Thursday, March 10, 2011

In Blah Blah Land in Blog Blog Land: Reader input needed!

I have been blogging for about three and a half years now. This blog first started as merely a daily diary of me quickly writing, "Ran X miles in Y time then hit the pool for Z yards in Q time." Blammo, dunno. NEXT!

Then I discovered the power of commenting and following other people's blogs. Suddenly blogging wasn't just merely writing bland "I did this, then I did that." Blogging suddenly became crack!

Meanwhile, I was slowly upping the distances and different kinds of races as this blog grew. Everything was new and exiting as I tackled my first 10K, my first Half Marathon, my first sprint tri, olympic tri, first Half Ironman, doing 4 Half Ironmans in one season, etc etc etc.......

Then the workout posting kinda died and got bland.

Why?

Cuz I have already been there and done that.

I am training for another Half Ironman in 4 weeks, my 6th, and while my heart is totally into training for it, my heart really hasn't been into blogging about it. Its getting harder and harder to find new and creative ways to describe last weekend's long ride followed by a brick run or another beat down in the pool. Afterall, this is what this blog is all about, right?

I guess I am starting to show signs of severe blogger's block.

Soooooooo, I wanna put it out to you all for idea's on what I can do to switch things up around and get things interesting again.

I am SERIOUSLY open to anything!!!

25 comments:

  1. I like when you post recipes and beer adventures, its nice to remember that triathletes are people too, and do things other than swim, bike and run.

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  2. i need that beer adventure shelly is talking about.... gotta check out her blog.

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  3. Pictures of bikes. That is all. I have considered just walking around races with my camera and snapping bike pics in transition and posting them all over the blog. Still might do that. Change the blog name to Dangle the Derailleur. Or go into the big bike shops and take pics. That would be awesome too. If you do this though me, BDD, and Kevin would be your only readers but it would be freaking awesome.

    Or you could just write about random stuff. Anytime I get fired up about something I'll just vent - politics, poor service, crappy products ... nothing is off limits. This is your piece of the internet write about whatever the heck you want. Dude, I do in-depth write ups on SyFy movies? This alone proves content doesn't matter!!

    You could do an entire series on "Rio" and what the heck goes into making digital feathers - that would fascinate dorks like me!

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  4. Have you seen my blog lately? Out to lunch except for Fridays. I like the personal stuff people put up about other interests. Frankly, I get bored with numbers, I usually skim through.

    I've been thinking of writing more about design and art stuff too, especially since losing my 'job' and now having to make my way as a freelancer. My blog, my rules ;)

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  5. I hear you about the training stuff. I like reading/writing about other things other than training too. I guess that's why I started doing Humpastry Day and Tasty Tuesday. I say, it's your blog, so you should feel free to write about whatever you want! I'll still follow you and comment, even if it isn't tri related! :)

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  6. I feel like I've hit a wall too. That said, I really enjoy reading your posts - you are excited about training and it really comes through in your posts.

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  7. I like Jeff's idea--more bike porn!! :)

    Since it has been a couple years and you have grown so much as an athlete, why not dig up an old post and do a commentary on how things have changed since XXX>

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  8. I've really enjoyed your posts lately (and always). You have a great mix of training reviews, training tips (your swim tips were freaking awesome), and beer. :) You shouldn't feel constrained to write about training stuff though. It's your blog, write whatever you want :)

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  9. I totally understand where you are coming from. I can't write that much about the training b/c frankly, i find it boring. Love doing it but don't love reading about it that much. That's why I take a lot of pictures, while I'm training, when i can. I find things around me to write about and then indirectly write a small blurb about the training to kinda tie it in...a hybrid kind of blog if you will. It's your blog, so you can drive it in whatever direction makes you happy. I'll still follow and read regardless of what subject you post about. That's my $0.02. Have a great weekend. I can hardly wait to go see Rio when it comes out.

