Stravuh-uh

A couple of people have asked me recently if I'm on Strava. While I've been aware of it since its inception a few years ago, I've never had the slightest interest in joining. Why? Well, since you asked..

** WARNING - this gets a little messy **

I first heard about Strava through the most predictable of places - the grimy ball pit of type-A peter-measuring known as the Slowtwitch forums. It's right up the typical forum user's alley: using the app to record your ride or run gives you a bunch of data about your workout and posts it to their social network (plus any others on which you choose to splash your training stats, like twitter or facebook), and you get to claim KOM (King of the Mountain, or QOM/Queen of the Mountain) status for any running or cycling route or section on which you've posted the fastest time. Others can offer comments on your training sessions and try to beat your best splits, which is the "social network" aspect. They even developed their own metric called a "suffer score" for each workout, which is basically TSS (Training Stress Score) but with more chest hair and possibly a trucker hat.

None of my training or racing will ever have happened, then.

I'm sure there are nice people on Strava, but all four of them of them are likely to be drowned out by the legions of faster-than-thou jerks whose sole purpose in life is to crush their "competition" in pursuit of a personal validation in the form of a little crown icon beside their name. There are articles published just for people who are desperate to have their name at the top of the leaderboard on a segment. The internet is rife with tales of people cheating the system by doing anything from riding straight through a red light at an intersection on a segment (at least one has died in the attempt) through straight up hopping in their car and driving it in order to claim a KOM.

It doesn't come with the shirt, but maybe it should.

Now, the folks who have asked me if I use the app aren't like that. They're good-natured folks, but they're also very strong runners. Strava is unapologetically geared toward the pointy end of the endurance field, whereas I amble along gracelessly at the blunt end, looking more to enjoy a lovely day on the trail when training than to deliver a message about my (lack of) physical prowess. Nowhere was this more apparent than last Sunday, when I attended the sanctioned Sulphur Springs training run at beautiful Dundas Valley Conservation Area.

There were about 50 people there to run the course, so it seemed like I might have some company along the way instead of my usual solo excursion. Nope - I spent the entire morning basically by myself, way behind the rest of the runners. This was partly because I started a little late (paused to smooch my sweetheart and had to re-start my GPS watch after it decided to time out), and partly due to a lineup at the portajohn in the parking lot near the 3k mark (which lost me about 5mins, but I had no choice about stopping). However, I'd also pause here and there along the way to take photos of the stunning scenery: the -11c/12f air had covered everything in a thick layer of frost and iced up the edges of the winding streams that glinted in the bright morning sunlight. So very different from the overcast, windy and snow flurry-filled afternoon/evening I'd spent there the Saturday beforehand!

Too bad some dork got into one of the photos.

If taking a moment here and there to appreciate a gorgeous place I'm privileged to have so close to home is wrong, I seriously don't want to be right. I'm good with being slow and alone, and still feel fortunate to have the health and ability that allows me to explore most of its beauty in just a couple of hours or so.

I'd also shot myself in the foot if I held any hope of keeping up with some of the speedy folks who came down to Dundas Valley to run that morning. I'd just finished a 3h20m run at Huron Natural Area at 6:30pm - about 13.5hrs before the Sulphur Springs training run began, with a whopping 6hrs of sleep in between. I was exhausted before I'd even taken a step, but that was part of the idea (well, except the lack of sleep): back-to-back longer runs with the second on very tired legs in an effort to prepare me for the 100km I'll be trying to cover at the end of May. I wanted time on my feet and to emphasize some power hiking, because I'll be doing a lot of that in my next couple of races. I also had to take my time through a few sections of frozen mud with deep footprints in them, as I have a damaged ankle that I can't afford to mess up any further by rolling it on the uneven footing.  In the Strava world, none of that matters - my caution, fatigue and specific aims for the workout don't matter, and I'll be directly compared to someone who may be coming off a rest day that was there for a tempo run.

