[Closed] Is Strava always like this?

Strava is a great training tool. Really good interval training and it really livens a boring commute up.

There comes a point though where you have to question what you're getting up to. I held pretty much all the KOM's on my commute. Both ways. Then people started turning up and started taking them off me, by big amounts.

Now all of my commutes times are set on a cyclocross bike with 35mm knobbly tyres and a big bag on my back, so is doing the commute on a road bike just to get them back ethical or sane? Of course not. Did I do it? Of course I did.

the sad thing is this has placed all the KOM's way outside what I can do on my commuter, so I don't even bother now.

I think strava will pretty much die unless they start running monthly resets or something - eventually the KoM's will be fixed after the ded fast riders go out on windy days and the rest of us will similarly have set best times with folloing winds

They can keep an all-time list too if they want but I think they need to keep it, err, real - maaaan !

...Temptation is there to just rocket off on group rides - sort of misses the point of getting out on bikes together. Then again - I can see the attraction for the competitive ones amongst us.

I think there should be a "Peleton" type function or something similar for groups; say a group of 3 or more should finish a segment within ~2 seconds (Max) of each other and the leader board is only open to groups of 3 or more, gets people riding together and forces them to work together if they want that leader board position...

HUMBLE PIE ALERT.......

Whilst fannying around on Strava settings/history/rides etc (new user still)...

Looked into his previous rides a few days ago and clicked laps......it seems he rode that particular section 9 times in a small loop. Obviously uses it as interval training. 😳

I am an arse. 😳 😳

Someone round these parts set a segment up on a major arterial route into town just recently. I held the Top spot without knowing it for a week. Whoever it was went out on Sunday and lopped a minute off my time which was fine but did leave me with the thought that during the week there are buses, sets of lights and a roundabout across another main route which it's a bit suicidal to race against. I have flagged the segment as unsafe it's a downhill on the road and not a KOM those should only go uphill.

KOM those should only go uphill.

Oh grow up KOM is their term for fastest on segment. They can be up down or sideways. Fine to report for dangerous but just because you don't like the idea of it going downhill......

Having been a member of local road bike racing clubs it is quite interesting looking at who holds local KOMs - the nearest one to me is held by somebody I know it's not even worth bothering trying to beat! The only one I've actually logged a time on though I did when towing a kiddy trailer - I've also done it on a unicycle, but not uploaded that one to Strava. The thing is, I might not have got the KOM, but even on the uni I beat some other people - haven't really used it much, but can you tag your rides to say you were towing a trailer or riding a uni?

yeh, course you can but unless it's towing a trailer [i]with[/i] a unicycle I reckon leave it

but can you tag your rides to say you were towing a trailer or riding a uni?

If you give up because you can't get the KOM then you have missed the main benefit/point you can see your progress and improvement over time. The PR's and Gold/Silver/Bronze for your times is more of interest to me. I have some KOM's but also happy to see that after training I move up the list on other section.

There is no way I will hit KOM's on some stuff round here due to the number of serious lycra bandits that live here. However I can play on the technical stuff and see how I do against the others.

I'm finding it quite depressing, people keep setting up new segments, I don't get notified that I am KOM until I get the email through saying I've just lost it....

So I don't get the satisfaction of achieving a KOM, just the annoyance of losing it 🙁

It does seem that now virtually every road I regularly ride has a segment on so it is almost becoming irrelevant most of the time.

Also my mates follow my rides (as I follow theirs) and I find it difficult to keep myself to zone2 training because it looks so slow. Internet peer pressure - sad isn't it?!

Dear God almighty, fact is Strava is shite.
The peep show hand shandy of cycling.
Hmm now how did we track our progression before Strava

Calm down grandad, it's just the youngun's having a bit of fun.

<peeks past the curtains>

'a wiz right bout at saddle'

Oh grow up

Not much chance of that I ride bikes for fun, and untwist that thong. If you're going to purloin a road racing title then use it as intended. The spotty French jumper is for uphill heroics, they don't award a jumper for riding downhill at ludicrous speeds.

I think strava will pretty much die unless they start running monthly resets or something - eventually the KoM's will be fixed after the ded fast riders go out on windy days and the rest of us will similarly have set best times with folloing winds

They can keep an all-time list too if they want but I think they need to keep it, err, real - maaaan !

Good point. Maybe a better idea would be to roll out more categorisations. I know they have age etc for premium subscribers, but I don't think that is enough. One idea is to have rankings that work like leagues, with each league having a limited number of spaces. That way, though getting KOM is impossible, it would still be an achievement getting 'promoted'into the top league or whatever thus maintaining the incentive and allowing people to compete with those of their ability. If numbers were limited then it would be entirely self regulating. Suppose this would only work on popular segments however...

they don't award a jumper for riding downhill at ludicrous speeds.

