Strava Elevation Gain: How to correct and manually add elevation to your Strava Activity
If you’re a vert nerd like me (sometimes), I like to ensure I’m tracking this as accurately as possible. This is particularly important if you’re trying to do race-specific sessions or long runs, and want accurate data from the run to upload to Strava or be recorded on Strava. A big question I had recently was, how do I manually add in a run with vert? For example, if I do a treadmill run with an incline:
How do I know how much vertical gain I climbed? (particularly if you can’t sync your watch to the treadmill via Bluetooth)
How do I add this in vertical gain manually to Strava?
Let’s break it down.
How do I figure out how much I climbed during my treadmill run?
Moab half marathon, 2022.
It’s hard to figure out how much you’ve climbed on the treadmill if you are constantly changing gradients. However, if you plan on how much mileage you’ll run at a certain gradient, you can figure out just about how much you climbed during your treadmill run. I personally use this resource to figure out the specifics of my run, based on how much gradient I need to put on the treadmill to simulate my mountain run. Calculate Elevation Gain on a Treadmill workout, Click here.
The other option is to sync your tracking device to the treadmill via Bluetooth if this option is available. This can sometimes allow for elevation tracking.
How do I add this in vertical gain manually to Strava?
It would be so cool if we could do this on the app, but it’s not possible. What is possible from the Strava app standpoint is the ability to adjust elevation gain to match the map data or your watch data. Often if your data looks whack when you upload it from your watch to Strava, all you need to do is adjust elevation (no more bonus vert or under-measuring vert!) See my screenshot below on how to do all of this.
How to add Vertical Gain manually on the Strava Website:
1. On the top right-hand corner click the plus sign, then click ‘Add manual entry’
2. On the ‘Manual Entry’ page, you’ll see ‘elevation’. Type in your elevation from your treadmill run or activity here:
How to adjust incorrect elevation on Strava Web:
Click into your activity, and then hit the 3 dots on the left-hand column. Here a menu will appear. Hit, ‘Correct Elevation’. You can always revert this using the same method too. See the screenshot below:
How to adjust elevation on the Strava App
In the app, click on your activity. Hit the 3 dots up top to the far right-hand side. Click ‘ Adjust Elevation’. See screenshot.
What is the difference between elevation gain and max elevation Strava?
Elevation gain is the total amount climbed over the duration of your activity. Max elevation is a recording of the highest point you attained during your activity. You can see these stats by opening up your activity and clicking ‘View Analysis’.
How does elevation gain work on Strava?
Strava uses a combination of GPS and barometric pressure data to calculate elevation gain on activities. The GPS data provides information about the distance traveled, while the barometric pressure data is used to measure changes in altitude. By combining these two pieces of information, Strava can calculate the total elevation gain for an activity.
Barometric pressure sensors are present on many GPS devices, including most modern smartphones. These sensors measure changes in air pressure, which can be used to estimate changes in altitude. Strava uses this data to calculate elevation gain by identifying the change in altitude between each data point in an activity and summing up the positive changes in elevation.
It is worth noting that the accuracy of elevation gain calculations can be affected by factors such as signal quality, weather conditions, and device calibration. In some cases, Strava may also apply filtering algorithms to the data to remove noise and ensure more accurate results.
My friend and I friend have different elevation data on Strava, why?
If you have differences in elevation data say with a teammate who ran the same route, it is likely due to differing GPS device data. Discussed above is how to adjust elevation data on both the Strava App and Strava website so it is more accurate. Strava will utilize inbuilt map elevation data to provide you with a better reading, overriding the GPS data provided. However, you can readjust this.
Is Strava elevation gain accurate?
Strava’s GPS data accuracy can depend on several factors, such as the device used to record the activity, the signal strength, the location, and the environment.
In general, Strava’s GPS data can be quite accurate, with an error margin of a few meters or less. However, there are cases where the data may be less accurate due to signal interference, such as tall buildings or dense forests. GPS signals can also be affected by weather conditions such as cloud cover, precipitation, or even solar flares.
