Hey Aero rider,

First off, congratualtions on all the positive developments in your life. You have a lot going on. That's great!

I think you already know it is a question of values and priorities. On the Franklin/Covey website is a tool you can use to write a personal "Mission Statement".

Now, I'm not a big person for all these self help books and what-not, but I do think Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" is an important book for a person with a full, busy life. He offers a method of prioritizing things based on values. That offers a lot of clarity and makes decisions about time simple.

I'm not sure if that is what you were asking but I have found Stephen Covey's work interesting, insightful and useful.

Good luck, keep us posted!

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Well Aero Rider, triathlon indeed takes a lot of time when trying to juggle a young family. You are on the right track. Get the training done early in the morning, or if you can at work at lunch. Keep your evenings for your family. Once the weather gets warmer then start to bike commute to work if there is a shower there. Whatever happens, preparing for triathlon will take time. You can't sugarcoat that with your family. They have to accept it, or you have to accept not doing triathlon, hopefully the former. Make concessions, don't be slave to a training plans and inconvenience your family. Don't get sucked into time consuming group training that requires half hour of overhead to get to/from. Train with people on a mission of getting the task done in minimal time.



Whenever possible, leave and end from your front door. Time spent in a car is wasted time. You should be on a bike on running if you have the choice of substituting car time with "leg time" . Like any corporation, you have to "minimize" overhead. Get all your prep for the next day's training done when your kids are asleep. On Sunday, cook and pack lunches for the entire upcoming week, so you can train at lunch and don't have to waste time standing in line buying lunch. Stretching can be done while you shower. When your family sees that you are making every effort to squeeze training time out of "nothing", they will support you. You have to be like a finely honed military operation. Your logistics need to be as effective as actual training time. Once you get to that point, it all becomes easy. I guess I just described my life over the past 10 years since I got married :-).



Hope this helps

Dev's got some great tips and I agree 100% - it can get done if you want it to and your expectations are not too high.

Where things can get out of balance is when the expectations start to creep up and there starts to be a feeling deep down in side that you have to do more - this sport can be incredibly consumptive at so many different levels.

For me, I stepped back completely from racing and most training when my son was born 6 years ago. I was lucky, though. It had been a great run to that date and I really had no regrets or big goals left. Now I just do what ever I do for fun and fitness and leave it at that.

I am totally in awe of people who can get it all done.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

AR,

Congrats and good luck. My advice is to prioritize your life and then do the best you can. Remember, we do this for fun! Personally (I also have 2 little ones), I workout for an hour a day during the week (usually at lunch time), sometimes I get in an hour at night, maybe once a week. On weekends, I'm up early and on the bike, so I can get in some volume and still get back early. During my peak training for IMFL last year, I trained "long" both Saturday and Sunday and that was hard for my family, but I only did that for about a month. Overall, I trained about 8-9 hours a week. I did 4 weeks of 10+ hours. Did I win IMFL? No, but I had fun, finished well (12:28:xx) and maintained a positive relationship with my family. What's important to you?

really? is there a Victoria Secret How-to dvd coming out soon? :)

Aero Rider - I can't add any tips to sqeezing in the training.

But I can tell you that Peterborough is first timer friendly (ie. relatively flat with some rollers, but can be hot on race day). The race is really well organized and a ton 'o fun. I'll be doing the 1/2 Du this year. Good luck.

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put the mettle to the pedal

As a single mom with a demanding professional job and a commitment to doing service (volunteering) I can totally relate. Other people have given guidance on setting priorities etc. Here's what I 've done practically:

1) I have figured out that I have 12 hours a week to train. Period. So I have found a coach who is adept at creating programs for people with limited training time. I do what he says. All of my workouts are focused. There is an advantage to figuring out how much time you have to train, you can eliminate the stress of "am I doing enough?". You are doing exactly what you have decided you can do. Of course, you have to be willing to let the chips fall where they may on race day, but I have had some of my best performances on this type of schedule.

2) I include my son in my training (he bikes while I run, or comes to the pool with me), and he comes to most of my races. Obviously only an option when your kids are older, but it's a great way to spend time together, set a good example. and teach your kid(s) something about training principles.

3) I bike and run with other people. This prevents me from becoming a complete social retard. I have developed some strong friendships over the years this way.

