This is just a quickie, to highlight my new discovery.. the Strava App.

I am sure most of you who ride bikes have been using this for some while, but as usual I am very late to the game and I only just started using it… and every day I discover something new.

First it was just another break down of my rides (and run and swim) taken straight off my Garmin. No harm in that.

I then joined the two clubs I “belong to” in real life, and via the App I could see my fellow club members and what they do. Hmmm, that of course meant that everyone could see me too and what I was doing. That got my competitive juices bubbling, I wanted to make sure I was keeping up with the gang in terms of the number and distance of my weekly sessions.

Then I discovered the leader boards…. Ooh, I can see where I rank compared with my fellow clubbers. That really got me wanting to push harder.

And today I discovered segments… damn, that is just unfair. I can see exactly how feeble my effort is on various parts of the ride, against everyone else who has ridden that segment today, this year or since the beginning of time. For example, there was one segment covering the climb up Montgo, the most well known landmark in the area, which was 4.8km with 166m ascent … it was my second attempt and was a new PB… and I am so far down the leader board its embarrassing. I know, I really totally know that this is going to bug me and I will be climbing that bloody mountain over and over again, until I improve enough that I’m not tempted to delete the whole ride just to hide my pathetic climbing ability!

Isn’t that brilliant?? An app that hits every competitive bone in my body and makes me WANT to get out there and push myself over, even if I am riding alone…. I love it, I hate it, its perfect!