Ok, not a serious question, just something it lighten things up around here. So who’s raced a 5 or 10k pushing a jogging stroller. DO any nerds out ther have a caluclator for the impact on pushing a dead dead load while running. I don;t train that much with it, so I’m not sure how much it slows my pace. I want to say it’s about 0:30/mile depdning on how flat or windy it is.
The race is a halloween themed 5k on Oct .12th. I’ll be wearing some type of costume I can run in. A coupel years ago I did a 10k as a sheep, sicne my wife had the homade costume laying around. Thsoe following me were able to stay on the poorly marked course by peices of my costume leaving a trail.
No, I probably won’t wear a gorilla costume… but the thought did cross my mind.
My daughter is 4 y/o and about 33lbs. The stroller is a BOB Ironman with suspension and a fix front wheel. Great stroller. Not the lightest, but rides and tracks great. I think it’s 23lbs. So I’ll be pushing about 56lbs.
Maybe Jackmott can tell me the optimum tire pressure to use. Maximum, or do I actually want a little lower? Range is I think 40-60psi. They are spoked box rim clinchers. I don’t think they make 16" tubulars.
Maybe for a costume… I make some fake disc covers for the wheels on the stroller and my old clip-on aerobars onto the handle. Maybe get some black paper for the wheels and stencil Zipp on the side, then wear a cycling kit, and my aero helmet.
I have two kids and pushed them in a 10K earlier in the year (for the last time ever!). We had issues… lots of issues. One kid lost a shoe, had to turn around and go get it. Then the kids had a little altercation in the side-by-side stroller, had to have a little “time-out” during the freaking race to chill things out. Then we needed snacks, drinks, etc… It was a very, very long ~45 minutes. People were cracking up at our rolling circus. All in all, neglecting the drama, I’d say for me it was more like ~45 sec per mile slower pace, maybe more. The double stroller is huge freaking sail though in a head wind… rough! Good luck!
Ok, not a serious question, just something it lighten things up around here. So who’s raced a 5 or 10k pushing a jogging stroller. DO any nerds out ther have a caluclator for the impact on pushing a dead dead load while running. I don;t train that much with it, so I’m not sure how much it slows my pace. I want to say it’s about 0:30/mile depdning on how flat or windy it is.
The race is a halloween themed 5k on Oct .12th. I’ll be wearing some type of costume I can run in. A coupel years ago I did a 10k as a sheep, sicne my wife had the homade costume laying around. Thsoe following me were able to stay on the poorly marked course by peices of my costume leaving a trail.
No, I probably won’t wear a gorilla costume… but the thought did cross my mind.
My daughter is 4 y/o and about 33lbs. The stroller is a BOB Ironman with suspension and a fix front wheel. Great stroller. Not the lightest, but rides and tracks great. I think it’s 23lbs. So I’ll be pushing about 56lbs.
Maybe Jackmott can tell me the optimum tire pressure to use. Maximum, or do I actually want a little lower? Range is I think 40-60psi. They are spoked box rim clinchers. I don’t think they make 16" tubulars.
Maybe for a costume… I make some fake disc covers for the wheels on the stroller and my old clip-on aerobars onto the handle. Maybe get some black paper for the wheels and stencil Zipp on the side, then wear a cycling kit, and my aero helmet.
For me - my total 10k time went up in the range of about 5 minutes or so. I’m normally in the 34-37 range depending on course - and the last one I did (in Feb - also in a BOB Ironman with fixed front wheel - the SUS older model) ended just over 40 mins. No idea on tire pressure, I just pumped it up until it was firm.
Plan to do the same race with a double Chariot Cheetah next year. Not sure if I’ll have double babies or not.
So basically my 5k with a stroller probably looks a lot like my 5k split in a sprint tri?
Of course the sad thing is that there’s not a lot of fast runners around here locally, so going about 20:00 might still win it. I think the course they are using only has a couple of 30-40’ elevation rollers, not the larger 100’ 8-15% climb thats nearby since that part of the road is under construction.
