Originally Posted by Baby Puke

This can be really tough. My son was born just a couple of years after I got into track, so I was also loathe to take time off and tried to keep training hard. I never really stopped, but eventually it was necessary to radically reduce my training time, and that lasted for years and has since influenced how I go about training in general-- and really, after you have a kid I think it's safe to say you PERMANENTLY will have less training hours thenceforth.

Gym becomes really important, but even in gym sessions I found I had to really cut the fat and just do what was necessary. I learned to get in and out of the gym in an hour or so. Bike work too, long road rides are basically forever gone. If you can get most of your bike stuff done on the watt bike and the rest at track sessions that would be my recommendation. But basically be ready to do a lot less. Caring for your family, getting your day job done, training and getting enough recovery time is a really tricky balance.

In terms of progression, in the two years after my son was born I did go backwards, which was really frustrating. Eventually I found a rough way of approaching training and racing that worked, and I've been progressing pretty well year on year since then (except of course 2020 for obvious reasons...). I guess my take-away is to expect to step back a little in order to keep a balance in the overall picture of your life.