👟 Running Log

View my Running Log →

While idly perusing the internet one afternoon, I stumbled across Josh Crain's Running Log.

His amazing site inspired me, and I really wanted to create something in a similar style.
However, I don't own a Garmin watch (or any smartwatch for that matter...), so I needed to work out how to connect my existing dodgily-formatted Excel spreadsheet to my site.
After researching it for a while, I stumbled upon Airtable (about 5 years behind everyone else...).
Like an spreadsheet on steriods, it had an excellent API which made it really easy to create a 'link' to my site, and then play with the data there.
I had been outgrowing the spreadsheet for some time, so Airtable was exactly what I was after!

After playing around for a bit, I imported my spreadsheet into airtable, and started building my own running log.

When I run, I track the activity using Google Fit. Once I've finished, I transfer the activity data over to my Airtable.
Logging a run is simple - I have a password-protected form on this website, which makes it really quick and easy to add a new run.

The data then syncs over to Airtable using Formcarry (a really cool bit of software - check them out!), before Zapier triggers a site rebuild.

The data then syncs over to the DB, which triggers a rebuild of the site using Zapier.
Within 15 minutes, the site will rebuild, adding the new activity to the main page as well as the individual activity log page.

The system works really well, and bar a couple of small tweaks I've made, hasn't needed any modifications since I built it last year.
In future, I'd love it to display some charts, and analyse the data rather than just show it. That's a little way down my list though!

If you have any questions about this, or are thinking of building a similar system yourself, please do feel free to get in touch. Make sure to check out Josh's version too!

May 2024