How to use Strava to run faster

The only real downside I’ll point out here isn’t really a negative of the app, but rather our human nature to compare in an unhelpful way. I say this with no judgement, but if you’re likely to worry about your times, whether your friend’s faster than you, or that you don’t improve every run you do, then I’d NOT recommend using Strava.

If you’re ok with that, read on.

Segments are one of the best features on Strava, with the ability to race friends and compare your own performances on the same piece of road, path, or trail over time. You can create your own segments using the online website once you’ve run the area as well, so if you’ve got a favourite route but don’t want to keep your own record manually, you can use Strava to do this for you.

Whether you’re in a running group/club or not, you can have some friendly competition using Strava segments as a mini race.

Many segments are on hills as well, and since there’s little immediate reward to hill training, these types of segments give you the boost you need to push hard when running hills, and to include them more in your training.

Aside from just segments, Strava tracks your 1st, 2nd and 3rd fastest times for distances of 400m and above and create routes to run which can be sent to some running watches although this is a paid feature.

Obviously, these features are great, but without you putting them to use they’re, well, useless. Here are some ideas of how to use the app to run faster.

Hill session – plan your route include several segments on hills to encourage you to give it your all uphill.

Virtual race – some areas have one or even several 5k routes (or longer) set up. You can find these using the “explore” section on the app and replicate a time trial race, either against everyone who’s run it, or against your friends.

Segment run – include several segments of different lengths. These runs often end up being different routes to your normal runs, are challenging due to working at or above your lactate threshold several times in one run and can be a great way to blow off some steam or keep training interesting.

Segment pacing – run the same segment several times in a row. As Strava will record the segment and give you the times for each attempt, you can see how consistent you were without having to look at your watch. Very much the point of learning the pace yourself.

One final word of advice is to always start running any segment earlier than you think the start point is and run beyond the finish. The lag in GPS has meant several of my attempts at taking a segment “crown” haven’t quite panned out.