Insider Journal

New to Strava?  Welcome!  Our mission is to help people live their best active life. Our Getting Started with Strava series is designed to help you get the most of your Strava membership and Subscription. In this article, we’ll explain how you can track and sync your outdoor, GPS based activity data to Strava. Depending on the recording tools you have available there are a number of ways to achieve this. Recording your time, distance, and location data and then seeing your activity on a map is fun and motivational.  You can use the Strava App, or a GPS enabled third party device or App.         Record using the Strava App on: iPhone Android phone Apple Watch Android Wear OS watch Samsung Gear Watch Motorola 360 Sport Watch Record using a GPS enabled third party device or App and sync the data to Strava: Strava integrates with a wide selection of third party GPS devices and Apps.  Some of the popular ones include: Garmin Wahoo  Polar

New to Strava?  Welcome!  Our mission is to help people live their best active life. Our Getting Started with Strava series is designed to help you get the most of your Strava membership and Subscription. In this article, we’ll provide a high level overview of how to track and sync your activity data to Strava.   We'll cover: recording outdoor activities recording indoor activities recording virtual/indoor activities recording swimming recording when you don't have a recording device   Recording outdoor, GPS based activities: walking, running, cycling, hiking, skiing and more Recording your time, distance, and location data and then seeing your activity on a map is fun and motivational.  You can use the Strava App, or a GPS enabled third party device or App. View a list of compatible Devices and Apps     Recording indoor activities.   Do you go to the gym?  Complete fitness videos in your living room? Attend yoga or HIIT c

***If you are wondering why are we talking about some of the world's most famous peaks - this is thanks to our Community member ranks! Every athlete in the community has a rank based on their contributions and ranks are named after prominent peaks of the world. Our series 'To The Peaks & Beyond' aims to bring you the stories and fun facts behind these peaks.Check out the rest of the series here. If you ever find yourself in Venezuela you’ll likely find it hard to resist taking a proper peek at the nation’s most beautiful mountain called Pico Bolívar. In order to do so, you will need to be prepared for the snow, glaciers, and loads of walking. That’s true - this mountain’s majestic summit is permanently covered with névé, a granular type of snow that has been partially melted, refrozen and compacted, as well as three small glaciers, and it can only be reached by foot.  Sounds like: /ˈpi.koʊ/bɔ.li.vaʁ/  “pee·koh | boh·lee·vahr” Choose your own adventure. To reach

On Strava, there are many social features that let you see how you stack up against the community. But did you know there are also many great ways to track your personal progress, like working towards a goal? We want you to get kudos when you hit your goals – and we get that you might not want everyone to see the details. Or maybe you do? Either way, you can use your Privacy Controls to decide what works for you. We also think it’s important for you to know how your goals appear to followers and non-followers across the Strava ecosystem. Read on to learn more. There are a large variety of goals you can set including: Progress goals:  Weekly, monthly, and annual goals: Set a minimum distance, time, or elevation to strive for on a weekly, monthly or annual basis for all sport types. Performance goals:  Segment goals: Set a time to aim for on one of your favorite segments. Power goals: Set a minimum average power to try to maintain for a specified time interval, like 300 W fo

Cyclocross, or CX, is a cross of road cycling, mountain biking and running. Racers spend 45 minutes to 1 hour completing laps of a course that combines the venue’s tarmac, gravel, singletrack, grass sections, and sand pits. Additionally, there are always multiple locations where racers must dismount and carry bikes over barriers or up sets of stairs!          I started racing cyclocross at the end of 2019 when I joined Spokeswomen Racing, a women’s cycling race team in Seattle, Washington just in time for CX season (September to January). I decided to try a beginner cyclocross race and my teammate spent a few hours teaching me the basics of cyclocross dismounts and remounts. On race day she helped me set up my timing chip and bib number, told me when to pre-ride the course, what to look out for during the pre-ride, and advised me to go warm up. When I returned from my pre-ride, I realized I hadn’t brought any water or food with me! Luckily, she had packed

You may know that your activity privacy controls are important, but have you considered how your profile appears in public spaces? How do you appear to those who don’t follow you?On Strava, you have the option to set your profile’s privacy control to “Everyone” or “Followers.”  For those over the age of 18, your profile’s privacy control will be set to “Everyone” by default. Here are some key differences between “Everyone” and “Followers.”Profile set to “Everyone”Strava community members can follow you without any approval request being generated.  *Your profile details will look similar when viewed by your followers and non-followers alike.  A logged out version of your profile will be available on the internet.Profile set to “Followers”You must approve or deny Strava community members before they can follow you. You can find out more about managing your follow requests in our previous tip: How to approve or deny Strava follower requests. Non-Followers who are logged in to Strava will

Did you know, you can use Strava's Relative Effort feature to analyze your efforts and intensity trends over time?  If you are a Strava Subscriber and collect heart rate data for your activities, you can take advantage of this feature.   What is relative effort?   Relative effort, or RE, measures how much cardiovascular work went into any activity.  You will see your relative effort score (a number) on your activity page on Strava.  Why is this useful? It allows you to track your intensity across sport types, and see how they add up over the week, as well as how they compare over multiple weeks. What does that number really mean? Is higher always better?   This can be pretty confusing, so let's look at a real life example of someone who benefits from using RE - me! Up until a few years ago, my training focused almost exclusively on running and cycling. The metric I used to gauge my efforts was distance, and as a result I shied aw

Strava is the place to house your active life. Community-powered features like leaderboards, grouped activities, Flybys, and more showcase your activity data in fun and interactive ways. You can participate in these features with the rest of the Strava community OR you can opt-out and share with friends or just yourself. If you’re new to Strava, welcome! There’s so much to explore and we want to help you get started by understanding your privacy control defaults when you create a new account.    Before we dig in, there are some terms you should become familiar with: These terms refer to your privacy control selections for various features across the Strava platform.  Everyone: Everyone on Strava, and in some cases logged-out audiences, can view this data. Followers: People that follow you on Strava can see this data. Only You: Only you can see this data. No One: Your data will not be present in this feature whatsoever.   The following are places your data may appe

When you think of an activity on Strava, you envision a map, right? Right?? Well, it turns out you don’t have to share your map. That’s right – you can control how much of your activity’s map is displayed to other people. You can even hide the entire map!  This is independent of your activity’s privacy control. In other words, you can choose your Activity Visibility to share with Followers only, or even Everyone, while choosing to hide some or all of your activity’s map.  How, you ask? Go to the Map Visibility settings on your Strava account. Each of your Strava activities provide you with this control, allowing you to hide some or all of your map in 3 ways: Hide Start and End Points at a Specific Address: If you choose to hide a specific address: enter an address or GPS coordinates in the text field provided under “Hide the area around your activities' start and endpoints at a specific address”, select the size of the privacy radius, and click “Save Address.”  Hide Sta

If you're near the border of Turkey and Armenia you're unlikely to miss Mount Ararat on the horizon, a mountain that has captivated the human imagination for centuries. It's the highest peak in Turkey at 5,137 meters (16,854 feet) above sea level and is a symbol of both natural wonder and historical significance. Sounds like: /ˈæɹəˌɹæt/  “arr·uh·rat”Mount Ararat holds a place of great cultural and religious importance. According to the Bible, it is believed to be the resting place of Noah's Ark after the Great Flood. The association with the legend alone draws countless visitors to the region each year and lends an aura of mystique to the mountain. Geologically, Mount Ararat is a stratovolcano with origins that resulted in its distinctive twin peaks, Greater Ararat (Büyük Ağrı Dağı) and Lesser Ararat (Küçük Ağrı Dağı), so if you're a 2 in 1 kind of person, this one's for you. The snow-capped peaks contrast starkly with the surrounding arid landscape, creating a stu

People keep people active— on the Strava platform athletes go 21% farther and workouts last 10% longer when in a group. Strava is more fun with friends and we give you controls to help you manage your network.    On Strava, you can set your profile’s privacy control to “Everyone” or “Followers.”  Adjusting your profile to “Followers” will make it so that you can approve or deny Strava community members before they can follow you.Not only does this give you control over who follows you, but it is great for those of you who want to reduce the amount of profile information visible to non-followers. If you want to read more about what this setting does, you can check out this Help Center article. You can find this setting in your privacy controlsWeb: Settings > Privacy Controls > Profile Page > FollowersMobile: You > Settings > Privacy Controls > Profile Page > Followers Notifications for follow requestsIf you’d like to receive notifications when someone has requested

