We're Goin' Single!

First let me say that yesterday I was so stressed out and feeling depressed and defeated by my 3-year-old throwing a fit in the bathroom at Joann's (screaming so much that one of the employees came to see if everything was ok because a couple of customers had mentioned it) that I mopped around the house when we got home and missed my time window to go out on the bike ride I had planned. It was such a nice day too. I really wish I would have gone, I know it would have made me feel better!

I remembered that today when I woke up not feeling good, and just too tired to want to do anything. Plus I went to Walmart and ended up spending all my money without even getting anything fun, which is always depressing. On the way home, I decided I'd just get out and do my run right away instead of waiting for the kids to get out of school to go to the track like I had planned. Plus we still needed to try out our new stroller!

My brother and sister-in-law came down this weekend and brought their single jogging stroller to trade for my double one since they just had their second baby, and I'm just down to one baby. I can't say I won't miss my good ol' double stroller, but I was excited to try out this new, smaller one out today! Elle was really excited too, can you tell?

Look how little and compact it is! And so cozy for Elle! This is the InStep 10k Stroller from who knows what year. I think it was already used when my sister-in-law got it.

The sun shade is way bigger than my old one. This one might actually do some good if it rained (we'll have to see about that, though), and it will definitely keep the sun off.

Pushing this little stroller was so much lighter and faster than the big one. Ok, Duh. I must say, it was a little harder to turn, though, because the front wheel is just locked into place. It doesn't swivel like my old one. On the other hand, the swiveling one sometimes got out of hand and the stroller would start shaking when I got going fast, so it was nice that it didn't do that.

I started off taking it pretty easy, but I was amazed at how fast I was going still. I don't know my exact time for the first mile because I stopped to take my jacket off and take this picture:

My pace was somewhere around 9:30 before I stopped, but it ended up averaging 10:19 because of my forgetfulness.

As soon as I finished my first mile, I started into my second mile which was going to be a fast interval. I was able to get going pretty fast, but it was really hard to keep that up because there were a couple streets to cross and I even kind of stopped for a second to show Elle a little duck, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be going fast!

That mile seemed to take forever, and it was really hard! I had to stop and walk to catch my breath when my (I mean Pete's) wonderful Garmin finally beeped.

My time was 8:41 which isn't my best, but I think it's pretty good considering I was pushing a stroller, and considering the whole duck sighting incident.

It just so happened that I finished that mile right at the spot I had wanted to take a picture of Monday, and this time I had my camera! (I think it had a little better lighting last time...)

I had totally planned on recovering, then turning around and doing another hard mile, but while I was stopped, I noticed that not one, but two of the stroller's tires were flat. Both of the back tires. No wonder it had seemed so hard at the end! I wonder how long they'd been like that.

That's what I get for trusting tires from my brother who likes to go "off road" with his stroller. We even pulled a thorn out when he unloaded it from his car. I made sure to check the tires before we left, thinking I might have to fix one, but they were good so we just went with it.

I ended up walking home, trying to push the stroller like a wheelbarrow so it wouldn't just be riding on the rims (and also because I hate the sound of squishy flat tires!), but that was very hard to do for very long since it doesn't have the wheelbarrow's low handles.

My third mile was 17:29

The last .75 took me 13:31

Total of 3.75 miles in exactly 50 minutes! Wahoo!

Despite the setbacks, I still really enjoyed my run/outing this morning. It was a beautiful day, and I was outside doing something, listening to some good music, and just happy to be alive and healthy enough to be able to be doing what I was doing. I felt so much better than before I left, and my day was really pretty good from there on out.

Elle was having a good time too and even fell asleep before we got home. She ended up sleeping for another hour and a half or so, which I think she really needed. Yesterday she was a little pill, and I think it must have been from being over-tired.

Overall, a successful test of the stroller. I'm excited to get those tires fixed and take it out again!