Where did all the time go?

Finding time for bike riding is not as easy as it used to be.

It's 1:40am and I just finished replacing a brake cable on my rigid 26er mountain bike. It seems that my days are always ending real late and the only time that I can find to ride or work on my bicycles is at really odd hours, either at the crack of dawn or late into the night. Only a few years ago I was riding 3 times a week, 30 miles at a time on a regular basis. Now it's a  struggle to fit 18 mile rides twice a week into my schedule. 

Where does all the time go? Between my part time job, raising a kid and my other obligations, bike riding is seeing a real slim piece of the pie nowadays. With fall approaching, daylight hours are also being reduced, so I will have to ride at night if I want to ride during the week. Not a problem, other that this will mean driving 25 minutes to my in law's house so they can babysit my kid. My 3 year old is still too little to go with me on really long rides, and my car will not hold all my riding gear as well as his. 

I'm also getting to a point where I just want to ride for fitness, and realize that I am light years away from being in any competitive form. With the little time that I can dedicate to cycling, it will probably stay that way until my son starts school. In the meantime, I have to be there for my kid and not be an absentee cycling father who's always on his bike. A part of me wants to be self-centered, then I realize how narcissistic and big headed that is.

I love cycling, I wish I could do it all the time and be in great shape. I probably would be in great shape if I rode my bike everyday. However I also believe in priorities, and until that day comes when I can get an eight hour a day break to be a competitive cyclist I am just going to have to keep fitting cycling into the open gaps in my schedule.