Ack! I’ve been blessed with a beautiful baby, but since she’s been born a week ago I’ve been to the gym only once and have averaged less than 5 hrs of sleep a night.
Do any parents have any advice for how to train with this schedule? A bigger plus would be some good excuses so I can tell my frazzled wife as to why I need to spend an hour or more at the gym after work instead of helping her with the baby.
help!
Welcome to the world of sleep deprivation. The first month is the worst. I tell people that have not experienced a newborn it is like a kick in the nuts. There is nothing you can do to prepare for the lack of sleep. You just have to suck it up and take it.
So, on to training. The best thing I would suggest is get a treadmill and a bike trainer (1 up USA, since it is real quiet). This way you can sneak training in while the little one is sleeping. You can even tell your wife to go shopping and you will watch the kid. Once asleep, hop on one of the things. I also train in the morning and at lunch daily. Very rarely do I train at night, since I do like to play with the kids. Also, once a little older, incorporate them into your workouts. My kids go down to the track with me and play in the field while I do repeats. You just have to get creative and be wise with your time. By no means do you have to give up this sport. During Ironman prep I start many runs at 3 in the morning and can get in 16-20 miles before anyone gets up. I just try to tell myself over and over that sleep is overrated (I am almost convinced after 2 kids). But sometimes you will need to bail on a workout and sleep in, since you do not want to get injured/sick.
Good luck. I have number 3 due in 1.5 months and IM AZ in 3.5 months. Should make for an interesting taper!
i feel for you…I have a 3 month old. he was easy the first 2 weeks, and has gotten harder since. i have an incredible wife and i work from home for the most part so i have some time.
good luck that is a nice early xmas gift.
Kurt
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Get thee a Baby Jogger and indoor trainer. Your training has just moved one step lower on the priority ladder. The good news is that there is nothing sweeter than your baby (whatever age) sleeping on your shoulder, hugging your neck or asking you to read “Fox in Socks” just one more time. Congratulations and enjoy your little one more than worrying about your mileage.
awwww new baby! Do we get pictures?
for the moms,
My first is due in the spring. My wife’s able to get to the pool every once in a while and do a few miles on the trainer, but not really train. Her current thought is that she’d like to schedule a sprint race in August or September and use that as motivation to start getting back in post-baby shape–not competitive, just wants to do it. I’m wondering if you tri moms have any advice for me, the new dad, about:
Really we usually figure this kind of communication stuff out pretty well, but the kid is a new twist, and I figure some advice from experienced moms can’t hurt to hear.
Hi Rick:
I have a 19 month old little girl who slept through the night starting at 3 weeks. (Don’t shoot me now–it’s genetic!) I can tell you, though, that the hours of the days that I needed my husband home the most where from 4-7pm–still do, actually.
One suggestion for dads that I’ve heard works great is for the dad to get up to do the last nightime feeding–like the 4 am one–put the baby back to sleep and then head off to the gym/work, etc. If your wife can sleep through one of the feedings during the night, she will think you walk on water. You will be out of the house at a time when they are both asleep and you can get a workout in and get to work early enough so that you can get a few hours of good work done before the sleepiness catches up with you.
The first few months are hard with your first born and you all figure everything out. The problem is that nothing looks promising when you are totally sleep deprived.
Good luck!
Your triathlon career is…over
.
I have to be honest with you here;what planet are you on worrying about ‘training’ when you have a newborn?Priorities man priorities…nuff said.
(Feel free to lambast …)
TotalGym.
My solution is NOT the one that many are looking for, but mine was to quit/retire from triathlon! My son was born in 1997, and my last serious race( IMC) was the month after he was born. I decided during that month, that, that would be it for me at the level that I was at. However, for me it had been a good long run to that point and I was able to step away with no regrets. It certainly make those conundrums of what to do train or be with your falily a heck of a lit easier - family always comes first!
Fleck
She can do it…the most important thing is to set the goal, but always be willing to step back and re-evalutate as the baby’s needs change. It always seemd to me like I was one step behind my daughter. I did an Oly (really slow!) when my daughter was 3.5 months old. I tried to get in 5 workouts a week and the structure was good for me since I didn’t go back to work. I would put together a weekly plan and clear the babysitting with my husband and his work schedule. It helped that it was summer and there was a lot of daylight.
There are lots of little things that crop up that will need a bit of problem solving, like if she nurses, will she need to pump before she runs at 5:30 am?
Some days I was too tired to workout, so we would put the baby in a stroller and go walk and get an icecream. (I always told myself the calcuim was good for me!) It was nice to have the company when I was feelign lazy and tired.
Nice things you can do to encourage your wife–help her get ready for workouts, so as soon as the baby is fed she can get out the door. Sometimes this means pumping tires and filling water bottles or getting out her swim bag and putting after-workout snakcs in. Also, when she gets home and needs to feed a hungry baby RIGHT AWAY, bring her water, put her wet suit and towel in the wash, etc. I still love it when I am out on my bike and my husband comes out on the route in the car with the baby and extra drinks just to say hi (and I think to reassure me that he hasn’t dropped her on her head or left her on top of the car in her carseat).
