Marginal Gains in Triathlon: A Costly Myth
Spend thousands on an aero bike, buy oversized pulley wheels for the potential of a few extra watts, slip on the latest carbon-plated shoes – and you’re guaranteed a faster triathlon finish, right? Many triathletes, especially enthusiastic amateurs, have bought into the idea that a collection of “marginal gains” will magically add up to major performance boosts. The concept of marginal gains – making many small 1% improvements in equipment, training, and lifestyle – gained fame from professional cycling, and it’s seduced the triathlon world too.
However, for most age‑group triathletes (amateurs), this obsession can be a costly myth. Elite pros do squeeze out every possible advantage, but only after they’ve perfected the fundamentals. Meanwhile, countless age‑groupers chase tiny upgrades while neglecting the big training principles that truly matter.
We’ll compare how elites use marginal gains versus how age‑groupers often misapply the concept, examine popular performance upgrades and their real impact, and highlight what actually improves triathlon performance for the majority of athletes.
The goal: to separate marketing myth from reality and help you focus on gains that count.
What Are Marginal Gains? The 1% Obsession
The term marginal gains refers to the idea that making lots of tiny improvements – even as little as 1% better in multiple areas – can cumulatively lead to a significant overall improvement.
Athletes talk about “free speed” – time saved without training harder, often through tech and gear tweaks. Triathlon is a tech-heavy sport, especially on the bike leg, and it’s easy to see why marginal gains are alluring. Who wouldn’t want to shave minutes off their Ironman bike split by simply upgrading equipment or adopting a new aero hack?
However, there’s a crucial catch: by definition, marginal gains are marginal – small improvements that often come with high cost or diminishing returns. The aggregation only pays off after you’ve maximised the big gains. For an amateur still improving basic fitness and skills, chasing tiny 1% boosts can distract from far larger gains available through consistent training. It’s the difference between optimising minutiae and simply getting faster overall.
Let’s see how elites and age‑groupers differ in their approach to marginal gains.
Marginal Gains for the Elite: Icing on the Cake
Top professional triathletes absolutely care about marginal gains – but they treat them as the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. Elite athletes already train to near their physiological limits, recover like it’s a full-time job (because it is!), and have dialled in their nutrition and pacing. At that level, winning margins can be seconds, so those small edges count. An elite might invest in a wind-tunnel tested aero helmet, ultra-fast tyres, and ceramic bearings only after ensuring their training, technique, and race strategy are flawless. In other words, pros earn the right to chase 1% improvements by first nailing the 99%.
Consider an Ironman champion on the bike: she maintains an aero tuck for hours, having spent countless hours training her position. Adding a custom aero kit or special bottle that saves a few watts can actually influence her race outcome because everything else (fitness, pacing, nutrition) is maximised. For example, at the elite level a time-trial helmet might translate to 30–60 seconds saved per hour of cycling, which over a full Ironman (180 km bike) could be a 3–5 minute advantage – possibly the difference between being on the podium (and earning a needed pay check) or finishing behind the leaders. Pros will chase that only because a 3-minute gain is meaningful when you’re already near peak performance and podium battles can come down to seconds.
Elite triathletes also have support systems and resources that make pursuing marginal gains feasible. Leading pros have sponsors providing the latest high-tech gear, access to aerodynamics testing, nutritionists developing custom fuelling plans, and the freedom to train and recover full-time. For a pro, chasing every potential gain is a rational investment – their “job” is to find every edge.
Even then, smart pros are strategic. They won’t adopt a marginal gain that compromises a fundamental. For instance, a full teardrop aero helmet might be aero but if it overheats the athlete in Kona heat, the pro might choose a more ventilated helmet to avoid meltdown in the marathon. The marginal gain is weighed against potential downsides.
Another example: many top triathletes use carbon-plated racing shoes for the run (a technology proven to improve running economy by ~4%). That’s a relatively large gain, and nowadays almost a given at the pro level. But even that only helps if the athlete has done the run training to capitalise on it; a carbon shoe won’t prevent a slow run if the athlete biked beyond their fitness.
Elites use marginal gains to fine-tune an already optimised machine. For them, these tweaks are worthwhile because all the fundamentals are already in place. Now let’s contrast that with how the average amateur triathlete often approaches marginal gains.
