Assign difficulty scores to activities based on grade, elevation and terrain

[Schepers]

I've always wondered when talking with other people how difficult my courses are compared to what they are running.  Elevation gain is one measure, but not always a good indicator of how difficult the course was. Steep hills can take more out of you than a gradual hill.

Would be great if Strava could categorize courses, or offer some kind of difficulty score.  (GAP doesn't quite do it either).  When watching the Tour de France, they have categories for specific hills.  Would be great if you could categorize individual hills during a run, but better yet to categorize the entire course.  Boston may be net downhill, but it's a lot tougher than running a flat course.  Courses that have hills at the end would be more difficult than the hill at the beginning.  There's a lot that goes into that determination, just hoping someone can come up with a good formula.

I just think it would be a very interesting conversation piece for people to be able to talk about the difficulty level of the courses they've ran.  And for them to analyze which runs they have coming up.

[Jane]

Hello @Schepers 

Thanks for posting about this.  Could I get some additional clarification around your suggestion?

Are you suggesting that Strava develop an algorithm that could assign a difficulty score to created  routes on Strava, taking into account various factors such as grade and terrain?  

Would you see this score being assigned to every created route on Strava, the suggested Strava routes, or both?

Thank you.

[Schepers]

Yes, I'm suggesting some sort of algorithm taking into account grade/terrain.

Not necessarily looking for the score to be put on routes, though that would be a good idea.  I'm looking for that score on each running activity (and I guess biking/hiking).

Imagine going to a marathon where you are talking with lots of different runners from various regions.....of course talking about all the different runs you've done and trying to compare those runs.  Usually elevation gain comes into the discussion for a particular race, but then talking about where that elevation is in the race and if it was gradual or steep.  I think it would be neat if we could talk about the scores for the hills, as well as an overall score for the course.

I got the idea from watching the Tour de France, when they mention that a particular hill is a Category 4 climb (easy) to Category 1 hard, or "Hors Category" which is too difficult to categorize.  I don't know how they measure it, but just thought if we could get those same categories or some sort of score on our runs, that would make great conversation pieces.

Not sure if surface would be a factor as well.  I just did a rail trail marathon in West Virginia that was pretty much all down hill, but my time wasn't good.  Not sure if I just had a bad day or if it was because of the surface.

Lots of factors can come into play, so not sure how difficult this recommendation would be, but thought I'd throw it out there.

[tgrotenhuis]

I'd like to see something like @Schepers is suggesting.  

I would love to be able to compare routes with varying distances, altitudes, terrains, elevation gain and loss.  Is route A (that is 7.8 miles long with 1614 feet of elevation gain and 490 feet of elevation loss) more or less difficult than route B (which is 8 miles and has 980 feet of gain and 871 feet of loss)?

And, ultimately, boil it down to a set of numbers so that one can answer how much more difficult one route is over the other. For example: "Route A is 12.3% more difficult than route B"

[Jane]

Hello @Schepers 

Thanks for the clarification.  

Your idea has been reviewed by our moderation team and is now open to voting.  

The idea title was edited so it will be easier for others to search and vote on. Thank you for your contribution.

[Scout]

Hello. We wanted to let you know that your idea submission will be archived. While this idea is interesting, we don’t have any immediate plans to implement this and currently aren’t able to prioritize this idea.

Please note that your feedback is valuable to Strava. As stated in our Community Idea Guidelines, we receive many idea submissions each week, and realistically, there may be various reasons that prevent us from including an idea on our Product Roadmap.  

We want to thank you for taking the time to submit your idea and we look forward to your continued contributions to the Strava Community. 

[ClemensLucas]

I want Strava to assign me a running pace score based on all my runs and tell me where that score places me compared to other runners on Strava. The score could be shown as a theoretical pace for a standardized effort.

From this, Strava can give me my actual training paces, and race-time suggestions (no more link-outs to Macmillan where i have to fill in my personal data and still not get an answer)

I'm tired of looking at my fitness trend, I don't have a reference point to compare the values to.

[Jane]

Hello,

We appreciate your participation in the Community. It’s not entirely clear from your post what you’re suggesting here. Do you mind elaborating and including more details on the topic? We kindly ask that you review our Ideas guidelines, particularly the “What makes a good idea” section, to ensure that your ideas are clear, concise, and can reach as many others as possible.