www.mapmyride.com  “Map my Ride” is one of a series of “Map my (xxxx)” that have appeared recently for all manner of activity. I try to put 100 miles a week on my bike and since over half of those miles are over the same routes for the same purposes (gym, grocery store, baseball field, etc), it’s a great time saver to map out those routes and save them. Then I can add them to my total for the week with a click of the computer mouse. I ride an old beater around town which I purposely leave looking shabby. It doesn’t get stolen but it’s hard to keep acceessories on my bike, like speedometer/odometer, etc. Map my Ride is the next best thing.

If you runners and walkers would like to check the accuracy of your Pedometers, www.mapmyrun.com is one way to do it. Like “Map my Ride,” this sister site, “Map my Run,” is based on Google maps and allows you to trace out your route and save it. All of the “Map my Fitness” programs are compatible with an iPhone or Android applications.

And since I’ve mentioned running and walking, this would be a good place to segue into www.meetup.com and all the activities you can find there. In this area (I’m in San Antonio) there are several meet up groups for running and walking, plus many others for biking, body building, dancing, dining, exercise – even dog walking, both large and small. If there’s not a meet up for your particular interest in your area, there’s a provision to post your interest and be notified when someone else with a similar interest has signed up. One of the things I’ve stressed many times on my radio show is having an exercise partner to keep each other motivated. www.meetup.com is an excellent way to locate one or more.

Once again, for those of you 65 and over, I want to mention the “Siver Sneakers” fitness program: www.silversneakers.com. Many of the Medicare providers are affiliated with “Silver Sneakers” and provide FREE membership at local fitness centers. I’m sure you can figure out why. When an insurance company is willing to fork over $$$ for preventive medicine, instead of begrudgingly paying it out later, there has to be something to it. What they’ve come to know and understand is that people that exercise regularly don’t get sick as often, recover quicker, and when hospitalized, are in and out faster. All that adds up to dollars saved by encouraging you to exercise and the Silver Sneaker program is designed for that purpose with certain standards that must be met for a fitness center to participate. Pull up the Silver Sneaker site, see what’s available in your area, and if your insurance provider doesn’t participate, get one that does!

Rather than try to list all the exercise logs and online training programs available, I’ll just say that there are a slew of them and I’ll list a few in the Links area. The one I use, www. is provided free by the “Y” where I work out. www.activtrax.com not only suggests a workout program for me, based on my preferences (free weights vs. machine, etc.),  each peice of equipment at the gym is numbered so there’s no terminology issues. I don’t have to know ‘abductor’ from ‘adductor’. All I have to do is go to station #xx and do what the printout tells me. I love it when something on the internet makes life simpler and not more complicated!