Strava: Adjusting Activity Time, Understanding Metrics, and Best Practices

How do I change my activity time on Strava?

Adjusting your activity time on Strava primarily involves utilizing the platform's 'Correct Distance' or 'Trim' features, which allow you to modify the start and end points of an activity or manually input corrections to better reflect your actual moving time.

Understanding Activity Time on Strava

Strava, as a leading platform for tracking fitness activities, distinguishes between two primary time metrics: Elapsed Time and Moving Time.

• Elapsed Time refers to the total duration from when you start recording until you stop, including any pauses. It's the overall time your activity took from beginning to end.
• Moving Time is the duration for which Strava detects actual movement. This is often the more crucial metric for training analysis, as it reflects the time spent actively engaged in your sport, excluding stops for traffic, rest, or breaks. Strava automatically calculates moving time by attempting to filter out periods of no movement.

While Strava's algorithms are sophisticated, there are instances where the automatic calculation of moving time may not perfectly align with your intended activity duration. This is where the ability to manually adjust comes into play, ensuring your data accurately reflects your training effort and progress.

Why You Might Need to Adjust Activity Time

There are several common scenarios where modifying your activity's time on Strava becomes necessary or beneficial:

• Forgotten Pauses: You stopped for a coffee break, to fix a flat tire, or wait for a friend, but forgot to pause your GPS device or the Strava app. This inflates your moving time.
• GPS Glitches or Drifts: In areas with poor satellite reception (e.g., dense urban environments, under heavy tree cover), GPS signals can become erratic, leading to inaccurate speed readings and potentially adding "phantom" moving time.
• Pre/Post-Activity Warm-ups/Cool-downs: Sometimes, a recorded activity might include a significant warm-up or cool-down period that you wish to exclude from the core "moving time" of the main workout for more precise performance analysis.
• Indoor Activities: For activities like treadmill runs or indoor cycling where GPS data isn't used, manual adjustments might be needed if the device time doesn't perfectly match your actual workout duration.
• Data Integrity for Training Analysis: Accurate moving time is critical for calculating metrics like average speed/pace, power output (for cycling), and overall training load. Incorrect time can skew these vital performance indicators.

Step-by-Step Guide: Adjusting Activity Time on Strava

Strava offers tools to correct your activity's time, primarily through its "Correct Distance" or "Trim" functions. The process varies slightly between the mobile app and the web browser.

Adjusting Activity Time via the Strava Mobile App

1. Open the Strava App: Launch the Strava application on your smartphone.
2. Navigate to Your Activity: From your feed or the "You" tab, select the specific activity you wish to edit.
3. Access Edit Options: Tap the three dots (...) icon (often found in the top right corner of the activity screen) to open the activity options menu.
4. Select "Correct Distance": From the menu, choose the "Correct Distance" option. This tool allows you to re-process the activity's GPS data, which often corrects time discrepancies.
   • Note: For activities without GPS data (e.g., manual entries, some indoor workouts), this option may not be available.
5. Use the "Trim" Feature (if available/needed): If "Correct Distance" doesn't suffice, or you wish to remove sections from the start or end, look for a "Trim" option within the edit menu or after selecting "Edit Activity."
   • The trim tool typically provides sliders on a map or graph. Drag the start and end sliders to encompass only the portion of the activity you want to keep. This effectively shortens the moving time.
6. Save Changes: After making your adjustments, confirm and save the changes. Strava will re-process the activity, and the moving time will be updated accordingly.

Adjusting Activity Time via the Strava Website

1. Log In to Strava: Go to strava.com and log in to your account.
2. Navigate to Your Activity: From your dashboard or "My Activities" page, click on the activity you want to edit.
3. Access Edit Options: On the activity detail page, locate the wrench icon (often labeled "Edit Activity" or similar) on the left side, usually below the activity title. Click on it.
4. Select "Correct Distance": In the edit menu that appears, choose "Correct Distance." This will prompt Strava to recalculate the distance and time based on your original GPS data. This is often the first step to fix minor discrepancies.
5. Utilize the "Crop" Tool: For more precise control over removing unwanted sections from the start or end of an activity (e.g., a long walk to the trailhead), select the "Crop" option within the edit menu.
   • A map interface will appear with sliders. Drag the start and end sliders to define the exact segment of your activity you wish to keep. The moving time will be adjusted based on the cropped segment.
6. Apply and Save Changes: Once you've set your desired start and end points, click "Crop" or "Apply" and then "Save" the activity.

Important Considerations and Limitations

While Strava's editing tools are powerful, it's crucial to understand their implications and limitations:

• Impact on Leaderboards and Segments: Significant changes to an activity's time or distance, especially using the "Crop" feature, can affect segment times and leaderboard rankings. Strava may flag or remove such activities from leaderboards if the changes are deemed to give an unfair advantage or invalidate the original data.
• Data Integrity: Excessive manual manipulation can compromise the integrity of your training data. Aim for accuracy rather than simply achieving a desired aesthetic.
• Original Data Preservation: While the displayed time and distance change, Strava generally retains the original raw GPS data. This means you can often revert changes if needed.
• "Elapsed Time" is Rarely Editable: The total elapsed time of an activity is typically a fixed value determined by your recording device. Most adjustments focus on refining the "moving time."
• Manual Activities: For activities entered manually without GPS data, you can directly edit the time and distance during the initial entry or by using the standard "Edit Activity" function.

Best Practices for Accurate Strava Tracking

Preventing the need for frequent time adjustments starts with good tracking habits:

• Utilize the Pause Function: Whenever you stop for more than a brief moment (e.g., traffic lights, water breaks, photos), manually pause your recording device or the Strava app. This ensures your moving time accurately reflects your active effort.
• Ensure Strong GPS Signal: Before starting an activity, wait for your device to acquire a strong GPS signal. This minimizes early tracking errors.
• Review Before Uploading: Many devices and the Strava app allow for a quick review of your activity before final saving and uploading. Take a moment to check the key metrics, including time and distance.
• Consider Auto-Pause Settings: While convenient, auto-pause can sometimes be overly sensitive or insensitive. Experiment with your device's auto-pause settings to see if they work well for your typical activities.

When to Seek Further Assistance

If you encounter persistent issues with activity time, or if the built-in correction tools aren't resolving your specific problem, it's advisable to:

• Consult Strava's Help Center: Strava's official support documentation is comprehensive and frequently updated.
• Contact Strava Support: For unique or complex issues, reaching out directly to Strava's support team can provide personalized assistance.