Once the kids were old enough to look after themselves, it was easier.

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You're experiencing the age old situation that many of us have gone through, i.e. from your mid-20's to mid-30's your career starts taking off, more responsibility, personal life settles down and maybe some kids get added in to the equation, and your general health/fitness declines. You're not alone.

Happened to me but didn't realize what was happening until about 33-34 with 3 little kids and a booming career. After talking it over with my wife, I started giving myself time in the mornings before everyone woke up and then some at lunch plus a longer workout on the weekend (usually Sunday so as not to interfere with kid events). Managed to complete 9 IM's with solid MOP status. I'm past that now (youngest about the graduate from high school) and retired a little over a year ago. Now I have all the time I want and mostly ride and walk the dog. It's great.

Yeh everything I've read so far seems to indicate that the mornings are when I'm gonna be able to train. Needs a fundamental shift in my mindset though - always used to train in the evenings after work. Walking the dog and riding sounds bloody great though

Once i had kids around your age, i resigned myself to the fact that it was early morning or nothing for workouts. 12 years later, and that’s the routine. I get an extra evening workout sometimes now that the kids are older but I can’t imagine daily workouts after work anymore. Its a life change but you will adapt.

The big hit is when the young kids roll around. Honestly, I suspect it's what makes winning M30-35 AG weirdly easy at some smaller local events, as a lot of the stud athletes are too overwhelmed with childcare and helping with the family, so the put off racing, so the AG winning time for M30-35 will lag M40-45 and even M45-50 sometimes.

I found the hardest year was kids year 1-2, then 2-3 wasn't too bad as I could hire nannies occasionally and the inlaws loved coming over, and then from 4-7 it was back to hard again as the kid is clearly more important than tri. Now that my kid is 10, I'm actually shocked with how much time I have to train again - my job is clearly the limiter, not the kid by any stretch.

I trained continuously through this whole childrearing time, I think I probably averaged 6-7hrs/wk for when my kid was 1 (which took some minor heroics, honestly), and then 9-11 for the rest of the time. I don't train any more volume now despite the ease in childcare as I find my body gets too tired with the intensity rolled in to a 11-12 hr training week!

Early morning workouts were key for most of the childrearing years, but in my case as I dont sleep that well, it def took a hit on the training quality and I was tired a lot during days unfortunately. I now dont' do mornings much anymore, but I spend 1 hr at lunch running almost every day and 1-1.5hrs after dinner 3x/wk, which is surprisingly doable since my 10yr old wants her independent time after dinner (which makes me sad as I love spending time with her, but it's necessary.)

Whatever you do, don't overprioritize triathlon over kids! You'll feel the urge to do so continuously as you feel your FOP results slipping from you with less training, but trust everyone here that says you won't regret one second spending all that time with your future kids.

If you're not planning to have kids, there is literally no point to this thread - you can train 14+ hrs/wk and not even be slightly bothered as an adult in a good relationship!

This is why they invented age groups (LOL). Life happens. There are more important things than racing/training as you're discovering. Look at the 50-60 AG's out there. Some are first time athletes that finally have time in their lives to be athletes and they are enjoying it and life. If you can't do it now focus on the important things and come back to it later. You only get one chance to watch your kids grow up.

OP, we should be friends.

I'm 31, attorney, and am getting married in October. It seems like work has really started to crank up, and my morning workouts aren't generally too bad, but whether I get an evening session in is really 50/50 at this point.

Do what you can, dude. We're all juggling tons of other responsibilities... Keep that in mind when you see the same guys seemingly win everything... Is their life as fulfilling as it seems from the outside? I'm FOP, but could always be faster. I'm gunning for a sub-4:10 HIM this year at Gulf Coast. Will I do it? I don't know. But I'm gunna try my absolute best with the amount of time I have.

Besides, I would feel unfulfilled if my life only consisted of triathlon or only work...

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Thanks all. I'm aware triathlon demographic tends to be a bunch of professionals who really shouldn't have the time to do it but do anyway so was interested to see the experiences.

Yes kids are the plan. Working my ass off to save up for a house deposit in london (not cheap) which is taking up most of my energy. Im hoping when racing actually kicks off again and I start that again itl give me a nice kick.

Cloy good luck in your quest for sub 4:10. If its on I'll see you in 70.3 worlds this year - my spot in NZ got rolled

I hear you - I'm 34 and an MD at a large bank. Have a 2 year old and another on the way.

Candidly, I gave it up. I tend to not be able to "half a$$" things and in 2020 I decided to only focus on running as one can still be "serious" about it on 5-9 hours a week and compete for FOP. That +hiking with family / skiing, general activity is a good blend (for me).

Maybe tri will play a role in the future, maybe not, but I am thankful for what it did introduce me to (road biking) and the experiences I've had.

It seems like a common natural progression. I don't think any of us are going to stop training cold turkey, but if I only focused on one sport, I could see myself having a much more "balance" life.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

As others have already said, keep the tri training as your "me" time and as a way to stay healthy and satisfy that competitive fire, but don't do it at the expense of real life (i.e. relationship, career). Take a look at your days/weeks and map out what free time you have, then do the best training you can do with it, and keep your goals realistic accordingly.

For me, that means most of my training has to happen before work, or after 9pm when the kids are in bed. I can usually get a long run OR a long ride on the weekend, sometimes both if I've been really nice to my wife that week. :)

I've only been doing triathlon for a little over 3 years, but when I started I made the decision to stick to shorter races because I knew I could stay fit enough to be competitive with the amount of training I could do. Now that I have a little more experience, I'm planning on trying out some longer distance stuff. We'll see how that goes!

I would look at Time Crunched athlete book for ideas. Also, do what you can...morning workouts, workouts to incorporate the family, etc.

That's me! I never quit working out, but for many years (late 90's - 2012), I was relegated to whatever I could do in the morning before work, with real life being priority for the rest of the day. Then I blinked, and woke up one day, and it was like being in a time machine. My kids are adults, I'm retired, and every day is Saturday. I'm having the time of my life with the sport again, and can train as much as I want. Even in my late 50's and now 60's, I'm hanging close to the top 10 overall in local races, and killing my age groups. I even won my states USAT oly distance 55-59 AG Championships in 2019. For the OP, be the best dad, and husband and employee you can be. Stay in decent shape but don't sweat it... because the sport isn't going anywhere, kids grow up so fast, and your glory days will be here before you know it.

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Athlinks / Strava

Don't listen to what everyone on this forum is telling you. Quit your job and dump the GF since podium is the meaning of life!
Seriously though, unless you are extremely genetically gifted expect to be MOP until kids and career are more mature or maybe never. That's just how life is.

I def don't think that's true for the OP who seems to be FOP-type finisher at longer events already.

If you're FOP already like the OP (let's just say top 15% overall), unless you seriously do close to nothing in tri, you'' never fall to a dead 50% MOPer. Even if you train a measly 6hrs/wk, you'll almost certainly finish in the top 25% of the race, and I'd wager top 15-18% (meaning almost no dropoff in shorter races like sprint/oly) so at least FOMOP just on your prior experience and ability alone.

If you're new to the sport, yeah, it'll be hard to break MOP on 6 hrs/wk unless you're really gifted.

This thread was needed. Think seeing so many people nailing all their sessions on strava instagram etc gets you down a bit when you aren't. Dragged my sorry arse out of bed for a turbo before work today - thanks everyone for the advice and also the reassurance that this is indeed normal and life does get in the way sometimes and thats ok.