Hint/Tip mapquest.com - great tool for walkers & runners

[videofit]

If you walk outside like I do, it's good to know how far you are walking. In the past, I've used my car's odometer to measure out the mileage, but inevitably I would get distracted and think, Wait -- did it say 35,334.8 miles or 35,334.3 miles when I left home? Then I would wind up guessing.

I tend to walk to the same places everyday, so I got their addresses online and measured each leg. Now when I combine several stops on one walk, I know exactly how far I've gone. I had been shortchanging myself before!

[Pykkalo]

Do you have a trip odometer on your car?

At my old house, I had a friend who lived down the road from me a little ways (3rd house down the road from me, to the south... which turned out to be 1.1 miles, gotta love living in the country). I wanted to see how far it was from my house to hers, so I typed it into Mapquest... it had me go north 1.5 miles to a highway, then west 0.7 miles to another highway, then south a couple miles, then east on the cross-street nearest her house, for a total of more than 6 miles. LOL! And she lived on the very same road that I did!

Not totally related to the topic, but I thought it was funny!

[videofit]

The directions given by mapquest.com were the same as the way I normally walk, so it wasn't a problem. I know that it can be strange sometimes.

I have a trip odometer, if you mean that button you press to make it go back to zero. I use it to see how much gas mileage I get, pushing it back to zero every time I fill up. It's one way of getting an early warning that something might be wrong with the car if the mileage suddenly changes.

[Janga]

There is a running/walking site that also maps and plans runs and walks and let's users store and share them.

Originally Posted by videofit

The directions given by mapquest.com were the same as the way I normally walk, so it wasn't a problem. I know that it can be strange sometimes.

I have a trip odometer, if you mean that button you press to make it go back to zero. I use it to see how much gas mileage I get, pushing it back to zero every time I fill up. It's one way of getting an early warning that something might be wrong with the car if the mileage suddenly changes.

[jenjenjen]

I like to use
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

You draw the route and they tell you the miles.

[mtnmom]

Originally Posted by jenjenjen

I like to use
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

You draw the route and they tell you the miles.

Yep, that's the one I use too. Many of the trails around here are on PG&E roads that aren't accessable to normal vehicle traffic (usually unpaved), and gmap will have them. You can also save your routes, it will place milage markers (so if your total route is 8 miles, you know where the 1,2,3,etc mile is).

I think they've made recent improvements to this too. A few days ago I was able to mark a route very quickly on a windy road, the program automatically turned the corners. Before, I remember having to "tag" every turn.

[Peggy T]

Originally Posted by videofit

The directions given by mapquest.com were the same as the way I normally walk, so it wasn't a problem. I know that it can be strange sometimes.

I have a trip odometer, if you mean that button you press to make it go back to zero. I use it to see how much gas mileage I get, pushing it back to zero every time I fill up. It's one way of getting an early warning that something might be wrong with the car if the mileage suddenly changes.

What a great idea!
I'm lucky- my old car has 3 odos.

[mspina]

There are a number of these out there now - they are great. I use them all the time to plan running/biking routes to make sure I hit my mileage training goals for the day.

Map My Run
Map My Ride

[LynnO]

I like map my run too. It worked for my local recreation area that doesn't have road- you can get a view with an aerial photo.