Wednesday, March 9, 2011

One of My Favorite Running Links

Do you have a runners website that you always go to? Maybe it is a Blog Site (I have quite a few I visit regularly). Maybe it is Runner World? I go there almost everyday and read what is up in the world of running. Maybe it is something else all together.

One site I go to ALL. THE. TIME. is http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. What is so great about this site? Here, you can see how far you ran, plan a running route, check the elevation differences of your run, see satellite images of the area you are going to or have run in, and a whole bunch of other stuff. If I am planning a run later in the day, I may go here and plot out where I want to go to see how far it is. If I am in a new area, I go here to see what routes may be possible and what hills I may encounter. If I have already run, I track the route I ran to see how far it was that I ran.

I assume most of you already know about this site. It is not exactly a secret. But for those of you who haven't, here is a quick view of what you get.





I know the picture is small, but you can see I mapped out a possible run that I could have done. You click on "Start Recording" button and then double click on the map where you want to start. An upside-down teardrop will appear. Then, as you click along the route you ran, the route will fill in with a red line marking the shortest distance between the previous mark and the next mark. This is if you have the "automatically (runners)" tab checked. It will follow along roads and bike trails if they are marked on the map. As you go along, it will put another teardrop at each mile (or kilometer if you choose Metric). If you make a mistake, simply click on the "Undo Last Point" button. You can zoom in and out a lot to make the map the size you want it to be.

Sometimes the map isn't up to date and a trail or road you run on is not on the map. What I do when this happens is click on the "Satellite" or "Hybrid" tabs on the top of the map and you can see a visual image of the area and maybe see that trail you are running on. Then change the Draw Route option to "Manually (straight lines)" and simply click along the same way but know this will only make straight lines and not follow any route.

Once you are done with your route, if you want to see the elevation change to your route, click on the Elevation Small or Large links and the site will go out and figure the elevation level of your entire run.

Like I said, I go here a lot. It is easy to use and seems quite accurate. I know there are other sites like Map My Run, etc. but I have always like this one.

Just thought I would share in case you were interested.

Keep on Running!!!

1 comment:

Beth said...

Thanks for sharing! I haven't heard of that one and will check it out. I have used map my run and I use map my ride quite a bit when I plan my outside bike rides. I hope to be using it before too long!