Official Strava/Runkeeper Thread
 

Seems like a fair number of folks are using Strava or Runkeeper to track their workouts. Both are great apps (and web sites), but they also do a great job of going beyond standard tracking and logging by adding a great social component. Friending other athletes enables you to see their workouts, but it also enables you to comment on workouts and milestones and goals and encourage each other. Additionally, you can set up challenges between individuals and groups to help ramp up the motivation. For instance, we could set up a FOFC Team A and FOFC Team B group and see which team runs the most miles during X week. Or we could have an individual challenges. Or no challenges!

Anyway, the more the merrier in my opinion. I am already friends with a few FOFC folks, so if you are interested, add on here. Maybe no one is, and that's cool, too. Just thought I would check. :)

Anyway, I am Chris Shue on RunKeeper and Strava.

Strava: Alan Baker
Runkeeper: turlos


Edit: added a URL for my Strava name, since it is sometimes tough to figure out which one you want if there are multiple matches on the same name. (ie: 6 Alan Bakers)

I am not finding that name on Runkeeper when I do a search for ChrisShue

Great idea!

RunKeeper: RobOrdona
Strava: Rob Ordona

Try this: Chris Shue Athlete McLean, VA, USA | RunKeeper

Not finding ChrisShue or turlos on RunKeeper

edit: found Chris.
edit: and found Alan.

To find them on runkeeper, you have to use the real name, not the account name it appears. So for me it is the same as Strava

Okay - I created a club on Strava called FOFC.

Join!

Is it location specific? Everytime I search for a club it wants to search my local area.

RunKeeper: benelou
Strava: just created a Ben Lewis account..not sure if I'll use it...

Here's the direct link:

FOFC

Do I need to have apps for these things on my phone or can I just log stuff to the web sites manually later? I have a Windows Phone so I don't think the apps will be an option for me.

You don't -have- to have the apps on your phone. I don't use my phone when I run/ride, and I upload them from my garmin watch later. Others do use strava and/or runkeeper apps on their phone.

If you can find another windows app that has the ability to record gpx or tpc or similar type files you can always import them into runkeeper or strava via the website..

Or yeah you can just manually enter workouts too if you want.

I have a Garmin Forerunner (410 or something, I think) but I've never used most of it's features (including connecting it to a computer). Perhaps now is the time to learn!

Yeah, you can manually log in workouts such as a treadmill or stationary cycle workout, but you'd be missing out on a lot of what Strava is good for, such as split times and segments.

Like Alan said, a good alternative would be to get a Garmin watch and import them through the websites.

Yeah! You'd be surprised how much information is captured in those things once you check it on Strava.

I have a forerunner 210. It is super easy to connect to both strava and runkeeper with it

Yeah, I've always just used it to pace myself as I run. In fact, to this point the historical information part has been a pain in the ass because every few weeks it yells at me that I need to delete some history so I have to try to navigate all the menus and delete a bunch of runs out of it just so it will keep working. It might be worth connecting the thing to my computer just to have a faster way to delete history, assuming that the computer connection provides some kind of interface to that data.

If the 410 is like my 210 or my wife's 10, connecting it to the computer acts like a USB drive and you can see the files on the watch and mass delete whatever you want.

Awesome

Anyone using Endomondo?
I have logged 3800 km running the last two years and it works perfectly.

I have all of my runs in Endomondo as well, but personally I don't like the web layout of it as well as some of the others, and the social interaction features are more lacking too in my opinion.

I use it for the National Bike Challenge, but it pales in comparison to Strava, tbh.

Stephen Venable on Strava and Runkeeper.

You can use Garmin Sync to automatically sync between Garmin connect and Runkeeper or Strava. If you have one of the watches with wireless sync you don't need to do a thing after you have configured all of the sites as the data will upload automatically.

I don't run or cycle as often as I used to as I am regularly playing soccer these days. My running is frustratingly slow compared to my days on the track in high school.

