I think so. I'm about to join the local tri club, they organize swims 2-3x per week, Tuesday brick nights, and informally members organize rides and runs with other club members (not as official club activities though)

They have a pretty healthy membership. On Monday and wed nights they take up about 8 SCM lanes for an hour, and not all of the members sign up for swimming.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Funny. I was reading your mini van post when you replied.

Locally, we also have a good base of triathletes. Unfortunately (for the club), it seems like the swim and bike groups are a separate 'thing'. I'm hoping to find some ideas to better engage our tri community, so that's the basis for the post.

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Cure CF, because I love my daughter.
http://www.cff.org

Silicon Valley Triathlon Club.

Depends on the area. San Diego Triathlon Club is pretty freaking huge. I'm not a member, but I know that they do have a very large, and active membership, and do all sorts of cool stuff like practice races, socials, Etc.

Up in North County San Diego, there's the coyote's, ride Triathlon, and a few others.

I think the success of clubs in any particular area really comes down to the number of people who are willing to engage. In San Diego, there are a ton of traffic, which means there are definitely enough people out there to make Clubs successful. Might be harder in smaller areas

I'm a member of a triclub in Sweden and I think it's awesome. It's essentially a masters club + b/r. We swim 4x/week with a coach, running 2x/w and cycling once a week. During the summer we have sprint tris every week.
We also have several clubs here that are elite clubs which have several pros and sub-elite.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Having been a member of 3 separate triclubs in the (popular) Socal and Norcal area, I wonder if you'll actually even benefit from the swim triclub apart from social hour.

I've been surprised with how "MOP" the triclubs I've gone to have been in terms of their group workouts, and then even someone as lousy as swimming as myself, can be swimming in nearly the fastest lane in most triathlete-groiup swim workouts. Even on the more popular bike group rides, if you push only 200 watts on average, you'll often be pretty much riding on your own after the first 15 minutes of the ride. Sure, there are a handful of really fast folks here and there, but they also don't seem to attend the triclubs I've been to, or are at best, spottty on attendance.

For someone as strong as swimming as you are, either your triclub has a lot of hella good swimmer, or you'll literally be 2x most people's speed there!

Oh, I know I'll be leading the fast lane, but I can use that time to work on very specific things without worrying about staying ahead of the guy behind me.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I think they do still have a place. I run The Mohawk Foundation which is a triathlon club based around a shared desire to race for charity. We have members in multiple states so we don't have organized training sessions, but we do have races we all try to attend together, adds a little bit of fun to the events.

This was our team at the Chicago Triathlon in August. 2 triples athletes and 3 international distance racers (1 not pictured) and 5 spectators

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Yes they do have a place - for social reasons, just as much as anything. Our club (http://www.abbytriclub.com) is quite new on the scene (about 3 years old) and is growing lots every year. Some of our club meetings are held at a local winery, so we are pretty serious about balancing training and racing with the other good things in life. As a coach in the club, I also think that clubs are a great place for newbies. Someone new to the sport can often benefit from the hard-learned lessons of the more seasoned athletes. As well, since newbies don't often have a lot of equipment, being part of a club gives them access to a lot of used stuff that can wind up saving them a lot of money.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I am a member, and I will second this. SD Tri club is successful thanks to the events they put on - club meetings with bob babbit interviewing some super star, and food before. The races, are all chip timed on closed courses, with breakfast or pizza party after. The only reason why I am still in Tri is cause of this club. not usat fees or anything like that. low cost and open to all. no requirements to buy team kits. You actually want to buy one thanks to how inclusive the club is. thus, the most valuable thing is the networking.

 

Any successful Tri Clubs out there?[/quote]
I'm a member of a triclub in Sweden and I think it's awesome. It's essentially a masters club + b/r. We swim 4x/week with a coach, running 2x/w and cycling once a week. During the summer we have sprint tris every week.
We also have several clubs here that are elite clubs which have several pros and sub-elite.[/quote]

since you are from sweden can you tell me more about the terrible tuesday tri club? it has some very good members. is that formal or more a informal club ?

