sankaty
Member
Sure. When I go to my Strava dashboard, I see a timeline of not only my own activities, but also those of my connections (which in my case is primarily friends/training partners). On the most fundamental level, if I see that a friend has had a great run/bike/whatever, I can give a thumbs up or leave a positive comment. If I see that someone has set a personal record running their local 5K, I can be extra supportive. I also might know that a friend is training for a particular triathlon, and I can see how her training is going, see the race data, and offer accolades on race day. Sometimes I can tell that a friend is battling an injury, and I offer sympathy and encouragement.
Going deeper than that, I have several friends that run the Hartford Half Marathon with me every year, and I'm their informal coach (even though I really don't know what I'm doing). I create a personalized training calendar for each person each week. Every week, I see their actual progress, complete with heart rate data and mile-by-mile pace splits so I can hone their pace strategy, adjust mileage, recommend more rest, etc. As I said, I'm totally unqualified, but we're all just doing this for fun, and my friends really appreciate the structure and encouragement. It brings me great joy to see the tremendous progress that people make when holding to a training plan, achieving distances and speeds that they didn't think they were remotely capable of, especially if they are new to biking/running.
Most years I also organize a Ragnar Relay team, where I'm responsible for assigning relay spots to 12 different runners. I encourage the team to connect with me via Strava. I offer encouragement and advice, and if I see that some folks are struggling with their training and others are in a great groove, I might suggest reshuffling the slots to give the largest mileage loads to the folks that are feeling best about it.
I do a weekly group bike ride with my local bike shop. When I view the corresponding activity on Strava, it automatically shows me all the folks I rode with on the ride and their activity data.
I do use Strava as a diary in some cases. If I'm suffering from and illness or injury, I'll put that in the activity notes. For races, I'll frequently include logistical data in the notes (when I woke up, ate breakfast, left for the venue, where I parked, what kind of nutrition I had during the race, and how I thought it went). This info is really valuable to review when planning for future races.
Strava also has segments; a stretch of road, frequently a long hill climb, that is kind of a sub-activity. I might go out for an easy ride but find myself feeling extra strong at the start of a segment and go extra hard up the climb to see if I can set a PR for that segment, a game within the larger activity that keeps things interesting.
Beyond the social aspects, Strava has some tools that are very useful for analyzing data. One of my favorites is the ability to superimpose multiple efforts that I've made on a particular course overlain on an elevation graph. I can see how different pace/power strategies worked to my advantage/disadvantage over the different portions of the course.
There are many fitness data platforms, some of which are better than Strava for data analysis, but Strava has the most robust social features as far as I know. Obviously, I really like looking at data. Other folks just want to do their thing and not get tied up with all the tech and data, and I respect that. Other folks want the data but don't want anyone else seeing it, and I understand that too. I like that Stava allows me to share activity data independent from other social media platforms. My Facebook friends don't need to see my running data. People I've connected with on Strava have expressly asked for it.
Plenty of folks misuse Strava, usually by getting so engrossed in segments that they disregard etiquette and safety, but also it seems by publicizing secret powder stashes. For some folks, though, it can be a great tool.
