Welcome to the website of Calderdale Triathlon Club. We’re a small but perfectly formed triathlon club based in the heart of the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire. For a small club, we pack a mighty punch with several successful age groupers and triathletes who compete both at home and abroad.
Triathlon is ultimately about three disciplines – the swim, the bike and the run. The purists would probably also include the transition which is known as the ‘fourth’. Triathletes come in all shapes and sizes and from all kinds of backgrounds – there are no stereotypes! Here at Calderdale Triathlon Club we have members of all abilities and we’re welcoming to all – whether you’re a beginner or an experienced triathlete. Unfortunately, we don’t cater for juniors. Our members race across all distances so whether you fancy having a go at a short sprint, a traditional Olympic Distance or even going long, we’ll have someone in the club sharing your goals. Many of our members take part in Aquathon and Duathlon too – you can combine the three disciplines however you like!
We’ve been established for over ten years and so there is a lot of experience within the club. For beginner triathletes we’ve certainly got plenty of advice and expertise on-hand to support you as you gain confidence and begin to enter races. For the more experienced triathletes, there are plenty of training partners for you to buddy up with so that you don’t have to face long training sessions alone and to chew the fat with as to whether you should be using that disc wheel or not.
For beginners, Triathlon can often seem like a daunting prospect. Whilst some of our club members have come to triathlon from other sports, others have seen the growing publicity around triathlon, perhaps inspired by the Brownlee Brothers or Chrissie Wellington, and simply want to set themselves a personal challenge. The beauty of triathlon is that you have a diversity of disciplines and you can challenge yourself, set your own goals and whatever these are, enjoy the sense of achievement as you improve and as you increase in confidence, you can adapt those goals. All our members agree that Triathlon is addictive and that having a like minded group of individuals to train and play with is essential to improving both confidence and ability in this sport.
Club Training Sessions
The mainstay of the club activity is the Saturday morning social bike rides. If you’re new to the club, we’d recommend joining us on a Saturday morning. The distance and pace of the ride is always decided by who is there and we won’t leave anyone behind! The Saturday morning ride allows you to chat to fellow members, to improve your stamina on longer endurance rides and it always involves a fairly lengthy stop at a coffee shop. Whilst the emphasis is on a ‘social’, you’ll get a good work out on these rides and if you fancy burning up the hills, we always re-group at the top.
Triathletes are busy people. Most of us in the club have busy jobs and trying to fit in training alongside work and family life can be challenging. We’ve found over the years that most members like to create their own training plan that works around their own personal objectives and race goals – You’ll find many members own a turbo trainer for indoor cycling and that often training is done early or late in the day – it has to fit in around ‘life’.
We’re not a club with in-club coaches. We’re very fortunate to be able to train alongside other sports specialists in the region and often our members are also members of multiple clubs within the valley. Don’t worry, the membership cost of any of these clubs is not high so you don’t need to worry about breaking the bank.
In summary, we pitch ourselves as a ‘network of training partners’ and all of our members follow the Club Facebook page. We ensure that all forthcoming activity is advertised on the page so it’s definitely worth subscribing to this and coming to join us – whether it’s a Saturday ride just to check us out or to a Wednesday Outdoor swim session in the summer.
Biking
The Saturday ride
The mainstay of the club activity come rain or shine is that we meet every Saturday morning at Mytholmroyd Community Centre. We meet at 0900 and generally will decide a route on the day according to the number and ability of those out. Rides are typically between 2 and 4 hours and as we’re in the Calder Valley, they do tend to involve a few hills. We always say that if you train in and around Calderdale, you can take part in any race!
Swimming
The swim is typically the discipline that everyone struggles with the most! Unless you were a strong swimmer at school, it’s an uphill struggle for most of us. Trying to improve your swim technique takes time, patience and a lot of effort so it’s good to train with other people to maintain your motivation.
Pool swims – Some of the club members make use of the excellent swim fit sessions run by Calderdale Council. These are run throughout the week at various locations (Todmorden and Brighouse). Please visit the Calderdale Council website for more details. It’s worth mentioning that through membership of the club, you can secure a discount on annual membership for the Calderdale run sports centres and pools.
Open water swims – There are no fixed, organised, outdoor swims but members swim in Gaddings near Todmorden, Sparth near Slaithwaite, Leadbetter at Wainstalls & Salford Quays. Swims are sometimes organised through the club Facebook page.
Running.
We’re fortunate to live in an area rich in specialist running clubs. Most of our members will train alongside one of the following clubs. Check out their websites for details of training nights. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that strong fell runners make strong triathletes so it’s worth getting out into the hills with these experts and you’re likely to bump into several Calderdale tri club members whichever one you choose!
Calder Valley Fell Runners. www.cvfr.co.uk. Meet in Mytholmroyd on Tuesday evenings.
Todmorden Harriers. A very friendly club for both fell runners and road running training – www.todharriers.co.uk
Halifax Harriers – mainly a road racing club based in Halifax. Offer track sessions if you’re looking to improve your speed. Meet twice weekly.
Stainland Lions – http://www.slrc.club/. Offer fell running, track and road sessions. 9 sessions to choose from each week.
Join Calderdale Tri Club
If you’d like to join a like minded group of individuals, make some new friends with a mutual love of triathlon, to talk about race tips and technique or simply to have people to train alongside, please get in touch. We include individuals at all levels – from internationally successful age groupers to long standing members who like to train but not race.. Above all, we’re a friendly and down to earth bunch of people from all walks of life so don’t worry about not fitting in! We’re very welcoming and as long as you enjoy a bit of light hearted banter, coffee and cake, you’ll make a lot of new friends.
Our membership fee is just £10 per year. You’re welcome to come out for a few rides with us with no obligation to join – just come along and try us out!
If you’re interested in joining Calderdale Tri Club, do get in touch by sending an email to annejohnson66@hotmail.com The Facebook group page is where we mostly communicate so do keep an eye on this for regular updates.
Benefits of membership:
Training with like minded individuals
Reduced price membership of British Triathlon
Discounted Membership within Calderdale Council Pools and fitness centres
Sociable Weekly Club Rides
Entry to National Team Relays
Subsidised Club Kit
Discounts from Suppliers
Affiliation to RTTC
Key Committee Members:
Chairman – Graham Plews – plews.graham@googlemail.com
Secretary – Lucy Makinson – lucy.makinson@googlemail.com
Membership – Anne Johnson – annejohnson66@hotmail.com
Contact us:
For all enquiries please email annejohnson66@hotmail.com