Age‑Groupers and the Marginal Gains Myth
For us mortals juggling work, family, and training, the allure of marginal gains can become a distraction – or even a delusion. Age‑group triathletes often pour disproportionate time and money into chasing small advantages, while overlooking the basics that would yield far greater improvements. Top pros themselves notice this trend. Professional Ironman winner Angela Naeth observes that age‑groupers frequently put “too much emphasis on gear at the expense of fundamentals”, falling into the trap of thinking the latest high-tech gadget or expensive upgrade will “significantly improve performance.” In reality, as Naeth emphasizes, “the basics – consistent training, proper technique, and smart race strategies – far outweigh marginal gains from equipment.”.
In other words, a new $5,000 race wheelset won’t make up for patchy training or poor skills.
Yet it’s easy to see why age‑groupers get caught up in marginal gains. The triathlon industry bombards us with marketing for ever-more advanced gear promising “free speed.” Go to any Ironman expo and you’ll see age‑group athletes drooling over the latest aero helmets, ultra-light bicycles, and gadgets.
An age‑grouper may spend thousands on equipment and marginally improve their bike split, yet remains a middle-of-pack finisher because their engine – their aerobic fitness, muscular endurance, and technique – hasn’t dramatically changed.
The fundamental error many age‑groupers make is putting the cart before the horse. They chase the “trivial many” little gains instead of mastering the “critical few” big factors. Too often, amateurs sacrifice critical few fundamentals in favour of tinkering with minutiae. It’s not uncommon to see an athlete meticulously fine-tune their bike setup to save seconds while overshooting workouts or skimping on sleep, thus losing minutes on race day due to lower fitness or fatigue.
Most amateurs have so much low-hanging fruit in training improvements that a narrow focus on marginal gains is misplaced effort.
There’s also the time and energy component. Age‑groupers have limited training time and recovery capacity, juggling workouts around jobs and family. The mental and physical bandwidth spent obsessing over gear tweaks can detract from training quality. If you’re up late fiddling with your bike or stressing about marginal details, you might be compromising the next morning’s key training session. Pros have the luxury of time to devote to both fundamentals and fine-tuning; amateurs often do not.
Instead of spending $1000 on marginally lighter components, maybe pay for a massage, a training plan, or simply use that time to meal-prep healthy food or get more sleep – things that will yield real performance benefits.
Finally, there’s the psychological trap: buying speed is tempting because it’s easier than earning it. Let’s face it – it’s far more fun to unbox a shiny new gadget than to grind out another week of interval training or address your weakest discipline. Marginal gains offer a sense of control and progress without discomfort: you can literally buy an advantage. And triathletes, being Type-A personalities, love the idea of leaving “no stone unturned.” The myth is that if you throw enough money at the problem, you can hack your way to a faster time. But as many eventually learn, you can’t purchase endurance or cheat the fundamental training adaptations your body needs.
bikes lying down on grass on field in sport event. Photo by Michaela St on Pexels.com
Common Performance Upgrades and Their Real Impact
Triathlon has no shortage of “speed-enhancing” products marketed to athletes. Aero helmets, ceramic bearings, fancy shoe inserts, carbon fibre everything – the list is endless. Here we break down several of the most common marginal gains purchases and examine how much they actually help, especially for the average athlete. We’ll also look at the cost-benefit aspect: is it worth it?
Aero Helmets: Switching from a regular road helmet to an aero time-trial helmet is often touted as “free speed.” Indeed, numerous tests confirm aero helmets reduce drag. On average, an aero helmet can save roughly 30–60 seconds per hour of cycling. Translated to race distances, that’s on the order of 15–30 seconds in a sprint triathlon, 30–60 seconds in Olympic distance, 1.5–2.5 minutes in a Half-Ironman, and up to 3–5 minutes in a full Ironman. That’s a significant saving for such a simple change in equipment – which is why this upgrade is often recommended once you have a decent bike and position. Importantly, these gains assume you can hold an aero position that complements the helmet. The helmet works by smoothing airflow over your back; if you sit up or the helmet doesn’t fit your posture, the benefit shrinks.
Also consider the conditions: a helmet with poor ventilation might cause overheating on a hot day. Overheating could easily slow you more than the aero benefit gains you.
Bottom line: For experienced athletes, an aero helmet is one of the most cost-effective speed upgrades (often a few hundred dollars or less) and can offer a few minutes’ gain in long races. Just ensure it fits well, you practice with it, and you adjust for heat if needed.
