DataJunkie

I have a 9 year old and a 1.5 year old. The 9 year old spends the weekends with my ex.
I ride during lunch and a long ride on the weekend. The other ride on the weekend is while towing a Burley with the toddler inside.
I also have a new one on the way in Feb. It will get a bit more difficult but I always seem to juggle things fine. In fact I found after the last kid it forced me to learn how to train properly and I am now faster than before he was born. Expecting great things from the next kid.

simonaway427

I ride in the evening after they go to bed. There's usually only enough daylight to do 30km or so....but I make the best of it.

tclong03

The kiddo rode with me when he was younger on his bike, and so did the wife. Now they both are not interested so makes riding hard to get in they want me at home and I want to ride.

TrojanHorse

Mine are 9 and 12. I drop them off at soccer / swimming / diving or whatever practice they have and immediately hit the road. I can get in 90 good minutes 3-4 times a week if I'm dedicated.

I'm also inclined to get up and hit the road early on weekends - pedaling at 5 am sucks but not if you want to ride badly enough. I'm only doing about 400 miles a month though, which is hardly excessive. My wife has a limited tolerance for me missing kid activities like soccer games & dive meets, so my other strategy is to ride to the game, especially if it's far.

mulveyr 

When my kids were small, they rode with me in a child seat.

Ages 4-6 or so, we used a trail-a-bike.

After that, we've been riding together.

When I really feel the need for more miles, I ride when they're in bed, after 9:00PM.

rooftest

My 2 kids are under 2. I've cut down on riding and picked up other hobbies.

Mike F

I ride 3-4 time at 0400hrs during the week and once during the weekend.

hhnngg1

Kids are tough. Kids + cycling is even tougher.

I'm fortunate in that I'm currently in triathlete mode, so I do a fair amount of running, which is much more kid-friendly with a BOB stroller. (That thing is a lifesaver!)

But I'm still putting up a good 130 miles per week on the bike in addition to 40-50 miles per week on the run with a 2-year old. I've had to do almost all my riding on the trainer at 4:30AM-6:30AM for the 3 weekdays that I ride, and then I hire a babysitter for my 3-4 hour weekend outdoor long ride.

I also run in the morning, and I cram in swims at lunch at work. The swims are logistically the hardest to coordinate, but the bike is pretty tough too.

thechemist

I wake up early...including Saturday's. Don't forget some good cold gear and lights if you do!

MarkThailand

I have two sons, age 4 and 8, and run my own engineering-construction firm. I drop them off at school every morning and pick them up after school 3 days out of 5. I do my 30 laps of swimming with and while my older one has his swimming lessons twice a week.

I wake up at 5 am on saturdays and sundays to get my two 70-80 km rides done in 2 hr 30 min and be back in time when my wife leaves for her yoga classes at 9 am.

My "recovery ride" is usually at the bike park with my sons and wife on sunday evening of the same day of my pre-dawn sunday ride. I "recovery ride" with my younger son in his Topeak Babyseat II seat on my hybrid bike and my older son on his Trek MT60 bike.

I have been trying to go faster to go further since I can not go longer. Five to six hours max per weekend, more on long weekends. Usually my paltry 150-160 km (100 miles) per week but sometimes I get 200 km on long weekends. I am thankful for every hour of riding I get.

But, I would not wish to spend any time less with my sons. I fully realize that this is the only time in my life that I will get to see them grow up right in front of my eyes. I could find more time to ride later but never experience my sons' first experiences again.

Mark

Camilo

Man, you guys are committed! When my kids were young, we mostly just hung out together at home or with family/kids' friends, ran errands together, and/or went to their activities, which pretty much burned up our free time. After they got older, I misssed it, so began to ride more to fill the time 8-). Saturday mornings were generally tied up with, catching up on a week's deficit of sleep among other things... until the kids woke up.

DinoShepherd

Little kid. Easy. Trailer. There is no other option. Buy a good one. Burley is a great brand. The cheap ones suck.

Older. You need a tandem. Maybe with a kiddie stoker kit. But you need a tandem. You will get all the hard training you need.

So you can do the above. A very patient bride helps immensely. Mine rides and is 100% win.

hhnngg1

No guts, no glory, hah.

Even with with what I felt were heroic efforts at exercise, I got about 2 hrs / week in the first 4 months of infancy, and then only about 6-8 hrs per week on a haphazard nonregular schedule for the next 4 months. It wasn't until the baby was about 8 months old that I got sort of back to what I felt was baseline decent fitness level for me, and I was still about 8 pounds heavier than I was before the baby arrived.

