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Map My Tracks blog

Analyse SRM power data on Map My Tracks

SRMSRM have long been considered the gold standard of power meters that provides cyclists with additional data about their performance. They're popular amongst pro and elite cyclist around the world - so much so that most of the UCI World Tour cycling teams ride with SRM power meters - including Team Sky to which Map My Tracks are official suppliers.

We’re thrilled to announce that we have now added support to import, read and analyze SRM data files here on Map My Tracks. Power, cadence, speed, elevation, heart rate and pace are available to analyze and just like any other activity the data can be examined in detail for any ascent, descent or time period throughout the session.

Uploading an SRM file is simple

First connect the SRM PowerControl unit with your computer to download the data. The files are saved in the directory you have designated but the default directory is: C:\Program Files\SRM Training System\_DATA.SRM.

Then either email the files to your personal Map My Tracks email dropbox or use the upload options in your profile to add the SRM file to your profile. There are also upload options in the My Activities section. As with all activities a public one is available for everyone to see and private ones are for your eyes only. If you’re part of a team on Map My Tracks the public activities will be added to the team for team members to review.

Analyzing SRM data

Once uploaded the SRM data is available to analyze within your profile or training room.
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To help better analyze the data each data type can be switched on or off.
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Any segment of the activity can be examined in more detail. Simply click into the chart and choose the period to examine in more detail.
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View the data on any device

As with all activities on Map My Tracks they can be reviewed via desktop, tablet and mobile browsers. The forthcoming update of the Map My Tracks iPhone app, OutFront, can also be used to review, analyze and share SRM data files.

This is just the start of what we have planned for SRM data files. We’ll be modifying the dropbox to let you upload SRM files by email as well as increasing the range reports on the data.

As ever, we’d love to hear from you to find out what you’d like to see added. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy using the new tools.

Introducing the Map My Tracks Endurance iPhone app

With the cycle sportive season in full swing we are delighted to announce the launch of Map My Tracks Endurance app for iPhone®.

Endurance is the perfect companion on long distance rides or runs when you want share your progress live online for others to follow.
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Map My Tracks Endurance is a light-weight, low-power app that is designed to make long distance live tracking possible with an iPhone. Capable of tracking live for over 24 hours on one charge, Map My Tracks Endurance reduces the battery drain that can be experienced from other iPhone tracking apps. With this app it’s easy for friends, family or sponsors to follow your progress online throughout long distance events like sportives, gran fondos or marathons.

As with our other iPhone apps, Endurance seamlessly connects with your MapMyTracks.com profile to let spectators follow your progress online from around the world. And just like OutFront, when multiple riders use the same tag their activities can be followed live on an event hub. With the Map My Tracks Endurance app sports event organisers have a viable live tracking solution that all their participants can use.

The app will get its first outing in the the Ride Across Britain where the team of riders from Cisco will be using Map My Tracks Endurance throughout the nine day event. Their progress will be followed live on the Cisco Riders event hub on MapMyTracks.com by sponsors, friends and Cisco work colleagues around the world.
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Map My Tracks Endurance is free to download from the App Store and is compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4 and as usual unlimited live tracking is available to all Map My Tracks account holders.

Using Endurance

Endurance couldn’t be simpler to use when out riding or running. Once logged into the app set the update frequency, add a tag, then tap start. It’s that simple.

Endurance has been designed with long distance live tracking in mind. In order to extend the battery life the app is optimised to use GPS only when needed. More frequent updates use more power and in turn reduces the overall tracking time. So adjust the update frequency to suit the activity session. In tests carried out on an iPhone 4 at two minute updates the battery life was extended to over 10 hours.

As Map My Tracks Endurance is a light-weight tracking app is does not provide a breakdown of your performance within the app (for that we suggest you use OutFront). However, since each activity is live there is full breakdown of the activity stats online in your profile.

Map My Tracks gets a iCalendar activity feed

iCal feedWe are always looking for ways to make it easy for you to re-use the information within your Map My Tracks profiles. That's why we have added an iCalendar feed of all your activities. Every activity is added to a personal iCalendar feed that you can subscribe to with an iCalendar-compatible calendar program.

