My First Thoughts of Strava

After finding out about Strava I did alot of research and really wanted to get in on the action.  I'm very competitive, and the whole KOM thing sounded like fun.

After reviewing some of the KOM's I came to realize that some segments are clearly dominated by people who caught just the right sort of weather... a KOM for one small hill climb I roll through often was set a few days ago when there was 23mph south winds with big gusts - a day I was thoroughly enjoying cruising through traffic at 35mph (until I turned... lol)... and this puts a question upon overally validity, but I guess anyone could have gone out there on such a windy day - "it is what it is".

There is a greater concern of safety, is it REALLY safe to go 37mph on a bike path?  I guess thats up to the rider in the situation... I'm not one to tell someone to slow down or be careful, I myself have a tendency to be... "adventurous" when it comes to my cycling... I take responsibility for my actions and assess risks accordingly, I hope others do the same.

With that said, I really LOVE the service!  Its cool to gauge my progress as I go, I've setup a few segments around my area where there were none before... and to my surprise others had ridden them - though I am the KOM for the segments I put up (we'll see how long that lasts!).

I like the ability to review other people's performance - and I follow some pro's as well to see at least a portion of their training.

Its really early, but I can see this helping to get me into some structured intervals and get me into some routes I wouldn't have tried before.  Generally I just ride long and hard, and cool off when I feel like it.... but with Strava I've already had a few efforts that were well beyond what I would generally do - and it has helped to build my confidence!

One is a particular hill climb (really short hill).  Its a segment I didn't start, but its a hill I'm familiar with.  Generally I just chug up the hill at a reasonable pace and continue on... but to get the KOM I went a bit down the street - turned around - and hammered it up the hill.  This is the first time I actually accelerated the entire way up this little (but steep) ridge, which helped me to maintain my speed to the end of the next segment.  I didn't get KOM because the others who had done it entered the segment going a higher speed (though I finished at a higher speed), and the second stretch I slowed down before the segment was over, thinking I had passed through the end of it, which hurt my time just enough to land me second in both.

Now I have something to shoot for, and climbing being my worst asset right now, doing some hill repeats trying to get a KOM or at least a PB definitely won't hurt me.  In fact I might setup a hill repeat loop on some quiet streets farther north on the ridge mentioned above after trying to top myself in a sprint I setup.... right now :)

I'm outta here!