Mapping your Nebraska adventures

There's something to be said for lacing (or Velcroing--is that even a word?) your shoes, stepping out your front door, sucking in a lungful of the outdoors, and taking off running or bicycling with very little preparation. Unfortunately, those of us without GPS (I know, I know) or a cyclometer (I know, already, jeez...) or even any idea how to use a map (okay, now I definitely do not fall into that category) have no easy way of knowing how far we've ran/cycled once we return home--if we return home (see earlier GPS reference).

In the olden days, to determine how long my little neighborhood jog was, I would've 1) later driven the same route in my car while keeping a close eye on my odometer or 2) relied upon my highly accurate rate of perceived exertion, which would've informed me that the loop was somewhere between 50 and 75 miles long.

A few weeks ago I decided to use a website called mapmyrun to determine the length of my neighborhood loop. As it turns out, my grueling, ultramarathon loop was only a mile and a half long. And, more importantly, mapmyrun.com (and its cousin mapmyride.com), turned out to be pretty cool sites.

If you spend a few moments navigating the site, you'll find a wide variety of news items, training tools, forums, upcoming races, a contest of two, and even some pre-mapped runs (the site eerily recognized that I lived in Omaha and supplied me with maps of an Elmwood Park run, a 4-Mile downtown loop, and a run called "Keystone Loop from Steve's").

Site registration is free. And although the free version has some annoying ads that tend to get in your way while you create your own workout maps, that's a small price to pay for a highly useful set of newfound training tools.