What's worked for me is to sneak in training at night after everyone goes to bed and consider that time religious. Showering and heading to bed immediately after helps me fall asleep even if my HR is still somewhat higher than normal. Also, I've kissed goodbye the weekend long rides outside. Now it's just trainer time. I'm curious to see how bad this affects my overall fitness. The biggest hit for me is swimming, no room for a Vasa and still haven't figured out a good way to make it work with the hectic and sometimes inflexible schedules.

I have two young kids (2 and 6 currently), and yes training can be a challenge. A lot depends on how well the kids sleep and how willing your significant other is to let you fit in training. Do you watch any TV? That was the first thing to go for me. So many folks watch a lot of TV, then are amazed when I tell them I fit in 14-18 hrs of training a week. Turn two hours of watching into training time, and bingo. I haven’t watched anything other than live sports or when on the treadmill or trainer in years!

I’ve found that over the years I’m getting up earlier and earlier to fit training in. It’s far from ideal, and I was actually a case study by Matt Dixon on his podcast (#69) essentially saying what not to do. I’ve found it’s working somewhat, but getting up to be on the trainer before 3 am for long rides certainly doesn’t work for everyone. I’ll find out in twelve days at my next IM how this approach goes!!

On average, I’m up around 4 am most days, and generally get in 8-10 hours during the weekdays, and am always done by 6:30 am. I then get in around 6-9 hours on the weekend with bigger workouts. It takes some time to adjust to getting up early, but once you get in the habit it is easy and you feel very good about accomplishing your workouts. A bit of coffee doesn’t hurt as well!

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

3 little ones here; 8, 4 and 2. I'm up at 3:45 for work (construction management) and my wife is a HS teacher so she gets all 3 up and out the door by 8 (bus and 2 at daycare). I'm home about an hour before anyone else some days if work doesn't go long so I'll stop for a quick swim or get home and go for a run or on the trainer the second I walk in the door. Long rides and long runs are tough; when I have the time there's a good chance I'm not built up for the mileage, so it's just constantly take what I can get. My oldest is involved in a swim team which is awesome, 3 times a week he's at the pool which gets me there too, and he absolutely loves it and does quite well. Best part he's young enough where he doesn't mind his dad is a few lanes over getting lapped by U10s. The 4 year old is already doing lengths of the pool but still too young to really compete. I try to combine a lot of stuff; I coach lacrosse, basketball and soccer and do S&T for the swim team, when the weather is nice I'll ride to the fields/pool and meet my wife there with the kids, then throw on a few extra miles on the way home. Nights the kids are in bed around 8, my wife and I both workout for 30-45 minutes, then it's bed. Rinse, repeat. Tri has definitely taken a back seat but it is what it is. Every family is different and you find what works for you but I think any way you slice it for younger years SBR is going to take a hit somewhat.

Kids are 2 and 5 here. You are not alone, first year of their lives I worked out maybe 30 minutes at a time. Tris were hung up, no time for them.

My kids are terrible sleepers,but it does get easier .My 5 year old can bike along side me while I run. If I want a long bike ride it starts at 5am. Most of my workouts over the lunch hour too.

The big struggle is when both parents want to workout, it is hard to get time in for both of you.

I found that as soon as my kids started sleeping through the night it made a world of difference

My advice is to put training like you used to do, on the backburner for awhile. Train hard and be happy knowing you’re doing the best you can while still putting family first ,,, which won’t be the same as when you could put “you” first. But that’s ok.

haha, yeah I learned to stay in my 'doctor lane' after baby number one...I appreciate all the stories and advice! Glad to hear I'm not the only one. My wife and I are pretty optimized with our time at this point, so nothing else to really cut out (besides sleep and family time), neither of which is a good idea. Until the sleep stabilizes we'll just keep on the workout when we can schedule.