I check which way the wind is blowing then go out and try to ride segments where I know I will have a tail wind . Obsessive ? Certainly not .

You can gain a second on Box Hill Zig Zags by entering from the uphill (Mickleham) direction instead of the downhill (Rykas) direction.

Calm down grandad, it's just the youngun's having a bit of fun.

Poppycock, all this technology just seems to get people wound up.

I set a KOM up the stairs in my house last week...
We had a break in yesterday - nothing stolen, but got an email saying my KOM was beaten.......

DrP

I went for a little pootle in Hyde park last week on those Barclays hire bikes. I recorded the ride with my garmin for a laugh. I rode through at least 6 segments within the park (not around it). 😀

Why would you report someone riding a segment? so what if he only did that one, his choice how he rides it. Reporting someone for being faster, thats pretty sad.

The the segment is flat, followed by a climb, he 'rode' the climb at 60kmh. Before I reported it I checked his other rides, and they were no where near that fast, his 2nd fastest time on the segment was over 2 minutes slower, it's less than a mile long.

what about if everyone using strava was fired into space from a big cannon..?
I think that would improve the format and would help cut down on some of the negative aspects of it..

I tried being fired into orbit from a cannon. You'd be amazed how far down the leaderboard I was - pretty sure some people are wearing skinsuits and pointy hats

😆

To be fair there are some right idiots who set such short segments in random places you often do wonder why they do it, and the ones who set segments with major road junctions in the middle of them!!

Other than that it's mostly good, great little training tool if you use it right.

I did loose three KOM's that I set (took off a guy) to the same guy by a few seconds a month ago, so I went for a proper warm up and Strava'd dem segments and took 50 seconds off the longest (1.7km 5%) climb 🙂

Did loose a longish road one to two guys on the same day with the exact same time & average speed each - slightly suspect if you ask me. But I CBA'd reporting it as if I better my time I know I can get it back.

As for people who hold the big road climbs, there's a few pros round here from a certain fancy clothing & electrical company sponsored team- nuff said

The really short segments are a waste of time, has more to do with the gps / phone people are using rather than the actual speed they get. Over a longer segment it balances out a bit - the innacuracy is still there but the time benefit is going to be less.

I don't even have a cycle computer on my bike. I had one but then the battery ran out so I took it off. I had a gps type thing that wasn't Strava on my phone but it did my head in and it would rinse batteries and run out on rides over 60 mile so I took it off.

Basically I can understand the appeal of Strava etc but I don't personally get excited by it myself.

Did loose a longish road one to two guys on the same day with the exact same time & average speed each - slightly suspect if you ask me. But I CBA'd reporting it as if I better my time I know I can get it back.

sounds like a few roadies thru and off, nothing wrong with that. There are a few segments i know i haven't a hope on because they are on the local chaingang route.

Question,

Does anyone know how Strava works out times for segments? i am sixth on a segment that i didn't follow exactly. my av is 19.9mph for 40mins, but the route i took is a little longer. So was my speed actually 19.9mph, or is the 19.9mph the speed that is needed to match the time taken to do the segment route?

I enjoy it because it motivates me to get fitter, even though I've got no chance of KOMs on the climbs around here. Top tens are still pretty satisfying on climbs I was struggling to do clean a while back.

It only gets barmy when you tailor your whole ride to the start and finish of segments. There's one around my way which 'starts' halfway along a track you normally pootle along towards the climb, and finishes way beyond the top gate where I usually stop to have a breather. So I start pushing hard earlier and keep going to these artificial points...

I'm just waiting for the local bogs to dry out so I can start posting decent times again.

A few months back I got a KOM on a local piece of singletrack which I didn't know was a seg on Strava at the time. Subsequently lost it so when riding it 4 weeks ago I decided to try & get it back resulting in my first Strava crash - spectacular but fortunately no serious injuries.

It was whilst laying there, trying to breathe that I thought to myself "Numpty! Whatever happened to just enjoying the ride?".

Have reverted to not giving a stuff about other folks times - just my own progress. Anything else is a bonus.

I use strava to log my rides, see the route I've covered, see the high gain and generally have a poke about.
The KOMs are an added bonus, but the be all and end all. Theres always going to be someone better / faster, so I'll have a crack if I can be bothered.

I'm new to Strava and quite like trying to find challenges to test myself.

I know a fair few of the guys on my regular routes so if I feel competitive, it's good to 'race' them.

Couple of weeks ago [url= http://app.strava.com/rides/18787752 ]I rode in with a mate[/url] and with his help set a PR on one climb. We then have a nice speedy descent that I lead him out on and then watched him crank it up to claim my KOM.

Works both ways.

Oh and being fit doesn't necessarily mean being the quickest. I'm well off the pace on pretty much all the techy trails I ride but it's good to practise.

