After years of trying several mobile applications and web services to track my rides, I failed to find one worth the effort to use consistently.
Then I found Strava.
Strava has made my workouts and commutes ten times more effective and fun. Do yourself a favor, and start using it - now.
How does Strava do it? Strava makes it drop-dead simple to accurately track your times, workout statistics, and relative performance versus friends and fellow riders/commuters. Strava uploads data directly from your smartphone or Garmin GPS device and auto-magically calculates informative metrics and useful graphics:
First, Strava maps and calculates vital statistics (including a “Suffer Score”) for each of your rides and runs:
When I first started uploading my rides and saw the low Suffer Scores, I realized I was not pushing myself enough to improve and reach my potential.
One of the coolest things about Strava is that it gives you a sense of how your ride stacks up versus prior rides on the same segment:
Strava also calculates your standing versus other riders on the same segment/commute. It’s a great way to encourage friendly competition and community with your riding and commuting friends.
Strava also recently started offering tracking tools for runners. I have found Strava’s recently introduced tools for runners just as simple-to-use and informative as the cycling tools. Below is an example of a lazy run/walk – as you can see from the stats.
Any downside to Strava? The iPhone application is currently limited, but there is a new version in Beta that promises significant improvement. My Garmin gathers more data (heart-rate, etc.) and more accurate positioning information than my iPhone , so I find I only use the iPhone app as a mobile supplement for the full online version of Strava. But this may change as the mobile application improves.
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