Have I really not posted since Friday? Wow… I guess school really is back in session. I’m thinking about writing up “A Day in the Life of a Krzyzewskiville Resident” is this something you all would be interested in reading? Well, thought I’d give some tips and advice here today about water bottles.
I’ve reviewed a couple different water bottles here and I have at least 1 or 2 more planned for the next couple months. My favorite bottle to use around campus is the Camelbak Podium Big Chill because of how easy it is to use. However, for running I generally use my Nathan Quickdraw Plus from Medoc. Before about 2 weeks ago, I almost exclusively ran with water. Sometimes I’d use Nuun, but for the most part, good ol’ H2O was my beverage of choice for exercising.
Now that I’ve started to use chia fresca, I got a rather rude awakening the other day about cleaning water bottles. I generally clean my water bottles about once or twice a month. Because I generally drain them during workouts and workout every day or two, they don’t have take for the water to really make anything nasty. However, the other day I went to fill up my bottle and realized there were a couple chia seeds that I missed which appeared to have begun to grow a bit mold. Needless to say, the next 20 minutes were spent doing a thorough cleaning of the bottle. Then at the end I put a bit of dish soap in the bottle with a small amount of water, and shook the bottle til the soapy foam covered all the surfaces. I then let that sit for about 90 minutes while I did my run. After running, I cleaned out the soapy foam, and let the bottle air dry. Now, I’m getting the habit of using soap in my water bottles after each and every run as well as being very sure that no lingering chia seeds stay in the bottle.
Also as a result of this I’ve switched to mainly using the Clean Bottle for running. Have you ever had a water bottle scare like this when you forgot to clean them? What do you do now to keep your bottles clean?
Fishstick
January 15, 2013 at 4:17 PM
Welcome to Chia hell. I have them sprouting all over the place…there’s a reason they sell them on TV as a pet.
I learned the best method to cleaning water bottles is to take some white rice and warm water. Place the rice in the bottle with water (about 1/4 to half) and shake a lot. They act like tiny scrapers and rip everything and anything off the inside of the bottle after a few minutes.
College Tri
January 15, 2013 at 4:18 PM
That’s an awesome idea!! Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely have to try that!
billgncs
January 15, 2013 at 7:45 PM
that’s why I got rid of my camel back. Too hard to keep clean.
College Tri
January 15, 2013 at 9:33 PM
I use a GoLite hydration pack occasionally (mainly for hiking… it moves around a bit too much for my liking when running). But, I never use anything other than water in it, which seems to be working fairly well. Would hate to have to give that thing a thorough cleaning regularly.
dorseyml
January 15, 2013 at 9:34 PM
I always clean my water bottles. However, one time I didn’t rinse the soap all the way. It was a really hot summer day, and I brought it along with me on my run! Around mile 2 I took a sip and tasted dish soap! Soap in your mouth is really bad too… so make sure you rinse really well. I ended up only doing a 5 miler, and poured the water over my head to cool down instead of drinking it.
College Tri
January 15, 2013 at 9:37 PM
Oh man, I bet. That’s actually happened to me on a ride before, but I found a restaurant nice enough to let me refill my other bottle to use for the remainder of the ride.
emmaross99
January 25, 2013 at 5:17 AM
I had issues with my camelback adn was advised to wash it with Milton sterilising solution and then store it in the freezer when I wasn’t using it – haven’t had a problem since!