Aero Wheels and Bikes: High-end wheelsets (deep-section carbon wheels or disc wheels) and aerodynamic bike frames promise to cut through the wind faster. They do – but perhaps not as dramatically as some think, especially at amateur speeds. A full disc rear wheel, for example, is known to be the fastest wheel type. But how much time does it actually save? Over a 40 km cycling time trial, a disc wheel saves about 30 seconds compared to a mid-depth aero wheel, and about 2 minutes compared to a standard non-aero wheel.
That’s appreciable, but consider the context: in an Ironman 180 km bike (roughly 4.5 times that distance), a disc might save ~4–9 minutes versus a basic wheel. If you’re vying for a Kona World Championship slot, 5 minutes is huge. But for the average Ironman finisher who might be 1–2 hours behind the pros, 5 minutes is relatively minor – and it comes at great cost: roughly $33 per second saved over 40 km.
The law of diminishing returns hits hard here. Upgrading from a road bike to a triathlon bike with aerobars might save minutes (since going from an upright position to aero is huge). But upgrading an already-aero setup to a slightly more aero setup might save only seconds.
Position and aerodynamics matter, but you get the most bang for your buck from basic optimisations (position, clothing, helmet) before shelling out for top-end wheels or frames. And even then, remember that a sloppy execution (like sitting up due to fatigue or wind, or poor pacing) can erase those gains.
Ceramic Bearings and Drivetrain Upgrades: If you’ve been around triathletes, you’ve likely heard debates about ceramic bottom brackets, oversized derailleur pulleys, and special chains. Companies claim these reduce friction in your drivetrain, converting more of your power into forward motion.
CeramicSpeed, a major player, often touts “10–16 watts saved” by upgrading a whole bike’s bearings (hubs, bottom bracket, pulley wheels) and chain treatment. Independent testing paints a more sober picture. One analysis found CeramicSpeed’s own oversized pulley system consumed only 0.033 watts in testing – whereas a cheap stock pulley consumed 1.37 watts.
That’s a ~1.3 watt difference for pulley wheels. Upgrading a bottom bracket from good steel bearings to ceramic might save another ~0.4 watts of friction.
Add ceramic wheel hub bearings for perhaps 1 watt saved. Tally it up and indeed, you might free up maybe 2–3 watts here, 1 watt there, totalling on the order of 5–10 watts saved with a fully optimised drivetrain. For a pro cyclist, 10 watts can be the difference in a time trial. But for a triathlete, what does 5–10 watts mean? If you normally ride at 200 watts, an extra 10 watts is a 5% power gain – perhaps translating to roughly 0.5–1.0 km/h more speed on the bike (depending on aero drag). Over 90 km that could be a few minutes saved, perhaps. But achieving that requires constant meticulous maintenance: a perfectly clean, lubed or waxed chain, high-grade bearings in every part, and not letting any dirt or inefficiency creep in.
The cost? Astronomical relative to the gain. A ceramic bottom bracket might cost $200–$300, a set of ceramic wheel bearings another few hundred, an oversized pulley system $500+, and pre-treated ultra-fast chains maybe $100 each. You could easily spend over $1,000 to kit your bike with these marginal-drag components. The same money could likely buy you a bigger gain through training or aero optimisation.
Bottom line: Yes, a super-slick drivetrain wastes fewer watts. Regularly cleaning and lubing your chain (practically free!) will give you much of that benefit already. If you enjoy mechanical perfection, ceramic bits can satisfy that itch, but don’t expect them to transform your results unless you’re already at the pointy end.
Chain Waxing: A specific drivetrain trick worth noting is chain waxing. Many triathletes have adopted this practice: removing and soaking the chain in hot paraffin wax (often infused with Teflon or other friction reducers) to achieve an ultra-low friction coating. A well-waxed chain can indeed be extremely efficient – lab tests by friction experts have shown a clean, waxed chain can save a few watts compared to a dirty or heavy-oil-lubed chain. Claims of around 3–5 watts saved by waxing vs. conventional lube are common. The good news is chain waxing is cheap (aside from an initial setup for a slow cooker and wax, it’s just your time) and also keeps your drivetrain cleaner.
The bad news is it’s a bit of a chore – you need to re-wax every 200-300 km or so and manage quick links, etc. For enthusiasts, it’s a satisfying marginal gain with little downside (except time invested). Just remember: if you’re willing to regularly re-wax your chain, make sure you’re not simultaneously “too busy” to nail your long rides or recovery naps!
The chain waxing trend exemplifies marginal gains – great as a finishing touch, irrelevant if basic training isn’t done.
