10 Life Hacks Every Strava User Should Know
Whether you’re aiming for King of the Mountain (KOM) titles , training for your first race, or simply trying to beat your peers in a monthly challenge, Strava is the social network for people who love to conquer outdoor challenges. But beyond the basic cycle of “record your activity, get praise, and repeat,” there’s a whole world of features and tricks that can enhance your Strava experience.
Use heat maps to find the best routes anywhere.
Strava’s global heatmap —controversial as it may be —shows the most popular routes based on millions of user activity worldwide. Bright orange lines show where locals are actually running and cycling, helping you avoid dangerous spots, find scenic trails, and discover running routes that might otherwise be overlooked on a standard map.
Once you’ve identified popular sections on the heatmap, you can use Strava’s route builder to create your own route, adding or removing sections based on your desired time or distance. It’s like knowing the area without knowing the locals. This combination of heatmap analysis and custom route creation means you’ll never again waste a workout on a bad route.
Create your own segments and act strategically.
You don’t have to wait for someone else to create the perfect segment. If you want to conquer a hill, sprint section, or loop, create your own segment after completing it. Go to Strava, open your activity, and use the segment creation tool to define your own segment. Tip: make it unique or specific enough that you’re likely the only one who rides or runs it regularly. Instantly see the KOM or QOM status, and you can give it a fun title, like “Why I thought this was a good idea?”
Use the Beacon feature and the Fly-by feature (when you feel like chatting).
Strava’s live location sharing feature, called Beacon , is somewhat hidden within the app, but incredibly useful for solo travelers. Before heading out on a long ride or a run in unfamiliar terrain, you can share your real-time location with up to three contacts responsible for your safety. They’ll receive a link to track your progress without the need for a Strava account. It’s like having a support group, but without having to convince anyone to get up at 5 a.m. and follow you in a car.
Then there’s Flybys , one of Strava’s most interesting and slightly creepy features. After recording an activity, you can view an animated replay showing everyone else who recorded an activity on Strava in the same area at the same time. Note that this feature must be enabled in your privacy settings. And since it became the default setting, it’s become quite buggy and unreliable. Perhaps the consensus lately is that the idea of strangers seeing when and where you’re training makes people uncomfortable. That’s where Strava’s privacy zones come in.
Set the privacy zone radius purposefully.
This feature hides the start and end points of your workouts, which is great for keeping your home address private. But here’s the trick: strategically set the privacy zone radius. Make it large enough to hide your actual home, but center it on a nearby landmark or intersection. This way, your workouts will still show the area you’re running or cycling in (useful for finding local workout partners or groups) without revealing your exact address. It’s privacy without having to act like a secret agent.
Create GPS art (and post it on Reddit).
Strava art involves planning routes by drawing pictures, words, or shapes. With a little planning in advance using Strava’s route builder or other mapping tools, you can compose messages, draw holiday-themed images ( for example, running with turkeys on Thanksgiving is a tradition for some ), or create complex patterns.
For inspiration, check out the “Strava Art” section on r/Strava . People are creating everything from marriage proposals to detailed portraits of animals in their cities. It requires some preliminary mapping and a willingness to take some awkward turns, but the results are much more shareable than a typical 5K route. It’s also a great way to explore new streets in your area with a specific goal beyond just logging miles.
Clean up your feed
Love your friends but don’t want to see all 47 of their treadmill workouts a week? You can turn off notifications from specific athletes without unfollowing them. Their workouts won’t clutter your feed, but you’ll still be up-to-date on their competitions and can check their profiles at any time.
In the same vein, I recommend using the “hide stats” feature to maintain your own mental health. It may seem counterintuitive on a platform designed to quantify everything, but sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is hide certain stats from public view. You can selectively hide metrics like pace, heart rate, or power output for certain activities. Going for an easy recovery run but don’t want to explain why you’re running so slowly? Even if you should be running so slowly ? Just hide your pace and move on. This allows you to keep your activity log and route data for your own records, while avoiding the awkward pressure of speaking to an audience that’s likely not particularly attentive anyway.
Use relative effort levels and choose appropriate routes for runs/rides.
I like to see if I’m actually getting faster or just feeling faster because I bought new running shoes. To do this, use Strava’s route mapping feature to compare your results on the same route over time. The app will automatically detect when you’ve repeated the route, or you can compare your efforts manually. Seeing progress is either incredibly motivating or makes you think you’ve improved by exactly 12 seconds in six months of training.
And if you don’t want to focus on pace and distance, Strava’s Relative Effort feature ( for subscribers only ) offers a different way to look at things. It takes into account heart rate, distance, and duration data, producing a single number that reflects the intensity of your workout. A hilly 5K run can yield the same Relative Effort as a flat 10K, giving you a better understanding of your actual training load than just looking at your miles. This is especially helpful for avoiding the “I feel tired, but my workout looks easy” mentality.
Before sharing, please take a screenshot of your activity.
Strava’s built-in photo features are great, but if you want to share your stats more visually, I recommend taking a screenshot of your activity page immediately after completing it. You can then edit the screenshot to highlight specific metrics, add text, or crop it before sharing it on other social media.
Turn off automatic pause.
The auto-pause feature seems useful; it automatically pauses the timer at traffic lights or when you catch your breath. But that’s why your “moving time” looks great, while the actual elapsed time shows you spent 40% of your run standing. For a more honest assessment of your fitness, especially if you’re training for a race, turn off auto-pause. You’ll get more accurate pace data and learn to keep moving during transitions. Your average pace may look worse, but at least it’s true.
Export your data
Let’s face it: Strava has changed its privacy policy and features several times over the years. If you’ve been using the platform for a while, you’ve accumulated valuable activity data stored on their servers, and you don’t really trust the company that owns it. Use the “Download your data” feature in your account settings to get a complete archive of all your activities. You’ll receive a ZIP file with GPX files, photos, and other data that you can import to other platforms or simply save as a backup.
Result
The beauty of Strava is that it’s both a serious training tool and a game you can play with yourself and others. These tips will help you use the platform more effectively, avoiding common mistakes that turn a seemingly fun tracking system into a source of stress or anxiety due to the need to compare yourself to others. Now go ahead, collect data, and remember: your true competitor is your past self. Unless, of course, someone stole your record, in which case, go get it back.