Written by Jen Wright
Good day Striders!
This is Jen Wright here with my first and only Tip Tuesday! As many of you know I am a novice
runner who joined the running club in October 2023. This has been my first and only experience
with a running club or attempting to improve my running performance. It has been socially
rewarding as well as an incredible learning adventure! Prior to this I just ran for cardio and to
burn some calories, as well as a few races in my 20’s just for fun to see if I could finish. I never
considered that I could be a better or faster runner until I heard other club members’ running
journeys. Since joining the club I have relied on Strava to help me track my progress, research
routes, connect with other runners, find more potential clubs, and build my confidence. I thought
I’d share a little of how I have benefited from it since prior to this club experience I was a Strava
member but didn’t really find it a valuable tool for me. And who knows, maybe someone will learn
something!
Saving Routes and Creating Routes
As a Back of the Pack runner in a running club, anxiety ensues when left in the dust and lost in a
strange new territory. Strava to the rescue! When I first joined the club, Andrew would post the
routes in Strava before each run and I would very carefully save it to my Strava account. By
clicking his links and opening Strava I was able to “Save Route” to my Strava account for later
use. This also has the effect of syncing automatically to my Garmin watch to be used with the
navigation features during the run. Now Andrew posts the Garmin routes which are also very
helpful, thanks Andrew!
I have also used the route feature during solo runs both at home and on vacation. Recently I was
bored with my local routes and luckily another runner lives down the street and is my Strava
friend. I was able to copy one of his routes into my account and low and behold, I had a new 10
mile route going through places in Northborough I had never been to before. To save a friend’s
running route for your own use you can click on their run, then when it opens you select the
bookmark icon in the top right corner of the screen. You can then rename your route and save it
to your account.
When planning vacations during training season I sometimes pre plan my routes in Strava using
the Strava route builder. This is a great option and instructions can be found here. Sometimes I
just search a location in Strava under the maps tab and if a Strava user with public settings has
run in that location then the routes are publicly available for you to save and download. And as
with any saved routes in your Strava account, you can download them to your Garmin for use
with your navigator. There is a setting in your Garmin Connect that once set, will always sync
any Strava routes you saved.
Using Stats to Measure Your Progress
One of my favorite ways to track my progress or to challenge myself comes from the Matched
Runs Feature. Once you finish a run and it’s uploaded to Strava, you can click on the run and
scroll down to the “Matched Runs” section. If you click on “View x Matched Runs” it will show you
the other times you ran this same route so you can see your other runs as well as their dates,
times, stats, etc. This can be a fun way to push yourself for a new course PR!
I also enjoy checking out the Splits Feature in Strava which will break down your run mile by
mile. This can be useful if you want to challenge yourself to do negative splits. For track runs
where I am using the lap button to track my intervals I still need to rely on the Garmin Connect as
Strava seems to only break down the run per mile still.
Strava shows me my Heart Rate Zones as well as my Average Heart Rate and Max Heart
Rate. This feature only works if your device is recording your heart rate, not all smart watches
have this capability. I find this particularly helpful when I have a speedy run and when I have a
terrible run. On my last race that didn’t go as planned I felt disappointed in myself and wondered
if I gave it my all. Afterwards I went into Strava and saw that I was actually pushing my heart rate
way past my normal effort and therefore lack of effort was not the cause of me not meeting my
goal.
The most important stat in Strava for me has been my weekly distance goals. I love to watch the
graph increase as I get deeper into a training cycle. And when I am not training I try to keep a
weekly distance goal so that I don’t lose too much progress. To see your weekly distance totals
open your Strava app, click on the “You” tab, then select the “Progress” tab. It shows you a graph
of your total distance from week to week for the last few months.
Learning from Other Runners
It’s been such a pleasure to meet so many seasoned runners in the running club. I try to add as
many running buddies as I can as friends in Strava so that I can gain insight from their training. I
am so often in awe of some of my “hero” runners and how they run 50+ miles week after week. To
date the most I have run in a single week is 35 miles. I also find it useful to see if they are cross
training, and the kind of running workouts they are doing. You can view another runner’s stats
and activities by clicking on their picture or icon when they show up in your feed. Or you can click
on your own icon in the top left of the Home page and then select the number under “Following”
and choose an athlete from the list whose stats you want to view.
Sharing and Documenting Your Journey
Perhaps the most obvious thing about Srava is being able to save and share your experience with
other runners. When I have time I choose to add some meaningful details about my run or
workout so that I can have a record of what was fun or what worked well or did not work well. Then
when I see the run later in the “Matched Runs” I can gain even more insight into the run or just
recall a good memory. I know that when I move I will look back on my Strava photos from my
time in Massachusetts and cherish the memories. At times when I have not felt like running (like
right now) I can view the photos and perhaps be inspired to go make some more great memories.
Strava continues to add more features on a regular basis and has recently acquired Runna. I can’t wait to see what is to come with this latest acquisition. Meanwhile, I have barely scratchedthe surface of all of the Strava features that are already available. I’d love to hear what your favorite Strava feature is or if there is something you’ve been wanting to learn to do with
Strava. Strava has a lot of great help articles to show you how to use their features and here they provide a summary of their features.
References:
Strava heart rate zone
Syncing your Strava Routes to Garmin
Summary of Strava Features
Creating a custom route in Strava
Strava Matched Runs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BaQVTN2OjegkDg9bliOwGCPFHR7DDWMG-OydP-BhH1M/edit?usp=sharing
(google doc with links)
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