You’re A Runner? Let Your Mac Do The Work.

If anticipation is greater than reality, if the journey is the reward, then the fun of running, hiking, biking, skiing, skating is planning for it.

Seriously. Planning your routes, running or hiking or skiiing, on your Mac with TrailRunner is loads of fun.

SImply put, TrailRunner is an nifty neato Mac application that plans your routes. Let’s call it route planning software.

Whatever the distance, however long, planning the journey is half the fun. Maybe more.

TrailRunner does just that and becomes your training partner on your Mac. Better yet, your iPod gets involved, too.

Think of this as mapping software on your Mac that maps out a particular route for you to follow.

It’s kind of a Google Maps for the physically fit and you don’t even have to leave your chair.

That’s the planning process, and even that’s easy with TrailRunner. Limber up your mousing hand and fingers. There’s clicking ahead.

TrailRunner lets you catalog, collect, and rate trails.

There’s background maps available on the internet which let you draw the courses of tracks on the map.

TrailRunner even calculates routes for you and lets you rate the route ala an iTunes-like rating stars system.

The easiest way to get started is to tell TrailRunner where you are you can download images from a mapping service, or use the Google Map-like zoom in from your browser.

The getting started process is not intuitive, despite the very Mac-like look of TrailRunner, so make sure to forage through the documentation and try the tutorial maps.

There’s that nasty extra step to find and import the maps you’ll need, but TrailRunner comes with instructions.

Otherwise, TrailRunner is the ultimate in planning, tracking, storing information about running, hiking, and everything inbetween except trips to the Mall to load up on gear.

The brushed aluminum layout is straightforward, starting with the tool bar at the top. Create a new route, import a route or map, set up an exercise plan, load maps, even export information to your iPod.

Not only that, you can also import information from your Nike-iPod Sport Kit.

Route and plan information, such as GPS coordinates, Way-point, etc, is located in a column to the left of the map. The map takes up most of the re-sizable window to the right.

The Diary gives you a blog-like setting with dates, locations, distances, time, even calories burned, pace, and attached to a specific route.

Yes, in true Nike-iPod Sport Kit fashion, it’ll even graph out your results right from the Diary.

The Excercise Calendar is similarly laid out, giving you a calendar, and Exercise Plan, and Events listings on a week-by-week basis.

The rest of the tools are no-brainer simple. Slider bar zooms you around the map. Adding a new route is a mere click away. Collecting routes is a breeze.

Even exporting information, data, and iPod-ready Nano maps is a simple clicking routine. You can even print the map and the route details.

The only thing missing is an audio description of where you are as you’re on your way down the trail.

Or, up the trail. Or, up the creek. Take your pick.

I’m sure there’s some enterprising vocal and verbal athlete with a podcast of popular hiking and running trails.

If you’re not into marathons but love hiking, trekking, skiing and trail running, you’ll enjoy the detail and tracking in TrailRunner.

What? You’re a biker but not a Jesse James? TrailRunner works fine, but requires a couple of adjustments in the paradigm. Runners, by and large, aren’t into GPS, while bikers are.

I don’t know which of the two get lost the most, but with all the techno toys available for your Mac these days, it would take falling into a time rift or an adjustment in the space time continuum to get really lost.

Maybe that’s not true for those of us in Atlanta still smarting over the Braves getting lost in 2006.

The only issue I had was getting started, which seems like a marathon and completely shames the rest of the tracking and planning process.

It’s just not easy to get started with your first trail without maps, some GPS knowledge, and knowing where you are.

What’s TrailRunner cost? For now, it’s sophisticated donationware. Click Here for the free download and details.