Strava uses a number of techniques to improve the accuracy of its GPS data, including data smoothing, noise filtering, and advanced algorithms that can correct errors in GPS signals. Additionally, Strava’s data analysis tools can help identify and remove anomalous data points, which can further improve accuracy.
Overall, while there is no guarantee of perfect accuracy with any GPS tracking system, Strava’s GPS data is generally reliable and accurate enough for most users. If precise measurements are required, it may be beneficial to use a dedicated GPS device or consider other options for improving accuracy.
Does elevation gain include downhill?
No, elevation gain is solely the climbing (the ‘gain) you attained during your activity.
Strava Clubs are an excellent place to establish a community (a particularly active community) for your brand. I’m a big fan of Strava Clubs for many reasons. Strava Clubs are a great way to connect athletes with similar interests and/or goals in one place. Many businesses and sports clubs want to create a club on Strava for purposes such as connecting their team members, conducting virtual challenges, sharing meaningful content, and keeping each other inspired and accountable with their training goals.
Strava Clubs are interesting from a marketing perspective as they allow an outdoors and athlete-focused brand to establish themselves in a place where they are reaching their key target market. You don’t have to cast your net far and wide to interact with people who may interact with your brand and the community you foster around it.
We can compare it to Instagram to put it in perspective. Our Instagram feed shows us content within our areas of interest. It is designed this way, and we build our profiles in this way – to see exactly what we want, in a quick fix, at our fingertips. For example, my feed is full of posts revolving around outdoor trail running, climate change advocacy and projects, other mountain sports, and of course, content from my friends and family. It’s what I’m interested in and it’s the quickest way for me to fulfill that interest via social media.
What can I do with a Strava Club?
I’m going to talk through each of these below. First, here’s a brief summary – once you’ve set up a Strava Club, you can:
Get your Brand Kit uploaded! – You’ll need a logo and banner within certain pixels for best aesthetics.
Logo – 248x 248 (PNG or JPG)
Banner or Club Header – a minimum of 1200x 580 px, I found 1584 x 396 px was good
Profile Picture – 124 x 124 px (JPG and PNG)
Invite Athletes to join your club and engage with your community
You can invite them via Strava, send them an email link, or even post on your personal profile a link to your club and a CTA to join!
Share your latest content as a discussion – anything from blog articles, race information, strava challenge promotion (for your own club challenge or an official Strava sponsored challenge) – read more about that by clicking here.
Organize meet-ups and strava club events – you can schedule a day, time and place, and invite your Strava Club members to join. If you’re digital marketing savvy, you can promote this across your social platforms. Or, speak to me about this here.
Engage with your club leaderboard – that stats of your club members’ activities will be featured as a leaderboard.
Promote your Strava Club Challenge – I’m not referring to a Strava Sponsored Challenge here. I can show you how to create or leverage a Strava challenge for your club, promote your challenge and determine your winners.
Need my help building a club, learning how to create and promote Strava challenges for your club, or growing your brand presence on Strava in general? Get in touch.
or fill out my contact form, and I’ll get back to you.
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How do I create a Strava Club?
Creating a club on Strava needs to be done via the Strava Website, rather than the Strava Mobile App.
Go to Explore, and hit Clubs in the dropdown menu.
Click ‘Create A Club’ – the black icon in the right hand corner, above the brand club logo cluster.
Fill in the required details for your club. Make sure your club URL/Slug is SEO Optimized for your brand.
You’ll next be prompted to upload your club/brand logo and club header. I specified the required image pixels above. Here it is again for good measure.
Logo – 248x 248 (PNG or JPG)
Banner or Club Header – a minimum of 1200x 580 px, I found 1584 x 396 px was good
Profile Picture – 124 x 124 px (JPG and PNG)
I created this club early last year at the height of COVID as a way of connecting runners around Idaho and anywhere else! See my screenshot below.
If I was actively using this club at the moment, I would change the logo so the letters are more visible, and reduce the pixelated look of my cover image. Just a few pointers to mention.
