Why did STRAVA become the runners choice?

Runners don't run with a phone. They use a GPS watch which later uploads the data to their Strava account.

Leaderboards, obviously

You can upload all devices to Strava. Swimmers/triathletes do use Garmin and upload to Strava. No social media platform is perfect, but when one gets an overwhelming market share, everyone goes there (think Facebook vs MySpace.) So, Strava is the one place where all active people who want to share their workouts go. Runners, cyclists, skiers, etc.

Perfect app:

Reprogrammed Interval training feature! (Like other apps such as Runkeeper uses audio cues/Garmin)

A way to record swimming without having to pit in your distance/time manually.

I loved the 'virtual partner' feature' on my old Garmin 305. You could preset your pace and not deviate at all. Alright Strava gives you updates on your pace every half mile or mile. But I found it great to be able to look down at the watch and see you were 40 ft ahead or 60 yards behind.

On runs i would like to get my current pace in m/pm every 1/2/5 min. This feature is available in MotionX-GPS app which i still have to use concurrently with Strava as i can't find this feature. Would be great addition for my training.

It would be a nice feature to see your current pace and your average pace.

I know these are the ultimate first world problems, but Strava is a huge app with millions using. I don't understand why they can't incorporate some of these features.

The reason I stick with STRAVA is the community feature which may trump them all. It's just a little frustrating say ig I want to do a 6x3min/1min rest without alerts.

How do you triathletes use strava? Or do you just stick with Garmin?

I only use (correction) strava for the community aspect - which is fantastic, but I think the app sucks. Plus, you cant's preset intervals like an app like Runkeeper.

Runner hm wrote:

I only use (correction) strava for the community aspect - which is fantastic, but I think the app sucks. Plus, you cant's preset intervals like an app like Runkeeper.

Yes, you've repeated yourself like 50 times now.

Copy and pasted by post from reddit, Have a fantastic night.

Friends and the lolz

Once a social platform reaches a critical mass, people use it because it's what everyone else uses. It's called the network effect. I believe the way Strava reached critical mass ahead of many other competitors is through the popularity of their segments feature in the cycling community. Their competitors have all added segments now, but it's too late. Strava segments are the only ones that matter because they have the user base. Many cyclists are also triathletes. Triathletes are also runners. So Strava's dominance of the cycling demographic probably bled over to runners via triathletes.

Runner hm wrote:

How do you triathletes use strava? Or do you just stick with Garmin?

It's not an either/or question. We use both. Activities upload from your Garmin device to your Garmin account. Your Garmin account is linked to your Strava account, and so any activities uploaded to Garmin get pushed to Strava.

As for swimming. I usually don't record my swims with my Garmin (though I do sometimes). I usually enter them manually. Activities manually entered into Garmin Connect used to propagate to Strava just like activities uploaded from a Garmin device. At some point that changed and my manually entered activities no longer propagate from Garmin Connect to Strava. Maybe there's some setting(s) I could change to "fix" that, but I primarily use Garmin Connect to review my training. So I really don't care if everything gets on Strava or not. So there's no reason for me to spend any time looking into it.

glaukos wrote:

I believe the way Strava reached critical mass ahead of many other competitors is through the popularity of their segments feature in the cycling community. Their competitors have all added segments now, but it's too late. Strava segments are the only ones that matter because they have the user base. Many cyclists are also triathletes. Triathletes are also runners. So Strava's dominance of the cycling demographic probably bled over to runners via triathletes.

Former cyclist here, this is NOT true at all. Almost no one cares about the segments. Elites/pros just complete their training session, and most recreational riders have no chance to get a segment. There is a small group of segment hunters, usually people slightly-above average up to sub-elite, who get a thrill of hunting segments and showing their followers. But overall, this is less than 1% of the user base.

People use Strava mainly for the following things:

1) To get motivated by others/friends

2) To find nice routes in new/different/current areas

3) To stalk others (e.g. looking who passed them on a ride, hoping for it to be a pro so they feel better; often out of curiosity, but some might also be creepy)

4) To watch their progress over time in segments. Some cyclists go to the same training camps every year, and if they can do the big climb faster than last year they got their mission accomplished.

5) To keep track of their training/volume. No more needed excel sheets and math knowledge to track everything and no need for an expensive tracking platform like FinalSurge or TrainingPeaks.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Former cyclist here, this is NOT true at all. Almost no one cares about the segments.

...

People use Strava mainly for the following things:

...

