too many indoor activities in your strava feed?

[kmac]

this is a rough time of year, weather-wise. many of my friends are seeking refuge in their basements, sweating away on their trainers. these are hard-fought hours to reap hard-earned benefits, no doubt. much kudos should go to them!

but...

when i look at my strava feed, i'm having a hard time finding anyone who's riding outside. i'm in there looking for routes my friends took, trying to get ideas for new places to go. here in februaryville, however, these adventuresome needles are getting lost in a haystack of zwifts and sufferfests.

i'm a software developer by trade, and yesterday when i saw 5 zwifts in a row in my feed, i decided to pick up my fingers and do something about it. so i wrote a chrome browser extension: https://github.com/kevinstuffandthings/strava-outside

it's still pretty raw right now -- enough that if you're not even remotely technical, i wouldn't even entertain trying it. i don't know if i'll ever do much more with it, but it was a fun exercise for me (the only exercise i got) on a 6 degree day here in denver.

completely free, completely safe (could be some bugs, but nothing crazy), and if anyone tries it, would love to get some feedback about your experience. if it proves useful, i might try to publish it. i figure i can't be the only person who's felt this way before.

thanks for reading!

[vincenz]

This is awesome, will have to try this and let you know :banana::banana: I too am sick of the Zwift and Sufferfest on my feed. I was just thinking this should be a feature in the app. Maybe it's time to send it in as a feature request.

I ride outside rain or shine or cold, unless it's icy. If I have to be stuck on the trainer, I will log only the time and not the miles.

[kmac]

This is awesome, will have to try this and let you know :banana::banana: I too am sick of the Zwift and Sufferfest on my feed. I was just thinking this should be a feature in the app. Maybe it's time to send it in as a feature request.

I ride outside rain or shine or cold, unless it's icy. If I have to be stuck on the trainer, I will log only the time and not the miles.

i thought it should be a strava feature too! but then i looked on the strava message/support boards. people have been requesting this for YEARS, and there's been no movement.

my personal theory is that the zwift activities are "sponsored" -- meaning that every time a zwift activity appears in a feed, it's almost treated like an advertisement for zwift. so its appearance could potentially be a source of revenue for strava, making it less attractive for them to support the suppression. but it's just a theory...

hopefully it can make your feed a little less cluttered, and a little more enjoyable!

[MattTuck]

Sounds like a good theory.

Nice work on the plug in. I haven't been ridin gmuch, so haven't had the occasion to use strava lately. But what you describe is what I remember during the winter. Lots of indoor workouts from the local folks, and lots of cool rides by people who live where it is warmer. Not very useful if you're trying to find the good spots to ride locally.

What kind of software development do you do?

[Alaska Mike]

I don't understand the appeal of Strava, so forgive me.

Clamp the filters down if you don't want to see it. FOMO? In my opinion, if you weren't there physically when an activity was recorded (and thus have your own data), you missed out. Checking out someone else's activity is kinda like looking at an Instabook picture of the perfect plating of food at a restaurant you'll never eat at.

I track my workouts online and have for well over a decade, on a variety of platforms. I just don't understand the "if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen" mentality. I do have an account I have yet to upload to, but I did establish it to find low-death routes in an unfamiliar town, but I couldn't have cared less who had the KOM on an overpass along the Gulf Coast.

Guess I'm in the minority...

[joosttx]

found some snow today on Mt Tam....

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7855/46968237712_8b9daf7b62_h.jpg

[kmac]

Sounds like a good theory.

Nice work on the plug in. I haven't been ridin gmuch, so haven't had the occasion to use strava lately. But what you describe is what I remember during the winter. Lots of indoor workouts from the local folks, and lots of cool rides by people who live where it is warmer. Not very useful if you're trying to find the good spots to ride locally.

