Regretting not buying new bike for first tri

I know a guy that bought a new bike for his tri coming off his "comfort" bike. He was terribly uncomfortable riding it. Long story short, he came into a corner too hot and balled it up!! bye, bye new bike

This is an extreme example. Point is, you'll need time to get used to it. There are more tri's to do. Just do this with what you got and go from there.

First sprint triathlon I did, my bike speed average was right around 17mph, and I was riding a fairly good road bike.  So you're probably putting down more watts than I was.  I definitely wasn't getting passed a lot, either.  I'd say you're in a good ballpark and there's nothing to worry about.  Go out there and have fun!

I'd say just go and enjoy your first triathlon... 

#1: You're not going to win every race.
#2: You're not going to place in every race.
#3: There will always be someone faster than you.

You're not going to have fun if you worry about these things, and you'll probably make better purchasing decisions after a few tri's anyway. You're going to get a kick out of passing people on more expensive bikes. I know I do.

Enjoy!

Thanks everyone! Just pre race grumpiness probably.  Same thing happened to me before my first 10k and I loved that.  

I do have my eye on a closeout 2008 Trek Equinox 7 which just happens to be my size.  (I was looking at another LBS near my work and they had about 5 of these, but not the size they determined I was.  But the LBS near my house has exactly one, and it is this size.)  

I may actually buy it tomorrow, but only after the race.  

 

Your times look decent to me... I'm not an expert, but I would bet that you finish MOP overall and in your age group.

I don't have my split times yet, but I did the .3 mile swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run in, if I recall correctly,  1:27:09.  I got this from a computer printout they had posted at the race but had trouble getting close enough to.  That quick glance also, I think, put me in 78th place for the Sprint.  There were a total of 500 participants for the Olympic and the Sprint, and it seems much more for the Sprint.  

But they haven't posted any results yet, so they only number I'm really confident of is the 1:27.  I will post them when they come up.  I'm very interested in where I lost the most time relative to the winner of my age group. 

Ok.  Here are my results (and I did do a race report) for the .3 mile swim, 14 mile bike and 3 mile run. 

Swim 10:09.  T1 2:38.  Bike 50:09.  T2 1:30.  Run 22:45  for a total of 1:27:09

This put me at 79th out of 301 for my first tri, but only 10 out of 19 for my 45-49 Male division.  I would have done better had I been ANY of the younger male age groups other than 20-24.

My swim ranking was 97/301, my bike rank was 134/301 and my run rank was  39/301.  

Relative to the average of the top 5, I was overall 21:25 behind.  Where was the difference?

Swim 2m:41s  or 12.5% of the difference.
T1:  1m:15s or 5.8% of the difference.
Bike: 12m:50s or 59.9% of the difference.
T2: 58s or 4.5% of the difference.
Run:  3m:42s or 17.3% of the difference.

Bottom Line.  I need to improve everything, but I really need a new bike. 

 

No...you WANT a new bike. You don't need one. You really don't. You need to ride more on A bike, whether it's the one you have, or one you buy. Will a new road bike make a difference, if you were to go out and ride the same course under the same conditions right now? Probably. A little bit. But not all that much, really. Maybe not even enough to be statistically significant.

It's okay to WANT. Nothing wrong with that. But it's also okay t o work on what will make a BIG difference right now, and that's base and training, and worry about the equipment later. (Who knows, you may decide in 18-24 months you're bored with tris. Shocker, I know...but there's enough used bikes on ebay to indicate that a sizeable portion of the world runs out and gets those bikes they NEEDED to have...only to have them ending up collecting dust.)

First tri should be about having fun and learn a lot. You will make quite a few mistakes (we all do in our first few races), slow transitions, start off too hard, not going hard enough, equipment mistakes (forgetting to remove helmet on the run, problems getting off the wet suite, having the bike in the wrong gear when we start, etc. etc. etc.). Don't worry about your speed or placing, just have fun.

Something that helped me a lot in the past... get a small note book and note the day; from getting up in the morning, how did you feel, what did you eat, what did you do, to getting to the event, setting up the transition area, just before the start (note your feelings), how did the different events go, how did you do the the transitions, and how did you feel after the finish. Make sure you write down things you did wrong, so you can go back before next race and make mental notes not to repeat them, and/or if equipment issues, work on that in the week after the race. Also make notes of everything that you did/feel well. Make mental notes of those and repeat those in the next few weeks and in the coming races. This helps to develop a good routine before, during and after the race as well as a good mental picture of what you see as your perfect race.

No real argument on the WANT vs. NEED.  All "need" statements usually have an unspoken conditional. So what I really meant was "IF I was going to be serious about triathlons, THEN I need a knew bike."  And I stand by that.  You really need a least a road bike (but it could be a used road bike) if your are going to take this sport seriously, IMHO.

In any case, I bought the closeout 2008 Trek Equinox 7.  ($1200).  One thing I knew from testing it out was that while it felt good, it would take some time to learn to ride it properly.  It is twitchy. 

So today I did the exact same route as my sprint tri.  

One thing about me is that I'm pretty consistent.  My last two pool practices, I did 500 yards in exactly 10 minutes, 11 seconds.  Exactly equal.  At the race, I did the 500 yard ows in 10:09.

On my last training run on my old bike, I did this route in 50 minutes exactly.  It was pretty windy then.  At the actual event, I did it in 50:09, and it was a bit windier.

Today was about the same amount of wind as my last training run.   45:55.  And that was without ever using the aerobars because to do so would have caused me to crash.  (They will take some practice.)

So 4 minutes saved.  The top 5 male finishers beat me on average by 12:50 on the bike portion, so 4 minutes gets me about a third of the difference.  When I actually learn to ride the bike, maybe I'll get a minute or two more.  

This is about what I expected.

Edited by Cphelan 2010-09-02 2:20 PM