You’ll notice I have put my website in the club name, and also below the club location. This is a must for brand-affiliated clubs. The club URL slug is also important to match up with your brand name
How do Strava Club Members record their activities?
Strava Club members have 2 choices here. They can record their activities either using the Strava Mobile Application itself or by syncing their sports watch with the Strava Application.
To record using the mobile application, open the app, and hit the RECORD button at the bottom horizontal menu options.
How do I Create A Strava Club Event?
On your Strava Club Homepage, hit the bright orange icon, ‘Add Club Event’.
A pop-up will appear on the screen. See my screenshot below.
You’ll see an option to Select a Route. This brings me to my next step. How to create a Route for your Strava Club Event.
How do I create a Route for my Strava Club Event?
Click the blue hyperlinked ‘Create one now’ under the Route drop-down menu.
Type in the location you’d like to begin your run from, in the search bar above the map.
Drag your cursor and click to draw your route, clicking to drop a point at your finishing destination. See my screenshot below for an example. I also clicked ‘show 3D terrain’ under map preferences. A new Strava Routes feature.
In the top right-hand corner, hit the bright orange ‘Save’ icon. A pop-up will appear, fill out the details and save them to your routes. See my screenshot.
It’ll then be available as an option for your Strava Club in-person/live event.
Is it free to create a club on Strava?
Creating a club on Strava is entirely free!
The only component of Strava that involves a cost is Strava Business Sponsored Challenges. I wrote a whole article discussing this, including an assessment of the criteria Strava has established (click here to read their FAQ around Strava Sponsored Challenges) around Strava Sponsored Challenges.
You can read my article here.
Can you create your own challenge on Strava?
There are multiple ways to create a Strava Challenge for your own personal profile, or for your Strava Club. This can be achieved by:
Strava Route or Segment Challenges, designed with a location-specific Club Challenge in Mind
Leveraging a Strava Challenge and utilizing it for your club, promoting it in your club and across your social media.
The Strava Group Challenge feature, where you can invite up to 24 athletes to participate. This is not the best option for a club as your options are more limited.
Or a Strava Custom Challenge, also known as a Strava Sponsored Challenge or a Strava Business Sponsored Challenge.
Strava Sponsored Challenges are a more expensive route. You can read more about them here on the Strava Website.
To give you a brief outline, Strava has a minimum investment of 20,000USD for Sponsored custom challenges. You must also fulfill the following criteria:
“Strava focuses on brands who are endemic to the fitness space, given the types of users on our platform. Here are the criteria we look at:
The sponsor’s product is endemic to the fitness space (i.e. New Balance running shoes, Trek bikes, Clif bar nutrition, etc.)
The sponsor has an existing relationship with a popular event (i.e. The Virgin Money London Marathon, TCS New York City Marathon, etc.)
The sponsor already supports athletic initiatives (i.e. Michelob Ultra’s focus on fitness/wellness etc.)”
I wrote a whole article on Strava Challenges – click here to read it. I will walk you through how you can do each of the options above.
I have worked in Digital Growth Marketing for the past 5 years and am an elite distance runner and outdoor athlete. Let me know if I can help you establish a presence on Strava, or start optimizing your club for brand reach and engagement.
If you’re like me and like to explore new places on foot (or occasionally, bike or ski), optimizing your ability to create Strava segments and follow your creations is a must.
Making use of the awesome create segment Strava feature is a must for any premium strava user. If you’re paying for Strava Premium, you may as well optimize your experience. I see and hear of many users who aren’t even aware of half of the things they can do with a premium membership. I write these articles to educate you on how to make the most of your Strava Membership and experience. Need more help? – click to contact me here.
Create a Strava Segment feature/Create a route that allows you to plan training routes, including elevation, surface, distance, and projected time on feet, set up segment-based Strava challenges for your club or business, and explore new outdoor playgrounds for prospective training.
To make your own segment on Strava is now relatively easy. The use the create segment Strava feature, however, you need to be a Strava Premium user.
