Tuesday 20FEB2018

Not snowing today, but cold and with the snow down, humid.  There was definitely a bite in the air.

10 easy miles.

I found myself slightly amused and annoyed on my reliance on Strava.  For decades I ran without knowing a true number of miles I ran.  I knew I ran some amount of time and I made a guess at how many miles that was.  I typically guessed it at 7:30 a mile pace and that was probably a fair guess.  There were days certainly slower than that, and there were days that quicker than that.

But then came the foot pods, and then the early GPS watches (that did altitude off of barometric pressure).  And then Garmin.  And Garmin Connect, and then Strava.  And with that I became a bit addicted to making sure I got some number of miles a day.  That is not the fault of Strava, it was a construct I made up in my head. 

I have enjoyed Strava in using it to find routes in locations, or even to create some effort workout based on someone’s FKT.  It has caused me self induced angst when I have seen a segment fall to someone’s bike ride, or a legit performance but that performance is in a geography that I won’t get to for a while.  And I have even had someone specifically look to “roll down” any and all local segments I “had.”  I’d love to say that didn’t bother me but when I saw four days of “GZ segment takedown” emails come in, it was a bit of a tweak to my ego.

I’d say Strava is a fine tool for simply tracking and occasionally motivating but it seems one in ten my runs are not accurately captured anyway (GPS error, my error, gremlins, whatever).  So I sit with mixed considerations for GPS watches, and sites like Strava.  Amused and annoyed.