Baseline, document and evaluate everything. If it isn’t on www.strava.com it didn’t happen. Once you set a goal you have to be able to know how far you have come to achieving this, small steps but constant feedback. So buy a Garmin and start recording , everything !!! Contentious subject here. I’m a Strava addict and I know it but the purest will be horrified. You need a baseline to see improvement, set new goals and realize your goals. Buy a Garmin and to quote a small clothing company ‘just do it’.

One of my Golden Rules is quoted above. It’s all about recording information and then using this to build future training plans. Of course there are thousands of coaches who will do this for you and probably do a better job but even then if you decide to go this route you still need to record everything. (or ask your coach but you might as well have the information for your own records.)

I first heard about Strava ( http://www.strava.com ) about 4 years ago (from my Dentist actually, a triathlete training for a half-ironman. ) and only really started using it religiously about 2 years ago. There was nothing , for runners, before Strava to record, save and show your training runs to the world. I suppose Strava is the Facebook for runners. As with Facebook there are people who do Facebook and people who don’t. I suppose the same thing is true of Strava users, you either get it or you don’t, all or nothing, I remember when you use to run with a watch and record your distance, normally estimated (and normally estimated up!) in an excel sheet or better still a notebook. (and I don’t meant an electronic notebook, one with paper. For the younger readers of this blog don’t worry, paper is something you will never probably use.)  Even now I still have an Excel spreadsheet where I record all my runs, albeit just distance, as a backup to my Strava information. This spreadsheet has all my runs backs to 2008 and I never miss a run, sort of old school but there is something satisfying about typing in the data rather than downloading it from a GPS watch via Garmin Connect straight into Strava. I’ve attached the Excel table detailing my running adventures during the last 8 years updated manually on a daily basis.  Must admit to never owning a running notebook though.

Before Strava we use to use a website called Coolrunning ( http://www.coolrunning.com.au/runningguide/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ) but Facebook and Stava put an end to its userbase, in WA anyway. I suppose it became the Nokia or Blackberry when Apple turned up. Either way now it’s all about Strava. Is Strava perfect, no. It is still mainly aimed at the cyclist and has more functionality for our free wheeling friends but it does do enough to make it indispensable to some runners, me included.

Is this a bad thing? In my view no as it allows you to document everything automatically and there is enough functionality built in to make the software very useful to spot trends and set targets for training sessions. Also it allows you to encourage your friends with kudos and helpful comments. This can be a double edges sword of course if you have a bad session as everybody knows about it instantly. Runners , though, being a forgiving lot will normally even give you kudos and encouragement on any run, it’s about building a running community I suppose. Of course a bit of banter is also encouraged and I’ve left a few comments asking ‘if they ran the whole way’ to gee people up . (In a nice way.)

If you haven’t got a GPS watch and an app to connect said watch to Strava then I recommend you remedy this as quickly as possible. Strava really is life and the rest is details as I’ve said many times in this blog. I really cannot recommend it enough and my four Garmin watches and iPhone6 make it impossible for me to run unrecorded. Please note I think I ran twice last year, out of the 464+ runs (thanks Strava) , without a watch and both times I hated it, sorry people but that’s just the way it is.

What Strava gives you is a way to record your run with kilometre splits, heart rate, elevation, cadence and even VO2 max figure (with some GPS watches) All of these can then be checked against previous runs of the same distance and terrain and compared. This will hopefully allow you to see improvement and then set new goals, reach these goals and then set even faster, longer ones. Keep reporting this and eventually you will be the best you can be. Without a baseline of information and then continued data logging of running information to compare how can you see improvement. How did we survive without Strava ?

So back to my post title, if it’s not on Strava did it happen ? I think the answer is no, in this world of online running data collection verbal boasting just doesn’t cut it anymore. Pity as this morning I ran the first sub 2hour marathon but forgot to turn on my Garmin, and if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen!