How do you balance skiing, work, and family?
 

I raced in the 80's and early 90's (can remember the advent of skating) but have been out of it for the last few years due to finishing school, starting new jobs, getting married, and moving to a region (Boston) without a lot of snow (but an excellent nearby XC facility with snow-making!)

My wife has not been a skiier and I've enjoyed doing lots of other stuff and not living the nomadic lifestyle that my various sports (cycling, XC skiing) used to entail. Now that we have a four month old baby, however, it's become a lot more important to me to create a place for these great activities in our household and also, as an older first-time parent (40yrs - 50 when our little boy will be 10) I really want to stay as active as possible. I've heard a lot of people say that all their sports stopped when they had a kid but for me it just got a lot more important (hmmm. just when you start to have *no* spare time, wouldn't it be great to re-start a time-consuming and expensive hobby? :))

Right now with a demanding (but somewhat flexible and self-paced) job, a newborn, and a wife who wants do lot of other stuff than ski I am trying to figure out how I can schedule some kind of regular skiing regimen. I'm lucky in that, although Boston is unreliable in terms of snow, the Westin ski track makes snow and does an excellent job of providing winter-round skiing. It's about a 20 min drive from us so a 1hr ski is about a two hour commitment.

The must be other forum dwellers who have dealt with this challenge, and I would very much appreciate any tips or strategies that have worked well for others. Do you go at night? Do you get up very early in the morning? How do you schedule weekends?

I think my wife will get more into skiing as it becomes something our child can participate in. I really miss the sport and also feel like it is a great way to stay healthy through middle age :)

I work on this issue at my OutYourBackdoor.com and Mike does as well
with his NordicSkiRacer.com.

My personal solution has been to just grab'n'go. I bought some
rollerskis---with them I can have ski-vibe fun and fitness anywhere,
anytime.

I've also come to appreciate the truth that all wholesome outdoor fresh
air activity is basically equivalent. Having kids has helped me to see
that druthers aren't as important as actualities and in the end there's
not much point in contending that any of these activities are better
than the others. But, darn, the all-body glide-energy of XC sure DOES
seem best of all! : )

For awhile, I was having a nice time doing grab'n'go with the help of
younger friends. They had a very structured plan for going skiing and
then getting home without spending much time or money. All I had to do
was show up with a duffle and ski bag and enjoy the ride. So as a busy
dad I let the youngsters organize while I just went along and paid my
way.

Recently, I've started just doing classic. Mastering V2 had me involved
with skating but, really, being a dad and running my own biz suggests
just doing classic. I can easily classic around the yard or local
trails. Any skiing I do helps me be fit for classic. By focusing I'm
almost ready to race. I only have one set to wax, too.

Another angle I've attempted is "smell the roses." --Start midpack and
just enjoy events rather than try to place. One really does enjoy a day
more this way. It lets one return home recovered rather than more
tired. Big and impt difference for a dad/entrepeneur! This also lets
one ski with any gear or wax and have fun. However, for me I have a
very hard time not going 110%. I tried a heart-rate monitor last year
but this year haven't used one once. I still feel fine and fast and
don't miss the complexity.

Well, those are just some tips/ideas. Keep it simple, enjoy outdoor
activity of any kind, do an occasional event. Not a bad way to go for a
dad/entrep.

--JP

I wouldn't be able to balance all these things and as a consequence
don't have children.

JFT

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I'll let you know next season how I manage it!

bt

John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:
I wouldn't be able to balance all these things and as a consequence
don't have children.

You probably live in the wrong country. :-)

With regular 8-hour workdays, 5+ vacation weeks and a year of
paternity/maternity leave, it is _much_ easier to combine
work+family+sports in Scandinavia.

Terje

And it doesn't hurt that world-class skiing is right up the hill! :-)

bt



Terje Mathisen wrote:
John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:
I wouldn't be able to balance all these things and as a consequence
don't have children.

