Strava: How to Edit Best Efforts, Fix Inaccuracies, and Maintain Data Integrity

How Do I Edit Best Efforts on Strava?

While Strava does not offer a direct "edit best effort" function, your best efforts are automatically recalculated based on the underlying activity data. Therefore, to effectively "edit" your best efforts, you must modify or correct the specific activity from which those efforts were derived.

Understanding Strava's Best Efforts Feature

Strava's "Best Efforts" feature is a cornerstone of its appeal for performance tracking. These are automatically detected personal records (PRs) across various distances (e.g., 400m, 1km, 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon) and durations (e.g., 10 seconds, 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour) for running, or power outputs for cycling.

What are Best Efforts? Best efforts represent your fastest times or highest power outputs recorded during an activity. Strava's algorithms continuously scan your uploaded data to identify these peak performances. They are a powerful motivational tool, allowing athletes to track progress, celebrate achievements, and benchmark performance over time.

Why are they important? For fitness enthusiasts, personal trainers, and kinesiologists, best efforts provide tangible evidence of physiological adaptation and improved performance. They offer insights into an athlete's current fitness level, pacing strategies, and potential for future gains. Accurate best efforts are crucial for setting realistic training goals and evaluating the effectiveness of a training program.

Reasons You Might Need to Edit Best Efforts

While the automatic detection is convenient, real-world data collection isn't always perfect. Several scenarios might necessitate an "edit" to your best efforts:

• GPS Glitches and Inaccuracies: Poor satellite signal can lead to erroneous distance readings, speed spikes, or illogical routes, artificially inflating or deflating your performance metrics.
• Accidental Pauses or Resumes: Forgetting to pause during a stoplight or accidentally resuming a run too early can skew elapsed time and average pace calculations.
• Incorrect Activity Type: Uploading a walk as a run, or a casual bike ride as a race, can lead to misleading best efforts being recorded against the wrong discipline.
• Missing Data: Incomplete data sets from device errors can lead to fragmented activities that don't accurately reflect a continuous effort.
• Privacy Concerns: Sometimes, an activity might contain sensitive information (e.g., starting directly from home) that you wish to remove from public view, which can be done by cropping.

The Limitations: What You Can't Directly Edit

It's critical to understand that Strava's best efforts are not directly editable. You cannot simply go into a "Best Efforts" section and change a time or distance.

Auto-Calculated Nature Best efforts are a derivative of your raw activity data. They are dynamically generated and recalculated every time you upload or modify an activity. This design ensures data integrity and consistency across the platform.

Focus on Underlying Activity Data Therefore, any "editing" of best efforts must focus on correcting the source data – the specific activity that generated the inaccurate best effort. Once the activity data is corrected, Strava's system will automatically re-process and update your best efforts accordingly.

The Indirect Approach: How to "Edit" Best Efforts

The process involves modifying the activity that contains the erroneous best effort. This is best done via the Strava website for more granular control, though basic edits are possible on the mobile app.

Editing the Underlying Activity Data

Using the Strava Website (Recommended for Detail)

1. Step 1: Navigate to the Activity.
   • Log in to Strava.com.
   • From your dashboard, click on the activity you wish to edit.
2. Step 2: Access the Edit Function.
   • On the activity page, locate the wrench icon (or three dots for "More Options") on the left side of the screen, usually below the activity title.
   • Click "Edit Activity."
3. Step 3: Adjust Activity Type, Distance, or Time.
   • Activity Type: Ensure the correct sport is selected (e.g., Run, Ride, Walk).
   • Distance/Time (Manual Correction): For significant GPS errors, you can manually correct the distance. Be cautious with this, as it can invalidate segment results if not done carefully. This is often used when a device fails but you know the actual distance covered (e.g., treadmill runs).
   • Elevation: You can correct elevation if you know the accurate value or if Strava's initial calculation was significantly off.
4. Step 4: Crop the Activity.
   • This is a powerful tool for removing erroneous data points at the beginning or end of an activity.
   • From the "Edit Activity" screen, select "Crop Activity."
   • Use the sliders to define the new start and end points of your activity. This is ideal for removing warm-ups/cool-downs from a race file, or trimming out sections where your GPS went haywire.
   • Click "Crop."
5. Step 5: Save Changes and Re-Process.
   • After making your edits, click "Save Activity."
   • Strava will then re-process the activity with the new data, and your best efforts will be recalculated based on these corrections.

Using the Strava Mobile App (For Quick Edits)

1. Step 1: Select the Activity.
   • Open the Strava app.
   • Go to your "You" tab (profile) and select the activity from your feed or list.
2. Step 2: Tap the Ellipsis/More Options.
   • On the activity page, tap the three dots (ellipsis) icon in the top right corner.
   • Select "Edit Activity."
3. Step 3: Edit Activity Details.
   • You can change the activity title, description, privacy settings, and activity type.
   • Manual Distance/Time: Similar to the website, you can manually adjust distance for certain activity types.
4. Step 4: Crop (if needed).
   • Within the edit screen, you'll find an option to "Crop Activity."
   • Adjust the start and end sliders as needed.
   • Tap "Crop."
5. Step 5: Save.
   • Tap "Save Activity" to apply your changes.

Deleting and Re-uploading (Last Resort)

If an activity is severely corrupted or contains irrecoverable errors, you might consider deleting it and re-uploading a corrected version (if available, e.g., from your GPS device or another platform). Be aware that deleting an activity is permanent and will remove all associated comments, kudos, and segment efforts.

Impact of Editing on Your Training and Analytics

Correcting your activity data has significant implications for your Strava profile and training insights:

• Accuracy of Personal Records (PRs): Edited activities will lead to more accurate PRs, ensuring that your achievements truly reflect your performance.
• Training Load and Fitness Trends: Corrected distances, times, and power data contribute to more precise calculations of training load, fitness scores, and freshness, which are vital for periodization and injury prevention.
• Segment Leaderboards: If you crop an activity, your segment times within the cropped portion will be re-evaluated. Manual distance corrections, however, can sometimes flag an activity as "manual" and exclude it from leaderboards.
• Data Integrity: Maintaining clean and accurate data ensures that Strava remains a reliable tool for tracking your progress and informing your training decisions.

Best Practices for Maintaining Accurate Strava Data

To minimize the need for editing and ensure the integrity of your best efforts:

• Review Activities Regularly: Make it a habit to quickly review your activities after upload, especially for key training sessions or races.
• Use Reliable GPS Devices: Invest in a quality GPS watch or bike computer known for accuracy. Ensure its firmware is up to date.
• Understand Strava's Algorithms: Familiarize yourself with how Strava calculates metrics, especially for segments and best efforts.
• Be Mindful of Manual Edits: While useful for correction, excessive manual editing can detach your data from its original GPS trace and potentially impact segment eligibility. Use it judiciously.
• Start and End Clearly: Allow your GPS device ample time to acquire a strong signal before starting an activity, and remember to end the activity promptly when finished.

Conclusion: Prioritizing Data Accuracy for Meaningful Insights

While Strava does not offer a direct button to "edit best efforts," the power lies in understanding that these metrics are a direct reflection of your underlying activity data. By diligently correcting inaccuracies in your uploaded activities, you empower Strava to provide you with the most precise and meaningful insights into your performance. This commitment to data integrity is fundamental for any athlete or coach seeking to leverage technology for optimal training and progress.