I tend to use Garmin Connect and Endomodo. I have never been interested in the social aspect of Strava, and don't much like the website, but I have signed up and imported some of my old activities.

I have noticed that Runkeeper does not do a great job importing from my garmin gps, as the speeds are usually all over the place. If I did not have a few friends on there already I would have dropped it.

Good idea.

Runkeeper: icarri

Btw, i started to use today Ismoothrun ($5) and it's a really nice app for running.

It has all that runkeeper does, even posts to your runkeeper account if you set it up, but it has way better tools to create your own routines, series, etc.

I find it really good to motivate yourself if you setup the audio cues, besides of just distance, speed etc every X distance or minutes as runkeeper does, it also can tell you if you are running too fast or too slow to reach the time you have setup for that distance, or if you are using a hrm, will tell you if you are over or under your target hear rate zone. It also tells you how many seconds you are ahead or behind the setup time for the distance, and you can even setup a metronome to help with your rhythm.

You can also setup a race against yourself with the ghost mode (takes in account the time you used for that same route).

It helped me a lot today on my goal to lower my average time in the 6k, as it was pushing me with the audio cues when i lowered my pace and when i was told i was 25 seconds under the time i had set for those 6km, it motivated me to keep the pace and even accelerate.

The stats are also more deep, like your average distance per step, and even some fun stuff like telling you which song where you listening when you did your best mile/km.

The export to runkeeper feature worked perfectly, the activity i did this morning is now visible with all details, route and stats in the runkeeper website.

Ok, I got my watch connected and everything uploaded to Garmin Connect. I then created an account on Strava but for some reason only a handful of my recent runs went across. Oh well, hopefully all the future ones get in there.

Strava: Dave Harris

Dola

I used the Garmin Sync site and that should be uploading my old data. Unfortunately I'll still have big gaps over the last few months because I kept having to delete recent history in order for the watch to record new stuff, but c'est la vie.

I've also joined the FOFC club on Strava. When do the team competitions and stuff start?

Awesome!

Soon, just hope to get a few more folks on there so we can have some meaningful teams.

I was wondering, does a club of a certain type (cycling, running) only display activities of that type? As a runner, I am less interested in following cycling activities, and have been trying to figure out how to filter those out (if there's an easy way, I'd love to hear it). If I join a FOFC runners or a FOFC cyclists club I can toggle between those as I please.

Currently my Dashboard is a jumbled mess of running and cycling activites.

I don't know of a way in strava to filter the feed by activity. I think you can either show yours, people you are following and people in a specific club that you are a part of.

So I guess one way you could do it would be to do one running club and one biking club, but an easier way probably would be to not follow people who specifically bike only perhaps. Strava is different from some of the other sites in that you don't have to follow someone for them to follow you. So if you have a friend that bikes that wants to follow you they can do that even if you arent following their activities.

If it is someone that does both biking and running (like I do some biking for instance), I think you're just stuck with it since it would show up in whatever club I was in for instance.

I promise I will start running again soon! :)

If you are a cyclist, Strava has a new challenge up called the May Massive. Basically, ride as much distance as you can and you get recognition on your feed at 40KM/80KM/120KM/160KM. They also have a leaderboard, but rest assured it will be dominated by those effing Australians. ;)

The May Massive

Sorry - they are also doing it with running:

The May Massive

Strava has new challenges up for May (1 for biking and 1 for running) to try to go as far as you can during the month of May.

I did the one in January, but it was shortly after I had back surgery, so I actually finished behind my wife for that one with only 17 miles that month. :)

I would say my goal is to beat what I did in January, but I should be able to do that in one week. So I think my goal will be to try to push 110 miles for May (a little over 175 Km) so I can beat my top mileage for a month, plus get all four of the award badges for the challenge (40k, 80k, 120k, 160k)

For the biking one, I also joined, but the badges there go 250k, 500k, 750k and 1000k. I doubt that I'll even make it to the first badge, but would like to at least try to get 40 miles biking in this month if I can.

I think those are the running badges. biking is 250k/500k/750k/1000km from what I am reading.

