It's All Relative

I have been obsessed with this Strava app. It tracks my rides, and if I were running, it would track those, too, haha. Actually, I did do the Cupcake Classic 5K on Sunday, remember? It tracked that.

One thing the Strava app does is pit you in cutthroat competition against everyone else compare your time to other riders. They have these pieces called "segments," little chunks of roadway that everyone's time is measured and reported on leaderboards. The more I ride, the more segments I've been stumbling across, and it is fun to try to beat my time, or anyone else's. Usually just my time, haha.

But I'm in excellent company and I can't feel too badly about my performance, even though my first inclination is always, "LAST?? What do you mean, last?? I'm friggin' flying out there!!" For instance, I delved deeper into the stats on a recent segment. I am ranked 11/11 women riders. Sigh. When I had lamented some similar stat to my MTB friend, he looked at the rankings and said, "Well, she's a professional racer, and she is, and she is..." He told me not to sweat the rankings.

I totally sweat the rankings.

Here's my 11 out of 11 placement:

9	AG	12/18/11	16.3mi/h	4:32
10	HB	2/12/12	15.6mi/h	4:43
11	FreeJulie	10/17/12	14.4mi/h	5:07

Okay, my time is 5:07, compared to their 4:43 and 4:32. That in itself is not too bad, I suppose. But let's look a little closer at AG and HB, shall we? I love that Strava does a side-by-side comparison. This is me and HB, aka my cycling nemesis:

YEAR-TO-DATE
Distance	3,082.4mi	144.3mi
Time	234hr 49m	11hr 58m
Elev Gain	117,838ft	6,453ft
Rides	288	14

ALL TIME
Distance	5,457.4mi	144.3mi
Rides	358	14
Biggest Ride	202.0mi	31.6mi
Biggest Climb	4,165ft	1,899ft
Max Effort	234 W	196 W

Guess which one I am? Hahaha.

And here's me and AG:

YEAR-TO-DATE
Distance	4,397.9mi	144.3mi
Time	280hr 48m	11hr 58m
Elev Gain	148,468ft	6,453ft
Rides	202	14

ALL TIME
Distance	5,327.2mi	144.3mi
Rides	236	14
Biggest Ride	201.6mi	31.6mi
Biggest Climb	665ft	1,899ft
Max Effort	298 W	196 W

Plus, I've decided they are both about 24. I have absolutely nothing to base this on, but it makes me feel better. Actually, a quick bit of research tells me that AG is actually 32 and places very highly in lots of bike races. And HB is 26 and she is no slouch in the saddle, either.

So, we'll just not think about how maybe these two ladies rode my particular segment with llamas strapped to their backs, no hands and two flat tires. When I look at it like that, I think, "hey, 11 out of 11 ain't so bad!" I'm in good company. Athletes.