A better way to use Strava?

deadhead1971

I just came across a neat little extension for Google Chrome. It changes the way Strava displays segment data to you.
Normally when you click in a segment, you'll see the overall leaderboard, but you can select the "My results" option from the drop down list to just see your own history on that particular segment. This extension will make the "my results" data appear by default.

Most people who enjoy Strava, say they like it because of the sense of motivation and progress they get from it. Most people say they're more interested in beating their own pb's rather than competing against others.

This is a great way, if you're a Chrome user, to switch the view to support that kind of analysis.

It takes less than a minute to install the extension and try it out.

http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/2014/02/ch ... on-strava/

Mikey23

Sounds good... During the winter I am doing two local routes over and over again and I rarely beat my best times or figure in the leader tables. Pity it's only for chrome. I use Firefox on PC and chrome on iPad but I don't think that's any good. Perhaps strava could incorporate this in an upgrade?

markhewitt1978

I'd like to just be able to see my own results on the iPhone app, you can only view others on there which is annoying. If I've got a PB I want to see if I've smashed it or not.

supermurph09

Neat idea. One more thing, I can never navigate to the comparison option on a segment anymore, has it been removed or is there a sequence to it? (I use veloviewer to look at this now but seems funny I cant find it).

supermurph09

markhewitt1978 wrote:

I'd like to just be able to see my own results on the iPhone app, you can only view others on there which is annoying. If I've got a PB I want to see if I've smashed it or not.

Mark, if you click on the segment and then click analyze your effort it shows current and best efforts or if you beat your time on that ride it shows that effort and your second best effort.

Cheers

markhewitt1978

Some people say they can still see it but Strava themselves say it's been removed and will be back soon. In the meantime try RaceShape.

supermurph09

Yes thats what I use. The best feature imo that was lost was through the Jonathan O'keefe site where you could see every effort on a segment by everyone in date and time order.

rolf_f

I'm doing the free premium trial and debating whether or not to pay up. One thing that might convince me but I can't easily see relates to the performance by age category - what I'd like to see is my KOMs by age. Eg one climb where I am second by quite some margin over 3rd but where first is a spotty little Olympic potential talent! In age group, I'd be KOM by a mile but I presume you can't do that?

littledove44

And I would like to see my segment times by bike.

supermurph09

Rolf F wrote:

I'm doing the free premium trial and debating whether or not to pay up. One thing that might convince me but I can't easily see relates to the performance by age category - what I'd like to see is my KOMs by age. Eg one climb where I am second by quite some margin over 3rd but where first is a spotty little Olympic potential talent! In age group, I'd be KOM by a mile but I presume you can't do that?

I'm a premium member, I enjoy some of the othe analysis features and the routes creator. I also think paying £4 per month is a fair contribution to make for something that adds so much to my cycling.

term1te

Rolf F wrote:

I'm doing the free premium trial and debating whether or not to pay up. One thing that might convince me but I can't easily see relates to the performance by age category - what I'd like to see is my KOMs by age. Eg one climb where I am second by quite some margin over 3rd but where first is a spotty little Olympic potential talent! In age group, I'd be KOM by a mile but I presume you can't do that?

I'm a premium member, and can filter riders on a given segment by age, weight, gender and date. As far as I can see it is one of the few benefits over the free membership. But I'd be happy to pay £4 a month for the standard membership.

There was an article in a newspaper a while back which suggested Strava were working on an age related handicap system. I haven't heard anymore about it, but it would be a nice feature to start some more arguements. Another contentious feature would be to crown a "king of the hill", based on times on all segments in a given area. You'd be able to calculate your "ranking" over all segments within say 10 miles of any given point. It would encourage consistency, rather than the luck with the wind or a free tow behind bus. It would also be a great way to fill some more posts on here.

