r/the5krunner

Garmin trademarked Muscle Battery in early 2026, a metric built on muscle oxygen (SmO2) data. The interesting part is that Garmin has read SmO2 from third-party sensors like Moxy and Train.Red over ANT+ for years, but has never made its own muscle oxygen hardware. The trademark suggests that is about to change. The pieces are all there: an established data standard, cheap NIRS components, and a proprietary score to wrap around the raw readings, exactly the pattern Garmin used with Cycling Dynamics and Body Battery. Hydration and breathing sensors have broader appeal but face a harder education problem, and the biochemical sensors like glucose and lactate look like follower territory where Garmin lets others absorb the regulatory risk first.

Muscle oxygen is a useful metric for serious athletes, but does it have a wide enough audience to justify Garmin building dedicated hardware?

Further reading: https://the5krunner.com/2026/06/29/garmin-next-sensors-2026/

Leaker Kosutami posted on 24 June that an Apple smart ring, referred to internally as iRing, is in active development. This contradicts both Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Oura's own CEO, who both said in 2024 that Apple had no plans to enter the category.

The cannibalisation argument, that a ring would eat into Apple Watch sales, is probably overstated: the ring buyer wants screen-free sleep and recovery tracking, the watch buyer wants a display and notifications. These are not the same person. The more credible internal threat is a screenless band, which competes more directly with entry-level Apple Watch purchases. Oura's broad biometric sensing patents are the bigger external obstacle, having already been used against Samsung and Ultrahuman in US courts. Is the cannibalisation fear the real reason Apple has held back, or is it the patent minefield?

Further reading: https://the5krunner.com/2026/06/27/apple-iring-smart-ring/

Stryd 5.0 is back in stock after selling out quickly following its late 2025 launch. Testing across a range of paces put it among the more accurate running pace sources available, with the free tier covering everything most runners will use. The only scenario where a second pod and a subscription make sense is if you want detailed bilateral gait analysis. For pace and power alone, one pod does the job.

Is the gait analysis case for two pods actually strong enough to justify the subscription cost?

Further reading: https://the5krunner.com/2026/06/22/stryd-5-0-running-power-meter-back-in-stock/

Today I run a 5k in 17:26min, roughly 20seconds slower than my 5k prediction. It was an all out effort in Training on the track, so the race prediciton should adapt to it you would think. Paradoxically garmin increased the 10k time by over 20seconds, altthough my Vo2max decreased a little. I‘m curious if other people experienced the same and what could be the reason for it. Cheers.

Amazfit launched the Helio Strap Pro at the HYROX World Championship in Stockholm this week. I had hands-on time with both modules at the event and an exclusive interview with Jimmy Kennedy, Director of Products for Hybrid Training.

The product is a two-piece system: the Helio Core Motion HR arm strap, which is an evolution of the existing Helio Strap with HybridCharge replacing BioCharge, and a new Helio Core Motion waist sensor containing a 9-axis motion sensor. The two work together to produce a cardio/muscle exertion split and per-station movement analysis across all eight HYROX stations.

The technical logic is straightforward. Heart rate zones give you a reasonable cardio load number but tell you nothing about muscular strain. To estimate muscular work you need exercise type, load, range of motion, and movement speed. HYROX is the ideal environment for this because station weights are fixed by the rules, removing the one variable sensors cannot otherwise measure. A sled push is always 152kg for men. A wall ball is always 9kg. That makes the calculation tractable in a way it simply is not in a general gym.

Kennedy was candid about two gaps in the current system: race prediction personalisation from individual race history is not yet implemented, and venue geometry varies between cities in ways the current model does not account for. He described a New York example where Run 8 was 2.5 laps rather than two because of the venue layout, making his predicted pace a full minute off. Both are confirmed as in development.

The significant limitation to flag: the waist sensor is completely inactive outside HYROX Race and HYROX Simulation modes at launch. General gym, CrossFit, and open hybrid training get the arm strap only. More workout modes are confirmed as coming with no timeline.

At launch it works only with the Balance 3 and Balance Ultra.

Further reading: https://the5krunner.com/2026/06/18/amazfit-helio-strap-pro-hands-on/