More on waterproof iPhone cases
Samma wrote in with a question:
We are suppose to take a trip at the end of August to a tropical location and since my boyfriends iPhone 4 has seamlessly became a living part of his face I thought it would be a nice jester to get him a waterproof case with ear bud access. Through my search I stumbled across your blog, which was very helpful thank you, in making my decision to purchase the iSeal Sound Wave and now I cant seem to find it anywhere for sale. I went to http://www.thesealcases.com and found some items for sale but none of the ones you tested. Are they not on the market yet and if not then when can I expect them to be and if not by August then can you recommend something else to me.
Thanks for getting in touch Samma, I hope you have a great time away with your boyfriend. I'm sure over time the tropical vistas will gradually intrude on his iPhone field of vision and then he'll look up and begin to notice how beautiful you are. Then your holiday can truly begin. At least, that's what the tropics do to me ;-)
It's been more than two years since I wrote that article and waterproof iPhone case technology has moved on too. I would now recommend the products from http://www.h2oaudio.com.au. The Indepth cases also look good but I haven't tested them: http://www.indepthcases.com.au
What to wear for Warrior Dash 2012
I can't believe it's only been a year since I entered my first Sydney Warrior Dash, but it must be, because my second time is coming up this Saturday morning. It's too late for extra training and it's too late to get your entry in (it's 100% full) but if you already have your entry, here's what you have to do to make sure you make it to the finish with your head held high and your warrior smile shining.
- Extremely hard to keep your shoes on in the mud, so wear runners that are still comfy when you lace them up really right. Ideally non-waterproof mesh uppers as you'll be quicker if the mud and water exits your shoes as you run on to the next obstacle.
- Wear shoes, socks and clothes you never need to use again. Because they will be completely rooted by Warriordash's mud. I didn't ever get anything properly clean no matter how I tried, and threw it all out eventually. You can donate your shoes at the event. Bring a big tuff garbage bag to lug the rest of it home.
- Pack a change of clothes for after, but don't make it too nice a change of clothes. Despite swimming in the creek and then hosing off, I was still leaking mud from every orifice and hairy bit for days afterward, and by the time I got home the change of clothes was looking pretty muddy.
- Don't wear a singlet. It's pretty easy to rub shoulders against rough wooden timber, barbed wire, dented car bodies, and the ground. Best to have a bit of tee shirt between you and those things so you slide instead of scrape.
- Ideally wear mesh-type top and shorts, the plastic kind that breathes. It won't soak up water and weigh you down. Much as I love my TFP tee shirts, it'll be stretched to buggery and irretrievably muddy afterwards, and will weigh a tonne until you finish.
- For the same reason, wear stuff with as few pockets as possible.
- I'm considering wearing an old pair of short skins instead of shorts this year. No, I don't have the bum for it, but yes, I think it'll collect less mud.
- Go fancy dress by all means, but don't wear anything that might obscure your peripheral vision (see: barbed wire, rough timber logs, rocks, etc). Those Mexican wrestler masks we wore last year were a good idea at the time, looked awesome for the first 100m, and then left me vulnerable to head injury for the rest of the event.
- Your fancy dress will get trashed. So if you care about that, wear something you can take off quick and dump with support crew on the sidelines before the first obstacle. Probably best not to rent something unless you're OK with losing your deposit.
- Facepaint is the ideal Warriordash fancy dress. Authentic warrior style, doesn't collect mud or get snagged on things, makes you look badass.
- Take off or tape down your watch, chain, bracelet, ear/nose/bellybutton ring before you start (see: barbed wire)
Also, here's some more tips I wrote up once I had washed off most of the mud from last year.
How much (and what) should I drink during Trailwalker?
Hi Alan,
Thank you for your message at the weekend. I totally know what you mean about getting to a point where you seem to be abl eto go and go and go! I reckon I could have continued if I had to which has now given me an enormous confidence boost for the walk in a few weeks.
I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to ask your advice with regards to hydration. How did you stay hydrated? I have a 3 litre pack that weighs a lot when its full. I have tried gels, and separate bottles of gatorade but they are cumbersome to carry and consume. So someone suggested I only fill my backpack up with 2 litres of liquid, 1/2 water and 1/2 gatorade. And top this up every check point But others are saying we shouldn't dilute the gatorade? So confused!! Anyway, any tips would be gratefully appreciated and also quantities aswell! As I made up my three litres of water on Sunday with 15 scoops of endura max - it said 1 scoop for 200ml of water. Paul said that the 200 ml was just to dilute the stuff and I only needed one scoop! So I chucked it all and stuck to the gels and carried bottles. Anyway, hope you can asssist me out of my dilemma!
Hannah
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Hi Hannah, always happy to help.
