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Within a week of first taking strava I cut my hair and ditched my baggies, Lycra, carbon forks, i even rode past a pub without stopping.. I also clocked 49.8mph max on my road bike. Scored a KOM too.
At first you think you can control strava
But before long you start looking ill, losing weight and feeling like death
Then one day you will wake up knowing that instead of you controlling strava, it now controls you.
So if a friend offers you strava you know what to say:
Strava screws you up.
Round here they start you off on MapMyRide, but before you know it, you've moved onto the harder stuff.
My name is RS and I have a Strava problem.
lol, dead right Charlie. Franks Tank will never be the same again. Not sure about the riding past the pub part, maybe i'm not fully addicted (yet)
Sad, sounds like you need another weekend in Porlock 🙂
i must admit, strava made me ditch my baggies, i could never wear them again. whats the point of baggies? 😈
Strava confessions: Until yesterday, I owned pretty much the whole set of climbs off the Warren in Caversham. Gravel Hill, Sandy Hill, Mechanical Hill, Jackson's Lane. And then someone nicked my KOM on Mechanical Hill, the day before the rain came. I'm considering an appeal to the CAS.
But I could give up any time.
I hide it from my friends. I don't want them to know that I care how far and how fast I ride.
I told them I was doing "hill repeats" for fitness. In reality I was trying to nail my local KOM.
I'm sorry.
I have broken my collar bone and in the meantime I am losing KOMS left right and centre and cant do anything about it,every damm sorry you lost email from strava is like a knife being twisted in the back, its enough to make you weep...
Ditched my cycle computer about 15 years back for similar reasons, every ride was governed by the data on it, rather than by enjoyment.
(I'm a shedload faster thanks to Strava, I reckon. Anyone else?)
There's a 2 mile flat road segment that goes close by
I sometimes stand in the garden and think "hmm... that strong wind is in a perfect direction"
😀
I ride at a very slow pace to the nearest hills and then go Banzai to get the hill climb KOM, I then ride home at a slow pace trying to gt my lungs and heart back in my chest.
I have been known to question the integrity of peoples carbon frames in an attempt to get them to slow down......
Not that I'm competetive you understand
Yes,I would have been faster. Thing is,it controlled me.Only last night I tried to backflip off a 20ft building for $1.
I cut my hair and ditched my baggies
Pictures or it didn't happen! 😉
It certainly changes the way you ride.
I was chuffed at some of my descents though. I've managed a few KOM going down... none going up yet.
mashiehood - Member
i must admit, strava made me ditch my baggies, i could never wear them again. whats the point of baggies?
So non-strava dudes don't have to look at your sack, back, crack.
There's a 2 mile flat road segment that goes close by
I sometimes stand in the garden and think "hmm... that strong wind is in a perfect direction"
Phew, it's not just me then 😀
I now taper for every ride and I'm thinking of getting the TT bike out. My home page is Segment explore.
Round here they start you off on MapMyRide, but before you know it, you've moved onto the harder stuff.
😀
I started with bike hike and a garmin geko. It wasn't long before I had progressed passed owning a Garmin Forerunner and Garmin Edge, and using Garmin Connect daily to a full on Strava addiction.
Every ride is a segment hunt.
On the plus side I'm probably the fittest I have ever been
Non Srava users won't see any back/sack/crack for the dust in their eyes 😛
The good thing is that you have admitted that you have a problem.
Once that important step has been taken there are support services that can help you.
Alternatively you can do it alone, it requires more self control but is ultimatley more satifying.
Try and go out on your bike and just have fun.
Then try to cycle without the phone / garmin occasionally
Before you know it then you will be an Ex Strava addict.......but you must never go back!
🙂
Well done, go smash it some more.
Nothing wrong with it, there are worse things to be up to in the woods by yourself.
Yep. Me too.
However, it's made me a shed load faster and made me really enjoy 'riding' again, in so far as I enjoy the pain now, and enjoy keeping going.
Getting KOMs is like a sexual endorphin hit though, it must be said.
I've now moved onto the harder stuff on www.trainerroad.com ...
I bathe in Veet, spray my body with black paint instead of clothes and only ride in suitable performance enhancing wind conditions in dry weather only.....alone so as no distractions....snort.....but its ok.....sniff......i can stop it....snort.....anytime i like.....honest.....i can....STRAAAAAAAVAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
I only dabble in the non-addictive end of things. My map, compass, occasional GPS habit and occasional MapMyRide use are all under control. I pootle where others are chasing virtual titles.
I'm just a social dealer of Strava, tell people how good it is, use it all the time. Just to see others around me get sucked in to it.
Won't touch the stuff my self, tastes nasty and leaves you in a mess!
[url= http://app.strava.com/segments/2371966 ]It's even infiltrated the kayaking world...[/url]
Tbh charlie,
I'd be more worried about the road bike.
There the truly evil things.
Set some good times in the car and then sit back and relax.
That will teach it who's boss.
A lung expanding, mind contracting drug then?
