WillCorrington

Long time lurker here. 36 years old. Started riding in April at 268, now 247. Had 3 weeks off with a couple broken ribs and a severely rashed arm from self inflicted accident. If you take away the wreck, half price pizza nights, and the occasional beer/wine this whole fitness thing is going as planned.

I began my journey by using the Map My Ride app on my Iphone simply to log my miles. I wasn't too concerned with avg speed at the beginning, I was just trying to keep my ass pain-free and my fingertips from numbing over. After a few weeks I inevitably started to focus in on average speed as my main source of improvement data. 15 miles at 13 MPH eventually turned to 20 miles at 16.5 MPH.

Along comes Strava with it's fun segment timing. With the MMR app I would pause the timer at busy street crossings and traffic lights, which can be as many as 14 times on an out and back trip. After using Strava for a couple rides, doing the same pause thing at stops, the AVG MPH is where I think it should be on my iphone until I click Finish Ride and check out my data on the computer. All the sudden it's 1.5 to 2 MPH slower than it should be. Additionally, the Strava app seems to have added 7-8 minutes to my moving time.

Does anyone have any tips to using Strava properly? Should I not pause at all and just let it do it's thing?

Don't get me wrong, I realize that MPH isn't the best way to judge performance, but it's what I've become accustomed to and I'd like the darn Strava app to quit playing with my emotions and give me my proper MPH.

Any help is appreciated.

By the way, you've all been wonderful inspiration. Keep up the great work.

vesteroid

Your more dedicated than i am to pull that phone out and hit buttons each time you start and stop...just try using it in your jersey pocket and forget about stopping it all the time and see how that goes

WillCorrington

It's mounted to the bars so it's just a small thumb movement.

Black wallnut 

Strava seems to have issues with uploading auto paused data from Garmins as well. It is not alone in that regard. What can we really expect from a free app and/or service. Keep in mind that most others that are using strava are having the same issues and be happy. If you wish for better data spend a bit more money on a dedicated cycling computer, wired or wireless that tabulates time and distance only when the bike is moving. Spend more and you may get more or you may not. However even after buying a Garmin my times on Strava and other services are not exactly correct.

By the way Welcome to Bike Forums and the Clyde Forum!

TrojanHorse

I just let it run - Strava will automatically remove your idle time from your overall speed calculation. Probably not perfectly, but it's good enough.

vesteroid

I was just trying to say try letting it run and see what that looks like

CJ C

dont worry about pausing it, its not like your going to win any gold medals (my olympic tie in for the day complete)

Dont know what burb your in but i feel your pain on the stop lights, my garmin is set to auto pause at 0mph but looking t the data from when i rode w/o auto pause the the next few rides after it gained me 0.1mph. i am still slow with or without pausing. dont stress it and enjoy, you really are only trying to beat yourself anyway.

WillCorrington

Thanks for the replies.

I tried it without pausing over the weekend and it's more accurate.

CJ C - I'm in Park Ridge. Des Plaines River Trail is my ride of choice. Considering heading over to North Branch more often because I'm getting tired of cleaning my drive train all the time.

CJ C

I do a route that goes through park ridge, talcot up to dee then NW hwy back.

I dont like north branch trail to botanic gardens, too many blind turns and when the trees are full of green it makes it even worse.