I did Ironman Florida several years ago before my kids came along. I’m thinking about doing another IM for my 40th birthday in a couple years, but now I have a 10-12 hour a day job, two kids, three pets etc etc, you get the point. Can I train for an IM with that kind of time and other commitments. I did successfully train for a HIM last year and it wasn’t too bad, but obviously the IM is x2. Thanks for your input.
those are long hours, hopefully not every day.
One tip would be move your cycling to the spin room. I recently read where Andy Potts does 90% of his cycling on a trainer. It could help with getting more from less time. 2nd…swim at lunch, you can get some decent distance in 30-45 min.
Oh wait you still need to run…well maybe focus on efficiency at work (try to get to 8-10 hours).
If you just want to complete it and be miserable for a long period of time, you can do it on the same amount of training as your 70.3. If you want to compete and / or give it your best effort, wait until the kids go off to college. You will be looking for something to fill the time you now spend with them now.
Pretty tough to do if you ask me. I think even a 70.3 is hard to train for with kids. I know some that just leave their kids at home alone or with sitter and disappear all weekend if it’s that important to you. Unless you get up early AND can either ride/run to work AND do some stuff at lunch (S/B/R) and hit the trainer after everyone is in bed, I’d stick to the shorter stuff.
It depends on your goals. If you just want to finish, you could do it. If you want an aggressive time, something has to give (family, sleep, etc). It will prob involve a lot of early morning or late night workouts to work around the family.
i think you have to ask yourself why you are interested in doing this? is it worth throwing off your life balance? Is it fair to your family? Because 3:30am wakeups to ride the trainer and 8pm bedtimes, and long saturdays away from the family all equate to throwing off life balance.
It’s tough but I was able to “complete” 9 IM’s working a similar schedule. I typically arrive around 7:30am and leave about 6:30pm but often staying several hours later. Plus, as a rule I do not workout at night at all. For me that’s family time that I’m not willing to sacrifice.
The one thing I had going for me at that time though is that I was more junior in the company and had more flexibility throughout the day to get a workout in (usually a swim at lunch). As I’ve progressed I’ve got less of that inner-day flexibility and I can’t train for tri like I’d like to. Thus, I’ve “retired” for the time being and am instead focusing almost exlusively on running which I can do before getting to the office. I’ll throw in a ride every once in awhile but nothing serious.
This all comes down to time management. Identify your time constraints and wasted time. I have 3 small kids and no problem getting training in(except when lazy): early morning 5am-7am run or bike trainer. I work an 8 hour day and can swim at lunch time, so that allows me to do doubles a few times a week. Family time after I get home from work, dinner, then to bed at 9pm. Repeat…
I have a full time job that I am usually at for 8-9 hours a day (run a behavior room at public middle school), have one kid, have three dogs, a house to take care of, oh - and a wife. We would love to have another child, but will see if that’s in the cards. I do these races because I make it a priority. I will try to fit in 3 - 6 Ironmans per year over the next few years.
Here’s how I do it… I get up at 4 am every day of the week, get in a few hours of training (higher intensity stuff), go to work, go from work to the pool, go home. I have a trainer and a treadmill in my basement, and that’s how I can be productive with my time. My wife supports it, and I will hopefully change my work later this year to more of just coaching and training. If I’m able to do that, I can kick my full time job, but for now, I just have to make the best of the morning time.
10 hours is a short day for me :-)! Seriously, I work some really long hours, have 3 teenagers, and many commitments and still do it. It is the reason I started the blog under my signature (mostly to lecture myself). You could follow the series of article staring here: https://daviddaggett.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/training-with-family/ and be sure to read through to at least here https://daviddaggett.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/some-keys/
I work long hours and have two young kids and my husband also has a pretty intense career and plays hockey - it’s a lot of juggling. Also, because my husband could care less about the state of our house and yard, this also falls pretty squarely on me and because I tend to suffer from a tremendous amount of mom guilt, I do a lot more of the running around for the kids to and from activities, volunteering, scheduling sitters, etc.
I’ve found a few keys for fitting in the training:
1). Early mornings - my mornings start at 4-4:30
2). Outsource anything I can where my children won’t resent me later (mowing the yard, cleaning lady, etc.)
3). My husband travels a lot for work and he also likes to run some mornings so I have a sitter that will come over while the kids are sleeping (and she folds laundry!)
4). Have clothing for a run/swim at work so if I ever have just a few free minutes, I sneak in some miles (and have mastered the art of the quick shower).
