There are a whole series of fitness apps put out by MapMyFitness, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with the MapMyRun app to chart my walks and bike rides.

MapMyRun uses GPS to track how far you’ve run,biked,walked, etc, which means that you don’t need a data connection for it to work. Just create an account and start recording your workout. If you’re not using data, your stats will be synced with your online account once you finally do connect to a WiFi network or 3G or whatever.

Once you’ve finished your workout, MapMyRun will display your path using Google Maps and show you a variety of stats such as: distance, average speed, elevation and an approximation of calories burned. One nice feature is that you can check out all of your previous workouts whenever you log in to your profile.

While I was on vacation, I took a mountain bike out to explore some country roads and although MapMyRun sounds like it’s a running app, you can simply choose “Road Cycling” to label your workout. You should easily be able to catch a satellite out in the open, so just hit “Record” and MapMyRun will start tracking your route even without a data connection. When you get back to a WiFi hotspot, it’ll sync with your account.

The result? The entire 15km route cleanly mapped out.

It’ll also display your entire route’s elevation gain.

MapMyRun is versatile, but it’s also pretty simple to use, once you familiarize yourself with the interface. One thing that I do like about MapMyRun is that you can create a generic account if you want to. You can also use your Facebook account (and then spam all of your contacts with your achievements), but kudos to these guys for giving us the option. Some apps force you to use your Facebook account or nothing else which is…well it’s bullshit and unfair (looking at you, Instagram and Draw Something).

The only real con so far is that  the interface is a little confusing at first. It’s not super intuitive, but it gets the job done. The record button should probably be red, and not orange and at least use the universal ‘record’ symbol.

Here are some of the other apps in the MapMyFitness Family. There’s a little crossover between them, so one app may seem redundant to another, but that just means that you’ll have all of your bases covered if you go nuts and use them all:

MapMyRun, MapMyRide, MapMyWalk, MapMyHike and MapMyMountain