I've Missed My Jogger

As most of you know, I have two young children. When I trained for my 3 marathons - most of my running was done behind a double jogging stroller. As the kiddos have grown and gotten heavier, I have gotten more creative with finding childcare... not to mention that the kiddos don't much like going with me when it is miserably cold. I thereby have been running much less frequently than I did last year. I haven't lost my enthusiasm for running - but getting behind a jogger and pushing 100+ pounds is difficult. Particularly when the roads are slushy and it's nearly impossible in packed snow.

Imagine my delight when I came across an article about running with a stroller. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse recently tested the fitness benefits of pushing a stroller with 35 pounds of weight. They found that walking with a stroller at 3 miles per hour burned 18 percent more calories than regular walking, about 6.2 calories per minute over varied terrain. That puts it on par with mowing the lawn or bicycling at about 10 miles per hour. Walking uphill provided an even better workout: For every 2.5 percent increase in grade, heart rates increased by 12 beats per minute. Can anyone figure the math... running pace 9 min miles pushing 100+ pounds... how many calories is that?!

Today, I joined my girlfriend for my first jogger-run in probably 6 months. It was a bit of a struggle. My breathing was labored. We stopped frequently to adjust blankets, observe the river canyon, pick-up dropped mittens... all the while I would forget to hit the stop/start on my watch. I thereby don't have an accurate measure of our pace, but we did 4.25 miles in little less than an hour. It was an enjoyable morning. I've actually missed running my the kiddos... observing little things around the neighborhood. It was a nice morning. Thank you, K! :D