You probably live in the wrong country. :-)

With regular 8-hour workdays, 5+ vacation weeks and a year of
paternity/maternity leave, it is _much_ easier to combine
work+family+sports in Scandinavia.

Terje

We have 6 yr old & 4 yr old, we both work out. We "reserve" a slot in
the day with each other. I often go out after putting the kids to bed
to minimize or eliminate any lost family time. I have an LED headlamp.
I mostly run in the warmer season, try to ski on snow when we are
blessed with it.

I feel the thing I mainly lose is "leisure time" for TV or just sitting
on my duff. I really have not done that since before kids. I don't feel
it is a true loss or a sacrifice. Imagine if you turned on the TV @ 8pm
after putting the kids to bed, and watched Fox local news @ 10 (At 11
it's History) for 2.5 hours. In that time I can drive to & fro my ski
place & ski for an hour, and wax for tomorrow. Or I can run about 16
miles. Or I can run 5 miles, and do a serious yoga / plyo / core
program. You just gotta hog out an hour or some block of time each day,
if you are a morning person, do it then, if you are a night owl do it
then. Don't try to fight nature, you'll lose !

Finally, one more tip, like Jeff Potter's, is that the easier it is to
do a workout the greater your chances of DOING a workout. Say you have
just 45 minutes. You aren't going to drive to the gym in that time
frame. But if you had a rollerboard, a workout video for yoga or core,
a place to do dips, a running route out your door, a ski trail in the
backyard for you & the kids...the easier it is, the more likely the
workout. This has proven to be critical. If I need to drive 10 minutes
to the rollerski trailhead I am not as likely to get it done as head
out the door & just r-ski from home.

If you do things right, you ought to be able to squeeze in some good skiing in that 2hr window you speak of ... it may just not fall at 'prime time'.

For me, I have a non-ski wife as well, a 15mth old daughter, full-time job ... the only time left for skiing is usually around 9pm in the evening, the time a lot of people flick on the tube and start to unwind. This can be hard particularly at the end of the day when you start to get sleepy ....but I'm fortunate to have an awesome trail system 15 minutes away (Gatineau park), so I can jam a good solid night ski in and be back by 11-11:30 if I do things right. I do this at least twice a week and then usually get out on Saturday and Sunday mornings, timing it around the baby's nap times so as to minimize family impact.

It can be tough, takes some commitment and discipline at times particularly during the week when you're tired at the end of a day, but the fitness benefits, getting in race shape, along with the sheer fun of skiing make it worth it. I got signed up this year in a race and marathon (Keski, CSM)
as a way to help force make skiing a part of my schedule . As Todd was saying, I dont have any time to 'sit around' any more, and its been real difficult to slot time in with buddies (unless they ski!). All good, though,
they'll be plenty of time for sitting around with buddies down the road.

Either way you do it, make sure you enjoy yourself ...

steve

Well, you hit the nail on the head for me. It's doable, but a major
disruption to drive 40-60 min one way to go ski. So in Dec, I usually
did one 60 min local run and one 60 min local hill bounding per week
with running....and I don' t like running. Weekends were skiing. I came
out of Dec in poor shape compared to my competitors. I have the same
driving problem with mt biking. I love it, but I road bike so I don't
have to throw the bike on the car and drive.

So when you hear me bitching about no snow, it's because no snow means
more driving or get out of shape. Last night was a great workout, but I
also cut out of work 2.5 hrs early.

I've watched Brian and Abby combine workouts, so one babysits and the
other goes for a workout and then they switch. If you could figure out
a combined activity with your wife, it helps. My wife will ski if it's
relatively flat, but otherwise snow-shoes, bikes, hot-tubs, reads, etc
while I'm out skiing. A saint she is, and yes skiers are envious.

Obviously, if you can get out of bed at 4 am and do your workout while
others are sleeping, that works....for about two weeks. Early morning
workouts are really hard on the entire system. I've done it, but man it
takes motivation and saps energy reserves, so beware of getting sick,
burnt out, or becoming a real *******. I also found the benefits of
coffee are over-rated and shortlived.

Jay Wener