Route Planning

[motherduckling]

I am just wondering how everyone goes about planning routes for their runs? I generally just head out the door, and make decisions on the fly as to where to go, and start to head back once I think I'm around halfway. There have been a couple of instances though where I have ended up further from home than expected, and so have a walk back that is much longer than the 5 minute cool-down!

I am interested to know if there is an app or something that people find useful for planning approximate distances though?

[Gray1974]

I try to plan a route out of where I think I will be at the end. The area I live in is very hilly so if I don't I end up running up massive hills.

[Zev1963 Graduate]

I live five minutes walk from the river Loire in France, which has nice grit paths running along both the north and south banks, so I usually run along the south bank turn round at the half way mark and run back. There are lots of trees along the path, so in stormy weather I just do a circuit around my village to avoid the risk of being hit by falling trees. In the UK my home is Rugby so I run to, and arounf Draycote Water. I think you get the picture, I like running alongside water

[HeavyFoot Graduate]

I look at an ordnance survey map, work out what looks promising and about the right distance.

[Dexy5 Graduate]

There is an app called mapmyrun that people use, or my OH has used google earth .

[Dalmorangie Graduate]

I like to complete a circuit rather than go from A to B and back again, plus use Strava to gauge times and distance. Strava has a good facility for finding routes others use in your area or if you are visiting somewhere.

From a practical viewpoint, ideally if I can recce it first I want to see a route that has decent paths if 🏃‍♂️ by a road and from a mindset/enjoyment perspective, somewhere with nice views or points of interest - Parkruns tick both boxes so well in that respect.

[TechShimmer]

I run round my local wood & just re-route each week as I go further. Once I am running the full 5k I'll just work out a route by trial & error.

You could use Google Maos to view your local area & plot a walking route with multiple stop points - just ignore the time, just go by km.

[BuffyLaL Graduate]

There's a website called plotaroute that you can literally map out footpaths and see how far it is. You can save them and see routes other people have made.