The Links That Brought Me Down the Internet Wormhole This Week

Laura always starts out her link posts with “Want to stay in bed longer?” and I always wonder who this mythical creature is who lolls around, reading in bed.

In my quest to slow the eff down this week, I’m doing just that. Just lying in bed with Bailey, watching the sun stream in through my windows. [Or, I was when I started writing this this morning…]

And matching with Pumpkin Spice Lattes on Tinder, as you do.

Anyway, here’s the fitness-related links I loved at work this week (HELLO YOGA ACTION FIGURES), and below are the random ones that didn’t make the cut there.

As a side note, I use Pocket to save links for later, especially when I come across something good at work that I don’t have time to read.

Using Google Trends to Create Popular Posts: My buddy Katy nailing it, per usual, on blogging advice. “But every once in a while, I find myself…uninspired. Unsure on what to write about. Overwhelmed at the possibilities.” We’ve all been there, right? I usually just don’t write if I don’t feel inspired, but I like this idea to look at Google Trends. (Katy Widrick)

ALSO: I just added some free ads for bloggers on my sponsorship page, because I like Katy’s idea of doing that. Go sign up for one if you have a blog you want to promote!

Best and Worst Times to Post to Social Media: My boss sent this to me, and while some of it is not entirely ground-breaking (and it totally depends on your own audience), still worth a read. (Fast Company)

The Two Times Nobody Knew What to Call a Banana: This is the best thing I saw on the Internet this week, so thanks to Katy for making me laugh until I cried all my mascara off and then shared it in an all-company chat room, because everyone needs to see it. (BuzzFeed)

Meet the 24 Writers Selected for the Amtrak Residency Program: I never thought I’d ever have reason to link to Amtrak.com?! But they’re doing this really cool residency program for 24 writers who are being provided free round-trip long-distance Amtrak trips to work on writing projects. I should have applied… (Amtrak)

Want to Run a Marathon for Free? Nuun is doing an awesome promotion, and the winner will receive a free marathon entry up to $300 in value. (Nuun)

What to Do When Your Big Dreams Feel Stalled I love this. (Twitter does a lot of weird stuff, but one of the new things they do that I actually really like is send an email of stuff your friends have been tweeting a lot, and that’s where I found this.) Good lord, I’ve been there. Multiple times. I love her advice to turn off the negativity and pressure, and to rest. Sometimes just beating yourself down doesn’t accomplish what you think it will and you need to let go for a bit. (Cotter Crunch)

Did Strava Play a Role in the Central Park Bike Death? (Is that one of the most sensational headlines I’ve seen in a while?) Last week, a woman tragically got hit and killed by a cyclist in Central Park. Since then, I have seen so many different opinions on this across social media—everything from calling for bans of cars to bans of bikes to requiring cyclists to have licenses. Without a doubt, Central Park is a challenging place to bike. You have super-fast cyclists like this dude, fitness/hobby cyclists like myself, tourists and Citi Bikers who aren’t really paying attention, runners, walkers, rollerbladers, dogs. That’s a lot of different constituencies all trying to use the same land for different purposes. I’m not sure what can be done to prevent tragedies like this in the future, but I do think everyone in the park / West Side Highway / any mixed-use area like that need to be really aware of their surroundings and cognizant of which lanes they’re supposed to be in. (NY Mag)

What did you read and love this week?