It is a little big, but other than that it has treated me well for many years. It did a great job tracking us, has an altimeter, and has a longer battery life than most GPS watches (up to 50 hours with the GPS on, and longer with it off). I had this stuffed in my bag during the adventure race since we aren't allowed to use GPS's. One pound on your feet means 5% more energy expended.Įvery one percent of your body weight makes you six seconds slower per mile. It takes 4.7 to 6.4 times as much energy to move at a given pace when weight is carried on the shoe vs.

One pound on your feet equals five pounds on your back. I still think of it to this day, and it is one of the reasons I chose the lighter weight nanospikes over microspikes. When we were off trail going up steep slopes, I would have been better off with microspikes to get some better grip, but I wouldn’t change what I did because of the running factor AND weight factor.Ī few years ago I read an article from Mountain Tactical Institute about boot weight and performance. They ended up being perfect for me because they were lightweight, allowed me to run comfortably, and gave me some grip on the ice. These things are awesome! I bought my nanospikes the day before our race, not knowing how they were going to perform. The watch face is a little big, but the silicone wrist band fit my wrist perfectly. This was so helpful when we were bushwhacking and needed a general idea of how much higher we needed to climb. At first, my altimeter was off by a few hundred feet, but after calibrating it twice it was almost spot on. I’ve heard good things about Suunto watches, and the Suunto Core seemed to have the most accurate altimeter based on my research. The battery life is 6 months to a year thanks to the lack of GPS. I like this watch because it doesn’t have a GPS (which isn’t allowed in adventure races unless you hide it in you pack for the sake of looking at it later). I ended up splurging a little bit for the Suunto Core Crush.

If you go on Amazon, you can find a bunch for less than $50, but many of the reviews said they were junk. I was told that an altimeter can be super helpful for adventure races, so I did some research to find the best one I could that wasn’t too expensive. Going cheap might result in a leaky reservoir, and that is no fun. Also, I have not had luck with knock-off brands of CamelBak. I did my entire training with this system, and it’s a system I really like. I heard that many people’s water bottles froze during the extra-frigid Frigid Infliction this year, but we didn’t have that problem.Ī few notes: Wearing a backpack underneath a backpack is not a nuisance at all. Every once in a while the hose will freeze in really cold temperatures if it’s near my zipper, but I’m generally okay, especially when I blow the water out of the tube. You keep the hose inside your jacket as well, except when you take it out to have a drink. What we did was wear a small backpack that was just big enough to hold a 2 liter reservoir and then wear that backpack underneath our jacket so that our body heat kept it warm. I can’t drink out of wide-mouthed bottles without spilling it all over myself, and narrow-mouthed bottles freeze up quick.ĭale and I came up with a great solution to this problem, and we tested it all winter while preparing for the adventure race. I’ve even tried blowing the water back into the reservoir so that it is just air in the tube, and that doesn’t work either. Camelbak hoses freeze almost instantly in cold weather, even when using an insulated hose. I’ve always had difficulty trying to find a water system that works for me in the winter. Water system: Camelbak Classic Hydration Pack

Adventure race gear