The Aussies definitely dominated the ones in January.. do they do as well in May now that it is getting colder there? Or is Australia temperate enough that they have good weather all year round?

Heck. I joined. I'm shooting for that 40K badge!

You've run like 23 miles in April, and 40k is only about 2 miles further, so I bet you got it!

Actually, about half of those miles were "walking" activities, so they didn't count toward my mileage for April. :p

I have a question on personal achievements in Strava. When it says I got a PR on 1 mile, does that mean the first mile, or any mile-long stretch in your route where your pace was the fastest?

It says I got a PR of 15:03 on 1 mile when my first mile was just a warmup mile (17:14), way off a PR pace.

It is the fastest mile long stretch.

Just joined the FOFC group on Strava.

David Gonzalez on both apps.

Signed up for Strava and joined the FOFC group. I plan to start running again this week, even if what I do is short of even the first week of C25K.

There's a "pre-C25K" plan out there if you want to try that out before starting with C25K. Or you can do what I did which was just do 30-40 minute brisk walks before even thinking about running.

Anyways, I'm really glad to see this growing interest in running and cycling. It makes me want to go out and keep at it.

I guess running isn't for everyone, but as ABC mentioned above there does seem to be a growing interest. I've seen some of my friends starting to get involved. Maybe it's just the age we are reaching, or maybe its more of an overall groundswell, I don't know. But it's awesome to see and I can't recommend it enough. It's probably the most inclusive sport or activity I've ever been a part of. It doesn't matter if you're young or old, fit or not, everyone can start just by putting one foot in front of the other and then adding an extra foot a couple days later.

I'm still shocked at how much it has shaped the last 5-6 years of my life since taking it up. I walked into that first learn to run class only going to accompany my wife, believing that I would hate every minute of it and fully intending to never run again once it was over. And at first I did hate it. But about a month in something changed. I think as I started to see little increments of progress (3 and 1's! Yeah!). And by the end I was signing up for another class.

Fast forward a year or two and our first child is born. Now I'm pushing his stroller through the slush trying to keep up with everyone but damned if I'm giving up. We bought sun shields and bug covers and rain shields and snow shields. Everyone at the local store knew his name even if they didn't know mine. That kid spent the better part of the first 18 months of his life getting wheeled around the streets near our running clinic by myself and my wife.

Once the second guy came around the running with the kids stopped. The older one was 18 months and starting to get antsy in the stroller on any run over 30-40 minutes, and the little one never really adjusted to it. Still, my wife and I just took turns running. And then I started running the 4.5 miles home from work a few days a week. Anything to keep getting runs in, because at this point I'm totally fucking addicted.

Somewhere in all that the 5k races we entered became 10k races, and then half-marathon's. Someday, when I have more time to properly train, I will do a full marathon. I've dropped over 30 pounds. The older boy (now 4) wants to run with us again now, so we bring them both out on fun runs and let them run until they get tired, and then run with them on our shoulders the rest of the way. Or my wife will take the oldest to her clinic runs in the stroller, which he now loves again, although he was pretty confused by the concept of 'hills', openly questioning why Mommy would run him back and forth over a busy, dusty bridge 8 times in the stroller.

A couple months ago my neighbor flagged me down as I ran down my street on the way home from work. He told me a story of how a co-worker of his has taken up running, but had stopped in the fall once it got cold (I did this the first 2-3 years as well). But then he saw this guy running down the streets during rush hour most days, didn't seem to matter how cold. He said this guy was inspiring him to get out and start running again despite the winter that never seemed to end. My neighbor said "I know that guy! He lives by me!". I laughed at the story and said it likely wasn't me, there is this other guy that runs a similar route on a more frequent basis than me (he runs morning and evening, 5 days a week and he has been partly my own inspiration) and that it was likely him. But then my neighbor said "No. I pulled you up on Facebook and he said 'yeah! That's the guy! I want to be like him!". That was the first time in my life I'd ever heard of anyone ever saying they wanted to be like me. I'm just not that kind of guy. It felt then, and still does even as I type this, like one of the proudest moments of my life.

