 Hey what's up everyone welcome to another video my name is Dylan and I'm a cycling coach at CTS and today we're going to be talking about whether or not Strava is helping or hurting your training. As with most training questions it's not a simple yes or no answer and it depends a lot on how you use Strava in your training. I'll be going over instances where Strava can completely undermine your training plan but also instances where Strava can raise the quality of your workout leading to more fitness gains as well as how to use Strava for race prep. If you're new to this channel I make weekly training, racing, and year-related videos going over tips and tricks that I've learned in my 12 years of racing experience that have gotten me to the top of the ultra endurance mountain bike game in the US and as a cycling coach at CTS. If you want to learn how to get faster or just more about the science of training in general be sure to subscribe and if you have a training question or a topic that you'd like to see me cover in a future video be sure to leave it in the comment section down below. I do my best to get to all the questions in the comments. Let's jump into today's topic which is whether or not Strava is good or bad for your training. Now when I talk about using Strava I'm talking about using their segment feature to compare your times to others not necessarily using Strava as a platform to analyze your ride data. Yeah obviously what else do people use Strava for? I just want to see how many KOMs I crush on my ride. I'm well aware that for some people Strava racing is the only racing that matters but for those of us who still like to do old-fashioned races with a starting line racing against other people actually present then the question is will going after Strava segments hurt your performance and would it be better just to ignore Strava altogether in favor of specific structured intervals and training? The answer is that it completely depends on how you use it. Strava can be an extremely helpful training tool or it can completely ruin your training plan. I'll explain how to incorporate Strava segments into your training but first let's go over some detriments to overusing Strava or using it at the wrong times. First of all you shouldn't be going after Strava segments on every ride or even multiple times a week for that matter. You need to have some rides built into your training plan where the end goal is not to kill yourself such as recovery rides or zone 2 rides and going harder than you should on these days is a recipe for overtraining. Hey man I know we're supposed to do a recovery ride today but I'm sitting second on that Wilson Road segment so I was thinking that when we get there we could just blast through that segment as hard as we can and then after that we can bump it back down to zone one. Not only are easier days important but you may want to have more of these days incorporated into your training plan than you realize. A review on the best practices for training, intensity, and duration distribution in endurance athletes advocated for two or three high intensity or threshold intensity sessions per week and that additional increases in high intensity frequency do not induce further improvements and tend to induce symptoms of overreaching or overtraining. Many Strava segments can be just two to five minutes in length especially if you live in an area without much elevation which means you're basically doing a vo2max effort to get the segment and these efforts can be a lot more taxing than you realize and a lot of times with these efforts less is more. A study done on interval training at vo2max took eight runners and had them perform vo2max intervals once a week and then overtrain them by having them perform the intervals three times a week. The results showed that surprisingly the subjects did not improve after the overtraining period and the study concluded that performance did not increase after four weeks of vo2max intensive training. If you're running down Strava segments on a daily basis or even multiple times a week then it could very easily be too much and you may not be reaching your full potential. Also if someone stealing your KOM or QOM causes you to abandon your workout for that day in order to get that Strava segment back then Strava could very likely be compromising your training. An email notification, Jeremiah Bishop stole your KOM, dethroned, oh we'll just see about that. If you had threshold intervals planned and instead you did a five minute all-out effort to try to get your time back on a particular segment then that day wasn't purposeful and may not have been specific to your goal. Start to do this multiple times a month or multiple times a week and your plan quickly unravels. Training can start to become pretty random as you just start to seek out Strava segments to take over periodized training and there is evidence to suggest that this sort of random training is less effective. In a study on different high-intensity periodization models on endurance adaptations they took 69 subjects and split them into three training groups all training for 12 weeks with two interval sessions each week. The groups differed in how they ordered the intensity of their intervals. The increasing intensity group did four by 16 minute intervals during the first four weeks, four by eight minute during the next four weeks, and then in the final four weeks did four by four minute. They had another group test the reverse of this and the last group mixed their intensity throughout the 12 weeks. They found that performance increased the most with increasing intensity then decreasing intensity and mixed intensity showed the least improvement. However the results were not significant so the authors couldn't conclude that increasing intensity was better although increasing intensity did show the best response rate out of the three groups. Deviating from the plan to include Strava segments of random and non-race specific lengths seems to be less effective and this brings me to my next point which is that as you get closer to your race you want your training to become more race specific. The problem arises when the Strava segments that you have available to you aren't specific to your goal race. For example if you're racing criteriums but you're always going after 30 minute hill climb Strava segments and training that won't get you as prepared for a crit as it would a specific interval workout. On the other hand let's say you're training for a race that has really long climbs like 30 minutes