Hmm, possible bit of better news. I only need to pay NI until 2028 in order to get full state pension. Also, under the current review of increase to 68 I basically miss out by about 9 weeks, it only affects people after 5th April 1970, I’m May 70. But it’s only going to be about 1 month by the look of things, e.g. it’s a sliding scale, so anyone born in 78 will be 67 & 11 months’ish.
And about 13 years of my pension is eligible for the 85 year rule, but that is employer dependent.
As you say Whisk, some people last a lot longer, but in recent years I’ve known a few that have barely taken a few years of it. Mine starts at 5% reduction PA, but is down to about 4% PA after 10 years.
But as it’s DB the 20x pot is less relevant, and the earlier I go I’m putting less in even if I don’t take it for a year or two. But by 2028 I should hopefully have my AVC, lump from work pension, anything in the piggy bank, and the state pension after about 8 years.
Im 52 in May and Im getting faster at the long stuff. 80/20 for me also and its worked quite well. Nothing structured in Oct, just what I want when I feel I want to train. After that its 1 x Maff run, 1 x Easy run, 1 x hill reps.
1 x watt bike or outside for 3 hours, 1 x watt bike sweet spot, 1 x watt bike hard.
1 x swim (drillz), 1 x 3 or 4 k swim
2 x core and glutes workout
After every 3rd week on TPeaks big build week I will have a massage and no run speed work till March. Most of my runs will be done on a treadmill to try and negate injury
The 3 hr bike will turn into 5 hr bike after Mallorca 70.3 (Covids gone by then)
The 2 x 45 min Core will have gone and replaced by another swim.
I like the KISS @ Base Training Rides 100km. At the moment it will be the C rides but from Jan the B rides, tasty as hell.
Yes never to old even to learn new tricks. I spent a good year pushing the FTP for the sum of 2 watts on a 20 min test, toys went right out the Pram! Went to see my coach and we hatched a plan… a cunning plan… work on more time in a H/Rate zone and it worked.
I find that anything over a 3 hour bike takes more recovery and gets a bit boring these days. I can do it during the summer when the weather is good, but I’m sometimes guilty of going to fast instead of doing it at an easy pace. But the Zwift\Wattbike sessions despite their intensity bring on fitness quicker and don’t seem to require as much recovery, despite being hard. Although I think I don’t sometimes go hard enough in them.
I tend to do more running over winter and less cycling. But I much prefer running outdoors, running on the trails and hills makes it hard to keep the HR in check, otherwise I’m walking the minute it rises. If possible I go to the running club once a week as it’s easier to motivate yourself with others around, or I’ll try and do a parkrun. My weekly run distance is barely 40-50K. I tend to get injured more when doing really long races, but I do have regular massages which helps, obviously they are a bit restricted ATM.
Swimming tends to be a bit of a plod, I’ll get several weeks of motivation, go more often or do some 100’s hard etc.
My bigger problem for running is that I seem to have a small HR range, easy pace tends to be 145-150, race pace is between 170-175, but MAFF would put my easy pace around 135 which is really hard to maintain. But if I use VDOT my paces do even out a bit, so that easy pace is around 5–5:15 K’s, which is around 145BPM.
I’m 55 and still going strong but have left competition behind some while ago. Having done Norseman & OtillO, I realised I don’t have anything left to prove.
Turning 50 was difficult as it coincided with realising that I couldn’t really run more than 3 or 4 miles without pain and I was pretty depressed about having to stop hill running. Looking back though, I swam round the Scilly Isles that year so it wasn’t all bad.
Since 2016 I’ve re-invented myself as a cyclist, this was always my least favourite of the triathlon disciplines but I’ve learnt to love it and it keeps me fit and, if not thin, then at least not fat.
I aim to cycle over 100 miles a week and do a 5/6 day trip each year to keep me on my toes. This year has been a bit different with fewer long rides and no trip but fingers crossed I’ll be back on it next year … either a RAID type trip in France or Italy or (if travel restrictions still in place) a second tour round Wales on a different route to the trip I did in 2019 (lightweight bikepacking using B&Bs).
I have no real structure to my training except aiming to hit a few min L4 on each ride.
I’ve found that being off work this week, sleeping more & better and eating slightly better has meant I feel a bit more refreshed, although I’ve probably done less training as well as it’s rest week.
Running does seem to be the hardest for a lot of people, I certainly get a bit stiff and sore if I don’t ease down etc. afterwards.
Despite playing football for a lot of years I think the fact I didn’t really start running until late 30’s has possibly helped, and as mentioned I do less on the tarmac and hard surfaces than most. I learnt fairly quickly that anything over 80K PW for more than a week or 2 really catches up with me. I suspect if I dropped cycling\swimming and ran slower I could eventually get a bit more resilient but I also don’t think I’d get much quicker TBH. I was putting in some PB’s last year on 55K PW and less, so quality is probably better than quantity for me.
I’ve only been working full time since I was 22, but I’ve been paying the extra 2% NIC on higher-rate earnings for the last few years, so my NI record appears to have backfilled the earlier years back to when I was 16.
56, self employed/student…haven’t paid NI for a couple of years and now need to decide whether to pay £7k+ for an extra few quid a week post retirement…
A timely reminder for me to check Mrs T’s qualifying contributions (retired on ill health about 10 years ago) and to see if she will have the full 35 or not. If not will have to check out whether worthwhile to top up
