Friday, August 4, 2017

New Outside Column!

Just ducking my head back in to let you know my new Outside column is up:


It's all about how I opened a Strava account.

Yeah, that's right.

I feel dirty.

Anyway, go ahead and chew on that over the weekend, and I'll see you back here on Monday.

Yours and so forth,


--Wildcat Etc.


29 comments:

Anonymous said...

First

Lieutenant Oblivious said...

Second Hiatic Scranus!

Spokey said...

at last a spot on my podium

damn spot

Anonymous said...

Missed the KOM

Spokey said...

i'm still not creating a strava account just to verify that i suck.

if i had the kind of ambition i'd need to register on strava, well i'd first fix my bieks. one has a missing screw from the saddle (brroks C17) and i don't want to ride it for fear of screwing it up. the other had the rear shifter crumble in to pieces a couple days ago and when i saw that the set cost $95 on amazon (more on ebay btw), i am now riding in friction mode. not as bad as i thought it would be.

Gmas said...

Great column! Congrats

Unknown said...

All these recusions from your blog responsibility might lead to the rise of a sellevacantist movement...

wishiwasmerckx said...

It is not humanly possible to give less of a shit about strava than I do.

Snob may have caved, but I will never give into the dark side.

dancesonpedals said...

Welcome to strava. As much as this blog has dumped on the app, when I sereptitiously logged on for a fondont, I found out afterwards that I wasn't alone. Strava alerts you to 'flybyes'and let me know of 4 other riders in the pack.

It really loves to let you know you suck. After climbing a favorite hill, it will give you a little medal for your PR, and by the way, that effort was #2,000 of 4,000 this year.

Olle Nilsson said...

What next? Facebook?

bad boy of the south said...

Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker,"Luke, I've joined Strava"..."NOOoooooo.....!"

Your Precedent said...

Sad.

BeerDrivenCyclist said...

13st! Highest position this season! Woot!

JLRB said...

I am so glad the US DOJ is stopping the leaks - who knew Sessions would support flat free cycling

Still not on strava, but I do use Map my Ride and yes, you nailed it - I too am guilty of reviewing my suckdom on the terlit

Very Slim Pickens said...

My front tire sprung a loud leak. Now Sessions has indicted it.

Big Dada said...

Duchamp put part of a bike up on a pedalstool and it became art.

dancesonpedals said...

Btw....the model on the tri bike is wearing his timing chip on the wrong side....it should be on the left ankle to avoid drive-side mishaps with the chain.

Anonymous said...

Strava combines a sense of community, competitiveness, and narcissism all into one app. No wonder it's so addictive, it's like Facebook for people with fitness.

Dave said...

#2000 out of #4000, lucky you dancesonpedals, I am nearly always in the bottom third on climbs. But today the goal I set in Strava last month got me off the couch and onto the bike, and I knocked six minutes (out of 46) off my nemesis climb time and made it out of the bottom third! To me that is a freakin' victory, and at my age and fatness I'll take all the victories I can get.

Anonymous said...

Back in the olden days, I used to use a cyclocomputer. And I would try to beat my personal best time on my various commuter routes. Then I had a bad crash in Central Park, in which a pedestrian was severely hurt. Although I wasn't using the cyclocomputer at the time, that crash was the end for me. Better to just enjoy the scenery, I will get there when I get there.

JLRB said...

I am curating an app that measures my hammock time and records details like number of nod offs, cold beverages, wildlife encounters as points, penalties for reading work related crap, mosquito bites and picking up my ph...

Spokey said...

i use ridewithgps. afaik it doesn't have any suckiness area so i rely on spousy to tell me i suck. and aside from the human touch, unlike strava which i assume only tells you you suck on a bicycle, i get to suck at pretty much every aspect of life.

don't have to download no app. don't have to register or pay anything. all i gots to do is wake up in the morning. and i'm still handling that reasonably well.

Spokey said...

jlrb

sounds intriguing. a couple questions before i buy it though. do you get points or lose points when a bird flies over and shits on your forehead? do you actually have to own and use hammock? or can a reclining deck chair be registered in the app? can i link friends like i do with fitbit and get a weekly email showing who has been the laziest over the last seven days?

Get There In One Peace said...

I just put my Garmin on pause when I need to stop and I feel no pressure to do stupid things to get the best time.

Some guy from upstate said...

I joined the Strava in May because it's the only way to lights National Bike Challenge miles. It's pretty easy to see how it could become a complete obsession, which I am trying really hard to avoid.

They used to call me Fred (really). said...

I would say 90% of my cycling is commuting. Granted, it's a 40 mile round trip, which gives me a smugness when I look at Garmin Connect (I use an Edge unit because I'm a nerd -- I still have an Avocet computer from the late '80s), showing me in the 90-something percentile for time and distance (for my middle age bracket). Looking at the speed deflated my ego a bit, since it shows me in the 50-something percentile. I use Strava, but only for pulling back into other apps.

cyclejerk said...

Missed it by that much...

mpetry912 said...

This just in - Rapha sold to Walton Family investment fund. Good for Simon - he's rich now and he deserves the payout.

BAMstutz said...

Is there any truth to the idea that bicycle commuters should use Strava every day because it helps to quantify how many of us are out there and what routes are most used?

I know they are collecting data on all cycling trips, and release heat-maps that show most travelled routes.