It helps me when I look for opportunities to ride--when our kids were young I would get up early on the weekend and ride to our kids' baseball tournaments and swim meets in neighboring towns where I would meet my fsmily, then either ride home afterward or rack the bike and go home with them. Nowadays I ride a tandem a lot so my wife and I can spend time together while still riding; we usually do a bike tour every year on the tandem, too.

When my work location lent itself to it I commuted by bike to work, and would just add on miles in the evening. It also helped that I didn't try to do a 1200k every year, but just did a few brevets in "off" years. Finally, riding with a local club on the weekends when I didn't have time for a long ride gave me enough intensity to get faster and train without eating up the whole day.

Mark W
Rusa #690