All Strava users can, however, compete on segments and score on a leaderboard. To appear on leaderboards the user needs to have the activity in public, not private or followers only. Cue notorious Strava Segment hunters!
Here’s how to create segment on Strava using the Strava website. First, click on the Explore tab dropdown menu on the top of the webpage, and click create a route. See my screenshot below:
Next, you’ll need to type in the search bar, where I’ve typed ‘Mount Hood, Oregon’ as an example in, the location where you would like to create a strava segment.
In the screenshot below, I’ve selected a road in Boise, Idaho.
The orange line on N Cartwright Road is one I’ve drawn. The map is interactive, meaning you can click and draw lines on the most reasonable roads/accessible by foot areas on the map.
I began this segment example on N Bogus Basin road and finished it at an intersection on N Cartwright Road (please note, this is for example only, I haven’t actually created this as a segment).
Notice all the options on the left-hand menu – I click to ‘Show Segments’ under Map Preferences, to see what areas around me already have segments. This prevents me from potentially creating a duplicate Strava segment.
Once you’re happy with the segment you’ve created, check the elevation, distance, and other stats in the horizontal stat bar on the bottom of the map, click the ‘Save’ icon (bright orange, far left corner of the screen).
Next, you’ll be prompted to save your route and customize it. See the screenshot below.
My Routes: Running your own Strava Segment
You can find your created Routes or Strava Segments under the Dashboard tab, and the dropdown menu which has a ‘My Routes’ option. See the screenshot below for example.
So, how do you follow/run/ride/ski/hike your route? There are a few ways…
Follow your Strava Segment on the Strava Mobile App
If you literally want to follow your Strava segment on the Strava Mobile App (this would mean you need to carry your phone with you), it is very simple.
Go to the record screen, and hit Routes.
There’ll be an option to ‘Use Route’ – hit that. Boom.
Export your Strava Segment onto a GPS Device
If you have a Garmin Watch that supports Courses, you can export your route data to your watch. First, you have to make sure that Strava Courses/Routes connection is enabled between your GPS device and Strava.
There are 2 ways to do this – from the Garmin Connect App, and The Garmin Connect Website.
Enable Strava to Garmin connection via the Garmin Connect Website
On the Garmin Website in your User/Account information, make sure Strava has permission to access Activities and Courses. Both toggles should be switched on to green.
Next, Sync your Strava Segments and/or Routes to your Garmin
Now that Strava and Garmin are synced, it’s time to import the Strava Segment and/or route onto your watch. To do this, make sure your route is both public, and ‘starred’. What the heck does ‘Starred’ mean?
See my screenshot below.
This is the Strava website view – I’ve starred my ultra training long run so I can upload it to my watch. Again, I got to ‘My Routes’ under the dropdown ‘Dashboard’ menu running horizontally at the top of the Strava Website. The Star is to the left, next to the title. Any starred routes will appear in the ‘Courses’ folder of your Garmin watch after you next sync it with Strava.
On the mobile app, you can also star your routes. Go into maps and type in your desired location. For me, I’ve used Sydney Olympic Park as an example. See the Screenshot below.
Next, I clicked on the first route option, ‘See details’. I was taken to the next screenshot below.
If you hit ‘Save’, you’ll get taken to another page where you can ‘star’ the route. Hitting Save I believe automatically stars the route and adds it to your saved route page, seen earlier. From there, you can go to the record page and select the icon I’ve screenshot below, to get access to your saved and starred routes.
Export your Strava Segment via GPX or TCX file.
On the screenshot above, you’ll see two tabs below the title. One is Export GPX and one is Export TCX. These options are here in case the other options for Syncing routes are not possible for you.
If you already have a maps feature installed on your GPS device, I suggest exporting in GPX form. The opposite is true if you don’t – then export it in TCX. Plug your device into your laptop, and drag it to the necessary maps folder. The device will often be recognized as a USB if it requires a TCX file.
