During a fun ride a number of years ago, in Tirau of all places, I met a guy that had been mildly successful in business. He decided to retire when he was 50, and do all the things he didn't get to do while he was busy with his business. He was tricked out in all be best kit on a pretty nice bike, and was going really well on the day.
While chatting in the bunch, he admitted it wasn't all he'd imagined. All his friends and cycling buddies were still working and riding alone all the time wasn't as much fun as he'd thought. He still had to get up at stupid o'clock to ride with his friends and that sorta missed the point of retiring. He did say that he could go harder on rides, or extend his ride after his mates went to work, but the training wasn't ideal. He did say that he could recover better between workouts (not being on his feet at work) and had some gains, but it wasn't as good as he thought.

That's just one person of course, but I think tri is better as it fills up more time, but do be prepared to do a lot of your training on your own. If your training buddies are retired too, that would be completely different, but remember, triathlon is a cruel mistress.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I am 43. I have just given up work. Moved to the south of france and view my current state as a semi permanent sabbatical

I did not do it to train full time. I am so far away from the FOP for that to be an absurd proposition

I am also not sure that there is any reason to quit work to do it if it is not your livelihood.

There are plenty of people juggling big jobs, kids and triathlon. Many say you can only focus on two of the three at any one time so they set aside blocks of time and prioritise around specific events and after those are complete refocus on the neglected ones

I did do it to improve my quality of life whilst we figure out what to do. We have sufficient passive income to do it indefinitely but i suspect after we have settled in, rennovated, put kids in school and got sick of looking at the view we will do something

Here is a consideration. How much money do you need to mitigate years out of the workforce whilst your peers continue to work.

You will - depending on your profession potentially take yourself completely out of the game. We have decided together we can live with that.

How much do you need to survive indefinitely

How much to ride out the worst financial crisis

As a topic of conversation this may be better suited to the lav room

We are living on approximately 1.5% of our net worth per year. My returns after inflation have been significantly greater than that for the last decade but i still worry it is not enough.

In theory we have a full working week to do whatever we like with but i have moved between 3 countries in the last 10 weeks and am currently unpacking 300 boxes so we are not doing much at all.

I am not sure i'd have quit work to train

what's your goal here? is to get faster? that seems, if I may say so, like an odd set of priorities...
is it because you enjoy swimming, biking, and running? and don't mind doing them on your own? if so, just seems like another version of getting out of the rat race to enjoy yourself. if you can pull it off, go for it.

I retired in my late 40's (I prefer to call myself a stay at home dad, less explaining to do) I still have a couple of kids pre teens. I concur with everything said above, unless you have very little time to train at present then its not as if you can just magically double your hours training, even with less responsibilities and expect to recover. I was always more FOP so not much to be gained, it may be different if your BOP. It still feels a bit strange when everyone's going to work and I watch them leave in the morning. One big change is I have a lot more time to work on my golf game!

The absolute irony of not having to work is when i did work i was a 3-4 handicap. Now i do not need to i can not play golf at all due to chronic back problems. (As an aside i knew even if i did play all the time i would not get much better. A good friend made it to the last 8 of the british amateur and i could have played every single day and never got to that level)

I was lucky enough? to be unemployed for a year when my kids were young. While that was before my triathlon addiction, and after my ski career, in addition to other benefits, it was great to be able to take the kids midweek skiing several afternoons a week :-)

After a few months, I really did crave grown up conversations, but to be honest, dropping the kids off at the school bus, then having coffee with the stay at home mums was kinda fun. Other than the lack of income, there were lots of benefits to being unemployed for that year. Most of all, I got to know my kids as people, rather than just those tired, annoying, crying things that would greet me at the door each night. My kids are now 29 & 32 and are probably my 2 best friends. We get along incredibly well and they still choose to hang out with me and my wife, especially going on holidays together.

My son (32) was training for tri for a while, but got hit by a big truck and spent almost 6 months off work, so he doesn't ride much anymore. We do ride together occasionally tho.

Enjoy the time with your kids. Even if you don't train as much as you'd like, you won't regret time spent with your kids, and neither will they.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Sort of. I retired early at 54 when my company went through a management reorg, and offered me a lucrative package to retire. For the next few years I played a lot of golf and trained triathlon as a participant, not as a competitor. At about 58 I realized that on limited, unstructured training I was competitive in M55-59 in sprints/Olympic races, but still MOP in IM.
At 59 I checked the M60-64 results for IM races for the previous five years. I felt I could be competitive if I dedicated myself to more rigorous training. After consultations with my family CEO (wife) I went pretty much full time in to training for IMFL.
The results met my goals of an 11:30-12:00 hour IMFL, and a podium finish. My previous IMs had been in the 13:00 range. I finished third in 11:30:30, missing a Kona slot by one (yeah it sucked).
Two years later I decided to do two 70.3s and two IMs. The results were not so good with two MOP 70.3s and two IM DNFs.
I took last year off for shoulder surgery in July, followed by rehab and the start of come-back training. I'm currently training full time again for a fall 70.3 followed by IMTX and IMFL in 2018, my first year in M65-69.

