I’m curious as to how folks with young families fit in riding weeknights, most specifically around how do you fit in your tea and putting the little one to bed. I have a 19 month old who eats around 5ish and goes to bed at 7. If we are having tea its after he’s gone to bed, so can be 8ish at times.

My normal practice is to skip tea and my wife is really supportive of me going out, I probably do this twice a week. I’ll eat a bag of crisps in the pub after and snaffle a banana beforehand. However this evening I was thinking of going for a pootle after I’d eaten a proper tea, which will be around 8:30. I think the normal idea is you aren’t supposed to exercise something like 2-3 hours after food, which would mean going out much later (which i’m not fussed by)

So do you just scavenge and go, and leave the real cooked meals to nights where you aren’t riding?

Also…what’s your go to pre ride food?

Cheers

I used to normally schedule my riding similarly, the guys I ride with all met at the corner next to NatWest at 8.

I’d eat a small dinner as soon as I got in from work, certainly wouldn’t wait to eat at a grown-up time. Then pudding, a bowl of cereal or something decent when I got home.

If you are just going for a pootle then it shouldn’t be a problem riding with a full stomach. It can lead to problems if you are doing very strenuous exercise where there is a high chance you will throw up the contents of your stomach. Though my kids are now older I still have to do most of my weekday riding at night. I tend to have my main meal at lunchtime then go to work. I finish work around 9pm and then go for a ride without eating anything since lunch then eat when I come home usually bread and salad. Works for me as I have been doing it for around the last six to eight years.

I don’t get home until around 6, so by the time we’ve all eaten, the little ones had bath time and bed it’s about 8 so I’ve not attempted a ride after.

I will try and squeeze in a pre-work ride where possible though.

May I suggest no pudding?

Gets you out quicker 😀

I nearly always skip pudding!

Yup. Kids in bed for 7. Faff and out the door by 7.30/45ish, usually ride till back of ten. Usually a very small bowl of what the kids are having before the ride then just some toast before bed when I get in.

Sunset’s back to 8.55 already 😩 time to dust off both bar and helmet lights. ffs. Bub bye light evenings 👋😢

I’ve been through this over the past 3 years and most of my riding has been done after the little one is in bed.

Dinner around 1700-30. We used to have an adult meal when she was in bed but by the time we ate and tidied up it was 2100.

Bath at 1830. If im going out, wifey will do the bath and bed time routine on her own.

Out the door by 1900 and back by 2100-30.

Shower

Beer

1 episode of a box set with wifey

Bed

We both work full time shift patterns so it’s subject to change. Shifts help as we’re off during the week a lot of the time so when she’s in nursery during the day we’llgo out for a ride together.

Invest in good night lights. I love riding at night!

My Wednesday night ride group are all Dads and we have a range of ages of kids but we usually meet at 7.30 7.45 without fail in the southern Lakes and half the lads live in Lancaster its just a case  of  making the effort  and whatever the weather  2hr 30 ride then last orders at the pub,most rides start from a pub.

Rich

Hmm.  I replied to this, gave it half an hour to see if it was a glitch (when it disappeared), came back and it wasn’t.

Once again with feeling; night lights.  Winter is Coming.  In my case, bedtime was the only quality time my wife had with the small person.  She was glad to do it and I was glad to get out and about through the moonlit, yellowy woodlands and cornfields.

As it got darker, I needed the light on my head and handlebars more often but not as often as you’d think.

I have just started again tonight. But before tonight. Pretty much would eat dinner. Sort the kids out and into bed with stories. They are normally asleep by 8pm and I’m out the door by 8:15pmish having prepped everything the day before.

Im glad I took lights tonight 🙁 I haven’t been on my bike for a year and I seem to yet again coincided riding once the weather starts to turn.

I haven’t had a problem with throwing up or anything. Just make sure I don’t go too mad for the first 30 minutes.

Normally back for 10pm. Bath and a beer then ponce around sorting stuff out for the next day. Bed by 11pm.