Shoe Inserts and Running Gear: Not all marginal gains are on the bike. Triathletes also purchase things like special insoles or stiff shoe inserts to improve running economy or cycling power transfer. Custom insoles can indeed improve comfort or correct slight imbalances, potentially preventing injury – which is valuable but hard to quantify in speed. Some triathletes use carbon fibre insoles in cycling shoes to increase stiffness. The gains here are likely negligible unless your current setup is problematic; most modern shoes are already quite stiff.
On the run, carbon plated shoes (e.g., Nike Vaporfly, etc.) have been a revolutionary tech – providing measurable efficiency gains (often 2–4% faster running for the same effort) which is not really “marginal” but rather significant. Nowadays, most serious athletes, pro and amateur alike, use them for racing. So one could argue carbon shoes are actually a worthwhile performance investment (they do make a difference of minutes in a marathon). But interestingly, because everyone uses them, they’ve become almost an expected baseline rather than a unique gain.
Swim Gear Upgrades: The swim is another area where amateurs sometimes look for gear magic. Examples: very pricey high-end wetsuits or swimskins, or those neoprene buoyancy shorts used in training. A top-tier wetsuit can help your speed if it provides better flexibility and buoyancy than a entry-level suit. For weaker swimmers, extra buoyancy (especially in the legs) absolutely helps.
A $1,000 wetsuit might be a bit better than a $300 one, but the time difference is usually not massive if the cheaper one fits well. Maybe you gain tens of seconds over 1500m by having a suit that doesn’t restrict your shoulders as much or that shaves off a tiny bit of drag. However, technique gains in swimming dwarf equipment gains. If you invest in some coaching or swim lessons and improve your stroke efficiency, you could easily drop minutes off your swim split – far more than any fancy wetsuit difference. By all means, get a comfortable, good-fitting wetsuit (mid-range models are absolutely good enough for 99.9% of agegroupers), but don’t expect a magic suit to compensate if you haven’t put in the pool time.
Recovery Aids and Gadgets: The marginal gains philosophy extends beyond race gear into training recovery gadgets. Compression boots that promise faster recovery, cryotherapy sessions, elaborate supplements like ketone esters – these often fall into “marginal” territory.
Some have merit (e.g., compression boots feel good and encourage you to put your feet up – which is itself helpful!). But none of these will be game-changers if your core recovery elements are lacking. Sleep and nutrition are the “big rocks” of recovery, and no device can replace them.
Most marginal gains items do work as advertised – but their impact is measured in seconds or a few minutes at best. And those gains often come with notable price tags or time investment. The key is to put them in perspective. If you have the disposable income and enjoy the tech, there’s nothing wrong with marginal gains – triathlon is also a hobby and toys can increase your enjoyment. But don’t fool yourself that an upgrade will replace training.
Always ask: is this upgrade the weakest link in my performance right now, or do I have bigger fish to fry? Often, the weakest links are elsewhere – which leads us to what actually makes most triathletes faster.
unrecognizable cyclists riding bikes on road during race. Photo by RUN 4 FFWPU on Pexels.com
What Actually Improves Performance for Most Triathletes
If marginal gains are the icing, what’s the cake? What should the majority of triathletes focus on to see real progress? The answer isn’t flashy or novel – it’s a combination of consistent training, sensible planning, skill development, and recovery. Let’s break down the heavy-hitters that drive performance:
Consistency and Volume of Training: This is the big one. Nothing replaces simply putting in the work, week after week. Aerobic endurance sports reward cumulative training volume over time. That means regularly hitting your workouts, gradually building fitness, and avoiding long layoffs or frequent injury.
Training consistency allows your body to adapt and improve steadily. If you can string together months of uninterrupted training (with proper rest cycles), you will almost certainly get faster. Missing sessions or having on-off training due to burnout or injury will set you back far more than any gadget could ever claw back. Consistency doesn’t sound exciting, but it is the foundation of success.
Before worrying about small details, ensure you are following a sustainable training routine that you can maintain given your life schedule. An “average” training week done for 50 weeks beats a “perfect” week done for 5 weeks then derailed by illness or fatigue. Aim for sustainable consistency above all.
Training the Right Way (Purpose and Progressive Overload): It’s not just volume; quality matters. Every session should have a purpose – whether it’s building endurance, increasing threshold power, sharpening speed, or practicing skills. “Junk miles” with no structure can lead to stagnation. Incorporating a sensible mix of workouts (easy aerobic sessions, long endurance efforts, interval training) and gradually increasing intensity or volume as your fitness improves (progressive overload) will yield big improvements.
