Ben offers tips for finding exercise on the road

Obviously the best way to find a place to run or ride is to ask a local. Sometimes, however, it can be hard to find somebody with any knowledge of what conditions make a ride or run enjoyable. Whenever I find myself at a home stay, or a hotel in a new place, I start my route search with Google Maps and my address. Switching to aerial view is helpful because you can look for trails or large parks for running, and roads with light traffic and scenery for riding. After a quick look at the map I’ll head out, usually for a bike ride first, but always with my Garmin Edge 705 or Forerunner 405. I ride in the direction I found on the map and try to explore. You can’t expect this first ride to be a great workout, but it should be fun looking for trail heads, or exploring back roads and neighborhoods. The goal is to get a lay of the land, and record it on the Garmin.

Once I’m back from the exploration I will upload the data to Garmin Connect and use the map feature to see where I actually went, compared to where I thought I was heading. From there I can usually get a better idea of the topography and the terrain, which helps me plan my next excursion.

This is exactly what I did when I arrived in Hawaii Kai a few weeks ago. My first couple of runs, I went around the town in a 5-mile loop and added miles by circling the high school track. Then I took a look at the Google map and realized that if I made a left instead of a right about 2km from where I’m staying, I could get off the busy streets and into a bit of farmland. With the help of Garmin’s GPS data I found a much nicer route that I’ve been doing ever since.

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