Tech Table Wednesday, August 6, 2014
August 6, 2014
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest. Well, hi, there Justin.
Justin: Hello, Diana. It’s Wednesday.
Diana: Yes, it is Wednesday and it looks like you’re having a good day already.
Justin: I’m having a great day.
Diana: Feeling good.
Justin: Because I get to see you. Aww.
Diana: Aww.
Justin: It’s true. So, today we’re going to talk about MapMyRun.com.
Diana: I’ve used this before. Have you?
Justin: No, I run on the treadmill so it maps.
Diana: Oh, it kind of maps it for you.
Justin: Yeah, it just does its thing. I wish I had one of those fancy treadmills that did, like the different elevations, and there are GPS treadmills. You know, you can run anywhere in the world.
Diana: Yeah, you can pick different trails and stuff.
Justin: Yeah, it uses GPS satellite, and then it actually will show you pictures of the terrain, and then it will actually raise and lower the treadmill based on the actual terrain of where you’re running at.
Diana: Cool, huh? Technology.
Justin: Yeah, it’s very cool but I’m sure those are hugely expensive. I have the Wal-Mart special treadmill, which works for me, folks.
Diana: Oh, yeah. It’s been going strong for years.
Justin: Yeah. You know, I’ve had two and I’ve been running for years, and I think they’re fine.
Diana: Yeah, so MapMyRun.com is a website. I think they also have an app for your phone. But basically, you know, if you’ve ever thought about going for a bike ride or a run but you’re away from home and you don’t have a route picked out, or maybe you even just want to take a new route.
Justin: Right, be adventurous.
Diana: And know how far you went or how far you’re going to go, let’s say, you have a goal. You can actually go to MapMyRun.com.
Justin: And that’s map, M-A-P my run.
Diana: Yes, and so if you go there, you can actually draw a route on a map and it will tell you the distance, the elevation changes, so on and so forth.
Justin: Yeah.
Diana: And then you can adjust it accordingly, if say, you know, you want to do three miles and the route that you had kind of picked out was only 2.8. You can kind of, oh, I’ll do one extra block or two.
Justin: Right, yeah, or if there’s a huge mountain in your way and you don’t want to go on a huge mountain, you can go a different direction.
Diana: Yeah, you might adjust it.
Justin: Absolutely. That’s really handy if you’re not, you know, if you’re not local to the area and you don’t really know. That’s a good idea.
Diana: Yes, yes. So, and it’s more than just a website to plan your routes. As I mentioned, they do have an app for smartphones to keep track of your runs, your walks, your bike rides. After you finish an activity, your info is actually uploaded automatically to the website where it keeps a log of all your activities.
Justin: Sure. That’s great, so it keeps track of you. That’s excellent.
Diana: You can connect with friends or others in the area using the service, so kind of a social network, a little bit there. And, you know, you can have it generate a route for you.
Justin: That’s interesting.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: So, what kind of parameters do you put in? Do you know?
Diana: It says here you can put in your location and desired distance.
Justin: Okay, that makes sense.
Diana: So, yeah.
Justin: And then you push the button.
Diana: Push the button.
Justin: And it creates a route for you.
Diana: It’s all about buttons these days. Just push the button.
Justin: Excellent. And then there’s also event listings, you know, for 10k and other run/walk events, which it seems like these days, you know, America’s trying to get healthy, and so there is a walk or run event in every community, like at least three or four times a year, it seems like, and more than that in many larger communities.
Diana: Right.
Justin: So, there’s always something out there to do. So this will also help you do that.
Diana: Yeah, and most of these things are free. You can upgrade and get a premium membership so you can get tailored training plans, live tracking, and live coaching.
Justin: That’s pretty cool. Excellent. So, that is MapMyRun.com.
Diana: Check it out!
Justin: Until next time.
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at AskMPA.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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