# How does Strava work?



## PowerGoat (Jul 2, 2012)

Hello.

Some of the guys on the ride yesterday were talking about "doing a Strava section and getting Strava times. I looked at a site online and it gave me a sense of what it is, but how does it work? 

Do you automatically get on a list if you do a Strava section (even if you don't know it)? 

Who can make a Strava section, and how? 

Can you do a great workout, then create a Strava for it, and then get credit for it or does the course have to be online first (like making that a challenge to your friends)? 

How does the computer know if you are going up the hill or down the hill (can a great ascent be faked by someone going downhill slowly)?

This is a really cool idea. How long has this been online and working?

Thank you.


----------



## scottma (May 18, 2012)

If your ride goes through a Strava segment you automatically are tracked on it. Anyone on Strava can create a segment. If you ride then create a segment you will get credit for it as will others who have ridden it. The direction and elevation is known. You can't fake a climb by going downhill.


----------



## Wookiebiker (Sep 5, 2005)

PowerGoat said:


> Do you automatically get on a list if you do a Strava section (even if you don't know it)?


No.

The only way you get on a Strava segment is if you download your ride onto the Strava site..and you can only do that with a GPS enabled computer (or phone if you download the app). Strava doesn't automatically upload information from every person that rides the route GPS or no GPS...it has to be manually downloaded from your computer to their site.



> Who can make a Strava section, and how?


Any *registered* user can make a segment. You do so by downloading your data, and going to the "Create a Segment" section. From there you will see instructions on how to do so.



> Can you do a great workout, then create a Strava for it, and then get credit for it or does the course have to be online first (like making that a challenge to your friends)?


Yes.

You will be KOM until somebody comes along and beats your time...though once beat, it will still show up as a KOM if you look at the basic statistics of the ride, but when you look at the leaderboard you will no longer be on top. 

You can also create segments that are private, so nobody else sees them but it will monitor your best time for training purposes.



> How does the computer know if you are going up the hill or down the hill (can a great ascent be faked by someone going downhill slowly)?


GPS...However, it can't tell whether you are racing, in a car, plane, motorpacing, etc. It just reads the data from the GPS device and goes from there.

You can however report segments that seem too good to be true...such as somebody climbing a 20% grade at 30 mph...chances are they forgot to turn off their computer before driving home.



> This is a really cool idea. How long has this been online and working?


Looks like it's been around for 2 years or so...but has really taken off over the past year.


----------



## jryter (Jul 11, 2012)

I have friends that just love it. Addicted. I haven't tried it much. I think you can download your phone or gps to it.


----------



## bmxhacksaw (Mar 26, 2008)

I like the Premium Strava ($60 a year) because it has some extra metrics and I think is a pretty cool training tool and it IS very addictive.


----------



## PowerGoat (Jul 2, 2012)

Thank you all for your detailed answers. I just joined and I'm looking forward to comparing the numbers with my buddies.

Just one more Q. I run and ride but after uploading my recent data, Strava thinks everything I did was a ride when they were all runs. Is there a way to switch these runs into the running category? I can't find anything on the site that explains how to do that? My times, needless to say, were terribly slow! Thank you.


----------



## V.Rossi46 (Jan 3, 2012)

If you go into the ride there is an edit button to the right, click that and you can change them to runs.


----------



## ssphoenix (Oct 20, 2011)

Strava for sure is addictive. Curious if the full version is worth the money though.


----------



## clones2 (Jun 26, 2012)

Just started playing with Strava yesterday. The terrain and figures for climbing seem to be very accurate. And riding segments and using the leaderboards is a ton of fun.

I much prefer endomondo and the audio feedback for training and riding around however.

Good news is I figured out I can just turn both apps on for a workout and they work great.


----------



## bmxhacksaw (Mar 26, 2008)

ssphoenix said:


> Strava for sure is addictive. Curious if the full version is worth the money though.


 Five bucks a month? I think it is.


----------



## mcsqueak (Apr 22, 2010)

Another good feature is that you can load all your bike components in and track how much mileage they have, when you replace them, etc. Pretty handy.


