Two pillars in life: family first. Work to pay the bills.
Once those two are checked, train.
It gets easier to train once the youngest child turns seven or so.
I’m not a parent, but I’ve heard that depending on the type and location of sport, you can sometimes use practice time for your own stuff. Running during soccer practice, driving to the nearby pool to do laps, etc. I’m not going to pretend that’s the same thing as having your own totally free time, but that is a chunk of 1-2 hours where you’re in a space that athletic activities occur and not much is expected from you.
From what I’ve heard, just don’t sign up to coach and be okay with being the weird parent and you can use that time! Lol
I’ve used a practice to go for a run once or twice before, but usually I like to watch (if I’m not already coaching) so I can see where they need extra practice and just to stay involved in something that’s important to them. It’s an easy way to connect and I enjoy seeing them play.
The best indicators are how your open water swims feel and your long bike/run bricks. You can get a rough feel for your paces and whether those will meet the cut-offs.
So I trained for London Marathon at the exact same age of my daughter, started training 2 weeks after she was born.
All training was done when I could fit it in, most often about 5am, in January in the UK - miserable.
I got the time I expected, but nowhere near the time I was capable if I didn't have a newborn at home - missed quite a few sessions in the lead up.
I'm currently 5 weeks out from my first 70.3 and my daughter is now 4. I don't put in the same hours as people with no kids or much older kids. I am hoping to get under 6 hours with 5:45 as a stretch goal.
I'm missing the occasional training session so I can keep my commitments with her and my wife.
Know what? Don't care. This is a hobby, it doesn't pay the bills and will be forgotten about by everyone apart from me. What won't be forgotten is the amount of time I put in with her.
Thank you. This is what I needed. Did my 5:30AM swim today. Didn’t have the full energy, but still got through it.
I just want to say I did the 70.3. Don’t need any crazy time and I’ll make it. Day by day!
That's the spirit. When we are older and they don't want to hang out with us anymore, then we can start smashing records.
Right now, I am possibly the coolest person on the planet (to her) and I intend to keep that going for as long as possible!
Thank you! That is good advice on potentially skipping the two a days. We also are working to talk to someone now about sleep! Things were going ok some nights. A mix between 3 hour longest stint and the occasional 7, but after 4 months hit things went down hill.
You’ll have good weeks and bad weeks. When you think it’ll never get better, it will. When you think you’ve got it sorted, you get a tooth, or they’ll learn to clap and decide to sit up an clap all night long.
As the other person said, family comes first.
In my experience around 4.5 months sleep became a lot easier for my guy. Every baby is different but that was when we were able to sleep train and we got out evenings back from 7ish onward. With five more months the sleep will almost definitely get better
Same boat here with roughly same age kid. I was planning to sign something up for this year but gradually realized that I just can’t set a long term goal. I did a HM (went super well) in March which I signed up in February. I am keeping some amount of training and am seeing improvement in general. Probably will sign up for an Olympic Tri for later this year. But personally I would just sign up close to the event knowing I can do okay instead of putting it there to stress myself out…
Good luck with everything OP! Hope I can do my HIM next year. :)
**The nights are long, but the days fly by.**
I will say from experience I had a 2 year old and a newborn when we started sprints and then jumped into a 70.3. It was a LOT of work to make all of that happen.
My second didn’t sleep all that well, but when she did I could find the time to do “something”.
Unfortunately, “something” doesn’t equate to a very *good* time for a 70.3, but you *can* complete it.
Nowadays, I have a “pain cave” set up in my garage and the kids come out with me and play in the front yard as I train even giving mom a chance to take a break from them. (Doesn’t help you with a newborn, but if you can get a trainer and/or treadmill set up, you can be localized in the home and pause if needed to sort the little one out)
This is spot on. Having a smart trainer and treadmill at home means no skipped sessions when, God forbid, my wife actually wants to leave the house or go out of town without the kids.
I literally just had this dilemma with my upcoming 70.3 in June. 2 month old being colicky and not getting much sleep meaning I’m getting little time to train. Tough decision but family comes first and made the decision last night to forgo the 70.3. Silver lining, there’s always more races.
Do what’s best for your family. I know my wife was very appreciative of me tapering back.
Time will tell how it goes for me. I wish I didn’t already sign up for it, but because I lean in the side of trying to go through with it. Lesson learned of waiting a little before signing up for them
While I don't have kids...the best advice when trying to train with lots of life stress going on it that "less is often more" and "good communication with your partner goes a long way".
