THE "FAMILY MAN" CYCLIST - A balancing act!

Time. Being a cyclist takes a lot of time. It's part of what makes cycling such a great activity, after all, it takes more than just 45 minutes to erase all the stress gained over a few days at the office. It is also a big part of the reason why cycling burns such a tremendous amount of calories. Keeping your heart rate elevated to 150 beats per minute for 3.5 hours will allow you to eat that piece of cake without any guilt. As you start to ride bicycles and start feeling the benefits from being active, the 1-hour ride will become a 2-hour ride. And once you decide to ride to that town a bit further down the road, you will realize you were out for 4 hours. And before you know it, you will be riding 125miles (200kms) and spending most of the day cycling with your friends. If you cycle multiple days a week, those hours add up quickly - this year alone, I've already spent over 40 hours on the bike.

Such a significant amount of time can be hard to fit into the busy schedule of our modern lives. And it becomes even more challenging if you are married, have kids, and want to spend time with your family.

Active Recovery - post ride activities typically include
trips to the playground or to a kid-friendly store.

Balancing the "cyclist" and the "family man" has become an integral part of my new active life. Very quickly after starting to spend time on the bike, I realized I had to focus on my priorities: family would come first, with work and cycling in a close battle for second. As you can imagine, once the demands of life at home with children and a busy work schedule start to take its tow, it is very easy for cycling to be compromised. If you are not committed to staying fit and being active, the pressures from daily life will push you back into that comfortable couch.

Luckily, there are a few techniques that can help you stay on your bike, while still being able to spend time with your family, being a good spouse and parent. The easiest approach is to find the best time of the day to go for your ride. For most people, that involves waking up early on weekends, getting some good miles in while most of the world sleeps and heading back home with still most of the day ahead. But I am not a morning person and my daughters and I enjoy our weekend breakfast together, so I generally head out around "nap-time" for our youngest daughter. That allows me to spend a fun morning with the kids, fit a good ride in the middle of the day, and come back in time to play some more with the family. During weekdays, if you have a flexible work environment, that might involve  working a few extra hours on certain days so that you can leave work a little early in time to make it to the local Tuesday Night World's ride. But more often than not, it will also include some 10pm sessions on the indoor trainer after everyone goes to sleep! Flexibility is the key word, and sometimes that will mean a last minute change of plans to an extra early morning call on Saturday, or yet another late night session on the trainer.

Another approach is to focus on shorter bike rides whenever time allows. You can still reap many benefits from cycling even from riding less than an hour around the neighborhood. This is a particularly good option if you live in an area near good cycling roads where you don't need to ride 30 minutes in order to escape major urban roads. Commuting by bicycle is also a good alternative for weekdays - being on the bike instead of siting inside your car stuck on a traffic jam certainly has its appeal. Even serious cyclists who race can find training programs that allow them to maintain top fitness while focusing on shorter rides by increasing intensity. Recently, even going for a run has become an alternative for me when time is really short. Going for a 10km run when you have less than 1hr available, makes for a great quick burst of physical activity.



The cool down after the weekly Derby Ride in Michigan. Such rides are
not only about the bikes, but also about friends - and pain...lots of pain!

The reality is that with time, cycling starts to take over and fulfill other activities that used to take part of that busy schedule. Obviously, if you become a cyclist, you can start crossing off a lot of the time spent at the local gym or on other exercise activities. You also find yourself spending a lot less time watching sports on TV on weekends, and instead find yourself actually practicing your favorite sport. This is specially a benefit if you happen to be a Detroit Lions fan! And with time, cycling becomes a bigger part of your social calendar as well. Group rides become more than just exercise and start to feel more like social gatherings where you catch-up, joke and share a beverage with good friends.

But regardless of how much I've tried, I must confess that compromises have to be made. Appropriate cool-downs at the end of a long ride are often substituted by sprinting madly towards home in order to make it back in the allotted time. The necessary resting and recovery time after marathon-like bike rides become instead active recovery sessions at the playground - struggling through cramps while you are chasing your kids around the monkey-bars and swing sets is not ideal recovery. And I must admit that my bike is never as clean or well maintained as it could be. The goal is to spend most of the "bike-related" time actually riding the bike.



Combining your passions! The laughter and giggling coming from
the bike trailer compensate for the extra weight you are pulling uphill!

Another option is to try to combine the best of both worlds and introduce your family to the wonderful world of bikes! Cycling dates with your spouse is a great way to enjoy time together, and it will also help them understand why you spend so much time on the bike to begin with. My wife understood after only a couple of outings, how a few hours on the bike can feel like a week long vacation. If you have young children, you can buy a bike trailer and go on adventures with the little ones. They will not only laugh and giggle during the ride, but also get a kick of getting ready for the bike, with helmets and all. Just note, however, that after 20 miles or so, the novelty might wear off for the kids and your legs will start feeling the extra weight you've been pulling around town (not to mention the time you spent chasing your kids again during the obligatory playground stop!)

As in most things in life, it's all about reaching balance. If you find that balance, you can not only keep your family as your main priority, but by adding some hours on the bike, you can also become a healthier, happier, less stressed and more energetic family member. And trust me, if you have a couple of toddlers at home, you need all the energy you can get!