Agree with this. I only have one, he is now 6 and it is substantially easier. Last year and this I feel like I’m back to being able to train however much I need. Enjoy it while they are young and think of it as a couple years of chill base training :) You’ll find your groove.

Family balance is a tough thing to negotiate with training. I definitely do not understand how anyone can get 20hrs +/week with kids and full time job. It would be too much for me. I have 3 boys, 7, 4, and 2. The sleeping gets much much better. So, early mornings become easier. If it wasn't for early mornings I couldn't do it. However, fitness and staying in shape is as much for me as it is for my family. I want to be active when I'm old. I want to be able to to keep up with my boys when they want to go cycling, or hiking, or whatever. So, I prioritize 45-90 min every morning. I also try to sneak in a short lunch run or quick 15 min swim during adult swim at the pool to just add a little extra volume when it doesn't take away from anything else. I don't like to give away more than 2 hrs on any weekend day to training. So, it's easy to get 8-12hrs a week like that. I do a lot of intensity work on my bike with that time. I am focusing on Olympic distance and seeing great progress with that volume and a good amount of intensity on the bike. I haven't and don't plan on going full distance until a 4-5hr training ride will be with my wife or boys and that's family time.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/23685202

Only 1? Get a couple more quickly before life gets too easy.


You need to stress your system more... It's like training.

Have twin girls under 3 yrs and expecting another in January.

I raced In for years at high level. I had to give triathlons a break and enjoy life. Also had a ton of wear and tear. I choose to walk/run and bike when time allows. All this as I’m also in medicine and wife works as well.

Priorities change and I have decided to save my joints and soft tissue to enjoy exercising with my kids and going on adventures with them.

All this said, I am an older dad. I have lived my adventurous tri life from the days of Bud Light racing. It was hard to slow down mentally and emotionally, but the gift of children is so different and rewarding in other ways. Just being healthy is my objective now.

Hope this helps. All of the comments are great.

Ha!
I’m 41, only going to be one man!

I'm 48 and my youngest (of 3 girls) is 10.

I wouldn't be without them for anything. Kids are great fun. Horrible little shits sometimes for sure, but there's a lot of laughing as well.

Absolutely!

I wake up on weekends whenever I want (usually early still) to cycle then run or swim. Weekdays I have undisturbed sleep until I wake up for work and then immediately go for a run when I am done. I eat what I want when I want - all healthy though since I am training. If I am tired, I nap. No one wakes me. I wanted some new race wheels the other day. Can you guess what I did? Yep, I just simply bought them. Did not have to ask - just purchased. They get here today. I am excited. I will leave work and put them on the bike, then eat some dinner, relax in the quiet and read a book perhaps as it is my rest day.

How is all this possible you ask? Oh yes, sorry I yawned, might still be slightly sleepy from too much rest - but I have no children :-)

I vaguely remember those days.

2 and 3 year olds with a part time 15 year old here. I have no disposable cash anymore, it all goes to the kids.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Lots of good stuff, I have an 8 year old and twins that are 5. Goodnews is that you will get more sleep and time to train as they age, but the really bad news is that you are going to be sick for a lot of those extra hours you get. Once those kids hit preschool and regular school, it is like the plague hits your family every couple months. Kids seem to get over stuff pretty fast, but us adults take longer, especially if we are training. It is a miracle around here if we have 3 straight weeks of no one being sick. I almost want to just infect all of us right away, just to get it over with. But no, it passes from one to the other, so it is usually a month+ until everyone is back on track, waiting for the next bug.

It gets better when they are over 6 though, yours and their immune systems are a lot stronger from all the training at fighting bugs..

Just get in stuff when you can, and dont plan, just do what and when you can and be happy with whatever it is..

I think this is where me being a teacher plus having two little ones of my own helps. I haven’t been ‘sick’ in well over a year, and haven’t missed a workout since taking a day off after an October marathon. Being exposed to so much over the years seems to have made me almost immune to whatever my kids at school (or home) have. If you aren’t around kids a lot it can almost be like Columbus arriving in the Americas and decimating the Indigenous population!

