Because boasting the fastest speed or best time isn’t enough. Showing off your raw power numbers is how you really impress. And now Strava will let you compare those figures against your riding buddies. It also compiles them into useable data charts and graphs that help make sense of the info, making them more useful for, you know, actual productive training. They’ve also added HR and GPX tools, which might actually provide enough incentive for some folks to consider upgrading from the quite capable free version.
PRESS RELEASE: Strava has announced a suite of new power meter features for Strava Premium that will help members gain more useful data to guide their training and their overall experience of social fitness. In the same way that they compare segments and ride times, Premium Members will now be able to share and analyze the technical training data that only a power meter can provide.
Strava’s new Advanced Power Training Analysis, available now, dissects and displays power meter data to provide new ways to analyze rides and organize training programs. After uploading their rides, Strava Premium members can dive into their ride data through customizable charts and graphs.
“Advance Power Training Analysis is part of a growing set of Premium features designed to further motivate our athletes, help them train more intelligently, and have fun while doing it,” said Michael Horvath, Co-Founder and CEO. “Smarter, more motivated athletes will perform better and we have a lot lined up to help our Premium members in 2013.”
This initial set of power meter features includes:
- Power Curve: This graph shows a rider’s average power for time periods from 1 second up to the length of the given ride. It pinpoints best efforts during a ride and lets the user compare them to best efforts over the previous six weeks, current year, previous years, or all time. And the data can be displayed in total watts or watts per kilogram.
- Power Zones: This seven-zone feature helps users train smarter and more efficiently by dialing in their training zones to see how much time they spend at various effort levels.
- Power Comparison: Shows users how they attack a ride and compares their performance against their friends, locals and pros.
- Weighted Power Average: Looks at all of the power variation and provides an average for the ride, which is a better indicator of overall effort than simply taking average power.
- Training Load: Strava calculates this by comparing power during a ride with the user’s Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and analyzing the load put on the body during the ride. This is helpful for determining how much rest to get after a workout.
Additionally, Premium members can now set custom heart rate zones to quantify the intensity levels of their workouts, download GPX files from Strava.com and load them onto their Garmin, plus set time and distance goals and track their progress week over week. Learn more at www.strava.com/premium.
