Advice for new dad on how to keep cycling!

Gazmania1

Just reaching out for any nuggets of wisdom as to how to keep up the cycling with a new baby in the house.

Basically, my partner and I are due our first baby in the next few days and am just wondering how I'm going to fit in riding around dealing with the baby and a no doubt disapproving partner. Everyone seems keen to offer me advice that basically consists of 'forget about any riding' but that cannot be the case, surely?

I've only been riding a few years and have been on a general upward trajectory and have managed about 6000 miles this year, none of them commuting. I am in a position where it's difficult to commute to work so can't really incorporate riding that way.

Anyone been in this position that wants to offer a few workarounds?? How have you managed it and what kind of riding led to the least arguments?

bianchimoon

Hope it's a girl, you should get a little more time in the next 16 years than if it's a boy!

JoostG

funny thing about becoming a dad, is a more organized life. You start planning ahead: mom a afternoon shopping, dad the morning on the bike. In my case I've been riding my bike more since I have kids. You start to appreciate a moment to yourself more than in the past, and that moment is when on my bike riding somewhere. Even when it's raining cats and dogs, I'll grab the bike and go out.
Another thing I'll do, is offering some sleep and head out early in the morning, especially in summer time. If you sart at 5.30, you will be able to do 200km and arrive back at lunch. Combining (family) visits with cycling is another thing that works well. They will "miss" you only an hour, as the misses and baby spend most of their time in car and the baby/children will sleep.
So don't you worry!

kajjal

Early mornings is a good time as long as it is not icy. Seeing as you will be up then anyway to begin with

jimwalsh

bianchimoon wrote:

Hope it's a girl, you should get a little more time in the next 16 years than if it's a boy!

Why?

jimwalsh

Gazmania1 wrote:

Just reaching out for any nuggets of wisdom as to how to keep up the cycling with a new baby in the house.

Basically, my partner and I are due our first baby in the next few days and am just wondering how I'm going to fit in riding around dealing with the baby and a no doubt disapproving partner. Everyone seems keen to offer me advice that basically consists of 'forget about any riding' but that cannot be the case, surely?

I've only been riding a few years and have been on a general upward trajectory and have managed about 6000 miles this year, none of them commuting. I am in a position where it's difficult to commute to work so can't really incorporate riding that way.

Anyone been in this position that wants to offer a few workarounds?? How have you managed it and what kind of riding led to the least arguments?

While my wife was on mat leave I had the best year of cycling. small babies cant really do much... Get up early doors is my advice if you can find a buddy that will meet you for super early summer rides you can get much done by the time things are going at home...

bianchimoon

jimwalsh wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

Hope it's a girl, you should get a little more time in the next 16 years than if it's a boy!

Why?

Call me old fashioned, but our girls didn't play football/Rugby/Cricket, so pastimes they had/have such as Dance/horseriding etc, I managed to get out of and ride more, fellow riders round here with boys seem to spend most saturday/sunday mornings at Cricket/Rugby/Football etc.

Gazmania1

bianchimoon wrote:

Hope it's a girl, you should get a little more time in the next 16 years than if it's a boy!

Funnily enough apparently it is a girl and therefore not having to spend my weekends standing on touch lines did cross my mind as a bonus! On the downside, it's unlikely I'm going to be able to retire on her potential sports earnings (unless she's a golfer or tennis player)!!

pinno

As joost said, you become more organised - you have to.

Forget the first few weeks. I had my two sleeping the night through within 6 and 9 weeks respectively. This is key. If she is knackered and there's a baby to look after and you want to go out pedalling, it could spell trouble. My two go to bed at 7pm and after that it's our time. So get yourself a decent set of night lights and you will have a chance to go out when the little one starts sleeping through.
A set of rollers/turbo trainer is so useful as you can just hop on for a short time when you haven't got much time just to keep things ticking over.
Learn to be creative with Brownie points - say you'll look after baby whilst she has some 'me' time, offer her ideas like going out with friends, having a sleep. That way she won't feel abandoned when you plan a cycle - work with her to get that looking after baby/life balance. If she is planning to breast feed, it is difficult for you to look after the baby for a number of hours unless she 'expresses' - so being organised is key. If you're selfish, it's not going to work.
When the baby comes, you'll be so overwhelmed by being a dad that cycling will take second place until the dust settles.