The personal iCalendar feed is available on your ‘My activities’ page and includes details of when each activity was done along with a breakdown of how you got on. Here’s how it looks if you subscribe to it on an iPhone.
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The iCalendar format is compatible with a range of calendar apps like Google Calendar, Apple iCal or Outlook. Each time you add an activity to your profile on Map My Tracks your iCalendar feed is updated with the details and populates your calendars with the activity.

This small, but useful, update gives you another way to monitor your activities carried out on Map My Tracks.

Hope you enjoy using it. 

Show your appreciation for an activity by liking it

LikesAs part of an ongoing round of enhancements we have added a small but useful addition to the site today. Now if you like the look of someone's activity you can show your appreciation by liking it. Simple really.

Likes are an easy way to compliment or motivate other user’s activities here on Map My Tracks. Given their simplicity you won’t be surprised to find that they are easy to use. On any activity you can like it by clicking on the Like icon on the map. If you’re on someone’s profile or your own home page then you can like each activity in the list.

And that’s it. As I said, a small but useful addition to help motivate and show your appreciation. We hope you like using Likes.

Create a Hub your club, team or event and take it with you

imageLast week we launched Map My Tracks Hubs for events, clubs and teams to use as an easy way to group activities and track everyone live. To make Hubs even more useful we made it possible to embed them on your own event or club website.

Since Hubs are a fast and easy way to bring live tracking to an event, team or group’s activities we wanted to make sure that it was just as easy to take a Hub away with you and place it on your own website. Embeddable Hubs let you easily add live tracking to your website or simply to showcase all the activities from your participants in the run up to an event.

Hubs can work really well to bring together everyone’s activities before, during and after an event or race. If you’re part of a sport club then create a Hub for your club. If you’re running an event then create a Hub for everyone to add all the training they do before the event then use a Hub to showcase the event live on the web. Since hubs are so easy to set up you can have as many as you need for your participants.

Getting started with embeddable Hubs

First create a Hub for your event, club or team by simply deciding on a tag. Then tell everyone about it and have them sync or upload their activities on Map My Tracks with the tag.

For example, our local sailing club, Whitstable Yacht Club, uses a tag of ‘wyc’ so that all their members can add their racing to the club’s hub.
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To embed a Hub on your website first browse to the Map My Tracks Hub then copy code to use on your website.Hubs appear on Map My Tracks under the address format of mapmytracks.com/explore/tag/yourtag. So to follow the example for Whitstable Yacht Club their Hub is online at www.mapmytracks.com/explore/tag/wyc.

Once on the Hub click on the embed option on the map and copy the code to your own website. It’s that simple.
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Whitstable Yacht Club have embedded their hub on the club website which can be used to showcase live or recorded activities throughout the season.
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Adding activities to a Hub

Once a Hub is up and running it’s easy to add activities to it. For live tracks simply use one of the Map My Tracks mobile apps and track live with the choosen tag. In the case of Whitstable Yacht Club the activities would be tagged ‘wyc’.

It’s possible to add recorded activities to any hub either from our mobile apps, as GPX or direct from any Garmin device. As long as apply your choosen tag to each activity they will appear in your Hub. At present, it is not possible to upload activities to a Hub using the email dropbox.

Why use Map My Tracks Hubs?

  • They are fast and easy to use with no set up or registration
  • You can easily create a Map My Tracks Hubs on the fly when you need them just by tagging activities
  • They are the simplest way to broadcast live action from your event, race or club

 

We’ve tried to make Hubs as simple as possible to use so that you can start to add live tracking to your own website. We have lots more planned for Hubs so do let us know what you’d like to see added to make them even more useful.

We hope you enjoy using the Hubs.

New feature: Analyse heart rate, cadence and power from Garmin uploads

Owners of devices like the Garmin Edge or the Garmin Forerunner can now review and analyse their heart rate, cadence or power output here on Map My Tracks along with all the stats you've become familiar with.

Over the past few months we have been busy adding several new features on the website along with new improvements to our range of mobile apps. New to the mix of features is support for heart rate, cadence and power. This is an exciting move for us and, we think, it helps to make Map My Tracks even more useful. 

At the moment it is only possible to add heart rate, cadence and power data by uploading Garmin data to Map My Tracks, either by file or by using the Garmin Communicator plugin. Either way, the data is read in and ends up along with all the other activity data like speed, pace, calorie burn or elevation and forms part of the replay analysis that has also had a major face lift.

