NPE Runn Review

Here is a summary review of NPE Runn – one of the decade’s best running accessories.

TL;DR – NPE Runn accurately tracks the belt speed of even the oldest of treadmills and broadcasts pace, cadence and incline to any modern sports app or watch like your Zwift app or your Garmin Epix 2 or the latest, greatest Apple Watch Ultra.

That’s all you need to know so grab an extra 10% discount directly from NPE Runn with the code THE5KRUNNER. If you want to read the detailed NPE Runn review then scroll down and enjoy!

Last updated 30 Dec 2022

 

This is a fairly long review, so here’s a summary and link to an NPE Runn discount code if you decide to get one.

Skip ahead to the section that most interests you.

NPE Runn – What Is It?

It’s a running treadmill sensor that converts a treadmill’s belt movements into speed/pace and cadence then blasts them out as both ANT+ and BLE signals along with the incline/grade.

At its most simple level, this means that your Garmin and/or Zwift Run can display and record those signals from even the oldest of treadmills.

NPE Runn – Who Will Buy This

The two most obvious classes of runners who will buy NPE Runn will be

• Zwift Run users
• Treadmill users who want speed/pace recording to the sports watch

Here’s a caveat aimed at sceptical runners in warmer climates; imagine fellow runners who live in Canada or Sweden and the outdoor temperatures they have to embrace for significant parts of the winter months. Many of them already have or use treadmills because of the weather. Treadmills are more widespread and important than you might imagine.

There are also two other classes of runners who will be interested in NPE Runn…gyms and accuracy hunters.

Professional GYMs – NPE Runn Review

SMART treadmills are expensive and many gyms already have made significant investments in older types of treadmills. You would have thought that something like NPE’s RUNN is an easy route to transforming these legacy treadmills into smart treadmills. Unfortunately, I don’t think the product is quite ready for public, high-traffic environments.

• The cradle is permanently affixed to the treadmill and is a trip hazard in a health and safety-conscious world.
• The Runn could be quite easily stolen from its cradle.
• Even if permanently welded to a treadmill, it is the sort of product in a location that could be easily broken by a careless runner who is perhaps not so concerned about someone else’s property as they might be with their own.
• The treadmills would need permanent detection markers on their belts

Of course, problems are just solutions waiting to happen and, in no particular order, our solutions might involve signing a Health & Safety waiver, paying a deposit and affixing a piece of velcro 😉

Although that thick piece of velcro might put the Runn too far away from some treadmill belts. Hmmm.

Runners seeking accuracy – NPE Runn Review

There is a whole book that could be written about treadmill accuracy and I’ll cover some aspects of that later but everyone reading this NPE Runn review will likely already have the opinion that our own treadmills and the treadmills at the gym report the wrong speed. We probably occasionally think, “If only the gym would get the engineer round to calibrate it. Grrrr.”

Well now you can do it yourself…easily

• NPE’s Runn reports the belt speed/pace and that can easily be calibrated by you in about a minute.
• NPE also broadcasts grade/incline which could add further meaning to the reported pace/speed (grade-adjusted pace).

In a hot gym and on a cheap, bouncy treadmill I find the reported treadmill speed nearly always underestimates the speed compared to the HR effort my body is experiencing and I am told that a further 0.5% incline above flat is required to mimic air resistance. Yet when I leave the gym that same, laboured heart rate could translate to a pace per km that’s 20 secs better than it was on the treadmill. Maybe I should buy a fan? Or relish the sweat?…or calibrate the treadmill.

Multi-Treadmill Users

You might have a treadmill at home or use various treadmills at your gym during the lunch break. It might be tricky, in a practical sense, for you to move your Runn (cradle) from one treadmill to the other until the cradle is designed differently and assuming that the treadmill owner is happy with you painting white marks onto their treadmill in the first place.

Other than the portability of the cradle and white markings, there is no significant issue with having to calibrate multiple treadmills other than that the Runn cannot store different calibration factors for several different treadmills.

NPE Runn Review – In More Detail

So let’s move on now to discuss Runn in more detail and start off with what you get in the box

NPE Runn Review – In The Box

Yep, that’s it. The Runn goes into the cradle and the double-sided sticky tape fastens the cradle to the treadmill. The stickers go on the treadmill belt and the micro USB cable periodically charges the Runn. #Simple.

