Whilst marshalling a triathlon last year, I saw a triathlete crest the top of the hill I was stationed at. She was on a steel mountain bike. She sweated. She strained. She lost places on the hill. I remembered her number and checked the results at the end. She completed the full Olympic distance. Way down the field, but she finished. On that bike. What an achievement.
Equipment was also something we discussed at our team triathlon on Saturday. Our cyclist was asking me about differences in wetsuits, and I was waxing lyrical about the flexibility of a BlueSeventy Helix and the sheer speed of a HUUB Archimedes. It got me thinking; how much does your equipment matter?
After our team tri, we unpicked the results, and discovered that our cyclist posted the 4th fastest cycle leg out of 50 athletes, on an unbranded road bike that cost him £100 on Gumtree. He was up against wafer thin time trial bikes costing LITERALLY thousands of pounds. Now, please note that Sam, our cyclist, had not completed the swim beforehand so admittedly, he went into the bike fresh, but most triathletes report actually feeling ok on the bike after their swim (i'm one of them). So, once again, how much does your equipment actually matter?
Sam nailed the truth of it by saying "If you reach a point where you're losing positions BECAUSE of your equipment, it's time to upgrade."
I give you the case study of a local Triathlon store owner and triathlete. Let's use his initials; WM (this is to preserve anonymity, and WM can claim credit for this if he chooses to).
Now, WM is a fine athlete. He enters most races with the intention of winning, and usually does. He finishes half marathons between 80 and 85 minutes. Because he is winning races, he is in a position where the margins between finishing positions may be smaller and therefore, the equipment he is using could be the reason he loses. Because of this, WM's use of, say, a top of the line BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit is entirely justified.
Consider Sam as an alternative. On Saturday's race, he outperformed athletes on TT bikes because of superior cardio-respiratory fitness and muscular endurance. With this in mind, he is not losing positions because of his equipment.
So what's the point of this post? Well, it's a simple case of using my own experience as proof that there is more than one way of spending your money to make yourself faster.
If you have, say £250, this could buy a feather-light crankset, or a second hand top-level wetsuit. However, it could also buy ten swimming lessons, or a year's swim membership so you can swim as much as you want. As always, I'm not saying I'm definitely the all seeing eye in terms of advice, but my experience of buying equipment is that you need to get the biggest bang for your buck, and sometimes this means not buying equipment. Can coaching, or a professional bike fit, or some VO2 max testing provide equal or greater benefit? Usually, the answer is yes, and something I have observed to be true in almost all races is this; someone who is fit and competes on entry level gear will almost ALWAYS beat someone who is unfit racing with top of the line gear. We tend to label these people as 'All the gear, no idea'. It's a little unfair as they may have some idea about training, but this type of athlete is usually present at every race. Sam proved this, and I've experience the same thing, overtaking a TT bike on a hill simply because I'd trained on hills and the other athlete clearly hadn't.
One exception to all of this is if a piece of equipment is not fit for purpose or damaged, of course. In the case of our steel mountain bike athlete at the outset, was she losing places because of equipment, and so would she benefit from switching to a aluminium road bike? Definitely? And again to a carbon TT bike? Yes, but the gains would not be as marked as the first switch. In my case, I upgraded my wetsuit because the shoulders simply weren't allowing me to swim properly. It was not fit for purpose. However, in terms of bang for buck, I have found that my swim membership was among the best investment I made in my triathlon habit. Yes, my new wheels and tyres have been great, but the swim practice 2-3 nights a week for a year has produced an 8 minute improvement in my Olympic swim time over 2 years. You won't get that from a set of wheels, I assure you.
So spend your money on equipment if you must, but get what makes you better, faster, stronger. That might be equipment, it might be training. But if you do have any spare cash, get the t shirt that has the title of this post on it. Complete with a cartoon deer with no eyes, it had the legend "All the gear. No eyed deer" on it.
Now that's a piece of kit worth buying.
Equipment was also something we discussed at our team triathlon on Saturday. Our cyclist was asking me about differences in wetsuits, and I was waxing lyrical about the flexibility of a BlueSeventy Helix and the sheer speed of a HUUB Archimedes. It got me thinking; how much does your equipment matter?
 |
| Some of the gear. Some idea. |
After our team tri, we unpicked the results, and discovered that our cyclist posted the 4th fastest cycle leg out of 50 athletes, on an unbranded road bike that cost him £100 on Gumtree. He was up against wafer thin time trial bikes costing LITERALLY thousands of pounds. Now, please note that Sam, our cyclist, had not completed the swim beforehand so admittedly, he went into the bike fresh, but most triathletes report actually feeling ok on the bike after their swim (i'm one of them). So, once again, how much does your equipment actually matter?
Sam nailed the truth of it by saying "If you reach a point where you're losing positions BECAUSE of your equipment, it's time to upgrade."
I give you the case study of a local Triathlon store owner and triathlete. Let's use his initials; WM (this is to preserve anonymity, and WM can claim credit for this if he chooses to).
Now, WM is a fine athlete. He enters most races with the intention of winning, and usually does. He finishes half marathons between 80 and 85 minutes. Because he is winning races, he is in a position where the margins between finishing positions may be smaller and therefore, the equipment he is using could be the reason he loses. Because of this, WM's use of, say, a top of the line BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit is entirely justified.
Consider Sam as an alternative. On Saturday's race, he outperformed athletes on TT bikes because of superior cardio-respiratory fitness and muscular endurance. With this in mind, he is not losing positions because of his equipment.
So what's the point of this post? Well, it's a simple case of using my own experience as proof that there is more than one way of spending your money to make yourself faster.
If you have, say £250, this could buy a feather-light crankset, or a second hand top-level wetsuit. However, it could also buy ten swimming lessons, or a year's swim membership so you can swim as much as you want. As always, I'm not saying I'm definitely the all seeing eye in terms of advice, but my experience of buying equipment is that you need to get the biggest bang for your buck, and sometimes this means not buying equipment. Can coaching, or a professional bike fit, or some VO2 max testing provide equal or greater benefit? Usually, the answer is yes, and something I have observed to be true in almost all races is this; someone who is fit and competes on entry level gear will almost ALWAYS beat someone who is unfit racing with top of the line gear. We tend to label these people as 'All the gear, no idea'. It's a little unfair as they may have some idea about training, but this type of athlete is usually present at every race. Sam proved this, and I've experience the same thing, overtaking a TT bike on a hill simply because I'd trained on hills and the other athlete clearly hadn't.
One exception to all of this is if a piece of equipment is not fit for purpose or damaged, of course. In the case of our steel mountain bike athlete at the outset, was she losing places because of equipment, and so would she benefit from switching to a aluminium road bike? Definitely? And again to a carbon TT bike? Yes, but the gains would not be as marked as the first switch. In my case, I upgraded my wetsuit because the shoulders simply weren't allowing me to swim properly. It was not fit for purpose. However, in terms of bang for buck, I have found that my swim membership was among the best investment I made in my triathlon habit. Yes, my new wheels and tyres have been great, but the swim practice 2-3 nights a week for a year has produced an 8 minute improvement in my Olympic swim time over 2 years. You won't get that from a set of wheels, I assure you.
So spend your money on equipment if you must, but get what makes you better, faster, stronger. That might be equipment, it might be training. But if you do have any spare cash, get the t shirt that has the title of this post on it. Complete with a cartoon deer with no eyes, it had the legend "All the gear. No eyed deer" on it.
Now that's a piece of kit worth buying.
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