8 Best Value Triathlon Upgrades

This episode of the Get Fast podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. You are joined, as always, by your host, former Australian Ironman champion, Jared Donnelly. And I am Jordan Donnelly. So in this episode, we want to be talking about 8 best value triathlon upgrades, because how much should you be spending on your triathlon equipment? How much do you spend already? How much could you spend? There is probably infinite things you could spend your money on. And there are a lot of shiny objects in the triathlon world that tell you you need these kind of things to perform better. So in this episode, we want to break down exactly what's the best value for you, what's going to give you the best bang for your buck, and most importantly, where you should be spending your hard earned money on to get you better results and train smarter and race faster. But before we get into the episode, just a reminder, if you want to download our expert Secrets cheat sheet, that's the cheat sheet of the very best tips and advice all the experts on our podcast have said. We've had plenty of great guests on this podcast. We've given incredible tips on how to train smarter and race faster. If you want that cheat sheet, go to getfastpodcast.com so dad will get straight into it. The eight best value triathlon upgrades. Now, when we say best value, a lot of people might think that we're saying, what is the cheapest stuff that you can get to improve your performance? And we want to change the mindset a little bit. We don't actually just want to talk about where can you get the cheapest stuff to get the best value? What do we want to focus on?

There's a couple of ways of looking at it. If you had an unlimited budget and money was no obstacle, what would you be your priority? That's one way of looking at it. Or can you look at it another way? What are the best items that are going to make me go faster from the start of the race to the finish of the race? That would be the way I would look at it. And of course, things cost money and some of the things we're going to suggest are expensive. But you've got a way up in your mind. You're already spending incredible amount of time and money in this sport, so you wouldn't want to look back on your career and say, I could have gone better if I had had this piece of equipment or that piece of equipment. You might try to think about Getting a priority in terms of what you want to try and aim for, to purchase, that might help you become a better triathlete.

We don't want to say to people you need to spend the most money on the top of the range stuff to have a great performance and to perform well. That's not what we're saying. But we have to acknowledge that sport of triathlon is expensive. It's much more expensive than most other sports. And even cycling, the sport of cycling is expensive. So if we're going to be spending money anyway, and plus the time factor that you spoke about, the time and effort and the importance of how important is this goal to us? If this is our hobby, this is what we love doing. What do we want to be spending our money on? What's going to give us the best return if we are going to spend multiple thousands of dollars on things?

Yeah, the extreme example would be running is probably the most cost effective sport you can ever select. You need some singlets, some running shoes and some running shorts and probably a watch. You know, if, if you were comparing that to cycling, it's like you would get the best equipment you could possibly buy. And I still hear and see people not getting the best running shoes that suit them. And that to me is. I just shudder at that. But that is just such a. Not the way to go.

So on that note, we'll get into it. And our thing, number one of our best value is to make sure for a triathlete to make sure that you have a tri bike. Now this is quite controversial because tri bikes are probably the most expensive thing that we're going to talk about on this list. But why do we put this in here, especially at the start if you're a triathlete?

Well, the choices are that you ride your road bike. That's number one. And I've done the Iron Mount Kona on a road bike and I don't recommend it. Choice number two is to ride a road bike with clip on bars, which is going to be way better than just riding a road bike. The most wind resistance is the body and the position you're sitting on the bike. If you're on normal handlebars, you've got a wide full frontal wind block. Almost once you start putting your hands in that position and all of a sudden your shoulders come in and you are a lot more aerodynamic even on a road bike. And then the optimal position is to be on a tri bike where it is an aerodynamically built bike with the right cockpit at the front that's going to give you the most advantage.

So why would you say to someone, I would advise you to get a tri bike over just clip on bars and the road bike?

Well, the best answer to that is you do you want to have 20 minutes in an Ironman in improvement in your bike without doing anything but changing the equipment? And the answer would be bloody oath I would, of course I would. That's a no brainer. Well, I still see people riding road bikes and clipons ahead of time trial bikes. So the advantage is going to be faster, so a quicker time on the bike and possibly more comfortable ride, which means you can run better. So there would be the two, two key reasons why I would suggest you think seriously about upgrading your bike.

And the not so hidden elephant in the room is the cost of the time trial bike. And we would acknowledge that's a factor and that does deter a lot of people from investing, especially if you've already invested in an expensive road bike.