4) To watch their progress over time in segments. Some cyclists go to the same training camps every year, and if they can do the big climb faster than last year they got their mission accomplished.

You contradict yourself.

Many people have grown disillusioned with segments over time, but that still doesn't mean it wasn't the reason Strava rose to a dominant position in the first place. If it wasn't due to segments, then what explanation do you propose for what differentiated Strava from its competitors? In my personal experience the selling point feature that initially got everyone to join Strava was segments. Even if it's true that "almost no one cares about segments" currently doesn't mean that it wasn't the differentiating feature that got Strava off the ground to begin with.

Ironic that your user name is that same as that of a prominent former pro cyclist who started a successful youtube channel based entirely on chasing Strava segments. (The channel has since diversified, but it started based on the sole premise of chasing Strava segments).

Seriously, the current user base is there because of the network effect. So your claim that only 1% of the current user base cares about segments, even if that's true, really doesn't contradict anything that I said at all. I said in my initial post that the current user base is there due to the network effect. The more interesting question is how did Strava reach the critical mass necessary to achieve the network effect. As far as I am aware segments were the real differentiating feature that Strava had over its competitors while it was growing. If you want to declare in all caps that I am wrong, then you should at least propose an alternative explanation rather than spouting off irrelevant facts about the current user base.

The reason Strava reached critical mass (network effect) before its competitors is that it never had any competitors. Other fitness apps were primarily for tracking your activity, with social elements as an afterthought, and they were all walled gardens. Strava was always supposed to be social, and it works no matter how you track your activity, so it was the only platform that ever had a chance of taking over.

Segments helped, but that was not the reason Strava was successful. And segments have never been a big deal for runners.

Number 4 for me. I'm not overly concerned with my ranking on a segment vs others although it is cool to get a KOM. Moreso I like to compare my efforts over a segment against the week month or year before.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Former cyclist here, this is NOT true at all. Almost no one cares about the segments.

Every single person I know who uses Strava cares about segments, ranging from elite athlete down to occasional weekend rider. Perhaps you've forgotten that there are several options for the leader board within a segment:

Overall

Male/Female

Age Group

Weight

Following

Personal

It's impossible to not be competitive within at least one of those categories.

It's different enough from Garmin and RunKeeper (both have a blue color dominating their UX) that runners can convince themselves that it's not Facebook or social media, so they can continue claiming the moral high ground of being judgmental towards social media while also participating in "social media."

Joe Jackson wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Former cyclist here, this is NOT true at all. Almost no one cares about the segments.

Every single person I know who uses Strava cares about segments, ranging from elite athlete down to occasional weekend rider. Perhaps you've forgotten that there are several options for the leader board within a segment:

Overall

Male/Female

Age Group

Weight

Following

Personal

It's impossible to not be competitive within at least one of those categories.

and within that you can filter by club eg yr local parkrun group, LR etc.

Segs are great but mostly on the bike due to seg density anf bike range.

Runner hm wrote:

I only use (correction) strava for the community aspect - which is fantastic, but I think the app sucks. Plus, you cant's preset intervals like an app like Runkeeper.

I deleted Strava. I used both it and Garmin for running. Everyone else kept telling me that Strava was the best app, but I really disliked it. Couldn't access some information on the phone (personal records) and also had no ability to edit/categorize runs. Ran a 21 k training run with a friend. He stopped for a bathroom break on the way, so I paused my watch, then restarted for the run. Strava did not account for the pause. Just recorded the higher time. I contacted customer support to get them to adjust the time. They told me they wouldn't change it, because if it was a race then the higher time would have counted....complete BS. If it was a race I obviously would not be stopping to wait for a friend....and that it should be me who decides if I'm running a race or not.

Anyway.....Garmin for me.

The Scot wrote:

Joe Jackson wrote:

Every single person I know who uses Strava cares about segments, ranging from elite athlete down to occasional weekend rider. Perhaps you've forgotten that there are several options for the leader board within a segment:

Overall

Male/Female

Age Group

Weight

Following

Personal

It's impossible to not be competitive within at least one of those categories.

and within that you can filter by club eg yr local parkrun group, LR etc.

Segs are great but mostly on the bike due to seg density anf bike range.

Segments allow me to gauge how slow I am now compared to a few months or even a year ago. I love them.

I enjoy the segments on strava but more from a personal reflection standpoint. It’s nice to see the progression over time. As far as swimming, any decent Garmin will record swim time/laps/etc and auto upload to strava as well.