Last week was nice. It was my last week of “freedom” before my son was out of school for the summer. I simultaneously mourned and celebrated the final stroller miles with my daughter. If you’re the opposite and are looking for a good running stroller for your new baby then take a look on https://bestbabyaccessories.com/ but, unfortunately, it’s the end of an era for my stroller! It’s served us extremely well but now with school starting, we just don’t need to anymore! We used a good quality lightweight stroller because I knew this would be the type I’d need for it to last well, my daughter found it very comfortable too which is the most important thing. I love running with her. It’s lots of fun and I like having the company. We listen to music, she eats snacks and rides, and then we run together at the end. But she’s also growing which means she weighs more. Instead of pushing 40 pounds, I’m now pushing 50+ pounds and it makes a big difference. Those hills, however mild, are killer! So while I’m saddened by the end of an era, I’m somewhat relieved that I’m now forced to wake up early and run solo again.
Here’s how my week shook out:
Running for Fun — The End of the Stroller Era
Tuesday – 4.25 miles
Tuesday’s run was great. The weather was perfect — in the 70s with plenty of sunshine. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. After our stroller run, we headed to the playground for some much needed playtime!
Wednesday – 6 miles
Wednesday was Global Running Day! And a longer run for me. I opted to run early in the morning instead of with the stroller later in the day. I think this was a wise decision given my daughter’s desire to run with me at the end (which is really only about 2 miles into the run) plus the added weight.
Unfortunately my Wednesday run was full of destruction and sadness, to be honest. I passed by three dead turtles. It was really disheartening. Two of them were babies – one was squashed flat, the other was folded in half but backward. It was so awful. The third one was an adult. It had a huge gash on its shell and it was really sad. I couldn’t tell if it was dead or alive but I hoped it was alive and after sending a distress-text to my husband, I ran on.
I was also thinking about my comrade, Coach Bob, on Wednesday. Fitting that Global Running Day was the day he was laid to rest. He was definitely on my mind through Wednesday’s run.
6 miles for you, Coach Bob!
Thursday – 4.03 miles
Thursday marked my son’s last day of kindergarten. I can’t believe how big my kids are getting and how fast time is flying. I swear I just had a bouncing baby boy playing on a play mat yesterday. But I blinked and it was actually five years ago.
When you’re a kid, time seems to move at a snail’s pace. But when you’re an adult and you see your parents aging and your kids growing taller by the day, you realize how quickly life is passing by. Instead of yanking out one or two gray hairs a week, I’ve given up and Father Time is officially taking over my life, one gray hair at a time!
I digress…
After we said bye to Boo for his last official day as a kindergartener, Little Bee and I headed to the park for an easy 4-miler. It was humid, though, which made the stroller seem heavier than usual. We didn’t have time for the playground on Thursday since we had to hit the grocery on our way home, but we still had a blast. Plus we had a bit of a dance party/run-a-thon at the end of the 4 miles that made up for the lack of playground time.
Last official stroller run of the season — the end of an era.
Saturday – 9.25 miles
My first few miles were pretty nice on Saturday. I listened to this crazy podcast from This American Life. Maybe my fellow podcast listeners have heard this one – it was the one about the tornado on prom night. It’s an archived podcast from 2001.
Did anyone listen to it? For some reason it really struck a chord with me, which is odd because I’ve never been in a tornado and would have no reason to be so moved by this particular story. But I was and I really lost track of time while I was running and listening to it.
I was going so fast, my speed didn’t even register!
I did come across the turtles again, unfortunately. The squashed one was gone. The adult was still where I left it – lifeless with her shell now peeling up toward the sky. And the last baby was in pieces by the side of the road. It was really sad.
My neighborhood route utilizes a major road so I’m not too surprised by the carnage I see on an almost daily basis. I’ve seen mangled raccoons, a coyote, snakes, and now the poor defenseless turtles. When I first moved here, I was worried about most of these animals, thinking they were going to be a nuisance, but they have never caused us any issues. I’ve not had an issue with raccoons. Cayotes are rare around here so we’ve only seen them a handful of times. And we use sites like campingfunzone.com to identify the snakes that could be harmful to us, but we’ve only ever seen harmless ones. I think the biggest issue I’ve had is when I see them in the middle of the road which is the last place they should be. I do think about them often and I think what tears me up the most about the turtles is that at least the other animals had a fighting chance of survival – they had speed on their side. But the turtles! Well, we all know how fast turtles move…
Boo plays t-ball these days so I had to stop partway to pick up my daughter in the stroller. I finished my solo portion of my run and headed home to pick up Little Bee to finish things up. The stroller was so heavy. I had no interest in being out there to be honest, so we packed it in and called it at just over 9 miles.
Sunday – 1.81 miles + strength
Sunday was fun-day, for sure! Well, maybe not. Depends who you ask. I headed out for 5K training and of course as I was en route it began to rain. Fortunately it didn’t rain hard and my athletes were in pretty good spirits considering. We even had a really fun bootcamp session in the rain after our run. Success!
All in all, a great week of running. I have very mixed feelings about ending the stroller-run fun. The end of stroller running signifies the end of my daughter’s toddlerhood. My son’s already a big kid! I don’t want my little people to grow up but I do enjoy my alone-time, as every parent does. I feel like time is moving too fast these days.
I have three weeks left until I begin training for my fall races. I’m still staying on a schedule and keeping my mileage up as best I can until then. It’ll definitely be a mental shift once I’m back in the swing of things.
I haven’t been as good about my strength training as I need to be. I planned on adding strength in last week but I was so sore from last week’s 5K training that I really couldn’t do anything until Thursday – and of course, I slacked.
This week my coach has me adding a bit more mileage but nothing out of the ordinary. And I’m making a public declaration — I’m going to do strength training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays from here on out. I gotta get these glutes in shape!
xo
TALK TO ME!
Parents: did you lament the ending of eras as your children grew?
Do you have to work to keep yourself on schedule to do the “extras” in your workouts?
Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs for Tuesdays on the Run, and HoHo Runs and MissSippi Piddlin’ for the Weekly Wrap. Also linking up with Nicole, Annmarie, Angelena Marie, and Michelle for Wild Workout Wednesday.
