Circle back to Strava

Strava is an amazing running and fitness application. Have you tried it? It’s portable, can integrate with your smartphone and GPS watch, treadmill (via Zwift), provides challenges, route maps (from friends), segments, and more. If your phone battery dies on a run, your GPS watch can carry on and you can sync with the phone later after you charge it.

I’ve been using Strava for quite some time: since Jan. 1, 2015. After testing it for a while, it became more attractive as a comprehensive system to help me organize my running (and walking) data and maps. And later as issues arose with my Garmin hiccups on GPS distance or elevation on certain runs, Strava allowed me to flag those and try to manually correct them. At this point Strava became more attractive to me than even Garmin Connect because it was fixing the information and correcting it. Sometimes Strava was even flagging GPS/elevation errors before I had spotted or flagged them. Finally I switched to Apple watch and reintegrated Strava with a whole new universe using Apple and linking it to my iPhone, just as Garmin had allowed me to do. The versatility and usefulness of the platform is impressive.

Strava Beacon is a safety feature that allows friends and family to see where you are in real time on a map using GPS mapping/Strava technology. This is very helpful because sometimes we give family and friends estimates of how far/long we will run and weather or other issues can arise, changing our estimated time of arrival. I have a few friends who have agreed to be my “running safety” buddies where we tell each other where and when we are running and check in when we return. Strava Beacon would be useful to these friends (and runners and their families) if they have Strava Summit which includes Beacon functionality. It gives the running buddy system a technological edge to enhance runner safety.

Let’s talk about challenges. Strava has a vast multitude of running and cycling challenges. Some are monthly. Some are over a specific period of time. For example, there is a monthly running distance challenge for: 5k, 10k, and half-marathon, overall distance, and overall climb. These are a fun way to unite with others in a cause/challenge (like a half-marathon for example) and a little friendly competition (if you seek it). The Strava Icebreaker challenge was one I particularly enjoyed recently (we had to wear the same running shirt without washing it for 7 consecutive days for at least a mile a day). I’ll show you a compilation of a few of the challenges below. You don’t have to complete all the ones you enter either. Flexibility allows you to pick and choose the ones that are most helpful to you and fit within your schedule and healthy lifestyle.

When we complete a challenge, Strava tells us right away by email and on our phones. It shows celebratory confetti with the challenge notification and sometimes there are rewards to unlock or claim for a few of the challenges.

It’s helpful to know how many miles/kilometers we ran in a given month, week, or day. Check Strava and it will tell you. Many of us run-streakers are using Strava to help us remember which runstreak day we are on (just adding the number in the comments).

Are you curious how many miles you’ve put on those running shoes? Check Strava and see. When you’re due for new shoes, Strava will periodically remind you until you replace them, adding new ones. Sometimes I just snap a picture of my shoes during a run or after so I remember which ones to tag within Strava. You can set up a default pair of shoes and rotate accordingly.

Strava keeps track of your best performances on routes, race courses, and segments. If you “medal” in any of those (top 3 performances), Strava will tag those as PRs (personal record) achievements and you can look and analyze them compared to other efforts.

One thing I really like about Strava is the ability to see who you ran/raced with in a particular run. For example, I can enter the Sweaty Sparkler 5k race event in Omaha from July 4 and see who I ran/raced with that day. Just use the Flyby feature and find out who you passed/passed by on the way. It’s a fun way to connect with local and regional runners (some of whom may become your group running friends and/or running safety buddies). Also, we can designate runs as races and Strava gives us detailed race analysis and allows us to compare race performance over time and from one year to the next (like comparing Sweaty Sparkler 5k results/performance from 2018 and 2019).

There is a great deal of creativity with Strava users. I have a friend in Paris, France who described himself as a “human pencil” in drawing creative Strava maps of various shapes when he runs or bikes. If you have that aptitude, why not? It gives us some variety too and drawing different routes and seeing how previous courses can change with minor or major variations in the path.

Want to look up a recent (or old) workout or race? Strava’s workout calendar is very useful, showing months at a time with entries and allowing us to flip between years quickly and effortlessly.

One fascinating thing I like about Strava is how much users support each other with high-fives, thumbs-up and positive comments. All these get sent to you by email so it’s easy to scroll through and thank people who have encouraged and support us and to give positive reinforcement through high-fives, thumbs-up and comments to everyone who is doing their best and trying their hardest to improve their fitness. There’s some positive peer pressure to improve within Strava too: after seeing all our family/friends who are crushing their workouts on Strava, it makes me more fired up to rush out the door and crush mine too.

An intangible aspect of Strava is that I have found in many cases it deepens friendships a lot. Especially for friends who are local or nearby but also with people who are far away geographically in other countries (in Europe or Asia for example).

The photos that people share on Strava are amazing to see. Beautiful scenery, inspiring faces, smiles, and friends posing for pictures together to show the teamwork that is necessary at least at a basic level to achieve success.

You can set Strava goals and it will show you your progress on how far you’ve gone and how much remains. For example, you could say you want to run 1,000 miles and track it easily within the Strava system.
Finally, there is an important aspect of Strava incorporating with virtual races (like the New York Road Runner ones) as well as your fastest (e.g.) 5k of the month. Just enter your best effort as your virtual race achievement of the month and see how many others have accomplished the same thing. Virtual racing is rapidly expanding in popularity and appeal so it’s helpful to have a virtual race goal/achievement too.

If you haven’t tried Strava yet, I would strongly urge you to give it a go. You’ll be encouraged, supported, amazed at all it can do and strengthened and inspired by the runners/athletes sharing their stories and workouts with you. It allows you to house your running/cycling/fitness data in one place. Versatile. Easy to use. Try it you’ll love it! Let’s run!

P.S. Hey are you on Strava too? If so, let’s connect. We can help each other in positive, meaningful, and supportive ways. Please feel free to follow me here: strava.com/athletes/8164789 and I’ll follow you back as soon as I can. Let’s go!