Road cycling is a rather time-consuming sport that you have to incorporate into your everyday life. I don't want one here dirge write down, but rather spread a feeling of solidarity like: You're not alone!
Effective time management
Most of us know the situation: We want to go cycling. But the family also has needs.
- shopping
- doing laundry
- Cooking
- Help with homework (luckily less and less for me)
- and of course you also want to enjoy some time together
I always have the impression that nothing works without me and that nothing takes care of itself at home 😕
Riding a racing bike is a very time-consuming hobby, because you don't just ride for an hour, you also like to do a longer lap and go on a day trip. Not to mention bike trips, races, marathons and a training camp to make it all happen. Meanwhile, the children have to go to sports, to the theater or somewhere else.
Unfortunately, you are not that flexible with a family
To make one thing clear, I don't want to complain and definitely don't want to miss my family. I'm more concerned with balancing find the balance between own hobbies and family hobbies and duties. Because only the mix makes you happy and so does everyone else.
Plan training and trips sensibly
The planning of Trainings or rather, the house rounds I always put it in the lunch break whenever possible. Of course you don't do 100km laps, but I do 30km to 50km there. I usually don't ride 100km routes at the weekend, either, because there's usually only one morning left for training at the weekend. For larger rounds I actually take half a day off.
Modern working model
I admit, I probably have quite a bit of luxury here, I have a lot of freedom in the design of my work. I would say I have a sport and family friendly employer. A year ago I reduced my working hours to 90% and every two weeks I have Fridays off. From time to time I simply split the day off into two halves and thus have more time to ride my racing bike and work on my racing bike, you have to do it sometimes.
As I said, I know that this is a luxury, but I can highly recommend this model. It is financially manageable and free time is priceless!
communication with family
Of course there are also spontaneous trips for me, but I usually plan my trips and training sessions for the whole week. That means I block my work calendar for the midday trips so that no one pushes appointments in there and I announce the evening and weekend laps at home early. This offers two major advantages:
- Everyone can prepare for this and are not surprised when you find yourself in the hallway having changed
- You are not disappointed yourself when your family has planned you
Just the point of disappointment can pull you down quite a bit, at least that's how it used to be for me. Luckily, my family has a lot of understanding for me and I can only be grateful for that!
That's how I had my two weeks last year Bikepacking tour can do and me for that Transcontinental Race reported. The TCR falls this year due to Corona yes, unfortunately, but I can start at the TCR 2021.
Conclusion
I don't want to tell you what a horny pike I am, I sometimes reach the limits of what can be planned. The only important thing is that I first had to learn and understand this process of open communication and open planning. Of course I don't have to discuss with my family what I do during my lunch break, but I do in my free time. I also think that's very important, because I'm a role model. On the one hand, I set an example to my boys that you can be in a social construct needs to discuss things and I live one Sporty lifestyle in front. Everything that goes with it is valuable, not just for me!