Strava changes - great analysis by DC Rainmaker: "Today, Strava sold its segmented soul."

Trail Zealot wrote:

I wonder if cyclists are just more used to variable power output than runners. For no reason other than...that's how it is.

It's because of how racing works. In running, the value of being with "the front group" is negligible and the only reason to care about where your competitors are is psychological. There's no reason to surge at mile 14 of a marathon to split the group.

In cycling, the drafting is a huge component of the race - imagine running into a 30mph headwind vs running with no wind. In a cycling race, teams will intentionally attack on big climbs or in sections of crosswinds or narrow winding roads or whatever opportunity to split the group they can get, because it's essentially impossible for a lone rider, no matter how strong, to catch up to a group drafting together.

Unlike running, it's literally critical to your racing potential to be able to attack / respond to an attack in the middle of a race and then keep going, so for a cyclist, having a hard effort sprint in the middle of a long ride is actually realistic race simulation.

Economics. When a business stops offering services in a popular industry, there will be a rush to fill that space. With races out and gone for 2020, Strava is capitalizing on the opportunity by offering its replacement to cancelled races. Segment Leaderboards are just another version of virtual races for the hobbyjoggers. And what a great price to get to race against your peers every day! Could be perfect timing if there isn't lashback for getting strong-armed during a crisis situation. You don't get the race shirt, but you do get the kudos.

cb wrote:

Is it really free when they have the right to sell your data to marketers?

Exactly. We are "paying" with our data. Charging a fee on top of seeing our data is double dipping.

I never understood why people expect so much for free or why they need Strava. You can only use the app when you have a cellphone connection. It’s useless in the Colorado mountains. I use Garmin Fenix all the time. It is easier than carrying my phone on all my runs!

AverageJoesGym262 wrote:

I never understood why people expect so much for free or why they need Strava. You can only use the app when you have a cellphone connection. It’s useless in the Colorado mountains. I use Garmin Fenix all the time. It is easier than carrying my phone on all my runs!

I would imagine most people use a Garmin or similar GPS device. Strava will automatically sync your activities from Garmin, Suunto, Polar, etc.

You are supposed to log on to Strava and create segments... It's not like strava creates them for you.

AverageJoesGym262 wrote:

I never understood why people expect so much for free or why they need Strava.

Because the emerging generation of hobbyjogger runners these days is a greedy, narcissistic dingbat machine. They're used to getting a lot of stuff online for free -- music and movies are cheap enough for most, but the younger ones just steal it.

Remember, we're talking about a large cohort of people who want free college and don't even want to pay back their student loans; of course they want free Strava, no matter how much work other people put into developing and managing the product.

It's too bad that more people don't accept that no one besides themselves cares about their data. Also, anyone with a pathological fixation on the Strava data of others needs a program.

nutz wrote:

Je suis Francais wrote:

It is cheating because it is not how OP wants everyone to play the game. I'm sure strava LOVES dealing with the whining coming from the strava-competitive demographic, it's why they got into business.

Sounds like OP should start building their exclusive app, with RULES!

They are also tying the total elapsed time to actual run time on segments. This kills all the people who cheat at segments by sprinting a section of a segment and pause their watch until they are ready to sprint the next section of the segment.

That was never a thing.

Just logged in to see that my training log is blocked now behind a paywall. . .

What is everybody using for a training log now that is free?

AverageForFun wrote:

Just logged in to see that my training log is blocked now behind a paywall. . .

What is everybody using for a training log now that is free?

I've got a nice Excel spreadsheet on my PC.

Before that I had some pieces of paper

:-)

kudosmyass wrote:

r2k83 wrote:

I don't think it was ever displayed in the mobile apps before, but yeah, it is gone from the website now.

GAP is gone. Kudos, Strava!

Yep gone for us freeloaders. Can see it on the run of my subscribed friend.

It was probably the one feature I found useful as a runner.