Now that the little one is a 2 year old toddler and sleeps reliably through the night (thanks heavens - she was horrible at up to age 6 months), I'm really happy with my training volume. It does get hard to wake up at 4:30AM in the morning most days including weekends to get those 2hour rides/runs in when there's no other opportunity, but it's been worth it. Going to sleep early, like right after I put the baby down for bedtime at 8:30-8:45PM makes a world of difference, although it does get hard to coordinate with the wife who doesn't wake up to workout like I do.

Cookiemonsta

I do not have small children, but I have a lot of obligations and work int he weekends. The way I deal with it is just getting up early. Saturday and Sunday I am outside riding by 7.30 ish. Need to be back by 10.30 ish. On weekdays I go before dinner if I can get home early that day (before 7 pm).

Generally, I really have to squeeze in the hours to ride. I still manage to be on my bike about 6 hours per week though. That is excluding my commute.

Burglar

My kid is almost 3. I work 8-5 Mon-Fri. My wife works Wed-Fri nights... doesn't get home until after midnight. AND she works Saturday 12-6, Sunday 7-4. Monday and Tuesday nights are for stuff like mowing the yard... whatever. I try to ride to work about 3 days/week. But it's usually more like twice. If I get up early enough, I stretch my morning commute out to about 8-10 miles. I try to get another 5-7 miles in at lunch. There's a MUP two blocks from my workplace. Then 5 miles home. I can get 20 miles/day if I try on work days. Saturdays I leave the house at around 6:30am I do two group rides. Including miles to and from the rides, I get around 50-65 miles in. Depends on which rides I do. Done by 11am. If my parents take our kid over the weekend, I ride Sunday too. So it's entirely possible to do around 100miles/week. But I usually do more like 80. I also just started going to the gym 3 or 4 days/week. They have a daycare. My kid loves it, and it is doing more for my fitness than riding to work. There's a pretty challenging group ride on Tuesday nights. But with the ridiculous heat we had the last couple of months, I just couldn't get into it.

pgjackson

What is preventing you from having a life? Just because you have kids doesn't mean you have to spend every single non-working hour with them. You also don't need 3 hours to ride every day. I take my bike to work 2-3 times a week. Squeeze in an intense 45 minute sprint ride if you can during lunch then eat at your desk. On the weekends plan to get in an hour or two...but make sure you allow the wife some free time as well. I wasn't a cyclist when my kids were little, but I had a motorcycle. Used to take it out on the weekends for short rides around town. There in nothing wrong with a little "Me-Time"...just don't abuse it (get hammered in bars with your buds, extended fun-days without the family...). For some reason parents think they have to be with their kids every moment of the day. You have to get out and have your own life also. Obsessing over your children is not good. That might sound awful, but you have to take care of yourself and have a balanced life.

rooftest

Yeah - hand those toddlers the TV remote, leave out some food; and go ride!

primov8

+3. Both my wife and I wouldn't trade this for anything else in the world. Seeing our children grow in front of our eyes, to us is life's rewards.

krobinson103

I get up at 4am every morning, ride for 1 1/2 hours. I commute to work on my bike and I ride 90 miles every sunday morning (again really early before the kids are even awake). I miss out on sleep a bit, but it fits and I can ride 1000km+ a month.

Yikes, I'll ride all day on the road and not be bored, but three hours in the same place? I'd need a lot of mp4 files of my favorite tv series to get through that.

akeelor

Don't hesitate. My daughter absolutely loved it. She was so engaged and I could talk to her the entire ride. I wouldn't attach to a road bike though. Hybrid or mountain only.

pgjackson

That doesn't mean you can't take some time for yourself. You need that balance. An hour or two away from your kids to maintain your sanity isn't going to hurt them. Helicopter parenting is a real problem.

pgjackson

Not my point. Get a babysitter once in a while and go out with your wife. Work out a schedule where you do something you like while the wife watches the kids, then you give her time to do something while you watch the kids. You both don't need to be hovering over your kids 24/7. I hate it when new parents think they have to give up something they love because they believe they just have to be "parenting" 24 hours a day.

DataJunkie

Life is all about balance and keeping yourself sane.

Genaro

I have a 3 yr old and a 10 yr old. Commuting a couple of times a day gives me around 60 miles/wk. On Sunday I roll out anywhere from 4-6 AM for a long 50-100 mile ride and I'm usually back before lunch
On Tuesdays and Thursdays if I time it right, I can tag along a group ride that meets 5 miles away from my job. THey help me get home even faster.

cafzali

To me, if you have kids, it's more realistic and productive to think in terms of a higher quantity of shorter rides than trying to schedule long rides. You can easily do the former without setting aside a lot of time, which makes it far more likely that you'll actually do it. As we all know, more than half the battle is just getting out there.