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Trending faster? C’mon Strava what about trending smarter?

Many cyclists and runners out there will already know that Strava is an awesome fitness app with lots of interesting features.

One such feature is the ‘Trending faster’ feature where Strava compares your run with previous times you’ve run the same route.  As you can see in the graphic below Strava showed me earlier this week that I’m “Trending Faster” and even provides a little green arrow to confirm that I’m achieving more, right?

Well, when it comes to long-distance running, the answer is no.

Trending faster isn’t smarter as you run longer and longer because it leads to more injuries.

I was chatting with a client this week who has run a number of marathons.  She was telling me about how important it is to run slow on long Sunday morning runs.

Her husband is a doctor, a friend of hers is a former world champion triathlete and she’s read up a lot about running so to me she’s an authority on this topic.  Her friend said, “It’s a matter of who can run the slowest, the quickest” (as in who can get used to running slower, sooner – that’s how I interpret it) because extra speed on longer runs doesn’t mean you will run quicker on race day.

There is a good chance you won’t make it to race day injury free (including feeling fatigued) if you keep going faster and faster.  So today, I ran the lowest I have ever run on a Sunday and it felt good.

So what about you?

Are you going faster and faster each week?  Are you putting more and more pressure on yourself?  Chances are (for high achievers like you) you don’t need to go harder and harder.  You are probably in a position to slow up a bit, but what we all enjoy is working smarter.

So how can we all work smarter?  One quick win is to seek advice.  If you’re not enjoying your golf game, go and get some lessons.  If your feeling like you’ve hit a plateau in your career or in the business, go chat with a mentor, supplier, customer or even a competitor.  If you’re feeling like you’re not financially organised or unsure if you’re doing everything you can to realise your financial potential, reach out to us.

The key point is to think about slowing down.  Going faster isn’t always the answer – in fact we all get to a point when it no longer is ever the answer.

And Strava, can you work on a Trending Smarter function for release sometime in the next decade?  High achievers need it.

Matthew Ross

Director and Independent Financial Adviser