Hi everyone,
I am about to become a father for the first time in December 
I know that this event will affect my life to a point that I cannot even attempt to comprehend… and I am extremely happy about it. However, I do have a couple of questions for the parents out there: how many hours/week have you been able to train during the baby’s first year? am I crazy to even think about registering for IM Wisconsin 08? (I’ve never finished an IM only a couple of HIMs).
Thank you for all your comments!
DPC
Maybe you should ask your wife.
As long as you don’t need sleep you will be fine. If it were me I think I would wait a year. That first year is high maintenance.
Wait for 09. Train when you can in 08 and enjoy fatherhood. You don’t need the emotional and physical stress of IM training with the new family.
All the best
JJ
(father of Hannah 3yrs and Calvin 9 months)
2xIM finisher
congrats
- you have no idea what you are getting into
- you cannot have an idea of what you are getting into, until Dec + 1
- you can prepare all you want, forget it. Roll with it, is all you can do.
- year 1 major high maintenance. I would really suggest no IM. Even 1/2 is rough
I can only speak for me, Kids were 6/3 when I did my first 1/2 and was doing 10-15hrs/wk and it was tough. This year, 7/4 and I am doing 10-12 and it’s working better. No doubles. AM only workouts. So yeah, that means sometimes I am up at 4am on a tuesday to workout 3 hours. It is what it is.
But things will change every year. As an infant, toddler, small kid, medium kid, and so on. NOW it’s important I only do AM workouts.
Talk to your partner about it, bigtime, because you both have to be in sync or she/he will kill you and you’ll be scerwing your kid up by having a disfunctional family. Family first, Races second. Get it straight, keep it straight. You’re committed now!!! 
and seriously, congrats. Best decision human beings could possibly make. But you need a set. Otherwise you’ll spend all your time screwing up the first one. You need to spread it out.
I am going through this right now.
I have done 5 IM’s (2001-2005) and really wanted to do Wisconsin this year. My daughter was born in November. Just submitted the withdrawal form last week. I thought it wouldn’t be that hard to be a new dad and race IM, but I was wrong. Even with the most supportive wife ever it was / is very hard for me. I don’t really think it is worth the extra stress during the first year. Let it go for the first year and see how you feel. Try to train as much as possible and see what is possible. My guess is you will find it difficult to maintain the volume you need while being good parent and spouse. YMMV of course…
Smart move…your swim wasn’t looking so good the other week.
There are too many variables/uncertainty to consider for anyone to give a good answer. These questions come up and inevitably you will get a response where someone pulled it off with “no problems.” --but results may vary.
A couple of variables that will effect your life:
Breast or Bottle
Stay at home wife or worker
When will the baby sleep through the night (big variable)
Family support
Attitude of Wife
I would only attempt it with the full expectation of ditching the idea part of the way through. You should be able to have a good stretch of training up to December.
Bon Chance
I think it all depends on your attitude toward your race expectations and your family. If you are willing to put your race, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or lower on the list then go ahead and sign up, wife’s permission of course. But of course going completely against all the ST’s rule you’ll have realize that you may not get the training in and go into the race WOEFULLY under trained. This of course could lead to a very long, painful day and possibly DNF.
I’ve said this here before, show me a guy who works to keep his family together, spends time with his kids, dates his wife, and compromises on his training sessions…I’ll show a guy who’s family is important to them. Training comes dead last after a whole lot of things that WILL pop up that first year.
That being said I kinda disagree with the the other posters that say the first year is tough or tougher. Other than the sleep issue, which doesn’t effect the guys as much as the women, especially if mom is breast feeding, the children are pretty low maintenance. Sure you have to feed more often, change diapers etc etc BUT THEY AREN’T MOBILE. You can do a trainer ride, throw them in the jogging stroller and lots of other interesting stuff. As long as you keep a backpack ready and packed it’s pretty quick and easy to get them out the door, compared to a 2 year old.
The minute they are mobile and worse yet when they can express they don’t like the situation, you’re done. Try getting a 2 year old in a jogging stroller when he has no desire to be there and the second you start spinning those tires on trainer, EVERY kid in house wants a ride.
The other aspect of this is the first year, especially again if the mother is breast feeding, there is alot more mommy time and slightly fewer things dad can do. By 12-18 months this starts to even out and mommy is gonna need a break. By 24 months it will take both you chasing the wee one around.
Off course there’s also the drive to do an IM rather than out training or at the gym. Once the little one is in the house it’s alot like any new experience except alot stronger. You’re going to want to spend more time at home with the kid than you might think you will now.
