Hello everyone! Good to be back & contributing again! As a personal life update, my wife and I welcomed our first child last November, shortly after I completed my first Ironman! I’ve been in the thick of first-time parenting for the last half-year. So for my first article back, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of my thoughts & insights on the journey so far.
Fatherhood brings a host of challenges, not just in terms of adjusting to a new schedule, but also in how it impacts personal fitness. As much as I wanted (and naively planned) to stay in top form, the reality is that becoming a parent means sacrificing some (or LOTS) of the time for training that I once had. That said, it’s important to give ourselves grace and approach fitness with flexibility and realism.
I wanted to share some thoughts on how I’m re-engaging with cycling post-fatherhood, and how I’ve adapted my plan to fit the new rhythm of life.
An Adaptable Plan is Key: Xert’s Flexibility
As a new parent, one thing I’ve learned is that time is no longer a constant. Between helping with feeds, changing diapers, and navigating late-night sleep interruptions, a rigid training schedule just didn’t work for me. That’s where Xert’s adaptive training platform comes in. I can easily adjust my workouts based on my availability, or more importantly, how much energy I have in the tank. Some days, that means a “just do something” ride, where I simply hop on the bike and try to get out for 30-60 minutes without any specific focus or target. Being able to deviate from the plan when needed and have Xert adapt my plan afterwards has been great.
Accepting Some Loss of Fitness
As a fairly competitive person myself, this was perhaps the hardest pill to swallow, but it’s crucial: fitness will take a hit when your sleep quality and training volume & consistency are disrupted. As a new dad, sleep deprivation is inevitable, and it’s near-impossible to maintain peak physical condition under those circumstances.
Figure 1. My Xert XPMC, showing each of my rides (vertical “matchsticks” showing Low, High, & Peak XSS), along with my Training Load (solid black line) and my Threshold Power (golden dashed line), & Breakthrough efforts (Multi-coloured circles). Losing some fitness was inevitable, especially once the sleep regressions started kicking in. In that time, I lost about 1/2 of my training load (solid black line) and about 30W on my Threshold Power. I am confident that all will come back in due time!
The key for myself, though, was accepting this temporary loss and giving myself the grace to allow my body to rest. Fitness, like anything, ebbs and flows, and it’s important to recognize that this is just a new season of life. It’s a season where my body needs all the rest and recovery I could get, and in due time, my fitness will return with time and consistency! In fact, since my son has started sleeping through the night (yay!), I’ve already regained 10W on my Threshold!
Most of us aren’t professional athletes with 30+ hours a week to train and strict race schedules, so it’s essential to keep the fun in riding. For me, it’s been about reconnecting with the simple joy of cycling – feeling the sun on my face, the wind at my back (hopefully), and the hum of carbon wheels down a freshly resurfaced road. Social group rides and unstructured solo rides have been a great way to get myself back into the groove.
Instead of worrying about hitting specific performance metrics or doing specific workouts or intervals, I’ve focused on riding for the love of it. It reminds me why I started cycling in the first place – not for races or PRs, but for the sheer enjoyment of being on the bike and exploring our amazing world on two wheels! For myself, that fun aspect is the key to keeping the passion alive!
Setting Long-Term Goals
Even though my daily – and nightly – schedule is still unpredictable at times, I personally thrive off having some form of a long-term goal – such as preparing for an epic ride, or increasing my XYZ minute power – it helps keep me training consistently with motivation. That big picture goal gives me something to chase, a reason to get on the bike even when life feels chaotic or I might feel tired.
For this, I’ve been leveraging Xert’s Forecast AI training plan to help build my 6 minute power over the next couple of months.
Figure 2. Xert’s Forecast AI doesn’t assign me workouts, but gives me daily Low, High, & Peak XSS targets to hit. If I achieve the Low, High, & Peak targets for the day, I get a green circle in my training planner! This semi-structured training plan has worked well for me – it allows me to enjoy riding outside and adhering to the overall goals of my training plan without having to follow specific workouts. I can also quickly modify my availability for specific days & adapt my plan around those changes!
Xert’s ability to adapt to my fluctuating availability while keeping me on track for my overall goal has been quite helpful in this regard. I let Xert handle the “big picture” planning, while I can easily adjust my daily/weekly training as my time and energy levels change, and even plan around social rides that I want to participate in. That “carrot” keeps me motivated, and knowing that I can rework my plan when needed helps me feel less overwhelmed.
Conclusion: Finding the Right Balance
I’ve found that my fitness journey after becoming a dad isn’t quite the same as before. It’s about finding balance, being flexible with my plan, and, above all, enjoying the ride. For me, the last half year has been a wonderful new chapter in life, and while it has come with its fair share of challenges, it has also offered the opportunity to reshape how I approach cycling & my fitness.
That’s all for this time! If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading about my journey! Stay safe, ride fast, and I’ll see you next month!
The post Balancing Cycling and Fitness Post-Fatherhood appeared first on PezCycling News.
