Bring Odin into the picture, Born Dec 24th, 2012. Julie and I had a beautiful little boy born on Christmas Eve. I tried to go skiing or biking the day before but got the feeling that I shouldn't go to far away. That one last bike ride was not to be. Currently I can count the amount of times I have truly gone riding in Odin's first 4 months on one hand.
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| All Hail King Odin! Hear his war cry! |
To not go crazy and gain the daddy 15lb I chose a well rounded combination of the dreaded running and lifting weights. As a physical therapist, I knew for a long time that I needed to be lifting weights to clean up some glaring weaknesses that I developed from years of cycling. Starting mostly with body weight exercises I focused on the hip and the core for knee stability, and shoulder stability for better control of the handlebars(more importantly treating patients all day long). And a ton of leg strength exercises for skiing and cycling.
Finding time and energy is the really hard part as most new parents are sleep deprived, but you have to make time. So to fit in runs I would run commute to and from work, or use a headlamp and start runs sometimes as late as 10pm after Odin goes to bed. I somehow also fit in nine days of skiing this winter. Eight after Odin was born, and two times I brought Odin along being pulled in his Burley trailer on skis. Non-baby ski days included mostly sunny powder days of AT/backcountry skiing including a long 12 mile death march ascent of Mt Washington with my older brother.
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| The Burley Dlite can be used biking, running and skiing. Awesome! |
Now that We are able to get Odin in that trailer I have been commuting around town with him on short trips and have ventured out on one road ride so far. Now if your a parent I now what your thinking, isn't he too young and small to ride in a trailer. Partly yes and partly no. We strap in his car seat that has cervical support and a 5 point harness, this allows him to stay reclined and held in tight, but that being said I am not pushing how I ride, for fear of something happening.
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| Easter Road Ride |
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| This system is a great combo with a Graco Car seat |
So now I am getting rides in but by no means fit enough to race anytime soon. I am looking at re-entering the painful ranks of masochism known as racing during the fall with cyclocross. There I hope the shorter length of the race will hide my lack of base. In the end life is more fun with Odin, its a little slower, and not about me anymore but I love it. And soon this little ripper will be passing us all on a bike.
Good for you for following your intuition and staying close to home as Odin was getting ready to be born!! I enjoyed your article - and the pictures. As the mother of a 24 year old son, may I had a bit of perspective that might ease concerns about keeping up with a 'normal' (as you've discovered, the new normal is way better than the old) routine, whether it is work or working out. When our son was three years old, it occurred to me that the time I/we had spent with him was 100% of his life. The portion of my life was at that point only a bit over 10%. So any events or experiences I missed or postponed were but a fraction of my life, compared to the totality of his. Whatever you do differently for Odin will be worth it. He is a darling boy and you are obviously a devoted dad. Congratulations!
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