So.. this strava thing...

[Flick of the Elbow]

My strava times compared to others remind me of the immortal words of Ronnie Corbett, I know my place.

 

[bpsmith]

My strava times compared to others remind me of the immortal words of Ronnie Corbett, I know my place.

But your place isn't set at your current point. You can always go up as you improve...but can always drop down too as others improve. Lol.

 

[G3CWI]

Things to bear in mind when viewing Strava leaderboards:

I have just been importing data into Strava from Endomondo. I was amazed to see that I was 1st on one segment - and boy was my speed great. On looking back at the data I started to see a problem. It was far too fast for me. It was only then that I remembered that I had fallen and injured myself and my PB was in the ambulance

 

[bpsmith]

So did you flag your ride as such? Or did you just accept the KOM?

 

[TheJDog]

I really like Strava. In the past two years I've used it as a monitoring tool for my strength and fitness. I've seen my times tumble on some hilly segments nearby, and am now unhappy if I'm not hitting the top 10% of everyone. My average HR on rides has improved, my average speed has improved, and my ability to cover distance has improved. Currently thinking of hitting all the "100 Climbs" segments in the South East. Time up Ditchling Beacon on Saturday, 6:32, compared to over 10 minutes in February (though that was a cold, windy, solo ride). Veloviewer is weird as a scoring system for Strava. The segments where I think I have done best probably don't appear in the segments used to generate my score. Seeing a 10,000 place improvement on some segments after a good ride is quite satisfying, though it doesn't happen often.

 

[Archie_tect]

Never understood why people would upload their information for public viewing- unless they are in a group of friends tracking each other's progress.

 

[Longshot]

I managed to set a whole load of 1st places on Strava a couple of months back. Somewhat surprised, I checked back and realised my Strava was defaulting to 'run' rather than 'ride'

 

[TheJDog]

Never understood why people would upload their information for public viewing- unless they are in a group of friends tracking each other's progress.

Why not? The site relies on other people's information to inform them on how they are doing. If you aren't making your information public, you're taking but not giving.

 

[Dogtrousers]

One thing that I find it useful for is if I'm planning a ride and see a humungous hill in the way I can quickly go to Google and search for "hillname site:strava.com" and find a segment for it. This is a lazy way to get the total climb and length of the hill, easier than straining my eyes over map contours. And if I take the fastest time and multiply it by two, I also get an estimate of how long it will take me to get up!

 

[G3CWI]

So did you flag your ride as such? Or did you just accept the KOM?

Neither. I trimmed it to remove the ambulance part.

 

[Hop3y]

I use it to track my rides and see my mileage, but use Veloviewer for most of that.

Also I create a segment for my ride to and from work, no one else does that whole route so when I get a KOM, I know it's my personal best. (PS: NO ONE RIDE MY COMMUTE PLEASE! )

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I think I hate veloviewer. Haven't got my head around it really, but just ran it for the first time in a few weeks. "Improved placings: 4. Worse placings: 449"!!!

That happens to everyone, as more people join Strava your position can only go down. Have a look at your velo score (click on the summary tab on the main page) that is a better indicator of how your are improving (or not!)

 

[JoeyB]

I use Strava to track my progress on a couple of local routes I do and for general mileage tracking too. Without Strava I wouldn't have the motivation to push on throughout my local loop. There are quite a few 10/15 minute segments through the circuit so I can focus on different parts of the route depending on my mood. If I'm feeling really energetic I can attack two or three sections.

 

[Andrew_P]

If I owned Strava I would get the developers to make the KOM either Daily, Weekly or Monthly or all three and stick it on Premium and then bottom of the list overall KOM as that on the whole has the least Kudos attached to it. On my commute I reckon I have covered most segments somewhere in the region of 500+ times and any PB's or even 2/3 PB are as rare as rocking horse excrement. Simply because during this period I have encountered at least three times freakish perfect weather conditions or latched on to a better faster rider (not that there is one of course) to drag me along!

 

[Archie_tect]

Why not? The site relies on other people's information to inform them on how they are doing. If you aren't making your information public, you're taking but not giving.

That's assuming anything I would be posting has any value TJD!