I’d love to connect! One of the best parts of blogging has been exchanging emails with my readers and hearing about their running. Here are some great ways to reach me.
Note: I don’t accept guest content or offer link-backs, but I am often willing to help vegan start-ups as a beta-tester. If you’re doing work that promotes plant-based eating, feel free to reach out!Â
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Comment on my posts! I’ve made it easy with no sign-ins and I love hearing from people and responding.
Kelly,
I noticed you changed your blog from Blogger to WordPress and also went with a purchased template from Iceable.
1. What prompted you to make those changes and are you pleased with them?
2. How did you start your blog? I’ve kicked around the idea, but I’m not sure what my dedicated blog theme would be or if it is something I’m really dedicated to. I feel quite busy with life as it is.
I commented on your “I’m not special” post the other day and I really appreciate that you commented back. Thank you!
While I’m a guy’s guy (into shooting sports, outdoors, running, etc.) I really enjoy your blog.
Thank you,
Chris
Hi Chris!
I did indeed change my blog over to WordPress from Blogger.
1. I was unhappy with my ability to make design changes that I wanted to in Blogger. I saw a lot of different sites out there that looked better than mine, and every time I had an idea to improve something it seemed like I had to jump through hoops in order to do it, or it wasn’t an available option. Not being much of a coder, I needed something user-friendly and yet not so user-friendly that it wasn’t adaptable to my design preferences. Hence WordPress with a template from iceable (that I saw on another site and really liked). I am not sure if I’m happy yet or not… I like the look of my site much better, but I am worried that I lost readers who had a blogspot specific address in their feedly or bloglovin’. My site traffic reduced substantially today even with a redirect – so I am hoping my previous readers find me. (You did… that’s a good sign, but you seem like a pretty smart and motivated person.)
Overall, I think I’m going to be happier. Right now, I’m going from an interface I knew really well (Blogger) to one that I have to learn (WordPress) while simultaneously needing to maintain content and take care of my two kids… I think it’ll be a rough start but good overall. I would recommend highly starting with WordPress rather than Blogger if you’re going to do any serious blogging and want the power to do more with your design. There are a lot of good posts out there about the differences between WordPress and Blogger if you’re bored and feel like googling it.
2. I started my blog because I love writing, and I’m a stay at home parent, so I miss having some sort of creative, intellectual outlet. I think it’s great to do if you’re going to do it regularly enough to obtain readers, because without people like you reading and commenting, it loses it’s sense of purpose, fun, and validity. I don’t write every day, I just make sure that I schedule a post for every day. I think bloggers who write 3-5 times a week do much better than those who post less frequently. You could always start writing your blog offline, now, to see if you enjoy creating. Get a whole bunch of content together, play around, see what you enjoy writing about, and then if you’re enjoying it you’ll have a whole bunch of posts right off the bat ready to be scheduled when you need them. My writing and site has evolved a lot!
Hope that helps – glad to hear you’re enjoying my blog, thanks for reading!
I think a guy’s guy would totally love my blog, since I’m into arm wrestling competitions and all 😉
-kelly
Kelly,
I have a suggestion for your blog if it can work. I don’t see a “home” button or any way to get to your most recent posts by clicking a button. Often when I go to your site, I must go to my bookmark to get there. It seems like I should be able to click on your “i am running this” at the top to get to the most recent posts.
Perhaps it’s because I’m viewing your blog on an iPad, I tried it on other devices and it seems to be the same way.
Just a thought.
Chris
Thank you Chris! It used to be there and must have gotten deleted in some editing. I also am missing an About Page and all kinds of things I need to get back up following my transition from blogger to wordpress! But that’s a really important one… thank you so much for pointing it out!
Regarding your decrease in readership, it looks like there is no RSS feed for new posts anymore. I found it odd that there weren’t any new posts for so long, then I came to your site and found there were some!
Other readers may be in the same situation.
Thank you Lincoln! I think this is indeed a problem, and I’m working to fix it. (ie, I e-mailed my husband to see if he could do it in five minutes rather than me spending an hour trying to figure it out.) Such are the problems when you’re more a writer and runner than a web guru! Thanks for pointing this out, I greatly appreciate it, and I’m glad you checked back to see if there were no posts!
do i have to follow twitter or can you email me updates? Love your site!
Hi Debbie! Thanks so much for reading my blog, I’m glad you’re here 🙂 You can sign up for e-mail updates by scrolling down and entering your email address into the box above the “subscribe” link at the end of the right column. It lets you sign up to receive the blog posts via e-mail 🙂
Hi Kelly,
I wanted to get your thoughts on something. My husband and I just started the C25K this week. Yesterday was the first day of running. I’m not in great shape, but not terrible shape either. I can jog on a treadmill for an hour without being too exhausted or feeling like I need to take walking breaks. Outside, is a completely different story. I’m lucky if I can make it halfway around the block! Anyway, we were doing our 10-15 minutes of running/walking and as I ran, my ears started absolutely killing me. By the end, my lower front teeth hurt, the glands on the right side of my neck hurt, my throat was sore every time I took a breath in, both ears were throbbing on the inside, and I’d developed a headache. I remember having trouble running in the cold when I was a kid, but it was never THIS bad! Has anything like this happened to you or anyone you know of? Could it just be the cold?
When I got home, I took some ibuprofen and drank some water and laid on the couch for about 15-20 minutes. The headache subsided and so did the earaches…slowly…but then I felt ok. Except it took about an hour before I could take a deep breath without my throat feeling irritated and needing to cough a couple of times.
Any suggestions on how to deal with this?
Hi Kira! That sounds really rough… I’ve never had anything like that happen to me, no. I would recommend calling your doctor and asking them if they have any advice for you. Perhaps there’s a sinus issue that was aggravated because you were running outdoors?
The other suggestion I have is to go to a larger running forum where a greater number of people who might have experienced the same thing are reading and replying, for example http://www.letsrun.com or community.active.com have message boards that are pretty active. The more people who read your question, the more likely you are to encounter someone who has had a similar experience and may have found some answers!
One thing that sometimes happens to runners who run on the treadmill and then switch to outdoor running is that they have difficulty pacing themselves when running outside. It could be possible that you’re pushing harder and running faster outdoors, because you’re used to just keeping pace with the treadmill. Running too fast could give you a headache, especially if you’re not quite properly hydrated. If you think that might be the case, you could try slowing down as you’re doing your running portions of Couch to 5k, to see if perhaps you’re pushing too hard instead of sticking to a manageable jog while you’re getting used to running outside.
Are you somewhere where the altitude is high? Could it have been pressure from weather changes? I think it’s definitely worth a phone call or visit with your doctor to see if they have any ideas and to make sure your experience isn’t symptomatic of something serious, and then also put some feelers out there in larger forums and see if anyone else has had the same thing happen to them.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope you’ll let me know what you find out and how things go for you!
Hi Kelly!
I love your reviews on Equinox group fitness classes. I too go to the Chestnut Hill location and I too have Brittany as my personal trainer. And I understand that feeling when one first steps into a HIIT class (or the 6th time for that matter for someone like me). I still haven’t had the guts to go into any cycling class. I find your reviews very informative as I try out new classes. Keep it up!! 🙂