Newbie-do you use Strava...?

[Arnoldthecat]

Well my MO is that as soon as the weather moves from winter toward spring, i try and get my bike out of the shed and do some keep fit mileage. I tend to go out early sat/sunday mornings when traffic is quiet. I have a bog standard steel framed mountain bike so my speed range tends to be 10 to 20 mph max. Anyway i downloaded strava as a means of recording my efforts. Im now a little disheartened as when i look at my usual route and people who have been on sections of it,all i see are supermen and women who have taken in my section as part of a 40/50/100 mile bike ride at higher speed than I.

Of course they will probably be lycra clad and be riding fibre bikes. Surely im applying more effort as my bike is heavy and i have to work it harder... If something is light and easy to peddle then it requires much less effort? ive never had a go on a fibre bike..

I use Strava for running.

Just don't look at what other people are doing. You're right, it wouid be disheartening, but it's also utterly irrelevant.

Try to find the cycling equivalent of 'fat lad/lass at the back' or some other friendly all-welcome group. Because they will be out there somewhere.

And I agree about the effort. Someone older/less fit will need to run for much longer to get round a 10k, and their heart rate will go just as high as a young man going round in 40mins, but they're doing it for around twice as long. Kudos!

Thanks for your words of encouragement Auntie

Use Strava to compete against yourself. So just try and go faster on each section than your previous time and ignore everybody else’s times. I agree it can be so disheartening! I always used to compare myself to my friend who weighs half as much as me, on a smaller bike - there’s just no comparison!!

Why does it matter ? It’s fine having a QoM or being in the top 10 but if you have 4000 people on the section what’s the likelihood?

I use Strava but have never looked at what anyone else did. Im just curious about my own numbers.

Write on your Strava commentary "Out for a fighting 15km slog on my 30 kg MTB" which kind of makes all kind of excuses to explain your relative slowness.

MTB implies front suspension which makes for more unhelpful weight than steel frame, btw.

You can find (luggage style) scales to verify it's a 30 kg bike in PoundLand.