Print out your Segment Map. I am not joking. Strava Suggests this
As I have written above. Old Skool.
For more info on sharing and exporting routes across different devices, see Strava’s own article by clicking the link here: Strava Support – Routes
Strava Segment Explore
Segment Explore on Strava is the place where you can explore already existing segments for all sports available on Strava, and varied surface types/elevation and routes.
My screenshot above of a Strava Explore example I conducted for the Mount Hood, Oregon area – known for its trails and outdoor sports. Here I explored all segments for ‘Running’ and of ‘All’ variety, which options are available to the right of the search bar.
How do I use Strava Segments?
Every time you go for a ride, run, or walk, once you upload your activity to Strava, any segments you completed will appear in your activity summary. If your activity is on public, you may appear on the leaderboard. If you were particularly fast on that day, you may achieve a trophy or crown. All part of the fun of Strava.
Are Strava Segments free?
Competing in Strava Segments is entirely free, however, the create segment Strava feature is for premium members only at present.
Why does Strava not show all segments?
The Strava mobile app or Strava website may not show all segments if you have filtered out certain surfaces, or it is accidentally set on another sport. Make sure surface type is set to ‘all’ and you are looking at segments from your sport of choice.
If Strava segments aren’t appearing on your activity, it could be because your GPS has drifted or uncalibrated during the activity, or you’ve paused your watch during the segment.
Strava Club Challenges using a Strava Segment
When you create a Strava Segment, it generates a URL. Copy and paste the URL from the route page on the Strava Website and paste it into the bio of your club. See my screenshot for an example below:
Make sure the segment is set to public. The ‘JULY SEGMENT CHALLENGE: (URL)’, allows people to run the route and record a time. At the end of the month, I’ll check the leaderboard for the route, and filter it out by just members of the club. This will show me who has recorded the fastest times.
Still need help? Contact me by filling out the form below.
The creators are calling this Strava Update the biggest update of the year. You can now create Strava Group Challenges for free, have access to personalized Strava Segment suggestions and map feature upgrades. I recently updated my Strava Challenge or How to Create A Strava Challenge article to display the most up-to-date steps on this process now that there has been a Strava app update. Over the past year, I’ve had many athletes, clubs, and businesses reach out asking how to create a Strava challenge, and I’ve had to guide them through what used to be some tricker steps. Thanks to this update, creating a strava challenge is now extremely simple. Click the link for a step-by-step guide on how to create a strava challenge for free!
However, you do have to be a Strava Subscriber to create Strava Group Challenges. Alternatively, I discuss how to create sponsored strava challenges (paid), and strava challenges for your strava club which are entirely free.
Strava Marketing Consulting
Hire me as your Strava Consultant – I work with individuals, clubs, businesses, and start-ups. Get in touch with the form below:
Strava App Update
The Strava app update has allowed users to engage in a much more customizable manner with the digital platform than ever before. Below I’ll discuss the specifics of each individual component of the Strava app update.
The ability to Create Strava Group Challenges, in my personal opinion, is the best update of this launch. Here’s a breakdown of what you can and can’t do with this feature:
Creating a Strava Group Challenge: The Basics
You can create a Strava Group Challenge for any of the 32 different sports that Strava offers. Think along the lines of run, bike, swim, hike, alpine ski, backcountry ski, canoe, nordic ski, kayaking, surfing. You name it. Amazing.
You can control the time limit on your Strava Group Challenge. Anything from a day to a year. I tested out creating a challenge for over a year, but it auto-reverts you back to a year.
You can invite athletes to your Strava Challenge, but they must be following you.
The cap on athletes you can invite is 24 athletes
Strava Group Challenges are Private Challenges. These aren’t like the sponsored challenges you can join, which are likely brand affiliated.
You must have your activities set to public or followers only if you want the activity to count for the challenge and be ranked on the leaderboard.
A funky feature: Strava Photos affiliated with the activity (the ones you upload) will be featured on the group challenge page. How neat!
You can choose whether you compete for total distance, time or elevation in the window of time the challenge runs for.