My original clinic instructor had her own little catchphrase. "Running is fun!". I still see her all the time at runs, and she's always yelling out "Running is fun!" with a giant smile on her face. And she's right, it is fun. But in a way, it's so much more than that. To me, running is the best.

Awesome story fidatelo. A lot of it is similar to me in how I started, just to accompany my wife but I got hooked. I haven't even been doing it for a year yet myself, but I hear so many stories similar to yours that inspire me and help me realize that all it takes to get to the same point is just time and continued commitment to it.

Fuck it - I haven't run at all this year, but I joined both the running and cycling challenges. My goal is to complete both!

Up to 9 members in the Strava FOFC group...

I will always love running. You've summed it up pretty nicely for me.

What is happening with the Strava group? Ultimately what I'm asking, I guess, is "is there anything in there entertaining enough for me to keep Strava on my phone?" Runkeeper syncs my weight workouts, so I'm inclined to just stick with that unless there's a compelling reason here...

At the very least I think it would be cool if we all signed up for the May Massive running challenge. Maybe we could split into teams and see which groups logs the most miles running.

Anyone interested?

Sure, that works. For most of us (if not all of us), easiest way for us to get better/fitter/faster/etc is to simply just run/jog/walk more miles each week.

I'm already signed up for the May Massive, and I know that getting a little badge, as insignificant as it might be, is a draw for me that I suspect will get a couple extra runs out of me over the month. Having some kind of little FOFC team competition would likely be fun, too.

If I plan my C25K training right and possibly add an extra session or two, I might actually reach the 80K badge! What motivation. It all depends on how far my training runs take me.

Looks like I get to start my May Massive off on Wednesday with below-freezing temps (-3), a wind-chill (-9), and snow. May! Grrrr.

Signed up for the May Massive. I'll be happy if I just get the 40km badge.

Let's split into two teams and then add the total number value of each team's badges to get the winner. That way if someone goes crazy and runs 300km it won't count any more than someone running 160km.

How does that sound?

So does that mean a 40k badge has the same value as an 80k badge? Or would the guy who went 80k get both badges so 1+1=2?

Let's add them all together. So if you end up with a 40K badge and an 80K badge, you are worth 120 points to your team. If you end up going 79K, you are only getting a 40K badge and 40 points and major razzing from your teammates :)

Joined the group and the Massive.

Sounds good!

So, how will we determine teams?

Random list generator of all 10 people in the FOFC group?

Or pick teams elementary school dodge ball style?

Random is cool for now. Then after the Massive May ends, we can have a better idea of determining more permanent teams.

Team Trout vs Colossal Squid?

I have signed up for the May Massive, but I doubt I am going to hit 40k this month with soccer commitments I have over the next few weeks.

Random is good and easy.

I think for future months something like % of increase or whatever might be fun to mix in and help level the playing field a bit too. Most important to me is keeping it fun and an incentive to encourage everyone to keep up the good work

Has anyone noticed any screwy imports to Strava with Garmin devices? It looks like Strava is not taking into account the autopause, so the results are messing up the total time and average speed.

Strava seemed to handle my autopause correctly when I had to wait for traffic lights today. It has two different ways of handling it though from what I have seen:

1) On your run, it will show total time and moving time and give you your splits and numbers based on moving time (ie: handle the auto-pause correctly)

2) On Personal records or segments it ignores the auto-pause for the purpose of keeping records. ie: you can't sprint a 5k full speed, rest 5 minutes while paused and then sprint another 5k full speed and get credit for a 10k PR if that makes sense. On records, it considers the full recorded time

Maybe this is a question for just Subby (unless there are other cyclist here besides him). When you track your bike on strava, what are you tracking? For running, I track my shoe mileage since it helps me get a feeling for when I need to replace my shoes (ie: my current shoes have a bit over 300 miles on them). With bikes, do you measure it for tire wear miles? or something else?

