I got into triathlon in 1998, and in 2000 did my first IM. Less than a year later our first daughter was born. I managed to find the time to get in a marathon and a couple of short course tri's, but with a job that had me away from home a lot, and a growing young family time became a precious commodity and something had to give.
So for the last 18 years I stuck to a bit of cycling, running and other things I could squeeze in when the time allowed. No races, other than an ultra marathon 2 years ago. Running I found was the best bang for your buck on a time crunched schedule, and you can do it pretty much anywhere.
My two daughters are now 14 and 17, and are more or less self sufficient, with one able to drive herself around (thankfully, cause I felt like a cab service for the last 5 years) I now have more "me" time. So after discussing it with the family, we decided to do Ironman again this year. I say we, because it's a family effort. Everyone is pretty excited.
I am lucky in the fact that I do not work Mon-Fri 9-5. I get a lot of down days during the week when the kids are in school and my wife is at work, which allows for a lot of training time. Plus I get a lot of down time when on the road at work to train. (I'm a corporate jet pilot). But it also means I am away from home for periods up to 2 weeks.
Family, work, and training balance is hard and there is no one recipe for everyone. Each one of us has their unique set of challenges. Like it has already been said, having family support is a huge part of it. I know for a fact if I was trying to squeeze in a full tri race season when the kids were young would have been a disaster. Who needs that extra stress in your life. I'd come home from work and my wife would meet me at the door ready to hand off the two kids. If I told her I had to go bike for two hours, she would have stabbed me with the kitchen knife.
Those people that can live on 5 hours sleep a night, have a successful career, family life and qualify for Kona year in and year out are rare. They have incredible amounts of energy, drive, and talent. I've met a lot of people like those in my job. (most are successful businessmen/women, billionaires) they just go, go, go all day everyday. It's amazing to see. Like my boss, the multi-billionaire that owns the airplane.
Long and short of it is, you have to figure out what works best for your lifestyle and family. Good luck with it, and enjoy the kids while they are young, because they grow up awful damn fast.
https://trigeek1969.blogspot.ca
So for the last 18 years I stuck to a bit of cycling, running and other things I could squeeze in when the time allowed. No races, other than an ultra marathon 2 years ago. Running I found was the best bang for your buck on a time crunched schedule, and you can do it pretty much anywhere.
My two daughters are now 14 and 17, and are more or less self sufficient, with one able to drive herself around (thankfully, cause I felt like a cab service for the last 5 years) I now have more "me" time. So after discussing it with the family, we decided to do Ironman again this year. I say we, because it's a family effort. Everyone is pretty excited.
I am lucky in the fact that I do not work Mon-Fri 9-5. I get a lot of down days during the week when the kids are in school and my wife is at work, which allows for a lot of training time. Plus I get a lot of down time when on the road at work to train. (I'm a corporate jet pilot). But it also means I am away from home for periods up to 2 weeks.
Family, work, and training balance is hard and there is no one recipe for everyone. Each one of us has their unique set of challenges. Like it has already been said, having family support is a huge part of it. I know for a fact if I was trying to squeeze in a full tri race season when the kids were young would have been a disaster. Who needs that extra stress in your life. I'd come home from work and my wife would meet me at the door ready to hand off the two kids. If I told her I had to go bike for two hours, she would have stabbed me with the kitchen knife.
Those people that can live on 5 hours sleep a night, have a successful career, family life and qualify for Kona year in and year out are rare. They have incredible amounts of energy, drive, and talent. I've met a lot of people like those in my job. (most are successful businessmen/women, billionaires) they just go, go, go all day everyday. It's amazing to see. Like my boss, the multi-billionaire that owns the airplane.
Long and short of it is, you have to figure out what works best for your lifestyle and family. Good luck with it, and enjoy the kids while they are young, because they grow up awful damn fast.
https://trigeek1969.blogspot.ca