Ignore the overall rankings (or at least don’t put too much worth in them). Focus on your PRs. The second time (and every time thereafter) you complete a segment Strava will take note and compare it to your previous attempt(s). Looks for trends, either improving or holding steady or whatever it is you hope your body is doing. Keep in mind that weather can play a big role in segment speed (especially wind on a bike, and for that matter, riding in a paceline) as can numerous other factors. Also, GPS is far from perfect especially on short segments. If the segment is under a minute times/paces can be quite inaccurate.
If possible, take note when you were feeling good and/or pushing hard and use that as your basis for comparison in the future. For example, you may find one day you go out feeling good but not pushing and almost PR. That’s an accomplishment. Or you feel terrible yet still run better than you have in the past when feeling good but not pushing. If you go out every time and attempt to PR every segment you’ll get sick of failing real quick. Same goes for chasing top tens against guys who spend all day every day training and cherry pick segments.
Is Strava more useful for a cycling perspective? I love running but eventually I may get a bike and ride for fun and use it in the same way.
Join the Letsrun Strava Club. Follow some runners who interest you, for example similar ability or an elite runner or two. If there are none, set up some segments on your regular routes.
Ignore the overall rankings (or at least don’t put too much worth in them). Focus on your PRs. The second time (and every time thereafter) you complete a segment Strava will take note and compare it to your previous attempt(s). Looks for trends, either improving or holding steady or whatever it is you hope your body is doing. Keep in mind that weather can play a big role in segment speed (especially wind on a bike, and for that matter, riding in a paceline) as can numerous other factors. Also, GPS is far from perfect especially on short segments. If the segment is under a minute times/paces can be quite inaccurate.
If possible, take note when you were feeling good and/or pushing hard and use that as your basis for comparison in the future. For example, you may find one day you go out feeling good but not pushing and almost PR. That’s an accomplishment. Or you feel terrible yet still run better than you have in the past when feeling good but not pushing. If you go out every time and attempt to PR every segment you’ll get sick of failing real quick. Same goes for chasing top tens against guys who spend all day every day training and cherry pick segments.
Is Strava more useful for a cycling perspective? I love running but eventually I may get a bike and ride for fun and use it in the same way.
It was developed as a cycling app but now seems equally popular with runners. I use the explore function to find routes for both sports when visiting a new city.
Maximize your followers and sign up for every challenge.
Also breakout you runs into as many uploads as possible. Warm up, cool down , etc. everything should be separate so you can have as many feeds as possible so people know you are running.
Use as many words as possible to describe each activity in absolute detail.
Join every group/club possible so you can make sure everyone is aware of your presence.
You should upload at least three photos for each activity. Preferably awkward selfies showing how epic each run is.
Another great place to KoM hunt are popular hiking trails at altitude that aren't popular with ultra crew
Example, Yosemite valley, lace up, no pack, start on JMT or PCT near tuolumne meadows, pick a segment, shout "gobble gobble gobble gobble m'fer" and just blast to the Lyell fork bridge or whatever at suicide pace.
Oh damnit #6 out of 88,500
Still not bad tho. Even easier is to tempo the return when all the hikers are slow.
-Leave your watch on for a half a mile after you get in the car, so your last mile reads "3:58, New PR!" and stay in your Estimated Best Efforts, forever.
-The next time you do 5 x 1,000m reps you trim the recovery segments out, and stitch the files of the 1,000m reps back together, before you upload.
-Bang away every "easy" run at a vein exploding effort, so your average pace look impossibly Herculean.
-For extra credit, make sure you edit every heart rate to show "105" so everyone knows how effortless your natural talent is.
4. Share my training/racing (It is social media after all and adults like to play show-and-tell as much as kindergartners.)
Not really. All kindergarteners are required to "play show-and-tell" as a class requirement to help teach them to gather their thoughts and speak up, though some do like it. All narcissists like playing show-and tell and other look-at-me opportunities. It's a minority of Americans who actively use all social media. And many of those who do also rationalize what they get out of it when they're actually in it just to chase dopamine hits with diminishing returns.
