Strava Makes It Better
What is Strava? It’s a way to ride with a group without riding with a group, and a way to compete with friends even if you don’t have the time to race together. In short, Strava is a digital record of all of your running and cycling for all of your friends to see.
Strava is free if you choose to use only its basic functions. For most people that is more than enough. Strava will track your ride/run distances and pace. One unique feature is that it can also track the mileage on your running shoes, provided that you upload every run to Strava. It will also record your speed on timed sections known as “segments”. Essentially there is a start and a finish designated by GPS coordinates that you cannot see. These segments are usually climbs. The fastest recorded rider or runner gets to hold the title of “King of the Mountain” (KOM).
If you choose to purchase a Premium Membership you’ll gain access to some unique features that can help you understand your training better. Our personal favorite is the “Suffer Score” which gives you a score based on how hard your heart worked during your workout. This of course requires the use of a heart rate monitor.
Spark has embraced Strava as a training tool and we’ve even inserted some segments into our Group Ride/Run routes to make things interesting. These segments were designed for competition when riders choose to ride our courses alone. However, we encourage our customers to break off the group only at these points and then regroup after they’ve had some fun.
Here are our segments, hunt them down:
BrokeSpoke Mountain in Middleboro, MA
County Road Hill Climb in Lakeville, MA
Lakeville Rollers in Lakeville, MA
Slip’s To Spark in Raynham, MA
Highland Road in Lakeville, MA
Gardiner Street Hill in Raynham, MA
CRR Raynham 5k Mile 2 to 3 in Raynham, MA
If you’re a Spark customer and you plan to join Strava please consider joining “Team Spark” on the site. This will pool you in to our group and link you to your fellow customers who you might see out there or even participate with. This is an outstanding training tool that we all hope that you’ll make use of.