The best babysitting my husband did for me was so that I could go to group workouts. It was great to be around “real” athletes again, after 9 months of sitting on the sidelines while pregnant. I also didn’t train too much during my pregnancy–my little one was transverse breach, making running uncomfortable.
Have you ever thought about during her first-post baby race as a team? That way she can concetrate on the fun–and it might be easier for her to just train for one or two disciplines.
You will figure it out, for sure. Your wife should feel lucky that you are already thinking about these things so far in advance!
Quick, use birth control so it doesn’t happen again.
I am a new dad as of March. Training is less than half of what I would otherwise be doing. I figure it’s not fair t my spouse for me to come home from work and then go train. Plus, I love the kid and would really rather hang out with her. Tri’s have taken a backset for a while. I’ll do some shorter stuff, but I can’t train seriously for a while. That is the only way I see it happening for me.
thanks!
also, apologies to rickn for sort of hijacking your thread.
It’s pretty simple…actually…
There isn’t a simple answer but a lot of good advice already posted. I found that I was able to at least get out for a quick run or a trainer ride but not able to make it to the pool too often.
Less sleep…a lot, but you already know this
Get a trainer
Get a baby jogger
Make deals w/ your wife to give each other some time away from the baby
The first three months are really bad but then it starts to get better so just go with the flow.
Congrats!
Good luck brother! You just need to make time!
First I have to agree with several other posters…priorities, family first.
Second your wife shoudl be first of the family first. IOW you shoudl rarely if ever tell your “frazzled wife”, “I’m going to the gym”. One lesson I learned, well before kids, Happy wife = Happy home. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but in teh long run if you really take care of your wife and family likely you’ll end up getting MORE time in than if you push them aside for a workout.
Now on to the workout advice.
In my case I learned rather quickly…no sleepy…no workie outie. My son was born June of 2004 and I did IMFL in Nov of 2004. About teh 3rd week he was home I ended up on the couch sick for a weekend because I stretched it to far.
Next as others have mentioned, trainer, Early morning etc etc. Find times when you can be gone and the family won’t notice. The main issue here is long bike rides as you can fit a run in almost anytime and swim workouts aren’t the 3-4-5+ hours that the bike rides take. Here again the trainer is an option if you’re strong willed. Otherwise leaving REALLY early on a weekend AM is about the only choice.
As I mentioned before the real trick is making sure the family, especially the wife is happy. If she gets “her time” you’ll more than likely get more “your time” then if you take your time and she doesn’t get her’s.
Later on bring the kid with. I plan on “scheduling” as many short, hard, drag the kid behind bike rides as humanly posssible this summer. Of course you won’t be able to do this until the kids 12+ months or so. I figure there can’t be a much better workout than draging around 40+ lbs of baby and carrier up a hill. So far Ive been lucky and the kid is a speed freak…the faster the better…which makes for an even tougher workout.
~Matt
I am not a mom, but maybe I can help you…
My wife is expecting our second one in June (same day as Eagleman, too bad I registered). When we had our first, she took about 2 months to get back into some kind of a swing of training. During the pregnancy she stayed in touch with swimming and occasionally rode her trainer, and ran up to 20 weeks, then did some walking. She carried through the summer, so the weather was cooperative for her to get outside. She did not try to ride on the road for fear of what could happen if she fell. Her total training she estimates at 5 hours a week up to 26 weeks, when it dropped off to nothing.
Once the baby was born (Sept 04), we were pretty much buried (still are). With the new year, she started training pretty regularly. We worked out a system where we exchanged days. She would ride on Mondays and I would ride on Tuesdays, and we would alternate the Thursday and Wednesday. Wednesday was our local group ride, so it would mean we alternated weeks for that. Weekends saw me riding saturdays and her running when I got home, and sundays were the opposite. I convinced her to lead a group ride on Mondays in April, and she got into the groove, doing it through the whole summer. She felt that this commitment that helped get her into that groove, and I would get to spend more time with the baby.
It was tough considering we always trained together before, now we never train together except when family offered to watch the baby. You learn to make do with what you have. Sometimes the babyjogger was our saving grace. Usually head control in a baby is sufficient in 4 months to hit the road for 30 minutes. Sometimes, instead of suggesting she go train, I would just take the baby, and tell her “see yah” and go out with the jogging stroller, or take our baby to the pool. She would train, or more importantly sometimes, take a nap.
Good Luck! You will have too much fun to care if you miss training.
BTW My wife had a fantastic season last year, and did so with a training base more related to what she had done in the previous 10 years than what she did in the previous months. She entered 4 tris and won 3 of them, getting second in Pittsburgh to round it out.
I didn’t, so I have to brag about something…
Like me, you have just become a tri “sprint” specialist. You dont want to be packing up your kid like I did here a couple months down the road. Enjoy it and make sure you don’t miss anything…
