I like Strava. Like all social media, our relationship with it always has the potential to turn sour. Constantly comparing yourself to someone’s online presence is inherently unhealthy because you don’t have the full picture. Right now, I just find it quite fun. It also does a decent job of tracking my training, but like I said, it isn’t a full picture.
Easy/moderate/hard isn’t exactly a detailed description of how a run goes and although it offers up the option to add descriptions to run, is it necessary for me to publicly state those details every day?
Beyond that, I don’t add my cross training to Strava. None of my bike, rower, or weight workouts. No stretching, no body weight, no foam rolling. There are options for some of those, but I like to keep a few cards closer to my chest.
In any case, it is good to keep track of what you’re doing. On top of Strava I have this, but on top of this I now have a physical journal, just a little notebook. It is a subjective, personal log of what I am doing. It is all part of my new respect for the long term nature of training. My coach mentioned it, and when I found myself thinking about what I was doing 18 months ago, I realised that it was a great idea. What was different about my running 18 months ago can’t really be communicated by looking up my data, as it tells me very little about I how I felt, what I was enjoying, what I was eating before and after, what I was doing to recover – all the little details that I would never consider burdening Strava with. If I had a physical log, I would know, I could compare, and I could learn.
Now, 18 months from now (if I keep it up) I will.
run into words 