‘Will It Make Me Go Faster?’

I celebrated my 1 year Ironman anniversary last week. I say ‘celebrated’, I mean I had one of those moments when you see a date on the calendar or hear it said that you think – ‘I swear today is something? Is it someones birthday? Girlfriend anniversary’. It was just the 4th August ringing a bell and what a significant date I spent the majority of 2013 working towards.

That Ironman was very much about completing the course. This year on 13th September at Challenge Almere I am switching focus a little more to actually setting a target and doing more than just completing the distance.

Cole T50 Lite Carbon Wheels

It’s a funny old sport Long Distance triathlon in that the sky is the limit when it comes to ‘buying speed’. I have slowly built up a good shed of add-ons that will hopefully serve one purpose – make me go faster.

The Slice with Race wheels

Before IMUK I invested in the TT bike, my pride and joy. This year I have added bits and pieces to turn this into the bike I want to race on. I added carbon wheels, carbon pedals, I’ve bought an aero helmet, proper triathlon shoes to speed up transitions and the garmin heart rate monitor for a nerdier take on progress analysis. All of the above were bought after asking myself ‘will it make me go faster?’ If not, I can’t afford to waste money on aesthetics or funky gadgets that don’t add to my actual race performance.

Giro air Attack & Bont Tri Shoes

Ben Hunt-Davis writes and talk about this a lot. He’s a British Olympic gold medallist in rowing and the 8 man team constantly asked the question ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’. If not, why are they doing it? They even took this to the extreme of missing the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony as attending it wasn’t going to make the boat go faster.

British Cycling Performance Director Dave Brailsford talks a lot about ‘Marginal Gains’ and this has been the foundations that so many things have been won out of the Manchester based team. Have a look at the video here, where he explains what he means about these Marginal Gains.

There is also something money can’t buy – shaving the legs! To do or not? I’ve never done it, but if you watch the video below from the Specialized research and development team, it might sway me! It’ll equate to around 4 minutes in an Ironman. Watch this space if I come back with the smooth pins, the girlfriend is sooooo not up for this idea!