Everything we have written about getting a route out of a watch or an app, understanding the file, and putting it on paper — grouped by what you are trying to do. The guides are practical and specific: where the button is, what the file contains, why the number differs. Where we sell something, we say so; most of these pages do not.
Strava
Export one activity or all of them, GPX versus Original versus TCX, the app versus the website, routes and segments, your map as an image, the personal heatmap and Year in Sport — and what Strava will and will not give you for free.
Strava guides · start with how to export a GPX from Strava or the bulk export.
Strava art
Planning a shape, running it without lifting the pen, forty ideas by distance, the free planners compared, the largest drawings ever, and which cities draw best. Strava art guides · start with how to make Strava art.
Files: GPX, FIT and TCX
What the three formats are, what each carries, which to send, and what to do when one will not open or upload. Files guides · What is a GPX file · What is a FIT file · What is a TCX file · GPX, FIT or TCX — which to send · Upload a file to Strava · GPX not uploading · Repair a FIT file · GPX onto a Garmin · What your file carries, field by field.
Devices and apps
How to get the file out of the thing that recorded it. Device guides · Garmin Connect · Apple Watch · Wahoo · Suunto and Coros · Polar Flow · Fitbit · Samsung Health · Nike Run Club · AllTrails · Komoot and Ride with GPS · MapMyRun · Runkeeper · Google Fit · Peloton · Zwift · every other app.
The numbers, and why they do not add up
What the numbers mean · What elevation gain actually counts · Why Strava and Garmin disagree about elevation · GPS drift, and why your line wobbles · Why your marathon reads 42.6 km · Moving time or elapsed time · Why a printed route has fewer points.
Choosing a print
The product pages first: Sizes · Paper · Frames · Delivery and returns. Then the opinions: size, paper, frame, colour, what goes under the line. What size should a route print be? · Two papers, and why both are matte · Framing a route print · Clean line or a map behind it? · Choosing the line colour · Which numbers belong on the print · What to call it · Where a route print actually works.
Gifts
For the runner, the cyclist, the hiker, the first marathon and the one just finished. Gifts for runners · A gift for someone's first marathon · What to give after the race · Gifts for a cyclist who owns everything · For someone who walked a long way · The route you walked together · Christmas · Last race, last commute, last season.
Privacy
Your file starts at your front door. Hide your home on a route print · What Strava's privacy zones do not cover · Sharing a route safely.
Free tools
Viewer, converters, elevation profile and a personal heatmap generator — all in your browser, nothing uploaded: Tools.
Races
One page per race we can print, with the route, the profile and what to do with the file afterwards: Races.
Journal
The sports, the verbs, and the routes worth hanging — the writing that is not a how-to: Journal.