Hi there ! 👋

Louis here, I am a French software engineeer and a sport lover, running pretty frequently and loving Strava for it. Goals for 2023 are to run my first semi, and maybe even more ‍♂

Hi Louis!  

Thanks for posting.  I have to confess I'm not sure what a semi is?  Is that like a half marathon?  

Hi there!

I'm Renaud from Quebec, Canada. I mtb a lot and also like to run when I can. Love the app and got here trying to find a way to send some suggestions to the guys behind all of this. Hope to get to talk to some cool people here.

Cheers!

Oh yeah I'm looking to get to ride my bike more often in 2023! I guess I'm not going to be ambitious on anything as I am a new father now ahah.

Hello Renaud, it's great to have you join the Community and congratulations on becoming a new dad! We appreciate suggestions and feedback and this is by far the best place to share all of that with us. Are there good trail systems for MTBing in Québec?

Thank you for the welcome Soren, actually yeah there are numerous places to ride here that are really great. Are you a mtbiker yourself? 

I just started getting into it last summer, it's a lot of fun and I enjoy getting to explore all the unknown trail systems (since I mainly stick to road cycling). It's very humbling to start something new and not be great at it, but immensely rewarding to make progress and celebrate the small wins. I like trying out new things all the time, is there perhaps a new sport you might try this year>

Hi,

I’m John from Raleigh, NC.  I predominately use Strava for cycling and occasionally walking, hiking, and work outs.  I also managed to figure out how to put a sensor on my ancient NordicTrack ski machine to log some indoor skiing.  Right now my goals are all cycling related, but am thinking about mixing it up a bit in 2023.  Covid and the flu knocked down my fitness last year so am really interested in using Strava to track my recovery.

John

Hello! I'm Ashton and I'm from Ohio in the United States. Over the past year, I started running competitivelyagain with a running group out of Dayton, Ohio. I turn 30 in May and I must say I'm in much better shape than my early 20s. In 2023, I plan on crushing PRs from 1500m to 13.1. I work as a software engineer and see a lot of potential in this application 😄

Hey John 👋 good to hear from you and thanks for sharing the photo of that beautiful road, too! I feel you on the recovery post-covid, I got hit by it and then had bronchitis afterward! I was coughing for what felt like 3 months straight and my lungs haven't quite been the same ever since. Are you participating in any cycling events or races this year or planning any other noteworthy rides?

What's up, Ashton? Thanks for joining the Community, it's great to have you here, especially with your engineering perspective. We love to hear about people's fitness journeys and it's awesome that you're running competitively again. Are you participating in any events or races? I'm personally looking into running a full marathon this year (most distance I've ever ran is 30k), which I'm excited about since recovering from reconstructive knee surgery from a year and a half ago. I'm a little unsure how to balance cycling and running training though.

I had Covid over Christmas so building up some fitness on Zwift at the moment.  Fortunately I think I had a less impactful strain but I can definitely feel the effects on breathing and heart rate with harder efforts.  Once it warms up a bit, I'll start with my outdoor local routes and then try something more adventurous later in the year.

Kia ora Soren and the Strava Community! 

I'm Anthony, from Aotearoa New Zealand. I'm a cross country hardtail 'keep-it-real' mountain biker, and use a road bike for commuting to work and back. I hate racing these days as I'm more of a diesel-engined grit your teeth type-2 kind of guy nowadays. I keep looking at today's gravel bikes and thinking 'why not?'. Always loved the big adventure rides with good company. My cycling goals for 2023 are to keep it social, sustainable, and more consistent. And beat a few segment times too! 

Happy New Year everyone!

Anthony

Hey Anthony, Happy New Year and welcome to the Community! New Zealand has been on my bucket list for ages, I just googled Port Hills and it looks stunning there. Is that a better spot for MTBing or road cycling, or both?

Love that you're including sustainability in your 2023 goals -- I'm curious about what that looks like for you?

Yeah, Christchurch offers heaps of cycling options, good for road and mountain biking options alike, on the flat or up/down the hills. 

