Have you ever had difficulty to estimate
distance and elevation gain between a point A and B?
Hi, and welcome to this second training video to help you on your next trip.
Today, I want to talk to you about an application which helps me prepare most of my trips.
If you are a runner or a cyclist, you have probably already heard about it.
I want to talk about Strava.
Strava is an application that is developed by a company in San Francisco, California.
Wow! It's so much hilly over here.
Basically, it's an application that's made to record our trips
using a smart phone, some GPS models, or some watches,
like the Suunto that I introduced you on the last episode.
Then Strava encourages you to move more by offering you monthly challenges.
Like pedaling the equivalent of a half tout de France in ten days more than the event.
Or to gain in elevation the equivalent of Mount Everest in a week.
And to really encourage you to do it as much as possible, the site allows you to
compare yourself with all your friends on all kinds of points.
He does not hesitate to give you what needed to push yourself deeply by letting you see that
you're friends are faster than you and he even send you an email
as soon as someone kill one of your records.
Thanks to Strava, I always give the best by myself.
Therefore, my workouts are more beneficial on my physical form.
I did not even think to talk about this with this capsule, but I realize while
speaking that Strava is also a good tool to train before a trip.
What I wanted to talk about at the beginning is the route creation tool.
I use it often when I climb an unknown mountain and every
time when I'm going to ride in other countries.
As you can see, I'm preparing my next adventure.
From here, I can easily see all my day-to-day journeys with the distance that
I will have to go along with the elevation gain.
To look at a closer example, we will watch one of the days I have the
suffered the most in Japan.
From Toyota, to Misakubocho, in the Japanese alps.
Sun is about to set.
I will go back down soon, only 150 feet left to climb approx.
And I'm going to be almost done for where I wanted to go.
Things are going well.
Already, we can see that the distance to be traveled is 106.2 km and that the road gains in altitude 3129M.
We must see this number as an approximation, because sometimes some elements can be misleading.
As for example here, there is a tunnel, but the software believes that the road passes over the mountain,
so he calculates a big climb that does not exist in real life.
If we look below the map, we see very well all the elevations of the road.
It allows me to evaluate very well in the day when I'm going to have to work very hard
and when I will be able to rest.
We can even enlarge the map to see very precisely where we will go.
What is wonderful about all this is that once the ride is built on
the web page with the computer,
the route is in the phone
and we can look the map to know where we are with with a small point.
It's very convenient to know which street corner turn.
But beware !
The application do not warns when to turned.
So we have to stop from time to time to look at where you are on the map.
But then, why not just used Google map ?
Google Map is wonderful!
I use it several times a week while I drive and it makes a exceptional work.
I could ask Google Map to bring me in a very specific place and it could
ake me there without even having to look at it.
He would tell me vocally when to turn at every intersection.
But it's not the best tool to prepare a trip.
We will make a trip together to make for example.
Let's say I want to start in Granby, and that I want to go to Montreal ...
Through Sutton.
Oops, but I do not want to de ride twice at the same place.
So I slide my path on another road.
At this moment, if I record my track, it will never change.
It will be saved like that even if I open it in a year.
I've never cycled in those streets and I do not know if bikes are allowed.
There is an option in the top that allow you to change the path a bit
use the most popular routes for cyclists.
The community at Strava, it is a strong point.
Hundreds of thousands of peoples use the application and already over a billion
activities were recorded.
By combining all this data, Strava easily
able to recommend most popular routes.
It's even very easy to built an idea using the eat map.
It is so hot!
And this map only illustrates the activities made in the sport mode that we are.
Wich is on bike or on foot.
It is very convenient to find the most popular trail on a mountain, and even
sometimes unofficial trail that do not even show on map.
Also, if you prefer to ride few more kilometers to avoid big
hill, Strava even offers to find the road with the least elevation gain.
When finished, I save the route, and I can even keep notes.
That's it, then, you just have to leave and follow your route on your smartphone.
The application is available on Android or iOS.
I go on my profile, then on the road, and all the trips I've recorded are there.
Unfortunately, the route with the map can't be physically saved in
the phone and requires an internet connection.
But it does not matter, because if you do not have no internet connection during your travels
I have tips for that.
We will discuss about it next week.
Because yes, Strava may be an exceptional application, but it still has cons.
For example, since they changed from google maps to mapbox, it is no longer possible
to use Google Street View.
I am forced to use my route in Strava and Google Map in a second window
to view my trip and see the streets in which I will pass.
Like that when I have doubts I can make sure the road is asphalt
and that I will not find myself on a speed circuit with a tiny shoulder.
Yes, because I can even search the speed signs.
And even if Strava suggests road used by cyclists, I prefer not to take
of chance and loot at everything by myself.
Does this bridge really have bike lane.
Yes Super!
And this one?
No ... Oops ...
We will find another one.
Is this tunnel suitable for bikes?
From there ... It's up to you to judge.
If anyone from Strava is listening, Please, I am convinced that you have chosen
Mapbox for a good reason.
But let us choose the map we wants to use.
If Suunto is able to do it on his site, I'm sure you can
to do it too.
Another cons with Strava is that when creates long routes, the software crash.
Then you have to restart all over again.
So when it happens to me, rather than set a departure and arrival point I will place
points about every 50km and usually it calculates quite well.
The last negative point of Strava, is that they dont care at all about community comments.
They only do as they want.
For example, let's say I'm going to run to outside.
When I finished, Strava cheer me because I just had my best time on my first kilometer.
That's good, but I'm not able to know what was my previous record.
It would be nice to have a board that displays my best times for each of the distances,
as it is possible to do with the segments.
At Strava a segment is a route between a point A and B that everyone can challenge on.
Anyone can create one.
I can say that from home up to a friend of mine, well it's a segment
and everyone can challenge on to be the faster.
If we look at an example, that's the list of my best times on a segment.
But it's not possible to do it for 1km, no matter, where it was run.
And yet, if Strava is able to tell me that I just beat my 3rd, 2nd or my best
time, on my first KM,
It means that information is available somewhere…
Obviously, I'm not the only one who wants this function.
I leave a comment there about 2 years ago in this page on the official Strava forum.
Today it's been six years since peoples ask for this feature on the same page of the forum every week.
And Strava has still not done anything, nor even answered.
And this is only one example among many others.
In short, the team of this wonderful application should be more attentive to their users.
Good! Enough of whimpering for today, I had a little boogey on her heart and she came out.
I think it's all over for today.
I wanted to introduce you to one of my tools the most useful to prepare my trips
on foot, in the mountains or by bike.
I hope it will help you in your next trip, or that will even encourage you
to leave for an adventure.
For me, it is an indispensable tool.
It is thanks to this application that I am able to know that I am always
on the right track.
My watch is my best tool to point a destination, retrace my steps and know my altitude.
But when I have to follow a route, Strava is my favorite tool.
If you have not seen the last episode or I'm talking about my watch, you can
see it by clicking on the link right there at the top.
I hope you liked the video, if yes you can give me a thumbs up.
If you have questions or comments, you can write me in the box just below the video.
Don't be shy, that's made just for this.
Finally, do not forget to subscribe, right there.
And see you next week to talk about traveling without an internet connection
on your phone.
See you soon!