shokhead

How do all of you ride so much?Do you own a house that you have to keep up?Do you work?Do you have kids?Married?Monday -Friday at 3pm is the only riding window i have for about 2 hours.Sat and Sun from 6am for an hour to a few depending on what the rest of my family has planed for me.How do you ride so much.

MattC

Lately I have been riding after dark with good light. After I cook dinner for the wife and kid and get other chores done after work. It helps that we have a long bike path that runs along the levee on the river so no car trafic and only a few other walkers or bikers around.

ChipRGW

Shokhead,

One of the concepts that we stress in out Weight Watchers group is, that you HAVE to make time in your life for the most important person in your life, you.

Of course you have obligations to your home and family, but you need to nudge them in whatever direction you need to in order to make a little time to satisfy your own needs and wants. It is EXTREMELY important to maintain both your physical and maybe even more importantly, your mental health.

Buzzbomb

Man! Even excluding the weekend, that's 10 hours per week. I wish I had that much time to ride...

a2psyklnut

I've developed a riding/commuting schedule that seems to work. I drive to work on Mon, ride home Mon. night. Ride into work on Tues, drive home. Repeat on Wed/Thur. I take Fri off, b/c I usually do a longer ride first thing Sat. Morn. This works well, my commute is 16 miles one way, so with a longer ride on Sat and sometimes Sun, I can average 100 miles per week.

This works for me, because my office is located in a secure area of town and we have a fenced compound. I don't leave anything in my vehicle that would be tempting to thieves. Also, there are numerous maintenance vehicles that contain tools and equip, so my truck is the least attractive.

L8R

DanFromDetroit

You pretty much have time for whatever you make time for (I hope that makes sense ?).

You can overlap some things to become more efficient, like running small errands on the bike, or commuting.

You can carve out time from a part of the day used for something else. At least one person I know of here gets up at 4:30am to go riding. Another variation is to just turn off the TV and devote those hours to riding, for most folks these would be evening hours.

You can reduce the amount of time spent driving by making a conscious effort to avoid traveling more than a short distance from home to purchase things. This means opting for the local shops vs. the *.mart at the edge of town. This turns these errands into bikeable trips.

If you have kids that are old enough, stop doing the job of chauffer. Put the kids on bikes or tell them to walk. Make them responsible for their own transportation.

Examine your schedule to see what is really necessary. Most people IMHO lead overscheduled lives. Dump some of those activities that are less important to you. This creates free time to be used for more important tasks.

Dan

BikeInMN

How do all of you ride so much?
It's all about prioritizing

Do you own a house that you have to keep up?Do you work?Do you have kids?Married?
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes

I log 15-18 hours a week on the bike along with a full time job that very often takes more than 40 hours out of my week. A couple of things that work to my advantage are:
- I live 1.5 miles from work so I have virtually no commute time. I start work around 6:30 and I'm usually out the door by 3:30. Plenty of time to do a few things around the house before I ride.
- My family has never had an issue with time on the bike. They also don't mind traveling to races at all hours of the morning on weekends or staying in hotels if the race is farther than a couple of hours away.
- When I ride on non-racing weekends, I do it early and I'm usually home by 10. Again not a problem for the wife or kids.

When you have that much flexibility at home, you need to make the time you spend with your family really count. When I'm home, I'm 100% available to them. I don't also go out with the boys, hang out at bars or bowl or any of that crap. It's pretty much family and cycling year round (they're all ready for spring after the winters we have in MN).

ShadowRider

i ride roughly 5-8 hours a day when things are slow at my office (i design websites)
cause basically it's always slow! :-P
anyway, make time and get a riding buddy

whenever my buddy comes over i quit what i'm doing and go for a ride

mrfix

I own a house, 3 cars, a boat, run a bike shop and hold a full time job. I ride to work, to the store, run errands and any free minutes I have are spent on the bike. I ride an occasional organized ride on the weekend. I slee[ very little, my wife is a professional and has a great job, she needs little attention from me, that helps.

bezzo

Shokhead -
It is a difficult balancing act for me as well. I've got a house, job, wife and a 1.5 year old....so it is a challange. My wife does support my riding, but even so it can be tough to find enough time to ride during the week. It is easier for me to get out on my road bike than mt. bike, since I don't need to drive to any trails for the road bike. Although I don't always get as much time in the saddle as I would like, I can usually get at least 4-6 hours a week.

bac

It's really just a matter of priorities. I've made the decision to ride, and I'm going to do it regardless of what else is on my plate. I do this for my pleasure, and sanity. If I did not cycle, I don't know how I would get throught all the other crap in my life!

Buzzbomb

Like I said, 10 hours per week is a lot if, like me, you are married, have children , own your home, and work 58 hours per week. I get about 6 hours of ride time per week. Besides my wife, these kids keep me busy. It's all good though, I've got three potential riding buddies...

shokhead

Kids walk.Most things are to far away for them.Small errands on bike.Dont have any small errands.Food shopping,soccer pratice and weekend games.Cant ride in the morning,i leave for work at 5:20.I get off of work at 2:30,go to school to pick up kids.3:15 when i get home for cleaning,cooking,pratice.My wife can care less if i ride.She works and comes home and goes to church and is at church on her off days.Any other time she has is taking her dad to doctors app.She also spends a lot of time with her brothers so i do the washing,cleaning,shopping,cooking.If i could just keep the same sch.