First Crack...

Team A

Chris Shue
Mc Lean, VA

Ben Lewis
Goose Creek, SC

Richard Dixon
Wake Forest, NC

Stephen Venable
Los Angeles, CA

Jason Wood
Pitman, New Jersey

Team B

Rob Ordona
Anaheim, CA

Alan Baker
Grafton, MA

Ryan Stevenson
Ayr, Scotland, United Kingdom

Dave Harris
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

David Gonzalez
Fremont, CA

Doug Timms
West Windsor Township, NJ

Exactly - I can track component wear and get a better handle on when the bike needs maintenance. I am trying to learn how to do some of it, but I am still a major newb.

I might struggle in May, too. My boys have soccer two nights a week and I have Ultimate on another, so I might be lucky to get more than 1 run home from work in per week. I'm kind of hoping this competition spurs me to do a couple evening or weekend runs more than I might otherwise to compensate.

I'm Ivan Carrillo in Strava.

Icy - don't forget to join the FOFC group:

FOFC

So not only is it freezing cold and snowing, but now my headphones won't work after running home in the rain with them on Monday. Not a great way to start off the Massive!

Thank god for this challenge. I haven't run but one other time this year - it was nice to get out this morning for a quickie. No way I would have done it otherwise.

Fidatelo - you should get bonus points for running in those conditions. Which reminds me of my favorite saying..."If it was easy, everyone would do it."

So is there a way to get a GPS device that connects to the iPhone that makes apps like RunKeeper actually accurate? For today's run I used multiple apps to measure as a test and got these results:

RunKeeper: 4.36 miles in 44:50
MapMyFitness: 4.44 miles in 44:49
Strava: 4.5 miles in 45:15
Polar Beat: 4.46 miles in 44:50

I also hooked up my Polar GPS watch that uses satellites, so totally independent of the iPhone. It said 4.11 miles in 44:43. I then took our new-ish (bought brand spanking new 6 months ago) car on the same route and it measured 4.1 by the odometer. That car also has a Garmin GPS that came up with 4.1, so I'm feeling pretty confident that the 4.11 from the Polar GPS is correct. But is there a device similar to it that uses satellite triangulation (and doesn't cost me a small fortune) that will, for example, make the Runkeeper chick tell me the *correct* time and speed??? I guess I'm saying I want something will override the iPhone's internal GPS in one of the apps. Does that make sense, and does such a thing exist? If not, I guess I can just use the watch and look down at it, but I'd prefer not to have to do that...

Oh...and calorie burn. One would think that with my correct height, weight, and heart rate information entered into all of the apps, they'd get very similar calorie burn outputs, right?

Nope.

Strava: 927
RunKeeper: 747
MapMyRun: 958
Polar Beat: 630

All four are reporting 150 as the average heart rate.

I ran with Strava this morning and was within a tenth of a mile of what I thought I was running.

(Also checked on Gmap Pedometer.)

There are external GPS antennas that you can connect directly to your phone (or via bluetooth) and are more accurate than the internal GPS antennas in the phone. However they are in the $100+ range.

I don't have a polar gps, but I am going to assume they are as good or close in quality to garmin gps watches. With that assumption, they would likely always be more reliable than the phone gps. I have heard some of the phone gps issues lies in poor quality of the gps itself, but also the phones in some cases use phone tower triangulation to try to determine location with a much lower level of accuracy but with increased speed. That is fine for many applications, but not really running apps. I have heard some people say that to increase your phone accuracy with runkeeper (and similar apps) you can try turning the cell off, which then should force it to gps only mode.. but I do not know if that is truthful or just a rumor.

Either way, I would assume you are better off using your watch if you have one. Is there any reason you want to use the iphone instead of the watch? I just use my garmin watch and then sync up my activity to runkeeper/strava/etc afterwards. I assume the polar watch can do the same?


As for calories.. yeah.. they are all over the place. I don't know how accurate any of them are to be honest. I know strava is almost always waaay off. I've had some runs that it said I burned 2000 calories before which is nuts. I don't know which is considered the most accurate there (if any)

I gotta get myself a Garmin watch.

