Goodbye Strava!!!

It was the listening to The Brick Session podcast that finally made me do it. I quit Strava and have not regretted doing so for one minute. It feels great not being (subconsciously) judged or people making vague assumptions or commenting on your training. Even without Strava, I had two different people look up a parkrun result of mine recently with one commenting that I had been beaten by someone else and the other asking ‘how my ego was’ after my wife recorded a quicker time at a different parkrun. What both these people didn’t know I was pacing a Y6 kid round to a 20 second PB. Kudos to that kid!

Let me start by saying that I think Strava is a great tool. The social interaction, the (sometimes) knowledge sharing, the (mild from some, heavy by others) competition element and the common interest in staying fit and healthy are all admirable traits for a social media platform. 

But I’ve realised it’s just not for me. On the face of it, it would seem an ideal place for a loner like me. Other than some excellent squad swimming sessions, I don’t belong full time to any particular club and haven’t the time or the reliability of a regular diary to commit to rigid training sessions/groups that are intended for the masses so it would it make sense for me to stay connected with likeminded athletes and triathletes. Initially, it did and it served a purpose and I enjoyed it for a while.

What changed though?

I slowly came to realise that I really didn’t care what other people thought or think of my training. I plan my training schedule around work and family commitments which come first so there might be a myriad of reasons why I did that particular session – and I wasn’t going to bore people with explaining that in the title. Still, people would either give kudos (which some religiously do) or comment on them. I would still check a few times a day when I couldn’t care less what other people thought. It was time wasting and distracting.

On top of this, I couldn’t give a monkeys nuts about how fast people go over a particular (wind assisted, peloton-led) segment or course and it depresses me that people care so much about this. And don’t get me started on having to wade through 3km cycle commutes to work as well as yoga or stretching sessions being recorded. Really, are people that addicted for approval!!!??? It was all becoming too pointless.

What I love is chewing the fat about training methods, techniques, fads, etc. I love talking about why people do these activities and what benefit it brings them. I love talking about how to get kids and adults physically active. Strava doesn’t intend to meet these demands so there was little point in getting distracted by something that was not adding any particular value. 

So, taking some downtime at the end of the summer and listening to the podcast in the Spanish sun closed the deal for me. Strava app deleted for the winter. I won’t rule out returning but time to get the head down over the winter without thinking of taking a photo and what to call my workout during the session.

Winter well and please like this post and give me kudos if you agree 😜