You really only need to carry 3L of fluid during training when you're not able to easily top up along the way. A 2L bag is enough for Trailwalker, and on cooler night sections, 1-1.5L is plenty. Carrying the hydration mix in your bladder is better than carrying it separately, for balance and consumption reasons, as you say.
But that much full-strength hydration mix over the course of more than a few hours will make you ill, so you definitely need to dilute it. I generally dilute to 50% concentration, and even then I might switch to 100% water for a section during the CP6-7 leg, since I'm not losing much in evaporation — it's cold, I'm moving mostly downhill, and I should be well stocked on electrolytes from drinking mix all day prior.
Recommend you steer clear of Gatorade and Powerade — they are lolly water first, electrolyte mix second. They have way too much simple carb, colour and artificial flavour in them and the sugar will put you into a boom/bust cycle and upset your digestion.
Staminade is a bit better, but GU (https://guenergy.com/store/drinks/electrolyte-tablets.html) is better still, and and Nuun is best of all (http://www.linebreak.com.au/about_nuun.htm). They have little/no carb in them, just electrolyte, and no artificial flavour or colour. Buy the latter two online or from the Northside Running store in Clarke St Crows Nest. Staminade you can get in power form in Franklins. GU and Nuun are both available in tablet form which is way easier and less messy when you're mixing up a batch by torchlight at 10pm with cold, numb fingers.
The problem with Endura is that it mixes carbs, proteins and electrolytes in the one product, and I think that makes it harder to know what you're taking in and why. Your digestion pretty much shuts down from late evening until the finish, and while it's good emotionally to sip a steaming hot chocolate at CP7 anything other than water and electrolyte is just going to sit in your stomach until after you finish and you get home. You don't need that.
So I would steer clear of Endura unless you've bought a big tub of it, in which case, feed it to the kids before they play soccer on a Saturday.
Likewise with gels — they have way too much sugar and carb and depending on the brand, sometimes a hit of protein and even caffeine too. I carry a couple of gels in the pocket of my pack's waist belt as a bit of an Emergency Turbo Boost, which I apply more often to a tiring team mate than myself. In that situation, I deliberately use the coffee-flavoured or caffeine-infused variety. Bit of a placebo effect more than anything I think. Make sure you preface their administration to your team-mate — make it clear that these are really strong, that they shouldn't take more than one, and that they should let you know if they get breathless or light-headed. Nothing of the sort should happen but it'll definitely have the beneficial placebo effect if you preface it right. Definitely wouldn't try and take them all day though.
Since we're not elite athletes and carry slightly more body fat than an elite athlete would, we don't need to be quite so concerned about carb-loading. Really, our goal should be carb-shedding, in the form of stored carbs, otherwise known as "fat". Our bodies can be quite good at that, but out digestive systems will rebel if we put them through a great carb-shedding opportunity like Trailwalker while trying to stuff them with more kJ of carb than they're used to at any other time other than Easter!
Listen to your body: are you hungry? Your stomach will let you know. Eat sparingly and when you are actually a bit hungry, not on a time or distance schedule.
With fluids, do the opposite: as you get more tired, your body will stop telling you it's thirsty. Get into the habit of sipping from that tube once every 500m and get into the habit of consuming at least 1L (and if it's hot 2L) of 50% solution of quality electrolyte mix on every leg of the trail. Get your support crew to check your bag as you come into the CP — have you consumed your 1-2L? If not, don't let you leave without you drinking at least 3-400ml first. Adjust that up a little if it's especially warm.
Good luck with your last few weeks of training!
- alan
Discounts for Trailwalkers from Endurancestore.com.au
Australian adventure equipment retailers typically do a pretty terrible job of ecommerce, making all the classic mistakes: small product images, no reviews, complicated sizing charts, expensive delivery and lousy user interfaces.
My two favourite online stores until now have been Linebreak and Jaggad but that's been mainly because of their excellent discounts for online shoppers (also, Linebreak stocks my favourite electrolyte product, Nuun).
Now there's a new entrant I like: EnduranceStore.com.au. It has a broad range of products for endurance sports, including footwear, socks, compression, hydration and packs. And it's a good example of simple, clean, modern ecommerce that doesn't leave you wondering how to actually order stuff.
Two launch specials are on offer: get 30% off their Eload nutrition and electrolyte range if you're doing Trailwalker, and spend $100 in the store and you get a $50 voucher.
Check it out.
Team TTFU endures a wet and muddy WildEndurance 2011
Team Toughen The Funk Up (TTFU) took on 100km of wet, cold, muddy Blue Mountains trails in two relay legs to raise money for the Wilderness Society. As it's at the end of April, WildEndurance makes a great training goal for Trailwalker Sydney if you go for the 50km relay option.
