STRAVA: THE FACEBOOK OF RUNNING

Are you a Facebook user?  Most likely you will be.  And do you post your running stats to share with non-interested friends? Then their time is over!

Welcome to the global community of Runners.

 STRAVA is a social networking platform for fitness enthusiasts and the ace athletes alike. There are three(3) sports for which you can use STRAVA – running, cycling, and swimming.

So, it didn’t come to me as a surprise when a friend of mine sent an invite to join the platform.  He is also a recreational runner like me. 

So far I was posting my running stats on general social networking apps like Facebook, Instagram, and various WhatsApp groups.  It’s always a great feeling to socially connect with causes like Fitness and Health. It motivates you to be socially accountable. You also never know whom you are inspiring in the process.

STRAVA helps you to connect to your friends in distant locations and mutually share your data with the. You may also follow activities of ace athletes on STRAVA.

So, I happily accepted his invitation and joined the vast network of runners on STRAVA.

So, let us get to know this amazing piece of technology to network and step up our Fitness.

GETTING STARTED ON STRAVA

STRAVA is a Swedish term for “strive”.   It epitomizes our attitude and ambition:

STRAVA is available for use on 2 mobile platforms:

1. Android App
2. iOS platform

They have the Web Version as well to login and check your analytics. And Trust me, you are gonna fall in love with that. I personally did!

Here I would be talking about using STRAVA on Android Smart Phones. And I believe it would not be much different to use on OS Platforms.

Out of the above 3, I am gonna tell you How you can use it on your Smartphone as an Android App and how you can view your data on the Web Browser.

SEARCH, INSTALL & REGISTER

So, let us begin by downloading the Android app from the Google Play Store

So, first, you need to go to the Google Playstore on your Smart Phone and write “STRAVA”. Within seconds, you will see the option on your screen.

Now, select the option that looks like the one in the figure below and install it.

After the installation, you will be prompted to register yourself. For the registration process, you have 3 options:

You will get 3 options to register yourself:

1.  You can use Facebook Login Credentials
2. You can use your Google Login Credentials
3. Or your email id to register yourself for the first time

I personally prefer to login using my gmail credentials. It’s fast and easy.

After the registration, you will be let in.  Hurray! Congratulations! You just became the part of big STRAVA family.

There are 3 pointers I have made here.

1. This is where your menu options will appear. You will see the DASHBOARD and the activity feed under it. The middle of the screen is showing the activity feed. It will show up yours as well as your friends.
2. This is my data for “As on Date”. As you can see, I have completed 700 monitored or recorded runs on STRAVA. That’s awesome. Right! Of course, I have been using STRAVA Since October 2018. I am following 18 of my friends. And I have 8 of my friends following me
3. This is the activity feed area.

HOW TO USE STRAVA FOR RUNNING

Having logged into and set up your profile, you are all set to use it for running. There are two ways to record your runs.

1. Use STRAVA to record directly
2. Import data on your STRAVA from the Tracking Device that you are using. I personally use my GARMIN Forerunner 35 to track my runs. Once I am done with my running, my data is synced to STRAVA automatically. We will learn this too.

USING STRAVA TO RECORD RUNNING

Let us start with knowing the way to use STRAVA directly on our Smartphones. So, here are the steps:

As you can see in the figure above, there is a “Record” option in the bottom menu of your mobile app. Click on “Record”

You will be prompted to allow STRAVA to access your device’s location and comply with STRAVA community standards.

Now, you will be able to see the “Start” button on your phone. So, click on that once you are ready to start your run. STRAVA gives you an option to pause or fully stop your run.

If you choose to pause, you can come back to your running after your press the “Resume” button. Or you can fully stop by selecting “Finish” button.

Simple and quick! Right!

Here is a word of caution that I would like to give. The accuracy of data may not be 100%. It would vary and depends on several factors like availability GPS access in y our area, the internet signal strength etc. Please be sure that you have your data on.

HOW TO SEARCH FOR FRIENDS/ATHLETES AND SEND AN INVITE

STRAVA is truly the facebook of running. You can search for your friends to be on your STRAVA page. Let us see how:

1. Go to the top menu and click on the third option” Explore”.
2. Under the “Explore” menu, go to Athlete Search
3. Use the search tab and type the name to search.

USING “MY PROFILE” & “SETTINGS”

So, this is my profile page on STRAVA. As you can see, there are pictures and the data. There is much more to it. You can choose to look at the whole profile page. And divide the profile page into 3 parts: Top, Middle and the Bottom. You can view the top of the profile page above.

Now let me show you middle and the bottom of the profile page. I am sure I love it and you would grow to love your profile as you add more and more runs to your profile.

Don’t you think this is an awesome page! All your stats here. The right-hand side of the profile page when you scroll it to the middle will show these stats.

You can see your Month to date, year to date, and overall stats here. Whenever I look here, I feel so proud of myself. Now, these are the efforts that keep in the top shape. I am sure you will also be inspired to do better with your STRAVA app now.

So, this was a brief introduction to STRAVA and it’s salient features. By all standards, it’s a great running app for social sharing and keeping our own records in one place.

What do you think of the STRAVA app. I would waiting for your ideas and suggestions in the comments below.

Keep running, keep enjoying!