Weekend Round Up – Strava Segments at UK head Races

Loads of events going on in the UK at the weekend, hundreds if not thousands of rowers taking part, well done to all those that raced.

A little round up to see how many rowers are recording their rows with Strava and so registered on the Strava Segments for the head courses. Some great pre/post race crew selfies!

Worcester Head of the River 6km, 6 rowers recorded the race on the Strava segment. The segment looks to be set up for quite an accurate time when compared to the official timing.  The event was offering £100 to the fastest mens crew and £100 to the fastest womens crew. This went to a Worcester/Worcester Uni/Upper Thames RC composite SEN 8+ for the men (18:25.1), and City of Bristol RC W.IM2 8+ for the women (21:05.71).

Henley 4’s and 8’s Head 3km, 14 rowers recorded the race on the Strava Segment. Most also rowing over the HRR Segment.  The 4’s and 8’s segment is also used for Scullers Head, Upper Thames Head, it has been a little off compared to official timing in these. Again this was the case it seems the start of the segment should be moved a little towards the finish. Leander Eli 8+ fastest mens crew of the day (10:23), Tideway Scullers School fastest womens crew of the day (12:06).

Tyne Head 4.5km, currently no Strava segment it appears 2/3 rowers did record the race using Strava but with no segment set up it is a little difficult to see exact numbers. I keep asking people who row the course to set a Strava segment up or email me a copy of their row on the Tyne. I am also looking into how I can set a segment up without any course GPS info. BUCS Head here next weekend. Durham University BC Eli 4- fastest mens crew of the day (15:28.1), Tyne ARC W.IM2 8+ fastest womens crew of the day (17:58.6).

Molesey Veterans Head 2.85km, 8 rowers recorded the race on the Strava Segment. The segment is a little bit too long by about 27 seconds. Molesey BC MasC-D 8+ fastest mens crew of the day (08:50.7), Weybridge RC fastest womens crew of the day (10:27.7).

City of Bristol Winter Head 3.3km & 2.3km,  5 rowers recorded the race on the long course Strava segment. The segment is a little short, there is a longer one but this then appears too long, Both are out by about 25 seconds. The start of Bristol head is near quite a long tunnel this may cause an issue with GPS. The short course has been introduced because of the construction of a new bridge that makes steering quite tricky, there is not segment that represents the shorter course. Plymouth University Eli 8+ was the fastest mens crew of the day (11:15.0), University of Surrey BC W.SEN.4x- was the fastest womens crew of the day (12:37.7).

Greenwich Head 3.5miles, 2 rowers did record the race using Strava but there is no segment set up. The tideway below Tower Bridge is a barren place for Strava segments.  Poplar, Blackwall and District Rowing Club Nov 8+ fastest mens crew of the day (16:06.83), Poplar, Blackwall and District Rowing Club W IM2 4x- fastest womens crew of the day (16:43.6).

How to create a rowing Strava Segment

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Rowing ‘The Boat Race’ on a Concept2 Indoor Rower and Strava

@BNYMellon and @NewtonIM have donated their sponsorship of The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races @theboatraces to Cancer Research UK @CR_UK.

This year they have organised ‘The Great Row’ a fund raising challenge taking place #pulltogether @pulltogether to encourage everyone to have a go at indoor rowing and to row any distance between 25th March – 1st April 2017 (Challenge Week).

There are further details of the challenge on the Cancer Research UK website.

The event is also running a Celebrity-Olympian boat race. This will be shown on the same day as the Oxford and Cambridge Boats races. You can watch what appears to be the first training session on the Tideway yesterday.

This brings me on to how anyone taking part in the challenge or just rowing indoors can ‘row on the tideway virtually’. Any Concept2 indoor rower with a PM5 monitor can connect to the Android or iOS ErgData app.
ErgData Concept2 app on iOS
ErgData Concept2 app on Android
The ErgData app lets you record your row stroke for stroke the information is broadcast to the app via a Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone. Once the row is finished it can be uploaded to the Concept2 logbook via the app.

Now using a clever and innovative system from @c2_2_Strava at their website p729.com you can connect your Concept2 logbook account to your Strava.com account. The link between the 3 websites is done using ‘tokens’ so that your account password and user name details are not shared.

Once the two accounts are linked you can set it up so that any rows you record with ErgData on the Concept2 indoor rower can be overlaid on to The Boat Races Strava segment. Andrew who is behind @c2_2_Strava has made the segment virtual and any upload from p729.com is classed as virtual on Strava so the leader board will be people who have also rowed the course on a Concept2 rower. Andrew is currently working on letting people virtually row any of the real world Strava segment Regatta and Head race courses that have been created. For now each course is selected by the distance rowed but going forward you should be able to select the course you wish your workout to be overlaid on to. This will make storing the training log of your indoor rows a whole lot more interesting.

