Strava seems too unresponsive to many reasonable user requests so I'm not inclined to pay for a premium membership. Every time I'm curious about whether Strava has a particular feature I read the user questions and Strava representatives' responses... and it's virtually always negative. "Nope, we ain't got that, no plans to incorporate it. Thanks for asking and please let us know if you have any other feature requests that we can ignore."

Seems like Strava has some issues with customization and scalability.

So I use Strava mostly as social media, to keep up with what friends are doing. I log some rides and use some data to get a guesstimate of my own progress, but I don't worry about the rest.

And it seems to blow smoke up our butts. The data would indicate I'm doing better that reality proves.

I can get a quick progress check on my fitness relative to my age group just by joining a local fast club's B group ride. Most of 'em are my age, some older. I still can't hang with 'em. I tried a 50 mile route with them Saturday but dropped out after 10 miles and the first two climbs. I rode a variation of the same route but at my own pace, around 15 mph. Can't hang with their 17 mph average.

I can check their times on segments where I struggle and see they're literally twice as fast on climbs. So while I can hang with them on flats and downhills, I'll get dropped on hills. That tells me all I need to know for now.