Destination Running

I’ve been hearing a lot more, “No stroller!” lately from my son, but if we are loading up to run to the playground, that’s a different story…

So here’s my biggest running secret for increasing mileage with your kids in tow…shhh!...destination running! The easiest way I’ve found to get in 30-40 miles a week with my kids in the stroller is breaking up each run in half. Our destination is usually a playground in the spring and fall and the pool in the summer. Wherever it is, hype it up! While doing two 5 mile runs is probably inferior to running all 10 miles at once, it is certainly better for distance training than running only the initial 5 and then calling it quits. The way I see it, everybody wins. The kids don’t have to sit still for more than about 45 minutes at a time and I get my miles in. Plus we are out of the house for a while.

Since you’ll be out for a while, you’ll want to be well-provisioned and prepared for any likely changes in the weather. (Check out my older post, Don’t Leave Home Without...) Remember to bring enough water and nourishment for yourself as well. If you don’t like being soggy, you may even want a change of clothes for yourself. It helps if your destination has rest rooms. And if you have any *special* snacks, don’t let your kids have them until the return trip!

Though I am running closer to 12-15 miles a week right now, I am still doing destination running; our destinations are just a little less ambitious! Give it a try!

“Mumnesia”

So, I forget a lot of stuff. I think that a lot of moms feel like that. So much so, they did a study on it (click here to read the article). I like to think that none of it is gone permanently.

Second to moms, the next most forgetful group of people must be runners. Who does a second marathon without forgetting the pain of the first?

Constantly hounded by the feeling that I might be forgetting something, I am delighted when I remember something! Yesterday I went jogging by myself and you know what I had sort of forgotten? It is a LOT harder running with the double stroller than running solo! It turns out that my difficulty isn’t so much all the “baby weight” I’ve gained being pregnant, but the 75 pounds of child plus related equipment I’ve been pushing! I just didn’t notice it so much before.

So, pat yourself on the back if you went jogging with your stroller today! Plus it burns more calories than running alone….

Ups & Downs

So, perhaps it is only a momentary reprieve, but I am up and running (literally) again. It is much reduced from the fall, but probably as strong as I could expect at 5 + months pregnant while pushing two 35 lb kids. It may seem counterintuitive, but I am finding that hill workouts are more successful than flat runs.

Given that I have to take walking breaks intermittently anyway, the hills help to keep my heart rate up while I walk. Second, different muscles are utilized in the up vs. down vs. flat so it does not feel like it is tearing things up as much as the repetition of running on flat terrain.

You might feel tempted to avoid hills while running with your stroller, but it is awesome mental training too. Then when you are heading up a hill in a race or just on your own, you can really tell yourself how it could be so much harder….

Most importantly, the kids still get the running-fast downhill-rush which keeps them happy. They’ve been getting fidgeting with this walking thing.

Along for the Ride

No jogging stroller running for me last week! I, along with at least half of America, was on vacation. My husband and I had the opportunity to travel to five of the National Parks in southern Utah: Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches. All were amazing. None were truly stroller-friendly. That’s OK for a few reasons:

1. My parents were watching my kids 2,000 miles away.
2. Terrain that cannot accommodate a stroller may be dangerous for children in general, so perhaps this is a good filter. i.e. high cliffs, sudden drop-offs, etc.
3. There are other options available because some of us are either crazy or very inspired to share the outdoors with our children.

So how else, besides a stroller, can one transport his or her child over distances and/or terrain that the child is unable to navigate him or herself?

1. Put his/her car seat in the back of your off-roading Jeep! I thought I had seen it all, but this was pretty common to see in Moab, UT last week.
2. Bicycle seat (front or back) or trailer. I can talk more about that another time.
   
3. Carry him/her in a backpack. I have a Kelty child carrier which has traveled many miles both indoors (shopping) and out (trails). I have an older model, so I don’t remember what it is called, but, yes, it does match my single jogger. Works great for the mid-sized baby/toddler. NOT FOR NEWBORNS. Seems obvious, but I saw a lot of tourists last week… And I have jogged with the backpack as well.

I found that jogging with my 30 pound child in the pack was awkward since I felt compelled to lengthen my stride quite a bit to decrease the bouncing. He liked it, though he did burp quite a lot. It was the only way to run the particular trail I was on – having tried the same course unsuccessfully with the stroller in the past and it was a fantastic quad workout. I would try it again except that I can no longer buckle the waist strap comfortably around my waist.

Anyone else run with their child carrier backpack for longer than it takes to cross the street? Did it work for you?

Not-So-Fast Food

The combined influences of having a number of friends who have just had their first – or fourth baby – and then finally passing the halfway point of my own pregnancy has led me to think back to some memorable stories about running with an infant.

I think that many people would agree that eating is a popular activity to keep the kids quiet in the stroller. Or, if you find yourself rushing everyone through breakfast to get out on your run, as I do, I’ve found it so much easier to just feed them in the stroller. This tactic, of course, is dependent on the kids being old enough to get 51% of their snack actually in their own mouth and not choke on it.

So, in the spirit of reminiscing, I’ll tell you what does NOT work:

Six months after my first daughter was born, my husband returned from a 7-month deployment and he started to train for the Honolulu Marathon. Along on a training run with him, I had to feed the baby during the 2 hour run. At about 7-months old, she was, maybe, old enough to hold the bottle in her own mouth, but as a primarily breastfed baby she just didn’t get a lot of practice with that. Here’s the problem: this is partially defrosted breast milk so it is cold, right. So there I am, running down Monserrat Ave. in Honolulu, pushing the jogging stroller, with a 4-oz Playtex bottle stuffed in my sports bra, trying to thaw it enough for consumption.

The short story is that it did not work and we had to hose off the stroller when we got home.

Humble Pie

Six months ago, I was fast! I was faster, stronger and lighter than I’d ever been as an adult. I was running 7 min/miles (8s with the stroller). I was psyched. THIS pregnancy (my third), I was going to be like Paula! Scaled down to human levels, of course, but there was no stopping me. I was going to run right into the delivery room this time.

Yes, well, then the “morning sickness” started. You know, the kind that actually lasts from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning until I fell asleep at night. That was a really awesome 4 weeks. Then my knee started making this really lovely crunching noise, so I scaled back even more on the miles.

Then, I got to the second trimester. Things were really looking up for about a week. I felt good; I ran; I lifted; I fixed some things around the house, and FULL STOP. When I say that “I hurt my back,” I mean I strained something, badly, where my legs attach to my lower back and could not even stand up for two days. I had to sleep in the basement because I could not get up the stairs. It took a third day of slowly shuffling sideways before I could even put one foot in front of another.

It has been almost two weeks now and things are holding together well. I jogged/walked 5 miles the other day, but it wasn’t pretty. My workouts are much reduced and as much as I aspire to run like Paula, this may be yet another walking pregnancy. C’est la vie!

Pump It Up

I can take the cold, but the precipitation is keeping us in, so what to do? It turns out that my kids love doing aerobics tapes! I prefer STEP aerobics and still have the original STEP Reebok VHS tape circa about 1993. My daughter will choose “yoga” – actually Denise Austin – if given the choice. I am not sure how that miscommunication arose. So, anyway, we have these sets of tiny 1-pound dumbbells and the kids LOVE TO WORKOUT! Sometimes they tire of Kathy Smith’s background music so we mute the volume there and listen to They Might Be Giants ABCs while I follow the visual cues.

The kids pile on my back for push-ups at the end and everybody wins!

The main thing I will caution you about is that you have to keep a really careful eye on where the kids are at all times so you don’t accidentally kick anyone in the head.