The higher they climb, the harder they fall

[Tim Kelley]

Love it. Can you convince Pete to do a fall Kill Bill?

[Bilsko]

I love the climbing idea…only problem is that there doesn’t appear to be a good way to normalize elevation data in Strava. I’ve done rides with other BA members where everyone was recording to Strava and we all ended up with significantly (>10%) differences in climbing tallies. It comes down to the elevation data sources being so inconsistent. Phone recording will use topo map data and (possibly) other Strava data…GPS units will use (sometimes faulty) barometric pressure readings…

There’s got to be a good way to sort it out though.

[hozn]

Yeah, there is pretty significant variation between devices (phone vs GPS) and my Garmin (510) elevation data has changed after firmware updates. Maybe if you enforce (how?) always using Strava’s normalization for consistency. Otherwise Garmin users will have a significant advantage (esp on trails). I know my commute out the W&OD registers almost double the elevation of GuyContinental’s former (much longer) commute out the same route.

I am out this fall, but I would normally jump at such a challenge. Next year, perhaps. I just wish I had more hills on my commute. It takes a little creativity to find 1k feet of climbing.

[Dirt]

I like the idea, but didn’t Strava recently make it impossible to use their data for other purposes? Might need to check that.

[Mikey]

I think you could normalize the differences somehow, say at least two use phones for each team while 3 use GPS devices. It would be nice to get out ahead and do something different than natbikechal

[jopamora]

@Dirt 57914 wrote:

I like the idea, but didn’t Strava recently make it impossible to use their data for other purposes? Might need to check that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ_R-G_i4Xk

[TwoWheelsDC]

I think to help “normalize” the elevation, you just make the points interval bigger, like 25 points for every 1k feet…then add in the standard 1 point per mile.

[americancyclo]

Is there an option to use something other than strava? or is that easiest, since we all started using that for the Freezing Saddles competition?

[GuyContinental]

So, I think that you are going to have a difficult time normalizing non Garmin elevation- as Hozn said my now ex-commute (Clarendon to Sterling) home is about 1500 st of climbing based on Hozn’s Garmin 510- on my Cyclemeter + iPhone 4 with ANT+ sensors I get 1/3 the elevation and even within that there is huge variation (even though I rode exactly the same route). As a result, I’ve given up on any of the Strava elevation challenges and probably wouldn’t participate in this one.

That said, if someone did want to try and normalize, my overlap with Hans might be a good baseline- median Guy elevation via phone compared to Hozn Garmin 510 elevation over something like 75 rides in the last 12 months on exactly the same route is about as close as you’d get to statistical significance. But that only covers AT&T iphone4 elevation, I’d wager that Android phones and other carriers would have a different result.

http://app.strava.com/activities/57007666 = 585
http://app.strava.com/activities/55748499 = 501
http://app.strava.com/activities/22526290 = 631

FWIW, if you are getting serious about tracking and data, just buy a 510. I spent nearly as much on iphone cases, extended batteries and sensor sets as I would have on a proper Garmin

[NicDiesel]

@Dirt 57914 wrote:

I like the idea, but didn’t Strava recently make it impossible to use their data for other purposes? Might need to check that.

Somewhat. If you have the GPX files someone (hint, hint: me) would be more than happy to throw them in R to calculate the elevations. As long as you’ve got the long and lat (both contained in the GPX file) it’s really easy to do.

[NicDiesel]

@GuyContinental 57954 wrote:

FWIW, if you are getting serious about tracking and data, just buy a 510. I spent nearly as much on iphone cases, extended batteries and sensor sets as I would have on a proper Garmin

Yup. The heart rate monitor alone makes it a great purchase. But look out, the Garmin is the road to Perdition; you’ll be pinging Tim for power meter recommendations if you don’t look out.

[Tim Kelley]

Wait, so why won’t the Strava “correct elevation” feature work for this?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3297[/ATTACH]

(Because people would scam it and not correct their elevation??)

[GuyContinental]

Great post on Strava blocking outside APIs:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/07/cutting-removing-functionality.html

Angrymaker for me for sure, off I go to cancel that Premium BS

[ronwalf]

@Tim Kelley 57961 wrote:

(Because people would scam it and not correct their elevation??)

Probably because (1) it’s a pain to do for every ride and (2) I’m not sure we can use Strava given their new API restrictions.

For (1), if we want to normalize the data, I wouldn’t try to make device profiles, but instead pull data directly from some elevation web service, such as https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/.

For (2), just a guess, but RunKeeper might be a decent platform for this competition. Non-GPS users can plot their route on a map (and reuse it on subsequent commutes), and GPS users can use one of the several available web services to import rides automatically from other sites (Garmin Connect in particular, but not Strava).

[GuyContinental]

@Tim Kelley 57961 wrote:

Wait, so why won’t the Strava “correct elevation” feature work for this?

(Because people would scam it and not correct their elevation??)

First, I’d never do it (I’m data lazy) but even if I did, how would I know the “right” elevation unless I had Hans with me?

There’s also THIS

[Author]

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