Today’s guest post is courtesy of Bill, a stay at home dad and cycling instructor who blogs at Colorado Bikeaholics.
I was asked to explain how I find time to train for an ironman as a stay-at-home dad. It’s easy for me, but let’s talk about my wife, a surgeon, who also is also participating in the Arizona Ironman in November. For me, once our daughter is at school I have the day to workout. Yes, I need to do laundry, get dinner, clean the house etc. But I probably skimp on house cleaning a bit and let the grass grow a tad long, but in general I have time to train.
My wife on the other hand has to be efficient. She is up every morning at 4:30 working out before leaving at 7:30–at the latest. Her weekday workouts are very targeted to achieve a certain time or intensity, and on weekends she does her longer workouts. She hired a coach to optimize her time and work around her schedule. We have an indoor cycling trainer and I teach spin classes so we have bad weather options.
But all that said it comes down to desire. To me it’s like a good book you can’t put down. Somehow, someway you read it.
You stir the mac and cheese with one hand while holding the book with other, or you gobble up 10 pages in the parking lot at school pick up. If you truly want to achieve whatever goal it is, you have to do it somehow, someway.
I think it’s vital to love to train. But to do that it has to be fun and diverse and you can’t be afraid to take a day off and do fun things to keep fresh. That is one advantage to triathlon training, it requires three disciplines, making it easy to mix up workouts and keep it interesting. Training can’t become a chore, and committing to a race or event or even to meeting a friend at the gym provides accountability. Accountability is key on those days that would be much easier spent baking chocolate chip cookies and hanging out at a coffee shop.
I don’t have a coach, instead I have committed to writing in my blog (www.coloradobikeaholics.com) everyday about the day I had. Yes I’m using readers to be accountable to, but it works. I write about lots of things, but I feel like I failed if I don’t report my daily workout. It’s the little things that sometimes make it all work.
It’s vital to have support from family and friends, especially with kids. Most of all, do whatever it is for yourself and relish the gains and improvements.
Commit to the lifestyle of training and I promise, you will see results.
Thank you Bill for being an inspiration and reminding us that it’s all about commitment. Ok gang, what have YOU done today to support your commitment to health and fitness?
Comments on this entry are closed.