I'm new and I can't find out how to make a map!!!!

runninggirl248

posted: 7/7/2006 at 12:36 AM

Hey, I'm new to this website and I am training for Varsity Cross Country and I was wondering if you guys could tell me how to make a map from my house, run about 5 miles and then the end of the five mile run would end at my house again, I am so confused that route maker confuses me. If anyone knows a search engine in which you can just search your own round loop route that would be great. Big grin

Wingz

posted: 7/7/2006 at 6:47 AM

In order to make a map on this site you need to do it while you're making a course. Go to the training log section (use the tabs at the top of the pages) and then select "new course." If you've put in your zip code under the personal settings the map will automatically start near your house. Otherwise, you'll need to pan around and zoom in to find it or type in your city and state on the form and hit "find". You can't type in an address to find your starting location Sad

, but if you zoom in close enough you'll be able to read the street names and you can guess from there. I don't know any programs that will create a loop for you on roads if you give it a starting location and how big the loop should be. That would be a really nifty program! Instead, you'll have to manually plot out a route. Click on your starting point (near house) and then click along the street. The program will draw a blue line. Keep on clicking to draw lines until you finish your loop. The upper left area of the map will tell you how far you've gone. Put that number in the "new course" form at the top of the page and every time you select that course it'll copy over the milage for you. Let me know if that didn't answer your question, and good luck in your training! Janell

Roads were made for journeys...

eric :)

posted: 7/7/2006 at 8:14 AM

I've seen a site that allows you to input a starting location, enter a distance, and it will generate a route of that distance starting and ending at the given location. It's a pretty neat idea, but I don't think they got the kinks out because the process doesn't look like it's automated, i.e. you don't get the map right away, and have to wait some 24 hours. I suspect that the webmaster has to do some work to generate the map. I think the site is looproutes.com. I have a good idea of how it's done, and it would be neat to have something on here too, but I'm too tied up right now with other more immediate features. Creating a route from scratch using the mapping tool is not easy. Let me rephrase that. It is easy to use the tool to create a route, but it's not easy to create one that you will enjoy. For example, you can't tell from the maps of how scenic the route is, or how safe is the neighborhood. The route maker doesn't create new routes for you, per se, but allows you to measure the distance of your route. I think most users here would go out and run a route, then come back and plot it out to get the approximate distance for that route. The easiest way to create a 5 mile route is to create an out and back course. Go out 2.5 miles, and then come back. It's not as scenic, but very accurate. All you need to do is follow Wingz's directions on how to create a map. By the way, if you created a map for your course, you don't have to enter its distance into the distance field in order to have it auto fill the distance field of your run. That's done automatically. If you created a map, you can override the map's distance by filling in the distance field. For example, if you created a map for a 5k race course, and the distance came out to be 3.05 miles. If you don't do anything, your run on that course will be pre-populated with 3.05 miles. However, since it's a 5k, and you know it's 3.1 miles, then you could enter 3.1 miles as the course's distance. When you use this course for your run, it will fill it with 3.1 instead of 3.05. Hope that makes sense. Personally, I would fill it in as 5k because we all know that 3.1 miles is not 5k Big grin

eric

runninggirl248

posted: 7/7/2006 at 11:45 AM

Thank you so much, I think I am going to try the course making thing again, and I might visit that Loopcourse.com. Thnx! Lynn Big grin

I'm new and I can't find out how to make a map!!!! (Read 609 times)