The Dangerous Level of Strava Runners No One Talks About

[00:00:00] I can tell exactly how unhinged you are as a runner in about 10 seconds. Not your pace, not your gear, and definitely not how you’re breathing during easy or hard runs. I can tell from your Strava profile specifically whether you have one and if you do what you’ve done to it, because what you’ve done to it tells me absolutely everything.

[00:00:21] There are five types of Strava users. Each one a little more unhinged than the last, and you probably can’t tell which one you are anymore. In this episode, I’ll be going over the five levels of Strava users, the exact moment you tip from one into the next. Why level is the only same place to live, and why everything past that is just anxiety.

[00:00:41] With a GPS signal. I’m Daren D Lake certified run coach, and lifelong runner of 30 years. And I’ve spent the last 14, actually 15 of those years using this app called Strava way back in the day. And it has legit turned my brain into mush, just like TikTok and Instagram, but I powered through and made it my mission to help 100,000 other self-coach runners get 1% better.

[00:01:04] And part of that is knowing when the tools that you use are actually helping you, and when they’re slowly rewiring your personality. Let’s get into level one. This person doesn’t know what Strava is. They’re the last same person in the room. It’s like zombie apocalypse. Oh, you, you don’t have the virus.

[00:01:19] This person runs, goes home, eats something, lives their life. Absolutely blissfully at peace. They don’t log it, they don’t title it, they don’t check. Who else ran the same stretch of road this morning? They just ran. Now they’re done. They feel good about it. You know what? And there’s probably a 50% chance that they don’t even have a smartwatch.

[00:01:38] But if they do, they hit start, stop, see the time and distance and keep going on with their day. They don’t care about heart rate and elevation and all that stuff. We should be studying these people like endangered wildlife. Put them in a museum, David Attenborough narrating over them. Making breakfast after a 60 minute run, completely unbothered.

[00:01:55] And here, remarkably, the runner does not open an app. Someone mentioned Strava at a race once. This person said, oh, is that an app where people get mad about hills, smile politely, and went back to eating their banana? No follow-up questions, no download, just a banana and, and maybe a Gatorade and a normal Saturday.

[00:02:14] The transition moment to level two, someone sends them a Strava link to a new long run route they’ve never done. They click it, they see the create an account button. They create the account, and four minutes later they’re on Strava. And that was the last time they ate after a run without checking if someone they never met ran the same route faster.

[00:02:33] Congratulations. Welcome to the illness, the virus, the sickness. Before I get to level two, drop a comment right now and tell me which level you are. Don’t lie. Nobody’s judging. No one’s judging. And real quick though, if you don’t use a coach and you like figuring out your own training, et cetera, and are somewhere between levels two and level five, use this free course to better understand Strava.

[00:02:55] There’s a good chance you’re winging. Some, if not most of your training specifically the part that keeps you off the injury and burnout list. To fix that, I built a free email course for self-coach runners. It will teach you how to stay consistent, avoid the breakdowns that kill your training, and get faster without needing a coach all up in your ear.

[00:03:14] And the dms and text messages, QR code right here. Hit that or the link below in the description or the show notes if you’re listening or you’re watching somewhere else besides YouTube. Get it. Come back to this episode and we’re gonna go straight to level two. These people are on Strava. Technically.

[00:03:30] That’s about the most generous thing that I can say. Alright, so level two, they have it. They post runs, but no titles. Every single activity is called Morning run, afternoon run, lunch run, evening run, whatever. Not morning run. Felt strong, not easy. Eight with bad decisions. It’s just like morning run, every time.

[00:03:49] Like a government forum. You know what they do? A marathon morning run. I love those people. Actually, I wanna flex like that on a race. It’s just not on brand. I have to give details. I talk a lot. Maybe six people are followers. Three of those people are people they ran with in a race group for a local half marathon, and Strava did the whole grouping thing together.

[00:04:07] Who they don’t even know. And one is their partner who made an account once and never opened it again. Someone commented a lightning bolt on their Tuesday run. They genuinely didn’t know what it meant. They thought it was an ad. They kept scrolling. This person is fine. They’re gonna be all right. They’re technically on Strava.

