MapMyFitness is a family of sites that you can use to share your workouts with others, view the evolution of your fitness training, use fitness calculators and tools and much more. At this moment there are five sites in the family, each aimed at a different sport/activity:

• MapMyRun.com
• MapMyRide.com
• MapMyWalk.com
• MapMyTri.com
• MapMyHike.com

These types of mashup sites are emerging to provide more specialized services around mapping. What I like in this case is that, in addition to the mapping and fitness features, on each one of the sites you can find races/events, news and gear for the sport featured on the site.

I plan to do an extensive review of the sites so I prefer to leave this post as it is. Stay tuned.

Related posts:

• Route Sites Roundup
• GPS Visualizer

If you need a mapping tool to get the job done, GPS Visualizer is for you. There are now many routing/mapping sites (see resources at the end of the post) that let you post your routes, either manually or uploading a GPS file. Their main purpose, being social sites, is to share those routes between their users. GPS Visualizer takes a different approach.

It’s simply a map creation tool: you upload you GPS file and it creates a map for you, that’s all. There’s no need to register and you don’t have to describe anything. You only need a GPS file (or a text file with some coordinates).

I’m saying it’s simple because the site is really easy to operate. It has a clear interface and the numerous options don’t get in your way. In fact, I could generate my map in less than a minute, just uploading my Forerunner’s course file. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Adam Schneider, its creator, is constantly updating the site to include new formats and improvements on the existing features.

To start with, GPS Visualizer can read a lot of different data formats: GPX, OziExplorer, Geocaching.com (.loc), IGC sailplane logs, Garmin Forerunner, Timex Trainer, Cetus GPS, PathAway, cotoGPS, CompeGPS, TomTom, IGN Rando, Emtac Trine, Suunto X9/X9i, NetStumbler/WiFiFoFum (yes, you can plot your wardriving logs as well), and old plain text files.

What about the output? You can generate maps in the following formats:

• SVG (viewable with Adobe’s SVG Viewer plug-in).
• JPEG/PNG.
• Google Maps.
• Google Earth KML file.
• Elevation/speed profile.

For each format you have many parameters for controlling the output. This picture shows the options you get for a Google Map generation (these are the normal options. By clicking on ’show advanced options [+]’ on the title of each group you get more parameters) :

And this is the elevation profile my regular MTB route:

GPS Visualizer doesn’t stop here, though. The site is packed with many utilities related to mapping:

• A file conversion utility to create a text file or a GPX file from any GPS file.
• A front-end interface to GPS Babel.
• Geographic calculators.
• An address geocoder.
• A Google Earth KML overlay creator.
• A Forerunner file splitter.

There’s also a great help system and many tutorials in case you need assistance.

And the best of all, it’s free.

Resources:

• GPS Visualizer.
• Adam Scheider’s web page (the creator of GPS Visualizer).
• Post about other routing/mapping sites.
• TrailRunner, a Mac software for route planning.

Since the appearance of Google Maps and the possibility of making mashups with it, a new type of social sites has been growing steadily. I call them route sites, and they allow their users to create routes (manually or by uploading a gps tracklog), search for routes, describe routes, view a route’s elevation, and so on. Here’s a roundup of the ones I’ve found that sport practitioners might find useful. They are all free to use:

• Bikely (www.bikely.com): routes are created by clicking on the map. You can tag the route, download it as a .GPX file, comment on it, see its elevation, tag it and see routes nearby. Especially for bikers.
• WalkJogRun (www.walkjogrun.net), Map My Run (www.mapmyrun.com), Favorite Run (www.favoriterun.com), Gmaps Pedometer (www.gmap-pedometer.com): these are all running route planners. Routes are also created by clicking on the map.
• Wikiloc (www.wikiloc.com): a GPS based route site. It lets you upload your GPS track and waypoints to create your route and share it with other users. This site recently won a mashup contest.
• Every Trail (www.everytrail.com): also GPS based. Similar to Wikiloc.
• Motion Based (www.motionbased.com): owned by Garmin, it allows you to upload your GPS (Forerunner, Edge) and workout data. Besides routing, it has some more features like workout analysis.

If you know other sites like the ones I’ve described please post a comment.