Strava

Social media for bicyclists. Oh, and useful too!
Strava allows you to record, review, and share (if you wish!) your bike ride or run with other Strava members around the world. You record your athletic activity on a Garmin or similar device and then upload it into your Strava account, or you can directly record the activity into Strava by using their mobile phone app. I have had my phone battery die on long rides (the Strava mobile app will record the activity up until the point where it lost power) and so now I always record my ride on my Garmin and upload later.
Strava accounts are free, but they also offer «premium» memberships for $ 59/​year which give you access to extra features. I find that the free basic service is perfectly adequate for my needs since it allows me to track my progress and see whether I have improved my times on ride «segments» and compare my performance with other Strava members. Segments are parts of a route (or even an entire ride/​run) which have been created by members so that they can track and compare their performance. For example, a typical segment might be a stretch of road between two junctions or a mountain climb/​descent. With the premium service you can get real-​time performance feedback on your ride/​run and also track your Strava friends in real-​time in case you want to intercept and join them. Personally, I find these features to be too competitive and TMI for me!
I track virtually all of my rides on Strava and usually can’t wait to upload and see if I managed to improve my times. But here is one of the problems with Strava: users can quickly get caught up with «Strava-​Mania» and become so competitive that they push the envelope too far leading to accidents and injuries to themselves and/​or others.
Another issue is that of privacy and social-​media etiquette. You can make your rides private, but then you won’t be able to see your segment times among the public rankings. And once you begin adding friends (if you belong to a local bicycle club your club mates will want to follow your rides and vice-​versa) you need to mind your etiquette and give kudos and compliments on your friends’ activities. This can be time consuming, but failure to do so can lead to «Strava-​Drama!»
All in all Strava is a great tool for monitoring your rides and runs. Just try not to get too caught up in the Strava-​Mania and avoid any Strava-​Drama!!!

This may seem like Heresy to say, but I too love Strava and more than Unilocal,and to write this on Unilocal itself seems somewhat cannibalistic. If you don’t agree or can’t understand this you are not a cyclist, competitive in any mannor.
Granted I have never been to the headquarters I have look for jobs their on the regular and actually on Unilocal too (San Antonion CM???). This review has more to do with the deep rooted competitive nature that we have. Sure we’re not ripped crossfitters competing against other crossfitters, on here we compete with everyone, even pros.
It’s personal, until you make it public. It’s the standard for training, tracking and boasting. It’s a verb, noun, not that unsimilar to how we use Unilocal.It tracks personal bests, personal records, king/​queen of the mountains of most any segment you want. It has goals and awards, gives away badges and depending on your computing unit tracks heartrate, temp, speed, cadence, power, elevation, speed, averages, VAM, time, moving speed and a host of other data that helps us use the minutia to improve. It’s quantifiable more than sets and reps and results. It’s tons of machismo when you crack top 10’s and break records.
«It didn’t happen if it’s not on Strava», Prove it”, and «kudos» are all a little similar in that boast all you want, if I can’t see your #‘s and compare to mine and others then it’s a lie and it didn’t happen. The root of kudos is really more jealousy.
Premium is a must and forget the improvements Garmin Connect is doing, Strava is locked into the cycling psyche. Price point is cheaper than a burrito a month and nothing compared to most any bike part, but not necessary to hooked on it’s free benefits. Sign up on strava itself and no the monthly Google version as if you upgrade to annual, you aren’t really told you have to cancel the subscription through google and it will duplicate on both.
To like the IG feature, but I also use IG for so much more than cycling and my feed doesn’t need to have my life out of the saddle all over it. Wahoo is great when I forget my garmin too, but the site itself really taps into a dormant braggadocio. Don’t buy the gear, you’ll be hunted like pariah and treated like you bathed in love potion no 8. Maybe I’ll make a ride TO Strava before I do an update.

I LOVE Strava. I absolutely LOVE it.
It allows me to track my bike and runs and it pushes me to beat my previous best times. If you are so-​inclined you can compete against your friends too.
I love being able to track my previous best times and getting badges for 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd place against myself.
I love their new integration with Instagram. You can record a run/​bike and if you take a pic on instagram it will show up on your event feed.
The user interface is clean and easy to use.
I love that they allow you to seek out new routes as well.
I also love that they let you create groups and you can track workouts amongst your public or private group.
The mobile app is free on Android and Iphone and you can upgrade to premium.
All around I just love Strava.