Strava thread (for users of)

[plurker]

Seeing as there were grumbles in the 'Cycle commute' thread, I'm starting this so Strava users + addicts can share successes / find & challenge each other / ask questions / etc. The thread might die, or it might run for thousands of pages, only time will tell

My regular ride is between Farringdon and Streatham, and I record occasional runs and cycle-wanderings for fun. I use Strava primarily to track my own performance; I think I'm fast, but am trying to get fitter and thus faster.

I have one KOM (which another user and I keep swapping) and have taken down from 1.12s to 55s - proving that challenging (self and others) is beneficial.

You can be amazed at my skillz here.

 

[Dogsauce]

Ah, I was going to do this thread too. I got badgered into signing up by a friend a few months ago, and it's been a great motivation for getting my commute time lower.

Previously I just had the overall commute journey time to measure things, but now if I'm unlucky with the lights at the start of the journey, rather than writing it off I'll instead have a crack at one or more of the segments on the route (including several I've made myself). I've also followed other people that I compete with on some commute segments and have discovered new routes and a quicker way in that I wouldn't have thought to try otherwise. My commute is mainly riding out of town, about 30% on a deserted track, so I don't really get much in the way of traffic hold-ups, just the odd wait at a junction.

I have five KOMs but a few are just stupid little ones - but quite a few top ten places (best is probably 5th out of about 650 over a flat 1km segment near home). I never thought of myself as fast or fit but seem to do pretty good on a lot of urban routes - of course, the humility comes back when you go out in the countryside where the 'proper' sporty cyclists go, and find yourself 700th out of 900 despite thinking you'd been at a decent pace.

At the moment I'm having to ride around on an old Pashley works bike that weighs 25kg, so KOMs aren't going to happen, but I'm trying new routes and fishing for segments that I can have a better go at once the lighter touring bike is back (hopefully this weekend!). I'm also still giving it a bit of a go on the hills, if I hadn't got caught by the lights at the top of one near home I'd have probably taken the crown, which would have been a good achievement (it's only got 17 riders on it), I managed seventh with forty bogrolls on the front so thought I could do better - thrashed it up the hill only to be caught for about 5 secs by a pedestrian crossing, and then (as a consequence) just missed the lights at the top which meant 30secs sat still - the fastest time was 35secs ahead of me over the two miles, so with better luck...

 

[Dogsauce]

The other nice thing is it keeping a record of your mileage, though I don't track everything. Mine says 1,989.5mi, so I ought to crack 2000 this evening on my way down to the pub.

I use an iPhone 4 for tracking - it's lasted up to 11 hours (with wifi turned off and a lot of apps deleted), which has been enough for all but one of my rides. I'm thinking of trying to get a second-hand Garmin, but I don't think that offers any longer battery life.

 

[Dogsauce]

Gremlins in the system I think - I had a notification today that someone had taken a KOM that I didn't even have, and that they did so in April before I was signed up to Strava and before I'd created the segment. Odd.

The only thing I can think of is that the other rider suspended their account or something like that, which would have put me in first, and then reappeared so took it back off me.

I'll have that segment soon anyhow, I've been battling for it for ages, it's a short (and bumpy) 0.2km uphill section, I've twice recorded 0:32 and the KOM is currently 0:31. Only 30 people have ridden it, and I doubt any of them were treating it as a sprint, so maybe a hollow victory but it's nice having a challenge there on the way in.

 

[pinkychukkles]

Recently installed this after reading about it in this article in the Grauniad, where it was blamed for causing the death of a pedestrian by a cyclist in San Francisco who was trying to get the fastest time for a particular segment of his journey. Have only got a short commute at the moment but it's interesting seeing all the time breakdowns for various bits of your journey that coincide with other folks and can definitely motivate you (safely with respect for other road users and pedestrians of course). Sometimes I forget to finish my ride on the app though and have then spent a further ten minutes wandering about where I work... Discard!

