How do you fit it all in?

It sounds like you're doing everything you can to reduce the stress levels. 

Ultimately though I think you'll always feel "frazzled."  It's just a matter of how frazzled you feel and how you let that affect you.  My key is to understand it's never going away and to deal with it effectively. 

I have 5 kids and my wife and I both work.  The youngest one is 2 so we have our hands full.  We get a lot of help from grandma but there is never enough time in the day. 

I try and combine some activities to free up time (like you do).  For example, put my two youngest kids in the tandem stroller and go for a run with them.  While they're in there, I can ask the kindergartner what she did in school. 

At the end of the day I think it's just a certain frame of mind you have to have.  Life is complicated and if you allow it, can pull you in many different directions.

Lots of tricks, but it is difficult to balance everything.  I find sometimes you have to pass on a few things. 

1.  Bike to and from work as I have done today while the weather is good.  2.  Do something at lunchtime if possible (I often run or swim if I have the time at lunch).  3.  I never thought about it before, but it was pointed out to me that bricks are a good way of bolstering your workouts - kind of a two for one so you don't have as many workout sessions to get in.  Combine activities like swim at YMCA near where I drop my kids off for gymnastics then pick them up.

Rarely watch TV, skip some social events like playing cornhole when the neigborhood guys are out in the driveway doing so, pass on participating in the fantasy football league etc.  I truely look forward to cutting back on my training after my season A race is over Nov 8th.  I'd like to sleep in on Saturday or Sunday - I can't wait! 

1. My house is filthy.
2. I barely show up for work.
3. I no longer talk to my extended family.
4. My wife and kids train with me sometimes, but other than that, they are ignored.
5. My dog loves me though, because what used to be a 1/2 mile walk is now longer as she joins me on the first mile or two of my runs!

Compromise my training this year.  Last year I put in a lot more hours in my first IM build, and it strained the household a lot at times.  This year it was a lot less load even though my schedule didn't change much.

Yes, my results and pacing have taken a hit because of it, but c'est la vis.

I do almost all my runs really early (before the kids get up) and swim after getting them out the door to go to school.  I rarely get to ride as my mileage shows.  About a third of my mileage on the bike was covered in 5 rides ......... that's over 500 miles in those rides.  The rest has been smaller/shorter stuff.

It's better in the summer, but during the school year my training load sucks.

You get up at 5 am and get your 2 hour workout in

For those folks who aren't morning people (read: me), there is always the option of a 24/7 gym.

I would much rather go up to the gym around 9-10pm and go to bed at midnight, rather than go to bed at 10pm and get up at 5am.  The time balances the same, but it's just a personal preference for me.

X2.

Ditto.  I've got two young kids and a wife who also works, and it's hard.  I try to ride to work (about 18 miles round trip) when it's not my carpool day for the kids.  I get one day on the weekends for a long ride, and I try to wake up early to cook breakfast, get a paper and make coffee for the family before I take off for a few hours.  The price I pay.

During the week, I typically cook dinner and help with the dishes and getting the kids down, only AFTER which I'll go to the YMCA.  Ours is open until 10:00pm, so if I can get out of the house by 8:30, I can get a quick workout in ... just about the entire pool is mine!  

Three young kids, wife, extended family, very busy job, etc., etc., like others.

1.  I spend more time on the trainer than I'd like -- I can at least be home with the kids then (my wife works too), and can get off to untangle problems if need be.

2.  I often cut workouts short, especially swim workouts (which therefore remains very weak for me).  This is what I hate the most, but sometimes it must be done, and I suppose a short workout is better than none.

3.  Early morning runs work well for me.  During the summer, I did some early morning bike rides, but the sun rises too late now to get in a decent ride before I have to go to work.  Hence the trainer...

4.   Lunchtime swims sometimes work, but I often have meetings or family duties during lunch.

5.  I commute to and from work, for a total of about 50 miles of commuting per week.  It isn't on my road bike, but I guess it's something.

So yeah, I'm struggling to find the volume.  

