There’s a saying in endurance circles, “If it’s not on STRAVA then it didn’t happen”, such is the power and the influence of the orange website of pain on cyclists ( mostly ) and runners, not to mention deviant triathletes who embrace the league tables like a government education minister. It even has it’s own secret language: KOMS, QOMS, segments, kudos and suffer scores make it sound like something from a dodgy movie. Now don’t get me wrong I’ve a new found love of all things orange since returning from injury but I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only user of Strava that isn’t a Segment Tart?

Now I love Strava as much as the next man but I have to say I am 100% in agreement with Andy on this one.  I have been a member of Strava for years and its really come on leaps and bounds, trying to move beyond their traditional cycling audience and embrace runners and triathletes.

Their training tools are really good, especially the ability to design a route when visiting a new town or city and also their overviews of your training weeks. In fact I would go so far as to say that I probably log around 90% of my training in Strava these days and am more than happy to do so.

I do feel fortunate though that I don’t use the Strava mobile app to capture data while I train.  Its not that its no good, far from it, its that the option to be alerted to the fact that segment A or B is approaching would be far to tempting!  Instead I can sit back happy that the easy run or ride I planned remains as such, while watching friends smash themselves turning every session into an interval or V02 max session in a vain attempt to gain that ellusive KOM or move up the tables, something I am sure I would do too given half a chance!
So while I may tongue in cheek agree with the statement “If it’s not on STRAVA then it didn’t happen” I would also cheekly add that “Just because it’s on STRAVA doesn’t necessarily mean that it was the right kind of training!”

In summary, its a great tool but handle with care, especially if you are a type A personality like most of us endurance atheletes are 🙂

Oh and before anybody asks, I use iSmoothrun on my phone to log runs, rides and swims and would highly recommend it if you have an iPhone.