After a long run on Sunday I did some post-run analysis, and found an excellent site, GMap-Pedometer, that harnesses the power of Google Maps and also USGS altitude information. Basically, you click on the map to draw a trail showing where you went, and it adds up the distance, throwing in mile/km markers and other nice things. Even better, the USGS altitude information means you get a complete profile of your run, so you can tell how much you climbed too. (Despite the website stating it’s only available in the US, it works just fine in most of the UK too – although the data can be quite inaccurate.) No more poring over OS Landranger maps trying to count the contours, or getting out a piece of string to try and measure the trail distance. Here’s the route I did.
Also, I drew a special “course” showing a Cross-Scotland walk that I’ve been meaning to do since 1997 but have still not got around to, largely due to lack of time and/or volunteers. The Great Outdoor Challenge is an organised walking challenge with a similar idea, and provided some inspiration for my original plans. The nice thing about the walk is you only cross 2 major roads, in 9 days and 130 miles of walking. (N.B. The GMap Pedometer trail of this route will take a little while to load, as it’s a very long trail.)
In case you are curious, the route would have been/will be:
Day 1 – Fort William to Corrour
Day 2 – Corrour to Ben Alder Cottage
Day 3 – Ben Alder Cottage to Dalwhinnie
Day 4 – Dalwhinnie to Glen Feshie (crossing the A9)
Day 5 – Glen Feshie to Linn of Dee
Day 6 – Linn of Dee to Braemar (“rest day” – 9km walking.)
Day 7 – Braemar to Glen Doll (crossing the A93, also the highest point of the route – 910m. Sadly, the Glen Doll YH is no more.)
Day 8 – Glen Doll to Bridgend
Day 9 – Bridgend to Montrose
There could be an extension out west (as Loch Linnhe is a sea loch, but not the “open sea”) and also a “high level” route that would be similar in distance and location, but climb Scotland’s highest Munros.
5 replies on “GMap Pedometer”
Another good site example for Google Maps (to calculate how far) is GPSies.com.
Just a pointer to TrailRunner. It’s also a route planning software.
TrailRunner will import GPX-tracklogs from GPS receivers and then plot the data on a map. Within the map, TrailRunner can then calculate routes for a given distance. You can even export directions as small NanoMaps to your iPod nano, journalize in a diary you can publish as a weblog and improve your performance with the build in exercise plan.
TrailRunner runs on Mac OS X and is free!
More on http://trailrunnerx.com
Mine is a cheaper one, so doesn’t log (it just sends the position over bluetooth, to something else that does the logging). There are some of a similar size that do log, for not much more.
Is that the device you got recently? If so, I might pick one up too. I’d be able to use that at races if it was small and light.
What you want is a logging GPS. Something that’ll record where you went, but not tell you where you are. (i.e. so you can’t cheat)
When you get back, you can then browse away to your hearts content. There’s loads of cool software out there for that sort of thing.