You certainly won't gain wealth by being a teacher. But it seems to me it affords a pretty decent schedule for training at a high level.

But really, you can do a lot even around a normal 9-5 work schedule (okay, maybe 7-3).

And to answer your question, I'm an engineer with a commercial aerospace company. My schedule is pretty flexible, but it's based around a 7-3:30 main time frame, and I do a lot of my training at lunchtime. I'm not even remotely interested in IM, so big training numbers aren't all that important to me. I put in about 12-15 hours a week in peak though.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

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Do what you need to do and Hustle....

Just make sure you feed your family before you do that long bike..... LOL

I work 6am-2pm and do some coaching on the side.

I can get 10hrs a week...

College student! Very conducive to training.

I tutor a couple hours a week. Not making a living... but right now it's fun.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
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I think teaching is a great schedule for training. Done at 3:30, you can get 2 hours in before dinner. Plus all the time off, 2 weeks at christmas, spring break, summers! I look forward to those and plan high volume for those times.

Physician 9 hr/wk off season, 13-17hr/wk IM build up. I can control my schedule to a certain extent when my IM build gets going. Just go to college 4 yrs, med school 4 yrs, then residency 5 yrs and you can also do this. Problem was, I stopped all training in med school and residency and all my fast twitch fiber went away--go figure! Staying up all night does affect your training though! Michael

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Michael in Kansas
"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit"
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I work for the same company brider does (most likely; there aren't that many large commercial aerospace companies in the Seattle area) doing computer science research and can pretty much set my own days and hours when I work. There are about a dozen triathletes here in the Bellevue campus, and a 7-3 schedule is pretty popular when the days start to get longer because it stays light so late. Getting in a 4+ hour ride starting at 3:30 is pretty easy starting in the spring.

I guess look more at the comany than for the job.

You may be able to get in with a good company that has a policy that may allow you to take long lunches (for workouts), have showers at the office, offer a free gym membership, be close enough to allow to ride your bike, come in late, so you can have long workouts in the morning, have a large enough office to store your bike and a change of clothes.

If you get in with a good company, your job may change over time, but their policies probably wont. I'd take into account the "triathlete accessability" of each workplace during your interviewing process.

I have my own business in a home office - so I can work a lot of hours - but they are flexible around my training. I think that flexibility/being your own boss is really the key. Surely didn't find THAT in the corporate world!!

Political consultant with my own shop. Virtually unlimited training time.

My friend is a good teacher and he works 50 to 60 hours a week which is pretty standard to get the job done right. My suggestions would be a firefighter. 24 on 48 to 72 off, librarian pretty low stress job that often allows 4 ten hour days, or as someone suggested research especially computer science. I know a few people who do that and they can set there own hours and work as they see fit.

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hey, hey, hey, don't forget- Stan Yablonsky never cold cocked no woman.

Management Consultant (aka glorified temp). Average 10-12 hours / week training. The key is to get my training done first thing in the AM because my workdays can be long and unpredictable. Work hours vary depending the project and my role in it. I can tell you, however, that I've never worked less than 50 hours per week.

Software engineer going on 5 years now (all at my current company, and plan to stay a long time). I have a lot of vacation/sick leave as well as a flexible schedule. If I want to come in at 6 and leave early, I can. If I want to come in at 10 and stay late, that is fine too. I personally prefer to work standard days and workout when I get off, but a lot of that depends on weather and daylight as well.

Chris

ok, as I haven't really trained much in the past 3 years (most of my non-working hours have been spent completely remodeling inside and out of our home), I do have to say that even with the busiest schedule, with good time management skills, one can train as often as needed - of course, keeping priorities straight.

For reference, while I don't travel too much now, there was a time I travelled 4 days/week every week (sales/business development). Even then, you learn to: 1) find the pools where you travel that you can swim, 2) bring your running shoes for after work runs, and 3) learn to use crappy Lifecycles in hotels (if you can invest in your own pair of "straps" to keep your feet on the pedals, it doesn't make them so horrid). You also learn to manage those business dinners where you may not "need" to attend, or have them push them off so you can get in your run. I also had a Bally's Health Club membership, so I could always find one near a Marriott (frequent stay points) and get some lifting in :-)

I have other friends who wake up at 3am on Saturday mornings so they can get their 6 hour trainer ride (for IM's) in by 9am so they take their kids to baseball, soccer, whatever.

Nowadays, I'm just starting up again, and have found that going to a pool about 10 minutes away at lunch is helping get started. I am trying to just alternate my running/walking on a nightly basis with riding. I only have about a 2 hour time window to do this, so it is quite challenging (if I'm stuck at work late - the training is off for the night). Despite 50+ hour work weeks, and extra time at home (sales/marketing/business development is a never ending process), I could ramp up to IM type training easily (assuming I was in good enough physical shape to get back to 20 hour training weeks).