Will soon be 'owning' all the road KOM's in South Wales, on a moped 😉
I had a KOM, a CAT 2 roadie took it by a few seconds, I shall regain it if it kills me 😆
steve - analyse your performance using [url= http://raceshape.com/ ]this[/url] to see what you need to do to reclaim your KOM
If you start trying to spell things with your ride you've gone too far. #nowaybacknow
I feel a photoshop coming on.. "I'm in yr strava, steeling all yr KOMs"
Maybe the picture should be that fat bloke in pink Lampre kit with a hipster fixie shopped under him
steve - analyse your performance using this to see what you need to do to reclaim your KOM
This way lies madness.
(bookmarked it though)
Kind of glad I only have a rather uncool blackberry, that does admittedly have endomondo loaded onto it (not often used though) strava doesn't work on it though. 😀
EDIT: any cheap gps devices available that run Strava? don't want to shell out for a garmin 😉 😯
Got to say that I have been "strava free" now for nearly 3 months.
I feel like a new man. Initially it was totally addictive but then it got more and more difficult to get to new high's and after a while it started taking the pleasure out of everything. Kept beating myself up for not getting another PB. Yep those days were great getting 10 PB's in one day - but that is unsustainable without killing yourself.
Strava made me forget what mtbing was all about....
Is there any way for the Strava-curious to have a peek at what Segments are nearby without actually signing up?
Just a little taste... first one is free..
Give me a post code/location and i'll post a peek.
LoCo try a Bryton cheap and decent, not used a Garmin so cant compare.
Off the back of this thread I downloaded my past 2 weeks of riding onto the Bryton site and noticed they have an upload to Strava link now. So I uploaded all of my routes. I didn't realise at the time that I had a couple of files from when I got it testing it out in the car. I know have a KOM on two local road sections. Oops. 😆 😳
I think strava needs to sort out monthly KoMs or something - I ride pretty much the same 2 routes when I go on the road bike. I've now got pretty much unbeatable (for me) segments all round it as I've had helpful winds at all points by now. Means I can't even meaningfully compare against myself.
Similarly, as time goes on and more riders join, you eventually get a proper rider or worse, a chain gang, with a following wind who makes KoM unattainable for pretty much anyone.
SO, monthly/quarterly KoMs or they'll lose the "competition" aspect IMO (unless they can record/correct for prevailing wind which would be murder on their algorithms I imagine)
Give me a post code/location and i'll post a peek.
Was just wondering what there is along my commute:
NCN 72 from Wylam to Newcastle Quayside.
I won't rank (which is why I don't want to sign up) but just want to see what a "good" time is.
Thanks.
]SO, monthly/quarterly KoMs or they'll lose the "competition" aspect IMO
Would make it more interesting in the muddy 3/4s of the year.
here you go graham, just your end of the map
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8320/8020245325_ae9790852d.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8320/8020245325_ae9790852d.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/23823661@N05/8020245325/ ]wyaye GrahamS[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/23823661@N05/ ]scaredypants[/url], on Flickr
Is there any way for the Strava-curious to have a peek at what Segments are nearby without actually signing up?
[i]EDIT: any cheap gps devices available that run Strava? don't want to shell out for a garmin [/i]
Yes. I just bought a Navin gps logger on ebay for £17. It records GPX files which Strava can import.
I'm cleaning up on strava round my way..
I now have slowest, fattest and grumpiest on nearly every section in a 50 metre radius of my house, as well as a couple of 'most likely to bite your grandmother' on a couple of sections..
8)
#drinkmysweat
I'm not sure how to work it..can I use my garmin? And if so how do you time your run? Do you just press lap at a certain point on the route? And if so how do you know everyone is starting it at the same point?
Nice one scaredypants thanks! 😀
Quite a few pointlessly short segments.
Wylam Bridge? WTF? It's about 20 metres across!
But C looks interesting. Y'know, if I was interested...
😉
Thought this ride interesting!
Kudos given (for the name if anything).
I signed up to this Strava lark last night and learnt one of the fundamentals this morning on my ride into work: Don't try and get all speedy on the morning commute unless you really want to regurgitate your bleedin' breakfast halfway up the first 1 in 5. Errgh! 😥
I also thought I'd easily get the KOM on the aforementioned hill only to find out that a bloody sportive went up there back in April and I'm only number bloody 35 😡
I'm amused by the proliferation of willy-shaped segments. After that one in Brighton, i've just spotted one in the woods near Reading.
I am however a crap Strava-ist. I just go for a ride with the GPS in my bag and see what i get.
Got a link to the Reading one?
I sometimes go for a road ride with a neighbour who's dead into recording everything via a Garmin 800. At the end of a recent outing he noticed that I record nothing at all and don't even have a Halfords type cheapo basic computer. Conversation went something like.
Him (thick French accent) - Adrian. zat was just under blah kms and blahdiblah of elevation on mine, how about yours?
Me - I don't have one Patrick, I don't know
Him - But how do you know how far you have been?
Me - I don't
Him - how about ze speed and ze heart rate?
Me - no idea.
Him - error, error, does not compute
Me - 1664 as usual mate ??
Anyway, wtf is Strava?
The Reading willy:
http://app.strava.com/segments/1152265
It looks a bit crimped and flaccid, by comparison with that tumescent member in Brighton, but i suppose Brightonian folk have a reputation to keep up...

