Map My Ride App?
StephenKTHill
Posts: 28
Does anyone use this? How accurate do you think it is?
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Replies
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Does anyone use this? How accurate do you think it is?
I've used it. It's only as accurate as the data you put in. The GPS tracks well. The distances are pretty accurate if you aren't going really fast. I had a good tailwind and was biking at 28 MPH for about 10 miles (no I don't do that normally) and it skipped all the turns and just drew a straight line from start to finish. However, it normally tracks well. It is less accurate with just distance, more accurate with a heart rate monitor and even more accurate with a power meter. I think you would find Training Peaks more accurate.
FYI, Mapmyfitness from the same company has more exercises so when winter hits you can use more types of exercises to get a better picture of what you actually did and burned.0 -
Does anyone use this? How accurate do you think it is?
I use it to plan a route, but use Strava to actually record the ride. My wife uses Strava for the runs.
Strava ftw!0 -
I used it a couple of times and liked how it graphed some things like the speed zones, but I didn't see any particular advantage over Walkmeter (or cyclemeter but we already had walkmeter) so I'm sticking with walkmeter. It looks like if you don't want any of the premium features it would be ok, but if you were thinking about premium features for anything I'd look at Cyclemeter.
Here's a (admittedly biased) chart produced by abvio on features of cyclemeter compared with strava, garmin, and mapmyride
http://www.abvio.com/cycling-guide/
(i'm not affiliated with any company; just someone who was recently comparing apps)0 -
I use Map My Ride for bike rides and hikes. Seems to be pretty accurate on distance, average speed and split speeds. But every once in a while it gets a little wonky and will show top speeds of over 40mph on a flat route. The other thing that is a little strange is that I use the iOS app and a friend uses the Droid app. We may both be on exactly the same hike or bike ride, and the results will show slightly different distances and speeds - but, they're close enough.
For calorie burn on the other hand, I pay no attention to it at all. My 30-mile ride yesterday burned about 880 calories per my HRM. Map My Ride on the other hand showed me burning over 2200 calories!!0 -
Does anyone use this? How accurate do you think it is?
You will find that accuracy on location (GPS) depends more on the quality of your phone's GPS sensor. I didn't use MapMyRide to track more than distance/route so I can't attest to other matters. They seemed to send a lot of spam mail, too. I ended up transitioning to Endomondo which I like better (interface, data, battery life, HRM integration, etc.). Although, Endo is far from perfect.
I would try all the major apps before settling on anything. It's easy to be impressed by the first apps you try. Then it becomes an additional step to export data to a new/better app. Once you try the others you will start to notice stark differences.0 -
I have used it but don't know what to believe about the calories burned. I use about 4 different apps at the same time and the numbers are all over the place. Endomodo always calculates the highest calories burned by far. I just typically pick a number towards the lower end.
The maps seem to be accurate.0 -
Thanks for the advice. I am little frustrated to be honest. I am 5'10 304 lbs and I did my first 10 mile ride yesterday. Map My Ride tracked my miles very accurately, but had my calories close to 1000. I am not sure if I want to trust it or not.0
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I have used it several times. It gives me a little different reading in avg mph than my bike computer, but the gps distance is function is better. Easy to use.0
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I've heard that the calorie estimations for bicycling are vastly overestimated. I generally look at several estimates and pick the lowest. I have an Edge 305 bike computer on my bike (cadence, speed, rudimentary gps pathing), I use walkmeter on my iphone (set for cycling), MFP's estimate, and my heart rate monitor. They're all different (usually the HRM is the lowest by a few hundred). Further confusion for my wife and I is that we are a tandem team so let's just throw that variable in there too.
A HRM is probably your best bet and even then they can be off by quite a bit.
For the heck of it y last three rides were (according to walkmeter/cyclemeter) (I'm 5'10" 260ish)
12 miles = 968 c Avg speed: 14.76 mph MFP says 980 c
19 miles = 1451 c Avg speed: 14 mph MFP says 1255 c
19 miles = 1453 c Avg speed: 12.6 mph MFP says 1412 c and this ride I had my HRM on as well and it gave me 1089 c0 -
I use MapmyRide when I'm trying to figure out a new route to ride and want to have an idea of the distance, etc.
When riding, I actually use Strava which has it's own issues. I'm on a Droid phone and while I think the GPS works well, it doesn't if I leave the network on. When riding, I leave the GPS on and turn my phone to Airplane mode. I don't mind the being out of touch as I really prefer to ride without phone calls or txt message or all the other notifications I get on my phone. That being said - I have noticed that Strava is pretty close to my actual burn amounts for my calories.
I have a BodyMedia armband that I wear 24/7 except when showering or swimming. That device records all my calories used and I can check my burn for certain periods - Strava has been very close to that count. I know this site is way off on my calories so I'm always adjusting the count for the exercises I record here based on the amounts in my Bodymedia data.
Amazing what all we do to loose weight. What ever you choose to do, you can do it. It's the doing that counts the most.0 -
Thanks for the advice. I am little frustrated to be honest. I am 5'10 304 lbs and I did my first 10 mile ride yesterday. Map My Ride tracked my miles very accurately, but had my calories close to 1000. I am not sure if I want to trust it or not.
Endomondo has integration capability with bluetooth HRM straps such as the Zephyr or Wahoo. That may help since HRM's are debatably more accurate than just purely time/distance. Nothing is perfect out there. It's all a simple gauge to estimate.
When you believe calorie counts are too high you can recompute using other standards, though. Since time/distance/avg. speed are all logged relatively accurately you can refigure calories burned easily. I now lower my calories burned by something like 20-30% after feeling they were overstated. I'm not concerned about being too conservative as that would just result in weight loss.
The more I learn about how various devices work and the methods compute calories burned the more I realize how unreliable they are. They're good for accuracy but not precision (e.g. you consistently get the same answer, it's just not the right figure lol).
Reminds me about the various methods to compute body fat. Some debatable methods (calipers, eyeballing, electrical impedance), more accurate ones (DEXA, water displacement, Bod Pods), and the ultimate way to precisely determine body fat - autopsy. Businesses have trouble pushing the do-it-yourself autopsy kits I think.0 -
The more I learn about how various devices work and the methods compute calories burned the more I realize how unreliable they are. They're good for accuracy but not precision (e.g. you consistently get the same answer, it's just not the right figure lol).
That's about the best explanation of accuracy and precision I've heard in a long while. :-) That's why true power meters are the most accurate and most precise ways to figure out how many calories you burned. They are expensive but the prices are always coming down and you can find some good used power meters from your local bike shop (LBS) or off E-Bay. I'm using a powertap and when I started using it, I was surprised how off my other apps like Mapmyride and Polar were. The other apps were easily 20% to the high side. By the way, Mapmyride will accept a power meter reading so you could use that.0 -
I have been using it for about 200 workouts and I like it. When used with a cell phone GPS tracking it is OK so long as you ride where there is cell coverage. However a couple of times it hasn't worked for me because I was riding in the Adirondack's without cell coverage. This spring I switched over to a Garmin 510 and now import my rides from the Garmin. When I first got the Garmin I rode with both and I was surprised at how accurate MapMyRide is. It was very close to the Garmin using speed and cadence sensors. That said I really don't think the calorie estimator is accurate. I found that the heart rate sensor gives me much more accurate calorie counts. Personally I find that my heart rate calorie counts are about 40% lower than what MapMyRide was estimating.0
