Married couple that tri's

tddaileyjr

Anyone who has had the pleasure of balancing two training schedules, children, and living a happy marriage have any insight. My wife seem to make it work now. She takes priority in the dark hours of the morning where I take the evening hours. It doesn't stress us that much just the occasional free moment that pops up and one of us try to claim it first to get there training in.

Brenda Ross

Sounds like you got it down. Steve and I started when our son was 11 and he is now 27. I have always had jobs that allowed me to work out during the day and he would work out after work. We have some couples that tri on the team, so hopefully they can give you some insight.

Chris Davis

Christina and I alternate big races. If she's doing a fall Ironman, then I cant do a fall Ironman, I have to do a spring Ironman. I yield to her training schedule, and alter my workout schedule to allow her all the training time she needs when she's about 3 months out from a big race. And she does the same for me. Typically she tends to work out during the day, and I am a night owl, after our sons (5 and 8) are in bed.

William Crawford

My wife and I race the same races and I think it works best for us. We have four daughters and started in 2010 when the oldest was able to keep an eye on her sisters. We also stagger our workouts. If we have a long ride on a weekend, my wife will begin at 7:00 and I will wait until the kids are awake before I leave. I may not start my ride until 10:00 or 11:00 so the kids are not alone for long. During the week, we certainly need to discuss who is doing what and driving which one to what practice, etc. I think it helps that we both race as we both know what is required and are on similar training schedules.

I think the keys are communication, understanding, and respect. As long as each of those are mutual, you will not have any issues.

Brad Marcus

My wife (EN member, Heidi) and I have been making it work for 5 years or so. The challenge increased a bit when we moved to IM a few years back. We stagger workouts, usually Heidi starting very early AM, and myself afterwards. Although we both work from home, Heidi travels a fair amount for her job. We have 2 kids, 11 and 13 yrs old, so they obviously take priority. On occasion, workouts get missed or shortened if schedules call for it. However, both are kids go to sleep away camp in the Summer, which is when we schedule the IM races. This takes the pressure off us getting the long workouts in that are required in the IM build leading up to the race. We have always scheduled it so we can race together. This year we decided to schedule different IM races, 3 weeks apart. This way we can bring the kids to both races and one of us can hang with the kids and Sherpa the one racing.

I honestly think that having both spouses who are triathletes is easier than just one. There is a mutual understanding of the time and dedication that's required, that I imagine may be an issue otherwise. At the end of the day, we can't forget that this is a game and keeping balance is necessary to make it all work.