Giles ThurstonThere’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?
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.