Do you ever get nervous when you’re heading to a workout?  Do you feel anxious or intimidated when you're in a gym? I’ve struggled with these feelings for years.  Almost every time I’m on my way to workout I get a few butterflies in my stomach and I feel a little nervous. Typically the thoughts that run through my head are something like:Will I be the slowest/weakest/least experienced person there? Will I do something “dumb” and embarrass myself?  Am I wearing the right clothes to fit in? Etc. etc. etc.  I recently did some research on this and discovered two interesting things:This is common. Experts estimate up to 50% of people experience similar feelings from time to time. It has a name!  Gymtimidation, defined as “the fear of working out in front of others”We’re all social creatures and have an innate desire to fit in.  Working out can make us feel especially vulnerable in this regard, since it can be hard not to judge ourselves against others we perceive to be faster, stronger, mo

👋 and welcome to Strava’s Privacy Tips series! We’re launching this series to help you, our community, better understand how to use the privacy and safety controls we built into the product to shape your experience on Strava.  Keep in mind, when you share information publicly, no matter the platform, social media app, or website you're using, it is important to be aware of how people may be able to find and use that information. Because you can use Strava to share your information with others, we want to help you understand how this works at Strava. There’s a lot to explore on Strava and a lot of ways to find motivation and inspiration. We know some of you are here because you love competing for top spots on leaderboards. For some of you, it’s not about the achievements — you just want to share your athletic journey with a small group of friends. And some of you use Strava just to track your personal training progress. We know you’re not all here for the same reason

Personal Heatmaps have always been one of my favorite Strava features. It allows Strava subscribers to visualize on a map the ground they've covered around the world. You can learn more about Strava Heatmaps here: Personal Heatmaps Global Heatmaps. I love looking back at all the places I've lived and reminiscing on everywhere I used to run. When I revisit those places, I'll plan my runs around those previous homes and be reminded of the awesome experiences I've had there.Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, Houston, TX This is where I went to high school and ran on the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. At my first team practice freshman year, we had a 30-minute run planned. At the time I couldn't believe that I was expected to run for that long - the duration of an episode of iCarly. Nevertheless, I did it. This Personal Heatmap data is the accumulation of over a thousand activities with my teammates. Gessner Field, now replaced by a parking lot, was the location of

How many times before have you given up on your newly found fitness journey? Sometimes it didn’t last more than a few weeks, or even days. We are close to the end of May (!), which means a lot of people have already given up by now. It’s also probably not the first time they give up. I gave up on my fitness goals many times before. I felt uncomfortable walking into a gym without having a strong physique. I was self-conscious about lifting light weights when the guy next to me would be lifting 100 times the weight I could. I was mortified at not being able to finish a rep, especially for exercises like barbell bench presses. I was unhappy at how my shiny new fitness clothes wouldn’t fit as well as the model wearing them on the website where I bought them from. Many of us have been there and felt this or other feelings about the intimidating world of fitness. On top of that, the unrealistic expectations set by social media influencers and celebrities are a daily reminder that our bodies

Segment Leaderboards Got a competitive itch? You don’t need to be a pro to compete on Strava! Segment Leaderboards are a great place to go head to head (virtually) with others or measure your own progress. How to access the feature Mobile: Find Segments either from the Maps tab or from one of your activities > Segment Details > All Leaderboards Web: Find Segments either from the Explore tab or from one of your activities > Segment Details > Leaderboards   01 Segments Strava Segments are community-sourced portions of road or trail that people run, ride, walk, hike, ski, or travel across. When you upload an activity to Strava with a GPS track, you’re automatically matched to any segments you may have done! Then in addition to the stats for your whole activity, you also get info and insight into how you performed on that segment, called your segment effort. Segments in popular areas to ride or run may have a lot of efforts and even communities around competing on them! Yo

  Do you like to challenge yourself by competing with yourself, Strava friends, or complete strangers? Want to be notified when you're approaching a segment? If so, check out the Strava Live Segments (SLS) feature.   What is it and how does it work? Strava live segments work during your activity (available for rides and runs) and let you compare your current time on a favorite segment to your own PR, your friends on Strava, or the KOM/QOM/CR of the segment. They alert you as you’re approaching the segment and provide updated information throughout.  All athletes can use Live Segments on the Strava Mobile App, however, Strava Subscribers will see additional screens with comparison metrics. To use live segments on third party devices, a Strava Subscription is required.   We all know that pictures speak louder than words, so check out the series of photos below which show Strava employee Jimi using live segments on his Wahoo&nbs

