Strava Tips and Tricks
Whether you are an avid Strava fan or new to strava TCoB wants you to get faster with this great tool. Through August we have 3 awesome challenges within Strava to help you build that competitive spirit and help to push you and your teammates to the next level. In this article we will cover the basics, some tips and how to sign up for our club challenges.
Please note all information below is relative to the latest version of the strava mobile app. If you have not update the app in some time we recommend that as your first step.
What is Strava?
strava.com is either a website or mobile app for you to connect your training with fellow athletes. We suggest the mobile app but both interfaces are quite good. Instructions and tips below will refer mostly to the app. The platform is has free and premium subscription offers. Everything we discuss here is part of the free offering. Set up requires only a download to your phone and an email address. Although if you are ready for premium, get our team snap deal for strava discount codes.
Tracking activities – 3 ways
Strava will collect, total and share all your training. To do this there are 3 options.
- The easiest is to link your watch/bike computers to strava. To do this click the settings icon in the top corner of strava then select “Link other services” and select your brand. You will need to log in to your device account for example Garmin Connect. Now all activities will sync in Strava and Garmin. You can also link in zwift for the winter season. No further work will be required on your part.
- Record with the strava app. Note this will use some mobile data. On opening the app click the “Record” option in the bottom center tool bar. You can set the activity by clicking on the second icon just over the start. Often the default is a bike. Hit start once ready to go. You can pause if need and stop once complete.
- Manually enter the activity. This is great for those long session where your watch died but you need the credit. On opening the app, click the orange circle with a “+” inside then select manually enter the activity. Fill the details and set the activity type through the drop down selection.
Joining TCoB on Strava
We have a TCoB Club in Strava. You want to be in on our strava club. To get in click the “Groups” icon at the bottom of the app then click “Clubs” at the top horizontal menu. From here you will need to use the search function at the top right corner and find “Triathlon Club of Burlington”. Click on us once found and then follow the prompt to request to join.
We have been using leaderboards to give social media shout outs to our members. Once you are in the strava club, you auto qualify for a lot of these shout outs. You can also follow the strava leaderboards throughout the week. This can be a motivating tool. To see the leaderboard in the app. Head over to our strava club (Groups icon to clubs like above) and click on our logo. Scroll down to see some fun club stats and look at the leaderboard. The strava leader board is always listing total time across swim/bike/run. From here you can also click on “Activities”. Looking at your follow member activities lets you give “Kudos” by clicking on the thumbs up icon, see maps of some great training routes in the area and maybe find a training buddy close in speed to you. You can choose to follow people you know. Think of following like facebook friending. To follow someone you have two choices. If looking at their activity just click the 3 dots right of their name on an activities and select follow. Alternatively you can search for athletes using the people icon on the top right corner of the app screen.
Club Challenges – NEW
For August we have 3 club challenges. Each challenge is limited to 25 people and you need to opt in for these. We have a cycling climbing challenge, a run elevation challenge and a total time swimming challenge.
To get in on these challenge a couple of steps are needed. First you MUST follow Larissa Robinson. Next you need to let Larissa (RMTlarissa@gmail.com) which challenge you want in on; the bike, run or swim challenge. Yes some of you are already in.
To accept a challenge click over to Groups from the bottom menu then click Active from the top menu. You should see a TCoB challenge there (image 1). Select “View Challenge” and then select “Join Challenge” (image 2).
Once joined you can see how you are doing in the challenge and fight to be “King” or “Queen” of the challenge. Our August challenges are retroactive for it is never too late to join!
Strava Route Tips
Learning New Routes
This is Larissa’s Favourite feature but only available from the website version. If you see an athlete complete a route and want to get the map onto your device strava makes this easy. On the strava website scroll your mouse over the map of an athlete’s posted workout. An icon “Try this Route” will appear. Click it and then click Save. On clicking save a prompt will appear. Make sure the star is orange (Image 3). Then click “Save to my routes”, you may need to scroll down to see this. Now the route is saved in your saved routes AND your linked Garmin Connect/Wahoo Companion/device app. You will only need then send the route to your device (watch/bike computer) through its platform.
Syncing Published Routes
This is a super time saver tip. The club often published routes via strava. It only takes 3 clicks to get a published club link to your device. Click the route link to open in EITHER the web version (Image 4, star next to route name) or the app (Image 5, star in bottom right corner) and click the star to orange. Marking the route this way will auto sync it over to your device platform (ie Garmin Connect/Wahoo Companion). All that is left is to send the route to your device in its platform.
More features still
There are a ton more features but we hope this provides a good starting point. Explore outside and get fit, explore in the app and connect with great athletes!