One feature I would like to see though, is the ability to know if you've cycled past (even if they are going in the opposite direction) another Strava "athlete". There are a couple of guys around here whose names regularly pop up near the top of the KOM lists and I'd love to know who they are, not a formal introduction, but if Strava told me when I got home that I'd gone by someone on a particular road I'd know he was the guy on the red bike.

rolf_f

Term1te wrote:

I'm a premium member, and can filter riders on a given segment by age, weight, gender and date. As far as I can see it is one of the few benefits over the free membership. But I'd be happy to pay £4 a month for the standard membership.

I would too in theory but since Strava decided to make it deliberately awkward to upload my files I've felt a lack of enthusiam about giving them any money!

Term1te wrote:

One feature I would like to see though, is the ability to know if you've cycled past (even if they are going in the opposite direction) another Strava "athlete". There are a couple of guys around here whose names regularly pop up near the top of the KOM lists and I'd love to know who they are, not a formal introduction, but if Strava told me when I got home that I'd gone by someone on a particular road I'd know he was the guy on the red bike.

Oooh, Stalkeresque. I would stop using Strava if that was implemented. Anyone could look at your bike, decide they like it and identify your riding habits. Even with the privacy zone it would be a doddle to find out where someone lived if you decided you wanted their bike for yourself.

supermurph09

Personally don't take age into account, thats like admitting someone younger is better than you. I'm not ready for that. The handicap system sounds good though. Again that's why I liked the old Jonathon O'Keefe segment analysis. Problem with KOM' is that you dont really know how hard someone else has ridden the segment, if you can see every time someone has ridden it then you can at least see how consistent their times, or their improvement are to guage that.

For me personally I just want to see my efforts so I can compare me to me. Did I go off too fast, was my pacing better, where have I got stronger on a climb.

rolf_f

Supermurph09 wrote:

Personally don't take age into account, thats like admitting someone younger is better than you.

Not really - it's just a means of filtering out people who have a different (not necessarily better) form of fitness due to age. You are just creating a more comparable and therefore meaningful sample set of people to compare yourself against by filtering to age.

slowbike

Rolf F wrote:

Term1te wrote:

One feature I would like to see though, is the ability to know if you've cycled past (even if they are going in the opposite direction) another Strava "athlete". There are a couple of guys around here whose names regularly pop up near the top of the KOM lists and I'd love to know who they are, not a formal introduction, but if Strava told me when I got home that I'd gone by someone on a particular road I'd know he was the guy on the red bike.

Oooh, Stalkeresque. I would stop using Strava if that was implemented. Anyone could look at your bike, decide they like it and identify your riding habits. Even with the privacy zone it would be a doddle to find out where someone lived if you decided you wanted their bike for yourself.

Depends how it's implemented. Eg, A switch for the feature for those that don't want to be included.
You can put your profile on "request to follow" which hides course data from those who aren't following you - so even if you were identified (away from your privacy zone) then they're going to have to work hard to identify where you keep your bike ... it'd be easier to physically follow you (they couldn't physically follow me... I'm too fast! )

rolf_f

Slowbike wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Term1te wrote:

One feature I would like to see though, is the ability to know if you've cycled past (even if they are going in the opposite direction) another Strava "athlete". There are a couple of guys around here whose names regularly pop up near the top of the KOM lists and I'd love to know who they are, not a formal introduction, but if Strava told me when I got home that I'd gone by someone on a particular road I'd know he was the guy on the red bike.

Oooh, Stalkeresque. I would stop using Strava if that was implemented. Anyone could look at your bike, decide they like it and identify your riding habits. Even with the privacy zone it would be a doddle to find out where someone lived if you decided you wanted their bike for yourself.

Depends how it's implemented. Eg, A switch for the feature for those that don't want to be included.
You can put your profile on "request to follow" which hides course data from those who aren't following you - so even if you were identified (away from your privacy zone) then they're going to have to work hard to identify where you keep your bike ... it'd be easier to physically follow you (they couldn't physically follow me... I'm too fast! )

TBH, I think you are fundamentally right. Probably it is all too much bother anyway but eventually it becomes easy by default. The real dodgy one I think is functions that allow you to be tracked as you ride.

slowbike

Rolf F wrote:

The real dodgy one I think is functions that allow you to be tracked as you ride.