Ride at 5:30 / 6:00am twice a week.

If I’m doing a night ride I have a bigger meal at lunchtime and then a smaller meal like a sandwich and crisps at about 5 so you could maybe eat with the little one? I always feel bad if I eat too much to close to the group ride as it’s not slow.

If I’m riding in the evening either c. 630 (group rides) or later (solo) then I will have a generous but early lunch. By 6.30 the dozing off phase of digesting it has passed and I’m not hungry. I always have a gel or two with me in case I underestimated my lunchtime calories.

If the night ride is a long way from home then I sometimes have a sandwich in the car to eat while changing into pub clothes and then don’t eat when I get in. Otherwise….

When I finish riding then a quick pub stop (group rides) might follow then home for a 3/4 of normal size tea (dinner) which is usually one of home made freezer meal (leftover chilli or similar), jacket potato, my 15minute bean and chorizo soup or a sarnie. Usually followed by an hour of Forza while my tea goes down.

If the bike didn’t need a wash this usually results in a just about acceptable amount of sleep (getting up around 630) .

Cheers all, I’ve enjoyed reading the comments and not nipping out.

I’m out tomorrow from 18:30…no tea..back to the pub by 20:30..couple of pints in the pub an a pork sarnie. Then climb into bed (i’ll skip the shower….when its dry out)

One of the best things I find with night rides if you’re not working the next day….  few beers and a movie by yourself after you get in…everyone else in bed…absolute bliss 👌 bed for 1 maybe 2…🤫

Jekkyl +1 👍

If I am going out later in the evening we all have our tea together about 5-5.30 which gives it time to digest before going out at about 7-7.30. The little guy is in bed by then (at 7) so I get to help do stuff. I am usually home by 10 so not a problem at all really. Some choc milk when I got in last night, sat and chatted to the mrs for a bit, shower and then bed!

After a few years of trying to fit MTB around young kids I bought a CX bike so I could eliminate all of the driving and just ride from my house. Been a revelation and I think I’m now probably a secret roadie at heart….ooooh the lycra..oh yes.

I have a 3yr old and 1yr old.  I’ve given up with evening rides it’s not really possible I envy all you who can fit a ride in, and a beer and not have a terrible nights sleep followed by at early start.

with 1 kid I was able to train most mornings around 6am so kept most of my fitness.  with son2 he gets up at 7 so if I want to train I need to be up at 5.30.  tbh I’ve just been enjoying the summer and grabing rides when I can, often with the boys on tow.  I’m hoping to pick up training properly again from oct and try to return to some sort of form next season.

I’ve pretty much given up the mountain  bike to be honest, at the moment.

I have quite a long commute so have to be out of the house early, which means no pre-work riding.
Then, when I get home, it’s straight into spending some time with my daughter before she goes to bed.

When she was younger, she was in bed by 7 at the latest & would settle herself down, so I was out on a ride by 10 past. Now though, we’re lucky to get her into bed before around 10 past 7 and then she generally wants me to sit with her while she falls asleep – sometimes that can take until around 7:45.

I barely rode for April, May, June & July. I have just started getting some short evening rides in, but it’s bloody tricky & I’m aware that it means my Wife has to do a bit more around the house when i’m not there.

I have considered sticking the bike in the car, driving part way to work & cycling in – I’ve done it a few times. But, I currently lift share (knocked around 12000 miles/yr off my annual mileage), so it wouldn’t fit very well with that, and because it takes that much longer, I’d have to leave the house earlier & wouldn’t get home until later, so it’s a bit of a non-starter.

It is a real juggling act!

This is one of the main reasons that good lights were developed.

Oh and the Nat West closed ages ago, the cash point has been removed, one of the kids has grown as tall as his Dad, and we still meet there at 8 pm.

My nearly 3 year old daughter is a night owl so we struggle to get her to bed before 8, often awake til 9. Combined with having a half hour drive to the trails I’ve not bothered. Instead, I tend to Zwift in the garage in the winter and this summer I’ve been doing an hour on the CX bike after I’ve dropped the little one at nursery. With no. 2 due in November, I expect quick CX / Gravel rides to be my only riding for a couple of years.