[00:04:23] The way people are technically in a fantasy football league. They joined back in 2019 and never checked. Their account exists, but no one’s actually home. The transition moment, they title a run with something throwaway like legs felt All right today. Three times the kudos they’ve ever gotten. Someone comments, great effort.

[00:04:41] Here’s a run science moment. More of a psychology moment. Brain imaging research actually shows this is a legit thing called social validation. It fires the same reward circuitry as something that is genuinely good happening to you. Crazy thing is that your nervous system can’t tell the difference.

[00:04:57] Three kudos on a Tuesday jog and something in your brain. Quality goes yes, and this is where things get really, really cool. And by cool, I mean. Concerning Enter level three, elaborate titles and segment obsessive. Now we’re a real Strava user. Every run has a title. Instead of putting the info in the description, they character load the title VO Tuesday with a two instead of a T 12 by 400 meters at current fitness featuring 94% humidity or easy recovery run.

[00:05:26] That was neither easy nor recovery dot. Do I’m Tired or Offroad Sunday Run Day. Longie trying to stay in high zone one. Low zone two and walk the hills. All three titles actually me, they, they aren’t run titles though. These are journal entries. This person is processing this situation ship. I just looked up this word.

[00:05:46] Their Achilles issues and their general dissatisfaction with Tuesday through the Strava activity feed and honestly is work of them. It’s cheaper than therapy. Better cardio than therapy, and you get fewer side effects than therapy. Alright, so for real, for real. This is the healthiest coping mechanism in this whole episode.

[00:06:02] They check segment times before they fully stop their watch. They’ve explained what a segment is to a non runner friend and how you can virtually compete with people asynchronously on their favorite roots. The friend nodded and said. That’s cool. Has thought about it zero times since. This is what a healthy relationship with running looks like from the outside.

[00:06:20] Study it again like a museum, like like a science experiment. But this person is still having fun and still loves running. The app is enhancing the experience of running. It’s not replacing it. They’re competing against themselves, watching the trend line go up into the right. Hopefully that’s the right direction and this is the sweet spot.

[00:06:36] And before you start optimizing anything else, here’s how to use STR in a way that actually makes you faster. And before we get into that, why don’t you just follow me on Strava. The link is above, if you’re on YouTube or anywhere else, right below. I try to make it informational, helpful, motivational, inspirational, follow, get some ideas for workouts.

[00:06:56] Let’s get back to it. Here’s the part of the episode I actually need you to hear though, because everything I’ve said so far is funny or dad joke funny. I think it’s kind of funny only because it’s usually true and the next 20 seconds of words that come outta my mouth are legit Absolute truth that nobody wants to hear.

[00:07:14] Achievement psychology research is a very clear here because people who chase their own past performance improve more consistently than people chasing others. The leaderboard isn’t just distracting, it’s actually pointing you at the wrong target. Runners who get faster year over year aren’t checking who’s above them on the segment, they’re checking whether they’re better than they were 90 days ago.

[00:07:35] That’s the whole game. Here’s something for you to do right now. Take away from this episode. Go to your profile, hit training log. Yes, it’s right there. Go training and training log. Pick a month from 90 days ago and look at it. That’s your competition, not the person who stole your segment. You Strava, like a digital logbook that’s on autopilot.

[00:07:52] That’s why I like it personally. Not a scoreboard. I love that. I don’t have to write something down. I don’t like writing things down. It’s like, and I gotta find the notebook, blah, blah, blah. Stay at level three. And I know that’s not satisfying if you’re already level four or five, but that’s also exactly why you’re level four or five.

[00:08:08] At level four, you’re now paying for Strava premium, 30 minute post run analysis. $80 a year. USD gone. Not for coaching, not for a training plan for the ability to stare at a fitness and freshness graft after a Tuesday. Easy run and feel productive. Your relative effort. AKA suffer score. Uh, side note shouts to the old school Strava users that remember when it said suffer score.

[00:08:32] But yes, your relative effort now says 78. They take a screenshot, send it to someone that someone does not care. This level four person cares way too much relative effort. Set hard after workout they already knew was hard because they were there for it. They were breathing hard, they feel shattered afterwards.

[00:08:49] But seeing it confirmed by the app and now Strava AI validated. I love when ai, the strawberry, it says literally what I put in the title. It changes when I’m like. Come on now. Anyway, that, that’s conversation for another, actually, I did a hill deep dive on Strava ai, if you want to go check that out, and why it’s a two part series and why it’s driving me nuts and what to do about it.

