Should I join a club?

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ve been debating this for a while. I don’t live in Las Vegas, but I’m not too far away and drive in every week or two generally. There is a tri club in Las Vegas. My home town is far too small (and generally too elderly) to have more than a handful of age groupers at best.

So for the last few years, I’ve just kind of been doing this all on my own. I go out and train in whatever way I think will help. Never had a professional bike fit, I just kind of “eyeball” it and make adjustments on the fly. I’ve improved my swim quite a bit just from Youtube videos. Of course, I could swim before but my form was absolute trash. I’m not breaking any records, but my swim has vastly improved in the last couple years. My run is still the suck. Old, crunchy knee joints and a little soggy around the midline certainly don’t help.

But I’m wondering if getting involved in a local club would be worth it. The cost doesn’t seem to be unreasonable and that includes three of their events, plus they put on group training and events.

Right now, I’m leaning pretty heavily to taking the plunge (as it were) and trying it for at least a year. But my biggest concern is just the fact that it’s at least a 50 mile drive any time I attend anything with them.

Do you belong to a club? Have you found it beneficial? Any downside?

2

I debated joining a club as well, in the end I decided not to, but it sounds like my reasoning not to may be why you’re wanting too. The largest advantage I was hearing for the club was having people to train with. People to for a network with, I was fine training solo, so for me the money wasn’t worth it. I would highly recommend spending money on a professional fit, this was the best bang for my buck of anything I did with my training. But if you’re interested in having a community to build friends with and if you’re looking for individuals to ride/run with I think it’s a great option. Just for me, I enjoy solo runs with music, and I had some local friends for ride days, if I did not I think I would have opted for a club, especially for long ride/run days, the company can be huge.

3

Sounds like your club is worth it, especially if they put on events. Just be wary of any club that has one coach dictating every single move

4

Do they club offer a trial before you join? In the UK it is pretty standard to do 2 or 3 sessions with them before being expected to pay up and join.

I joined a club when I moved house to a new area, primarily to meet some people and hopefully to train with people to improve. I wont be renewing this year, as I have found the committee/management people to be fairly awful and the coaching to be mediocre at best. I am going to try a local running club instead, I live in quite a small part of the UK where the average age is very high so I think it was hopeful to think I would find a lot of good quality training partners!

What is the worst that can happen if you give it a go?

5

Worst thing that can happen, I suppose, is I’m out $65. But I have to figure I will likely get some modest return for my money one way or another, so probably not even that.

Anything more than that and I guess I would have to consider it money well spent. I have run into a couple members at local events in the last few years. None of them have anything bad to say about the club but I don’t know their level of involvement.

I think I’m going to give it a try just to see what’s offered. It’s only a one year membership and God knows I’ve spent a lot more money on a lot more stupid shit over the years.

6

Hello Jen,

Welcome to the Vegas area! I can provide some more information about our the Las Vegas Triathlon Club (I’m President).

We have a fantastic endurance community here in Las Vegas and an amazing group of volunteer board members and ambassadors that make the club work.

I like your question about whether or not to join a club. It is good to research clubs before joining because there are a lot of different types of clubs.

The LVTC is a 501(c)3 organization that is 100% run by volunteers vs. a coaching club or a club offered via industry.

We offer 4 multi sport events (3 triathlons, 1 Aquabike) - all free with membership. We also offer different clinics and other ways to connect members. But we don’t offer specific coaching.

You may already have some of this information … but I had this text handy as I just sent it to a potential sponsor: Here is some information about the club and how we are engaged with the community:

In short, we are very connected with our local endurance community and have many first time triathletes as well as national and international level athletes that participate in our events , including on our facebook page, and receive our newsletter.

We offer a number of clinics and training opportunities for our members. Our main events are 4 multisport events (3 triathlons, 1 aquabike) - these are free for members ($65/year). We typically have about 50 athletes per event - so a real nice, grassroots type of feel to the event. We provide podium prizes for each event to the top three females and males and we also provide race day swag to all athletes (e.g., lanyard, buffs, stickers, luggage tags, etc.). Here’s a short video from one of our events: https://youtu.be/Pic8_f-X0x4?si=mqAd8HYwuPehQ38L

… and here is our 2023 recap video:

https://youtu.be/rw8ji3453v0?si=hq45rFsqiY_MCAkO

We are currently in the middle of our March Membership Madness series of clinics/get togethers (events are posted on fb) - we do these so people can connect and/or find out more about the club.

Let me know if you have any questions …

Best,

John

7

I actually joined today. Sent a question to the info@ address. Planning on attending the clinic Sunday.