Yeah. So if you have a really good road bike and you all of a sudden realize that triathlon was your, your thing from now on, it's a no brainer for me. You sell your road bike and put that money into your time trial bike. That is a way around upgrading because.

You'Re not a cyclist, you're a triathlete.

Exactly right. I've ridden a road bike, as I just said, at Kona and I wish that the triathlon bike was available in 1988. 89, 90. It just wasn't. And, and we had variations of clip on bars as the years progressed. But to have a pure time trial bike, it would have been a dream to ride. Now that I ride a pure time trial bike and I'm riding faster speeds on that than I could as a, as a 30 year old to me is just extraordinary.

That is extraordinary, isn't it? That you, you do believe that you could ride faster at Kona now, 30 years later, being 30 years older compared to when you're a full time professional ironman athlete because of the bike.

I'm about to test that theory. Yeah. Some upcoming races. So, you know, definitely that, that opportunity that. What are the times like now at Kona compared to what they are? I'm just using Kona as an example compared to what they were like in the 80s and 90s. Well, the majority of the swim times are similar. The majority of the run times are similar.

Apart from the top, very top guys.

Yeah. And even the top guys back then could still run in the 240s for the marathon And Jan Frodeno is the only one who's broken 240. So the Times are very similar, but the bike times are incredibly different. And I don't think we're training any differently. It's just that we're on better equipment.

Yep, absolutely. So that is number one, is really. It is the most expensive, but investing in a tri bike could be your best value to improving your race day performance. Number two, and this is one that we actually don't allow any triballo athletes to come on board with us and train with us and do our training programs without this. And it seems obvious, but it's not that obvious for a lot of people. And that is getting a power meter. Again, this is a not inexpensive value add. It's one of the expensive ones. And this is why we said at the start we're not necessarily looking for the cheapest. But the reason that this is a requirement and we say we don't coach any athletes without it is because without it, you would just say it's suicide. Right.

To understand how to execute your ride in the race on the best bike, if you have the best bike with no data or information coming back at you, you're still riding a really good piece of equipment, but you haven't got the knowledge of how well you're riding that bike on the day. So having a power meter gives us all of this data and all of this information. It prevents you from going too hard too early and allows you to ride strong at the end, therefore allowing you to run as well as you possibly can on race day. And that's what counts. So the power meter does those two things, and without that, you're pretty much doing the race blind.

And you are. You are still shocked that not 100% of triathletes have a power meter.

Yeah. Every time we offer some programs to people, it. It is clear to me that more than 50% of the triathletes out there don't have a power meter. And. And that means there's a whole lot of people who would be getting.

A.

Poor performance compared to what they could be getting a lesser performance than they're achieving at the moment had they had that one piece of equipment that allows them to control their race, to allow them to run better, to allow them to ride better, of course, but then to allow them to run better. And just purchasing that piece of equipment would enable them to do that.

Yeah. And following on this theme, the next most important thing on the list and this theme of things that are not necessarily inexpensive but Vital to your performance is being able to read that data. So having a proper bike computer, a functioning bike computer that can give you this data, as well as a watch or a tri watch to cover both the swim and run and the bike computer to actually cover the bike component.

Yeah. And just like the power meter, it's great having a power meter if you don't use it. And there are people who've got bikes with power meters who don't even use it. So that's one thing, having a head unit or a bike computer or a running watch, people have got that, but they don't know how to use it. So knowing how to use power and knowing how to use the computer to read the data, it's great having those two pieces of equipment. But if you don't understand how to use it, it's just as bad as not having it. You might as well not have it. So understanding what your power data is and what your threshold is, is the next step on from getting a power meter, getting a head unit or bike computer or running watch, that's great. But have you got the settings correct on your screen? Are you getting the right information back? If you've not got the thing set up properly, you might as well not have it. It's going to give you basic information like how long have I been riding or running for? What's my average speed? That's probably what the majority of triathletes are looking at. But we, we want to use this equipment to its full advantage and understanding how to do that is the key to purchasing that piece of equipment.

And what, how should we be using it? So compared to just looking at time and speed, what should we be looking at?