Many amateurs plateau because they either train too hard all the time (never allowing recovery and supercompensation) or too easy all the time (never challenging the body to adapt). Balancing this is a core training principle. It’s far more effective to refine your training plan than to bolt on a marginal gain.
Focused Work on Weaknesses: Age‑groupers often enjoy training what they’re already good at and avoid what they struggle with (it’s human nature). But systematically addressing your weaknesses yields massive returns. If you’re a strong cyclist but poor swimmer, an extra swim each week (maybe with a coach’s guidance) could drastically cut your swim time – we’re talking going from back of pack to middle pack. No fancy bike wheel will ever gain you 5 minutes. Likewise, if your run tends to fall apart, dedicating a block to run frequency and perhaps strength training to prevent late-race fade could slice chunks off your run split.
It may not be as fun as buying new gear, but turning a weakness into a relative strength is a huge non-marginal gain.
Proper Recovery (Sleep & Rest): Training creates the potential for improvement; recovery is when improvement actually happens. Many age‑groupers with busy lives try to cram training into any spare moment, cutting into sleep or rest days. This is counterproductive. Chronic lack of sleep erodes your gains and can even reverse them. Pros prioritize sleep because they know it’s as important as any workout. Age‑groupers might not have that luxury, but aiming for 7-8 hours and adjusting training load if you’re falling short is vital. If you only get 5-6 hours a night due to life, recognise you’re not recovering like a pro and you must scale back your training stress to avoid injury or excessive fatigue. It’s better to do 8 hours of quality training a week with full recovery than 12 hours in a fatigued state that just accumulates stress.
Remember, a well-rested body performs better. No aero wheel will help you if you’re injured or exhausted on race day.
Nutrition and Fuelling: Paying attention to your daily nutrition and race fuelling strategy yields huge benefits relative to marginal equipment tweaks. Arriving at the start line with optimal energy stores, and fuelling properly during the race, can make the difference between a strong finish and a bonk. Many age‑groupers underestimate nutrition. Pros, on the other hand, stress practicing fuelling in training and having a plan.
If you run out of energy, you’ll slow down massively – losing many minutes and any gains from fancy gear become irrelevant.
Nutrition is often called the “fourth discipline” of triathlon for good reason. It’s not glamorous, but getting it right is far more impactful than, say, having ceramic bearings. Invest in a good fuelling plan and practice it. It’s a relatively easy gain – no extra fitness required, just execution.
Pacing and Mental Strategy: On race day, execution trumps equipment. A well-paced race, where you swim/bike/run within your capabilities and distribute your energy evenly, will almost always beat a faster-geared athlete who goes out too hard and implodes. Doing it right can save massive time without any product – it’s a skill and discipline. As an example, burning just a bit too many matches on the bike can lead to walking in the run, costing tens of minutes. If instead you hold back modestly on the bike, you might run much faster and have a better overall time. Many age‑groupers make the mistake of chasing a bike split (maybe to justify that fancy bike) and then pay for it on the run. It’s far better to undercook the bike slightly and finish the run strong.
Similarly, smooth and fast transitions are a free source of time savings. It’s astonishing how often athletes spend minutes in T1/T2 – effectively giving away time they fought for with expensive gear. Practice your transitions (get out of that wetsuit, onto your bike, and off to the run efficiently). These basics can literally save more time than aero wheels in a short race.
Skill and Technique: Improving your swim stroke, bike handling, and run form can yield both efficiency gains and prevent energy wastage. For the swim, technique is king – you can gain speed and emerge fresher (using less energy) if you swim more efficiently. That might mean investing in a few coached sessions or swim analysis. On the bike, having good handling skills and confidence can save time on technical courses (e.g., taking corners faster, dealing with wind safely) and also prevent crashes or slowdowns. Off-road riding or handling drills can pay off for triathletes. On the run, good form and cadence can improve your economy slightly and stave off late-race injuries.
None of these give as quantifiable a gain as, say, an aero helmet might, but they contribute to your overall performance envelope and often cost nothing but practice.
Guidance and Feedback (Coaching): Many age‑groupers benefit enormously from getting a coach or a structured training plan. A coach will ensure you avoid common pitfalls (like doing only hard sessions or neglecting recovery), customise training to your needs, and provide accountability. While hiring a coach is not free, many athletes find it’s a better investment than another gadget. A coach can also objectively tell you when you’re focusing on the wrong things.
