Apparently, Strava is affecting the way people conduct their rides. I rarely ride with other people so I can’t say as I’ve noticed, but it doesn’t surprise me…
In his latest article Every Mile Too Serious Brendan Quirk talks about how he’s addicted to Strava and its negative influence on his riding…
All this after putting up Killing the Tradition of Secret Training Rides and giving us the gift of stravacide, and stravasnipe…
While the term ‘Strava Effect’ may be new, the phenomenon is far from it…
In the movie A Christmas Story, Ralphie’s Dad times his changing of a flat tire, presumably for comparison to either previous attempts, or the pit crews at the Indy 500…
Some people just seem to make a competition out of anything…
In cycling, before cyclocomputers, people would time themselves over known courses in order to track P.R.’s and establish bragging rights amongst their fellow pelotonistas…
Once cyclocomputers came along, the data was perhaps more accurate, and the displayed performances could be offered as proof of the deed being done…
Much in the fashion the cyclists now offer up Strava segment times or Garmin Connect ride records…
When heart rate monitors became commonplace, it wasn’t unheard of for cyclists to compare min, max, average, and specific heart rates for various rides, climbs, sprints or whatever…
Talk about a useless metric to compare… But compare they did…
The same thing happened, and is still very common, with power meters, and I dare say that the main motivation for some in acquiring said techno training device is to employ it as a very expensive yard stick for comparison with others…
All of this points to the possible dark side of tracking metrics, and that in a considerable portion of the population there exists a very competitive nature, not that such information is in any way describing the emergence of any new sociological phenomenon…
Rest assured that I am in no way casting aspersions with regard to tracking data, as I admitted in Journaling Junkie, I myself am afflicted to such a degree that I may in fact be beyond hope…
I submit that tracking all sorts of data for your own edification is a different kettle of fish than using that data for competitive comparisons…
At least a little different…
I know that I, and I strongly suspect I’m not alone, like to compare my metrics with that of the greater peloton, if only to confirm that I have improved to the middle third of the lowest 10% of the pelotonese…
I call that motivation…
Truthfully, there has to be more to riding than extrinsic motivations, else one would run out of things to accomplish, or tire of beating their head against the wall of that which is un-accomplishable…
The article All I know is this: The ride is inside you very eloquently discusses the situation, and I particularly like this part:
“The physical activity called cycling can be measured against the performance of others, but you cannot express that which is within you through others. You must first understand what is inside you, and express it to yourself”.
As with all things, there is the ying yang of it all, the same technology that enhances, can be called a detriment at the same time…
Once scientists split the atom, a great many feared irreparable harm would befall mankind, but they ‘couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle’ and the die was cast…
To mankind’s credit, great things have been done with the science of atom splitting, not the least of which is nuclear power…
Contrast that with the apocalyptic events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki…
