Guest postal service by Jesse Thomas.

When I first started training for triathlons back in 2007, my buddies and I adamant our fitness, cocky worth, pecking guild and who bought beers past our times up the many local climbs in the Santa Cruz mountains of California.

"I went two times in 15:45 upwardly Old La Honda today."

"Yes, well I went 34:xxx up Page Manufacturing plant."

"Well, I rode up Kings Mountain in 25 minutes with no hands."

Legends were born by times up climbs. We talked about how fast the local Pros went, and when i of us gear up a PR or one-upped the other, it was either a commemoration or time to get out and try to earn the title back.

Of class, information technology was all on the laurels system. You never really knew if Tbone rode 15:45 up Sometime La Honda, or if I really rode up Kings Mountain in 25 minutes with no hands. But we trusted each other and there was no glory in adulterous a time. And only to exist articulate, Tbone did ride xv:45 (he's now ridden 15:33 Strava Official) and I did ride upwards Kings in 25 minutes with no hands – perchance my greatest able-bodied achievement of all fourth dimension.

So anyway, when Strava debuted, I instantly got it. We could now compete with anyone and everyone on any segment nosotros wanted to. Nosotros could track our own comeback in a standardized mode. It was golden.

Jesse-Wildflower2014I've been using Strava regularly now for over 2 years every bit a professional triathlete, and my uses of it accept adapted every bit my career has developed and the functionality of the system has grown. It's my favorite tool for recording, quantifying, competing, tracking my progress, and sharing times, routes, and experiences with friends and followers. Ameliorate however, equally the community has grown and the company has added resource to back up that growth, it'due south go an even better tool with more functionality specifically valuable to triathletes.

So instead of writing an instruction transmission, I grouped some of my near common uses and non-uses for Strava into the post-obit Practice's and Dont's for Triathletes. Some of them are aimed at those new to Strava and some are for the veterans. Hopefully they'll aid y'all go the most out of your feel.

Exercise – Log all your workouts. This one is pretty obvious, and basically a requirement to get anything out of Strava, and then I included information technology first. Run and wheel workouts are piece of cake to log with your GPS device – I use a Garmin 910XT for run, and a PowerTap Joule GPS for bike. I've found the easiest mode to upload pool swim workouts is through the Strava app – Just press the "+" icon and enter the time and distance and whatever other details you want and you're good to get. When I open up water swim, I upload a 910XT file as well, which gives you the cool map graphic, so definitely do that likewise. And yes, you can technically upload a 910XT file for pool swims, but it looks no different than a manual entry and swimming in the pool with a sentry is a little too triathlete for me.

DON'T – Leave your GPS on when you drive home after your run/ride. Don't exist that guy that gives anybody an alert that their KOM has been destroyed because y'all drove 60 mph through a 7 mile segment.

DON'T – Leave the workout proper noun every bit the default title, which is the date or something like that. This leads me to my next Do:

DO– Make up names for your workouts. Some of my recent examples are – "Getting dropped by Betsy," or "New Road + Smith Rock = Bueno" Sometimes I put the workout in at that place, merely I also try to describe something interesting, funny, or random about the workout, road, like, "x×6 and my legs hurt a lot. So did Ricks." A couple of my favorite workout-namers that I follow are Jené Shaw, my editor at Triathlete Magazine – "I got chosen a Clydesdale today," & "Not a group run until Jessie's shoelace comes untied." Adam Bucklin, a local (Bend, OR) pro cyclist – "Unicorns and Radiologists!" "Hell-A-Dong Snowfall!" and "Corrupt File! Blow me!" Every ane of his titles ends in an exclamation point.

Practise – Follow other triathletes. The existent fun in Strava is following people and interacting with them. I've found it keeps me motivated and gives me someone to talk most my training to who won't exist bored out of their mind or become cross-eyed when I start to mention watts. I follow a mix of friends, people in the industry, local guys that I train with and other Pros. Information technology'southward up to you whose training you'd similar to see and who you want to interact with. Clearly, you should follow me. Also you should follow Matt Lieto, if anything, because of the side by side point.

Exercise – Comment, encourage people, interact with the community, and trash talk every once in a while. This is my favorite function of Strava, and why y'all should follow Matt & me. Kudos and comments enhance the experience immensely. Of form, it likewise opens the door for a chip of public trash talking.