I'm finding Strava a pretty useful training aid at the moment. Helping with my hill reps before the hillclimbing season starts anyway.

Looking forward to "Up The Buttress!" 🙂

Follow me [url= http://app.strava.com/athletes/225425 ]http://app.strava.com/athletes/225425[/url] to witness my pain (and steal some KOM's if you fancy.)

I do find all these Strava addicts moaning about it quite funny.

You could just go and race your mates for real, then you will know for sure if you are faster/slower.
You will know for sure if they cut the corner / cheated.
You will be able to laugh when one of you falls off.

It will be more real and more fun.

I do find all these Strava addicts moaning about it quite funny.

Sorry, which ones?

I rarely ride on my own. I use Strava all the time and so do many of those I ride with. It isn't perfect but it's pretty good for seeing how you're progressing and seeing how you're doing compared to other riders you know. Chasing KOMs is often futile because, as you can see if you look at the detailed data, GPS isn't that accurate, line choices are 'flexible', and conditions vary massively.

Last night we had what felt a fairly fast ride, I was going quicker than ever (or so I thought). Got back and three of us had broken loads of personal bests along trails. Nice to know you're not imagining it!

I do find all these Strava addicts moaning about it quite funny.

I'm mostly laughing at the haters this morning. Bunch of luddite saddos. Race for real it's quite like strava nice gap and ride like hell so hard to do when your mate is blocking the trail.

And as before corner cutting has been going on as long as mountain biking. If you don't believe it then you havnt been looking

Im targetting a whole set of KOMs round where I live. There is one big loop segment, then lots of smaller segment along the loop.

The pace of the leader is easily met on the short segments, so I'm going after those 1 by 1, and building the speed endurance backup to go after the full segment KOM.

Obsessive? Possibly, but as I'm building up to a race where I need to run at that pace for 14miles, then its all part of the motivation.

Strava is a means to end for me, not that bothered about the KOMs, but am aiming to get quicker for racing

Strava is great.

It makes you think about how you are riding a lot more. Instead of just coasting through sections I'm now looking for places to pedal. As a result I have to deal with corners and jumps and drops in a different way.

Its good it gives you an incentive to try harder and you learn more about riding as you are having to deal with obstacles at speed.

You get fitter too.

richmtb, I ride just like that without Strava, all my riding mates are faster so Ive no choice.

richmtb, I ride just like that without Strava, all my riding mates are faster so Ive no choice.

So why haven't you caught up with them yet?

😉

I don't really get Strava as a training tool or the idea of posting your rides/training online for all and sundry to view. I get that if you want to have a competition with your mates it can be a great tool but I'd rather no one knew what I'd been doing before turning up to actual races. Along with that I'm the kind of person that would get far to involved with trying to beat other people’s times that I would no doubt interrupt my proper training to do so and slow down my own progress as a result.

Iain

One of my hills has been done 304 times, 41 of them are mine. I'm going for 50% of the total - there must be some sort of perseverence award, I'm miles off the KOM time 🙂

Iain Gillam - Member
I don't really get Strava as a training tool or the idea of posting your rides/training online for all and sundry to view. I get that if you want to have a competition with your mates it can be a great tool but I'd rather no one knew what I'd been doing before turning up to actual races. Along with that I'm the kind of person that would get far to involved with trying to beat other people’s times that I would no doubt interrupt my proper training to do so and slow down my own progress as a result.

Iain

I don't have a training plan I just ride and get fit as a consequence. On a normal ride I can never push as hard as I can in a race. The incentive to get a KOM makes it a bit easier to push yourself like you would in a race.

On my road club fast rides we'll often race to the top of the hill or sprint to the cafe for a bit of a laugh (and then regroup) although not for strava KOMs. There has been plenty of banter in the mtb club about "doing a strava" whenever we come to a well known segment. A chance for a it of a free for all and then a regroup once those not playing catch up.

Strava is just a bit of fun and as I understand it completely optional. It is a lot more casual than racing.

Klunk - Member

Strava is Xbox Live (or whatever it's called) for fit people.

much much more easy to cheat on strava than xbox live.

I can see how it can make rides more fun and add an extra element to them, especially group rides or solo mtb rides on routes your mates also do (in fact to me it seems it should be much more an mtb thing than a roady thing with the whole racing your mates/pub banter aspect and I'd imagine it could be very useful for DH racers.)

What I'm failing to grasp is the people who chase KOM's and head out to re-take them shortly after they have lost them. Reason being is that that’s what I'd end up doing if I used it and I think that would be counter productive to getting quicker vs structured training. Using it hyper competitively would be like cutting your nose off to spite your face sort of a thing IMO; you get small doses of satisfaction by getting a KOM or such but perform under par at actual races.

Iain