see below), and you can get it to speak metrics periodically. There is some real time display on the app itself, but the screen real estate is rather poorly used. There is a small fixed display of pace, distance, time, power, but the small font and the low contrast color makes this hard to read even on treadmill. The App will also display any or all of the available metrics, but only one is displayed at the time, and the font is a little smaller than one would like. Unlike some of the competitor systems, you have to run with your smart phone; there's no option to run with the sensors and then upload your data later.
