The idea for this project was born from the constant discomfort that came with trying to compare my running pace to my friends'. I have trained all my life measuring my runs in kilometers, but my friends use miles. After every run me and my friends would discuss our workout, and it was complicated to understand each other, not knowing how hard we had trained. So, I decided to take this inconvenience as a coding challenge and build a tool that would solve our measurement translation problem.
The web app was build using the package streamlit (version 1.27.2) and deployed with Render. Additionally Pandas (version 2.0.3) was used for some data handling.
The web app has 3 sections:
- Pace Converter: This will convert your minutes/kilometers to minutes/miles and vice versa.
- Pace Calculator: If you don't know how was you were running, in this section you can enter your distance and time and you'll recieve your running pace.
- Unit Conversion: Lastely, this section will convert from kilometers to miles and conversely.
You can use this tool here : Running Pace Calculator
When I first started developing the website for this project, I faced a roadblock that offered me a lesson. Initially, I planned to use Heroku to deploy my web app but soon realized that their free-tier service was terminated. I was determined, and this obstacle was not going to stop me. I still wanted to build my project, so I did some research on potential alternatives and found out about a couple of options. Ultimately, I decided on Render since the deployment process was fairly simple. My lesson here was to not give up if your plan does not work. You need to be adaptable and able to learn on the go. As Bruce Lee famously said, "Be like water"; don't get contained in one technology, embrace the freedom of trying other options.
My next step for this project is to build an app that can be downloaded to Android phones (and possibly iPhones too) and that can be used without an internet connection.