Learn to love getting up at 5am for a workout. Once you get used to it it’s your favourite hour of the day.
Be flexible - sometimes you’ll have to miss a workout, this doesn’t really matter.
Be careful not to prioritise sitting on your bike ahead of spending quality time with your family. Sometimes it’s better to sack the ride and hang out with the wife and kids instead.
Cycling is “only a game”, it’s not as important as your family.
Keep your wife on side!
It’s all very doable though - i’ve got wife & 3 very active kids and a full time job with tons of commuting and I manage plenty of training. It’s all about time-efficiency and flexibility.
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It’s taken me 3 weeks to get back on the bike after the birth of our first. I’m doing ssb 1 LV and some weight lifting. I started back on the weights a few days before the bike.
We just make the schedule work for us. I do the 6am feed then on an exercise day crack out my lifting sets before work. Bike workout is done when I get in from work then. Would prefer the other way around but thats a little harder to control if the little miss doesnt settle easily after her feed.
@zMax peaking for childbirth. Genius! Wish I had thought of that 9 months ago! 
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Early starts aren’t even worth thinking about for me. 5 year old is an early riser and 3 week old is no where near having a normal pattern so any training done then would leave my wife looking after both.
I can work out in the evenings just fine as my older one is in bed but it does sacrifice time with my wife which can be tough.
Commuting would definitely be the answer but I do a lot of work from home and here in Scotland “winter is coming”.
Seriously good thought. I think my second will arrive near the notional end of a Build phase. A few weeks off and then I can step back into SSB since I’m probably not doing any serious racing this year. Ha! Periodizing by childbirth!
So I’m the old guy here it would appear, I have a 17 year old daughter, a 15 year old son, a 13 year old son, and a 12 year old daughter. I’m actually writing this response in the car in front of the oldest daughters place of employ as I pick her up from work.
Honestly, I had my best seasons when they were younger because instead of “riding around” as @chad calls it, I ended up riding smarter. I will admit that I have a very supportive stay at home wife, and that doesn’t hurt at all. I also built in a lot of structured commuting where I did my intervals and aerobic time while on the way to work or home. That’s something I’m still doing now, even though they are all old enough to not care where the old man is.
When they were younger, I got very used to getting a workout in when time permitted, regardless of how I felt, or whatever. That in particular sticks with me now, so I always try hard to get my workouts in, even on bad days.
Those time crunch plans are great. Go hard with the little time you have. Try to get your baby used to the sound of the trainer, eventually it will lull her/him to sleep! Don’t worry about getting off the bike, you’ll only frustrate yourself.
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So our 2nd child is now 6 weeks old and I’ve just started back with a ramp test.
Saw a 9% drop in FTP after at least a couple of months off training with only a few unstructured commute rides in between. It didn’t feel great but I’m happy to get going again.
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My 22 month old loves Baby Shark. I cannot for the life of me get that tune out of my head.
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Well done. I hope like hell I’m able to get back on the bike 6wks after Thing 2 is born in Feb. Kudos! FTP loss isn’t a big deal… Just do it because you like to and eventually you’ll be able to get back to where you were and beyond!
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Just started SSB LV II and a pretty good ramp test has given me a 15% increase in FTP. What a difference 6 weeks of training can make!
Alongside that my weight is down 4kg (with a few more still to go).
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Good to read this. We’re now expecting our third, 5,2 & new born next year.
My wife owns her own business and works evenings, and I work full time then get the kids fed and into bed at night. So we’ve both got pretty busy schedules along with the kids.
I’v been thinking number 3 might be the end of consistent training and riding for me, so its good to see someone with more than 3 and both parents working saying it shouldn’t be.
I totally agree about the family comes first, my take is by getting some time to for your training or riding, in a way you are putting your family first as you’re likely to be a better person to be around for being able to get a ride in. Obviously this is with a bit of give and take with your partner getting some space for themselves too.
Last night’s ride went bye-bye as a couple of issues popped up while my wife was running. Those issues had to get resolved – and I then lost my time to ride. That is what happens when things get shoved to the pm. This am, I was STILL so exhausted that I slept into training time. Ended up doing Taku for 30 minutes to help the legs feel better (works for me). Will try and get yesterday’s ride in tonight. Else it will be skipped for the 2 hour ride tomorrow.
Focus on the family. Overall consistency is what is important to make long term gains.
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Four weeks in with the newborn and toddler, so some inspiration and reality checking…
- Baby was born during a recovery week. I missed one ride and shortened another by 30 minutes to finish out SSB2MV.
- Started Sustained Power Build Low Volume with the ramp test on Monday, five days after birth. My goal was to make all of the key rides with 100% compliance and add endurance or recovery rides if able.
- First two weeks of home life, we had help here, and I was off work. That made missing a morning ride easy to make up during afternoon naps. I hit every ride 100%, and added rides, though they were often cut short either due to my being tired or baby duty (or doody as the case may be).