EVERY WORKOUT IS A RACE

Even assuming I wanted to get sucked into comparing myself to others and competing with them day in and day out, I'd lose almost every damn time. The areas where I live and train are home to many elite-level runners who are faster while ticking along at their easy, long trail run pace than I'll ever be in a stand-alone 5k road race. I'm perfectly capable of denigrating my own performance without having it shoved in my face daily that I'm far from speedy - I have races to do that for me, or (for a Strava-esque experience) I can just look at the Segments page in Garmin Connect. My odds on ever grabbing a QOM anywhere that I run are near zero, with about 100% chance I'd receive an email within 24hrs telling me that I'd lost it to someone who ran it so much faster there would be no point in trying to win it back.

Nope.

So really, Strava would just be somewhere that people can see my rather mediocre training. Frankly, I think everyone has better things to do than read about the ins and outs of my day to day running. I'm painfully aware that I don't do anything epic - everyone else is running up mountains or having massive Bruce Trail adventures while I run in circles at some little nature tract nearby, mostly because I'm clumsy, weak and scared. It's not even about seeing how fast other people are - it's being shown just how tiny the efforts are that still leave me shattered afterward. Someone else's 60k mad training run with 15,000 feet of elevation change and gorgeous mountain range views? That's freakin' awesome and I'd love to be able to do such a thing, but I can't, let alone run it at their blistering 5min/mile pace. Seeing it just makes me feel even more inadequate as a runner. That's why I try desperately to avoid just rambling about my training in this blog, rather making an effort to write about something a little more meaningful and hopefully useful. I also don't really post my workouts on social media - because I don't honestly believe anyone cares about the details of my paltry training.

This is the closest I generally come.

From time to time someone will make a kind comment on Garmin Connect or Endomondo (which I still use as a backup in case my GPS watch fails, and because I have records there going back to May 2012), but it's just in some people's nature to be generous with their praise, even if it's undeserved. I know Strava has a system that lets users provide encouragement and "kudos" while you're out training, but that's not something I desire; if I'm having fun out there it would just be a distraction, and if I'm having a rough day it'll just feel like I'm being patronized. I know that's my problem and not the system's, but this is about why I choose not to use it.

Also: Strava cat is a jerk.

I don't mean to deride anyone's use of Strava - if you enjoy it, fill your boots! I, however, know it would be bad for my mental health. I already struggle a lot with self-worth and impostor syndrome, and I always feel like the lamest, most awkward runner out there in almost any situation - this article about Anxious Recreation Syndrome might as well have been written about me. I'm not jealous of other people's ability - I just feel rather worthless when I see how poorly I stack up against them. It feels like everyone I know has run at least 1 hundred miler; most many more and longer races, plus badass mountain races that would leave me in a crumpled, broken heap in the first few miles when my clumsy arse fell off the side of some gorgeous, technical trail. Every time I manage to cobble together a bit of confidence or pride in my runing it's almost immediately dashed when I see the amazing feats others are pulling off. My huge back-to-back weekend? I covered a lousy 26km on Saturday and 20km on Sunday. 46 whole kilometers. Most of the people I know are easily capable of running that total on back to back days, but I'm simply not strong enough. Three hours of even our tame, local trails is enough to beat me up a bit and make the next day difficult - sometimes just getting out the damn door is a huge win, or running on my lunch break instead of taking a nap, let alone kicking my arse out for a second run on a Monday evening after those back-to-back "long" runs on the weekend.

I know I should find the strength and talent of others inspiring instead of it sucking away my own self-worth, but that simply isn't how my brain processes the information. I'd change it if I could - believe me when I say the inside of my head is often a place I'd love to escape! I'm not looking for pity or praise, either - just to be left alone to wallow in my own little world, free of any exogenous negativity from comparison with the badass runners I'm lucky enough to call friends. As you can see, my brain supplies more than enough criticism all on its own without having an app shove my mediocrity in my face daily. So, I'll politely leave your Strava feed free of my meagre exploits (and studiously ignore my Garmin Connect and Endomondo streams) while I go and try to enjoy the wee adventures I'm capable of having.

In the loveliest places I can find.