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Practice– Upload Instagram pics of your workout. If you connect your Instagram business relationship and post a motion picture during or presently after your conditioning, it gets attached and shows up in your profile. It makes the conditioning look more interesting on the feed and gives people a feel for what it was similar out there on the route or trail. Plus, it gives them something else to make fun of nearly of the time.

DON'T– Forget that if yous upload a not-workout picture to Instagram right after your workout, information technology will get attached to the workout. I have a couple of buddies who uploaded pictures of their baby, car, dog, and sandwich, which got linked to their activity. Of course, this tin can as well exist very funny. If y'all feel similar calling your workout "Pancakes" and then uploading a picture of pancakes right subsequently, get for it. You can always "un-link" from activity if this does happen.

Practice – Utilise the Training Log. Recently launched on the web, the training log is a huge value add for triathletes. On the "Multisport" setting y'all tin see your full hours for each action and full for all activities combined. I love the way that Strava has synthetic this visually with surface area and color differences for different conditioning volumes and types. It's a cool, more than visual way to track your overall training load, and go back to and reference which what workouts you did when.

DO – Test yourself on segments. Of class, segments are the real bread and butter of Strava. They are an awesome way to track your progress on real courses and compare yourself to your friends, pros, or your local nemesis. I have a couple of segments that I've used over the last few years equally barometers for my fitness – one of which is the Koholas climb in Kona that I do as office of a preparation campsite with my coach every Jan.

DON'T – Allow Strava dictate your workout. Segments are a nifty way to track your progress, but believe me, if you showtime chasing segments every ride instead of sticking to your plan, your training volition suffer and y'all'll get slower in a hurry. This is one of the reasons I call up some pros accept been more than cautious to join Strava. It'southward really of import to go easy or stick to your plan, merely it's hard to practice and so when you're e'er on a competitive course. If I need to get piece of cake, I go piece of cake. If I take a 10 infinitesimal interval in my conditioning, I might expect for a roughly 10 infinitesimal segment to exercise it on and stick within my prescribed endeavour. What I don't do is go out and shell myself on a 20 infinitesimal climb because I really want the KOM. Pb with your training programme offset, and save those efforts for your race, which leads me to:

DO – Log your races. For triathletes specifically, this is one of the most valuable aspects of Strava. Considering we all race on the same form which tin can be divided into segments, you lot can compare yourself to pros and other age groupers across more just the entire swim/cycle and/or run. Yous can compare the flat department, the climbs, the downhills, etc. I've done this on my races to meet where I made up time, and where I completely bonked. Information technology'southward a super valuable mode to analyze your race in more than particular.

Practise – Upload trainer session files – Many trainers nowadays have an Ant+ connectedness to connect with your Garmin, calculator, or PowerTap, most of which can be uploaded. I just use my PowerTap wheel and upload my file from there. The workout doesn't await as pretty in the feed because there isn't a map, but information technology still adds information technology nicely to your Training Log and yous can apply the power analysis features to review the workout.

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Exercise – Use the Ability Analysis tools. For premium members who apply a ability meter, there are some really smashing power assay tools. I upload all my PowerTap files to meet my:

  • Best Efforts Curve – which shows exactly what it says it shows. Once more, the interface is super visual and user friendly. I love that it shows a continuous ability curve every bit opposed to discreet 5 min, 10 min points, etc. Y'all tin can also quickly compare betwixt the terminal 6 weeks, year, or previous years. It also estimates your FTP based on your workouts, which I retrieve is a more existent and useful value than set up tests within.

  • Zone Distribution – Just just shows yous how much time you spent in each discrete ability zone. Some other useful tool to see the overall load of a ride.

Practise – Use Road Builder while traveling or even at home. This is a new feature that, as a traveling triathlete, I admittedly love. You simply input where you are, then turn on the Popularity Heatmap and you can see the local roads that other athletes ride well-nigh oft. Then you can trace out a loop and "Use Popularity" to create the best route. It's made a huge divergence in my ability to ride or run without catastrophe up on a no shoulder freeway or unrideable road somewhere. I've even used it to find routes that I didn't know existed in Bend. Crawly!

That'south it for now! Let me know what you lot guys think. Add comments below, on Twitter, Facebook, or of grade on my Strava profile if in that location are any other Do'south and Don'ts that I missed. Likewise – I'll be calculation my own race files from the Wildflower Triathlon on Saturday afternoon, and then experience free to check in and come across how it went. Happy training and racing!