The Perfect Weekend Bag

KARKOA

The perfect weekend bag.

I was recently contacted by Karkoa to see if I would be interested in testing one of their bags. I have plenty of running bags, yet never really found or bought a go-to weekend bag. With so many weekends away for running plus travelling for weekends away in other cities, I know this bag is going to be put to good use.

The other weekend I had a girly trip to Dorset for the Endurancelife 33mile ultra and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test it for the first time.

It really is a nifty bag and it does exactly what it says on the tin! There are compartments for plenty of goodies, including:

·             Water bottle (with insulation)

·             Shoes (which is perfect for dirty shoes post trail runs!)

·             Dirty laundry

·             Toiletries

·             Laptop

·             Clothes

·             Tennis racket (with a clip to keep it in place)

·             Smaller things like money, your phone, keys and chargers

The relatively sturdy backing and separate compartments are great for keeping everything exactly where you need it to be and preventing your clothes from getting creased.

Its straps are cushioned and supportive on the shoulders which make it suitable for heavy loading. The only change I would make to the bag is to have adjustable shoulder straps with extra room for the neck. This would make it slightly comfier when running, though may lose the bags ability to carry lots of weight! Having said this, I prefer the bag for weekends away anyway so most of the time this won’t apply!

In terms of quality and life expectancy, I can see the bag lasting for years and years. The material is very durable as are the zips and straps. I can’t see me having to buy another weekend bag for years.  

The smaller 25 litre sportsbag is available in ‘Ceramic Blue’, Orange Sunrise’ and Mulberry Grey’ and the larger 40 litre smartbag comes in ‘Grey’ and ‘Dark Blue’. All variations are classic, sheik and suitable for travelling.

Here is a video of the 40 litre smartbag.

Here is a video of the 25 litre sports bag.

The company who have created the bag are very friendly French innovators with an ambition to re-invent leisure luggage while creating a unique user experience. Their customer service reflected this perfectly for me so I am sure everyone else would have the same experience if they need to contact anyone working at KARKOA.

One size fits all for all of KARKOA’s bag ranges. They can be for both men and ladies and are suitable for all occasions, whether it be running, a weekend away, to and from work or going to the gym.

If you’re looking for a weekend style bag, I would highly recommend KARKOA. 

Suunto Traverse

On Tuesday I received my Suunto Traverse in the post after being chosen to be 1 of 20 people that are part of the #SuuntoAdventure testing team.

I was delighted to have been chosen. Not only do I love running gadgets but this will also keep me motivated to be on the move for the next couple of months as I start training for Marathon des Sables 2016.

I will be doing most of the testing in December and January right up until I fly all the way to Mongolia for an expedition and ice marathon in -40 so I plan to put it to its most extreme test in those freezing conditions. Lucja, who has also been chosen to be part of the testing team will also be in Mongolia with me so it will be a great chance to compare our Movescoumt records from the trip.

I am no stranger to Suunto as my first and only running watch is the Suunto Ambit 2. I carried this around the Kalahari desert with me last year and personalised the settings for 'Desert Racing' to conserve battery and allow me to view the data I most needed to see. I look forward to being able to compare both Suunto watches.

My first impressions are nothing but positive! It arrived in the post well packaged with the watch half charged, a charger and the instruction manual. I have been given the white which would have been my first choice had I bought the watch myself.

The strap is a lot more flexible and makes it less weighty than the Ambit 2. The buttons have been slightly updated and require less force to navigate your way round.

The battery is blooming amazing. I have 92% left after 24 hours of use which includes a bit of playing around and a quick 5mile run. Further to this is only took 30 minutes to be fully charged (so would take an hour if totally run down). The website says it has 100hours of battery life which is more than enough for my long runs.

The GPS takes a very small 5 seconds to get signal so there is no standing around waiting in the cold making sure no miles are missed.

Generally the watch is very easy to use, despite all of its complex and brilliant features.

I've been wearing the watch not only for my runs but also throughout the day. Some features I use when I'm not running are:

• Seeing how many steps I have walked/run in a day
• Checking when sunrise and sunset are
• Seeing what altitude I am at (though this doesn't change much in London)
• Checking the temperature

There are still some features I haven't yet tested including:

• Navigation
• Linking it with my smartphone to see when I have notifications
• Using the data on the watch to generate an animated GPS map of my running routes

Watch this space as I start testing more of the features and putting it to different tests. This weekend I'll be using it in the 33mile Dorset EnduranceLife ultra. The perfect opportunity for an animated map of my run along the coast!