Blue Seventy Brick Bag - You Need This.

I'm sure I must've written about the awesomeness of the Blue Seventy Brick Bag at some point on my blog, but I am too lazy to hunt through all of my previous posts AND this bag is totally worth any additional blog postings. And while, yes, my Tri Team Ignite is currently sponsored by Blue Seventy, I bought this bag back in 2012 from Tri360 (who is still carrying the it) before our sponsorship AND it is one of my favorite/most used pieces of gear that I have ever purchased.

In fact, after this weekend, I'm tempted to change the name to the Brunch Bag, as I wore it during my bike workouts and then straight out to brunch afterwards (is it sad that it took me a few months to put 2+2 together and realize why they call it a "Brick Bag" - because you can carry your run shoes in it while you're biking and then do your brick run without having to go home and grab your shoes. I swear one of these days I will become less dense).

So the bag - it is small enough to not feel bulky or bounce around while you are wearing it (the padded and adjustable strap around your waist and the adjustable strap around your chest certainly help) but it's kind of like that magic purse Hermione carries around in those last Harry Potter books where she stores a tent, changes of clothes, books, etc in a seemingly innocuous, small bag. Case in point: this weekend I used the bag to commute to the pool and easily fit my goggles, swim cap, paddles, the (dreaded) band, towel, keys, my ID, my swim punch card, and my heavy-duty U-Lock bike lock (thanks idiot bike thief for making me smarten up from using a cable) and then to brunch (U-Lock, shoes, sweatshirt, unnecessary arm warmers). This is also my go-to bag for run commuting. There was a stretch this season where I had a swim + 45 minute run on my schedule on a weekly basis, which is the perfect set of workouts for swimming at Washington-Lee high school in the morning and then running the 48 minutes from the pool to my office in downtown DC. I managed to fit all of my work clothes (excluding shoes - my filing cabinet at work holds no files, just piles of shoes), swimsuit, towel, goggles, cap, toiletries, comb, and my LUNCH (and you know how much I eat for lunch) comfortably into that bag and run into work no problem. I have also used this bag for brick workouts, easily fitting my run shoes and such into the bag. 

Blue Seventy has thoughtfully put a clasp on the waist strap so you can fold up the excess strap as you tighten it so it isn't swinging around like an extra appendage. You can also adjust the height of the chest strap to where it is most comfortable and the bag has an exterior pocket that's easily accessible where I store my iPhone, ID, metrocard (because I am too lazy to run home at night), iPhone charger, keys, and my work badge when I remember it.

You'll have to see pictures of the bag on the internet, as I cannot figure out how to steal and post the photos to this blog. This would be the perfect opportunity to stage the bag next to my now-sparkly, newly scrubbed baseboards and show both items off simultaneously (It has been two days and I'm still oddly self-satisfied with the results of my 6+ hours of scrubbing every baseboard in the house) but I left my camera/phone cord at work. Le sigh.