Hydration Pack Blues

• Posted: September 8, 2008
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• Author: Shéamus
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• Filed under: Gear, Workouts
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• Tags: No tags set for this entry.

I wanted to do a longer run today and felt it was a good time to try out my new hydration pack, The North Face Bullhead. The pack is small and light, carries up to two litres of water, has a magnetic, bite-activated valve, and a decent pocket for my Nokia N95, credit card and house keys.

I was running earlier than normal. The weather was great, as forecast - very little wind and nicely cool, despite being bright and sunny. I didn’t know what my needs would be for a run that I’d planned to be about 12 miles, so filled the pack with one litre of water. I also brought along my Fuel Belt, which contained just over half a litre of Powerade.

I spent a bit of time trying to get my pack to fit right. I didn’t quite understand how the mechanisms worked, but it seemed to be okay when I ran out the door.

Within a quarter of a mile I had to stop.

Not only was the pack far, far too loose, but the left shoulder strap kept slipping down, which quickly became a major irritant. Again, I couldn’t figure out how to make the pack any tighter than it already was, so rather than heading back home and abandoning the darned thing, had to resort to a couple of crazy quick-fixes:

1. I tied a double-knot across the middle of my chest using a couple of the straps, and
2. For the rest of the workout, I had to run with my thumb hooked around the left strap, so it didn’t fall off of my shoulder

This seemed to work pretty well, and I set off again. After a few miles of this, however, the effect of the strap rubbing endlessly against my thumb made most of my left hand and some of my wrist go numb. Not ideal.

Still, I was running okay. At eight miles, my patience was tested again by the pack, and I stopped again to re-tie my double-knot and anything else I could attempt to make the thing work. No luck, though.

All told, I did my 12 miles, and it all went reasonably well. Less stoppage, my actual run time was about 1:40, which given the compromise I had to make seemed fair enough.

Splits:

Strap and tightness problems aside, the reservoir from the pack was great. Water flowed freely from the bite-valve when I needed it, which always quickly found its way back to the very convenient magnet. I actually had more water than I needed for a run of this distance, as there was at least a quarter of a litre left in the pack when I finished.

When my wife returned from work, we spent a little while trying to figure the thing out, and eventually I think she nailed it. I’m going to try it again on Thursday, but testing it at home (i.e., by putting it on and jumping up and down a lot ) it seems okay. Certainly, much, much better.

Day 100 tomorrow! Watch out for some changes to the site.

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