Log every Strava activity to a Google Sheets training journal
Every couple of hours, new Strava activities land as fresh rows in your Google Sheets training log, so you keep a permanent backup of every run, ride, and swim.
Strava
Google SheetsPersonal ProductivityOperationsData SyncBuild me a code workflow that backs up every new Strava activity to a Google Sheets training log. I want a permanent, portable record of my training outside Strava.
Trigger: cron, every 2 hours.
On each run, call Strava's List Athlete Activities and filter to activities recorded since the last successful execution (use a watermark of the most recent activity's start time that was logged on the previous run; on first run, default to roughly the last 24 hours so we do not flood the sheet with the entire history). Paginate until you have all new activities.
Skip any activity where commute is true or manual is true. Skip activities already logged.
For each remaining activity, call Google Sheets' Append Values on the configured spreadsheet and worksheet to add a single row with these columns, in this order:
date (the activity's local start date), name, sport_type, distance in kilometers (rounded to 2 decimals), moving_time in minutes (rounded to 1 decimal), elevation_gain in meters, average heart rate, max heart rate, average pace for runs and swims (mm:ss per km) or average speed in km/h for rides and other sport types, kudos_count, and a link back to the activity (https://www.strava.com/activities/{id}).
Use USER_ENTERED as the value input option so dates and numbers are parsed natively by Sheets. If a field is missing from Strava (for example heart rate on an activity recorded without a watch), leave the cell blank rather than writing 0 or null.
Inputs the user should configure: the Google Sheet URL (or spreadsheet id) and the worksheet/tab name to append to. Default tab to 'Training Log'.
Respect Strava's rate limits (200 requests per 15 minutes, 2000 per day) and handle 429s with backoff. Do not delete or overwrite anything in the sheet, only append.
Note: Strava is not in our poll trigger catalog, so cron with a timestamp watermark is the right shape here rather than a poll or webhook trigger.
Additional information
What does this prompt do?
- Watches your Strava account on a schedule and picks up any activities recorded since the last check.
- Appends one tidy row per activity to your Google Sheets training log with date, name, sport, distance, time, elevation, heart rate, pace, kudos, and a link back to the activity.
- Skips activities you flagged as a commute or entered manually, so the log stays focused on real workouts.
- Runs in the background forever, giving you a permanent, portable backup of your training history outside Strava.
What do I need to use this?
- A Strava account with the activities you want to back up.
- A Google account and a blank Google Sheet where the training log will live.
- The link (URL) of the Google Sheet you want the rows added to.
How can I customize it?
- Change how often it runs. Every two hours is the default, but you can move it to once a day or every fifteen minutes.
- Add or remove columns. Drop kudos, add suffer score, split runs and rides into different tabs, or translate kilometers to miles.
- Adjust the filters. Include commutes if you want them in the log, or only log a specific sport like cycling or swimming.
Frequently asked questions
Do I lose old activities if I set this up today?
Will the same activity ever get logged twice?
Can I use this with a Google Sheet that already has data in it?
What about activities I manually edit after they sync, like renaming a ride?
Do I need a paid Strava subscription?
Related templates
Every night we run your saved Databricks query and refresh a Google Sheet with the results, so your team reads the latest numbers without a login.
Every morning, automatically record yesterday's match results and each league's latest table into a spreadsheet you can chart or pivot.
Every morning we check your list of IP addresses for abusive activity, update your spreadsheet, and alert your team only about the risky ones.
Automatically add every new Azure DevOps work item to a Google Sheets tracker so your team can filter, sort, and report without opening Azure DevOps.
Check key email accounts against known data breaches every weekday, log every exposure to a spreadsheet, and get a Slack alert when a new breach shows up.
Every weekday morning, your team gets one Slack briefing on who's flying today, their live flight status, and any delays or cancellations to act on.
Keep a permanent backup of every workout, automatically.
Connect Strava and Google Sheets once, and Geni quietly adds every new activity to your training log every couple of hours.