Jane unfortunately had to pull out at CP1 and Bruno unfortunately broke his ankle shortly into the second leg but both acquitted themselves admirably. The weather had been so atrocious leading up to the day, the organisers were forced to lop 8km off one leg and have teams transported by car (with a 45min penalty). Better that than losing people at flooded crossings! Despite, the mud, tracks like waterfalls, leeches and rain, we had our most successful walk ever, placing 19th of 100 teams with a time of 20hrs 39mins. Most importantly we exceeded our fund-raising goal of $2,400 and raised a total $3,400, 13th overall in the fund-raising tally. Thanks to Nadya, Jane, Bruno, Simon and Tim from Team TTFU.Very special thanks also to our hosts at Bunjaree Cottages, the lovely Trudi and Richard for being such great hosts at our basecamp (see www.bunjareecottages.com.au/) We found it to be a lovely, peaceful spot, convenient to Wentworth Falls village and all the great outdoor activities nearby. The mud-brick and recycled material cottages are entirely off the grid, spacious and comfortable, and very private. And Trudi and Richard will make you very welcome.
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Surviving Warrior Dash - tips for Australia's craziest race
Yesterday I joined Team Fat Paddler regulars Sean and Angelo, competing in the first Australian running of the Warrior Dash. A huge hit in the US, the event takes on a viking warrior theme, where competitors go from a mass start through a 5km field course with obstacles every few hundred metres after the initial 2-3km.
Fancy dress, live rock band, beer and barbeque are all part of Warrior Dash, as well as a kamikaze/gung-ho/banzai/wuha/wtf attitude to competition, where everything goes, nothing is serious, and everything (everything) gets coated in a thick layer of dark, smelly mud. Roar your head off, go like a bull at a gate, be prepared to get muddy and meet other people in the most unlikely circumstances and you can't go wrong.
This was the first Australian Warrior Dash but judging by the turn-out and the reaction (bloody awesome!) it'll certainly be back next year, possibly road-tripping across the country.
We had such a great time, two of the three of us went back to the start and did it again half an hour later. Unfortunately my team-mate Angelo slipped on the finish line when we attempted a big surfing slide to the finish and dislocated his shoulder. Ouch!
Here's my tips to making your Warrior Dash successful based on my observations this year:
- Decide whether you're really in it to win or whether it would be more fun to just muck around. It's harder to do both successfully and there are definitely more people there just to have fun than people trying to win. I think you'll definitely have more fun if you forget about trying to win because there are so many opportunities to mess up and take a spill on the course obstacles. If you're doing it as a team, make sure you all share that same decision and stick to it if you can (I apologise to Sean and Angelo for running off there!)
- Mud features significantly in the obstacles, so by all means start in fancy dress, but the less clothing and footwear you have, the lighter you'll be when the mud starts to stick, so get ready to ditch it before you hit the mud, not after. Those who were wearing long pants, dresses and superhero one-piece suits really fell by the wayside as the weight of the mud took its toll. I was wearing shortish shorts and a tee shirt, so I felt pretty well prepared, but I had three pockets in my shorts, they all stored about 500g of mud each, and it was impossible to get the mud out and run at the same time.
- Keep your shoelaces tied extra tight. That mud is really sucky stuff and most people lost at least one shoe and had to find it again. My team-mate Angelo lost both his Dunlop Volleys in the first muddy stretch, never to be seen again. If you can pull your shoes off without undoing the laces, they're not tight enough.
- Team-member Sean supplied awesome Mexican wrestler masks for our team's fancy dress effort. We looked amazing, but any kind of head gear stores mud and then releases it gradually into your eyes during the rest of the race. Probably best to go bare-headed next time.
- Pace yourself. There's only a few hundred metres between obstacles and the temptation is to run them flat-out to overtake everyone you can, but in reality you need quite a bit of puff to make it through most of the obstacles. In addition to the sucky mud obstacles there was a cargo net climb, a double narrow plank climb, a couple of river crossings with very steep banks, another river crossing by double rope bridge, a rope maze to clamber under/over, three sections of car tyres to high-step through, three sets of junked cars to clamber over, two flaming pits of fire to jump over, and the finale — a 50m crawl in knee deep mud under waist-high barbed wire. So pace yourself!
- Allow plenty of time to get your complimentary beer and signature BBQ turkey leg at the end of the event, you might have to wait 30mins for a shower and then another 45 for food and drink, so try and persuade someone to be your support crew and ask them to stand in line for food and drink while you go get the mud out of your ears.
- It's not really an event for young families. Most of the parents and kids found the loud live rock and DJ pretty hard going.
* Thanks to Sean Smith of Fatpaddler.com who took some of these great photos, brought team tee shirts and Mexican wrestler masks for us to wear.