Buzzbomb

Sounds like you should be grateful that you have this time, use every bit of it to ride, and guard it jealously. Good luck.

djwid

I commute so that gives me 20 minutes a day. 2-3 times a week I get about 1.5 hours during lunch with co-workers. 2-3 times a week I get a easy ride with my wife for about 1.25 hours. On the weekend my wife and I ride for about 2-3 hours. Every once in a while I get a long 4-7 hour ride in.

This means my average is 11.5 hours, less then yours.
/Duncan

shokhead

I dont have a problem with the time i have.I was just wondering how so of you ride 150-200 a week and do a century on the weekend.That takes time.

Buzzbomb

I'm in the same boat as you on that one. I don't know either...(scratching head in befuddlement)

bezzo

It sounds like you and your wife need to have a bit of a discussion about your various priorities. I don't mean to pry into your marriage, but it does sound like she gets to do what she wants while you have to pick up the slack. From what you state going to chuch and spending time with her brothers is important to her, while riding is important to you. It seems that you understand her priorities can you work with her to get her to understand yours?

Hope you don't take this the wrong way, just a thought....

Nic

I guess I have an advantage, no wife or girlfriend and no kids.
One thing that gets me riding a lot is where I live. I have no car and am far enough out of the city that taking buses is a real pain in the ass. I also have trail connections to the Gatineau parc from my back yard. My school also has trail connections to the park right at the school, and I have some pretty big spares. So I have lots of access to the trails and am forced to commute 12 km to school or 25km to work every day. And all my friends are obsessed with riding so that helps alot.

cbhungry

I have learned to function on very little sleep. Sometimes riding when i've had no sleep for over 36 hours. I don't shop. I don't cook. I barely keep the house clean and try to help with the laundry. My husband and I try to rotate our time and schedule so we can both get some riding in while the other watches the baby. My husband does most of the food shopping and errands and keeps the house clean, so I am very lucky. He is a stay at home dad. I pay for a sitter once a week so he can have time off to himself. If I can't ride, I've gotten up at 5 am just to jump rope and try to do a long ride during a weekend day that I'm not on call. I work 85 hours a week (minimum) so it does get dicey, but riding is a priority over shopping, cleaning, social gatherings etc. I don't watch tv, barely have time to read except professional journals. I keep my routine and extracurricular activities to a minimum.

TrekRider

It's easy once you become a fanatic!

I am married, a teen-age daughter at home, work full time, have a dog that requires lots of maintenance, and, luckily, an almost maintenance free wife! I ride about 90 minutes per day, Monday-Thursday, about 2 hours on Fridays, and up to four hours each on Saturday and Sunday. After my Sunday rides, I do the "man" chores, you know, yard work and vehicle maintenance.

If you want to do something, you find the time.

mrfix

Like I said earlier in this thread, ride the bike, ride it everywhere. My ride to and from work 38 miles round trip, there's a free 190 miles, three trips to the grocery stop 7 miles round trip, there's another 21 miles, one or two days I take the long way home, 5 to 25 miles and 1 weekend day I do a century, either organized or alone. Add it up, it turns out to be quite a few miles that don't take time away from lifes little duties. What they say is true " life gets in the way of living" but with a little communication and dedication, if you can tollerate the weather, you CAN find time to ride. The world will learn to wait once they get used to the fact that it takes you as long as it takes to get where you're going.

digger

I am married and own a house and work 40 hours per week.

I ride Sat and Sun. 50-100km each day.

I have adjusted my work hours to meet my wifes schedule, hence Tues and Wed I work 12noon to 8pm. I do a 40k loop each day in the morning before I head off to work.

I commute to work 1 day a week as my wife works a weird shift one day per week (8am-12, 4pm-8pm). I drive into town, park my truck and use the bike to ride accross town. 25k round trip.

Any thing after that is gravy.

I feel quilty as I do not think I ride enough.

It IS possible to adjust times, work and family, to fit your riding wants. If it is important try to find a way.

Digger

shokhead

We cant all ride to work,i cant.We cant all adjust work times,i cant.I guess i'll just ride the best i can.

familyman

I'm a stay at home dad with a 18 month old and a one month old. When my wife isn't on maternity leave she's gone from the house at least 12 hours a day. No time to ride during the week since it's dark when she leaves and it's dark by the time I've got the dishes cleaned up and the kids in bed and I don't feel safe riding on the local roads in the dark. The current maternity leave and my resultant free time is actually what got me back on my bike. This is the last week of my fun carefree life. Starting next week I'll only be alble to ride on the weekends. So I talked to my wife and I'll be getting a trainer next week so I can spin and watch TV after the kids go to bed for an hour so I can at least get a bit of pedal time in during the week. When the kids grow up and head off to school (It's going to be a while) I'll figure out how to ride at lunch the same way as my wife runs at lunch. It really helps that she was a collegiate track and cross country runner in college so she understands fitting workouts into your life.
A lot of riding is better than a little, but a little is way way better than none.