Well, ironically, that's what I. That's the only information I had when I raced as an ironman was pretty much the time of day, how long I'd been on the bike and I don't even know if we had distance. So that was about the only thing we could go by, was how long we'd been riding for and how much time's left. I knew the ride was around 4 hours 50. I've been riding for 3 hours, I've got 2 hours 50 left. That was all hour 50 left. That was the only data I had. So the things we need to be looking at is what is our average power throughout the whole ride, what is our cadence, what is our heart rate? And if we're on a hilly course, what's our normalised power? Because there would be a difference between normalized and Average power depending on the course. And if it's a flat course, average and normalised will be very similar. If it's a very undulating course, the normalized will be quite different. And if you're looking at your average power on a hilly course, average power is just going to give you the raw data. Normalize is going to give you a more indicative value to the effort. And that is more important number than the average.

Yeah, absolutely. So that's probably our three major cost things that if you get will have some of the biggest improvement but cost the most. But once you've got those out of the way, you've kind of got a good setup and you've got the things to actually read your data. The next things on the list aren't as expensive, but still the best value adds, we think to help you with your performance. And you mentioned one earlier in the podcast already and that is the running shoe. And you'd still see people going for the cheaper option and wanting to save a couple of hundred dollars by not upgrading their shoes regularly enough, or not going for the best shoe possible when that's just not the right mindset, is it?

No. To start with, you need to get yourself measured as to what type of runner you are. A pronator, a heel striker, a front striker, a supinator. You just need to find out and then try to match the shoe that fits your running style. That's the first thing. Regardless of the cost, you need to keep continually changing your shoes as they get worn out so that you're still getting the best value and preventing the injury issue that happens to all runners. So not looking after those factors has so many detrimental negative issues. Impacts on a not getting to the start line because you're injured, because you've not changed your shoes, you've got the wrong type of shoe. That's something that you know you just can't believe. People don't take the time and don't think that it's important and it is so critical to so many people don't get to the start line in their training program because they're injured. And you know, the running shoe is the key to of course, your action, your constant strength and stretching all contribute to enabling you to stay injury free. But having the wrong shoe could be a game changer.

And think about the actual cost of you not getting the right shoe and the cost of injury. Not just the cost of injury on your just mental health and your frustration and that side of things, but the cost of having to go see a physio or a doctor or potential surgery, that kind of thing, from being injured. But also the cost on missing the event because you can't actually make it and the cost of entry, the cost of accommodation, flights that you've all just forfeited because you're injured.

Yeah. The flow on effect of having the poor shoe which causes an injury is incredible. If you're going to spend thousands of dollars on the bike, why wouldn't you spend. And we're not even asking you to buy the best. Sorry, we're asking you to buy the best fitted shoe for you, not the most expensive. That's not what we're asking. It's the best fitted shoe for you that might be somewhere between three and five hundred dollars, depending on what you've purchased in comparison to the cost of not having that with the downside of the injury and all the things you just mentioned is just something you shouldn't be considering.

Yeah, absolutely. And a little actual value add that is cheap on the shoe is simply getting the elastic laces.

Yeah. And that would be obvious to people. You don't want to be in transition, tying your shoelaces up. You know, you get the elastic laces, it's not going to be, you know, a game changer, but it's another little 1 percenter. That's if you're in an age group competition and you're trying to win the thing and it could be 20 or 30 seconds and you know, in T2 you've taken 10 seconds and the other athlete's taken 50. It could be the difference.

Yeah. The next one on our list, once you've got those four things covered, is investing in a bike fit. So once you actually get time trial bike, investing in a bike fit. So talk to me about this.

So you think you've done everything right, you've got yourself a brand new bike, well done tick for that. But you're not actually sitting in the best position. And we have countless examples of riders who have got really good power on their road bike and then when they jump on their time trial bike, they can't match the power that they're able to force on the road bike. So the goal is to get your time trial bike and your power, the power on your time trial bike and your road bike to be almost the same. And I don't coach many people in that category. So really it's all because you're not sitting on the bike properly. So you need to get a professional bike fit. And just because you sit in a certain way on the road bike doesn't mean you automatically sit the same way. On a time trial bike, you are in completely different angles. You know, you're more bent over, you're in an aerodynamic position. And sure, people say on the road bike you can be down the drops and it's a similar position, but the geometry of the frame set of the time trial bike is different to the road bike and your angles of your working muscles are different to a road bike. So now you're going to be sitting on a bike that's slightly different to your road bike. And therefore you need to work out how to engage those muscles to, to get the best power numbers you can to match that of your road bike or better. So the bike fit will enable you to do that. And you need to get someone who really knows what they're doing, someone who's had good experience and good results with athletes. You just want to feel that you can push the power and if you can't in that time trial position he's got you in, then you need to change it.

