Bassmanbob

I'm 54 years old, married to the same woman for 29 years, I've been cycling for the last 5 years and we've been empty nesters for the last 4 years. Things have been getting rough with our marriage, so we went to a therapist. It's not our first time, and it has helped a lot in the past. My wife definitely has issues she is going to address now, but her biggest problem with me is how much time I spend either cycling or doing cycling related activities. That may include coming here, checking routes for potential rides, reading about cycling and social events with my local cycling club. She complains that cycling has become an addiction for me. While I don't think it has, it is plausible.

This came out because I wanted to start training again for a few century rides this coming fall/ winter (I'm in Florida). I've cut my cycling way back to 150-250 miles a month for the last six months instead of the usual 100 miles a week. Life just got in the way the last few months.

So the question is how do you balance your cycling activity with your marriage and family? I would still like to do three to five century events each year, but I'll need to train more than I've been riding recently to do that. I have considered going to bed by 9PM, waking at 4AM to be on the bike for 90 minutes before I get ready for work at 6AM three times during the week. I have also considered getting up at 4 AM on Saturday, out the door at 5AM for two hours prior to my group ride that begins at 7:15AM. This would get me home by about 10- 10:30 for the rest of the weekend.

How do you manage your time to do both? Is it possible?