Retirement - how did it affect volume and quality of training

I intend retiring within the next few months and I am looking at how I expect my training to change.
The key thing for me is that it will not mean training Mon-Fri after work, often when it is cold in my garage and I am normally tired and almost always chasing time.

I do like training and I expect to see my volume go up. May be from the current 6-8 hours a week to 10+. That will mostly be achieved by going out with a group on Fridays for maybe 2-3 hours when normally I miss out on Friday training.

I will be conscious of not changing too quickly and getting my body used to any extra load. My easy days will likely involve light recovery work at Z1-Z2 as I do like training and I figure if I am going to have a shower anyway I might as well get sweaty, I have tried that line with my wife but it doesn’t get me anywhere.

I am sure that many others on here have retired and have probably had a similar plan and I wondered how it worked out in reality.

PS I never seem to be able to create an optional tag. The + sign tells me search or create but I never can actually create a tag. I suspect it might be my Chrome browser that is the problem.

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Bumping this as I am very surprised to not get a response

When I retired 2 years ago I found that while I have a lot more time to ride, I also need a lot more time to recover. I’m a recreational rider that enjoys riding 40-60 miles. I thought I would be riding 4-5 times a week, but I found I needed 1-2 days between rides to recover. So while work was keeping me from riding, it was also providing more recovery time than I realized.

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Thanks - very interesting. How many days a week did you train beforehand. Presumably if you had done a mix of turbo and outside you would have recovered better than doing medium length rides outside all the time. Although 60 miles is long in many peoples eyes.

I’m still a long way from retirement, but I think the biggest change wouldn’t necessarily be the volume, as much as the ability to structure your workouts more optimally.

Right now I’m basically limited to 60-90 minutes max during the week. Any longer endurance rides have to fall on the weekends. You could probably do some interesting things with 3-4 day training blocks if you have some more flexibility for longer rides on weekdays.

I would try to get in a 20-30 mile ride one night after work and then a 40-50 mile ride on Saturday and another 30 on Sunday. It’s what my schedule allowed. And a couple of centuries over the summer (I live in Michigan)

I try not to look at the retired guys on Strava, because many of them are absolutely killing it and racking up 10+ hours a week and a lot of climbing. They are fast. #jealousAt56with2kidsInCollege

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, life has a tendency to quickly fill all available time within a new retiree’s schedule. So, you may well struggle to find time to increase your training load much, and you’ll soon wonder how on earth you managed to fit in that stuff called “work”!

I use the time to focus on the quality of the training I do: choosing the most comfortable and appealing time (or weather conditions) to perform workouts or rides. Recovering well: eating well; resting well. Akin to being a luxury low-volume pro, with the focus on keeping it fun rather than it being a chore.

During these murkier months I’m on TR low volume plans, despite all the time supposedly available to me, and slot in other activities too, such as weight bearing stuff like running and free-weights, and pilates and spiral stabilization, for the general health benefits these provide.

As Spring approaches I’ll move to mid volume TR, but swapping out the Easy and Moderate workouts for outdoor rides when the weather suits, or sometimes just skipping these less intense ones altogether in order to ensure I achieve optimal recovery and stay as injury- and sickness-free as possible.

Good luck.

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I am tying retirement in with becoming Captain of the golf club in March so I know I will be busy anyway. However I do hope to be able to fit in workouts in a more manageable fashion than I do now when I am forever chasing time.
This week for example I have two GC meetings on seperate days which means I don’t get home until about 20:30 each day having had no tea and then I try and fit in training. Needless to say it doesn’t always happen.

I retired 4 months ago. I still only use the low volume plans. However, scheduling is easier and my consistency and completion rate has improved. For me the biggest bonus is the time available for rest and recovery. I have found it so much easier to reschedule when I’ve felt tired, allowing extra rest which has definitely improved my performance. My ftp is slowly improving and just adds to my well being. Enjoy your retirement, because I certainly am.

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I shall find out in just over 3 months. Retiring at 55. The biggest change I anticipate will be able to do at least one long ride outside during the week (70-100 miles) and being able to plan my training and recovery out better.
I have a half iron man in June so will have the time to plan the last few months of that properly.
Being able to plan my hard interval sessions for a time that works best for me will be great.

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