If you are wanting to row the boat race course strava segment set a row on your Concept2 for between 6800m and  7240m, maybe best to enter a 7000m row. Complete this and when the row is synced via ErgData and @c2_2Strava to your Strava account the Strava segment  for the Boat Race course will be automatically calculated. Make sure you add the obligatory C2 Monitor pic and a sweaty selfie close up. Once all done share your row from Strava to twitter @pulltogether, @theboatraces and #pulltogether

The Great Row has set up a club Strava page – https://www.strava.com/clubs/TheGreatRow

If you have a Concept2 with an earlier PM3 or PM4 monitor you will require a cable to connect your phone to use the ErgData app, connection kits can be found here.

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Strava Segment Logo for Rowing Clubs

The following Strava logo has been approved by Strava marketing in the UK to be used on rowing club websites to link through to the clubs relevant Strava segment. It is a good way to advertise Strava segments for unofficial regatta timing or the segment that represents a clubs head race course.

I have linked the above logo to the Royal Henley Regatta Strava segment. So when the logo is clicked it takes the person to that Strava segment. It would be easy to do this on most club websites.

There is a list of segments I have been made aware of, so if relevant clubs wish to link to the segment from their website the logo is a good way of doing that.

Any club can use the logo on their website, if they wish to print the logo in any way on a regatta or head race poster it would need approving by Strava marketing in the UK so you would need to contact me for their details.

If you wish to download the logo it can be found here

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the Erg IQ (Beta) Garmin connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate – £215.99

Concept2 Model D Indoor Rower with PM5 – Black – £860.00
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rower with PM5 – Grey – £1060.00

Henley Royal Regatta Strava Segment

Walking the entire length of Henley Reach on regatta Saturday carrying a heavy picnic in blistering heat doesn’t help at all when one needs the GPS information for the Henley Royal Regatta course. Having never rowed the old course myself (on my bucket list) I could not make a Strava segment on Henley reach…… until this point.

Luckily a Strava user has helped me out and shared a .gpx file with me of their 2016 row.

This has also happened with Peterborough Head, so any one else wanting to have a Strava segment of a head race or regatta and so can share workout files and official timing contact me on twitter.

Great thing when setting up segments with very accurate official timing is you can tweak the segment until you are as close as possible to getting the same time measured. The .gpx file has been created by the rower using a GPS watch. All GPS devices have different sampling rates and varying amounts of data is stored during a workout. With the file supplied it appears that GPS points are stored on the device every 4 seconds. Getting the start and finish in the correct spot is not easy but I have got within 1 second of the official time. For GPS accuracy this may be as close as it can get for Strava segment timing. I may have another go if I get a file with more GPS data but for now it will do.

Now the segment has been created anyone can make use of it. If you have a row at Henley recorded with a GPS device simply upload it to Strava and the segment time will be calculated. If you already have the row on Strava simply edit it and change it to another activity ‘run’ is normally good, save it. Then edit it again and change it back to ‘rowing’ save again and Strava will recalculate all the segments in that activity. You should find the Henley Course segment then shows up.

Due to the stake boat start at Henley the Strava segment may trigger when rowing up past the start. If this happens the Strava activity can be cropped so that the false trigger is deleted, be careful that you do not crop any of the actual row. If you wish to keep the row up to the start splitting the Strava activity may be preferred.

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the Erg IQ (Beta) Garmin connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate – £215.99

Strava Club Pages – Rowing Clubs

Firstly a plug of StravaRow’s club page.

Strava offers a social media style ‘feed’, listing your activities and the activities of anyone you follow. An extension of the social aspect of Strava is to join Strava clubs, like a club Facebook page the club can be private or public.
There is a club leader board, displaying total training time and distance for cycling, running and swimming.
A club only recent activity feed can be viewed so club members can catch up on other club members training.
Finally there is a discussion section in the club page. This lets you discuss topics as a group, training ideas, club events, hints and tips there is a lot of scope for rowing clubs to use this.

You can see Strava club would be great for rowing clubs if it could only display rowing workout totals as well. This is surely just a slight tweak in the code that programs the page. This is one of the first things Strava could improve when the number of rowers using Strava increases. There is a Strava feedback section that you can vote to get this feature added. On this page there is also reference to a service that can bypass Strava’s limitations with the use of a 3rd party website.

Even with the leader boards not working for rowing there is a growing number of rowing clubs making use of Strava clubs feature –

The most popular is Concept2 it is not clear if this is official or unofficial currently over 170 members. Strava are releasing a Beta Clubs feature for businesses rather than groups of people. It would be great to see British Rowing create an official Strava club.

Cancer Research UK’s ‘The Great Row’ is an example of a charity fund raising event making good use of a Strava club page. The Great Row has its own club page that you can find here – https://www.strava.com/clubs/TheGreatRow

Don’t forget to check out the StravaRow club we are hoping to start to develop the discussion tab on it with helpful feedback.