‘Fastest Effort’
Simple. How fast can you run or wheelchair compete over a distance of your choice.
‘Longest Single Activity’
Also simple. A competition for the most distance someone can complete in one single activity upload. You must set a minimum distance for this challenge.
Strava Group Challenges for Non-Subscribers: What can you do?
For non-subscriber (non-premium Strava members), you can create up to 3 Strava Group Challenges for free. If you want to test the feature and create unlimited challenges, you can always sign up for your free Strava Premium trial by clicking here.
Non-subscribers can join up to 3 Strava Group Challenges.
Strava will encourage you to sign up to Strava Premium after reaching the 3 participation/creation limit.
Strava Club Challenges: What does it mean for your Strava Club Challenge?
For Strava Club Challenges, this isn’t the best option. We are capped at 24/25 athletes in total, and those athletes must be following your personal Strava account. You’d then have to personally invite them to your group challenge.
This may be user-friendly for small athletic clubs, friend challenges, or a small workplace, but isn’t the most ideal way to create a challenge for your Strava Club.
I can walk you through how to Create A Strava Club Challenge in my Create a Strava Challenge article, click here. Alternatively, contact me personally via the form below.
Every seasoned Strava user is familiar with Strava Segments, Strava Segment hunters (haha!), and achieving personal bests, crowns, and all that fun stuff.
Strava Segment Suggestions now personally recommend routes and new segments for you to run, ride, hike, ski, etc. What’s pretty neat about this new feature is the user-friendly organization of segment discovery. There are 6 categories of suggestions.
Most popular roads near you
New segments you haven’t tried and tested
Break a PR/PB: Strava will show you segments where you are super close to breaking a PR!
Climb the Strava leaderboard rankings
Become the new Strava Local Legend
Complete a workout incorporating new areas and/or new Strava Segments
Strava users can also filter suggested segments and routes by distance, activity type (run/bike, etc.), elevation, and surface. I personally love the surface feature, as it allows me to choose when I hit the trails or the concrete.
Strava Challenges: How To Create Strava Challenges For Your Strava Club or a group
In this article I’ll discuss how to create:
Strava Group Challenges (The June 2021 Strava Mobile-App Update)
Strava Sponsored Challenges
Strava Club Challenges
The Strava Update in June 2021 means that users can now use the Strava mobile app to create Strava Group Challenges or Strava Challenges for free. I was recently asked to expand on the process of creating a Strava Club Challenge by a few running companies, individuals, and groups, who have a goal of providing their members with virtual races during the shift to an increasingly virtual world amidst the global pandemic. It inspired me to write a walk-through post dedicated to creating Strava Club Challenges and now, Strava Group Challenges after the Strava Challenge Update.
What is to note, however, is this isn’t specifically an update to be able to create Strava club challenges, this is for creating Strava group challenges, which means you don’t have to have a club to create a Strava Challenge.
Strava Marketing Consulting
Want one on one help? Hire me as your Strava Consultant – I work with individuals, clubs, businesses, and start-ups. Get in touch with the form below:
Strava Group Challenges: How to Create Strava Group Challenge
Create a Strava Group Challenge. I will walk you through how to create a Strava group challenge, entirely free on the mobile app (only, hopefully, they update this to the main website also shortly). Please note, this is different from a Strava Club Challenge, which are Challenges for Strava Clubs. However, I will walk through how we can use the Strava Group Challenge method to create a club challenge further on!
For this article, I created a Strava Group Challenge, called test challenge 1.
On your Strava app, click the ‘Groups’ icon on the bottom right of the app, which will take you to the page in the screenshot below.
Next, hit the + create a group challenge, which will take you to a screen where you can choose whether to base your challenge off who can complete the most activity, who can complete an activity in the fastest time possible, or who can go the distance – see screenshot below.
You’ll then be taken on a step-by-step process to decide on the specifics of your challenge. You’ll be asked about time frame specifics, which is a great new addition, and you can then choose which athletes to invite.
