Manually creating a Strava cycling (or running) entry
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I record all my cycling using Strava. However doing so normally
requires GPS tracking, for which I use one of my KaiOS phones. However
when my phone runs out of batteries or I am carrying something
simpler, like my Light Phone (II), I have an alternate way.

~ More about my Strava usage:
gopher://sdf.org/0/users/r0/phlog/2021-11-28_Strava_and_Motivation.txt

~ Light Phone:
https://www.thelightphone.com

To create a basic, manual Strava entry you only need a little
information: Start time, Duration and Distance. However, while noting
the start and end times with a watch will let you calculate duration,
accurate distance is likely an unknown unless you have done the
_exact_ route before. Previously I have used things like Google Maps
to check the distance but it is annoying to use because it picks a
route for you from A to B, rather than you plotting one. Even if you
tweak that route it will often complain if you try and make it go a
way that it does not consider viable.

My preferred web service for manually mapping a route is OnTheGoMap.
It is much easier to plot an accurate route of your journey, rather
than one that a service like Google maps recommends. There are other
services that let you do this as well but OnTheGoMap is quite nice in
that it does not require any signup/login and has a fairly obvious UI
with 'just enough' options.

~ OnTheGoMap:
https://onthegomap.com

To use, you find your starting location and click, then you pick your
mode of travel via the options along the top, middle part of the
screen: walk/run, bike, car or straight lines. By clicking along your
route a path is laid onto the map. OnTheGoMap will snap to the most
obvious locations for your mode of travel, so that walking will prefer
foot paths over major roads, biking will like smaller roads and bike
paths, and car will only snap to actual roads. The final option
(straight lines) allows you to break from the automatic snapping to
(known) paths. This is handy for off-road or just to if you feel that
the automatic methods are failing. You can also change mode types as
you click. This is useful if you cycle part of your route along a
shared path that OnTheGoMap thinks is only for pedestrians. Just
switch to walking for that section and then click back to cycling when
you are done. OnTheGoMap also supports a bunch of keyboard shortcuts
as well, e.g. 'r' to toggle between modes or 'z' to undo the last
click.

Once complete, you should have a fairly accurate distance calculation
(I have compared a manually plotted route with the same route logged
via GPS), plus a nice map that you can share. There is a link option
in the top right hand corner of the screen that will generate a URL to
display the route you plotted (or click 'a' on the keyboard), along
with an option to shorten it (via a built in URL shortner). You can
also screenshot the map, should you want a visual that you can embed
in your Strava entry (I usually do both). Another great feature is the
ability to display an 'Elevation profile' by clicking on a little
mountain icon on the bottom left hand corner (or use the keyboard
shortcut 'e'). This gives you a graph of the hills you encountered.
Hovering it lets you check gradients. You can also see your total
elevation gain in meters via a little diagonal, zig zagged arrow found
on the top, right (of the 'Elevation profile' graph) that points in
the same direction (top, right). Elevation (total)  is one of the
optional values that Strava accepts as in its manual entries.

On my commute to work today, I noted my start (08:59) and end (09:22)
times on my watch and with a little manual mapping on my arrival, I
obtained the following basic stats.

Distance: 5.59km
Duration: 00:23:00
Elevation: 47m
Time (Start): 8:59am

From that, Strava will then calculate some stuff for you, like average
speed, which for this activity was 14.6km/h (a little slow perhaps but
I was using a 26" wheeled unicycle and the traffic lights did not
always go in my favour ;)). It will also update your stats to date for
clubs and challenges you are part of, along with your yearly and all
time user totals.

~ Map of my morning commute today (OnTheGoMap):
https://onthegomap.com/s/0tb064b9

~ Strava entry for my morning commute today (requires a Strava
  account to view):
https://www.strava.com/activities/6320553680

Punching these into Strava's form for manual entries, creating a title
for the activity and attaching a screenshot of the map as an overview
image probably only took me 5 mins. Not as quick as using the GPS
built into many modern devices but entirely doable. ;)

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