Starting a new sport always sounds fun until you realize all the equipment that goes with it. Biking requires fixing flat tires and helmets, hiking needs the right boots, water packs and bug spray and even running means you need to get fitted for the right shoe.
Wait, what?
Yes, it’s not as easy as you think to just head out and “rough” it, and since so many of you have been requesting my favorites and how I do it, I decided to do a series on best gear for all my adventures. Each will link back to these (coming soon!):
- What you Need to Go Hiking
- What you Need to Go Camping
- What you Need to Go Mountain Biking Vs. City Biking
- What you Need for Your First Long Distance Race
- Which Headphones Hold Up Best Outdoors?
Why is there an entire article on headphones? Because as simple as they may be, it’s like a good running shoe – you need to pick what fits you best. And it’s taken me a while to find ones I actually love, so let’s start with them.
Current Favorite: LG FORCE, $99
Why I love them: Because the LG FORCE fit perfectly IN my ears (which has been a struggle to find, especially since you can’t exactly take them all out of the packages to try on) and the sounds is great to drown out city life while still being able to hear that car honking at you in the way. They’re bluetooth so they connect easily with no cords. They also have a push button to change songs and volume so you don’t have to pull out your phone to do so (HUGE plus on runs and bike rides!). If you look through a lot of my social (like above photo!), you’ll catch them in my ears – a LOT.
Downside: They’re bluetooth, so these won’t be best for travel (aka plugging into your computer on a flight). I have made that mistake whoops – so make sure not to throw away your free white set from Apple.
Backup 1: Apple, free
Why I love them: They don’t hurt my ears. It is a common problem for earphones to be too large and hurt to wear for long times, so when I find ones that don’t I hold on to them. The basic white cord apple headphones actually FIT well, and are always a good backup to keep around (I keep them in my running fanny just in case my wireless ones might die!).
Downside: Not waterproof. I wore these a couple times when it started raining during a run and they wouldn’t stay in and the sound warped.
Backup 2: TaoTronics Wireless, $25
Why I love them: These are my backup wireless headphones (because you need to have a backup incase you forget to charge yours, lose a earbud or your main ones suddenly die!). I bought these before I discovered LG and love them
Downside: Sound is a little harsh. I like to listen to really loud music when I run since I run to hate music lol, and these hurt my ears with sound – they are just not as balanced as well as the LG (which you can tell because they are cheaper and a quick test buy on Amazon).
Crowdpleaser: Bose SoundSport, $139-250
Why I love them: This seems to be a common favorite among my runner friends, and I have borrowed them from a friend while running in a different city once. They offer all the bells and whistles
Downside: I can’t justify spending $250 on headphones when there are others just as good (if not better) for a lot less – especially when I might lose them running from a bear in the woods – but if it’s quality of sound that will make that extra mile tolerable, by all means!
