As a word of warning, nearly every single lead programmer I know (in games) find that their schedule and responsibilities tend to expand to the point where they have annoyingly little time to focus on writing code.
The sole exception I can think of was a founder of the company -- he was able to effectively delegate management responsibilities and did not need to answer to anyone when he went into heads-down mode to work on a major task.
Several years ago, my producer forced me to stop coding, because it was cutting into my time to manage, and I was frequently becoming "critical path" since I couldn't stay focussed entirely on coding tasks.
I do miss coding. But, at the same time, when I want to play around (at home), I'm not completely burned out on it.
The sole exception I can think of was a founder of the company -- he was able to effectively delegate management responsibilities and did not need to answer to anyone when he went into heads-down mode to work on a major task.