What is your ‘life status’?

General
21

35, two kids (4 and 1). Full time work for a Uni, so standard 36.5hr week, very flexible, little travel. Mortgage, animals and lots of bills! haha.

Most training is at lunchtimes, with a max of 2 x evenings a week. Normally a Sunday and one weekday. Wife has been off for a year on maternity, about to start working again, 3 days a week. that puts me back on childcare/school drop offs for those three days. So that makes my long lunch runs a little more cheeky as my working hours are thinned out a bit on those days.

Could bike commute if i cycled, about 25km e/w. Will occasionally run commute it though, and plan to do so this winter. Really try to minimise impact on family, but not sure my wife always sees it that way. It’s that thing of me comparing myself to someone that trains 12+ hours a week and her comparing me to someone who just does a couple of hours a week for fun. But, without being harsh, i think she’ll relax on it a bit more when she gets back into the work groove. I think being off with the kids on your own is a tough gig. And there’s probably a note of jealousy in that i can swan about at lunchtimes, go to the pub, run with my mates etc.

When i did my full i had no children. Did my last middle distance just before #1 was born. Purposefully have put tri on the back burner for a few years. Very much still interested in it, but running is much easier to fit in.

All my tritalk time, strava, reading etc is done at work as wel!! As long as my projects hits their targets, nobody really cares what i’m doing. though a recent promotion has squeezed my time a little.

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22

Trust me, you’re not the only one.

Quite a few husbands/dads we know work away during the week… even weeks/months away at a time; but if I try to make that comparison I’m cut-off at the knees :man_shrugging::sweat_smile:

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23

:rofl: yep, that’s the one.

If i’m ‘late’ home aka 5.30 instead of 4.45 i get the :triumph: Noting that doing a job like mine, that pays ok (for the SW / public sector) and working a 36 hr week finishing at 4 every day is pretty flippin lucky doesn’t get me very far!!!

Though i have just negotiated a 1 day WFH with my boss for when the wife starts work. So my lunch runs are about to get a whole lot more interesting with one of my best mates living one road down and self employed!! Coast Path Thursdays ahoy!!

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24

My cycling club take out the juniors on a Sunday. A 60k ride can take 4.5 hrs! When i say juniors there are national champions on the track, Youth A and Junior level so they are not hanging about when riding! they spend as much time on breakfast as they do riding! can be 2pm before you get home. i did it once and realised i can be home before 9am for the same ride!

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25

My company has just introduced a “Wellbeing Hour” from 2-3 on Wednesdays. At first everyone ignored it as just a gimmick but then started to think, why not. I now take a lunch (the only proper one all week) from 1-2 which gets me 2 hours to play with.

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26

I’m hoping the Juniors don’t have family commitments, and their parents are glad for them to be out from under their feet :joy:

27

Sounds very Germanic!

28

Was fully in the dog house last week after running home and getting back at 7:30 not 6:45.

Had to go out and buy cookies as a peace offering :rofl:

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29

Haha, the GF might disagree but you aren’t far off compared to some!’

I’ll put my response up later.

Jeff

30

44, nearly 45, one 10 yr old who swims and has basically put my own life on hold whilst i spend way too many hours inside swimming pools. I do school run every day at one end, have to rush home tuesdays and thursdays for swim and fridays for track cycling at herne hill so that’s 3 potential bike commutes down already. WFH mondays so no real commutes which was my mainstay when El Nino was younger. i do coach swim…and once a week national level junior triathletes swim and might take the kids run session as well! This is basically “me time” but Im cutting most of it as I am now thinking its just extra stress and work and not as much fun as going for a swim myself. I haven’t done a tri in 4 years now! Ive entered a few though :roll_eyes: this weekend i was meant to go to wales and some utter cunt decided to hit the car whilst parked and fuck off, so I’m not even going to watch let alone race. An expensive weekend and I don’t even get my rucksack. This is a common theme with kids something always comes up, 2 races this year clash with kids races, Had another that i couldn’t do because of a birthday party. Last year was a similar story and its always a guilt trip if i say “but I have”. I sent an email to an athlete about there are more important things in life than tri and to put family first. I got the “perhaps you should take your own advice” until i pointed out the guy was the sort that would miss his sisters wedding because he had a “6hr bike ride” to do and i hadnt even ridden my bike outside 3 times this year! It fell on deaf ears so understand the but he does way more than me angle :wink:

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31

Its a mixed club ride but up to 14 you have to accompany them so plenty of adults on the ride.

