So far as a BibRave Pro (BRP), all of the products I’ve tested were brand new to me. I may have heard of some of them, but testing them as a BRP was my first direct experience with them. Until now, as I have been selected to tell my story of how I became a Strava user which will hopefully motivate you to become a Strava user as well or at least pique your interest enough to look into Strava and learn how it could benefit your running habit. As soon as the opportunity to work on this project presented itself I knew it was the perfect fit for me. Just in the past year I have turned two of my coworkers into Strava users (one of the two I converted over from using the IOS app, Health).
I have been a regular Strava user for about 2-3 years now. I first heard of Strava after I fell in with a new crowd, the Facebook group “Trail and Ultrarunning”. I hooked up with this group of trail and ultrarunners around the same time I ran my first ultra (Blues Cruise 50k) in the fall of 2015. I kept seeing people posting in this group about Strava this and Strava that. “If it isn’t on Strava, it didn’t happen” was also a common refrain. I decided I should learn what the heck this whole Strava thing is.
At first glance, I didn’t see what the big deal was or why Strava was so popular. My initial impression of it was that it was just another online fitness tracker. I had used several others before and at the time was a Garmin connect user only because I used a Garmin GPS watch and all of my data was automatically uploaded, tracked, and stored there. It was simple and I questioned why I would have any need for a secondary online fitness tracker. In my mind, it would only complicate the system I was using which seemed to be working fine for me.
Then I learned what Strava brings to the table where many other online fitness trackers fall short: the social networking aspects it offers. Where Garmin Connect and Suunto Movescount (probably the two most broadly used online fitness tracker apps with 10,000,000+ and 500,000+ installs respectively) were limited to just users of their GPS devices, Strava provided a platform where users of all GPS devices could play and interact, including folks who tracked their activities with their phones. Strava also allows users of other third party fitness tracker apps to sync those accounts with their Strava account so that like minded fitness addicts have a common playground to interact with one another. Now other online fitness trackers may have taken note and followed suit with Strava’s lead, but I’m unaware if they have. Once I drank the Kool-Aid, I haven’t looked back at any other fitness trackers. I use Strava exclusively as my fitness tracker and it fulfills all of my needs and then some.
Inclusivity isn’t the only benefit that makes Strava shine. Here is a short list of some of my favorite Strava features, all of which I will go into and explain in more detail in a future blog post:
- Group Activities and Events - A way to organize and get more social with other athletes.
- Clubs - Join up with other athletes by geographic region or specific interests. Find the BibRave club here.
- King Of the Mountains (KOMs) - Think of these as virtual races.
- Flybys - Probably the coolest way to relive a race. This one is probably my favorite. Check the boxes for “Scott” and “Rich” and watch!
- Segment Explorer - Traveling to a new area and want to find a great running route? Use segment explorer.
- Gear Statistics - Track the miles on all of your running shoes!
- Challenges - For when you need a little extra motivation.
- Achievements - Think of these as racing yourself.
- My Year In Sport - This is like a celebratory video of your past year’s activities. Here’s mine from 2018.
If you're already a Strava junkie, you can now show your Strava pride with some Strava swag:
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| Strava swag on Amazon. |
