It’s the height of summer and the height of the outdoor sports season. Bikers, Hikers, Runners and Walkers are everywhere and thanks to technology and smartphones, they are finding new routes, training buddies and activities. There’s a network of websites that take outdoor connectivity to a whole new level.
If you’ve been following the Tour de France, you’ve run across the promotion for Map My Ride, a website that lets everyday cyclists ride along with the pros and then awards prizes each day.
But the site is much more. With a mobile app for the BlackBerry and the iPhone, the service maps your bike ride with GPS accuracy, even to the point of letting you tweet your progress in real time, complete with posted pictures along the way.
It all syncs with your free account on the service’s main website. There you can post and share your favorite routes, find new ones from other users nearby, and keep track of your workouts.
Coolest yet is watching your route play back in a Google earth 3D view, showing not just a map but an animated view of the entire activity.
There are similar services available for runners, walkers and hikers, skiers and even triathletes. You can find training groups in your neighborhood for whatever your sport and connect any of them to your social networking favorites like Facebook.
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