I competed in the Woolongong Olympic Triathlon today, and had a fantastic weekend. After training for a few months in a more triathlon specific regime it was time to test my progress over a 1.5km swim, 36km bike and 10km run. What I left Woolongong thinking was "does better equipment make a significant difference"? I was relatively pleased with 4th in my age group and 15th overall (considering there were 9 open athletes). I gave away time to my competitors on the swim and bike and wondered whether investing in better equipment is worthwhile.

Triathlon racing for me has always worked on an upward scale, after being schooled in the swim, working through on the bike and then smashing the run, racing has been varied to say the least. It's easy to second guess training methods and equipment you use, but honestly the engine in your chest is the number one piece of equipment at your disposal.

I ride a Planet X TT bike which is a budget bike as far as carbon TT's go, I swim in an Aquasphere Racer Wetsuit and run in Nike Zoom Marathoner's. How much will it cost to make me win Kona??? :) Will  a Zipp wheel combo give me the 4 minutes needed to be one of the fastest cyclist in the field? In a word ... MAYBE!

I always (like most of us) find my attention drawn to other competitors who I see on the bike with the disc wheels and hear that awesome whooshing noise as they tear up the tarmac. Can I warrant spending more money than my bike is worth on a set of wheels?  Or perhaps its more satisfying when you grind past those competitors on your road bike.

For now my goal is to go back to training, with Sydney ITU Age Group Race a month away it is my goal to work hard within my new coaching program (provided by Energylink Coaching) and to see how I improve in my next race.

The goal is consistency and the motivation is my next race. With great team mates at Balmoral Tri Club and a wonderful location to train in hopefully my next blogs will be very positive.

I would love to hear other views on this topic?

Until next time.... in the words of Jessie J "Forget about the Price Tag"