Pros
You can train full time
You can recovery whenever you want

Cons
You can train full time


IMHO you have to be very very careful thinking the grass is greener on the other side. I have seen many athletes go full time only to end up sick, injured and spit out. Many quickly reason that training full time wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. The reality is that so many people pour their heart and STRESS from their daily life into their workouts that they don't realize when you take it away then it isn't nearly as satisfying.

If you have a real solid goal the training can define you and be your purpose but many people really struggle with their purpose in this route. The reality is while having a job may suck, many people realize that they were no good at retirement. Going to work gave them purpose. It is impossible to tell how you will handle it. It really comes down your personality and your ability to stay busy.

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I'm struggling with this same question right now. My passion is with competing in triathlon these days. Between a 2+ hour commute most days and an insane level of stress at work, I'm to the point in my life (currently 31), where I no longer see a need for money. It's great, but after having a few years where I've made a crap load in the bay area what I've found is that it's all pointless. I have a decent house, a fancy car, but a crap commute and an unfulfilling job (though, most would view it as a dream job and it sort of is given my line of work).

My plan ahead is to take 1-2 years off to try out this retirement thing and train like a pro, by making it my full time priority. Running the numbers, I'm seeing that I could realistically live off 1/4 of my current salary given the amount lost in taxes, the fact that I'm no longer saving for retirement, etc. The big costs for me will be: housing, medical insurance, car insurance, and food. Food will take a larger portion of your budget than you might think - so keep good track of your expenses.

The things holding me back from making the jump though is that if I take that 1-2 year break, I'll blow through all savings (w/o touching retirement money), walk away from a crap load of "RSUs" (free shares of stock in a very good company) and possibly not be able to get a job after.

The POSITIVE in thinking about this question is that it really opened my eyes to frivolous spending and has helped me greatly cut back on my budget - because now I'm constantly thinking "what if I didn't have a job?".

I could see retiring to train as being a lot of pressure. I find my motivation is very different now then when I was younger, when I was younger I wanted to win and beat everyone, now to be honest I don't care that much, the goal now is to be MY best. My wife brought the kids to one of my first events in over 10 years since the kids were born, my 10 year old ran the last mile with me and I never realized it but my wife said it was the happiest she had ever seen me after a race; my goals are different and I try not to define myself by how I place ( BTW I did actually win my age group but I really didn't care that much, although the kids got a kick out of it)

I'm finding balancing a full time job, other commitments and the lack of recovery time really impacting my training as I'm building up to longer distances.


I find that people who have busy lives are far more efficient with their time and make the most of it. If you have more time, you lose that efficiency, taking far longer to to the exact same thing. You don't end up faster or fitter, you just take a lot longer to stay at the same level. You might have more time to recover and may not feel as tired but I bet your actual racing times don't improve much.


Also, doing things as a hobby isn't always as fun if you do it full time. You have more time to enjoy other things and the training then becomes more of a chore.


Why not take an extended vacation of a month or so, and use that time to duplicate what it would be like without work and see if you get bored or if after the month is over, you could see yourself doing that for years.

Training full time is actually relatively boring and certainly not intellectually stimulating. So those are some negatives.

Since you're talking about retirement, I assume you're not younger and thinking about being a pro to win Kona? When I think of my retirement, I think of far less structure and freedom than a training plan to maximize my triathlon performance. Don't get me wrong. I'll probably do some triathlons when I retire but I wouldn't retire just pursue that. But that's just me. I think others have pointed out that you may end up training alone a lot. Are you okay with that? I actually train alone most of the time but that's because it makes it easier since I make my own schedule.

Actually, the question should be "What are you going to fill your day with when you retire?" If you have been beavering away at your job and providing for your family with a bit of triathlon thrown in for fitness, then training 'full time' when you retire is a wonderful way to approach the declining years of your life.

My 42-year career demanded most of my time, so training for OD and the occasional HIM was the most I could afford whilst in full time employment. When I retired I found that I could take on the challenge of IM distance in my own time without the demands of work, family and the like. I quite enjoy training by myself and am self coached, so the lack of training partners does not worry me. Nevertheless, I regularly train with a friend who is of similar ability and we 'compete' in training sessions.