NPE Runn – Getting Started Basics

The actual installation is a little more finessed than this but in principle, this is what you do and it’s FAIRLY EASY

• Stick the cradle on the rear frame of your treadmill…not underneath!…rather, at the back.
• Stick some bits of white tape on the belt under the Runn, GREATER THAN 12″ apart. The more the merrier
• ( Turn on ANT+. Optional )
• Pair it.
• ( Calibrate it. Optional as Runn is supplied factory-calibrated)
• Run.

Here are 7 indicative images of what you have to do as part of the straightforward installation process, the only thing I’ve not mentioned, that’s shown in the images, is that Runn needs to be adjusted to just over 6mm/0.25″ above the belt

The double-sided tape that sticks the bracket to your treadmill is actually pretty strong stuff and the bracket will take a BIG whack before coming off but the white belt stickers will have a relatively limited life. I would estimate that the belt stickers will stay attached for 10s of KM rather than 100s. When I first read about the white stickers it seemed they were fairly poor at adhering to the belt, however by the time I got my Runn I reckon NPE had taken that criticism on board and had improved the quality of stickers. But in the long term, things just aren’t going to stick onto a dirty, sweaty and contoured moving surface…aka a treadmill belt.

So you will probably fall back to using Tippex/WhiteOut/Snow Paint on your home treadmill, although a better solution might be to apply floor paint to a belt that’s been thoroughly cleaned with alcohol. Here is a template you can use for that.

The white stickers (or snow paint) are important. The time taken for EACH SINGLE sticker to pass the 3-inches from the start to the end of the Runn is what is used to determine speed/pace. So the more stickers you have, the more frequently the speed/pace is updated ie THE MORE ACCURATE IT WILL BE

Pairing To Zwift

Zwift users know what to do here. Pair and Go…super simple but don’t calibrate Runn in Zwift.

Pairing To Sports Watches

To enable/disable ANT+ broadcasting, double-tap the white button. You then pair Runn as a footpod to your Garmin, Coros or other ANT+ watches.

If you have Runn paired to Zwift then there are no spare BLE channels and a BLE sports watch, like Polar or Suunto, will be unable to find the Runn device to pair to it. Conversely, if your Polar is paired with Runn then Zwift won’t find Runn.

 

Transmitting, Displaying & Recording Treadmill INCLINE Data

Here is a link to more information on displaying and recording INCLINE data. Garmin users may already know how to download and install a CIQ data field. You will see the incline on your watch and in the recorded data in Garmin Connect.

NPE Runn Now Transmits & Records Incline |

See more

Advanced Usage – Runn Factory Reset

Factory Reset: Press and hold the rear, white button to return to factory settings. The factory-calibrated level of accuracy is for 5mph/0 degrees incline

This is an important point. The factory calibration is correct. Or, at least, you should assume it is. If you want to calibrate Runn to be wrong ie to match your treadmill’s displayed speed, then you can do that if you like. Personally, I wouldn’t do that.

Here’s how…

Advanced Usage – Speed Matching Calibration

DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHY YOU MIGHT NEED TO.

If, for the sake of consistency, you want all your TREADMILL, ZWIFT & GARMIN speed numbers to match then perform a calibration of the NPE Runn before calibrating Zwift, like this…

• Complete the full physical installation and then set the treadmill speed to 5mph (8.0465km/h) with a zero incline. There is NO NEED to run on the treadmill while this is happening.
• Double-tap the rear, white button to turn on the right LED
• Single tap the rear, white button, and you will see alternating left and right LEDs as the white strip passes Runn
• Press and hold the rear, white button for 6 seconds. The LEDs will alternate from left to right when calibration is active.
• Runn now automatically calibrates (the procedure doesn’t say that you need to run here but I would have thought you should)
• LEDs will now turn off (If Runn is on mains power this is not the case)
• Use Zwift/Garmin’s display to show that a correct 5mph speed (8.0465km/h) is being broadcast by Runn. If it’s different then re-start.
• Runn is now calibrated
• Now calibrate Runn WITHIN ZWIFT. This calibration is guided by the Zwift app and you will calibrate at 3 speeds relative to your level of running.