I’m an admitted total stroller nerd-geek runner for the past 3 years. Have looked at my stroller data in 5ks as a sad excuse to not hit my all-time PRs of the past =(
Fortunately, the stroller doesn’t totally kill your speed, although it gives you a great excuse as to why you aren’t as fast as you used to be even if it’s 99% being out of shape!
My observations:
Your 5k time will be HUGELY affected by the amount of traffic and people you have to start behind. With a stroller, it’s very easy to get bottlenecked in a narrow area, especially the start, since they often have you line up in the very rear, even behind the walkers, so you might not be able to actually get up to pace until 1 mile in (or more) on a unfavorable course. That’ll add 1-2 minutes to a 5k if you get stuck and is the biggest time-killer.
Steep hills will also kill you. It’s like cycling hills, but worse - pushing that stroller up a 7% incline will add like 3mins/mile to your pace, and people who you were blowing by will suddenly be passing you.
On a dead-flat course, with no restricting human traffic, I was able to run +15seconds/mile slower than my standalone 5k. (I ran a 19:11 with a 15lbs BOB Revolution + a 27 lbs 2.5 year old.) It was minimally slower, but again, this was a BEST case scenario with a dead-flat course - more typically, I’m +2 minutes on my standalone 5k for various reasons.
None of the guys you pass will give you props, but all the moms and faster women up front will give you kudos - it’s actually pretty neat to actually get kudos during a race!
I pumped the tire to the recommended BOB pressure, and it was totally fine. It does run faster with properly inflated tires, so if you do want to go fast, def do this.
Yes, I’m a total loser to actually think about these things.
A local guy went 1:12 in a half marathon pushing a stroller. Ooph.
I was actually doing some repeats yesterday around 5:40 pace pushing my daughter. Am pretty confident I could be low 17s, high 16s with the stroller. Of course, any hills or turns would slow this down quite a bit.
On a flat road, I think it’s 20-30 seconds slower per mile. On hills, throw that out and window and just hope to get up them.
A local guy went 1:12 in a half marathon pushing a stroller. Ooph.
I was actually doing some repeats yesterday around 5:40 pace pushing my daughter. Am pretty confident I could be low 17s, high 16s with the stroller. Of course, any hills or turns would slow this down quite a bit.
On a flat road, I think it’s 20-30 seconds slower per mile. On hills, throw that out and window and just hope to get up them.
Awsome. My goal is to win a few 5ks this spring pushing my daughter. Hopfully I can get down to the mid 17s
My wife did her first and only 5K and was beaten by a women pushing a stroller and stopping periodically to pick up cans. She was embarrassed and said this is the last f#@king time I run. My wife is very fit but with weight training and not anything endurance. It still pisses her off and that was 4 or 5 years ago.
There’s part of your problem right there. Between now & Oct. 12th, if you get her down to a good race weight (sub-30lbs?) I bet you’ll see some free speed. A couple of weeks of strictly water & Flintstones Chewables might just do the trick.
How you’ll sneak all this past mom is up to you
Oh, and you may want to make sure her seat isn’t too high.
There’s part of your problem right there. Between now & Oct. 12th, if you get her down to a good race weight (sub-30lbs?) I bet you’ll see some free speed. A couple of weeks of strictly water & Flintstones Chewables might just do the trick.
How you’ll sneak all this past mom is up to you
Oh, and you may want to make sure her seat isn’t too high.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I can only imagine the look of horror (and then the violent beatdown I would receive afterwards) if I told my wife “Hey listen, you know that stroller race I do in Feb? We gotta get Bruce on a diet. I can’t have him weighing me down” LMAO
One of the local races in NC actually has a “Stroller” division just like age groups.
It’s kind of funny to watch them at the starting line.
Some of the dads in this year’s stroller race ripped off 19 and 20 minute 5k’s. Faster than me on my best day.
I’m an admitted total stroller nerd-geek runner for the past 3 years. Have looked at my stroller data in 5ks as a sad excuse to not hit my all-time PRs of the past =(
Fortunately, the stroller doesn’t totally kill your speed, although it gives you a great excuse as to why you aren’t as fast as you used to be even if it’s 99% being out of shape!