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the Erg IQ (Beta) Garmin connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – Midnight Blue/Frost Blue
– £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate and Smart Notifications – Black/Grey – £215.99

GB Rowers on Strava….well probably them

The GB rowing team has a non disclosure for its training. So unfortunately we don’t get to see a lot of what they do, even a glimpse is rare.

Moe Sbihi’s 5km Concept2 World Record was recently released a year after it happened. Released on twitter by the then retired Men’s Eight Olympic champion Phelan Hill. Moe’s acknowledgement tweet has subsequently been removed ☹️

#ThrowbackThursday – one year ago @moesbihi smashing the @concept2 5km world record Awesome work big guy! #nosliders #worldrecord #14:54.5 pic.twitter.com/ElToXVj47I

— Phelan Hill (@PhelanHill) February 2, 2017

Not being able to share even a bit of your training with fans is a strange situation.  In exchange for Olympic gold medals I guess it is the way it has to be, even if it does little to raise the profile of the sport.

I have previously mentioned how the social network side of Strava is raising the profile of pro cyclist Laurens ten Dam and rowing’s own Hamish Bond. Bringing their ride information direct to their fans via Strava in a very detailed way.

As things stand I do not think current GB rowers will not be sharing much on Strava. Possibly when cross training because of injury?
However I thought I would share some Strava profiles of some active and some not so active GB rowers (retired, on sabbaticals, current). Like their twitter accounts its a way to engage with fans. Some are private so may not wish to be followed, but any that do I think are worth a follow as it will help raise the profile of rowing on Strava. None of them are verified as such but by who follows them and who they follow I guess they are probably the person.

If I find any more I shall update this page, if any don’t want me sharing I shall remove.

Wouldn’t it have been great if Moe’s 5km world record had been recorded via an Ant+ connection between a Garmin watch Moe was wearing and the PM5 (or PainSled app and iPhone) so that the fans could then look at it on Strava and view the data stroke by stroke.

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your row with the ErgIQ(Beta) Garmin Connect IQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – Midnight Blue/Frost Blue
– £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate and Smart Notifications – Black/Grey – £215.99

Henley on Thames, Henley Reach Strava Segments.

I have been searching in vain for the jewel in the crown of rowing Strava Segments, The Henley Royal Regatta Course!!

Luna looking for the elusive HRR Strava Segment (@Lunatheprincesslab  #instagram).

Many have recorded their rows whilst racing at Henley Royal Regatta, these have been  uploaded to Strava but there appears to be no segment for the 1 mile and 550 yards (2,112 metres) course.

It would be great if anyone who has raced at Henley Royal Regatta could make an unofficial segment. If you crop it slowly so that it practically matches your official Henley time it should then be fairly accurate (for Strava not bow ball international rowing accurate).

Upper Thames Masters have sent me a Strava Segment that should work for Henley Masters. Henley Masters is 1km Upstream on Henley reach. The segment appears to be on the wrong side of the river, so is probably great for training. Henley Masters is still between the booms, sides of the river switch as soon as the booms have gone. So it appears this segment has been made during training. When the booms are in place it may still work for the Bucks side of the course, possibly not for Berks side though.

Upper Thames Autumn Head – The start of the segment seems to be in the wrong place so segment timing isn’t even close to the official timing. The start is being triggered before the crew is properly taking it up to race. Whom ever created the segment can crop it and move the start to make it more accurate. Looking how this segment works for Henley Sculls the start is closer to the correct place. The official timing was quicker by about 25 seconds (13:49O to 14:14SS) so the start is again a little too far downstream, it is in an incorrect place on Strava.  25 Attempts By 20 People

Edit – Henley Royal Regatta Segment

A number of training Strava segments show up –

2k Downstream Flag to Henley Start which due to circulation when the booms are not there is along the Henley course but in the wrong direction. 551 Attempts By 97 People

Island to Start – upstream – This is very similar to the Henley course a little shorter as it shows as 2km and again on correct side of river when booms are not in place but wrong side when they are for Henley. 176 Attempts By 26 People

HRR cource – interesting spelling and it goes around the corner past the start so is too long to be the actual Henley course. It has been made during the regatta though as is on the correct side of the river. 123 Attempts By 55 People

If anyone could export their Strava workout and send it to me along with their official time, I would be glad to set a unofficial HRR Strava Segment up.

 Don’t let Luna sit there looking for too long …. 

Garmin watches can sync with a Concept 2 PM5 monitor and record the data of your indoor row with the ErgIQ(Beta) Garmin connectIQ app. When on the water they can also measure stroke rate from the wrist without any need for any other sensors.
Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Multisport and Running Watch – Midnight Blue/Frost Blue
– £327.41
Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS Running Watch with Elevate Wrist Heart Rate and Smart Notifications – Black/Grey – £215.99