Once you get into the rhythm, you'll wonder what the heck you did with all your spare time before the arrival.
You'll also do silly things like drive at 20mph, talk to complete strangers with newborns and wear a cycle helmet every time you go out.

polyx

Congratulations on upcoming baby. I hope she/he will be delivered safely and healthy!

I have 3 m.o., and we have no relatives (grandmas etc) in the UK, basically me and wifey. Sad to accept but if that's case with you too, for the first couple of months you might mostly stick with turbotrainer till things are settled. It's winter anyway. Even if you leave early morning for a ride, baby wakes up 5-6 times during the night, your partner might likely need a help from you at AM times.

As a side note, I quit fulltime job and gone freelancing, to be able to witness how our baby grows and enjoying every day!

Best of luck! )

tlw1

pinarello001 wrote:

As joost said, you become more organised - you have to.

Forget the first few weeks. I had my two sleeping the night through within 6 and 9 weeks respectively. This is key. If she is knackered and there's a baby to look after and you want to go out pedalling, it could spell trouble. My two go to bed at 7pm and after that it's our time. So get yourself a decent set of night lights and you will have a chance to go out when the little one starts sleeping through.
A set of rollers/turbo trainer is so useful as you can just hop on for a short time when you haven't got much time just to keep things ticking over.
Learn to be creative with Brownie points - say you'll look after baby whilst she has some 'me' time, offer her ideas like going out with friends, having a sleep. That way she won't feel abandoned when you plan a cycle - work with her to get that looking after baby/life balance. If she is planning to breast feed, it is difficult for you to look after the baby for a number of hours unless she 'expresses' - so being organised is key. If you're selfish, it's not going to work.
When the baby comes, you'll be so overwhelmed by being a dad that cycling will take second place until the dust settles.

Once you get into the rhythm, you'll wonder what the heck you did with all your spare time before the arrival.
You'll also do silly things like drive at 20mph, talk to complete strangers with newborns and wear a cycle helmet every time you go out.

Covers it perfectly

I also cycled to work more - but made sure I left on time so I was home at a similar time

kingstonian

pinarello001 wrote:

As joost said, you become more organised - you have to.

Forget the first few weeks. I had my two sleeping the night through within 6 and 9 weeks respectively. This is key. If she is knackered and there's a baby to look after and you want to go out pedalling, it could spell trouble. My two go to bed at 7pm and after that it's our time. So get yourself a decent set of night lights and you will have a chance to go out when the little one starts sleeping through.
A set of rollers/turbo trainer is so useful as you can just hop on for a short time when you haven't got much time just to keep things ticking over.
Learn to be creative with Brownie points - say you'll look after baby whilst she has some 'me' time, offer her ideas like going out with friends, having a sleep. That way she won't feel abandoned when you plan a cycle - work with her to get that looking after baby/life balance. If she is planning to breast feed, it is difficult for you to look after the baby for a number of hours unless she 'expresses' - so being organised is key. If you're selfish, it's not going to work.
When the baby comes, you'll be so overwhelmed by being a dad that cycling will take second place until the dust settles.

Once you get into the rhythm, you'll wonder what the heck you did with all your spare time before the arrival.
You'll also do silly things like drive at 20mph, talk to complete strangers with newborns and wear a cycle helmet every time you go out.

And don't beat yourself up if the baby doesn't sleep through the night. Neither of our two boys slept through until they were over a year old. Some children do, some don't, they're all different.

Bozman

I grabbed every minute I could and just upped the intensity, I mapped out routes starting from as little as ten miles and used what I could when I could.
My pace has improved so much since my first lad was born nearly six years ago and I think that it is down to the time restriction, you really make the most of what time you get.

You'll soon realise that sometimes you just want to keep going and not turn around but your conscious gets the better of you in the end.

supermurph09

Hi

I became a dad for the first time last November (2013), I had thought that my riding would not be affected, if my little boy would have settled each night, fed easily etc then that might have been the case, sadly he was very hard work for the first 3 months. In the January I started a training plan, but it soon became apparent that working all day then training in the evening was a bit selfish on my part so my advice to you would be as follows.