My observations:
Your 5k time will be HUGELY affected by the amount of traffic and people you have to start behind. With a stroller, it’s very easy to get bottlenecked in a narrow area, especially the start, since they often have you line up in the very rear, even behind the walkers, so you might not be able to actually get up to pace until 1 mile in (or more) on a unfavorable course. That’ll add 1-2 minutes to a 5k if you get stuck and is the biggest time-killer.
Steep hills will also kill you. It’s like cycling hills, but worse - pushing that stroller up a 7% incline will add like 3mins/mile to your pace, and people who you were blowing by will suddenly be passing you.
On a dead-flat course, with no restricting human traffic, I was able to run +15seconds/mile slower than my standalone 5k. (I ran a 19:11 with a 15lbs BOB Revolution + a 27 lbs 2.5 year old.) It was minimally slower, but again, this was a BEST case scenario with a dead-flat course - more typically, I’m +2 minutes on my standalone 5k for various reasons.
None of the guys you pass will give you props, but all the moms and faster women up front will give you kudos - it’s actually pretty neat to actually get kudos during a race!
I pumped the tire to the recommended BOB pressure, and it was totally fine. It does run faster with properly inflated tires, so if you do want to go fast, def do this.
Yes, I’m a total loser to actually think about these things.
Great insight!
Fortunately it’s a small towm I live in and a fun run. Probably 40 people at most. I’ll line up front so I don’t hit anyone… since a 19:30 will proabably win it anyway… and that’s pretty close to what I think I can do with the stroller depending how I feel. Probably shoot for my current Olympic run pace &1/2 marathon pace and see if I can hold 5:50-6:00. My daughter will probably tell me to go “Faster daddy, faster”. Nothing like having a cheerleader along for the ride.
Depending on technique and course, you can actually run at the same speed pushing a stroller versus running without one.
I have three kids and I pushed strollers running with each one of them as they were each growing up. They were between 2 to 4 years old when I did this. My strollers were all different but the best one I liked was the Ironman Bob. Like you and everyone else here, I thought that I would be running harder while pushing a stroller. Well not really. I the flats, the stroller helped me maintain my pace and “pulled” me a bit as I hang on to it. The momentum of something on wheels is longer than someone on running shoes. If you hang on to a stroller going downhill you will understand what I mean as the stroller pulls you downhill forcibly faster than you would go downhill without one. You could actually replicate this on a flat road if you know how to. I did and was pretty efficient at it when I discovered how to do it properly. Some of my friends wondered how I was able to maintain a decent speed running with them while I “pushed” my stroller, which technically was “pulling” me.
Jim Hoyt is probably a very good example of this. On flat roads where he pushes his son’s wheel chair, he hangs on to the custom made aero bar he set up on the back of his son’s wheelchair.
Of course, going uphill is a totally different story but if your stroller is light and the hills are not steep, you won’t even notice the stroller weight.
One of the local races in NC actually has a “Stroller” division just like age groups.
It’s kind of funny to watch them at the starting line.
Some of the dads in this year’s stroller race ripped off 19 and 20 minute 5k’s. Faster than me on my best day.
I have raced the last 3 years with granddaughters in 5K turkey stroller trot races. First year a single with the oldest being 9 weeks old.
Second year second grandkid single 11 months old. Both years under 20.
Third year, both in a double stroller, under 20, first overall.
I just loved beating “Dads” by this old Grandpa.
They no longer have the race so looks like I might just enter the standard 5K and see how many can beat an old buy pushing a stroller. :o)
What really kills you is when running directing into the wind with a stroller. Talk about an instant brake!!
So yep, you can run just about as fast with a stroller if you get your form down. Running to the side can be faster, but, …
So basically my 5k with a stroller probably looks a lot like my 5k split in a sprint tri?
Of course the sad thing is that there’s not a lot of fast runners around here locally, so going about 20:00 might still win it. I think the course they are using only has a couple of 30-40’ elevation rollers, not the larger 100’ 8-15% climb thats nearby since that part of the road is under construction.
Actually, I think it depends on if you care about keeping kiddo actually in the stroller.