Instead, relying on the Runn’s calibrated speed should mean that your watch and Zwift agree BUT your treadmill’s displayed pace may be different – that’s fine. That’s what you want, in my opinion.

NPE Runn Specifications & Settings

• Dimensions – 92 mm x 38 mm (3.6″ x 1.5″)
• Strip Dimensions: 0.25” x 0.75”
• Supports Bluetooth Smart & ANT+, more specifically:
  • ANT+  supports the Stride Based Speed and Distance Monitor ANT+ Profile and the FE-C profile which also incorporates incline
  • Bluetooth supports Running Speed and Cadence, plus FTMS support
• Bluetooth is ‘always’ on. There is no on/off button
• Supported Incline Range – all physical treadmill incline/decline angles should work
• Battery Type – chargeable via micro-USB
• Battery Life – over 10 hours.
• Accelerometer: senses cadence

NPE Runn – LED Patterns

The LEDs give you some feedback on the device’s status

• Left LED – BLE is connected
• Middle LED – USB power active
• Right LED – ANT+ is broadcasting
• White Strip Detection – Left & right LEDs alternate as the strip passes under
• Calibration – All 3 LEDs perform the reverse sequencing pattern when calibration is active.
• Factory Reset – All 3 LEDs perform the forward sequencing pattern when the button has been held long enough for the reset request to be activated (about 10 secs). The pattern stays active until the button is released.

NPE Runn – Firmware Updates

From April 2020, firmware updates will be supplied over BLE using the Configurez iOS/Android app. Changes in Firmware v3.0.2 Include:

• ANT+ cadence and incline enabled without the need to have a BLE connection active
• Improved strip detection to prevent data dropouts under specific conditions
• Fixed the BLE interface to allow use with RunSocial
• Tighter integration with North Pole Engineering GymTrakr app
• Zeroing out accumulated data when the BLE connection is deactivated
• Fixed jump in distance

 

 

Alternatives to NPE Runn

There are several alternative ways to get treadmill speed or running speed while you are running indoors. It depends on what end-use you want an alternative for. Treadmill running speed can come from any of these

1. IF PRICE IS NO ISSUE AND YOU WANT THE MOST ACCURATE PACE AND/OR RUNNING POWER: Use STRYD – If you come here regularly you’ll know I like STRYD but it’s not cheap, although it gives you the benefit of running with the SAME power and speed indoors and outdoors. STRYD will broadcast pace/cadence over ANT+ and BLE just like the NPE Runn. STRYD currently does not handle INCLINE, except through its app.
2. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A HIGH-END GARMIN: Use Garmin ‘Virtual Run’ mode – certain higher-end Garmins will broadcast heart rate, speed and cadence to Zwift using BLE thanks to a firmware update in Jan 2020.
3. COST: Zwift (Milestone) Pod – This is a nice Zwift product and it’s cheap but it can be sometimes fiddly to pair and keep working. It will not broadcast ANT+ to older Garmins and only one device can use the BLE channel (ie Zwift) so it will never simultaneously support Zwift and your newer Garmin/Polar/app/Suunto.
4. EXISTING FOOTPODS: Garmin run pod – These only work with ANT+ which means they won’t link directly to Zwift, you’ll need to buy an ANT+ dongle.
5. EXISTING FOOTPODS: Polar Stride pod – This is BLE only. So only one device can be paired ie a watch OR Zwift. You could buy another NPE Product called CABLE which converts a BLE signal into ANT+

Of those 5 options, I would only recommend considering options 1 & 2…or NPE’s Runn of course!

 

Complications, Thoughts & Opinions

• STRAVA causes complications if you are using a Garmin and Zwift to each send workouts to STRAVA, clearly, you will get duplicates. The widely reported trick is to not save the data when you end the Garmin workout. I would have thought that messes up your Firstbeat physiology metrics. Instead, I would discard the Zwift workout which, of course, would mean that STRAVA will not get a pretty picture of my workout route and, if you were to do that, it may also mess up any Zwift plan you have bought [IDK].  For a triathlete also syncing bike data from Zwift I’m not sure I can think of a catch-all solution here but for a plain runner, you just have to decide which link you want to cut.
• I ran with STRYD and Runn both broadcasting their workout stats. I can’t really see the point of anyone else owning both of these devices, so just get either STRYD or Runn.
• Accuracy – If you want to slightly increase Runn’s accuracy (responsiveness) then more white stickers will increase the sampling rate and the frequency at which any speed change is broadcast. That’s a good thing to do and probably also a fallback for if/when one of the stickers falls off.
• Manual/Curved Treadmills such as the TRUEFORM RUNNER – Slowtwitch tested Runn on their TRUEFORM and found a high degree of accuracy from the RUNN.
• June 2021 sees some high-end Garmin watches able to broadcast wrist HR over BLE. Send speed, cadence and wrist HR to a PC via BLE, and Zwift updates Strava directly and GC.

