The Strava Local Legends feature has been around for a couple of months, which is plenty of time for the excitement to have settled down and for people to have ‘found’ a few segments that they can or are Local Legends. (I first blogged about Local Legends here.) Currently I’m Local Legend on 12 cycling segments and 3 running segments, but that could all change each and every day.
To try and spice up the Local Legend I have come up with a trio of segment based challenges.
1000 Athletes.
Quite simply the challenge is to become the Local Legend on a segment that has been completed by at least 1,000 different athletes in the past 90 days. A couple of the segments where I am Local Legend have over 900 athletes, but they have been over 1,000 a few weeks ago. They probably will again if we have a week or two of nice weather.
100 Efforts
Sometimes it’s not enough to be just the Local Legend, you want to destroy everyone else. Therefore, the second challenge is to complete over 100 efforts of a segment in 90 days. One segment which I cycle along most days and I though that I might be close to the top, has been completed over 80 times by the leader. Breaking it down, you need to complete a segment every day for 80 days, and then twice a day on the other 10 days. Quite a challenge.
An Iconic Segment
Some segments are definitely more iconic than others. For me, this would be any hill segment from Simon Warren’s Toughest Hills books. We’re very lucky here in that climb 76, Jubilee Tower is only a couple of miles away. I’ve climbed it 52 times in the last 8 years. The Local Legend leader has climbed it 49 times in the last 90 days. It also looks like there is a bit of a rivalry, as the second place athlete is on 48. It’s a tough climb and I can’t imagine cycling it that many times, so this is probably the hardest of my three challenges.
Will you be able to manage any of them?
Beards and Triathlons 
Do you need to be a paid subscriber to see that more detailed info?
Yes, and it’s only on the app.
I recently lost my local legend status on a segment and I hadn’t even realized that I was a local legend on. How did I become a local legend? Well, all of my runs and bike rides go that way as I start my run or ride, so I guess I will always be on that segment daily unless I take some time off from it. Strava can be cool, I really like the Flyby feature, but I find that it challenges me in ways that sometimes seem counterproductive. I can’t be chasing KOM’s at my age, but when I get to that one segment that I know I can at least be the fastest that particular day, I usually give it a go even if I’m on a long slow run. I rely on Garmin for my running totals, which I have been keeping track of for 30+ years, and use Strava as a backup.
I enjoy your posts. Thanks.