Track Runs, Walks, or Random Trips with ‘My Tracks’

Google Maps is constantly pushing limits. First, we started keeping track of where our friends are roaming with Latitude. Now Google has introduced the Google Tracks application. In a nutshell, you can record GPS tracks and view your speed, time, distance traveled and elevation using your Android^TM phone.

Recorded tracks can be shared with friends, uploaded to a spreadsheet on Google Docs while hiking, biking, running or participating in other outdoor activities. Once recorded, you can share your tracks, upload them to Google Spreadsheets and visualize them on Google My Maps.

My Tracks for Outdoor Activities

My Tracks is designed for outdoor activities. Such as running, hiking, or biking. After your track is recorded, you can also add notes to describe whether the activity was strenuous or not. My Tracks also asks what the type of activity was, so you can keep track of exactly how fast you are running vs. biking.

How to Set up My Tracks

1. Using your Android phone, go into the Android Market and search “My Tracks”.
2. Once found, install the program onto your phone.
3. Once installed, you can hit ‘Start recording’ in the main menu.
4. Now wait until your phone finds your current position and starts tracking you. Then, start your activity!

I use the Nike+ system to track my runs, but compared to My Tracks Nike+ is very simplistic. I can see My Tracks stealing away quite a bit of Nike+ users, especially people who enjoy outdoor running and feel strongly about tracking and sharing trail information. Of course the two programs are entirely different and made with different goals in mind, but I compare them because I could actually see myself using both. I like the idea of tracking my runs on a map, but if I just want basic speed and distance information my Nike+ performs just fine and offers some other benefits (I don’t have to carry around my phone!).

Will you use My Tracks? I’ve never gone running with my phone, so I’m curious to see if there are any other runners out there who are warming up to My Tracks.