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

Right there with you. One turns 3 Friday and the other is 7 months. I'm able to get 10 hours a week right now but will be bumping it up in the coming months for an IM. Zwift has helped immensely being able to ride at any hour. My job is admittedly less time demanding though and I typically only work 40 hours/week. I actually had to hop off the trainer yesterday because my youngest woke up from her nap early, but was kind enough to let me finish while she was in her pack n play.

Two years ago my son, who was four at the time, was getting up around 5-5:15 most mornings. We ended up watching a lot of Daniel Tiger while I finished up on the trainer or treadmill. Doing intervals to that isn’t all that exciting!

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

Depends how limited the limited sleep is... If I can get to bed before 10 pm I can usually get 6 or 7 hours of decent sleep in, which is the minimum I need to be able to train and function. If your kids don't let you get that amount then trying to train is probably counter-productive as you'll just get grumpy, sick or injured. My oldest is 17 now (youngest is 4 months) so my body has had a long time to adapt to this and I don't fall asleep at random times quite so much anymore - it's been ages since I last napped in a pile of Lego. My advice would be to prioritise sleep, then just do whatever training you can each day with whatever energy you have that day, but really listen to your body when it tells you to slow down and rest. But then you're a doctor so you know that! It does get easier as your body adapts.

Good luck with your return to training.

with a nanny, a cook, and a maid, many things are possible ;-)
if there are grandparents around who like playing with the kids, it can open up some time too..

for normal people not so much. I've been fortunate to be able to use lunchtimes for workouts, but often don't get to do any kind of long training, as the weekends are taken up with family business.
So have been half-assing it for coming up twenty years now.. ha

Had five kids. Developmentally it was more important when they finally slept through the night compared to crawling, walking or talking.

Surprisingly, the training wasn't that bad because there were about six of us working at IBM or Mayo and training together. Maybe finding others in similar situations might help. At least we could bitch to one another before the sun came up and on weekends.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

It gets easier. don't sweat it. I have four kids. Initially, my riding and swimming went out the window, but I always managed to run between 40-45mpw. For me, running is the best bang for the buck when you get down to time crunch and kids. Eat well and don't booze too much but dont booze too little. ;) Family always comes first, so your head is in the right place. That said, in the words of Rodney Dangerfield...."the best thing about kids is making them!"

I'm in the same boat...up at 4:30-5 and on the trainer 3 mornings during the week and once more on the weekend, while my wife goes and runs sans children. About once a week my 3 yr old wakes up and we watch The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh together while I'm riding.

If you can't do early mornings or lunchtimes then you are going to struggle to do the training. I work full time, have eight kids and am able to train six mornings a week (Monday-Saturday) for 90 minutes each time (5.30-7am) as well as five lunch times (Monday-Friday) for 40 minutes each. That gives me 12 hours a week of training without having to take any real time away from my family. I schedule no training for afternoons because my kids are all in sports and I do a lot of coaching of their teams as well as driving them where they need to get to. I never train in the evening because that's my time for relaxing with my wife and older kids. The one challenge I have with my current set-up is finding time for the long bike rides I need and this year's solution (that was actually my wife's suggestion) has been to get up early on some Sundays (I've done three so far this year) and ride from 5-10 am. So 12-15 hours per week can be done on just mornings and lunchtimes with minimal impact on the family but there are a few caveats:

1. You have to be organised the night before.
2. You have to love the training.
3. You are not allowed to whine about getting up early.
4. You have to be able to recover during the day without neglecting your work/family responsibilities; i.e. you can only train up to a certain point because you have to be functional for the rest of the day. Unless you are lucky enough to earn your living with triathlon, you have to be able to do the job that pays the bills.

I'm sure there are people out there who train in the evenings and end up with a similar 12-15 hour time allocation, it's definitely possible if you have the self-motivation and love of the sport.