5). Utilize outlook and block out times in advance and treat training like a meeting when I can
6). Working at night once everyone is in bed
7) Utilizing the trainer for long rides - it is just so much more time efficient to get on that thing and knock out a long ride, and I can also start when it’s dark out (I’ve started a few rides at 3:00a.m. so I can get my youngest to swim practice on time)
It’s a very precarious balance but I’ve been able to remain pretty competitive. The toughest part is sleep and staying healthy. I rarely do any training in the evenings so that time is with my kids and then I work again when they go to bed and my husband goes off to hockey.
Bike to work
Run to work
Swim on weekends
.
I’d work on getting a different job than one that is sucking up that much time in your life, regardless of trying to do an Ironman or not. I worked a job like that, switched, am way happier now. Time is worth more than money, because you can always get back money you lost, but you can’t get back time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Yeah, yeah, switching jobs is very hard. A gentler rule is just take better opportunities as they come along and say no to the ones that are time sucks.
All great ideas. When I trained for the HIM I would do my long stuff on the weekends with 5am wakeups and was back in the door by 8am, not too bad. I would do workouts at night after kids asleep as well. I am starting to mix in the swim during lunch as well, as the Y is close to my work. From what you all have said, I may just wait until my kids are bit older (they are 7 and 4 now and I don’t want to miss much if any time during those years). Maybe I’ll wait until they are teenagers who sleep in until noon on the weekends 
exactly, why would you do all of this ?
dont let your ego get in the way of your health
I get up at 4 am and workout before work. Then again after work. Typically work from 6 or 7 am until 4 or 5 pm. Long rides on Wed (I work Sat.) and long run Sunday. I have one child (16 months) and a very supportive wife. One full and several half distances each year. So far it works for me. We don’t have much of a social life anymore, but that’s how we choose to do things. My wife also is a runner.
I have a 9 and 7 year old, both in sports (soccer right now, baseball in the spring and I’m the manager). I also work full-time and my wife is a teacher and she shares a contract so she works either 2 or 3 days a week…and, we both do full Ironman races. Well, we both did Tahoe last year and are currently training for Arizona. To get this done, we just train around each others schedule while still fulfulling kids/family needs.
My wife is not a morning person so I’m up at 4 am Monday through Saturday and get either a trainer ride in, swim in or run in. I also get an hour in during my lunch time and either run or hit the gym for a core/strength training workout. Saturdays are my long rides/brick workouts and Sunday my wife does her long stuff. I use Sunday as a rest day and to get things done around the house.
Since my wife is part-time, she can get workouts in during the day a couple times a week, but she’ll do trainer rides at night. I’m exhausted by the time I get home from work so I never do workouts at night. Training can be done, but you just have to plan and be good at time management.
For me, I became complacent on the fact that I know the amount of training won’t ever make me a “hero”. Although, I have made it to 99% of the kids soccer and baseball practice and all of the games. I could train instead, but that isn’t the best decision for the kids. I have gone on runs with them while they ride their bikes, up to 5 miles. I also ran to and back from a baseball game to fit in a run while still seeing the game. I gave up most recovery type workouts and I make sure I fit in the long stuff. Good luck!
You can if you want, it’s about time efficiency and lifestyle. I am a business owner and I am at my practice at least 60 hours a week- my girls are in their late twenties and I am finally going to Kona via a legacy spot. I made sure to do an hourlong workout before work on the weekdays and then do longer ones on the weekend. But it does entail some sacrifice.
Depends what your goals and priorities are. I did a couple of IMs before the kids came along, and also have a fairly intense job, though I’m lucky in that it’s also fairly flexible in terms of when and where I do it which makes it easier to fit in training.
I could definitely still fit in enough training to do an IM in reasonable shape, but I think I would struggle to do enough to go faster than my previous times, and I’m not prepared to put the extra strain on my family and work for the sake of just getting round slower than before. The killer for me is swimming, since it’s my weakest discipline, isn’t very time-efficient (by the time I’ve got to the pool, changed, etc), can’t be done at home, can’t be done as a means of transport instead of driving, and can’t be done with the kids. And it means a fairly expensive gym membership where I live. Cycling is easy since I can cycle commute (15 miles each way) and use the trainer at home while the kids are asleep. Running is so time-efficient that you can always fit in a short run, and I can sometimes take my eldest out with me now she can ride a bike.
So I generally maintain great bike fitness and reasonable run fitness, but it’s pretty unstructured training. That’s cool, since I have no IM looming over me. If I was trying to hit a structured training plan I think it would be extremely difficult, so instead I get my kicks from entering Gran Fondo type events, racing friends (on the road and on Strava) up the local hills, etc.
Figure I have plenty of time to do IM when I’m older and the kids are a bit more independent and/or I can put my career on the back-burner. Might even find that I’m more competitive by having given my knees a break from those long runs for a few years!