How do serious runners use the Strava running app? In this primer, a Serious Runner shares some tips on how to use strava for running, in particular, what go...
Strava is a powerful tool for planning a run. A Serious Runner takes you through some things to consider when using the Strava app and walks through how to ...
Maximize your followers and sign up for every challenge.
Also breakout you runs into as many uploads as possible. Warm up, cool down , etc. everything should be separate so you can have as many feeds as possible so people know you are running.
Use as many words as possible to describe each activity in absolute detail.
Join every group/club possible so you can make sure everyone is aware of your presence.
You should upload at least three photos for each activity. Preferably awkward selfies showing how epic each run is.
Very accurate to the local area I run in. And as beers and others have said, many run their runs every day too fast (I was guilty of that in the past too so I've been there).
My running group said that they were going to discontinue weekly emails and switch to Strava to announce their weekly training plans so I joined Strava.
Holy cow! Some of these segments are fast! I went to an underutilized park near my home and decided to hammer one of the uphills. (I assume it's okay to do that, right?) I sandbagged the creekside trail and then hammered the uphill, expecting to get a top 10 time. Wow! I was 111th! I didn't think 111 people even ran this trail. What's more, these times were outrageously fast. I can't imagine it was part of a continuous trail run. It had to be a time trial over that segment, right?
It was the same on the bike, only much worse. My best time up my favorite hill was 289/397.
So how do you guys use Strava? I'm guessing I use the data as motivation to move from 111 to into the top 100 on my trail uphill segment? Runners are time-trialing these segments, right?
It is worth joining their premium program? It looks pricey, but on the grand scheme of expenses, it's okay.
I've been on it for a while. Honestly, I haven't made any new friends, it just seems like a way to stalk people and compare yourself with others.
At first I was impressed with all the data but now I'm bored with it.
Maybe it's us, the paper generation, which can do nothing with strava. The display to show velocity and pace is just 3 classes below my Polar software. Awful, so bad, ridiculous.
Maybe it's us, the paper generation, which can do nothing with strava. The display to show velocity and pace is just 3 classes below my Polar software. Awful, so bad, ridiculous.
I'm Xennial, so used to my paper logs. I didn't even join Strava until 2021. When I did my first 2019 Cbus Marathon I had no idea it existed. I did paper logs and mapped routes on Map My Run (old site!) instead.
Don't buy into everything being legit on Strava. Really fast uphill runs? Use a bike. Really fast road biking up hills. Probably done on an e-bike. Is everyone doing this? No. Certainly not. However, some people are addicted to being workout champions on Strava and will resort to rather dubious means to achieve Strava celebrity status.
My advice, make really long segments on your own that people run all the time (like a trail or loop or a few miles of a trail or path) and it’s nice when they’re long cause people can’t cheese them sprinting that section. Then do your tempos on that loop/path and be on the top!!
Don't buy into everything being legit on Strava. Really fast uphill runs? Use a bike. Really fast road biking up hills. Probably done on an e-bike. Is everyone doing this? No. Certainly not. However, some people are addicted to being workout champions on Strava and will resort to rather dubious means to achieve Strava celebrity status.
I even see local runners in Cbus post on social how great their workouts are...but I always look at ET. Some of their elapsed times are so different than their actual times (rest times) that it's hard for me to take it seriously. Granted, some runs may require some ET because you have to use the restroom or tie your shoe, etc.
I even see local runners in Cbus post on social how great their workouts are...but I always look at ET. Some of their elapsed times are so different than their actual times (rest times) that it's hard for me to take it seriously. Granted, some runs may require some ET because you have to use the restroom or tie your shoe, etc.
Agree. I've seen some runs where there's 30+ minutes excess elapsed time. I realize it's summer and where I live, it's insanely hot and humid. That's going to require at least a small amount of time for hydration breaks on long runs. But 30-35 minutes? Average pace means nothing at that point.