Keep motivating yourself !

# clean the R workspace
rm(list = ls())
# load packages
require(tidyverse)
require(leaflet)
# read csv files of GPS coordinates of activities
runs_coordinates <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/runs_coordinates.csv")
iran_rides_coordinates <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/iran_rides_coordinates.csv")
milan_rides_coordinates <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/milan_rides_coordinates.csv")
brescia_rides_coordinates <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/brescia_rides_coordinates.csv")
free_walks_coordinates <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/free_walks_coordinates.csv")
free_walks_coordinates_rotterdam <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/walk_rotterdam_netherlands_coordinates.csv")
runs_coordinates_netherlands <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/runs_netherlands_coordinates.csv")
rides_coordinates_netherlands <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/rides_netherlands_coordinates.csv")
all_coordinates_dublin <- read.csv("./data/runs_bike_rides/dublin_coordinates.csv")


# in order to sty DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) ! I am going to write a small function to call leaflet mapping functions and use it in following sections to avoid writing same code multiple times
my_leaflet_map <- function(activity_data) {
  leaflet() %>% 
    addTiles() %>% 
    addPolylines(lat = activity_data$latitude, 
                 lng = activity_data$longitude)
}

As title says clearly, in this short post I am trying to keep motivating myself! After sharing my bike rides or run paths visualized by R on a map on social media (like picture below), I have often got this question from my friends, why are you sharing them?

My answer has been:

You know how hard it is to ride a bike or run when it is cold outside?! I am trying to keep motivating myself! These posts are written, first to remind myself that it is doable, then to inspire my friends to move!

Besides above goal, it is a while I have intended to learn a better way to visualize routes and paths with GPS coordinates over maps, in a more interactive way and with possibility to be embedded in R Markdown docuements like the one you are reading now!

Before I was using geom_path from the amazing ggplot2 package, to connect the coordinates, (like picture above) recently I heard about leaflet package, and here you are going to see different maps of my bike rides, runs and free walking paths which are visualized with leaflet addPolylines.

In order to capture and export my rides, runs and walks GPS coordinates I am using Strava which gives .gpx format exports of all the activities. Then I use plotKML package to import those files in R and build data frames from them. Below I have used the csv exports of those data frames, since they include time, elevation and some other information that Strava exports, so I wouldn’t suggest you to share your gpx files publicly, as I am not doing here.

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = milan_rides_coordinates)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = iran_rides_coordinates)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = brescia_rides_coordinates)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = runs_coordinates)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = free_walks_coordinates)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = rides_coordinates_netherlands)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = runs_coordinates_netherlands)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = free_walks_coordinates_rotterdam)

my_leaflet_map(activity_data = all_coordinates_dublin)