Thoughts on Strava

Mantra “ Just type and it will figure itself out”

Welcome back, I think I know how to write blogs now. You just have an idea (these usually come while out for a run) I try to remember it and put it in my notes and then is like Devinci’s code trying to remember all those thoughts that came while my blood was flowing and the endorphins were high.

This one is about the good and bad of Strava. My personal experience with it and I’m hoping others might connect with one or some of the ideas I share. 

I think Strava is mostly good. It’s by far the most positive and uplifting social media platform. People are handing out kudos, sometimes I wonder if I’m actually giving kudos because the effort was good or is it just because there was an effort at all?

Maybe for this to work I’ll just have little hot takes on Strava features and less randomness. 

Positives :

Kudos - see above. Also,  it’s just nice to be recognized and show your friends you see them out doin’ things.

Long captions and a notes box below : Love this, half of my run is thinking about my captions then half of it is trying to remember them. Notes section is good, I might start being unhinged and writing literally everything I think about on my runs. Not sure about you but no headphones and my mind is going some places.

Adding a photo: It’s nice to show people where you were. Although sometimes It’s too polished. Let’s normalize taking photos on the shitty parts of our runs.  For some reason I like food pictures on Strava and its the only place I really look at memes. 

Achievements: This will be in both categories. Who doesn’t like a little digital trophy or being called a local legend? That’s great and it helps show your progression and where you run a lot. For me it shows me I should just go run without a planned route and notice something new. I think I have one KOM and Im still riding that high. Go try and get one, just be careful out there.

Comments: pretty much a super kudos, your running crush or people you look up to taking the time to write anything is pretty empowering. Once you reach run-fluencer status I’m sure its annoying.

Year in review: I mean, this will end up in both categories. The positive is that it helps you set goals and recognize where you kicked ass and where you could do better. Probably feels better if you weren’t injured or as productive as you were wishing for. 

Negatives:

Progress: This thing stresses me out. I like pretty things, things that have some fluidity to them. When this chart looks like an irregular heart beat it throws me off. I never used to have a set goal for weekly mileage, now I do. When Monday hits and it’s back at the bottom, or any day of the week where I tally up whats needed to complete the week I get stressed out. Note to self : running should be generally fun and an enjoyable activity devoid of stress or anxiety. Just do your best. 

Achievements: Well this makes you (ME) feel like less or that I used to be a local legend then I slept in one day and now I’m not. I have also almost died trying to get certain KOM’s on my bicycle which felt really dumb. I have one KOM ( KOM = King or Queen of a certain section ) that I ran my absolute fastest for longer than I would have liked to. I got it and knew the person I passed was likely having a conversation and just skipping along without a care in the world. You know who you are, just let me have it ) Some KOM’s are also clearly owned by people who cheated. So dont beat yourself up on those. 

Year in review : It’s pretty hard to not be let down when there are people running more in a week then you run all year. It’s hard not to compare ourselves to those we follow. Lots of numbers and things to look at and some hidden data ( like days active is just piled into the most popular sport for you ) It looks like I ran 306 days but in reality a lot of those active days were just walking the dogs. 

In review: 

Strava isn’t so bad, it’s all me. I wrote “ you “ a lot here and I’m sorry for pointing the finger. It’s ME and I . Hopefully my negative relationship to these features of Strava can offer the opportunity to review your relationship with it and give yourself some more kudos for even getting out there to begin with. 

Thanks for your time - Local Legend of Rice Field Path - Jaryd