Strava should need no introduction here. The activity tracking service has come a long way since it’s initial release back in 2009, and has soared in popularity over the last few years. It currently boasts over 1 million monthly active users, including many pro cyclists such as Alex Dowsett, Ian Boswell and Andre Greipel.
Everyone who’s anyone is on Strava, there’s even a common saying ‘if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen’ – allowing riders to prove their performance with data to back up their claims of average pace and PR’s. We’ve been huge fans of Strava here and have been using the premium service for the past few years. We outline some of the top reasons why you should go upgrade to Strava Premium below:
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Advanced metrics and analytics
Strava number crunches all of your ride data such as heart rate, power and speed and creates easy to understand graphs, allowing you to analyse your performance without the headache. Useful numbers include intensity, charted power, weighted average power, power curve and your training load.
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GPX downloads
See a route that looks fun? With Premium, Strava allows you to download the exact route, enabling you to upload to your Garmin and get turn by turn directions to complete the same route as your mate (and hopefully beating their segment times at the same time).
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Live segments and data feedback
With the updated Garmin Edge’s, you can get live notifications and monitoring of your favourite segments – trust us, this gives you that little bit of extra motivation to smash your PR! You also get all of the essential live data streamed to your phone including time, speed, distances and maps.
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Personalised coaching
It’s been proven that training to a structured plan gives you better better results. Personalised coaching can cost hundreds of pounds, but with Strava have partnered with Carmichael Training Systems to give you fully customised plans emailed to you every week!
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Indoor cycling videos
Training indoors on the turbo is great fun! Said nobody, ever. It can yield some great results and gives you the most time/performance. You can often complete a days training in under an hour with focussed efforts, but it’s usually mind numbingly boring and hard to keep motivated. CTS provide Strava Premium users with a few different videos that give you structure to the workout whilst keeping you entertained.
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Get two free months of Zwift!
Simply connect your new Strava Premium account with Zwift and you’ll get 2 months of Zwift, the online training game! This is an awesome deal and we guarantee it’ll change the way you feel about your turbo.
So there you have it, six reasons to upgrade. Not only will you benefit from all of the extra features, you’ll also be supporting a great company and ensure the service will still be running in a few years. There’s a load more benefits that aren’t listed here, so be sure to check out strava.com/premium to learn more and let us know if you decide to upgrade!