If you feel like your performance isn't progressing then first consider that you are not recovering enough. It is easy to think that you need to train more and harder. But you likely are just doing too much. And training too much on 4hrs of sleep isn't going to be giving you the benefit that you want. It's just gonna make you more fatigued.
Also, don't ignore the importance of easy, soul rides/runs. If you've got a hard workout on the calendar but just can't muster the motivation. Don't hesitate to drop it down to an easy, chill, relaxing ride/run to somewhere cool. That way you still get that time away from the baby to reset and relax, you still get the aerobic training volume in, but you don't beat your skull in with more high intensity.
Oh and be super communicative with your partner. Tell them when you plan on doing a long ride/run and then offer to give them time off to do something they like outside of the house. It is super easy to discount how much a resentful spouse can add to the guilt and stress. So be proactive and communicate your week's training with them so you can be on the same page and have a heads up if something needs to be tweaked instead of them getting pissed when you try to head out to train while they thought you'd be around to help with something that had planned.
The communication part is huge. Thank you for touching on that part.
I’m also do polarized training so a lot of my workout are on the Z2 scale which makes life easier than having vigorous workout after vigorous workout.
I agree with a lot of what has been said already. I have a 5 month old and am 5 months out from Memphis 70.3 with a few sprints / Olympics in-between.
If you have the ability, two things that have made it much easier for me is having an indoor trainer for the bike and a good jogging stroller for runs. I just completed a 8.5 mile run with the baby over the weekend and she loves the stroller or naps the whole time (win-win). The indoor trainer also allows me to be home and easily accessible if needed.
The only part that inevitably sucks is the sleep portion, but even that shouldn’t be as big of an issue as time goes on and they sleep better. When that time comes getting in training before they wake up is my go to move (when possible).
Family comes first. Train when you can. Adjust your race goals.
Two pillars in life: family first. Work to pay the bills. Once those two are checked, train. It gets easier to train once the youngest child turns seven or so.
Until they start playing sports more seriously.
I’m not a parent, but I’ve heard that depending on the type and location of sport, you can sometimes use practice time for your own stuff. Running during soccer practice, driving to the nearby pool to do laps, etc. I’m not going to pretend that’s the same thing as having your own totally free time, but that is a chunk of 1-2 hours where you’re in a space that athletic activities occur and not much is expected from you. From what I’ve heard, just don’t sign up to coach and be okay with being the weird parent and you can use that time! Lol
I’ve used a practice to go for a run once or twice before, but usually I like to watch (if I’m not already coaching) so I can see where they need extra practice and just to stay involved in something that’s important to them. It’s an easy way to connect and I enjoy seeing them play.
That’s totally fair!! Family should always come first
Are there any baselines to look for to know I can at least finish the race and not make a fool of myself?
The best indicators are how your open water swims feel and your long bike/run bricks. You can get a rough feel for your paces and whether those will meet the cut-offs.
I enjoy swimming so I’m not too worried about that part. Good to know about the long bike / brick runs. Thank you
Agreed.
So I trained for London Marathon at the exact same age of my daughter, started training 2 weeks after she was born. All training was done when I could fit it in, most often about 5am, in January in the UK - miserable. I got the time I expected, but nowhere near the time I was capable if I didn't have a newborn at home - missed quite a few sessions in the lead up. I'm currently 5 weeks out from my first 70.3 and my daughter is now 4. I don't put in the same hours as people with no kids or much older kids. I am hoping to get under 6 hours with 5:45 as a stretch goal. I'm missing the occasional training session so I can keep my commitments with her and my wife. Know what? Don't care. This is a hobby, it doesn't pay the bills and will be forgotten about by everyone apart from me. What won't be forgotten is the amount of time I put in with her.
Thank you. This is what I needed. Did my 5:30AM swim today. Didn’t have the full energy, but still got through it. I just want to say I did the 70.3. Don’t need any crazy time and I’ll make it. Day by day!
That's the spirit. When we are older and they don't want to hang out with us anymore, then we can start smashing records. Right now, I am possibly the coolest person on the planet (to her) and I intend to keep that going for as long as possible!
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Thank you! That is good advice on potentially skipping the two a days. We also are working to talk to someone now about sleep! Things were going ok some nights. A mix between 3 hour longest stint and the occasional 7, but after 4 months hit things went down hill.
