Thats rightyou just cant beat Strava.

And I say this knowing full well that it has its problems.

Do I think Strava is a good company doing nothing but responsible things?

No, not really.

Thepremium subscriptionruns $11.99/month, or $79.99/year, with student and family discounts available.

(And yes, Strava is also a cycling app.

Were only discussing the running-specific features today.)

Sync that data to Strava, though, and youll get much more.

It will break your pace and heart rate into zones.

It will include a note about the weather conditions at the exact time you were running.

Strava also keeps track of my weekly and monthly mileage.

Lets talk about those other features.

Thats a big part of the draw here, too.

And for many of us, thats fun, motivating, or both.

A Strava segment is a stretch of road or trail that exists somewhere in the world.

Somebody has designated it as a Strava segment namedDam You.

The fastest mens time is 39 seconds, and the fastest womens time is 54 seconds.

Click that link, and youll be able to see who holds those titles.

Youll also see who holds Local Legend status on that segment.

The Local Legend is the person who has execute the segment mostoften, regardless of speed.

Dam Yous Local Legend has run it 33 times in the last 90 days.

But the app keeps track.

Ive apparently run Dam You 13 times in the past year.

I rank #2,644 out of the 5,454 runners on the leaderboard.

Climbing to the top of that list would be a serious accomplishment, should I choose to pursue it.

One is a hill that I found by browsing the segment explorer for the steepest grades in my neighborhood.

If not for Stravas segments, I would never have noticed this hill.

But now, its one of my favorites forhill repeats.

I find that knowing about segments makes my runs a little more fun.

Its satisfying to get the little PR medal when I beat my own best time.

What you get for free: Locations of segments, your times on segments.

All that data it hoovers up from your public runs?

Strava uses that to create heatmaps of where runners like to go.

Then, when you initiate the mapping tab of the app, youre automatically treated to several suggested routes.

Ive also used these features to find places to run in my hometown.

Your friends who run?

Theyre probably all on it, or they will be soon.

If you want to share activities and send kudos to each other, this is the app for you.

Strava also syncs with all the major apps and devices.

So if you just want to use the app that everyone is using, this is it.