I'm fairly new to Strava, but have noticed that in the woods, it helps to REALLY know the trails well before embarking on riding segments.

On it being shite - disagree. Even though race season is over for me and close to over for most, Strava is a great way to keep the race juices going while the weather and daylight is still cooperating. For instance, I did a segment two weeks ago on my single speed, and then for comparison, did the same one yesterday on my geared bike. So I raced against myself, which was way more fun for me than it would have been to just go out and ride the same frickin trails I always ride by myself.

The single speed won, btw.