Map My Run

I have to be honest with you, I haven't been quite active these past two weeks. You can say that I justified the lack of activity due to it being a certain time of the month for my female self.

Well, thankfully I am past that hump and have great motivators in my life. This morning I woke up early after a late night at work and remembered my health exchange commitment I made. (To be active 3 times a week, each an hour of activity). And I don't think I would have actually ran if it weren't for my fiance Nick that was there to wake me up and get me out of bed.

We hit the pavement and knocked out 4.6 miles in about 45 minutes. Not bad at all since I'm working on running the half marathon in October at a 10 minute pace.

To help track our distance, Nick and I utilize Map My Run on our phones. The app is also connected a website where you can build your own routes and see other nearby routes. Since my phone isn't as up-to-date as Nick's, we usually use Nick's phone when we run. It's a great app because all you need to do is hit start and finish, carry it with you, and the app will track your mileage and time. When I run with the app on, I play my music and once I hit a mile, this pleasant voice tells me how far I've ran and as what pace.

Today I didn't carry my phone with me, so what I did was got on the computer and actually built the run so it is tracked on my own Map My Run profile. Here's what it looks like:

You can create your own Map My Run profiles at MapMyRun.com

If you have a phone and don't mind running with it, I highly recommend utilizing some sort of app. Here are my thoughts on pros and cons when it comes to the Map My Run app:

Pros:

• It's a free app and online tool.
• You are able to get a play-by-play on how far you've ran and track your time while you're running.
• Having your phone also most likely means you'll have your music with you. When close out of Map My Run, it doesn't mean it stops tracking your mileage so that comes in handy when I have to change a song or something on my phone playlist.
• You get to record your runs and see your progress. Going on MapMyRun.com is a great way to take a look at all your past runs.

Cons:

•  Takes up a lot of battery life on your phone.
• You have to run in areas with great service or the app will not be able to track the exact mileage since it works as a GPS.

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All in all, today was a great run. I'm happy that I got out of a funk and I feel confident and alive today.

My soon-to-be (but I already see her as such) cousin-in-law had mentioned that she utilizes the Nike Running App. I'm going to look into using this one soon and see how it compares.

What running apps do you use?