Welcome the InsideRide how-to guide showing you how to setup the Zwift RunPod for use on Kinomap. Read on to see why using a Zwift RunPod on Kinomap may be something that you would like to do, and how to set it up.
We should point out to begin with that we procured our own RunPod to run with, and also we pay for our own Kinomap subscriptions – we have no financial interest in whether you choose to buy / subscribe to either.
So first of all, why might you want to use the Zwift RunPod with Kinomap?
As a starting point it is necessary to point out that, unlike other virtual training software, Kinomap is largely equipment agnostic. It does not care if you have expensive equipment to track your efforts. Indeed the platform is designed around allowing gym users to carry out responsive virtual workouts using little more than head movement using a smartphone camera.
There does not appear to be any obvious way to calibrate the speed associated with head movements though. Presumably for people with normal head movements / gait this should be fairly unproblematic. In our case though we found ourselves running at 4:30/km. While flattering, we have run at 4:30/km previously, three stone lighter, ten years younger, towed by a Labrador. We were not running at that pace. All of our early Kinomap runs were far too fast, see here and here – indeed our treadmill belt was only moving at 8km/h.
There were a couple of options to correct this, we could have bought a running power meter from Stryd, the new Runn sensor from NPE which measures belt speed, or at the extreme we could have bought an interactive treadmill. Compared to all of the above, the RunPod at £37.99 offers a considerable saving.
If running was our main sport, we’d have opted for an interactive treadmill. As our name would suggest though, we are primarily cyclists who use running and rowing for cross training – so the Zwift RunPod made sense, which we use with a very old, but very working, ‘dumb’ Proform treadmill from before the iPad was a ‘thing’.
Why might you want to run on Kinomap rather than Zwift?
The running application exists within a very nice virtual environment. There are a couple of reasons why you may wish to run on Kinomap instead of (or as well as) Zwift:
- The range of dedicated running routes on Zwift is very small, almost non-existent beyond the few routes on Watopia.
- Kinomap allows you to run against a wider range of videos, rooted in the real world.
In other words, if you are looking for variety in real world videos to run, which are still gpx tracked, then Kinomap may well be an application you may wish to try.
1. From the homepage, select the “More” hamburger icon to bottom right. 
2. Select Equipment Management 
3. Click the plus symbol to top right, or dialogue below ‘Current Equipment’ 
4. Select the treadmill icon 
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and select the ANT+/BLE sensors button 
6. Select ‘Any Treadmill’ button below ‘Classic’ model 
7. Select your Zwift Runpod, when it appears below ‘Found Equipment’ – you might need to give it a shake! 
8. If all has worked, your RunPod will show under ‘Current Equipment’
When you run on Kinomap next, the speed that you progress through each video should be much closer to your actual running speed, without trying to emulate moonwalking on your treadmill. See our first run using the RunPod here – our pace at 6:30/km is much more realistic, if still slightly faster than the belt speed.
There is also a facility within Zwift on how to calibrate the RunPod – we’ll write another article on that at some point.
Happy running!
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