Happy Jogging Stroller Day

I'm no expert at keeping a baby happy in a jogging stroller; clearly, just see my post from last Friday: link. I am, however, improving with practice. DH is out of town again, this time for almost two weeks. So, if I want any running over the weekends I have to keep my little passenger happy as well.

My Little Passenger (5 mo (left) and 17 mo (right))*

Baby girl has never been a huge fan of the jogging stroller. Initially, she was colic, so, she didn't like much of anything =) Once she outgrew that, she was old enough to want to be entertained! Still, we have managed to have some great runs together and she still happily gets in the stroller whenever I want to take her so, I can't be doing everything wrong**.

Today, we had a jogging stroller afternoon, instead of just a run. I got in just over five miles, but it was very broken up. Being pregnant, it isn't like I'm heartbroken that my workout was easier. More importantly, little miss had a good time the whole way! Here's how it went.

• 1.5 miles to park: We headed to one of our favorite parks. Unfortunately, it was completely overrun by little-league monsters, ahem, boys, running around like crazies... even on the toddler equipment. Baby girl was too afraid to even let me put her down, let along try playing in that mayhem. So, we Plan B'ed it.
• 0.5 miles to less fun but blissfully empty park.
• 1 mile to Trader Joe's. We bought some lunch food and had a little picnic while little miss ran around some more. She was happy/full/exhausted in no time.
• 2+ miles home. She barely complained the whole way. That is not too surprising, since she was busy eating a peach =)

I would like to get in some more miles tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll remember today's run fondly and happily let me put her in the jogger again!

* as if it's difficult to determine the chronological order of these pictures.
** getting in happily is one thing, staying happy for any amount of time is completely different!

Sunset BOB Run

Point Isabel: credit

I have been wanting to do a sunset run all week in the worst way. With sunset finally closer to 6pm then 5pm, I hate missing the opportunity of running during this beautiful time of day. There are many advantages to living in the East Bay. Beautiful runs at sunset with a view of the water and Golden Gate Bridget is among my favorite.

Unfortunately, DH has been out of town and baby girl is not very happy around this time of night. She usually goes to bed around 6pm (I know, how lucky are we?) and is too cranky from about 5:30pm on to sit in the stroller.

Last night, though, it was finally too beautiful for me to pass up. 'The baby can make it through a 3-miler', I told myself. I even had my secret baby pleasing weapon with me, a sucker. So, with my fingers crossed, we headed to Point Isabel for some quality scenic time.

Right away, she wasn't too pleased. Warily, I gave her the sucker right at the beginning of the run... usually a sucker buys me at least 20 min of happy baby riding. Baby girl turned into a viper though, and instead of quietly 'sucking' her treat, she chewed the darn thing! I got maybe 10 minutes of peace before she was fretting to get out of there. Sigh.

An apple got me 5 more minutes of peace (to our turn around point) and then there was nothing to do but run back to the car ASAP as she did her best David Copperfield impression to try and get out of the stroller straps. (By the time we were at the car, both arms were free and she was trying to get her legs through the strap at her waist. Not possible, of course, but she was determined!)

Ah well, that's the give-and-take of parenthood. At least I got to enjoy the sunset... even if I did wish I had brought some music with me to drown out the baby complaining.*

*Apologies to all other walkers/joggers/bike riders who had to deal with my fussy baby's noise. My bad.

It's a good running weekend when...

... you get a blister on your pinky from the way you're pushing the BOB stroller. Seriously, if you're going to get a blister from running, that's the one to get!

DH is out of town for 10 days. So, baby girl and I are getting in some quality BOB time again. It's been hit and miss since I started working, but the weekends are still good for a BOB run or two.

I've learned that, when running with the baby, it's best to be flexible with my daily running goals. Success is measured by making it out the door, period. Since her stamina for sitting in the stroller is a little unpredictable, I have started doing 2 mile loops around my neighborhood. That way, whenever she starts to get fussy, I'm usually never more then 5 minutes away from home. So, she doesn't have to stay in the stroller when she's unhappy and keeps a positive association with it. As long as she's happy, I keep running and get in however many miles I can!

Yesterday I almost didn't make it out the door. I even got the stroller out and then put it away - twice - because I wasn't quite feeling a run. At 5pm, however, she was fussy and I was tired of carrying/bouncing her. So, we finally headed out for a run.

Then, completely unexpectedly, I felt awesome! The miles clicked by super (by comparison) fast. Normally, my BOB miles hover near 10 minutes. Yesterday, Garmin happily reported 8:30 - 8:45 pace! I was cruising - pleased as punch. I even passed another runner; first time that's every happened with the BOB. Of course, one mile later, someone else passed me and the baby started to squirm. Oh well, two strides forward, one stride back =)

Adjusting and Training Plan

Last week I returned to work (sigh) and I'm still attempting to settle into some sort of a schedule that allows me to get my workouts in.

I had a nice routine with baby girl; I did most of my walks (can't forget the doggies) and runs (hurray for the BOB) during the day with her and then my weight workouts at night, when DH was home. Now, I'm out the door by 6am (after feeding baby girl) to get to work by 7am, out the door at work by 4pm to pick up baby girl by 5:15pm, feed/play/bath/feed baby and then she (and I) are out by 7pm.

If I'm able to stay motivated, I run and/or lift weights after she's asleep. Nights like tonight, though, I fell asleep while doing her last nursing and woke up next to her at 7:45pm. Super cute... but not conducive to getting my workouts in! I still did the run, but skipped the weights I had planned. Ah well, I'm sure I'll settle into a routine eventually. Unfortunately, it will almost definitely include fewer workouts.