I also created my own segment for the whole length of my commute to and from work and made it private, thinking that it would automatically recognise it when I logged a ride and therefore I would be able to see all my times in a table but that hasn't happened - any ideas why?

 

[pinkychukkles]

If I need an ego boost, reckon I'll just activate it when I next borrow a car and KOM everything

 

[Dogsauce]

I teased my lodger who's been trying for one particular segment for ages (think he's about 5 secs off) by tracking it in a car and posting that - I beat the KOM by one second so it looked plausible. Deleted it once I got the desired reaction!

 

[Dogsauce]

Sometimes I forget to finish my ride on the app though and have then spent a further ten minutes wandering about where I work... Discard!

On the desktop version you can 'crop' your ride (it's under the 'actions' tab) so don't have to delete it. I always forget to stop it if I go shopping and have my walk around Kirkgate Market tracked in detail!

I also created my own segment for the whole length of my commute to and from work and made it private, thinking that it would automatically recognise it when I logged a ride and therefore I would be able to see all my times in a table but that hasn't happened - any ideas why?

If you start/stop tracking in a slightly different place it might not pick it up. Also if you've set a privacy zone around your house it won't put you on any segment within 1km. I don't think you'd get a table comparing seperate efforts unless you paid up for the premium version - you'll just get your best time shown only, though guess you could just manually record it.

 

[King Biscuit Time]

Dogsauce - What may have happened is that someone uploaded a whole load of .gpx files covering a few years in one go - that way they can beat you on segments that you have subsequently created if you get what I mean.

I did it when I joined- I uploaded everything that was on my Garmin, then went back to my old tracking software and imported some runs where I thought I'd done well and wanted to see if they were better than the ones I'm doing now iyswim.

Anyway - I'm enjoying it - thinking of trying a few months premium while I train for a specific half marathon.

 

[pinkychukkles]

On the desktop version you can 'crop' your ride (it's under the 'actions' tab) so don't have to delete it. I always forget to stop it if I go shopping and have my walk around Kirkgate Market tracked in detail!

Good tip, thanks.

If you start/stop tracking in a slightly different place it might not pick it up. Also if you've set a privacy zone around your house it won't put you on any segment within 1km. I don't think you'd get a table comparing seperate efforts unless you paid up for the premium version - you'll just get your best time shown only, though guess you could just manually record it.

Yes, I've just tweaked the start & finish points to make the whole segment a little shorter as the GPS can take a little time to accurately pinpoint your position, will see if that makes a difference and if not, have a fiddle with the privacy settings. Ta.

 

[cliche guevara]

I love the Strava app but almost always forget to activate it. My commute to the train station is only one mile each way, so it almost seems pointless bothering with it. And when I go out for evening/weekend rides I quite often like to go minimalist, with nothing in my pockets. Feels nice to get off the grid for a while.

I predominantly ride fixed gear so I've found that I do rather well on the uphills without too much effort, and my downhill segments are atrocious.

 

[Dogsauce]

Dogsauce - What may have happened is that someone uploaded a whole load of .gpx files covering a few years in one go - that way they can beat you on segments that you have subsequently created if you get what I mean.

They did have the KOM already - I'd never held it (although I created the segment) - it's like they disappeared from Strava so I gained it then came back, though I had no notification of gaining it (and I checked my KOMs a few days ago and didn't spot it). It may be that they live within 1km and set a privacy zone - that'd knock them off the table too.

I can understand how this would happen with uploading old GPX files though too!

 

[gentlegreen]

I thought OU was joking about this thread.

Calories....

Can this be remotely possible ? :-

21.1 miles, 449 feet of climb, 1 hour 33 mins, ave 13.5 MPH, ave 232 watts, 1450 calories ?
And that was without the erroneous Cat 4 climb (it used to be a definitely non-funicular railway...)

Is Strava less accurate with offroad paths ?
Or is it overlapping segments ?

