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IM Training with 3 Kids
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 2016-08-12 8:52 AM |
 239  |  Subject: IM Training with 3 KidsI am looking for some insight on how other athletes incorporate IM "competing" (not just completing) into their family routine. Background: I turn 37 tomorrow, racing IM Los Cabos this October (this will be IM #3...IM Cozumel 2014; IM Muskoka 2015), kids are 7 (son), 4.5 (son), 9.5 months (daughter), supportive wife (as long as I don't take too much time away from family),. Currently, I am probably getting 8-10 hours/week of training in (on good weeks). I hired a coach from October 2015 - June 2016, but I realized I was not able to keep up my end of the bargain with the demands of my job and family. I learned quite a lot from her and we had great rapport, but I just could not be as dedicated as I would like to be. I currently follow a Trainerroad full-iron distance training schedule as I am ramping up for Cabo. I am firmly in MOP (12:38 IM; 5:27 70.3; 3:51 Marathon; 1:38 Half-Marathon) but was hoping to move up to bottom FOP, or at least top MOP. My boys are active throughout the year with baseball, football, swim lessons, etc. which takes up a lot of time. The baby can make it challenging to get in morning workouts, so I have been forced to do most workouts in the evening. I have all but scrapped my swim training since getting to the pool is a huge time suck, and I have a strong enough swim background to get through any distance. (IM Cozumel swim was 1:07, IM Muskoka was 1:10 with little to any swim training). My goals coming into the year were sub-5:00 in 70.3 (5:27 was my PR @ Muncie this year), and sub-12:00 at IM Los Cabos (I suppose still a possibility). Like most long-course athletes, my goal is to one day get to Kona (as well as 70.3 Championships), but I know this will probably not happen before I age up in 3 years. I have not scrapped my training plans this year, buy my expectations have been altered due to my family and work obligations. I realize this will be another year of "completing" races as opposed to "competing" in them. So, for all of the athletes with young families, feel free to ask any questions and instill any advice you may have. -Do I just chip away at my PRs for the next couple of years while my kids get a bit older and make the big push when I age up to 40-44? -Should I take some time off from triathlon after Cabo, focus more on my diet (I eat pretty well), and perhaps just focus on running, instead of all 3 disciplines? -Is it only going to get harder as my kids get older to get training hours in? -Is re-hiring a coach for next season a good idea to better maximize my training hours? Thanks everyone. Jeff |
| 2016-08-12 9:23 AM in reply to: Jeff B |
1502   Katy, Texas | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids I personally survive on morning and lunch workouts. If I go to bed at 8 when the kids do, I can get up at 4:30 and get a solid 60 min workout in and still be to work by 8. Then, if I put in 30 minutes at lunch, that gives 7.5 hours M-F. On the weekends, I get up at the same time and I can be on my bike by 5:30. A 3.5 hr long ride followed by a 2 mile run off the bike gets me coming in the door at 9:00am and the kids are still blurry-eyed and eating breakfast. Same for Sunday. That means I can have up to 13 hrs of training that is all but invisible to my kids. When ramping up for an IM I'll have a month or so pushing 20 hrs, but that is one month of the year and it still gets me home by 12 on Saturday, 10 on Sunday. To me that is very limited time away from the family. As for sleep with a little one, our youngest still has issues sleeping. My wife has taken the lead on that so I can sleep. Since she doesn't work, she can sleep in a bit to make up for it and then workout at our gym that has a daycare. I also let her have the early workout on Sundays before it gets hot and take the bullet of doing a brick in the heat. It's all about compromise. Giving her a nightly head massage helps too  When I interviewed for my current job, I made it a point to let them know I'd need flexibility in my schedule for training. Also, when deciding where I wanted to work, I looked at things like commute times, how close the office was to a gym, if the office had a gym, etc. Obviously these weren't the major factors, but they certainly played a role in my decision. My number one goal is to not take anything away from my kids. In addition to making sure M-F my training is completely invisible to them, I'm also careful not to push the weekend workouts to the point where I'm not interactive and playing with them the rest of the day. Our Saturdays consist of swim lessons starting at 11am then we spend the day at the outdoor pool where my girls and I go down the water slide about 7,000 times together. I know during my ride that I am going to be climbing a heck of a lot of steps, so I keep that in play. Also, I really like water slides, so that helps too. |
| 2016-08-12 9:50 AM in reply to: 3mar |
Master 4118 Toronto Bronze member | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids I am not super competitive but have a little one and a job. A good way to try to fit things in and make it more seamless to the family is to use some PTO in the heaviest part of the training cycle. During my IM training when i didn't have a kid it ended up that my mom had cancer and my sister was getting married so the summer was busy. I would look at my schedule and take a bunch of fridays off and do my long bike on that day. That way I could do the family stuff and if i needed to work it was okay to catch up a bit on a Saturday for an hour or two over a 5 hour bike ride. I did the same thing for HIM training last year - i hated to miss most of a day with my daughter after I went back to work. I've now backed off the distance for a while. It is very important to do what is right for you. There's no one right answer - so that's just what i did to make it work |
| 2016-08-12 10:57 AM in reply to: Jeff B |
