New Obsession: Strava

I have resisted Strava forever. I've mentioned this before, but several years back (5, I went back and checked) my current online running log was shutting down and I had to find something new. I originally had wanted to go with Strava, but they wouldn't allow the file format I had to re-upload old data, so I wasn't interested.

Fast forward to 2017.

And I'm on Strava. I was hesitant because while I loved Dailymile, there were parts of it I hated. I hated comparing myself to others, seeing their workouts, their paces, their race times, and feeling like I fell short of what they accomplished.

Fast forward to 2017.

Apparently I've matured, or something, because there ain't none of that going on! Just a whole lot of likes and kudos and cheering each other on. The site tricked me into trying to premium account, and of course I'm now suckered into that for all of eternity. I do enjoy getting the additional data (shocker) that allows me, as well as goal setting, even though my private log does that as well.

I'm going to keep my private log going because it has ALL my data (well even that's not true, because it doesn't go back to 2005 when I first started tracking), but as much of it as it can. But with my Garmin uploading to each with either a button click, or nothing at all, it hasn't been too time consuming or cumbersome.

So please look me up!

Comparing Yourself to Others

When Dailymile first came out I was obsessed (back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth, do any of you even know/remember dailymile?!) Most of my first local running friends were ones I met through the site. I loved that the site made me feel like I was a part of a community. I loved being able to get and receive positive feedback from my running friends. And I loved the graphs of data. But I hated the comparison and competition that inevitably seemed to take place on there.

Being a runner, I'm a very type A person. I'm obsessed with data. I love comparing data and using it as a predictor for future race successes. Since I've struggled with a strong running mentality through much of my running career, it's always nice to look at data and have it provide you with the mental confidence that you can race at a certain pace. When you're able to look at everyone's data and workouts so freely it's easy to compare yourself, what paces are they hitting for workouts, what are their PRs looking like.

A couple of years ago, a lot of my friends started using strava to log their runs. Luckily for me (or perhaps unluckily for me?) there wasn't a way to transfer my existing running log to their site. I wasn't willing to lose almost ten years of data, so I found something else. And I don't missing seeing people's workouts and paces. There's no judgment of myself or others if I fall short of a goal because my numbers did or didn't stack up to another's numbers.

Now my *own* data, man I spend an eternity analyzing that crap! You should *see* the spreadsheets I have, monthly mileage, weekly mileage, average weekly mileage leading up to marathon PRs and good performances, the same with half marathon performances. CHARTS AND GRAPHS, CHARTS AND GRAPHS! Because it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing around me, the only way I can succeed in my goals is focusing on me. And I'm okay with that.

Do you, boo.

(That's still a thing people say, right?)