I'm a member of a triclub in Sweden and I think it's awesome. It's essentially a masters club + b/r. We swim 4x/week with a coach, running 2x/w and cycling once a week. During the summer we have sprint tris every week.
We also have several clubs here that are elite clubs which have several pros and sub-elite.[/quote]


since you are from sweden can you tell me more about the terrible tuesday tri club? it has some very good members. is that formal or more a informal club ?[/quote]Yeah they have some great members, among others Patrik Nilsson and Åsa Lundström. It was started by Mikael Nelker who is a sub 9 ag. Formal club which has practices together several times/w usually consisting of stupid fast people pushing way too many watts. Very different from most clubs, they're highly competitive and also have their own cycling club. If I were faster I might train with them as well ;)

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

What membership fee do clubs charge?

Our little club is struggling, and I'm hoping to be a part of turning it around. One thing I noticed is that we only charge $20 for an annual membership. Does this seem low?

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___________________________________
Cure CF, because I love my daughter.
http://www.cff.org

The local club is $25 for the season, but it depends on what you offer as part of that $20 or $25. you must also be a member of the local federation (triathlon Nova Scotia) which is $45 or so, andswimming is extra on top of that.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I would say that varies a lot. My current club charges 50/y including swimming w coach 4/w, 2 running sessions per week (indoor track during winter), bike once a week and a sprint tri every week during the summer.
However I have friends who pay 600/y but then they also have access to a large warehouse shich they have rebuilt to a paincave, you can keep your bikes/trainers there all winter so easy to workout

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

I think your description is the most accurate. I've been part of a 300+ person tri club for the past 7 year and am not a great swimmer, but decent and a fast cyclist and runner and I'm usually a FOP triathlete. I'd say the first 4-5 years with the club there was a group of fast people with the club and at pretty much every training session you could show up and people were there who could push you. I think alot of that group got ironman burn out and phased in different aspects of life and the past few years I don't think there's a fast core group. I've kind of quit attending most of the workouts because I found it was easier to swim on my own vs. driving to the group workout. For cycling I'd either ride on my own, or a few of us would just ride where we wanted to vs. the club option. For the run however there is a weekly group that really pushes me on a challenging course. After running we usually get dinner so I like the social aspect of that.

I don't know what you specifically refer to when you say triathlon club but I have greatly improved since joining a triathlon team where I live. There is a workout facility with weights, kickrs, Olympic sized swimming pool, etc. Theres organized workouts on the kickrs almost every day, strength training sessions, track runs, organized long runs/bike rides and masters swimming among a bunch of other training sessions. For a monthly fee you have access to everything including awesome coaching. But I don't know if this is what you consider a tri club or more of a training center with a triathlon team.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

President of a first-year tri club here. We've been successful this year and I think for a few reasons.

-We're affiliated with a shop that has a training center and coaching (for those who want to pay for it, but no one is required). As such we get great discounts on brands affiliated with the shop.

-We don't try to do workouts together (wide variety of levels). Less commitment and pressure..

Our dues are $50 and goes to USAT registration, having food at start and finish of "team races," social events, and hopefully an awesome end-of-season party - discounts from the shop also make this amount worth it. We choose team races so that people have support (particularly first-timers) on the course. Honestly, many people on team were already racing the same races and hanging out, now we have a tent to chill under, easily spottable kits to make cheering easy, and some beers at the finish line - I consider that to be success.

More and more races seem to be offering club challenges (Delmo Cup is a great example), which are really fun and motivating, especially for beginners since they typically give points for number of volunteers, participants, and performance (as opposed to just performance like WTC).

I think it probably varies by area, but $20 annually seems crazy low. I live in NYC and yes, everything is much more expensive here, but the lowest priced club I've found in my research this year is $60/mo with a 6 mo commitment - this includes weekly outdoor workouts and organized weekend rides. Swim clinics/sessions are at an additional fee due to limited pool spaces in Manhattan. Master swimming runs about $25-30/session.

I like being a member of a club, I find the support from other members a terrific motivator at races when I see them, and of course they organise plenty of swim/cycling and running sessions. I tend to like swimming at club sessions, but run and cycle on my own.