Hmmmm...a couple of points here.

1. I've read that turning off wi-fi and putting the phone in an arm band helps. Doing that has eliminated the crazy "thinks I'm on the next street over for a few seconds" stuff that I used to see. I might try turning off cellular too.
2. All of my runs are near my house. It's a rather large development that makes it easy to run loops without dealing with traffic. It's a relatively new development and the cell tower coverage around here isn't that great. I suppose that could be part of my problem.

Yes, I can sync up Polar, but I really like the apps (Polar Beat and RunKeeper in particular) that tell me my time, distance, speed, heart rate, etc. at intervals that I define without having to look down at the watch and push buttons. (Time, distance, speed, and heart rate are all on different displays.) But it would be nice if the information those apps gave me was actually accurate. ;)

I suppose my next steps would be to try turning off cellular and also trying it in a different part of town.

The other thing that seems to ring true about the cell tower thing for me is that there seem to be parts of my runs where Runkeeper and the watch are pretty much identical, and other parts where they move apart from each other fairly dramatically--and now that you mention it, those areas *do* seem to be at the same spots in the neighborhood...

Run #1 is in the books. 3.1km in 30min (mostly walking. 10 min warmup up, back and forth running and walking, then ~5 min cool down walk). My Garmin has it at 3.14km miles in 31:20. I'm guessing Strava does some rounding off.

Don't make a bet against Subby that involves running!

Evidence:
http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...7&postcount=79

dola - seeing the strava site is kinda discouraging. some people have already run 30 miles in May!? So some people just run marathons in their spare time even when chicks aren't cheering them on?

Alan, you may have nailed it. I just re-drove the route with cellular turned off and Wi-Fi turned off, and all the iPhone apps measured it between 4.09 and 4.15. Now, there is the variable that this time the phone was sitting still on the dashboard of my car as opposed to jiggling in an armband, but this is encouraging. I will give it a try tomorrow with cellular turned off.

Also, for what it's worth, I did a little digging and found the suggestion to turn off cellular on an actual Apple support site page. Thanks a ton for the tip. I will be very happy if my run tomorrow measures out like I hope it will.

Dola: I guess I am surprised that I never really thought about it, but some of the streets that I run on are so brand-new that there are no occupied homes on them yet. The area is still being built out. Some parts of the route do not even show up on GPS maps. The apps make it look like I am off-road. :-) I guess it makes sense that the cell tower coverage would not be strong or accurate in such an area.

Well, the weather, my broken headphones, and other commitments have been enough to dissuade me from running home today. But I vow to come back strong tomorrow!

Hey, if it gets him out running more, its a good thing! I mean the biking is ok and all, but running is where it is at! :)

Test

Heh, pretty cool :)

so how do you get achievements & PR's to show up?

Continue logging more runs. Strava will track your achievements and PRs for you.

This should be in the first post :)

AWESOME.

I could not get up early enough to run this morning, so I brought my stuff in and will try and run during lunch.

DOLA

Also - got my first big KOM yesterday on a segment called Water Plant Westbound Sprint. I also have a KOM on another segment but that has maybe 8 other people. This one has over 1100, so it feels legit! Of course, I am one of three people at the top, so they only show the pic of the first person to get it. Time to go back and get 44 seconds.

I have a 5 mile race on Saturday, so taking today and tomorrow off to rest up the legs. Still should make my weekly goal for miles for the week though.

I originally posted this in my Running Dynasty, but I thought this deserved a x-post to this thread.

Do You Think You Run Slow? Why Being “Slow” Doesn’t Matter

2nd run in the books. First time getting over 5km. 10 min warm up, 30 min of intervals and when I saw that at the end of my 10 min cool down walk I was going to be close to 5km, I decided to do another lap of the immediate area of the park to finish it off. Total: 5.8km in 58:05.

And I'll probably end up being bedridden for the entire weekend. :)