Couples that train together stay together...
Before my husband and I had kids, training together and apart worked out really well. But now that we have two kids, the fact that BOTH of us are into endurance sports is a real pain in the ass. So yeah, while we are totally on the same page in terms of "understanding" the need to train and being able to talk for hours about all triathlon/ironman/race stuff (not that we get much talking done with kids around), the truth is, I feel like life would be so much more "convenient" if my hobby was "parenting" like it is for many young moms around me. But for all those moms with small kids that I know who are not into any kind of sports or hobbies, many of their husbands have given up their hobbies as well, either by choice or by "force". Those that gave it up by "force" look pretty miserable. So on the one hand, two triathletes in the family is fun, on the other hand, it is so challenging to manage the time for both of us to train (and we usually just take turns) and it leaves both of us exhausted, and this is on top of the exhaustion of having small kids. On the other hand, we would be miserable if we just gave up training/racing. And while we have not done any full ironman races after baby #2 (just did a couple of 70.3s here and there), focusing on just sprint triathlons is also kind of boring because we have done MANY MANY MANY sprints over the many racing seasons in the past, so they are almost not even worth the bother...
How do two triathletes in a household train and have an "interesting" goal to train towards while balancing full time jobs and kids and not being totally MIA?
Before my husband and I had kids, training together and apart worked out really well. But now that we have two kids, the fact that BOTH of us are into endurance sports is a real pain in the ass. So yeah, while we are totally on the same page in terms of "understanding" the need to train and being able to talk for hours about all triathlon/ironman/race stuff (not that we get much talking done with kids around), the truth is, I feel like life would be so much more "convenient" if my hobby was "parenting" like it is for many young moms around me. But for all those moms with small kids that I know who are not into any kind of sports or hobbies, many of their husbands have given up their hobbies as well, either by choice or by "force". Those that gave it up by "force" look pretty miserable. So on the one hand, two triathletes in the family is fun, on the other hand, it is so challenging to manage the time for both of us to train (and we usually just take turns) and it leaves both of us exhausted, and this is on top of the exhaustion of having small kids. On the other hand, we would be miserable if we just gave up training/racing. And while we have not done any full ironman races after baby #2 (just did a couple of 70.3s here and there), focusing on just sprint triathlons is also kind of boring because we have done MANY MANY MANY sprints over the many racing seasons in the past, so they are almost not even worth the bother...
How do two triathletes in a household train and have an "interesting" goal to train towards while balancing full time jobs and kids and not being totally MIA?