I should also mention that I wear Salomon Advanced Skin hydro vest. SALOMON ADVANCED SKIN S-LAB HYDRO 5 SET (5L Hydration Pack) - GingerRunner.com Review - YouTube (this is Ginger runner review in 2013, its advanced since then)
This is useful for heatmapping because its a fantastic way to carry your phone and make it very easily accessible without it being uncomfortable to run with. I wear the vest even when I don’t need water because its useful for carrying my key, phone, nutrition and I find it much more comfortable than flipbelts, spibelts and other things around your waist. Plus when you do need water it has a lot of options and is very light weight. Anyways this was a game changer for me when I run, especially in the summer when I could ditch my handheld bottle or get in a 20 miler without stopping for water.
Personally I’m doing 8-13 mile routes most days so having an app like Strava that shows my progress on a route that I can quickly pull out and see on my phone is the most efficient and is most flexible for when I go off planned course (probably half the time). Trying to print it out on paper every day for me would be a larger hassle. Sounds like SportsTracker might be similar? Does it overlay your breadcrumb on top of a route? I dont know if Routes on Strava is premium or included. Depending on your route it can be mentally exhausting so its nice to have the crutch to just visually see where you are, where you have been and what you have left quickly.
I also try to plan my routes with some flexibility in case I want to go longer or if I need to shorten it because I found some trail or new development not listed on the map yet.
@davemorin good luck with your quarantine race, sounds pretty fascinating!
@ericjrw I’m to the point where I pretty much have to drive to anything to get new roads in. I’m actually thinking a step ahead of that…in 3-6 months I might have to drive 20+ min to get to new streets…at some point its going to start getting prohibitive but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there but its definitely a reason to get more efficient and have better planning because you don’t want to have to go back to an area to just grab one or two roads you missed!