Preparing for ultra's with babies/ young kids

[bmike-vt]

Something the wife (a marathoner and tri-girl) and I have learned - if you bury your passions and lose yourself - what good are you to your kid(s) and family?

I was lost for about 2 years with new baby, medical issues in the family, etc. I was an SOB to be around - and not at all the type of parent I wanted to be. Making time for oneself so that you maintain your own identity and inspiration can bring good, positive energy to your life for your kid(s) and spouse. Having to lose 30 extra pounds (put on during those first 2 years) and lots of mental searching and hard work have started to prove this out to me...

We try to keep a balance. Early mornings, split weekends for long days as needed, riding to family events, running most of our summer errands by bike... etc. etc.

Of course - we don't have a TV, rarely watch media / movies / etc. - and we play outside most days (even if its just in the backyard), we build in a bit of fitness by running most good weather errands by bike, and we work hard to keep our work and personal calendars open and flexible enough so that we each have the space we need to be whole, non stressed, healthy partners and parents.

Be the model you want for your kid(s).

[Roland Sturm]

Dude, come on now Roland.  Your words seem a bit harsh and judgemental.  I'm sure you don't mean them to be, but saying for someone to be gone for a few days at a time is bad parenting (I'm paraphrasing here I know) is bad form.

My apologies, I seem to have come across too much like an old crank. I am sorry because this is indeed not what I meant. I don't equate taking a few days off with bad parenting.

Let me see if I can say it in a more measured and less abrasive way: What I see as the limitation is preparing for ultras when you also have full time work and young kids, two full time jobs by themselves. Maybe some people can train enough with few hours, but I thought that ROUTINELY putting in long hours is essential preparation when you want to perform well in ultra events. Not 1-2 hours a day, but full days at least once and maybe better twice a week. That's the rub because such a routine commitment over a long period of time, rather than a brief vacation, appears hard to reconcile with the other two responsibilities. The RAAM and 100m trail runners I know (including people in my extended family) were all pushing 12+ hour days in training, so they needed to find the right time period in their lives. Personal life circumstances vary, of course. And some lucky people may be physically gifted so that they can deal with the demands of ultra events without long training hours. Intensity beats volume, so you can go a long way with shorter, but very intensive training sessions (as I wrote in the first post, the concept 2 ergometer worked great for me). But I'd be concerned that this would be insufficient to develop the structural tolerance your body needs to complete an ultra event (at least without injury) like a 100 mile run or multi-day cycling.

[bmike-vt]

Let me see if I say it in a more measured and less abrasive way: What I see as the limitation is preparing for ultras when you also have full time work and young kids, two full time jobs by themselves. Maybe some people can train enough with few hours, but I thought that ROUTINELY putting in long hours is essential preparation when you want to perform well in ultra events.

Chris Kostman would disagree...

While training for the 3,127 mile 1987 Race Across AMerica (RAAM), I ignored conventional wisdom by specifically avoiding major mileage in my training. In fact, only five times in the eight months prior to the transcontinental race did I ride 100 miles or further. Meanwhile, my colleagues were churning out the miles like there was no tomorrow, eventually building up to weekly 24 hour training rides and weekly totals of up to 1,000 miles. You see, while training specificity may lead one in a million Olympic hopefuls to a gold medal, it leads the rest of us in the real world to boredom, discontent with our sport, and sub-par performances.

[THE LONG RANGER]

Chris Kostman would disagree...

I've done a fair bit of research on how to train for ultra events and Chris does have a good point. One point to remember is different people will react to different training in different ways. This leads to the person doing the training themselves finding out what works best for them.

BUT (and this is a big but). Mr. Kostman most likely had years of previous endurance training under his belt, before the lacking-of-long-miles training for the RAAM. Having exactly what that sort of data is would be sort of interesting.

Chris, in this article has some amazingly great points, though, some that I follow myself, most especially diversity in training. I think what a lot of people are hinting at in this thread, along with Mr. Kostman is high quality, "short" training is always better than mindless, "long" training.

[bmike-vt]

Not to derail, but I believe he wrote that after his first (and youngest) RAAM at age 20, and he claims to have started cycling at age 14. He's certainly naturally gifted, and different strokes for different folks... but much of what he says rings true to me, even though I'll never amount to much of an ultra racer....

[P Nome]

I think I would blow out both knees, my back, and generally fall apart if I tried training all day long.  1-2 hrs a day is plenty for me and my one a year ultra can satiate an obsession but still keep the family balance in check, even if I come in last place.   

[chriskmurray]

"Taking a full weekend day off means neglecting the family. Period. And what for? To place 57th in Leadville? "

This comment talks more about one's opinions on parenting philosophy and less about "preparing for ultra's with babies/young kids". Different topic, different discussion. Rather I am guessing, perhaps incorrectly, that this discussion thread presupposes one has struck a healthy balance between training and family, and one is figuring out the best method to accomplish preparation without sacrificing the family unit. Every family and family situation is unique, number of kids, nap schedules, personalitites, etc.
Just because one trains on a few weekend days prior to an event doesn't mean they have to disappear from the family life. Exposure to grandparents, days off post event, camp, saturday school, these are all components that factor into the overall scheme. Again, every situation is unique. In the end, one could argue any parent going ultra racing is putting the family at risk no matter how old the dependents and wife are. Examples abound-the doctor who passed away racing RAAM leaving family behind, last years tragic TD (There were a lot of Dad's and Mom's out there, children of all ages). I don't think there is a clear boundary-in fact it is very fuzzy. Is risk exposure racing TD or similar responsible even if one has a 16 year old that wants nothing to do with parents at the moment? What about the significant other? Hmmm.

Just a thought. I'm not sure I have the right answer. I just organized the return of Dave Blumenthal's bike back to his family, and it was very emotional for me and definitely has me thinking....

You are thinking along the same lines as I am, family comes first...period

But with that being said I know there are ways out there to prepare for ultra's (I know the Tour Divide is off the radar for a few years) but I would like to be able to get the fitness needed to be able to do things like a race or two from the NUE series or a 12 or 24 hour race a year.  I really could care less about being competitive in these long races, I get super competitive in shorter races like XC or cross races but to me endurance races are just about finishing in the best time you can pull off and I try not to focus on "winning"

I also know its possible to maintain a good family life and build the fitness needed to finish some longer rides and not totally suffer through them and I was curious how some of the people on here have pulled that off since I know there are many very accomplished racers on here and I know a number of them have families as well.

I've always believed in the quality over quantity method of training and it's worked well for me in the past but for some reason come race day I always question my fitness.

[toosh]

http://aaronteasdale.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-we-did-it.html