Yeah but now you have like 73 activity types!

I think this highlights an underlining problem... product development is not aligning with what users want. The core group of Strava users are runners and cyclists. Not kitesurfers. So why are they focused on developing fringe features? Focus on the core user group and make their experience better.

I care. Because I don't want to be "that guy." I'd guess almost none of us here want to be the guy. And it's easy to be the guy because these days most of my uploads are automatic and I only log in to look at an activity maybe a couple times per month.

It happened to me a few weeks ago when I got a cryptic text message from my mom, "Wow, quite a ride." I knew it wasn't quite a ride, so I checked, and realized when I hit start on my Garmin it thought I was 400 miles away....took 10 seconds or so for it to figure out the new GPS position. A bit of a Garmin bug that it doesn't auto-fix that. So I had to go in and correct that before I started blowing up segments or annoying people who compete in "most miles per week" competitions.

I've forgotten to stop Strava when I've gotten in the car

Happened once when D'Wife & I were finishing a hike and we had get in the car quickly to rush to Wawa as there were no "Facilities" nearby, and I didn't want to confess later in "that thread"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

This is good news - like you, I really enjoy the way Wandrer has incentivized me to explore a lot more in my riding and running!


Indeed - what I love about it all is, it is about exploration. Way back when I first got into Road Cycling via triathlon in the early to mid-80's we had none of this technology - it was TRULY about exploring. Can I ride from here to there? How far does this road go? Can I loop around and close-the-loop? We had no idea - no internet. No maps. No data. We just rode! It was not uncommon to head out for a "90 min. ride" and 3 hours later, end up back home! I loved those rides!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Which calls to mind a post from a year ago, or so [the actual event was many years previous]

Forgive me for self-plagiarizing myself, but I repeat

"When everything goes wrong, that's when Adventure begins" - Yvon Chouinard

Like the time a 12-mile run turned into 18 because [in pre-GPS days*] I wanted to add an extra mile or so to a simple out & back, took a wrong turn into an unfamiliar development and got moderately lost**

With a reasonably approximate reckoning of where I was - "This goes that way, then comes out near ...???" - I managed to get back to a familiar road and located a Wawa to fuel & hydrate myself enough to get back home [something told me to bring my debit card with me that day]

Which brings us to the definition of Long Run





* I originally estimated the extra distance on time, then confirmed it by MapQuest a few years later --- Yeah, MapQuest - that should give you an idea how long ago this happened

** Why didn't I just turn back around when I realized I didn't know where I was?
1) I was confident I could find my way out if I just kept going forward
2) Even when turned around, the development still looked the same, so I could see myself just running around in circles like an idiot = "There he goes again"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

* I originally estimated the extra distance on time, then confirmed it by MapQuest a few years later --- Yeah, MapQuest - that should give you an idea how long ago this happened


I know these days EVERYONE is obsessed with data but not to brag, I came close to breaking 9 hours for IM a few times, with essentially a Timex IM wristwatch as my ONLY technology! :-)

Run Distance Measurement - I had clockwork like 7min/mile pacing most of the time, so a 70min run was 10 miles . . and so on. Almost all harder harder run training was done on the track, where you get ruthless feedback, every 400m!

Bike Distance Measurement - was more or less the same and it all revolved around 20 miles/hr or 30k/hr - so a 3 hour ride = about 90km . . and so on. I ride with a GPS now, but rarely if ever look at it when riding and to this day when I get back from a 3 hour ride it's usually in the 90 km neighborhood!

Simple.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Twelve lap/mile indoor track!!!

It took me a while to figure out that if you divided your lap time in seconds by 5 that was your pace/mile; I'd shoot for 35, 36. 37 second laps

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

https://www.slowtwitch.com/...de_A_Bike__8862.html

Strava has their new CEO. Does it matter that he doesn’t ride a bike?

Probably not. I think the direction the board wants to go matters more. Do they want to stay private or go public? That will probably have the biggest impact on customer satisfaction.

What I find most interesting about that piece is that the author apparently didn't bother to reach out to ask Strava the question. I'm sure the Strava PR/Comms/Public Relations team answer calls from Slowtwitch.

Btw, I was able to find out that the new CEO is a Strava user (probably mostly a runner) in about 3 seconds simply by typing "Michael Martin Strava" into Google.