MARGINAL GAINS

Outside mainstream social media companies, a growing number of run-tracking giants have added burgeoning communities to their data-gathering. It’s a potent mix for anyone who wants help analysing their latest run stats.

STRAVA Data + Community BEST FOR Friendly competition, elites’ training stats

Last year in the UK, the number of runners using this activity-sharing network overtook the number of cyclists who pore over it. And with features going into great depth on personal performance-analysis, coupled with a competitive global community, it’s easy to see why it’s a magnet for runners seeking to improve their performance.

Like Facebook, Strava lets other runners trigger your dopamine receptors with its ‘like’ equivalent, ‘kudos’. And like Instagram, you’ll find inspirational run images. But it’s the powerful combination of data and community that makes Strava such a potent performance enhancer.

You can follow lots of elites and delve into their data, checking the miles and splits of runners such as trail legend Jez Bragg, 1500m runner Robbie Fitzgibbon or ultra runner Steve Way.

For comparisons a little closer to your own capabilities, a simple search will find runners who’ve already run the race you’re training for, and even in your target time. From their stats, it’s possible to see both how they trained and how they approached the race. You can tease out details such as the course elevation, pacing analysis and anywhere they struggled, painting a picture that you won’t get on the official site. You can even connect with individuals and ask race-specific advice.

Analysing the warts-and-all performance stats of thousands of runners is something running coach Tim George uses with his athletes. ‘Often with Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, people only share their best runs,’ says George. ‘ With Strava you get the whole picture.’

Lane believes this can be a powerful psychological tool, too. ‘Strava data helps identify races and runs where athletes felt at their best and, via reflection, develop a strong awareness of that winning feeling,’ says Lane. ‘From there, it is then possible to put together a personal programme to help a runner achieve that winning feeling.'

Lane also suggests using Strava’s ‘segments’ feature to track interval sessions. ‘ With segments you don’t need to press stop and start – it automatically creates your own league table and it’s then easy to compare performances,’ says Lane. And it’s not just a faff-saving hack. ‘Seeing yourself improve is a great way to build confidence,’ says Lane. ‘And you can also compare your improvement against others.’

Signing up to one of Strava’s many clubs and challenges is great for motivation, too. Strava data

shows nine out of 10 users who set a goal in January 2017 were still exercising at the end of the year. ‘I think challenges are the most powerful feature,’ says George. ‘ When there isn’t a race in the calendar to provide focus, the challenges are excellent motivators.’ The statistics back up George’s contention, with Strava figures showing that members run seven seconds per mile (five seconds per km) faster and 1.3 miles (2.1km) further when with a group.

SMASHRUN Statotopia BEST FOR Benchmarking yourself, motivating challenges

Smashrun is not a social network in the normal sense: you can follow other runners, but you can’t ‘chat’ with them. What you can do is upload your running data from almost any source and compare yourself against a huge global running community.

Possibly the ultimate traininganalysis tool, Smashrun converts your statistics into brilliant visual graphics on an easy-to-use dashboard. You can see stats for every week, every year, longest run streaks, run breaks, distance versus run pace and so on. You can also isolate weeks when you’ve run, say, 40+ miles, or runs by distance from one mile to a marathon; see personal bests and drill into the detail for each; and it allows you to annotate route maps with details. ‘For runners looking to improve, Smashrun provides actionable insights,’ says Gareth Beavis, running-technology expert at Techradar.com. ‘For example, you can see if you run faster at a certain time of the day.’

As with Strava, you can add friends and use their data to help you with your own training and race prep. ‘If you find motivation in competition, Smashrun has huge benefits,’ says Beavis. ‘You can create leaderboards for distance, speed and devotion, and compare your performance with people around the planet.’ There are medals for top performers and Smashrun encourages you to push harder, revealing what you need to do in order to win a gong in your demographic group.

There’s also a useful challenge feature where you earn badges for a wide variety of running achievements. ‘The badges suit all different types of runner,’ says Beavis, who spent a year collecting 114 of the 115 available. ‘There’s a badge for running 300 miles in a month, and for running the equivalent of the Matterhorn’s elevation. So it encourages you to look at running more broadly. It brings exploration and fun, it’s a great enticement to look beyond your normal run routine.’

The benefits of this go beyond motivation: ‘ Working out how to earn each badge made me a phenomenally better runner,’ adds Beavis. ‘For one, I had to suss out how to run 10km with no more than three per cent variance in pace – that’s a very narrow window and it took a lot of trial and error and taught me about steady pacing.’