What kind of software development do you do?

these days i'm predominantly a ruby developer (not ruby on rails, just straight-up ruby). writing lots of dockerized microservices on aws, using postgres, redshift, and mapd. only very occasionally am i doing much front-end (javascript, ember, etc) work. so that's why this was a nice diversion for me. all-in-all though, if the roads were clear, i think i'd have elected to spend my free time doing other things :)

[kmac]

I don't understand the appeal of Strava, so forgive me.

Clamp the filters down if you don't want to see it. FOMO? In my opinion, if you weren't there physically when an activity was recorded (and thus have your own data), you missed out. Checking out someone else's activity is kinda like looking at an Instabook picture of the perfect plating of food at a restaurant you'll never eat at.

I track my workouts online and have for well over a decade, on a variety of platforms. I just don't understand the "if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen" mentality. I do have an account I have yet to upload to, but I did establish it to find low-death routes in an unfamiliar town, but I couldn't have cared less who had the KOM on an overpass along the Gulf Coast.

Guess I'm in the minority...

yeah it definitely doesn't appeal to everyone. for me, i guess i enjoy seeing my friends' outdoor activities because i DO live near where they do, and i CAN learn about new places i can ride. doing this has really helped me learn the areas i live in (i move around a lot), and even discover how to connect places nearby my home i may not have thought to connect. it's not so much about a vicarious experience, but much more about queueing up new experiences that i can have and enjoy myself.

but i'm totally with you on the segments/kom thing. i use it much more like a reconnaissance tool, and not for its competitive aspects.

they (strava) managed to be a lot of things to a lot of people, and i guess i give them credit for that.

[exapkib]

Love it!

[KarlC]

I got sick of siting at my desk so went outside for lunch



https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4844/46969445112_38e60f2ccb_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2eywFDb)

[Alaska Mike]

but i'm totally with you on the segments/kom thing. i use it much more like a reconnaissance tool, and not for its competitive aspects.
Yeah, I used to do the same thing with Garmin Connect, but it seems very people use it anymore and the user experience has consistently gotten worse over the years as they added "features".

For a few years there I got caught up in chasing numbers and little squiggles on a chart. It eventually burned me out. I recognize that tendency in myself, so I try to keep a lighter hand on the tiller these days. Strava would bring out the worst in me once I went down that rabbit hole.

Scoping routes? Completely understandable.

[dem]

There's lots of good plugins that let you "take back" your feed - filtering posts, promotional junk, fixing the feed order to be chronological vs. "whatever strava thinks you want to see"

"Elevate for Strava" - does much more, but filters virtual rides too
"Stravini" - filters posts, reorders feeds, etc.

Similar to above, I like to see what people are riding, especially mixed gravel/pavement routes, many of which are not well known. I don't actually know anyone who really pays much attention to the "strava racing" aspect.

[MattTuck]

found some snow today on Mt Tam....

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7855/46968237712_8b9daf7b62_h.jpg

I can't remember if I've said this before (the twins seem to have significantly degraded my memory), but thanks for showing me a paint color that I never knew I wanted. This is so out of the realm of anything I'd even consider, but I have to say that I see it and now really want a bike with this color.

[joosttx]

I can't remember if I've said this before (the twins seem to have significantly degraded my memory), but thanks for showing me a paint color that I never knew I wanted. This is so out of the realm of anything I'd even consider, but I have to say that I see it and now really want a bike with this color.

Thanks, the color is RAL#3014.

[SlowPokePete]

My Strava has ZERO indoor activities, and plenty of outdoor.

And this ain't Miami.

https://www.strava.com/athletes/403203

SPP

[TREEfool]

last was 5°F for me. I deleted almost all the other cyclists in my friends list who stop riding outside in the winter. I dont really care how fast someone can pedal on a stationary bike in a climate controlled environment.


Thanks for this though! I am absolutely gonna check it out on lunchbreak

[simplemind]

found some snow today on Mt Tam....



joosttx...when are you going to give that crappy bike up? Please let me know! ;)

[saab2000]

I use Strava almost exclusively for 3 things and none of them involve other people.