----------



## Sumguy1 (Apr 5, 2008)

If everybody wants to race everybody, why not race? I don't get it.


----------



## Tobypaw (Nov 4, 2011)

I've been using the free site for a while, thinking of upgrading to premium. I get lots of QOM around here because hardly any females use it. My goal is to be up there on the leaderboards among the men. It is sad when you get that email saying someone stole your KOM/QOM though :-(

As to why not just race? Well, personally, I just don't have the time/money to drive around to races. This brings the challenge right to my neighborhood. I don't take it too seriously, just a fun way to see if I am improving and how I stack up to others. There is a little bit of "racing" that goes on in our group ride and I'm sure the guys are competing for Strava KOMs. Again, just another "gadget" to help push us age groupers in our weekly rides.


----------



## MerlinAma (Oct 11, 2005)

I first thought it was silly. But I signed up for the free version anyway. A couple of buddies entertain ourselves with it.
The funny thing is that the winner if any local Strava segment is mostly based on who is willing to ride when it is windy. I have some very fast times that were absolutely the result of a 25plus mph tailwind. When the weather is great, there will be no Strava records set.


----------



## PowerGoat (Jul 2, 2012)

Thanks, V.Rossi!


----------



## Mr. Jones (Jul 4, 2006)

Wookiebiker said:


> You will be KOM until somebody comes along and beats your time...though once beat, it will still show up as a KOM if you look at the basic statistics of the ride, but when you look at the leaderboard you will no longer be on top.


Actually, if you create a segment that someone has ridden before, you will not be KOM (unless you have done that ride faster than anyone has previously). It will take a little bit of time, but rides done before that segment existed will count in the KOM standings.


----------



## chriscookz (Jul 2, 2012)

Sumguy1 said:


> If everybody wants to race everybody, why not race? I don't get it.


Because not everyone can race everyone at exactly the same time.

I love Strava. I've only been using it for a week or so, and I've been using the app on my phone as I don't have a dedicated bike GPS, but it's been a ton of fun so far. 

Unfortunately I am struggling to get the guys I ride with to jump on board. Partially because they just don't ride very often, and partially because they love the Dailymile feature of creating maps manually ahead of time. If Strava had that functionality they'd be all over it I'm sure.

I will continue to use it though. I'm pretty much done with Dailymile.


----------



## RyanDe680 (Jul 25, 2010)

So is this different than MapMyRide in that you compete with each other over similarly traveled areas?

Otherwise I'm understanding that it's mostly the same? I signed up and will try it out this afternoon...


----------



## Eric_H (Feb 5, 2004)

I have been using Strava for about a month, with a Garmin 500. I think it is fun, even thought I was initially skeptical of it. The segments can be good motivators for training. I also like how I can easily view a segment and all of the times I have ridden it under "My Results". For segments I ride regularly this may be a useful training metric for tracking fitness from off-season to in-season.

At the same time, one has to be careful not to get too caught up in the KOM game. There are days when I don't plan to ride hard and I have to restrain myself if I find my legs feeling good and a tailwind on a known segment.


----------



## mcsqueak (Apr 22, 2010)

It's also good for tracking personal growth.

I've been using it for almost two years now (started my account in 2010) and it's pretty fun to see old times get crushed, number of hours spent on the bike per month increase, etc. etc.

There are far too many racers and other fast people in my city for me to get KOMs, so I don't worry about that. I mostly compete against my own previous times. I've made my own private segments on regular routes to track progress.


----------



## TXBDan (Sep 14, 2010)

I'm a new Strava user and have a couple questions.

How do i "enter" a segment to see how i compare? I just uploaded tons of rides in heavy activity areas but i don't see any automatic matches. Do i have to manually "Create Segment" and then select an existing segment for each ride?

If i do one long ride, can i match it to several segments?

Thanks


----------



## MerlinAma (Oct 11, 2005)

TXBDan said:


> ....Do i have to manually "Create Segment" and then select an existing segment for each ride?
> 
> If i do one long ride, can i match it to several segments?
> 
> Thanks


"Create segment" does just that. You create the segment you are interested in. 

Yes - a long ride can easily go through several segments. 

Also a guy climbing a hill on a 20 mile route has a little advantage over the guy riding the segment near the end of a 100 mile ride. But I digress.

The matches are not instantaneous except for your ride. After you create a segment it takes Strava awhile to search their database to match up other rides. As in overnight it seems.


----------



## ian0789 (Aug 2, 2012)

I just got the app on my phone for the heck of it to play around with. Its a bit buggy / not to many save routes in my area.


----------



## Hobbs305 (Aug 5, 2012)

Would this be a good investment (GPS device) and use strava for a new rider? I ride about once a week (I mostly mtn bike) on the road and wonder if strava is something to help me now or later, when I have more miles on my bike.


----------



## brady1 (Aug 18, 2011)

A lot of good answers here. I was wondering how this worked too.

So there are different levels of accounts? Can you upload routes under a free account or does it have to be a paid one? Does it work only with GPS enabled cycling computers/phones?

Dumber question...if I don't have either of those, could I use the Garmin from my car and just stuff it in my jersey pocket?


----------



## Guod (Jun 9, 2011)

brady1 said:


> A lot of good answers here. I was wondering how this worked too.
> 
> So there are different levels of accounts? Can you upload routes under a free account or does it have to be a paid one? Does it work only with GPS enabled cycling computers/phones?
> 
> Dumber question...if I don't have either of those, could I use the Garmin from my car and just stuff it in my jersey pocket?


You can create a free account and upload any ride. You'll pretty much see everything you'd be interested in to begin with. The paid account upgrade just provides additional info like a 'suffer score' and matching you up with people your age and weight.

I dunno about using a car gps. I think they list compatible devices on their site though.


----------



## ACree (Feb 5, 2006)

bmxhacksaw said:


> Five bucks a month? I think it is.


Personally, I think the premium features are a joke. I'll gladly pay, if premium features are added to compare all segments I have in common with another rider, notify me when I get bumped down, not just when I lose a , or show me a list of all segments I've ever ridden.


----------



## petalpower (Aug 10, 2009)

I just signed up after hearing about Strava for the better part of 18 months.

I thought I was fairly quick up some of the steep climbs here in Colorado - apparently not.:lol:


----------



## SixStringMadness (Aug 13, 2012)

Hobbs305 said:


> Would this be a good investment (GPS device) and use strava for a new rider? I ride about once a week (I mostly mtn bike) on the road and wonder if strava is something to help me now or later, when I have more miles on my bike.


The Garmin Edge 200 is a good entry level GPS cycling computer. No maps loaded into the device, it's a cycling computer using GPS, so don't think of it as the same as most other GPS devices (as the term has become synonymous with the windshield mounted navigation systems).

It retails for $150, compatible with Strava, tracks speed, distance, average speed, odometer, and somehow comes up with a calories burned. You can load a route to the devices, but its just a sqiggly line you have to follow, and figure out what it actually means as far as turns as you go.....


----------



## GRAVELBIKE (Sep 16, 2011)

petalpower said:


> I just signed up after hearing about Strava for the better part of 18 months.
> 
> I thought I was fairly quick up some of the steep climbs here in Colorado - apparently not.:lol:


Strava doesn't just tell you that you suck, it tells you exactly how much you suck.


----------



## Teo (Aug 10, 2004)

I’ve been using Strava for 3 weeks and elevation is really off. It tells me I did 5,500 ft. of climbing on my ride on Sunday of just 40 miles. Map My Ride has 2,900 for the same route. But I guess it could be that I’m using an iPhone. Maybe using Garmin would give more reliable results. Distance is very close most of the time.


----------



## scottma (May 18, 2012)

MMR underreports elevation from what I have seen. Strava, Garmin, Endomondo will show similar, where MMR will be a lot lower. Not sure with an iphone though.... Try Endomondo and see what it shows.


----------



## EWT (Jul 3, 2011)

Strava does a lot of smoothing with altitude. A ride I do a couple of times a week is basically flat but does go up and down 10-20' several times during the ride. Even though Strava shows the elevation changes on the elevation graph it reports total climbing for the ride as 0'. I'd guess the actual amount climbed is somewhere around 100-150'. Runkeeper errs in the other direction - when the same data loaded into Runkeeper, it reports 761' of climbing, which is far more than the actual amount. 