I decided to click ‘Challenge settings’ (the 3 orange dots in the far right top hand corner) to see what else Strava Club Challenges offer users.
It turns out users can allow other invitees (or people you invited to the challenge), to invite others to the challenge if you click the toggle to on, which I have done. See the screenshot below.
Great! Now you’ve created a Strava Group Challenge. You could try this with your local run or cycling club, your workplace, friend groups – you name it.
Just remember to have your activity set to Everyone, not Followers Only, so it counts towards the Strava Group Challenge you’ve created.
Still need help? I’d be happy to walk you through personally – Contact me here.
What are Strava Sponsored Challenges, How do I create a Strava Sponsored Challenge?
Strava Sponsored Challenges are a tier of Strava Business. The reality is, Strava Sponsored Challenges are expensive and therefore not within the budget of many Small Businesses operating a Strava Club, let alone virtual running clubs that use Strava as their base/platform to operate. The Strava Business platform explains that the Sponsored Challenges start at USD 15,000, with the maximum investment being -200k. These challenges “scale based on duration, targeting, and promotion.” This means that you have the benefit of choosing whether your sponsored challenge is:
Distance-based (Eg. Run your fastest 10k)
Time-based (Eg. Complete 10 hours of running this fortnight)
Duration based (Eg. Run 100km this month, or 30 minutes 5x a week)
Elevation-based (Eg. How far can you climb in a month!)
Users would also receive a custom brand-designed badge for their Strava Badge cabinet. These small components help boost the impressions of your brand on Strava, likely generating new followers, club members, and fans of your brand on Strava.
If you see an official Strava virtual race advertised, this is an official Strava Sponsored Challenge. If you’re interested in investing in a Strava Sponsored Challenge, you can get in touch with Strava through the FAQ page.
To enquire about a sponsored challenge, follow this link and hit the ‘Get In Touch’ orange bar at the top right corner of the page. See the screenshot below for an example.
For now, let’s walk through how we set up Strava Group Challenges and Strava Club Challenges, now completely free.
Previously we had only 2 options when it comes to setting up a Strava Challenge for your club, free of cost.
A Strava Segment Challenge
Utilizing the Strava Monthly Run Challenges created by Strava, and filtering the leaderboard to view your ‘Club’ member attempts only.
The new 3rd option, creating a Strava Group Challenge.
I’ll walk you through each option below…
1. Strava Segment Challenges: How to utilize Strava Segments to Create a Club Challenge.
Strava Segments are lots of fun, there are those athletes who are familiar with the term ‘segment hunting’ (I myself don’t participate in this), providing consistent mini ‘race like’ efforts to users who seek to achieve the best effort (time) on a particular GPS plotted map course (segment). If you’re a Strava Premium user, you can draw your own segments and publish them for your own personal use, or, as we are about to discuss, as your course for a Strava Club Challenge.
Strava Segments work via GPS Sports watch connection to the Strava app, the GPS route will then be recognized by Strava as a ‘route’ with particular segments that have been run. It will then upload the athlete’s effort for that particular route to Strava.
See my screenshot below of a past Virtual Run I completed hosted by the Strava Club – ‘Pace Athletic’. Pace Athletic used the Spit to Manly Strava Segment as their Strava Segment Challenge course.
When the athlete has finished their effort on the Strava segment, Strava will place the effort onto the segment leaderboard. This is accessible via the segment homepage. In this case, the ‘Spit to Manly’ segment. In the screenshot displayed below, there is a grey box down on the bottom right of the screen. See ‘View Overall Leaderboard’? Click on that!
The Pace Athletic Strava Run Club will determine their segment challenge winner by filtering out the leaderboard to just ‘Club’ member efforts. You can select your club on the dashboard to the far left by hitting the name of your club, under ‘My Clubs’. See the screenshot below for an example.
This is a great example of a local running business establishing a Strava Club, and then using a popular Strava Segment to set up a club challenge. It will promote their brand, services, and spread camaraderie associated with the brand. I personally completed this challenge and won’t forget it for a while – it is great real-time marketing, connecting dedicated and motivated athletes directly with the business or brand.
