I’m a bit belated in this post. Despite being in both ‘recovery’ and ‘taper’ mode at the same time, life has become busy. Which is good, I enjoy busy.
But last Wednesday marked a minor little footnote in my blog: My first year has passed (no, not like a kidney stone – more like whirlwind).
(A cupcake I got today at the newly opened Lavender Moon Cupcakery, which fellow tri blogger Lindsey reviewed last week; I took this photo later on this afternoon at home)
I first posted shortly after registering for Ironman Canada last year, mostly as a way to pass newfound extra time in my life. Little did I realize how much time this whole blogging endeavor takes! I posted 211 times in the first year. I started off with slightly more posts per week, but have slowed down a bit and settled on roughly 3-4 times a week.
However, the actual posting is the least of my time consumption activities. Despite most posts taking about an hour to write, resize photos or videos and get everything all cleaned up (yet I still suck at writing), it’s the reading and commenting that’s the bear! I follow over 90 blogs in Google Reader, and then another 141 in another reader. Of course, some of those are sparingly updated, and I only comment on a subset of all of them. They range the gamut of topics too, sports, aviation, food, travel, technology and a few other random things.
Aside from learning all sorts of new and interesting things – the coolest part about the blogging is how many people I’ve met and friends I’ve made!
I’ve met people at races in porta-potty lines for just a few mins, only to have them find me on the web without any contact information. I’ve had folks that were in my same transition rack at a race find me weeks or even months later. I’ve met in person numerous folks, both in DC and around the US, even Canada! Fun fun!
Like most folks, I didn’t step into blogging right away. I lurked on people’s blogs for at least a year before ever making my first post; never commenting once. In fact, that about matches what I see – only about 5% of my daily ‘readership’ ever posts a comment. But commenting is a funny thing, many interesting and strange cliques. Everyone has all sorts of whacky internal mental rules for commenting, it’s kinda entertaining to try and figure out peoples commenting patterns or techniques.
I’ve also found I can write two different types of posts – those which attract high numbers of comments (like race reports) – and then those that receive high numbers of ‘hits’. The difference? Content. For example, my review of the Garmin 305 still accounts for 30% of my daily hits on this blog, almost a year later. Although probably because it’s the 3rd Google link when you search for “Garmin Forerunner 305”.
But honestly, it’s all the in between posts that I prefer to write. The ones that are simply random snippets of my training, my day, and my life. Onward…
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great post hope to see you around the nations tri on Sunday
good luck
Ha! And here I thought I was the only one who had crazy little rules about commenting! If you are ever inclined to figure out my pattern, I’ll give you a hint: this comment half breaks my rules…
Ray, Congratulations on getting one year under your belt. My bike blog will be turning one in the next week or so as well. Time flies.
yeah!! i’m “met”!
Congratulations and enjoy you cupcake. I will be looking forward to reading your stuff going forward.
Happy One Year O Blog Aversary 🙂 It was nice bumping into last year even though we both had no idea who each other was at that time. Enjoy your cupcake 🙂
It’s only been one year?? Seems like you’ve been around much longer.
You’ve become one of my favorite reads in a fairly short period of time. Keep up the great work – and hopefully we can share another DC run sometime.
Your blogs kick ass and your cup cake looks like a pile of pooh. Although delightful pooh 🙂
First off, I feel honored that I got a comment if you don’t comment often. It was probably just because I talked about my ass, and you wanted to too. 🙂 I figured I should send you a note since I randomly read your blog. My personal favorites are the cooking posts – if you ever feel the need to cook for someone else, send me a message.
I remember reading a post at one point that you wanted to get into aviation. I fly every now and then… if I ever get my medicals renewed, I’ll take you up.
Congrats on the 1 year blogaversary. You’ve come a very long way over the course of a year.
Great post! I find your blogs really informative and I love your that you’re a gadget guru.
Although, your recent post on the trainer in front of the plasma TV, with the smaller, yet useful screen/monitor by its side, your two Garmin gadgets you brought on your run and the in-water camera for swimming left me feeling a wee bit inadequate and oh so envious! So I figure you’re the perfect person to ask…what are your thoughts on Garmin 405 they released, thinking of upgrading your 305? The smaller more compact watch is much more appealing to me, especially since I usually wear mine at the gym and the 405 is so big and bulky.
I bought the Suunto T3 several months ago and am not too happy with it. So I’m looking for a replacement.
From Monica:
“So I figure you’re the perfect person to ask…what are your thoughts on Garmin 405 they released, thinking of upgrading your 305?”
I got the watch within about two days of it coming out back in April. And thus far… it drives me crazy. Very difficult to use compared to the 305. I’ve been slow to write a review because I just can’t get ‘into it’ from a enjoyment perspective. I’m hoping now that running will ramp up for marathon season I’ll have time to try and figure it out more.
aw congratulations! you got me thinking about my comment rules. one of them is to READ THE ENTIRE POST before commenting. i guess i do have a few others too.
a friend of mine described a phenom known as tribes….different bloggers attract certain people and then we tend to morph into loosely associated tribes…sometimes with a tribal leader.
it sorta works.
i’m scared about the potomac, p.s.
Happy Anniversary!
Glad to know I’m not the only one who spends lots of time blogging (writing and reading 🙂
Happy Blog-o-versary!!!
Happy Birthday. I guess the training wheels can come off now!
I am with you on the post taking an hour+, pictures video and the like all add extra time and then there’s the ten times I go back in to correct a typo! Do you find live writer easier than Blogger, I type mine in Outlook and just save it from there for copy’n’paste.
I would say you writing style is pretty on point though don’t be too hard on yourself.
Good obseravtion about the comment rules…yes I think we all have them and like you 305 review my shoe reviews get a lot of traffic
Happy CupCake day again.
What a thought provoking blog post about posting blogs.
It’s the inbetween, varied posts that make reading interesting! Happy 1st blogging anniversary You do a great job with your choice of topics!
Congrats on the anniversary and your awesome finish at Nation’s! I hope you loved Lavender Moon as much as I did 🙂
I love this post. It just speaks to so much of what this is all about and the cool people that we meet who later find our blog or vice versa (and btw I will be HIGHLY offended if you make it out this way and we don’t meet in person!). And the commenting thing. I’d say about 30% of people find my blog looking for info about the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8. All because of one post!
Anyway, it’s kind of neat to look back on how our blogs change over time, too. I realized with your post that I’ve been blogging for 3.5 years now! Crazy! And, my style and nature of posts have changed quite a bit. Kind of fun – like looking through an old photo album or something.
This comment is all over the place. I’m curious what you meant by ‘grouping comments into a couple diff categories.’ And where does this kind of comment fit in, hmm? 🙂
Anyway, great post!