Those that have been around this forum long enough know that I sometimes despise equipment talk.

My disdain for what seems to be an over zealous focus on equipment and gear in the Triathlon community was only cemented last night. What I'm about to share will likely come off as a me being a braggart...I'm hoping you come away with the point.

A brief history.

My exposure to Triathlons came about back in the early 80's and in Europe when I was in the Army. I was back state side in 85 and at that time to particiapte in Tri's required some travel. There was no Olympic distance because it was not part of the Olympics yet. The Ironman was very much on the fringe. People doing Tri's back then were of a different personality...more "earthy", granola types vs the Type A personality you see today.

Conversations revolved around training and nutrition. There were no Tri Shorts, Tri Tops, Tri Shoes, Tri Saddles, Aero this and Aero that. People road Schwinn Free Spirits, Ralieghs and the like...many people borrwed bikes.To see someone do the whole thing in either a speedo or baggy swim trucks was pretty common.  If you changed into running shorts, (most common distance was basically what we call a sprint today) you dropped drawers right in the open. Too bad that few if any females did Tri's back then. I remember when I saw the first Triathlon specific bike turned out by Quintanna Roo.

Which brings me too;

Last night I had some time so I thought I'd go out for a ride. RAGBRAI is coming up. (460 mile 6 day bike ride across Iowa) I headed out for my 40+ mile out and back. When I reached the turn around town I pulled into the C store to refill water bottles. There was a brand new Cervelo P3 leaning up against the building. Out walks this fully outfitted Triathlete wearing a Zoot Tri singlet, Lake Triathlon carbon cycling shoes and carrying a GIRO Aero helment. We talked for a bit...I asked him if he was heading back to town and he said he was. I asked him if he minded if I rode along. He looked at my bike. A 1999 Litespeed with a Detours Stem Bag, A handle bar bag, 2 lights on the top of the drop bars, flasher on seat post and I'm wearing Baggy MTB shorts and Shimano Sandels.

After a good look over he said he was out for a training ride and will be pushing it hard going back home. I told him that's all right. You set the pace if I can't hang, don't wait for me.

So we head out. Once we reach the open rode he's riding steady at just under 19mph. I'm thinking this dude must be thinking he can't push it and thinks he needs to be nice. We ride at this pace for about 15 mins when I thought I should let him know he dosen't need to hold back. I pulled up along side of him and told him I'll set a pace I can maintain back to town. If that's too slow just pass me and do your training.

I drop in ahead of him and take it up to 21mph. he's hanging there. there is no wind to speak of. I start taking it to 21.5. This is where he starts to drop back. I slow to 20, he takes his time catching back up. Once he's back on my wheel I take it back to 21.5...He isn't hanging there and he's got the slip stream. So I did to him what I told him to do to me...I dropped him. I had probably a mile or better on this guy in about 17 miles which means he had to slow down because without a wheel sucker I was only averaging a little over 20 mph coming home.

I don't know what his training week was like. I do know that he did the same out and back I did so our miles for that trip were pretty equal.

So I may be drawing some conclusions and maybe he deserves more credit because he maybe he had a huge workout the day before but I'm guessing this is the dude that will ask if this or that will make me faster. He will read all the equipment reviews and wind tunnel test and wheel reviews and ignore the every decreasing articles on actual training in Triathlon Magazine. He obvisously is willing to spend the money on speed. My question is he willing to spend the time.

This is my 2nd season of not doing Triathlons. Not on purpose, just kinda lost the fire for them because I felt like I was losing the secondary race...keeping up with the gear. Last night kinda motivated me though. I'm thinking about maybe finding an old school steel frame bike, turn it into a single speed, swim in baggy trunks and do one old school. How's that for HTFU ! 

This is my 2nd season of not doing Triathlons. Not on purpose, just kinda lost the fire for them because I felt like I was losing the secondary race...keeping up with the gear. Last night kinda motivated me though. I'm thinking about maybe finding an old school steel frame bike, turn it into a single speed, swim in baggy trunks and do one old school. How's that for HTFU ! 

I think you totally should!

