Several years ago a fairly competitive friend of mine was urging me to get into Strava. I was less than enthusiastic about the idea. I was perfectly happy with my miles being tracked for me on Garmin Connect. I didn't need the world to know where/when I ride or how much slower I'm getting with age. But I'm starting to use Strava regularly now. There is a [faint] social aspect to it, which I guess is healthy and potentially [mildly] entertaining. But more importantly—as my drive to tackle long and challenging rides fades with age—I find that Strava is a good little whip to make me do the miles I should be doing. With others seeing WHETHER I'm riding or not, it's almost like having a coach egg me on to get some miles in.
I say "should be doing" because I've signed up to complete (not race) the Belgian Waffle Ride's "Wafer" this year after hearing for years how "fun" the BWR is. Just to complete this all-terrain ride, I need to ramp up my game a good bit. One way of doing that is to have a modest circle of other cyclists observe what I'm up to on the bike. The Strava segments that get posted by the time my bike's Garmin GPS gets within range of our home's Wi-Fi network fortunately don't include the sound of my whining for the last 24 miles of my 54-mile ride yesterday. The segment just shows that I did it. For a 60+ rider who's way out of shape...that's a START.
From this start I need to keep going. If I do a 50-60 mile ride three times a week, my cycling fitness should improve dramatically. But I need some patting on my fat, sweaty head to keep me going, and that's where Strava's KUDOS come in. Just a few kudos go a long way. Maybe I should get my non-cycling wife a Strava account so she can give me kudos for every ride. She does politely ask how my ride was every time. When I say, "cold, long, painful," her sympathy and conversation doesn't add one thumbs-up to my kudos...but I do appreciate it.
As I start to get to know Strava better I'll tinker around with its features and maybe even upgrade to Premium someday. This morning I discovered that I can post pictures from my PC, so I've added a couple here.
https://www.strava.com/athletes/61596/posts/1293829
I don't know why these don't show up on by profile background, but I can't quite pretend to care about that yet. I'm on Strava. I'm trying to ride more. One mile at a time.
I say "should be doing" because I've signed up to complete (not race) the Belgian Waffle Ride's "Wafer" this year after hearing for years how "fun" the BWR is. Just to complete this all-terrain ride, I need to ramp up my game a good bit. One way of doing that is to have a modest circle of other cyclists observe what I'm up to on the bike. The Strava segments that get posted by the time my bike's Garmin GPS gets within range of our home's Wi-Fi network fortunately don't include the sound of my whining for the last 24 miles of my 54-mile ride yesterday. The segment just shows that I did it. For a 60+ rider who's way out of shape...that's a START.
From this start I need to keep going. If I do a 50-60 mile ride three times a week, my cycling fitness should improve dramatically. But I need some patting on my fat, sweaty head to keep me going, and that's where Strava's KUDOS come in. Just a few kudos go a long way. Maybe I should get my non-cycling wife a Strava account so she can give me kudos for every ride. She does politely ask how my ride was every time. When I say, "cold, long, painful," her sympathy and conversation doesn't add one thumbs-up to my kudos...but I do appreciate it.
As I start to get to know Strava better I'll tinker around with its features and maybe even upgrade to Premium someday. This morning I discovered that I can post pictures from my PC, so I've added a couple here.
https://www.strava.com/athletes/61596/posts/1293829
I don't know why these don't show up on by profile background, but I can't quite pretend to care about that yet. I'm on Strava. I'm trying to ride more. One mile at a time.
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