[00:09:07] Uh, there should be a link up top or a link below in the show notes. Let’s fix the Strava AI and the smartwatch AI together. They told their partner, and the partner said, Hmm, without looking up from their phone, this was the correct response. They love looking at their weekly training, fitness and freshness.

[00:09:22] Form chart going back two years. Can’t explain what it means in practical terms that they can actually use, but they find it deeply comforting to look at like a lava lamp, but for running anxiety and then unironically without a trace of self-awareness. They’ve pulled up their smartwatch VO two max estimate as.

[00:09:38] And compared it to Kipchoge of all people. They did not find this discouraging. They found it motivating, and that’s the part that should concern all of us. Kipchoge’s VO two max was measured in a lab by scientists after years of being one of the greatest runners in human history. Yours was estimated by a wristband using your heart rate optical watch based, which is notoriously inaccurate during an easy recovery jog where you definitely stopped at a few red lights.

[00:10:02] These are not the same tests. Yet. If you’re level four, please instate this five minute rule. Five minutes post, run, check what you want, then close the app, you’re done. Go eat something, go hydrate up with electrolytes, and then go do some downregulation breathing or meditation or something. And then on Tuesday, a notification, someone stole their segment faster by four seconds.

[00:10:22] Someone they don’t know, someone who probably doesn’t even know the segment exists. And that’s it. That’s the whole origin story for a level five Strava user. The king of the mountain, queen of the mountain, KWA Hunter. These people actually, they scare me, and I know two of them personally, not because they’re fast, because of the justification, the straight based, totally reasonable sounding justification for completely unhinged behavior.

[00:10:47] I just want to see what I’m capable of on that segment. Bruh, you drove 20 minutes to a parking lot at 5:30 AM on a day off. We are past capability testing. They have a ranked list of local comms sorted by how stealable they are. Number of attempts, recent activity, margin to beat. This is not a metaphor. I have met this person, I’ve seen this spreadsheet with my own eyes, and I swear it had conditional formatting.

[00:11:11] And colored rose. They rest for three days. No running early bedtimes optimized nutrition and hydration for a 400 meter quarter mile hill that 14 people have ever run. Three did it by accident because Strava detected their commute. This person does not care. A crown is the crown. These people are not training.

[00:11:30] They’re in a territorial dispute with strangers who don’t know they’re in a dispute. I will never be level five. I’m saying that on camera because I genuinely. Need the accountability. These people got there one completely reasonable decision at a time. That’s probably the scariest part. So what level should you be at?

[00:11:48] Stay at level three. Whatever you do today has to leave enough in the tank for tomorrow, next week, the month after. The runners who keep improving aren’t the ones who went deepest. In the data or hunted the most segments. They’re the ones who kept showing up consistently for a long time. Level three lets you do that.

[00:12:04] Levels four and five are just elaborate ways of burning out while feeling productive. Use the app, enjoy the app title, the run, something weird or quirky or whatever. I do it, I don’t care. It’s honestly for me, at the end of the day, and some people might find inspiration and motivation out of it. Check segments.

[00:12:20] Compete with yourself from 90 days ago. Check Fitness and freshness. If you have Strava Premium and you pay for it, I pay for it. I like to support them. I know a lot of people hate them, but that’s the healthy move. Comment will level you’re on. I genuinely want to know. I think it’s fun. It’s cool. And if you are at level five, you self just comment anyway.

[00:12:39] You might just need the community more than anyone else here. I say that with full authenticity. In slight concern for your loved ones, if you haven’t already, go and get that free email course. It’s at the link, uh, here on the QR code or below, or on a description or show notes or whatever you are consuming this, listening, watching, et cetera.

[00:12:56] It’s the stuff in your inbox that keeps you training consistently long enough to actually use all this Strava data for something positive for your running. And if you like this, go and watch the five Levels of Marathon Runners episode that I did. That one will teach you exactly how deep the hole is that you’ve gone with marathon racing or what to avoid.

[00:13:14] If you haven’t done marathons yet, get it at the video below if you’re on YouTube or hit the link below in the description or open up whatever app you’re watching or listening to this on. Please be safe out there with Strava. Use it responsibly. Peace.