Much as I feel horribly inadequate as a runner, I do love the challenge of ultras, not to mention the time I get to spend in the woods in all sorts of conditions to see the ever-changing natural beauty around me. Strava would only suck some of the fun out of what is usually a wonderfully fulfilling pursuit for me. So, don't ask me about my training, because I know it's not interesting or special in any way...but if you follow me on twitter or facebook I'll share some of the pretty photos I take along the way, ok?

Finding my way

I like to explore. Whether it's on foot or by bicycle, at home or abroad, I delight in finding new paths and trails.

Especially if they happen to run through a forest by a river.

This isn't always the easiest thing in the world to do, since I'm a bit time-limited, and trails are by their very nature not very highly visible in urban areas.

Therefore, I must deploy my secret weapon: milermeter.com (aka gmap-pedometer.com).

That's how I found Jan's Trail near my office in Mississauga, ON

And my lunchride happy place - McKechnie Woods

The MilerMeter not only allows you to pull up maps - all using Google maps data - but also allows you to plot a route that will show distance in either imperial or metric, with flags at each mile or kilometer along the way.

Sample route on the trails around Riverside Park in Cambridge

I use this tool all the time to calculate distances for running routes, as the tracking app I use on my phone is somewhat unreliable when it comes to telling me exactly how far I've gone. I can either map out the route after the fact (which is useful for running different combinations of familiar loops in my neighbourhood), or I can sit down in advance and figure out exactly where I want to fo. If I know I want to run 20km, I can just plot out a course of that distance; I have a couple of saved "routes" that are actually just starting points (my home and my office) which I keep bookmarked for speedy reference.

Apart from its constant usefulness in everyday route planning, what I'm rather fond of doing is looking for green spaces on the map in a general area, then seeing if I can find grey lines through the green space that would indicate a trail system.

Even if it's just a path through a lovely park, like Woodington Green in Mississauga

Or possibly a crushed limestone trail along Cooksville Creek

If you're curious about what you'll see along the way, you can use satellite view or even street view to take a closer look.

Satellite view of Riverside Park route

Fly the little streetview guy in to where you'd like to look (not all locations available)

Street view imaging in Riverside Park, at a spot Tanker and I call the bunny field.

It won't necessarily show you where to find the little waterfalls, though.

This has led to discoveries of little-known trails in all sorts of different places...which leads me to the greatest gift the MilerMeter has given me through the years: advance knowledge of places to run & ride while traveling.

Because it uses Google maps data, I can pull up maps of anywhere in the world. If I know we're going to take a holiday somewhere, I have the ability to check out interesting spots that I'd like to run, or at least places that look safe and decently accessible. As I've written about in the past, I am a huge proponent of active tourism - there's no nicer way to discover things about a new location than by human power, and running or cycling lets you cover more ground and see more things than just walking alone.

Like trails with underpasses that let you avoid crossing busy roads

If you're concerned about the effort you'll be putting out while traversing a potential route, you can even pull up an elevation profile of the course you've mapped out...assuming you actually want to know.

My run route to the pool.
Yes, it hurts as much as it looks.

So the next time you're feeling bored with the same old humdrum sights, why not pull up a map and see what else there is to explore? I've found two new routes in the last 3 weeks to cycle down to my Mum's place in Mississauga from my office, the latter of which I think may be one of my favourite urban trails of all time.

This is the kind of commute I can live with.

There are new trails and details being added all the time, too, so get out there and try something you've never seen before! If you're lucky, you might find something even half as beautiful as the Mississauga Valley Trail, on which most of these photos were taken Wednesday evening.


NB: I can't take any responsibility for what you do with any information gleaned from using MilerMeter, nor the accuracy of the data it provides. Please, be safe out there!

Tested: Endomondo sport tracking app

This week's review: Endomondo sport tracking app for mobile devices.

What it is: An application for GPS-enabled mobile devices that tracks your activity.

Why you want it: Because you're not type-A enough to use Strava (or don't use Android/iOS), but still want a neat tracking app that allows you to compete against your friends. Additionally, you can use your tracked activities to accumulate credits at earndit.com and buy yourself stuff for the workouts you're doing anyway (UPDATED January 2015: earndit has since become higi, but you can still earn rewards)!

What it looks like on the BlackBerry Torch 9800 (not my data).
The fields can be customized to show different metrics in the location you choose.

Workout options.

Duration used: 8 months - started in May 2012.

Price paid/purchased from: I use the free version for BlackBerry. The Pro version with additional capabilities is $4.99, also available from BlackBerry App World. There are Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Java versions in both free and pro, too - all download options are available here.

Reviewing data once your workout is complete - tap on the map to show the route in full screen view.

It even gives you mile-by-mile (or kilometer) splits.
You cannot manually change the lap distance, though.

What rawks: It's completely functional for tracking and logging in its free form, and provides some useful data through the reports on the website without upgrading to pro. It covers a massive range of activities, including difficult-to-track ones such as paddling and skating where it's tough to know what kind of distance you've really covered, and has the option to manually input workouts that the GPS can't pick up (e.g.: yoga, weight lifting, aerobics, team sports) - it even allows you to distinguish between walking, fitness walking and hiking; or between sport cycling, cycle commuting and mountain biking. The interface is easy to use and customize to show the data you want in the location you want - the screenshot above is basically the default layout with heart rate (that field shows calories burned if no heart rate monitor is used). I also like that it allows you to use the BlackBerry trackpad instead of having to rely on touchscreen only; several of my favourite pairs of gloves are not touchscreen compatible, but the trackpad is easy to use with them.You have multiple options for audible accompaniment:  you can choose any playlist from your device to listen to during your workout, via either headset or the device's speaker, and if you choose to use the "audio coach" (which gives distance, time and split updates) it will briefly pause the music to provide you with data then continue playing the song where it left off. If you're less than keen on having a female voice periodically interrupting your reverie, you can operate with all sound off - I leave it this way, as I don't generally train with music, but you can use the coach without a playlist as well. To start your workout, you can either tap the "start" button or "countdown", which allows you to specify an interval (from 10 seconds up to 40 seconds) between the time you hit the button and when the clock begins; useful if you're wearing gloves or need to stow your device in a pocket before you set off. Even with all other audio turned off, a voice will say "go" when the countdown reaches zero and you're officially on the clock. There is an auto start & stop function you can enable in settings that will (theoretically) start recording once the app detects you moving over a certain user-defined rate of travel and stop it once your speed dips below this level, but I've had little success with this feature. The learning curve with the app itself is very shallow, though - once downloaded and installed, you'll find it easy to start tracking workouts in seconds. While you're out, friends on Endomondo can send you "pep talks" through the website, and even watch your progress if you've enabled live tracking. Furthermore, if you set the app to automatically upload data to Facebook, your social media friends can watch you move and comment on your activity (UPDATE January 2015: the app for Blackberry OS 10.3 does not have any social media functionality). The live tracking is also fabulous if family members are worried about you, because they can pull up the website and see your location and whether or not you're still on the move! If you're more competitive, you can choose to race against friends or the current champion of a particular route a la Strava. When you're finished with your training session, the app automatically uploads your recorded data to the website (http://www.endomondo.com) for perusal (if you're in an area with poor coverage, you can re-upload if the first attempt fails). Time of day, distance, duration, elevation, average and maximum speeds, weather and calories burned are given in text format along with a map of your route and graphs for pace and elevation. Clicking the "best distances" shows your performance within that workout with best kilometer, mile, 3 mile, and 5km times, plus the "Cooper" - distance covered in your fastest 12 minutes. If you regularly perform a time trial on a certain route (as long as conditions are reasonably similar), you can gauge fitness using these metrics. If necessary, you can edit almost all data fields, and you can add notes and names to your training sessions. The social aspect of the site is kind of fun, too; you can see what your friends have been doing and make comments on their workouts, as the dashboard shows a Twitter-like feed of friends' activities. There are frequent challenges made available to members as well, typically in which a number of prizes will be awarded to a participant with your chances to win increasing as you burn more calories or track more mileage - if you need motivation, these might help get you out the door. If you choose, you can post workouts to Facebook, Twitter or BlackBerry Messenger as well (UPDATE January 2015: unless you are using the Blackberry 10 version, which has no social media integration).

