Strava, the fashionable application among cyclists

Smartphones have changed our lives by accompanying us everywhere, giving us more than interesting information, and sport is possibly one of the aspects where they have had the most influence. The arrival of multiple apps of this type on the iPhone has led to healthy competition that has resulted in very complete analysis and interesting from our training, Strava being one of the leading apps.

Registering

Without a doubt, the main function of Strava is to record our training. We simply have to start the exercise and the application will follow everything we do even when the iPhone is idle or with another application open, as it supports multitasking. We can set certain warnings during the exercise and see some data such as distance or average speed. We have both cycling and running available, although the app is clearly geared towards cycling.

Once we finish the activity is where the difference between Strava and its competitors begins. The terminal will upload our session to the servers in the cloud and we will be able to see all the data that we have registered (some require complements such as a heart rate monitor) in our training, including altitude, heart rate, speed and even the power developed and an analysis of the heart rate by zones. Although where the real difference is made is in the analysis by segments of our route.

Segments and challenges

Strava is partially geared towards being a social network, and this allows us to compete with other athletes in the segments. Basically what Strava does is record our time Through prominent segments of our route, and after that we can buy our time with other users. In case this is not interesting enough, it can also be filtered by weight and age, which will give us a more logical idea of ​​our performance in the areas we have traveled.

On the other hand there are challenges, that are renewed every certain time and that will allow us to motivate ourselves as well as add trophies to our showcase. For example, every month there is a long-distance challenge (Gran Fondo) in which if we cover the proposed distance in a single training session, we will receive a virtual trophy and the possibility of buying a limited edition jersey.

As is obvious, Strava is free but it has a Premium feature. For occasional athletes, Premium is not attractive because of its price, but for advanced users who want all the available functions, it is a highly recommended investment to get the most out of the application, and incidentally recognize the good work they are doing.

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