The real gains for most triathletes come from getting the basics right: consistent, smart training; adequate recovery; strong skills; and sound race execution. These might not come with the same bragging rights as owning a superbike, but they show up unmistakably on the results sheet.
The Role of Industry and Marketing
It’s worth acknowledging how the triathlon industry and media fuel the marginal gains obsession. Every year, companies roll out new products – the “fastest ever” bike frame, next-gen nutrition supplements, sleeker wetsuits – often backed by glossy ads claiming X% improvement. Magazines and websites run headlines like “10 Ways to Gain Free Speed” focusing largely on gear. This isn’t inherently bad; innovation does push the sport forward. But there is a clear marketing angle: selling upgrades is profitable, selling “work hard consistently” is not.
There’s an abundance of information on gear gains and comparatively less flashy coverage of basic training principles. An amateur browsing forums might easily conclude that everyone is gaining huge advantages from gear and fear missing out if they don’t follow suit.
It’s important to view marketing claims with a critical eye. For example, a wheel manufacturer might advertise “saves 5 minutes in 40k!” – but look at the fine print and you might find that was at a pro-level speed of 48 km/h in a controlled wind-tunnel with ideal conditions. At an amateur’s 35 km/h and variable winds, the actual gain could be smaller. Similarly, a supplement might cite scientific-sounding results that don’t pan out for the average person (or at all). The phrase “marginal gains” itself has been sometimes overused to hype products. We’ve seen everything from aero-enhancing shoe laces to special breathing devices marketed in the context of marginal gains.
Triathletes are by nature quite tech-savvy and love data, so it’s easy to get drawn into the excitement of new tech. Just remember: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
A healthy dose of skepticism can save your wallet. Consult independent reviews or studies where possible. Often, you’ll find that real-world testers confirm only modest improvements for a lot of these products. For instance, many third-party tests of ceramic bearings have concluded they have minimal impact unless you’re already optimising everything else. This doesn’t stop companies from marketing them as the secret to speed.
Another aspect is peer influence via social media or training groups. Platforms like Strava and Instagram can create gear envy: seeing someone’s new bike or their fast splits can pressure you to match their equipment. Pros on social media often showcase their sponsor’s gear – giving the impression that you need it too. But keep context in mind: pros often get gear free or are paid to use it, and they also pair it with pro-level training. What works for them might not yield the same benefit to a time-crunched age‑grouper.
That said, the industry’s focus on marginal gains has also disseminated useful knowledge. The fact that even novices now talk about aerodynamics, rolling resistance, and nutrition strategies is a positive – it means athletes are learning to think holistically about performance. The danger is just when it’s unbalanced – if an athlete knows all about aerodynamics but doesn’t know how to periodise their training or fuel properly, the priorities are off.
Conclusion: Marginal Gains in Perspective
The story of marginal gains in triathlon is a tale of context. Are marginal gains real? Yes, small changes in equipment, technique, or habits can indeed yield performance improvements, and elite athletes rightly chase them when every second counts. But the idea becomes a myth when it’s sold as a shortcut or when it distracts athletes from the core drivers of success.
For the vast majority of triathletes – particularly age‑group competitors – the truth is that consistent training, smart preparation, and solid execution will beat an assemblage of marginal gains nearly every time.
It’s not that you should ignore marginal gains; rather, you should prioritise appropriately. Take care of the big ticket items: get a training plan or coach that you trust, train steadily, improve your technique, recover well, and nail your nutrition and pacing. When you’ve done that, by all means, look for those extra 1% improvements – they could be what elevates you from good to great. Just remember that buying speed often has diminishing returns and hefty costs, whereas building speed through training and wise choices has virtually unlimited returns and often costs only time and discipline.
In the end, the myth of marginal gains is not that those gains don’t exist – it’s the myth that they matter more than the fundamentals. For most triathletes, they don’t. The aggregation of marginal gains will never trump the aggregation of substantial gains from training smartly and consistently. Use marginal gains wisely as a supplement, not a substitute, for real training. Keep perspective: the real “secret” to improvement is no secret at all – it’s patience, hard work, and smart focus on what counts. Do that, and you’ll find yourself achieving the kind of performance leaps that no amount of ceramic bearings or aero gizmos could ever buy.
If you’re ready to stop chasing marginal upgrades and start making meaningful progress, consider working with a coach who focuses on what truly delivers results. We offer personalised coaching and structured training plans that prioritise smart, consistent training over fads and fluff. Whether you're preparing for your first triathlon or chasing a new PB, our approach is grounded, proven, and tailored to your reality.