Strava Best Efforts – A Great New Subscriber Feature
Last August STRAVA introduced Best Efforts For Runners. This is a nice feature to check your PBs/PRs for each year and all-time. For runners, this feature mostly covers the standard race distances but it’s more nuanced for cyclists with bests considered for elevation gained in a ride, best single climb per ride, and then speed bests over various distances and power bests over time durations up to 2 hours.
You can immediately see your BEST EFFORTS on your Strava profile…or at least you can if you are a subscriber.
The Details
Strava Best Efforts tracks your top three efforts in five categories and includes indoor cycling as well as outdoor cycling. Distance PBs/PRs are in multiples of 10k up to 100k but also show milestone performances at 100 miles, 180km (Ironman-ish distance) and 10 miles (standard TT race distance).
Power durations are also sensibly selected to broadly correspond to typical test durations, and durations that correspond to bests for your body’s different physiologies. For example, 5 minutes is about a VO2 max effort and 2 hours is probably your real forever power (CP).
- Distances: 10 km, 10 mi, 20 km, 40 km, 50 km, 50 mi, 80 km, 90 km, 100 km, 100 mi, 180 km
- Power/time intervals: 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours
- Best efforts: your 3 best efforts of all time are noted and Strava also highlights your 5 best performances in each calendar year
Take Out
This is a nice feature that will probably appeal more to the performance cyclist and improver cyclist in equal measure. I regularly look at power duration breakthroughs every week (or the lack of them) but other cyclists I regularly ride with could instead be interested in mileage or vertical metres. We’re all differently motivated and these metrics seem to cover most of the bases.
Before writing this I had a quick check of my running bests. The issue I had was that a few rides had crept in to spoil the numbers. OK a bit of housekeeping soon sorted that out but it was a faff that I didn’t want.
Last Updated on 28 May 2026 by the5krunner
My favourite kit and nutrition
- Injinji – Runners protect your toes. Avoid discomfort and minor injury. Run more. run faster. I use them.
- Garmin 90-degree charging adapter — the small adapter that keeps your charging cables tidy. Essential for race day. I use one.
- Garmin charging puck — the fastest and most reliable way to top up your Garmin before a session. I use one.
- Ravemen FR300 — front light that mounts directly under your Garmin or Wahoo head unit. Keeps your bars clean and your beam pointed where it matters. I use one.
- Body Glide – The Blue anti-chafe stick that all swimmers and many runners use. I use it.
- Maurten — the race nutrition trusted by elite athletes. Gels and drink mix engineered to be easy on the stomach. I use them.
- Garmin Varia RTL515 — radar rear light that alerts you to vehicles approaching from behind. Pairs with your Edge or Garmin watch. I use this model.
- Favero Assioma Pro RS2 — the power meter pedals most serious cyclists end up choosing. Accurate, easy to move between bikes. I use this model.
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID
It was a “funny” feature for ~1weeks when i could see and compare on Strava everybody’s best power data for a given duration on webpage (even pros). Probably somebody informed them about this serious GDRP issue and suddenly killed this “cool” feature…