These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

On the planet Earth, there is a beautiful country.  In that country, there is a HUGE state (called Texas).  In that state, there is a tiny town.  In that town, there is a house.  In that house, there is a closet.  And in that closet, there is a bag.

 This story has very little to do with Earth, the USA, Texas, tiny towns, houses or even closets.  It has everything to do with the bag and, more importantly, the contents of the bag.

What, you may ask, could possibly be more awesome than a bag with He-Man on it?  Well, a He-Man bag stuffed full of running gear, that's what!

This is my running bag.  At any given time it holds a few of my favorite things, along with shoes, shorts, towels and other items that I may need while out running.

One of the key items in my running bag is my calender.  I set a goal this year to run over 1000 miles - and on this calender I track the miles run each day.  It is fun to look back over the calender and see how the miles stack up.  It is also helpful to avoid over-training.  I know exactly how many miles I run each week and can avoid jumping too much from one week to the next.






Holds Gu's, cell phone or car keys

The next vital item in my running bag is a hand held water bottle.  I picked up these little guys at Acadamy for about $7.00 each.  Money well spent in my opinion.  The bottle itself is designed to fit in  your hand and has a non-slip surface.  The top pulls out which makes it easy to spray water into your mouth then pop the top back into place quickly.  The carrying case is what makes this contraptions special.  There is a strap that tightens around your hand, so the thing won't fall if you relax your grip.  The case also has a zipper pocket that will hold things like car keys, cell phone or Power Bar/Gu type stuff.  I find that packing the bottle full of ice and filling it with Gatorade works well for me.  If you plan to carry a cell phone or electronic device, I recommend to put it in a plastic baggie first, so condensation doesn't ruin the device.

These water bottles are great for training and racing.  It provides a convenient way to hydrate during training runs.  During a race, I like to carry these so that I don't get caught up in an water stop jam.  I refill when it's convenient and drink when I want to.

If you enjoy listening to music while you run, I find that a sleve band is helpful and I highly recommend the Phillips brand earbud that wrap around the back of your ear.  They don't fall out and you can pull the buds out of your ears while leaving the bands around the back of your ears so you can hear anouncers or conversations around you - while still listening to the music.  These earphones run about $10 at Wal-mart but you can find them on Amazon for about $6 (before shipping).

I picked up this guy on an impulse at Acadamy for $3.  It is a LED flashlight that clips onto the bill of a cap. This guy is especially usefull if you do any running in the dark. The battery life could be better but this thing will light up the night like the 4th of July.  It's cheap, easy to use and effective.  What more could you ask for. 

On the top of my Favorite Things list is my Garmin GPS  watch.  It carries a heafty price tag of $175 or so, but (in my opinion) it is totally worth it for the dedicated runner who wants to track the stats of his/her run.  The Garmin shows distance (from GPS so it is pretty darn accurate), pace, time, laps, elevation and mph among other things.  It has some really cool features such as an out-and-back tool - which maps your running route in one direction so when you're ready to turn around and go home you push the botton and follow the directions on the watch...it will take you back to where you started.  It also has a ghost runner feature...An imaginary runner who competes against you to help you push your pace.  I had a really hard time making the purchase but am SO glad I did.  The battery life is about 10 hours.  There are more advanced (and expensive) models out there.

There is also a similar watch that serves the same basic service.  This watch is based on technology similar to a pedometer.  It will calculate your speed and distance.  The price tag on these is a much more friendly $50 or so.  For a casual runner it will do the job just fine.  Here's how it works.  You calibrate the watch by telling it you will run (any distance) say 1 mile.  The watch then counts your steps as you run a mile.  It will use that info to calculate how many steps to go 1 mile in your subsequent work outs to gage your distance and speed (MPH). 

I found the watch to be fairly accurate, but with an error margine of about 10%.  (On a ten mile route the watch might read 9 or 11) miles.  I also found that occationally I would calibrate with a certain brand of shoe but when I changed to a different brand the calibration was off by quite a bit.  These are not big problems but they annoyed me enough that I went out and bought the Garmin and prefer it.

Some other things I keep in my running bag are shown below.

Gu or carbohydrate gel is handy to have around.  It gives you a quick, easily digestable shot of carbs to get you through a tough run.  These may have MASSIVE amounts of caffine, so read the labels before you down it.

Safety pins are awesome.  I keep a stack in my running bag because you never know when they will come in handy.  Pins are used to pin a race bib on your shirt...I also use them to pin my car keys in my pocket so they don't fall out during a run.  They are great for popping blisters as well.

Bandaids, chapstick and knee brace - or any other first aid stuff you like to have around.  I also keep vaseoline or body glide to avoid chaffin.  It is cheep and saves a lot of pain post run.

My list is not by any means comprehensive but I think it is a good start.  Get a running bag.  They are really cool to have (even if yours doesn't have He-Man on it - maybe not as cool, but still cool).
Hope to see you out there soon!