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.
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!
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.