Fitness Friday: Parent Relay

At the moment, we own one jogging stroller. It's pretty big and clunky, but it does the job and we like it. We don't, however, have the desire (or room) to get another or sell it and buy a huge double. Maybe its just me, but jogging strollers are a pain to jog with anyway. Think about it, how hard would it be to run with your arms out in front of you? Super awkward.

With one jogger, two kids, and two parents who'd like to get out and run between getting home from work and dusk, you need to be creative! We are fortunate to have a community jogging path about 200 yards from where we live. We realized that when it comes to running we have several options that involve the kids getting out of the house with us, which, after the winter we've had is GREAT. Cabin fever doesn't even describe it.

One option we have is to just go for a walk. A walk or a run - both are good exercise and great for you. If anything, walking is easier on your joints. It just takes longer than running! If we go for a walk, we can put the kids in the double stroller, use two separate light weight strollers, or I can wear Ginny on my back for an added work out.

Another option we have is to do a relay! With one kid in a light weight stroller and the other in the jogger, we take turns doing a lap of the track. The track is about 1/4 of a mile, so its a good walk/run. One parent walks with the light weight while the other runs a lap with the jogger. When we meet up (about 1 1/2 times around) we switch. A few times around and everyone has gotten some good time outdoors.

We can also do the relay at the park (where I ran the 5K a few weeks ago). It is a nice ~3/4 mile track around a little play ground. One parent can run while the other plays with the kids, then switch!

Buying a double jogger would probably be easier, but in the long run I think that this is a much better use of our space and money. Besides, Charlie won't want to sit in a stroller for much longer and we can't use the jogger 6 months out of the year because of snow and ice. With the spring coming (eventually), I'm hoping we will get out more....until it gets hot. Then we may need to find somewhere with air conditioning! ;-)