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  10. I like Shelly's comment...I love to know that triathletes have other interests other than swimming, biking and running. Sometimes after reading tri blogs I feel like a bad triathlete because I went out and got drunk the night before a hard swim practice :)

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  11. I read this last night, said "I am gonna sleep on it" Thats how much I like you ;-), creepiness aside, This is something I totally understand, we have had our blogs up for around the same amount of time, its hard to come up with material, especially in the offseason, for those bloggers that blog every day, I dont know how they do it, right now, I am at 2 post a week. Weekly ramblings is a collection of interesting stuff I noticed through out the week, thats something you can do.

    I will admit, I am like Regina, not a numbers guy, I never blog about numbers (I am slow, I know I am slow) I have all my numbers in my training log, use it to revieew my training, just dont post them, only number that I care about the 16:59:59, the time allowed to get to the promise land. Maybe forget about the numbers for awhile

    I thought of somethings that you might like
    - I call you the professor, you call yourself a nerd (actually the professor name has caught on, I was on the phone with another blogger and someone referred to you as the professor) anyways, since you like since experiments, you can do something along the line of a weekly or bi weekly "myth busters" post on endurance related activities, you already have done it with race wheels and yougurt

    - Also, take a camera with you on eveery single training ride or run you do, take a pic of the "weird and unsual" things you find on the side of the road, save them up and make post out of them

    - You do have some good rants that make me think (not easy for me to do, but you have done it)

    Anyways, antoher round table discussion that could go on for hours, I see alot of good ideas from others, I hope you find something to blog about

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  12. When all else fails, post bike porn, remember keep it classy

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  13. I love reading your blogs whether they be rants, numbers or tips. I think you are doing great at mixing it up but I understand the "bloggers block" of which you speak.

    I agree with some of the others. Add bike born and beer adventures!

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  14. I'm loving everyone's suggestions. Also what about a photo documentation of a typical day in the life?

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  15. I was going to say something similar to Morgan, only slightly different. Take pictures and write captions. not just self pictures, but pics of interesting things around, people you ride/run/swim with, people you see, things you ride past. It makes your creation more fun to create, and I like pictures.

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  16. I agree with you and that is exactly why I changed my blog to be more about my passions of cooking/eating and training/racing but more of an informative type of blog than just the biked X miles in Y time. I think that keeps it more interesting when you mix up the two.

    Find your passion and start to post about that.

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  17. Naked pics. (Works for Katie :) )
    Try Vlogging. (Video blog, might be easier/fun)
    Doesn't have to be every day eh.
    Giveaways work it seems, I have yet to try.
    Dont think about it, just blurt it out and forget politically correct or humour.

    blog for you. Not us. I use mine as a diary of my journey, not a means to stroke my own cock.

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  18. im super glad i did the daily thing last year b/c there is no chance of any kind I could do it now.

    TOTALLY agree with Jeff and his comment

    manamana
    do dooooo do do do
    manamana
    do do do do


    !!!!

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  19. Just blog about what is currently on your mind, half of my stuff is random, but I have found that even the random stuff has a way of ciming back to triathlons.

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  20. i want it all from you! i genuinely am interested in what your training looks like...if I'm going to get my ass handed to me in LP, I'd like to at least be ready for it through reading your training craziness all season long.

    i also like thought provoking posts about anything and everything swim bike run. i want to do more of them but i always give myself 10 minutes to blog in the morning so my post inevitably becomes "didn't shower. ate a cupcake" and repeat.

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  21. i think we all started as workouts/numbers posters and then started rambling about other things... like someone else commented - the numbers part is often kinda boring! (no offense anyone, i'm sure my #'s are too).

    i post random life things, i try to make them somewhat running / healthy-lifestyle related but not always. people want to connect with you!

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  22. I just found your blog - interesting that this was your post. I am very new to blogging and have kind of been injured since I started, so sometimes I feel like I never actually blog about triathlon. I think it's interesting to read a mix about people - I enjoy stuff about their workouts, but also about them personally. I hope you bloggers block passes soon since I just started following :)

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  23. Hey Jon! I am in the same boat as you...so I just read what everyone else said and it helped me anyway. ha Hope it helped you too!

    132 days till IMLP!!!!!!!

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  24. even tho i am totally confused by most things you write, i still enjoy ur blog.
    maybe more pictures. maybe some experiments? and i really like ur short stories about 'criminal activities'. hahahha

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