All the gear, no idea (referring to myself)

Despite current training time limitations I made the plunge with money I'd been saving and bought a bottom of the range TT bike from a local shop in the sales. I'll be the bloke you overtake on the carbon fibre TT bike at one of several races this year . Aero helmet to follow before the season kicks off. Much cycle training needed... Embarrassment guaranteed

All the rest of my gear is cheap as chips but decided to treat myself for once.

Not sure why I need to share my folly but it's a new bike which can't be wrong.

I dont believe you have a new TT bike, prove it! awaiting pictures

Jokes aside, I have almost all the gear which probably doesnt match the highest fitness but who cares? For me personally looking and feeling the part helps the motivation and the desire to get up and do it! What's the point doing things half heartdly with 'ugly' equipment, looking shoddy? It does help that I love my gadget and must have everything for anything but people have prerogative in what they spend and if I spend my hard earned cash on something that makes me healthy then I dont feel guilty

Snap.
Running stuff was already sorted.
Got a couple of wetsuits at the start of the year, a full and a sleeveless. 1st ex-rental and 2nd off ebay.
Birthday was August and I didn't fancy tri training on a bike fitted with all the commuter gear, albeit a nice little roadie with 700x23 tyres.
I ended up with the Decathlon Triban 5, carbon forks, carbon in the seat stays. Paired it up with a garmin speed/cadence sensor. First time out got it to 44mph, so I was happy.
I'm now being asked what I want for christmas. I'm thinking paddles flippers etc, but being told to leave it a bit. My trainings a couple of months away from when it'd be appropriate. Stretch it to get a Swimovate?
I've got my Xmas presents from 'the boys', my 3 lads. I have to buy them and pass them to our lass to wrap up. Orca has a clearance sale on. They're a bit thin on sizes but I got a tri top deliverd for £15 and I was also told the 'more miles' stuff is put together in the same factories as '2XU'(?) so I've got a trisuit. Note MM trisuit sizing is way out, if you want something, get advice. According to their charts I should be medium to large. I've got an XL and I went for the snug fit as I believe your supposed to?
I'm thinking the next thing on the wishlist will be the "swim workouts for triathletes" book.....

I bought myself a pocket rocket in the Planet-X sale last year. Stealth TT frame and fork for a ridiculously low price. Built it up with parts I stripped from a bike bought on sale on Kijiji (local online sales site). Value - somewhere over 2500 GBP. Total cost under 1000. I have a wetsuit (Orca Kaisei) and a basic Orca trisuit (also bought in a clearance). Can't see the need for anything more than that.

Hehe, I feel very definitely "all the gear and no idea" on my TT bike - and I've done an Ironman... the problem is I get scared if I go too fast on it

I have no gear to go with my no idea (except a 4 year old bike) Once I can be sure I can swim the distance I'll start to collect

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1q62wCAZO0

I have a Swimovate (told you I like gadgets! ) it's ok but not great. Personally I find it a bit fiddly and not intuitive like my Garmin. I had the Garmin 310xt and the swimming part of it was pants. Cant wait for the new 910xt to get reviewed and the price comes down in a year or so...
Yes the Swimovate doesnt have a back light, you cant press the buttons in the water, the screen info is not very clear. I wouldnt miss it if I lost it. Unfortunately is pink or I would have gladly sold it to you!!

Just got a turbo trainer..gonna take me season to work out how to set it up!

Loops, whatever you do write it down. mph/cadence/temperature/how you fell/ what you ate anything that might make a difference.
Try a heart rate monitor too.
If you sit on one of these things and keep at it you begin to wonder if you are improving, how will you know? How do you find what training benefits you? It can turn in to a lost cause.
If you have a benchmark or some kind of reference then you can refer to it and see if all that effort was worth it.
If you don't write it down, you plod away and become a bit lost and dissheartend and you could throw away a lot of good work.
For my first season I did most of my training on a turbo. I still have the data in a spreadsheet and I can go back and repeat those tests to see if I have improved or lost fitness.
IMHO writing down what you did is the most important part if you want to improve, if it's just a bit of fun then enjoy yourself.

It's just the bike for me at the moment. As a cyclist originally I really wanted a good TT bike especially as I'm doing a couple of half IM/middle distance races this year and hopefully going long the year after. I think this is where the main benefits are. It's obviously a lot of money but I never treat myself normally and this is a BIG treat. I've worked hard at swim and run technique and fitness and my nutrition is going well to the point where I am getting very lean. Looking at my splits my swim and run are improving and my bike suffering from a lack of training so if I don't get my act together I'll be passed by everyone, especially when the road points upwards which is where the lack of bike time really shows up for me personally.

Do you think using the Turbo helped significantly in maintaining strength and endurance when you couldn't train outside?

I went from not riding a bike for some years due to injury to my first triathlon training 90% on a turbo trainer. I finished half way through the field my first triathlon - open water sprint on 4 months turbo work.
The turbo sessions were broken in to muscular endurance - cadence of 95 with an effort that I could hold for an hour (muscular endurance),
high cadence, say 30mins at 100-120 rpm but low resistance ( I had bother with this due the knee injury) (neurological endurance) and
interval training 1 min hard 1 minute easier but still loaded, (muscular strength/endurance work + lacatate tolerance)
I use the 1 min hard 1 min easier as a reference for my fitness. I managed a 12 mile TT in 32:40 that year so not too bad for a start.
With any session what you notice with an HR monitor is that if you keep the load constant you hr will creep up over the session, with that goes the exhaustion and leg pain so starting off at what seems easy will be tough in 45 mins.
No session was longer than an hour and I was doing 3 to 4 sessions per week as I was trying to get fit again and sprints are only 12 miles on the bike. I was only doing regular 4 mile runs and some swimming.
That was a couple of years ago, I've built up to longer rides now of up to 6 hrs and I did a marathon this year.
So using the turbo got me fit again in a controlled environment.
The wind recently has stopped me getting out, so I'll be back to the turbo tomorrow. I usually ride to work but can't afford to take risks, no work, no pay.
The turbo is great for testing of any kind. I've used other peoples ideas from here to put together repeatable sessions.
I'll go in to more detail if thats what folks want.
So to answer your question, in terms of muscular strength and muscular endurance it definitely helped. In terms of my bodies aerobic endurance the sessions were too short to make the kind of change you need to win your age group. Longer sessions could be done though.