Originally Posted by
cydewaze
For sure I don't race, but I also get little validation that I'm fast.
But for me, I find it's helped me improve my riding by trying to best my own PRs. I don't care about how fast other people are on a segment, I care about how much faster I was this time than the time before. There's no way I push as hard without the carrot dangling in front of me.
That said, I prefer to ignore segment alerts and wait until I get home to see if I beat a PR.
That's why I don't use the strava app during a ride, I only upload data to the website afterwards. If I had something telling me in real time how much slower/faster I am than some other ride, it'd drive me nuts. I only "play" strava when people I know really well go out and nab KOMs from me, and then when I'm feeling strong-ish and the winds are favorable, I'll go troll them and take it back, if I can. All in good fun.