The great thing about a segment challenge and filtering out a leaderboard for club-specific results is, it is entirely free!
2. Strava Run Challenges: How to utilize the Strava Monthly Run Challenges as a Club Challenge.
Option number 2.
First, click on the Challenge tab at the top of the Strava Page Dashboard. It’s underlined in orange at the top of the page in the screenshot below. Here’s a link to Strava to get you going.
You’ll notice all the Strava Challenges appear on the page. See the screenshot below – As an example, let’s click into the ‘October 5k’ on the bottom row, one to the right. Here’s a quick link to the page: Strava October 5k Run Challenge
Next, you’ll be directed through to the October Strava 5K homepage, as shown in the screenshot below:
Displayed in the screenshot above, see the tabs running horizontally above the bolded word ‘Leaderboard’? Two tabs across hit ‘ My Clubs’. This will filter out the results just to include the members of your club who have joined the Strava Run Challenge and completed 5k in that particular month, so in this case, October. Here’s a link to the challenge page if you’re interested: Strava October 5k
This is how we determine our ‘winners’ if it is a prize incentive-based challenge. At the end of the month, be sure to check the leaderboard and take note of your winners.
3. Strava Group Challenges: How to utilize the Strava Update Feature to create a Club Challenge
Option number 3. The June 2021 Strava mobile app update, Strava Group Challenges.
I walked through earlier in this article how to create a Strava Group Challenge. It requires two things:
The Strava Mobile App
Being a Strava Premium Subscriber.
This option is really only best for small sized clubs right now, because you have to individually invite each member, and you personally have to be following them on your individual athlete account. I hope Strava will update this in the future to be a club feature also. We will see!
The method is pretty basic for this one.
Create the Group Challenge on the mobile app with the few easy steps we walked through early in this article, and then invite your club members individually.
Create a post on your club, and maybe update the club description to remind your club members to complete the challenge. See my screenshot below for what I mean when I say ‘update your club description’. It’s the textbox below your club name. See how I have the link to a segment challenge (Option 1 from this article), that I created for this club?
Unfortunately you can’t generate a link to your Strava Group Challenge on the mobile app, but maybe in the future it will be possible. I will keep you posted!
Promoting Your Strava Challenge
You have a few options here.
On-Strava promotion
The best ways to promote your challenge on Strava is:
On your Club Page as a post – don’t rely on 1 single post, post about it consistently, create a space for discussion
On your personal Strava athlete profile connected to the Club as a ‘post’
On your Club Homepage under the heading, within your ‘Club Descriptor’ text.
Off-Strava Promotion
Run Facebook Video Ads targeted at individuals with an interest in Strava (Via Facebook Business Ad Manager – do not do a boosted post off your personal Facebook page. Contact me if you need to know why…)
Instagram ‘My Story’ promotion and actual posts, every day or at least every second day, for the duration of your challenge. Facilitate and create engagement with your athlete community.
Post it on your Facebook Business Page each day
Post it as a physical event on Facebook, link directly to the Strava event info on Strava.com, and invite all your Facebook users to the Facebook Event.
After researching Strava Challenges for a few months now, I often would come across the term, ‘Strava Hidden Challenges’. I was interested and found that Strava users were experiencing difficulty finding challenges to suit their abilities and sport each month, hence the term ‘Strava Hidden Challenges’ – Challenges that Strava doesn’t advertise on a large scale.
Enter Komm Club. According to their website, this is a platform that lists all the upcoming, currently active, and past Strava Challenges for Strava users to reference. The platform even allows you to link up Komm club with Strava so you don’t miss out on challenges and would like to be notified as such.
Still need help creating a Strava Club, or a Challenge for your Strava Club? Contact me here.
Hey! I’m Lara, a long-distance runner, and outdoor sports enthusiast. if you want to stay up to date with my latest articles, offers, and happenings, fill out my newsletter form below:
