W/O Child

We're fortunate to have two wonderful, healthy children. We're even more fortunate to have family willing and able to take them off of our hands for a week. This past week has been one of the most peaceful in years, and even though I'm not really training for anything at the moment, I am watching my wife peak out her own Ironman training, and I've come to realize something I've never really thought about before.
Training for endurance events is infinitely easier in the absence of young children. So much so, that I think some sort of race credit should be given to those who train while raising children. And I have a couple ideas on that, but first, let's discuss training.

This past week, I've been able to do basically whatever I want, whenever I want to do it. As mentioned, I'm not in full on training mode right now, but I still got on my bike four times since Monday, and I didn't once have to think about the ramifications of going out riding. It must be really nice, as a dependant free IM-wanna be, to be able to schedule your workouts at will. I can't even imagine. No soccer schedules, no little league, no having to feed them, watch them, bath them, get them to sleep. Nothing, just eat, sleep, work, train.

But I don't think that's even the most important part. Getting in the training, even with children and a little time management, is relatively easy. It's the recovery. With kids, coming home, showering, and promptly taking a nap is generally not an option. There are no naps, it just doesn't happen. Often. Without the kids this week, I've been free to sleep almost at will, or at least relax and put my feet up. Must be nice.

Which brings us to racing. How about giving those of us with pre-teen children a break? At the very least, our own age groups. How hard would that be? No dice? How about a time discount, 10% for the first kid, 5% for the second, 3% for the third? Seems fair to me. and again, easy enough to implement. I'd still be slow, but at least I'd have a chance.

Barring the miracle of anybody actually implementing one of my wonderful ideas, anyone want a couple of kids for about 30 weeks next year leading up to IMMT?

Anyone?

No. I guess it's for the best. I'm counting on Patrick to teach me how to swim anyway.