Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Tempo Run Turned Stroller Run

In the mornings, I set my alarm for 5:00am. I have my clothes laid out before to not make noise opening / shutting drawers. And I even go so far as to put my contacts on in the spare bathroom. The reason? My son is an early riser. Chalk it up to another way my life has changed after having a baby.

On Tuesday, I had originally planned on an 8 mile tempo run. I'd warm up and then run 6 miles at 6:40ish pace. It'd be a great run, I wouldn't poop my pants, and people would high five me as I rounded the last corner to my house. (Two out of three of those are fantasy, you choose which ones) Unfortunately, just as I was digging my Garmin out of my laptop bag, I heard it. . . . . The sound of my son playing and laughing in his crib. Normally I would try to sneak out without my wife noticing Being the loving father that I am, I made my way towards his room to give him his pacifier. It was when I got close that I heard my wife say (from bed): "Why don't you take him with you!". And that, is how my tempo run became a stroller run.
I don't often run with the stroller because I'm trying to hit one workout or another. That and, quite frankly, I'm a WUSS. My body is built like a runners - scrawny and chicken-leg-ish lean and mean. I don't have a lot of "wasted" muscle mass that would be used for such useless things as "moving heavy objects' or 'impressing women". I don't have needs for these types of things! I need to move - FAST.
Stroller wheel loves to wobble - slowing me down MORE
So, when I do run with a stroller, I find that I'm easily 45 seconds a mile slower. At least. Essentially, it feels like I am constantly running up a hill. My body just doesn't have the leg strength to push the extra weight around (That's what she said).
The real trick is to realize that I'm going to be a touch slower and try to compensate for it. My first few stroller runs, I went out like a blaze of fire and almost killed myself off trying to hold my "normal" training pace. Just like in the bedroom, I've found that when running for two slow and steady does it.
Other than pace, during my run on Tuesday I found that there are a few other differences while pushing a stroller.
  • First, I can't corner half as well as I do normally. That is, unless I want to give my son whip-lash.
  • Also, I've found that since it is 80 degrees or so out at 6am, I try to stop every 15 or 20 minutes and give my son a little squirt of water to cool him off.
  • (This might be one of the biggest issues) I still haven't figured out where to put my hands and arms. I can't swing them by my side, so I can't figure out if I go for one hand or two. Left, or right?
  • Finally, I found that when we see a HUGE jackrabbit bunny hopping along, I stop for 2 minutes and let him check it out. It was like my son was looking at a UFO. His eyes.didn't.move!

Ultimately, after 5 miles, I decided that I had enough and called it a day. I had worked up enough sweat to sufficiently scare the neighbors and gross out my wife. Mission accomplished.
Schwety. And a bit skwinty. I think the sun was in my eye on the one side.

Also, turns out that hanging out with me makes you really thirsty
(that, and my water bottle is surprisingly baby bottle shaped)

How much does everyone else find that stroller running slows them down? Should I zip up my man suit (my new favorite saying) and push (literally) harder?