Get Strava activity data#
This page overviews working with your Strava activity data using the stravalib Python library.
Retrieve an activity#
To access data for a given activity, use the client.get_activity method and provide the activity_id.
The client.get_activity method returns a stravalib.model.DetailedActivity object.
Note
All of the commands below require you first to authenticate using a client object containing a token.
from stravalib.client import Client
# This command assumes that you have already authenticated the client object.
>>> activity = client.get_activity(1234)
>>> type(activity)
<class 'stravalib.model.DetailedActivity'>
The DetailedActivity object has many properties such as type, distance, and elapsed time.
# Get the activity type
>>> activity = client.get_activity(207650614)
>>> print(f"type = {activity.type}")
# Output
root='Hike'
# Get activity distance
>>> print(f"The distance is: {a.distance}")
The distance is: 1234
Stravalib offers unit conversion helpers#
You can convert the distance value to another unit if you import stravalib’s
stravalib.unit_helper module.
from stravalib import unit_helper
unit_helper.feet(activity.distance)
# Output: <Quantity(8073.49081, 'foot')>
unit_helper.miles(activity.distance)
# <Quantity(1.52907023, 'mile')>
unit_helper.kilometers(activity.distance)
# <Quantity(2.4608, 'kilometer')>
Similarly, you can access elapsed time and
convert it to a timedelta object.
activity.elapsed_time
# Output: 2273
activity.elapsed_time.timedelta
# Output: <bound method Duration.timedelta of 2273>
DetailedActivity iterator objects#
Some items returned by stravalib will be returned as a
BatchedResultsIterator object. A BatchedResultsIterator object contains a list of
items associated with an activity - for example, a list of comments or kudos.
If an attribute contains a discrete value, you can access the item’s value as an attribute like this:
>>> activity.comment_count
3
However if it’s a BatchedResultsIterator, you will see this:
>>> activity.comments
<BatchedResultsIterator entity=Comment>
You can access each comment or item within a BatchedResultsIterator object using a Python loop or a list comprehension:
>>> for comment in activity.comments:
>>> print(f"Comment by: {comment.athlete.firstname}, {comment.text}")
Comment by: YourFriendsNameHere: Not the pool!
Get Strava activity streams#
stravalib.client.Client.get_activity_streams() returns a dictionary containing time-series
data associated with your activity.
You can specify the stream variables that you want to be returned by providing a list of accepted types to the types
parameter. The type options for streaming data can be found here: stravalib.strava_model.StreamType.
The data returned from this request is a dictionary object that looks something like this:
streams
"""
# Output dict:
{'latlng': Stream(...),
'distance': Stream(...),
'altitude': Stream(...)}
"""
The Python dictionary’s key represent the stream type:
if "altitude" in streams.keys():
print(streams["altitude"].data)
Tip
The resolution of the streaming data refers to the number of data points returned for your activity. Low resolution means fewer points. Low-resolution data returns a smaller dataset; this data will be faster to download. Alternatively, high-resolution data will return a larger dataset and is slower to download. However, the output spatial data will look more “smooth” as more points are associated with the activity path.
Warning
Collecting streaming data is API (and memory) intensive!
Full-resolution data#
When accessing streaming data, if you don’t set a resolution value it will default to None.
In this case, Strava will return the full-resolution representation of your data.
Warning
The resolution parameter for Strava data streams is undocumented and could (and has) changed
at any time.
Low-resolution data request#
# Request desired stream types
types = ["latlng", "altitude"]
streams = client.get_activity_streams(
activity_id=123456,
types=types,
resolution="low",
series_type="distance",
)
print(type(streams))
# Output
# dict
print(len(streams_low["latlng"].data))
# Output: This will return the lowest resolution data
# 100
Medium resolution data request#
# Request desired stream types
types = ["latlng", "altitude"]
streams = client.get_activity_streams(
activity_id=123456,
types=types,
resolution="medium",
series_type="distance",
)
print(len(streams_med["latlng"].data))
# Output: notice there are more data points compared to a low resolution request
# 983
High resolution data request#
# Request desired stream types
types = ["latlng", "altitude"]
streams = client.get_activity_streams(
activity_id=123456,
types=types,
resolution="high",
series_type="distance",
)
print(len(streams_high["latlng"].data))
# Output: notice there are more data points compared to both low and medium resolution. This is the max resolution possible.
# 1729
Note
If your activity is short, the number of data points returned for medium vs. low-resolution data may not be significantly different.
Access activity zones#
Additionally, you can retrieve activity zones using: stravalib.client.Client.get_activity_zones(); activity laps can be retrieved with stravalib.client.Client.get_activity_laps().
Access photos for an activity#
To get photos for an associated activity, you can useclient.get_activity_photos(activity_id, max_resolution). Here, max_resolution is the maximum resolution of photos that you want to
collect in pixels.
photos = client.get_activity_photos(id_w_photos, 2000)
photos
# Expected Output:
# <BatchedResultsIterator entity=ActivityPhoto>
The photos endpoint returns a BatchedResultsIterator object that you can loop through to access photo metadata and URLs for downloading the photos.
for i, photo in enumerate(photos):
print("photo")
You can access photo attributes like this:
photo.default
True
photo.sizes
{"2000": [2048, 1261]}
photo.urls
{"2000": "https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/url-is-here.jpg"}
Get a list of Strava activities#
You can access multiple activities using the stravalib.client.Client.get_activities() method. This method will return a BatchedResultsIterator that you can loop through.
Note
The activities batchedResultsIterator object stores data that allows stravalib to access activity data when you iterate through the object. This approach limits the API requests made up front to Strava.
Below, you request activities that were recorded after Jan 1, 2024.
activities = client.get_activities(after="2024-01-01", limit=5)
print(activities)
# Expected output:
# <BatchedResultsIterator entity=SummaryActivity>
Using the limit parameter will limit the number of activities Stravalib will retrieve. Above, you retrieve the first 5 activities.
for i, activity in enumerate(activities):
print(i)
"""
0
1
2
3
4
print(f"I found {i+1} activities for you.")
I found 5 activities for you.
"""
Tip
To get activities starting with the oldest first, specify a value for the after= parameter when calling client.get_activities. Use the before= parameter to get the last 5 activities.
Get club member activities#
You can also use stravalib to access activities associated with a club. To do this, use stravalib.client.Client.get_club_activities().