Strava says it's the year of Run Club
That's what Strava's data says, for multiple reasons, but did you know how your Strava data is helping to optimize cities?
Last week, Strava released its Year in Sport trend report. A lot of it reflects the work I’ve been doing here, but I thought I’d highlight a few headlines, plus a little more.
A 59% increase in the number of run clubs
That’s huge. I’ve written about run clubs are a place to make friends, and Gen Z purposefully uses these third spaces in particular for real-life social networking. Making friends is what people in their 20s do, after all. That’s when people are most likely to move to a new city after education or marriage, and running is the medium they choose, because — as we like to say — running is the cheapest and easiest form of exercise.
40% of Gen Z want to do more social workouts
That means that we haven’t peaked yet. More young people making friends and blocking traffic are coming to your neighborhood. It’s more likely to happen in the evenings, after work, as well. Try not to report them to the authorities, eh?
Women don’t want to run alone
The 89% increase in women joining a club is one thing, but Strava data reports that women are 20% more likely to run in a weekend group than men. There’s a gender divide in running, and these two articles that I wrote recently about how women feel while running — and what they need — highlights why.
Stretching and rest are IN
Good. Focus on your recovery. If you reframe rest days as days where you’re building muscle, you might allow yourself more days on the sofa watching TV like I do.
Read the rest of the Strava Year in Sport report here.
How about #MyDataNotStravas?
I’ve long spoken about our responsibility for policing our own data and privacy on GPS-related apps lie Strava. As that hashtag suggest, this is a world where large companies will take what they can get away with. This is a world where you’re automatically opted in to your data being shared, so the onus is on us to opt out.
With Strava, that might mean making your starting location private so strangers won’t know where you live, or do what I do, and make every activity private by default. I can then manually, purposefully choose which activities I share with everyone.
On the other side of Strava’s data collection, however, did you know that for the past decade Strava has been sharing anonymized, location-specific datasets with cities like New York and Paris, as well academic institutions?
As a Human Geography graduate/geek, this was a lovely thing to discover. I love exploring the relationship between people and place. I actively seek out stories of infrastructure improvement, and that’s the ultimate goal of Strava Metro.
Imagine if a city’s planners understand where the most popular cycling routes are and implements bike lanes along those routes first, or sees a well-worn running route and makes sure the sidewalk is smooth and runnable (I’m looking at you, City of Los Angeles). It’s the world that both I and Strava Metro dream of.
Normally, I would try to interview Tom Knights, but there’s nothing I could say that’s better than what’s already in this article on Inside Hook. It’s a cool thing. Go read about it.
Thanks to my fellow urban planning nerd, James for sending me that.
It’s the holiday season, so I’m offering 50% off upgrading your membership FOR LIFE. That’s just $25 a year. What do you get?
I’ll send you a Running Sucks sticker pack, including the big new ones I just made. (More on that soon.)
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The righteous feeling of supporting my independent journalism.
I’ll also give you big discounts on whatever other stuff I create next year. Hopefully there will be some very cool stuff. TBC! But you’ll get the vibe lower down.
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I wrote a gift guide
It’s just a list of the stuff that I love, so go take a look on Yahoo! Maybe you’ll buy something cool there...
Earlier this year, I became one of 12 Founding Creators on the Yahoo! For Creators platform, and I’ll be writing product comparisons (running vests, watches, shoes), terminology explanations (what is a electrolyte?), any really newsworthy items, and there may even be a couple of exclusive interviews in the pipeline. I’ll post links here, of course.
Also: tell me stuff you want to read about, and I’ll figure out a way of doing that.
Writing is like running, y’know
This week, I’ll finally be publishing the story of someone who ran an ultramarathon just months after major spinal surgery (this is me forcing accountability upon myself). As someone who had a spinal injury earlier this year, my ears prick up when I hear about bad backs. My run club’s co-captain is currently suffering from that affliction.
I say “finally publishing” because this story’s been on my docket for a month. I’ve not had Writer’s Block per se, but it’s been a hectic few weeks of family-, construction-, and travel-related exhaustion. I enjoy my quiet routine of Run, Write, Sleep, Repeat, and I’m glad to be mostly back in it.
Sadly, I do fall into that writer’s cliche of doubting my abilities at every turn. Even though the past 18 months has been the most consistent period of writing in my life, I still tend to lean towards paralysis when those doubts creep in (and how they creep in). What did it take to get out of this slump? A couple of cool people emailing me that they enjoy my writing. External validation? How pathetic of me!
While I was considering how I clearly need someone else to vocalize their enjoyment of my writing to remember my own process, it struck me that it's so similar with running.
Last week, I was chatting with an incredibly fast pal who was preparing for the California International Marathon (CIM), and he was concerned that he wouldn’t get a Boston Qualifier time. To be clear, he’s one of the most effortlessly speedy people I know, but he relied upon running the race with an equally fast friend for that support. He needed someone else to believe in his abilities.
While he wanted a 2:50, I’m happy to say that he ran an amazing 2:43 race. Get in.
What’s my Boston? I want to get this book that I’ve written published. I can only cross my fingers on that, but in the meantime I’m so happy and thankful for the support I have right here. It keeps me going.
Running Sucks Haiku of the Week
65%…
My annual mileage increase.
Seemed far off in March.
That’s what Strava tells me. I’m surprised! When I hurt my back in March, I wondered if it might be the end of my running life as I knew it. I think the past nine months have been the hardest I’ve ever worked to regain my fitness, and I might now be in the best shape of my life as a result, running longer and stronger than I ever have done.
I say this out of solidarity for those in an injury-related pit of despair right now. Keep doing the work (rest and strengthening exercises) and I hope you’ll get out of that pit in the exact same way.
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Thanks for reading
- Raz