If you do decide to teach, I know plenty of really fast ones (that whole crew in Southern WI). It does seem to be a good career to allow for some personal time (although I know some teachers who work more than many of my corporate friends). Get into coaching while you are at it....and those kids will push you! Nothing better than 15-20 smartass kids keeping you honest in your training :-)

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Craig Preston - President / Preston Presentations
Saving the world with more professional, powerful, and persuasive presentations - one audience at a time.

I would like to find a career that I can train at a high level even though I can't make money doing triathlon.

I think you will make a big mistake if you make a career decision based on triathlons. Make a career choice on what you love to do, and then work training around it.

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

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I also have a biology degree, and believe it or not, some parts of the medical profession have become much more flexible over the last decade, particularly if you are willing to forego some potential income in favor of better hours. Lots of demand for locums/temp MDs. That is what I do and i have lots of time to train and stil make a decent living. Downside is that your training would seriously suffer during medical school and residency but probably not as bad as you would think.

" . . .although I know some teachers who work more than many of my corporate friends"

Indeed, many teachers that I know, atre very passionate about there jobs and have little time to do other things. There are also teachers who coast along who I expect would have more time.

To the OP, I agree with the poster who said find something that you are really passionate about, that you have a built in enthusiasm for and then work the triathlon stuff around that.

Generally speaking sales jobs, where you are in outside sales, and are very independant often working from home, save a few meetings and days with your boss/manager, and don't have a huge territory to cover often offer the best time availibilty.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

corporate business development work. I work from home 3 weeks a month and usually travel one week. When I'm home, my schedule is pretty flexible...I deal with folks in Europe and all over the country, so my day starts early with phone calls and emails. But I can easily fit in a hour or two throughout the day or really early in the AM.....nothing at night though, that's family time.

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I'm a University Senior Lecturer and have the ability to train probably more than Joe 9-5. That said i do a lot a work off radar purely because I'm one of the fortunate people that love their job and their hobbies. You cram more in if you do.

4 - 5 hours per week & I do reasonably well as an AG. I'm not convinced that more hours would result in more results.


I own a company that distributes bikes & gear in Canada.

In my case, work isn't the issue in terms of training time. For me (& it's all about me)... family 1st, work 2nd & I'm last. Until my boys don't want to hang around with Dad or they're off to university, I wouldn't want it any other way.

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Paul "Speedy" Gonsalves
http://www.rollingthundercanada.com
RollingThunderCanada

Canadian distributor for HED Cycling, Blue Competition, Akona Biospeed & Aerus Composites

I am an extremely wealthy socialite. I pretty much have unlimited training time (unless I see strang bat like shapes projected in the night sky).

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real estate development, its good from the perspective that i am responsible for the progress of projects so the number of hours worked is not important. it can get bad at times as the perfect strom of issues occasionally hits, but its far better than being accountable to billable hours like a lawyer or consultant. then you know you are going to have to work a lot to be profitable.

in general though, you will spend 40-50 hours at work and maybe 8-15 training. i would be more focused on having a job you like as it will take up much more of your time & your mental energy. Besides, if you focus on work right out of school, with savings, investements, compounding blah blah, you can retire and train all day.

I'm a Vice President-Investments at a major brokerage firm and I live in AZ, so I'm in my office by 5:00-5:30am and done at either 1 or 2 pm depending on daylight savings (we don't do that here in AZ). So I swim in the morning around 8 for an hour break and run or bike in the afternoon. Oh, I'm in bed asleep by 8:30 and up at 4-4:30, so if you can suck that up...:)

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I agree with whomever said look at the company (and the people you work with/for). I work for a large corporate law firm (not a lawyer) and I work for the General Counsel. We just had a meeting and he asked when I was signing up for Badwater (never!). He had dinner last night with a multiple time Badwater participant and he knows that training/racing is of extremely high importance to me, so he's cool with a flexible work schedule (especially since he referees soccer and travels all over with his daughter for soccer tournaments.

The manager of the department here is a high level women's fastpitch softball umpire (on the Olympics level track), so she travels a lot to softball tournaments. And, she and her partner have a house in the foothills, so she works part-time here in SF and part-time in her office at the house and she has no problem with a flexible schedule as long as the work gets done. In fact, we are going to sit down soon and plan out our 2007 work/fun travel schedule (since we plan our work travel around our race/tournament travel). Our San Diego office knows that I will schedule something around one of the big races down there.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
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