Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Packs - old and new

An old favorite:
REI Half Dome

This pack has served me well for many years. Hauling books and miscellaneous stuff while I was in nursing school (and those books weigh a lot!). Knocking around in the woods on many day hikes (both for work and pleasure), and being a great pack for commuting and/or long runs. It fits snugly, holds quite a bit of stuff, has straps that allow for tightening down loads to minimize bounce, has a sleeve for a hydration bladder and has accessible pockets on the sides. Every Thursday morning you can see it strapped to my back as I run to work (especially in the winter when I need to haul a warm coat for the commute home). It has been a great addition to my backpack line-up, so I was a bit saddened to see that REI no longer carries them. Too bad as I have been recommending it to friends.

A new pack entered my life today:


This arrived today and I am very excited to give it a try! For full disclosure, I am on a team that is sponsored by Nathan - Team Mega Tough - and we were allowed to chose one product for free. Seeing as I am focusing on ultras, and live in an area where it is winter longer than it is not, it only made sense to investigate their extreme weather hydration pack. I am looking forward to putting this through its paces and will let you all know how it holds up to the weather northern Minnesota can dish out.

Team Mega Tough is made up, primarily, of the group of women that I ran the Great River Ragnar Relay with this past August. I am very honored to be included on this team and often wonder why as I am not very fast, relatively speaking. One thing that I bring to the team (or so I am told) is inspiration. I am by far the oldest member and I think many of these women (and maybe others who read the teams blog?) have not envisioned themselves remaining so physically active when they hit their 40's.

Yes, you can achieve some pretty amazing things as a "masters" runner. More importantly, what is amazing for one person may look very different for another, as we each come from very different places.

2009 was a year of exploring my limits and finding out what I am capable of as an athlete. I ran 400+ more miles than I had ever run before, completed two 50K trail races (two weeks apart) and competed in my first 24 hour relay. On top of that I set PR's at several distances (5K, 10K, marathon and 50K).

4 comments:

Samantha said...

Oh! They came, they came, they came! Now I'm even more excited to come home!

Chris said...

You wild woman you. :)

Susan Tomlinson said...

I think I was in the best shape of my life in my late 40's--even more so than when I ran track in college.

I've slowed down some on my training in my 50s, but by choice. There are just too many interesting things to do in life, and so little time to do them. Training takes time.

wildknits said...

Sam, sorry to ruin the surprise! Leslie said half the fun was seeing my reaction to her walking up with the pack (I was in the car waiting for the Wednesday night run to commence with 3 other folks).

Susan, I know that I can attribute a lot of my fitness to the fact that I have more leisure time now than I have had in over 24 years. Kids are out of the house, the dog died, I am not wrapped up in schooling... gulis