On a related topic, I really need to decide on a training plan for the San Francisco Marathon (July 31st, yay!). I'd like to use an 18 week plan, so training starts in two weeks! I'm having a hard time deciding on how much track/tempo/pace runs to include. On one hand, I'd love to go after a PR. On the other, that's a little crazy ambitious since I still consider myself on baby comeback. Any suggestions are welcome!

'Long' Run FAIL

The hubby is out of town for the week, so little miss and I have been getting some quality time with the jogging stroller. She has really seemed to be enjoying it too. She even let me get in a six mile run last week, during her fussy evening hour, without so much as a peep! BOB should use that as a marketing line - the fussy-hour baby soother!

I was so encouraged by this that I thought I'd still try to meet my friends for our weekly long(er) run by the beach. Running on The Strand is one of my favorite things in LA (I realize how lame that makes me, given all the entertainment options LA has to offer). We drove down this morning and baby girl seemed to be in a good mood as we started. I had my fingers crossed for a good 6-7 mile run, at least.

Unfortunately, my timing was not perfect. Mom FAIL on my part. Twenty minutes into the run we hit baby's morning nap time. I was hoping that she'd just fall asleep in the stroller and I could run through her whole nap - but it was not meant to be. Instead, she was very upset/fussy - as she had a right to be, away from her comfy crib. So, I turned around and b-lined it back to the car, waving my friends on and wishing them luck.

Baby was quiet and semi-zoned out by the time we got back to the car, but still awake. Given the drive we still had to do to get home, I decided that was enough running for the day and called it quits at 4 miles. She happily snoozed on the way home, and fell back asleep in the crib shortly thereafter. All-in-all, not a complete waste. Four miles and some brief social interaction is better then nothing. Plus, baby got her first look at the ocean =)

Lightening the Load

Hurray, baby girl now has enough head control to ride in the jogging stroller without the car seat. With the car seat gone, the stroller feels considerably lighter to push and is noticeably less top-heavy.

More importantly, she seemed to really like riding down there. She was wide awake for our 30 min run today and I didn't hear a sound from her. She just relaxed and took in the scenery. Running just got a lot more fun for both of us!

Riding Like a Big Girl

Freeze Your Thorns of Virtual 5K Race Report

Happy After the Run

I have been relaxing and enjoying the holidays the last few weeks, only running once or twice per week and doing some cross training. Now, though, it's time to get back into the swing of things w/ running and what better way to kick it off then a virtual 5k, hosted by the Boring Runner?

DH is out of town so for the run today it was me and baby girl. We aren't exactly in the freezing temperatures here in LA - 58 deg. I figure this worked in favor of the baby, however, who wouldn't be warming up from the run.

With the jogging stroller I'm hardly a speed demon (I'm hardly a speed demon anyway!). We rolled in at 31:30 for the 5k. The best part of the 'race' was the little snoozer I had waiting for me when I arrived home.

My Race Buddy

Review: BOB Ironman

Ready for a run!

Freedom to run - that is what the BOB Ironman* stroller means to me. Newborn baby schedules are tricky... in that they don't exist. The last few weeks, since I started running again, I've had no idea when I could run on any given day. Having the BOB means I can just go whenever the opportunity presents itself. It has been a sanity/life saver!

Now, for the stroller itself. I spent a lot of time researching (online and in person) running strollers and settled on the BOB brand pretty quickly. I've seen many of these strollers on the road and after learning about their many runner-friendly features, it seemed like a perfect fit for me. I had a harder time deciding between three different BOB strollers: Ironman, Sport Utility Stroller, and Revolution.

After going back and forth a great deal, especially between the Ironman and the SUS, I finally decided on the Ironman. I'm very glad I did... here are my favorite features:

- Fixed front wheel: Unlike the Rev, the Ironman and SUS have fixed (non-rotating) front wheels. Ideal for running... not ideal if you plan to use this as an everyday, around town stroller as well. Since I don't encourage my sporting equipment to be multi-taskers, a hard core running stroller was for me.
- 'Road Bike-like' tires: These make for an incredibly smooth ride on pavement. Since I don't intend to off-road much with this stroller, the 'Mountain-Bike-like' tires of the SUS would have been overkill for me, and would have slowed the ride down some.
- Hand brake: This is another benefit of the fixed front wheel... a bike-style hand brake on the handlebar. Pasadena is a hilly town and I would hate to waste my good down-hill running momentum to prevent a run-away stroller (something which would easily happen, as this thing rides soooo smooth).
- Sturdy Infant Car Seat Holder: This got me out on the road months earlier then if I had to wait for baby girl to have proper head support to ride in the main stroller seat. BOB recommends that you don't jog with the infant seat carrier... I believe this to be a CYOA recommendation, as the car seat adapter is superbly sturdy. It would take the impact of an actual car to knock that car seat loose... no bump in the road could manage it!

Running with the stroller isn't effort free, but it isn't nearly as taxing as I would have imagined. On a downhill, this stroller takes care of itself and on level ground it barely needs a nudge to keep rolling at a good clip. The tracking is superb as well. On uphills I definitely notice the effort of pushing the stroller. It is heavy with the car seat in addition to my little one. However, it still doesn't slow me down too much and I don't mind the extra resistance workout =) Hopefully, baby girl and I will continue to make it out frequently.

*Note: I have not been asked by BOB to review this product... nor received any incentive for this review.