Welcome to installment two of the four-part series I’ll be writing this winter focusing on how I plan to make my first winter as a new dad my best ever on the bike. From here on in I’ll be referring to it as: Project Best Winter Ever.
Read installment one here.
To recap in short, this will be my first winter as both a cyclist and a new dad, and my aim is to make it my best winter ever on the bike. I outlined how I planned (and hoped) to do this. I’ll be using the Zwift Hub smart trainer, which has been loaned to me to help with the project, as well as riding on the road.
I would hope it goes without saying that my family are my number-one priority in life, but a cyclist I am, and I’ll continue to ride my bike. I think it’s important to try and find the time to still do the things you did before as parents, life doesn’t stop when you have a child.
Don’t let the title of this series ‘best winter ever’ fool you either. I’m not fanatically training to try and ride a full race season next year or tick off some huge challenges. I simply want to get through the dark British winter by having as much fun riding my bike as I can, trying things I haven’t done before and maintaining (and hopefully improving) my fitness.
As any new parent will attest, I’m often short on sleep and there are a lot more demands on my time, but that’s why continuing to ride my bike is so important to me. Instead of not touching the bike all winter and complaining I never have time to ride, why not try to embrace the challenge and mix things up to make it a great winter? Our daughter is coming up to 11 months old now too, which means it’s a little easier to find time to ride my bike for a few hours a week now. I realise I didn’t mention this in my last piece, so forgive me if you thought I was juggling a brand-new baby with professional levels of training each week.
I also mentioned in my introductory piece I’m fully aware I’m not the first cyclist to become a parent and would like to hear from fellow riders on what your experience was like.
The first instalment of this mini-series was published 17 days ago and in the days since, the majority of my riding has in fact still been done outside. Two of these rides have been on the last couple of Saturday mornings when I get up early and leave the house at around 6:30am for our local chain gang. At the moment this fits in fairly well with…
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