Running With Jack

To repeat something I posted on another blog earlier, I really believe that our emotional state resulting from daily stress has a serious effect on running/training ability. The first problem is the motivation problem - have a bad day at work, with the kids or spouse and see what happens to old Mr. Motivation blaa. Upcoming events in our life which we dread can particularly have a serious impact on everything we do, especially fitness stuff. But these are the very days that we have to dig deep, gather up whatever is left of our chaotic selves and face the wind. I’ve had so many days like that and it never feels like it gets easier, but somehow I always seem to come to a point where I can say I made it through again.

I have mega piles of work on my desk at work, lots of deadlines, no end in sight. In the past this totally dragged me down to a point where I had no other motivation than to come home and leave my imprint on the couch. I have (finally) reached a point where most of the time I can run this frustration out and can continue to function as a human being afterwards, as opposed to turning into a part of the furniture. At least one source of frustration under check, what's next?

Anyway I spent some time tonight looking at the CamelBak drink system. With my long runs starting to get, well long, I thought I would start looking at alternatives. Last year I bought a cheap belt with four plastic bottles, this functions, but is NOT comfortable to say the least.

Now I remember running in the military with a backpack, this was not especially fun, but perhaps it was because it was generally a 50-60lb pack plus all the other things I had to carry good training for pack mules. The CamelBak looks comfortable, does anyone have one or have any comments about them?