Having too many things you want to do is a real luxury!

"Whenever possible, leave and end from your front door."

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I'm just want to highlight this because it was in a long post, and I think it is a really really good point. I've been doing this for 3 years and just got bigtime into this one in the past year. I live about a 20 minute drive from great cycling and 10 minutes from pretty good running. I'm talking scenery, lack of traffic, etc. in quantifying these things. However, both can be accessed directly from my house without any lack of safety, it's just not as bucolic right around here. Well, by subjecting myself to a little surbaninism 4/5 workouts a week and leaving right from the front door, I've been able to add 1-2 hours per week to my life. Not only do you save the commute time, but you save on having to pack up all your stuff (how many times have I dried off with a t-shirt having forgotten my towel?!?) and get ready for the next day's workout. If you workout from home, you end up right back there and hop in your own shower.

Jeff,

Training with Family

As a veteran of over 130 triathlons, including 12 Ironman finishes, I certainly wanted to continue training and competing with the birth of our 1st child at almost 39 years old, 2nd at 41, and 3rd at almost 43, but how do you train and race while keeping your spouse and kids at as the number one priority? I have come up with several rules/techniques that seem to work:
1. The golden rule is that family is number one! Therefore all training must work around family, and non-training time must be clearly devoted to family - both in your heart and through outward expression and deeds (i.e. I always do the dishes!).
2. Try to keep training as “invisible” as possible to the family. I think this is obvious. Swim at 0-dark-thirty, run at lunch, etc. I sometimes run home at lunch and get “two for the price of one!”
3. Here is my favorite trick - I will go any where my wife wants to go, any time she wants to go, as long as I get to run or bike one way. This year I have biked home from the zoo, biked to my in-laws, bike to/from family vacation, run home from the mall, run to/from church activities, etc. I change in the car a lot! You wouldn’t believe how many training opportunities this presents! It’s also kind of fun mapping out rendevous spots, the kids watching for Daddy on his bike, and exploring new areas.
4. Return to quality versus quantity training. For Ironman Canada my bike training consisted of one 70 mile time trial every Saturday morning flat out - note that was all the time I had in order for my wife to make her yoga class (see priority #1 above) . That was it for the week. My only other rides were two 100 mile rides to and from a family vacation. I was a little scared that I hadn’t done enough, but I ended up with my fastest bike split on that course (4 times). I’m not a physiologist, but I think we all tend to spend too much time dawdling along and when forced not to dawdle there are some real fitness benefits. 10 years ago nobody could have told me that an average athlete like me could go sub 11 hours for an Ironman on 10 hours a week training at 42 years old.
5. Bonus fitness opportunities include family hikes, baby jogger runs (I do laps w/ the double jogger while mommy power walks - it’s a family event!
6. Always refer back to rule number one and put your family first. The rewards will surely come!Here is a liitle artcle I wrote on the subject:

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Thanks to all for the great advice!

David you have my upmost respect. I was 40 when the twins were born and about to turn 41. I'm proud to say I'm in the best shape of my life (maybe not the fastest...high school X-country is hard to match!!). Every night seems so rewarding...that feeling of total exhaustion is the best. Having worked out, spent another day running our business and enjoying the evening as a family.

Why do any of us do this?

I was once told in a professional evaluation through an employer that my personality type thrives on being totally exhausted at the end of the day and to feel any other way would be unfulfilling. Maybe we all have that personality trait?

Am I alone?

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It's a Good life if you don't Weaken!
My Mom 1922-2004

No Jeff, I think we are together...in more ways than one.....best wishes to you, my friend!

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Hey Aero rider

I think you should go all the way. Sell the business, pack the wife and kids in a VW hippie van, and head to San Diego and train with the pros. Do the Du's on the professional circuit. That's what a real man would do.

My wife says you should be a man and stop doing this stupid sport.

PS Tell Jenn, Terri says hi

Hey Opus boy!

You should move back to Ontario. At least that way you would get some decent long rides in without constantly running into the ocean!

You can't go to Penticton with an Opus so next time we talk you better be Cerveloboy!

Say hi to Terri!

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It's a Good life if you don't Weaken!
My Mom 1922-2004