QOTD: What are your favorite Strava features/tips?
I pay for Strava Premium almost exclusively because of the Grade Adjusted Pace (GAP) feature. Before a few years ago, the GAP data used to be free. Then they rolled it into Premium and I tried some time without it, but found myself wanting that specific piece of information. Mostly because my normal running route is about 30-50 ft/mile gain in elevation. And if I'm scheduled for a 10 mile steady marathon tempo, it's not wise to try and nail every mile split at 7:02. Some miles need to be slower because they're uphill, and some miles need to be faster because they are downhill. So instead of trying to hammer 7:02 every mile, now I vary the pace based on the GAP of each mile. So that means sometimes I'm doing 7:27 and sometimes 6:47, and when adjusted for grade those come out to 7:02 "effort". It works well as a post-run analysis, and as an adjustment for the next time I do that particular route. It's also good practice because that's my current racing pace strategy.
The use of GAP for setting mile split pace goals for upcoming races however doesn't require that you yourself have Premium. Merely the person who previously ran the race that you're using as a means to capture the GAP splits. So I could be non-premium, do a previous race search of the Madison M on google, find someone who ran in 2018 on the same route who has premium on Strava, and then use the difference between their actual GPS split and their GAP split to determine what adjustments I should make to my own personal split goals. Also nice to find other runner's GPS data for that particular race to get an idea of what mileage value it comes out as. There can be a time difference between setting your pace goals for 26.22 GPS miles and 26.42 GPS miles. I walk through the process
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Strava also captures fitness/freshness data (training load). I use it sparingly, but I don't make many adjustments to my training based on the values. But it is a nice confirmation that I'm in the optimal zone of training (current training is different enough from previous to make gains, but not too different that it puts me at a high risk for injury).
It's an easy place for me to check in on other runners for free. I can quick pop on to my news feed and see a bunch of other runners I'm following and keep up with their training as well. Makes it easy when someone wants me to look at something for them too. A system like Training Peaks would be nice, but I can't justify the price at this point.
Lastly, I bounce back and forth between Strava and Garmin for summarization data. I find Strava easier to quickly find a past workout, where as Garmin tends to be better for big picture summary stuff.