to an hour but where you live doesn't have long climbs so all the Strava segments are just say two to three minutes in length. Doing these Strava segments won't prepare you for the demands of that race and what would be better would be just to ignore Strava and find an open section of road where you can go at race intensity for 30 minutes to an hour. All of that being said Strava can be an extremely useful training tool when used appropriately in your schedule. This doesn't mean going after Strava segments multiple times a week or all year long. I wouldn't go after Strava segments in your off season and I would make sure that the Strava segments that you do go after are race specific so that you're preparing yourself for the demands of that race. Also stay away from going after random segments just for the purpose of getting that segment. Dude I just got the KOM on the bike path by 20 seconds. Oh you mean the one on the main drag where everyone does intervals? Dang man that's pretty hard to get. Nah man I'm talking about the one in town with that mandatory walk your bike section that usually has all those pedestrians. I just did it at 3 a.m last night so that I'd have a clear shot at it. If you're Strava inclined then I would include one day a week where you go after race specific Strava segments. This isn't just a way to scratch your Strava itch but may actually make you faster than if you hadn't used Strava at all. This is mainly because it provides motivation when riding alone. I'm sure you've probably noticed that you're able to push yourself harder in the presence of others. Our competitive nature kicks in and we're able to dig a little bit deeper than we would if we were riding by ourselves. This is what's known as social facilitation and one of the original experiments done on social facilitation was actually done on cyclists. In the late 1800s psychologist Norman Triplett found that cyclists perform better in the presence of others. The research on social facilitation is now very strong and it doesn't take a study for you to realize that you're able to push yourself harder when you have other people to race against. Just look at your power data from when you're in a hard group ride or a race versus when you're riding by yourself. This is beneficial during hard training days but we don't always have the opportunity to ride with other people or do a hard training ride or race. So how do we take advantage of this competitive motivation when riding alone? This is of course where Strava comes in. You're essentially able to race other people while riding by yourself and reap the benefits of the extra motivation of getting a PR or KOM or QOM. You can use this while doing intervals as well. Some athletes struggle with doing intervals because riding hard by themselves isn't stimulating enough. If you've got 10 minute intervals and you can find a 10 minute Strava segment then you can use that segment for your intervals. I would suggest however that you don't blow yourself up in the first interval just to get the segment so that you can make it through the whole workout. Strava is also a great way of monitoring progress. Normally this is what a power meter is used for. You might do an FTP test every month or two to see how you're progressing. However some riders need a segment to go after to put out their best numbers and having a segment that you go after every month or two like a 20 minute climb for example can be extremely helpful and easily comparable because not only are we comparing power numbers for the climb but we can also compare time. When measuring time we can see how changes in your weight or even different equipment choices affect your overall speed which is ultimately what matters. And of course not everyone has a power meter so in this instance using Strava to monitor your progress is a great option. Just keep in mind that conditions can affect your speed greatly especially on a flat segment with varying wind conditions. Strava can also be a valuable tool for mountain bikers. Mountain bikers not only have to be strong riders but also have to have good technical skills to carry them through the trail faster. With Strava you can measure both. If there's a certain race loop segment that you do then you can set up a workout where you do hot laps on that segment. Obviously if your power increases over that segment that's great but if you can put out the same power but have a faster time then that means that your handling skills are improving. This is even more useful on downhill Strava segments. Strava can let you know whether or not your downhill skills are improving and if the downhill doesn't have an excessive amount of pedaling then you don't have to wait for a hard day to go after that segment. You can do a downhill Strava segment in the middle of an endurance ride and see whether or not your time has improved since the last time you did it. Strava is also a great tool for analyzing race segments. If there's a particular race that you're doing that you know has a tough climb in it then you can easily look and see what the time up that climb was and what the power demands were to stay with the front group. This gives you an idea of the fitness that's required on race day and how you may want to tailor your training for that specific event. This works for any sort of segment that you might come across during the race including uphills, downhills, flats, technical sections etc and if you get to pre-ride the course you may have an idea of where you stand. So in conclusion is Strava good or bad for training? Well if you go after Strava segments on a daily basis or even multiple times a week and somebody stealing your segment causes you to abandon your workout to get that segment back then Strava is likely a detriment to your training. If however you use Strava segments as motivation to help get you through a hard workout and you choose segments that are specific to your goal race or event then it can be an extremely helpful training tool and on top of that it can help you evaluate the power and speed demands of a race that you might have coming up. Thanks for watching and I hope you guys found this information helpful. If you like this video be sure to give it a like share it with a friend and be sure to subscribe for more. If you want more training and racing content be sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and if you want to follow my training this season be sure to check me out on Strava. Finally if you're looking for a coach shoot me an email at djohnsonatrainright.com