Forget about riding for at least 2 weeks after the birth, opportunities may present themselves to ride, if so take advantage, but in my experience if you plan on riding on certain days and it doesn't happen that will most like stress you out at a time you don't need any additional stress. At the end of the day you will not regret missing out on a couple of months of riding, you may regret not spending more time with you child.

Unless you have a baby that settles all the time and gets into a great routine, planning anything is virtually impossible, your mrs will be knackered all the time and it's a great time to really earn some brownie points for being superdad. Take some time out to plan your goals for the year, say to yourself, right over the next 2 months it's going to be tough so what I can do to limit my losses. I'd choose intensity over duration, do you have a turbo trainer? If not and you can afford one, get one, having the bike ready and waiting on the turbo to do 45 hard minutes will be a lot more beneficial than getting all your winter gear on (and back off) and your partner will know you are close by if she needs you.

All the best

supermurph09

pinarello001 wrote:

As joost said, you become more organised - you have to.

Forget the first few weeks. I had my two sleeping the night through within 6 and 9 weeks respectively. This is key. If she is knackered and there's a baby to look after and you want to go out pedalling, it could spell trouble. My two go to bed at 7pm and after that it's our time. So get yourself a decent set of night lights and you will have a chance to go out when the little one starts sleeping through.
A set of rollers/turbo trainer is so useful as you can just hop on for a short time when you haven't got much time just to keep things ticking over.
Learn to be creative with Brownie points - say you'll look after baby whilst she has some 'me' time, offer her ideas like going out with friends, having a sleep. That way she won't feel abandoned when you plan a cycle - work with her to get that looking after baby/life balance. If she is planning to breast feed, it is difficult for you to look after the baby for a number of hours unless she 'expresses' - so being organised is key. If you're selfish, it's not going to work.
When the baby comes, you'll be so overwhelmed by being a dad that cycling will take second place until the dust settles.

Once you get into the rhythm, you'll wonder what the heck you did with all your spare time before the arrival.
You'll also do silly things like drive at 20mph, talk to complete strangers with newborns and wear a cycle helmet every time you go out.

This is spot on advice, my little boy didn't sleep through until he was 9 months old and even then not all the time!

Geo555

Get yourself one of these.

g00se

Most of it's been said, but the first few weeks/months are out of the window - don't fret about that, the baby will occupy every waking moment and you wont get a chance to think of the bike.

What you need to do between you is split the duties up if you can. Expressing and doing feeding shifts, talking her out in the pram, shopping runs with the littleun. Both give each other 'time-off' and both of you can use that to do pre-parenthood stuff. That way, it's not you leaving her to do the baby care for 'another bloody bike ride' - you're taking it in turns to do your own thing.

w00dster

Loads of great advice for you regarding sharing duties etc. Obviously Turbo sessions as also mentioned.
One thing I do is to ride everywhere. I never use the car what so ever. Every time I have to pop out, go up town etc, I use the bike. Its only a 4.5 mile ride into town, but I make the excuse for having to go up there. If the missus wants to go up town with the family I meet them there - it doesn't replace proper rides, but its better than nothing.
I also get one club ride in over the weekend, the other day is "devoted" to being a family day. Club rides I prep everything the night before, get up with the family for breakfast, leave the house at 8:40 and back for 1:15 (ish), so still get to do my 60 miles at the weekend. If I was in your position with a new born I would cut the length of my rides to 20 miles and do short structured interval rides.

Bozman

I've got a shed load of brownie points that I'll be cashing in until the day I die, I took the hit and finished work to look after our lads.
Six years on and I've got one at school and the other at preschool leaving me with plenty of spare time, come September they'll both be at school and I'll have plenty of time on the bike.

florerider

don't miss out on time with the baby though, you really will not get it back.

for various reasons I gave up cycling when mine was young (business travel the main culprit), but the one thing I missed and regretted was not getting bike seat for the baby early enough - no its not the same as a good thrash on a road bike, but kids love it and its a good way of keeping cycling and spending time together. Make it something she specifically does with Dad and that solves most problems.

