World champion - for a while!

There are those who don't like Strava, and I really do understand why. Like all these social media sites, it tries to take over your life. "Give me your contacts" it entices you; "tag your photos"; "publish your profile". And before you know it you'd be all over the web. I don't knowingly do this, although I did find some pictures of me out there in the ether. One of them was disturbing: it was definitely me alright, I recognised me. And anyway, it said "Pete Stock" underneath. I was racing, and in my GB trisuit, so I felt pretty proud of that. Out there, in the world, for everyone to see. Pete Stock in his GB Team colours. 15 minutes of fame. But wait a minute! That's not my bike I'm riding! I examined it closely, and it wasn't any bike I'd ever owned and actually, when I looked really, really hard - it wasn't me. Wrongly tagged. OK, no problem there, and no harm done. But what if the wrong tag showed me doing something less worthy? 

But I'm here in San Francisco and I'm without my friends. Friends that have been there with me through the highs and the lows. Friends who understand. Friends who have witnessed my frustrations, anger, despair, joy and every other emotion, and who have put up with me at my worst as well as experiencing the best I can be. You don't get friends like that overnight, so I want to keep in touch and this blog is part of that. Then Strava announced a linkup with Garmin that meant I could automatically download my Garmin data to the Strava site and everyone could take a look. Perfect, and I jumped at the chance. I expected Chris to ignore it because he doesn't really do the data logging / tech thing. Just get out there and run, that's Chris. I thought Rich would enjoy it - he likes a bit of gadgetry - but he didn't want to be involved with the "taking over your life" aspect. Well boys, you missed my bit of history. After Sunday's brick session I uploaded the data to my Garmin site, as normal. I took a look at the results and was really pleased. Good quality session. Then the web demons took over, and transported my data to Strava. Next thing I knew, I had a Red Flag disputing my World Record Half Marathon time and various other Championship leading efforts. It seems "Bike to Run Transition" in Garmin defaults over to "Run" in Strava!