Strava is a great app, and it can be a fun way to connect and share runs with friends and other athletes. But just like any form of social media, some people share a little too much. Odds are, you might follow some people like this who are, simply put, a lot to handle. If you’re thinking, “No, I don’t follow anyone like that,” then we have some bad news… you might be the annoying Strava user in your circle. Want to find out if that’s the case? Here are a few things you can do that are sure to annoy your Strava followers.
You only post great workouts
We all know that athlete who only ever posts fast and impressive workouts on Strava. If you go to their profile right now, you won’t see a single Zone 2 run, or chill 5K. There’s nothing wrong with posting your best runs to Strava, but if the intention is doing it to brag to your followers, you’re going too far. We all have bad days, and we know you’re hiding them from us. No one is going to judge you for a slower-than-usual training session.
You overdo it with the posting
On the other end of the spectrum, there are some who post way too much. If you’re the person who uploads a 0.4-kilometre walk to the grocery store or a 0.2-kilometre run to catch the bus, you might be overdoing it. Listen, it’s great that you love Strava, but posting this much might be seen as a little silly.
You cheat your followers
Some people try to deceive their followers by stopping their watch multiple times during a run to catch their breath, making their average pace appear faster than they are capable of. Many users don’t realize it’s easy to spot if someone is cheating their time or pace; all you have to do is check the “Moving Time” and “Elapsed Time” sections in the activity upload. If the elapsed time is significantly longer than the moving time, it means they paused their run.
You obsess over CRs and Local Legend
Holding CRs and Local Legend status are fun titles to chase on Strava. They can give solo runs a feeling of competition. There’s nothing wrong with trying to set a record on the app. However, some go overboard with these accolades, and as soon as they see a follower earn one, they’re out there trying to steal their segment. It’s fine to steal segment records from your friends, but it’s annoying when chasing CRs becomes your persona, and you find yourself constantly looking at how you can reach the top of each segment leaderboard.
Getting too wrapped up in pace
Some people start to play the blame game if their run’s pace is slower than usual. Instead of posting a slow run and leaving it at that, these users will tag the person they ran with and say, “Took it easy with Mike today.” Why throw Mike under the bus like that? He just wanted a nice run with his friend, but you felt the need to let the world know that the only reason you ran slowly was because he couldn’t keep up.
As we said above, there’s no need to be ashamed of a slower run. People aren’t huddling around the water cooler at work to discuss how slow your morning run was. Your biggest critic is yourself; the rest of us don’t usually care (unless you’re running Boston).