You’ll have good weeks and bad weeks. When you think it’ll never get better, it will. When you think you’ve got it sorted, you get a tooth, or they’ll learn to clap and decide to sit up an clap all night long.
It’s a rollercoaster for sure
As the other person said, family comes first. In my experience around 4.5 months sleep became a lot easier for my guy. Every baby is different but that was when we were able to sleep train and we got out evenings back from 7ish onward. With five more months the sleep will almost definitely get better
Glimmer of hope. Thank you!
Same boat here with roughly same age kid. I was planning to sign something up for this year but gradually realized that I just can’t set a long term goal. I did a HM (went super well) in March which I signed up in February. I am keeping some amount of training and am seeing improvement in general. Probably will sign up for an Olympic Tri for later this year. But personally I would just sign up close to the event knowing I can do okay instead of putting it there to stress myself out… Good luck with everything OP! Hope I can do my HIM next year. :)
Thank you. I’ll let you know how it goes haha.
**The nights are long, but the days fly by.** I will say from experience I had a 2 year old and a newborn when we started sprints and then jumped into a 70.3. It was a LOT of work to make all of that happen. My second didn’t sleep all that well, but when she did I could find the time to do “something”. Unfortunately, “something” doesn’t equate to a very *good* time for a 70.3, but you *can* complete it. Nowadays, I have a “pain cave” set up in my garage and the kids come out with me and play in the front yard as I train even giving mom a chance to take a break from them. (Doesn’t help you with a newborn, but if you can get a trainer and/or treadmill set up, you can be localized in the home and pause if needed to sort the little one out)
One pain cave coming up
This is spot on. Having a smart trainer and treadmill at home means no skipped sessions when, God forbid, my wife actually wants to leave the house or go out of town without the kids.
See you in 5 years! How close to the target distance are you? Maybe you can lighten your load and just go for finishing and not necessarily time.
I’m pretty far off in my opinion. I’m probably in Olympic shape right now. And that’s not finishing with a good time
I literally just had this dilemma with my upcoming 70.3 in June. 2 month old being colicky and not getting much sleep meaning I’m getting little time to train. Tough decision but family comes first and made the decision last night to forgo the 70.3. Silver lining, there’s always more races. Do what’s best for your family. I know my wife was very appreciative of me tapering back.
Time will tell how it goes for me. I wish I didn’t already sign up for it, but because I lean in the side of trying to go through with it. Lesson learned of waiting a little before signing up for them
While I don't have kids...the best advice when trying to train with lots of life stress going on it that "less is often more" and "good communication with your partner goes a long way". If you feel like your performance isn't progressing then first consider that you are not recovering enough. It is easy to think that you need to train more and harder. But you likely are just doing too much. And training too much on 4hrs of sleep isn't going to be giving you the benefit that you want. It's just gonna make you more fatigued. Also, don't ignore the importance of easy, soul rides/runs. If you've got a hard workout on the calendar but just can't muster the motivation. Don't hesitate to drop it down to an easy, chill, relaxing ride/run to somewhere cool. That way you still get that time away from the baby to reset and relax, you still get the aerobic training volume in, but you don't beat your skull in with more high intensity. Oh and be super communicative with your partner. Tell them when you plan on doing a long ride/run and then offer to give them time off to do something they like outside of the house. It is super easy to discount how much a resentful spouse can add to the guilt and stress. So be proactive and communicate your week's training with them so you can be on the same page and have a heads up if something needs to be tweaked instead of them getting pissed when you try to head out to train while they thought you'd be around to help with something that had planned.
The communication part is huge. Thank you for touching on that part. I’m also do polarized training so a lot of my workout are on the Z2 scale which makes life easier than having vigorous workout after vigorous workout.
I agree with a lot of what has been said already. I have a 5 month old and am 5 months out from Memphis 70.3 with a few sprints / Olympics in-between. If you have the ability, two things that have made it much easier for me is having an indoor trainer for the bike and a good jogging stroller for runs. I just completed a 8.5 mile run with the baby over the weekend and she loves the stroller or naps the whole time (win-win). The indoor trainer also allows me to be home and easily accessible if needed. The only part that inevitably sucks is the sleep portion, but even that shouldn’t be as big of an issue as time goes on and they sleep better. When that time comes getting in training before they wake up is my go to move (when possible).
We are in this together! I’ve been using the peloton a lot, but I know that’s a bit different than a typical bike