Be sure to also note that the country seems to be negatively hung up about only some, not all, sex. Every other commercial on TV seems to be about boner pills, but a 5 microsecond glimpse of Janet Jackson's nipple is the end of the world. I just don't get it.

-C

---

------------------------------------------------------------
Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

I think the magazine have just gotten really boring. I'm not sure if its because they are bad magazine, or because of the nature of tri-magazine and triathlon. There's only so much you can write about I guess, and there are a ton of new people in the sport, and I think, a ton of people who stay in the sport for 2-4 years and then quit. So the magazines appeal to beginners or re-hash the same type of articles over and over again. Now that I've been reading the magazines for 5-years, I rarely find something new that I am interested in, so it takes me 15-minutes to flip through the magazine, where I use to spend an hour or two reading the whole thing from cover to cover.

Once people are in the sport for 2-4 years they probably aren't really in need of guidance from a magazine. I'd guess that by then they have their own training plan and know what they like in terms of gear. For those who are unable or don't want to continue in the sport on their own probably just sort of drop off since the magazines and coverage is focused more on the beginners. Road cycling magazines sometimes suffer from this too in my opinion. There's lots of articles about losing 15 pounds to get back into the sport, or 10 week training plan for your first century ride and all that good stuff. Great for beginners, not so great for people who are more serious about the sport.

The worst part about all of this is that once the magazine companies figure out what sells magazines, no matter who it's to(newbies to the sport, those who say they're triathletes that really just like the girl on the cover or experienced racers), they'll stick with it. Unfortunately I have a feeling that it will continue to be geared towards beginners (not that there's anything wrong with that) and there will probably be more of the pop culture approach of using sex as a means of attracting readers. The later bothers me more because it probably isn't the best way to attract people to our sport although I don't know if magazines are really what attract people to the sport.

So far this message board has been the best way to get good info on a lot of things and I agree with most that say that there's just as much on the internet and I'd even be willing to say there's more than in the magazines.

I've never subscribed to Triathlete because by the time it hits the newstand, the information is quite out of date as per race results. Also, I didn't feel like wasting one month of the subscription on a cheesy swimsuit issue. Plus you'd get a free issue here and there in your swag bag at a race so why subscribe?

I subscribed to Inside Triathlon for nearly 15 years from back in the day when it was published by Lew Kidder and was called Triathlon Today. The best thing about IT was that the race news was really current. And the Hawaii Ironman issue is always stellar. I disliked the annual gear review and considered that another wasted issue. However, once I got the cheesy sex issue in the mail, I canceled my subscription. I have nothing against using sex to sell magazines, but if I liked reading sex anecdotes, I'd subscribe to Playboy or Maxim. The annual subscription has too few useful issues so I'll just wait for the Hawaii issue to hit the newstand before I read IT again.

I think that other than race results and nutrition articles, most of the tri magazines are very slim on content. How many times can you cover the topic of how to lose <xx> pounds in two months, or how to train for your first <fill in the distance> in only 16 weeks? I think this is true of Runner's World and not just the triathlon mags. And I do see a trend with IT toward catering to beginners, which is the same format as Runner's World.

Few magazines can focus on just the experienced and accomplished competitors and sell enough issues to remain afloat. They have to go after a larger subscription base. I think that's a financial certainty.

My opinion, of course.
BrokenSpoke

I'm still fairly new to triathlons, so a lot of stuff in there is still useful to me. As far as swimsuit and sex issues go, hey why not? Personally, I was looking forward to finish last weekend's race, so I could sit down and get a good look at the Inside Triathlon in my goodie bad with Desere on the cover.

Looks like you got your responses.

Personally, I've allways thought tri magazines sucked. I've probably bought 10 in my lifetime, each time *hoping* that there'd be something worth reading. Each time I was sorely dissapointed.

Maybe hot girls is what I need.

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

You mean things like you have to be 21 to drink but you can go die in Iraq at 18? Or, you sure cannot see a boob on TV (when this is perfectly acceptable in France, for instance for a commercial on yogurts...heck...how do you sell yogurts without showing a boob??) but you can see people jumping of the twin towers for real, or people being beheaded etc...yeah...many things do not make sense...

I agree, you can only show so many Cervelo's before things get boring

---

---------------------------
"This wheel definitely beat the 808 in this test, no question, and I do commend Hed on producing a really fast wheel...the wheel is fast, I am not disputing that." - joshatzipp on the Stinger 9
My Website
HEDmafia.com

That is a good point about the tri magazines sucking. The ones I have been getting for 'free' as a USAT member seem to mostly talk about the USAT and management of it...snore..

I want like, interviews with norman stadler. That guy is funny. Interviews with Norman, and wind tunnel data...yeah..and boobs

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

They should turn it into a hot rod magazine. It'll be full of tricked out Cervelos with hot girls on them.

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

The swimsuit tri edition I thought was resonable. But, the last, I think it is inside tri, with sex plastered all over its front, went
too far, IMO, and I am no prude. Even my wife thought it was pretty classless. And I thought the articles in it were pretty
stupid. I hope this is not their future direction.

Flame away.

Dave

---

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

The other huge problem with the magazines is that they are really just giant advertisements and there is no objectivity. Look, here's an ad for 2XU on page 3, then on page 20, a Q & A with the founder of 2XU about why their stuff is the best. SBR, Zipp, Scott Plasma, Norman Stadler's Kuota, etc., etc., etc. A lot of this stuff is just not very interesting at all, but it probably makes the advertisers and the people who try to sell ads very, very happy. As long as the magazines revenues are based on selling advertisements, this will always be a problem. And while this is an issue to a certain extent in all mass-media in a Capitalist society, it seems even worse in the tri-magazines. For instance, though there are no races in Jamaica except an obscure sprint, the Jamaica tourism board recently started advertsing in Triathlete. Guess where the swimsuit issue was photographed? At least when they did the swimsuit issue in St. Croix there was some connection to triathlon. Then the "gear review" issues are no different from the trisports catalogue. The "Road to Kona" issue could be really great but contains really scant information - you could at least have a restaraunt review or things to do or a detailed course description.