5 ms·

Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform. Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes I know don't even use it anymore. Tr

Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform. Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes I know don't even use it anymore. TrainingPeaks + Garmin is where it's at.

762236 4y ago
"Turned into"? It is a social platform with large networking effects. It also supports decent analysis of your performance for self-coached athletes.
iamacyborg 4y ago
It sounds more like Garmin are eating their lunch in terms of training features for the general public. TP is obviously even better as a product if you’re working with a coach hence why so many triathletes favour it. Strava’s a fantastic social platform but I don’t use it for anything more than that.
- 762236 4y ago
  I haven't used Garmin in two years. How does it sound like Garmin is eating Strava's lunch? Back then, Garmin didn't offer me anything for cycling that Strava didn't have. Has this changed?
  - iamacyborg 4y ago
    I guess the question I have is what features did Strava have for cycling which Garmin didn’t? My main sport is running so I’m coming at it from that angle. I suspect the new training status stuff that’s been rolled out would likely be a good fit for cyclists, even those who haven’t purchased a power meter.
    - nradov 4y ago
      Garmin devices require a power meter to calculate training status for cycling. They can calculate other metrics like training load without a power meter. Generally Garmin has much better features than Strava for setting up and executing a structured training plan, then analyzing your performance. But Strava has better social features. Many endurance athletes use both platforms. It's easy to create a free tier Strava account and automatically sync activities from Garmin to show your friends.
- __derek__ 4y ago
  I'm in the same boat: Strava is just for cheering on friends (and occasionally looking at segment PRs). My only gripe with Garmin Connect is that it unfairly negs some runs, e.g., calling my slower runs after recent snow/ice storms Unproductive.
  - nradov 4y ago
    Training Status such as "Unproductive" is calculated on your Garmin hardware device. Garmin Connect only displays what the device calculates. (I think that is a flawed approach, but Garmin is primarily a device company so that's just how it works.) If you know that you're going to be running in challenging conditions like snow that reduce your pace then use the Trail Run activity profile and set "Record VO2 Max.” to Off. That should prevent it from changing your fitness metrics.
hello_moto 4y ago
> Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform Always has been that way; that's the whole idea of Strava (or Komoot, RideWithGPS, etc). These platforms are for casuals. > Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes I know don't even use it anymore. TrainingPeaks + Garmin is where it's Always been this way as well (TrainingPeaks/TrainerRoads). These platforms are for training and improving performance. Garmin is Garmin... majority of endurance athletes wear Garmin devices (or Suntoo). Having said that, it's easy to upload to multiple platforms so they all treat Strava or other social media as brand awareness.
- iamacyborg 4y ago
  > These platforms are for casuals. For training, sure, but a significant proportion of Olympic calibre athletes use the social elements of these tools.
  - hello_moto 4y ago
    That's what I stated: the "amateur -> pros" level athletes are using the social elements to build their brands (aside from TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc)
- dkislyuk 4y ago
  > These platforms are for casuals. At least in road and trail running, this doesn't line up with my observation. There are plenty of elite athletes, at least in the US, who are posting their training on Strava (Jim Walmsley, CJ Albertson, Molly Seidel, etc.) At the fast amateur level (e.g. those chasing the Olympic Trials Qualifier time), Strava adoption is pretty ubiquitous. Out of the the athletes who are active on social media in the first place, those who don't post on Strava are usually doing it either for privacy reasons, or because they do not want to share their training plans for their competitors to copy.
  - hello_moto 4y ago
    > At least in road and trail running, this doesn't line up with my observation. There are plenty of elite athletes, at least in the US, who are posting their training on Strava Yup, (personal) brand awareness. Strava is for casuals but the training results will be posted there regardless who you are (except as you mentioned, for privacy). As I stated above: Strava is for casuals, those Amateur->Pro level posted there "just because" it's easy to do it not because they rely Strava for Data Analysis. Those athletes will rely on other platforms to analyze their training data (Garmin offers more insight for example). Setting up Strava to link with Garmin is easy right? Things will sync from that point onward.

Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform. Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes I know don't even use it anymore. TrainingPeaks + Garmin is where it's at.

762236 4y ago

"Turned into"? It is a social platform with large networking effects. It also supports decent analysis of your performance for self-coached athletes.

iamacyborg 4y ago

It sounds more like Garmin are eating their lunch in terms of training features for the general public. TP is obviously even better as a product if you’re working with a coach hence why so many triathletes favour it. Strava’s a fantastic social platform but I don’t use it for anything more than that.

762236 4y ago
I haven't used Garmin in two years. How does it sound like Garmin is eating Strava's lunch? Back then, Garmin didn't offer me anything for cycling that Strava didn't have. Has this changed?
- iamacyborg 4y ago
  I guess the question I have is what features did Strava have for cycling which Garmin didn’t? My main sport is running so I’m coming at it from that angle. I suspect the new training status stuff that’s been rolled out would likely be a good fit for cyclists, even those who haven’t purchased a power meter.
  - nradov 4y ago
    Garmin devices require a power meter to calculate training status for cycling. They can calculate other metrics like training load without a power meter. Generally Garmin has much better features than Strava for setting up and executing a structured training plan, then analyzing your performance. But Strava has better social features. Many endurance athletes use both platforms. It's easy to create a free tier Strava account and automatically sync activities from Garmin to show your friends.
__derek__ 4y ago
I'm in the same boat: Strava is just for cheering on friends (and occasionally looking at segment PRs). My only gripe with Garmin Connect is that it unfairly negs some runs, e.g., calling my slower runs after recent snow/ice storms Unproductive.
- nradov 4y ago
  Training Status such as "Unproductive" is calculated on your Garmin hardware device. Garmin Connect only displays what the device calculates. (I think that is a flawed approach, but Garmin is primarily a device company so that's just how it works.) If you know that you're going to be running in challenging conditions like snow that reduce your pace then use the Trail Run activity profile and set "Record VO2 Max.” to Off. That should prevent it from changing your fitness metrics.

hello_moto 4y ago

> Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform Always has been that way; that's the whole idea of Strava (or Komoot, RideWithGPS, etc). These platforms are for casuals. > Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes I know don't even use it anymore. TrainingPeaks + Garmin is where it's Always been this way as well (TrainingPeaks/TrainerRoads). These platforms are for training and improving performance. Garmin is Garmin... majority of endurance athletes wear Garmin devices (or Suntoo). Having said that, it's easy to upload to multiple platforms so they all treat Strava or other social media as brand awareness.

iamacyborg 4y ago
> These platforms are for casuals. For training, sure, but a significant proportion of Olympic calibre athletes use the social elements of these tools.
- hello_moto 4y ago
  That's what I stated: the "amateur -> pros" level athletes are using the social elements to build their brands (aside from TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc)
dkislyuk 4y ago
> These platforms are for casuals. At least in road and trail running, this doesn't line up with my observation. There are plenty of elite athletes, at least in the US, who are posting their training on Strava (Jim Walmsley, CJ Albertson, Molly Seidel, etc.) At the fast amateur level (e.g. those chasing the Olympic Trials Qualifier time), Strava adoption is pretty ubiquitous. Out of the the athletes who are active on social media in the first place, those who don't post on Strava are usually doing it either for privacy reasons, or because they do not want to share their training plans for their competitors to copy.
- hello_moto 4y ago
  > At least in road and trail running, this doesn't line up with my observation. There are plenty of elite athletes, at least in the US, who are posting their training on Strava Yup, (personal) brand awareness. Strava is for casuals but the training results will be posted there regardless who you are (except as you mentioned, for privacy). As I stated above: Strava is for casuals, those Amateur->Pro level posted there "just because" it's easy to do it not because they rely Strava for Data Analysis. Those athletes will rely on other platforms to analyze their training data (Garmin offers more insight for example). Setting up Strava to link with Garmin is easy right? Things will sync from that point onward.