I’m curious as to how many people are targeting PRs on their local Strava segments as a way to maintain some motivation and flex that hard deserved winter fitness? I’m planning on a year of no racing, or fall racing maybe at best. (If I’m wrong, great!)
It’s important to have perspective on all of this and for many of us riding and training has taken a very back seat to the current state of things, but for those that want to scratch the itch of competition I see this as a way to do that.
Let’s not let this devolve into a debate into the merits, or lack thereof, of segment hunting - if we are stewards of our sport first and follow all road and trail rules I see no harm in chasing segments, (if it’s appropriate for you and your goals). While some can keep churning out the indoor workouts, I see this as a way to break up that routine for people who can and need that mental reprieve. As far as indoor virtual racing, segment chasing could be argued as being much more fair, and possibly more interesting.
What do you think? Are you planning on targeting any local segments you’ve always wanted? KOM or PR.
There is a club around here that is organizing a Strava segment race with a week to do it with age group segments and a payout at the end
I still have a ton of questions on it (I think they left it intentionally vague for liability or something) and they left out my age group.
Kind of a cool thing to organize, keeping things safe and distant. Also keeps people social and not just focusing on zwift racing which is all the talk with all the anti-group riding rhetoric going around right now
I used to like to chase my own PRs on hilly KOMs (and admittedly also glanced on the leaderboard to see where I stand), but now I live in the mindbogglingly flat Netherlands… so any segment time is more of an indicator of the wind direction that day than any sort of fitness lol.
By the way things are looking I don’t think there will be many races at all if any this summer. My initial thought was that the kom boards are going to be absolutely stacked this year with everyone taking their fitness out on Strava.
Unfortunately the weather here isn’t warm enough quite yet for outdoor riding, especially at speed. There is still a bit of ice on the road, especially in mornings, and also lots of sand making for less than ideal riding conditions. I’m hoping to go out for a short easy ride tomorrow just to boost motivation a bit, even if my fingers/toes freeze a bit.
Chasing segments/virtual outdoor races seem like a good idea, depending on your location and whether you can stay safe doing so. Almost all segments close to my house either end in a tight roundabout, or go through stop signs, so I definitely I won’t be chasing those … but there is lots within a short ride.
One gamification I will attempt is the VeloViewer explorer score. I had already been thinking about how to get fun easy rides in outside of training. Goal for the year is to cover my entire city…long ways to go!
Since it’s the going to be lots of solo riding, at least until June I reckon, it’s going to be a combination of Strava hill climbs (PRs, never ever going to get KOMs on popular routes) and using Wandr to find new places to explore.
I’ll be aiming to push my limits uphill but be super safe downwards since the NHS will be stretched without me stacking it. Think long solo days will build a massive diesel engine, which can be built upon over the winter.
Oh yeah. Totally forgot about that aspect. Gonna do something similar. There is a website tracking how many municipalities you cycled through in the Netherlands. Gonna catch them all!
My coworkers came up with an office challenge surrounding a popular mountain bike loop. I currently have the fastest time in the office but I’ll need to step up my game to keep it!
