I’ve been kind of crappily running for years, you know, start C25K and get injured halfway in or sick or whatever, start again… but I’m doing much better this time! I’ve gotten to 30 minute runs, which is huge for me!
Only now I have this baby, see. My mom got me a jogging stroller for Christmas, and I’m starting to try to use it because I’ve got to get a lot more consistent about running. I used to run early in the morning with a friend, which really worked well for me, so we tried that this morning. And I straight up could not with the stroller. Ended up walking most of the way.
It’s awful. The biomechanics feel all wrong. My knees feel funny. And I feel like I ran a lot farther than I did - now I’m all stiff. When I tried it before I thought maybe it was so hard because I’d done it on the streets of my neighborhood, which means a lot of turns (and I understand that the stroller is hard to turn on purpose) and some gentle grades. This morning I ran on a canal tow path. It does not get flatter or straighter. And it was still a nightmare!
Do I just need practice? The knee thing really worries me. I want to hear about other people’s experiences with this.
Partly practice, partly you need to build up some non-running muscles.
You’re pushing extra weight and there is some friction in the bearings and the tires’ contact with the road.
You also have to make numerous, small steering corrections.
If you’re pushing with both hands, your arms are not involved in running. Go out and run without moving your arms. That alone is harder.
Most likely, you’re leaning forward a bit which means you’re “catching” yourself with each step.
Something to try-run to the side pushing with one hand. Switch every now and then. You figure out how often.
You’ll be able to maintain a more normal running form since one arm is free to move.
I’m sorry this isn’t very helpful, but there’s a new design coming out where you tow the kid behind you attached by a waist belt. The comments on the article are interesting.
How tall are you?
Your arm height/center of gravity vs. handle height/center of gravity of the handle do make a difference. In my experience, the taller you are, the easier it is to steer. I could just push one finger down & it would lift the front wheel ever so slightly so that it was easy to turn.
Platform shoes? :rolleyes:
Well you’re not on the short side, so that rules out my first thought. How pumped up are the tires? Higher pressure = less rolling resistance. Otherwise, probably what the coach said. Especially try running off to the side so that one arm can swing while the other holds it.
I hated running with a jogging stroller so much, so I will not be much help for getting you to love it. What I will say though is that running without it seems SO MUCH easier after!
They make double jogging strollers, and usually people who use them aren’t pushing newborn twins, they’re pushing a toddler and a baby. Or two toddlers.
Maybe you’re leaning on it a little too much? Like running coach said, that can get your center of gravity too far forward and cause lots of problems. Try holding it very lightly and give yourself time to get used to running without moving your arms like you normally would.
When I ran with one, I’d take breaks every now and then by giving it a little push ahead of me so I could swing my arms for a few strides to keep them from getting stiff. Obviously, only do this when you have a leash attached and you’re on level ground with no upcoming turns, stops, or obstacles.
I had one of these and no problem at all. However, I do remember having a very, very adjustable bar that was the thing I held onto, and I know I messed around with the height (been some years).
I also used it for rollerblading, in which case I needed the push bar even higher. Yeah, it specifically said not to do that and I did it anyway, and then I had to relearn how to skate without it.
ETA: I used to go out with my baby, my jogging stroller, and a kind of fractious dog. I have no idea how I managed all that. Boggles my mind.
I run with a jogging conversion on my bike trailer (a Burley D’Lite) with my 3 and 5 year olds in it - it’s the easiest way to do the daycare/school dropoff, plus I get my exercise in. But it’s getting towards 45kg so counts as resistance training too.
It’s a hard thing to run with both hands, I much prefer to run with 1, but the steering isn’t great so I kind of need 2 hands. On the upside the handle is adjustable so I can move it to make it just the right height for walking or jogging.
My brother and his wife did this with their twins. My brother often commented that it felt like pushing 90 lbs of toddler in front of them. They gave up on the jogging stroller when the girls were 3 or 4.
But from what I remember, they ended up using one hand on the stroller 95% of the time. It was to keep the stroller from getting away from them, mainly, with occasional corrections and light pushing. I also remember my brother talking about how he had to re-learn how not to lean forward when running with the stroller because there was the tendency to push harder than necessary to keep it going.
I’m wondering if instead of the hand loop for safety (if something happened to make the stroller roll into the canal there’d be no saving it) a belt like some people run with their dogs would help. The wrist loop is all sorts of weirdly in the way and if I want to switch hands I have to mess around with it, which sucks.
Oh, and there was a lady with a jogging stroller with a toddler in it AND a really big dog on a leash when we went. That made me feel just awesome.
Went for a jog last night with ours. The wrist loop is kind of a pain, so I only use it going down hills. I jog with one hand on the stroller and try to keep it pushed out at arms length with my hand on it but not grabbing too tight unless I’m cornering or negotiating a curb cutout. My wife was used to jogging with both hands on it and it almost seems like in doing so she had the tendency to lean on it a bit (I could see the front wheel coming up a bit) and have it pulled in close. I got her to switch to single hand for a while last night and I think she did a bit better with it that way.
It’s going to take some getting used to, especially since more of the stress is going onto your quadriceps (and hence the funny feeling in your knees).
My experience is that babies love this, and it is good for them to get out and about and see the world and breathe fresh air. And you are probably getting as much exercise with the stroller as a bit further of a run without it.
Try a fast walk rather than trying to run as if you didn’t have the stroller. Work up to a run over a few months, as you get used to the extra weight and effort.
But stick with it. My wife did this with our daughter, and my daughter loved it. As soon as she could talk, she would suggest it politely - “Nice walk, Mommy?” Then she got bundled into her stroller, with a nice sippy cup of something, and she would sit there and gaze around herself calmly, with her usual air of “The Empress takes the air in the company of a few of her favored servitors” and life was good.
