Strava is an awesome GPS tracking web service where you can store your bike rides and runs. Earlier in the year I switched to Strava from Runkeeper. I was a satisfied longtime Runkeeper user. I even was Runkeeper Elite subscriber. But one time I stumbled over Strava in my Twitter timeline. At a first glance it looked very modern and slick but still focused on the important things of GPS tracking. I especially like the distraction free presentation of my training results. The website has a timeline where all activities of me and my friends are listed. That’s my starting point when I’m surfing on Strava. Here I can look what I’ve achieved lately and here I get a guilty conscience because of the loads of kilometres my friends make. So far Strava is similar to other tracking sites. But the big difference for me make segments and partly challenges.
Segments are small (or even not so small) routes on which every time you ride along them your time gets measured. So after a lengthy ride in a rather popular neighbourhood you will have completed a shit load of segments.
For every segment there’s a KOM (King of mountain). That’s what Strava calls the record holder of this route. But even if you don’t make it to the top of the list you get achievements for your personal record up to your personal third place and for a place among the top ten overall.
Segments can be created by everyone everywhere. On especially steep routes Strava creates segments automatically if someone decides to cycle such a route. You can set personal time goals for each segment.
This subtle gamification of biking doesn’t seem to be very motivating. But it happens to be extremely motivating for me. I created several segments on my way to work. And sometimes I even go for PR hunting on segments I know. Some segments seem highly competitive where the KOM alternates every week.
If segments are not enough, there are challenges. To participate in a challange you have to join them. After that every activity counts for the challenge. You can participate in multiple challenges at once. Challenges have a specific duration. A challenge which is active right now i the Campagnolo Grande Giro Challenge. The goal is to cycle 1.000 km between 16th August and 14th Sepemtber.
Of course there’s a Strava app which is also very useful and clear. The Strava app is very actively developed. Strava was the first app which implemented the M7 coprocessor of the iPhone 5s. I hope the integration with Apple’s forthcoming HealthKit will be just as fast. But other apps like Wahoo and Cyclemeter can directly upload to Strava.
Originally published at blog.i-wars.net on September 2, 2014.