I was 12 years old and pitching for my all-ages girls’ softball team. I placed the ball in my glove and lined up to pitch to a girl much younger and smaller than me. I wound my arm around and let the ball go. A *GASP* erupted from the mothers in the stands. I came to my awareness and noticed that the back of my mit was flush against my face. The girl had hit my pitch, andits trajectory had rocketed towards my face. I reacted with no hesitation, no thought-process. I had caught the ball strictly by instinct, and in doing so probably saved myself from a broken nose — or worse — a concussion. Since I was a kid, I have always enjoyed playing sports and adventuring in nature. I enjoy challenging myself and seeing what my instincts can produce, as in my story described above. But as I have gotten older and my physical activity interests have changed, so has my view of what being an athlete means to me. To distill my meaning of the word “athlete,” I have come to this: Being an athlete is rec

Summer (in the Northern hemisphere) is just around the corner which means warmer weather, vacations, traveling, and just more time outside. Does any of the following pique your interest?    Patagonia Creating Routes Mobile Photography Nature Landscapes Traveling   If so, we have just the article for you.It's Chef Navi, back at it again with another article for the community. If you read my first article on Learning A New Sport When You're Older, I mentioned that I had a trip down to Patagonia coming up and I wanted to share how I find routes and trails when I travel as well as some easy photography tips you can try to impress your friends and family back home. I have split up the article into two sections: Creating routes Mobile photography tips It can be overwhelming to do both so hopefully this journal article can help guide your next summer adventure. 01 Routes, trails, heatmap, oh my For a time, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free -  Wen

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Chat with Team Strava!  Let’s start with a little trip down memory lane.  Did you know, to use the original version of Strava way back in 2009, you had to have a Garmin device?  If you were using Strava then, you probably had a device that looked a lot like this:       Times have changed; Today, Strava supports uploading activity data from a huge number of devices and Apps, but Garmin devices are still popular with the Strava Community.  Let’s talk about a few cool Strava features Garmin users can take advantage of:         Strava Live Segments on Garmin:  Live Segments are one of my favorite Strava features.  They give you real-time feedback while you’re running or riding a particular segment, and compare your current time to your own PR, your closest Strava friend, or the current KOM, QOM or CR.  I like to compare my times to my PR - there’s nothing like seeing you’re only a couple second

Community for athletes. That’s the heart of Strava. Strava was borne in the nostalgia of the team locker room, and there’s no better place to recreate that on the platform than in Clubs on Strava. They are places to gather around common interests and to support and encourage one another to keep striving. It’s been a while since we’ve focused on Clubs–we know–and we’re recommitting to these roots.   Some of us have been here with you for the long haul, making clubs that work for you and your communities. Through my view of providing support to athletes in Clubs, I have been impressed by the clubs that you all have created and the communities and bonds that you have formed. And I have seen the questions, feedback, and visions you have for Clubs on Strava–a witness to the magic and potential that exists in Clubs on Strava.  Well, it’s my pleasure to share the news: the time to focus on Clubs on Strava has come again!! Catch the announcement at Camp Strava 2023 and get ready

I’m one of those people. One of those guys that records everything, as in everything. Partially because of my role on our Community Management Team, where testing is invaluable.  One time I even recorded a 2 hour session of chopping wood.   The other reason I record everything is because I believe that an active lifestyle isn’t just about epic century rides or whether or not you can run a marathon or a 5k for that matter. I believe that just about everything we do where we move our bodies, counts towards being active. In short, I believe it all adds up. Last year I recorded 610 activities for a total of 450 hours. After breaking my back many years ago (which thankfully did not result in spinal cord injury but required a fusion and many months of rehab) I became even more appreciative of, well just about everything, but especially the ability to be active and I began to appreciate just walking as an activity. I still consider my walks to be an important part of my activ

Rising to a height of 5,109 meters, Mount Stanley is the highest mountain in the Rwenzori Range of East Africa. This majestic peak has long been a fascination for mountaineers and adventure enthusiasts alike. Sounds like: /ˈstænli/  “stan·lee” The Rwenzori Range was first explored by Europeans in the late 1800s, but it wasn't until 1906 that the peak of Mount Stanley was first climbed. Luigi Amedeo, Duke of Abruzzi, led an expedition to the mountain and successfully reached its summit. Since then, Mount Stanley has been a popular destination for mountaineers from all over the world. Fun facts: Mount Stanley is also known as Mount Ngaliema in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is located. The Rwenzori Range is often referred to as the "Mountains of the Moon". Mount Stanley is home to several glaciers, although they have been rapidly melting due to climate change. The highest peak of Mount Stanley is called Margherita Peak, named after the Queen of Italy. The asc