Its very hard. We have three kids, the eldest turned three last week. The twins are ten months. Both my wife and I work. We have a netflix subscription but I reckon we have had the last movie for six months. Getting up at five is the only way, but I have to be back for 6.30 feeding and am determined not to let doing my bit slip. The short days of winter make it harder still. Getting up early is harder to do in the dark. My next race is a half marathon and alas my swimming and riding have fallen right off. Time is the hardest thing about training no doubt about it.

I can ONLY train in the morning.  I get up @ 4:30 and go at it.  I'm at work by 6:30, believe it or not, a half hour late.  I get out at 6 and try to do weights twice a week at night.  Then it's home to help with dinner, homework for the 6 year old, baths, make lunch, feed bottles to the baby, calm everyone down and my entire house passes out about 8:30!!!!  Gotta love it!!!

Me, personally, I'm terrible at time management, so nothing useful here, BUT ...

Don Fink's book Be Iron Fit (it's about training for IM, but is really really great tri reading in any case) has, hands-down, the best info for how to fit training (even IM training) into a busy lifestyle. I strongly recommend it.

Good luck!

I hate you . My family (wife and 3 kids) loves to stay up late. So I'm never asleep earlier than 11:00pm. So when I'm forced to get up at 4:30-5:00 to train I'm going on a max of 6 hours of sleep. 

x2 - my 4 year old is awake at 5 and does not nap and does not fall asleep until about 9.  The 6 month old takes 2-3 1/2 hour naps and sleep sfrom about 8 to 4:30.  I have not had a complete night's sleep in nearly 5 years!  Of course if I never found the BT website I would be more productive.....

I go to bed around 11pm, sometimes a little later and I still go to bed earlier than my husband.  I get up around 6am, not earlier!! 

We have a small home gym because we decided very early in our relationship that going to a gym takes up too much time.  We do belong to a swim center though which we go early twice/week.  We were going 3x/week but because we are doing a running program (run 4x/week), we dropped the 3rd swimming day.  I've been thinking about taking a couple spinning classes at the gym as I have a very cheap gym membership because I joined many years ago and its too cheap to give up.

 My typical day is:

Get up shortly after 6am

Walk the dogs, feed the dogs, feed the cats, pack lunch, possibly eat breakfast (or make it to go)

Possibly do a short workout.

Get to work, work 9 hours.  

Drive home, stop at store if need to.

Get home, feed the dogs, feed the cats. Prep dinner. Possibly do a short workout. Eat dinner (if husband is home, possibly eat with him).  Prep lunch for tomorrow, prep workout bag for tomorrow (depending on day).  Do any quick chores.  Talk to husband while doing chores.  Spend a few minutes with dogs.  Spend a few minutes with cats.  Read for a few minutes.  Go to sleep.  Sleep 7 hours....

 I know its a balance and I know it'll need constant tweaking.  Like I just started running but the days are getting longer and I don't want to run by myself in the dark. 

In other news... the pants that didn't fit me 2 months ago, were tight on me a couple weeks ago, fit well last week and are loose this week

Like many people, I have a wife and two young girls.  In order to fit it in I have to start early.

 I get up at 4:15am and am at the YMCA swimming at 5:00am.  Shower,  dress and arrived at work at 5:55am.  Work intil 4 to 5:00pm.  Call my wife to see what she wants me to cook for dinner, pick up the groceries and arrive home at 4:45 to 5:45PM.  Do an ultra quick 3 mile hill climb on my bike (9 minutes 50 seconds).  Shower, bust open a beer and cook dinner.  Dinner servied at about 6 to 6:15 PM, takes about 20 minutes to eat it.  Depending on how I feel, I do another hill climb ride (9 minutes 50 seconds).  Shower, 15 total minutes.  Check out world news and sports, help my kids with homework.  Argue with my wife about misculaneous stuff, like how many showers I take in one day.  Go to bed about 9:00pm.  Start over the next day.  I do take wekends off (training) to spend high quaility time with my family.  

POST OF THE YEAR!

Wife and I both train, we have 2 small kids.

She gets up at 5am to run, I swim at work, I get home a bit early so I bike/ride then, she goes to masters at 8:00pm after kids go to bed.

On the weekends we trade off Saturday and Sundays for the long rides/runs.

We also keep a Google calendar to put all our training stuff on to keep things straight.

It takes alot of work but we have been doing this for over a year now and it has worked pretty well.