Strava is the Facebook of cyclists. At first it’s hard to understand this app, but once you get it, it becomes a healthy addiction.
Before I begin, I want to say that this is not Sponsored Content; I haven’t reached that level of development in this blog yet.
On Facebook we see the foolishness activities that others do, their photos, what they eat, and if we’re lucky, the latest underwear of that attractive but insecure friend that your girlfriend wants you to delete from Facebook.
Strava is exactly the same, but you can’t share everything—you only share your sporting achievements, mainly on two wheels. The first thing you’ll see on the site will be your friends’ rides in Facebook style. The interesting thing is that every time someone goes for a ride, it gets dissected into comparable segments, for example: climbing Cerro San Cristóbal from Pedro de Valdivia or from Escuela Militar to La Pirámide.
Each of these segments can be compared with other times you’ve done them, with your friends, or with anyone who has passed through there, and you can see everyone’s best times. You can even simulate races against them, even against your own previous rides.
For example, in the following image, we see how my friend Philippe has already reached Tupahue, while my other three YO-selves are still struggling to get there. At the time of the screenshot, the best YO is 1.4km behind Philippe and has a 1:50 gap… well, let’s say he has a better bike…
You can also do other interesting things, one of which I love is flybys, which lets you see what people who pedaled near you were doing. This is wonderful when you run a race and want to see how you moved relative to the group.
You’re probably thinking that all these features are very competitive, but if there’s one person a competitive person always wants to beat, it’s "the past version of themselves." What better way to do it than simulating an RPG game where you train?
Basically, if you train, your level goes up a bit, but if you don’t train, it starts to go down. It’s torture for a geek who has finished all the Final Fantasy games, and needless to say, the best incentive to get back on the bike and pedal harder.
The boost or how much it increases is calculated based on the suffer score, which is calculated from your heart rate, so you’ll need a compatible heart rate monitor. Strava recommends Wahoo, but any low-energy Bluetooth should work on Android.
And as I said at the beginning, this is like Facebook: you show off your achievements and see others’. Since life isn’t all about competing, when a friend sets a new record or goes on an interesting ride, don’t forget to give them a well-deserved like, which on Strava is called kudos so they feel important. Isn’t that what social networks are all about?
Cheers, I hope you liked the article.
If you liked it, follow us on any of our channels, where all posts will appear.
And don’t forget to share on your social networks; your visits are my motivation.
Leave a Reply