Since I am a full time nanny and my hours have gotten longer, it's been harder to get in a nice run before or after work. So recently I started taking the kids to the park and had the oldest two walk/run the track while I pushed the youngest one in the stoller at a moderate to vigorous pace. However I don't feel like I am getting a good enough workout, so I thought I could start running while pushing the stroller, which I know will be a bit of a challenge but I wanted to know if it can affect my form in a bad way.
Has anyone ran with a stroller before, how do you maintain proper form and keep it?
The good news is that running with a stroller burns significantly more calories than running alone!
I do run with a stoller although I do my long weekends runs (over an hour) without one because I don't think it's fair to my daughter and I get way too exhausted.
Here's my advice:
1) Make sure your stoller tires are properly filled. I can't tell you what a difference this will make. Pushing a stroller with flat tires is really not fun.
2) Adjust your stoller to your stride. For me, it meant increasing the height of the handles so I didn't have to hunch over (it was only an inch but it made a huge difference).
3) Practice a bit first. I ran up and down my street paying attention to my form and then tried it with the stoller (sans kid) to see where I needed to adjust it.
4) Figure out what workout works best for you with the stoller -- it may be different than without the stroller. I like running hills with the stoller because it's more challenging and running "fast" (ha! I don't run fast) feels worse with the stoller.
5) Choose a special toy for stroller runs only. I despise the Elmo ipod toy that my daughter has but she is super in love with it and it entertains her for the better part of a run. If she can only have it when we run, she's less likely to cry and want out.
It goes without saying that you need a jogging stroller - for your safety and the baby's safety and he/she needs to be securely strapped in. AND you wear the tether strap so that you don't lose the stroller while running.