My sustainability goal was around buying more from the local bike shop rather than the web (I hate waiting for couriers these days anyway), getting involved in community cycle mechanic workshops, and keeping on responding to cycle path proposals from the council etc. 

Hey Soren, nice to meet you and the rest of the community! 
I'm Alexandre, 31 years old, from Paris and I'm a Strava enthusiast since a long time ago, especially for running and cycling tracking mostly . I'm currently following a Strava plan to prepare Paris Marathon in April and following my stats and progress via Strava features is a great plus ! 

I looked at flights to NZ out of curiosity... it looks like I'll have to wait till I retire, haha. Thanks for sharing more around your sustainability goals. Cycling is incredibly effective at reducing one's carbon footprint as is, I feel like we who spend more time outdoors are much more in touch and involved when it comes to environmental concerns. I like that you're involved with local cycling infrastructure initiatives, too. I should definitely take a page or two from your book!

Salut Alexandre, it's awesome to hear from you, how you use Strava to track your progress and stay consistent, and your plans to run the Paris Marathon! What's the weather forecast typically like in April? Have you completed a marathon before?

My name is Vagner and I'm from Brazil, I live in Recife, Pernambuco and I love running. Last year I joined ACORJA, a well-established running group from Recife (it's turning 18 this February) - I'm trying the get the verified badge for the club. I found ACORJA on strava, and I'm very glad for this, it's changed my running, my life and I made many friends. So many thanks!

My goal of 2022 was to run my first marathon, however I suffered an injury on November 16th, but "with a little help from my friends" of ACORJA, I reached my 2022 goal on December 31st! I hope you could run your first marathon in 2023, I loved to run my first i'm planning many others.

This year I want to keep running with the ACORJA family, run marathons (4 or more), run at least 3660km - which is the distance from Recife to Porto Alegre (the capital of my home state). I'm using the "challenge group" to run the 3660km and many friends of ACORJA joined.

Thanks for keep updatting Strava to promote the health and the friendship.

Hello Vagner and welcome to Strava Community Hub! It's a pleasure to hear from you, thank you so much for sharing your passion for running and community -- it sounds like your running club on Strava has helped you make some wonderful connections with like-minded people and we love that it has positively shaped your life. We're looking forward to hearing more from you in this space, you seem to be well-versed in lots of our features! When is your first marathon of the year and what are you doing to prepare for it?

Thanks Soren for the warm welcome! 
Not my first marathon, It will be the 11th actually ^^, and 3rd time the Paris one. The weather is usually good, a bit cold in the morning but sunny! 

Hello Soren, thanks for the welcome!
April 2nd will be my first marathon of 2023. I'm not looking to run fast, I just want to finish well. I'm doing my preparation running at least 70km (43.5 miles) per week. I do my trainings in an easy pace to enjoy the route with my friends. A famous African proverb reads "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together".

PS: I have other ideas to improve some features of strava, but I'll take it easy for not spamming the moderation team.

😲 that's impressive! We will be cheering you on for marathon #11, best of luck!

Hello, I'm Gary from Wales. I run canicross with my lurcher, Mabel. Hoping to get a few more events under my belt this year. I have two or three in the offing for the end of March/start of April.

A number of us from the canicross group I belong to are planning more multiday mountain canihikes and wildcamps for 2023.
I would dearly like to see Strava include canicross as one of the activities available. It is after all, a pretty big worldwide sport these days.

Hi Gary 👋 and Mabel! Thanks for introducing yourself and sharing your passion for canicross! I see you were able to find the existing idea to add Canicross and kudo'd it! Your upcoming multi-day adventures sound promising. I'm curious how you first got into canicross and how long you've had Mabel for?

Mabel was 9 in November. She came to me as a rescue at 14 weeks old, having been born at the greyhound and lurcher rescue centre near Shrewsbury. She's been my running buddy since she was around 15 months old. I'd done a few parkruns prior to running with her and noticed other folk running canicross style, so I started running with her there. Then I discovered a couple of local canicross groups and away we went from there.

The canihike last year was superb, Harlech to Abermaw through y Rhinogydd.