I had hoped to chart my progress as I trained to complete an Ironman triathlon, in Nice, France, 2009. It's a shame that I didn't as I'm sure that it would have been a fairly interesting read, of ups and downs, tears and triumphs and a training log that I could look back on and maybe show and tell anyone unfortunate enough to give me the time of day sometime in the future!
Ever since my Ironman achievement, I have struggled with my motivation and focus, so I hope that my blog will enable me to chart my progress and return to fitness.
This week, I have decided to look at a couple of blogs, specifically Twitter accounts that fall broadly under the umbrella of triathlon - hopefully this will get me enthused once again. And yeah, before you say it, I'm such a geek!
Lance Armstrong and Livestrong
http://www.livestrong.com/lance-armstrong/blog/
http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong/
I've chosen to look at Lance Armstrong's twitter and blog as he's a former triathlete and the world's most famous cyclist. Like the man himself, his blog is a slick and well oiled machine with a wealth of information, heavily resourced and featuring guest contributors. Lance Armstrong has become a brand in himself and his blog exemplifies this. The media is used well: content is relevant and (mostly) up-to-date with video's, pictures, widgets and postings all carefully created to formulate an interest in Lance and his team Radio Shack. Cycling is a niche market, but I think that Lance's twitter feed interests the passionate geeky cyclist, like me, and someone who is generally interested in health and fitness. Clever stuff.
I'm bemused by some of his tweets. Some are interesting and create the buzz excitement in the lead up to the race season that one would expect: "Badass (hard) ride today. 5 hrs. 3600 metres climbing . SB at it's best". Some tweets show his arrogance: "The Trek utility bike is...uh...too fast?". Others show a more humane side to his personality: "Sorry to hear about Christian VDV's crash today" referring to Christian Vande Velde from rival team Garmin slipsteam. In terms of Twitter, it's all a bit ME, ME, ME but he hub itself is a wealth of information from everything to diet, health fitness and inspiration, and the forums and self help tools really enable interaction. Lance survived and beat cancer and his site is his way of giving something back to others, I feel. Great (inspiring) stuff! I wanna go out and ride my bike now, watch what I eat and start thinking positive thoughts. Job done.
220 Magazine
http://twitter.com/220triathlon
http://www.220triathlon.com/blogs/
I love 220 Magazine's website in general. Much like Livestrong, there's great content, which is nicely presented and it oozes personality, but I just don't get their Twitter feed. In all fairness to them, I haven't really compared like for like, but I'm new at all this social media malarky and I'm still trying to work it all out, so bear with me. I mean I have taken Lance Armstrong, world renowned superstar and cycling sensation and I'm trying to compare it with a triathlon magazine. Perhaps not the best thought out plan. However, I've started so I'll finish and I'll try and make the best of what I've done so far... 220's tweets are just bland, bland, bland. I mean who cares about which members of the 220 team are going out to vote/going for a curry/whether their email is playing up/whether they've fixed their kids bikes. It brings nothing to the party and quite frankly I would rather stay at home and wash my hair. The only interesting (and more importantly, relevant) feeds on there come from British Triathlon and World Duathlon. And the chance to bid for some race places, but apart from that not much going on. I'll think I'll stick to buying the magazine. Now let me get back to following Lance and his team Radio Shack.