~Matt
Least of my worries :). Long run was like 13 miles at that point and long bike was 80 (x3). All that and being about 15 pounds too fat :(. what can I say…first time/ first year parent is a real kick in the nuts- but a lot of fun :).
I did my one and only ironman to date, 4 months after my first son was born. It actually wasn’t that bad. I was biking from 5-7am (while the wife and kid were sleeping) and either running or swimming during my lunch break (I work for a university). I think I also ran with him in a jogging stroller as well in the evening…but I could be wrong on that. Either way, I generally worked out in the evening after he and the wife went to bed. Weekends, I biked or ran in the early morning and would be home by 10 at the latest. It was tough…and I wasn’t getting much sleep…but I figured I wasn’t going to get much sleep regardless of whether I was training or not…and I refused to use training fatigue as an excuse. It can be done…it’s just a matter of if you’re willing to workout at less than ideal hours. There were several nights that I considered working out at 3am…since he had already had us up and I wasn’t getting back to sleep any time soon. I also took a few extra days off from work to put in some big training days. If anything, i think it’s harder now that the kid is a bit older and we’ve added a 2nd one.
Great post and good things to consider. I’d also like to add to the **When will the baby sleep through the night (big variable) **idea. It may be “Shocking” to the OP to realize that sleeping through the night in parents terms is not “Sleeping thru the night” in single or no kid terms. I was shocked and dismayed when I found out that other parents consider 5 or 6 hours without having to be fed, no not just not waking up, was “Sleeping thru the night”.
A good nights sleep, 7-8hrs of uninterrupted sleep is likely something that you’ll only see when the kids are out of the house again…yeh MOVED out of the house. Then you’ll be 50-60 years old and I’ve heard you need less sleep then so just kiss 7-8hrs good bye
~Matt
I did my first one about the same time frame as you, roughly 4 months after the first one was born.
Since my wife stayed home for 3 months after the birth and I had a good deal of training in before the birth everything went fairly well. Since then things have gradually gone down. I did 3 in a row 2004,2005 and a DNF in 2006. It’s MUCH tougher for me to get workouts in now than that first year. If for no other reason than at 3 years old the little dude is actually alot of fun and it’s tough to not just go home and mess around with him for a while…which usually means I don’t get a workout in.
~Matt
Don’t even think about it.
I am no expert (1 baby 1 IM) We are very blessed with our baby. She has slept through the night since we brought her home from the hospital. I will say that training was way easier in the first few months once they start moving around more and start to discover things it makes it harder to tear yourself away to train. For me it was anyway. not because I couldn’t (my wife was very supportive) but because a lot of times I did not want to leave and had to force myself. That said if I had to choose to do an IM with a new born or say a 2 year old I would say training is way easier with the new born in my experiences.
Thank you everybody for the comments.
so… what is easier? training for an IM with a new born or with a 1/2 years old?
DPC
First of all congrats!
My first son was born in August of 04 and I did IM Wis in 05. It can be done, but like all the other posters said there are alot of variables.
My situation was easier because up here in Canada, the mother is allowed to take up to a year off. Plus the father can take time off as well. I was able to take a month off in June which was really handy for training.
Also with the whole sleep thing it is usually the mother that is the most disturbed in the first year especially if she is breastfeeding, but if you are a light sleeper like me then it won’t matter. I usually woke up first and carried the little guy to my wife to be fed.
Are you doing the race to just do it, or do you have a specific (agressive) time goal? If you do, then it might not be the best time. The best advice that I can give if you are going to do it is to be flexible, creative and not sweat the small stuff when it comes to workouts. Nail the ‘big 3’ for the week and then squeeze everything in around family time and you should be ok. Just my experience…
BB
Everyone has to figure this out for themselves relative to their own lives, time demands and family. For me it was easy. When my son was born in 1997, I basically quit/retired and I have not really trained or raced seriously since then. Shifted to train-only-when-their-is-time mode and that was not very often for the first few years. However, it was easy for me. I had been racing and training at a modestly high level for nearly 17 years by that point. It had been a good, long run and it was time to move onto another phase of life.
I know that there are super Moms and Dads that do it all. My hat is off to them. I was completely honest with myself and I knew deep down that I could not juggle it all - family, work, training, the rest of life, so I cut way back on the thing that at the end of the day really is a hobby and purely recreational.
DPC,
First, Contrats…it is the greatest of life’s experiences (having kids).
I am a believer in total life integration between, work, family, fitness lifestyle, faith etc. That being said I have taken off IMs for the year in which each of my children were born and have no regrets. Win your family first so that they fully support your Ironman efforts.
My kids are 4, 6, and 8. (IMs x 16, so far). Best wishes,