Not a Coach 11473 Media, PA | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids This is just my experience, but found that at your kids' ages, getting workouts in the am was paramount. Otherwise too many don't get done. With young kids, I got to bed at the same time (or just after) they did and was able to do even 2hr runs in the early morning pre-work. Then I was free to spend "family time" (or kids' sports or whatever) in the evenings. Even on the weekends, I would be out at first light to get my long rides done before lunch and still have most of the day with the family. A coach may help you plan the workouts and free up some time for you that way, but you have to arrange to have the necessary 'blocks' for that training on your schedule--the coach can't help with that. My experience has been that it gets tougher as the kids got older. Like you, I have 3 (now 17, 15 and 12 but I started tris when they were about 6, 4 and 1). They are all active and the 'commitment' generally grows as they age up. They stay up later and have activities that often go past times I would have already gone to bed in prior years. Early am workouts have become much less frequent as I just can't do many and get through a week (while staying employed!). As a result, I have not done a tri the past 2 seasons and have relegated myself to mostly just running for a while. There is some 'light at the end of the tunnel' though. With one now self-sufficient (at least regarding transportation) I can already see a few more opportunities to free up some time. I am hoping that in the next year or two I can get myself back doing some tris. Once they all get older, I'll probably have more 'free' time again to fit in all 3 sports more easily. It won't be long before they are mostly out of the house. I'd love to be doing tris still, but it's way more important to share the time I have with them and be part of their experiences. Some people can arrange their schedules to have both (I was able to do this for several years), but some aren't. It may limit what races you can do or how fast you can do them, but won't limit your ability to set a great example for your kids by staying active and competing at some level. Good luck! |
| 2016-08-13 8:46 AM in reply to: 0 |
Regular 585 Pueblo, Colorado | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids Here's what worked for me in terms of balance when training for an IM: -Identified the Key Workouts in my training plan (usually a longer ride, run, or both on the weekend). -If I had to miss a workout or two, I made sure they weren't the key workouts. -Did shorter workouts during the week (usually swim or trainer ride in the a.m.) -Talked with my wife about the big "can't miss" workouts I needed to do well in advance. -Used 1 or 2 weekdays for my rest/ recovery days. -Adjusted my longer workouts if a family activity came up, usually flip flopping days. Ironman training is a huge time investment and requires some sacrifice. My family has been supportive, but I don't think I realized during training what a huge impact it had on them in terms of the time investment. I've taken a year off from longer distance stuff after IM. I love having the extra time and have really enjoyed getting to hang out with my kids more. I've also had a chance to try some things I hadn't done before like Paddle boarding and Yoga. Qualifying for the world championship is an even bigger investment. I would say that if you're going to go after a Kona spot, you should sit down with your family and map out what that attempt will look like. Set clear ideas about what you'll need to do, and what kind of training investment in terms of time, money, etc. it will take. A Kona Spot is incredibly challenging to obtain as you'll need to be in the front of the FOP. I was in the 40-44 AG at IM Boulder last year and went 12:24ish. That got me 95th place in my group. The top 3 were all under 10 hours and in the top 20 overall, meaning I would have to improve my time by over 2 hours to capture a slot without a roll down. Edited by tedjohn 2016-08-13 8:52 AM |
| 2016-08-16 8:39 AM in reply to: Jeff B |
| 239 | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids Thank you all for your insight. The common theme appears to be: AM Workouts or bust. I have never had a problem with AM workouts since I spent 12 years in a pool at 5:00am, 6 days a week, it has just been the "guilt' factor knowing my wife leaves the house early (around 6:30am) for work, and if I am on my trainer or treadmill at 4:30-5:00am and the baby wakes up, it delays her ability to leave on time since I would not be available. I think this will probably rectify itself in a few months as the baby will be 1 in October and she has been pretty good about sleeping through the night...just sometimes wakes up at 4:30-4:45 for a quick bottle.... Thank you again for taking the time to reply. I'll see if sub-12:00 is obtainable in October. Take care everyone. |
| 2016-08-16 10:49 AM in reply to: Jeff B |
Veteran 2297 Great White North | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids For long term try to steer your kids into a co-ed (for the team/training) sport like swimming. With less running around to different activities your time management will improve. Get the wife to help on this one and then take a few years doing short course races. Once your little one is around 4-5 or 6 give it another go. |
| 2016-08-16 12:31 PM in reply to: Jeff B |
| 216 | Subject: RE: IM Training with 3 Kids There's a reason you often see a surge in participation in the age groups 45 and up. It's because that's the age when people usually start becoming empty nesters, or at least have kids that are old enough to be semi-independent. I see it in Masters swimming, too. If you work full time and have 3 kids under 8, it's probably going to be years, many years, before your able to commit the kind of time to training that would be needed to achieve your current goals without substantial risk of alienating your family. You already know you're not gonna improve much at IM racing on 8 (or less) hours a week. So you need to re-calibrate your goals. You could, as you say, continue to do just barely enough to keep your current speed at IM and maybe, just maybe, "chip away" at your PB's. Or you could devote yourself to running. But, if you like triathlon and want be competitive, why not strive to be competitive at a shorter distance? You can train pretty comprehensively for Sprint distance races with five or six 45-90 minute workouts a week. |
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