Site News: Poll and Give Away of Karnazes Books
July 28, 2008 ·
Written by trailrunningSoul.com ·
Filed Under Site News
Although I have set up statistics to track the website visitors, I haven’t really studied much the data stored other than checking the basic stuff: number of visitors, where are they coming from, most visited single posts, etc. So I was thinking about which sections of the site might be the most visited and if there are any not visited at all. The idea would be to “purge” anything that is not really of “public interest” (or at least not spending too much efforts on it) and focus on what people expect from a website like this one.
So I thought, why not ask them directly? And then Hachette Book Group USA came up with a nice offer. They are publicizing Dean Karnazes’ new book 50/50, Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days and they will send me some copies to review or be offered to the audience. So here’s the what I’ll do: for those of you interested in helping to make the site better, just leave a comment on this post with your preferences on what topics you would like to see posted and I’ll give away these copies of Dean’s book between all the participants. Just make sure you leave your email so I can get back to you and you can also check the ‘Notify me of followup comments via e-mail’ box in case there’s something I need to communicate to all the participants. You can write your comments until Thursday (let’s say, midnight CST) and then I’ll publish the winners on Friday.
Here’s some things I’d like to hear from you but feel free to add anything that comes to your mind.
I want more/less:
- Shoes and gear info
- Health/nutrition articles
- Training stuff
- Race info (results, reports, pre/post race news)
- Off-road triathlon
- Adventure running
- Videos and podcasts
Ed
I personally am more interested in the ultrarunning and trail running articles that are posted. The adventure racing stuff, while sometimes interesting, doesn’t quite strike the same note. In terms of content I think gear reviews, nutrition tips and training/racing tips are always helpful, especially if it can be condensed into a short youtube video like some previous ones you’ve featured from Scott Jurek and TNF. It seems that we subscribe to many of the same blogs so I will sometimes come here and find that the new post here links back to info I read a few days prior, so any new info that isn’t being posted on the other big ultra/trail blogs would be nice too. Oh, and since we’re dealing with DK’s 50/50 book, any DK info is always appreciated. His first book is what got me into this whole mess anyways! Thanks for all the great posts and keep up the good work!
-Bobby
This site is a great source for ultra and trail racing info, so keep it all coming! I like the gear information and the race articles and reports. Interviews are always helpful and entertaining. Personally, I’m less interested in the triathlon and adventure racing stories. I also tend to skim through large amounts of information, so I’ll usually skip the videos and podcasts unless the topic directly interests me.
Hey Ed,
With as much work as you put into this site to keep us all updated, I have no problem giving feedback when asked. Anything to keep this site as my #1 go to spot for endurance info. After scoring free tickets to Dean’s movie via enduranceplanet.com latest podcast the only thing sweeter would be to score his book as well. It was his 1st book that got me into this crazy sport a year ago.
I have the rss feed to your homepage embedded into my “My Yahoo” and click directly on to the links that seem to catch my attention. Which is usually about 95% of all posts.
Regarding your requests:
- Shoes and gear info – I usually am not interested, unless it is something I already own or know about or have been contemplated buying. So not more, but not less either. I don’t spend much time on these, but when it is something I’m interested in, then it is invaluable.
- Health/nutrition articles – I’m not big into these unless they deal with big studies or come from big sources (badwater study, or LA Times, etc) Not as much interested in what tiny tim reported on his blog about staying hydrated.
- Training stuff – Again only interested if it comes from one of the big boys that are reputable in the ultra community.
- Race info (results, reports, pre/post race news) – Love the results & reports & news. The races are what we (I) live for, so they are great and what ties us all together. More!
- Off-road triathlon – As long as we stay off road (Xterra, etc) then I think anything goes. It always peaks my curiousity and I’m always checking these posts out.
- Adventure running – Yes, love this stuff, I’ll add Adventure Racing to this as well.
- Videos and podcasts – Love this stuff. more, more, more. It’s a great way to feel plugged into others involved in the sport. It would be nice to be able to find more regular podcasts out there. I’m noticing some of the same people coming up on the Youtube videos and that’s cool.
I’ll add:
Big boy blogs – Even though most of use probably read their blogs on our own, this is a great place to run across new blogging athletes. You site helps give exposure to theirs. I know you ran into a big of a headache with this earlier, so only do what you can.
Deals – not sure if this is still going. It was kind of interesting. There was one time when I went to buy something because of this. Not sure if it is worth the work though. Maybe only if it was automated for you.
Race Calendar – This would cool if there was a way to do so without requiring so much manual input by you. It’s a great feature, but you are covering a large area so it’s so hard stay on top of all of this. Maybe just starting with the big races, location and mentioning the time of year (WS end of June) with a link to the race website. That way you don’t have to update year after year, but we see races close to us and get an idea of the time of year that they are, so we can decide if we want to register and prepare for them.
Hope this helps!
Will
I’d like to see more about the top trail runners especially up and coming. More articles about how they train, what miles they are doing and tips like health/nutrition or any advice they have. Some articles about the mental aspects, motivation, who they are, and what keeps them going. First hand race reports, photos and videos. I agree with Will about adventure races and running. Podcast interviews would be awesome…
BGill, Phil, Will and Wendy… thank you so much for your feedback! It’s great to see people involved and helping out building a place which tries to be not “my place and my rules” but something of interest to everyone. So I have made note of your comments and will try to make some changes:
– Less health, nutrition, training stuff, unless it´s from a reputable source or directly related to trail/endurance/adventure running
– I will keep coming gear info, news and reviews. After the statistics it seems to be something that the audience likes.
– Will keep triathlon and adventure racing posts, as long as there’s off-road running involved. Though I’d love to talk more about ar, I agree with BGill it feels like it’s an entire world of its own, and not always 100% on the same page as trail/endurance.
– I’ll keep trying to post a video every other day. I actually designed a whole new section to make it easier to search through them but it’s still not finished (and who knows when I’ll have time to finish it…)
– There are not many sources where to get new podcasts, but I’ll keep digging and posting my findings. And me actually making them… not sure that it would work. Non being English my native language doesn’t help much nor makes it easy. Maybe some day with someone’s help.
– I’m searching for the best way to embed other runners posts (the title only, just in case… ;) into the sidebar so we can all be up to date on what the big guys are saying
– The deals section stopped working a while back but I got it fixed and there should be stuff posted daily (from backcountry.com, altrec.com, etc)
– And last, and most important, I’ll work to get more race info, snippets of reports, results, pictures and related stuff, including a more complete calendar (though this will likely be work to be done next year). This is something that has been missing and should not add too much work on my side.
So thanks again for your comments. To tell the truth, I thought there would be some more comments and some kind of raffle or something would have been needed. But that makes things easy enough: I’ll get the four of you a copy of Dean´s book. No losers, only winners! :) I’ll touch base with each of you for the logistics.
Enjoy the reading!
Ed
Got my book the other day and am enjoying! Lots of great advice in there. Thank you much!
You’re welcome! I still had no time to start mine.. :(
Yikes! I also got the audiobook from HachetteUSA and I may be giving it away sometime before October. But if may be too late for you, as you will have already been arrested for DUDI (Driving Under Dean’s Influence) :D