Yeah. And it makes sense, doesn't it, that you might not be that well trained on a time trial bike compared to the road bike. Your muscles are really well trained in that position. So of course they're better trained at pushing better power. And if you haven't had that experience on a timer trial bike, your muscles just aren't there. It's like someone who has been running for 10 years compared to a fresh runner. The 10 year runner just has such better muscle memory pretty much in running faster.

Absolutely slight variations in position, they generally initiate different muscle groups slightly. So if you're weak in an attachment area of the hamstring and now you're sitting in a different position, you can't push the same power. So you need to develop those muscles by training on that bike. And that's another point that people have both road bike and time trial bike and doing triathlons and spend a lot of time on their road bike. Big error. You need to be spending all the time you can on your time trial bike. Unless you're in a group riding situation where it's dangerous, but the majority of training on your own. You should be on your race bike, not your training bike. On your race bike, practicing the exact position, getting the muscles and tendons to work exactly the way you want it come race day.

So tell us your story of getting a bike fit last year and how it almost started off in disaster and ended up being the best thing you did.

Yeah, so I'm Telling people to get a bike fit. So I took my own advice and as the years have progressed, my body shape has changed. As I get older, I'm sure I'm shrinking. So I decided to get a bike fit that I hadn't done for years and that put me in a position where, where my power numbers fell away dramatically. And I was questioning this bike fit a lot. I was not happy with power numbers that I've been able to ride for the last 20 years. Now I was riding 25% less.

You're embarrassed at the time trial and.

I've put myself in some races and people will laugh. Not laughing. People were asking me why didn't I do that race? Because they didn't see my result and they didn't go far enough down the the pace to see that I was, you know, 50, 60 riders further back than I normally am. So, you know, it was a really good lesson for me to stick with the process. And changing your bike position, it will take time to adjust and that's really important that you understand that. And, and for me, I've been riding a time trial bike for 40 odd years and it took me a good three to four months before I started to get back to the power numbers that I was capable of. And the reason I got a bike fit was to check that I was in the right position. And I wasn't really in the right position. I was still holding good numbers in a poor position, but now I can hold numbers that I haven't held since I was a young, since I first started with power, which is 10, 11 years ago. And I'm doing some better times than I have when I was a 49 year old as compared to a 62 year old. So the bike fit absolutely changed my power numbers and my results have been indicative of, of a much better position. I can exert much better power now in this new position.

Yeah. So it's worth investing in. And we use the word invest. I've used it already a couple of times in this podcast because in terms of getting a value upgrade, it's about investing in the things that are going to give you the best reward, the best result. You know, there are lots of little things, like we said, the, the cheap elastic laces that will help. They're going to have a, what, a 1% difference point less, a 0.5% difference in your transition area, just without tiny laces.

I mean, you've done all the hard work getting a brand new time trial bike. It's still no value to you. If you're sitting in the wrong position. So it's only half the job. So those two things really go together. New bike, Bike fit.

Yeah. The next one is thinking about our race day clothing and that includes our swim wetsuit and our skin suit. And making sure that what we have, that we have the right stuff, that's not in a complicated way, is going to make sure that we can perform well.

Yeah. And look, the wetsuit, to start with, that is crucial to the swim. And everybody has weaknesses and strengths in swimming. Some people's feet drop. So you might think about getting a wetsuit that's got more buoyancy in the legs. Some people have got great flexibility in their arms, so you need some more room to move in the shoulder and the arms in your wetsuit. So you need to be very specific and it doesn't mean you spend the most money. You need to find the wetsuit that suits your style of swimming, that keeps you more buoyant, because the more buoyant you are, the faster you're going to move through the water. So that's the key to getting the right wetsuit. So the wetsuit is crucial for the swim leg and so are swim goggles. You need to have a good set of swim goggles that actually enable you to see clearly. But the wetsuit is the number one thing for swimming. Without doubt.