 

[pinkychukkles]

I've found that upon uploading your ride data to strava, it can show erroneous info for a while with regards to elevation, at least for me - until I guess, it gets properly processed by their servers and corrects itself later on.

 

[lighterthief]

Me too - top speeds of 90mph etc until it settles down!

 

[Dogsauce]

Sometimes the tracking can put you in the wrong place, on a ride along the Avon Gorge path a few months ago it at one point tracked my route up on to the downs on the opposite bank and about 100m higher up. That must have shown up as some pretty impressive rapid height gain, I should probably make a little segment for it (maybe titled 'ET goes home').

 

[plurker]

It's not infallible. Once I had a random wiggle of 2 miles added on at the start of my ride - guess my data got overlaid with someone else's or something?

Today I got 3 PRs - riding 8.2 miles in 29.33 seconds. Most of my PRs are on short segments - I sprint fast, but lack stamina to keep a pace up. The calorie thing I tend to ignore, but GG in relation to your post above it calculated this ride at 533, so guess it estimates 500cals per half-hour?

I'm already having a battle with one guy on a segment, where we've swapped KOMs for the past few weeks - I'm 2s quicker than he is now, and it's looking like I'm staying there
Yesterday I noticed he rides one road parallel to the one I usually commute on - and he's KOM. I changed my route today and straight in at #2. Bring it.

 

[cliche guevara]

riding 8.2 miles in 29.33 seconds.

That is seriously impressive.

 

[plurker]

I wouldn't have started the thread if I was slow

 

[DownwardDog]

The Garmin Edge 510 uses a blended GPS/GLONASS positioning system that's more accurate and quicker than the limited GPS receivers in smartphones. The Strava upload is a bit more of an arse on though.

 

[gentlegreen]

Do you get to export Strava data to Google Earth if you pay for it ?
Runkeeper is much more useful to me on a day to day basis - it does that for free - and the app works properly on my phone.
I'll have to try exporting GPX data from Runkeeper and importing it into Strava - if that works, it's bye bye Strava app.

 

[DownwardDog]

Do you get to export Strava data to Google Earth if you pay for it ?

The paupers' version of Strava can export GPX - select it from the 'Action' menu of each activity's page.

 

[gentlegreen]

Thanks.

That's funky - first time importing GPX into Google Earth - it has a time thingy.

 

[gentlegreen]

ooh and elevation and speed

 

[gentlegreen]

This is a definite goer.
I'll go back to Runkeeper and export my data into Strava should I want to.

 

[Dogsauce]

I'm retrieving my fast bike from London this weekend, looking forward to getting myself back on the boards again, I've lost about 3 KOMs over the last month since it's been in exile. A month on the Pashley having the occasional thrash up a hill should have prepped me for some speed. There's maybe half a dozen segments I've spotted in the meantime that are contenders for getting a good place on - one or two I've been trying for on the Pashley (several fifth places) that I know I can improve on. First couple of commutes will be interesting.

(I've also just got my old road bike back on the road and had the first commute yesterday, but it was slower than the tourer - still needs some work as there's a lot of friction somewhere, plus the temporary Aldi saddle is pretty horrible - any tips on a good road bike saddle that'd not look stupid on an 80's Raleigh?).

 

[DownwardDog]

any tips on a good road bike saddle that'd not look stupid on an 80's Raleigh?).

Selle Italia Turbo 1980

http://www.selleitalia.com/se_it3/prodotti/road/pagina_vintage/

 

[gentlegreen]

What about comfort ?

 

[Dogsauce]

What about comfort ?

I already have a comfortable bike (with a broken Brooks )

This machine is for speed, supposedly.

 

[gentlegreen]

Bloody typical. I remove Strava and it now seems Google Play store is up the Swanee so I can't reinstall Runkeeper...
I reckon I'll end up with a Garmin.,, or at least a much simpler GPS app for my phone since I never actually consult the data on the phone.