Personal Heatmaps have always been one of my favorite Strava features. It allows Strava subscribers to visualize on a map the ground they've covered around the world.
You can learn more about Strava Heatmaps here:
I love looking back at all the places I've lived and reminiscing on everywhere I used to run. When I revisit those places, I'll plan my runs around those previous homes and be reminded of the awesome experiences I've had there.
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, Houston, TX
This is where I went to high school and ran on the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. At my first team practice freshman year, we had a 30-minute run planned. At the time I couldn't believe that I was expected to run for that long - the duration of an episode of iCarly. Nevertheless, I did it. This Personal Heatmap data is the accumulation of over a thousand activities with my teammates. Gessner Field, now replaced by a parking lot, was the location of many, many *fartleks. I can still hear Coach Kerley's whistle telling me it's time to change gears. This was where I first fell in love with running.
*Swedish word for "speed play"
Furman University, Greenville, SC
I was fortunate to be able to continue running Cross Country and Track & Field at Furman University. I had significantly more freedom to run wherever I pleased during this time and filled in a good bit of the roads and surrounding neighborhoods on my Personal Heatmap. The 'hottest' areas, included the Furman Mall, South Housing Dorms, the North Village Apartments, the Furman Lake, Golf Course (cross country workouts), Track, and the Swamp Rabbit Trails which runs from Travelers Rest to Greenville.
Many of my runs on the Swamp Rabbit Trail were tempo runs with Coach Neal biking alongside whispering inspirational motivation. Coach Neal made me feel like I could do anything.
Boulder, CO and the surrounding area:
I now train with the Roots Running Project in Boulder, CO. I had been coming to Boulder every summer for the Boulder Running Camps for 8 years before I officially moved to the area. It had always been a place that I wanted to live and train in year-round. After graduating from Furman, moving here was a no-brainer.
When I attended the running camp in high school and again in college as a camp counselor, we would take the University of Colorado buses to all the running spots. A few days after moving here, I realized that most of the trails and bike paths connect in some way. And so began my exploration.
Using my Personal Heatmaps, I could see not only the spaces I had already run through but also the areas that I hadn't visited. I love to look at the heatmaps to plan routes that fill in the spaces I have yet to run through. Creating 15+ mile loops that incorporate both places with heat and places without heat, feels like my own little adventure. Finishing those runs is beyond gratifying, especially when I discover a new favorite trail.
Westminster, CO:
I definitely haven't done as much exploration as I did when I first moved out here. Looking at my most recent heatmap data I seem to have gained an obsession with the Big Dry Creek Trail in the Westminster/Broomfield area. I'm planning to branch out a bit more going forward.
The World:
Something I would love to do before I'm done running is fill the world map with more Frank bubbles. I have quite a long way to go...
I'm hopeful that someday I could get the map to look a bit more like my map of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Hyrule:
Something else I'd like to do is find an area that has been untouched on the Global Heatmap to fill with my own personal data. I've thought about running around in an area like this in the shape of a Batman Symbol.
Check out your own personal heatmap, and let us know where you've been and where you'd like to explore!
Thanks for reading,
Frank