The downside to the long distances is that they have accelerated the deterioration of my chronic knee problem and after last year's 70.3 world champs I had to give running away. The upside is that my swimming and cycling have gradually improved as I train more in those disciplines in lieu of running. Aquabike world champs in Penticton next month is the next goal although I am at the wrong end of my AG this year.

But nothing is further from my mind than retirement from training full time.

Spot on. I think this is great advice. Take an extended vacation and give it a try before committing to the big decision.

A friend of mine who is the same age as me retired a couple of years ago at 58. We had been competing against each other since the early 1980s. But due to injuries he hasn't raced once since he retired. He bikes a lot more now, often with women triathletes who are homemakers, and often by himself. The point being what will you do if you can't even race anymore?

Meanwhile, I'm still working because it pays for the all travel I want to do. I could retire today but then could no longer afford to race and vacation internationally several times a year. By the time I'm ready to retire, maybe in another 6 or 7 years, I may not be able to race anymore myself. So be sure you have a back-up plan if the training and racing goes south on you.

Yeah I've been unemployed and it's boring, you end up losing motivation. Besy bet is to work part time and train, that's what I'm doing now and work mostly fills the boring gaps between training.

This question makes me laugh. I seriously think about this one a lot - trading job to be a stay at home dad. One benefit that comes along with that is lots of time to exercise, but that isn't a primary benefit

Man I hope you get to do it if you want it. I'm 5ish years away from being ready for that

If you stop working only to train more i think it would really suck!

If i had the money i would stop working in 2 minutes, but not to only train, and i would make sure i had enough money to not just live like a full time student triathlete.
I would do it because i want less stress in my life/sick of working.
I would do it because i would have extra time to persue other hobbies than just tri,
-----=----------- i can occypy myself for hours. I think this is important. Each weekend i can use all the time without ever getting bored, whether it is watching films/hanging out with friends, training, watching sports etc. while eg. my girlfriend gets bored fast doing "nothing". So i really think you have to make sure you can engage yourself in things beside tri if you retire.
And then i would ofcourse also travel the world :)

I wouldn't retire early to primarily become a full-time athlete. I would absolutely retire early for overall better work life balance, part of which would mean more time to train and recover, but alongside a bunch of other priorities such as being a better dad, husband and son, being less stressed, doing some community/charity work, travelling, etc. There are also lots of other sports and activities I want to spend more time doing. I love skiing, I want to learn how to surf properly, I used to row and would like to try that again before I'm too old, I enjoy hiking/climbing in the mountains, sailing, etc. Maybe even some golf!

I could well see myself taking something like a 12 month period where my main goal is to peak for an event like Ironman and I really did train pretty close to full-time to see just how fast I could get. But it would have to be a defined period and goal with an end date after which I returned to a more balanced approach. I love swimming, biking and running but there are lots of other things to do in life and I don't think it's good for me or my relationships to focus too much on one thing to the exclusion of everything else.

I think this is a situation where the grass is greener - if you've earned your way into early retirement and it makes sense for you, then perhaps its something you consider, however, I would not view training as the full-time replacement. As others have noted, training itself lacks so many important aspects that you'll need (especially assuming an earlier-retirement = thrive off of intellectual stimulation) - and unlike other sports, triathlon is very solitary.

For me, working full time, I often look forward to the solitary time to think about life / work / next mile / nothing...and

another key point i think is that a "part-time" triathlete views his / her success within the parameters of "well, I'm balancing X,Y,Z"...you take that "X,Y,Z" out and the pressure goes all the way up...when that happens, fun usually goes all-the-way down...I tried to play tennis professionally back in the day and trust me, playing 1 hour a day casually after work does not extrapolate into 6 hour two-a-day training sessions 6 days a week. You'll hate it.

A part-time job would be smart. Makes you check into the Real World and gives you some spending cash at the same time. I think without it, you'd go stir crazy. Pick something you're really into and have fun. Or start your own little business and work as much as you want.

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I think it depends a bit on your age.
I did not specifically retire to train, but at 59 it was financially doable.
You do get much better recovery!
You can get more training in, but that may mean an increase chance of injury. Very easy to do too much on old body parts!!!'
I am now near the FOP. In the 60-64, there are a lot of retired full time triathletes, but we are often injured too!

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Team Zoot So Cal

Echoing a comment from the others -

if you can find a way to take a month+ off work to "try it out", I'd strongly encourage it. I had the chance to do that just this past May and it was amazing. No stress, no commute, nothing to do! I found that ramping up in the first week was quite hard and the biggest struggle was not training - I.e., allowing the body to recover. By weeks 2, 3, and 4, I was training full time and it was the best time of my life. Going back to work was quite hard.... and being at work still is quite hard.

So, if you can, take a break! You might need to do it as "unpaid leave" but it's well worth considering if you can get the employer to allow it.