Chrissie book - it's all about the engine

That's very interesting, and I couldn't agree more.  I upgraded from a $600 low end road bike in my first 2 tris to a mid-line tri bike for everything after.  

My dad bought a road bike to do a sprint tri relay in Sept with me.  Same height so same fit.  I asked him if I could try it for a sprint in June.  Reason being, he's convinced that I'm faster because of my equipment.  I want to use his bike to prove to him that the equipment is a smaller factor than my engine.

yeah- but if you had an aero helmet and zipp wheels... you would have been on the podium!

So, having this bike:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/rwt_tri.htm

and doing IMCDA in June '13, would you buy a $1500 bike for it, or do it with this bike and save up to get a $3,000 bike by the end of next year?

This got my through a HIM in sub-8.  I'm just glad I met the cutoff time   Now time to put in some work to hit the cutoff times for CDA.  7 months to go!!

It's definitely the engine, but let's not go totally crazy here. You can buy speed, sad as it may sound. There's a reason we run in certain shoes instead of high heels, and there's a reason tri bikes were developed for triathlon. If you check out the history of aero bars, then you'd probably be amazed at how much the equipment matters.

That being said, I don't think there is ever(!) a reason for any triathlete to have a bike that costs more than a small house :p

I'd save up and get the one you really want. Getting a $1500 (or even a $3000) bike will not likely save you enough time over that bike to make a super-huge difference, and shouldn't be the difference between making the cutoff and not making it.  Body position on the bike will affect your run, but that isn't likely to make or break your race unless you're competing for a podium.  The only real deciding factor for me would be, after getting a fitting, whether or not I was comfortable doing a century ride on that bike, and that shouldn't really be an issue.

Develop the engine.  

I spent $15-20 on mine, but that was to get sunglasses with readers (I'm 47) or I couldn't easily read my HRM or bike computer.  

yet?  I've read that in several locations, includnig BT, and especially the year she pulled out last minute due to her illness

+1

While I enjoy passing people on the bike I love passing people with aerobars or a full tri bike.

I told my wife I checked the photos for my last race and only saw two people on standard bikes faster than me, the rest were tri bikes or had aerobars.  She asked, "so, is that what you're buying next?"  "Nope, I can get quite a bit faster with the bike I have.  Maybe in two years if I'm still doing triathlons."  I just bought the bike used, and started riding, back in the end of July, so I have lots of work to do on the engine.

I'm reading her book right now as well (she just finished her first Kona win and is digressing into training tips).

I agree it's about the engine, but something else I am taking away from her story is HOW you build that engine, namely serious HTFU.

Her coach Brett Sutton was merciless toward her, forcing brutal workouts on her without cutting her any slack: if she cut her finger, he basically said "HTFU"; if she hurt her coccys bone, he told her to "HTFU".  If she started complaining about anything, he said...

H T F U.

I think that's a big reason Chrissie was so successful: serious mental toughness translates to much better engine development, so the mental toughness plus better engine means crushing the competition (and pro men) in the races (even if you crash on the bike 2 weeks before Kona).

This is what I got from her book ... girl can dig DEEP (in a sport where a lot of athletes can dig deep, but she has them/ us all beat)

OP here - I don't doubt that Chrissie can go deep, but honestly, after reading her book I was less impressed with her HTFU ability than her raw natural talent.

Even her coach Brett Sutton was very critical of her HTFU ability (or lack thereof by his standards) even all the way up to her Kona IM win. He's a character in himself, but he has a lot of athletes in his stable, and it definitely didn't seem like she was particularly disciplined relative to the others. She was very, very competitive with the others, sometimes damagingly so, but that's different than discipline.

When she was dominating races before Kona, even at the start of her pre-pro career, she was winning without ever expecting to even be on the podium. By huge margins, sometimes. That's a clear sign of talent above all else.

I wasn't impressed by her HTFU stories, actually. Yes, she trains hard, but I've definitely done some painful sessions in weird hours that aren't that far off her situation, and outside of triathlon, I've got plenty of stories of HTFU with my work etc that are definitely comparable. Won't make me anywhere near that good any time soon.

I haven't read her book yet but will get there soon. In one of her interviews a few years ago, she built a good base MTBiking in Nepal during her stint there and running marathons. Of course she did swim as a kid too so before getting to be Pro she had those background already + her type A personality definitely helps. 

Just when I was planning to get a tri-bike as a gift to myself, then again getting into a coaching program in a couple of weeks would help my engine and help me decide what path to take on equipment(s).

Not even her last Kona victory?