One of the goals of the club has been to be welcoming to people of all levels and abilities. One of the key roadblocks to fulfilling this goal is the very wide range of ability levels, from the very fast, serious triathlete, to the recreational triathlete and the club’s limited funding. This is a roadblock because a serious triathlete’s needs tend to be far different from the recreational triathlete’s needs. Serious triathletes tend to want TriCats to spend club resources on professional individual coaching and travel to elite races, while recreational triathletes would like the resources to be spent on including everyone in the excitement and experience of racing and training. The main division in the past has been having to choose between professional coaching plans that challenge most of the members equally, or personal plans for the few elites. As in most triathlon clubs, the majority of the TriCat’s membership falls in the broad spectrum of recreational triathletes so we have had to choose the former option leaving the elites to fend for themselves alienating them from the rest of the team.
Most of us would like to promote the triathlon lifestyle to as many people as possible, but still derive a great sense of pride and fulfillment from having relationships with, or having the
high national team ranking elite triathletes provide. In order to get that sense of pride, TriCats have come up with a long term plan to bridge the gap in 3 phases.
Phase 1 (year 1) Completed: Accommodate the greatest number of people with a generalized Red, White, and Blue training plan with the resources available. Helps the Red group to be semi competitive, while still working out with the rest of the team and prevents injuries from happening since they aren’t watched over by a coach. This training plan is a year long project from the coach, and will be owned by the club upon completion at the end of Phase 1.
Phase 2 (year 2) : Accommodate not only the recreational athletes with the Red, White, Blue
program, but add another program (Los Gatos) to accommodate those athletes who are serious about competitively representing the University of Arizona at Collegiate Nationals while being ambassadors of their lifestyle through mentoring of the next generation. Phase 2 should be achieved at the same annual monetary cost to the club as phase 1.
Phase 3 (end of year 2): Select Los Gatos for coming year after Nationals and provide summer
training plans and support group structure.