I was pretty chuffed (as the Brits would say) to see the results for my duathlon bike leg on Sat.  Out of a field of 46 I was 23rd on the bike...that's against people with far more experience and several with wheels that cost more than my entire bike.  Run legs...eh, not so much.  I need to drop a whole lotta fat ass, there.

Just think Slo, the guy spent all that moola for some speed.......... how SLOW he was before that!

I get where you're comming from with your story and don't see you as a braggart at all. Personally I can never see myself dropping a couple grand on a bike, or wheels or? I will instead get a nice used bike or set of wheels for a fraction of the cost from the guy that feels they NEED the latest and greatest thing to hit the market.

For instance. I just bought a tri specific bike. I found a lightly used 2007 Felt B2 with Ultegra components and a decent set of wheels and brand new Michelin tires. The bike retailed for about 3600, was a carry over when he bought it new and I paid 1000 for it. The guy even threw in a set a Ultegra pedals.

I shouldn't talk, but have to chime in.  Since I'm about to compete in my second IM in as many years I have to admit that I have fallen prey to the gadget gods.  Last year I was determined to ride in my 20 yo Trek 1500.  After only a few outings I decided to pop for a new bike. Since then I have purchased a road bike (cyclocross actually).  New wheels for the Tri bike...a quarq powermeter, aero helmet,  Garmin 310xt, etc... I'm embarrassed to continue, but the list goes on and on. 

Am I faster--hell yes. Can I stop tris--hell no.  My monetary investment pales in comparison to my time.  Wife asks after IMLP what are you going to do with yourself?  Haven't been able to look at her with a straight face on that one.

Don't mis-understand where I'm coming from. I do believe there is a point where you need to make the investment in order to move up in the finishers list. What I see is  a lot of people rushing out to buy speed long before they have made the investment in themselves.

  

What percentage of the field at IMLP would you guess end up walking a large portion of the Marathon yet will ride out of T1 transition on a $3500 bike? Why would you drop that kind of cash to turn around and walk the marathon?  And really, Sprints are no different. Why all the gear to clock a 9min/mile 5k. Or to spend 3 mins in transition.

Prior to running / racing myself, I was a race car "owner" (and I use that term loosely).  My son was 5 when he started racing quarter midget race cars.  What a blast!  But, what an expensive sport for youth.

We bought a used race car with a used motor, and put in about $1,500 / year in our race budget (races, parts, tires, etc.).

The problem was that we were racing against some families who were willing to put in 4x - 10x that amount for their 5 - 8 year old to race competitively.  It turns out that we figured out how to race well with a small budget, and we ran well locally (26 wins in 52 races in our final year...).

But there were some kids who ran better than us regionally and nationally and in faster classes than us because they wanted to spend more on new tires every week, motor re-freshes, etc.

My son is now 17, and we haven't raced cars in about 8 years.  All of his quarter midget racing friends are everyday Joe's that are finishing HS, going to college, and doing the regular stuff.  None of them are racing professions.

And, if you were to ask him the best thing about his 17 years of life so far, I bet he'd say that racing cars was the best thing he was ever a part of.  He didn't know how little we spent compared to other families.  He knows that he was good, and he has no allusions of grandeur about what could have been if we kept racing.  It was a great 4 years of his life.

I say all that because I believe in racing against yourself.  For me, no matter what race I'm a part of (quartermidget racing, 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon, triathlon ...), I'm always racing against my goals and myself.  I'm ok with those willing to spend more than me to be faster than me.  I also realize that I may have tools that may help me ride faster than others and that has nothing to do with my skill.

All of us who race should be proud of what we do with what we have (or don't have), whether we're "fast" or "slow".

And that's kind of why I like individual sports better than team sports. 

With team sports, those components get magnified, and those without skill are "off the team", or go to the "B team".  With running / triathlons, we're all "winners" because we go out an do it.

This was put perfectly, my favorite part  of tri's is passing the guys with the expensive bikes on the run, you can't buy running

I like flying by the faster runners on the bike leg...'cause I majorly suck ass as a runner and am less craptacular on the bike.  I have a friend who placed 3rd in our AG in a duathlon even though she was the slowest runner of the 6 in our AG.  She is a monster on the bike and was faster than all but 1 person in our AG, IIRC.