If I eat a light meal 1hr before and a snack after an evening ride it generally works.

Me and MrB generally rotated who would put the kids to bed to free up the other one of us to get out and do what we wanted. Then it was just easier to get some proper chunks of exercise in. We both worked shifts, so the kids were used to it mainly being either or of us getting them sorted. But as a general rule of them we try not to double up on any tasks just one of us could do, seems to have aided survival of family life.

I’ve just given up on the idea that a weekday night ride is a 2 hours intense blast. Like you, I was struggling to fit it in around meals / bed times / unpredictable screaming kids. If I did get out, I’d be so wired after I’d not sleep properly on top of having to get up in the night and early in the morning for kids. I felt like it was taking me 3 days to recover and I was putting unnecessary stress on my mind and body.

Now I usually go out for shorter 1 hours evening rides once or twice a week so I’ve still got time for dinner / kids / sleep. Maybe a longer ride every other week at the weekend. I’m pretty lucky living next to a forest so a 1 hour ride lets me get in 3 good climbs and descents. I’m actually enjoying my riding more and I’m less tired. It’s still enough to help keep fit supplanted with a bit of running and strength flexibility stuff.

Take up running.

Quite liberating after all the faff of biking. A 30/40 min run is equivalent to 2-2.5hrs on an mtb

On a more health issue note eating late and sleeping late isn’t good for wasteline or general health

Take up running.

Quite liberating after all the faff of biking. A 30/40 min run is equivalent to 2-2.5hrs on an mtb

I’d love to do this, but have got an IT band issue in my left leg that numerous phyiso’s and specialists have failed to resolve. I can manage about 20 mins before my knee is in agony (well OK, really quite sore indeed).

Every now & again I revisit it & try to build up gradually, but always with the same result.

i try to get home by 6 have a sandwich, put the kids to bed about 7-730 and ideally riding by 8. Then soup or sarnie when I get in.

Last night however I needed to buy some butter & fill up the car, so was 8:40 before my ride started then didn’t finish till 11-15.

Which meant 12-30 before i was showered & in bed! (Didn’t help myself by dicking around on the computer)

Being organised is key- like filling up car day before! + getting bike & kit ready to go etc.

similar position to others.

My kid is now 3. its a lot easier now.

get home at 6. ready meal and out the door. ride starts at 7 and i get home at 11:30 ish. (pint in the pub and 600ft of climbing to get home)

everything is ready the night before else it doesnt happen.

I generally get out one maybe twice if im lucky a week. but its always the same night. that way we can plan around it. Wife comes home at 6:15/20 and i throw the kid at her and run out the door.

Injured at the moment, so my routine has been two turbo sessions a week as soon as the little man is down (6:45-7pm), quite intense so am being careful to recover between them.

Once I’m back on bike proper I’ll get most of my miles commuting (very gently, as part of recovery) which is actually quicker than my bus commute at the moment, so I can get some enjoyable country road miles and still see more/help more with our son.

Once shoulder fully recovered (i.e. when the sun is a small dark lump of coal at current rate of progress…) then I’ll substitute turbo for CX training outdoors, if I can find a muddy enough field to ride in!

Think recovery shakes are ideal for post ride, I try to eat proper meals but if I’ve gone hard enough on turbo my stomach isn’t all that keen anyway! Omelette and salad perhaps.

Luckily my “kid” is 19 and enjoys cycling. I can’t ride for a couple of hours after eating or I get terrible indigestion and feel like barfing up so my routine for a midweek evening ride is to eat a sandwich at lunch time then go straight out at 6.15 hungry, stopping at a pub to rehydrate sometimes if the weather is nice. Then I get my dinner out of the oven, shower and go to bed.

Mine are older now, but when little, the rule was very early mornings and very late nights. In either case, eat little. There’s always to eat doing other stuff, but it might not be a sit down meal.