Adventures on a Mountain Buggy UNIRIDER

I’m going to assume you have no idea what on earth a Unirider is and take it from the top. Describing it is tricky, sort of like a wheel on a stick that you can push your kid on. Luckily, we live in a modern age so I can put us all out of our misery with a picture or two.

Whilst it’s very simple to put together, it took me about 20 mins as Austin enjoys playing games such as hide the screw, eat the bolt, and if in doubt, run off with it. It could be done in a matter of minutes without the help of any children, making it perfect for travelling and holidays – ha, sorry. I mean when you go away for a ‘change of scene’.

Obviously, when it first arrived we had the classic wrestling and fighting between the boys, which is always so fun #blessed. After a few falls, the one year old admitted defeat and realised life was way better in the buggy where he could eat snacks and sleep. With that established, I was keen to get out and see if the Unirider could handle the farm terrain. We live in the bottom of a valley, so not only do we have the standard countryside lumps, bumps and gravel, there’s also the small matter of climbing Everest every time you need to check the sheep/go to the park. With the exception of a near miss involving a fox hole (whether the blame lies with me, the driver, or Jake who leaned over to look down the hole, is still under discussion…), the Unirider fared surprisingly well. It proved particularly useful when we were in the throngs of lambing and Jake wanted to help but complained after walking more than 500 steps. Side note – it’s possible to clock up 30,000+ steps per day when lambing, so Jake’s effort of not quite 2% of this = quite a lot of frustration from all parties.
 

With the Unirider being a hit on the farm, we ventured into London over the Easter hols for a test run in the city; plus, I really wanted to go to Crosstown Doughnuts. I get really nervous about taking the children anywhere near a road so I was delighted to have them both contained. The Unirider doesn’t really take up much space so it was super easy to take on the train/ tube/ bus. It handily balances on the back of the buggy too, which was great as we had all hands available to entertain (pin down) the kids for the 40-minute train ride into town. We visited the National Army Museum, which has a toddler friendly pre-bookable soft play – great for the boys to let off steam. We didn’t manage to stay for the full hour as Austin was screaming blue murder every time another child touched the steering wheel of the army tank…..things got too awkward. After that, Jake happily sat on the Unirider for over an hour of walking across town and Austin slept in the buggy.

For those of you who don’t enjoy lots of words, here’s a short summary of my thoughts on the Unirider:

Wins:

• Easy to take apart / put together
• Drives well on a variety of terrain
• Your child has to balance, which is a great step towards riding a bike - not to mention good for their core strength
• Perfect for the in-between stage where you don’t need a buggy but your child can’t manage much walking

Keep in mind:

• You need two hands to steer, so you will need a backpack for the essentials

In even fewer words, would I recommend the Unirider? Absolutely!!

Enjoy adventuring!

Love, Mel x

P.S Mountain Buggy Unirider £79 CLICK here to buy.

Buggy Running... my thoughts one year on by Mel

It’s been one whole year since I picked up my Mountain Buggy Terrain and started running with Austin.

Well, 13 months to be precise but luckily for you, I’m not one of those mums who gives out their
children’s ages by month after they hit one - basically because I can’t be bothered to do the maths. I felt a bit emosh looking back at our first buggy running pics. Yes, there have been days that have seemingly gone on forever. You know, the ones where your child(ren) wakes up at 4.45am, high on goodness knows what, and you’ve eaten your lunch by 10am, cried 20+ times collectively, then your partner calls at 5.30pm and you foolishly allow yourself to hope that they’re phoning to say that they’re on their way home but they’re actually ‘stuck’ in the office and won’t make it for bedtime…. Fortunately, there have been plenty of awesome moments too, mostly involving cuddles, bundles of laughter and a heart-melting ‘love you’ from Austin once at bedtime *immediately runs downstairs, removes child ebay listing and sobs into bar of chocolate*

So, one year older, another year wiser (humour me), and I thought I’d share my thoughts:
1. Mindfulness (cringe)
I don’t know what it is about the ‘M’ word but I hate it! Every time I see it I think yawn/eye roll/cringe. If someone can come up with a sexier name for this please, that would be great. I mean what even is mindfulness? I tried to read up on it a few times and was still none the wiser. It was only recently in reading Clare Pooley’s fabulous book where she explains that for her it’s basically an activity that you can get lost in, that I realised that’s exactly what exercise is for me! When I’m out buggy running, my mind wanders off occasionally but for most of the time I’m either taking in the surroundings or breaking my run down into manageable chunks (5km = 5 x 1km, first and last km don’t count so it’s basically 3 x 1km, which is totally doable, repeat ad infinitum). So yeah, buggy running totally nails mindfulness *self high five*.

2. Comparison is the thief of joy
It may be a cheesy quote but who doesn’t love a bit of oozy brie every now and again? In starting my buggy running journey, I also threw myself into social media, mainly Instagram. I’m not about to paint a negative picture of social media, I think it’s ace. However, there are a few traps that I’ve fallen into, one being the amount of time spent scrolling – hello @llamawithnodrama ! The other main pitfall is comparing my fitness journey to others. Bottom line is, you are on your own journey. Susan runs 4:30 kms with her buggy and you run 6:30 kms. Linda over there was running the day after she gave birth and let’s not even talk about Janet who is two weeks post-partum and back in her skinny white jeans…Who actually cares?? Chances are, these people have a whole other bunch of crap going on in the background too. An insta square is maybe 5% of someone’s day. If anyone makes you feel inadequate then hit that unfollow button and don’t look back. Big shout out to @classeswithlorna @thebuggycoach and @upallhoursphotos who continue to keep it real on the ‘gram, you’re all the tits.

3. I actually enjoy running
Now this is quite a major revelation for me. Yes, I’ve always played team sports and enjoyed exercising, but my preferred distance was the 30m sprint, probably still my best one with a proper warm up. I was actually really nervous about buggy running because running has never been something I’ve been ‘good’ at. Fast forward (many years) and last week I chose to take Austin for a buggy run on holiday, even though there was childcare on tap! Amazing. It’s been a slow journey this year; regaining my fitness post second C section has been tough, not to mention the two hyper-mischievous boys to contend with. But, I’ve done it, one whole year of buggy running and I’m super proud! Major highlights include buggy running the London 10km with Jake, discovering the cycling and walking trails around my local area, and having super valuable ‘me-time’ at my disposal without the mum guilt! Would I do it again? In a
heartbeat.

Thanks for reading, and I hope I’ve inspired you to get involved and get active!
Love Mel x