Training with a newborn

We recently welcomed the newest addition to our family into the world. My wife and I are now officially outnumbered with 3 kids! Those of you who have been through the birth of a child will know that those first few weeks can be pretty rough in terms of energy and sleep. It's not a recipe for successful training - missed workouts and insufficient recovery are certainly less than ideal. But we do the best we can.

It can be very discouraging to read about the type of training volume one "should" be doing. Whether it's the notion that "Athletes should swim at least four days a week to see improvement in their fitness and form, and less experienced athletes will need to swim more frequently" or that running 50 miles per week (that's 80km) is key to becoming a good runner, the gap between the training I'd get done in a perfect world, and what I can actually do, is massive.

In the summer I'm lucky to get in 35 kms/week running, and for most of the year I get about 2 hours a week in the pool. Sometimes I feel good that I've been able to achieve the fitness I have on what would generally be regarded as woefully inadequate volume. Other times it's discouraging because I know this is likely one of the big differences between me and the guys who are podiuming (is that a word?) at my races.

But this goes back to what I talked about in my last post - focusing on self-improvement rather than comparing oneself to others. Who cares what other athletes are doing? They're not me. Just like there are single dudes out there with all the time in the world to train, I know there are also athletes who have bigger families, more demanding jobs, and less time to train that I do. We all show up on race day and do the best we can. If we make good decisions and circumstances allow it, maybe we can set some new PBs.

My biggest goals are to be a good husband and father, and to live a long healthy life. Being a triathlete is in service to those goals. So training can't interfere with family time, and if I'm wearing myself out trying to train on 4 hours of sleep a night, that's probably not good for my health either.

What I'm trying to accept is that success doesn't mean beating all of the other athletes I race against, it's doing the best that I can with the time I have. I've occasionally struggled with this, but I think I'm at peace with it now. And in some ways, having kids is an advantage. I mean, having your little ones cheer you on in a race probably counts as a performance-enhancing drug, right?