I am a distance runner. As the saying goes, my journey of thousands of miles quite literally started with those first first steps fifteen years ago. Progressing from weekend 5Ks to marathon training has involved countless pairs of shoes, several iterations of running watches and unfathomable amounts of swear words shouted at drivers who don’t pay attention to pedestrians (share the road, y’all). While the aforementioned smartwatches have always tracked my pace, distances and other stats, I didn’t truly start to see improvements in my overall performance until I started using Strava and Peloton.
Both apps let you track your workout data while also, if you like, comparing yourself to your friends, connections and people in your area. Peloton is famous for its online spin classes, and its ever-energetic instructors remind riders at the beginning of each class that they have a leaderboard available to use, but riders can hide it if they don’t want to see how others are doing. Strava doesn’t have live courses like Peloton but athletes can look at their times compared to other athletes on “segments” throughout your activities or they can look at only their own specific times. In essence, both apps allow users to compete against others or themselves.
I love these apps for myriad reasons. They’ve helped me build a fitness community of my peers, they provide guide rails to keep my progression on track and they let me actually see that progression overtime in succinct and beneficial ways. Seeing data over time from a personal and community perspective is also why I love Pluralsight Flow. It enables software developers to see their personal growth as well as, if they like, how they’re tracking compared to their teammates. That’s right, folks, it’s a product tie-in. Let’s get into it.
