Staying on Track When You Travel

Travel, especially for work, can really trash your food and exercise plan. Hotels with “fitness centers” often have limited equipment, and if you have time to explore outside, it can be hard to know where to start.

Flowing Data published a wonderful set of maps that show where RunKeeper users go most in major cities. These maps were made for interest value, and are not a perfect representation of RunKeeper users’ collective activity, but they give a pretty good snapshot if you just need some pointers. As a longtime San Francisco resident, I see lots of action along the Presidio, the Embarcadero, the Panhandle, and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park — all areas that are well suited for running, walking, and biking, and have some nice sights along the way!

The article includes maps for 22 more cities, and, for the tech-minded, instructions for generating maps. Nikita Barsukov has created similar maps from Endomondo data for 7 European cities.