Yeah. And making sure you don't have an old wetsuit, a wetsuit that's not designed for fast swimming, that's got holes in it that doesn't fit you properly.

Yeah. And a borrowed one that is definitely not what you do. The borrowed wetsuit is someone else's wetsuit that's designed for them, not for you. So it's very personal. You need to have the wetsuit that suits you and that is like the running shoe. You know, in swimming, there's not a lot of cost equipment in swimming, A wetsuit, Is it the running shoe? Is it in. In running, yeah. So you need to get something that's definitely fit, fit you and no one else. That's really important.

And in terms of the other things, like the skin suit on the bike, how important is that? Because we speak about what's going. What's going to give you the best reward. Just having clothing that's comfortable is probably the key. Without having to spend the most money on the best skin suit. Yeah. How important is it for you to say, go get the best skin suit?

I just, I think in triathlon, for the Ironman or half Ironman, the longer the endurance event. I think the speed value factor lessens, the comfort value takes over. So you need something that you want it to be fast, but it doesn't have to be the most expensive fast suit you could possibly buy. If it's not comfortable, you can't, you can't fulfill the requirements of the race. If you're uncomfortable, if you're chafing, if it's too tired, if it stops you from breathing well, causes, you know, constriction. You just need it to be comfortable. The shortest sprint, Olympic distances, definitely you want to get the speed factor because it's going to help you get from A to B faster. But over a long, you know, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 hour day, it's insignificant. It's like the aero helmet. You know, there's less value in that than being, having airflow in your head so you don't overcook yourself. So the skin suit needs to be comfortable, but certainly you would want to get one that's well fitted for you. So a personally fitted suit is a much better option. But you know, the comfort factor is really equal to the aerodynamic factor.

And that is a perfect example of where the best, shiniest thing isn't necessarily the best thing for you.

For sure.

Yeah, the next one, our second last one, and these last two are actually probably the biggest things that can help you with your performance that aren't necessarily equipment based or object based. And this one is talking about nutrition. And there's two factors with nutrition. There's nutrition for performance and nutrition for weight loss. So talk to me about these two things and the value they add.

Yeah, well, we can divide them as you just did. So we want, in our preparation for the race and on race day to make sure that we haven't put unleaded in a diesel car. We want to have the right fuel that's going to enable us to train properly, not get sick, stay healthy, recover well for the next training session, then come race day, get through the race not bonking, having the right amount of fuel to get you right to the end without cramping, without dehydrating, without, you know, falling apart. You want to make sure that all of those things are working. You've got the light, the right carbohydrate, the right protein, the right fats. Your body knows how to burn all those things in training and it knows how to do that on race day. So that's one aspect of getting the nutrition right. So you should spend lots of your time thinking and organizing your nutrition so that that's Something you shouldn't just go, I'll just eat whatever I can each day. Because that can be detrimental in how you function on that particular training session and during race day. If you haven't practiced that in training, come race day, it could all fall apart.

The second part.

So the second part is the lighter you are, the better performance you're going to be. And there is a, there is a cutoff point to how light you should be. But certainly, if you can, if you can lose 10 kilo, 5 kilo, 2 kilo just straight away, watts per kilo is the amount of power you can push divided by your weight. So the higher the watts per kilo, the faster you're going to ride. If it's a hilly course, you don't want to be carrying an extra 5 kilo on your body through not losing weight. This would be number one thing that I would be thinking about. There's so many examples of courses that are really undulating, and the heavier athletes struggle on those courses, the flatter courses, they get away with it. But there are a lot of courses in the world that have lots of heels in it. So the lighter you are, the easier you're going to get around the course and the better result you're going to have. And, you know, looking after your weight in training, it will, it will happen anyway. You could focus on, I'm going to eat well and train well, and you'll watch the weight slowly disappear. And that would be a focus. If I was a triathlete looking at my next race, I would want, you know, if I, if I know I'm 5 to 10 kilo too heavy, that would be something I'd be striving to do come race day over a period of 26 weeks, and not losing 10 kilo in the first two weeks. So definitely racing at your race. Weight is a key factor in a good result.