You can replay dhaffner’s activity to see it in action. The heart rate and cadence data appears at the bottom of the data column. Click on the bar to reveal the full chart to zoom in and analyze further.

We have much more planned but in the meantime we hope you like the new features. If you have an idea for a feature that would help you out please get in touch and let us know. Email ideas to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Hope you enjoy using the new tools.

New feature: Street View and Google Earth fly-through bring your activities to life

On Map My Tracks it's long been possible to watch or replay activities on a map with a bird's eye view of the action and today we are pleased to announce that Google Earth and Street View has been added to the set.

With the addition of Street View and Google Earth to Map My Tracks it is now easier to appreciate the surrounding terrain for an activity and get a first-person view of the road ahead. One of the really exciting features of using Street View is that, now for the first time, it’s possible to see the road ahead as users carry out their activities live. It’s as if your riding or running with them as they do their activity. Street View works great for all road-based activities and Google Earth can be used to get a 3D fly through of the action.

To switch on Street View or Google Earth first load up an activity then click on the map options.

Select either Street View or Google Earth or both if you want the full experience.

Street View

Google Earth 3D fly-through
If you have not already installed the Google Earth plugin you’ll need to do this once before the Google Earth view appears.

We’re really excited about being able to add both Street View and Google Earth to Map My Tracks and we’re looking forward to getting a new insight into everyone’s activities. We hope you like the new additions and, as ever, do let us know what you think.

Join Nigel Mansell as he cycles 1200 miles in 13 days

To support the Nigel Mansell Cycle Challenge around Britain Map My Tracks has launched the first live first-person tracking system that allows online viewers to experience the ride as Nigel is seeing it. The ex-Formula 1 champion has embarked on an epic 1200 miles ride around Britain over 13 days in aid of UK Youth and with Map My Tracks' virtual tracking system spectators can follow Nigel's progress in real-time and see the roads as he see them.

The Nigel Mansell Cycle Challenge takes place from July 22 through to August 3 and each day’s ride will be tracked live so that spectators can watch Nigel at any stage to see where and what he is seeing.

First person tracking viewer

By overlaying the Map My Tracks live tracking platform with Google Street View spectators get, for the first time, a view of the road as if they were cycling it themselves. The first-person viewer updates and travels down the roads as new data is received live from the Map My Tracks tracker that Nigel and his group have with them. Updates can be set as frequently as every two seconds but for this challenge new updates are taken every one minute.

Ride with Nigel as if sitting on his saddle or view the full route with statistics of their performance.

Please support Nigel and his team of riders in their challenge to ride 1200 in 13 days.

New feature: Weekly summaries made easy for distance, duration, calories and activities

imageUnderstanding what training you have done and how you are getting on is vital for improving your performance. That's why we have added a weekly summary of all the key stats to the user's profiles.

The statistics bar provides a summary of the total distance, duration, calories burned and number of activities for any given week. It makes it super simple to better understand the extent of activities that have been done this week or any previous week.

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Each total is supported by a full breakdown for each day’s activities. Say, for example, you have done two rides on Monday the total milage for that day gets displayed on the bar chart. You can also check the duration and see how many calories you burned for each day. It makes it easy to see the effort that has been made and better judge your training.


This new feature, coupled with the weekly summary email, means that you get an at-a-glance picture of your activities. We hope you like the new addition. Please let us know if you’d like to see other additions to the site. We are always happy to hear what you would find useful.

Latest activities widget added to sharing options

One of the more frequent requests is a way to embed the latest activity done on people's own websites or blogs. In response to popular demand we have added a new widget that makes it super simple to embed details of your latest activity on your blog or website. What's more it will highlight when you are live so that your friends or family can easily follow your progress.

How to use the widget?

As with all our widgets you are in complete control over your privacy. The widget will only ever display the latest public activity that you have done.

To use it you will first need to enable the ‘Latest activity’ widget within your profile.

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Once enabled you can set the width of the widget to match the column width of your blog or website.

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Simply enter the width then copy and paste the code to your site. It’s that simple.

By way of an example, my own latest activity together with weekly and total distances is below.

 

We hope you enjoy using the new widget. As ever, keep the suggestions and comments coming in.

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