I, like most runner-moms, looked forward taking my tiny tyke out on jogs with me. At our baby shower, the only present I was truly excited about was the baby jogger. To me it represented all the fun I would have as I shared one my favorite hobbies with my son. From that moment forward, I started counting down the months till I could take our little bundle of joy out for runs.

I waited until Brooks was five months old, before taking him out for his first jog and running with a baby jogger definitely took some getting used to. The hardest part was adjusting to running without swinging both arms as you normally would. You don’t realize how much you use your arms until you try running with both arms firmly attached to the handle bar of a stroller. On my first few outings, I approached jogging with the stroller like you first learn to drive – with both hands on the wheel, or handle-bar as it was in my case, at ALL times. Nevertheless, I eventually got used to running with the baby jogger, and adopted the one hand push method, where you push the stroller with one hand and swing the other as you normally would, which helps quite a bit. Over the course of a year or so, Brooks and I enjoyed numerous runs together, that is until we moved to the hilly-terrain of Saint Francisville, and Brooks started growing up, meaning his weight surpassed the 30 lb. mark.

The first few times I took him jogging out in the country were doable but it didn’t take long before my body told me that pushing a 28 lb. stroller with a 33 lb. boy in it up and down the hills was just asking too much. The last time I took Brooks jogging with me, he had just turned two. I made it 2.5 miles before looping back to our house and exhaustedly dropping him off in the driveway with his dad so I could continue running solo. That was sadly the end of me jogging with Brooks, for now – at least until he can ride his bike or run along with me.

I’ve just recently started taking our younger son, Ridge along for runs. He is 10 months old and weighs 20 lbs., which is much, MUCH more manageable to run with. I don’t take him often because there are several intense hills on my running routes that are both mentally and physically exhausting, without pushing a baby jogger. However, this week I managed to do two runs with Ridge. Tuesday, he and I ran 6.5 miles and Friday we ran 4 miles. While both runs were at times brutal, due to those two ridiculously hard hills, it was nice having one of my little stink-a-roos with me again. Being able to share something I enjoy so much with the little guys I love so much is still fun, and lets face it, all that resistance is definitely an excellent form of training.