I enjoy the mapping function, the training calendar and mileage total function and I enjoy the PR function on Strava sections. I never compare myself to others and only am interested in my own personal bests and even then only a little bit. Mostly I like the mapping and mileage tracking.

The rest is just noise and I almost never look at what others do unless it looks interesting.

[PaMtbRider]

As bad as the Zwift posts are on Strava I am now seeing people post their gym / weight workouts. I really need to clean up my Strava feed.

[KVN]

I mark all of my trainer time as private on strava. That way it’s still counting in my totals but people don’t have to view my crap.

I have to admit tho, sometimes I do get kinda inspired when I see friends of mine kicking ass on their trainers and posting hard workouts. I know we’re all pretty much dreaming of spring right now so it’s good to see that this brutal weather isn’t totally getting people down.

[Jere]

this is a rough time of year, weather-wise. many of my friends are seeking refuge in their basements, sweating away on their trainers. these are hard-fought hours to reap hard-earned benefits, no doubt. much kudos should go to them!

but...

when i look at my strava feed, i'm having a hard time finding anyone who's riding outside. i'm in there looking for routes my friends took, trying to get ideas for new places to go. here in februaryville, however, these adventuresome needles are getting lost in a haystack of zwifts and sufferfests.

i'm a software developer by trade, and yesterday when i saw 5 zwifts in a row in my feed, i decided to pick up my fingers and do something about it. so i wrote a chrome browser extension: https://github.com/kevinstuffandthings/strava-outside

it's still pretty raw right now -- enough that if you're not even remotely technical, i wouldn't even entertain trying it. i don't know if i'll ever do much more with it, but it was a fun exercise for me (the only exercise i got) on a 6 degree day here in denver.

completely free, completely safe (could be some bugs, but nothing crazy), and if anyone tries it, would love to get some feedback about your experience. if it proves useful, i might try to publish it. i figure i can't be the only person who's felt this way before.

thanks for reading!


Wouldn’t it be easier just to unfollow them ?
I’m not good at this social thing, myself Strava is just a database for training.
And or a KOM or two
JB

[kmac]

Wouldn’t it be easier just to unfollow them ?
I’m not good at this social thing, myself Strava is just a database for training.
And or a KOM or two
JB

i probably only follow 15-20 people, and even though they're indoors at the moment, they're still my friends! and come spring/summer/fall, they'll all be outside riding again. once they are, i enjoy looking at and chatting with them about the places they ride, and this can help to inform/expand some of my own route choices -- which for me is what strava is all about.

i just felt like there's a very low percentage chance that while i'm riding outside, i suddenly find myself in their basements....

[benb]

Strava seems pointless if you don't use it in some sort of social way as there are so many applications that are much better for the actual workout tracking/planning aspects.

I really like the "recon" facets of it as others mentioned. Don't really care a whole lot about the KOMs and stuff. But it's nice to see if my friends have rode some new route I haven't rode which gives me ideas about new places to ride. And also it will sometimes give me a hint about a new group ride in the area that I'm not aware of. That stuff can provide a bit of motivation.

There is no recon value in seeing the Zwift/Peloton/trainer stuff in the feed, plus in the case of Peloton 99% of the time it presents a picture of the cleavage of the instructor if it's a woman or a shirtless chest if it's a man. Why do I need to see that?

I thought we had a thread a few months ago where someone had indicated Strava did have a relationship with these trainer/spin companies.

I will maybe check out the OPs plugin or some of these others, although lately I haven't even been checking in on Strava.. still when I am riding a lot I do tend to look at it after each of my own workouts.

[bigbill]

Stop following people. I only see my feeds which are Zwift this time of year because there is no place to ride right now unless I want to do circuits in my neighborhood. Once it warms up and the days get longer, I'll do long road rides on the weekend and MTB during the week. But for now, I get home an hour before dark so a 45 minute ride isn't worth the time.