Strava

[caerau]

My fastest times up some of our local climbs are a bit irritating.  I set them when I was trying to just get up them and I had to stop at times.  But i had the thing set with autopause.  After these stops I was of course fresh and went up quite quickly.
Hence my fastest times were done like this and I cannot beat them now even though I no longer need to stop.

Autopause is hence evil - don't use it.

[DrMekon]

I do like the pace analysis you get when logging runs, and the elevation adjusted pace thing. I'm surprised they dont do something similar for cycling, albeit wind probably makes it less meaningful.

[David Martin]

Strava is entertaining. On my run to work yesterday it told me I had a new 1km pb of 5:00 mins. Nothing to write home about, but the second kilometer split was 4:59, yet not a PB.

So it is a fun gimmick, but taking it too seriously is a sign that the reason the sun doesn't shine is that you are looking in the wrong place.

[citoyen]

Nabbing KOM on this well known descent is the possibly the greatest achievement of my adult life

Just seen this - a bit late, but have some Kudos.

If my wife found out, she'd kill me quicker than a blow out would have. Maxed at 82.5kph

Nice. I hit a max speed of 71.1km/h on the descent of River Hill last weekend, which feels a bit tame by comparison. My highest ever recorded on that descent is 79km/h. I've still never broken the 80km/h barrier on a bike (at least, not with a computer to record the evidence).

[caerau]

Ha, I managed 56 mph (90 kph!) on a descent in the Preseli mountains in Pembrokeshire at the weekend. 

My brother, who I was with described it as dangerously fast.   I describe it as fun!!!  We both have a point I think.

[citoyen]

I clearly need to take my bike somewhere with descents that are long and steep enough to get up some real speed.

[caerau]

Yeah it was a wide road and you could see for miles and the surface was good.  There were other, rather more technical descents on the rest of the course where such speeds were theoretically obtainable but would have been suicidal.

That and I currently weigh nearly 17 stone - that helps too I think.  Going up was rather less swift

[zigzag]

I clearly need to take my bike somewhere with descents that are long and steep enough to get up some real speed.

my fastest so far was down glenshee ski pass in scotland; sure, you don't need to go that far for high speed descent

[Greenbank]

I clearly need to take my bike somewhere with descents that are long and steep enough to get up some real speed.

Worth doing the Bryan Chapman for various reasons

[DrMekon]

I clearly need to take my bike somewhere with descents that are long and steep enough to get up some real speed.

closetleftie and I are off for some beers at the bottom of this hill tonight. If you were nearer we could have a few and then egg each other on.

An Otley beer and bikes thing over the summer would be fun.

[citoyen]

closetleftie and I are off for some beers at the bottom of this hill tonight. If you were nearer we could have a few and then egg each other on.

I would be so up for that if I could get up there... 

[L CC]

*makes secondary and tertiary tandem brakes ready* 

[marcusjb]

I clearly need to take my bike somewhere with descents that are long and steep enough to get up some real speed.

my fastest so far was down glenshee ski pass in scotland; sure, you don't need to go that far for high speed descent

Mine too - the Mille Alba was a hoot with several 80km+ descents on offer. 

[rr]

Nabbing KOM on this well known descent is the possibly the greatest achievement of my adult life

Just seen this - a bit late, but have some Kudos.

If my wife found out, she'd kill me quicker than a blow out would have. Maxed at 82.5kph

Nice. I hit a max speed of 71.1km/h on the descent of River Hill last weekend, which feels a bit tame by comparison. My highest ever recorded on that descent is 79km/h. I've still never broken the 80km/h barrier on a bike (at least, not with a computer to record the evidence).

Simmerly don't tell Mrs R that i recently reached 69.5 km/h on our local hill.

(click to show/hide)

with micro on the tandem [\spoiler]

[citoyen]

Excellent parenting, rr! 

[mattc]

I do like the pace analysis you get when logging runs, and the elevation adjusted pace thing. I'm surprised they dont do something similar for cycling, albeit wind probably makes it less meaningful.

Can't you just tell it you're running and use these features anyway? 

#neverusedstrava

[contango]

I've got some work to do for some of my local fastest times.
One of my regular routes back home follows a local TT course along some lanes. There are some very fast riders in Milton Keynes. On one of the segments one of the locals who regularly wins the club TTs averaged 33mph on a mostly downhill segment. But he's only number 2. A few days before the Olympic road race Ian Stannard came home and went out for an 83 mile ride (averaging 23mph). He averaged 43mph on that bit! Then he flew up the hill in the gastest time too.
My PR so far on that segment is 26mph.

On the day of the Olympic Time Trials I got to ride part of the course when it was still in a "kind of closed" state - all the Olympic riders had done their bit and cleared off, the roads were starting to open but a lot of it was still closed to motor traffic.

I managed to clock comparable speeds to Bradley Wiggins for the section I rode. Admittedly I was measuring in kph when he was measuring in mph but, you know, the numbers were about the same and all.

[DrMekon]

You can, but the runners would likely report your "run" and get it changed back as you'd steal all the running koms

[mattc]

You can, but the runners would likely report your "run" and get it changed back as you'd steal all the running koms

Clearly they need to get a sense of perspective.
_{[ED: should probably have stuck some kind of smiley in there ... ]}

[DrMekon]

You can, but the runners would likely report your "run" and get it changed back as you'd steal all the running koms

Clearly they need to get a sense of perspective.

Why?

[Chris S]

I quite like having a competitive stoker on the tandem - when we see a cyclist up ahead, we mysteriously seem to speed up  .

Ah. A possible downside has emerged!

Day three of a 3-day back to back 200s long weekend, so we're feeling a little weary to say the least, and as we approach a small, but noticeable hill, there's a sudden, large and sustained input of power from behind me - we're up to 35kph in no time.

Me: "What's going on?"
Fboab (somewhat breathlessly): "Strava segment."

 

[L CC]

Didn't get it back tho'.
Damn it.

[Chris S]

Didn't get it back tho'.
Damn it.

 

[PaulF]

Anyone know how Strava calculates power in a ride?

On Thursday I was 1 second faster than another rider over 29 a minute segment but he put in 70% more power than me (183 vs my 110w)!

[PaulF]

Anyone know how Strava calculates power in a ride?

On Thursday I was 1 second faster than another rider over 29 a minute segment but he put in 70% more power than me (183 vs my 110w)!

Just found this https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/20959332-Power-Calculations

Also another rider was 30s slower on the same segment but had a power of 208.

Calculations still don't add up: the guy who put out the most power is probably the heaviest but not twice as heavy as me - the effect of weight should be linear - and the guy in the middle is about my weight I'd guess.

Don't know if the data matches this hypothesis but if I kept a more constant speed and they accelerated and decelerated more could that account for it?