What to do with all your Strava data – from running training with heart rates, volume, elevation and tracking improvements
- Strava is a treasurer trove of data, but most runners do not utilise the information at their finger time
- Improve the efficiency of your training by using the data to inform your training
Runners have an obsession with recording their training on Strava, and not doing anything with the information the app provides. Data for the sake of it should be forsaken. Instead, you should use the app to inform your training programmes.
Your body knows more than Strava
The first rule of Strava is not to take it as law. Your body has evolved over millions of years into an efficient machine, Strava is just a few years old.
If you have a few Strava-related goals, or targets to hit, but your body is feeling tired or you can feel a niggle in one of your joints, then back off. Listen to your body, not to your phone.
Ignoring the signals from your body is a sure way to get an injury and be restricted from running altogether.
Heart Rate
If you attach your running watch to your Strava account, at the end of each run you will receive information on your heart rate at different stages of your run.
Use your Strava to understand what “easy” and “hard” feels like and tailor your efforts accordingly. For some steep hills, it might even mean walking.
Make your easy runs easier, and your hard runs harder, with data, to improve the efficiency of your programme.
Volume
If one mistake is going too hard, the other is doing too much. Strava will give you information on how many kilometres you are covering per month. Use the information to build up your volume steadily. And then include long runs, or back to back sessions, when your body is ready.
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A very vague rule of thumb is to increase your training volume by 10 per cent a week. You can accurately work out how and when to increase your volume by examining your Strava history, so you are not designing your training programme by guess work.
Elevation
Strava will tell you how much elevation there has been in your run.
If you are training for a specific race, that has hills or climbs in it, you should match your elevation per kilometre in training, to the elevation per kilometre in the racecourse for at least some of your sessions.
It is a good way to replicate the course if you cannot recce the specific route.
Motivation
There is nothing more rewarding than seeing yourself improving.
Strava is full of “segments”. These are specific sections of routes that have a leader board. You can do a segment, and compare yourself to the previous time you did the same segment and watch yourself improve.
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Coaching
Hiring a running coach is a quick way to improve your performances and avoid injuries. However, visiting your coach is time consuming and the whole process can be expensive.
Many coaches can now give you advice remotely by studying your Strava data, and can tell you if you are training at the right intensity and volume.
It means you can still train with the flexibility of your own schedule, rather than meeting someone for a specific prearranged schedule, and it can be cheaper too.
