Hi Folks,
First of all, Patrick and I would like to thank you all for making the EN forum such a valuable resource so quickly! We also appreciate your patience and hanging in there while we build the real site behind the scenes. We want to be sure you know that the forum you see here will be just a tiny piece of EN. To that end, I'd like to give you a little taste of what we have in store for you, using the screen shots below. A few caveats:

• Ignore the design, or lack thereof. These are screenshots of the Alpha site, with no graphics. We should be getting the graphicized version soon and will tweak the look as well.
• Not everything that will be on the site is yet reflected in the shots. The website consists of modules. Patrick and I have chosen what modules we want to incorporate into the site. Not all of them are plugged in yet.
• The components of EN will be:

1. 1. This forum, open to the public.
   2. Networking platform, which I'll explain with the screenshots below, only available to EN members.
   3. ENLibrary: a tagged, searchable, sortable, rateable, reviewable library of written, audio and video content, created by us and by YOU. Parts of the library will be open to the public, other areas will be available to members only.
   4. ENGine: a basic training log and training plan feature. Our motto is "it's about the training PLAN, not the training LOG." The focus will be on making available to you a library of quality training plans (the ones many of you are already using). The training log side of the ENGine will be focused only on what you need: doing the workouts, not downloading every whizbang electronic gadget, tracking your shoes, etc. Our library of training plans, and sample training week templates for you to make your own, will be included in your monthly or annual EN membership fee. IOW, your choice of over 30 training plans, currently retailing for $100-$150, all yours for the price of your EN membership AND with all of these other features as well (see above).
   5. ENStore: a listing of physical and downloadable training products and tools.
   6. ENCamps: epically-cool and race specific camps.

In addition, we are negotiating with other smart guys/gals in the endurance world to create innovative products and services for you: our own line of sports nutrition products, sports apparel, web-based seminars, lecture series, ebooks, and any other out-of-the-box ideas we can come up with.

Screenshots

Landing page
This is the landing page (www.endurancenation.us). Actually, it doesn't look anything like what it will look like, but I gotta start by showing you something . We think we'll include flash video tours of each component of EN. Light on the text, heavy on the interactivity, in other words. There will be a News section, populated by RSS feeds from various triathlon and endurance sports resources.




Member homepage
Below is Patrick's home page. From here he can:

• Email other members.
• Join/maintain his subscriptions to EN groups.
• He can start a blog hosted on EN. Alternatively, he can have his posts from his external blog (Sheila ) fed into his blog. Other members (you) can then subscribe to receive updates to Patrick's blog on your homepage. So, potentially, you could have 20 blog feeds from your friends blogs directed into your homepage.
• News: an admin message from us telling you the latest and greatest in ENWorld
• MultiMedia: this is a place were you can upload and share your own photos, videos and podcasts.
• New Members: profiles of people who've recently joined EN
• My Friends: the profiles of people who've agreed to be Patrick's friend...likely a pretty small list...
• User RSS feed: you can direct external feeds into this space: triathlon news, etc. Anything you want.
• Comments: comments that people have made about Patrick's profile.
• We will work with programmers to have summary training data fed into these spaces as well.

Member profile page
This is what you'll see when you click on Patrick's profile. This is where things start to get pretty powerful. Each item in his profile becomes a searchable tag. For example, under the Training header he can indicate what races he is doing, IMCDA'08, in his case. You can click on IMCDA'08 and see all of the EN members who've also indicated IMCDA as their race. Create a group called "IMCDA'08" and invite all of these people into the group. You can then network, exchange blogs, pictures, training information, etc. We can even feed your training log information, and everyone else's log information, into the IMCDA group so that when you visit the group room you can see something like "The EN members training for IMCDA'08 have swam/biked/run x/y/z this month."

This group tool can be duplicated for every profile item. So, for example, I indicate in my profile that I ride a Cervelo, run in Asics shoes, I have an Ergomo, I enjoy motorcycling, graduated from Emory University with a BA in Economics, have two dogs and like ice cream. I could, if I want, create/join the Cervelo/Asics/Ergomo/Motorcycling/Emory/Dog-slave/Ice Cream groups! If I'm traveling to Nashville I can see if there is an EN member in Nashville with a motorcycle. Maybe I want to hook up for a ride?




How much will EN membership cost me?
You'll get all of this: the networking platform, all the training plans, the training log, full access to all the forums, and all the cool stuff we can think of for....$9.99/mo or $99.99/yr.

We've been pushing the web developers pretty hard and it looks like we're on track for a site launch at the end of October. We'll be sure to keep everyone posted!

Again, thanks so much for your continued support!