Stay Active During the Holidays with MapMyFITNESS
You hear about it on the news and experience it firsthand at the airports every year and the numbers don’t lie: according to an article that appeared on Forbes.com, 42.2 million Americans were estimated to drive 50 miles or more over the Thanksgiving holiday and 24 million passengers were set to fly during a 12-day period over that holiday, and those were just last year’s estimates.
Living in the South, I take my summers off from training and save it all for the winter when the temperatures are a bit more manageable. Next week marks my training group’s tenth week of training, and with half marathons approaching in January and February, my running can’t take a back seat to the holidays. With travel and family and friends, this could easily be the case for both you and me, but luckily there is a resource out there that doesn’t give us much of an excuse to not make fitness a part of our holiday plans.
MapMyFITNESS is an Austin-based company that was founded in 2007. It gives users the ability to take control of their fitness routines based on their activity of choice by giving them options: MapMyRUN, MapMyRIDE, MapMyWALK, MapMyHIKE, MapMyFITNESS and MapMyTRI.
Available on most mobile devices (iPhone, Android and Blackberry) users have the ability to use geolocation to keep track of a route they use on a workout. MapMyFITNESS becomes an integral part of workouts as users can keep track of their personal routes, find routes created by others or even virtually map a route (based on activity and what the purpose of the workout is).
During the holidays, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the planning and time that goes in to travelling. Even though you may find yourself in an unfamiliar town, paying a fee to head to a gym and run on the treadmill doesn’t have to be your only option. ”There are millions of routes all around the world in the MapMyFITNESS database, including rides, runs, walks and hiking trails. If none of these workouts sound appealing, you can log just about any workout through the websites and mobile apps, including yoga, skiing, ice skating, and even holiday shopping,” shared Traci Koller Mazurek, Social Media Coordinator for MapMyFITNESS.
In addition to helping you plan routes, their websites can help you put together a training program and keep track of your overall health with their Nutrition Center. With the option to add friends, join groups, find local events and share stories and photos, MapMyFITNESS is a community that not only appreciates its users but is truly shaped by them.
Let’s face it – the holidays can be exhausting – do you really need to spend more time searching for a place to workout or trying to remember, ‘Was it a right or a left at this corner?’ when trying to find your way around town? Plain and simple, the answer is ‘no.’ You have enough to worry about, so even though MapMyFITNESS won’t keep you from sitting at the kids’ table, get you out of dishes or help you avoid being cornered by that Aunt who spits when she talks, it will help you plan a route to escape all of the madness.
[Logo and screenshot provided by MapMyFITNESS]
About the author
Written by Ashley Erickson
Ashley Erickson is a freelance fitness writer/editor living in Austin, TX.