Pros and Cons ...

Only time I use this sort of functionality is so family (usually wife) or friends can track me - and then it's for a specific purpose.
We have "find my iPhone" functionality on the phones so we can track each other anyway so live strava tracking isn't much help.

TBH, the only time I'd want live strava feed is if I'm out hunting segments and get a warning of one coming up - along with my PB and KOM time. However, it would probably be better if there was an easy way of marking specific segments with warning on the Garmin ... and even then I'd probably turn it off most of the time!

Mikey23

Age related stuff is cool. I'm well down the leaderboards on most local stuff but top of my age category. Ok so there aren't many in my age category ...

M4VERICK

I've posted this website before - so you may already be aware,

If not, however, check out veloviewer.com - Brilliant!

deadhead1971

Slowbike wrote:

However, it would probably be better if there was an easy way of marking specific segments with warning on the Garmin ... and even then I'd probably turn it off most of the time!

Not sure if it qualifies as easy (there's a bit of digital faffing about) but you can already do this by loading segments as courses and racing against the virtual partner. So, you could load up your own previous best, or go for it and race the current KOM. Great fun.
Here's how to set it up:
http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/2012/10/us ... rava-koms/

izza

I use 4iiii's and Cliiiimb.

Audibly get warning of approaching segment, segment starting and then repeatedly how far ahead or behind I am of my best time and when segment ends.

Real time and v. addictive.

deadhead1971

izza wrote:

I use 4iiii's and Cliiiimb.

Audibly get warning of approaching segment, segment starting and then repeatedly how far ahead or behind I am of my best time and when segment ends.

Real time and v. addictive.

They sent me one to review, but the app is iPhone only, and I use android. Looking forward to using it, if they ever produce the android app!

slowbike

deadhead1971 wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

However, it would probably be better if there was an easy way of marking specific segments with warning on the Garmin ... and even then I'd probably turn it off most of the time!

Not sure if it qualifies as easy (there's a bit of digital faffing about) but you can already do this by loading segments as courses and racing against the virtual partner. So, you could load up your own previous best, or go for it and race the current KOM. Great fun.
Here's how to set it up:
http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/2012/10/us ... rava-koms/

yer - I looked at that before ... but as you say - a bit of faffing about ... it really doesn't need to be that complicated - I wonder if Garmin will introduce something though as they're going to be doing Segments on their revamped Garmin Connect site ...
Although I guess they won't develop the software for the 800 ...

davep1

izza wrote:

I use 4iiii's and Cliiiimb.

Audibly get warning of approaching segment, segment starting and then repeatedly how far ahead or behind I am of my best time and when segment ends.

Real time and v. addictive.

Not sure I'd like that! Some of us need recovery time/rides!

izza

deadhead1971 wrote:

izza wrote:

I use 4iiii's and Cliiiimb.

Audibly get warning of approaching segment, segment starting and then repeatedly how far ahead or behind I am of my best time and when segment ends.

Real time and v. addictive.

They sent me one to review, but the app is iPhone only, and I use android. Looking forward to using it, if they ever produce the android app!

I've spoken to the guys in Canada and it is high up on their 'to do list'.

izza

deadhead1971 wrote:

izza wrote:

I use 4iiii's and Cliiiimb.

Audibly get warning of approaching segment, segment starting and then repeatedly how far ahead or behind I am of my best time and when segment ends.

Real time and v. addictive.

They sent me one to review, but the app is iPhone only, and I use android. Looking forward to using it, if they ever produce the android app!

I've spoken to the guys in Canada and it is high up on their 'to do list'.

deadhead1971

izza wrote:

I've spoken to the guys in Canada and it is high up on their 'to do list'.

I bet it is! Not a good business model to shut out half your potential buyers.