Strava – Riding revelation or ruiner?

I’ve been using Strava for around 9 months now. In that time I’ve had numerous thoughts about whether it is a positive or negative thing for riding. For those who don’t know Strava is an application which can be used on your GPS device or smart phone which logs where you ride and how fast you are going including elevation changes and if you buy the premium over the free version a whole host of other features too. One of the features (on the free version as well as premium) is the ability to have your ride broken down into segments and then compare your time through these segments against anyone else who has ever ridden those segments with Strava active. Almost like a time trial style race.

So in effect Strava allows you to race people who you may not even know across different days. It logs your Personal Record (PR) for a section and if there are little trophies awarded for having a top 10 time on a section or even being King Of the Mountain (KOM).

As soon as I got it I used it to find a segment near me and then went out to it with specific aim of going as fast as I could just on that one segment. The initial thrill of seeing myself in a top 5 slot soon faded when I realised that all I had done was blast one 1.5 mile section and not really enjoy it. Yes I was quicker than x y and z with a,b,c and indeed d still being quicker than me. A quick look at the rest of the rides of some of these people showed that some had done this section as part of a huge 30 mile ride encompassing roads and tracks, others had done as I’d done, rocked up and blasted that one part. So am I really any quicker than I guy/gal who’s legs have already got 17 miles under them and know they have 13 left? Did they even know or care about this segment?

In my eyes the danger of Strava is that it risks turning every ride into “I must get further up the leader board”. This is a double edged sword yes it drives you harder but do you really enjoy your ride if that’s your only concern?

So it’s a bad thing? Well…no. I really enjoy using Strava on many levels but its down to my own personal philosophy of its use. I would be lying if I said I don’t love to look at a leader board and see that I’m in the top 1/3 as I was at the Forest of Dean’s Verderer’s trail or that I’ve improved hugely over my previous position and times for a segment. But very rarely do I now go out explicitly to do these things. To me, now, they are the by-product of my ride. If I go out to try and ride a stretch as fast as I can my main concern with Strava later is seeing whether I have beaten my previous time rather than whether I’m KOM.

Setting a new PR for a trail is a really good feeling but it’s secondary to the feeling of enjoying the ride to me. It helps me see my own progress and as a tool I feel that in this sense it is hugely valuable. I don’t worry too much if there is someone who is ahead of me on the boards…they as like didn’t do the same ride I’ve just done especially in the real world as opposed to that of a trail centre. In the real world the guy/gal leading the board for such a section of canal towpath may well have done it on a cyclo cross bike with low rolling resistance tyres on at high PSI and only stayed on the flats rather than me with my Maxxis Highrollers with serious tread on them (not as serious as my old minion though that was overkill for my riding) with a middling psi because I’m going to throw in some muddy single track down a local hill into the ride and need a best of the both worlds set up. So really inter person comparisons are not as effective as they may seem. Although that hasn’t stopped me occasionally sprinting a segment I know  exists or creating a new segment on the Strava site for a segment I’ve ridden out of curiosity to see where I sit as a bench-mark.

 

Chilling over the canals near Wigan town centre

 

My favourite type of riding is just to be in a beautiful area, pick a point on the landscape and just head to it. Sometimes I find a gem of a trail sometimes I don’t. Strava allows me to find this section again on the map later. It’s brilliant for use as a ride logging system, to aid your training or merely for interest. It sometimes nice to know you have climbed 2,500 feet that day or hit a top speed of 37 mph.

In essence Strava is what you allow it to be. It will effect your riding in the way you allow it to. Approach it with an attitude that makes you happy. If you find it’s taking the enjoyment from your riding either approach it differently or leave it off. It’s your choice.