Segment hunting?

Graeme Jones

So I know Strava is always a spoken topic on the forums but wanted to ask do people generally use these segments as a training aid and approach them during their ride as such or do people 'save' themselves knowing where the segments are and then go for it?
I generally complete all my rides in the best possible time and push myself to get better overall, but this got me thinking on some rides I may go for a steady ride and just attack every segment I know and use it as an interval training method, or go hill hunting and just attack all my local hills.
There are a few segments I know I can get top 10/5 or even top!
Talbot ave sprint-Birkenhead I am 9th from 130 with loads more to give!
Full column road my nemesis nr West Kirby/caldy decent hill currently 36/123 withonly 1 mph average extra require to get top 10! This was a hill I could barely get up4 months ago.
Neston Road climb 21/160 with 0.9 mph average needed to get top 10!

Definitely got to beat these three while on annual leave this week and next week. I'll post links if anyone wants to see them, can't do it from I phone.

Headhuunter

Some people definitely do, certainly around London people rigorously defend their position in Strava tables and know where all the segments are. See the commuting forum! Personally I don't commute with GPS but I do use it on club rides however there is only 1 segment I actually know on the ground, so any rankings/KOM are always a surprise to me when I upload to Strava....

Mikey23

I don't take them too seriously but I am aware of them and they are rather fun. Fartlek is generally how I approach but it does mean you really have to work a little harder on those hills

slowbike

Commuting I know where the segments are - so will target them specifically if I'm feeling right ...
I can extend the commute a bit - but I don't know where segments are - so I tend to ride them at my own pace - if it's a ride I'm going to do more frequently then I'll learn (sometimes just roughly) where the segments are that I think could be good fun - if not then it's just a segment completed and added to the list - I don't expect to rank in them...

Lightning

It depends on the training for the day. Going for each segment every ride is not the best way to even get a better time by the way. You can easily tell by the HR (if they have a HRM) of how hard they went.

If I'm doing a tempo ride, my times on segments will naturally be slower, but so will my HR. If I'm doing threshold intervals, the places I do these intervals in are all segments, because I live near the mountains and every climb is a segment. I have quite a few KOMs on long climbs because of these efforts since the typical segment hunter isn't good enough to beat them so all the top riders are good riders who race, etc, but if I want a KOM on one of those short inclines everyone loves to sprint at, I'd need to go all out as that really is how everyone gets them (which I don't bother with since I'm usually training).

Strava is just for fun so if you're not racing and like segment hunting, go for it

charliew87

It's always a tad disappointing to finish a ride and not have a couple of new PB's on Strava. I do now sometimes vary my route mid-ride to take advantage of advantageous wind directions on certain segments.

Pross

I don't very often go out with the aim of riding segments but if I know there are some on my route I will often push harder to try to improve on my best and I find on a regular ride like a commute they can help keep things interesting. The thing I like most is doing a ride on roads I haven't been on before and then seeing what segments there were and how I got on just riding normally. That said I've been looking at all the hill segments I can find in Lincolnshire (not many obviously) as I'm going to be stuck up there for a month so I'm hoping to get out and specifically target them to see how I get on (I'm not a great climber but some of the ones I've looked at certainly seem beatable).

haf1zur

so far with 3 weeks of cycling and using strava, i have definitely noticed improvements on various segments and tend to get at least 3-4 PR each time i commute, which only shows i am getting better at it, thats what i use the segments for myself, see if i have improved

have not gone and attacked any segments as i have a long way to go yet before i can reach a comfortable average to even consider

though i did manage to get number 1 in one segment, one i created which so far no one else has ridden lol

Graeme Jones

I have attached the 3 segments I have spoke of with my times since I first starter riding so you can see my improvements which have been pretty good.

http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268418
http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268418

http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268463
http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268463

http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268494
http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268494

And one which is a tough slow climb not a tough gradient but just seems long!
http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268499
http://app.strava.com/rides/21366195#382268499
The above is going to take a while to get top 10 but if I keep improving it will help!

springtide9

Obviously your best chance to get up the table on Strava is to plod out to a segment, ride it hard, and limp back home.

You will find that some people do this, but most people will just pick a route and use the segments as hard intervals. As most routes are littered with segments nowadays, I will generally pick my segments based on what I want to achieve for that ride.

Obviously don't do this all the time, but one of my 30 mile loops around here involved around 30 segments, and that seems to be about average, so they are sometimes hard to ignore!

Lightning

Those are hardly climbs, or long, so get a group or a TT bike and hit them fast and they'll pretty much be over and you'll have KOM. That is, until someone else does the same

nickel

Try to use segments as a crude form of interval training as I lack the motivation to do proper intervals, Its quite suprising how hard I can push myself on say a 25 mile circuit with 3 or 4 climbs as I attempt to try and KOM each one, definitely good motivation to push harder!

ShutUpLegs

I managed a 35 mile ride last week without a single segment.

Crawlinguphills

ShutUpLegs wrote:

I managed a 35 mile ride last week without a single segment.

I actually cant get out of the end of my road without hitting the start of a section!

I can vary my run to work from 5-10 miles depending on my mood. The most direct route has 3 strava sections, one hill sprint, one long hill, and one flat sprint. So its nice intervals to go hell for leather on considering its only a 5 mile run. My ten mile route I can include anything from 5-8 segiments depending if I want sprints or hills or both.

On my 30-40 mile runs on Saturdays and Sundays I tend to be far more interested in average speed, so although I am sometimes aware I am on a strava section, I dont pick up speed accordingly.