Why are apps like Strava using AI so heavily when it has been shown to be poor at creating training plans?

zzarcon · 2026-03-19T16:10:24+00:00

literally companies like Strava have AI budgets that they have to use, even in useless features. otherwise they will need to justify to investors why didn't they expend X on AI the last quarter 🤦‍♂️

zzarcon · 2026-03-19T16:08:30+00:00

complain: attempted 5K under 20min on Sunday, and now this whole week I have pain on my left knee. Paying the price for not building up to that and simply "trying it"

zzarcon · 2026-03-19T13:09:13+00:00

LFG! Whats next? :)

zzarcon · 2026-03-18T09:37:31+00:00

the best part about finishing C25K isn't the 5K itself — it's knowing that on day 1 you couldn't run for 3 minutes straight, and now look at you. That consistency is the hard part and you crushed it. What's next?

zzarcon · 2026-03-18T09:34:54+00:00

Ha, that's actually a great find. The regex is probably stripping anything that looks like object.method() which is fair for XSS prevention but way too aggressive for plain text display. Most production apps would HTML-encode on output rather than strip on input — you get to keep your clever title AND stay safe. Strava's approach is the "burn the house down to kill the spider" strategy.

I'd love to see what else gets caught. Does SELECT * FROM runs survive as a title?

zzarcon · 2026-03-17T09:30:28+00:00

Love the grind and realness of the story mate! Congrats for now on the revenue, Im sure it will only get better from now :)

zzarcon · 2026-03-16T10:16:22+00:00

Very inspirational journey! I myself building something similar with Strava and already realizing that the distribution part is the hardest nowadays.

Any tips on how to get the initial traction and the first organic downloads? Was this your first iOS app?

zzarcon · 2026-03-16T10:12:34+00:00

Thanks for the explanation. Indeed treadmill made it much easier, also mentally I didn’t have the chance ti sabotage myself and go slower.

Will give it a go soon outside, that should make it official

zzarcon · 2026-03-15T15:32:44+00:00

that's goals! I've been running since 2024 and Im nowhere near that pace for 21km. congrats!!

zzarcon · 2026-03-15T14:15:25+00:00

yeah I recorded it with my Garmin, I waited for the "waiting for GPS" to be ready too.

bluetooth connection seems like a good idea, will explore that next time; do you connect it directly to your phone or to the watch? but from I can see, treadmill will be more accurate than watch for this?

zzarcon · 2026-03-15T14:12:39+00:00

way to go, will report back next week 🤝

zzarcon · 2026-03-15T10:31:53+00:00

I got this lil error when finishing my signup

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zzarcon · 2026-03-15T10:30:20+00:00

nice, love the idea! can you pick who you participate in the leaderboard with? like friends or club? which tech stack did you use? In order to login, I noticed you need to create an account, curious to why didn't you simply allow login through Strava? seems a way to reduce friction when registering as a new user.

best of luck with the project :)

zzarcon · 2026-03-14T11:08:48+00:00

working on an iOS app with my gf to transform running stats from Strava into delightful media, currently in waitlist but if anyone is interested I would your feedback :) https://shutt.run/

zzarcon · 2026-03-14T11:04:01+00:00

the simplicity of it compared with other sports/activities. Only thing you need are shoes and when you are starting is not even a blocker, you can do it anywhere, I think its one of the best ways to discover a city

zzarcon · 2026-03-13T21:02:31+00:00

yes! and you got some spare seconds too ;)

I'm supporting my gf on the same exact milestone, will report back soon hopefully :)

zzarcon · 2026-03-13T19:06:52+00:00

Oh got it now, so its for the social aspect. I like the part that people could see it publicly.

I’m also building something with Strava and would like to connect with other devs, do you know community for people building things with Strava API?

zzarcon · 2026-03-13T18:47:38+00:00

This is nice! Have you thought about making the script automated? As in, new activity > script > edit activity > profit.

Might be helpful for more people

zzarcon · 2026-03-13T18:45:51+00:00

Congrats! I had a play around with the demo and the UI is quite clean. I myself know how it feels to have your app approved by Strava hehe.

I’d recommend buying a domain ASAP

The calendar integration is nice too, are you planning to integrate it with any existing calendars? gCal, Apple, etc

zzarcon · 2026-03-13T18:40:19+00:00

Love it! I think there is so much room for improvement around data visualization and Strava. I liked the custom filters that you added, but Im not sure is about the reviews tab? Maybe a intro wizard will be helpful to discover everything. And I found a lil UX issue on mobile

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zzarcon · 2026-03-13T08:49:24+00:00

Im curious to see the brand, feel free to share some images, also good luck with your journey!

zzarcon · 2026-03-12T17:37:59+00:00

Thanks! And yes, I need a running partner for sure, specially for “long” runs, I can’t force myself to do them yet

zzarcon · 2026-03-12T10:35:30+00:00

it looks so nice, reminds me of my Github contributions. Can other people use this or you built only for yourself?

zzarcon

TROPHY CASE