Always on the go
The mental and physical benefits of running are well documented, but in my five years of pushing a running stroller, I’ve discovered the following specific additional advantages: Not to mention the fresh air, vitamin D and change of scenery for your little one and a special moment of parent-child bonding time – I’m very honoured …
I suspect it is rather unlikely that many of you out there are planning to run 26.2 miles pushing your kid in a stroller (!), but just in case you are tempted, here’s my packing list for the marathons I have run with my four-to-five-year-old: Voilà! Let me know if I’ve forgotten anything.
It’s school holidays again here, which is always the toughest time to balance training with family life. One obvious solution might be to schedule your easy/recovery/cut-back week to coincide with the kids being at home – or even just abandon hope of running altogether – but often it is not as simple as that. For …
Last year I trained for five (yes five!) marathons while juggling family life with three kids. This meant lots of running during the (seemingly endless) school holidays, accompanied by my littlest one in the running buggy and her older brother and sister on their bikes. We even did 30km (18+ miles) together on one memorable …
I’ve had a lovely couple of buggy runs lately (some sweatier than others!) and I thought I’d share a cool trick I’ve recently discovered. It can be hard sometimes to communicate with my little one when running, especially if she’s under either the sun shade or the rain cover (we’ve used both this week as …
Have you been running with a stroller for a while and think you might be ready to try a race? I LOVE racing with the buggy and have notched up a fair bit of experience now, so here are my top tips. Start small Drop down a distance from your usual racing predilection – if …
Today I took the buggy along for a training session that consisted of: 5km gentle warm-up – 4km at half marathon pace – 2km jog down recovery (a short one for marathon training, but I’m on an easy “consolidation” week). I’m pushing a decent weight these days, with the four-year-old and Thule Chariot combined, so …
My running buggy (the Thule Chariot Cross) has the fantastic feature that the child and any other contents are entirely zipped inside. Unlike a regular pushchair, it is simply not possible to lose anything over the edge. Genius really. Your running buggy may not be like this. If that is the case then you’re going …
You know this already, but this is the tube (not box, those mini ones are the devil’s work) of Smarties you keep handy when you need your little darling to do what they’re told. Right now. When out buggy running, your bribery Smarties have the following potential uses: it’s-time-to-get-back-in-and-no-we-can’t-go-down-the-slide-again yes-you-do-need-to-wear-your-hat-it’s-freezing there’s-no-toilet-here-you’ll-just-have-to-hold-it please-don’t-drop-that-I’m-not-stopping-again and so on.
Ready to have a go at running with your buggy? Here are my top tips… Pick your moment Choose a time of the day when your little one is fed and happy and you feel energised. For me, this changed over time. I liked to run early (8:30/9am ish) when DD was very small, as …