Suck It, Strava

I have a hard time with the whole Strava thing. I felt like I had to sign up because all the cool kids are doing it and it seems like the thing to do these days. I signed up and uploaded a few workouts and then quickly erased those workouts. When I see that I am QOM on certain segments I get a little embarrassed for myself. Of course I am. I'm probably the only female to be dumb enough to ride those segments. I see the purpose. It's to drive people's workouts, bring forth the competitive spirit, giving 'Kudos' and all that jazzy mumbo jumbo. Doesn't really work for me. It doesn't make me any more competitive and I don't have any urges to go out and beat someone's time on certain segments. I guess where I live it's also a little deceiving because we don't have the fastest singletrack. Not saying I'm an uber fasty by any means, but sometimes certain sections probably could be walked faster. If there was a place I could put: rode in downpour, hit a bear, battled baby heads and peanut butter mud for 3 hours (calculate that in Strava)...then maybe I'd have a different opinion. I'm not even a big fan of it on the road. It really does not motivate me in the least. I know when I'm riding well and when I'm a slug.

Yesterday just really sealed the deal on my anti-Stravaness. My hands were bad so I didn't trust myself on a group woods ride and knew the vibrations on the road bike would kill me, so I went out on the road on my mountain bike. I rode from the house and part of my loop includes a really popular roadie route section. I saw a lot of roadies. I would ride with them here and there. Besides telling me to "shift" and "use your gears, Honey" (Miraculously, that man is still living..I swear. Ignore the news report of a missing male cyclist in Monroe, NY) and then having the torturous conversation of why I was on a ss mountain bike on the road and why on earth I would even ride a ss. They tried to engage me in their KOM quests. I could be a QOM!!! Woo freakin' hoo. Then I quickly realized what was happening. They would rest and soft pedal on the flats, call out when the next Strava segment was coming and then hammer that segment. If it wasn't a Strava segment it was a snail's pace. I was on a pretty modest gear and I had no problems keeping up with them on the flats. It's because they were saving it for Strava. Maybe I'm a big loser and technology is somewhat lost on me. Maybe one day I will come around and embrace Strava. Doubtful. I just don't get it.

I had to call for back-up on my ride because from the elbow down my right arm felt like I was holding onto an electric fence and I couldn't hold onto the bars anymore. I couldn't even tell if I was holding onto the bars. I kept looking down to make sure my fingers were wrapped around the bars. Braking was not happening. Needless to say, standing and climbing became a little precarious and excruciating. I called Mike for a pick up. I almost made it home so my workout wasn't a total bust. I got into the truck, took advantage of my captive audience and ranted about Strava. Stupid Strava.