Calendar format training history on the website - hover over a workout symbol to see basic time/distance info or click to display full details as below.

Individual workout view on the website - the calendar view remains visible further up the page.

Running your mouse over the speed/elevation graph shows moment-by-moment data samples and indicate the position on your route at which they were recorded with a moving red dot.

What sucks: Maybe it's just my particular phone, but the GPS tracking leaves a lot to be desired - it most commonly cuts corners on my routes reducing the distance (and making me look even slower than I already am), but occasionally gets confused and goes on some kind of wild tangent that messes with my data. Because of one of these "I'm over here, NOW I'M 2KM AWAY, now I'm back!" bursts, my personal best 1 hour run shows as something like 17km and my best kilometer time is about 37 seconds. This is not useful, and despite being able to edit individual workout data, I can't seem to be rid of some of these ridiculous readings. (UPDATE January 2015: this is much improved on my Blackberry Classic running OS 10.3 with location services turned on). The GPS can take some time to locate, and sometimes refuses to do so at all without backing out and re-starting the app (particularly when changing the workout type upon opening it). (UPDATE January 2015: this is also greatly improved in the Blackberry OS 10 app, and even shows GPS status whether "excellent", "moderate" or "poor" signal is available) The auto-start & stop feature seems to be completely useless as well, as I've yet to see it respond to my actions in a reasonable amount of time - likely related to the apparent difficulty in accurately tracking a route through poor GPS performance overall. Being unable to specify a lap distance is annoying - kilometer or mile splits are fine if you're doing kilometer or mile repeats, but for any other kind of interval workout they're pretty useless (and even kilometer or mile repeats would rely on you starting at exactly X.00km/mi with precise recoveries). The "pause" button also annoys me in that the clock appears to stop, but the time while paused still gets added in to the split for that kilometer (i.e.: if you pause it while taking a drink at a water fountain for 1min, the kilometer in which you did so will show a split 1min longer than your moving time). I can't see the purpose in it at all. I'm told you can't manipulate your playlist within the app (no pause/skip), so if you're dying to hear a particular track at a certain time you may be out of luck. You may also be out of luck if you need to make a phonecall after a long workout, as the app eats battery life like nothing else I've seen.

History view on the website.

Total training overview on the website.

Month and overall view from the website's dashboard.

What I'd like to see: Better GPS functionality (UPDATE January 2015: whether it's an improved device, having location services turned on - which I'm not sure they were on my Torch - or an update to the app, this is no longer an issue on my Blackberry Classic running OS 10.3), a useful auto start/stop feature, and a "lap" button to override the automatic kilometer/mile splits, a true workout pause and a way to remove spurious data completely so it doesn't affect best performances (UPDATE January 2015: you can remove and edit workout data through the web-based dashboard).

What I'm saying: Being free, there's no reason not to give this a try, but I'm too anal retentive to rely on this as my sole recording method for workouts. I still use my trusty stopwatch as well, and check distances using the Gmap Pedometer website where possible. I do, however, find the app very useful for big training blocks like long weekends - I use 2 other websites for logging workouts (LogYourRun.com and Slowtwitch's training log), but tend to only enter data from the office. If I use Endomondo to record my data, I never have to sit there scratching my head on Monday trying to remember which particular route took me XX minutes (per the saved workout on my watch) the previous Friday. Additionally, I know my husband really appreciates being able to use the live tracking on longer workouts or in dicey conditions to know that I'm still on the go and to estimate when I might be getting home. I'm still far from using the app for every workout, but I do find myself starting it more and more often, especially now that I have linked it to my earndit account and accrue credits for my activities!

For further edification: See other reviews by SlimTechie, AppSafari, and SportsTechReview.