- Went back to work this past Monday and had work travel Tuesday through Thursday. I was able to get my Monday ride in before work as before, but baby precluded added Baxter before my flight… did some strength and core work at the hotel W/R, then got my over unders in Friday before work as usual. Yesterday’s added easy ride fell through because I didn’t wake up early. This morning’s Galena +1 hasn’t happened yet; baby was up about four hours and we shifted to Daylight Savings Time (which is stupid), so I was wiped out when 6am hit. Hopefully, I’ll get it in during afternoon nap time.
I’m finding it’s going to be hard to nail Low Volume, and that’s OK. I’m doing better than I thought I would getting some work in, and much better than with baby #1 where I basically did nothing for a month. Like all other times, my best option is first thing in the morning, otherwise things fall apart easily throughout the day, especially when I’m working or need to run errands.
Key is communicating with my wife, trading time - I bike and she gets uninterrupted naps when I’m on duty. I tell her the days and times I want to ride and we try to make it work. 100 so far.
All good, expectations are managed and the bike is serving as stress relief rather than an additional stressor. Thanks TR!
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7 kids here from 14 to 2 – though we’re foster-to-adopt parents so not all of them were with us from birth, though the ones that weren’t sometimes require more time and attention than the ones that were due to their trauma.
First, my wife is a saint. I find that if your significant other is the primary caretaker, then one of the best things you can do for your cycling training is make it clear to them that it is secondary to family but still important to you at some level. IE, offer them time back, give them days to sleep in, be willing to be told “no,” and take it in stride, and at least in my experience my wife is more than willing to let me go ride or train because she understands that I’ll take a “no” in stride, but that cycling is also important to who I am and I’m a far less grumpy and unhealthy individual if I can ride.
Second, with kids taking up as much time as they do, I limit myself to just cycling as a hobby/sport/training. I don’t cycle AND go to sporting events AND hang out at the bar with friends AND etc etc. Again, at least for me its about showing my family that they are #1, cycling is a distance #2 or #3, and I won’t let another #4/5 take up my already limited time.
Finally, once you find a rythym that works for your family then just religiously stick to that. For us we have to be very regimented with so many children. They all wake up at 6:45 AM everyday, and apart from the teenager go to bed at 7:30 PM every day. That means my training time is largely in the AM, so I get up at 4AM, do the dishes and get the cereal bowls and out and coffee/tea pot ready, then train from 4:45/5 to 6/6:30, shower and then help with the kids while I eat breakfast and head off to work. Bed at 9 pm gives me roughly 7 hours a night, and I still get an hour and a half of semi-adult time from 730 to 9 every night.
Sometimes I think being so overwhelmed with priorities is actually helpful for efficiency. When you’re single/“only married” time is abundant and there’s lots of excuses to be had. When you’re dealing with little ones then your time is so limited that you have to be regimented about things, which sometimes means you pack more into the day than you would’ve otherwise.
Anyway, congrats on the new little one, they’re amazing. Best of luck to you and your spouse!
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I like the “be willing to be told ‘no’” and limiting other “things”. Certainly right now it’s just cycling. I picked it of my three sports because it’s the one I love most and is most conducive to being done at home, thanks to TR. that’s good feedback!
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Time with your kids is more important than any workout. Give them the time they need first, and go from there.
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Just to update, since starting this thread my little girl is now 5 months old and growing fast.
We’re in a nice routine with her but my time for cycling has become much more sporadic thanks mostly to me being away for work 2-3 days a week and staying in hotels which don’t have gyms/bikes.
My wife is very understanding and although she would let me go train when I am home I’d much rather spend time with her and our children at the moment.
Thankfully this will not be my long term working pattern so things will improve on the training front but I’m not overly upset as I’m not training towards a particular goal this year. Things should pick up in the summer though.
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Newborn was actually easy with all the time off work (if you have it use it) but do what works for you.
Pick a low volume plan and add in as you can. Know what’s the most important workout of the week and make sure it is done to perfection.
I’ve found as my girl grows the conflicts and constraints change but I can manage. Just be ready to change your plan as time goes on
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Yeah, training with kids can be hard - I have 2 (will be 3 in some months 
) and time management can be really hard. I would say that the most important thing is to fix a schedule that fit both - you and your wife. Without support from the partner, it’s a mess.
But kids can also be a great motivator - you know, kids just try to repeat what they see in their parents - we just need to give them a good example to follow. I find it very motivating.
Today, I’ve had one of those moments - I’ve had a hard week and was pretty tired already before the session - and I had to do Polar Bear - 2h at 80-85% FTP. It was pretty hard, but 30 minutes before the end my older daughter comes in and says “Come on daddy, keep it strong ! Almost done”.
Man, I can tell you that end of the workout was easy !
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