Pyrenean Wolf wrote:
Maybe he should have called the book SLOWER
Because if you decide to ignore small gains you need to go :
crap tyres (little difference with good tyres)
crap tubes (it's ok)
average wheels (good enough - it will not make you run faster)
basic frame (who need a real TT frame - aero weenies snowflakes)
big bottles on the frame (more handy)
high position (why bother ?)
wool shirt (more style)
big round helmet (safer)
and you can skip some training sessions (more recovery)
another sausage (mmmmhhh...)
some more chocolate (good things cannot hurt)
some wine (good for recovery)
some beer (hydration is key)
...
Yeah, absolutely. Everybody should do that....
Personally as I'm a bit studdborn and stupid I will stick with the old stupid method of marginal gains
I don't think the author is wrong.
For the
typical AGer, whom I'm guessing the author is targeting, it's ALL about training, which is 80+% of your results. Literally, makes the entire difference of how well you will do on race day, because the typical non-FFOP AGer leaves so much on the table from training deficiencies, that it is the single biggest determinant of race day performance.
Marginal gains for the AGer are just that - marginal. Meaning they are so small that they make nearly insignificant contributions to that MOPish AGer compared to the monster effects of training properly.
The typical MOP Ager would absolutely do better to just IGNORE all the fancy aero stuff, fancy training ideas, ignore power, ignore HR, and just train consistently, 1-2hrs per day at low to moderate intensity, for several years. They will crush the inconsistently training version of themself every time, even if that version had $30k of the latest and greatest gear and equipemnt.
Now if you're gunning for a national-class AG win or KQ, you gotta check ALL the boxes. At that level of performance, marginal gains can and do make the difference between kona-bound or going home off the podium. But I suspect that's not the main audience that the author was aiming at.