I guess I'll keep uploading my stuff there because it's prettier and loads faster than Garmin Connect. But I'm beginning to find a lot of extra dross on screens trying to remind me that it would be worth subscribing.

I've used Strava religiously for at least three years, and pay no attention to the segments. I agree that many of the segment leaders are fake. I use it mostly as a very nice log and way to keep track of all the excellent runners, both male and female, around my age group that train seriously.

I say enjoy Strava now while it is still Strava, because it's only a matter of time before it gets bought by some behemoth like Nike and becomes lame.

Uhhh wrote:

AverageForFun wrote:

Just logged in to see that my training log is blocked now behind a paywall. . .

What is everybody using for a training log now that is free?

I've got a nice Excel spreadsheet on my PC.

Before that I had some pieces of paper

:-)

I did that in high school, but lost the spreadsheet at some point. Have a paper log from 2002. Since I started running seriously again in 2009 and using trackers, I've been using online logs. Had Nike+ and Adidas miCoach before moving to a Garmin. I uploaded all of that to Dailymile until it shutdown a couple of years ago. I wrote an application that would download all those activities to a local database and generate graphs. Hadn't bothered converted it to a new source since then as I had most of what a I wanted between Strava's training log and the Elevate browser extension. Guess I'll have to get back on that now and just make Garmin the primary source if Strava is saying they might not be around in a year.

I track my runs using a forerunner 235 which uploads to Garmin Connect (which I don't even look at). Then activities are pushed to Strava and RunningAhead. I use Strava because I like to see what friends are running but I couldn't care less about Segments or most anything else on Strava. I DID use the GAP thing and found it useful but, alas, it's gone.

RunningAhead is my main online log and activity aggregator. It serves as my database of all of my running. I download it's data in CSV format every week. Then I have an Excel workbook that I've developed over the decades that imports that format and (via macros) processes the data into about 20 or so sheets (data visualizations) that I find useful. I'll continue to use that forever. RA may go away but not my Excel book. I can resort to manually entering data if I had to (I'd keep track of distance run and time, that's basically all I need).

Strava can go away TODAY and I don't care one bit.

r2k83 wrote:

Runner10287 wrote:

I don't see many people structuring a run where they go with a plan of hammering segments like a fartlek run. So unless you can maintain 5:00 pace for 10 miler on a consistent basis it's not really a realistic pursuit on your daily runs.

There is a guy in my area who did that for nearly every run for most of a year. He drove all over the county to pick up as many as he could in this fashion. Also seems to be some competition between North Central College runners over some segments.

I suppose if it motivates a recreational runner to get out of the door everyday then more power to him or her. Although unless they live in a unpopulated area a rec runner probably isn't fast enough to take a segment. College runners going segment hunting seems like a good way to burn themselves out unless they are smart about working into their summer training by setting a fartlek or tempo loop based on Strava segments.

Can everybody just stop whining and either pay 5 $ per month for Strava or not pay and be happy for the parts of Strava they get for free?

I do have a few useful running segments like the loop lap for my local parkrun (which is ~ 3 times a 1M loop). But generally the spread of times on steady runs is very narrow so they aren't interesting. If its somewhere I do interval work like the canal towpath its fun to look at them. But the chances of an 'Achievement' on a typical run is near zero. On the bike its another matter and so what if its phoney and meaningless? I'll take the cheap boost thanks.

But after 7 years biking from the same house I don't improve even on the biking ones often.

french fry cook wrote:

nutz wrote:

They are also tying the total elapsed time to actual run time on segments. This kills all the people who cheat at segments by sprinting a section of a segment and pause their watch until they are ready to sprint the next section of the segment.

That was never a thing.

Back in 2013 it was. They fixed it a long time ago.

Today I deleted all the segments I created as it wouldn't even let me see my own past efforts.

I don't want to be reminded of something I can't see if I happen to click on the wrong button. See too many banners trying to get me to subscribe as it is.