Deep dive into the STRAVA Integration

We’ve just built a Strava integration for MOTRA, and I wanted to break down how it works and why it’s actually useful. The aim wasn’t to change how you use Strava, but to add a layer of honesty that pace and distance often miss. MOTRA reads your heart rate data, calculates your Effort Points, and updates your Strava caption automatically so your activity shows not just what you did, but how hard you worked.

The biggest benefit is consistency. Pace can be misleading depending on fatigue, heat, terrain, or the type of session you’re doing. A slow run might be a recovery jog or a full grind depending on your heart rate. Activities like cycling or interval sessions become much more meaningful when effort is shown directly on your feed.

From the user side, it’s completely hands-off. Once you connect your Strava account, every synced workout is processed in the background, and MOTRA updates the caption for you. No typing, no copy-paste, no extra steps.

We also kept the privacy side clean. MOTRA doesn’t pull or store your Strava data beyond the single caption update. Routes, photos, segments, all untouched.

This first version focuses on doing the basics well, but it already makes day-to-day training easier to understand. Happy to hear what else you’d want.