The node hunter and the LifeMap live are a huge help, but when you have been running for a while, maybe by night, in an unfamiliar neighborhood with many similar streets and no geometric structure, it is difficult to keep in mind where you have been or not.
My idea: the Live Trace
If the LifeMap live could display a trace of the current run (in a different color), I would know immediately where I have already been during my run and avoid:
to leave some nodes that will cost me a lot of time if I have to come back just for them
to run a street twice just because I was not sure if I had been there.
Is it feasible?
Pacman-style alternative: instead of a live trace, the nodes from the node hunter could change color live when caught. It would “gamify” CityStrides even more.
I understand that there could be some GPS tracking issues between the Live trace (on my phone) and the activity (tracked by my GPS watch) but it would work 99% of the time.
Really good ideas for improvement. But this is only needed if you run with only nodehunter as reference. And since one is looking on a mobile device anyway, i prefer to create strava tracks that i load based on the nodehunter functionallity prior to the actual run. I even have several runs waiting to cover the next parts i am aiming. But still, one of those 2 idea’s would making 100% node completion more real in ’ live’ mode.
I love this idea! Adding a “start run” button in LiveMap could then enable “breadcrumbs” on the route you run (in a different colour) to confirm you’ve run all the sections you intended to run. The catch for this feature is that the screen would need to stay on in some phones to be sure you’re getting the location status during the run otherwise your breadcrumbs would cease… I’m a new user to CS but I’m already planning on completing my city within the next few months
Today i used the breadcromb feature of the Sportstracker phone app to test this feature and i found it very useful to show your track and help to show where you have alteady been after lots of turns and turns.
Also I am less fan of automatic generated routes now
For what its worth most recent Garmin devices have breadcrumb trails and the expensive ones have maps as well. You can create a route in Garmin Connect and also send it to your watch and you can see your breadcrumb trail/trace over the route you design. Strava also has a route feature that will show you a live trace as you go. I often use one or the other or a combination to pre-plan my route. But I often go eschew of my route if I find trails or other things not considered “roads” lol. Seriously though one of the best tools I got for heatmapping was Fenix 6 Pro with maps, its so nice to see it on the watch instead of pulling out a phone and its also pretty fantastic with hiking as well.
I screen shot the nodes and georeference it as a layer in my maps app (Locus Pro)… then I use that to complete my route making sure to run past each node. Requires some technical know how, but it pains me to miss a node and have to go back.
I would love this. It’s turning into a lot of work to plan routes using node hunter every time I go out. I sometimes wind up toggling back and forth between 4 things while out running - node hunter or a screenshot, my garmin watch, google maps for navigation, and an activity tracking app (arc) to see where I’ve been in real time. It gets especially tricky if I diverge from a planned route. If I could see my current track and node hunter data in one place it would simplify things.
When node hunting dense areas it would be great to see a crumb trail to help hitting all the nodes. For instance in places like here:
Basically it means updating the map view while running but that is not possible under current workflow as the map view is taken from Garmin and such after finishing your run.
As node map is a subscription option, live updates of your run should be the a subscription feature as well.
Interesting idea. I have seen mentioned before, the idea of 3rd party apps, for planning “node runs.” I recall several mapping options were mentioned, but I don’t recall if integration into CityStrides was ever mentioned. A search may find that info.
I like the idea, but I don’t think I would ever use it. I do most of my route planning beforehand (and bring printed maps*), and might occasionally check to make sure I’m getting the nodes.
Which makes me think, there might have been an idea for an app that would alert you when you were near a node… Kind of like a radar screen.
Well I’ll vote, as I would be inclined to try it, but it might not fit in with my style… As most of the places I am gathering nodes are pretty simple.
’ * A recent area I’m working on (walking with my wife), Lipan, Texas, has very poor cell coverage on my network.
Good idea indeed, live tracking. I use it for same purposes, sharing with my wife. Also saves writing nodes that I went for a run or ride
I do the mapping on forehand indeed and use my watch for directions. This works fine for straight long roads but not so well for the rural areas with tons of nodes close to each other.
Lifemap live recording would be amazing. It’s hard to flip back and forth between the map on my watch (or strava), and Lifemap node hunter, and still be certain I haven’t missed nodes.
Having a live map (like on the Strava app) would significantly speed up my node hunting runs.
When opening your lifemap on your phone, there is a small target icon on the right hand side. Picking that enables tracking on the lifemap. If you drag the map around and lose your tracking, tap it again to re-center. Tapping it when centered disables the location.
This will require you to allow location tracking on your phone for the browser.
That combined with the supporter feature nodehunter might get you closer to what you would like to see.
I mean (and I assume the topic of this thread means) to record the track / gps route as you go. e.g. turn on recording and see the map being traced live, as in this (bad) screenshot:
Unless I’m mistaken the button you indicated just shows my current location, which is indeed very handy, but doesn’t draw the route I’ve followed.
I normally run whilst holding my phone and deciding on a route as I go, with the map in fullscreen mode and showing my current location.
It would be wonderful if there was a way to see where I have been on that particular run, which would make it easier to avoid running the same street twice by accident.
I just merged this into a 2 year old thread with the same idea (sorry for everyone else in the thread if there are notifications going out now).
I’m pretty sure the main issue I need to overcome is the fact that CityStrides is a website, and websites do not retain GPS tracking when they go into the background or when the phone is locked. So the tracked GPS lines would include straight lines during that background/locked time.
So for you this would probably work as expected, since it doesn’t sound like you keep another app in the foreground or lock your phone.
For me, I’d end up with a mostly blank track since I keep my phone locked and only look at it when I’m confused - mostly when it feels like I’ve been running for much longer than it seemed like I would, and I mostly end up being wrong