32

42, married with 2 kids (4 and 2) + dog. 3rd child due at Christmas. Haven’t managed to complete a tri since before children - but would love to get back into it. Most training used to be commuting but now work from home and find it a lot harder to get out the door every day. Mostly try to run with the dog in the morning and another run at lunchtime if I can fit it in.

My wife is encouraging but to minimize impact I try to combine training with family outings at the weekend. This normally means picking somewhere 25-35 miles away and leaving the house at 5am to run there and meet them for a dog walk etc at the end of my journey. I like this but going straight from a 30 mile run and getting changed in the back of the car to carrying kids on shoulders and walking round woods/country parks takes a bit of getting used to.

So mostly just do the occasional ultra and long runs on my own just for the fun of it.

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33

I feel that might be somewhat aimed at me, given the length of the one I posted up last night!

As others have said, most eloquently put by iwaters, a lot of my analysis, time on here, etc, is all done at work. As GB made reference to, I’m in a fortunate position at work where I appear to be assessed on output, and it seems I’m actually quite good at getting stuff done (well) in quick time which then allows me some flexibility to do non-work stuff. I did once get slapped on the wrist by IT for amount of time I spent on TT1.0 as apparently it was a really data intensive website?!

As for the main questions, 35, in a relationship (plan for her to move in within the next month or so), no kids. Work and live in London. Commute is about 40mins. Largely desk based and little travel. Been in my job for 8+ years now, and in all honesty I have a very comfortable work-life balance. As mentioned, I am assessed on output, and despite frequently taking 1.5+hr lunch breaks to train, I’ve never once been politely reminded that’s excessive.

I can run/bike to from work when I choose. I have a pool on my doorstep both at home (Wed am club swims) and work (most of my other lunchtime sessions). I have a free track within 2k of the office that I often use at lunchtimes. I have another paid entry track the club use for sessions 2.5k from home. Most of my bike training is done indoors.

I think this is true, and why largely my training doesnt seem to impact much. My gf is close with a small selection of friends, and meets them regularly. For example she’s out with different pockets of friends this Saturday evening, and then Sunday daytime, and then next week Wednesday and Thursday evening. She also likes her gym classes. So as long as I’m smart, I can get all my training done and it not really feel like I’ve taken any time out to do it.

Events are a bit different, as those are whole weekends so those get matched more alongside the occasional full weekend away with friends she has, but to be honest I’d been moving towards an approach of less events but with higher focus on the ones I do for the last year or so anyway.

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34

43, married with 2 kids 12 & 15. I travel between Edinburgh (work from home) and St Albans so spend 8 days a month in the south so split my run sessions down there and my bike and swim training up there. I am maxing out 10-11 hours week slotting in my training between the kids activities of Scouts, hockey, swimming and running. If I have to take them somewhere then I’ll head to the pool or do an interval run set and finish just as they do. That way we all smell the same on the way home.
Switching to sprint, standard and cross tri for the last 2 years has meant that it is much more family friendly regarding training. 90% of my bike training is on the turbo in the garden office and I go out on the road to TT or race at the weekend.
I am enjoying the current set up but I fear that it may change soon with new clients etc so I intend to make the most of my training situation to get a good start to the 2020 before it changes…

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35

Yes Carlos; just because you’re not doing your own training it doesn’t mean sports isn’t taking over your life (wags finger).

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36

28, work around 50hrs a week but generally day times, 2020 will move to awkward shift rotas with more nights and weekends.
Live with longterm partner, not married or kids.
Train around 10 hrs a week at peak, currently around 5. Train 3-4 mornings before work and then have the option to train after. Figure if I’m home by 730-8ish on evening that’s still decent time together.
Did enjoy a good Saturday long ride this year which meant leaving her, but if we had plans to go away for weekend would take day annual leave to accommodate. So pretty much training Conditions if I was physically able to up the hours!

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37

This could get interesting.

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38

KQ on 10h a week? You people make me sick.

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39

Haha - I actually think it’ll make things easier in all honesty. That’s what some of my female friends in the club have said at any rate. As I say, she’s big time into her gym classes and pilates, and doesnt want to move away from her gym where she currently lives. Which is perfect, because a weekend morning hour gym class will now be a minimum 2hr round trip! Long runs sorted without it seeming like I’ve left the house!

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40

He’s 28 innit!

(no disrespect ChrisSwim, I’m just jealous)