Plan Your Run Route from the Comfort of Your Office Chair

[Chett]

The easiest way to kill your enthusiasm for running is a repetitive running route. I've been training for a marathon for the past several months and on my long run days of ten miles or more, I find myself running down the same routes again and again. I choose the same routes because I know the distance and can better track my time. I've tried finding different running routes, but by the time I map out the distance with the odometer in my car and get back to the starting point I've wasted time I could have used running, and worse yet I've wasted money in fuel for my car.

A couple of weeks ago I was playing with Google Earth and I found an outstanding tool that can be used to plan your run routes from the comfort of your chair at home or at work. I've used this tool for the past two weeks mapping out a 16 and 17 mile run and it has been great. Read on to find out how to use Google Earth to plan your run routes.

First if you haven't downloaded the Google Earth application you will need to before you can go any further. It is completely free and easy to use. Click on the link to download Google Earth.

Once Google Earth is downloaded begin by typing the location where you want to begin in the search bar. Press enter and you will "fly" to your beginning location. You can also click and drag your way across your local area to your beginning destination.

Once you arrive at your destination on Google Earth click on the ruler button on the menu bar at top of the screen. Then select the "path" tab.

After clicking on the path tab, simply drag the icon over the area you plan to start. You can scroll your mouse wheel to zoom in on the area you are running and use your arrow keys on the key board to move north, south, east, or west. Every time you click, you enter a new waypoint, but the distance measured is cumulative. By choosing this method you can click around curves and sharp corners and still measure the total distance from your starting point. You can also mouse over a way point that has already been created and drag your waypoint to a new location. Here is an example of a 3.1 mile run route I created near a local high school.

That's really all there is to it. You can start by planning a one mile route, or you can pre-plan a marathon route from your La-Z-Boy.

Is this helpful information, or how do you go about planning and selecting your run routes?