I always feel better at the end of climbing days looking at the Runkeeper #s.


----------



## swaits (Oct 10, 2005)

Teo said:


> I&#146;ve been using Strava for 3 weeks and elevation is really off. It tells me I did 5,500 ft. of climbing on my ride on Sunday of just 40 miles. Map My Ride has 2,900 for the same route. But I guess it could be that I&#146;m using an iPhone. Maybe using Garmin would give more reliable results. Distance is very close most of the time.


The Phone versions of the Strava app definitely report higher elevation numbers. The Edge 500 and 800 are probably the most accurate devices, and even they are probably typically a few percentage points off the mark.


----------



## SixStringMadness (Aug 13, 2012)

EWT said:


> Strava does a lot of smoothing with altitude. A ride I do a couple of times a week is basically flat but does go up and down 10-20' several times during the ride. Even though Strava shows the elevation changes on the elevation graph it reports total climbing for the ride as 0'. I'd guess the actual amount climbed is somewhere around 100-150'. Runkeeper errs in the other direction - when the same data loaded into Runkeeper, it reports 761' of climbing, which is far more than the actual amount.
> 
> I always feel better at the end of climbing days looking at the Runkeeper #s.





swaits said:


> The Phone versions of the Strava app definitely report higher elevation numbers. The Edge 500 and 800 are probably the most accurate devices, and even they are probably typically a few percentage points off the mark.


Phones and the Garmin 200 are using GPS positioning for altitude, climbing and descending. GPS is pretty inaccurate for altitude data, so Strava uses topographical data and cross references with your traveled path to come up with your actual (more or less) total ascent/descent. The Garmin 500 and 800 have a built in altimeter, which the accuracy of those can vary as weather changes through the day, and must be "calibrated".


----------



## Cableguy (Jun 6, 2010)

ACree said:


> Personally, I think the premium features are a joke. I'll gladly pay, if premium features are added to compare all segments I have in common with another rider, notify me when I get bumped down, not just when I lose a , or show me a list of all segments I've ever ridden.


Yeah strictly speaking the extra features alone are not worth the premium price, but I still pay mainly just to show my support and help the site grow.


----------



## mcsqueak (Apr 22, 2010)

Cableguy said:


> Yeah strictly speaking the extra features alone are not worth the premium price, but I still pay mainly just to show my support and help the site grow.


I seem to remember back in the day when Strava first started you could only upload six rides if you had a free membership, so I ponied up for the Premium, and continue to do so since I use the site every week and enjoy using it. It's the cost of two cups of (nice) coffee.


----------



## Cableguy (Jun 6, 2010)

mcsqueak said:


> I seem to remember back in the day when Strava first started you could only upload six rides if you had a free membership, so I ponied up for the Premium, and continue to do so since I use the site every week and enjoy using it. It's the cost of two cups of (nice) coffee.


Likewise, to be perfectly honest if I signed up today I probably would be a cheap ass and not ever sign up for premium. But since I already did years ago, I'm content in not canceling partly because because I know it helps out and partly because I'm lazy (also the extra features are better than nothing!)


----------



## EWT (Jul 3, 2011)

SixStringMadness said:


> Phones and the Garmin 200 are using GPS positioning for altitude, climbing and descending. GPS is pretty inaccurate for altitude data, so Strava uses topographical data and cross references with your traveled path to come up with your actual (more or less) total ascent/descent. The Garmin 500 and 800 have a built in altimeter, which the accuracy of those can vary as weather changes through the day, and must be "calibrated".


After looking at Ted and Ben King's data from the first stage of the US Pro Challenge, the 500 doesn't seem to be very consistent either. Ben's Garmin reports 9800' climbed: Bike Ride Profile | 130miles near Durango | Times and Records | Strava while Ted's reports 8401': Bike Ride Profile | USA Pro Challenge, stage 1. LET'S GO BIKE RACING. near Durango | Times and Records | Strava

Presumably they did the same ride despite the 1400' difference in climbing for the day.


----------