And again, the reason that we talk about it as a value investment is because for most people, they may know how to eat healthier generally, or may attempt to be able to lose some weight on their own. But most of us don't have the expert knowledge in what is the best fuel for performance and what is going to be the best in our endurance event as well as what is the safest and most effective way to lose weight. If we've struggled to lose weight in the past, even if it's just 2, 5 or 10 kilos, investing and paying someone, a professional to help you with it is really the investment we're looking at and the Value we're looking at because being able to do that is going to give you so much value in return in being able to perform well.

Yeah, not only just for the performance, but in general life, health wise. You want to have something that you can sustain forever. And understanding how to eat well for the rest of your life would be really a value added thing, not just for triathlon, but for your, your well being for the rest of your life. And it's not something that, you know, we see so many fad diets around that people go on and they lose weight and then you go back and if you checked on what they were now weighing in six months, a year, two years later, they're back to what they were. That's something that is like a roller coaster. We want something that's sustainable forever so that you can live. So I would like to use, not use the word diet, I'd like to use like a fueling mechanism that I can use forever. And it's just something that I'm not starving myself to, you know, to try and make the weight in a boxing match example. We want to, we want to actually be able to sustain this weight and compete at the highest level without being restricted because we're too, you know, too weak from not having enough fuel.

Yeah. And that brings us to our last point, our last best value add. And pretty much all of this doesn't really matter unless you have a specific, good, well structured training program. And what's the, what's the expression? All the gear? No, no, whatever it is, no result. I don't know what it is, but.

Yeah, you know, I know what you're saying, but all the things we've talked about, if you don't have the right program, then none of the things that you get will help you that much because they're all based around the fact you've got the perfect program. So getting the right program that's suitable to you, that's working against your numbers or with your numbers, that's structured to get you to race day in the best shape you possibly can, and then execute that race plan that's in your program, then having all of the best bike, the best wetsuit, the best shoes, the best nutrition, all those things will enable you to succeed. But if you don't have the program and you haven't trained properly, all of those things we just mentioned will give you the same result as you were going to get anyway. So without the right structured training program that's designed for you, that has your numbers in it, forget Those other things we talked about.

And that's again, why it's an investment, because you can download free programs off the Internet, you can download cheaper programs where we say, invest in a program, a coaching program that is going to be specific to you and get you the best outcome based on your numbers, not just a generic program that isn't based around your individual needs.

Yeah. And you've just mentioned all of the things that happen to most people. They Google training program for Ironman and that has to be so generic because how can it be specific when possibly 2 million people are going to Google it and possibly use it? So, you know, it is just a general program that will actually be better than you doing nothing, and that's probably about as good as it will be. So it needs to be structured around what your goals and aspirations are and what your capabilities are. And the only way to do that is to know what your numbers are. And that's how you get a good structured program.

And that is the top eight best value triathlon upgrades. Now, these are just the top things that we would recommend you really focus on. To start with, there are many other value upgrades that you could look at. And if you've got all these things in place, if you had the money, you could then spend as much money as you wanted on everything else. And getting the top of everything else, whether you wanted to get wheels, better tyres, a better skin suit, a better helmet, you could spend a whole lot more money on equipment. But spending the money on that isn't as important unless you've got these main eight things in place.

Yeah, I agree. And if you got all those eight things that we mentioned or you're happy with all those, then go for it. Get the best tires, get the best wheels. You know, think about investing in any other aspect that's massage. Spend money on massage. All the 1 percenters.

Yeah. Getting a set of rollers.

Yeah, getting a set of rollers. So you're practicing balance, getting an altitude tent. There's thousands of other things that we could talk about, but get these eight things right first and then go for it with the other things.

That's a perfect way to finish, to finish off with. If you do need a structured training program and you do need something that's tailored to you, that is what we do at Tribalo Coaching. So to get access to that, you can go to our website, tribalocoaching.com or and check out what we're about, or you can join our email list and you can go to get fastpodcast.com to join our email list. You'll get, as I said at the start of the podcast, a free cheat sheet of the best tips and advice from us and a lot of our guests that we've said on our podcast. But also once you're on our email list, that's how you can get access to some of our training programs to help you train smarter and race faster. That's it for this episode. We'll see you next time.