New Premium Feature: Segment Intensity Score for Power Meter Users

Posted by Alex Mather on January 31st, 2013

Geeking out over your matched segment list after a ride is a favorite Strava past time, and we’re excited to launch a feature that will give you even more to geek out over. Now available to Strava Premium members with power meters, Segment Intensity Score tells you how hard you worked on any given segment. (Quarq, Cyclops, and the recently introduced Stages make some pretty sweet power meters!)

How is Segment Intensity Calculated?

We take the average power for a given segment and compare your average power for that segment with your best average power over the past 6 weeks for the duration of the segment. For example, if your best 20-minute power in the previous 6 weeks was 300W and you maintained 270W for a 20-minute segment on a given ride, you will receive a 90% Segment Intensity Score. A score of 100% means you set your best 6-week power for the length of the segment!

Hard Efforts Highlighted

You can’t go out and hammer every segment on a ride, but there are times when you give a specific segment a go – the Segment Intensity bar is a great way to quickly identify these hard efforts on a ride. Hover over a specific segment and we’ll show you the score!

Perfect for Interval Sessions

The segment intensity score also works with lap functionality, making it a great way to visualize an interval session and quickly hone in on the hard efforts while ignoring the recovery laps.

The Fine Print

Only you can see your Segment Intensity Scores for now
Segment Intensity Scores can only be seen on the Activity page
Only Strava Premium members with power meters can see Segment Intensity Scores
Segment Intensity is based only on your 6-week best power data

We’ve got lots more planned to make training with a power meter even more fun and would love to hear your comments and ideas! If you aren’t already a Premium member and want to get the most out of your power meter, upgrade to Premium for only $6 per month or $59 per year. Enjoy!

Brian Scanlon:

January 31st, 2013 at 9:51 pm

how about dividing segment scores and times based on the types of bike being ridden and also add fixed gear to the bike lists?

Josh Boggs:

January 31st, 2013 at 9:53 pm

Now, I've gotta get a power meter. One more great new feature from Strava Cycling!

George Doyle:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:01 pm

Sweet!

Etienne Moreau:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:02 pm

Please give us a Performance Management Chart!

James Tate:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:04 pm

Can you please put the % figure up permanently rather than having to roll over the bar with the mouse, as it's rather annoying to have to go down each one to see the %.

Ivan Borcard:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:07 pm

Please give us a Performance Management Chart! Yes +1! And I would reconsider TrainingPeaks ;-).

Alex Valentine:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:07 pm

Nice, I'm loving all these power specific premium features. Keep it up.

Dan Connelly:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:14 pm

Thanks, Paul! Nicely done.

Davin Crook:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:26 pm

Cool feature. I like to check people's ride data to see if they were "sniping" a segment; this formalizes the process. Power meters are looking more attractive...

Tom Bammann:

January 31st, 2013 at 10:36 pm

Segment intensity based only on your 6-week best power data? Really? So if you have a 6 week break, go for an easy ride and each segment will be around 100%? I don't understand why you'd do this when we can already enter our FTP. Anyone with a power meter would be doing a FTP 'field test' from time to time to set their power zones, and FTP is what intensity should be based on. There should certainly be the option of having segment intensities set according to your specified FTP rather than what Strava thinks is your 6-week best power data. Who's to say that I've actually gone for a hard ride for the duration of a particular segment in the last 6 weeks suitable for calculating an intensity factor? What if I discover there is drift with my power meter? Then for the next 6 weeks my segment intensities could be all wrong anyway, so if you're going to make our segment intensities set by our last 6 weeks then you need to provide the functionality of being able to drop the power channel of data from an activity, too.

Vitaly Gashpar:

February 1st, 2013 at 7:48 pm

Frankly, this is quite silly for a couple reasons. First, having a segment intensity factor is an absolutely pointless feature (other than then maybe the fun factor) for training. Second, given this was designed for people with PMs, they are probably training. And if you're serious about training, you really only have 2-3 hard days per week, while you might be riding 5-6 days a week. That skews the average you're using to calculate intensity to the point of uselessness. However, what you really should do is apply the algorithm you're using for this feature and apply it for calculating the intensity factor, which is a more correct way of calculating it than basing it only your FTP.

Dan Bisa:

February 4th, 2013 at 10:58 am

All good but what about a simple time based interval feature? Until Strava has one I have to keep using Runkeeper...not happy because Strava should be where its at!

Sara Stearns:

February 4th, 2013 at 4:58 pm

How about an FTP based figure? That's a bit more realistic for those of us who are training.

Glyn Ward:

March 3rd, 2013 at 11:22 am

don't have a power meter but get this page please can I go back to old page.

New Premium Feature: Segment Intensity Score for Power Meter Users

Recent Posts

Linkroll

About

Follow

Help

More