I also looked hard at getting an adult child tandem or tandem trike, something else I regret not doing.

Chris James

bianchimoon wrote:

jimwalsh wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

Hope it's a girl, you should get a little more time in the next 16 years than if it's a boy!

Why?

Call me old fashioned, but our girls didn't play football/Rugby/Cricket, so pastimes they had/have such as Dance/horseriding etc, I managed to get out of and ride more, fellow riders round here with boys seem to spend most saturday/sunday mornings at Cricket/Rugby/Football etc.

My two lads do ballroom dancing. They also race cyclocross and my wife hates shopping and loves mountaineering.

We don't live in the 1950s any more!

y33stu

some great points above.

I've got a 6 month old, and first few weeks, I did nothing.

Only thing i'd add, don't forget your Mrs will also want to spend time with you. That's not her asking you to look after the baby necessarily. It's her wanting to spend time with you, when you will want to be out on the bike.

I've found the best way to deal with this is to have time when it's just the two of you, when the baby is in bed. Then make time for just you and baby. Then time for you and the bike. Make sure it's the bike plan that comes last. Other wise it wont work.

Oh, and enjoy parenthood. It's my first, and it's amazing.

Gazmania1

Brilliant replies everyone, thanks a lot for taking the time. Looks like she might be arriving now, so here goes....

pinno

Gazmania1 wrote:

Brilliant replies everyone, thanks a lot for taking the time. Looks like she might be arriving now, so here goes....

Can we get a running commentary with all the gory bits please?

Hope it isn't a 'spontaneous delivery'. Happened to me. Christ the bathroom took a hit and a long time to clean. Never did salvage the bathmat.

the_rover

It won't be long before your doing this, we regularly ride 20 miles along the canal. I take a flask, milk for the boy and bread for the ducks. In the summer we may have stopped for a pint as well

kingstonian

Best of luck, hope the birth goes fine and your wife is home swiftly.

One piece of advice - don't be fixated by trying to get out on the bike. Spending time with wife and child is much, much more important. Yes, you will need some time to yourself and if that can coincide with being out on a bike then great, but if you have a couple of months off the bike then just enjoy the time with your baby.

peat

Kingstonian wrote:

Spending time with wife and child is much, much more important.

Laaaaaaaaaaazy.

bianchimoon

Chris James wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

jimwalsh wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

Hope it's a girl, you should get a little more time in the next 16 years than if it's a boy!

Why?

Call me old fashioned, but our girls didn't play football/Rugby/Cricket, so pastimes they had/have such as Dance/horseriding etc, I managed to get out of and ride more, fellow riders round here with boys seem to spend most saturday/sunday mornings at Cricket/Rugby/Football etc.

My two lads do ballroom dancing. They also race cyclocross and my wife hates shopping and loves mountaineering.

We don't live in the 1950s any more!

Very happy for you, welcome to to 2015 :roll:
I think you misunderstand what I was meaning, it was not a reflection on gender stereotyping, simply a response to the OPs question.

Yankee1

Lots of good advice already. One that I find useful is always having your kit and bike ready to go. If you find yourself with a free hour, you can ready to go at a moment's notice rather than having to find your gloves in the wash, air up your tyres, etc. Cut out the faff.

il_principe

My little man is 20 months old. I've still managed to rack up over 6000 miles this year. Trick is to get up early. Easy in the Summer, hard in the Winter. My summer tactic is to be out of the house by 05:30. That way you can get 100 miles in and still be home in good time, or do half that and get home before the family are even awake.

Important to encourage your wife/partner to do her thing. So for example I rode Sat am, then looked after the little man on Sat Afternoon and Sunday morning allowing my wife to go shopping and play tennis. Had roast chicken waiting for her when she got back as well.

If you have more than one hobby you want to think about ditching one of them.

cubedean

Congratulations first and foremost.

We've just bought babies 3&4 home so my prediciment is similar but on a worse scale. My advice would be clear a couple of days in advance if you are doing a big ride & be prepared for your saddle time to take a knock.