balancing life and the bike

[RoadRaven]

Afraid its just a fact, if you use heaps of energy you need to dedicate time to replenishing yourself which means more sleep.
I am the same too - I often want a nap in the middle of the day after a ride, or if I have ridden hard the day before.
I try and manage it by getting to bed at reasonable times and when I can, allowing a cat nap after work, or during the day at weekends...

[OakLeaf]

Sympathy and no help here, too. It's why I burned out on racing, and on cycling entirely, and didn't ride at all for 10 years. Hope you find some balance and don't wind up in the same boat I did... or that you're successful enough in your racing to make it all worth it.

[Starfish]

A couple of weeks ago I lay down on my office floor, and I woke up an hour later! It was the a.m. workout.

I notice that since I added an hour of body conditioning and strength training class before the spinning class a couple days/week, I'm going to bed a good two hours earlier at night!

Today I had some errands and little projects in mind, but after my ride, I decided to bag them for tomorrow, when there is just an hour of easy exercise on the schedule.

That said, for me, there is time and energy to do more stuff on the off days.

[Brandy]

How do I balance it? I have no life! Kids, work, train...that's what I do. We're typically in bed before 9:00 p.m. and acting like athletes these days. If we try to do it on less sleep, we end up sick, exhausted and sucking on the bike.