Treadmill Speed Accuracy

Q: Which speed do I want?

A: I’m not sure, YOU tell me. Here are your choices

• The displayed speed on the treadmill is the TARGET speed. Factors linked to the motor quality will mean that this IS different from your actual running speed
• Runn measures belt speed – The belt speed IS slowed by the impact of the footstrike (this is measured) and then the motor accelerates the belt at and after de-weighting at the toe-off time (the effect of this on the runner is INCORRECTLY measured). The speeding up when your feet are in the air (Source: STRYD) is recorded by the treadmill, but it isn’t experienced by you as the runner.
• Actual running speed – this can only be measured by a footpod. And my regular readers know what I am going to say next…”Get a motion capture device” aka STRYD.
  • Watches that use accelerometers on your wrist can be woefully inaccurate even the latest, greatest Garmin Fenix 7.

To have the treadmill-based speed mimic your outdoor speed is even more complex; for starters just consider the incline, air resistance and energy return from the surface. ie a positive gradient and a bouncy surface will all make you slower yet a lack of oncoming wind will make you faster.

Accuracy Charts: I’ve got some data I might add back in here later, along with some more tests I have planned but at a simple level that is mostly pointless as I’m 99% sure that the Runn accurately reports treadmill belt speed.

If I start to look at Runn alongside STRYD data, perhaps incorporating a variable number of white stickers for Runn and then considering different inclines and other running pods, then it gets quite complicated, quite quickly. Even if I were to do that, I suspect that we shall see some developments in this general market fairly soon which will add even more new features to check out. #Undecided on what to do.

 

Futures – NPE Runn Review

Whilst I think the future of Zwift Running is relatively limited and that it will never catch on in the same way as it has for cycling, it is nevertheless a notable, growing and important market for running equipment suppliers. Even putting Zwift to one side, many of us want to capture our treadmill workouts from work gyms or hotel gyms as well as from a treadmill we might have at home.

Runn fills a gap in the sensor markets by EASILY acquiring treadmill data. But it can be even better, in my opinion, like this

• The product cradle needs a re-think for the professional gym market IMHO.
• Incline/Grade is broadcast but nothing is done with it (yet!). This is AT LEAST crying out for a CIQ data field showing INCLINE.
• Incline/Grade – Zwift could also take this data from Runn and perhaps incorporate an alert to remind you to raise/lower your incline setting to match the terrain in Zwift. This has to be a manual mechanism as there is no way for Zwift/Runn to automatically control the physical incline of your treadmill (unless you have a smart treadmill)
• Incline/Grade – could be incorporated into a CIQ app to generate a grade-adjusted pace which has similar usefulness to power or effort.
• Incline/Grade – could perhaps be incorporated with other data like your weight and GCT data from your pod or HRM to give a power figure. But I’m not sure this would add anything useful over and above what you could get from grade-adjusted pace eg power calculated in this manner could not be used on a device outdoors.
• Incline/Grade – perhaps this could be combined with data coming from the STRYD sensor to produce a more ‘correct’ power figure that takes into account grade.
• Ability to store treadmill calibration profiles. This would help runners who take their RUNNs to more than one treadmill but it could also help gym owners who might rent them out to gym members by the hour whilst not wanting to leave them permanently attached to a treadmill.

Want to also broadcast heart rate from your Apple Watch? Then also get NPE’s heartbeat. Do you want to use an old ANT+ power meter to broadcast power over BLE to Zwift? then get NPE Cable.

 

 

Buy NPE Runn Discount, Price & Availability

Price: $89.99

You can buy Runn directly from NPE in the USA for $89.99, all you need to do is add the 10% coupon code THE5KRUNNER for a discount at checkout

 

NPE Runn Review – Summing Up