This is the episode I wish someone had made for me five years ago. Because when you become a parent and you are also serious about cycling, nobody sits you down and explains that the relationship you have with your bike is about to fundamentally change. Not end. Change.
I see it in the community all the time. Riders who were putting in twelve to fifteen hours a week, racing every weekend, suddenly have a newborn and they try to maintain the same volume. It does not work. It creates friction at home, guilt on the bike, and eventually one of two things happens — you stop riding altogether or your partner starts to resent the sport. Neither outcome is good.
The shift I had to make was from volume to quality. Instead of five rides a week, I ride three or four. But those sessions are focused. The early morning ride before anyone is awake became sacred. Five AM is miserable the first few times, but once it is a habit, it is yours. Nobody misses you. Nobody is waiting for you to get back. You are home before the kids are up, and the rest of the day is family time with a clear conscience.
The turbo trainer became my second best friend. Nap time is sixty to ninety minutes of uninterrupted training. No travel time to a start point. No faffing with kit decisions. Clip in, do the session, shower, done. It is not romantic but it is effective, and effectiveness is what matters when you have four hundred minutes a week instead of nine hundred.
The harder conversation is the one with your partner. I got this wrong for a while. I would try to sneak rides in, downplay how long I would be gone, or come back later than promised. That erodes trust faster than anything. What works is the same principle Dan Lorang talked about on this podcast — share the plan. Tell your partner when the big weeks are. Show them the lighter weeks where you are fully available. Make it a partnership rather than a negotiation.
And then there is riding with your kids. This is the bit that surprised me with how much I enjoy it. It is not training. It is slow. There are stops. There is sometimes crying. But putting your child on a balance bike and watching them figure out that they can move under their own power is one of the best feelings cycling has ever given me. Do not force it. Leave bikes where they can see them. Ride when they ask. Make it about the ice cream stop, not about cadence.
Your cycling does not stop when you have kids. It adapts. And if you handle the adaptation well, it can become something richer than it was before — not just a sport but a thing you share with the people you love most.
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