I learned this first-hand on Sunday, when I went for a bike ride with a friend to explore the park. Our plan was to meet at the 16th St BART station, stash some burritos into our packs, and ride out to Glen Canyon Park where we could have a leisurely lunch under the sun while my friend’s dog romped around the grass. Instead, there were hills, and then more hills, until finally we turned around and headed back to the base of the park and sat in the outfield of a ballfield watching a little league game. But fear not, all dogs were happy.

I’ve had my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch since it came out in 2008, but until now I’ve only used it for running. I wore it for the ride and used the watch (and heart rate monitor) to track it all. Combined with the simply aweome Trailrunner application, it’s all a data geek wants, and more. I’ll save more details about Trailrunner for another day, since it deserves an entire post. The Garmin Connect website lets users view and edit their workout details online, and I much prefer it to their Training Center software, which I avoid if possible. They also allow for export of the map previews. It’s an iframe and not very customizable at all, but it works. This is what it looks like. Click on it to see more details and go to the Garmin Connect site which allows the viewer to play back the workout (upper right). Pretty cool!