Strava Now Showing Watts. What?
06-20-23, 06:52 PM
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Strava Now Showing Watts. What?
I don’t have a power meter, (I’m too cheap) but after yesterdays hill climb (1800’ in 5.5 miles) Strava is now estimating (probably badly) my average watts. I have a Garmin Edge 830, Garmin Connect app which feeds Strava. I did flip a switch on my Edge which allows in to record heart rate variability. But it was already collecting basic heart rate data . Haven’t read anything on the interwebs about this unless it was a one time fluke.
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06-20-23, 07:44 PM
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It has done that for a while. I've not paid attention to is because I wouldn't what to do with the data even if it was accurate.
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06-20-23, 08:44 PM
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Yeah, Strava has been estimating power for years, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t require “heart rate variability,” whatever that is, to do it. Probably you’ve just not noticed it before…
06-20-23, 09:52 PM
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It takes more than flipping a switch to get a measurement of your HRV. You might want to read the manual. But you can probably get a better reading from a decent smartwatch.
06-20-23, 10:08 PM
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06-20-23, 10:58 PM
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I know they used to caluclate it, but they received a lot of blow back about inaccuracies, so they discontinued the practice. Going back through my Activities for the last few months, zero show Watts on the headline page which includes Average Speed, Total Ascent, etc. That is why I was surprised to see it out of the blue. Maybe they are the ones who flipped the switch, back on. Or maybe it was a bear or the pope.
I’ve been on Strava for over 10 years, so I don’t remember a lot of the details anymore!
06-21-23, 04:46 AM
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I don't look at my strava account very often, but their power estimate was always really bad so I never really looked at it. So it could go away every other ride and I wouldn't know.
06-21-23, 09:00 AM
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Some have said that RWGPS's power estimate is closer to the real thing. However for me they were way overestimating my power. Compared to what I now see with a real power meter they were showing almost 100 watts more. So what a let down.
Just to kid myself, I keep saying it's because I pull up on the pedals too, so my one-sided PM is not getting the full picture. But I know that's not true... or is it?
I also use Strava, but don't upload all my rides there. They weren't that much different with the power estimate than RWGPS for the rides I did upload there.
Just to kid myself, I keep saying it's because I pull up on the pedals too, so my one-sided PM is not getting the full picture. But I know that's not true... or is it?
I also use Strava, but don't upload all my rides there. They weren't that much different with the power estimate than RWGPS for the rides I did upload there.
Last edited by Iride01; 06-21-23 at 09:03 AM.
